TrainBoard UPGRADE - It's Coming

Charlie,

I love the "New Group Messages" thing that pops up when any of my groups has new messages. Nice feature!

:thumbs_up::thumbs_up:

Adam

 

I don't know what you people are complaining about. This is what those of us that admin vB call Normal. Trainboard was all weird before.

Anyway, Based on my experiences I can say 2 things.

1: getting a style from vB 3 to work in vB4 is a full time job, so be patient. We just gave up on a site I admin. It wasn't worth the pain.

2: All the stuff like groups and blogs and such that trainboard had are 100% better in vB 4. trust me. It will take some time to learn how to get around, but this will be 100% better.

The way groups and blogs worked on the old site made me want to kick cats.

Finally, I've complained before that the subcategories are annoying, because some of the primary categories also get posts. In my opinion, you either have a category OR a forum, not something that is both a Catgeory AND a forum. That, to me is bad design.

 

Potential problem with "Reply" function -

When I select Reply to create a Reply post within a Thread, the typing cursor does not appear on the initial (non-Advanced) Reply typing screen. I then select "Advanced" and the typing cursor appears with the Advanced Reply typing screen, and I can post the Reply. However, when I just now came to the Support Forum to post this potential problem on the Alternative Themes thread, the cursor appeared immediately with the initial Reply typing screen.

This may indicate a bug within the new Thread Reply function, or it may be something occurring within my system...dunno?

BTW, thanks for deleting my multiple posts on the Fallen Flags, New York Central Forum. They also were caused by this same "Reply" problem.

EDIT - The non-appearance of the typing cursor just happened again when I tried to edit this post. I was able to get the cursor to appear by selecting the Advanced option.

EDIT #2 - Please move this Problem post to the Upgrade Thread. I posted it to this Thread in error. Thanks.

 

I'm going to toss a positive comment into the mix, to offset some of the whining... I just entered my first full post, including photos, using the new software, and it's pretty friggin' slick. Besides, I thought we were here to talk about trains, not the colors of the web site...

 

Charlie:

You and the rest of the TB crew are doing a wonderful job. This site has been my favorite out of all of the ones that I am a member of. Just like someone else said in an earlier post, this is just the "construction zone". Here in the next few days or so, we will be "HIGHBALLING".

May you have more "High Greens" with the upgrade and HIGHBALL TRAINBOARD!!!

 

I will reserve sharing my thoughts thus far, and will wait for some improvements to be made to customize this template. I will say up front that I would prefer the grey background for ease on my eyes.

 

I thought it was weird at first, just because it was so dramatically different. But now, its awesome! Seems everything has been brought up to date. Even imbedding videos! thats great. Well done, Admins.

 

My RR hat is tipped to all of those involved in this overwhelming project. I know just enough about such endeavors to truly appreciate the time devoted. Best wishes as you continue the "work in progress."

 

Logged in to the new software yesterday, and it was a shock. Nscale.net uses the same software, so it was not unfamiliar. I don't particularly like the format of this new stuff, but I was able to find and do what I usually browse. However, today when I logged in, the "Remember Me" box was either missing or covered by an ad in the upper right area of the screen. It was there yesterday, but not today. I may have more comments later.

 

I like the "new group messages" feature. This is what I have been wanting to see to help keep groups visible. Nice!

 

I would say that the first stages of the upgrade went quite well and smooth. Congrats to the team that pulled this off so flawlessly. And thank you

 

Can't say I'm disappointed...darn it! Grin

It all looks good and is easy to negotiate.

Congratulations!

 

AS I was walking to work I thought of a great analogy for Trainboard.

The old trainboard was like an Athearn Blue Box locomotive. One of the good narrow hood ones. It was dependable but not flashy. Looked mostly right, but not a lot of detail. Then the admins went to work with Cannon and Detail's West etc added better cab, plow, hoses, better fans, custom paint, the whole nine yards. It was a great looking locomotive, but it was still a blue box underneath. good, but not great.

The new trainboard is like a Genesis that we've literally just bought. Just took it out of the carton and put it on the tracks. It is 1000 times better under the hood and a bunch of the details and features we had to add to the old BB come standard on this Genesis, but not all of them are there and the ones that are are a little different. The paint job is wrong and it hasn't been weathered yet, so we have to still do some customization.
And unfortunately, we can't just pull the parts off the old blue box, that won't work, we have to start from scratch.

That's essentially what's going on here. We're looking at a brand new very fancy model, but we still have to take it to the workbench to make it perfect.

 

Hey, just lettign you know, that on IE8, Win7 64, if I havethe browser reduced, or snapped to the side of the monitor, the headings buttons for forums and log in all smoosh up, include right over the ad. I don't know if there's a way to lock those down or what.

 

The problem is the ad is fixed width and the buttons are moving with the window resize. I'm not sure there's a way to fix it beyond maybe making the header taller and moving the banner down so that as they're squished, they're still above the banner ad.

 

It looks nice but its a fairly generic looking forum..

I moderate a sports forum that has many different skins and versions..

Just for an example of stuff that can be done..

www.chicitysports.com/forum

 

Figures. I'll just live with it then.

One more for ya then. The blog engine is only allowing me to put in 2 tags. When you get around to it, copuld we open that back up to 5, or adjsut the text telling me I can have 5 down to 2?