The original notice is posted below the dotted lines (.........); this notice is for any late arrivals to the new boards now that the old ones are no longer online:

PLEASE BOOKMARK THE NEW BOARDS O' MAGICK URL: http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/index.php

LOGIN INFORMATION FOR THE NEW MESSAGE BOARDS - IMPORTANT!

1. For all the existing users, the USER NAME on these new boards is your PUBLICLY DISPLAYED NAME (PDN) from the old boards. If you don't remember what your PDN on the old boards was, please contact us (http://www.sorcerers.net/Info/Contact/index.php) with as much information about your old account as you can provide (user name, e-mail, etc.) and we will search for your login information. PLEASE DO NOT REGISTER ANEW ON THE NEW BOARDS IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN EXISTING ACCOUNT FROM THE OLD BOARDS - IT IS STILL ACTIVE!!!

2. Your password on the old and the new boards is the same.

----------------------
THUS FAR WE HAVE HAD AT LEAST 1 CONFIRMED CASE WHERE THE USER'S PASSWORD FROM THE OLD BOARDS HAS APPARENTLY NOT BEEN CARRIED OVER PROPERLY, AND THE USER COULD NOT LOG IN WITH HER PASSWORD ON THE NEW BOARDS. IN SUCH A CASE, USE THE "LOST PASSWORD (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/login.php?do=lostpw)" LINK ON THE NEW BOARDS AND ENTER THE SAME PROFILE E-MAIL THAT YOU HAD SET ON THE OLD BOARDS (YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD THIS WAY).

IF YOUR MAIL FROM THE OLD BOARDS IS NO LONGER ACTIVE, PLEASE CONTACT TAL (http://www.sorcerers.net/Info/Contact/index.php) AND DESCRIBE YOUR PROBLEM AND WE'LL FIX IT.
----------------------

IMPORT NOTES

Please read all of this carefully; most of the questions that you probably have are answered here:

1. As per this announcement (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=32217), private messages (PMs) HAVE NOT CARRIED OVER TO THE NEW MESSAGE BOARDS. Now that the old boards have been taken offline, the only way to retrieve your old private messages is to contact Tal (http://www.sorcerers.net/Info/Contact/index.php) to do this for you. Please note that this is a PAID service which we provide as a last resort option to any members who didn't save their old PMs themselves in nearly a year of time during which this was possible.

2. What has been imported: Members, Forums, Threads, Posts and Polls (as textual archives of the entire poll contents & results).

3. There is always the chance that some threads/posts have not carried over to the new message boards during the import. If you spot a thread/post missing from the new boards that exists on the old boards, please send a PM to Taluntain on the new boards with the link to the thread/post and we'll arrange for a re-post, if warranted.

4. After logging into the new boards, you will need to reapply your profile picture, if you have had one set on the old boards. The profile picture is the large(r) picture that shows only when people view your profile; this is not your portrait/avatar! You can find the imported url of your profile picture from the old boards stored in your legacy "profilepic" profile field on the new boards. If the url was too long, it wasn't imported properly. In such a case, reapply the picture url here (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/profile.php?do=editprofilepic).

5. !!! Certain members have had their avatars/portraits and/or titles messed up during the import. This will all be fixed as soon as possible. !!!

6. The gem ranking system and stickies will be added back ASAP.

7. The style (colour scheme, etc.) of the boards will be adjusted to match our old boards. What you are seeing now is just the default skin.

8. Please keep in mind that this is currently a bare-bones, unmodified board. There will be MANY changes made to it in the following days and weeks, so please be patient while the settings and features from the old boards are being restored here.

Other notes:

- The "last visited in 1970" thing is normal; it defaults to that because that data is not imported. It updates the first time you log in.
- The private forums are password protected; this is just for so long that I can properly reapply permissions to users allowed to access them.
- Post icons in imported posts only show in the first post inside a thread.
- Wish list links in Members' Amazon Wish Lists forum will need to be fixed.
- The "more smilies" popup window will need to be resized.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the switch, don't be shy to post them here. If you spot anything broken or not working properly that isn't listed here, please let me know immediately.

Finally, explore the new boards and features and have fun - the next generation of Boards o' Magick is here at least! ;)


.................................................. ...............................
.................................................. ...............................
.................................................. ...............................


PLEASE BOOKMARK THE NEW BOARDS O' MAGICK URL: http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/index.php

LOGIN INFORMATION FOR THE NEW MESSAGE BOARDS - IMPORTANT!

1. For all the existing users, the USER NAME on these new boards is your PUBLICLY DISPLAYED NAME (PDN) from the old boards. If you don't remember what your PDN on the old boards was, simply log into the old message board with your old login information and look your PDN up in your profile area (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/edit_my_profile.html). If you have lost your old login information, you can retrieve it here (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=lost_password). If you cannot retrieve your old login information via this link (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=lost_password), please contact us (http://www.sorcerers.net/Info/Contact/index.php) with as much information about your old account as you can provide and we will search for your login information. PLEASE DO NOT REGISTER ANEW ON THE NEW BOARDS IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN EXISTING ACCOUNT FROM THE OLD BOARDS!!!

2. Your password on the old and the new boards is the same.

----------------------
THUS FAR WE HAVE HAD AT LEAST 1 CONFIRMED CASE WHERE THE USER'S PASSWORD FROM THE OLD BOARDS HAS APPARENTLY NOT BEEN CARRIED OVER PROPERLY, AND THE USER COULD NOT LOG IN WITH HER PASSWORD ON THE NEW BOARDS. IN SUCH A CASE, USE THE "LOST PASSWORD (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/login.php?do=lostpw)" LINK ON THE NEW BOARDS AND ENTER THE SAME PROFILE E-MAIL THAT YOU HAD SET ON THE OLD BOARDS (YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD THIS WAY).

IF YOUR MAIL FROM THE OLD BOARDS IS NO LONGER ACTIVE, PLEASE CONTACT TAL (http://www.sorcerers.net/Info/Contact/index.php) AND DESCRIBE YOUR PROBLEM AND WE'LL FIX IT.
----------------------

IMPORT NOTES

Please read all of this carefully; most of the questions that you probably have are answered here:

1. As per this announcement (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/18/1027.html), private messages (PMs) HAVE NOT CARRIED OVER TO THE NEW MESSAGE BOARDS. Please see the announcement for details on how to save your old PMs.

2. What has been imported: Members, Forums, Threads, Posts and Polls (as textual archives of the entire poll contents & results).

3. There is always the chance that some threads/posts have not carried over to the new message boards during the import. If you spot a thread/post missing from the new boards that exists on the old boards, please send a PM to Taluntain on the new boards with the link to the thread/post and we'll arrange for a re-post, if warranted.

4. After logging into the new boards, you will need to reapply your profile picture, if you have had one set on the old boards. The profile picture is the large(r) picture that shows only when people view your profile; this is not your portrait/avatar! You can find the imported url of your profile picture from the old boards stored in your legacy "profilepic" profile field on the new boards. If the url was too long, it wasn't imported properly. In such a case, grab it from your profile on the old boards. Reapply the picture url here (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/profile.php?do=editprofilepic).

5. !!! Certain members have had their avatars/portraits and/or titles messed up during the import. This will all be fixed as soon as possible. !!!

6. The gem ranking system and stickies will be added back ASAP.

7. The style (colour scheme, etc.) of the boards will be adjusted to match our old boards. What you are seeing now is just the default skin.

8. Please keep in mind that this is currently a bare-bones, unmodified board. There will be MANY changes made to it in the following days and weeks, so please be patient while the settings and features from the old boards are being restored here.

Other notes:

- The "last visited in 1970" thing is normal; it defaults to that because that data is not imported. It updates the first time you log in.
- The private forums are password protected; this is just for so long that I can properly reapply permissions to users allowed to access them.
- Post icons in imported posts only show in the first post inside a thread.
- Wish list links in Members' Amazon Wish Lists forum will need to be fixed.
- The "more smilies" popup window will need to be resized.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the switch, don't be shy to post them here. If you spot anything broken or not working properly that isn't listed here, please let me know immediately.

Finally, explore the new boards and features and have fun - the next generation of Boards o' Magick is here at least! ;)

Wheee! Yay for new boards!

:banana: Hip hip hooray. Tal did it. Thanks for all the hard work.

I have probably missed something but why the need to change boards? I had grown accustumed to the old one and now this one looks so ... generic. I liked orange on black. Blue on blue well, it looks like all other forums in the world. I apologice if I am whining and I know you put in a lot of work Tal and as always it is appreciated.

I like it...of course, like joacqin I loved the old boards...they had a unique feel to them...but this is good too...

It won't stay like this, I'm pretty sure...

From the first post:

"7. The style (colour scheme, etc.) of the boards will be adjusted to match our old boards. What you are seeing now is just the default skin."

Thank you for reading. :p

joacqin, the need for the switch has been discussed several times in SS over the years, but to recap... UBB (our old message board software) was flat-file based and completely discontinued over a year ago. The new message board software is modern, database-backed, chock-full of new features and actively supported. I've wanted to switch for a long time, but the stars have finally aligned properly now so that I was actually able to do it the way I wanted to - with minimal loss and as perfectly as possible.

OK I'm on! Now where my war hammer? :smash:

I've edited the first post in this thread to account for login problems.

Holy crap! This is even better than the beta boards!

Great job, Tal! :thumb:

Edit - except my avatar isn't showing yet. Of couse, neither is Tal's. Minor things to work out yet. :)

Edit #2 - joacqin in a whiner. :p

Edit # 3 - why did the Boards just change colour? Not that I'm complaining - it's even better! I guess it's one of the many fine-tuning things Tal is doing.

There'll be a lot of fine-tuning in the next few days... buckle up for safety! :lol:

If anyone is still seeing the default board style (colours, etc.), log out and back in and you'll see something more familiar. This is just a quick take on it, of course, still a lot to be fixed.

I'm the second case of the old password not carried over correctly...

The only problem with my password is that on the new boards it is case sensitive.

This place is very shiny.

EDIT: Yayness, my marilith made the move! :banana:

this will take some getting used to :eek: the new look is kinda... bright? i dunno, something.

Now this is kooky looking. Good to the see that the new boards have finally arrived (and by that I mean 'after so long that I'd forgotten there were ever going to be new boards' :P ).

It's looking better and better. :thumb:

Even though the beta phase is over, I'm sure Tal still has a *lot* of things to do.


One question I just had:
For us SPS members, we used to have to login on the main SP page and select an "ad level", and then login again on the BoM. How is the SPS login going to change on the new boards? Will logging in once on the BoM instantly kill all the ads? :rolling:

Well, well - I could *definitely* get used to this! :thumb:

And after all the excitement, then forgetting about it, then wondering "Whatever happened to those new boards" and repeat, it's finally here! :thumb: Thanks for all your fantastic efforts Tal, appreciated by all! And let the spamming begin! :D

Incidentally, my personal comment doesn't seem to work anymore. Not the most important problem on your plate right now I'd imagine though ;)

It's all shiny and new and even better than before. I like it! :)

There are some places where the new board is CaSe-sensitive, whereas the old one wasn't. Most notably, when logging in, and with the smiley code. I'll check if this can be changed for the smilies, but the login sensitivity most likely can't be changed.

Kitrax, you actually didn't have to login twice on the boards. As soon as you were logged in with your SPS login, all ads would be disabled on the boards without any other action required. Initially, I'll most likely just copy things over from the old board since it'll be the fastest, but later on we'll come up with something more elegant.

Ooooooh, BoM is back to that good old soothing blue!

It's going to take me a few days to get used to the new boards, but I think I like them.

Speed difference! Posting a new message is now MUCH faster! Wow!

Why not add the 'Views' column next to 'Posts' now that we're on vBulletin?

What, you mean total views per forum on the front page of the boards? Since we haven't had views in UBB, all threads have imported with replies+1 views only, so the figure would be completely off. I don't see much point in that... Views are only going to be valid for new posts made since the switch.

Sweeeet deal! Thank you Tal for all your hard work!


P.S. SHIIIIIIINNNYYYY!

No, views per thread. It's on each other board I use.

I like the bigger font. Well done Tal!

Barmy, uh... it's right next to the replies count in every forum.

Blog, fonts are the same everywhere?

vBulletin... I'm glad to see my gut feeling of the new board being in phpBB proved wrong.

:banana:

Wow, a new and improved Boards O' Magick. Thanks for the hard work, Tal.

What is Rep Power all about? It's under the post count.

Don't you see the 'scales' icon under peoples avatars?

Tal... silly me, it was there already. I'm a doofus.

I think it is suppose to gauge someone's believability or coolness or something.

the high the rep the more likely that person is telling the truth in regards to say what is rumours or speculation and what is fact or known. or id they just posted something you thought was hilarious or opened your eyes to something, least thats how its used on other forums i visit, it has no reall value as there is no rewards for having a high rep. but things could be different here.



Hmm weird my lich avatar go, hmm never noticed my custom title left out the end of the phrase, hmm must be something with the new boards, the old one has the whole phrase.

I'm actually not too sure about the larger font size. The information that's in it (screen name, join date, etc.) aren't really important enough to be taking up that much room. They draw the eye more towards that than the actual content.

Ah, user name size. That is larger, yes. I will probably downsize that.

Elfen Lied described the reputation feature pretty well. If you think someone's made a particularly good post or done something that deserves commendation, you can add to their reputation by clicking on the scales icon. It works the other way around too; if someone is being a total idiot, you can give them negative reputation.

Every user can enable or disable the showing of their reputation in the User CP / Edit Options.

How do you see who's actually left you the rep stuff? I notice you can see comments, but nothing else.

I think I've disabled that intentionally so that we don't get little user wars if someone gives you negative reputation. ;)

Ah, so people can flame you behind a veil of shadows. Cowardice. I don't know if I'm alone here, but if someone's got gripe with me I'd rather get it out in the open! I say activate the thing ;-). Let's have a user vote - power to democracy.

Maybe we'll have a poll about it once the dust settles.

When I pass my mouse over the reputation squares, some users only come up with their login names (e.g., "Aikanaro", "Elfen Lied", "Montresor"); while others come up with user name + a comment ("kuemper is an unknown quantity...", "Barmy Army is on a distinguished road", "Taluntain has disabled reputation").

Also, I can't find reputation under User CP -> Edit Options. Is this related to my name showing without a comment? (Could be that Reputation is not activated for all users yet.)

I have always jumped to the boards from the main page. The link to the boards needs to be updated or is that intentional for the time being?

Intentional for now, so that all existing users go there first and not register anew here.

Montresor, good question... I'm looking into it.

Edit: I've also expanded the description of import note #4 in my first post in the thread (regarding the profile pictures). I hope it's clearer now. If anything is unclear to anyone, please ask here so I can clarify!

Regarding broken avatars/titles, I know you're all patiently waiting for me to fix them. I hope I'll be able to get this done today. Thanks for bearing with me.

Edit2: I see that profile picture editing is disabled for regular users completely. :doh: I'll get this fixed soon.

Montresor, check if everything regarding Reputation works now. I've looked around and it seems to be working.

Yep, it works now! :thumb:

Ah, user name size. That is larger, yes. I will probably downsize that.

Elfen Lied described the reputation feature pretty well. If you think someone's made a particularly good post or done something that deserves commendation, you can add to their reputation by clicking on the scales icon. It works the other way around too; if someone is being a total idiot, you can give them negative reputation.

Every user can enable or disable the showing of their reputation in the User CP / Edit Options.
I think it is suppose to gauge someone's believability or coolness or something.

the high the rep the more likely that person is telling the truth in regards to say what is rumours or speculation and what is fact or known. or id they just posted something you thought was hilarious or opened your eyes to something, least thats how its used on other forums i visit, it has no reall value as there is no rewards for having a high rep. but things could be different here.
Thanks for the answer. I've seen it on a few other boards and couldn't find out wtf it was about.

I'd like to take this opportunity to ask everyone NOT to double, triple, quadruple etc. post, i.e. respond to their own posts repeatedly in under a day. We've had this disabled for a reason on the new boards, and will be again here as soon as I get to it.

In the meantime, the new message board software allows us to merge threads and deduct your post count at the same time (so 2 posts merged into 1 will count the same as you only making 1 post), so we can clean up easily enough. But since you're not gaining anything by doing it, well, please don't. :D

Regarding broken avatars/titles, I know you're all patiently waiting for me to fix them. I hope I'll be able to get this done today. Thanks for bearing with me.

its no huge issue, i can wait

Thanks for the answer. I've seen it on a few other boards and couldn't find out wtf it was about.

well it serves no real purpose, so people tend to forget about it or dont even know whats its for.

Only thing I've noticed that bugs me (not really for any particular reason, just seeing empty space seems like a waste :P) Is that if you write a short message, all the info down the side results in a huge empty post. There is most likely no way around this, and like I said it's probably just me. Just an observation really.

This will be fixed by displaying only avatars or gems, but not both at the same time. They're the reason why this happens (besides all those extra icons and info below them, that is).

Hello Tal,

Just wanted to ask you if the minimum 3-character search term requirement could be changed?

Right now, I can't search for phrases such as "F/M" or "F/T" because the search engine requires all search terms to be more than 3 characters.

There were quite a few old posts I was reading that had "F/T" or "F/M" as part as their thread title.

Thanks :)

Ok, all the SPS account holders should have fixed avatars/portraits + titles now. If anyone else's is broken, let me know here.

Strife; I've already had to adjust it to go down to 3 (the default is 4+ only). And the problem here seems to be vB not recognizing / as a character, since F/T or F/M are both 3 character words. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll look into it.

One thing I just noticed... When you click a link in the "Last Post" section, it doesn't actually take you to the last post of whatever thread it was in.

For example, on the main BoM page, I clicked the "last post" link for the Whatnots forum (Random Babbling Post #98 by Dragonfly), and it took me to a post by kuemper...9 posts above. :bad:

I tried it again, this time on the (Look at this thin cooler by Disciple of The Watch) link next to the TM forum link...and it took me to *my* post which was 2 posts above DotW's.


Also, Tal, remember the border issue I was having in the beta phase? I'm still having it, and after a few tests, I have concluded that it is a direct conflict with the skin I have applied via Windows Blinds. If I revert vack to the Windows "classic" or "XP" theme, the borders show properly, but as soon as I apply my custom skin, the issues come back. I tried fine tuning the skin as much as I could, but with the options I could change, nothing helped. :bad:

I like the chunky buttons... :)

Looks like the move went rather well, Tal.
:)

The 'New Posts' link makes me very happy.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but how come some people have disabled reputation?

One thing I just noticed... When you click a link in the "Last Post" section, it doesn't actually take you to the last post of whatever thread it was in.

Last post you haven't seen yet, maybe? We're relying on cookies for this data at the moment, and it can potentially mean some odd happenings now and then. I'll look into it when I get the chance.

Also, Tal, remember the border issue I was having in the beta phase? I'm still having it, and after a few tests, I have concluded that it is a direct conflict with the skin I have applied via Windows Blinds.

Nothing I can do about that, unfortunately... no programs should mess around with the browsers.

Looks like the move went rather well, Tal.

I'm quite happy with it, yes. All those weeks of preparation paid off. ;)

Sorry if this has been asked before, but how come some people have disabled reputation?

I'm relatively sure it's disabled by default for all the imported users, so they need to turn it on manually.

As for reputation power (a common question); the higher your reputation power, the more reputation points you can give to someone in one vote. Your reputation power depends on several factors: how long you've been a member, how many posts you have, your own reputation, and potentially some other factors.

Down the line I'll need to document all this, since vB's FAQ and feature documentation on the user end is really poor in some cases.

Wow, how is that HB's Rep Power is 16 and Tal's is a measly 10?

The boards look great -- although it will take a little while to get used to them. The old board had such a familiar feel to them....

I like the new boards, Tal.

Yeah, the rep system seems a bit random. HB's 16 is by far the largest I've seen. I'm at a 10, Barmy a 9, T2B at a 6. Was the criteria strictly based on post count to begin with? (That would explain it to some degree, but Tal has way more posts than me, yet we're both at 10.

Eh? I see 22 next to Tal's Rep Power... Maybe he changed it :)

I think he did... but then why would you ever trust someone with a 6 rep?

How are the rep points on the profile page related to rep power?

I must have ticked someone off. Mine dropped to zero.

Admins defaulted to 10 rep power; I've set it so that we follow the same rules as everyone else now.

For Harbourboy, 1 power point per every 1000 posts (11) + 1 power point per every 365 days registered (4) + 1 power point per every 100 rep points given to him by others (?).

That leaves just 1 point to account for. Since everyone needs 50+ posts before their reputation hits count on others, it probably means that you get the first power point (1) upon reaching 50 posts. We just need to find someone with 49 posts and check if he gets 1 power point at 50 posts. ;)

Drew, your rep is disabled in your profile... try enabling it. It probably shows 0 for everyone who has it disabled.

Why do some people have their ages displayed and others not? Profile feature, or information simply not provided?

You can set whether you want your age and/or birthday shown by going to the User Control Panel (click "User CP" on top) and clicking the "Edit Profile" link. Choose a setting in the "Privacy" drop-down box under "Date of Birth".

@Tal: I see my portrait is back. Now would probably be a good time to say Thank You :thumb: for all your hard work!

You're welcome. The SPS forum access should be restored back to normal today as well.

Edit: Oh, and just in case anyone thinks the board is malfunctioning; I've set showing of Reputation ON for everyone on the board. This is just so that not everyone has to do it manually. This is probably the last of the global setting changes I'll be doing.

If you've disabled Reputation previously, just do it again, and it'll stick this time. Sorry.

what's wrong with this new board, Tal's avatar looks far too red...

(ok, congrats on the new look!)

Yep, things are getting back to normal. I almost didn't know what to do with myself for the 2 or so days I wasn't getting pop ups on the new boards. :eek:

I mean, who doesn't need regular exercises to keep their dexterity up? Attempting to kill the 2 standard pop ups I get when I hit these boards before they have the chance to render any information whatsoever, is... something I had clearly taken for granted. So glad they're back! :bang:

Sarcasm aside, good to see the boards take a nice jump forward from a technology perspective. Nice execution on the upgrade Tal. Seamless, for the most part.

Splunge must be really upset that he can no longer hassle Tal about when the Board update will happen. :)

OK, I'm late getting to the new boards (long, complicated weekend) - I like them and think they're easier and more fun to view.

One question: Some of us with portraits display gems and some don't. How do we get our gems to display? I like them and mine isn't currently up.

I'm going to disable simultaneous showing of gems and avatars/portraits, because they take too much space if they're both used. That is, all that info on the left side stretches the post table to make it too large for short posts... there'll still be a way to see your gems though. I'll figure something out.

Marceror, two popups aren't intended, they just happen because some advertising where I can't disable them overlaps with the standard code. I'll fix that as soon as I can.

In the meantime, you might consider getting yourself a site supporter account (http://www.sorcerers.net/Supporters/index.php), via which you can disable all the advertising site-wide.

Thanks for the prompt explanation, Tal, that makes sense on the gems. It's true the side portraits take up more space now, though it's interesting to see all that "at a glance."

Splunge must be really upset that he can no longer hassle Tal about when the Board update will happen. :)

Heehee!

I actually decided to give Tal a break awhile back. But my patience was starting to wear thin. I guess Tal was starting to get vibes and got nervous!

:p

I think it's funny that anyone who has a rep of 1 or higher is, "on a distinguished path." :rolleyes:

And as for gems, why not put them in a user's profile? :rolling:

Are you looking at Rep Power for that number? Because Rep Power and reputation are different.

I think it's funny that anyone who has a rep of 1 or higher is, "on a distinguished path." :rolleyes:
How do you find that out? Is it in the user's profile?

EDIT: BTW, I enjoy the quotes now. At least I can know who said what.

Are you looking at Rep Power for that number? Because Rep Power and reputation are different.

Hehe. I totally misunderstood that at first. Now it makes sense. ;)

100 reputation gives 1 Rep Power I think.

Every time someone leaves you good reputation for a post or whatever, it adds 10 to your reputation.

That's how I understand it anyway.

Wonder how to see someone's reputation. I can only see my own at the moment. By the way, you, Barmy, still have both an avatar and a gem, unlike the rest of people. Wonder why.

How do you find that out? Is it in the user's profile?

EDIT: BTW, I enjoy the quotes now. At least I can know who said what.

You can see anyone's reputation by hovering with the mouse over the green rectangle icon next to the Rep Power count.

Also, I've enabled multi-quoting again. We've had reply with quote disabled in the past, but since I've left it enabled here, I figured I might as well enable multi-quoting too. The problem is, with this on, people tend to quote entire posts and not just the part of the text they're actually responding to. This bugs me, since it means we're cluttering the database with way too much unnecessary ballast. It certainly adds to the ease of use though. :bad:

Wonder how to see someone's reputation. I can only see my own at the moment. By the way, you, Barmy, still have both an avatar and a gem, unlike the rest of people. Wonder why.

See above. And everyone who isn't an SPS account holder or doesn't have only a gem rank also has their avatar/portrait shown. This is because those users aren't grouped properly yet. On the to-do...

You can see anyone's reputation by hovering with the mouse over the green rectangle icon next to the Rep Power count.

Ah, so just the verbal denominator, no sweet digital variable? That one I knew. I just thought one could perhaps somehow access the actual variable itself.

http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions

You can see the actual figure there.

Thanks, but I know where I can see mine. I just wondered if you could see someone else's exact number or just the verbal estimate.

No, you can't see the exact figure of someone else.

However, the reputation is based on the number of rep points, which give you a different textual description based on the number of points you have. I'll just list a few for starters:

User can only hope to improve (-50)
User has a little shameless behaviour in the past (-10)
User is an unknown quantity at this point (0 rep)
User is on a distinguished road (10)
User will become famous soon enough (50)
User has a spectacular aura about (150)
User is a jewel in the rough (250)
etc.

There are 7 more ranks beyond that at the moment and it goes up to 2k rep. :D

Whoa...2000 rep points?? That's going to take a while...I notice I've got 7 though...were these added beforehand or were they carried over from some other statistic from the old board?

Thats your Rep Power, which is different to your Rep Points, Rep Points can be found in your profile.

This may have been mentioned before, but I received a PM and it was delivered to the old boards. Yes, I was very confused for a moment :P

Ooo, brand new spanking boards. Cool.

Susipaisti, what a legend. I always get the feeling you're higher than the clouds. Awesome.

Great new board Tal. It's the same one that they use at bodybuilding.com and I have come to love the interface.

Urithrand, you got a PM on the old boards because it was sent from the old boards. The PM system on the old boards still works so that everyone can save their old PMs.

The boards are actually completely separate. Content from the old one was copied to the new one (sans the private messages), and the forums made read-only on the old boards. So what happens on the new boards in no way intersects with the old boards. The old boards are static, apart from PMs. The new boards are active.

I hope this clears it up for anyone who was having doubts. :D

Jack Funk, thanks. And yes, that's a pretty famous (not to mention gigantic) community using vB too.

By Tal The problem is, with this on, people tend to quote entire posts and not just the part of the text they're actually responding to. This bugs me, since it means we're cluttering the database with way too much unnecessary ballast. It certainly adds to the ease of use though.

Me too. :( When the complete post is quoted unless it is a short one I have a hard time figuring out what the point of the responding post is. I have seen threads where post after post quotes the complete text of the Original Poster (OP). I end up not bothering to read half the posts because of this over use of quotes without editing. :smash:

User can only hope to improve (-50)
User has a little shameless behaviour in the past (-10)
User is an unknown quantity at this point (0 rep)
User is on a distinguished road (10)
User will become famous soon enough (50)
User has a spectacular aura about (150)
User is a jewel in the rough (250)
etc.

Have you considered using the gem value for number of posts, instead of the flat 1 point per 1,000 posts (with bonus points beyond Rogue Stone)? At least some people could become famous (or infamous)... it would also provide continuity to the previous system.

Tal, are the icons for new posts, both on the main page and within each forun, the final version? With so many different colours and shapes I'm having a hard time telling which threads have new posts. The main page isn't too bad, I just look for icons with 2 "papers" instead of one (the ones with 2 also have some orange, so looking for that also works). With the threads however, trying to sort out which envelopes are open and which ones are not, especially when they can be 3 different colours and some have a big arrow pointing into them, gets a little tricky. So far the only way I can tell a thread has new posts is by the "V" icon that appears to the left of the name (that little icon is very handy by the way).

EDIT: Just noticed something strange. If I look at the profile of someone who hasn't posted in a long time (say, Extremist), it says that their last activity was "Last Activity: January 1, 1970 01:00". The old forum just says "This user has not been here recently." So maybe the actual date wasn't stored on the old software, and that's driven the new one a little crazy?

T2Bruno, I'm not quite sure I follow you... it's quite a bit more complex than 1 point per 1k posts, and rep power and actual reputation are separate. Also, it's users themselves that determine reputation of others by upping or lowering their rep points. I don't know if you've read everything about reputation since my input on it scattered over several posts in this thread...

Ziad, no, icons are not final at all. They're still the defaults and I'll replace them as soon as I can, but there are several dozen things on the to-do in connection with the board switch that I still need to get around to, and icons just didn't get their turn yet. Soon.

As for 1970, that's explained in my first post in this thread. Last activity data was not imported from the old boards, so there is no data for users who haven't logged into the new boards at least once. Hence, the default data in 1970 shows for those users.

I miss one thing from the old Board. On the old Board when some one PMed me there would be a flashing Message under my name. Hard to miss. :) On the new board I have to remember to check for unread messages.

I know I should get an email saying I have a message but I come here first normally.

In your profile, under Edit Options, there is a box you can check off that will allow you to be notified of PM's by way of pop-up. I think this will do it (but I'm not sure).

Why do some threads show as bolded and others not?

Thanks, son. :) I need to take a closer look at all my options.

Enabling that will pop a, well, pop-up whenever you have a new private message. Impossible to miss then. ;)

Splunge, I think those with new posts since your last visit show bolded. Or rather, those that register properly... this doesn't seem to always work properly for me. We're relying on cookies for this at the moment but it seems that UBB's implementation was much more accurate. In the future, I'll probably need to set it to store this info in the database so that it's really accurate.

It's not accurate for me either, which is too bad.

Hey, is it just me, or is it impossible to change the actual thread title? I can add and change my post title, but I can't edit the name of the thread. :bad: :rolling:

Hm, I've set the time allowed for editing to 0, but apparently that doesn't make it indefinite, but rather disables editing of thread titles altogether. Odd... there seems to be no option to make it indefinite. I've set it to allow title edits for up to 1 month after thread creation until I figure a way to disable it altogether.

I must say I hugely disapprove of the reputation system and will boycott it for my part. I don't like ranking people's contributions to a thread. This becomes especially futile in the alley where I might feel compelled to give negative points for someone stating an opinion I happen to greatly disagree with. Also I dislike creating such "hierarchies" on this lovely community. Every post is in my opinion equally important. Idiotic behaviour is punished with the plaques and moderator warnings.

Not much else to complain the conversion seems to have gone pretty well and most functions are not that different from before. In general it only seems that this format has a significantly better potential for improvement than the last one. Some of the icons still seem a bit dodgy but Tal allready said they would be fixed eventually.

Once again a job well done Tal. :thumb:

You have a lot of a point, but fortunately, people who would be more seriously tempted to screw someone's reputation if they don't agree with his opinions, will generally score little reputation power, perhaps 1-2 points or some such. It will all be made up by frequent contributors and long-term members appreciating the same person for his contributions, I think. :)

Yes but I really don't see much good in this system. If I see a post that is especially good I simply declare it openly in the thread. If it's very bad I say that too or refrain from commenting at all. If it's just completely moronic I ask the moderators if the post in question breaks any house rules. We've seen plenty of people get outraged on the alleys and when touchy subjects are discussed I can very well see the rating system be used in an improper fashion.

Ziad, no, icons are not final at all. They're still the defaults and I'll replace them as soon as I can, but there are several dozen things on the to-do in connection with the board switch that I still need to get around to, and icons just didn't get their turn yet. Soon.
No problem, I know cosmetic details like these are far from being a priority, and besides I'm sure I can wait until other problems have been addressed :) I was just wondering whether this was the new look. Thanks for the answer.

I've also realised that the little "V" that I mentioned takes me to the first of the new posts. Great addition, as I can see straight away what has been added to the thread without having to re-read old posts to make sure I've not missed anything. I like this feature.

As for 1970, that's explained in my first post in this thread. Last activity data was not imported from the old boards, so there is no data for users who haven't logged into the new boards at least once.
Ah yes, I forgot you'd explained this already. Sorry!

I don't think anyone has pointed this out (and I could be horribly wrong, I basically just searched the thread for o' and O'), but the change of capitalization from Boards O' Magick to Boards o' Magick is reaaaally throwing me off. But I can safely say the new boards caught me off guard when I came back, thats for damn sure!

It's a mistake that's lingered on the old boards for years. It should always have been o'. Now was a good time to fix that too.

One thing I don't like is that the post icons are from the starter of the thread rather than the most recent poster. I liked the old Boards' way in this regard.

As an aside, I'm happy that I can now look back fondly on the good ol' days. :p

Edit: and is there any way to get a 12 hour clock with am and pm, rather than the 24 hour clock?

Aah yes, them was the days. :p

I must say I hugely disapprove of the reputation system and will boycott it for my part. I don't like ranking people's contributions to a thread. This becomes especially futile in the alley where I might feel compelled to give negative points for someone stating an opinion I happen to greatly disagree with. Also I dislike creating such "hierarchies" on this lovely community. Every post is in my opinion equally important. Idiotic behaviour is punished with the plaques and moderator warnings.

I won't go so far as to say that I hugely disapprove or will boycott it but I do think Morgoroth has a point.

Actually I probably go to the opposite side of boycott and try to rate posts just to keep some sense of balance.

I understand Morgoroth's point. I will probably be using Reputation very little, especially negative Reputation, and I will not use it in the Alleys at all. Let's see how it is used, and once the dust settles, if it is widely abused we can deliver a petition to Tal to have the system disabled. :)

@Morgoroth: You can hide your Reputation level in the User Control Board if you wish to.

Edit: and is there any way to get a 12 hour clock with am and pm, rather than the 24 hour clock?

It was a 24-hour clock on the old boards too... were you able to change it there in your profile? On the new boards this is a global setting.

Yep, in Time Format, you could choose between the two. It's just that I'm so used to the am/pm thing, with the 24 hour clock I have to think for a bit about what time it is once it gets past 12:59. You know - old dogs, new tricks, etc.

And just to be clear, in my previous post, when I was talking about post icons, I meant what is seen from the main page. Not that it matters all that much.

Is there a character limit per post, such as only 1,000 characters or something? I am wondering if that's the reason for the posts in this thread (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=44603). :confused::hmm:

Splunge, hm... I'll look into that. I've noticed the post icon behaviour too.

kuemper, there is a limit, but I think it's 10k... 3-4k could still go into each of the posts there. I'll set it to 15k and join a couple of posts.

While I'm on a roll, when using the "quote" function to reply to a post, if there is an imbedded quote within the quote you're replying to, it doesn't show up. I know other Boards don't have this problem (G3 is an example).

If that limitation wasn't in place I'd have to set it myself. Because, seriously, people quoting full posts is bad enough (is it that hard to cut the irrelevant bits out?). Now imagine everyone nesting quotes as well. *shudder*

So, as far as I'm concerned, this is not a problem - it makes sense not to allow it.

While I'm on a roll, when using the "quote" function to reply to a post, if there is an imbedded quote within the quote you're replying to, it doesn't show up. I know other Boards don't have this problem (G3 is an example).

yeh, sometimes i will be commenting on both the persons quote and the embedded quote. and like you said some boards do it automatically, other you have to do it your self, quote in a quote.

but i suppose if the coding is in place for quote in a quote, and you didnt what the embedded quote you would have to take it out, either way some one has to do a little extra

i dont really mind too much either way, and i hardly ever find myself in a situation where im am referring to both the persons post and its embedded quote.

Ok, I've modified the style in such a way that only avatars/portraits + titles show to the left of the posts for those users who have them. Everyone's gem rank is still visible on their profile page. This will reduce the clutter in threads themselves, but still allow everyone to see their gem rank there.

yeh, it did look alittle cluttered, also some people's gem rank didnt show up in addition to their avatar anyway, i dont think mine did.

If that limitation wasn't in place I'd have to set it myself. Because, seriously, people quoting full posts is bad enough (is it that hard to cut the irrelevant bits out?). Now imagine everyone nesting quotes as well. *shudder*

So, as far as I'm concerned, this is not a problem - it makes sense not to allow it.

Well, that could be easily taken care of by making a forum rule. And then having you personally editing every post that didn't comply.

Of course, you're probably too much of a wuss to take that route.

:p

:p

It does look weird when quotes don't nest though, I'll give you that. Hard to decide what's the lesser of two evils here.

Hmm... Would there be any plugin to make the info section on the left shrink if the post itself is not big?

Aaah, nice to see the old gem-looking 'new post indicators' are back. I didn't particularly like the noticeboard images. :thumb:

chev, possibly, though it'd make more sense to just rearrange the stuff that's there so that it was more in line with the old boards.

It took me 1 week to get my file on these boards up. The password needed reseting and the timer on my email kept expiring :confused:

Still, my first post on the new system. :)

If anyone is reading this and needs help making the switch, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Very nice Tal, I love what you've done with the place, I'll be sure to come by and post from time to time :).

If you're wondering why all of your "post read" markers have reset to the start of this month, it's because I've switched to storing this information in the database and no longer in cookies. So seeing which threads have new posts in them and which posts are new since your last board check should now work accurately (and also from any computer that you log in on). After you've viewed all new posts for today, you can hit the "Mark Forums Read (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?do=markread)" link at the bottom of the forums list on the front page of the boards and the next time you visit, you'll properly see only new posts being highlighted.

Yeah, after I spent an hour or so on the forum it's alot nicer than the old version. I see you've moved to using more sophisticated hosting techniques (you gone to SQL from the old CGI-bin) and you added a cute little reputation module for people and threads. Good stuff, the loading times are great, no spambot attacks, and the database transition seemed to have gone very smoothly. If you did this alone, excellent work Tal!

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. There's a lot more of the good stuff to come. ;)

I've made a few changes to the date & time display. We're also switching to am/pm instead of the 24 hour time format for the moment.

I've moved the post icons block above the text entry area now, so it's like it was on the old boards again.

With PM's that have several replies back and forth, is there any way to see everything starting from the original message to the most recent response? Because the way it is now, if you click on a PM, you only see that message, and none of the stuff that came before it.

And I'm glad to see some of the other changes you're making. When are you going to make the switch back to UBB? :p

Nope, the PM system in vB is fundamentally different from UBB's, where PMs were more like private threads. In vB, PMs are actually what the name suggests; separate private messages. In the future vB might get a private thread system too, but at the moment, it is as it is. For the record, I think UBB's implementation of private threads was much more convenient.

As for switching back to UBB, heh... I really miss some of its features and can't understand why they haven't been implemented in vB (yet), or why they've gone with a different implementation (which is almost always worse or less convenient), but overall, vB is a huge improvement and a platform I can build on for years to come, so I'm relatively happy with it.

Yeah, I know. There are some things I liked about the old Boards that the new one doesn't have, but all in all, this one is much better. :) I'm just happy that I can have the occasional opportunity to be nostalgic for the good ol' days. :geezer: :p

Hi there,

good work with all the importing! I just wanted to add one observation: The buttons don't fit with a dark background at all (white edges). But you already posted that things will undergo changes, so good luck with that!

- Maertyn

I find it very easy to move around in the new Board. Congratulations, Tal, things seem to be working well.

So far the only thing I do not care for is that Rep thing. It ask you to rate a post but I get the feeling you are rating the poster. If someone makes two good posts you can only rate one then you need to go rate posts by other people before you can rate the second good post. Hope that makes sense. I understand what I'm saying perfectly.

Yea, I'll get a new set of buttons and other relevant icons when I get around to it, but there are still a few things with higher priority than that at the moment.

Edit: Nakia; rating threads (with stars) and using reputation (via the scales icon in every post) are two completely different things. Rating threads is done on a thread level; you don't rate a specific post inside a thread.

Reputation, however, gives you the ability to add or take away a specific poster's reputation points, but this is not exactly a post-level rating because it doesn't show publicly anywhere who got what reputation for which post.

I'm not quite sure what you mean (so I thought I'd explain the two concepts just in case). Or are you saying that you can't rate (with stars) two threads by the same poster consecutively?

Don't worry Tal, I usually don't know what Nakia is saying either. :p Of course, that isn't saying much, because I usually don't know what I'm saying. :D

Qhydtr gjsdytr bf dld afl!!!

:p

On another note, the icons in PM's don't seem to work properly. Specifically, everything shows up as "Read" even though some aren't (I find it hard to believe that someone has read a PM I sent them within 1 second from when I sent the message).

Edit: Yay for multiple posting!

(Yes, I know you asked people not to abuse this. My two posts were totally different themes (even if the first one ws totally unnecessary), so hopefully I'm OK :p :) )

Actually, that probably goes for you reading them. You have to send them with a read receipt if you want to make sure they get read. They might get flagged as read by default unless you request a read receipt.

Oh, and accidentally, I've finally fixed the thread title editing properly. At some point I applied the limit of 1 month to post editing instead of title editing erroneously, but this has now been fixed. You can edit posts indefinitely, but thread titles & post icons can only be changed for one month. Mods can do it after that if it needs to be done for some reason.

Tip: you can quick-edit the title of your thread by double-clicking in the thread row (to the right of the thread title) in the thread listing.

I'm not quite sure what you mean (so I thought I'd explain the two concepts just in case). Or are you saying that you can't rate (with stars) two threads by the same poster consecutively?

I had a feeling I wasn't making myself clear. Rating the threads is fine. It is when someone has posted something that I think is good. The box comes up with Rate this post...I agree or approve...I disapprove. Then I go on to another thread where the same person has posted and again I think it is a good post but I can't give a rating I have to go rate other peoples posts before I can go back to the original poster. The feeling I am getting is that we are rating the poster and not the post. I don't care for that. What it boils down to is that I don't like the rating system for individuals or posts or whatever it is supposed to be.

Again, rating the threads is fine but I just think that the individual rating system is not good. Most of the posts (individuals) I have rated are in the Alleys. The number of people who post in the alleys is a bit limited. I may not agree with someone but that doesn't mean that his or hers post isn't good. Of course I can always choose to not rate posts or individuals The way the rating works now seems to me to be potentially artificial and even elitist.

That is my :2c:

Ok, what you're talking about is adding to the user's reputation via the scales icon. And the feeling you're getting is quite correct; you are affecting a user's reputation via the scales, so effectively you are "rating" a user based on their posts. As I said, there really isn't any mechanic in place to rate specific posts. The thing about reputation is that it's not meant to be used on an hourly basis, but rather for more exceptional posts only (in the negative or positive sense).

There are also a few checks in place so that things don't get turned into a click-fest:

- Daily Reputation Clicks Limit: 10 (This is the number of reputation clicks that a user may give over any 24 hour period.)
- Reputation User Spread: 20 (This setting is the number of different users that a person must give reputation to before they can hit the same person again.)

So, that 20 there is what's kept you from being able to rate someone again - you needed to give reputation to 20 others before you could give it to the same person again. This is simply a safeguard to prevent abuse of the reputation system. However, given the number of active posters here, 20 is absolutely too high for us, so I've lowered it to 5 now.

Oh and incidentally, I've just figured out that you can see your own reputation points by clicking on the scales in any of your own posts. :idea:

Thank you, Tal. I realized that there was a limit to how many ratings you could give. and I'm glad you lowered the number of different people you need to rate. At this time I would have a very hard time finding 20 posts from different people that I would want to rate. Not because we don't have at least 20 good posters but because of my current interests.:D

One other question: If you post a comment in the provided block does it show up somewhere? Nevermind, I found my own answer.

Oh, and accidentally, I've finally fixed the thread title editing properly.

Just out of pure curiosity, how did you do this accidentally?

I've actually stumbled upon the setting looking for something else entirely. It's anyone's guess how much longer it'd have been "broken" if I hadn't spotted it by coincidence.

Hey, neato! I keep discovering new things I had not noticed before. Under Board Statistics it shows the number of active members. 202 as of right now. Not the number who are logged in currently but I guess the number who have posted in a certain period of time. Love it.

It's the number of registered members who have visited the boards (logged in) in the last 30 days IIRC.

I've updated and uploaded the BoM Rules (http://www.sorcerers.net/avatars/docs/rules.php) and BoM FAQ (http://www.sorcerers.net/avatars/docs/faq.php).

While the rules remain as relevant as ever, the FAQ doesn't cover many of the new board features here, so for the time being, the best source of information about any of the new stuff is this thread that you're reading right now and the default vB FAQ (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/faq.php), though that is also quite lacking as far as the more advanced and newer board features go. Eventually this will all be updated, of course.

RSS feeds are back... check the icons next to the news forum descriptions at http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/index.php

Couldn't find covering on this: How big was the imported database? Can't even guess the size of a board 8 years running...

UBB used flat files, so there was no actual database... everything was stored in tens of thousands of separate files. There was about 600MB of it, though the actual imported content was closer to 500MB. Not that much, but you have to keep in mind that this is exclusively stored text - no images, attachments or anything but pure text.

Interestingly, now that all the data is in an actual database, it takes significantly less space... something over 300MB.

Edit: Btw, if anyone else has any abandoned accounts here that they would like to merge with their current accounts, PM me. I've already done 2 merges today.

So basically, I could have bought you a flash drive and saved myself a hundred bucks. :p

I know I am (intentionally) totally missing the point here, but I just couldn't resist. :p

I must say I hugely disapprove of the reputation system and will boycott it for my part. I don't like ranking people's contributions to a thread. This becomes especially futile in the alley where I might feel compelled to give negative points for someone stating an opinion I happen to greatly disagree with. Also I dislike creating such "hierarchies" on this lovely community. Every post is in my opinion equally important. Idiotic behaviour is punished with the plaques and moderator warnings.

I agree with Morgoroth. I want no part of the reputation system either -- and TBH, it's not like I care how useful other people find my posts. Thankfully it can be disabled.

Other than that, the new boards require a learning curve... but they're much better than the old boards.

And Tal... I'm curious to know - what made you choose vBulletin over free alternatives like phpBB?

I've been wanting to switch to vB for years. Back then it was simply the best message board software overall, and it was software literally designed to replace UBB. I think it still is the best today, and will continue to be in the future, but IPB has started to compete with vB pretty fiercely, whereas in the past vB hasn't had any real competition in the form of comparable platforms.

There are several decent free message boards out there, but phpBB is really the one I'd be least likely to pick. For one thing, its current and near future feature list is nowhere near vB's. Secondly, support with free boards is so-so, whereas vB's is excellent. Most importantly, vB gets patched the same day any security hole in it is found, and the holes are rarely severe enough to be easily exploitable. phpBB gets patched after a few hundred thousand phpBB installs world-wide have been defaced or more seriously exploited. I've seen it happen about a dozen times on the sites I host alone over the years - more than reason enough to stay away.

Another extremely important factor in the switch to vB has also been the relatively good import system and the support I got using it, which has been very extensive, as I've had to check, recheck and adjust dozens of things before doing the final import to make sure that our board content has ported over pretty much flawlessly.

Referrals (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/faq.php?faq=vb_board_usage#faq_vb_referrals_explai n) are now enabled.

Tal, any chance you could increase the char limit in PMs? There's no way I can explain myself in 5000 characters! ;)

Christ, just WHAT are you writing there? Ok, 10k it is.

A typical run-of-the-mill answer without quotations. :p Thanks.

Tal, any chance you could increase the char limit in PMs? There's no way I can explain myself in 5000 characters!

Christ, just WHAT are you writing there? Ok, 10k it is.

A typical run-of-the-mill answer without quotations. Thanks.

ROTFLMFAO!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

That's an instant classic! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tal, any chance you could increase the char limit in PMs? There's no way I can explain myself in 5000 characters! ;)

Christ, just WHAT are you writing there? Ok, 10k it is.

A typical run-of-the-mill answer without quotations. :p Thanks.

ROTFLMFAO!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

That's an instant classic! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yeah...that sounds like the typical Chev post. :shake: :lol: :rolling:

Does the new board have a problem with the colorizing of the icons by the different forums on the main page? Every time I get on the same ones are colored, whether they have new posts or not.

There are threads in them that you've looked at before, but not since they've had new posts. Until you check them, the forum markers will be lit, as there are literally threads there that have been active since you've checked last. This is simply a consequence of views being kept meticulously now; just because you don't look at a thread doesn't mark it as read when you close the boards, as it's worked in the past.

However, you can easily mark the entire forum read if you're not interested in those threads. On the forum thread listing page, look for the "Forum Tools" dropdown (to the left of "Search this Forum"), and select "Mark This Forum Read".

You can do it for the entire board at once by using the "Mark Forums Read (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?do=markread)" link above the Who's Online table on the front page of the boards.

[Copied here from Whatnots because it's probably a common issue. -Tal]

And the front page news is back too... and online users displays on the site pages.

I like the new borders! The forums look quite classy now.

Those are the Christmas decorations. :lol:

Hello Tal,

I just tried a search for "F/M", and I see that vB is still not recognising "/" as a valid character and thus the search string doesn't satisfy the 3-character minimum requirement.

Not really a big deal, but I guess it's something for you to look into in the future.

Thanks.

Yea, I haven't forgotten about that, but it's more complex of an issue than it appears, because / and a bunch of others are characters excluded on the MySQL level. There's not much reliable information on how to include them without an inordinate amount of trouble, unfortunately. I'm still looking into it, though.

Hmm, I'm not really proficient with databases and MySQL, but this site may help:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-syntax.html

That's for MySQL 5.0, I believe the relevant documentation for 5.1 and 6.0 are in the sidebar to the left.

Also, if the backend is using a regular expression style search, I'm pretty sure you can escape those special characters by prefixing them with a "\" character, or there should be a way to enter a search string as a raw string where all special metacharacters are ignored.

Just throwing a few ideas around.

Nope, that's not it, it's an issue with the Fulltext search, and one that mysql.com isn't much help with.

I just noticed this - why do I have two green boxes beside my Rep Power of 9 (which I could have sworn was 8), whereas everyone else seems to have only 1 box?

You are an accountant, Splunge. :D Maybe because you keep double books you get double boxes?

Well, that would make sense, except for the fact that JSBB only has one box.

But maybe he's not a very good accountant, and gets only one. :p

Or maybe Splunge's services to Bhaal have earned him twice the reputation he used to have. Then again, it could also just be "creative accounting". ;)

As your reputation goes up, so does the number of icons. Apparently your rep is the highest at the moment - congrats! ;)

Holy crap!

Actually, now I remember. IIRC, it's one rep power for every 100 rep points people give.

I must say, I'm flattered. :) Of course, it probably helps that I've figured out a way to give myself rep points. :p

How many of those new members are actually clones that Splunge has set up to be his own Reputation Rent a Crowd?

You are all figments of my wildly creative (for an accountant) mind.

:p

To change the topic from Splunge back to the New Boards now open:

Tal, are you aware that I can rate a thread as many times as I want or at least more than once.

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to check if the subsequent votes actually take.

As your reputation goes up, so does the number of icons. Apparently your rep is the highest at the moment - congrats! ;)

Soooooo.....by that logic, you should have a dozen or so boxes by now. :p

Seriously though, I have a higher rep, but I only have one box. Something screwy is going on here. :skeptic: :rolling:

Kitrax, Tal isn't talking about Rep Power (currently 11 for you). He's talking about Rep Points, which you get from other people. You can see how many points you have by going into your User CP, or by clicking on your scale that shows under your Rep Power. (Clicking on other people's scales is how you start the process of assigning them rep points.)

Your Rep Power is based on a combination of rep points, number of posts, and length of time as a registered member of SP.

Apparently, you only get extra boxes for rep points.

Tal

Can we expect the 'current threads' feature on sorcerers making a return in the near future?

How did we get the rep value when the boards switched? There were no points on the old boards!

Apeman, yes, definitely... as soon as I get around to it.

As for rep points, everyone started at 10 when we switched over, which is what every new member starts with too. Anything anyone has more now has been received exclusively on the new boards.

Tal, are you aware that I can rate a thread as many times as I want or at least more than once.

I've checked, and what we allow is actually rating CHANGES. So if you have already rated a thread, we simply allow you to change your rating at any time by rating again (as opposed to you not being able to change your original vote once cast). You still only get 1 rating per thread.

Thanks, Tal. I was concerned that I could screw up the statistics (Alley folks know how I love statistics). Works for me.

Great!

I always check sorcerers first and then link to the boards, I kinda miss that feature now.

But if we started at 10 how come I'm at eight now, does it decrease when you don't post?

Apeman, you're confusing rep power (your 8) with rep points (which you get from others). See my response to Kitrax above for a more detailed explanation.

Miraculous, I know, but Splunge knows what he's talking about in this case. :p

Hey!

Well, OK, it is a rare occurence, but still... :p

Anyway, I found the whole rep power vs rep points very confusing at first. And to make matters worse, even though they're not the same thing, when you give someone rep points, the points they get is equal to your rep power.

My head hurts just thinking about it.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the new Boards per se as this just started happeneing within the last couple of days, but it's definitely related to SP. Whenever I use the "Back to" arrow on the IE toolbar, I have to click it twice to get it to actually take me to the previous page. This only happens on the SP Boards, and nowhere else on the internet. It also happens both on my home computer and work computer. (I don't have ads disabled, if that makes a difference.)

Has anyone else noticed this?

Doesn't happen for me... I'd say try disabling the ads for a day or two and see if it makes any difference.

I don't disable the ads and it doesn't happen with me.

Well, different ads show depending on your geographical location, so it could be just one specific ad, so it wouldn't affect everyone.

Ooooooh, I see new icons next to the posts! I like them, they seem more straightforward than the default icons that were on the new boards. I'm still not sure what makes a thread "hot". Is it if it's had more than X number of replies in a set amount of time?

There's a separate thread (http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=45204) for discussion on the new icons.

A hot thread is any thread with more than 15 posts or 150 views.

:doh:

I somehow saw the icons but failed to notice there was a thread about them :shake:

Hey Tal, can you crank up the character limit for PMs to 12 or 15K? I'm starting to having trouble expressing myself with 10k.

You're not debating with chev, are you? :shake:

Upped.

You're not debating with chev, are you?

Upped.

Discussing, not debating. Thanks.