405th Community Software Update!

[Jme]

The short answer is no there isn't. The reason for this is that the move to the new platform means you don't need to use Tapatalk or like software to properly view the forum on a mobile device any longer.

What FANGS said... adding to that, we are trying to get our account removed from Tapatalk now that we are more mobile friendly to limit the confusion.

Thanks Art and Fangs. Now that I have opened the site on my mobile, I see what you have done.

Now I just have to bookmark!

 

[Art Andrews]

Thanks Art and Fangs. Now that I have opened the site on my mobile, I see what you have done.

Now I just have to bookmark!

We have ALWAYS hated forcing you to use a third party app to access the site and it was a big motivator to move to this platform.

 

[StayFrosty]

Do you plan to remove the old site? If you google some kind of build, lots of times it pops up with a thread from the old site that can't be viewed, and this might get confusing for some people.

 

[Jme]

We have ALWAYS hated forcing you to use a third party app to access the site and it was a big motivator to move to this platform.

I have always quite liked Tapatalk. I find it very user friendly and I like being able to switch back and forth between forums.

That being said, I completely understand why you have gone to a self-contained site.

The new format is much more conducive to using mobile devices (really the only way I access forums).

The only problem that I am having is seeing photos in threads (sometimes). Depending on how the person has uploaded the photo you may have to open each on individually.

Not really a big deal, just something to get used to.

Keep up the great work!

 

[Art Andrews]

Doing some further looking at the site. I swear I'm trying to be helpful!

• Is there to be a home page? Because currently, the home page hyperlink redirects to the main /forums/ area. Just something I noticed.

Yes sir. There were two reasons we moved to the /forums URL. One was due to the migration itself (very hard to migrated right back into the same root dir). The second and more important reason is that the 405th is MORE than a forum and we wanted to open the root dir to allow for a home page. We won't be able to implement that until we complete the Resource migration, but we are working on it.

Doing some further looking at the site. I swear I'm trying to be helpful!

• RSS feeds - how important are they? The orange colour detracts from the present 405th colour pattern, additionally, maybe I just haven't used RSS before, but it seems a little broken. It doesn't allow you to view additional pages, just the first few posts of a sub-forum, as well as it not displaying the username of the person's thread.

The RSS feed is working properly. The question of whether we need it or not is one I looked into several years ago and the answer was "yes" at the time, but it is certainly something we can look into again.

• This portion of the navigation bar should be gray to fit with the top parts of the nav-bar, similar to the former nav-bar of the 2015 site.View attachment 237969

Let me look into this. I see your point, but let me see what else that effects.

• The bottom of the page is missing the message that we operate with respect to Microsoft's "Game Content Usage Rules". The community guidelines hyperlink is also missing.

Added the Copyright text. Community Link is going to take a bit more work.

• The Facebook 'like' link pushes you to like '405th HALO Cosplay and Prop Maker Community' and not the official 405th Facebook page. Seen here.View attachment 237970

• The 'Tweet' option pushes this message to tweet out, which doesn't actually fit any kind of 'recruitment'/"visit our site" message. More like some kind of bot saying random words and a url.
  View attachment 237971
• However, Google+ does work as intended! So that's a plus.

Will check these two. Thank you for the testing and feedback! This is super helpful!

 

[Art Andrews]

Do you plan to remove the old site? If you google some kind of build, lots of times it pops up with a thread from the old site that can't be viewed, and this might get confusing for some people.

Yup. The minute we have the move of the Resources complete the old site will be taken down. It will take at least 90 days for Google to deindex/reindex us, so there will definitely be a bit of a transition on this from the search side.

 

[Art Andrews]

The only problem that I am having is seeing photos in threads (sometimes). Depending on how the person has uploaded the photo you may have to open each on individually.

Thanks for letting me know. I am not sure that is something we will be able to address... as you said, depending on how the images were uploaded... BUT we have been doing a lot of work with images and maybe that can be addressed as well!

 

[Art Andrews]

Just a note to ALL of you;

Thank you for your support, patience, and testing/reporting. We are not even a week in and things are already shaping up quite nicely, largely to your input. I have done countless migrations over the past year (and for those of you who have been here for more than 5 years, you have endured a few yourself), and they are ALWAYS painful, but this has been one of the smoothest I have been a part of and a lot of that is because of you!

 

[Art Andrews]

Community Guidelines link added.

 

[Art Andrews]

RSS icons removed from nodelist.

 

[Art Andrews]

Regarding the Facebook like link, that is not a "visit out official FB page link" although we should probably get those up. It is simply a link to like the nodelist page, much like there is a link at the bottom of every page to like the page.

 

[Art Andrews]

Regarding the sub-navbar, it is actually a part of the page below it, not a part of the Navigation bar above. That might seem a bit confusing but the sub-navbar applies to the page you are on... it doesn't move you from section to section like the navigation bar does. This is why it is more inline with the color of the content below it.

 

[Crimmson]

Art Andrews, do the pm's or conversations have a set limit on the editing side of it, after you posted it? I tried updating a link in one and it would not let me after i edited twice for spelling. I went back to the message after i re-logged in and the edit button is gone.

Edit: also is a back to top button active in mobile? I cant seem to find it. Thank you

 

[Art Andrews]

Art Andrews, do the pm's or conversations have a set limit on the editing side of it, after you posted it? I tried updating a link in one and it would not let me after i edited twice for spelling. I went back to the message after i re-logged in and the edit button is gone.

There is a 5 minute window to edit a conversation (PM). This is allowed for exact situations like you ran into.

Edit: also is a back to top button active in mobile? I cant seem to find it. Thank you

There is not a top, home or rss button on mobile although the quick-nav link is at the bottom of the page... not quite the same, but it is there.

 

[mblackwell1002]

for inputting messages (text box), could we have the outline just a tad bit darker? it's a little hard to see, and when you start threads, it's hard to tell where you type. (did my wording make sense?)

 

[Art Andrews]

for inputting messages (text box), could we have the outline just a tad bit darker? it's a little hard to see, and when you start threads, it's hard to tell where you type. (did my wording make sense?)

Good call. Let me find that style element.

 

[StayFrosty]

Do you think you could change the background from black to a grey color? Just doing that would make the new sit look pretty much like the old one when using it.

 

[Art Andrews]

Moved from #111111 to #222222.... not sure about that... will let it sit for a day and we will see.

 

[FANGS]

Good morning everyone.

I'd like to apologize for earlier telling you that the file archive attached to the old site was still accessible. I misunderstood and it in fact was only accessible to myself and Art.

However, that has been changed and the archives are once again accessible at the old forum location. This will stay this way until the archive migration is complete. You won't be able to upload for the time being but you do have access to download all of the files that are currently there. You will have to log in as usual to the old site.

If anyone has any difficulties with this, please let me know and we'll try to look in to resolving the issue.

 

[Chernobyl]

Good morning everyone.

I'd like to apologize for earlier telling you that the file archive attached to the old site was still accessible. I misunderstood and it in fact was only accessible to myself and Art.

However, that has been changed and the archives are once again accessible at the old forum location. This will stay this way until the archive migration is complete. You won't be able to upload for the time being but you do have access to download all of the files that are currently there. You will have to log in as usual to the old site.

If anyone has any difficulties with this, please let me know and we'll try to look in to resolving the issue.

Great news. This should have been set up before the move, but better late than never. At least now our members won't be having issues with carrying on their builds while the new Resources area is populated.