Why proboards... Why...?

[Willing Sniper]

Okay the plugin process is not that bad. It will probably be faster once I get used to it. I have been converted.

It is still really busy in the admin area.

[Willing Sniper]

Jan 15, 2013 20:41:41 GMT -8 Shorty said:

Willing Sniper Here ya go and yes. Although, you may need to change one thing in your Theme, because the miniprofile has its own background color which would appear over the background image you choose.

What needs to be changed? And where?

[Shorty]

If you haven't customized the MP at besides this plugin, then go to Themes > Colors & Styles Then scroll down and find 'Mini-Profiles', click that. Then by 'Background Color' click the color wheel, and in the bottom left corner click the button that says 'Transparent'.

[Willing Sniper]

Jan 15, 2013 20:53:16 GMT -8 Shorty said:

If you haven't customized the MP at besides this plugin, then go to Themes > Colors & Styles Then scroll down and find 'Mini-Profiles', click that. Then by 'Background Color' click the color wheel, and in the bottom left corner click the button that says 'Transparent'.

Cool, but it didn't fill the entire area.

[Shorty]

Can you PM your forum link, so we can take this away from this thread?

[Bunnyheart]

Jan 15, 2013 18:52:21 GMT -8 Thesealion said:

Jan 15, 2013 18:38:06 GMT -8 Bunnyheart said:

Thank you for answering my question Patrick. I appreciate it. Our site will definitely be opting out.

Can I ask why? Just curious...I don't understand the mindset i guess since it's so easy and there are so many benefits....

There are quite a few things. I don't like that to have certain options removed you have to pay to be ad free. That is one reason. I don't find the beta version easy to navigate at all. In fact I find it very confusing. It seems I need to know a lot more coding then before. Mostly to remove things I don't like like the social tab. I don't like how you edit member groups. I don't like the follow button. There are a lot of things that I don't like. I could go on and on.

I understand the need to change. Believe me, I do. I am trying to figure things out and make them work and everyone here has been more then helpful. I have appreciated that very much. However, there are better ways to smoothly transition over to something totally new then the way it is being done. I am still figuring out my current forum after two years. Truly I feel like I have been left out in the cold and I am scrambling to meet a deadline and I don't even know what questions I should be asking. All I know is I am trying desperately to make a completely new version of my forum look and work exactly like my old one.      

[Thesealion]

Bunnyheart not trying to convince you or anything, but i'd like to speak a bit about the things you have trouble with

1. Can't remove without ad free - what are you talking about here? The "related topics & stories section?" Yes, I find this highly annoying too and will never really use it.
2. Social Tab - The social tab is pretty much the same as it was before just given its own tab. They also added a few different things since a lot of the contact info they used before isn't in use now. This can be easily removed with a pluggin.
3. Coding - There really isn't a way to look at it in a way that you have to know more coding. Even with little to no html or css knowledge you can do more with things like the "visual editor" (which can edit 90% of the css with absolutely no CSS knowledge) than you could have ever done without coding in v4. For instance in v4 moving the table below the add, putting a boarder around the forum, and adding hover bg images to your boards would have some extensive (for beginners) coding involvement. Now it's as easy as a quick template mod that's easy to describe or the changing of a css value.

[Willing Sniper]

It's like Dream Weaver. It is getting so much easier. I still don't like some things, but there were things about V4 that were wonky. I think everything is going to be okay.

I am concerned that my moderator found she could add herself to the admin group in her profile edit area

[Ryan Roos]

I still don't get the coding argument.

If you don't know how to code, v5 should be a godsend.

In v4 you have to copy and paste code and then without understanding what you're doing go line by line and change variables you don't understand. You have to scan line by line to find and replace things that people had to tell you to find and replace. In codes where you do multiple things, like changing something for multiple specific members you have to copy and paste parts of the code within itself. At any point you can make a typo and have no clue why your code isn't working. A single typo can break your entire headers and footers. Which in turn could break your entire forum's layout. Which in turn could break your admin area and ability to access it. Also if a single code is broken they all are, you don't have any way to figure out which code is wrong without a lot of help. Lastly, without a lot of extra code that you don't understand you have to hack your headers and footers to only work on certain themes or in certain circumstances.

In v5 you find or request a plugin for what you want to do. You install the plugin on your forum. You fill out settings in a code free settings page. In the case of multiple members there is likely an autoform that just keeps popping row after row of new fields for you to fill out automatically. If you mess up nothing happens. If the author of the plugin messed up, you can turn off just that single plugin. The admin area is unaffected. And finally you can literally turn plugins on/off in different themes and for different members even, quickly and simply. Zero Code.

That's just codes, don't get me started on how much easier the theme making is for a beginner. Not to mention how much more powerful it is for someone with coding skills.

Here's an info-graphic...



If plugins did nothing else except allow you to keep your codes separate they would already be infinitely better than headers and footers in v4. But that is the least impressive feature of the plugin system.

There is quite literally no reason you should ever need a header and footer code in v5. There is nothing that can't equally be accomplished (and in a better way) with a plugin. Literally nothing.

[Willing Sniper]

Way to make a point Mr. Roos.


I am concerned that my moderator found she could add herself to the admin group in her profile edit area

[Ryan Roos]

Jan 17, 2013 11:23:30 GMT -8 Willing Sniper said:

Way to make a point Mr. Roos.


I am concerned that my moderator found she could add herself to the admin group in her profile edit area

We have a bug for that already and are fixing it. Just make sure all your groups are set to the proper type. V4 groups were all what we call Private now in v5. As long as your moderator doesn't also have the power to edit groups she will not be able to do such things in the future without your permission. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you.

[Camille]

Ryan Roos, your info-graphic is spectacular!  Very well done!

But when it comes to the part where you say "getting a plug-in is as simple as clicking a link and saving the file" that's when I'm lost.  Save to what file?  I'm pretty much a computer dummie.

I've looked around the Admin Panel of the v5 copy of my forum, and to tell you the truth, I can't figure out anything.  And I don't have time for extensive experimentation.  I'm one of those people, I guess, that shouldn't even have a forum since I know so little about codes, plug-ins, css, templates and Javascript. 

(The other issue I have is not a ProBoards problem.  Because I have an old computer that cannot be upgraded past IE8, I cannot see the v5 conversion of my board properly unless I use Firefox.  And since I can't stand Firefox, I will have to go out and buy a new computer.  That's why I'll be opting out of converting until the end of 2013.  But even then I may just give up and delete my forum.)

[AshFR]

I LOVE the plugin system,once you get it down it's MUCH easier, once you understand it you'll realize it's even easier than copy and pasting codes.

Thank you for introducing this system I love it!

[Camille]

Jan 17, 2013 13:16:19 GMT -8 AshFR said:

I LOVE the plugin system,once you get it down it's MUCH easier, once you understand it you'll realize it's even easier than copy and pasting codes.

Thank you for introducing this system I love it!

I am happy for you, AshFR.  Truly.

[Ryan Roos]

Jan 17, 2013 13:08:38 GMT -8 Camille said:

Ryan Roos, your info-graphic is spectacular!  Very well done!

But when it comes to the part where you say "getting a plug-in is as simple as clicking a link and saving the file" that's when I'm lost.  Save to what file?  I'm pretty much a computer dummie.

I've looked around the Admin Panel of the v5 copy of my forum, and to tell you the truth, I can't figure out anything.  And I don't have time for extensive experimentation.  I'm one of those people, I guess, that shouldn't even have a forum since I know so little about codes, plug-ins, css, templates and Javascript. 

(The other issue I have is not a ProBoards problem.  Because I have an old computer that cannot be upgraded past IE8, I cannot see the v5 conversion of my board properly unless I use Firefox.  And since I can't stand Firefox, I will have to go out and buy a new computer.  That's why I'll be opting out of converting until the end of 2013.  But even then I may just give up and delete my forum.)

You save the plugin to your computer. And then you upload the plugin to your forum.

In the future there will be a button in the plugin library that will allow you to directly install plugins to your forum to make it even easier.

ProBoards Version 5 is compatible with Internet Explorers 7 8 9, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. You don't need a new computer to use version 5. Any limitations you experience are those of the internet itself. For example you may notice that with Internet Explorer you often don't see rounded corners on things, that's just old IE. What you choose to do with regards to your computer is up to you, but it has nothing to do with ProBoards. If something is broken for you in a browser I listed you are allowed to report it as a bug during the Beta so that we can fix it. As long as it isn't a limitation of the browser itself we will fix it. If you don't like Firefox for some reason you could always try Chrome. I personally don't get the loyalty to IE when it's not doing the job its supposed to (anywhere online). Though I am happy that you at least want to upgrade... IE (but not ProBoards?).