Author Topic: OK, the forums are converted and restored! (Read 8511 times)

NightWolve · « **on:** Feb. 17, 2006, 04:05:35 AM »

Importing the data over to SMF's tables wasn't so bad. A bit hackish, but I got it done with a little php and sql knowledge along with myphpadmin. Glad that's over. So, it looks like most everything was preserved. Anyhow, onto adding content for the rest of the site. You guys should be able to post again now.

Note, if you missed the earlier reply, and didn't get the email notification about your account, your password has been reset to be the same as your user account. So you don't need to create another account. Just log in with your original username and use that also as the password. Then you can change it back to whatever it was.

Gillian Seed · « **Reply #1 on:** Feb. 17, 2006, 04:19:46 AM »

Great job on this. Even though I liked the old design, this new site has more interesting features.

NightWolve · « **Reply #2 on:** Feb. 17, 2006, 04:26:03 AM »

Yeah, no question that myBB was better forum software. It had more features closely resembling the shareware VBulletin, but it was freeware. But yeah, on the upside, the portal system has a lot more to work with. Good tradeoff I'd say. The problem was it didn't support myBB, so I had to go with SMF which it does support and is also freeware. $:-\$

Anyway, if I can find a good forum skin, it might be just as good. The current one is the default that came out of the box, so lemme play with it a bit more and try to find some better ones.

rocket · « **Reply #3 on:** Feb. 17, 2006, 03:00:52 PM »

Nice work on the forum. little awkard but the downloads from right on the forum seems like a nice concept.

JoeQuaker · « **Reply #4 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 11:48:47 AM »

All hail the mighty Nightwolve, Reaganat'n - Falcom infiltrate'n affectionado!

HAIL!

TDOMMX · « **Reply #5 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 01:05:44 PM »

Honestly, I think the new site design is a little cluttered. I don't mean to get on a high horse, but I am a professional web programmer, and, in my opinion, there's simply too much going on on each page of the new site. When I first saw the new site, my first impression was along the lines of "Oy-yoy-oy! This is way too much...!" If you mess around with the CSS and maybe remove the less useful panels, I'm sure the site would look a lot better.

NightWolve · « **Reply #6 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 01:14:23 PM »

Quote from: TDOMMX on Feb. 18, 2006, 01:05:44 PM

Oh boy. I couldn't figure out how to access my account until I started browsing the forums. It might be a good idea to copy the "new password" instructions alongside the announcement that the accounts were restored so that "returning" users don't miss it.

Honestly, I think the new site design is a little cluttered. I don't mean to get on a high horse, but I am a professional web programmer, and, in my opinion, there's simply too much going on on each page of the new site. When I first saw the new site, my first impression was along the lines of "Oy-yoy-oy! This is way too much...!" If you mess around with the CSS and maybe remove the less useful panels, I'm sure the site would look a lot better.

Well, I'm just about settled on all the panels I wanna have actually and if you looked at the News section, on announcements, I did mention the password issue there also.

I dunno, I like all the panels. It's the first time I've had a site that could be considered "alive." Shouts is cool, having one of the polls off on a panel is cool, Random image support, Online Activity so I can easily see what users are checking out, I like it all. To me, it conveys a, "Hey, this is a place I'd like to post in for the first time! Something going on around here!" feel.

I can't remember if you mentioned you're a professional web developer before, but if you'd like to help with a logo or a custom theme, lemme know.

TDOMMX · « **Reply #7 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 01:19:50 PM »

Yeah, I just noticed a moment ago. I hate putting my foot in my mouth. On that note, since I can use my account properly now, you can disregard my two emails.

NightWolve · « **Reply #8 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 01:21:36 PM »

I just edited my post too, actually. Lemme know about the last part I mentioned.

TDOMMX · « **Reply #9 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 01:47:18 PM »

Heheheh. This is what happens when we're online at the same time... I wonder if this is how Edit Wars on Wikipedia are like...?

I don't think I ever mentioned that I was a web developer to you before. I work for a small Canadian firm called Mile-End Media (http://www.mile-end-media.com/). I excel at design implementation, but I am not a graphic artist. In other words, if you give me a good design, I can program it without a problem, but I'm not that great at designing sites from the ground up.

If you want to have a look at some of my work, here you go. The more recent stuff is at the bottom.
-http://www.crestrealties.com/
-http://www.furmir.com/
-http://www.vibrantrioja.com/
-http://www.25clubhouse.com/

I cannot take any credit for the graphic design itself, but I did program the sites (including administrative capabilities) and make a few design modifications. While I am no expert at graphic design, I can easily recommend changes to make a site more appealing.

To that end, if you're looking for constructive criticism, you can always turn to me. If you want to actually design a website from scratch, you're best off talking to a graphic designer, then showing their design to me.

NightWolve · « **Reply #10 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 01:52:54 PM »

Quote from: TDOMMX on Feb. 18, 2006, 01:47:18 PM

In other words, if you give me a good design, I can program it without a problem, but I'm not that great at designing sites from the ground up.

Oh, heh, I did some of that also at my old job. Yeah, the graphic designer did the hard work in creating the look/feel vision of the thing, and us on the programming end would actually code it using her images, etc. It's what happens when you combine the programmer and a designer who doesn't know HTML or coding to deal with a backend database to make a dynamic site. So yeah, designing is not my thing either. That involves that thing called creativity which I lack... Wonder why I had this frontpage crap for so long? Yeah....

Oh right, you can hide the right or left panel if you don't it btw. Click that button with the double arrow and that'll take care of that, so you're set. Those that like 'em, keep 'em, those that don't, hide 'em.

Seldane · « **Reply #11 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 06:22:10 PM »

I like the new site, but I can't use the shoutbox for some reason. Every time I click the shoutbox button, it logs me out!

Gillian Seed · « **Reply #12 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 06:56:01 PM »

I have the same problem here

EDIT: In fact, you're logged out if you don't stay in the forum section.

NightWolve · « **Reply #13 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 07:00:12 PM »

It appears to be a Firefox + Cookie issue. Doesn't happen with IE apparently. To fix it, log out, then click the forums link so that the uri shows up as /forums/index.php at the top, etc. then log in. Then you should stay logged in no matter where you go. I'm looking into fixing it right now since I can reproduce the problem now that I upgraded to firefox 1.5. I had 1.0 earlier until Seldane told me about this, and the site was actually working normally with that version. It's with this new version 1.5 that this is happening with.

Seldane · « **Reply #14 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 07:01:09 PM »

NightWolve managed to resolve the problem. It happens in Firefox 1.5.0.1, but not in 1.0.7.

Everything works in IE.

What you will have to do is:

1. Log out

2. Go to https://www.ysutopia.net/forums/ and log in using the login bar at the top of the page.

That should work.

Edit: Ooops. Posted the same thing and at the same time as NightWolve.

Edit #2: The rolleyes smiley does not work ":: )" (without the space) triggers the regular smiley ": )"

Edit #3:

NightWolve · « **Reply #15 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 07:25:51 PM »

OK, changed it to : rolleyes : . Click it again.

Agent_K64 · « **Reply #16 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 07:58:29 PM »

I like the portal. Things now seem organized.

NightWolve · « **Reply #17 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 08:08:07 PM »

OK, everyone will have to relogin once more. I changed the name of the cookie and I know what happened with a certain link to cause the old cookie to be set with a different path and thus cause the login/logout issue.

Agent_K64 · « **Reply #18 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 09:15:16 PM »

Hmm...Is there a way to mask e-mail address links under the users' names? E-mail harvester bots are going to have too much fun browsing this forum. :/

NightWolve · « **Reply #19 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 09:17:54 PM »

There's a plugin to urlencode your email so that it still appears in the page, but it's not in regular ascii. You know, the #0000; format. I could add it if you want. If not, you can hide your email yourself. It doesn't appear this one has the setup where you can just email someone through the board, and not learn of their email address.

EDIT: Yeah, you can set your email to be hidden for now.

Agent_K64 · « **Reply #20 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 09:28:22 PM »

I can't say that I know what the #0000 format is, but it doesn't really matter. I put a nice thingy in my signature that will (hopefully) lure potential bots, and make them flood their own database with fake email addresses. If their database gets screwed up because of this, I won't have to worry about having my e-mail in it.

NightWolve · « **Reply #21 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 09:55:04 PM »

Put this in an html file with notepad, then load it in a browser:

nlivadit@yahoo.com

You should see my my email address.

Agent_K64 · « **Reply #22 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 10:01:42 PM »

Oh, so those are ASCII values, where &# tells the browser to convert it to the character? Cool.

NightWolve · « **Reply #23 on:** Feb. 18, 2006, 10:02:31 PM »

Right. This little javascript will do it for you (change the 'str' to what you want):

Code: [Select]

<script>
str = 'spambotsmustdie@yahoo.com';
temp = '';
for (i=0; i < str.length; i++)
temp += "&#" + str.charCodeAt(i) + ";";

prompt('Copy&Paste this:', temp);
</script>

ViperD · « **Reply #24 on:** Feb. 19, 2006, 04:10:02 PM »

If I recall correctly, somewhere in the 2000s will start the Japanese characters, and about 4000s will be the Chinese. I never made a script to convert them, but I did make a script to list them...

Gillian Seed · « **Reply #25 on:** Feb. 20, 2006, 06:56:43 AM »

This site lacks a nice banner. *asks Seldane*

Seldane · « **Reply #26 on:** Feb. 20, 2006, 07:49:33 AM »

Quote from: Gillian Seed on Feb. 20, 2006, 06:56:43 AM

This site lacks a nice banner. *asks Seldane*

I know, I know. I've been discussing this with NightWolve. Not sure what kind of theme I should use...

NightWolve · « **Reply #27 on:** Feb. 20, 2006, 08:52:39 PM »

Quote from: Agent_K64 on Feb. 18, 2006, 09:15:16 PM

Hmm...Is there a way to mask e-mail address links under the users' names? E-mail harvester bots are going to have too much fun browsing this forum. :/

OK, I just set it so guests can no longer see any details so problem solved. Only us logged-in members can see each others contact info, etc.

News:

Author Topic: OK, the forums are converted and restored! (Read 8511 times)