Forum Overhaul report: User Feedback welcomed.
 

Hello Everyone,
First of all apologies for not being around as much as I and some of you would have liked, I have an Ill wife and baby at home that are taking up a considerable amount of my time the past few months and the webteam have been doing a sterling job of running this place in my absence, thanks for that guys.

Onto business...
As most of you will know, in the 4 months that I have been here now the forum has undergone a lot of changes and we are finally running on a stable release of the VBulletin software that is fully up to date and has have all the new features and improvements working well. I thought it would be appreciated by many of you if i created a bit of an update as to what I have been doing behind the scenes so to speak, so here we are:

I am happy to report that 95% of bugs are now ironed out and the following list of work has been done by me and the webteam since i became administrator back in December last year:


Feature changes: (In no particular order)

• The "User-Run" Infraction System has been reviewed and then removed.
• A new webteam run system and policy is now in place.
• Full Search facilities have now been activated for all registered users.
• An iTrader feature has been installed to allow you to build some trading confidence in the community.
• A garage feature has been installed so users can show off their cars.
• A photoalbum has been installed so users can show off whatever they like (Within Reason)
  
• A new VBAdvanced Forum Portal has been added.
• Whos Online feature has been activated.
• Moderation team has been extended and powers to moderate increased.
• The post rating feature has been removed as it was always used to create a negative vibe.
• More smileys have been added.
• Editor and Spell checker options have been added to quick reply box.
• New forum rules created and applied with easy access to them for reference.
• New forum header graphics created and installed.
• New easy navigate forum menu created and installed.
• Avatars now allowed and enabled for users.
• New Traders Forum created and running.
• ScoobyNet traders brought on board.
• LiveFeed feature added back to menu bar.

Bug Fixes: (In no particular order)

• The Quick edit feature has been fixed.
• The Multi quote feature has been fixed.
• The Go to Last post feature has been fixed.
• The Sticky post font problem has been fixed.
• The Email Notifications problem has been fixed.
• The breadcrumb trail problem has been fixed.
• The various Time Zone problems have been fixed.
• Missing Reply and RTM icons fixed.
• The forum width has been fixed so plus members are full screen with no ads on the right hand side.
• A great many admin and moderator control panel problems have been fixed.
• Marketplace inability to search problem fixed.

Now I hope that you can appreciate that all the above work required doing to bring us up to a stable VB release and allow us the all important security updates as and when they are released. Some of the new features are very tidy and improve the way users interact with the forum. Admittedly, some features have been lost but only where we absolutely could not keep them. Sorry.


All that remains to do of any great importance on my jobs in progress list are:

• Fix the speed of forum even if it involves another server move.
• Fix an issue with some iTrader feedback boxes being too small.
• Fix an issue with search needing "" around keywords to increase quality of results.
• Fix the Multi Quote graphic.
• Review the possibility of creating new CWE and Adult forums.
• Create and enable some easier to access membership Options.
• Review the current colour scheme.
• Postbit template needs re-arranging.
• Expired token problem to rectify for one user.

Thats about all folks. I am currently looking for feedback on speed after last nights database optimisation work and would appreciate if you could give some input on my other topic about it. I know that things are far from perfect but im working my way through the list and its getting steadily shorter so please bear with me, I do want this forum perfect as much as you do and am working on getting it there as soon as possible. Other than that, comments welcomed on this topic.

What about the unread threads in bold thang?

Stu

Firstly, best wishes to your wife, I wish her a speedy recovery.

All seems really good, if a bit slow still.

As Bioforger above said .... the BOLD unread threads is a change which is confusing.

Hope everything gets better at home Stu

Some of the new things I like, some I don't but thats life so to speak :)

Things that I dont like

1. Site Speed is appauling (for me) since the server move to America)
2. Bold unread thread issue
3. Notification area cannot be turned off (like it used)
4. Too many adverts
5. Even at 1900 Screen Res I still have to scroll down before I can even see anything that isnt advert related (and on this thread opening, I actually feel like I am on A-Plans website not a Subaru Forum, as it stands out so much more than anything else)
6. Losing My Scooby bit, if we had warning we could have saved it off to put into the new garage feature
7. As a paid member Im not sure I now get anything more than a non paying member, as a number of features have now been removed, or granted to everyone (I know this is being addressed)
8. Post Neg/Pos feature, I actuall liked this feature (perhaps Im the only one though :D)


In terms of the bug fixes that have been done, I never experienced or was affected by any of those, and didnt even know they existed (apart from missing RTM after the upgrade)

For me on a personal level I feel it is still far too early to say if I'm happy since the upgrade, but mainly due to the items listed above

I understand the reasons for the change, but the problems with speed have been dragging on for far too long IMO :(

Stu

Make sure you look after your family they are far more important than a forum ;)

Just a little moan that you can't go past page one on the ESC forum

i agree with these to comments .

6. Losing My Scooby bit, if we had warning we could have saved it off to put into the new garage feature (i was a fan of the old system thought it looked good and worked well)


7. As a paid member Im not sure I now get anything more than a non paying member, as a number of features,

Hi Stu

First off, all the best to your family, they should really be the priority over a few internet car geeks like us!! :D

Onto business, the forum is still really slow for me, the unbolded threads is terrible and I still can't spend much time here as its too frustrating. :(

Its all well and good having all the new features but if the basics don't work then its pointless - a bit like having a 1 litre Corsa with all the bells and whistles and stick on parts that doesn't go anywhere and can't be used. ;)

Ok so there may be a few little niggles, but I would like to say a big well done and thanks for all the hard work you and the team have put in so far! :notworthy

Keep up the good work :thumb:

Can the new posts tab , display more that the most recent 100.

well done on the hard work and all that goes on behind the scenes.

Regards

Chris

The main thing you have fixed for me is that the site now works with Opera, before it would just load a blank page, thanks for that.

im finding it still quite slow, is there a reason for this?

Still a bit slow for me too.
Also, I've noticed fairly often that the daily notification emails from the for sale forums still appear to include duplicates from the previous day, so I end up seeing posts from yesterday the following day too. It's a bit frustrating as it makes it difficult to see how many new posts there really are.

I've also noticed the thread subscriptions piece on the User CP tab doesn't seem to be working properly since the site changeover.
It used to show all threads subscribed to which had changed since your last visit but now it only seems to show selective threads rather than any which have changed in your subscribed list.
Think it's a bug, as I still get weekly mails with updates on subscriptions, yet the same threads don't appear in my User CP - can you confirm?

Hi Stu,

I wanted to follow up with this - the daily forum email subscriptions are still buggy - I'm still having duplicate entries coming up as "new" one day, then the next day too.
I can send you examples if you want - just PM me - it's just annoying when trying to see what's truly new and what's just repeated from yesterday in my daily "for sale" subscription mail mate.

Cheers - and hope your family's doing better :thumb:

Hi guys,
Most of the questions raised here have been dealt with since in policy i think, including what blue and orange members get over non paying members.

Bugeye,
If you think you have found a bug please pop a good description of it in the bugs forum so I can escalate it. Thanks. :king:

Hi sorry but im new to this... I have a scooby wrx k reg (93) and it will not start, i have tried the ecu how would i know if it is this and also changed the relay but still no good. ive been told it might be the alarm... any idea's !!

10 mins to load up ??
 

As above the scoobynet main page and all the links seem to be taking min 2 minutes to open no other site on my pc or lap top is doing this what is the problem and when will it be sorted cheers

fud ..

Having a similar thing Big Fud. :(

See here:

https://www.scoobynet.com/bugs-featu...-slow-ie8.html

and here:

https://www.scoobynet.com/non-scooby...elf-again.html

Same problem for me too - I think it's the ads killing it

I used to have loads of photo's of my cars on here but now I can't upload from my Photobucket?

I've asked the question in the forums but to no avail.