Fencing.Net Forum Upgrades

[Craig]

Last night (May 19th/20th) the forums were upgraded to vbulletin 3.7 which includes quite a bit of extra functionality.

• Thread tagging
• Search cloud / tag cloud
• Thread prefixes
• Reciprocal friendships between users
• Public visitor messaging on profile pages with 'conversation' feature
• User picture galleries with user comment facility
• User-created social groups with invite only and moderated membership options
• Extended member profile pages
• Customizable member profile pages with admin-controlled styling abilities
• Inline editing of custom user profile fields
• Lightbox viewer for attached images
• Viewable and comparable history maintained for post edits
• Extended re-authentication for inline moderation actions
• Notices system for navigation bar
• Multiple human-verification systems including reCAPTCHA, image verification and Q/A
• User change history
• Social bookmarking integration

Currently the site templates are not reflecting all of the functionality. These will be built out over the next few days now that the back-end framework is in place.

I believe that the thread tagging will add to the searchability of the forums, and the groups functionality adds a bit of interaction and also provides a means for fencing clubs or regional groups of fencers to set up their own lists and notice boards without the need for admin intervention.

Craig

Craig

[Craig]

The vbulletin release thread does a very good job of highlighting the features as well as showing screenshots:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=249460

Craig

[Fencergrl]

Removing "tag rights" for people who add silly, offensive tags? Or perhaps not allow Water Cooler threads to be tagged.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

I used the old forum skin and all of a sudden it's gone. Is it gonna come back?

[Fencergrl]

Craig: I realize you are still making changes, but I've discovered a bit of a glitch.

On the old layout we had "buddies". As you know, these people show up with crosses near their names when you look to see who's online. These people have been set-up to have access to my private blog entries and this (so far) hasn't changed.

Now we have "Friends" and "Contacts". I'm not sure the difference but friends are created by mutual agreement. Neither of these two categories currently have access to my private entries.

When everything is finished, how will this change? I have been refusing to accept friendships with anyone I don't feel comfortable with reading my private entries (as I don't know them well enough) as this seems to be the most reasonable course of action.

[Inquartata]

Ditto on KShan's question. I used the old "skin", and it was much faster than the new one ( not to mention blessed with a less usgly shade of green ).

Also, what is the 'friendship' thing about? My inbox is beset with notices about the thing. How does it work, and is there any practical use to it?

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

Also, what is the 'friendhip' thing about? My inbox is beset with notices about the thing. How does it work, and is there any practical use to it?

Originally Posted by Inq's Profile Page

Inquartata has not made any friends yet

Awwwwww.

-B

[Inquartata]

Answer der qvestion! Ve haff vays uff makink you talk!

[Fencergrl]

From what I can see, nothing at all. People who were on my buddy list (which I used as a filter for my private entries) became "contacts/friends" by default.

I think the whole concept of making people you like (but may not know well) your "friend" is a facebook thing. Something I think the adults here have a hard time understanding (as we have a different criteria for people we call friends). The teens here seem to have embraced it and all it's shallowness.

[Inquartata]

I see.

Oh, well, at least it sounds harmless enough.

[Fencergrl]

Did I mention that befriending someone also means that you're okay if they use your home as cheap accommodations for tournaments, relationship break-ups, family vacations etc.. ?

Left Monster is on her way to your place now. I heard she's bringing Nein. Oh the fun you three will have making smores, braiding each other's hair, staying up all night talking! + + = best friends

[Inquartata]

More likely they will end up wearing shackles and cleaning my house during the day, whilst sleeping in the coal bin in the basement at night...

[Neinteen]

ummm, make me a sammich Inq.

[needle]

One usability issue I see with the social groups and friends is that it doesn't appear to be possible to "subscribe" to them to see that there are new posts in the same way, and on the same page as for subscribed threads.

Whereas before, checking whether there was anything new in the conversations I was interested in, took one click, now there are quite a few.

[Fencergrl]

I agree, I would love to subscribe to some of my social groups.

[Fencergrl]

Just to let you know, Craig... when I select a thread and click to go into the last post it has been bringing me to the first post (or another page). Once I'm in the thread, I can select last post.

I'm using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14

[Neinteen]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

Just to let you know, Craig... when I select a thread and click to go into the last post it has been bringing me to the first post (or another page). Once I'm in the thread, I can select last post.

I'm using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14

that's been happening for ages to me. you complain about too many forum features. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps!

[Fencergrl]

Time to put you back on my ignore list. F-net is more enjoyable without the senseless, mindless babble.

[freerider258]

How to you see the personal info on people's profiles, like # of years fencing, and rating, and job, etc. The only thing thats up there under their statistics is their # of posts and join date.

[Neinteen]

under about me tab, some people haven't filled it out though.