CR Upgrade

[jimsflies]

Just a heads up that we are working on upgrading CaptiveReefs! I'm excited about the updated look, the ease of use, faster load times, and enhanced features this upgrade is going to bring to our community.

As of right now, I am shooting for this to happen on Monday (January 20). CR will be offline for most of the day as we work on upgrading. While we are working to minimize issues, I anticipate some unforeseen problems that will need to be sorted out after the upgrade. Obviously, we will work hard to minimize the downtime and problems.

I will continue to give updates to everyone over the weekend.

A big thanks to Rabidgoose and the other mods for helping with debugging and providing input on the new site. It has a lot of cool new features.

[MizTanks]

Great! Like I don't have enough hardships in my life as it is! Go ahead Jim just throw another wrench into my life, UGH!! LOL :)


Sent from my iPhone 4s via Tapatalk.

[Jamesr]

Yes its looking good!!

[Coral Frenzy]

I was lucky enough to be chosen to make a couple of test post on the new layout. It looks great and very easy to use.
Great Job Jim!!!!!!!

[dputt88]

A WHOLE DAY WITHOUT LOGGING ON!!!! what am i going to do with all of this extra time???

[ReefTech]

As a mod, I've been playing around on the site and all I've got to say is Jim has done an amazing job getting this upgrade up and running for the Captive Reefs community.it's very smooth and fast and has a very sharp look to it.very excited for the launch of the new site to hear the feed back from the rest of the community.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

[jimsflies]

Just a heads up, we'll be taking CR offline tomorrow around 7:30 am EST.

If all goes well we'll be back online within a few hours. :)

[ReefTech]

Getting excited

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

[Dmmz]

I really like the updated look hope everybody else does

[jimsflies]

Ok...back online. This was a long day and frankly there are a several significant issues left to go.

Hope you guys like the new, streamlined layout! And cool new features.

[dlhirst]

Jim, the site loads VERY quickly from my office T1 line. Previously, it was not as quick to load. I will try it tonight from the iPad to see if anything looks wonky there. But, Opera is rendering it beautifully!

My only criticism (and it IS minor) - I don't "get" the envelope icons. Or maybe I just don't like them. But, they are plain, and terribly numerous, and maybe something more fishy could go there? Rather than just changing colors (for purposes I have yet to divine), maybe the entire icon could be different - to break up that tower of mail. It looks like my pile of bills to pay!

Just two cents. And, once you get INTO a post, it looks great!

[jimsflies]

Those icons will likely go away... there is much work to be done.

The site should load even quicker once I resolve the errors. :)

[ReefTech]

Great work Jim! ! ! Thanks for all your hard work and dedication to provide the community with an amazing upgrade to what already was a great forum:big_grin:

[Coral Frenzy]

Great Job Jim!!!!
The site looks great!!!!!

[jimsflies]

Its coming along... knocking the issues off slowly but surely.

[dputt88]

Will there eventually be a homepage or chat box showing recently active threads?

[jimsflies]

@dputt88 (http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/member.php?u=13372096) - The chat was a bad indicator of new posts. The reason being is posts made with tapatalk didn't register in there. I think people would look at that and think nothing had happened when in fact there were several new posts made with tapatalk.

With that said, I am going to bring back chat, but it will be on its own page with a tab in the navbar.

The new site has a Live Feed on the side column which automatically updates when a new post is made (its right below our new "Ask a Question" box. (I haven't tested it with tapatalk yet...but I hope it works. :))

[Dmmz]

I can't get on with tapatalk right now

[jimsflies]

On the second half of your question, yes we will have a home page (or portal page) which will show a summary of new posts, articles, tank updates, etc. It will be the landing page when you type in captivereefs.com. However, the logo at the top of the header is set to take you to forum home. I think that with the live feed and ask a question box, and other recent posts in the side column most folks will want to hang on the forum home page.

[jimsflies]

I can't get on with tapatalk right now

I'll look into that right now then. thanks for the heads up.

[Rpalt1]

Nice job looking good Jim Thank you for your hard work

[Dmmz]

You did a great job on here I will be using this more now instead of tapatalk except when I am at work

[jimsflies]

There is a mobile style...I think it loads by default right now if you are on a mobile device. I actually need to work on that too now that I think about it. :blackeye: (You can switch to the normal style if you are on forum home, there is an option to go to full site at the bottom of the page.)

I believe tapatalk is now working!

[Dmmz]

tapatalk is working thanks Jim

[jimsflies]

I also wanted to mention that we will be sorting the coral forum back out into their respective full forums. It was felt that Coral was too important of a topic to leave it to a bunch of prefixes. :)

[jimsflies]

test post from tapatalk

[jimsflies]

Yup tapatalk feeds into the live forum feed as well. :) So this is a better situation than we had with the chat box for checking new posts. (Of course Recent Posts and New Posts are available on the navbar under Forum tab and What's New tab.)

[ReefTech]

Hello....this is just a test

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

[jimsflies]

Chat is back online now... lets try it on the navbar as a tab for now. If we miss it too much on forum home we can bring it back. I just don't think it was getting the use as a chatbox. But I personally do enjoy the feature and would like to see it get used like it did in the past. :)

here's a direct link:
http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/vbshout.php?do=detach&instanceid=1&tabid=69

[youngtimothy]

I still can't find the home page, I must be brain dead. Home takes me to the forums page.

[jimsflies]

youngtimothy Well right now we only have a forums page. I will be rolling out the new homepage soon though. :)

[MizTanks]

I'm missing the LIKE button & jimsflies isn't an option either. Is it just with Tapatalk these features are no longer available?

[jimsflies]

@MizTanks (http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/member.php?u=2722) (and others) - The company that made the script that we used for "Likes" went out of business and I don't have the software for our upgraded site.

The good news is, I have a replacement that I will be installing shortly that will import all of our old "likes" so we won't lose anything. The likes system will be available on CR for use with a browser.

Now here's the bad news, as of right now the new likes system isn't supported by tapatalk. However, I have talked with the developers and they have reached out to tapatalk to try to get incorporated into their software. Given that the company that tapatalk integrates with is no longer in business, my guess is this functionality will be added. But it may take some time.

I'm not sure what you mean by "@jimsflies isn't an option either". I don't use tapatalk very often so you might need to fill me in on this one... I mostly use it in a pinch when I have slow internet when I'm out and about.

[youngtimothy]

Thanks, I'm not going crazy!

[MizTanks]

When I mention another members name with the @ in front of their name, which links you to their profile. This no longer works, at least on Tapatalk.

[Hopkins]

MizTanks -- Just testing out the feature using Chrome.

[jimsflies]

MizTanks testing in tapatalk

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[jimsflies]

It still creates a mention but in tapatalk, it doesn't link to the person's profile.

[MizTanks]

Good to know as I'll stop using it now-lol.

[jimsflies]

Not sure I follow you, the idea of the mention is to let a user know they may be needed in a particular discussion thread.

We use mentions a lot in our meet and greet forum, to let the new member know there is a discussion thread where they are being talked about. Of course there are other reasons to, but I have noticed you using them there and would still encourage it, even though it doesn't make a link on tapatalk. (It may be possible to make that happen still, but the links IMO are secondary to the notification.)

:)

[creefer]

Nice work, Jim and the entire CR team. The new site looks great!

[MizTanks]

Not sure I follow you, the idea of the mention is to let a user know they may be needed in a particular discussion thread.

We use mentions a lot in our meet and greet forum, to let the new member know there is a discussion thread where they are being talked about. Of course there are other reasons to, but I have noticed you using them there and would still encourage it, even though it doesn't make a link on tapatalk. (It may be possible to make that happen still, but the links IMO are secondary to the notification.)

:)

Well in that case I'll keep using it-lol :) Thank you for the great work Jim!

[jimsflies]

Is the site loading better?

I think most people saw that we have a likes system again now too. Everyone's previous likes were imported successfully as well. :)

[MizTanks]

No "like" option via TT.

[jimsflies]

No "like" option via TT.

Yup... the likes will not be on tapatalk for the foreseeable future. The company that made that script is out of business. :(

Have you tried getting on the site with the browser instead of tapatalk? I've been working hard to make it lean and fast. It might not be that bad on the browser (safari), then you'll have full featured access.