Forum Upgrade to vB 3.6.1

[thomas]

Dear members,

we are going to upgrade to vB's latest version 3.6.0 very soon. The upgrade requires us to close the forum for a short period of time. vB 3.6.0 offers a lot of new features, most of which are described in detail here.

A few highlights:

- Multi-Quote
The much-requested multi-quote feature allows users to tag multiple posts that they wish to respond to by clicking a small button on each post. Once the user clicks the reply button, each tagged post is quoted.

To increase usability, by default, only posts within the current thread are automatically quoted. If you wish to quote posts in other threads with multi-quote, you simply need to click a link on the reply page, and the text of those posts will be added without a reload.

- Mark Forums Read with AJAX
If you wish to mark a forum read, you can simply click its status icon on the index page and the change will be processed without a reload. You can even mark individual sub-forums as read in the same way.

- Quote Tags Link to Quoted Post
When quoting a post, the ID of the post is automatically included with the [quote] tag. When the quoted text is viewed in a thread, a small icon links back to the quoted post.

- New Buddy/Ignore List Editor Saves with AJAX
Along with a new interface, your buddy and ignore lists are saved with AJAX to prevent an unnecessary reload. Additionally to make the interface even easier to use, vBulletin searches for matching users as you type their names.

- Private Message Preview in Notification Emails
If you have elected to receive emails when receiving a new private message, the email will now contain more than just the name of the user who sent you the message. The title and body of the message will be included. Any BB codes in the message will automatically be converted to an equivalent plaintext version using the new plaintext bbcode parser.

- Auto-Resize Oversized Image Attachments
If a user attaches an image that has dimensions larger than the administrator allows, the image will automatically resized to fit. This is similar to the auto-resizing of avatars that vBulletin 3.5 performed.

- ‘Reason for Editing’ Available on Quick Edit
You may now include a reason for editing without having to click through to the full editor.

- Unique Unsubscribe Link in Emails
Thread and forum subscription emails now include a link for unsubscribing that is unique to each user. When using this link, unsubscribing from a thread or forum no longer requires logging in.

- Infraction System !!!
The infraction system allows you and your moderators to flexibly reprimand problem users. Create as many types of infractions as you want to represent any type of rules violation on your board. Each infraction has a controllable weight (points) and an option to allow it to be applied only as a warning, which alerts the user to their violation but doesn’t give them any points. Additionally, the points given to a user for a violation can be automatically removed after a specified amount of time via the Scheduled Tasks system.

The points are used to remove permissions from users that reach specific thresholds. To be more flexible, the existing user group permission system is used. You can see in the screenshot that “Registered Users” who have more than 15 points will have permissions from the “Infractions – Moderate All Posts” group applied, and any user with more than 30 points will get permissions from the “Infractions – Banned” group.

- New Buddy/Ignore List Editor
The new buddy and ignore list editor allows users to be quickly added and removed from your lists, with AJAX-based assistance for name suggestion along the way. If an error occurs such as a user not being found, you can simply correct the error and continue without reloading the page.

- Signature Permissions per User Group
You may now control exactly what users can put in their signatures on a per user group level. Controls include basic character count limits (including or excluding BB code), effective line count limits, and limits on individual BB codes. See the screenshot below for a full list.

..and many other features that will delight mods and admins alike.


One more thing: I am planning on reducing the number of styles to only two or three. I know that this move may cause an outcry of many members, but we need to keep the forum manageable. Also, most of the styles we currently offer are slightly unprofessional and outdated.

Anyhow, hang in there for the upgrade!

[Dutch Baka]

Cool stuff in here! let us know when, and for how long the site is out!

[thomas]

The forum upgrade has been completed. Kindly let me know if you encounter any problems, error messages, broken images, etc.

[ArmandV]

Looks good. No problems so far.

[DoctorP]

just an opinion, but that JREF tatami style is hideous!

[Uncle Frank]

I want my green color back! Us old folks can't handle change!

Poor BLIND Uncle Frank

[thomas]

Originally Posted by CC1

just an opinion, but that JREF tatami style is hidious!

Hideous? Then please use one of our default JREF styles. We will gradually introduce one or two new styles.

[Dutch Baka]

I am looking forward for NEW NEW NEW styles, because the ones that are now here, are a bit borring, and old fashioned

[DoctorP]

It was just an opinion...I like the upgrade though. I just personally don't like either of the styles you chose to load. I can/will wait for other choices though.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Dutch Baka

I am looking forward for NEW NEW NEW styles, because the ones that are now here, are a bit borring, and old fashioned

Don't expect anything flashy, we will keep it simple and ... old-fashioned, lolol.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by CC1

It was just an opinion...I like the upgrade though. I just personally don't like either of the styles you chose to load. I can/will wait for other choices though.

Thanks for your patience & feedback, I will put up a few new styles and let you poll.

[DoctorP]

Originally Posted by thomas

Don't expect anything flashy, we will keep it simple and ... old-fashioned, lolol.

So no psychodelic color schemes then? BTW do you call this tatami style old fashioned?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by CC1

So no psychodelic color schemes then? BTW do you call this tatami style old fashioned?

Nothing psychedelic, I'm afraid. Perhaps after a bottle of awamori. The tatami style is pretty old and looks quite harmless on my screen. As I said: please consider it temporary...

[kirei_na_me]

I happen to like the default. I guess I'm borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring...

[RockLee]

I'm a default too

Auto-Resize Oversized Image Attachments
If a user attaches an image that has dimensions larger than the administrator allows, the image will automatically resized to fit. This is similar to the auto-resizing of avatars that vBulletin 3.5 performed.

They should make that too for uploaded pictures -_-

[Pachipro]

I didn't even notice the upgrade as I was always using the present default color which I think was lavender anyway.

Nice to see that things are always improving here. Thanks for your continuing effort to keep this site a top notch web site.

[misa.j]

Thanks thomas for doing it! Those upgrades are definitely cool.

I expecially like multi-quote, new pm notification and auto-resizing features.

[Dutch Baka]

I like the White style

let@s wait and see for the poll

[Uncle Frank]

it's great that the change over was fast and problem free. Remember the bad ol days when JREF could be down for a week or more with different system changes. God, it was hell checking in a hundred times a day and finding JREF down and out. Keep up the good work admin!

Uncle Frank

PS - I still want my green back, LOL.

[kirei_na_me]

That was pure hell, Frank! Remember we'd e-mail each other back and forth, several times a day, about to go insane from JREF withdrawal?!

[Mikawa Ossan]

Any word on J-Bot?

[Uncle Frank]

Originally Posted by Mikawa Ossan

Any word on J-Bot?

Last I heard, he was in jail on Kyushu for possession of pot and having sex with a minor.

Uncle Frank

[ArmandV]

Found a problem: I was responding in a thread and each time I hit the "submit reply" button, a notice that my post was too short and to add at least 10 characters to it. So I did, but the notice kept popping up.

[Dutch Baka]

testeeeeeeee

It did pop up the first time because of shorter than 10, but when it was longer than 10 it was acting normal

[thomas]

Two more small updates:

- the chat has been upgraded (no functional changes, just security patches)

- user have to update their profiles (required gender field); if you read this post, you've been already been through the procedure, hehe.

Thanks.