Hua Hin Forum software/server upgrades

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Lev
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Post by Lev »

We have been installing the initial trial run of the new software today, hence the slow page loading and occasional database connection problem.

We have also discovered that our webhost runs its daily server maintenance during our peak times (2 to 5pm) which compounds the problem.

Thank you for your patience.
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Lev
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Post by Lev »

We are making good progress with the new software and will be announcing the upgrade date shortly, it should be within the next two weeks.
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Post by Lev »

We are on schedule for the upgrade tomorrow.

The forum will be backed up in the morning, converted to the new system then taken offline for initial configuration at around midday. Any posts made during the conversion process (about an hour) will be lost. A usage guide will be posted here when we are online again (early afternoon).
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Lev
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by Lev »

The upgrade has not gone as smoothly as planned due to unreliable internet connectivity on the day we decided to do it however we have been successful and are now operating on the new software.

Please read the guide below to ease your transition to it:


Changes and Usage Guide
Our upgraded forum software is a little different to what you have been used to, the basics are the same but there are a lot of enhancements and new features on this version. Below is a summary of the major changes you will see and some issues that may affect you.

General Operation
Please see the updated FAQ for answers to questions on general operation of the boards:
http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/faq.php

Photos and Attachments
Photo uploading and file attachments are now available to all members with more than 10 posts. Below the post window is an attachment which you can use to simply upload files from your hard disk. Images must be kept below 800 pixels wide and all files below 200Kb in size or they will be rejected.

New Members
New members will have functionality (such as attachment uploading and signatures) limited until they reach 10 posts, this measure is to deter spammers.

Video
You can now insert YouTube video directly into your posts, simply click the YouTube button and insert the link. Please use this function responsibly; anyone found linking to objectionable material will be suspended.

Editing
Post editing and deleting now has a time limit of 5 minutes, after which posts will no longer be editable.

Layout and Browsers
We have had a number of issues with Internet Explorer on low resolutions or when it is zoomed below 100%. Our side bar is often pushed to the bottom of the screen. We have also received reports of layout problems in Safari. It is for this reason that we recommend the use of Firefox, which has had no problems whatsoever, with this forum. Firefox is also a safer and faster browser for general web usage.

Coding
HTML code will no longer work with this version of the forum so if you have used it in your signature or anywhere else you will need to convert it to BBcode. This website will do it for you, simply paste the HTML you wish to convert in the box and click the button:
http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/html2bbcode/
More information on BBcode can be found here: http://www.bbcode.org/

Links
Please continue to observe our linking policy, we accept all links except those to competing websites, Hua Hin real estate sites and spam. There may also be a number of dead links from the old forum to the new one, this is due to a search engine optimisation system on the old board. Converting links is quite easy should you need to do it, an example is below:
OLD: http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/hh ... 14462.html
NEW: http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=14462
The new system automatically generates them, the topic number is the important bit.

Latest Topics
Our latest topics list has been changed also, to get the best out of this right click the link and open it in a new tab. Clicking direct (when using IE) may cause the layout problem with the sidebar mentioned above. An even better way to use the forum is to use the ‘View new posts’ function whenever you login. The new latest topics list also shows shadow topics of moved posts so the moderators will no longer be using them, please ensure that you start threads in the correct section to begin with.

PM and Profile
Your Private Message system and profile has also been upgraded with new features, feel free to test it out and post any questions on this thread.

Permissions and Access
The permissions system on the new software is extremely complex and will take us time to configure correctly, please let us know if you can no longer access parts of the forum that you could before.

Avatars
You may need to re-upload your avatar if its size has been changed.

Search
The search function will be fully re-indexed however this will need to wait until the server is not running at full load as it is quite time consuming.

Thanks for your patience through this process.
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PeteC
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by PeteC »

Anyone using a Mac and Safari as your browser, you will have difficulties in that some of the bottom adds will be overlaid to the right and you'll end up with a double wide page.

What I suggest you do is download Firefox for Mac at: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/i ... refox.html

At first I thought I wouldn't like it but came to find that it's faster than Safari, and has greater functionality. Easy to download, easy to place in your applications directory, and into your dock in two guided steps. It will import your bookmarks and an exact copy of your Safari menu bar with one click. A seamless conversion. The add on's and themes with Firefox are also something Safari does not offer and makes browsing a bit more fun and interesting. Pete :cheers:
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by richard »

All looks good to me

thanks admin and teckies :cheers: :bow:
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by pitsch »

Congratulations for your good and fast work. I did not think you would manage it in so few hours. It looks good to me.

The only minor problem is, that with IE8 I get a scrollbar at the bottom. I think because of the "Weather and Currencies". In Firefox and Opera this is just avoided, but it comes also if you make the window 1 mm smaller.

I had a similar problem in programming for different browsers, because the available size of the window is different in these browsers, even if you use the max window size possible.
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by buksida »

No issues at all in IE on a wide-screen, looks fine ... even if you shrink the window (not that I would use IE if you paid me!).
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by JimmyGreaves »

Looks excellent.
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by pitsch »

This is because I use a resolution of 1024x768 pixel. So I can read most texts without my glasses.

Tried it again and now the scrollbar appears also in Firefox, but not in Opera.

Apart from the security issues I find IE8 not so bad.
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by redzonerocker »

i think it looks very snazzy!!!!!

great job guys :thumb: :cheers:
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by chopsticks »

pitsch wrote:Congratulations for your good and fast work. I did not think you would manage it in so few hours. It looks good to me.

The only minor problem is, that with IE8 I get a scrollbar at the bottom. I think because of the "Weather and Currencies". In Firefox and Opera this is just avoided, but it comes also if you make the window 1 mm smaller.

I had a similar problem in programming for different browsers, because the available size of the window is different in these browsers, even if you use the max window size possible.
Only seems to work properly in IE8 if screen display is reduced to 96% or below.
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Lev
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by Lev »

Thanks for the feedback, we are looking into the IE issues but strongly advocate the use of Firefox as it is a superior browser in terms of performance and generally a lot safer on the internet.

We are currently updating the search index so the forums maybe slow for the next hour or so.

Thanks.
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by Lev »

The search function indexing seems to have caused some problems with posting so we have disabled it for now.
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Re: HHAD forum software upgrade

Post by Lev »

There are some changes to the profile and PM system also, you will not receive any new PMs if your inbox is full. You need to go to your inbox, then rules, folders and settings then folder options at the bottom and set it to If folder is full delete oldest messages.
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