Features removed from 3.1.4

[Minos]

^ yeah that's a good one.

[gc_chick]

I didn't get a chance to read all of this topic. Will do so when I get back. But personally, I'm running into a major problem with the lack of topic descriptions. I run a wrestling RPG or an e-fed and most of my members used the topic description for Untelevised roleplays. Now with them gone, people new to the page will think they can use these roleplays. Or even people who don't remember what's televised and usable and what isn't. :( Was this even saved in the database where it can be recalled if there's a hook developed? I really hope so! Kinda wondering since my reputation table went strangely missing during the install.

[Andrej]

I didn't get a chance to read all of this topic. Will do so when I get back. But personally, I'm running into a major problem with the lack of topic descriptions. I run a wrestling RPG or an e-fed and most of my members used the topic description for Untelevised roleplays. Now with them gone, people new to the page will think they can use these roleplays. Or even people who don't remember what's televised and usable and what isn't. [img]

[/img] Was this even saved in the database where it can be recalled if there's a hook developed? I really hope so! Kinda wondering since my reputation table went strangely missing during the install.

Yes, the topic descriptions were kept in the database if you upgraded, so if someone make a hook... you get them back.

[gc_chick]

Yes, the topic descriptions were kept in the database if you upgraded, so if someone make a hook... you get them back.

Woot! Quick somebody make a hook please! :)

[riven3d]

need my trash can back, i could care less about the soft delete or hard delete stuff, i dont trust anybody to delete anything, i have 1 forum that nobody can see where all deleted post go that only i see, and now anybody that can,can delete post forever, not good

[Dmacleo]

need my trash can back, i could care less about the soft delete or hard delete stuff, i dont trust anybody to delete anything, i have 1 forum that nobody can see where all deleted post go that only i see, and now anybody that can,can delete post forever, not good

I've been moving vs deleting for that purpose.
now people are gonna jump in and tell us how we're wrong, etc....

[Midnight Modding]

what??? They removed the trash can forum too? WOW.

[Midnight Modding]

Unless I'm missing something, they even took out all PM options. I see no settigns for disabling one's own messenger and PM isn't even a choice for notification method anymore. They took out more options than added for 3.2.

Also annoying that this site is down for hours every single day now.

[Pereira]

Also why would you need to get notified via PM when the notification list is effectively a better system and does the same thing?

[Midnight Modding]

Notificationn system does not do the same thing. You can't send a reply to someone if it's only a notification.

[Marcher Technologies]

Unless I'm missing something, they even took out all PM options. I see no settigns for disabling one's own messenger and PM isn't even a choice for notification method anymore. They took out more options than added for 3.2. [img]

[/img]

Also annoying that this site is down for hours every single day now.

Notificationn system does not do the same thing. You can't send a reply to someone if it's only a notification.

WHY exactly does one need to reply to something that by your OWN words, IS a notification?

[Pereira]

So you want to reply to someone if for example someone like's, replies and quotes your post? You can always PM them.

Whats wrong with that system?

[Midnight Modding]

My point is, for developers, they say to use the notification system and not send a PM directly. Then they take out the PM option. I didn't say what I want to send is better as a notification. It's the option they say to use "instead of" a PM, not to choose between them. In my case most notifications are for unapproved content. Well as a notification they don't have a quick way to respond to the owner of the content. So now I have to decide whether to ignore them and keep using my PM method or switch to the notification method and then have no way to respond to anyone. I wasted a lot of time changing it to the notification method to have it more consistent, then find out the PM choice is missing from notification settings after I already spent the time changing things.

[Midnight Modding]

Also from what I can tell they got rid of the option for a popup also.

[Pereira]

Also from what I can tell they got rid of the option for a popup also.

Is that not replaced by the dropdown menu? Again it is effectively the same thing only made into a better system.

I honestly still don't understand why you need to have PM notifications and the need to reply to a notification. Perhaps someone else can help you out.

[*Salvo*]

The way to embed the albums from the gallery, simple and attractive, either for the style, or for the simplicity. So disapponted.

[Ryan H.]

I've been moving vs deleting for that purpose.

now people are gonna jump in and tell us how we're wrong, etc....

They removed the trash can forum; they didn't remove the ability to not have things permanently deleted. The new system has deleted posts and topics show up in the "ModeratorCP" now instead of a special forum. You can view all deleted content in one spot, and you can send it right back to where it came from if it shouldn't have been deleted. You can't do that with a trash can forum.

Also from what I can tell they got rid of the option for a popup also.

You can still get the popup for private messages, just not for notifications anymore. Since the actual notification text contains little if any new information over what you can see in the notification title and link, I don't really see the point in that anyway.

[WraithWatcher]

[size=5]My opinions[/size]

Status online/offline of the members in topics

This is not very important for discussion board. You can answer on every posts regardless if member is online or offline. Status on/off is important only for chat where discussion is going in real time.

Avatars/Photos

I am glad that Avatars were removed. When we used both, lot of members were confused. Some added their photos as avatars, others added their avatars as photos. I started poll about this on my board, with question what they would use. Dozen people voted for avatars, nobody for photos. So in ACP I will translate things about photos to avatars and we use only avatars on board.

my annoyance with this is that members no longer have the option to use their profile photo / avatar from an image hosting site like Photobucket, instead we have to either host it ourselves by allowing members to upload pics to our server or force them into using Gravatar?

my members for the past 5 years have used Photobucket for their images/ sigs & avatars & now we have been forced to use only a Personal photo instead of an avatar that we can't host from Photobucket?

very poor? what is Gravatar paying IPB to force everyone to use them?

Topic description

I think this was little useless feature. Only few members used it and not very often was clear what they wanted write there. Tagging system with keywords is much more better. Tags could be used as meta-keywords too.

This may have been useless to some but again not to our fan based community, why not have an option in Admin to enable or disable this rather than remove it completely? again IPB just took 2 steps back in my opinion

[Midnight Modding]

You can still get the popup for private messages, just not for notifications anymore. Since the actual notification text contains little if any new information over what you can see in the notification title and link, I don't really see the point in that anyway.

I don't see any options at all for how Private emssages are received. So if you cans till get it then either I'm overlooking a group of settings or else maybe it only happens for those who had it set for popup before 3.2.

I can overlook almost every change and omission in 3.2 except I want online status iocons back and I want the option of PM for notification type. Whether many want it received as PM or not shouldn't matter as it was an option, not a requirement. It now has me in a position where any decision I make as to notification vs. PM has a negative to it. With PM as a choice of notification method it's a win win as the member decides method.

[joelle]

The majority of users posting on a message board don't really care if another poster in a topic is online or not. I know that when I am posting on a message board I really don't care if the person I am replying to is online - they'll either get a notification about the reply, or will see it next time they login. This is, after all, the point of a message board.

Where do you take your statistics from? For me and a lot of users I know are more encouraged to reply to a topic if they know that one of the participated posters is online. We are in the world of "real time" and speed, now. Users tend to stay online at our board when they see that their friends are also there.

After all I am not buying that you have removed that feature because nobody really needs it. It must have been a "speed" reason, because I can not think of another valid reason.

[.Ian]

Also from what I can tell they got rid of the option for a popup also.

PM popup box is still there.

Can see little point in notification via PM. Just clogs up the database if anyone has this selected.

The new notification system works well and can't really fault it.

[WraithWatcher]

Where do you take your statistics from? For me and a lot of users I know are more encouraged to reply to a topic if they know that one of the participated posters is online. We are in the world of "real time" and speed, now. Users tend to stay online at our board when they see that their friends are also there.

After all I am not buying that you have removed that feature because nobody really needs it. It must have been a "speed" reason, because I can not think of another valid reason.

Agreed!

My members are from all over the world just like this forum & our membership is like a family where we love chatting & having discussions with each other, it was always good to post in a topic when we saw the latest posters had that little green online symbol, now we can't tell without either clicking on their ID & bringing up their profile or checking the online list.

Who is responsible for making these decisions? why remove something that served a purpose? this is another thing that could have been left with an option in Admin so the people who spend money on this software can decide for themselves whether the feature is useful or not.

we can turn on or off reputaions etc so why remove options from us?

many of us have paid Hundreds of dollars towards purchasing & maintaining our forums yet silly things like removing features that some of us use really is annoying & makes us wonder why we bother in the first place. should never remove features that people have used for years, should always have the option in Admin for people to enable or disable if you feel it bloats the software

otherwise release a stand alone board & then release official hooks for free for us to use that will work correctly

[.Ian]

my annoyance with this is that members no longer have the option to use their profile photo / avatar from an image hosting site like Photobucket, instead we have to either host it ourselves by allowing members to upload pics to our server or force them into using Gravatar?

very poor? what is Gravatar paying IPB to force everyone to use them?

This may have been useless to some but again not to our fan based community, why not have an option in Admin to enable or disable this rather than remove it completely? again IPB just took 2 steps back in my opinion

This is about the only thing that I am worried about with my planned upgrade to 3.2 this week.

I am sure my members will cope, but the removal of an avatar gallery to chose from will affect many.

I am also aware that people need to move forward, but I am also cutting off 10% of my users this week who still use IE6 as 3.2 does not really support this browser.

However, as I have said before, the advantages that the majority of my members will get will far outweigh these concerns for a minority.

[marklcfc]

Where do you take your statistics from? For me and a lot of users I know are more encouraged to reply to a topic if they know that one of the participated posters is online. We are in the world of "real time" and speed, now. Users tend to stay online at our board when they see that their friends are also there.

After all I am not buying that you have removed that feature because nobody really needs it. It must have been a "speed" reason, because I can not think of another valid reason.

Statistics? They're just assuming and have developed a like it or lump it attitude and I'm certainly not accepting it. Whatever they're trying to be it's not going to work unless they create something more in between 3.1 and 3.2.

[Midnight Modding]

PM popup box is still there.

Can see little point in notification via PM. Just clogs up the database if anyone has this selected.

The new notification system works well and can't really fault it.

So there should be no PM anymore??? If someone wants a conversation then a notification is pointless. And the documentation tells modders to not send a PM directly, but use the notification system for everything. So I guess if someone wants to ask a person something they should send it in a notification with no way to respond?