TTF Upgrade

[Ian]

Hello everyone!

My name is Ian and I took over the running of TomTom Forums from Blaine, who has done a great job of building the community here .

You may have noticed a new look when you logged on today, which was part of a necessary forum upgrade to fix bugs in the old forum software. We're now fully patched and using the latest versions of all the addons . At the same time, the design was changed to make use of some of the new code (including advertising removal for members!).

Over the coming weeks there will be more improvements to the site, based on the feedback from you all. I've already implemented a few changes that I think will be of help, such as speeding up the forum backend - plus smaller cosmetic changes like adding a new post button in the top right of the screen.

I'm still working on a few items, such as forum icons - which should be up and running very soon indeed.

A big hello from me and I look forward to chatting to you all on TTF and working to improve the site even further :wave:. This really is an excellent community and I'm going to work hard to make sure it continues to thrive!

 

[gatorguy]

I really like the changes, but they were such an upgrade from yesterday that I thought I'd landed at the wrong site at first.

 

[Ian]

Really pleased you like the changes gatorguy . I've got all of the icons up and running now and just need to add a few extra graphics (user badges) and then we're all set for now.

Over the coming weeks I'll build some further improvements based on what the mods and users want to see - I'm looking forward to a how-to/article section .

 

[ertyu]

I find it really difficult or impossible to tell which forums have new posts now.

 

[Ian]

I find it really difficult or impossible to tell which forums have new posts now.

Thanks for the feedback ertyu! The forum icons come with an overlay if there is a new post in the forum - so you'll see a little green circle in the top corner that looks like this:

If that's not enough to distinguish them, I can look in to other ways of doing this

 

[Andy_P]

Could the green circle be just a bit larger?
If that's not possible, I've seen it done on other forums where the icons are pale if there are no new posts and bright if there are.

 

[Ian]

Yep, it should be possible to make it a little larger - although it may overlay too much of the forum icon then, so I'll have a little tinker to see what can be done .

 

[Arno]

Hello Ian,

Congratulations for having taken over the list and thank you for making improvements.

Having a 930 there is very little I can contribute these days and mostly pop in here after getting an eMail notification when some one replies to a subscribed post.

I used to go to Quick Links > New Posts and really appreciate the dedicated Get New Posts button you added.

Not having opened the Forums page I have not yet seen the seen the green (+) symbol, but I fully agree with Andy_P that the bright vs. shaded colour for new/read forums is good (when it works).

Maybe I am not looking in the right place but I could not find the Edit button when trying to correct the language in a post I made yesterday. (I couldn't find the button for the URL of the individual post either, else I would have embedded it in the previous sentence.)

Thank you,
Arno

 

[Ian]

Hi Arno,

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you like the changes . I've added post number to the corner of posts (should be visible to everyone that is logged in), so it should now be possible to post direct links if needed.

There may be some changes to the forum layout in the coming weeks (a few of the moderators are away at the moment, so we're going to discuss it once everyone is back), so I'm going to hold off making changes to the post icons until then to save some work. It sounds like it's an area that needs improving .

The edit button has a time limit to it, which is around 30 mins IIRC - as I noticed that spammers was posting genuine looking posts and then going back to edit them. I'll see if there's a way to open this up for established members like yourself . In the meantime, feel free to PM me if any manual edits need making.

 

[Arno]

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you like the changes. I've added post number to the corner of posts (should be visible to everyone that is logged in), so it should now be possible to post direct links if needed.

That is what I tried to find. Thank you!

, so I'm going to hold off making changes to the post icons until then to save some work. It sounds like it's an area that needs improving.

I have since looked a the forums page and would not request a change. It is visible and prominent as is.

The edit button has a time limit to it, which is around 30 mins IIRC -[ ... ] I'll see if there's a way to open this up for established members like yourself. In the meantime, feel free to PM me if any manual edits need making.

No, there is no need to bother you or a a moderator as there was no factual error, just bad grammar. I rephrased the third sentence and left in the put in front of poi.dat.

Thanks for your swift reply.

 

[ertyu]

Yep, it should be possible to make it a little larger - although it may overlay too much of the forum icon then, so I'll have a little tinker to see what can be done .

Something more significant would be better imho. The current style cannot be determined from a glance, it instead requires a careful study of each icon.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Hello Ian, I have a post in the POI section that I have been updating every month or two with new info in the attached zip files. Is there a way to edit my post, or is there a way to freshen my attached files without replying to my own post? The post I am referring to is https://www.tomtomforums.com/gas-stations/24782-ethanol-free-gas-stations-usa-pure-gas.html Thanks, Russ Baker

 

[Ian]

Hi Aiken,

I've temporarily removed the post edit restictions (so you can edit the post at anytime), but I'll try and put in a longer term fix once we get a few more things on the forum sorted (perhaps so that members with over 50 posts can edit posts at anytime) as this will bypass the spam problem.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Hi Aiken,

I've temporarily removed the post edit restictions (so you can edit the post at anytime), but I'll try and put in a longer term fix once we get a few more things on the forum sorted (perhaps so that members with over 50 posts can edit posts at anytime) as this will bypass the spam problem.

Thanks! I have done my edit so I promise not to pester you for a while.

 

[spider362]

Hi Ian,

Nice work on the new forum layout.

One question:

On the old layout I used to be able to double click on the forum icon to mark all posts in that forum as Read.
Can that be done in this new format?
It sure is a lot easier than having to hunt down the Mark all Posts Read link in Forum Tools.

 

[Ian]

Hi spider362, I've had a look and it doesn't look like that's active at the moment - let me see if there's a way to do that .

 

[spider362]

Thanks Ian.

 

[Ian]

I've had a look around the source code and I can't see why it's not working, so this may take a little longer to fix than I had hoped .

 

[spider362]

Okay. Thanks for looking into it.

 

[canderson]

I've had a look around the source code and I can't see why it's not working, so this may take a little longer to fix than I had hoped .

I use it now and again, too, so here's hoping that you are able to figure this one out.