Clean cache and reload. New forum is here!

Andrew Boon posted 10th of August 2010 in . 41 comments.

We finally uploaded the long-awaited Forums update. Try and and let us know if you find any issues.

Note that we have exactly the same Forum for the next version of Dolphin (7.0.3), so do let us know your impressions.

So, the new Forum...

This update brings a lot of improvements, visible and less visible. Some of the most notable:

1. New "Home" page that shows "Recently Updated Topics", wich seems to be the most convenient way to follow Forum updates.

2. Renewed "Forum Index".

3. Horisontal layout.

4. Moderation Features - moderators can hide/move topics and hide individual posts.

5. Speed. We removed more of the unnecessary AJAX effects, improved layout and some code pieces to make forums work faster.

6. Back button functionality improvement.

7. Possibility to re-order Forums and expand them by default in Groups

8. Delete entire Topic.

9. Focus to tinymce editor when quote link is pressed.

10. No-edit after some time.

11. Signatures.

12. RSS feed for recently updated topics.

13. New default icons.

14. Google-like loading indicator.

15. File attachments.

You will also find some smaller changes and fixes, and they're still coming. We have a few little things in the pipeline that we plan to add during the week.

Enjoy the new Forums!

 
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Stuart038
Looks good, just one caveat! Is it possible for the Index Menu to remain when I click a forum such as Dolphin 7 (Ajax would be good) I hate it when the entire screen redraws...
houstonlively
Stuart... don't make me hurt you.
houstonlively
How about adding pagination to 'My Topics'
Andrew Boon
Pagination in the post and "My Topics" are not included yet, but we are working on them.
houstonlively
Any chance of ever having subcategories?

HTMLPurifier... instead of a different post filter than the rest of the site?
Andrew Boon
Subcategories - yes, eventually. So far we haven't considered this issue as pressing.

HTMLPurifier - yes, planned.
Stuart038
The Forum needs to automatically refresh, this is a must.
Stuart038
HL, you are a card :-)

(English saying, it means you are funny)
houstonlively
Stuart... learn to hit F5. Learn it... love it.... live it. Soon you'll forget all about the useless ajax, that is now gone.
jctwebsites
Awesome work BoonEx! Thanks! One of the things I ask for was an extended recent post feature...and looks like I got it! It will definitely make using the forums a whole lot easier! Keep up the great work!
dolphin_jay
I vote for photo insert option. meaning i really dont feel like uploading a photo to my domain and then have to insert into a post from my domain... You can upload photos to every module in dolphin. Might as well include this for forums.

I suppose file attachment will have to do if i must.
Andrew Boon
File attachments and/or Dolphin's photos module may be used for that. For now, I think that maintaining one more photos repository for Forum uploads, plus functionality to make thumbs, rescale, convert, etc. would be too much.
hd4real
Looks good. Definitly an improvement. Keep it up.
theguypc
NOOOOOOO - ME WANTS MORE AJAXIFICATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A "Please Wait" screen with a countdown timer for any thread updates would be nice too. ha ha
zigojacko
Does it let you re-order sub forums?
Andrew Boon
Yes, you can now re-order groups.
Nathan Paton
I come here today with blind hope. I have not been disappointed. This is bittersweet.
Nathan Paton
Edit: Sigh... I see you still haven't fixed the editors. I highly recommend testing your website with Opera.
Andrew Boon
We're updating the editor now - this is one of the things that are still coming.
mods4dolphin
Forum looks nice and loads faster. The new options look good.

Here's my suggestions going forward:

I think style needs to be changed and make it look more lively.
Secondly, I think all the main forum categories should be in the middle like before and recent topics underneath it.

Thanks for the great work and software :)
Zarcon
Finally, A way to moderate the forums :)

Thanks for the updates !
killerhaai
It looks already some better, but I prefer at the moment a externallly phpbb3 system. sorry Andrew.
Most Of my customers need special member forums for diffrent levels and I don't so this will be happen in Orca/
124c41plus
I'm with dolphin_jay. Need a photo insert option to insert photo directly into post.
DeeEmm
Will the upgrade from orca old to orca new be transparent???

IE will you be changing URLS again??
Will you be transferring all data over too??

Personally think that there is still some way to go. Will be interested to see how the new integration is executed

/DM
Andrew Boon
Upgrade of forums in Dolphin should be simple - same URLs, same DB. Just a new page and added functionality.
Andrew Boon
Note, that for those who prefer to have a more standard view of forums, with Forums Index being the main page - you will be able to do it in Dolphin via Menu Builder.
UFO360
Good Job >> Boonex the forum looks beautiful, clean and easy to use

Thank's for the updates and news
DeeEmm
mnnnn not too sure about the edit timeout - now I cannot edit the OP in my market support threads - meaning that i cannot update the version info and changelog info that is posted there.

I cannot see why it is necessary to keep limiting the interactions the users have. On the one hand you include so much ajaxy stuff to increase user interactivity, and on the other you reduce it by stuff like this.

Would like to understand the reason for edit timeouts - i cannot see a need for it. Has there see more ever been an issue related to it apart from Sammy deleting her posts? (which was a benefit IMHO).

/DM
Andrew Boon
There is a need. Forum discussion flow is more akin to real conversation, where you can't "edit" what you've said. This is important, because some of the replies may reflect your original content, not the edited one.

Blogs are different in that respect, since comments are generally secondary there and everyone is supposed to read the original post.
DeeEmm
100 character limit in signatures - Someone cannot count!!
how about the ability to make a topic "not sticky" anymore without having to go into the database?
AlexT
@mindgauge

http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/ticket/2106
daihlo
is the new forum available to download yet or is it just for use on the boonex site?
Andrew Boon
It is also included into Dolphin 7.0.3, which we are preparing right now. So far, no exact day for release, but it's not too long to wait. Forum is complete, but we also work on some bug fixes and speed improvements for the main script.
DeeEmm
RE: edit timeout

Andrew - A very subjective interpretation.

The main (and obvious) difference between a blog and a forum is simply that a blog has one author, whereas a forum has many. The flow of the conversation is the same in both cases - unless you have a multi threaded setup - which you do not. In both cases people comment on both the original post, and also the posts of others.

It is bad nettiquette to edit your post so much that the context of the thread is lost - but this is something see more that moderators should police. That said - it really is a NON issue. All you've done, is created a solution to a problem that does not exist.

Please consider, that It is also common nettiquette to update the OP of a thread to save people trawling through page after page of (often misleading) info to get to the answer they need.

Compare the two issues - issue 1 is a non-Issue, it happens very very infrequently, and probably does not affect too much. If someone is maliciously changing their old posts, then there are probably bigger fundamental issues to deal with.

Issue 2 - happens a lot - every time you update your software there are a bunch of mods that also need to get updated - not to mention the interim MOD updates that will also occur. Support threads also often get updated as problems are solved. (you do remember this is mostly a support forum, right?)

Given this info - which issue should you really address?? The one that you thought you had originally, or the bigger one that you have just created?
DeeEmm
Two sayings spring to mind here...

A solution that creates another problem is no solution at all.
Don't try to fix that what isn't broken.

There has always been a constant blurring of line between blogs and forums here at Boonex - where the use and application of each seems to change monthly - We have had questions sections - which were basically blogs, a support section, which directed to the questions section - again blogs, support sections which are now forums - as they should be, and now see more a forum section that you want to turn into a blog - It has the appearance of a blog and now that you have disabled editing it might as well BE a blog.

I applaude the way that Boonex try to think outside of the box, and do things a little differently, but there are some things that quite simply are better off as they are.

/DM

PS - if you are not going to 'FIX' this issue, can we have a special blog section for market support where the OP is editable.
DeeEmm
... And another thing...

what is the point of having a 2000 char limit????

people simply post multiple posts to overcome it

Get rid of it - it's just another one of those things that make this place annoying, and hard to use.

/DM
DeeEmm
And whilst I am on a roll...

we know that someone could not count to 100 (^^^see above)

is this the same person that cannot 'keep me logged in for 1 week?'

/DM
senna
Hi Guys please take a look at this point : 6. Back button functionality improvement.

For me (i always use the arrows in the browser) it would be a great improvment but
can not find this point 6 in the new forum ! Any idea or is the ajax still the killer?
 
 
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