3DKiwi

Update: I'm up and running with a Recent Posts block. With the input of a couple of members I've got a recent posts block on my Portal front page that update recent posts every 60 seconds. So far there have been no CPU resource issues. Those interested can find out a bit more here. The IP Content system was used to create a feed. It's then just a matter of placing the generated Recent Post tag in your skins whereever you want the block to go.

Those wanting the block to update in real time can have that if they wish. It's also very easy to create a recent topics block where you control over the number of recent topics to display in the block.

3DKiwi

Ditto setting up a test site and do a test upgrade of a copy of your database. I run a busy forum and waited until 3.0.3 came out before upgrading. Things have settled down a lot with 3.0.4 and my forum is running pretty well. One thing that I had to do was add some more memory to my dedicated server as version 3 is a bit more resource hungry than version 2.

Having a test site also allows you to practice customizing the skins.

3DKiwi

I agree. I bet very of my members are aware that they need to put a plus sign in front of each word to get results that include all words.

3DKiwi

Good suggestion. I agree.

3DKiwi

You and your father should set up accounts for yourself. That's what my wife and daughter do on my Wife's PC. That way you can each have your own desktop and settings.

3DKiwi

I can't see IPS being interested in this. This is more suitable for a third party hook. There's a scrolling recent topic hook available an I tried it out. I found it very hard on the eyes.

Jaggi - re monitor size. I run a CG graphics site. Virtually all of members are running reasonable sized monitors i.e. 1280 or more.

3DKiwi

The problem was my end. I didn't realize I also had to set up colours for user groups. You might want to mention this in the install instructions.

3DKiwi

Getting back to the original topic. As far as I can see IPB has already overtaken VB. VB is now playing catch up with IPB.

3DKiwi

Thanks. Pretty handy for us IPB long time users as well. I have saved the 2 pages as a pdf so that i can easily refer to them.

One tool that I found indispensible for tweaking skins is the Firefox plugin called "Firebug". This shows you the css element of wherever you click. You can note that down then edit the appropriate style sheet. The best part is you can test making changes of the css but without having to go into the ACP and physically changing the css file.

Cheers
Nigel / 3DKiwi

I think if anyone is using a 800x600 res monitor still then they need to upgrade. I do my site assuming that the minimum width is 1280. It used to be 1024 but most monitors are at least 1280 wide these days.

3DKiwi

No problems for me with drop off in membership / forum activity. One thing I did was wait until 3.03 was out so that bugs could be resolved and also a few skins were available. 3.0.4 seems to run quicker than 3.0.3 and at times I found 3.0.3 slow.

I think if anyone is running the default skin and not offering any alternative skin then they only have themselves to blame if people move on as it's pretty boring.

3DKiwi

That forum that was tested on by the way was my site. A reasonably busy site running on a dedicated server Core 2 Duo and 2GB memory. It went into melt down as soon as I enabled Michael's test recent replies mod.

3DKiwi

Agreed and third.

Seems a few of us want it. Plus if VB has it then all these VB converts are going to expect it. It seems strange to me then that the IPB gallery has these options for images but yet there's only a handful of options for images in the forum.

I want to stop my members posting excessively sized in both resolution and file size images in my forums. This will save both me and my moderators time by not having to moderate the images that are way over the top in size. At the same time I want them to be able to upload an animation file and not be bound by the same restrictions as those that apply to still images.

3DKiwi

I note that the Unreal Portal has a Recent Replies block. I haven't heard anyone complaining about that using too many resources.

3DKiwi

The skin works fine for me with 3.0.4 What I have had to do is spend hours tweaking the css files to fix problems where text was hard to read. Apart from that, a very nice skin.

3DKiwi

I'm not really following either. You define the size of the thumbs then if a member wants to see a larger version they click on it. If you're asking for an intermediate size image after clicking the thumb then that wouldn't appeal to me.

What is lacking with forum attachments for images is maximum dimensions and maximum file size. I run a Computer Graphics site that supports a particular 3D graphics program. Members upload images and scene file as attachments. We need to set the maximum upload size fairly high at 2mb to accommodate the scene files. You then get the idiots uploading a 1 mb jpg image at 1920x1040 res from time to time. So for me I would like to be able to set max file size for each permitted file attachment and if it's an image then also have maximum resolutions.

Nigel / 3DKiwi

In 3.0.4 the various groups all display with the same colour i.e. the legend is the same colour. I've had to uninstall the hook as this was the main reason of installing it.

3DKiwi

I would file a support ticket. I had IPS resolve a couple of issues with my test board that allowed me to upgrade to V3 without too many issues.

3DKiwi

The biggest complaint I'm getting from members about version 3 is the way image attachments load up. In version 3 we have 2 options:

Lightbox

Disabled Lightbox. Images open in the same window i.e. you are redirected to the image.

Members are requesting the old system from 2.3.7 where images opened in a new window. This then allowed several images to be open at the same time so that comparisons could be made. With Lightbox enabled you can't save images unless you do a hack of the code. I would like to see a range of options for dealing with image attachments just as the gallery has.

3DKiwi

I had this mod way back around 2.0. The mod was very resource intensive and if you have 10,000 plus members like my site has the page was pretty sluggish. I deleted the mod when I upgraded to 2.1 or whatever the version was and not one member complained about the mod being removed.

There were in fact 2 member map systems. One by Dean and another one by someone else.

3DKiwi

Yeah but why do we need to put a + sign in when searching for multiple words to get results that contain all words?

Can't the search just assume that we want results that contain all words typed in as the first results to display? If I want want either or then I can use an advanced search option. Doing it this way then makes the search similar to Google etc.

3DKiwi

Not sure I buy that Matt. I think it would be more advantageous if people here could find what they were looking for. If that means IPS needs to install Sphinx then that's what they should do. For instance I want some help / ideas with the Lo-Fi skin. A search on "Lo-Fi" turns up zero results.

I'm looking into installing Sphinx on my forum. I've just come up with a permission error when installing it that I need to resolve with my host.

Nigel

Is there any reason this mod can't be done as a hook? There are several other mods done as hooks e.g. View my Posts and View my Topics.

Although the php file edits are not that drastic seems this should be able to be achieved with a hook. I want to get away from editing php files if I possibly can.

3DKiwi

Seems there is an option in the settings now to disable Lightbox. So cross that one off the list. It would still be nice to have some options for opening images.

3DKiwi

Thanks I'm sure many people would greatly appreciate it :)

I think at the very least IPS should make Lightbox an option for viewing images in the forum and give us a number of options like the gallery has. Although I've edited the css to disable Lightbox a setting would be much more desirable.

3DKiwi