Captain's Log

[Second Summer]

A few of you may have noticed a few errors this morning while I was upgrading the Tapatalk add-on. Things should be working again now.

 

[Second Summer]

The board was just offline for about 2 minutes while I upgraded the board software to the latest version.

 

[Second Summer]

We just had a brief downtime (~10 minutes) related to an OS update.

 

[Second Summer]

Installed two new add-ons:

1. If you post a link to a site without specifying a description (i.e. just posting the URL and don't bother to use the URL tags and manually insert some description between the start and end URL tags) then this add-on will use the page title and do it for for you.
2. All URLs will be displayed with their favicons.

Examples:
Google
Yahoo UK

 

[Amy SF]

Oh I've seen that already in the Last Thing You Bought? thread. I was wondering what was up.

 

[Second Summer]

Oh I've seen that already in the Last Thing You Bought? thread. I was wondering what was up.

I'm quite happy with these! I only wish there was an add-on that would auto-quote the first paragraph(s) from the target web page, and maybe automatically display thumbnails of one of the images as well. Just like on Facebook.

 

[Second Summer]

New feature only available to contributing members + moderators: Profile cover

 

[Second Summer]

I will imminently start upgrading the forum software. The forum will be unavailable for 5 to 10 minutes (hopefully less).

 

[Second Summer]

I will imminently start upgrading the forum software. The forum will be unavailable for 5 to 10 minutes (hopefully less).

All done. Things are back to normal.

 

[Second Summer]

Have just upgraded the Tapatalk add-on to the latest version.

Have also taken steps to get VV listed in the The Admin Zone Directory.

 

[Second Summer]

This morning I updated our favicon to make it a bit more readable. (Thanks, Blobbenstein!)

I've also just installed an add-on that shows the alert number in the favicon area, and also polls the server more frequently to check for new alerts.

 

[Second Summer]

Some changes to the permissions for user groups:

From now on the "invisible" feature will only be available to contributing members. Contributing members can also have 1 image and as many URLs they want in their signatures.

Regular (approved) members will also be limited to 1 URL in their signature, and no images.

 

[Second Summer]

I've signed up to a new admin board and have become inspired! The ideas about the improved favicon and alerts in the favicon came from there.

You'll see some big changes around here in the coming weeks! I want to rationalize the forum structure (again ....) and then there are a couple of "big feature" add-ons I want to install as well.

Also, a new version of the forum software will be released in a couple of weeks.

BTW, we'll have some downtime possibly this weekend while I upgrade the OS on our server.

 

[Amy SF]

If the "big changes" really slow down my computer, that would be a disaster.

 

[Second Summer]

If the "big changes" really slow down my computer, that would be a disaster.

I don't think they will. Have you had any problems so far? The favicon alerts poll the server more frequently I think, so could potentially slow you down.

 

[Second Summer]

OK, I will start the server OS upgrade imminently. The forum may or may not work for about 1 hour starting now.

 

[Second Summer]

Things are back to normal, more or less. The OS upgrade is complete, though I expect I will need to tinker and tweak with things for a while still.

I don't think our email system is working yet, so that is on my to-do list. Might not have time until tomorrow.

Sorry for the downtime. I should have practised the upgrade on my laptop first, but life is short.

 

[Second Summer]

Email system working again, now on to other issues ...

 

[Second Summer]

It should now be possible to upload attachments again.

 

[Second Summer]

I'll be upgrading the forum software in a few minutes. The forums will be inaccessible for about 5 minutes.