Forum Upgrade?

Hi All,

Just wondering if BRL are planning to do a forum upgrade anytime soon, as the current one needs a bit of work IMO.

Things I would like to see:
Within Create Topic/Edit Post:
- Larger text area
- Buttons for forum codes

And thats about it... what would you lot like to see?

My requests are also quite simple:

1) Automatic stripping of the domain from absolute Blitz links (e.g. http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/post.php?topic=77791 to just /Community/post.php?topic=77791) so that they work across all the Blitz domains without having to log-in again.
2) Atleast some basic encryption to the cookie stored on your PC that holds your account password in plain text!?!? Ooops - thanks Gabriel, when was that fixed?

A place where we can 'shoot the breeze', like ages ago.., perhaps with a few community-chosen mods.. :P

I agree CS_TBL.

I don't get the Create Topic/edit post request though...

Perhaps you should try logging out and back in again. I don't have my password stored as plain text. I only formatted this machine a few weeks back though, so perhaps if you've been signed in a long time it is different.

The * meant to be a the section of the forum eg

* Create Topic/Edit Post = Within Create Topic etc
* Forum Search = Within search forum etc

And the - meant to be the improvements...

Ive changed my OP..

Oh right, gotcha.

I like the simplicity to be honest.

I think we should all stop asking for any future requests... Because its painfully obvious that we wont get any!

Sorry to spoil the party... but its been like this for years.

All the more reason to upgrade/update...

I actually like the simple style of the forums, but it just needs a few updates here and there...

Well we certainly won't get any if we don't ask for any.

I agree with the request for larger text entry areas for starting topics and posting replies. The ridiculously small text boxes used now just lead to typos and time wasting. The character limit on the topic title textbox needs increasing too. The current character limit usually has me editing my titles back to the point of marginal comprehensibility, before i've adequately described what the post is about.

The forum could also do with a PM system.

I'd also like to see a codebox option in the code achives, or at least some way of managing code with long lines of comments and other text that doesn't make it hard to read the code description. For an example of the problem, check out the link below.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1901

Mark really needs to appreciate the community he has here more, and provide better support for the community to communicate. Trying to build up a website community from scratch these days is a hard slog, so once you have that community in place, it's silly to not support it fully and make full use of it. Just my 2 cents worth.

I like where it is now, but its missing some basic functionality, that most other forums have. Oh and a bigger textarea for posting/writing topics would be nice.

Hmm... Mark drops work on BlitzMax to write updates for the forum. This makes sense?

But, we have asked... many times. I remember Mark saying something about the forum around Christmas time but I can't find that topic...

I don't think anyone had that in mind, I do believe hes not the only one that could do this.

I was just thinking last night how much I like the Blitz forums... they're simple and to the point. This helps keep the community focused on Blitz... and therefore being useful.

So is BRL just Mark!?!?

Lets have a quick look in the HTML source code:

<input type=hidden name=topic value=77791>
<br>Post reply to topic:<br>
<textarea name=content cols=60 rows=10></textarea><br><br>
<input type=submit name=submit value="Post">
 <input type=submit name=submit value="Preview">

Hmmmm hard one to fix.... lets try increasing cols to at least 200 and rows to 100 so it looks like this:

<textarea name=content cols=200 rows=100></textarea>

PHP and HTML are not the hardest things to change...

...i agreeeee...this forum need to be updated with max3D module download link...

Granted... but I bet my donkey for your donkey that this thread will disappear down the thread list like all the others, then the next one will come along, disappear, then the next one blah blah blah.

And still no upgrades! :P

*edit*

Weren't you the guy who was saying :



And..



And..



Recent change of heart?

And while we're on the subject of noses and business, neither of the programs of mine which you decided were your business to pass (ill-informed) judgment on in the (now locked) thread are actually available for sale, nor have they ever been sold. They're just listed on a website which is criminally out of date.

Read my post. I am discussing a forum account, not software. Nor, am I accusing somebody of stealing software. The person in question is openly admitting to sharing the account. There is no speculation on my part. I am accepting them at their word.

He's not openly admitting to not owning a site license though, is he? That's speculation.

My apologies for believing what you say on your site (which is in your sig) when you have a "buy now" button. Lesson learned and I know now not to believe you.

Didn't say he was. ;c)

Well again, we're crisscrossing the boundaries of your nose and my business, but it hasn't actually been my site for a little over two years now, so I guess you actually know not to believe someone you don't know. Nevertheless, so long as you're happy.

Perhaps you shouldn't advertise your site in your sig if you don't want people visiting it?

This slipped off topic.

Back on topic, I wish BRL would go with a subscription model. $50 a year for access to the forums sounds very fair.

Duffer = Brice Manuel?

I thought he was perma banned?

Also people might not appreciate having their profile information posted on the forum where non members can see.

huh?

"Duffer" has a different IP.

"Brice Manuel" uses a new nick.

Yep, he changed it to "Kuron"

I'm saying that you posted therevills Profile info on the forum for non members to see and spambots to grab his email.

Non members can't see profiles.

Amon@ Gotcha, removed it.

Puki: My nick is because my wife calles me an "Old Duffer". Real name is Gary Valance

Having said that, I'll take a closer look at "Duffer" - see what city he is posting from.

As I said it's not my site, and I didn't say I didn't want people visiting it. All I object to is people making false claims about the software and false claims about the site.


I've been assuming that for a while now, but I couldn't say for sure.

He's had so many nicks - "Miami Brice" - "White Eagle".

The only thing I would like is a mail back system where you get an email if someone replies to your post (with a link in the mail to your post obviously :) )

I'd like some Disney skins - I'd love a "Winnie the Pooh" one. Maybe Toy Story ones too.

Duffer = Kuron... Your kidding me?

I wonder if he still thinks of me as a raging alco, Kuron spews more bullshit than an entire farm full of shit happy male cows...

After all people did for him at Syntaxbomb, I meet him here...

Not amused!

pffft!

I mostly like it the way it is :/

Although if i had to make a suggestion i would say mabe more freedom in "general" and optional "post notification"

.

This is a dot. There are many like it but this one is mine. My dot is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my dot is useless. Without my dot I am useless.

huh?

I'd also like to see hyperlinks in the default forum skin made more distinctive in relation to normal text (like, for example, by underlining them).

It seems to be considered 'cool' these days to make hyperlinks as near in style to normal text as possible, which just strikes me as a bit of a wank.

There should also be some hyperlinked text at the top of posts that contains a permalink to the post within the topic. This would allow users to use their right-click menu to copy a link to that specific post. For example, the anchor text [Permalink] might link to http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=77791#871350 .

What!?!?! Have I missed something here!?!?!

Why was my profile posted? I take it "Duffer" posted it as his post is now "Edited"

I did, because I was curious as to why you are sharing the forum account (ie, two names)? Edited it to remove it from view of nonmembers.

yawn.

Soo.. about those UPGRADES.

What two names? I have only got one account... Im confused!?!?!


Are you talking about me? I have never said anything of the sort...


I agree, why ppl seem to think its okay to take a topic TOTALLY off the subject is beyond me...

I was confused when I looked at your profile. Doesn't matter, was just curious why you had two names listed.

Ahh gotcha!

Its nothing evil! We dont share the account... we just do that for everything we buy, dont know what the big fuss is!

Again that is totally off the subject of the post!

To help bring this post back on topic, here is the list so far:

- Larger text area
- Buttons for forum codes
- Automatic stripping of the domain from absolute Blitz links (e.g. http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/post.php?topic=77791 to just /Community/post.php?topic=77791) so that they work across all the Blitz domains without having to log-in again.
-A PM system
-Hyperlinks in the default forum skin made more distinctive in relation to normal text

Anything else?

-A coffee machine! ;)

Someone to implement them?

- offtopic section

But since that may be an uneasy option for BRL, how about these conditions for an offtopic section?
- has community-based moderation
- only visible for logged-in members
- perhaps only usable for members with a minimum of xyz posts, to grant that offtopic users are longtime users with proven forum-behaviour, or perhaps otherwise permission-based access.
- enter at own risk, if you're being flamed to the bone, just don't go there. (note that I rather see such a section for shoot-the-breeze discussions and other silly things than as a place for riots and feuds)

I think post count shouldn't matter. Age on forums, however, should. I've been around for awhile but don't have the largest post count around, but I know I don't want to be left out of off topic discussion. ;)

Indies forum > Offtopic forum

Not really the same.

Indies forum 4TW!

PAGES in threads! (much actually for greater threads)

My 5.08 pence worth (at current exchange rates)


Doesn't really bother me that much, but a simple bit of javascript to toggle between small and large would solve this.


Again, not too bothered, a link (that opens in a new window) to the codes FAQ below the text area would suffice for me.


This does add some overhead to the server, a better thing I think would be to redirect all domains to the bb.com one (i.e. you type www.blitzmax.com and you are redirected to www.blitzbasic.com) this will not only eliminate the need to strip the domain, but will improve BB.com's SEO since there won't be two domains with duplicate content.


Not interested in this myself, but I can see how it might be useful in certain circumstances. I've never really had any problems communicating with anyone I need to.



I don't use the default one, but yes, it would be a good idea.



I'm ambivalent about this one, in some ways I like being able to jump anywhere in a topic without having to click back or next constantly, makes it easier to refer back in the thread as well, but the really long threads can get somewhat unwieldy.

How about collapsed posts?

i.e. Show the first post in full (always) and show any subsequent ones (except perhaps the last 3, or last hour's worth) as truncated versions that require a button be clicked to expand. This could be an option under the user profile (i.e. always expand posts).

And to add to the list:

A thread watch list, (say max 10 threads per user), essentially a custom board dynamically generated that shows only the threads you add to the list. This would simply be a tracker table with user_id and thread_id columns so not a lot of data to store.

How about someone donate £106 to BRL for a vBulletin board?

That'll fix all the issues straight way, not sure if they could hack and slash the BUID system, or how easily it could be integrated, but its an option.

vBulletin would be nice!

But that would take away the simplicity of these forums many people have said they love...

And that hack and slash may be harder to implement than the few changes needed...

Indies forum 4TW!!

Teh Enid.

One thing I'd like is a search for the code archives, thats so annoying having to dig through them by hand?!?!

Yeah, a code archives search would be nice.

Ability to hide the forums for the products we don't own would be nice.

That, or make it so we can use the "All Active Topics" function and choose which ones to show.

In a roundabout way, you can already do this -- just go to google, type whatever you want to look for, and add this to your search: site:blitzbasic.com/codearcs

Not terribly user friendly perhaps, but it is a way to find what you need.

Yeah, but google has to keep tabs on the whole internet. If something you were searching for just got added google wont have it.

The frequency of threads getting over 100 posts where it comes necessary seems like a lot of work for little benefit to me.

Does it really bother you that much? Further more, although I don't own blitzmax I can still help others with general coding or theories.

Totally agree with a code archives search. Would actually turn it into a powerful tool. I would add to this and say 'tags' for code archives too would be handy. ie. Terrain, Random, heightmap etc. And search and hyperlink (related code archives) by tag.

Personally I don't see this as worth the bother, if you desperately want to contact people I've seen general topic posts saying "Hey xxxx" and you get in contact that way, also means if they want to ignore you they can!

I agree that after all the idea's thats sprang up... The code archives does need extra work.

But if I recall, this has been asked many times too.

A little spring clean in the BlitzMax tutorials section is a must too. As well as a rule in place to make sure the article is stored in the threads, as its a bit of a piss take when you see an article you need, only to find it linked to a 404, or simply replaced with something else... e.g.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=59450

^ Totally agree.

I actually like the lack of pages on this forum, like the page being able to flow down all the page, allows images and such to pre load before I get there.

I agree, but some people have a slower connection, so going directly to a page instead of waiting for the whole thing to load would be best.

There should also be a 'goto last post' function too.

CTRL+END?

I meant a link that refers to the last post in a thread.

EDIT: Like in the 'Last Post' column, it could be a link to the post instead of the user's profile.

Ah, right, I see now :)

How about no images in signatures, or an options to hide images in signatures, or the all signatures.

Its kind of a pain to adblock all the images that people switch around.

If you go to the profile Account section of the forum you'll be able to turn sigs off. :)

I prefer to see signatures, just not the images. I noted to add an option to hide all signatures because I thought some might like that idea more.

I personally wouldn't mind not see'ing 3-6 lines of page-links on the upper-portion of every forum subcategory.

Note the forum codes link, thank you to whomever it was :)

and thank you for the (slightly) larger text area:

It was:

<textarea name=content cols=60 rows=10></textarea>

It is now:

<textarea name=content cols=75 rows=15></textarea>

Still would like it a bit larger (my res is 12x10 - so it still looks small) - but thank you all the same...

More COLUMNS!!

EDIT: I seriously doubt people use 800x600 as their standard resolution anymore...

EDIT: Since we're all (mostly) moaning about missing features, how's about some password encryption!

Thankyou from me too :)

thought that was fixed?
perhaps you havnt signed out since the change and your cookie is still plaintext

aye text box is bigger (nice) running at 800*600 for net due to it being 5 foot away from me it looks better and i like the forum codes link too

I never checked my cookies, a few hours ago I was on my profile settings, and it still contained the note about passwords being sent in plain-text.

EDIT: And yes, it is still there.. 'Important: Your password is stored and transmitted in 'plain text' format. This provides only mild security so DO NOT USE A VALUABLE PASSWORD!'

As far as i know it's encrypted, try logging out, clearing cookies and logging back in