Welcome to FIAT Forum v3!

Yes, let's call it v3 as back in 2012 we had v2 - and yes, it's been that long since any major update!

Everything is different now, but as same as I could do it so you don't all get lost

Some parts have been renamed, such as:

Downloads > Resources
Events > Calendar
Gallery > Media

But rest assured it's just a name change, ALL the data has been imported (I made sure of that and my goodness I never want to do that again!)

There are lots of new things to explore, to be honest I haven't found everything yet so do have a play and let me know if you find any issues or anything missing so I can get right on it.

One of the big ones is that browser push notifications are now supported, so if you're browsing on a mobile you can allow the forum to send you updates - no need for emails each time

Current Issues/Tasks:
Search is rubbish, I need to get ElasticSearch installed on the server to solve that.
Gallery images have all been moved, so old links are broken. Working on a redirect script as we speak.
Classifieds need prefixes for existing ads, again, needs an import script so I'm on the case.
Members motors needs converting to the new format, it's useable now so don't worry about that - but it will change in the next week or so.
Links to guides and downloads at top of relevant forum
Thanks reaction missing
Remove number from forum urls
Make stickies more obvious
Show details under avatar on postbits
Login using SSO (Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter)


But please do let me know what you think and if there's anything else I can do!

Cheers!

Ben

 

[ben]

Previously i used to follow a drop down to the Ducato section.

You mean the one in the black bar at the top?

 

[theoneandonly]

You mean the one in the black bar at the top?

No there was a box top left hand side

 

[Yolanda]

I thought the nationality flag was a good thing as you could instantly see where the poster was from. Can it be re introduced.

 

[ben]

Yes

No there was a box top left hand side

Yes, that was the model jump. I'll see if that can be integrated into the "forums" menu now

 

[Texastom]

Yes, let's call it v3 as back in 2012 we had v2 - and yes, it's been that long since any major update!

Everything is different now, but as same as I could do it so you don't all get lost

Some parts have been renamed, such as:

Downloads > Resources
Events > Calendar
Gallery > Media

But rest assured it's just a name change, ALL the data has been imported (I made sure of that and my goodness I never want to do that again!)

There are lots of new things to explore, to be honest I haven't found everything yet so do have a play and let me know if you find any issues or anything missing so I can get right on it.

One of the big ones is that browser push notifications are now supported, so if you're browsing on a mobile you can allow the forum to send you updates - no need for emails each time

Current Issues/Tasks:
Search is rubbish, I need to get ElasticSearch installed on the server to solve that.
Gallery images have all been moved, so old links are broken. Working on a redirect script as we speak.
Classifieds need prefixes for existing ads, again, needs an import script so I'm on the case.
Members motors needs converting to the new format, it's useable now so don't worry about that - but it will change in the next week or so.
Links to guides and downloads at top of relevant forum
Thanks reaction missing
Remove number from forum urls
Make stickies more obvious
Show details under avatar on postbits
Login using SSO (Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter)


But please do let me know what you think and if there's anything else I can do!

Cheers!

Ben

Looks great.

 

[ben]

Few more search improvements, auto-suggest, spelling mistake suggestions, allow + - AND OR etc etc to build full search queries.

 

[portland_bill]

Hi,

I'd agree that there's a fair amount of change but there is a lot to like in the new software though it will take time to get used to. I would guess that Ben (and others?) had tailored the old forum very heavily but not all of that tailoring could easily be carried through to the new forum so we've lost a few familiar features on the move. However, moving to a newer version of the forum software will also give the developers the chance to add new things too. By the sounds of things Ben is working through the list of problems as quickly as he can.

One thing I would say is that post editing while different has improved a great deal, handling of pictures seems easier to me.

I can try and help with some of your issues, note that this is from a PC not a phone or tablet so if you're using one of those it may not apply.

If you go to https://www.fiatforum.com/account/
you can enter your preferred custom title:
View attachment 391638

It took me a few minutes to work this out. if you highlight a section of text then you can add it to your list of quotes that you want in your reply by clicking '+Quote':

View attachment 391639

Then in your reply editor you can click 'Insert quotes' to get your quotes added to your reply:
View attachment 391640

Alternatively you can just hit the 'Reply' button and that will add the whole message to your reply.
View attachment 391641

I hope that helps a little in easing the transition.

Thanks Chris for that input.
I have found the custom title box, but cannot see how to just leave it blank. Do we have to think of something, or put up with the annoying "I paid..." nonsense? Why no option for "NO Title".
From that page of course, it just brings up more annoyances. What is a profile banner? What does this look like, and where will it display? Clicking that just brings up a box to add an image, without any idea what, how, why, etc.

I got an email advising of Chris's post, and one other that day, 3 days ago. Nothing since. No notifications of any posts to threads I've already posted to, yet the list of 'New Posts' shows some that I'm subscribed to.
Broken.

 

[portland_bill]

Hey mate, sorry about that, but the upgrade was a necessity. From a design standpoint, maybe not as important - but technical standpoint most definitely. The old software was over 13 years old and running on a deprecated version of PHP. Whilst this didn't mean there were definitely security issues (although possible) - it did mean that the coding standards were stuck in the 2010's and nothing new was being created.

As an example, I had to build on any extra functionality that was requried, which amounted to over 100 extra modules! The new software can achieve pretty much everything with only 12! All that old code was also slowing things down and not ideal.

Also - the (old) design was built using tables, not divs. Again, for a designer and knowing from the technical standpoint = this is terrible! It means a lot of extra markup, which slows the site down buy requiring more to download, as well as a much slower rendering time.

I understand that for most people, this won't mean much = they just want things to "work", but there really is more in play here than just making things brighter



You can now tap like and it will just do a quick like, or you can hover over it (desktop) or hold your finger on it (mobile) to get a list of other reactions. I am using the "Love" reaction as thanks, but I guess that's not a total 1:1. I'll see if I can find something better - perhaps a hand doing an "ok" sign? But again, this shows the versatility of the new system - a new reaction can just be added, the old system was restricted to just like, dislike and thanks.



@Wiltshire Chris has written a great post showing this above mine, thanks Chris. It's strange that a few people have mentioned this, but actually nothing changed in that respect. That link was always there under your profile as your had donated...



Which details? The join date, post count and location? I'm sure I can get that added back again. When I started to conver the stock template, there must be loads of things I missed. My main concern before going live was just to make it look like the original forum style (colors and what not) - there are a billion options to setup, but don't worry, I'll get through them all!

Edit: Those are added now.



It looks like some people had them disabled, you can enable them again here > https://www.fiatforum.com/account/preferences.
But if you are using push notifications, you don't need emails - you will get a Windows notification alert (Desktop) or a standard mobile alert if on your phone = you dont need the browser open. I have heard this might have issues on iOS (Apple) so emails are available as a backup



This might be due to the "last post read" markers not importing across - so for the first time you open a thread now it will need to set a new one, but going forward this shouldn't be an issue.



This is one thing that just became super super easier once you get used to it. As you scroll through a thread, you can either click the "+ Quote" button at the top of each post, or select some text and select "+ Quote". You can repeat this for as many times as you want (even across multiple pages) - then when you're done and get to the bottom, hit the "Insert Quotes" button and choose which ones you want to be put into the reply box.

The old site could do this, but it was super clunky and didn't work across pages.

Writing this post has also reminded me of one great editing feature, auto save! When you are writing a post, you can now navigate to other sections and when you come back, your text will still be there - no more lost posts!

I'm at a coffee shop now, but when I get home I will update the first post of this thread with outstanding issues, so you can be rest assured if it's on that list, I will get around to sorting it out

Well, that didn't seem to work as described.
I highlighted just the paragraph about push notifications, selected +quote, then Reply, but seem to have got it all rather than just the highlighted text.
Edit: Should have scrolled to the bottom, then selected insert quotes into the empty reply box, not pressed Reply in the post I was reading.

Thanks for the updates.
Still not getting email notifications. No way do I want push notifications, don't need stuff popping up on my desktop when I'm working. With emails, they just sit, until I'm ready.
Why no option of 'no title'. Seems to inisist we imput something, or tolerate the default 'I've paid'.
Old forum used to repeat the thread title on each post, so even near the bottom of the page we were reminded of which thread we were on. Can we have that back?

Another Edit: Why do the imported avatars seem pixelated? If we add the same pic again, will that then be clear?

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

What is a profile banner? What does this look like, and where will it display? Clicking that just brings up a box to add an image, without any idea what, how, why, etc.

I wondered that so tried it to see what happens. It's a picture that appears in the background of your profile. If you hover the mouse over my profile avatar then you see more details about me and also my profile banner in the background (the underside of my B). If you click on my avatar then the same image appears at the top of my profile summary.

 

[ben]

Why no option of 'no title'. Seems to inisist we imput something, or tolerate the default 'I've paid'.

Ok I've changed that, it now just changes to "Donated" and has a little cog next to it that takes you to the same change profile link.

Still not getting email notifications.

Make sure you have these enabled in your user control panel on the preferences page.

This will make every post going forward be watched with email notifications.

For your past threads, I just checked in the database and they are set as email notifications, but the way it works is you won't receive another email update until you read everything in the last one. This likely means that due to the upgrade losing thread markers, it might be a bit out of whack.

Hopefully as you read the threads going forwards though, the email alerts will properly start coming through

Why do the imported avatars seem pixelated? If we add the same pic again, will that then be clear?

Ah that is because the old software used smaller images - so when they display now they are sized up. Uploading again will solve that issue.

 

[ben]

Testing the new Members Motors format, which is now called Showcase.

It still creates a thread in the MM section, but the actual editing of the car section can now all be done in one container, with a variety of different sections. Then when you update your entry, you can tell the system to automatically post an "Updated" post to the main thread.

It still has a few issues which I'm working on, but the base in there now. I'll be converting over all the MM threads over when it's ready, but for now I just did the first 20 or so - so please go have a look!

Oh and if you're interested, this is my car

 

[Toisich]

OOOHHH Shiny bits

 

[fiat500]

Has the change affected the mobile app? It doesn't load for me since the overhaul. (Android).

 

[ben]

Has the change affected the mobile app? It doesn't load for me since the overhaul. (Android).

Yes, the new app is a pwa, which works great on an Android.

Open the hamburger menu then down at the very bottom there should be a link to install the app. Remember to allow push notifications too!

 

[fiat500]

Yes, the new app is a pwa, which works great on an Android.

Open the hamburger menu then down at the very bottom there should be a link to install the app. Remember to allow push notifications too!

Thank-you Ben. I'll do that.

 

[Yolanda]

Well I've tried to delete donated, the one next to the settings icon, but to no avail. What am I doing wrong.

 

[koalar]

generally I like V3


but I find the back delete frustrating slow. If I type a sentence incorrectly and hit the back delete it takes 3-5 seconds to delete a character and the screen jumps around


typing forward is fine

edge on windows 10 tablet with touch screen

the search function now works properly on my tablet for the First time ever

 

[jrkitching]

Yes, that was the model jump. I'll see if that can be integrated into the "forums" menu now

If you add the forums you're interested in to your "watched forums" list, you can access them directly from the forums menu.

This is an improvement, since you no longer need to scroll through a long list of forums you're not interested in.

 

[redandwhite]

hi,

having an issue posting a wanted ad - error message 'please select a valid package' (or similar) when clicking save

 

[ben]

hi,

having an issue posting a wanted ad - error message 'please select a valid package' (or similar) when clicking save

Looks like I'd forgotten to check a few boxes, should be ok now!