Please Read - Board Updates & Changes

[Ryan]

Hi everyone,

As many of you have probably noticed, our board occasionally slows down so badly that it's impossible to browse pages or post messages. The board software we are currently using here at SimplyDiscus is user-friendly, but it seems to be giving our server a very hard time.

In the next week or so, I will be converting our entire board over to a new version of software. It is still "YaBB (Yet Another Bulletin Board)" software, which means it looks and "feels" similar to our current board, but it is written in a different kind of code that should be less taxing on the server.

There is a conversion feature, and in theory this should move all of our members and messages over to the new board, but since we have so many members and tons of messages, there's a significant chance that something could go wrong. For that reason, I am asking that everyone please save anything you want to keep to your local hard drive, including Instant Messages, pictures that you have posted, etc.

A few people have also been asking me what features we will have. Here are a few of them that are built into the new board:
File attachments
Private/Instant messaging
User profiles
Country flags
User-selected avatar images
Some things may work a little differently, but for the most part they are the same basic add-ons. The Private Message feature is a little less advanced than our own, but there will be updates for things like that later.

Once I have the new board ready, I will put this board into Maintenance Mode, convert all of the members and messages to the new board, and then post a link there. You will have to log in on the new board, but your old username and password should work. If not, we'll deal with that problem when we get there :) Due to the way the site is programmed, you may or may not have to edit your profile page.

And now for some slightly bad news... If you have posted links to specific messages on the SimplyDiscus forum (Al and Ardan, I notice that you have done this on several occasions to reference past threads), those links will no longer work because the URLs are going to change. So you will either have to edit all those posts or just leave the links inactive. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Does anyone have questions, comments, or suggestions? I'll try to answer them here.

Ryan

[Jeffery_Doty]

Ryan,

Thank you for your hard work in upgrading the board!

One question comes to mind, will attachments such as photos migrate over with the new board?  Or will the link become dead?

Thanks!

Jeff
Oregon

[Ardan]

Hi Ryan,
I am guilty as noted! ;D I have posted links to other posts. when you say I need to edit them, does that mean I can change them to the new links after you set up the new site?
I noticed the slow down and was going to ask if it was just I, but now I see it is the server.

I figured we would tire out the server sooner or later, seeing how busy we always are ;D ;D ;D

Hey thanks a bunch for all the hard work Ryan!!

Oh, Do we all start over with zero posts again? ;D

Ardan :sunshine:

[Ryan]

One question comes to mind, will attachments such as photos migrate over with the new board? *Or will the link become dead?

Hi Jeff,

Good question. :) In theory, everything will transfer over, including all of our posts and the attachments in them. I'm going to run some tests with a "dummy" board first. My only concern is that we have so many messages and hundreds of attached pictures, something is almost guaranteed to go wrong. I read through posts of people who upgraded their board the same way I plan to upgrade ours--some had problems, some said it was smooth sailing. So we shall see :)

Ryan

[Ryan]

when you say I need to edit them, does that mean I can change them to the new links after you set up the new site?

Basically, yes. If the switch goes successfully, all the threads should still be intact on the new board, just with a different URL. Which means you should be able to search through, find the messages you want to link to, and edit the links to make them work again. It will be a lot of work, though, as you have lots of posts here. :)


Oh, Do we all start over with zero posts again?

Member profiles and settings should transfer over, meaning everyone will keep their stars and # of posts. I already converted part of the "dummy" board I talked about, and everyone's # of posts stayed in tact with the move, as did their profiles and avatar images.

Ryan

[jim_shedden]

Ryan : I have noticed that things have been very slow. Thanks for making the changes.

Jim

[Pick]

Thanks for all the hard work Ryan!  May the force be with you!  (Not really, I'm a christian so I should say May the Lord be with you...but I just like saying it.  Hee Hee.)

TC

[DenverDan]

Hi Ryan

Thanks for the change, I started to fall asleep waiting for the pages to change. Also better you than me, computers can ALMOST be as tempermental as Discus.  Good Luck !!

Dan

[Carol_Roberts]

I usually have three windows open to simply at once.  This saves times as I can go from window to window reading posts.
Carol :heart1:

[Ryan]

We have migrated to the new board. Unfortunately, all of our previous picture attachments did not carry over. The attachment feature still works, and you may resume attaching files, but the previous ones didn't stay with the correct messages. I have all of the picture files with nowhere to put them. Sorry :-\

A couple things--

- Smileys will not be completed for a couple of days. For now, we'll have to use the standard ones. Don't worry--once I install the additional smileys, the ones in all of the old posts should work again. For now, they will not display in the messages.

- Country flags are being worked on. Once I get them installed, you will have to go into your Profile and re-select your country. That is fairly painless.

- Advanced IM features. Unfortunately, this software has the older version of IM's (I still can't figure out why they didn't upgrade it) meaning that all of the IM's load on a single page, instead of having an individual page for each. Supposedly the software developers are working on an update for this. Until then, we must make do.

Any other questions or problems? If you have trouble with anything please let me know. If you don't tell me, I can't troubleshoot.

Ryan

[SLY]

at least u got the users and data over..applause for ryan please. :thumbsup:

[Ardan]

Good Job Ryan,
IT's Working ;D ;D ;D and it's fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8)

Thanks
Ardan :sun:

[gump]

Excellent job Ryan. Looks good & faster!! Yahoo.. Now we will be bombarded with a whole bunch of new pictures!! Got to like that!! Hats off to ya bud.
Pierre

[SLY]

ryan maybe you can make the avatar size bigger..probably 100 X 100..65 X65 is very small..u can hardly see the fish.

[brewmaster15]

And IBM thinks they have good tech people!!! :)

Thanks for the hard work Ryan, its much appreciated!!!

-al

[Rusty]

Thanks for all your hard work Ryan. It's much faster and this went relatively smooth.

[Carol_Roberts]

Wow! this is faster. :thumbsup:
I missed everybody last night. :-* Thanks Ryan, I'm glad it's back.
Carol :heart1:

[RealFish]

You guys did an awsome job of getting the board upgraded. I know you do this on your own nickel and more importantly your own time. Thank you for the excelent work.

[brewmaster15]

......

[joanr]

Way to go Ryan! Thanks for your time on this. Is it just me or are the message body fonts a lot smaller (I'm squinting here)? I don't remember but is there a place to choose font size? Making the browser font larger doesn't help.

Joan

[mikeos]

Good job Ryan

seems to work well, only one problem, font size seems a little small in the post windows. Can this be altered? I dont want to change screen res just to read the posts unless unavoidable.


mike

[Smokey]

Howdey:
I sure like the new board. Congradulations to all the peoiple involved, great work.

Good job, however, I, too, must squint to read the posts even with my reading glasses on my face. :o

Can we get some larger print ???

Thanks,

Mat

[gump]

What's seems to be the problem? My fonts are fine. Same as they've always been!!
Pierre

Joan and Mike,
Just click the VIEW option on your browser and change the TEXT SIZE command to a larger size. The text will get large.

Regards,
David

[Ryan]

I've set the message fonts to 12px, and the font family is Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans... so they should be identical to the old fonts.

The only major changes are on the message indexes. 1) The message headers are no longer in bold (which I'm trying to find a fix for), and 2) the "Started by" column shows the usernames in a larger font than it used to.

Ryan

Okay All,

Now to show everybody my lack of computer skills, how do I do what David suggested to Mike and Joan to do to change font size. ???

How do I ever run the complicated instrumentation in a laboratory as a med lab tech ::) ??? :o ;D

Thanks,
Mat

[Ardan]

Hi Mat,
In internet explorer at the top, click on view, then click on "text size", then select a larger size.
hth
Ardan :sun:

[joanr]

Hi Guys,

Nope, that does nothing for the body message text, that was the first thing I tried. I think font size is board admin options selectable only. Why it's smaller in this version I have no idea, but it is on my system home and at work, both boxes are in 1024 x 768 with 125% font size (larger fonts) selected. If you kick it up to 14 that might help us blind old folks.

Joan

did nothing for me, either. I just figured it was me.

Mat

[NoizChip]

Way to go Ryan! Not that there was anything wrong with the other forum, but this is much better. Thanks for all the hard work!! ;D ;D ;D

Chip

[DavidH]

Much faster :o

Hello Joan,
I was using Netscape's browser. Changing the text size works great in that browser. It's weird that it doesn't work in Microsoft's browser. It does work though when you click on the 10 most recent posts link on the main page. The body size text gets larger. Very strange why it doesn't work otherwise.

Regards,
David

Now that is what I call a tune up!
Outstanding job and thanks for your hard work.

Miles

[korbi_doc]

:o :o Great job, but I'm glad not to be the only one to see tiny tiny letters. I'm sure u can fix that, Ryan, Please?? Dottie ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[korbi_doc]

::) ::) :o :o Look, the smilies are larger than the letters..Dottie ??? ??? ??? BTW? not in the preview, tho??

[Ryan]

Maybe this will help to clear up some confusion?

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=1694;sta rt=0#lastPost

Ryan

[DenverDan]

Way to go Ryan, Thanks A Lot :sun:

Dan

Good Job Ryan

And not to forget the rest of the crew :)

The funny thing for me is that before the change the window was too big, and now it fits perfect.
Im using IE but have no idea about the text size I am using.
Quess I just got lucky ;D

Ronald

[Onnjai]

Go for it Ryan! I think the instant messaging would be SWEET! Direct contact is the best way.

Pete

[Onnjai]

OH.. instant messaging like AIM ?

Pete

[Ryan]

Pete,

On this board, each user has a mailbox. It is refered to as IM/PM (Instant Message/Private Message)... Go to the top of your screen and see where it says, "You have xx messages, xx new"... Click on that and it will take you to your mailbox. You can click on the little green scroll-looking icons under members' names to send them messages, or click their username and then "Send this user a private message"...

We don't have our own version of direct person-to-person messaging like AIM, but if people provide their AIM screenname you can click on the AIM icon under their name and chat with them through regular AIM. Does that make any sense at all? I talk myself in circles :rolleyes:

Ryan

[Onnjai]

Yea Ryan, i know how to use the instant msg/priv msg. I was just wondering if you will add instant messaging like AIM. =) Thanks Anyways
=)

Pete