VBForums: Change is coming....

This is just to let you know that change is coming to the forum.

We are in the process of upgrading this form to the latest version of the forum software. This newest version uses different manners to do page layout. As such, the internal change is pretty big. More importantly, the new version changes things on the page around a little bit.

There is nothing to worry about. Features will still be here. You might even notice additional features :).

This is just a heads-up that we are working on this.

Brad!

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Originally Posted by brad jones

There is nothing to worry about.

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Oh yeah!! No scarier sentence.

Worry. Make sure to worry. Exercise those worrying abilities to the max.

Remembering the big crash take screenshots to include your post counts, etc so you can at least be credited back with something... :)

The big crash was a database crash. This will be just an update. As they say on TV.... no data will be harmed during the course of the migration..... :)

Brad!

I hope nothing goes wrong with the update! I hope all my posts are still here afterwards.

Guys - there is nothing to fret about. This thread was simply to give you a heads up. We've actually been testing the update and migration interally. We won't do it until we are confident things will go relatlively smoothly. There is also this concept called "backing up" that we will do ;)

Brad!

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Originally Posted by brad jones

Guys - there is nothing to fret about. This thread was simply to give you a heads up. We've actually been testing the update and migration interally. We won't do it until we are confident things will go relatlively smoothly. There is also this concept called "backing up" that we will do ;)

Brad!

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Silly guys ! They are worried about their posts!

Brad, will my threads get affected during the updation process ? :D

It's would be nice to see VBF in new outfits. :thumb:
Have been waiting for a long time. :)

Good luck :wave:

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Originally Posted by brad jones

Guys - there is nothing to fret about.

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I was only kidding. Who gives a turkey about post counts? :) Well, maybe some people... :rolleyes:

On more serious note: any hints on the new look? Can we keep the old look with new functionaity? There is a lot of history with this classic schema...
If it's how new vBulletin looks then it's modern but ugly...

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Originally Posted by RhinoBull

Well, maybe some people... :rolleyes:

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You looking at me ? :p

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Originally Posted by RhinoBull

Can we keep the old look with new functionaity?

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I would like to see it in a modern look. Not the classic look! But we could keep the old color schemas though. :thumb:

:wave:

The look current look and feel is being maintained as much as possible to make the transition to the version as smooth as possible.

Thanks for the heads up Brad.

Cool, looking forward to seeing the new update and what new features there will be :)

Gary

We are in the final stages of testing. The update to the forum is getting closer.

Brad!

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Originally Posted by brad jones

We are in the final stages of testing. The update to the forum is getting closer.

Brad!

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Means we will be able to see the new VBF in a couple of hours ?

No - still "days" I believe. We are planning a move to new servers too, so we are not rushing things.

Brad!

Will there be a mobile friendly interface in the new version?

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Originally Posted by abhijit

Will there be a mobile friendly interface in the new version?

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Yeah ... will it interface to "Tapatalk"?

-Max

Any updates... ?

7 months are over..! :)

:wave:

Still working on it.... We actually have over 20 forums and are rolling them out in groups. VBForums is a larger forum, so it was pushed near the end of the list. If there are going to be issues, we'd prefer to find them on the smaller forums ;)

Stay tuned.... it *is* coming.

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no data will be harmed during the course of the migration.....

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Hah! That's what I told the marketting department. :bigyello:

VB City more or less committed suicide by their last big change. One word: unusable!

Avoid anything like a farcebook look, excessive clickity-click AJAX, etc.

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Originally Posted by dilettante

VB City more or less committed suicide by their last big change. One word: unusable!

Avoid anything like a farcebook look, excessive clickity-click AJAX, etc.

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The update is focusing on internals -- upgrading vBulletin, which means changing from tables to divs, etc. We are trying to hold the look on this update relatively close to what it is now. We will be more modern on the internals and better positioned moving forward since it will be a newer vBulletin version.

I should add -

It will look a little different...

Here's a teaser:

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Originally Posted by brad jones

I should add -

It will look a little different...

Here's a teaser:

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That threaded view is much more neat now. :)
But are those colors a bit faded ? Maybe it's because you took the picture in IE :D

Also, make sure to give a new look for the top section too. That CodeGuru NewsBox. It's a bit harder to find out the logo of VBF. It is not given enough projection so that it would strike first for all users.

And when I first came here, that Internet bar was there. And it was my first time using a forum. So, I thought that register button on the Internet.com bar was the one to be used to register an account in this site.. :D
Later only I recognized that the Login & Register button are below that. :p

:wave:

That screen shot is of the site that is currently still in development. It was also captured with the browser at 75% resolution. It isn't done yet.

Brad!

Well, 2013 isn't all that far away.

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

Well, 2013 isn't all that far away.

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Don't be saying things like that!! :)

2014 comes after 2013 too..... ;)

If these site isn't done before 2013, then I would expect that there will be a couple of technical people within our company looking for new jobs....

Brad!

I hope the new upgrade doesn't put that god awful side panel like over at CodeGuru. It drives me absolutely totally, completely, utterly insane to always have to click "Expand to full width" every time I follow a link over there. Please tell me that would NEVER come here. Its the first thought I had when I read this thread.

EDIT:

Just checked. CG is using an earlier version of this forum software so maybe there's nothing to worry about.

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Originally Posted by Niya

I hope the new upgrade doesn't put that god awful side panel like over at CodeGuru.

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That side pannel could eventually come here. I think everyone that knows that this site is associated with Codeguru and other forums knows that this has always been a possibility. I've worked to keep it off, but eventually I'll lose that battle or will no longer be able to justify not having it.

If you are using a wide screen monitor, then that side bar doesn't take a lot of space relative to screen resolution. Additionally, we try to put it on the pages that it has the least impact (once where the width is less important).

For now, it is not here and for now it is not a part of the upgrade that will happen.

Both CodeGuru and VBForums will be migrated though. Both to the newer versions of vBulletin. For the most part, ad placements will remain as they currentl are. Hopefully we'll even fix the Codeguru article list that is messed up above! (actually that fix is independent of the upgrade ;) )


So fret about the side bar a little, but don't expect it in the near future. At least I don't!

Brad!

That's bitter-sweet news. Good god, what kind of person would ever think that such a panel is a good idea ? I know websites need to advertise to generate revenue but that way is much much too intrusive and obstructive. It takes away 1/2 your real estate for crying out loud. There aren't words to describe how much I hate that panel :mad:. I hope this future that you are fighting against comes a long time from now. If it comes any sooner, then as much as I love this site, my participation here would drastically decrease. There is no way in hell that I can learn to tolerate that layout.

So please continue fighting hard for that to stay away from here. I implore you, don't give up. Fight to the death if you have to lol. :)

half? are you viewing this on a mobile device? Based on the average screen resolution, the right bar should take 1/4th of your screen (or possibly less). On Codeguru, we added the ability to hide it (although you have to keep saying to hide it). On index pages, this really doesn't have as huge of an impact as it would on post pages.

Trust me when I say..... there are much, much worse ad units, forms, and other features for driving revenue that could be used. Pop-ups, flyovers, bars across the bottom that don't scroll when you scroll a window, animations, ads between each post, etc...... Relatively speaking, there are a lot worse things happening on other sites that are not happening here.... :eek2:

Then again, maybe we'll try some of those out here! ;) :D

First things first.... let's get the site updated to vB 4.x. Just doing that is enough to take on for now!

My resolution is 1024x768 and yes it takes 1/2 or to be more accurate, I'd say about 40 %. Point is, it feels so intrusive, that it might as well take 1/2.

I mean couldn't you guys add an option to keep it permanently closed ? Like a CP option or something ? Its really distasteful to shove ads down people's throats like that without an option to disable it.

Oh another thing. I noticed at CodeGuru that it doesn't intrude when actually view a thread, so I may be able to stomach it if it reaches here...just maybe. :)

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Originally Posted by Niya

My resolution is 1024x768 and yes it takes 1/2 or to be more accurate, I'd say about 40 %. Point is, it feels so intrusive, that it might as well take 1/2.

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350 pixels max, 350/1024 == 34%

As a stat, more than 80% of the people coming to this forum are at a resolution of 1280x or higher. Many are much higher than that. It is a small minority operating at 1024x or less. If you are using a work computer, it is time to ask the boss for an upgrade..... ;) :)

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Originally Posted by Niya

I noticed at CodeGuru that it doesn't intrude when actually view a thread, so I may be able to stomach it if it reaches here...just maybe. :)

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Right - we avoid the right rail on th threads because there is a good chance there will be code listings and such that stretch to the right. We'd do the same thing here if/when we add it. We aren't totally evil ;) :)

Brad!

I agree with Niya. A smaller topbar will be better.
My laptop's resolution is 1280x800 (15", 16:10). The (current) top bar is too big.

would you prefer a little more on the right (350 width seems to be as big as i generally see on the right rail), or would you prefer the top placements (generally 250-300 in height for ads)?

Do you prefer one over the other?

And to repeat - this first upgrade will be to just get the software to the new version of vBulletin. We won't be making major changes to structure in that move.

We've migrated ASPMessageBoard.com to the new version this week. You can see how icons and such look a little different. The same will happen here when this site gets its turn to update.

Brad!

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Originally Posted by brad jones

would you prefer a little more on the right (350 width seems to be as big as i generally see on the right rail), or would you prefer the top placements (generally 250-300 in height for ads)?

Do you prefer one over the other?

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(I'm NOT a web designer. What I'm writing below is my personal preference only)

Topbar is not that bad, but the combined height of Adv+Menus+UserInfo+ThreadTitle etc is too big. So, you could see if total height of those elements can be reduced so that the actual post starts (atleast) near the middle of the screen.

A rightbar could be a good idea. Currently, in a post, the leftbar uses lot of space. Most of it is blank. You can change it like codeguru. Then you'll have space (width) to place a rightbar - without reducing existing post width.

After we get the forum software updated, I'll see if we can have a designer do some work withteh design a bit.

Brad!

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Originally Posted by brad jones

As a stat, more than 80% of the people coming to this forum are at a resolution of 1280x or higher. Many are much higher than that.

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What your browser stats probably don't tell you though is people don't run browser windows fullscreen.

Believe it or not, what's in the browser is quite secondary to what's in the other windows I have open. Those can be programming IDEs, image editors, locally installed SDK Help, database tools, Word, Excel, and oh perhaps 3 or 4 other browser windows - all in addition to the mandatory "choke chains" of in-house IM clients, email, activity/timekeeping loggers, workflow naggers, etc. etc.

I use 2 monitors, both at 1920x1080, and my browser is always full screen if I'm on VBF. Right now this website stretches to fit really nicely, only part that doesn't match right is the toolbar with UserCP, Faq, etc.. sometimes it tends to have Calender covering New Posts and is pushed over to the left a little. This is very rarely though.

Is this part of the upgrade too?

I've noticed something new has happened on the forum within the past few days. When certain keywords appear in posts, for example, Database or Company, they turn blue and are double underlined. Hovering over these links brings up a bubble advertising Symantec. Nobody else has mentioned this so I was wondering if it's only me and I have a virus, or what.
One example for you to look at is http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=681612
The first line of code in the first post is
Code:
Dim xl As New Excel.Application
and "Application" is highlighted in the way I mentioned.

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Originally Posted by españolito

Is this part of the upgrade too?

I've noticed something new has happened on the forum within the past few days. When certain keywords appear in posts, for example, Database or Company, they turn blue and are double underlined. Hovering over these links brings up a bubble advertising Symantec. Nobody else has mentioned this so I was wondering if it's only me and I have a virus, or what.

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That is intellitext advertising. It has been on this forum for..... years? Or at least quite a while.

Brad!

It did get a fair amount of commentary when it first showed up. Some of the settings got tweaked to improve the behavior of it, but basically it's a fairly unintrusive ad model. Of course, considering the high annual fee that I pay for access to this site (it's almost as high as the price of VB Express), I don't think I should deal with ads, but I realize that others just aren't paying quite as much, so I put up with them.

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Originally Posted by brad jones

That is intellitext advertising. It has been on this forum for..... years? Or at least quite a while.

Brad!

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I thought this was a recent addition...I've only been seeing for about a couple months now.

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Originally Posted by brad jones

That is intellitext advertising. It has been on this forum for..... years? Or at least quite a while.

Brad!

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Right, that's ok then :) I have only just noticed it within the past couple of weeks though. Like Shaggy Hiker, I also think it's worth putting up with it based on the cost of access to the site. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I've seen it on other forums and as such I'm accustomed to it. No big deal....I can even tolerate ads between posts. I learned to put up with that at a site called Iccup.com which does this.

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Originally Posted by Niya

I can even tolerate ads between posts.

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This will eventually happen here is as well. It has come up in internal conversations for years, but I've pushed back on it. I expect them to happen at some point in the future though.

Brad!

Hopefully when it finally does, you can use it for ammo in discussions in favour of keeping out that side panel.

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I can even tolerate ads between posts.

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I all ready get that. Which I cool with. But then again shaggy's right. This is a free site, adds come with free sites. I think I'm just spoiled as to how little vbforum's got :P

Any good news ? :)

Getting closer. I'll get a target date on Monday or Tuesday from the migration team on when this forum should cut over.

Based on other forum conversions, there are a few little changes likely to happen. One is that a couple of additional ads might end up getting added. These are text based ads that will likely get added to the top. Right rail hasn't come up yet; however, at some point we are likely to standardize a bit closer across our forums. As such, some happy medium between this layout, Codeguru's, WebDeveloper, and PHPBuilder's will have to be determined. That, however, is a task for after the migration to the new version.

I believe we want the update done by end of month -worst case.

Brad!

Cool :thumb:

I am looking forward to seeing the new and improved VBForums :-)

Gary

God, I'm nervous about that!!! Don't know if it would be better or worse :eek:

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Originally Posted by Niya

God, I'm nervous about that!!! Don't know if it would be better or worse :eek:

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I think it has been mixed reviews on Codeguru, but it is a newer version of the forum software, so hopefully in the long run everyone becomes happy with the change(s)!

Brad!

I've had a CodeGuru account for quite a few years and I've been lurking about over there since the upgrade.

It is going to be a change in how the site looks and feels, but, so was what we have now when we first got it.

Any thoughts to adding TapaTalk?

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Originally Posted by Meestor_X

Any thoughts to adding TapaTalk?

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Why does the forum need TapaTalk? Wouldn't it be taking activity away from the forum or better still just use the vbforums app.