New Features, Tweaks, and Experiments (Updated 9/8/21)

[mclemore]

These forums are not only a living, breathing thing, but still a growing thing. Over time, it will likely gain new features, maybe lose some, and have other settings changed. There are some great threads (also sticky) that discuss how to use these new forums, differences from our old system, and talk about what people like and what they don't. This isn't that. This is a announcement thread about what is changed, new, and being tested. To keep it short and easy to digest, I'm closing it to comments (which can still be made in the other threads).

We started with a new basic forum system, and then added custom modifications. Here are some of the changes that are most visible:

Note: This is a 'New Features' List. For our 'Official To Do List' on Forum Functionality, please see another thread:

Official To Do List - Forum Functionality (Updated 12/13/2020 1:19 PM PST)

Update 12/13/20: At the beginning of August, we had an emergency pop up totally unrelated to this site. It pretty much brought any work here (and especially on a new main site) to a halt until mid-October. Than after putting in about 2 weeks of work into a new main site here, the chief...

forums.arcade-museum.com

Completed:

7/27/20 - Launch Date!

We began with a new, responsive, mobile friendly forum system, with amped up infrastructure. It has tons of new modern features, such as AJAX updates, notifications of a new post to a thread while you are composing your own, and many more features.

And then we added the following:

• Media Photo Album Center - This allows users to add multiple albums of uploaded photos. We had this feature in our old vBulletin system, however, the old system lacked the ability to browser through albums easily. This is much improved. Data from the old system was imported.
• Feedback Section - This allows members to rate their transactions with other users. This is similar to the 'iTrader' rating system on the old system. Again, all data was imported.
• Style/Theme Choices - We added several different styles (aka themes), including choices with light and dark backgrounds. You can try them out with the selector at the bottom left of the page. Nearly everyone is going to find at least one style they like and at least one they don't. The (currently) default 'vBulletin Transition A' style is intended to mimic the color scheme of our old system as much as possible, though note, there are some known low contrast background issues in a few places in it.
• Improved Searching - We significantly upgraded the searching system, though some features are still being tuned. Additionally, at the last minute we added the ability to conduct searches on PMs/private messages (now called conversations).
• Main Site Integration - Like our old system, these forums are integrated with our main site (even more so than before behind the scenes). Only a single username/password combination is required to access both.
• Many more improvements - There are many more subtle features for you to discover, or read about in the other threads.

Please note that the vast majority of new features are available to all registered members (once approved out of probationary status by a $1 donation or recommendation by a friend). However, a few may be presented as a benefit to donors and other key supporters. I'll try and label donor only features as such. No features are promised however, and whether available to all or to donors (or even to which donors) is subject to change or removal if they cause technical problems or don't turn out to meet our administrative or other goals.


7/28/20 - Day 2 - Implemented

Second day changes:

• User Selectable Threads/Post Per Page - Originally scheduled for 8/15/2020 or later, this actually made it live today. Click your username at the top of the page, and then 'Preferences'. Now you have two options. The first, 'Display Threads/Conversations Per Page (10-50)' affects how many threads at a time get displayed while looking at a forum, or how many conversations (PMs) get listed at a time. The second option, 'Display Messages Per Page (10-50)' sets how many messages per page are shown when you go into a thread. Note that that left unset, the system defaults to 20 for each number. Also note that when looking at a forum, the system doesn't count sticky threads towards the number. So if you are set for 20 threads per page and looking at the first page of results in the general section, you will actually see 24 threads on that first page (as the forum, at least at time of writing, has 4 sticky threads).
• Thread Post Signature Anti-Redundancy - As our regular users know, signatures are little semi-permanent messages and taglines that appear uniformly at the bottom of an individual's posts. As of this morning, such messages will only appear once per page for a particular user. So if user X responds 3 times to a thread on a single page, his or her 'signature' will only appear at the bottom of their first post. Concerns have been expressed (which I share) about signatures quickly turning into Las Vegas strip style gaudy billboards. As such, we will likely take other steps to tame them a bit.
• Thread Original Poster Highlight - A person who is creates a new thread is the original poster ('OP') in that thread. Now, for the remainder of the thread, every time the 'OP' replies, a little 'OP' banner overlays the left top corner of their avatar in the post. As threads get long, we'll all easily remember who created the beast (and thus who might be trying to keep it on topic...)
• Thread List Who Replied Summary (Donor $20+ feature) - When browsing through a list of threads (for example, of the 'General Arcade and Videogame Discussions' section), the list includes thread titles (with creator name and date underneath), the the number of replies and views, and info on when it was last posted to. For IAM 2 fruit symbol donors, clicking on 'Replies' brings up a pop-up showing a list of all the members that have posted to the thread along with how many posts they have made to the thread (sorted most active first). It's not a must-have feature, but an interesting one.
• Most Ever Online Statistics (signed in registered members only) - At launch, we had a forum stats (# of threads, # of messages, # of members) widget on the home page. I just changed it to only appear for logged in users only. Also, today we added 'most ever stats' showing the most online members at one time and the most online guests at one time.

 

[mclemore]

7/29/20 - Day 3 - Implemented

Changes today:

• Expanded Time Limits To Edit Posts - Upon opening of the new forums, there was a 5 minute time limit in order to edit a post made. This was expanded today. For all Non-For Sale Sections, one has 60 minutes to edit a post and 30 days to edit a thread title. In the Trading Post (For Sale) sub-sections, there is now a 30 day limit to edit a post and a 90 day limit to edit a thread title.
• Thread Prefixes Coming On Line - Prefixes are now usable again on the for-sale trading post sections.
• Smilies - The smilies we've all years for years and years have been imported to the new system. There were 3 duplicates: 'coffee', 'oops', and 'sleep'. We renamed the new versions 'coffee2', 'oops2', and 'sleep2' so that all existing messages will show the smilies originally intended.
• Thread Tagging - We are easing into Thread Tagging again. The ability to 'tag' a thread with a keyword is now activated, but for the moment only in the Variety of Life Sub-Sections: Chat About Anything, Talk Radio, and Jokes & Laughs. Any regular user can add a tag, or remove it later. The original poster (thread creator) of a thread can delete anyone's tag. Please tag responsibly. Please note that although thread tagging may look anonymous, it isn't so. Assume the identities of the posters of all tags will be revealed at some (near) point, just as it was on the previous forums.

 

[mclemore]

8/2/2020 Update

There is a known problem with time limits on editing posts. A trouble ticket has been opened but there isn't an immediate solution in site. In the meantime, we have been able to make it friendlier. For Trading Post section posts/threads, there is currently a 90 day limit to to edit post or thread title. For all other sections, 24 hours.

The todo list at the top of the first post in this thread has been update.

 

[mclemore]

Polls are on the to do list, but will be slowly phased in.

 

[mclemore]

8/12/2020 Update

Today brings a few changes.

• In threads, in the left hand user detail bar, it now includes what years a person was a donor, like it did before in the old forum system.
• I've testing moving the VAPS detail out of the left hand user detail bar, and down in the main post area below the signature line. Note, like the signature, this means VAPS details will not display for guest (non-logged in users), nor, more notably, for users browsing on mobile devices. Also, like our recent update to signatures, VAPS detail will only show for a user the first time they post on a page, not in responses below. As I type this out I think I'm going to also add the VAPS tag back into the left hand user detail bar, but without all the VAPS detail... Note: The VAPS tag on the left bar will always appear for VAPS users. However, the VAPS detail below the signature line will only appear if the user has a signature set to display. There is a technical reason for that behavior at this time.

 

[mclemore]

8/15/2020 Update

• Donor Fruit Symbols and More On Thursday and Friday, we brought back syncing (proper updating) of fruit systems
• VAPS User Stats. Today, we brought back syncing (proper updating) of VAPS have/for-sale/want data on posts (below signature, as applicable).

Note: Neither of these are live at the moment, we have to run a manual sync process. In the coming weeks, we will update the system so these manual updates should no longer be required.

 

[mclemore]

10/18/2020

Today we completed a measurable upgrade to our forum system (version 2.1 -> 2.2). It brings a few changes of note, and also allows us to make additional feature upgrades we current quite ready for yet.

Items of note:

• Message editor has changed. When composing a new post or PM (conversation), you will notice at the top of the entering message box that the menu items have changed. The previous editor was changed with a whole new one. For some, it may taking a little getting used to. This is a change being made by tons of forum systems across the Internet. Why? The new editor is friendly for phones. It drops more items into sub-menu dropdowns instead of scrolling editing buttons over 3 or so lines on phones.
• Forum Features and Suggestion Box Reorganization. We previously had a 'Forums Features & Suggestions' section (this section this post is located in) as well as our previous 'Suggestion Box' section that was in the 'Admin & Moderator Initiated Topics' Section. We changed the name of this section to just 'Forum Features', and moved topics that looked like Suggestions into the Suggestion Box section. We named this section to simply 'Forum Features' and moved the Suggestion Box section into the Site Functionality and Issues tree. Anything that looked like a bug or problem report we found in either Forums Features or Suggestion Box got moved into 'Forum Issues and Troubleshooting'... either '(Pending)' or '(Closed)' as seemed appropriate. I'm probably not done moving sections and messages around.
• Suggestion Box Voting System. Threads in the Suggestion Box can not be voted up (or down) by other users. While a popular thread won't automatically result in an idea being implemented (for all sorts of reasons, including technical), it will help admins, moderators, and users alike see what ideas are on people's minds, and what they think of them.
• Search has been impacted. Previously, we used the base forum system search system with some extra addons to partial deal with some search system feature limitations. These addons are not working after the forum upgrade and have been deactivated. Some some search functionality has been lost after the upgrade, though hopefully some things also improved with the upgrade. Search functionality on these forums should be considered a journey in progress -- a journey for which we haven't reached our destination yet.

 

[mclemore]

As I wrote about elsewhere, including here: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/th...nality-updated-12-13-2020-1-19-pm-pst.475392/ ...

We are at a temporary pause on site building, much to my disappointment and frustration...

WE ARE LOOKING TO HIRE TOP TIER LARAVEL DEVELOPERS - PAYING MARKET RATES

"... the beginning of August, we had an emergency pop up totally unrelated to this site. It pretty much brought any work here (and especially on a new main site) to a halt until mid-October. Than after putting in about 2 weeks of work into a new main site here, the chief developer working on the new site became ill. I kept believing that it was a very temporary set-back. Instead of it being a week or two recovery, it's dragged on to present, and could potentially turn into a long term issue, with no instant resolution other than to try and expand resources here.

As such, I'm going to start searching planet Earth for 2 additional developers, one which would be dedicated to this site. I'm looking for the top 5% of full-stack developers proficient in Laravel, Vue, PHP, MySQL, and Unix (Centos). 40-hours a week preferred but I'll take 20+. Someone who enjoys and appreciates video games isn't essential but would be a plus. Although a significant expense here, we're happy to pay market rates or better for great talent. I'd prefer someone we can have a direct relationship with, as opposed to being someone else's contractor as I'm looking for a long term (ideally multi-year) relationship here...

...

 

[mclemore]

12/22/2020

Today Brought:

• Upgrade to Xenforo 2.2 - We did upgrade to system version XF 2.2 today, however, we haven't turned on many of the new features. I'm actually not sure how helpful many of them will be in practice... at least immediately. Once change you might notice is that the message composer (writing a new thread or conversation/pm) is a little different. Items like 'U' for underlining are now under the first set of dots instead of on the menu bar. A decision was made to upgrade the editor and to make it consistent on different browsers and to make it more mobile friendly. The old interface had too many buttons on the message editor to be mobile friendly. For phones, it is great. For regular web browsers, users will have to make a second click to underline something or to insert a smily (the latter under the second set of three dots). At the top right of the editor, there is a now a message preview toggle also...
• Ignore Threades/Forums Beta ($50+ donors) However, unrelated to XF 2.2, we are in beta for a new feature today. Our 3-symbol ($50+ to our favorite charity) donor members can try and test out the ability to ignore a thread. In fact, they can ignore an entire forum section if they want. Now interestingly, an ignored section doesn't have content show up in "What's new" but does have content that still shows up in search results. Now previously, our 2-symbol donors ($20+) were given access to push notifications. However, it caused a lot of issues with people getting notifications for sections they didn't want (like posts to the politics and religion section). There wasn't a quick and easy fix. Now, I would love it that ignored threads or content don't show up in push notifications, but I haven't read anything to suggest we could be so lucky. I'll test it...

 

[mclemore]

12/23/2020

More System Changes:

• Ignore Threads or Whole Forum Sections (Beta Testing Expanded, $20+ donor members added). - On Tuesday 12/22/2020, the ability to ignore whole forum sections or individual threads was added as a no-guarantees 'beta test' feature, available to all 3 fruit symbol ($50+ donor) members. Nothing blew up, so on 12/23/2020 this feature was pushed to all 2 fruit symbol ($20+ donor) members. Hopefully it works well for everyone. For users with access to the test: Go to the thread or forum section in question, and then at the top right you will see an 'Ignore forum' or 'Ignore thread' button'. Click the button, confirm if requested, and then they are simply gone.
  Have a change of heart? To un-ignore, you have to click on your username on the right side of the top menu bar, then click on Ignoring, and then click on the thread or forum section you want to un-ignore and then click on the trash can icon on the right to delete the filter...
• System Push Notifications (Expanded to all users) - 2-symbol ($20+ donor) members have been testing the ability to have the system automatically receive pop-up notifications on their browser or desktop, to let you know when someone has posted to a thread you are watching. This seems to be working well enough, so the feature has been expanded to all registered users. Note: If you post to a thread that takes off (ie: that tiny list post you made in the politics section), you could end up with a lot of notifications.
• Animated Avatars (back for the first time since the forum upgrade - $20+ donors) - Animated Gif Avatars had been turned off since we moved to the new system due to a number of reasons, mostly technical. Those technical reasons including some significant flaws in Xenforo that included one still-unresolved issue I'd even call a security risk... Well... we might have figured out how to patch it enough to start playing around with Animated Avatars again. It is live now. Uploading gif (and thus animated) avatars are available to all 2 fruit symbol ($20 donor) members. We also have new avatar file size limits. All registered members can upload avatars up to 50k in size. 3 symbol ($50+ donors) can upload 60k files, 4 symbol ($100+) 80k, etc. Settings/limits may change without warning. here is what I've started with (donors can upload larger files... each IAML level below corresponds to number of fruit symbols. Basically we are trying to balance being as user-friendly as possible without really impacting page forum page load times to the point that it impairs user experience or Google punishes us. SEO is good for the community. Please note that it takes the system a while to process an animated gif when you upload it as it has to break it apart into every frame and look at each -- easily 30-60 seconds. So it takes some patience. Also, it seems highly recommended to upload square animated gifs if you don't want it all cropped and pixelated.

 

[mclemore]

12/24/2020

More System Changes:

• New Posts Excludes Politics Section - Previously we modified the system so that the 'New Posts' feature did not include posts from the Chat About Almost Anything section. Inadvertently, this didn't exclude the sub-forum underneath -- Talk Radio - Politics, Religion & Pub Talk. This has been fixed today.
• Talk Radio: Politics and Religion Section Posting No Longer Adds to Post Counts - This is an arcade forum, and as such we've decided to no longer count political posts towards total user post counts. Currently Chat About Anything still does, though that is under medium term review.

 

[mclemore]

12/26/2020

A full day of working on the system brought:

• 'Forum Issues and Troubleshooting (Closed)' moved under 'Forum Issues and Troubleshooting' and renamed.
• 'Closed - Suggestions' created under 'Suggestion Box' - Prefixes added under 'Closed Suggestions' so people can typically see why a suggestion thread was closed.
• Trading Post: For Sale Thread Prefixes Colorized - Each prefix type is now given a different color to make it easier to distinguish between different prefix types. For example, 'Sold' threads are now marked in red.
• Trading Post: Wanted 'Found/No Longer Wanted' Thread Prefix option created
• Trading Post: External Auctions and Ads - Thread Prefixes created -- I number of descriptive thread prefixes have been added. In general, if related to a poster's items for sale, the prefix choices are tagged green. If related to a third party's CL/eBay/FB ads or external auctions, then dark blue. If to a dealer sale page, yellow.
• Several Permission Fixes - Several minor permission based issues addressed
• Search Stemming Removed - Searches are taken more literally now. Searching for 'shipping' won't find results for 'shipped' and searching for 'Sente' won't bring up 'sent' results. Do you want to find both 'shipping and 'shipped'? Manually wild-card your search with a trailing asterisk ("ship*"). Multi-word search results still default to 'and' searches, however, you can do an 'or' search with the '|' operator and exclude results matching a word with '-'. A new FAQ has also been created with additional searching tips and observations: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/03-how-to-search-these-forums-new-12-26-2020.482921/

 

[mclemore]

12/27/2020

A short day today. I'm basically off the site this week, but back the following week with a few more improvements in mind (including but not limited to recreating for the new site the ability for members to 'recommend a friend' for forum access). For today, completed:

• Semi-auto sync between VAPS and Forums restored - We were supposed to be getting a new site until the key developer fell ill. Since that has been delayed, I've created links between the old (existing) main site and the new forum system. It's not instant, however... changes to VAPS are currently synced twice a day around 10:30 am and 10:30 pm.

 

[mclemore]

2/2/2021

Australian User Happiness: Bigpond.com was not accepting email from us as they were blocking a /17 subnet (32,768 ip addresses) due to spam concerns – a very blunt overresponse IMO. We have a relatively small set of IPs in the middle of this block. Yesterday, we successfully got them to carve a hole in their block for us. Thus, our several hundred Australian friends using @bigpond.com email addresses will start getting forum notifications, lost password reset email, etc. It will allow new potential @bigpond members to receive their verification emails and thus be able to sign up successfully…

vBulletin Style # of Viewers Per Thread: I added the number of users currently viewing a thread to the thread lists (ie: "Are these T03 HOTs bad? (6 Viewers)"). This is functionality we had on the old vBulletin system.

Thread Viewers – One Step Further: Additionally, when viewing a thread, at the very bottom of a page and below the 'Similar threads' feature, there is a new section entitled 'Users who are viewing this thread' followed by exactly what one might expect.

Thread Watching – New Option: Receive Alerts Only When OP Posts: Currently one can receive alerts to a subscribed thread by selecting 'Watch' at the top right of the thread (threads you post to can be auto-watched. When you clicked 'Watch' you then had the option to select whether or not you want email notifications when people post to the thread. Now there is a third option: You can choose only to receive email when the OP (original poster… person who started a thread) posts. To change your settings on a thread is a 2 step process: click 'Unwatch', and then 'Watch' again to be presented with choices.

Search - Word Count Filter: Word count filtering has been added to the search functions. In the quick search boxes, one can specify the minimal post length to find results for. In the advanced search box, one can optionally supply the minimum and maximum word lengths.

Back-end and Admin Improvements: Various updates were made to reduce system load, improve some moderator and admin tools, etc.

 

[mclemore]

2/6/2021

Support for New BB Code:

We've added support for printing Latex math formulas, for Superscript: 101​ and Subscript 101​!, article quotations, and even for allowing text to wrap around an image. See the updated FAQ Section (replacing the outdated vBulletin version) and the help page: And the Help Page:

Help

forums.arcade-museum.com

38: How to use Smilies, BB Codes, and more.

There are extensive support for smilies, BB Codes, and more. At the bottom right of each page, there is a HELP button. From there you can click on 'Smilies' or 'BB Codes' for detailed instructions on how to use each. See page: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/help/ SMILIES: We've expanded...

forums.arcade-museum.com

Editing Menu Bar: New Indent and Outdent buttons

The menu bar (when seen on medium and larger sized screens, now has indent and outdent buttons, to allow someone to indent a body of text without having to turn something into a list. Now it seems the outdent button is tempermental. I'll look into it. In the meantime, if you want to un-do an indent you either have to delete the section and re-do, or turn on edit BB mode the '[ ]' button, remove the 'Indent' buttons', and then continue editing.

Like this,​

Or this.​

Testing new Article and Question/Answer Thread Types

There is a new 'Blue Pill or Red Pill' temporary section: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/forums/blue-pill-or-red-pill-test-forum-section.137/ In it, I'm posted a 'Question/Answer' type of thread, and an 'Article' Type of thread. Please see those threads for more information. To what extent and how these new thread types might be put into use on these forums has yet to be determined.

 

[mclemore]

We've made lots of minor fixes over the past several months, and continued to update the system. Most of these changes are 'behind the scenes'.

Today though is something that may be noticed. We made about a dozen .css changes to the vbulletin A style (now renamed 'Classic A'). Contrast has been increased. Sticky threads are highlighted in a different color now (we previously added this to the other styles. A number of fixes have been made... for example, under Search -> Advanced Search, the calendar box was basically a blank box. It's works notably better. Is it perfect? Probably not. The way this system implements styles is complex to say the least. It took several hours of trial and mostly error to get today's improvements.

Note: Thought it will brightly mark sticky threads in general, the system also marks less visibly threads you have posted in. If you have posted in a sticky thread, that thread will have the subtle highlighting instead of the bright one. We'll likely look at it all again at some point in the future.

 

[andrewb]

We've made lots of minor fixes over the past several months, and continued to update the system. Most of these changes are 'behind the scenes'.

Today though is something that may be noticed. We made about a dozen .css changes to the vbulletin A style (now renamed 'Classic A'). Contrast has been increased. Sticky threads are highlighted in a different color now (we previously added this to the other styles. A number of fixes have been made... for example, under Search -> Advanced Search, the calendar box was basically a blank box. It's works notably better. Is it perfect? Probably not. The way this system implements styles is complex to say the least. It took several hours of trial and mostly error to get today's improvements.

Note: Thought it will brightly mark sticky threads in general, the system also marks less visibly threads you have posted in. If you have posted in a sticky thread, that thread will have the subtle highlighting instead of the bright one. We'll likely look at it all again at some point in the future.

Nice.

Any way we can get the advanced search threads page to 'remember' the username as well as the search term? It currently only remembers the search term, and forgets the username, when you hit the back button.

Also related, can we get a 'save preferences' feature like before for the search page? I always search by title first, and it would be nice if it could remember that preference, as the old system did.