New XenForo Forum Software, Growing Pains, (Good/Bad feedback)

Street Guardian USA

Well-Known Member
Retailer
Joined
May 14, 2013
Messages
11,976
Reaction score
8,442
Location
Oakland Park, Florida (USA)
Country
United States
Dash Cam
StreetGuardian.CAM Amazon.com
It looks like you upgraded to new Forum Software.

Will you still be giving certain members the reseller / manufacturer badges?

It looks like all the past posted links and embedded Youtube videos need to be edited to use the new format.

It looks like the OP can't edit the title of the new created thread either like we could before.
EDIT, I found it, Thread Tools, Edit Title
 
probably a fair bit of work to migrate and maybe some things from old to new not compatible, I noticed I can't access via Tapatalk at the moment either so that will slow my posting down for a bit :p

not familiar with this software but I'd assume there's some sort of long term gain for the short term pain in switching it all over, will be a fair amount of work no doubt so I'd give it a bit of time before reporting any problems as it's possibly not finished as yet
 
Hi...we have updated the software. I will assign the retailer / manufacturer badges again. Just need to find out the best way to do that. Most of the youtube videos should work now with a few exceptions and many of the links are corrected.

Still working on Tapatalk...not sure why it is not working.
 
Cool, Good luck with the mmigration, not too bad so far. The core works at least which is most important.
My brain is not "used" to the layout yet but should be after a few days of use.

I noticed most old youtube links auto corrected, but some links are left with left over dead code before/after

I miss the glowing red text. Also see quite a few missing emoticons ~~. shock:

I noticed the imgur.com photos I posted now show FULL resolution instead of being auto resized. I'm going to make sure to use a smaller version moving forward. (adding l = Large & m = Medium at the end of the i.imgur.com/xxxxX.jpg)

I'll also miss seeing people's location and dashcam under their avatar. (if that's no longer an option)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I discovered the pattern for which youtube videos are broken.

Anyone that shared a youtube video with the short version, it's link is now broken.

Example: http://youtu.be

Anyone that used old school full regular youtube.com links auto fixed/imported correctly.
 
Looks like you're still adding new features, the text below avatar is back. (excellent)

Any way to get previous thanks (now "Likes Received") count back? Low priority of course but had to ask :)

You're probably still having fun researching how to use the new features & mix in the old.
 
I just checked out the mobile version of this site on my iPhone. (iOS Safari)
(wow WAY better than the old) A+
 
Hi...Tapatalk should be working now. I will add the likes/reputation back as well. The youtu.be problem should be fixable...just need to find out the correct procedure.

Thanks for letting me know the issues.
 
Hi...Tapatalk should be working now. I will add the likes/reputation back as well. The youtu.be problem should be fixable...just need to find out the correct procedure.

Thanks for letting me know the issues.

Tapatalk working here, thank you sir!
 
Question to DashCamMan just out of curiosity:
With new forum site upgrade, is it just an overall look, or are there any other major benefits ( functionality, etc. ) why you decided to go with upgrades ?
If you can write shortly, so forum members will know why changes has been done.
Thank you.
 
How can i mark all messages as read, and also how can i know what messages are new/unread?
I'm old and i think all development is bad:confused:
 
How can i mark all messages as read, and also how can i know what messages are new/unread?
I'm old and i think all development is bad:confused:
Mark Forums Read, top left of screen when at the main forum menu, once you do that New Posts will only show what's new since, if nothing new you'll get an option to view current activity in order, pretty standard stuff, just a different layout to what we're used to
 
Mark Forums Read, top left of screen when at the main forum menu, once you do that New Posts will only show what's new since, if nothing new you'll get an option to view current activity in order, pretty standard stuff, just a different layout to what we're used to

Ok now i't clear, i don't know how i didn't see that before:p
Thanks.
 
Used the "Fast Reply" at the bottom of the page to post this. That is a nice addition. The only thing I would mention and i have only glanced over things is that the default theme i am seeing is a bit brighter then the older color scheme. I'm guessing that that is changeable under my board preferences though.
 
My auto login has gone Ok the first time I guess but had to relog in the second time as well after ticking the "Keep me logged in" button
 
Is Ok now but I did tick the button for keeping me logged in.
 
Just wanted to provide the rationale for the change in the forum software. We previously used the popular PHPBB open source forum software. It is a great piece of software and it is amazing that such a powerful forum is available for free. However, there were a number of drawbacks with the software. PHPBB is an older solution, it is not updated that frequently and support is pretty much DIY. Modifications are a bit tricky as well and I always crossed my fingers when implementing them.

Since the site is growing, I thought a more professional solution that provided some kind of support made sense. As I researched this further, there were apparently additional features from the paid forum solutions. The ones that interested me the most were:

1) Claims of improved speed / performance and less resource usage. I haven't done a performance test yet but the new forum software appears to be faster / use less resources.
2) Easier handling of images / video. PHPBB was not the best at handling video / images which are often posted on DashCamTalk. The new forum software can auto-embed videos by just pasting the link and it manages images a bit smoother as well.
3) A WYSIWYG post editor. PHPBB had a dated post editor while this software is much better in this regard.
4) There is built in social integration (Twitter, Facebook). While not a huge interest for me, I'm sure many of the younger users could take advantage of this.
5) Better spam protection. Want to minimize the time to delete "Cheap Kitchen" spam posts.
6) Better mobile site. Seems like more people are using mobile devices to visit websites. For those without Tapatalk, the PHPBB mobile site was primitive while this solution appears to be much better.

I was considering 2 choices for forum software vBulletin (the most popular one) and Xenforo (a newer solution). I'm sure vBulletin would have been more familiar for users but apparently their most recent release (vBulletin 5 Connect) has been problematic. I was surprised to find out that around 40% of vBulletin sites are running version v3.8 which is 2 generations old due to all the problems with the last 2 releases.

Xenforo appeared to be the more modern solution that is gaining popularity and most reviews were positive. So far I am quite pleased with it and the transition has been relatively smooth. Hopefully the changed user experience is not too bad. I'm trying to get used to it as well!

Let me know what features are missing / not working and I will try to enable. Links should be all fixed now. I will check out the "auto-reply" to see if there are any issues. Also most of the reputation / likes have been added back to users.

Thanks for the feedback so far. It is much appreciated!
 
Looks good.
I'm certain its a fair bit of work.
Well done!
 
You fixed everything I listed so far in under 24 hours. Amazing job! :)
I'm already used to the new format.

I only wish more people would upload an Avatar so they stand out easier in threads.
It makes back and forth discussions flow easier as I scroll down the page. (when avatars trigger my brain instead of reading names) The main problem is the name itself is below where the actual response text begins. (eyeballs need to move too far every time) Maybe move the name to the top above the avatar.

Can you enable the "random" Avatar feature so everyone will at least be assigned something unique? (even if just a shape/color or what ever)
I've seen many forums have this. One had different pictures of Cup Cakes for example.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top