Shortly (maybe as soon as today up to the next week or so, depending on my schedule), I will perform an upgrade to the Orchard, replacing our existing forum software (version 2.1.7) with the newly-released version 2.2.0. There will be a short period of time during which the forum will be unavailable to allow for this upgrade.

The new version has several major enhancements that will improve the user experience on this site, along with security measures that make us safer.

Along with many internal improvements, security improvements, optimizations, and improvements to the admin side of things, some items you'll notice:
Personal Profile Portal
Invision Power Board 2.2.0 has a totally redesigned portal page with the following features:
* Friends list - manage your friends for easier PMing, to see if your friends are currently online and display your friends on your profile
* Profile comments - allow visitors to leave comments on your profile. You can set to moderate all new comments before they're shown.
* Recent visitors - recent visitors are shown on your profile.
* Your content - show your recent posts / blog entries / gallery uploads on your profile
* Personal statement - add a short bio for others to read
* Member rating - rate other members
* Set your gender
* Easy access to edit your location, age and IM details

New Text Editor
The text editors, both standard and rich text (WYSIWYG) have been completely rewritten to make them more intuitive and faster to load. Clutter has been reduced with the new dynamic menus.

Inline message system
Invision Power Board has an on-the-fly message system to confirm actions taken place. This is an important new part to the user interface especially when using ajax when it's not always apparent that an action has taken place.

Per-Forum Capability to remember sort options
There is now a checkbox under the forum sorting options in each forum allowing you to select your preferred sort options, and have these options be remembered when you leave the forum and come back (or when you read a topic and return to the forum, for example). This option uses a cookie to remember your individual selections.

Multi-choice polls + Ability to create a 'poll only'
Members have the ability to create a poll as a "poll only" (disallow other members from replying to the poll, but still allow them to vote). Members who have permission to post in closed topics will still be able to reply to the polls, just as if a topic was locked.

Additionally, you can now create multiple-choice polls. There is an additional checkbox next to the question line(s) in a poll form so you can do this on a per-question basis (e.g. - you could have one multiple choice question, and one single-choice only question).

Auto resizing of large linked images
Posted images are automatically resized on-the-fly if they are larger than the available screen width of the browser. Clicking the image displays it full size in a pop-up window. Each reduced image has information above stating how much reduction has taken place and the dimensions of the original image.

There are other new features and improvements, but those are the main items that I think you'll be interested in.

Please let me know of any questions.

Enjoy the Orchard!

This is neat.

Drew, thanks for the update and all the great work!

I can't wait for other members to rate me!

I would have given you an 8.5, but impatience (and/or sarcasm?) dropped you to a 7.8.

Thanks drew-a-licious!

oh, sorry -- The Drew-a-licious™!

The upgrade is up. The Member Map is offline pending a version update. Everything else should be working well.

Check out the new Profile options (click your username in the top left corner of every screen)!

Please check it out and let me know if you spot anything weird or have any questions.

Enjoy the Orchard.

thanks "his drewiness" ®

Danke

Oh if you only knew... testing the spoiler feature

I admit to being up for about 24 hrs right now, but it looks like we've lost the ability to send/receive PM's? If someone could confirm or refute this, it'd be appreciated. Thanks.

Holy crap.... there's a little dude next to my screen name!

Wow...... I'm gonna be days figuring out all these new features.

"That's a new featcha dahling" - Drew.

dang!!

this is fancy! I dig.

Thanks, gang. I'm glad you like it.

I particularly like the AJAX tweaks throughout and the new editors really ease the load on the server. Very nice additions to the admin section as well.

Click the little dude.

thanks, drew.

we're movin' on up...

I changed my mind...i gave you 5 stars.


Drew, love the change! Thanks!!!

Glad ya'll like it!

Let me know of any problems or questions.

I upgraded specifically for Kylie.

Why has no one rated me yet?!

Clearly a man infatuated with a new toy.....

Like the REST OF US!

Ok... so these nifty little disappearing "site messages" are the whip. I feel like Ethan Hunt.

"This message will self destruct in two seconds"

YES!

The upgrades don't exactly seem to be Firefox friendly. Specifically some of the new Manage Profile sections. In Firefox when I click "Show All Friends" it shows none, however IE it does.

Also, why do I have emails about some people adding me as friends but they don't show up on my friends list?

Hey Stiv.... I'm running FF and have not had any problems as of yet. Not sure what might be causing it. I'm running 1.5.0.8
J

Weird. For me, it's like none the new clickable stuff (the drop down options lists, and all the new profile stuff) is clickable, and most flat out won't load like it does in IE. I too am using 1.5.0.8

Maybe go through and check your settings for FF. Not sure which settings to check, but it may be a start. Hope you get it solved.

Drew, I'm love, love, loving the new options on the fast reply box (which I use almost exlusively!)

BIG THANKS!

I couldn't get it to function in Firefox at work, either, but it worked on IE there. It's working fine with Netscape at home.

You have to add them to your friends list. The e-mail just lets you know they added you to theirs. If you've added each other, then you're in the mutual friends list!

Try clearing your cache and cookies in Firefox. That should fix it.

Folks adding you as friends are adding you to THEIR friends list. They don't show up on your friends list until/unless you add them.

I updated the Orchard to 2.2.1 (from 2.2.0) today.

This update comes soon after the first release of the 2.2.0 series to address issues that were discovered once the products were released to a larger audience, including the following:

* PM Block list upgrade error
* Unserializing cache values is broken if using local cache
* PM error in 2.2.0 final
* Login Auth
* [2.2.0]Bug with insert special items
* Using pagination where field of the input is not st
* HTML in reported post pm
* 2.2 Enabling Portal Breaks Announcements
* Subs Manager: First transaction fails with dupe ID...
* 2.2.0 Search Bug?
* Rebuild forum's posts
* Who's Online In Chat
* [2.2.0] IE7: Large pictures expand middle column in Profile Portal
* IPB 2.2 Parachat/Chat Live bridge broken (even on this site)
* Screenshots in profile tabs not resized
* [2.2] Classic mode profiles: no photo
* PM error
* smilies problem
* IPS Driver Error on search.
* Auto-resize photos off
* [2.2] Permission masks aren't sorted in any order
* v2.1.x ACP Ban Finter > Email Address
* Captcha code Case Sensitivity not explained
* Typo in Security Center
* TYPO in root admin group
* skin_bugtracker templates?
* 2.2.0 Advanced CSS Tool Still Reversed
* IP address tool issue?
* Bug with custom profile fields on IPB 2.2 final
* [2.2] using pecl-apc is causing warnings
* 2.2 CSS/Board Header & Footer Editor Bug
* Help & Support tab
* Quick Edit first post in a topic
* Create New Skin Set
* Quotes in "Reason for edit"

Thanks Drew.
Keep up the good work.