New version of the Forum

[admin]

New Forum

Welcome to the new phpBB3-based version of the CTC Forums.

Some things have changed, including the look of the pages, but most things should work in a similar way to before.

phpbb3 User instructions are here

Problems?

If you need any help, or have problems, please post a message on the Using the Forum - request help : report difficulties message board.

I don't like the new look!

Sorry! This is the standard look of phpBB version 3, plus a CTC logo. There are plans to revise the CTC corporate style, so the look may change to match if/when that happens.

Update: You can now choose a theme that is very similar to the previous Forum's layout and look. See: I don't like the new look!

Why Change?

We've upgraded the Forum software for various reasons:

• New features, such as "Report this post", for forum users
• Security and performance improvements
• Bug fixes: search now works properly!
• Administration improvements and new features

Outstanding Issues

We did quite a bit of pre-move testing, but still ended up losing 35 messages from ten topics in the move (out of 158,600+ messages in total). I've manually added the missing messages back to their message boards, but haven't yet re-assigned them to their original people.

The forum may look too wide for people using very large wide screens. Fixed: You can now choose a fixed-width page style, see I don't like the new look!.

[diapason]

Looks good! Well done to the Team.

N

[patricktaylor]

I agree. It looks nice, but very wide on the screen. I would have preferred a fixed width to (say) 80% of the screen so that the posts don't begin so far over to the left.

Anyway, well done, and thanks to admin.

[niloc]

Seems OK to me !

[admin]

I'll see if I can find time to update the theme. Ideally the post bodies should have a maximum-width (perhaps 60 characters) but no minimum-width. This would allow the forum to work on small screens, while preventing excessively-long lines on very large screens.

There is also the potential to define more than one theme for the board. Then people can choose the one that they like the best.

Cheers!

admin/Fonant (I think there was a reason for having two usernames...)

[bronco bill]

no problems for me with frame size;in fact its puufect;
thanks to the admin team!

[patricktaylor]

It keeps asking me to login again, even though I have it set to auto-login and cookies enabled.

Also, for a short time after loggin in, I see an unstyled version of the page while the stylesheets load again. Strange. I would expect the stylesheets to remain in the browser's cache.

[leftpoole]

I agree. It looks nice, but very wide on the screen. I would have preferred a fixed width to (say) 80% of the screen so that the posts don't begin so far over to the left.

Anyway, well done, and thanks to admin.

Looks to be perfect here on my screen.
Its got some easy to use features too-such as looking up all your own older posts!

John.

[rualexander]

Probably just a case of getting used to it, but I don't think I find it as easy to read/navigate as the old version.
What are the reasons for the change anyway?
Can we have the "view posts since last visit" feature back please, I used it all the time, or is "view active posts" the same thing?
Seem to be having a problem with remaining logged in too?

[Beakyboy]

I like the change font size button, but where do i find out what all the symbols mean?

[anniesboy]

Mostly OK ,but like another poster I have to login every time. I too have ticked the appropriate box etc.

[admin]

It keeps asking me to login again, even though I have it set to auto-login and cookies enabled.

Ah, there may be the old problem with phpBB and AOL and similar Internet Service Providers that use multiple proxy servers. By default phpBB is very careful to prevent people taking over your log-in state, but this doesn't work with AOL et.al. The symptom is that you keep having to log back in to do things.

I'll investigate.

Edit: I've made a change to the cookie settings, which might have fixed this problem.

Also, for a short time after loggin in, I see an unstyled version of the page while the stylesheets load again. Strange. I would expect the stylesheets to remain in the browser's cache.

What browser, and version, are you using?

Does this happen on every page, or just the first after logging in?

[admin]

What are the reasons for the change anyway?

The old forum used phpBB version 2, which was getting very old, and difficult to manage. phpBB version 3 has been around for many months now, and provides many improvements, both for users of the Forum and for the moderators and administrators.

Can we have the "view posts since last visit" feature back please, I used it all the time, or is "view active posts" the same thing?

I'll see if I can find where "since last visit" has gone...

Seem to be having a problem with remaining logged in too?

Which ISP do you use (AOL?)?

What browser, and version, are you using?

Edit: I've made a change to the cookie settings, which might have fixed this problem.

Anthony

[admin]

where do i find out what all the symbols mean?

If you hover your mouse cursor over them, you get a tooltip with a brief description. I'll see if we can add a symbol key somewhere.

[rualexander]

My ISP is Orange.
Browser is Internet Explorer 7.0.6001.18000
Thanks