56 replies to this topic

[LilBambi]

Howdy folks!

The forums are mostly done upgrading. The only thing that it is still working on is rebuilding all the posts and boy do we have a lot of posts! But even that is nearly done.

This may take all night to finish.  Actually, it took about 14 hrs! For the initial time to do this rebuilding. Should be finishing up very shortly.

Please note that as a result of the upgrade, many Avatars were not retained. We are not sure why that is. Maybe it is because they were hosted elsewhere but not Gravatars. But again, we are not sure.

Once we are back online, you will be Now that we are online, and the avatar issue is fixed, you are able to connect with your Avatars again.

AVATARS ARE NOW WORKING!

TECHNICAL SETTINGS YOU NEED TO ADHERE TO FOR AVATARS:

Max File Size:   MAX 50KB
Max Image size:  100w x 100h

HOLD THE AVATARS: It looks like if you have a Gravatar or had an image on the server like mine forever, all is well. But if you didn't have one on the server already, it offers to allow you to use an image/photo URL but IT DOESN'T WORK! We will get this working. I don't know why it isn't working. But we will get to the bottom of it.

In the meantime, if you have an image location online that you can PM to me, I can add it to your profile.

On the lighter side of the news...the Moderation Team link which was broken with 3.3.0, is fixed with 3.3.1 upgrade done today.

EDIT: Just found out that because of the dynamic way the Avatars are resized in the new version of IPB, no remote images allowed. It will import your remote image or your Gravatar to the site.

We did lose a couple hours by having to use an slightly older database for the upgrade due to some issues with an earlier attempt at the upgrade. So we definitely lost the announcement here about the forums upgrade. It appears that the latest posting we have before the upgrade concluded was this one:

Ugly Hardware
raymac46 - Apr 11 2012 08:29 AM

If you notice anything else wrong, once the forums are back online, please feel free to post in the Forum Feedback area here.

Edited by LilBambi, 14 April 2012 - 11:35 AM.
added the reason remote images were not retained and that we are back online now!

[LilBambi]

In addition to the new upgraded forums, we also have an additional theme/skin that allows you to pick your own colors!

It's the IPB Unlimited that you can see on the dropdown menu in the lower left corner of the forum:

If you prefer the original theme, the IPB.Board theme:

Just choose IPB.Board from the dropdown.

I wanted green for mine, so I chose the IPB Ultimate (imported) one:

Using the IPB Ultimate skin/theme, you just choose the little white paint brush in the right header area below the search and above the Recent posts:

Choose the color range from the verticle color band in middle, then choose the specific color in that range, in the big box to the left in the color picker, then when you like it, click the green checkbox.

Done.

Enjoy!

[securitybreach]

Excellent tutorial Fran!!

Here is the one I use:

[LilBambi]

That's great! I love that we can have the colors we like now!

[securitybreach]

LilBambi, on 13 April 2012 - 12:12 PM, said:

That's great! I love that we can have the colors we like now!

Oh yeah

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Colors are COOL! I'm doing the minty Scot's this week.



Thank you, Scot and Fran for taking the time to make this fabulous upgrade happen!

[ross549]

Looks good!

Adam

[LilBambi]

Ah, shucks! Of course there were times when I thougth this was going to be my life's endeavor:

Like your new Sig Eric!  

Thanks Adam!

Glad you like it!

[réjean]

Glad to see you back! I missed you all! It should be fun being able to choose different colours.

Edited by réjean, 13 April 2012 - 03:45 PM.

[LilBambi]

Yes, I love the idea of changing colors to what we like!

[mlangdn]

Looks pretty good! Time for exploring again.

[LilBambi]

[zlim]

Explain in simple language how I can import a theme. I choose it and the only thing that seems to happen is that the shade of blue might change slightly.

Well I figured out how to download my image to my computer then upload it to use as an avatar. I also determined that the paintbrush over to the side lets me change the board colors. I haven't figured out how to make it permanent.

Duh, I figured out I have to click on the checkmark not simply close the color window!

I get there but I ALWAYS take a few wrong roads first!!!

Edited by zlim, 13 April 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[LilBambi]

Hey Liz. You don't import a theme.

You choose a theme from the drop down on the bottom left where it says, Change Theme on most any forum page. There are two to choose from.

• IB.Board Theme - IPB's default theme - blue only
  
• IPB Unlimited  - Purchased theme to allow us all to have whatever color we want. - Choose any color you want by choosing the white paint brush (upper right side below Search box). Click to choose a color area in the center verticle color strip, then in the big square to the left, slide your cursor around till you get the color you want. Adjust either/both setting as desired. You can even put in the RGB or HEX colors if you know them.

[LilBambi]

I hear ya Liz. Full instructions are in this posting above in case you want to show someone else how to do it. (be patient, takes a second to actually move up and down to that posting. LOL!)

[frapper]

Anyone know why the Firefox spellchecker doesn't work in the compose window for PM's (or whatever they are now called)?

[LilBambi]

I don't know why the firefox speelchecker doesn't work at all for Posts, or PMs. LOL!

Good Question, Norm.

Will try to find an answer.

[LilBambi]

I had to update the IPB Ultimate theme to match the 3.3.1 version of IPB.Board. Your theme may have been changed when that happened back to the IP.Board default theme.

Feel free to change it back. It will have remembered your color selection as long as you had clicked the green check mark when you made those color changes in the color picker (white paint brush icon).

The Forum Rules have also been added back into the colored navigation area across the top of the page below the header image that has Scot's face on it.

[frapper]

I'm running the IPB Unlimited 3.3.1 and no spellchecker. No biggie.

[LilBambi]

Me too. I prefer that one too so I can have my own favorite color

I will see if there is something about it.

I haven't checked to see if it works or not in the IP.Board one. Maybe tomorrow is another day. Too tired to do anymore tonight.

Enjoy folks! And keep letting me know if you find a problem. I will look into it.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yeah... It was time for a siggy change, Fran.

Adam, I notice you're using your very old avie.

Frapper, you broke my speel chicker. What's up wid dat? How will we know what temmu is saying now?

[Corrine]

Who ever knows what Temmu is saying?    (Just teasing, Temmu, you know we wub you.)

[frapper]

temmu comes in the dark of night and leaves his mark on almost all topics so we'll know he's been here.  

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Sadly, I've noticed that the formatting on many sticky'd and normal postings is totally toasted. When I find some time, I'll try to go through the sticky'd ones in BATL and get them set back up properly again.

Ah well, you can't have an upgrade without breaking a few links, er... eggs... ummm... well, you know what I mean.

[LilBambi]

Yes, it did the same thing to the Forum Rules but that has been fixed today and added back to the top navigation too!