News, please!!

[Soozeeg]

Hello Techies OK, the site speed is a lot faster, and I haven't had the 'unavailable/no nodes' message now for....oooh, days!! So what's next? You've all gone very quiet! What about our pm's, the 'read last posts' button......and of course the SMILEYS!! ;o) Bank hols are over now, you know, lol. Thank you in eager anticipation.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I'm gobsmacked.
I'm on the CC Englethwaite Hall site in Cumbria and didn't expect to get a connection on my laptop so this is the first time I've used it. Not only did I get a connection with VodaFone but it was 3G+.
Logging into this site is also a vast improvement so lets hope that Sooze gets what she wants in her Christmas stocking :O)

Oh, and since we've been here it's been sunny. The good Lord surely does shine on the righteous :O)

 

[Soozeeg]

I don't think my stocking's big enough to fulfill my wishes, LB ;o) And get off my thread.......this isn't about what a lovely time you're having! Now be a good boy and go back to dozing in your deck chair, hehe.

 

[JohnDuncan]

Not sure I want to get in the way of what seems to be a beautiful friendship here...

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Now be a good boy and go back to dozing in your deck chair, hehe.

Hmmm that's a sore point. I didn't bring any chairs because I didn't want to tempt fate :O(
This is the reason I logged on to find the nearest caravan accessory shop, B&Q or Argos to see who has the best deal on LaFuma chairs. You can see how the heat must be getting to us to pay silly money for a bit of woven plastic on an aluminium frame ... heh! heh! heh!
Since I made my last post we took the dogs for their dumps and now can only get a GPRS connection :O(

 

[Soozeeg]

Oh!!! Hello JD, welcome back, did you enjoy your hols? Ready to get back to working on the forum upgrade and all our requested stuff? (I'm ignoring LB, he might take the hint and do as I asked, lol)

 

[JohnDuncan]

I had a lovely holiday, thank you - can highly recommend Camping les Ormes in Lot-et-Garonne, east of Bordeaux. The website makes it look tent-centric, but there were plenty of vans there, pitches were big and costs fairly reasonable, exchange rate hell notwithstanding. Oh and I saw one of these, which has made me almost want to get a caravan...

Anyhoo...seems you had a lot of fun while I was away, and I have to say a big thank you to Austin, Laura, Steve and Farhan (with able assistance from Gareth and Colin) who went above and beyond to sort out the issues you were having, and we certainly appear to have resolved the fundamental issues we were having at a server level, sorting our performance and the 'nodes' problem. Obviously now there are some other things we also want to sort out (a list of about 33), and we've been taking a few days' stock to try and prioritise our workload both here and on other sites. I'm going to post a list of those issues shortly, in vague priority order ('see all latest posts' is near, but not quite at, the top of the list!) so that you can see where we're at and watch progress. How's that?

 

[Soozeeg]

Good stuff, thank you! (See, persistence pays off, lol)

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Is it persistance, the flutter of a female eyebrow or female nagging that has made the techies sit up and take notice. Incidentally this is yet another flagerant go at my dear friend Lord B. LOL I am sure the good sir and his lady wife are having a relaxing break away in the van without the hussle and bussle of normal home life on their estate. I should imagine that the milk maids, servants, etc. are coping well in their absence.

 

[Soozeeg]

Call it what you will, Colin.........who cares, so long as it works, hehe

 

[colin(bridgend)]

This is it you see Sue - a lady has the power to charm any male into all forms of submission. At times like this the male species is the weaker sex.

 

[plotter]

Many a true word Col but of course it only applies to those in South Wales.lol

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Plotter in South Wales we are more civilised than the other side of Offer's **** - we have proceded from the days of dragging our women into the cave by her hair. We now have the utmost respect and consideration for the fairer sex.

 

[Mel]

The thing to remember, Plotter, is that Welsh culture is matriarchal. For 'respect and consideration' read quailing terror at the Welsh Mam or an even worse terror, Mam gu, (grandmother).
mel

 

[Soozeeg]

So where's this list of priorities then, for the next bit of the upgrade? If the forum (and I'm talking about the number of postings, not the actual speed of it, which is fine now, thank you) slows down any more it will need an adrenaline injection! Seems to me that all the hype and promises of this fab new forum aren't delivering what we all wanted and expected....it's a bit of a damp squib, really. Sorry guys (and gal), but boredom is setting in. It'll be winter soon.....we need something to keep us occupied!

 

[austin]

So where's this list of priorities then, for the next bit of the upgrade? If the forum (and I'm talking about the number of postings, not the actual speed of it, which is fine now, thank you) slows down any more it will need an adrenaline injection! Seems to me that all the hype and promises of this fab new forum aren't delivering what we all wanted and expected....it's a bit of a damp squib, really. Sorry guys (and gal), but boredom is setting in. It'll be winter soon.....we need something to keep us occupied!

I hate to say it, but we can fix lots of things but making this place interesting is down to you lot!

By "wanting and expected" I guess you mean you want smilies and an all latest posts page. If that's what you want they are on the way...

If it's not you wanted and expected you better start telling us!

 

[Entwood]

So where's this list of priorities then, for the next bit of the upgrade? If the forum (and I'm talking about the number of postings, not the actual speed of it, which is fine now, thank you) slows down any more it will need an adrenaline injection! Seems to me that all the hype and promises of this fab new forum aren't delivering what we all wanted and expected....it's a bit of a damp squib, really. Sorry guys (and gal), but boredom is setting in. It'll be winter soon.....we need something to keep us occupied!

I hate to say it, but we can fix lots of things but making this place interesting is down to you lot! By "wanting and expected" I guess you mean you want smilies and an all latest posts page. If that's what you want they are on the way... If it's not you wanted and expected you better start telling us!

Well .. how's about this for a start ... and I asked ages back and got not a single reply ... According to the site itself ..(bottom left) any thread with a "new" post should be RED not ORANGE, but I've never, yet, seen a RED icon, so according to your own blurb, there are no new posts to read/reply to !! Obviously rubbish, but it makes the site far less useable when you have to check every section/thread to see what has changed ?? A forum is only as good as the software that runs it AND the members that use it .. seems to me many of the "old" members have voted with their keyboards ... and once they go it's hard to get them back...

 

[Parksy]

The coloured icons don't work that's true but in order to see where new post have been added to the forum the Last Post column on the right hand side of the forum index shows the times of the latest postings. After a quick glance down the column it's easy to see where new posts have been added.
When you click on a topic there is a link which leads straight to any new posts that have been added since you last looked so there is no need to trawl through every post.
All forums have quiet periods, on the old forum it was impossible to see how many users were accessing the forum.
Now that this information is visible it can give the impression that things are quiet at times but in common with all caravan forums things often pick up during the darker months.
Perhaps if more of us had a look at the new members section of the forum and posted a welcome to the many new forum members who introduce themselves and are often ignored some of them might decide to continue to use this forum.

 

[JohnDuncan]

Agreed that the icons displaying 'new posts' are wrong, and we need to think about what to do about that - I dont want to bring back the functionality because it has performance implications that I suspect you wouldn't like, having seen what's gone on recently.
The 'latest posts' page is near the top of our list, and should be with you soon. In the meantime, am just putting up the snagging list (some of which will mean nothing to you, but you did ask!).

 

[Soozeeg]

Austin wrote:-
[/quote] I hate to say it, but we can fix lots of things but making this place interesting is down to you lot! By "wanting and expected" I guess you mean you want smilies and an all latest posts page. If that's what you want they are on the way... If it's not you wanted and expected you better start telling us![/quote]
I agree that the 'interestingness' (can't think of a better word) of the forum is largely down to the members......my point was that if longstanding members could see progress happening with the upgrade, and we had more toys to play with(!!), then we/they might start posting more! Let's face it, apart from the speed of loading issue and unavailable/no nodes thing, which you do now seem to have fixed, nothing else seems to have happened - well, nothing tangible that we, as mere non-techie members, can actually see. Your reply comes across as distinctly frosty, Austin - no doubt in response to my tongue in cheek one which you presumably didn't pick up on (it was tongue in cheek, you know, you'll get used to me eventually!). However, if we could see progress being made, or we were kept up to date with news of what's happening (as I think was indicated by you or JD previously.....I can't be bothered right now to go back and search for it), then we might not get so frustrated, and longstanding members might not get fed up and clear off.

 

[austin]

It wasn't meant to be frosty, must get those smilies working

From our bug lists, these are fixed plus the server move;

512 – Add numbering to pages
505 – Error message
483 – News images
461 – PCV new site navigation
516 – Take off of the any search term on left hand nav
460 – New T&C’s
501 – Registration privacy notice statements
515 – Be able to add comments to pages – permissions
504 – Blogs filtering
484 – Travel landing page
481 – Google ads
447 – Towcar reviews
511 – Take time off of articles – date to appear only
486 – Ad trafficking/ad calls
494 – Forums functionality
490 – Mark ****** comments (round1)
514 – Blogs only showing teaser text
495 – Forums theming
466 – all site search – no results
513 – Fix left hand nav bar
521 – change word to review from comment on leave a comment box
487 – Win a caravan – everyone who enters receives a discount off holiday
549 – create house rules page for the forum
548 – problem with for sale links

Some of the issues above were fairly major.

We also added the specials for Swift etc.

So just because you haven't noticed it doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything

These are top of the list and being worked on now;

499 – Spec fields only to show if data present
531 – Blogs landing
534 – Homepage>latest news
533 – Blogs – spacing author biography and photo

Smilies is next. Then latest posts page.

 

[Soozeeg]

So how much of that lot actually relates to the forum? (as opposed to other pages of the general mag website)

 

[JohnDuncan]

The smileys and the latest posts page - to my mind, they're the major pieces of functionality that are missing. Our next step would be to 'formalise' some real hacks that we had to put into the forums to make them work, which is something that you probably won't even see - it won't be bells or whistles, but is screamingly important nonetheless.

 

[austin]

So how much of that lot actually relates to the forum? (as opposed to other pages of the general mag website)

Well the ones with forum in are related

460 – New T&C’s
501 – Registration privacy notice statements
515 – Be able to add comments to pages – permissions
486 – Ad trafficking/ad calls
494 – Forums functionality
490 – Mark ****** comments (round1)
495 – Forums theming
466 – all site search – no results
549 – create house rules page for the forum

Are all directly related to the forum.

 

[Soozeeg]

Well the ones with forum in are related

Smart Alec.....erm, Austin (bet he says "why thank you!")