[VPier]

Greetings Everyone!

Troy gave me Admin access to get this forum upgraded to the latest version, we were at least a year behind in updates.

Current version has much more powerful spam protection that should stop hackers from creating fake users thanks to stronger Captcha methods (Captcha is the random hard to read numbers you see when registering with forums/websites).

I've also changed the age old forum template which hasn't progressed much since 2005, and I've tried as much to make the forum look like it's related to the website front end (Low Bandwidth side).

I hope everyone is happy with the fresh new look.

I'm still busy ironing out any graphic bugs, moving post icons over, etc....

Please let me know if ya stumble upon anything so it can be repaired.

and one final note............HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!

[TB1259]

Thanks Greg for the Update... Damn IPboard updates always confuse me

[VPier]

Well ya just gotta give me a buzz and I weave some of my own God like powers on the forum and upgrade it :D

This upgrade wasn't a small one either, I had to download a FULL copy of the forum (not an update patch as they only had 2.3.5 to 2.3.6 available) and then upload that into a new directory, and rename the old forum directory.

So basically this forum resides in a fresh new forum directory which has nothing in it but whatever was contained in the IP.Board 2.3.6 full install zip file.

So we've got a fairly clean install here, plus the upgrader scanned the database and noticed the update field said it was a 2.2.1 database and bamn off it went, updated from 2.2.1 all the way up to 2.3.6

3.0 is due to come out VERY shortly, and MAN, I've seen the Beta in action, DROOOOOOLS!! Me wants the Precious 3.0 :D

It's got OpenID built into it. What does that mean for TAG Members? Well............how about being able to login to the Detachment forums with your TAG forum account? Better yet, with a bit of coop work with Legion Webmaster, how about being able to login to all Detachments, maybe even every Garrison/Squad in the Legion if all their forums were to have OpenID installed into their forums.

One Login, Many/All 501st Forums, Cool eh? We hope to get this pulled off one day :D

Anywho, I've still got a few things to fix with this new template, upgrades, always full of much work to do there is.

[JT]

Greg,
Love the new forum look. Bloody fantastic. Well done team.
JT.

[VPier]

Thanks JT,

I'm sure the Team will appreciate your thanks, but I worked on the forum update 100% myself till 4-5am last night to get it ready by morning so you folks can use it without too many interuptions. So "Me, Myself and I" (The Team) would like to say thanks to you. I will place credit on the person or persons who did the background image which was injected here on the forum to match the new website.

I'm glad you like the new look, figured we're dying for a change.

I'll be making a few more changes to the forum as there's always little things here and there with the template that isn't finished yet.

[TK-4611]

I'm lovin' it, thanks Greg.

Cheers,

b

[VPier]

Thanks Bruce :D

I'm slowly tweaking bits of green here and there, fixing some issues in the template. But it's turning out pretty nice :D

Gives us a fresh new look we've been desperate for :D

I've also put the user options at the bottom (login, new posts, etc...) as some users wanted it.

[VPier]

Ho'kay, the Gallery is back up and running, but needs some color fixing, especially the buttons, they're blue (From default skin), so they look pretty shocking at the moment.

Anywho, it's 3:06am (at least on my computers clock) and I need to hit the sack.

G'Night :D

[Archetoy]

I fell your pain Greg, I do this for a living too. And it's NO easy thing.

I am available for anything if you need it, it';s a shame, cos i was hoping to rebuild the entire site, and integrate the CMS properly with the forum. I take it you got rid of the Old Joomla site?< prolly a good thing as it was hideously out of date.

Anyhow, if you need a version 3, or need help with this please let me know... I am a graphic designer/web developer.

Also, the contact page, i would obfuscate the email address's or add some tricks to hide them, as spambots will love them. Was also thinking, to make the site more legit, why not start rolling out personal emails for the state reps & web admins.... ie: tk6969@

BTW, the 404 page is funny =)

keep up the great work, we all appreciate it!

[VPier]

Well thanks for comments Ryan, I mainly worked on rebuilding the forum.

KG and David worked on the website, my only part in the website was to suggest that the background be changed from black to dark grey (the background behind all the text) so that it matches the forum a bit more closely as it is heaps more work to tweak a forum to match a site when all that's needed to match the forum is to change one color.

Invision is supposed to release a CMS of their own fairly soon which would integrate extremely well with this forum.

As for Joomla, there's nothing wrong with, it's fairly easy to add pages and create content for it. You just have to learn how to use it.

I agree on the emails, they need to be protected with some kind of script.

I think they've already rolled out emails like that.

404 Page, I think they might have been Meeshs or Daves work.

As for me, I'm exhausted with editing all the bits and pieces on the forum, I think I've uncovered every little nook and cranny that needed fixing, there shouldn't be any graphics or css styling that needs fixing on the forum.

But if anyone sees any blue buttons or whatnot, tell me where you saw them, they'll need to be touched up and replaced :D

[Archetoy]

Awesome work Greg,
Oh, and thats great news BTW, regarding IPB forum integration.
IPB is really pro. I will look @ the IPB CMS skinning.themeing in case you guys roll it and need some help.

Cya!

[VPier]

Well there are supposed to be some free CMS's that are invision friendly, but not as friendly as their own authentic official CMS, which has yet to be released yet, they've been talking about it for agesssssssss.

But anyway, I doubt we'll be ever needing it here, the website is good as it is now, and cheaper :D

[TB1259]

As for the emails, we hit a snag but we will have all co@501tag.com and such happening soon

[VPier]

Hahahaha Boot to the Head ::: fwooosh :::

Okay, now what exactly happened here?

[TB1259]

It's more to do with the administration side of those sites, aka accountability / passwords / etc etc.

I am still working on the best plan for the management side of those address's, discuss it with me later greg or pm me and i'll arrange to get you on the phone

[VPier]

Setting up emails is pretty easy, but we'll need to do some sort of encryption or something on the TAG homepage so that spammers don't steal the email and start bombarding you guys with crap.

Of course depending on the emails you guys want to set up, you can either...

A. Use forwarders that will send the an email like co@501tag.com to bruce@home.com

or

B. Use proper pop3 emails which means they'll need to configure outlook or whatever to grab mail from mail.501tag.com

[Archetoy]

hey Agreg,

Just thought, maybe use recaptcha to help protect the email addresses onthe page:
http://recaptcha.net/plugins/php/

Would be a very useful addition mate.....

[VPier]

Cool, I'll take a gander at it and see how we can implement it.

[TK671]

Saw his over at the rpf today:

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/6488/64604095.jpg
Any chance of a 'Similar Threads' option in our Forum?

:rolleyes:

[TK671]

When I click View New Content it only brings up the very recent new content,

How do I view the previous day's new content or previous new content which is on the same day but a few hours earlier, as per this example:

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4898/unled2copyai.jpg
:P