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Improvements to Podiatry Arena

Discussion in 'Podiatry Arena Help, Suggestions and Comments' started by admin, Feb 17, 2014.

  1. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member


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    Hi all

    I going to bite the bullet and upgrade Podiatry Arena to a new and different software platform that will serve us well into the future. We are currently running on a dated version of vBulletin that I have not been able to upgrade to newer vB versions due to the extent of customization that we had done. As time goes by we are increasingly exposed to vulnerabilities and exploits that are taking more time to fight. All that is going to be dumped and we moving to the Xenforo platform. Hosting is also going to be changed to a faster cloud based host - this is a big job and will not happen quickly. I am going to have to spend time setting things up on a new server and play with that before migrating across the actual database.

    While doing that, we going to have to look at customized functionality and add ins. A priority is going to be a better search function, which Xenforo does come up for an extra cost, so will go with that.

    Has anyone got any suggestions for further improvements??? will look at those in the context of what we can do with the software.

    Xenforo does have better social media integration.
     
  2. Craig:

    One thing I have noticed is that when Newsbot posts new journal articles, sometimes many of the very current (non-Newsbot) threads get hidden on the right hand side of the screen for Podiatry Arena due to the sheer number of Newsbot posts that sometimes occurs at one time. Is there a way to have the Newsbot posts be listed in a separate column somehow since many of these news items never have anyone post to them. Alternatively, if you had a longer list of current threads on the right hand side of the PA screen, this may solve the problem of the so many very current threads being pushed off the opening page by Newsbot.

    Please keep the ignore function since that is probably one of the most satisfying ways of "turning off" the posters who are continually wanting to sell their products on PA and those posters who never have anything positive to contribute to discussions. The ignore function is a great feature of PA. Also, I like the "thanks" function on each thread since this allows us to thank posters who make useful comments for all of us.

    Other than that, I have no specific complaints about the format of Podiatry Arena.
     
  3. blinda

    blinda MVP

    An effective search facility would certainly be useful, Craig. Not to mention save time spent trawling the net for previous threads.

    Perhaps a sobriety test prior to posting? Most devices are fitted with webcams; 'walk a straight line, touch your nose.....



    ....do calculus!'
     
  4. Boots n all

    Boots n all Well-Known Member

    l agree, the search feature needs improving, other than that its great, thanks to the continuing efforts of the admin team, thank you.:drinks
     
  5. Deka08

    Deka08 Active Member

    Yes, the search function please. All else good.
     
  6. davidh

    davidh Podiatry Arena Veteran

    Improvements?
    Ban the troublemakers - that Ian Linane for a start.....
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    .joke - JOKE!:D

    All good as far as I'm concerned Craig - keep up the good work.
     
  7. Paul Bowles

    Paul Bowles Well-Known Member

    ...add embed video functionality..... I know I can get PORTAL Support to dump a whole lot of up to date video content here in the relevant forums but at present it wont accept the embeds from PORTAL (youtube is fine but seriously who uses youtube!!!!)

    Just a thought......
     
  8. Griff

    Griff Moderator

    Craig,

    I often read posts which I think I may want to refer back to at some point - a few months pass and I can't find it for the life of me. Is there a possibility to have a function whereby you can tag an individual post and it will add itself to a list attached to your profile (not unlike the 'favourite' star on Twitter) for easy reference to at a later date?
     
  9. Phil Wells

    Phil Wells Active Member

    Hi Craig
    I like Ian's idea as it would be really helpful.
    I would also like to create a terminate button that we can use to get rid of the 'pains in the arse' - if enough people hit the button then Simon Spooner is sent round to their house with a group of his Rugby mates to 'convince' the person to stop posting crap!!!
    Here's hoping!
    Phil
     
  10. mgates01

    mgates01 Active Member

    Hi Craig
    I would agree with Ian that some method of easily re-accessing threads you have visited, either through tagging the thread or creating some sort of individual user history list.
    Michael
     
  11. Agree with me colleagues re: video embedding, search and store for later, newsbot as seperate feed, keep ignore button.

    I'd add: no anonymous posters, magic number prior to each post.

    And double vote for the field sobriety test, including "flips" and calculus.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPl7MHThE0k
     
  12. horseman

    horseman Active Member

    Thanks for the link, I needed a good laugh!:D

    The site? there are some good ideas already, I like the idea of tags so I can find threads easily. Other than that I too thank the Admin team:drinks
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2014
  13. Paul Bowles

    Paul Bowles Well-Known Member

    This is already possible - click on your name in the upper right hand corner after logging in - then you will see two line

    Find all posts by "USER"
    Find all threads started by "USER"

    You can click either and then sort with various processes.
     
  14. mgates01

    mgates01 Active Member

    Thanks Paul but this I was more thinking about being able to re-access old threads that I found interesting but didn't actually contribute to.
    So a history of all the threads I've viewed with the ability to let me tag particular threads so I can go back and revisit them is more what I was thinking.
     
  15. Craig

    I'm all for having a nickname to post under if that is what a member wishes to do, but I do think registration should include verifiable identities with a valid email address and perhaps national registration numbers (where applicable). These details could be kept hidden and accessible only to yourself, but in certain cases - say slander, malicious, vexatious, defamatory posts - members can request the identity of another member and write directly to seek resolution. If that is not satisfactorily met then members would have the option to seek redress elsewhere. It is a professional site - and professionals should be bound by their own standards as well as those in the T&C on Pod Arena - so such discourse should not be an issue, but sadly there are many breaches of these conditions with increasing regularity. Having verifiable registration details might go some way to inhibiting such behaviour.

    Keep up the good work!

    Mark
     
  16. davidh

    davidh Podiatry Arena Veteran

    Seconded.
     
  17. Suzannethefoot

    Suzannethefoot Active Member

    I can never work out how to start a new thread, but then, technology and I don't get on too well. :)
     
  18. blinda

    blinda MVP

    Thirded.
     
  19. davidh

    davidh Podiatry Arena Veteran

    Further to Marks post, I think it would be a good idea not to allow those using proxy servers to post.
     
  20. Paul Bowles

    Paul Bowles Well-Known Member

    HERE HERE!!!!
     
  21. manmantis

    manmantis Active Member

    Hi Craig,

    It would be fantastic if you could add Tapatalk functionality, for easy mobile/tablet/i-thingy access.

    Tapatalk app for Xenforo

    Cheers for all your hard work on this forum. It's a resource I wish had been around when I first qualified. And I find it invaluable now.

    Julian.
     
  22. dyfoot

    dyfoot Active Member

    I would certainly use the forum a lot more if it was on Tapatalk.
     
  23. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Well, it been a long time in gestation, but hopefully by then end of the week you will see some very big changes.

    I have 4 people from 4 different countries! doing different parts of the move to a new software!

    This is a big job with a lot of leg work... but we will get there.
     
  24. Hello all, I've noticed that when writting in Spanish, it is impossible to actually use accents or the "?" letter (an "n" with a small line on top), it later shows up with question marks and weird symbols once the post is published. If you check the spanish forum you will see what I mean. It would be cool to fix this as it would allow for better reading/writting.

    To give you an idea, this are all the accentuated vocals: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?.

    PS: I'm thinking that there might be an option when posting that fixes this in the advanced settings that I've never actually found. Also, the preview of the message is correct but as soon as I press send it all goes wonkers. Lastly, some Spanish posters manage to have the accents and weird spanish letters to show properly.
     
  25. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Yes; there was a stuff up at the host with encoding issues that caused it.
    Would love to be able to sue them for that as we will have to go through and manually change all the errors that that created.... but can't
     
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