Upgrading TAZ to XF 2.1

[Jim McClain]

What I notice and have been irritated by the last couple days is the "Featured Thread" thing at the top of the page. I checked my options and see that I have unchecked it so it doesn't show, but it shows. I click the "Dismiss Featured Thread" link that appears when I hover over the down arrow, but that only brings up another thread. Is that something I no longer will have a choice over?

 

[User37935]

I don't like it either, it shows for me despite ticking to not show it.

 

[Steve]

What I notice and have been irritated by the last couple days is the "Featured Thread" thing at the top of the page. I checked my options and see that I have unchecked it so it doesn't show, but it shows. I click the "Dismiss Featured Thread" link that appears when I hover over the down arrow, but that only brings up another thread. Is that something I no longer will have a choice over?

Correct, some of that was from a separate add-on we have removed. We are working as quick as possible to prepare the site for an upgrade but there is a lot to go through.

Are you wanting to hide Featured threads you’ve already seen or just do not want to see them at all? Asking now so we have an idea of what people want and don’t want.

 

[Jim McClain]

Are you wanting to hide Featured threads you’ve already seen or just do not want to see them at all?

The latter. I don't need the software to tell me what's important. TAZ has a wide range of discussions over many aspects of forum (and only a slightly lesser degree of general website) management, design and administration. But my interests are more narrowly focussed, so there are many subforums I don't even look at and I don't want a plugin forcing me to look at what amounts to a huge banner promotion of topics I have no interest in.

On the other hand, I like seeing a short list of similar discussions near the bottom of the one I am currently reading. I use that plugin on my own forum and many of my members have made positive comments about it too. I do have to occasionally edit the list of stop words to get better results.

 

[Steve]

By that then basically and sidebar widget showing latest posts or what have you is of no interest either? We do want to promote “popular” (by definition replies and views) content so it gets even more attention but user feedback is always welcome good or bad so we’ll take that into consideration.

 

[R0binHood]

I like featured threads. It's sort of like an editors pick.

 

[Alpha1]

Its nice to be able to dismiss featured content that takes up half the screen (polls) or content that is of no interest to you or you have already read.

 

[Jim McClain]

By that then basically and sidebar widget showing latest posts or what have you is of no interest either?

The sidebar is unobtrusive. It's not an in-your-face kinda thing, so it doesn't bother me. I'm not sure what other members do, but this is what my TAZ visits usually entail:

Chrome browser bookmarks include a folder just for my favorite/frequently visited forums. The link to TAZ goes straight to the forum home page, where I almost immediately click the New Posts menu item. I visit threads I'm interested in and often marvel at the lack of forum admin inspired topic titles. Sometimes I hover over a title that lacks descriptive text to see the excerpt popup, which will sometimes guide me in my decision to visit the thread or not. When I finish reading and replying to the topics I'm interested in, I mark all threads read, which takes me back to the forum home page and I'll go to another website in my list of forums. I probably spend less than a full minute on the forum home page, so I rarely even notice what's in the sidebar.

That's just me. Other users prob'ly do it differently.

 

[Steve]

New Posts

Then why not bookmark New Posts page itself?

often marvel at the lack of forum admin inspired topic titles

Sure it’s been a bit slow here for a while but I don’t think that statement is accurate.

Anyhow if we do run a feature thread type addon maybe it will have an option to disable it in preferences. Myself I don’t think it’s obtrusive at all.

 

[Steve]

Its nice to be able to dismiss featured content that takes up half the screen (polls) or content that is of no interest to you or you have already read.

Ideally polls yes, but a featured thread should adhere to read marking data IMO.

 

[Russ]

What I notice and have been irritated by the last couple days is the "Featured Thread" thing at the top of the page. I checked my options and see that I have unchecked it so it doesn't show, but it shows. I click the "Dismiss Featured Thread" link that appears when I hover over the down arrow, but that only brings up another thread. Is that something I no longer will have a choice over?

Just to clarify Jim McClain unchecking those boxes will SHOW the featured threads. I've just checked all the options and they do indeed remove the featured threads as designed. The option is to "remove" from the areas, so you need to check the boxes.

 

[fixer]

I look forward to the update, i am fine with no addons as long as we are on the latest greatest version of XF, addons should always be seen as "bonuses" and not something that hinders the core software from advancing.

Another reason why software developers should put efforts towards first party extentions and not force the user base to rely on unstable, poorly supported third party crutches.

 

[Jim McClain]

Then why not bookmark New Posts page itself?

Habit. I just want to see the home page first.

(I) often marvel at the lack of forum admin inspired topic titles.

Sure it’s been a bit slow here for a while but I don’t think that statement is accurate.

I might not have made that very clear. I was referring to the members of TAZ, who are for the most part, forum admins or owners or mods of their own forums and should have a basic understanding of the value of a thread title.

Myself I don’t think it’s obtrusive at all.

But there are those of us who do. It's like being hit with a full-width banner ad for a product you have absolutely no interest in. And to top it off, you can't dismiss it, even when you have been offered what appear to be multiple ways to do so.

Just to clarify... unchecking those boxes will SHOW the featured threads.

Sorry, my terminology was incorrect. I checked (not unchecked) those boxes, but the feature persisted.

 

[sbjsbj]

Btw. I hope the bookmarks are coming back as I don't want lose my bookmarks.

 

[Russ]

Unfortunately, we found out about the bookmarks importer via Xon's add-on a little too late. You'll need to re-apply the bookmarks when the site is officially upgraded.

 

[sbjsbj]

How can I reapply them when I don't know what I bookmarked? The reason why I bookmark things is because that way I don't have to remember valuable posts to me, hence bookmarking it.

I thought you disabled the addon, not uninstalled it. How can you uninstall an addon without checking if there is a XF2 version for it, specially for the bookmarks?

Specially seeing that you have not uninstalled Bob's addons (thank god), I thought it would be obvious enough to not to uninstall Xon's aswell or specially the bookmark addon, because the XF 2.1 has bookmarks.

...

Unbelievable. I am registered here for years, how the hell should I remember what I bookmarked in the past?

I'm speechless.

 

[Russ]

How can I reapply them when I don't know what I bookmarked? The reason why I bookmark things is because that way I don't have to remember valuable posts to me, hence bookmarking it.

I thought you disabled the addon, not uninstalled it. How can you uninstall an addon without checking if there is a XF2 version for it, specially for the bookmarks?

Specially seeing that you have not uninstalled Bob's addons (thank god), I thought it would be obvious enough to not to uninstall Xon's aswell or specially the bookmark addon, because the XF 2.1 has bookmarks.

...

Unbelievable. I am registered here for years, how the hell should I remember what I bookmarked in the past?

I'm speechless.

Not too sure what to say, it was an error in judgment. Things happen and this did. It's the only add-on that was uninstalled which has an upgrade path. There are backups to TAZ, I'm sure we'd be able to dig into the old databases to find the old bookmarks if they mean that much to you.

 

[Russ]

Jim McClain is it working as intended now for you?

 

[sbjsbj]

if they mean that much to you.

I'll never know, can I? I don't remember if I bookmarked things or not, but again, the job of bookmarking is so that I don't have to remember.
Yes, please create an installation on localhost, login to my account, go to my bookmarks, scrape the links and send them to me in private please. So that I can bookmark them once the board is on 2.1.

 

[Russ]

I'll never know, can I? I don't remember if I bookmarked things or not, but again, the job of bookmarks is so that I don't have to remember.
Yes, please create an installation on localhost, login to my account, go to my bookmarks, scrape the links and send them to me in private please. So that I can bookmark them once the board is on 2.1.

You can actually submit a thread to the help desk to request it privately so we can continue the discussion there. Anyone else with concerns about their bookmarks can do the same.