Spectator 5.0 still a work in progress.

Wayne

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Hello again ladies and gentlemen,

Since about 11am this morning (Saturday, 8/1 EST), I have begun the upgrade for our little block of the world to "v5.0"...

Since we were effectively road-blocked from upgrading for several moons, this was no small feat, but we were finally able to gather the necessary software -- and in some cases find replacement software -- to get us where we need to be.

This included;
  • Xenforo 1.4.10 (upgraded from 1.1.2)
  • A new theme (UI.X) which is modular and should help future-proof us.
  • A new (paid) version of the software that adds the "recent posts" list to the front page.
    This was the part that was abandoned earlier, making it impossible for us to upgrade.
All is not (yet) perfect.

As I said, I've been at it about 7 hours now, and I'm mentally broken. You may notice a few weird things that either don't work the way they should, or have changed. The biggest of which seems to be the tiny, tiny Salemspectator logo shrunken at the top of the screen.

PLEASE BE AWARE that I know about most of it, as I do the missing media gallery, calendar, and other options. Those are second-chair to our upgrade, the biggest part being "make it so it works first, then add the other stuff later...

If you don't mind, I'm going to take a break, as in a "go watch a movie and drink a beer to unwind" break and I'll pick up things either later tonight, or probably tomorrow with a fresh (and hopefully showered) head.

Thanks for your understanding, and if you do see anything that you believe I don't know about, please post it to a reply here. I may not respond quickly, but I'll get round-to-it...

Thanks,

Wayne
 
The format is different so it's easier for people with smart phones right?
It's interesting to see how the pages move differently.
 
Yep.

One of the big things about UI.X (the theme engine I chose) is that the site design is now "responsive", meaning if you're on a cellphone, it falls to one column and shrinks the header logo and stuff to match.

If you wanna try it, just shrink the size of your browser window to about the same dimension as your smart phone. Same if you're on an iPad of one of those icky "Android" knockoffs (just joking guys)... :)
 
Gonna be fun finding out what some of the icons are for, and DO NOT WORRY, is not important right now. Just crack open the beer, put your feet up, and enjoy that movie. and THAT is an order! LOLOL
 
Updates:
  1. I've had my beer and watched a movie, so back to the wheel...
  2. If someone's online, you'll notice a little "radar blink" in the top left of their avatar. Nifty.
  3. Facebook logins are now working...
  4. When reading a thread, you can highlight a piece of text and a popup will allow you to reply quoting that text only. One of the neat little things we're discovering...
  5. The "Media" and "Events" tabs which were on the previous site will be unavailable for a while.
    The same author who abandoned the previous front page module in favor of a paid option has also done the same for both media and events modules. To be honest, I'm not quite certain I want to pay him for them without guarantee that he won't do the same later, so I'm searching for a free or at least cheaper option.
Everything should be getting back into shape. A little different, but it should be better in several ways, especially when using a phone or tablet. I'm testing out the various Google Fonts to see which is most readable. Currently we're using Monserrat but if you see one you think is more readable, please let me know...

Wayne
 
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Thanks Wayne! I love it. The site looks great and I love the green blinking light to let you know if members are online. So techy! I can't wait to explore to see what other new things await.
 
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Wayne, I've been using my iPad all night and have noticed on the Home Page that it is very difficult to distinguish between read posts and new posts. The new ones are usually bonded and right now they all appear to be the same font style. Not sure if that is something that can be fixed but wanted to point it out.
 
The new ones are usually bonded and right now they all appear to be the same font style
I'm guessing you meant "bold" text instead of bonded, but yeah, that might be a font issue. I didn't realize that it doesn't display the "new" icon on the portable devices, but I'll fall back to using Open Sans font instead of Monserrat (which is a heavier weight font by default).

Still playing with the fonts, but let me know if that helped?

Wayne
 
Wayne

You're doing an awesome job on the updated site. Thanks for all your dedicated hard work. Kudos!!

edited to unbold comment - JS
 
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Thank you, Oh Wizard Behind The Curtain. Is it time to donate to the Spectator upgrade fund again? Please let us know.

Have to admit that I started to panic when I popped in a few minutes ago for the first time since early Saturday morning. This was the first place that I came to after Windows 10 finished installing a few minutes ago. My first thought was (cleaned up language so Poirot and Just Samantha don't have to correct / warn me in red) ......."What the heck! Windows 10 messed with my Spectator!!! :angry: I want Windows 7 back!" :rotfl: I'm glad that I finally found this thread. Now time to sleep.

WOW, that is really neat that the smileys all appear and stay underneath your post when you click on the icon. That saves a few clicks when using them.
 
edited to remove unnecessary quote - JS

Thank you Wayne for all your time and energy. You are much appreciated. ShaSha
 
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Wayne I'm noticing when I revisit topics, I'm put in middle of next response instead of top of it.
Does that make sense. It's easy to move arrow back up a little. I wanted to let you know
 
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