Forum Software Upgrade - Requests

[cogeo]

Now that there is a planned Forum Software Upgrade, I think it's a chance to fix/improve some few points. So I'm oppening this thread to submit my requests and proposals. Please post yours too, it would be nice to have them all in one place.

I have two proposals:
- The page numbers shown in threads are in a very dark colour, of not enough contrast to the (black) background. This makes page numbers hard to read. Please fix this! It's not a matter of aesthetics, it's about ergonomy.
- Could you please change the search results (for the "simple" search, not the "advanced" one) be sorted by the date of the token occurence (not the date of the last post in the thread please, this would be pointless). The "default" now is by relevance, but the relevance reported by the search is always 0%, plus the sort order changes too often (like being random or affected by other reasons), verifying that the relevance is indeed always 0%! Some may think relevance is better, but this doesn't really work well, it's just unpredictable. And I don't know if most members really want their results sorted by relevance, personally I prefer them sorted by date, I think it's what most members would prefer too, as it suits most search requests better.

[Albus of Garaway]

Cogeo,

I'm quite sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but I'm not entirely sure if requests are accepted right now for the new software update. From what I understood in the announcement, it seemed as if they're just upgrading to a new version of SMF. Of course, I could be very, very wrong about this...

However, I do agree with most of your suggestions. Again, I apologize if I'm wrong about this.

AoG

[JoeST]

hey Cogeo,

being involved in the upcoming upgrade, (helping sort things out) and having knowledge of the forum software (SMF) I can tell you that this is not on the agenda of the staff to alter the core software in the ways you wish, though atleast the first request is a (relatively, of course) simple task, the second one would require at least a medium knowledge of the code, that I doubt JeroniJ or the other staff would wish to risk "breaking" the software to utilise, though I may be able to (if it is requested by others) find a solution, and pass the codechages to JeroniJ for him to alter the code himself, if he wishes

Joe

[jeronij]

Hello to all,

Requests are always welcome, of course, but as Joe explained, some of them are more difficult to implement than others. I note all your suggestions, and I will have a look to what it can be done or not.

Joe, if you want to test this search code changes, you can use the forums upgrade test to do so

[cogeo]

I'm not talking about code changes, I mean if the forums software has some options/preferences that you can set, it would be good to set them as proposed above. The search function would work much better if the results were sorted by the tokens' last occurence date/time. Of course changing the code is laborious and risky.

[JoeST]

Cogeo, yeah it would be nice to have options like that, but its probably easier to edit the code manualy than to have an option... hehe

Joe

[cogeo]

Well, the advanced search does have such options, I just wondered if the forum software has some (global, not personalised) option for the simple search, that the administrator can set.

[CasperVg]

It's not directly to do with the forums software, but the Dutch translation of the forums is incomplete.
For example:
Messages appears as " " and July (and all other months) appear as " " as well.

Also, as I use the SMF Default theme (instead of the SC4D version), some subboards (I think it's the NAM Howto Board) still appear in the SC4D Default, even after deleting cookies and refreshing.

[rushman5]

This is probably a huge request, but could we perhaps bookmark a thread, instead of posting?  Such as the thread specifying the upgrade.  It's last minute, I know...

[CasperVg]

I think that feature already exists under the "Notify" button, which sends you a PM/e-mail when someone posts a new message in the thread you have "bookmarked"; if I recall correctly.

[jeronij]

Hello to all,

About the forums search function:

You can set the order of the matches following the next steps:

a) Use the Advanced Search Feature



and there you can set the order:





The relevance of the posts is set using the following configuration:



As you can see, it is not mandatory to order the posts by relevance, and you will always see the relevance of a post regardless of how you sort the list. Actually the relevance is almost always null due to the (relative) short number of posts, and probably to the actual configuration as well, but it does not influence the results of a search.

So, I dont see the need to tweak anything in that area ... 

It's not directly to do with the forums software, but the Dutch translation of the forums is incomplete.
For example:
Messages appears as " " and July (and all other months) appear as " " as well.

I am using the default SMF translation files, (21 different ¡¡¡), and I dont have the capacity (when will I play the game if I have to do such a task   ) to keep them updated after each and every template change, or plugin addon. The default language will always work, so if you are having heavy difficulties with your language, please, use the default one. If you want, you can also provide an updated translation for the next forums version here: http://www.simplemachines.com and it will be automatically included the next time we upgrade the forums... .hopefully sooner that this incoming one 



About the default template, I decided to allow the users to use it if they prefere to do so, but I am not updating it or making any changes/improvements to it, so it may become outdated quite soon. My suggestion is that everybody uses the SC4Devotion template. It is possible that a fixed templated is set for some boards, there is much rush sometimes  ¡¡¡, and there is nothing you can do from your end about this. I will try to check all those threads and set like the rest.



Now, I go to sleep, and tomorrow when I wake up, the first thing (after a coffe) I'll do will be to unplug the forums....  .... wish me luck  ¡¡¡

[paroch]

Jeronij - GOOD LUCK

[JoeST]

Good luck indeed

hope a speedy update happens

and I am surprised that the language files are not complete... but hey, its not such a hard job, you could maybe give Casper the English language file(s) and the Dutch one(s).... and maybe the updated software will come with language fixes

Joe

[allan_kuan1992]

hmm... it appears something didn't work out in the end, as the update has been pushed back. =O

- Allan Kuan

[jeronij]

I modified the official announcement page to inform about the unwanted delay  ... a configuration issue in the server didnt allow me to make database backups, so I couldnt proceed with the update....  .... 

Next Sunday 

[JoeST]

stupid frickin databases 

cant wait

Joe

[Jonathan]

I have no idea if you know this but now there is are the letters "GH" below the navigation bar, Home help search, etc. ?

Jonathan

[Shadow Assassin]

I noticed that too - maybe it's just a stray piece of code?

[jeronij]

Nothing to worry about  . Just a test. It will be soon replaced by something different, and hopefully more useful 

[JoeST]

very nice addition Jeroni, I cant wait to see what the Wiki and Community links turn into

and if i had to say anything, it would be that it wastes a lot of space at the top of the page, maybe one line instead of two..

OH EM GEE, YAY the old forum skin thanks Admins

Joe