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Don McRitchie
04-18-2003, 10:18 AM
Welcome to the Lansing Heritage Forum V3.0. Hopefully, this will be more permanent than previous versions. There are quite a few changes compared to the previous forum application. The following are some hints to help you make full use of this new package.

I find the most useful new feature is to be the "View New Posts" function that is visible to registered users at the top right of the main forum page. This generates a list of all posts that have been added since your last visit no matter which forum they were posted in. This way, you don't have to check each individual forum to find new posts.

There is a FAQ button amongst the button bar at the top of the main page. This acts as a rudimentary "Help" file with basic instructions on using the forum.

I find the "Private Messages" (PM) notification to be a bit obscure and easy to miss in the default setup. You have to scroll to the bottom of the main page to see if anyone has sent you a PM since your last visit. There is a way to make notifications more apparent. Edit your profile options by clicking the "User CP" button on the button bar. Next, click "Edit Options". Scroll down to "Pop up a box when you receive a Private Message" and click the "Yes" button. From now on, whenever you enter the forum after someone has sent you a PM, a dialog box will open stating you have a new message and asking if you want to read it.

An interesting feature of this package is the ability to conduct polls. For example, you could set up a poll to determine the forum members preference against a number of specific speaker choices. This feature is accessed when writing a new post by scrolling to the bottom of the main editing window. There you will find the "Post a Poll" option.

Another useful feature is the forum calendar. This is accessed by clicking the "Calendar" button on the button bar at the top of the main forum page. Here you can post event notices for a specific date.

Attachments are limited by this application to one per post. However, image attachments will be automatically displayed within the post. There is a 160k limit on the max size of an attachment.

That's it for now. I'll add more hints as they seem appropriate.

Earl K
04-22-2003, 04:34 PM
Hi Don
When I replied to a specific individuals posting within a thread in the old 'Gossamar" ? driven Forum , only they ( I believe ) were notified of my response. This new vBulletin engine seems to notify anyone who's posted in the thread ( & has notification turned on ) . ie ; the notification is general to all those participating .

First; Do I have this change in notification topology understood correctly ?
Second; Is it possible to make specific responses/notifications without using the quoting function ? ( Actually , does the quoting function really generate just the specific notification to the person quoted ? )

regards <. Earl K :confused:

Don McRitchie
04-22-2003, 05:11 PM
Hi Earl

You understand correctly. Gossamer was a threaded forum while vBulletin is a flat forum. As you have noted, you can only reply to an overall thread and not to an individual post. The "Quote" button does not change this and only copies the text of a specific post into your reply.

This is a limitation that I think sucks. However, there are two reasons why I chose this package.

1) From what I can tell, vBulletin is the leading forum package in terms of use that has the highest level of support and development resources.

2) Version 3 beta is already out and it appears vBulletin intends to address this limitation. It can be tested at vBulletin's site here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/index.php?

The fact that it is the leading package means that most serious competitors make conversion software to import data. God forbid if I ever have to switch to another forum package, I should be able to reuse the posts and registration data from vBulletin - something I couldn't do with Gossamer.

The Version 3 beta looks very promising with numerous new features, including a threaded topology that should address the issue you raised. It should be out later this year.

Nonetheless, there are still some features I miss from Gossamer like its WYSIWYG editor. This business of embedding codes for text formating is a step backwards in my opinion.

Earl K
04-23-2003, 04:35 AM
Hi Don

Well "sucks" is a relative sort of thing. I really am thrilled that you have this forum back up & running.

I'll just need to work around that "shotgun spread" notification "feature" .

Regards <> Earl K

Earl K
04-23-2003, 04:10 PM
Hi Don
I tried some postings today that included a 44K .jpg .

Using the " Preview Reply " feature I expected to see the picture .

All I saw was the text and a placeholder for the picture with an "X" through it.

That has me wondering if it's my IE5 browser ( I've seen the imbedded photos of others ) or whether my pics need to reside on some other server. ( ie they don't actually upload to the server which runs the forum software package ) . Maybe it's a MAC thing . :confused:

regards <> Earl K

( I'll try uploading one more time here ) Capacitor_type-unknown.jpg

Don McRitchie
04-23-2003, 04:54 PM
I have no idea what is happening. I have had no problems attaching files from IE5.5 and 6.0 on Windows machines. It may be a browser version issue, but I have no way to check since I don't have access to machines with earlier browsers.

4313B
04-23-2003, 05:34 PM
I saw the picture of the capacitor you posted Earl so it must have uploaded ok.

Earl K
04-23-2003, 05:42 PM
Thanks Rob ! Well, that narrows down my (WTF!!) search quite a bit.

BTW ; do know what sort of cap that is ? Or did I delete the post before you got a good look .

regards <. Earl K

4313B
04-23-2003, 06:05 PM
I did a search on the PXA prefix and came up with Functional Polymer Aluminium Capacitor which I highly doubt it is. It's probably a mylar or polypropylene.