Feature requests/bug reports

[GrahamPlatt]

could do with improving. It's not bad, but even 'advanced' will not search for specific authors.
And the "Your posts" 'feature' in "Quick Links" simply reports the threads your posts appear within. That is NOT useful.

[GrahamPlatt]

I am rapidly getting the impression that this BB software will not cut the mustard as a replacement for TMF. The principal fault being the inability to "thread" the way TMF's does. Great place-holder, but either it'll need a lot of work to sort out into a properly useable vehicle, or we'll all wait here until another bus comes along. I am very thankful that so many people have arrived at this stop, I just hope that no one wanders off while we're waiting.

[Arborbridge]

Took me a while to find it so for others it is at...

Control panel/Overview/Manage Subscriptions/Watched Forums

Haven't had a play yet so no idea how close to the MF favourite boards it is though.

- Julian

[/quote]

Well, I got that far, but on the final step, presumably one is supposed to select or browse a favourite into "Watched Forums". I don't see a way of doing that.

Arb.

[GrahamPlatt]

Hi Arb,

Just scroll a couple or three posts back up to where gjbaanb has quoted me for the explanation. BTW, since my last post I've now discovered how to find all a user's (inc. one's own) posts - go into user profile and there's a clickable link "search user's posts".

[amiaspden]

Can we have a favicon please, so that I can quickly locate the forum in my sea of open tabs.

Thanks.

[GrahamPlatt]

PS - as noted elsewhere, re topic, you're probably better 'bookmarking' it rather than subscribing.

[gbjbaanb]

I am rapidly getting the impression that this BB software will not cut the mustard as a replacement for TMF. The principal fault being the inability to "thread" the way TMF's does. Great place-holder, but either it'll need a lot of work to sort out into a properly useable vehicle, or we'll all wait here until another bus comes along. I am very thankful that so many people have arrived at this stop, I just hope that no one wanders off while we're waiting.

I agree - from pphBB developer boards it seems flat views were the original intention behind it, so threads are not likely to appear unless there's a mod that displays them (but I would say such are significant extensions with all that entails).

Here we have a prime example, while some are replying to bookmarks, I'm replying to threaded views! I think this shows just how much they're needed in a forum software that drifts about the place, as many TMF boards used to do.

[Alaric]

And what's the difference between New posts and Unread posts also under Quick Links ?

New posts is everything since you last logged in. Unread posts is everything that you haven't read or marked as read. In a mature forum it can flag posts several years old.

[Itsallaguess]

If you use the 'New Posts' link under the 'Quick Links' option up the top left of the page, you can then see a list of posts made in descending order, from newest first at the top of the list.

Yes, but unfortunately it lists new posts in every single forum on the site. There doesn't seem to be a way of specifying just the forums you are interested in. And what's the difference between New posts and Unread posts also under Quick Links ? The list from each looks the same to me.

Hi mc2fool,

Great to see you here btw, and many of the other regulars that I hoped would also migrate over.

I'm not sure if Stooz has altered something somewhere, or if I've simply not noticed before, but I'm currently settling on the following method to keep up with the major board area threads -

1. Go to the main 'Lemon Fool' page, showing the grouped board areas. Screen-shot here shows those areas, and you'll noticed circular icons to the left of the grouped areas -

http://i.imgur.com/9O7ZUrM.png

2. Notice that the colour of the circular icon denotes whether the board areas has 'un-read' posts in any of the threads. We can see that most of them have (I've only just logged on this morning, with my last log-in around tea-time last night), but that the 'Bank Accounts' and 'Financial Software' areas have no posts un-read by me, so I know I can now ignore those areas because the circular icons to the left of them are not 'red'.

3. Select one of the red, circular icons to the left of one of the main grouped board areas, where an area has a read icon. I'm going to select the 'Does anyone know?' area and take another screen-shot that we can see here -

http://i.imgur.com/vyAwm9b.png

4. Once in one of the main-board areas via the red-circular icon previously, we can see a list of the various threads within that area, and to the left of those threads we can again see a circular icon denoting whether those threads contain posts that are un-read by me. Any threads that I've read completely already have a 'non-red' icon, which if hovered over with the mouse will confirm via a tool-tip that there are no un-read posts.

5. Selecting the red icon to the left of one of those threads then takes me into that thread, and positions me at a place right below my last 'read-post', as can be seen by this screen-shot when I've selected the red-icon to the left of the 'Re: Do clickable links to other places function?' thread -

http://i.imgur.com/M1jnObV.png

6. As we can see by the above screen-shot, the individual posts have a tiny little icon to the left of the author of each post, and when that little icon is blank then it means I've read the post. We can also see that I've been positioned into the thread after clicking on the red-icon to the left of it in step 5 above, right at a point of the first 'red' little icon, which if we hover over that (the one to the left of the post by AJC5001 in the above screen-shot, we can see a little tool-tip that says 'unread post'.

7. So carrying out the above process seems to me, on the face of it, the best current method to keep up with threads and posts in a way almost as close to the old 'My Fool' list that many of us were used to. It's not quite as good, but it's nearly there and I hope more improvements may be able to be made to the current set-up to help even more.

Does the above help at all? Is there anything in there that isn't explained very well, or can be done even better? I'm wondering if the above does help if it's worth asking Stooz to perhaps make some sort of 'Sticky' with it so others can be informed more prominently of one way to help others manage their un-read threads and posts.

It may well not be the best and only way, so with regards to the above possible 'Sticky' post, if anyone else has any good ideas in this area, or thinks the above explanation might be helped with some improved suggestions, then can people please let me know?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[GrahamPlatt]

Excellent Itsallaguess. Seems simple now, but I had not noticed that functionality. Makes a lot of sense and it's easy. Your post need disseminating. Perhaps we could have a "How to use the Boards" board?

[Itsallaguess]

Excellent Itsallaguess. Seems simple now, but I had not noticed that functionality. Makes a lot of sense and it's easy. Your post need disseminating. Perhaps we could have a "How to use the Boards" board?

Thanks Graham, I'm glad that it helps out.

Not sure if you've noticed yet, but Stooz has made it into a 'Sticky' post at the top of each individual board page, so hopefully it'll get spotted by anyone else who may be struggling with the new format of boards, which of course takes some getting used to having used the TMF site for so long, as many of us have.

I've also now included, on that sticky post, a snapshot picture explaining the same thing in visual form, which I hope also goes some way to helping people out if they're still struggling on the site-navigation side of things. For completeness, and given the interest in this area on this particular thread, here's an individual link to that snapshot-picture here -

http://i.imgur.com/mhEbsaL.png

It may come in relatively small at first, but can be zoomed in on most browsers to get a fuller picture for easier reading.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[mc2fool]

Watching a board is not the same as bookmarking a board

• Bookmarks = favourites like on TMF.
• Subscriptions = emails when new posts arrive.

So add them as bookmarks NOT subscribe to them. The bookmark list can also be found in your control panel.

Ok, so how does one bookmark a board? AFAICS bookmarking is only for topics so I must be missing something somewhere.

BTW, subscriptions is not strictly emails when new posts arrive but notifications, which (I've since found out) you can configure to mean emails and/or just being added to your notifications list. Although there seem to be some quirks. I am subscribed to this topic, and configured for emails (and notifications) when "Someone replies to a topic to which you are subscribed", and there have been quite a few posts since I last looked but I've not received any emails, so I'm wondering if the emails are only sent once a day or something.

[mc2fool]

I am rapidly getting the impression that this BB software will not cut the mustard as a replacement for TMF. The principal fault being the inability to "thread" the way TMF's does. Great place-holder, but either it'll need a lot of work to sort out into a properly useable vehicle, or we'll all wait here until another bus comes along. I am very thankful that so many people have arrived at this stop, I just hope that no one wanders off while we're waiting.

I agree - from pphBB developer boards it seems flat views were the original intention behind it, so threads are not likely to appear unless there's a mod that displays them (but I would say such are significant extensions with all that entails).

Here we have a prime example, while some are replying to bookmarks, I'm replying to threaded views! I think this shows just how much they're needed in a forum software that drifts about the place, as many TMF boards used to do.

We are all replying to the "Feature requests/bug reports" topic and it wouldn't be any different if we'd had the same topic in a TMF board.

Indeed, while I know phpBB is regarded as "flat" it isn't really, it's (within a board/forum) a single level hierarchy, with posts contained within topics, and this seems to be the underlying data structure. This single level hierarchy is, in fact, just like TMF threads appear when TMF presents posts in threaded mode.

TMF, OTOH, is truly "flat" in it's underlying data structure. Posts are just sequential (within a board) with no inherent structure or hierarchy, or regard to which topic the post was a reply to. That can be seen in unthreaded mode on TMF. Threaded mode was a presentation of the underlying unstructured sequential posts into a single level hierarchy.

So, what's missing here is not "threads", we have those. What's missing is unthreaded mode, where you can look at posts as sequential without any structure or hierarchy (i.e. a "Next" button).

[mc2fool]

And what's the difference between New posts and Unread posts also under Quick Links ?

New posts is everything since you last logged in. Unread posts is everything that you haven't read or marked as read. In a mature forum it can flag posts several years old.

Ah, yes, I see now. The two lists looked the same yesterday but quite different today. Thanks

[mc2fool]

Hi mc2fool,

Great to see you here btw, and many of the other regulars that I hoped would also migrate over.

I'm not sure if Stooz has altered something somewhere, or if I've simply not noticed before, but I'm currently settling on the following method to keep up with the major board area threads -
:
Does the above help at all? Is there anything in there that isn't explained very well, or can be done even better?

Hi Itsallaguess

Thanks, and, sorry, no, that doesn't help . I understand how to navigate the boards, I just don't like it! What is a particular p.i.t.a. is having to repeatedly return to the list of topics in a board (what you call the "Individual Board page"). More than just not liking it, as I said before, I find that a major disincentive to seeing posts and replies to posts that - by their topic title - I might not initially be interested in. What I'd like to see is, on every "Individual Thread" page, the equivalent of the good old Prev Thread | Prev | Next | Next Thread

Next Topic/Prev Topic should be (?) straightforward enough and should be at the top & bottom of every topic page -- it's daft that you have to return to the list of topics just go to the next or previous one.

And -- most importantly -- there should be a Next Unread at the bottom of every topic page that takes you directly to the next (by date) post that you've yet to read in that board.

[mc2fool]

Can we please get rid of the scrolling circular icons in the topics list showing there's more than ten replies to a topic, they are seriously annoying!

Such animated gifs on web pages were deemed a human factors no-no back in the '90s!

[Midsmartin]

I do wonder whether TMF could sell/give us the original forum software. I'm sure there would be complications, but it's something we are all used to. It's about the best forum design I've seen.. with one niggle over switching between threaded/unthreaded modes which never seemed to work smoothly.

[mc2fool]

I do wonder whether TMF could sell/give us the original forum software. I'm sure there would be complications, but it's something we are all used to. It's about the best forum design I've seen.. with one niggle over switching between threaded/unthreaded modes which never seemed to work smoothly.

Not just the software but also the database of existing posts. Or, better still, sell/give us the whole caboodle, so we could just carry on with it as is...

[kiloran]

I do wonder whether TMF could sell/give us the original forum software. I'm sure there would be complications, but it's something we are all used to. It's about the best forum design I've seen..

I may be wrong, but I suspect it's very bespoke/customised software. If so, getting IT support would not be easy. Much better to use standard software such as phpBB, so if Stooz needs help there are doubtless many IT-savvy people available with the required skills. We are all resistant to change, but this retired old codger has got pretty used to the new structure in little more than a day.

I can say from experience that old, unique legacy software is a total nightmare to try and support.

--kiloran

[Breelander]

I do wonder whether TMF could sell/give us the original forum software. I'm sure there would be complications, but it's something we are all used to. It's about the best forum design I've seen.. with one niggle over switching between threaded/unthreaded modes which never seemed to work smoothly.

Not just the software but also the database of existing posts. Or, better still, sell/give us the whole caboodle, so we could just carry on with it as is...

You underestimate the task involved in migrating a database from one forum's structure to another. There are firms out there who make a comfortable living from offering such services to those who have tried and given up! I once migrated a forum from a Joomla board to BBPost for a club I'm a member of. The task is non-trivial, first having to construct an importer that would map database fields (usernames, titles, dates, post content, etc.) from the old structure to the new one (translating on the fly such things as html tags to their equivalent BBCode ones). Then I had to manually correct the inevitable mistranslations that had crept in.

Now that was for two well documented database structures. The TMF one is bespoke, designed (by necessity) before such bulletin boards were available 'off the shelf'. They were starting with no previous examples to build on - I suspect the structures are very different from (and perhaps incompatible with) current BBS database structures. All the links to other posts in the forum would have to be translated from urls pointing to TMF into database references for a start!