3DKiwi

I think we all get these. Every day I get people signing up new accounts and they never validate them. I get up to 10 bounced emails every day where the email address that they have used is bogus. When I'm on line I delete all accounts that haven't been validated within 3 hours. In my opinion if someone wants to join your site then they sign up and validate within minutes. I receive very few complaints by doing this and it helps to reduce spam. I regularly clean out the validating table in the database as this fills up with useless data which is of no use once a validating member has been deleted. 3DKiwi

dieselpowered - Version 3 would be feature locked by now. I suggest learning how to add stuff in. I've gone from knowing absolutely nothing to being able to edit skins and customize my board. It's not really that hard. I use a banner ad rotation management system. Just a matter of pasting in one line of code in the member bar area. Banner ads show up on every page. 3DKiwi

Noticeably quicker for me now. Thank you. Nigel

Ditchmonkey - You would likely get that because when you leave the site you don't make the board as read. I do so when I returned today there were only 33 new entries. if not then blowed if I know why you get that many. When I clicked on the heading for this thread just now the query took 2.4 seconds. Seemed like an eternity and much slower than my site. 3DKiwi

Blimey. You're still on a VPS. You've got more traffic and members than my busy site with 19,000 members and I run on a dedicated server. I'm staggered. Prospective IPB customers are likely browsing this forum. I wonder how many have been put off by the slow speed? Nigel / 3DKiwi

I doubt it's the software. This site here has often been slow in the past and even when they were using 2.3.6 like what the rest of us are using now. Much more likely to be a hosting issue. Version 3 should be as quick as 2.3 was perhaps even quicker as there's been a lot of code tidying up done. Nigel / 3DKiwi

Yup and here's what I get clicking on the thread title a bit later on today. Slower than before. Even worse is clicking on the use full editor button. Nigel / 3DKiwi

Noticeably slower than my site that is hosted in the USA. Here's what I get clicking the link to read this thread. Nigel / 3DKiwi

I find this site is often slow and noticeably slower than my site which runs on a dedicated server. If I was IPS I would want this forum to run as fast as possible so that prospective customers having a look at IPB weren't put off thinking that the software is slow when in fact the problem is almost certainly the hosting. From time to time IPS have said things may be slow as they doing some maintenance. Fair enough but they can't be doing maintenance that often. Nigel / 3DKiwi

I'm not a coder, well not really. I've learnt how to customize skins / IPB by asking specific questions and doing lots of searches here and at other IPB sites. The skin code is pretty much html so if you know basic html then making a few changes is pretty easy to do. Usually the hardest part is finding our where to make the changes. When I started my site I started it with friend who was a professional web site manager. Initially he did everything on our forum software which wasn't IPB. He's moved on and I had no option but teach myself. So all you need to do is start asking specific questions. e.g. How do I make the default portal have 3 columns. 3DKiwi

You can add custom content blocks easily with the default portal. Setting up and modifying the built in portal is in fact pretty easy. Just a matter of a few skin edits as Brandon suggests. Have a look at my site here for an example of what can be done using the built in portal and a custom skin from Dragonfly. I've made it 3 columns, removed some stuff like the calendar and added my own custom block. 3DKiwi

Not really possible with the portal. 3DKiwi

Sounds like you need to use the built in portal and set up a news forum. Check out my site here. I use the built in portal. With the news forum only admins can start new topics. I have it so that the last 3 topics have their first post on the front page. Hope this helps. 3DKiwi

Thanks Brandon. I created a new album and I now get the link in the drop down menu. I can't however delete either the new album or the old album and receive and error message: [#1071] Sorry, but you do not have permission to use this feature. If you are not logged in, you may do so using the form below if available. Ok, now that I have that link I can get to my albums much like I could before to upload images so this issue can be crossed of my gripe list. Regards Nigel

Yes I have a gallery. It is here: http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?app=gallery&module=user&user=75662&do=view_album&album=444 Nigel / 3DKiwi

Thanks for the responses. Brandon, I'm not seeing a link to My Gallery in the drop down list as you describe. Here is what I see. Regards Nigel / 3DKiwi

Well I must need my eyes testing. The Mark messages as read is shown here in the attachment with the IPB Pro skin after clicking on the view new posts link. I can't see it anywhere near the top with V3. Yes it is at the bottom in 2.3 if you just look at the forum view but many people will be like me and browse forums by selecting the "View new posts" link. I also mentioned the lack of the My Gallery link. I've just tried uploading an image to my gallery here. It now takes an extra step to post an image. Previously the most common way would be to: 1. Click on "My Album" 2. Click on your member name on the last submitted image 3. That takes you to your gallery and you have the upload new content buttons. But now in V3: 1. Select My Profile from the drop down at the top right hand side 2. Click on the Gallery tab 3. Click on an image or on the image title 4. Move up in the navigation link one place by clicking on your name e.g. select 3DKiwi from Invision Power Services>Gallery>Member's Gallery>3DKiwi>Photo Title 5. Finally you get to the same place as step 3 above. If someone knows a quicker way then I'd be very pleased to hear it. The method I just described in V3 will be beyond many people to figure out. Nigel / 3DKiwi

The Mark Board as read link is at the bottom in V3 and at the top in V2 and much more conveniently located. Do I need to post screengrabs to prove it? I have seen other people here complain about it. Mystery solved about My Assistant. 3DKiwi

Have to say I'm not that keen on it either. It looks okay but functionality wise I preferred how 2.3.6 worked and I think some members will complain about it being harder to use. For example the following things annoy me: 1. You have to scroll to the bottom of the page to mark forums read. 2. Can't find "My Assistant". Do we still have it? 3. Everything seems to take up more room. 4. No "My Albums" link anymore Sure I fix a few of these myself with some skin edits but it amazes me that IPS thinks it's progress putting the "Mark Board As Read" link at the bottom of the page. I want to make my site easy fr people to use not make it harder. I won't be upgrading until the couple of Skins by Dragonfly that I use are upgraded. There's no way I could throw this default skin at them even with a few edits. My 2 cents. 3DKiwi