DonationCoder.com Forum
News and Reviews => Official Announcements => Topic started by: mouser on July 10, 2015, 12:00 PM
-
Ok I'm going to use this thread to document progress on some major DonationCoder upgrades that are long overdue.
If you're not interested in reading insider useless progress report notes for the next month, please ignore this thread, otherwise read on.
Inspired by the success of the last fundraiser, I've decided that the time has finally come to bite the bullet and spend a couple of months modernizing the donationcoder website and forum.
At first I wrote a giant manifesto on a revolutionary new approach to DonationCoder, including a long harsh critique of the current system, and showed it to the DonationCoder moderators. Everyone who read it told me it was a depressing read and a grossly impractical proposal. So that idea was dumped.
SO.. Instead, we are going to simply focus for now on sustainability, by finally moving DonationCoder to a proper cms and upgrading our forum system from an older and *highly* customized/kludged version of smf1.x which has become hard to keep updated.
This first stage of upgrades involve a large amount of behind the scenes work, will take many weeks, and will result in little or no outward improvements -- in fact it's virtually guaranteed that things will get occasionally worse and buggy during the process until the kinks are all worked out. Some of our non-critical features may be removed from the forum during the process -- probably just temporarily.
So the current goal is not to bring new features or fancy looks to the site -- but rather to clean up cruft and make the site much easier to maintain, moderate, and update. After we achieve that we can talk about adding stuff.
IMPORTANT:
No changes are being made on the CURRENT LIVE site -- so you're not going to see any changes here for a while!
Instead I will be creating a mirror site and working on that. When the time comes to move everything -- we will simply shut down the current forum and move all forum messages and then turn on the new one.
No forum posts, attachments, or user accounts will be lost.
-
:Thmbsup:
If there is something I can test, help, etc let me know
-
Some additional details on the upgrades:
Those who know me know that I tend to spend inordinate amounts of time weighing options before i pull the trigger on large projects. This vacillation and hesitation can be extremely unproductive. Part of what has hung up the modernization of DC has been a struggle to decide what direction to go in.
In the end I/we decided that what was best for the community that hangs out here, at least at this point, is to move to the Drupal CMS, and upgrade from our highly customized SMF 1.x to the latest version of the SMF 2.0 forum (and minimizing any customization that makes maintenance/upgrading too difficult).
There was quite a bit of discussion regarding moving to a more modern and actively developed forum system -- but in the end several things seemed to weigh against that: First, this forum community seems to be comfortable with a more traditional system; secondly, if we did eventually want to move to a more modern forum like Discourse (http://www.discourse.org/), it would still be helpful for us to first go from a highly-customized version of smf1 to a more stock smf2 before doing that.
And as for using Drupal (https://www.drupal.org/) as the CMS.. I have a long love/hate relationship with Drupal. I had really hoped to move DC to a completely customized new kind of cms system that I have been working on part time (Mewlo (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=309.0)), but waiting for Mewlo to reach a usable stage is not practical. Drupal represents a conservative stable choice.
-
If there is something I can test, help, etc let me know
A major additional motivation for finally moving the website to a proper cms, is to be able to have additional moderators and content creators who can help maintain pages and add new content. So I am hoping that when it's all set up we can finally revisit the idea of having some regular DC folks add more new content to the website on a regular basis. This might take the forum of having a bunch of dc regulars writing weekly columns like we tried in the early days of DC, etc.
Also: Converting the hundreds of static html pages into CMS pages is going to be a huge amount of work. After I get the basic infrastructure and process set up, I would love to have volunteers help in the process. It won't be particularly difficult work, mostly a matter of copy and paste then fixing links and formatting.
-
A bit offtopic: I have experience in moving from a cms to WordPress, non static of course and good amount of headaches due to db collation among other issues.
Unless something comes up, I should be available for some copy paste as well.
-
If we have any skilled web dev people here, there is one job that could be "volunteer-outsourced" right now -- creating a custom smf2 theme to approximate the current donationcoder forum look..
It could be done totally independently from what I'm working on -- you would just install the current version of smf2 on a local machine and then make a new theme (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=82003.0) based off the default on, but trying to capture the basic feel of the current donationcoder theme.
Any takers?
-
Update report:
I have been working hard on porting over and cleaning up the forum customizations and tweaks to smf2.. My hope had been to be able to jettison them all in favor of new core features in smf2, but that has not turned out to be feasible -- we still have some custom stuff that is needed (custom spam handling/reporting/etc).
However, the cleaning process should pay dividends eventually -- after 10 years there is a lot of cruft to get rid of.
Now, originally my thinking was that we might change hosts and move to the a new cms and upgrade to the new smf2 forum all at once, but i'm thinking now we might try to reduce the confusion by first upgrading our forum in place, without messing with CMS or host changing. That would reduce the possible sources of problems and let me work out the kinks on the new forum more easily.
So, I'm hoping we might do that sometime in August if all goes well...
-
Is starting with something pretty vanilla and gradually adding features when enough clamor is raised infeasible? Or alternatively, classifying things to be added into two groups -- one group for must-have up-front and the other for things to possibly added down the line...
May be we'd find we could live with much less -- so less work for you all at once and perhaps less maintenance burden going forward?
Perhaps this is what you had in mind already...
-
I'm working my way through the must-have stuff.. Have been having some long days plodding through slowly, but also having some occasional fun.
I'm making good steady progress each day.
I don't want us to take too big a step backwards, so I'm going to try to get 95% of the forum features working as before, and then go live -- then we can work out the kinks and see if that 5% is still needed, and see what other new stuff we might want.
There are a couple of things that were really messy in code which we would probably be smart to jettison: The programming School and the "Personal Area" where people could post drafts. The spaghetti code that was necessary to implement those is probably not worth the maintenance hassle.
-
It's a pretty safe bet that, going forward, not everybody will find everything to their liking as things change. We must be prepared to let go of some current conveniences if and when they become the biggest obstacles to progress. If maintaining 5% of something is accounting for 45% of your effort that will make a persuasive argument for dropping it. A new system can't hope to be a winner in every category, it just has to offer a set of benefits that significantly improves on today's set.
-
From what I gather, the loss of the Programming School may only be temporary, until everything has been upgraded and CMS put in place, then it could be added back on (later) in a much better way, that could make it even more useful, perhaps even more structured, with actual lessons and not just assignments?
-
The programming school pre-dates DonationCoder by several years -- it was the first forum I made, and I have a very soft spot in my heart for it.
It was created at a time where there were no other real alternatives -- no good places to get self-teaching assignments for a variety of languages.
Now of course there are tons of such options, massively funded dedicated online learning websites with large support staffs, etc.
So, I think the programming school is probably best handled by others, with us maintaining a great page of information on what sites we would recommend and why, etc. The new cms will make it easier for us to have such pages.
Alternatively, we could create a new self-teaching programming school of our own, on a sister website using a cms designed for online learning, or on a separate area of our new cms.
But the bottom line is that i think it's probably time to stop having the programming school exist as dozens of private little sub-forums of the dc forum.
-
Forum modification progress so far:
3RD PARTY MODS INSTALLED:
ILA attachment (customized)
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3770
HS4SMF (highslide image viewer) (customized and integrated with ILA)
https://github.com/Spuds/SMF-HS4SMF
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=379200.0
Installed Yet Another Youtube mod -- takes care of our youtube stuff
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3982
nobbc button (replace with our own?); good example of standalone hook mod
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3755
spoiler:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2940
GOOD example of hook no-modification mod
Mouser mods:
+mouser's suspicious user post reporting
+mouser's profile change reporting
+mouser's emailing of all posts and changes
+mouser's email admin on forum error
+mouser's ability to delete posts while banning, and banning improvements
+mouser's show website url and text on profile summary page
+mouser's hide untrusted user spammable profile fields from profile and message display page (signature, website, personal text)
+mouser's preset text mod
+mouser's yearbook quote trap -- handled with new profile fields builtin feature
+mouser's blogging system
+mouser's simple comment hiding
+mouser's member search in dropdown (added to search dropdown mod)
+mouser's custom bbcode buttons with js functionality
+mouser's custom LI button
+mouser's custom IMG button
+mouser's custom URL button
+mouser's custom image/smileys popup
-
I guess it's probably too late now but for whatever it's worth I have a couple of anti-spam mods installed on 2 fairly active forums I run and they take care of 99% of spam. We very rarely have a problem with an actual spam post getting through. The most I have to do is check and approve (or delete) a couple of questionable registrations once a week. On DC it'd probably be more like every couple days with the volume, but still the actual work is minimal and done mostly by the plugins.
- Oshyan
-
It's not too late at all. I have implemented my own custom spam reporting and related modifications (which are mainly focused on DETECTING AND ALERTING human moderators about suspicious posts and profile changes rather than trying to stop it outright) but I'll be looking into additional 3rd party spam mods.
Let me know which ones you use.
I spent today porting the badges mod, so everyone will be able to keep their forum "flare".
-
Another full day of work, from wake to sleep, working on the upgrade. I'm in the groove :)
Everything is progressing steadily, and I can't imagine anything getting in the way of the new forum going live in August.
It bears repeating that people shouldn't expect dramatically wonderful new features -- it's going to look and feel mostly the same.
The main point of all this work is to make everything easier to maintain and upgrade going forward for the next 10 years.
Having said that, it's clear that one benefit of all this work is that I will feel much better about adding some new features, now that I have a better hang of what is easy vs hard to maintain and what changes make upgrading more difficult.
I'm getting excited about unveiling the new forum.
-
Another full day of work, from wake to sleep, working on the upgrade. I'm in the groove :)
Everything is progressing steadily, and I can't imagine anything getting in the way of the new forum going live in August.
It bears repeating that people shouldn't expect dramatically wonderful new features -- it's going to look and feel mostly the same.
The main point of all this work is to make everything easier to maintain and upgrade going forward for the next 10 years.
Having said that, it's clear that one benefit of all this work is that I will feel much better about adding some new features, now that I have a better hang of what is easy vs hard to maintain and what changes make upgrading more difficult.
I'm getting excited about unveiling the new forum.
-mouser
great :-*
-
I'm coding a few slick new features.. How about a (sortable) page where you can see all the topics started by (or alternatively, participated in by) a given member? I'm having fun!
The icing on the cake is that you can also filter by whether the topic is locked and/or sticky, and by # of replies (useful for seeing unreplied or ultra-popular topics, etc.)
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
-
Very cool!
-
ge where you can see all the topics started by (or alternatively, participated in by) a given member?
-mouser
that'll be very helpful :up:
(visuals look nice too)
-
Drupal sucks. From a security perspective as well as from a UX perspective. But that might be just me.
Regarding the choice of the "new" forum system: I - as a user - am glad that DC sticks to the "old" Curved theme and SMF. There's not much that sucks more with forum upgrades than having a completely different system afterwards. I am afraid that SMF2 (I hope the final relaunch will use the much improved v2.1 which is about to leave the beta phase soon) is - more or less - a dead cow, with the initial release of version 2.0 facing many forks like ElkArte (http://elkarte.net) (they even provide a SMF fallback theme (http://themes.elkarte.net/2014/10/Curved%20Elk/)) and the heavily customized Wedge (http://wedge.org) and many original developers parting their ways.
Admittedly, it could be worse. Discourse or NodeBB, for example, have really awful user interfaces. Or just another XenForo. :sick:
-
I'm having second thoughts about Drupal again too, but I've decided to punt on that for now.
I've got my eye on 2.1 and hopefully the upgrade from 2.0 to 2.1 will be relatively painless when it is suitable for production use. I agree with your concerns about smf but judge it to be the best way forward for us.
You seem to be following these trends pretty seriously -- perhaps i can chew your ear over email occasionally about the issues? ([email protected])
-
I'm not really deep into SMF (currently I'm working on some ElkArte modding though), but I keep at least three eyes on board systems.
You got mail. :)
-
I'm coding a few slick new features.. How about a (sortable) page where you can see all the topics ... (or alternatively, participated in by) a given member? I'm having fun!
-mouser
For me, I have no interest in who started a topic - topics just appear.
So for me, "participated in by" is the power feature ...
- You can find (and cringe!) at all the things you were involved in
- You can find things other people were involved in, that slipped past that "10 topics per day" dashboard.
-
Tuxman, I'm curious to hear your thoughts about Discourse. I "discovered" it some months ago (or perhaps re-discovered) and I have kind of a love/hate relationship with it. I'm not actively running it on any sites mind you, so my experiences are limited. I absolutely *love* some aspects of it (the default design is not one of them), and I really like what their goals are, what they're trying to do. But as I said I do have issues with the design, and there are some other concerns too. So I'd be interested in hearing your perspective, especially since you said you're tinkering with some SMF forks (don't know why I didn't think to look for some before now!). Perhaps this should be split off into its own thread? :D
- Oshyan
-
Tuxman, I'm curious to hear your thoughts about Discourse. I "discovered" it some months ago (or perhaps re-discovered) and I have kind of a love/hate relationship with it. I'm not actively running it on any sites mind you, so my experiences are limited. I absolutely *love* some aspects of it (the default design is not one of them), and I really like what their goals are, what they're trying to do. But as I said I do have issues with the design, and there are some other concerns too. So I'd be interested in hearing your perspective, especially since you said you're tinkering with some SMF forks (don't know why I didn't think to look for some before now!). Perhaps this should be split off into its own thread? :D
- Oshyan
-JavaJones
Perhaps. And then I'll chime in from my experiences :)
-
mouser, I forgot to post the list of SMF anti-spam addons I use. Here you go:
httpBL: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/?mod=2155
StopSpammer: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/?mod=1547
KeyCaptcha: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2839
And here's a new thread to discuss Discourse and other "modern"/"next-generation" forums:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41284.0
- Oshyan
-
Discourse is an annoying try to do everything differently even if there was no actual need for that before. The UI requires Javascript which sucks for security reasons; but, even worse, the whole thing grew so fat that the only supported installation method is a pre-configured Docker container (!) which limits Discourse to Linux although it does not require any other Linux-only package.
Their so-called community does not seem to care about people doing things in a different way.
-
Thanks JavaJones for starting a new thread on modern forum stuff, I'm looking forward to discussion continuing there.
As for DC SMF2 progress, I have just finished porting over the DonationCredits system to new smf2 code, and that's my last big hurdle.. Everything else is just tweaking and testing now, and then the dc-ification of the look of the css.
So, it's easy sailing from here on out.. (at least for the forum).
-
Can I hear some opinions on how important the Bookmarking mod is to people? Thats the one responsible for this page:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=bookmarks
-
I've personally never used it. The only views I use are the main view, and the recently unread view. I'm sure others differ :)
-
Can I hear some opinions on how important the Bookmarking mod is to people? Thats the one responsible for this page:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=bookmarks
-mouser
I used to use that feature a lot. But I haven't added a new bookmark since mid-2012, almost exactly 3 years ago.
-
Can I hear some opinions on how important the Bookmarking mod is to people? Thats the one responsible for this page:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=bookmarks
-mouser
I used to use that feature a lot. But I haven't added a new bookmark since mid-2012, almost exactly 3 years ago.
-Deozaan
That's strange... that's around the date for my last added bookmark also :)
-
I've personally never used it. The only views I use are the main view, and the recently unread view. I'm sure others differ :)
-wraith808
That's strange... that's around the date for my last added bookmark also :)
-wraith808
:huh: :-\
:P
-
I don't use the bookmarks feature here. I thought there was built-in functionality for that, but I guess not. There's another existing mod for it, though may not be maintained for 2.1:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/?mod=864
- Oshyan
-
I do use it, and last time was about a month ago.
I can even think of an enhancement to make it even more useful: add ability to attach a short note to a bookmark, so you can leave notes for yourself like "read later", "reply later", "need to try this", etc.
-
I'm with everyone else -- i used it at first, but haven't in years.
-
Yeah I used it when I first came here, but not used it in years tbh...forgot it was even a thing.
-
Can I hear some opinions on how important the Bookmarking mod is to people? Thats the one responsible for this page:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=bookmarks
-mouser
IIUC you can only bookmark threads, which is of fairly limited use.
(I have used it in the past and again a bit lately, so I just saved those locally in case.)
-
I've personally never used it. The only views I use are the main view, and the recently unread view. I'm sure others differ :)
-wraith808
That's strange... that's around the date for my last added bookmark also :)
-wraith808
:huh: :-\
:P
-Deozaan
I've never used the view. I've used bookmarks, though. :huh: :Thmbsup:
-
I just discovered that I have a page of bookmarks about which I'd forgotten.
The ability to bookmark an individual post, with app102's suggestion for attaching a note, would give me better than a 50-50 chance of ever finding a specific post.
-
I just discovered that I have a page of bookmarks about which I'd forgotten.
The ability to bookmark an individual post, with app102's suggestion for attaching a note, would give me better than a 50-50 chance of ever finding a specific post.
-cranioscopical
Is App102, App103's predecessor? ;D
-
;D
-
Soon app666 :o
:P
I have never used the bookmark mod
-
Is App102, App103's predecessor? ;D
-Stephen66515
:) With my ongoing policy of always trying to shift the blame, I say 'my phone made me do it'
-
The porting to smf2 is all but complete, minus making the theme more customized to look like "dc".
But I'm in the home stretch..
-
The porting to smf2 is all but complete, minus making the theme more customized to look like "dc".
But I'm in the home stretch..
-mouser
well done :Thmbsup:
looking forward to it...
-
well done :Thmbsup:-tomos
Too early!
-
Nice new goto menu at top of form:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Any other suggestions for links that should be in that menu?
-
"Mark forums read" ?
-
You can't "go" there.
-
A link to mark as read is in drop down menus on other forums by default. vBulletin's had it since v.2 for example
-
As I fail to remember it every single time, I'd like to suggest that "DC2" will finally fix the tab order here. "Quick Reply" -> type a reply -> <Tab> -> Enter should trigger "Post", not "Search". :mad: :-\
-
A link to mark as read is in drop down menus on other forums by default. vBulletin's had it since v.2 for example
-rgdot
That wasn't to say that there shouldn't be a way to mark forums read- just that it shouldn't be in that particular drop-down if the label for the dropdown is is GoTo.
-
Nice new goto menu at top of form:
-mouser
Hopefully doesn't replace the one-click "Show unread posts (since last visit)." link?
-
you can still just one-click on it to immediately go to unread posts.
but i'd like some feedback about whether people prefer the "unread since last visit" vs "unread" -- personally i always never use "unread since last visit". anyone?
-
It has been some time since I've clicked on "unread since last visit" - I do click on "Show unread posts".
-
It has been some time since I've clicked on "unread since last visit" - I do click on "Show unread posts".
-ewemoa
This.
-
I don't use any of them.
I rely heavily on the "thread aggregator" because it tends to collect some 90+ % of the posts into the day's active threads and at worst if a thread slips below "the top 10", it pops up the next day with a new post again.
-
I always use "unread since last visit" — it's my main point of entry to DC. I'd be really sorry to see that go :(
-
I always use "unread since last visit" — it's my main point of entry to DC. I'd be really sorry to see that go :(
-cranioscopical
I can see why it would be useful... those days when I have 4 pages of threads because I haven't been religiously reading them, but I want a place to wade in.
-
Ok so those of you who use "unread since last visit" -- you click on the text link near your avatar, is that right?
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And not the "UNREAD POSTS" button on the button bar, right (as that one is not "since last visit")?
My original intention was to get rid of the links under to the right of the avatar, and keep the button going to all unread -- but it sounds like a decent number of regular users are using both links, so i have to find a way to add them both to the homepage. I guess the most reasonable way is to leave those 2 links underto the right of the avatar. Alternatively i could just make the button go to "Unread sine last visit", which has a link to the other.
-
My original intention was to get rid of the links under the avatar, and keep the button going to all unread
-mouser
I didn't quite follow what you meant here by "links under the avatar" -- would you mind elaborating?
-
See my screenshot above.
Essentially there are 2 links to the unread pages. The first is the text links TO THE RIGHT OF (not underneath) your avatar at top of page.
There is also an UNREAD button on the buttonbar at top of page.
-
Thanks for the clarification.
For my part, I'd be willing to go with whatever is easiest to implement first, try that out for a while and then make loud noises if I didn't adjust to it :)
-
I never click any of those links. I have my browser bookmark set to the unread posts page.
-
I click everything there except "(Full Text)"...never clicked that one...probably never will...probably wouldn't notice if it wasn't there ^_^
-
Ok so those of you who use "unread since last visit" -- you click on the text link near your avatar, is that right? (see attachment in previous post (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41239.msg385620#msg385620))
And not the "UNREAD POSTS" button on the button bar, right (as that one is not "since last visit")?
-mouser
Yep!
When I go to DC, it's either directly to that URL from a LaunchBarCommander shortcut, or by a notification email, followed by a click on the link-to-the-right-of-avatar-image once I'm done interacting with the posts from the notification email.
-
And not the "UNREAD POSTS" button on the button bar, right (as that one is not "since last visit")?
-mouser
There's a button bar?? :D
I've got the 'Show unread posts' link pinned to the Windows taskbar also. I never impose the since last visit limitation because I switch machines frequently (home/work/phone/X??) so I'd rather not risk missing something based on where and what the 'Last Visit' is defined by.
-
I use the links to the right of the avatar at top, on every single SMF forum I use. Is there a good reason to remove them? It's a standard feature and while I'm for change if there's clear benefit, it *would* be something I'd have to deal with being different between otherwise very similar environments that I use daily.
- Oshyan
-
so those of you who use "unread since last visit" -- you click on the text link near your avatar, is that right?
-mouser
Yes, in my case.
-
I never click any of those links. I have my browser bookmark set to the unread posts page.
-app103
+1
-
This is probably the link I click the most on this site, both at the top and bottom of the page (depending on which is closest to where I am).
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I'd keep the "member bar" minimized/hidden were it not for the fact that doing so will ALSO hide the search bar, which I use often enough that minimizing/maximizing the "member bar" section is a hassle. But if the search bar were always visible, I'd have it minimized all the time. It just wastes space at the top of every page, which is especially troublesome when viewing the site on mobile devices.
When I say "member bar" I mean that section at the top of the page with your avatar, that you posted a screenshot of several threads above. The one with the "since last visit" link we're talking about.
-
So I have a beta version of the new forum online on a server graciously provided by DC member PhilB.
It's a complete working forum with all accounts and posts from main DC forum as of July 27 or so.
If anyone wants to get a sneak peak at the new look and feel, try it and help look for bugs, and request features, just message me (or mail me [email protected]) and i will provide the url.
-
We are really close to being able to go live with the new forum. I hope you folks like it!
-
Oh, so far un-asked question (IMHO): https will be available from the start?
-
yes, https will be available before we go live. it's not available on the TEST site yet though.
-
I have a feature request: Ignore all topics (current & future) started by a certain user.
-
I have a feature request: Ignore all topics (current & future) started by a certain user.
-Deozaan
I think we've gone down that route before (the asking) and his response (and a good one) was that sort of thing leads to the fragmentation of the community. But maybe his opinion has changed.
/me shrugs
-
Doesn't smf have builtin ignore list feature? Surely it does.
-
I have a feature request: Ignore all topics (current & future) started by a certain user.
-Deozaan
I think we've gone down that route before (the asking) and his response (and a good one) was that sort of thing leads to the fragmentation of the community. But maybe his opinion has changed.
/me shrugs
-wraith808
I'm never going to read or respond to them anyway, so I don't see how that's any different for the "ignored" user, but it certainly makes my life a lot more convenient.
At the moment, it's just one (or several) more box(es) I have to select when I'm marking selected topics as read.
-
im not opposed to adding it but i'm newly conservative about adding features if they require too many messy changes to the codebase.. it's one of the drawbacks of using someone else's code -- maintenance difficulties. remind me again later to look into adding this.
-
so just about everything is migrated and implemented on the new forum, and we could switch over whenever we want -- fixing any lingering issues on the live site..
-
Will both DC and DC2 be online at same time ?
If I am unable to find something on DC2 but remember it was there, I may search in DC. I use DC forum a lot for googling, if I am allowed to say that, when I am stuck and it had helped me.
Regards,
Anand
-
no, both sites wont be online -- the new upgrade will just happen on the existing content.
all of the original posts will all be accessible, and at the same urls.
the change won't be so dramatic.
-
Will both DC and DC2 be online at same time ?
If I am unable to find something on DC2 but remember it was there, I may search in DC. I use DC forum a lot for googling, if I am allowed to say that, when I am stuck and it had helped me.
Regards,
Anand
-anandcoral
Interesting question Anand because as I knew it, the results should be the same, except looking different via layout and themes and stuff. So if they are *not* the same, then that sounds like a bug we should test before we flip.
Do we want to do some test studies of this for a day before we flip? Anand, do you have a good example of something you recently had to look for?
Mouser I don't hear anyone talking about search yet, I think it's worth a test or two. You found the love in the rounded corners, you never know what other bug might be behind the scenes!
-
The default search in the upgraded forum is likely to yield slightly different results -- because the current version here was highly modified and improved by dc member Wordzilla, and i have not attempted to bring across those changes. The new search has some advantages too, including nice highlighting of found search words. My expectations are that the results may differ but it will just be a matter of getting used to it. If we find the new search is inadequate we can think about making our own improvements later.
-
will youtube videos be back? it seems we have none at the moment
-
youtube should work on old and new forum, even now. are they not?
-
will youtube videos be back? it seems we have none at the moment
-Curt
Because of the scare with Flash lately, some browsers were disabling the plugin.
Flash is becoming more and more problematic. Videos from YT embedded here work with Flash - even though HTML5 is becoming the default in YT itself.
So, yeah - curious about the future there mouser?
EDIT// missed your post mouser - YT is working here - with PaleMoon at any rate.
-
Check the latest post in Living Room on DC2 - Youtube working fine here :)
(Latest build of Chrome x64)
-
will youtube videos be back? it seems we have none at the moment
-Curt
Because of the scare with Flash lately, some browsers were disabling the plugin.
Flash is becoming more and more problematic. Videos from YT embedded here work with Flash - even though HTML5 is becoming the default in YT itself.
So, yeah - curious about the future there mouser?
EDIT// missed your post mouser - YT is working here - with PaleMoon at any rate.
-tomos
It wasn't for me. I did fix it though with both a PaleMoon upgrade and then a full Flash upgrade and a browser restart.
-
stephen sent me a link to an html5 style of youtube embedding using an iframe; ill see if i can switch us over to that to try.
-
Doesn't accessing DC using https disable YT displaying, because it's connecting with http ? (AFAIR)
-
Doesn't accessing DC using https disable YT displaying, because it's connecting with http ? (AFAIR)
-Ath
It has to do with the link the yt is posted under, not the link you're connecting through DC with (AFAIK)
-
Doesn't accessing DC using https disable YT displaying, because it's connecting with http ? (AFAIR)
-Ath
It has to do with the link the yt is posted under, not the link you're connecting through DC with (AFAIK)
-wraith808
With any luck, embedding the HTML5 video should fix both the HTTPS (Possible issue) and the Flash Player (Possible issue)
-
Doesn't accessing DC using https disable YT displaying, because it's connecting with http ? (AFAIR)
-Ath
It just occurred to me...how could it be a HTTPS issue? the DC2 Beta link doesn't have HTTPS on it o.O
-
TaoPhoenix, when I search DC I get columns with relevance, date posted etc. Generally for lasted I try date posted. Since I do not come to DC frequently I sometimes miss queries put for my NANY apps, so I try to check if any post for my NANY apps is there.
There is no smooth way but I get to it. I do not know anything about this change, I mean server, search logic etc. But I will be happy if there is some better way to search. May be some advance filter etc.
Regards,
Anand
-
Doesn't accessing DC using https disable YT displaying, because it's connecting with http ? (AFAIR)
-Ath
It just occurred to me...how could it be a HTTPS issue? the DC2 Beta link doesn't have HTTPS on it o.O
-Stephen66515
What I tried to say is that when I'm connecting to DC on https, the YT links in http do not even show... in my browser (Pale moon x64, Firefox x86), not even the embedding border or reserve space for it :huh:
-
Doesn't accessing DC using https disable YT displaying, because it's connecting with http ? (AFAIR)
-Ath
It just occurred to me...how could it be a HTTPS issue? the DC2 Beta link doesn't have HTTPS on it o.O
-Stephen66515
What I tried to say is that when I'm connecting to DC on https, the YT links in http do not even show... in my browser (Pale moon x64, Firefox x86), not even the embedding border or reserve space for it :huh:
-Ath
o.O Yeah, I see what you mean now - Though on my end I am seeing the "space" for the youtube video, but no border, or video - Regardless of whether I embed https://www.youtube ot http://www.youtube - I do wonder if the HTML5 embedding I suggested mouser implement will resolve the issue.
-
Aha, I just checked using Chrome, and that browser (I hardly use it :tellme:) does reserve the embedded-frame-space, but still doesn't show anything of the YT video, as it does when accessing DC using http.
-
will youtube videos be back? it seems we have none at the moment-Curt
I persist. There is not a single YouTube video. Get me right: There are videos, but not [you>tube]YouTube[/you<tube] videos.
Oh, it's not you. Well, then it's me.
32-bits Windows 10 Pro, Firefox 39, Shockwave Flash 19.0.0.124 enabled.
Why, oh why?
:tellme:
-
Try the new beta site curt (msg me for access if you don't have the info), and see if you can see the videos (youtube and vimeo) on the youtube test thread. That uses the new html5 frame embed method.
-
will youtube videos be back? it seems we have none at the moment-Curt
I persist. There is not a single YouTube video. Get me right: There are videos, but not [you>tube]YouTube[/you<tube] videos.-Curt
I now feel sure the culprit is the new firewall in Windows 10.
When I open one of Donationcoder's video containing pages, there are no YouTube videos to see in any of my browsers. But in the two Microsoft browsers (Edge and IE 11) a little info box will pop up and tell that only safe content is being shown, giving me the choice to click "Show all content" - and the videos are ready! I guess this is safety, so it probably is okay. The problem is that this info/question/multiple choice box does not show up in Firefox, so I cannot change anything - and Firefox 39 has very few settings to do, almost everything is already determined for you me. Furthermore, I have found no way to interact with - or even find! - Windows 10's safety programs, other than hoping it first will contact me like today to give me a choice.
-
Try the new beta site curt (msg me for access if you don't have the info), and see if you can see the videos (youtube and vimeo) on the youtube test thread. That uses the new html5 frame embed method.
-mouser
Well, you'll only be able to really test it on a https accessed host, and the DC test site doesn't have https, afaics.
You might want to embed similar html5 code in a post here at DC, to see if it works? Or add a temporary certificate on the test site (browsers should be able to ignore the wrong hostname in the cert)?
(Sorry to keep pounding on the https/http thingy :-[, but it does make the difference)
-
Well, you'll only be able to really test it on a https accessed host, and the DC test site doesn't have https, afaics.
agreed about testing the https part of things -- but one can still check out the basic new approach to embedding the videos, which should work for everyone.
-
I am (even more) confused by this talk about https; this post is including the "s": https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41239.msg386364;boardseen#new
modified:
oh, sorry; you said the test page
-
Hey Mouser,
could we have Tapatalk on the new forum?
It would make it so much easier for me and others to follow the forum when I can have it on my mobile! :)
-
tapatalk -- i'll look into it. anyone else use that?
-
By the way, it's been decided -- the official forum upgrade will take place on September 1st.
-
tapatalk -- i'll look into it. anyone else use that?
-mouser
Not personally, but I know it's been around a long time. Dunno about how many users it has or what it really does though.
-
By the way, it's been decided -- the official forum upgrade will take place on September 1st.
-mouser
Looking forward to it! :Thmbsup:
-
New update:
After the forum upgrade I will begin the site migration to a CMS.
I had previously said the decision was made to use Drupal. I think that idea is canceled.
I'm now looking hard at Joomla (http://www.joomla.org/)...
I haven't looked under the hood much, but so far i'm very impressed with the gui and how clean the default stuff is. Seems like Joomla has come a long way since I first looked at it many years ago.
-
So far I'm still feeling good about joomla :up:
-
tapatalk -- i'll look into it. anyone else use that?
-mouser
I do (occasionally). It's easier because it remembers my password on a smartphone.
Regarding Joomla: Eww. Joomla and Drupal both have awful security statistics. Sadly.
-
I have a feature request: Ignore all topics (current & future) started by a certain user.-Deozaan
I'm not a fan of that kind of functionality here - it does run the risk of fragmentation (especially if extended to "ignore everything from <user>" later on), and I think it kinda clashes with my idea of DC as a friendly and respectful place where nobody needs to block anybody; I reckon your interest in the feature is from "I'm just not interested in that stuff" rather than "zomg, that dude is such a jerk", but still :)
-
I have a feature request: Ignore all topics (current & future) started by a certain user.-Deozaan
I'm not a fan of that kind of functionality here - it does run the risk of fragmentation (especially if extended to "ignore everything from <user>" later on), and I think it kinda clashes with my idea of DC as a friendly and respectful place where nobody needs to block anybody; I reckon your interest in the feature is from "I'm just not interested in that stuff" rather than "zomg, that dude is such a jerk", but still :)
-f0dder
Just to be clear: I don't have a problem with being able to see threads made by person X or any posts by person X, so it's not a matter of "totally ignore person X" that I'm asking for. I just don't want threads started by person X to show up in my unread posts feed.
-
For CMS...Bolt is a new player and looks to be a contender.
Joomla isn't too bad, once you get how the back-end and internal structures work. Most people don't give a hoot about this, add crappy modules to it to "make it easier" and from that moment they entered into a mess, security wise.
At least Joomla is in active development...
-
For CMS...Bolt is a new player and looks to be a contender.
Joomla isn't too bad, once you get how the back-end and internal structures work. Most people don't give a hoot about this, add crappy modules to it to "make it easier" and from that moment they entered into a mess, security wise.
At least Joomla is in active development...
-Shades
Shouldn't be a problem fr DC...mouser hates modules :P
-
CMSMS is good too, in some ways, not exactly for a blog though
-
Security shouldn't be an issue for us -- we are really using just the very basic features of joomla, without a bunch of 3rd party modules -- but more importantly -- users will not be able to register and have accounts on the cms, other than a handful of admins editing the pages.
-
That's why you use the existing admin account instead.
-
Why does this topic not show up right at the top of the search results when I search for 'cms' on advanced search sorting by newest first (even though it contains the word cms)? First result is a topic from Feb. 2014.
-
Ok, was searching this thread because I wanted to make a suggestion: how about we come up with some original content to celebrate the switch to a proper cms. Was thinking about stuff like reviews, short stories, new SW, member discounts, whatever.
-
phitsc, your post probably belongs on upgrade bug report thread -- it appears like the search is only returning a few of the search results, and only those where the word "cms" is in the topic.. it may be because of short letter length of the word cms.
-
I've turned off the use of a search index on the search, because the search results were so poor with the index enabled. Not having wordzilla's custom search code is a shame.
-
mouser, I'm note sure if your ignorance of my suggestion means disapproval, or if you're still considering, or if you just did not see it? I'm ok with either but if something in line with what I've suggested would be an idea worth persuing then the community would need some lead time for preparation of such content.
-
Ok, was searching this thread because I wanted to make a suggestion: how about we come up with some original content to celebrate the switch to a proper cms. Was thinking about stuff like reviews, short stories, new SW, member discounts, whatever.
-phitsc
Do you mean this suggestion Phil? We are working like mad on the CMS at the moment and I fear mousers brain is close to exploding with everything that needs doing so he may have simply overlooked it :)
-
Ok, was searching this thread because I wanted to make a suggestion: how about we come up with some original content to celebrate the switch to a proper cms. Was thinking about stuff like reviews, short stories, new SW, member discounts, whatever.
-phitsc
Do you mean this suggestion Phil? We are working like mad on the CMS at the moment and I fear mousers brain is close to exploding with everything that needs doing so he may have simply overlooked it :)
-Stephen66515
Yep, that's the one :Thmbsup:
Thought it would be a shame to have an all shiny and new CMS but only old stuff to put into it ;)
-
Ok, was searching this thread because I wanted to make a suggestion: how about we come up with some original content to celebrate the switch to a proper cms. Was thinking about stuff like reviews, short stories, new SW, member discounts, whatever.
-phitsc
Do you mean this suggestion Phil? We are working like mad on the CMS at the moment and I fear mousers brain is close to exploding with everything that needs doing so he may have simply overlooked it :)
-Stephen66515
Yep, that's the one :Thmbsup:
Thought it would be a shame to have an all shiny and new CMS but only old stuff to put into it ;)
-phitsc
One of the aims behind the move to CMS is to make it easier for content writers to be able to upload their articles to the site and have them features in a nice way (Which will also be auto-posted to all the DC Social Network accounts to raise viewership!) so - from my perspective on this...please write as many new articles as you can possibly write! The more, the merrier! - There are already sections set up in order to accommodate these articles and there will be a help file available for formatting options!
At the moment, work is slowly progressing on the CMS as we bring over all of the current static pages (mousers software pages and such things) - Now that the design stage has been (almost) finalized, that content will be far faster for us to add and the CMS should be here in no time at all!
-
don't take this one seriously, it was just a thought that entered my mind as i was using the new site...
i need the ability to resize columns manually!!! silly, i know. I keep looking at the different unread posts pages and feeling like i wish this were excel and i could drag the column sizes around.
-
At the moment, work is slowly progressing on the CMS as we bring over all of the current static pages (mousers software pages and such things) - Now that the design stage has been (almost) finalized, that content will be far faster for us to add and the CMS should be here in no time at all!
-Stephen66515
sounds great
One of the aims behind the move to CMS is to make it easier for content writers to be able to upload their articles to the site and have them features in a nice way (Which will also be auto-posted to all the DC Social Network accounts to raise viewership!) so - from my perspective on this...please write as many new articles as you can possibly write! The more, the merrier! - There are already sections set up in order to accommodate these articles and there will be a help file available for formatting options!
-Stephen66515
do the sections already have titles?
if so what?
I'm curious what, and how broad or specific they are.
EDIT// never mind :-) see below:
But yeah, if anybody wants updates, wants to offer up a feature suggestion - or other questions about the CMS, feel free to ask and one of us will update as often as we can!
-Stephen66515
Yes, except for the fact that it's taking all of our concentration to focus on migrating the current pages, so please refrain from deep discussions about big new features and content until we get the old content migrated.
-mouser
-
Ok, was searching this thread because I wanted to make a suggestion: how about we come up with some original content to celebrate the switch to a proper cms. Was thinking about stuff like reviews, short stories, new SW, member discounts, whatever.
-phitsc
Do you mean this suggestion Phil? We are working like mad on the CMS at the moment and I fear mousers brain is close to exploding with everything that needs doing so he may have simply overlooked it :)
-Stephen66515
Yep, that's the one :Thmbsup:
Thought it would be a shame to have an all shiny and new CMS but only old stuff to put into it ;)
-phitsc
Awww.
Naw Phitsc, you put the "shell" / "framework" / "containers" in first, then you fill it with stuff. Then it goes like:
A. Get the stuff you already had, to be sure it doesn't botch-roll-20!
B. Get medium level behind scenes stuff done that no one understands but hates when it breaks
then FINALLY
C. Yay! Add New Shiny Stuff for Magpies!
:)
-
I have no problem if you guys do A and B first. What I'm suggesting is that we go live with plenty of C.
-
I have no problem if you guys do A and B first. What I'm suggesting is that we go live with plenty of C.
-phitsc
Unless someone volunteers to make that content, and to coordinate the making of content, that's a massive effort on top of a massive effort that's already taxing mouser. So I'd say first things first. Get the CMS up, get some testing like with the forums, and get it to a stable experience that represents the site. Then the content can come organically as the tools give more people the ability to create the content.
-
I didn't mean to say mouser or Stephen66515 or anyone else working on the technical aspects of the CMS need to come up with new content. I was saying let DC members give DC the gift of new content to celebrate its renewal. I was just suggesting though, not trying to convince anyone. So never mind...
-
Although I will answer some points here, could I ask that further discussion about the CMS (specifically the CMS) be moved here: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41547.0 - That way we don't have fragmented information and I only have to keep an eye on one thread to answer things ;D
I didn't mean to say mouser or Stephen66515 or anyone else working on the technical aspects of the CMS need to come up with new content. I was saying let DC members give DC the gift of new content to celebrate its renewal. I was just suggesting though, not trying to convince anyone. So never mind...
-phitsc
From my perspective, the more content the DC community can create for us, the better! - If anybody does happen to want to take on the challenge of writing a new review, article, short story or whatever, then PLEASE DO IT!.
Those who DO write content, will have their content placed on the new sections dedicated to this exact thing! - Seriously...adding more pages during this stage is not an issue whatsoever and like phitsc says, it would be a perfect way to celebrate the upgrade!
I have no problem if you guys do A and B first. What I'm suggesting is that we go live with plenty of C.
-phitsc
Unless someone volunteers to make that content, and to coordinate the making of content, that's a massive effort on top of a massive effort that's already taxing mouser. So I'd say first things first. Get the CMS up, get some testing like with the forums, and get it to a stable experience that represents the site. Then the content can come organically as the tools give more people the ability to create the content.
-wraith808
There is no real coordination required in the creation of this content as it could just be a review, a mini-review, a short-story...well....anything really, it honestly doesn't matter...we have the means to now accommodate pretty much anything a content writer wants to submit!
"Then the content can come organically as the tools give more people the ability to create the content." <---- For this, I have to admit the content creation part of things MAY be an issue, BUT if people want to write them before the CMS is live, then they can do so by either doing it in plain-text, or if they have skills as a website designer, they can always just ask for our CSS classes, or even have us style it for them AFTER we get the rest of the stuff that needs doing; done.
"that's a massive effort on top of a massive effort that's already taxing mouser." - A huge amount of that pressure has been lifted off mouser so he can stop being close to a complete and utter nervous breakdown (see here) (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41547.0) :)
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using [attach=#]. This leads to slightly unfocused images.
See the difference below:
Left side is as posted on dc (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41808.msg391238#msg391238) (viewed in IE, without zoom) -- Right side is the original image in ScreenshotCaptor
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Note -- due to the problem in question, you may need to actually save this image and view in a viewer to see the full difference.
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]. This leads to slightly unfocused images.
-tomos
Tangentially, will it ever be possible to just paste an image into the editor applet thingy? It is just so much easier on sites that have this capability. Control c here then Control v there and it's done.
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]. This leads to slightly unfocused images.
i'll look into and fix asap.
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using... This leads to slightly unfocused images.
-tomos
Ok i have tried to reproduce and cannot -- I suspect you have your browser set to be zoomed beyond 100%.
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using... This leads to slightly unfocused images.
-tomos
Ok i have tried to reproduce and cannot -- I suspect you have your browser set to be zoomed beyond 100%.
-mouser
Well, I checked with PaleMoon, Firefox and IE (which I never use) and checked zoom as well in all three -- so I dont think it is that --
I wonder if it's something with this laptop :-/ I will check on the desktop over the weekend.
EDIT// anyone else seeing this?
-
Looks fine here in Firefox, Chrome and IE11.
Is your laptop running in high DPI mode, tomos?
-
I'm not seeing it either. I'd check your OS "accessibility" (Ease of Access) settings. Make sure you don't have your settings set to increase the size of everything by default.
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using... This leads to slightly unfocused images.
-tomos
Ok i have tried to reproduce and cannot -- I suspect you have your browser set to be zoomed beyond 100%.
-mouser
Well, I checked with PaleMoon, Firefox and IE (which I never use) and checked zoom as well in all three -- so I dont think it is that --
I wonder if it's something with this laptop :-/ I will check on the desktop over the weekend.
EDIT// anyone else seeing this?
-tomos
yeah, very odd -- seems to be only that laptop -- will look into it...
-
On a different image-related note:
if I'm not logged in I cannot view the above image (post link (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41808.msg391238#msg391238)):
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
yet I can see at least some other images while not logged in e.g. here:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41808.0
Edit -- it seems to be just that image (that cant be seen when logged in) --
there's a hex on my images :-/
;-)
-
You should be able to see all images even without being logged in.
But the error about "[You are not allowed to view attachments ]" sometimes gets displayed in weird situations.
Can you clarify where/when you are seeing that error?
Never mind, I see it -- it seems like a bug in forum, let me try to fix. :mad:
-
^ when I'm not logged in, this is what I see for the post above:
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using [attach=#]. This leads to slightly unfocused images.
See the difference below:
Left side is as posted on dc (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41808.msg391238#msg391238) (viewed in IE, without zoom) -- Right side is the original image in ScreenshotCaptor
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Note -- due to the problem in question, you may need to actually save this image and view in a viewer to see the full difference.
-tomos
image replaced with text...
-
Fixed now?
-
Fixed now?
-mouser
I, too, couldn't see that image when I wasn't logged in. But now I can. So it seems fixed to me. :)
-
[image] Fixed now?
-mouser
yup :up:
-
Images are shown in the forum at over 100% size when using... This leads to slightly unfocused images.-tomos
Ok i have tried to reproduce and cannot -- I suspect you have your browser set to be zoomed beyond 100%.-mouser
Well, I checked with PaleMoon, Firefox and IE (which I never use) and checked zoom as well in all three -- so I dont think it is that -- I wonder if it's something with this laptop :-/ I will check on the desktop over the weekend. EDIT// anyone else seeing this? -tomos
yeah, very odd -- seems to be only that laptop -- will look into it... -tomos
I believe this is to do with the system font size -- system font size here @ 125%, it looks like this ...-tomos
so mouser was probably right; it seems your font size was 125% :tellme:
-
^ system font size should not affect image size (nor quality) anywhere on the system. But I'm no longer on that laptop, so currently cant test changing that to 100%.
I haven't seen the problem elsewhere, so at least it's not a forum problem -- will get back if I do find the solution.
-
Was it just me or has the server been inaccessible for a few hours?
I noticed yesterday connecting was hit and miss. This morning it was no go until around 10:00 AM EST.
-
Yep, server went down (first time in a while) for an hour or so due to one of those mysterious overloads. I brought it back up and all seems right with the world again.
-
I tried to connect to the forum via tapatalk today, and when I searched in tapatalk for the forun, I found a working entry saying "Live information from the Donationcoder.com forum" but I was not able to connect through tapatalk to the forum itself.
Will you still make tapatalk available to read the forum?
It would be great.
-
possibly. still under consideration and there are higher priority items above it.