As everyone has seen, the forum has had a facelift. Partly because I didn't like the old one, and partly because there were errors and bugs in the old one because of the conversion from the old software(phpbb) to the new software (smf). For that last reason, I couldn't use the old lay-out even if I wanted to. The forum even had more problems after a security update I had to do, so this is a complete fresh install and should run smoother and faster for those who had trouble loading and/or posting.
Let me first explain what has changed and how to use the forum layout and features the best way possible.
I have tested the forum on my laptop the way it is (widescreen 1600x900) and normal screen (1024x768) and in 4 different browsers: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox (latest releases of all 4 of them). I personally always use Chrome, because for me Chrome works the fastest and the easiest, but I saw that the new layout works fine with Safari and Fireforx as well. The problems I encountered in IE were that the buttons are white (only see the text when you put your mouse pointer on them), the graphics are not shown as they should (not a major issue by the way) and the scroll bar can not be dragged up and down, unless you double-click it. My advise is therefor for everyone who has trouble using the forum in Internet Explorer, to switch to either Chrome, Firefox or Safari. If you need any help on that, ask me or any other member in this thread to help you out. Here are the links to the downloads:
Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome
Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
Let's start with the menu, which is now in the silver bar on top of the forum above the logo, instead of below it:
This is what you will see on top (except for the admin and moderator section of course). 'Home' will take you to the new portal section, with an overview of certain boards/topics etc. Just like the old one, but this one has many more features. I might add or delete some things in the upcoming days/weeks, but that will change nothing to the forum layout as it is now, at least nothing major.
What was 'forum' on the old board, is called 'community' now. I could change that in the code, but I will not because it's simply something everyone will get used to in a few days. 'Community' will take you to the actual forum index, or board index.
The rest is unchanged and should look familiar to everyone. The pokes still act weird and show ghost pokes, but it does work when you really poke someone and many do like it, so I reinstalled it. Maybe the developer of this modification will fix the bug some day but until then: ghost pokes guaranteed!
Also new are the sidebars displayed on the forum now, instead of just on the portal (home) page. For those with a widescreen (like me) it's heaven on earth, because you can navigate the forum very quickly with it. For people with a normal screen it seems like a pain in the ass, since the middle section is so small that they have to scroll from left to right. But do not panic, because there is a solution to that issue!
When you point your mouse to the sides of the screen (next to your scrollbar for the right that is), you will see another bar that says 'Hide the left Panel' or 'Hide the right Panel':
As soon as you click that (either just one of the sides, or both), your middle section will expand. If you hide both, it will be the same as it was with the old layout. If you want to use them again, do the same to show the panels again.
Functions of the sidebars:
I installed the sidebars because many were complaining that they found it hard to navigate the forum or view recent posts; not just with this layout, but also with the previous one. If there is anyone left now having trouble finding anything, then there is nothing more I can do.
The left side
On the left side you see your profile info with links that will take you to: your personal messages, your unread posts since last visit, unread replies to your posts and your own posts. There is also a drop down menu for language, where I will add additional languages later (this is not working yet).
Under that there is a counter that shows the days, hours, minutes and even seconds since June 25, 2009 2:26pm. This way we will know exactly how many days have passed since then, without having to use calendars or calculators.
Underneath that are the visitors displayed. It said 2011 first, because I thought I installed this new software somewhere in april and that the counting started then, since the code says 'smf log', which is the log for the new software installation. But I just saw I installed it in late July, so 4.3 million visitors seemed a little too much. On the other hand, it said 4.2 million yesterday, which means an increase of more than 100,000 in a day, so these are most likely the visitors since July 2011. Nothing important, just fun to see that so many are lurking.
Then we have the calendar with the b-days, holidays and upcoming events. My request is to please use the calendar, only a few do. Whenever we hear a date for something to occur, please post it in the calendar.
Under the calendar is an option to select a theme. The orange theme is the default one, the other one is a light theme which is less graphic. For those with a slow internet connection, the light theme might help speeding up loading your pages.
Lastly on the right are the board statistics and the online users, also nothing important but just fyi.
The right side
On top of the right side you will find the most recent posts/topics. That way you will always see what is posted lastly, without having to click a certain link.
Under that an advanced search block, and below that the forum navigation as displayed on the board index. When you expand a certain category with the + on its left, you will see a maximum of 2 unread posts in that certain category. If you click the category name itself, it will take you to that category.
On the bottom of the page, just above the links in the footer, there is a shoutbox. Only logged in members are allowed to post in it, but guests are able to read. Again nothing important, just fun.
The Homepage:
In the middle section of the homepage ('home' in the top menu), you will see all kinds of info. On top we have MJ Beatz radio (keep in mind that you will have to keep the homepage open in order to keep listening) and underneath that are the most recent posts/topics, like on the right sidebar but with an intro to the post, the trial live stream and updates from the trial sister site, and at the bottom there are recently updated topics from certain categories I selected (most important/popular ones).
Lastly: there is a new toolbar for the forum (the old one is still on the main site). With this toolbar you can translate not only the forum, but also the posts, and it has an IM function. If you click on 'Who's Online', you will see a list of online users (NOT the ones that are hidden though) and if you click one of the names, you get a pop up window that allows you to privately chat with that member.
I hope it's clear for anyone and that you will all benefit from the new layout. If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread and please fill in the poll, this will help me help you better. If you have any additional ideas, or if you are experiencing any problems, please explain in your post what exactly, and as for the latter: please provide me with your screen resolution and internet speed (slow/fast).
ps. Comments like 'I liked the old layout better' are useless and will be ignored.
