New Version

[Milo]

Well the new version of the forum software is released. I have downloaded the latest package and hope to get to upgraded TRF to vBulletin 3.0. Hopefully this will be happening within the next 30 days.

Be prepared for a brand new look. I've seen it and I'm really impressed with it. I can't wait to get up and running for yous guys.

Stay tuned....

 

[sandman]

ooooohhhh....me no like change!!!!

Is this gonna hurt?

sandman

 

[flying_silverad]

Originally posted by sandman
ooooohhhh....me no like change!!!!

Is this gonna hurt?

sandman

Only for a while

 

[WiK]

B-b-b-b-but I like it the way it is

 

[RevKeith]

Press on Milo, change is good!

Keith

 

[Milo]

:rafiki voice: Ahhhhh!!!! Change is good... no? :end rafiki voice"

I think you guys will like it. Trust me.

 

[n3tjm]

Make sure you back everything up ... I hate to see anything lost... especially my post count :kill:

 

[Ryan S.]

always looking out for whats best doug

should beinteresting. if we dont like it can we go back

 

[jetra2]

Ditto what doug said! I don't wanna lose all 911 posts! I've worked hard on them!

I guess it might be a good thing though. Now some of us might actually have a chance against ol' Jim Flis!

Jason

 

[rstaff3]

I sez worry about the post content and forget the counts (if necessary). I bet jetra and Doug both have a higher posting rate than most and will jump to the top ten immediately. That should pacify them

But I doubt that's an issue. Can't wait to see the new version!

 

[BlueNinja]

Will there be anymore time swings? This might be good long as we don't lose post count.

 

[Rocketman35]

Browse around here to get a taste of 3.0

http://www.vbulletin.com/

 

[rstaff3]

Overall I like the new look. The user headers on the top of each message will make for less messages per page, and or long pages. Maybe the location is programmable? I'll wait for the TRF roll-out to do any real poking around or commenting


PS - thanks for the link!

 

[Milo]

The layouts are usually completely programmable as everything with this software is template based. Mr Gerringer and I will play with it and see what we can come up with.

Once we decide and launch it we can tweak it a little more. One thing I can't stand is bloating the software with all these features that nobody will use. If the stuff gets in the way of what I want to do which is read and post then I say leave it out.

For example: I'm not sure I like that the member information for each post is on top of the post. This makes the page a little to long for my taste... too much scrolling. I already know that the old style can be used with a flick of a switch.

The page that displays all the posts for viewing seems a little to thin for my tastes as well. I see myself spreading that out a little to take advantage of all available space.

 

[rstaff3]

Yeah the user header on top is what I meant earlier. I have no doubt you will fix us up right

 

[WiK]

After looking round the VBulletin site, I like the look of it!

Bring it on!!

Phil

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

So here's this for an idea that is floating around...

Can you show who is in the chat room on the home page in the same way you show who is logged on to the main site? Will v3.0 allow for that function? It would be kinda useful.

A

 

[cydermaster]

Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket
Can you show who is in the chat room

That would be cool - even just how many people are in there would rock.

 

[Milo]

Well it is easy enough to know when you go into the chat room... the hard part is determining when you leave.

I was able to do this when the chat room was HTML based but when we moved to the IRC applet I lost a lot of control over the code and hence capturing when members came and went.

I'm not sure how much chat is featured in 3.0. Chat is always an add-on (or hack as it is better known) and has never been part of the base vBulletin code.

 

[solrules]

If the chat is IRC based, can't you use a IRC client to connect? I never got the chat to work in Mozilla....it would hang after downloading for awhile. What server, channel is TRF on?

 

[Milo]

Server: irc.hashnet.org
Channel: #TheRocketryForum
Port: 6667

I'm not an IRC expert so I don't know how much of that you need and if the '#' sign is required in the channel.

 

[solrules]

thanks! works like a charm now. Of course, nobody else is in chat right now...

 

[WiK]

Can you show who is in the chat room

Kinda like on the front page of EMRR???

 

[Milo]

EMRR's chat is HTTP based like TRF's used to be. When TRF had a HTTP based chat I was able to keep track of who was in chat because I had complete control over the code. However it did not scale well and it hammered the server. The chat page would refresh every five seconds or so for each user logged in. Multiply that by 20 users and pretty soon all the server is doing is updating chat pages.

Using IRC puts all that burden on the IRC servers. Once the page is downloaded from TRF it is no longer involved in your chat. Much better for the server. I will look into the latest applet to see if there is anything new that I can use to capture the log outs from the chat room.

 

[Milo]

Ok... I've looked into this some more. There are some possible hacks out there so when I hook up V3.0 I'll see if any of them work reliably. I know the one or two that I tried many moons ago did not work.

Stay tuned....

 

[Rocketmaniac]

Milo,

One more question about chat in the new version. Can we "log" or "capture" the text so when we have our fireside chats we can retain what was said?

 

[Milo]

This would probably be a big no. Like I said before the chat is a third party applet that once downloaded and connected talks to the IRC server. Once the page is loaded from TRF the TRF server is outta of the picture, loop, etc. TRF knows nothing about the conversations that take place in the chat room.

All these things are possible with HTML chat but the HTML chat couldn't handle the number of users we know have.

It would be nice... but... it is out of my hands.

 

[rbeckey]

I hope the new version will be OK. Another forum I visit has been down more than up since it upgraded.

 

[Milo]

It will be thoroughly tested. TRF members should expect no less.

 

[powderburner]

I don't mind trying something new, but just go slow and remember some of us are 'internet challenged'