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What's All This Then?


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Welcome to the newest incarnation of the Nihonto Message Board.

First things first.....Don't Panic!

It all looks confusing, but trust me you will be fine. Most of it is fairly logical and easy to navigate, so don't stress.

 

I have taken this opportunity to explain a few things though, and to make the transition as simple as possible.

This software has some huge improvements over the last one, and there are a ton of things that we will get the benefit of over the coming months. Already there are  alot of nice features, but this is just scratching the surface.

 

Posting is fairly easy, as is navigating. You might find it a little slower. Please bear with us, as we are going to have to upgrade hosting to gain some resources.

 

Here is a list of some of the nice new features:

 

  • Calendar - There is a nice new community calendar. You can check all the upcoming events there. You can also add events, but they will need to be moderated before showing. This will be of great use, and I encourage everyone to add events or let us know what to add.
  • All your old links are still there, nicely formatted along the top. Research leads to the main ones. FAQ is a work in progress, that we will add to as we publish more articles.
  • Adding attachments is now even easier. When posting, you will see how to do it. There are 2 systems of uploading. See which suits you. As before, upload the attachments, and only then submit the post. We now have nice thumbnails that can be clicked on to size the photos, making for larger size limits.
  • When reading a post, you will now find a quick reply box at the end of the thread. Much easier when replying. While doing that, if you should need to attach something, you need to click the box marked MORE REPLY OPTIONS. This will open a more advanced posting box, where you can upload your attachments.
    Modern forums don't allow for regular cut and paste for security reasons. However if you have cut something and want to paste it, you can find the paste options at the top right of the posting box. Or even easier....just use CTRL V to paste the text. Easy ;-)
  • Go to your profile. You will find a ton of features there, including adding friends, changing ignore settings, viewing your attachments and other settings. You can update your status too.
  • Please note, there are a ton of preferences that are worth setting there. Please click on your name, and go to settings, then notification options.
    You are going to want to go through all of them, and see what notifications you want sent to you every time something happens. Either emailed notifications or inline ones (like when you receive a pm)
  • All posts now have a "like" feature and the number of posts that have been liked appears in your profile.
  • There is a new and strict automated warning system. This is something much needed, and will take away some of the personal feelings involved in penalties. Different offenses have points allocated to them. Mostly one point, for things like spamming, excessive self-promotion, rudeness, abusive behavior and others. These warnings are given by mods and admin, and once you have a few points, there are automatic penalties. 2 Points and you cannot post for an hour. 3 Points and you cannot post for a day. More points lead to suspension of accounts for a week, a month, or permanently.
    Of course points also expire...so better behavior gets you back to zero points again. They usually expire in 30 days.
    This system will be modified as we go along, but it will be enforced.
  • Where is the "preview topic" or "go to last post"?
    Don't worry. They are still there, only in a different format. When you go into a section like General Nihonto Discussion, look just to the left of the number of replies/views. There is a little arrow there. Click on it for a preview of the first and last post. You can also click first or last and go to that post. Fancy!
  • TAGS - these are nifty little tags that you can add when you post, that will allow you to find more topics with the same subject later on. There is a set list of tags you can use. I can add more if needed. So if your post is about restoring a wakizashi...then you can add the tages "wakizashi" and "restoration" and it will immediately give an idea of what the topic is about, and you can search for similar topics.
    I am going to enforce using the eBay tag for posts about eBay.
  • Adding media is now much easier. Just paste a picture or Youtube link or whatever, and it does all the hard work for you!
  • Ok...so all the topics are now showing as unread from the last forum. No problem. Just go to the bottom of the forum, and click on "mark Community Read"and then choose all posts, or everything on the forum.
  • While there, click on "Help" to get better advice than I can remember to type here.
  • Hover over someone's name to get a popup profile for them. You can send them a pm directly from there.
  • On the topic of PM's. The messenger is now far better in that it is "conversation based" and not just a bunch of individual messages. This allows you to follow a conversation. And even better, you can add other people into the pm conversation. Just check the options to the left when in messenger.
    You can store about 150 messages before you need to start clearing some out. Remember to delete old ones if not needed.
  • CHAT. Yes..we now have a live chat, allowing up to 25 people. Only way to explain it is to say try it out. Middle click CHAT to open in a new window full screen. Then chat away. I don't have to warn anyone about behavior there do I? The usual rules apply. You can tell how many people are in the chat from the main forum page. Bit slow for now..we will work on that. Can be a very handy feature.
  • Bottom left of the forum, you can change themes. I find the default to be the best, but will add others for those who want a different style/color theme.
    Also, this forum has a great look when browsed by cellphone. Those using cell more and more should find this far superior.

More to be added as I go along. Enjoy, and use the Test forum for that purpose or to chat about the new look.

 

Have fun!

 

Brian

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Hi Brian

I know it will take a bit of getting used to but things have to move on

After a quick nose around  can I make the following comments?

My post in the for sale section '20 Tsuba for sale' is missing a few posts, there were at least a couple more replies. Should there be a 2nd page?

Same post only shows a few images then only links are shown and as people are generally lazy it may be a lost opportunity to quickly view images

Just think how many images Nic uses

A few times a I'd look at the last post dates to open any that interested me. I see newer posts are on the right but prefer the old way. Maybe just have to get used to it 

When a topic is opened it doesn't go back to the top of the list and this is a feature I miss

Sorry to be a bit negative and when I look further I'm sure to see all the improvements

What is very clear how much time and effort have gone into updating the NMB so many thanks for all your hard work

 

 

Grev UK

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True. As explained in the other post, we did lose a few days of posts. No way to change that, However, feel to post those replies again if you like.


I will look into the amount of images.


 


Please keep comments in the Testing section I opened for this, and not in this post. Thanks :)


 


Brian


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Wow, bang up to 2015. Can see where you are going Brian.

 

Constructive pointers.

Find the colour scheme off putting.

The information column is so narrow it does not screen fit, unless I adjust magnification on PC.

Cant find 'Unanswered posts" "Active topics" (first port of call). Then a browse.

Regards. 

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Double posting is a problem. Once clicked, it is not updating fast enough and people are clicking again, leading to 2 posts.
The posting window is not refreshing, looking like it didn't post. Only a page refresh shows it posted.
This is a big problem, and i am working on finding out what is causing it.

 

Brian

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Tested willingly the "Post" button to see what happened, after pushing it once, it looks like nothing has happened. Did it once again, and saw that I had posted twice, by pushing the button "post a reply" at the top right of the topic.

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The issue here is that when I specify how many pictures, it means total pictures in a post. So if I say 6 pictures...then even pictures linked from outside the forum count.
So I had to allow people to list a bunch of stuff and host the pics elsewhere..so I upped the pics per post to 20.
But that means you can also upload 20 pics per post. Hope people go easy on us and don't go mad with the pics :lol:

 

Brian

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Hi Everybody, so far, so good. Working my way around the new Forum. But one feature I miss is the "Mark all Forums Read" button on the homepage. This way I can clear it without having to visit the Forums I am not interested in.

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Gwyn,

Did you miss the point above:

Ok...so all the topics are now showing as unread from the last forum. No problem. Just go to the bottom of the forum, and click on "mark Community Read"and then choose all posts, or everything on the forum.

 

 

Check bottom of the forum. You can do it all there.

 

Brian

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This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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