NEW FORUM VERSION RELEASED

[TechAdmin]

Hello people, as previously announced we're finally running on SMF 2.1.
You may think it's just a 0.1 difference compared to the previous version but it's actually 10 years worth of difference, it's a complete rewrite both in backend and frontend with lots of database changes as well.
This update took me many hours and it was a very big task, one that you don't do so lightly on a forum as big as this, there are many things that can go wrong and get it stuck or mess with the data.
I understand it may come as a big surprise and you may not like certain things, but there IS time to improve on things, tweak colors, fonts and such.
You will need to spend some time to understand what all the new icons and things do, because it's quite a lot different from the previous version... This new theme is actually 12 into 1, because on the top right you can pick from 6 different versions and at the top left there's a switch (sun/moon icon thingy) for light/dark mode. Fear not, if you think some of them (objectively) suck, they can be tweaked, but for that we do need your feedback!
One very big new feature for members is the ability to MENTION people, which you can use by typing the @ symbol and starting to write the username, the system should then make a dropdown to appear with a list of possible matches. This WILL send a notification to the person, because we have proper notifications too now, you can see the bell at the top left, which will inform you about mentions, personal messages, topics you replied to and got more replies and whatnot.
All of the old content is still where it was, icons are there and even the recent topics, although the link for it has changed slightly https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?action=recent_top. You will find your Unread Posts, Unread Topics and Recent Topics by clicking on the avatar in the top left. This gives much more room to display things, even though it requires an additional interaction to show things, so it's a bit of a tradeoff really.
Attachments have been improved and now have drag and drop feature too.
There are many more things to list but I don't want to be too long, I still have plenty of work to do in the background as I am posting this.
Please DO report everything that you see that's clearly wrong or forgotten. Do feel free to ask questions and such, including the TapaTalk users, who should still be able to connect to the forum just fine.
This topic will be very heavily monitored but any and all comments are welcome (including negative feedback, if you want).
I go back to updating things, Flavio out.

EDIT:

So... DRAFTS are out!
They do... Precisely what you think they do, you can save them and post them later (within a week, they automatically delete after a week - this is not to clog our database), but you can save a draft of a personal message too. They also autosave every 30 seconds.

You will find your "Save Draft" button right alongside the preview and save ones. Feel free to go and experiment with them, ask away if you have doubts or problems!

Current known issues:

• search index is missing (takes a long time to rebuild and I'd rather remove maintenance than wait for that one thing), so search may not really work. I'll rebuild it later, I have a couple of other things to update under the hood that don't require further maintenance to do. FIXED
• Color scheme needs work. Feedback is welcome for each and every version!
• Boards cleanup/shuffling needed. DONE
• Some old links are dead, as above. FIXED
• Board moving bug, currently top priority. FIXED
• Profile Account Settings PHP code below footer. Harmless but reported. FIXED
• Tapatalk post order may be buggy, this is not on our side, Tapatalk Team is working on it.

[Smallie_Stalker]

Few quick things:

Positives:

Tapatalk seems to be working great

I like the ability to choose colors and a dark or light theme.

Don't mind the extra step to get to the unread posts etc.


Negatives:

Not really a negative but the one thing that seems to be missing (I could just be overlooking it somehow) is the "Go Down" and "Go Up" buttons on the "Entire Forum" page.

I found it really useful to see who was online at a quick glance and then jump back up to the top.

I see that they are still present in the individual threads which is much appreciated.


Looking good though and functioning really well right now.  Truly appreciate all the hard work you put in for us Flavio.



Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Donald Garner]

Flavio,

Wow, thank you for all the hard work you put into updating our forum    I like what you've done so far and right now I can't think of anything negative to mention.  Like you mentioned I'm going to play around and get familiar with the New Settings.

Thank you again for getting this updated for us.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Thank you Flavio! Wtg!!   

[NavyToad]

Pink?
No "new/latest posts"?

[acesover]

Don't care for the pink

[TechAdmin]

Tapatalk seems to be working great

Very glad about that one specifically, it's a Beta version but seems to be working nonetheless.

Not really a negative but the one thing that seems to be missing (I could just be overlooking it somehow) is the "Go Down" and "Go Up" buttons on the "Entire Forum" page.

I found it really useful to see who was online at a quick glance and then jump back up to the top.

I see that they are still present in the individual threads which is much appreciated.

Now this is the perfect example of what I meant by negative feedback but it's very clear and true. Thanks, noted!

Looking good though and functioning really well right now.  Truly appreciate all the hard work you put in for us Flavio.

And I appreciate you people for taking the time to give me pointers!
Will tag you as well so you can see how it works @Smallie_Stalker

Flavio,

Wow, thank you for all the hard work you put into updating our forum    I like what you've done so far and right now I can't think of anything negative to mention.  Like you mentioned I'm going to play around and get familiar with the New Settings.

Thank you again for getting this updated for us.

You're welcome @Donald Garner

Thank you Flavio! Wtg!!   

@Capt. BassinLou

Pink?
No "new/latest posts"?

You will find your Unread Posts, Unread Topics and Recent Topics by clicking on the avatar in the top left.

I did mention that bit so you may have missed it

About the pink I'm not sure what you guys are referring to, you didn't give me any context at all... We do have a pink version of the theme, which is very... Pink However the default variant is red, and the background on the side is a very light red to be easy on the eyes. If you think it's pink that's another story but I need you guys to elaborate more. Colors are totally up for debate, I'm not the biggest fan myself.
@NavyToad @acesover

[TechAdmin]

@Smallie_Stalker Added the Go Up/Go Down buttons! Make sure you flush your browser cache to see them (Ctrl+F5 on pc, manually delete it via application settings on phone).

[apenland01]

@TechAdmin Thanks for the clarification of where to find the "unread posts" clicky!  It's about the only button I use and didn't see it....

The pink color is the border shading on the page on the edges of the pages...

[TechAdmin]

@TechAdmin Thanks for the clarification of where to find the "unread posts" clicky!  It's about the only button I use and didn't see it....

Been there, first time I used the new version I was like Where is it?!

The pink color is the border shading on the page on the edges of the pages...

It can be tweaked to be darker, it's almost pure red, just with transparency and such. The thing is if I make it too much darker it becomes VERY heavy on the eyes quickly.

[apenland01]

I found the palette button on the top right, so I'll play with the different colors to see what I like best.  Thanks for all the effort in updating the site!

[TechAdmin]

I found the palette button on the top right, so I'll play with the different colors to see what I like best.  Thanks for all the effort in updating the site!

And you can combine that with the sun/moon icon for dark/light mode, as I was saying earlier the theme has a total of 12 variants. Still, feedback is welcome and encouraged for every single one!

[big g]

Flavio thanks for the hard work.  So far you have hit a homerun.  I'm sure it will take me awhile to try all the new options, but I do like the new look.  Thanks again!

[FD]

I've been running it on desktop, mobile, and TapaTalk.  So far I have had zero issues with function.

Flavio, as discussed a year ago, I'm still not a fan of the colors even though we do have 12 options.  We need to discuss the default color scheme for new visitors when the dust settles.  I don't like the red/pink as the primary. If I had a favorite, it would be the green/dark theme.


To All, there will be some organizational changes and new forums coming once all the bugs are worked out of the new version.


Thanks for all your hard work Flavio, it shows.  Be easy on me when you send the bill....  

[twocold]

What I can't seem to find is the button for unread posts. Is it still available? If so where is it located?
Thanks for the upgrade!

[Capt. BassinLou]

What I can't seem to find is the button for unread posts. Is it still available? If so where is it located?
Thanks for the upgrade!

Those functions are still available. You will need to go to the very top left corner of your desktop UB forum screen, click on your UB Tag Name/Picture. Upon doing that, there will be a drop down menu with all of the functions you are looking for.

[topdsm0138]

Not bad at all. Good job. I'll tinker around a little this afternoon to see if there are any negatives on my end.

Sent from undisclosed location. -Tiller Mafia

[Smallie_Stalker]

I noticed with the forum on Tapatalk today.
 
The order of replies in threads is out of order. It makes it confusing and a bit non-sensical to follow because an answer to a previous reply can be somewhere else in the thread. And the OP's original post that started the discussion can be in the middle or even at the end of the thread.

I haven't been able to get to my PC yet today so I'm not sure if this issue duplicates there.



Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Capt. BassinLou]

I noticed with the forum on Tapatalk today.
 
The order of replies in threads is out of order. It makes it confusing and a bit non-sensical to follow because an answer to a previous reply can be somewhere else in the thread. And the OP's original post that started the discussion can be in the middle or even at the end of the thread.

I haven't been able to get to my PC yet today so I'm not sure if this issue duplicates there.



Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

I had that issue yesterday. I went into the TT settings and corrected it.

[TechAdmin]

@Capt. BassinLou thanks twice!

@topdsm0138 Thanks! Looking forward to it!

Search works now. Like, truly works I put one year as default amount of days to limit it. If you move it too far the system will love to show you results from 2007 and such, because those topics may have more views than the more recent ones. I can still tweak the search weight parameters but that's a minor thing.

Tapatalk will be undergoing maintenance momentarily to update it.
EDIT: updated to support next PHP version. Note to self: ModerationCenter.php missing string due to 2.1.3 update, may log errors.

[Capt. BassinLou]

@Capt. BassinLou thanks twice!

@topdsm0138 Thanks! Looking forward to it!

Search works now. Like, truly works I put one year as default amount of days to limit it. If you move it too far the system will love to show you results from 2007 and such, because those topics may have more views than the more recent ones. I can still tweak the search weight parameters but that's a minor thing.

Tapatalk will be undergoing maintenance momentarily to update it.
EDIT: updated to support next PHP version. Note to self: ModerationCenter.php missing string due to 2.1.3 update, may log errors.

   that's a great idea Flavio, thank you again.    Keeps the search relevant and current.

[Smallie_Stalker]

Thanks @Capt. BassinLou.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Pferox]

It's great, Dude!  You should be very proud of all your labor.  Thank You.

[TechAdmin]

Flavio, as discussed a year ago, I'm still not a fan of the colors even though we do have 12 options.  We need to discuss the default color scheme for new visitors when the dust settles.  I don't like the red/pink as the primary. If I had a favorite, it would be the green/dark theme.

Imagine forgetting to reply to you
Yes it can be changed and it's no big deal, however we do need to go through each one and see how to improve it. I put red because the UB logo is red, but I guess green can also work due to the bass?
My idea is to let things to settle down a little and everyone can come in with suggestions and tweaks for all of them.

To All, there will be some organizational changes and new forums coming once all the bugs are worked out of the new version.

I'm glad I updated to 2.1.3 then, because there was a bug on 2.1.2 that could make boards to disappear (hidden, not deleted) due to permission issues if moved/changed Everything will be fine with current one instead.

Thanks for all your hard work Flavio, it shows.

Thank you too for your understanding, it took me much longer than expected, life really kicked me down there lately.

Be easy on me when you send the bill....  

Ehhhhhhh I don't think I can, it took me absolutely forever to organize everything and to have "just" 5 hours of downtime, there was a ton of work under the hood to minimize the impact I will be fair, though

It's great, Dude!  You should be very proud of all your labor.  Thank You.

Thanks, although the theme is from SMF Tricks, I didn't code it myself (previous one had a LOT more code from myself). I did, however, manage to carry over all the customization and the features we had from the previous version, that was me and why it was so complicated To import the menu off the test forum was... Interesting to say the least.
If you want to check things in a more detailed manner, I made a list of the things I had to do, censoring the values:

[twocold]

I for one always used the unread posts. Will this option be available on the new version?