New forum software! Be sure to reset your password!

[Erin]

If you're reading this, then you know TestMagic has upgraded its forum software.

To start posting, you will need to reset your password. Make sure your email account is working, as you will need the information contained in the email to complete the password reset.

You will probably find some ugly code here and there in the forums. This is a result of the conversion process. Over the next few days, I'll be cleaning things up a bit and moving forums around, but I don't think I'll be able to ensure that all 50,000+ posts are converted perfectly.

The new software has some really great features, including thread rating, reputation points, referrals, uploads, and a lot more.

This upgrade is part of an on-going revamping of the TestMagic website. We welcome your suggestions and feedback, as always.

If you have any questions or concerns, please post here!

[ursula]

I didn't even realize how attached I had become to the old Testmagic over the last few months
Overall, though, I think the upgrade went quite smoothly. The new site looks nice, and has some neat new features. It will probably take a while for people to get used to these (e.g. reputation, thread ratings).

Some questions / suggestions:
Is it possible to bring back the sticky posts? Or maybe at least gather some "permanent" threads in a special reference section?

The messed-up codes in existing posts are annoying, but maybe people could do a bit of cleanup on their own recent posts to improve the situation. In particular, any use of angle brackets for inequalities in the quant forums shows up as HTML escape sequences. Also, any use of font color shows up as codes. Is there some type of editing assistance for the new formatting codes? Otherwise we probably need to type in any codes, using the list at
http://www.urch.com/forums/misc.php?do=bbcode

Other things I miss:
Smilies in posts, without having to type in codes
Animated smilies, particularly the dancing banana...
The old avatars (I barely recognize people now!)
Lost all my private messages (in and out)
Lost all thread subscriptions

[Erin]

Yes, I know it'll take some getting used to, but this forum does have some great features that I think will help our thriving community.

Originally Posted by ursula

Some questions / suggestions:
Is it possible to bring back the sticky posts? Or maybe at least gather some "permanent" threads in a special reference section?

The messed-up codes in existing posts are annoying, but maybe people could do a bit of cleanup on their own recent posts to improve the situation. In particular, any use of angle brackets for inequalities in the quant forums shows up as HTML escape sequences. Also, any use of font color shows up as codes. Is there some type of editing assistance for the new formatting codes? Otherwise we probably need to type in any codes, using the list at
http://www.urch.com/forums/misc.php?do=bbcode

Other things I miss:
Smilies in posts, without having to type in codes
Animated smilies, particularly the dancing banana...
The old avatars (I barely recognize people now!)
Lost all my private messages (in and out)
Lost all thread subscriptions

I'll be trying to address all those issues, including manually stickying the old sticky topics, adding the old smilies and avatars, cleaning up old code, etc.

If I'm not mistaken, you should still have access to all your PM's on the old forum; it's still there, just locked. I'm pretty sure the other functions are still working.

Thread subscriptions--I don't think I can convert those. Actually, it took me a LONG time to find somebody who could do the conversion for me. It wasn't easy at all, as the two database structures are totally different.

Anyway, I'll try my best to get the new forum feeling familiar again. If I miss anything, please let me know.

[angels]

Hi Erin,

Congratulations on the upgrade.
The new version looks pretty good.
It definitely has many more featues and benefits.

Still, even I miss the older version.
The white backgroung with bright colors, (like yellow color of the folder) was much more appealing to the eyes.
May be its just a change phase and we will get used to it eventually.

Congratulations once again and all the best.
Angel

[Kiwihost]

Hi all, I helped Erin convert the forum, I'm still working on tidying up some of those things which didn't covert over all that well like the square brackets and font codes etc.

It would be a big help to me if you'd post links to any posts you encounter that are still quite messy so I can use them as references to complete the building of the script to clean the posts up.

[Erin]

I've just added a bunch of the smilies from the previous forum, but not all of them yet.

I'll try to get the avatars in the next couple of days.

[ursula]

Yeah, nice job!
I just tried typing banana in square brackets and it worked!

Also, I grabbed my avatar off the old site and set it up as a custom avatar, so I feel like I have my old identity back now.

Could you explain how this "reputation" thing and thread ratings work? The FAQ didn't really help.

[Erin]

Originally Posted by ursula

Could you explain how this "reputation" thing and thread ratings work? The FAQ didn't really help.

They're just some added features that motivate people to provide more helpful answers. Also, the thread-rating ability allows you to sort posts according to their rating.

Also, as your reputation grows, you'll start to get more little green pips.

[eagle]

As usual Erin has come up with a great upgrade.. I always thought the older version of the forum to be very user friendly and promoting conversation as well..
The changes seem to make it even better- though I hadnt thought it possible.
Good job Erin!

[eagle]

Hey Erin, How do we use the calendar..? does it post events for the entire group or is it a personal calendar...
It is a totally new option I think..