Xenforo - ToDo list to inform members on what we intend to address by when (add requests if you have them)

[TheLoveBandit]

In an effort to better inform our members here is out ToDo list of things to address since we made the jump to Xenforo from vBulletin. Obviously, the intent was to do it sooner rather than later, which meant making the jump when we were confident Xenforo would be functional for us = not perfect, but functional. And we would follow up the relaunch with plenty of issues to address before we could begin looking in earnest at adding some bling and cool stuff. To that end, here is a high level look at what's been done since the migration, and when we expect to address the outstanding items. There isn't a specific priority list, and we're subject to both admin availability and learning curve with the new software but these are how we ideally see addressing the remaining issues. We will update this as we get things done. If you find issues please reply to the thread and we'll see about getting them worked into the ToDo list. Thank you for your patience and support.

Resolve HTTPS issues - DONE
Resolve Cloudflare issues - DONE
Styles for launch - FUNCTIONAL (BL Style and BL Dark Style in place)
- Revisit link visibility (font color) - FUNCTIONAL to tweak as needed going forward
- Revisit link visibility (font color) - FUNCTIONAL to tweak as needed going forward
- Revisit thread visibility (UA and Sticky backgrounds) - FUNCTIONAL to tweak as needed going forward
- Implement additional styles - (MAY) Dropped, will add over time
Node (Forum) Permissions - DONE
Usergroups - FUNCTIONAL
- Get Join Date, Post Count, and Location back to postbit - DONE
- Get titles and banner display defined and implemented - DONE
- Regain animated GIF avatars (Requires server app to be installed) - (MAY) (JUNE)
Usergroup Permissions - FUNCTIONAL
- Revisit structure of usergroups (overlap VS singular, reduce extra usergroups) - DONE
- Revisit posting permissions (edit time, staff sigs, etc) - DONE enjoy your signatures
Verify registration function - DONE
Verify password reset function - DONE
Verify Contact Us is operating as expected - DONE
Recreate Welcome Wagon message - (APRIL) (MAY) (JUNE)
Repost BLUA and address links - FUNCTIONAL (page in place, updating links as we go)
Usergroup Promotions (GLer to BLer) - DONE
Assign mods with power to forums - DONE
Import Front Page - DONE
- Google Co-op search - Dropped, will utilize Xenforo native search
- BLOG link (when BLOGS available) - DONE
- Research Portal - DONE
- Mission Statement - DONE
- Donations Portal - DONE
- Front Page Articles - DONE will continue with formatting improvements
Import BLOGS - DONE
Import Wiki - (JUNE)
Update NOTICES (Remove BBCode, Fix links) - DONE, anything missing will be addressed over time
Recreate Warnings and Infraction system - DONE
Implement SPAM tools for quick ban and cleanup - DONE
Server Update (New hardware; Updates to Ubuntu, MariaDB, PHP) - (APRIL) (MAY) (JUNE)
Rewrite Greenlighter's Guide (new images and processes for Xenforo) - Ongoing
Mobile's ability to retain 'Desktop' view - browser function we cannot control - N/A
Fix broken smilies - DONE
Fix broken bbcode (xquote, post, thread, etc) - DONE
Fix text issues (apostrophe > symbols; May require db editing) - DONE
Fix thread pre-fixes - DONE
Add-Ons
- Collapsable Categories (hide a forum group, or show it) - DONE
- Mods listed with forums - FUNCTIONAL (using Notices for now)
- Rotating Banners (Research promotion in top right of every page) - DONE
- Conversation Essentials (better control over conversation limits like vB had) - Dropped, will consider in the future

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Fixed:

Rotating (Research) Banners
Favicon (not listed)
Donations link
Verified password reset works.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Note to all members - there may be temporary slow downs as we try out new things (mostly behind the scenes, we won't push them to public until we've checked them out). But we wanted to let you know there will be periodic slow downs during our experimenting and tweaking. Also, there may be a few instances of us taking the site offline, but we'll try to give you a few days notice for that if we expect it to be more than a few hours.

 

[alasdairm]

Fix mod titles - (APRIL)

does this mean add moderators' forums to their titles? if so, all set.

it seems near impossible right now to see which forums a moderator moderates? it's not on the main forum page or the individual forum pages, nor is it listed in their profiles. is there a list i'm missing?

thanks.

alasdair

 

[TheLoveBandit]

CFC has been working through updating their profile titles to reflect what forums they mod. Waiting for him to say it is all done.

CFC was also putting a notice atop each forum which would link to the forum mods as a means of indicating who is moderator over a given forum. Again, not sure if complete as yet or not. We're looking into add-ons that may do this more automagically as opposed to manually updating forum headers.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Progress, just not at the wished-for pace given the learning curve and the widespread updates needed. Closing out APRIL with the following

Styles for launch - FUNCTIONAL (BL Style and BL Dark Style in place)
- Revisit link visibility (font color) - FUNCTIONAL to tweak as needed going forward
- Revisit thread visibility (UA and Sticky backgrounds) - FUNCTIONAL to tweak as needed going forward

Usergroup Permissions - FUNCTIONAL
- Revisit structure of usergroups (overlap VS singular, reduce extra usergroups) - (APRIL) (MAY)
- Revisit posting permissions (edit time, staff sigs, etc) - DONE enjoy your signatures
[/QUOTE]

Recreate Welcome Wagon message - (APRIL) (MAY)

Fix mod titles - (APRIL) (MAY)
Import Front Page
- Google Co-op search - (APRIL) (MAY) will utilize Xenforo native search add-ons (not done yet)
- BLOG link (when BLOGS available) - (APRIL) (MAY)
- Research Portal - (APRIL) (MAY)
- Mission Statement - (APRIL) (MAY)
- Front Page Articles - DONE will continue with formatting improvements
Import BLOGS - (APRIL) (MAY)

Update NOTICES (Remove BBCode, Fix links) - (APRIL) (MAY) @30% complete

Server Update (New hardware; Updates to Ubuntu, MariaDB, PHP) - (APRIL) (MAY)

Fix thread pre-fixes - (APRIL) (MAY)

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Work on the little things continues....


- Get titles and banner display defined and implemented - DONE
- Revisit structure of usergroups (overlap VS singular, reduce extra usergroups) - DONE
- Research Portal - DONE
- Mission Statement - DONE
Import BLOGS - - DONE
Update NOTICES (Remove BBCode, Fix links) - DONE
Fix text issues (apostrophe > symbols; May require db editing) - DONE (fixed going forward, will not address older posts)
Fix thread pre-fixes - - DONE

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Closing out MAY, some things done, some postponed....

Styles for launch - FUNCTIONAL (BL Style and BL Dark Style in place)
- Implement additional styles - (MAY) Dropped, will add over time
Usergroups - FUNCTIONAL
- Regain animated GIF avatars (Requires server app to be installed) - (MAY) (JUNE)
Recreate Welcome Wagon message - (APRIL) (MAY)
Import Front Page - DONE
- Google Co-op search - (APRIL) (MAY) Dropped, will utilize Xenforo native search
Import BLOGS - (APRIL) (MAY) (JUNE)
Import Wiki - (JUNE)
Update NOTICES (Remove BBCode, Fix links) - (APRIL) (MAY) - DONE, anything missing will be addressed over time
Server Update (New hardware; Updates to Ubuntu, MariaDB, PHP) - (APRIL) (MAY) (JUNE)
Fix broken smilies - (MAY) - DONE
Fix broken bbcode (xquote, post, thread, etc) - (MAY) - DONE
Add-Ons
- Conversation Essentials (better control over conversation limits like vB had) - (MAY) Dropped, will consider in the future

We do expect BLOGS to return within a week or so.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

- Google Co-op search - (APRIL) (MAY) Dropped, will utilize Xenforo native search

the search function on this site is not good. it doesn't find things that are there.

 

[Kaden_Nite]

I just Google site:bluelight.org and then the search term. Much easier.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

thanks! though that also doesn't find everything. and doesn't organize the results in a very manageable fashion. is that pretty much what google co-op search would have been?

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Google in general has fucked searching for sites like us. We can revisit this later, but for now what we have will have to suffice.

I'll also say, I'm not finding things I expect it to find. You aren't alone.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

word.

it possible to have selectable icons instead the op's avatar next to threads?

 

[Shady's Fox]

Just to change the announcement.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

As an update, we continue to explore more add-ons to make the site more enjoyable and user friendly. Today, we've added the following:

Conversation Improvements - Adds conversation search (new feature to the current Advanced Search) with options to search by recipient; New Conversation Permissions (admin will likely not apply this feature as it allows us to limit how many replies someone can make to a private conversation), Allow conversations with no-one (in case you just needed a place to take notes, or talk with the voices in your head). This add on may not be all that exciting, but it is a foundation piece we are putting in place to support more exciting things in the future.

Within a conversation, you have the option to 'star' it



Or from looking at your list of conversations, you can checkbox to select some and use the tool at the bottom of the page to save/unsave.



We will work on making the star more visible in our styles




There will be more rolled out over time, but we intend to test them out thoroughly before launching to you all. Enjoy!

 

[thujone]

hey TLB, is there still a way to download PMs in various text formats? I found that a really helpful feature of vB but it was noted at the bottom of the page. In that vein, is there a hard PM limit anymore? It's a bit confusing now that it's conversation-based instead of a clear distinction between sent and received messages like there was with vB.

 

[TheLoveBandit]

is there still a way to download PMs in various text formats? I found that a really helpful feature of vB but it was noted at the bottom of the page.

Currently, no. For now we put in the foundational add-on that allows you to 'star' a convo (with a near invisible star, yay!). We hope to bring a Godzilla sized add-on this year which will allow us to download in different formats, apply labels and folders for tracking your convos, etc. There's some other cool features, but we'll see if this pans out.

In that vein, is there a hard PM limit anymore? It's a bit confusing now that it's conversation-based instead of a clear distinction between sent and received messages like there was with vB.

Currently no limit, for any usergroup. The new add-on will likely allow us to apply some of the restrictions we had on the number of PMs by usergroup, but for now it's unlimited. It may be difficult to put this one back in the bottle so it may stay unlimited, or more generous than it used to be.

There was a distinction between inbox and sent, but the new method is actually more helpful as it creates a conversation thread - all sent and reply are together, and you can tell by the name and timestamp who sent it to whom and when.

 

[thujone]

thanks, that clears it up! other than that, the new forum is pretty nice, definitely a good change from the vB