Those of you who may have become a little frustrated with some of the eccentricities of the present forum software for SayNoto0870 (for instance update emails always taking you to Page 1 of what is now a 7 page thread) will be interested to know that its developers have now announced a Release Candidate version of Version 2 of their forum software.  A release candidate version of software is a version that is nearly finished but that may have the odd bug left.

See http://www.yabbforum.com/beta/

Now I had always previously assumed that BB was in fact the name of the girlfriend of the developer who wrote the software for this bulletin board and his insertion of the message IluvYaBB in the default member profile of every member was a way to express his love for his girlfriend.  But it turns out that yabb is in fact the name of the professional software package that runs this web forum.

I would be very interested indeed to know when Daniel thinks we may be able to upgrade to V2 of YaBB to overcome some of the glitches of the current forum software.  Among claimed advantages of YaBB V2 are the following:-

* Less file openings and writes
* Lower CPU usage
* Lower Memory footprint
* Setup/Converter utility

* File Attachments
* Polls
* Additional Membergroups
* Additional Smilies
* Advanced Personal Message Box
* More Board and Category Options
* In-Thread Multi Delete and Moderation Update
* Advanced Memberview Plus
* Topic Summary Cutter
* Time Lock
* Collapse/expand Categories
* Board-level topic notification
* Improved notification system for topics
* My Favorites
* Security Center
* Sessions for Gmods and Admins
* Nicer Post Form
* Recycle Bin - Especially for the benefit of Dave ;)
* Wysiwyg template editor
* Post color chooser
* More YaBBC options and buttons
* Resize Avatars
* Global announcement board
* Gender and Age access boards
* Advanced/Full templating
* User selectable templates
* User selectable languages
* GMT time system (auto DST)
* Hide Topic
* Greatly improved administrative functions
* The Guardian^TM (security features)
* Live post preview
* Integrated help system
* Global moderators
* Split and splice topics
* URL reference dereferrer
* Member pre-registration
* Support of foreign (multibyte) characters

One of the most useful tools I can think of is the ability to merge threads. All those threads on the same company in the requests section can be tidied up. If someone posts useful information in a new thread, we can move it to the existing one, rather than telling the poster off and removing it.

Dave, I would have thought moving a thread as well would be useful to you to save having to edit the thread and specifically type, "Move: xxx" and then create a new thread in the correct section.

For us, I hope the search is better and it supports the "Any Date" (ie search all posts no matter what date it was created) instead of the default 7 days, along with removing the limitation on how many results can be displayed (currently 25 by default).

YaBB's website indicates its very near completion so hopefully it will be out of Beta stages soon and I assume (well hope) that Daniel would then look at upgrading.

wrote on Sep 14^th, 2005 at 6:14pm:

Dave, I would have thought moving a thread as well would be useful to you to save having to edit the thread and specifically type, "Move: xxx" and then create a new thread in the correct section.

I quite aggree. I was thinking about the most useful improvements that could be made rather than useful functions as a whole. The present version allows moving of threads and leaves a "Moved: " thread behind.


Quote:

For us, I hope the search is better and it supports the "Any Date" (ie search all posts no matter what date it was created) instead of the default 7 days, along with removing the limitation on how many results can be displayed (currently 25 by default).

That would of course make it as simple as possible for people to search. You will also find that the default options only search posts by registered users. So it won't find results for non-registered users, ie before registration became mandatory or for those who have un-registered.

wrote on Sep 14^th, 2005 at 6:47pm:

The present version allows moving of threads and leaves a "Moved: " thread behind...

I didn't know that and just thought that you purposely had to amend the most and put "Move: " in the title and create a new thread in the correct area.

I'm guessing I thought this because when MSE mods move a thread you can actually click on the original thread in its original location and it will re-direct you to the new location that the mod moved it to.

I hope now that for those members that did actually do a search of the forum but nothing was found because of the default search date of 7 days and only 25 results, will be able to find the information they want and therefore not post a new thread/topic anyhow.

Wouldn't it be great if the new software could flash up on the screen the very first time a member posts and informs them that they should provide as much info as possible if making a geo request?

Why would MSE mods move a thread in this context?

wrote on Sep 21^st, 2005 at 8:50am:

Why would MSE mods move a thread in this context?

What I meant was when mods on this forum move a thread (possibly due to being posted in wrong section), the existing thread's title has 'Moved:' in it and the post is changed to say it has moved and provides a link to the new location.

In contrast, when MSE mods have cause to move a thread then the old thread remains but clicking on it (as if to view the old thread) automatically redirects you to the new location.

Due to the way the MSE forum works I thought the mods in this forum had to purposely go into the existing thread and amend the the thread themselves and put 'Move:' in, etc) but Dave points out that this is done for them automatically.

It's obviously just one of those things you expect from forum software that is free to use (as in YaBB) and those that you have to pay for.  If you were paying for the rights to use MSE forum software (as they are) then obviously you would expect it to have some fancy things that YaBB hasn't got.

So when are we going to move over to Yabb V2 now that the final release version is available from http://www.yabbforum.com/downloads.php?  I am a little tired of getting multiple emails for a busy thread with multiple new posts since I last chose to visit it.  Also tired of email links taking me to Page 1 of the thread instead of the active page.

I have recently become a member of the http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl forum for the new Netgem IPlayer section following the closure of http://forum.netgem.com and it just so happens that the Radio and Telly forum were running a more primitive version of YaBB V1 (no ability to change fonts or text colour was available)

And as the threads in that new section of radioandtelly were very busy I kept getting endless update emails so suggested to Pete the Administrator that he considered YaBBV2 earlier in the week.

Having checked matters out Pete was so impressed with the new features of YaBB V2 that he migrated the forum over yesterday without any incident and we do indeed now benefit from not getting multiple email post update messages.

So I was just wondering Daniel, Dave and DaveM when this forum might get round to adopting the YaBB V2 software.  It would seem that upgrading is not a difficult process given how straightforward Pete at Radio and Telly seems to have found it.

See http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1130597674

Just a quick update regarding the new forum software.

We have been trialling the newer version of the current forum software (Version 2) for a couple of months now, and have noticed a few minor issues that I am currently working on.  Once these have been overcome, I will go ahead and convert the forum over to the new software.

This will of course mean that the forum section of the website will be down for a period of time whilst the software is installed and tested.

I will post an update giving as much notice as possible.

Thanks again
Daniel

Daniel,

Many thanks for this.  It seems so long since we heard from you.  I was beginning to worry you had lost interest in this place, given that you don't get caught up in the rabid diatribes about Ofcom etc in which Dave often does participate.

On YaBB V2 the only thing that seemed to go wrong at RadioandTelly was that all the existing message subscriptions were lost although all the past threads posts and forum structure remained.  It might be worth looking into how to avoid Message Subscriptions being lost when you change over.  The other issue was that for users of the Netgem IPlayer the Password box was originally appearing as miniscule but Pete the Administrator there then found a workaround for this.

On the matter of the Ofcom response deadline and encouraging more of the people who come to this website to look up alternative numbers to respond is there any way to initially take them to a page telling them about the consultation (before they can look up a number like one of those annoying advertising pages that the www.airdisaster.com forum has) saying that all is needed is a quick email to the following two email addresses and/or even providing a form to do it on there and then.  And obviously telling people some of the things we think are wrong with Ofcom's ideas like delaying action on 0870 for a further 18 months or more from now and not tackling 0845 at all for years just so that a few residual 0845 ISP ripoff merchants don't lose customers.

It seems to me that if we could flood Ofcom with 500 responses saying they had got it wrong on 0845 numbers they would have to sit up and take notice.

Its good to hear you are still keeping an eye on the forum although it would be nice to see you post in some of the forum threads a little more often? ;)

wrote on Oct 30^th, 2005 at 12:52pm:

I have recently become a member of the http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl forum for the new Netgem IPlayer section following the closure of http://forum.netgem.com and it just so happens that the Radio and Telly forum were running a more primitive version of YaBB V1 (no ability to change fonts or text colour was available) And as the threads in that new section of radioandtelly were very busy I kept getting endless update emails so suggested to Pete the Administrator that he considered YaBBV2 earlier in the week. Having checked matters out Pete was so impressed with the new features of YaBB V2 that he migrated the forum over yesterday without any incident and we do indeed now benefit from not getting multiple email post update messages.

NGM, does your email notifications now take you to the last post for the thread?

Its still taking me to Page 1 Post 1 as far as I can see.

This is only likely to change when the forum moves on to using YaBB V2.

YaBB V2 should stop you getting multiple emails for a subscription to one busy thread when you don't have a chance to visit it for a few hours.  The update emails should also take you to the most current page of the message thread.

Does it take you to the latest post when you are using radioandtelly.co.uk YaBBv2 forum you refer to in an earlier post?

wrote on Oct 31^st, 2005 at 4:01pm:

Does it take you to the latest post when you are using radioandtelly.co.uk YaBBv2 forum you refer to in an earlier post?

YaBB V2 definitely stops the multiple emails on one thread in between forum visits.

I need to subscribe to some threads in the Netgem parts of Radio and Telly that are more than one page to prove the other point.  Nearly all forum software apart from YaBB sends update emails that take you to the currently active forum page rather than Page 1

Hi NGM,

I believe the new software will take you to the last page of the thread (rather than the last post you have read) - Although I will give this a try and double check.

Thanks
Daniel

wrote on Oct 31^st, 2005 at 6:57pm:

Hi NGM, I believe the new software will take you to the last page of the thread (rather than the last post you have read) - Although I will give this a try and double check. Thanks Daniel

Daniel,

I have just checked by joining a multi page thread in the Netgem section of the now YaBB V2 Radio and Telly forum and making a post.

The Update email indeed takes you to the last active page of the thread rather than Page 1.  It also stops you getting endless repeat emails on an active threads for every single new post.  Instead you only get one post the first time a thread you are subscribed to has an update message and then not until you visit the thread again.  This is a particular advantage if you go on holiday, where in Yabb V1 an active thread can cause you to be sent loads of duplicate update emails for a single active thread.

Thanks for letting me know.

I will try and get the forum issues ironed out, and then get it upgraded as soon as possible.

Thanks again
Daniel

wrote on Oct 31^st, 2005 at 7:07pm:

Thanks for letting me know. I will try and get the forum issues ironed out, and then get it upgraded as soon as possible. Thanks again Daniel

Perhaps you should ask Pete, the forum administrator at http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk for some advice as he seemed to do the upgrade without much of a hitch on Saturday.  Of course YaBB V2 has only been out as an official release version (rather than as a Beta) for a month or so.

The main thing that went wrong with Pete's upgrade was losing all the message subscriptions for existing forum users.  May be worth asking on the YaBB forum why they think this might happen during an upgrade.