Upgrade in Progress

[Andy]

Note: The transition is not yet finished! Please do not reply saying that XXX looks messy. I know, and it will be taken care of as soon as possible.

Anyway, the upgrade to 3.7 was a success! We've got plenty of new features which we'll be putting into practice very shortly. In the meantime, the community and literature links at the top work just fine, so you can navigate the forum, post, and read things just as you always have.

You have four styles available for viewing: the gray style you see, a gray with changeable width, and two default blue ones.

Here is the checklist for everything that needs doing. Please be patient. It will take time. Things will be marked in red as they are completed. :cool:

1. Uninstall old addons

2. Do THE BIG upgrade

Registration updates
- Add anti-spam question/image/reCAPTCHA image verification

Change the top menus
- Literature, Community, aStore (not yet done for blue style)
- Add back in the pages (affiliates, downloads, games, etc)
- re-install the quick drop-down menus from before
- Make sure the lit/com/store links look nice

Important
- Add all the pages to the users online listing

Change all images to the good ones (books, chat icons, etc)
- Change the header/logo (not yet done for blue style)

Built-In Features
- Friends list
- Navigation bar notices (helpful info for new users, guests, etc)
- Fine-tune customizable profile pages

Install new addons
- Signature image size limiter
- No links 10 posts or less
- Forum statistics (same as before)
- Put the chatroom back in. Hopefully it still works.

Little Text-Involved Changes
- Re-add the bookmark links for each thread
- Update the Thanks/Reputation system (disable negative thanks)
- Fix the text editor (remove useless code, arrange smilies)
- Re-add the topsites and other links in the footer
- Put the Google advertisements back in
- Add bookmark/email/Paypal links back in (not yet done for blue style)
- Forums now display the total thread/post counts
- Forum Optimization: logo, 2 index links, forum descriptions
- Add lost password link to all pages for guests

Requests by People
- "Curviness" (Shaun)

Add in alternate styles for the forum
- Red/Green/Gray...
- Fixed and changeable-width versions of each

Points System (later?)
- update the earning of points
- refine points needed to post, etc
- error message if not enough points
- Add points to profiles, posts, and member listing

Critique Buttons (later?)
- I'd like to fine-tune the buttons. Make better, make them fit better with whatever points system we choose
- Add default-warning-message options for staff members

Other? (never?)
- Add a front page to the forums (portal)
- Use side columns in the forums?

[Shaun]

Everything looks the same on my end...

[Andy]

Admins can still use old styles, Shaun. But if you want to be able to use the new stuff, and prevent yourself from encountering errors, change your style. :rolleyes:

[Ichigo]

It's different wow! Looks cool though.

[Andy]

It's different wow! Looks cool though.
Glad to hear it!

At this point, nearly all the forum's regular features have been restored. The links at the top, the non-forum pages, and everything else. If you don't like the gray look, you can try the blue. The profile pages may take some getting used to, but you can now:


edit your biography directly from your page
leave messages on people's pages
add friends (http://www.youngwritersonline.net/profile.php?do=buddylist) to your profile


There are some new anti-spam features which I think will keep away nearly all the spam. In addition, there is now a "Reply All" link in the private messages which Carraka suggested (http://www.youngwritersonline.net/showthread.php?t=687) a while back.

[Shaun]

Next order of business is adding nifty curvy stuffs :D

[ScottyMcGee]

Whoah, whoah, whoah, WHOAH.


...


Sweet.


Suddenly I feel like changing my avatar.

I'll do that...

like..

eventually.


I like the whole friends list thing.

[Nyx]

Sweeeet. This looks really cool. ^^ -goes to add friends-

[Andy]

Two things done that were almost forgotten:

Portfolio links added to profiles (click the Statistics tab)
Times thanked added to profiles (http://www.youngwritersonline.net/member.php?u=1) (Statistics tab) and also the listing of all members (http://www.youngwritersonline.net/memberlist.php).