Forum Upgrading

[Namae Nai]

I'm banging a hammer on the forums for a bit. We're now up to date and upgraded. Plus, I figured out how to install add-ons to SMF.

I know the update removed the 'What's New' Homepage with the Recent Posts. I'm working on getting it back, ASAP. 

On the other hand, this should make us more secure against people who want to spam us.

[Namae Nai]

Update: The Tiny Portal is giving me errors when I try and reinstall it, and that's the package with the Shoutbox and such in it. I'm working on getting it back up ASAP. 

[Lyrima]

Thank you Namae! You are the BEST!!

[Jasyn]

Wow, Namae.  Getting all Web Ninja-y on us.  You RAWK! 

[Namae Nai]

I wish I was that good! I'm getting kinda stumped here. I'm hoping the Tiny Portal install forums help me figure out what I'm doing wrong, and I may have to buy the $50 Pro version of SMF gallery.

But the upgrade did take, and the data is still intact, even if you can't currently see the stuff on the Shoutbox and personal galleries.

Once I get Tiny Portal to work, I'll probably try to add a mod so we can embed videos and things like that.

[Namae Nai]

Ok, there was some small problems involved with the upgrades.. I wanna get the board at least minimally functional. I have stuff backed up and I'll see if I can't get a restore from Dreamhosts if I can't puzzle out how to get Tiny Portal back up. Sorry for the mess folks!

[Namae Nai]

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, this current board theme isn't permanent. The TP Arcane Magic theme we've been using for the longest time is VERY buggy with the newest forum software. Once I've got the rest of everything else dealt with, I'll see about getting it back, or at least find something similar we can agree on.

[Namae Nai]

Guild Wars Dancing

Fun little feature I think you folks might like... 

[Namae Nai]

I've added Chat back in, and it's way more robust than the old AChat that hardly worked. Check it out, and enjoy!

[Namae Nai]

Status Update: I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but installing Tiny Portal kills our forum. There's a new gallery, but it doesn't link to the old gallery, so I might have to manually drag some photos out. Everything else seems to be working great. Thoughts?

[Namae Nai]

Everyone might want to make this their new link/homepage for now:

http://sagafamily.org/index.php?action=recent

It will redirect you to a list of the most recent posts, like before!

[Corsair]

Namae....wow....just wanted to say thank you for all the effort that you bring to Saga.

You are a big bucket-full of awesome.

[Titia]

Alright, I'm gone two days and home is a wreck ! *eyes Namae*

Nice job upgrading this, you rock Namae 

There is but one request I'd have however, if not already planned of course. The small introduction text we had on our homepage, about how Saga came to existence, the Tiger's Roard reunions and how it grew, always felt highly important to me, as a definition of what the Family was and what it standed for. Is it possible to keep it somehow and possibly not in a dusty corner ?  (this is if all agree of course)

(I'd gladly offer my help to get this done but I'm out of town for the next two weeks, and hardly able to connect to anything)

[Jodas]

Nammy rocks, go Nammy! 

Video was kewl!
Choked on my soda with the Seinfeld reference!

[Namae Nai]

Thanks everyone! I was a bit worried for a while that it wouldn't turn out, but in the end, I think it came out nice. I just wish I knew why Tiny Portal isn't working, because it's supposed to be updated for our v2.0 RC3 software.

The video linking is easy now. You don't have to do any embedding or anything.. just link the YouTube/DailyMotion, or any of the 200 most common video sites directly and the website takes care of the messiness all on it's own.

Alright, I'm gone two days and home is a wreck ! *eyes Namae*

Nice job upgrading this, you rock Namae 

There is but one request I'd have however, if not already planned of course. The small introduction text we had on our homepage, about how Saga came to existence, the Tiger's Roard reunions and how it grew, always felt highly important to me, as a definition of what the Family was and what it standed for. Is it possible to keep it somehow and possibly not in a dusty corner ?  (this is if all agree of course)

(I'd gladly offer my help to get this done but I'm out of town for the next two weeks, and hardly able to connect to anything)

You mean:

"As the dwarf looked around, he knew he was home.

There had been stories of the Tiger's Roar.  A place deep in the canyons of HighPass Hold.  Where the first Saga Family get-together was held.  Not the formation of Saga in Kelethin, but when the whole guild gathered to share their stories and enjoy their time together.

Tales had been written of the Gnolls that would attack and how the Family would fend them off on a daily basis.   And the time when the guild found out the bartender was part of a smuggling ring.  Wrong crowd to be doing bad deeds with.

It was a happy place. Friendly, warm, dry, friendly, cozy and friendly.  Many friends were made there and family members inducted or abducted into Saga.  The Tiger's Roar was home to Saga.....

But that was many years ago.  Many, many years ago.

In the Age of Destiny, Saga found a home in a small Inn.  Sagacity hosted a cozy place.  Again, new friends were made and fun was had.  It was a place for those that had lost their way to regroup.   A place for the lost lore of Norrath to be collected.   A place to relax, enjoy a brew or three, and listen to more stories of heroic deeds and colossal follies.   The Tavern prospered but soon the family outgrew it.   It was time to expand and find a place to fit the ever-growing family.

This place is it.
This is home. "

I tried to fit it in the title space, but it's too big and too long. How about I break it into smaller pieces and put it in the news feed?

And I'm sure I'll still need help when you get back!

[Lyrima]

Hm. So a 'homepage' is no longer an option?

[Namae Nai]

List of stuff I still wanna get working:

   
• Random Quotes
• Retrieve Gallery images
• Move recent posts page to show on the index
• Find a good place for the original quote block
• Figure out what the Playlist feature does...
• Make sure everyone knows how to use the new features
• Set up permissions take make sense
• See if I can't modify TP Arcane Magic theme to work better on our forum

Hey, there's a new button in the Post Reply box, a little blue arrow with red brackets. It's the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode editor. You can see what your post looks like as you type it. Give it a shot.

As far as the homepage... I know it's possible, but I don't know how at the moment. The best idea is for you to create a bookmark that goes to http://sagafamily.org/index.php?action=recent and use it to get here. Then you have a nice list of recent topics, just like before, and you can click Home to get to the forum and see the shoutbox and such.

[Ravenns]

AARGH!

I love  the 'What's New' Homepage with the Recent Posts!!

I hope we get it back soon...

Thanks for all your work, Namae!

Um...on your list of stuff you still wanna get working, what does this mean?

• Set up permissions take make sense

That one has me baffled.  Looks like a typo, maybe...?

[Jasyn]

Everyone might want to make this their new link/homepage for now:

http://sagafamily.org/index.php?action=recent

It will redirect you to a list of the most recent posts, like before!

Since that link actually just opens up a page that shows the text body of all recent posts, might I make an alternative suggestion? 

For anyone missing just an index of all recent posts, this is for you.  On the main forum page, collapse all of the different forum sections (except for the Saga ~ Our Online Roleplaying Family - Info Center section) so that you can quickly scroll down to the Recent Posts section, which behaves just as the 'What's New' section did on the old homepage.

You can also subscribe to an RSS feed (but this behaves similarly to the link Namae provided); instructions for doing this will probably vary depending on which browser you are using.

If you have IE8, you can also add a 'Web Slice' to your favorites, which will open a little 'What's New' preview index that you can keep refreshing to see if anything new is happening on the forums.

None of these may be perfect, but as a temporary workaround until we get a new homepage, I just wanted to toss out some additional options for everyone to try, which might suit our varying discerning tastes.  Enjoy!

[Namae Nai]

• Set up permissions take make sense

That one has me baffled.  Looks like a typo, maybe...?

There's a lot of permissions setup in the admin section background of the board. One even controls whether you can see the admin part of the board. We have a bunch of different member groups (You can see them at the bottom of the board, or at least, I can.) They each need their permissions individually set, and it's a lot of just eyeballing them to get them right. There's no way I could test the permissions for every member group all on my own. For example, until late last night, I thought everyone could see the cool new chat features, but they apparently default to no viewable or usable so I had to give everyone on the board permission to see and use them. Same deal with the video linking/gallery features.

So what I meant by making permissions make sense is cutting down the number of member groups we use, and transferring people out of the defunct guilds in games no one plays in at the moment, to a more central grouping that I can actually be aware of and monitor. I want to avoid a situation where people can't chat and don't know why they can't, and make sure all the Guest groups can't spam us just by registering.