pothos.org

Phew That's over.

New forum software installed and appears to be working. This version has many extra features compared to the old forum.

Could you post any comments/problems/queries on this thread and I will do my best to answer.

Thomas

Looks good, Thomas, thank you.

It will take a while to get used to it, of course, but later (once I've done my lesson preparation and marking ... so some time in February!) I'll have a play around to get my head round it.

Cheers

I'm somewhat familiar with this software because I read (but don't belong to) a couple of other internet forums which use the same. This is why I voted for a fixed-width. For some reason - and not just when members post extra-large photographs - when the width is variable there is an increased frequency of posts (and therefore threads) where one has to side-scroll for a couple of screens in order to read the contents. I find that really irritating, but others may not mind so much.

Everything looks good on this, my first cursory examination, except that I did notice something strange at the bottom of the Board Index page. This is what it says right now, as I am typing:

Who is online
In total there are 4 users online :: 4 registered, 0 hidden and 0 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 114 on 16 Jul 2007 07:17 am

Registered users: amyntoros, Google [Bot], MSN [Bot], Yahoo [Bot]

Obviously Google, MSN, and Yahoo are not registered users!

Best regards,

I think that they are registered by the software so that the site can be indexed by them. In the past this was all hidden but in this version they are in full view...

And as for the fixed width, I like the choice. I also like the user details to be on the right hand side.

So I will be working (slowly) towards having a second style that has both these.

I quite like the format. I note that it supports attachments: hello folks and what's in it for the workers!

The fixed width is fine - Amyntoros' note about photos is pertinent - though I prefer a wider "screen". Generally that means a fixed thumbnail for images which can then be clicked on to expand. I imagine this platform is similar?

Let's get some sub-forums going so as I can post more than just an intro to a story....

This is great, it's much easier on the eye, and looks nice and up-to-date. Thank you!
Fiona

Thomas wrote:Phew That's over.

New forum software installed and appears to be working. This version has many extra features compared to the old forum.

Could you post any comments/problems/queries on this thread and I will do my best to answer.

Thomas

Thomas wrote:... And as for the fixed width, I like the choice. ...

I'm glad you like the user choice option and I hope you add it for the forum width. That's the best way to please everyone.

I voted for choice.

And thank you Thomas for your continuing work on the forum!

Hated the new look when I first saw it on Sunday; it seemed very narrow and squashed. But I’m getting better used to it now and am sure I won’t notice in a few more days. One thing, the front page looks a bit cluttered, especially where the banned subjects are listed. As that page is the “Monumental Entrance” for visitors to the forum, maybe that particular paragraph needs to be a bit less wordy or have the odd blank line inserted to space things out a bit?

On the main website, I’m in favour of expanding it to include related subjects such as the Diadochi, Persia etc. Alexander didn’t live in a bubble and was influenced by the world around him as much as he influenced it, so anything to do with those times has a place.

Derek

derek wrote:On the main website, I’m in favour of expanding it to include related subjects such as the Diadochi, Persia etc. Alexander didn’t live in a bubble and was influenced by the world around him as much as he influenced it, so anything to do with those times has a place.

Hi Derek,

I think we're pretty much agreed that there's value in having different forums for these things. I have to admit that I've never seen it as a problem if 'other' subjects related to Alexander get talked about in the main forum; but if people feel it's worth having other forums, then why not?

Thomas - something occurred to me - in the new forum we appear to have lost the hyperlink in the graphic that takes you back to the main site. Can that be re-instated?

ATB

Thomas, there's something weird happening with the "Search this Forum" feature. A search I made brought up results from April 07 and earlier. I thought this strange because I was looking for something said only a week or so ago, so I tried again using the word "fusion" which has been used often in the most recent threads. The hits from the search feature are dated April 9 and earlier!

Best regards,

Took my eye off the ball here. I will look into this.

Hmmm, looks like the search index failed to complete - I was having major ijnternet issues before Christmas (now fixed) which may help it to complete this time.

Marcus, I thought that the link would be an easy fix. And then found I must think again. I will ponder this problem.

Yippee - keyboard working again! Turned out that it was WiFi interference (possibly)

Thomas wrote:Marcus, I thought that the link would be an easy fix. And then found I must think again. I will ponder this problem.

No problem - it's not a major thing, although it would be nice to be able to switch back to the main site.

I deleted a number of sales-pitch posts (for what I don't know - the English was so execrable that it was almost undecipherable) this evening. I tried to get into the members list to get the person's details so we can do a block ... but there was some error message that came up that wouldn't let me see it. When it suits you, could you have a look at that as well?

All the best

Youi are not the only one to delete some sales pitches. I am a bit stuck with that one - I have tweaked the security but it is obviously not good enough at the moment.

I found a fix for the member list, but it took a while.