Fone Forum

Our forum software was upgraded last night - unexpectedly! - and we are now using the latest edition SMF1.1.11.        :)

There has been some lengthy discussion on the Senior Members' Board about our forum structure, and how it should be amended to make things clearer for both guests and members.  The first stage of this has now been implemented, and I have taken up petkow's suggestion to use new 'categories' ( SMF speak ) as section headers.        ;)

I have also taken the opportunity to make all daughter boards into full ones.  This means that members will be able to see when new posts have been made on any board, and will be less in danger of missing important news.        ;)

Other suggestions have also been made of simplifying our boards, and possibly merging some of the existing ones.  This is a much lengthier task, which will require more thought and time.        ;)

Any constructive criticism of these changes, or positive suggestion for further improvements, can be sent to me via PM please.

Thanks.       :)

The changes look good and the forum looks well organised.

Good work mh and team because I am well aware it is a difficult job you have on this forum, especially when it comes to making changes.

moonandstar.  

It's a decent start at least!  :) Thanks!

I still think there are few too many categories, and I would probably suggest merging a few. I'll think about it a bit more first, and let others suggest too!

The one in particular that confuses me is:
Suggestions / requests for Pre-Dial:
 - Suggestions for pre-dial  
 - Requests for pre-dial's consideration

I know you have explained this to me before, and the reason for the distinction and why there are two boards. However, it just looks a bit too much to me. I cannot really understand why this is not all put together in a single board called "Suggestions/Requests" which is placed under "Miscellaneous" (for example). The lack of topics in Requests just reflects this.

I have merged those 2 boards for you petkow, so we needn't have a 'round three' on that one !        ;D

As for your further thought - sure, we both need to do that !        ;)

Thanks...

{This is where I now need an embarrassed smiley}

---

Edit:-    :-X

13th one from left to right !        ;)

mh.

I have just deleted one category, which brings us down to 10.        ;)

HTH.

more experimentation with colours needed before reaching a decision

Experimentation in progress andy !        ;)

Forum looks really good aprt from the colour combination.  too dark. looks more like darkman website :) ;D

I'm leaving a window open in each version

this is a lot better, though the bar across aboe the post could be a bit lighter, or swap the text colour from dark to light

I spoke too late, and it's back to default

Unfortunately I didn't see which one you liked !        :'(

However, just to clarify, we don't have to facility to change a theme - just to import them, and try them out.        ;)

I actually made a huge mistake - setting a theme which wiped out access to all of the options at the top of the screen.  I couldn't find a way to get into admin to reset it !        :-X

Fortunately a few Alt + left arrows took me back to where I could get in again.        :D

I have now deleted the offending theme post haste.        ;)

The new look doesn't helps me to identify where to post on this thread but it suddenly changed to the old format and I can click the reply button now.

The colour combination used for the forum doesn't looks pleasing at all. Light colours would suit better rather than dark ones  :)

--- Srikanth.

I repeat my comments above: I am not up to modifying a theme at present: my experimentation is limited to trying out various options to see what they are like.        ;)

Good news and nice suggestion to read! Cheers  ;)

Just to let members know that I have spent some time on the SMF forum today, and have downloaded a lot of extra software for us.

I cannot install them from the network I am using this afternoon, but hopefully I shall be able to do so via mobile broadband tonight.

They will give us extra avatars for members to choose for their profiles ( including Animated Avatars, animated women avatars, harry potter avatars, and star wars avatars ); and a lot of 'Mods' ( modifications ) which I need to test out one by one.  Some of these will be visible to all members, whilst others will enhance Moderator and admin functions.  One will add links at the top and bottom of all pages, so there is a quick way to go down or back up to the top on every page.  There is also an addition to protect us from attempted Bot registrations.  These will only remain on the forum if tests show them to work as hoped with our software ( though I have been careful to see that all are described as being compatible with SMF1.1.11 )

As an update to my post above, we did experience a software error last night which prevented all Membergroups from making a post or reply.        :'(

My grateful thanks to an administrator who kindly visited here this morning and fixed this for us.        :)