TowersTimes Software Update

[Joel]

Hello all,

As you may have noticed we have recently completed an update to the forum software to bring us bang up to date with phpBB's latest release (especially as we were a few versions behind!).

A couple of things have changed in this release, and we've also slipped in some changes to help server load/demand and I'll attempt to list them here for you now:

- Topic preview rollover removed (decreasing load) - we have removed the 'rollover' text preview of topics on the home page, as this was creating upto an extra 20 queries and some quite impressive load times pulling the latest post content along with the topic info.

- Facebook 'Like' removed (decrease page load time) - it got little usage, and we get far more facebook interactions via other methods from our facebook interaction analytics.

- Spell Checker removed (decrease server load; heavily out of date & unsupported) - Most modern browsers have a much more impressive spell checking system than this very old modification we had installed. Also not supported in the latest release of phpBB.

- Old Reputation System removed (decrease server load time, decrease page load time) - with 95% of users (10 or more old rep plus) converted over to the new rep system, we've removed all traces of the old reputation system for now. If you still have reputation you know hasnt been converted, you can contact me and I will double check in the backup I have to restore it for you.

- Quick Reply box altered (integrated into phpBB) - the quick reply box is now a 'standard feature' of phpBB, rather than an additional mod in previous versions. Will again monitor and see if there are any improvements that can be made upon it as it is rather plain now.

- [s:3brz227v]Facebook integration altered (required by Facebook API) - the changes to this system bring it up to date and in line with both phpBB 3.0.9 and Facebooks' latest API. It is a little clunky however at times, and I will continue to review it and how it is used.[/s:3brz227v] Temporarily removed pending fix

- Report PM added - phpBB now adds a button to report a PM (same as posts) to the team for review if you feel another member is acting inappropriately towards you. Reporting the PM will reveal THAT PM ONLY to the team member with the report you provide.

- Username Tagging - As a trial we have implemented 'username tagging' which is similar to the Facebook style post tagging. You can insert a username within the [tag:3brz227v]username[/tag:3brz227v] tags to trigger a PM to be sent to that user notifying them of the tag. Please use the system responsibly. We know sometimes you want to bring things to peoples attentions, but we will monitor usage and if people feel they are being tagged to the point of annoyance we will remove the system once again, so please use it carefully and wisely.

Current Known Issues

- [s:3brz227v]For some reason the forum doesn't seem to allow some people to log out at all, oddly, until cookies have been cleared. Investigating.[/s:3brz227v] Logout is fixed, however due to Facebook Connect being removed.

- Facebook connect remains 'broken' as it is causing too many issues at present.

- The 'post confirmation' now appears after creating a topic or posting a reply, instead of redirecting to the reply/topic immediately as previous. Will change behaviour in coming next few days.



As always if you have any feedback or issues, please post them here and I'll try my best to help.

Thanks.

[Sam]

Excellent!

I love quick reply now being permanently open, saves a pointless click!

Glad to see spell checker removed as Chrome and FireFox do it much better, and the pointless Facebook button removed, streamlining the forum!

Glad to see the messy rep situation sorted out.

My only two concerns are:
I really liked the roll-over feature. Since you got rid of all the other stuff clogging up the server, any chance of this making a return in the future?

Also maybe in the future there could be a better notification system for the tagging than a PM? Maybe a little window on the navy blue side bars that constantly refreshed when you're mentioned?

[DiogoJ42]

I echo what Sam said. I really liked the rollover preview

And sorry for being thick, but how exactly do I get the spell checker in firefox?

[DiogoJ42]

I think I've found a glitch. Just tried to thank a post, only to be told "you must log in to thank someone"... even though I am logged in (and yes, I double checked and refreshed etc) :-k


Also, the "post info added" thing clearly isn't working

[Joel]

[quote=""DiogoJ42""]I think I've found a glitch. Just tried to thank a post, only to be told "you must log in to thank someone"... even though I am logged in (and yes, I double checked and refreshed etc) :-k
[/quote]

Fixed - thanks.

Also, the "post info added" thing clearly isn't working

That's also gone, I forgot to add it to the list. So edit your post instead of double posting

[DiogoJ42]

Ah right, no probs. I was just expecting it to automaticaly add.

Ta matey.

[captain]

Thanks for making the changes Joel. If I could I'd like to add my voice to the calls to bring back the rollover preview - it really made the forum stand out from others and made it much easier to navigate.

Another thing - when clicking the name of a topic title on the main TTF page, it now sends you to the first page of the topic, rather than the most recent post as it used to. Is this permanent?

[Vik]

I quite liked the rollover preview too. Good having the quick reply box always open.

Can't seem to access forum via Tapatalk. . Forum still seems rather slow to load, though slightly better than it has been lately.

Edit. Tapatalk works again now.

[mrbrightside]

I like quick reply always being there, but I do miss the rollover preview as others have said...

[Islander]

I also quite liked the rollover feature, shame to see it go.

Tapatalk still not working here, hasn't worked since last night. I've tried exiting and re-entering the forum in the app, but still no good - I get the following error message

[quote=""Tapatalk""]It appears the server has some issue with Tapatalk or your session is expired. If this problem persists, please re-enter this forum from Account tab.[/quote]

Nice to see things updated, though - the tagging mod sounds rather exciting!

[Joel]

I'll have a look at what I can do with the topic preview mod to make it better and up to date if I can.

Tapatalk users may need to tap the "Refresh your favorites" link at the top of the favorites tab in order to get it working as the plugin was updated too last night.

(as seen here at the top: )

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

[Adam James]

Cheers for the updates [tag:32tfw8fc]Joel[/tag:32tfw8fc]! (Testing, testing... 123 :P )

I agree with everyone else about the loss of the preview option, as it was easy to tell if a new post had been added so I could quickly catch up - but if it makes the forum work easier so to speak, it's a good move.

[Joel]

[quote=""captain""]

Another thing - when clicking the name of a topic title on the main TTF page, it now sends you to the first page of the topic, rather than the most recent post as it used to. Is this permanent?[/quote]

This was incorrect behavior in the previous version.

The topic title should take you to the first post of the thread (i.e. The topic).

The little icon after the time and date (off the top of my head) with the post icon and black arrow takes you to the latest post.

I'll double check that now though

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

[Islander]

I'm sure I already refreshed Tapatalk, but meh, works now. Thanks Joel

[Joel]

[quote=""Sam""]
Also maybe in the future there could be a better notification system for the tagging than a PM? Maybe a little window on the navy blue side bars that constantly refreshed when you're mentioned? [/quote]

Unfortunately theres no one out there in the phpBB world that has achieved this yet. Even the tagging system we have now is very premature and undeveloped fully yet.

We did dabble with a supposed better Facebook plugin some time ago that nicely gave us the sign in features and some other cool stuff like notifications to your Facebook notification feed about topics you were watching, search terms you wanted to watch and also things like PMs and it supported tagging too.

But it was quickly discovered that the plugin was massively flawed and left all sorts of security holes including notifications on searches of your username in any table, including PMs.

It was pulled from phpBBs modifications database once people discovered it and we got rid of it sometime ago when we changed to the new profile cards at the top of the screen.

Unfortunately there is still no decent Facebook plugin now, leaving me to try and hack the basic one we had before to work again.

Back more towards tagging though - it's worth mentioning now that you can only tag people in normal forum posts and tagging does NOT work in PMs for the obvious security concerns.

It also doesn't work/isn't supported by Tapatalk, and they will just see the tag tags instead.

Ta.


Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

[Big Dave]

Loving the updates and the cleaner simpler look. Anything that can bring load times down, whilst not majorly effecting the forum is good news in my eyes.

[Islander]

Just noticed the smilies have gone from the quick reply box, and the selection is greatly reduced for a normal post (though the codes seem to still work, if you can remember them). Are they likely to return?

[Benedique]

[quote=""Joel""]
- Quick Reply box altered (integrated into phpBB) - the quick reply box is now a 'standard feature' of phpBB, rather than an additional mod in previous versions. Will again monitor and see if there are any improvements that can be made upon it as it is rather plain now.
[/quote]

[DiogoJ42]

While I don't actually have a clue what I'm talking about, I think TTF is/was highly customised from the standard phpBB format. So I assume that the update has reset the forum to default "boring" mode.

I'm sure Joel and co are working hard as we speak to put everything back to normal... aren't you, guys? 8-[

[Islander]

[quote=""Benedique""][quote=""Joel""]
- Quick Reply box altered (integrated into phpBB) - the quick reply box is now a 'standard feature' of phpBB, rather than an additional mod in previous versions. Will again monitor and see if there are any improvements that can be made upon it as it is rather plain now.
[/quote]

[/quote]
I know, I did read Joel's post fully . My point was that the new built-in quick reply box doesn't have the smilies, and I was curious as to whether they'd return