Changes to the forum

[CowbellGuy]

While there are still some formatting I need to address (specifically the post/reply area), the bulk of the updates to the forum have been made. I originally intended to update the software then design a new template, but little did I know the update would completely break the old one. So I bascially remade the old template to work with the new software well enough to tide us over until I manage to do the redesign. There are some nice new features in place though:

* RSS Feeds (woot!)

* Index page now shows a summary of the various fora (just 3 at the moment, but more may be added) including unread messages and new threads for each, with links to the RSS feeds. It can also be reached by clicking the "Forum List" link at the top of the pages or in the menu.

* Better privacy options. In the Control Center you can now modify your privacy settings, particularly whether your e-mail address is shown (an oft-requested feature).

* Improved search including the ability to search by author.

* Improved Private Messages with the ability to keep a buddy list and sort messages into folders.

* Improved File Attachment handling and management

* Better administration including the ability to merge threads, leave notes for moved threads, ban users through a variety of methods, and lots of other stuff that will make my life easier.

* Lots of other little things I'm forgetting like the ability to set your time zone.

Ultimately, I've completely moved away from the mods and hacks that ELF had by either integrating them through proper hooks that have been added or because the features were integrated into the software. I'll be adding more features and mods in the future, but if you see any problems, please let me know.

[cth95]

Thanks for all of your hard work!

[KenP]

Age,

Again, thank you so much for all your work!

FYI I noticed some formatting problems on page 2 of the Recruits thread.  You may want to check it out.

[Jacob '06]

Can we go back to having the title bar of each post being red? It is easier to tell the separations between posts that way. Thanks

[KeithK]

[quote Jacob '06]Can we go back to having the title bar of each post being red? It is easier to tell the separations between posts that way. Thanks[/quote]That would be nice.  But judging from what Age wrote above:[q]So I bascially remade the old template to work with the new software well enough to tide us over until I manage to do the redesign.[/q]I think he's not so much worried about all of the appearance details right now and will get to that later as time permits.

[Dpperk29]

can I ask a stupid question? what's RSS? and why are we so excited about it?

[Jacob 03]

[quote Dpperk29]can I ask a stupid question? what's RSS? and why are we so excited about it?[/quote]

Everytime someone uses a TLA of which I've never heard, I thank him for his effort and assume it doesn't apply to me.  Of course, there' always wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

[pfibiger]

[quote Jacob 03][quote Dpperk29]can I ask a stupid question? what's RSS? and why are we so excited about it?[/quote]

Everytime someone uses a TLA of which I've never heard, I thank him for his effort and assume it doesn't apply to me.  Of course, there' always wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29[/quote]

The entry is good, but to briefly summarize what RSS is and why people on the forum might like it:

RSS is a file format for syndicating web content. You could pull it into your own website easily, but the thing that most people will want to do is use some sort of RSS reader in order to get elynah posts delivered to them. You can add RSS to "My Yahoo" so that your homepage can have the most recent Elynah posts, or use a purpose-built RSS reader on your machine (like Sharp Reader (PC), NetNewsWire (Mac) or Bloglines (Web)) to read blogs and other news, including this forum. I think collegehockeynews.com also has RSS feeds.

[ftyuv]

You can also add RSS feeds to Gmail, now, too

Age, just wanted to chime in and also say thanks for the site and upgrade and all.

[CowbellGuy]

As for Macs, Safari does RSS in Tiger.

[Tom Lento]

Opera does RSS on both Mac and PC, too.  But if you're a Mac user with Tiger, Safari RSS is probably the way to go.

[Will]

Just to add a little more to the "My browser is cool too" discussion, Mozilla Firefox's Live Bookmarks feature for RSS feeds is pretty handy.

[Robb]

Hmmm.  I think I see what evertone else sees here at work, but at home, when I click on forum, I only get the red bar on the side - no text, no links, nothing.  Windoze something with Internet Explorer something (I forgot to check, but it's a very new laptop, so it's definitely up-to-date).  I think these changes are not yet an improvement!

[CowbellGuy]

Dunno. Can't replicate it on a current version of IE on a current version of Windows here. It shouldn't be doing anything especially funky to cause that. Might I suggest Firefox in the meantime? =]

[ninian '72]

You can also add the "Sage" extension to Firefox, which provides a lot more detail on RSS feeds to which you've subscribed than Live Bookmarks do. This is a terrific new addition.  Thanks, Age.