Forum Software Change!

[Rys]

As you can probably see, the forum software is a touch different to usual. We've migrated from vBulletin (a really old release on their 3.8 branch and not up-to-date) to XenForo, which brings with it a host of new features for users, new tools for moderators and a lot less hassle maintaining it for me.

I've been working on the migration for nearly a year in my spare time and after much procrastination I decided to just pull the trigger and migrate over as-is, before I'd managed to fix everything I wanted to fix, integrate everything I wanted to integrate and do everything I wanted to do.

That means things will be wonky, so please bear with me as I get through the list of stuff that's broken, wrong or doesn't quite work.

There's a known list of things that I'll be working on over the coming days and weeks, but please post about anything else you want me to look at or have the mod team clean up, so we can get to that too. Here's what I know I'm going to be doing:

• Refresh and clean up usergroups and forum permissions (there's way too many and it's a real pain to ensure correctness for)
• Work on a dark theme (oh my GOD)
• Get ads up and running again
• Try and fix all the stray text in the wrong encoding, from way before we even migrated to vBulletin
• SSL everywhere, no plain HTTP
• Fixing as many of the embedded videos that didn't get migrated as possible (please post links to video or image embedding that's broken)
• Update the FAQ and the rules, from XenForo's defaults

There's a bunch of stuff I'm also going to be working on behind the scenes (new backup flow mainly).

Anyway, if anything's bugging you or doesn't work, post in this thread and I'll see what I can do, with the help of the mod team.

I'll be hanging out in Beyond3D IRC over the next few days to talk about things there, too (Freenode, #beyond3d).

Rys

 

[Zaphod]

Congrats on the successful switch.

Any chance of enabling the style chooser and the default skin? Not to badmouth the B3D design, but I find the low contrast and bright background combination incredibly strenuous on the eyes.

 

[Rys]

I've enabled the XenForo default style in the theme chooser, so you can pick that now. I'll work on some easier to read styles as well over time, so there's a bit more choice and customisation for things people might not like.

 

[Zaphod]

Much obliged.

 

[Rys]

You can also reasonably customise the "Beyond3D" theme using the "AD Styler" link at the bottom of most pages. Colours and background can all be updated and saved as you like them.

 

[Rurouni]

Haven't slept yet! Since people (or its mostly just Rys?) have worked hard on this, I felt that I must see at least once this new look on B3D forum before going back using Tapatalk. It's much nicer looking. The mobile site is very nice and very smooth. But on both mobile and desktop site the top left icon looks like a setting icon but in fact it was home/back to the top button. Maybe change the icon to something that looks like home? Or maybe remove it because the function is similar to hitting the forums next to it? Right now there are 3 ways to go back to the top. One clicking that setting icon, 2nd is clicking the forums text next to it (in mobile you need to click the pop up menu - forums), or click the forums text in the.. what do you call it... structure (below the search forum - recent posts)? Actually, I can think really straight right now because I'm so sleepy. Now I can sleep in peace knowing that B3D forum is back.

 

[Rurouni]

And... I can't edit my post from Tapatalk which I immediately go to the browser and can't find the edit button. How can I stealth edit my post now?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

High five!

What are the new limits on uploads and stuff? Do we still need to use fileshare sites for screenshots and diagrams etc., or can reasonable size attachments be added?

In fact, perhaps a "What's new" section is needed to tell people why this is better and how to migrate.

 

[Rys]

@Rurouni there's currently a set of unknown issues with the usergroup permissions, so being able to edit your own posts and other stuff like that might be a little screwy until I get round to fixing it (on both website and Tapatalk). I'll also get rid of that little settings icon, you're right that it's redundant. Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for staying up to see it done!

@Shifty Geezer the limits are currently quite low, but I'll bump them up so common screenshot sizes fit so you don't have to use image sharing sites unless you want to.

If there's enough demand for a "omfg how do I use XenForo?!" guide, I'll see what I can do!

 

[Rurouni]

There's an achievement now? for forums? Is that necessary?

is there a list on what and how I can get all the trophy? It isn't like I'm a achievement whore, but just curious... already got 3...

 

[Rys]

There's a list of what (currently) defined the trophies, here:

http://forum.beyond3d.com/help/trophies

 

[Rys]

What are the new limits on uploads and stuff? Do we still need to use fileshare sites for screenshots and diagrams etc., or can reasonable size attachments be added?

Attachments can now be up to 10MB in size, and most image formats are supported. Try it and see what breaks and what doesn't.

 

[Rurouni]

I like the B3D style, but the green pulsing dot is a bit too much. Can I edit it to just display green dot without animation? I noticed that in the default style, the indication was a simple green corner, which for me is better.

and... from trophies list

30
I LOVE IT!

Content you have posted has attracted 500 likes.

Is this only from one post or accumulation from multiple post? B3D got 20000 member but it would be a very hard goal to reach for those achievement hunter (not me!) because I don't think the active members reach 500 at any given period of time.

 

[Rurouni]

Who is this guy?

Anyway, I can't see the movie thread from Tapatalk in my participated forum list, which is strange.

 

[Rys]

That's a bug in the import and can safely be ignored (it's to do with how vBulletin and XenForo store user IDs). I chose not to bring over the same user IDs, because it caused a number of issues. Not sure on the Tapatalk thread bug, let me know if it happens again.

 

[Malo]

Congrats on the changeover, looks like it went well. You shouldn't really have much of an issue with a dark theme, Audentio has several available on the UI.X engine.

 

[Malo]

You turned off clicking on unread thread title going to latest?

 

[BRiT]

You turned off clicking on unread thread title going to latest?

It's working for me. In the New Posts screen clicking the thread name takes me to latest unread.

 

[Rys]

Same here, I don't actually think there's an option to turn that off.

 

[Malo]

Yeah even in normal forum it's working fine now. Once I marked all read and started afresh it was fine.

Thanks.