GateWorld Forum Software Upgrade! (Questions & Requests)

[GateWorld]

Hi, Friends!

As Skydiver recently posted, we are preparing to upgrade our forum software to vBulletin 5. GateWorld Forum has been on version 4 for nearly 11 years, so this will be our first big back-end change in a long time. But it's also the latest version of the same software, so the interface and features you are used to should more or less continue to be familiar.

The new software will give us a few new features as well as a polish to the interface. It will also stabilize some back-end issues that Greg, our server admin, has been holding together with twine and unicorn tears for some time now.

What to Expect:

Barring any unforeseen issues with the software implementation, your GateWorld Forum account, settings, avatar, signature, profile page, etc. should all move forward. You may be asked to log in again.

The forum template will temporarily revert to the default vBulletin skin -- so it won't look like GateWorld when you visit. Not to worry! Once Greg has upgraded the software, it's my job to reskin the forum to look like the rest of the site. Your patience is appreciated.

After this is done, we'll take feedback and questions here in this thread. If something is missing, doesn't work the way you think it should, etc., you can post it here and we will see if we can get it implemented. (If there are outstanding issues with the forum interface, this will also be the time to make new requests.)


How You Can Help:

In addition to providing testing and troubleshooting feedback after the rollout of vBulletin 5, we'd like to take this opportunity to refresh our offerings of member avatars.

If you fancy yourself a designer, you can send your creations to: [email protected]. Avatars should be square, optimized for the Web. Please hold off on creating these until we confirm the dimensions that we need for the new theme.

Thank you!

[GateWorld]

UPDATE (1/14): Thanks to Greg's genius we are testing the new forum software in a dev environment and overcoming some hurdles. This will significantly lessen the impact of the upgrade on the member community.

Our current ETA for the rollout is next week. Stay tuned!

[SGalisa]

Okay... not sure if this is connected to the software issues, but...
I noticed the topic headers are not appearing in some topics by comment replies to the original start...
such as
Re: The Covid19 thread
Re: Ask the Moderators

That sort of stuff is happening. Not that it matters to me, but thought I'd mention it just in case.
Do I need to put the title in myself? I just did it here, because it wasn't showing up.

[GateWorld]

FYI, to everyone:

I'm noticing on the new forum build that vBulletin has actually removed some features and page elements we have grown accustomed to in our nearly 17 years using their software. That includes this one you bring up, SGalisa. So far I've noted:

• There is no separate member Profile picture. vB5 will use your avatar as your main profile pic.
• There are no longer any site-provided avatars. If you are using one of GateWorld's Stargate avatars it will carry over to vB5 -- but the options are no longer available to pick from. What we'll probably do here is allow all usergroups (or Basic Trainee and above) to have custom avatars, and then provide a separate page of Stargate avatars you can pick from to manually upload to your profile.
• "Re: [Topic]" no longer appears above each post. This field has been removed from the reply editor.
• The Quick Navigation forum jump at the bottom of each page has been removed. I'm looking for ways to hack something similar here, but it won't be present at launch.
• There is no "Go Advanced" message posting editor. Instead the "Quick Reply" box at the bottom of thread pages has become the main reply editor. (It has the full editor toolbar and the Preview option.)
• Thread navigation has the page buttons -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, etc. -- at the bottom but not at the top. The top of thread pages has a spot where you can arrow to the preview/next page, or manually enter the page number you wish to jump to.
• The boxes at the bottom of most pages are gone. This includes things like the icon legend on the forum home page, and the Posting Permissions on thread pages.

vB5 also brings some new things for us to enjoy, though. For one, there is an instant messaging service for members (as well as lots of back-end admin tools).

[planet_tv]

If you're looking for an idea for the Quick Nav. Bar, here is one. On my forum, Proboards is what I use, there is a bar that floats down the page of a thread as you scroll. Maybe something like that would work.

Here's a picture of the bar:
NavBar1.JPG

Here's a link to a page on my forum, so you can see the bar in action: https://planettv1.proboards.com/thread/1049/old-plot

[Falcon Horus]

There is no separate member Profile picture. vB5 will use your avatar as your main profile pic.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this bit but I just checked "my profile" page and I'm still seeing the "lemming on the shoulder of Heightmeyer" as opposed to "Heightmeyer without the lemming" in my avatar.

So... did you fix that or is there another profile-page I'm unaware of?

[Darren]

We're still on vB4 ... I'm just warning you about what is coming when vB5 rolls out!

[Falcon Horus]

We're still on vB4 ... I'm just warning you about what is coming when vB5 rolls out!

Oh... I thought we'd switched already since I wasn't able to connect to GW earlier during the day -- on 2 separate occasions.

Nevermind then...

[Darren]

Hey, folks!

We are getting very close to ready for our upgrade to vBulletin 5!

One change ahead is that custom avatars -- long a perk for our most active and long-suffering members -- will now be open to everyone. However all of our built-in Stargate avatars will no longer be available to easily choose for your avatar.

So, to compensate for this, we're going to offer a big page full of free Stargate avatars for members to save and upload as their custom avatar!

That's where you come in. We need your help -- especially if you have some design skills -- to help us create a whole bunch of new Stargate avatars for the community to use. You can make a batch (ideally all themed to look the same, covering things like main characters, supporting characters, one specific show, aliens, enemies, ships, etc.), zip them together, and e-mail or share them with: [email protected]

While you are free to utilize any of the photos and screen captures in the Stargate Gallery, please take care not to just grab another fan's creative work off of Google Images, DeviantArt, etc.

All avatars should be 160 x 160, saved as .jpg or .png, and optimized for the Web.

If you create or utilize your own fan artwork for the avatars, we'll of course credit you on the new avatar selection page.

Thanks for your contributions!

[Darren]

For everyone currently using a custom avatar:

Our new avatar size will be 160 x 160. If you keep your current avatar and it's pretty close to that (our current upload limit is 150 x 150), it will scale up and look just fine. If it is much smaller -- say, more like 100px wide or smaller -- you'll see a loss of resolution when it is scaled up (... i.e., your avatar will appear fuzzy).


Non-square avatars:

If you are using a horizontal image, see above. The new standardized width is 160, and it will display normally if it is less than 160px tall at that width.

If you are using a vertical image, it will be cropped square. If you really, really want to keep the vertical look, you could add transparent pixels to the side and save it at 160x160.


Profile pictures:

Last but not least, vBulletin has dropped separate profile pictures in the new software. Instead your avatar will appear on your profile page. If you wish to save your current profile picture, now is the time to make an offline copy! After the upgrade you won't be able to retrieve this image.

[Darren]

One additional hiccup has cropped up, and vBulletin tells us that it is a known BUG that unfortunately we won't be able to overcome.

If you have uploaded a Signature Picture image to use in your sig, it likely will not migrate successfully to vB5. (Instead the text "sigpic" will display in its place.) You'll simply need to edit your signature and re-upload your sig picture after we upgrade the software.

We can offer instructions on how to retrieve this image after the update has happened. However I'd suggest you save a local copy now, so you have it ready to upload again.

If you don't have a picture in your signature, or if you've inserted an image URL for a picture hosted elsewhere, your signature will be unaffected.

[imzadi35]

Is there a reason for the ads that pop up? They're annoying to me, and I HATE having to shut them down after loading each new page. What gives?!

[ScifigirlSG]

I can't view anything on Gatew\World. Ghostery Ad blocker seems to be working. I tried a half dozen others but had problems.

[SGalisa]

FYI, to everyone:

I'm noticing on the new forum build that vBulletin has actually removed some features and page elements we have grown accustomed to in our nearly 17 years using their software. That includes this one you bring up, SGalisa. So far I've noted:

• "Re: [Topic]" no longer appears above each post. This field has been removed from the reply editor.

Thank you for the clarification. At least I now know that I didn't press something to wipe out the topic title in my post or do some "domino effect" that wiped the same thing off of anyone else's post on the page.

[SGalisa]

Is there a reason for the ads that pop up? They're annoying to me, and I HATE having to shut them down after loading each new page. What gives?!

I just ignore the ads. They help support this website. So, I let them run while posting. Haven't had any slow down issues. However, when I log on, my screen freezes up in the log-in box, and I have to recycle the page to load again. It's usually okay on the 2nd round.

Beyond that, the page just keeps hiccupping while I type... because the ads keep changing in size or location.