Today (December 5, 2005), I upgraded the Orchard to version 2.1.3 of the Invision Power Board software.

In addition to security fixes, this new version introduces a few new features. I also added a Weather plugin (look at the top right of the screen), and a new Member Map, and a new Board Panel that (by default) sits at the top of the main page and displays interesting statistics and links for you. If you wish to collapse the Board Panel, click the little icon to the right side of its title bar.

One additional new feature is that I've configured the site to automatically post a message to the Member Bios forum when a new user registers. This way, you'll know when a new user has registered and can make them feel welcome.

Please let me know of any problems you see (I am aware that pages below the main (front) page are throwing a Javascript error and am working to fix that -- I'll update this message when it's fixed).

Wow...way cool Funky Drewster! I likes it.

Very nice!

Are you going to restore the option to find all of a member's posts in their profile? That one has been pretty essential for me.

i agree.

i'm liking the changes. i really like the weather option.

what's the # option on the reply? something about a code.

I believe that is a function of the currently-non-functional javascript error we're encountering. I've got a help ticket open on the issue.


I'm not sure what you're referring to. Please be specific and I'll help you out to the best of my ability.

thanks, trudes. so...umm...what is the purpose of it? i guess i don't get it.

drew-it's one of the options when you are sending a reply (similar to adding an image). it's right after the coversation bubble looking icon (wrap in a quote).

YUP. I understand what you're talking about now. That's useful if you're quoting CODE, so it's not something we'll use here a lot.

ahhh...thanks.

fyi-i also noticed that the "forum statistics" option isn't working. oh, and i don't know if this has to do with the switch or not, but when i looked on the calendar, it says that new year's eve is on the 8th, 22nd and 29th this month. that's two more hangovers than most people are used to. oh, and Christmas has been moved to the 23rd which cuts back on 2 shopping days for us procrastinators.

still liking the upgrade. thanks for keeping this place in order, drew.

Nice updates!

I guess it shouldn't surprise me though... that the nicest people on the net get the nicest board...

Thanks Drew.
J



Colors... Woop... this is kinda fun.... Is this what it was like to take psychedelic drugs in the 60's??? woo.....

Keep up the good work Drew...

My pleasure.

As you noticed with the changing colors, I'm experimenting with the site right now. I've determined that once the Javascript error that's being thrown is fixed, things like FIND MEMBER'S POST and all that will come back.

Hang in there.

While I'm debugging the skin, I am going to change the site default skin to the skin provided with the release (which doesn't throw the Javascript error -- everything works!). Once I debug the regular skin, I'll switch it back. Actually, I haven't done this yet (obviously) because many of the new mods aren't installed on the default skin... I dunno if I wanna take the time to implement them in the default skin (which we're not going to use in the long run).

It was pointed out to me that the Calendar is a mess -- specifically the recurring events. I've got a trouble ticket filed and we're working on it.

Thanks to Dan for pointing it out to me.

ahem

Whups. Thanks to DJDelicious!

Hey Drew,

I just wanted to thank you for all of your hard work that you do for this site. We all appreciate it.

Cheers to The Drew™!!!!!

Fast reply's availability seems to be going back and forth. Are you working on it?

I'm another person who really likes the "find member's posts" feature. I hope they get to that ticket soon.

Would it be possible to configure the Search Results page to display the actual post in which the term is found, not just the thread? Knowing the post I'm looking for is somewhere within the Random Thoughts thread isn't too helpful if I have to click through 150 pages (yes, I did this last night) to find it.

How complicated is it to design a new skin? Isn't it basically just a matter of changing the colors in the code and making appropriately-colored buttons? I've never been an admin on an Invision board, so I don't know how user (un)friendly such changes are, but I'm certainly curious. Are there any other tasteful Orchard-friendly prefab skins you could install?

I actually kind of like this skin, but this means I use it to view my other board, and thus get it confused with this one. Of course there, I'm having a conversation with a new member over her avatar (a photograph of her ass), and as every new PM pops up at the top of the page, it's pretty damn hard to miss.

Under their user page, above where their pic would be is a Profile Options box.
Click that puppy and party on, darlin'.

Haha! Thank you veryvery much!

Search feature issue: the + variable doesn't seem to be working properly. If I understand it correctly, when I type in +book +apple +pudding (for example), the search feature is supposed to pull up all posts which contain ALL three words. Instead, it seems to pick one of the three at random and search for that. What's going on?

aw... the calendar of events (concerts, et al) doesn't show up at the bottom of the main page anymore...