Author Topic: forum link suggestion  (Read 6844 times)

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forum link suggestion
« on: July 24, 2008, 02:14:21 PM »

Offline zerophase

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on other forums the path information is clickable, making browsing much easier. what i mean is:

CelticBlog Forums > CelticsBlog > Comments & Remarks > Start new topic

would all be links.

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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2008, 02:23:36 PM »

Offline RockinRyA

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yeah thats what im used to. it would make browsing and posting a lot easier

Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2008, 02:24:28 PM »

Offline Roy Hobbs

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We actually do have links like that that are clickable.  Look below the menu that reads Home / Chat / Forums / Links / CSL / (Etc., Etc.)

There, you'll find the links you're looking for.

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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2008, 02:22:29 PM »

Offline zerophase

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well what i'm saying is that say i just finished reading a topic or posting in a topic under celtics talk. the directory goes: CelticBlog Forums > Celtics Basketball > Celtics Talk

instead of going to the home page and then clicking on celtics talk again, i would like to be able to go directly to it from the posted topic. its just a matter of convience, hence the suggestion title.

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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2008, 03:12:03 PM »

Offline Roy Hobbs

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well what i'm saying is that say i just finished reading a topic or posting in a topic under celtics talk. the directory goes: CelticBlog Forums > Celtics Basketball > Celtics Talk

instead of going to the home page and then clicking on celtics talk again, i would like to be able to go directly to it from the posted topic. its just a matter of convience, hence the suggestion title.

I guess I don't understand what you're saying, because I think we *do* have those links.  For instance, at the top of this thread, we have clickable links that say " Home -> Forums -> CelticsBlog -> Comments & Remarks -> forum link suggestion".

Those are located between the menu bar and the Yardbarker advertisement, at the top of the page.  It's located on the same line as the "About Us" and "Contacts" links.

All the negativity in this town sucks. It sucks, and it stinks, and it sucks. - Rick Pitino

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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2008, 03:23:23 PM »

Offline cordobes

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well what i'm saying is that say i just finished reading a topic or posting in a topic under celtics talk. the directory goes: CelticBlog Forums > Celtics Basketball > Celtics Talk

instead of going to the home page and then clicking on celtics talk again, i would like to be able to go directly to it from the posted topic. its just a matter of convience, hence the suggestion title.

I guess I don't understand what you're saying, because I think we *do* have those links.  For instance, at the top of this thread, we have clickable links that say " Home -> Forums -> CelticsBlog -> Comments & Remarks -> forum link suggestion".

Those are located between the menu bar and the Yardbarker advertisement, at the top of the page.  It's located on the same line as the "About Us" and "Contacts" links.

It took me a month to discover that, I confess in shame. And here and there I still click on the directory bellow the "Home Help  Search  Profile  My Messages  Calendar  Members  Logout" chain (the one I believe zerophase is talking about). I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, anyway.     

Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2008, 08:14:22 PM »

Offline Bob Day

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There are two such breadcrumbs trails (pathways) here. One is for the main site and everything within it including the forums. The other, which you see here is for the forums only. The latter is generated from the SMF forum software we are currently running. The reason it doesn't work is because it creates layout conflicts like crazy when enabled with live linking and skews the forums layout.

The problem originates between CSS conflicts between the main site and the forums. The forums breadcrumbs aren't needed here, but unfortunately they can't simply be disabled in the forums software, so I would have to hack the SMF core in order to get rid of them. That is not a good solution and even fixing the issue from what is already a very highly customized forum design approach would require some hacking so I decided it wasn't worth fooling with.

So, the SMF pathway displayed is just an indicator and nothing more. This won't be an issue much longer as we move into CB5. That setup will employ new software and be much different in some ways from what we have now...including the pathway thingy.
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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2008, 09:03:44 PM »

Offline BudweiserCeltic

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The only thing that bugs me about the links below the menus is that if you try to go to them fast and miss, the menus will expand and block the bread crumb link you want to click. Then you need to play around with the menu a bit to make it go away and try again.

Nothing major, but since we're on topic, I thought I'd put in my 2 cents... or simply something to keep in mind for the future.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2008, 09:10:58 PM by BudweiserCeltic »

Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2008, 11:04:43 PM »

Offline Bob Day

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The only thing that bugs me about the links below the menus is that if you try to go to them fast and miss, the menus will expand and block the bread crumb link you want to click. Then you need to play around with the menu a bit to make it go away and try again.

Nothing major, but since we're on topic, I thought I'd put in my 2 cents... or simply something to keep in mind for the future.
Hey, BC. I'll add a note to the CB5 development tickets...

  • Try to compensate for overly excited, out of control users. Look into legally dispensing cyber-versions of mood stabilizers not unlike those used to treat manic rapid-cycling in BPI patients.

Thanks, buddy!
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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2008, 11:23:43 PM »

Offline zerophase

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hmm... celtics blog 5 you say? are you redoing the forums like last time where we'll have to register again?

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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2008, 10:27:32 AM »

Offline Bob Day

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hmm... celtics blog 5 you say? are you redoing the forums like last time where we'll have to register again?
No, everyone will be imported into the new database so nobody will have to re-register. I've already tested that and it works just fine. There will be some big changes though. For one, new members will register through the Joomla main site instead of through the forums as they currently do. All third party software will be authenticated from and synchronized with Joomla (our main site) automatically on the fly.

That change will be important for a number of reasons. One, it will make it possible for us to connect all sorts of software to CB that we can't currently. Secondly, it looks like due to licensing issues, we'll be moving away from SMF and going to phpBB3 for our forums. That presents a problem. phpBB3 handles registration records differently from what SMF does. It has limits on the length of usernames and on what characters are used.

What we see is that SMF to phpBB3 converters just don't work very well and as a result, my fellow developers have been having nightmares trying to import posts and other data from SMF to phpBB3. Most SMF features don't import, posts don't always import correctly or render correctly even if they do import, users and posts are not always associated with one another properly and a number of user registrations get wrecked so naturally those people can't log into the site.

On the upside though, it seems I can import our member database info into Joomla and phpBB3 will use it just fine. So what I'm considering is since so much from SMF either wouldn't convert to phpBB3 or import properly, I want to archive these current forums so that they remain completely intact and just start fresh with phpBB3. These forums would be still be easily available but in read only format as will probably this entire current website.

So aside from the membership being retained, practically everything in CB5 will probably be brand new with CB4 still around as an archive.
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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2008, 11:07:27 AM »

Offline zerophase

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sounds great. when can we expect this update?

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Re: forum link suggestion
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2008, 12:21:33 PM »

Offline Bob Day

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sounds great. when can we expect this update?
I'm hoping we'll be able to introduce CB5 in either August or September. Really it mostly just boils down to me being able to get back to it and spend some significant amounts of time with it. I have a test site going right now that I've used mostly just for testing design, software and features. It has helped me work through a lot of the issues that will be involved in developing the site but I'm actually thinking about scrapping it and starting a fresh new version that will be the one we actually use for CelticsBlog.

CB5 is by far the biggest undertaking we've initiated so far with CelticsBlog. Practically everything about CB5 will be brand new -- designs, software, features, functionality, usability...everything. It is in its conception something Jeff and I have been discussing for at least well over a year and a half. The story with us though is that its always about being able to make time to make things like this happen and that's still what we are up against with this new CB. CB5 will literally represent hundreds of manhours of development. It is ultra-modern and will be on par with the largest commercial (and very pricey) community web projects I've been building for over a decade now.

CB5 is like Blog meets ESPN meets SBNation meets MySpace meets Facebook meets YouTube except way more as it relates to what members will be able to do here. Naturally we have to become less dependent on the blogging format in order to accomplish all of those things. However, I have ways of doing that will not only keep blogging number one around here, but will actually expand it like dynamite. In CB5, all members will have their own blogs here -- or at least as many as want them.

In other words the challenge is to create a site that functions as a sports portal the way ESPN, CSN or CBS Sportsline might, but doing it differently in the sense that we greatly expand what members here can do in terms of blogging, having their own pages, being able to network with others and so on. CB5 will provide members practically every major service they can find anywhere else around the net except that it will all be available right here and it will be all Celtics all day, every day.

In that light one way of understanding CB5 is that it will be more member-centric than the current CB4 or anything we've had before. Folks here will be able to do and enjoy a number of things themselves not possible in the past. Member profiles will take on a new meaning to you all. They will be greatly expanded and become the hub of community here. At the same time though, we won't be diminishing our chat, commenting or forums. Indeed, those will still serve as our main community gathering places. They'll simply be more integrated at the member level and visible in new ways.

So except for a few particulars, I now know what's needed to make CB5 happen. As I said, it's just a matter of me being able to get to it. The issue there is that I'm covered up with paying work and frankly, as much as I love CB, I have a hard time turning down thousands of dollars when people offer it. Call me weak. I am wrapping up some projects right now though and hope to have at least some portion of time freed up in the coming weeks to do things for CB.

However, I have other people either waiting in the wings or mulling new web endeavor over in committee right now so I'm not expecting too much relief. What it will probably boil down to will be that I'll just have to "power through" CB5 in the wee hours. Either way, I am shooting to wrap it up at least enough that we can do an initial launch of it in August or September. It almost certainly will happen. It's just a matter of when in the short term. I hope everyone enjoys it or at least comes to enjoy it. Personally, I think CB5 is going to be a shock to this community. I also think though, it will all work out ok as folks get oriented to it and learn how to have fun with the thing.
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