Storage Auctions
Online Storage Auctions => Online Storage Auctions Support => Suggestion Center => Topic started by: Travis on November 18, 2012, 11:06:41 AM
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Over the next few weeks, the forum will be getting a make over. If you all have any questions, feel free to ask them here. If you have any suggestions for the design, functionality or features of the forum, please let me know as soon as possible and I will try to have them implemented.
We will be updating the look and layout of the site and I would like your participation in selecting a new theme.
Here is a link to themes you can choose from (removed, see selections below ;D)
If you see one you like, just post a link to the page.
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Well, there are over 1,000 choices there so I think YOU need to narrow it down to half a dozen choices or so.
I'd be happy to cast a vote on one out of six, but not one out of a thousand. ;D
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Good point. ;D
What, you mean I can't just have you guys do all the work? ;) LOL
I'll go through them this afternoon and narrow it down a bit.
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Okay, here are the final selections, let me know if you see anything you like. (Dark Templates Removed)
1. http://themes.e-debatten.dk/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6.0;attach=24;image
2. http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?action=download;lemma=2649;id=16143;image
3. http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2469 Scroll down and click on image for larger view.
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Assuming you're not going with black, #1 looks like a pretty decent layout to me.
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Assuming you're not going with black, #1 looks like a pretty decent layout to me.
LOL. I think the color scheme on that one is limited to black. 2nd Choice?
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OK, I give up.
How are any of those choices any different or more "professional" than what is being used now?
I don't say that because I am just used to using the current format for two years, but additionally because
I can't see any material difference.
Is it just to make it more "yours" Travis? If that is the case I guess I can understand, but I'm assuming you're going to change it no matter what, so all I would suggest is keep it light colors....those dark examples are hard to read (at least for me). I'd rather see black letters on some light background than white letters on black.
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Actually, the forum is running on the oldest version of SMF which has vulnerabilities. My hands are tied, I have to update it.
The reason I'm giving you guys a choice is because I want you to be comfortable with the layout and color scheme. So far, it looks like a dark color scheme is out of the question. My personal favorite is custom(dot)simplemachines(dot)org/themes/index.php?lemma=2270 which isn't much of a variation from the current theme.
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Actually, the forum is running on the oldest version of SMF which has vulnerabilities. My hands are tied, I have to update it.
Right, I forgot you mentioned this before. If additional protections (of whatever kind) are needed, that makes a lot of sense. From "our" end I personally am just interested in something easy to look at and use, so go for it and thanks for dealing out any dark colors. ;D
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More decisions...but these are fun.
Fantastic Smileys- Really Funny
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=download;mod=2241;id=121672;image
Blue Smileys
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3290
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More decisions...but these are fun.
Fantastic Smileys- Really Funny
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=download;mod=2241;id=121672;image
Just a personal preference I guess, but I find the kind of smiles as shown in the link above to be OVER THE TOP. I personally like a cleaner look as shown by smiles all in the same color and size as we have them now. The others I feel are just CHEESY...but that's just my opinion. Other's opinions may vary and be exactly the opposite. ;D
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The updates to the forum will take place on Monday & Tuesday. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.
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Do you mean every Monday and Tuesday there will be updates if available, or you mean new software is being installed next Monday and Tuesday as a one shot deal?
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Do you mean every Monday and Tuesday there will be updates if available....
Hopefully there won't be THAT many updates ! ;D
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My web designer and I have almost everything planned out and she will be installing the upgrade to version 2.2.2, the new template and the critical modifications on Monday. She will most likely finish installing the non essential modifications on Tuesday.
Hopefully, it will be a seamless transition.
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My web designer and I have almost everything planned out and she will be installing the upgrade to version 2.2.2, the new template and the critical modifications on Monday. She will most likely finish installing the non essential modifications on Tuesday.
Hopefully, it will be a seamless transition.
Looking forward to seeing the changes. Good luck and I will watch for Tuesday's update!
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It should be pretty cool and I hope you guys like it.
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As long as we get what we "pay" for. :D
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My web designer and I have almost everything planned out and she will be installing the upgrade to version 2.2.2, the new template and the critical modifications on Monday. She will most likely finish installing the non essential modifications on Tuesday.
Hopefully, it will be a seamless transition.
Slowly but surely. And don't call me Shirley ! (no smilies to attach yet)
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So the update to version 2.0.2 was successful. I had to delete about 20 or so spammers but that seems to be under control for now. She added a few critical security features and will be adding the new template and features tomorrow. Some things may not be functioning correctly until we get the new template installed.
You should have plenty of new smiles to play with tomorrow.
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I had to delete about 20 or so spammers but that seems to be under control for now.
Best keep at it because there are quite a few spam messages this morning and the button to report the posts to you is missing.
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Yeah, I took care of them. We were trying out a security question verification during registration. "Are you human" Apparently the spammer's programs were written to bypass basic questions like that so I will change it to something they aren't expecting.
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Yeah, I took care of them. This forum gets attacked by these spam programs about once a minute. Last night, we were trying out the verification question "Are you human?" Apparently the spammer's programs were written to bypass basic questions like that so I will change it to something they aren't expecting.
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I trust the "recent posts" link which used to be at the bottom of the main page will also return.
Seems like THAT is a "must have" to me....otherwise one would be shopping all over the many topics to find something new that has been posted.
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I would imagine that it will be there but I won't know for sure until the theme/template is installed today. If it isn't there, I'll try to find a mod for it.
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I would imagine that it will be there but I won't know for sure until the theme/template is installed today. If it isn't there, I'll try to find a mod for it.
Here's a TWEAK that's needed.
At 11 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday the 27th if you are logged in the "recent posts" link does not show at the bottom of the page...BUT
if you are not logged in it DOES show up. Get out the programming guide !
No smileys or other BB updates (color, italics, etc) available yet.
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Looks like all of that has been installed as of 3:00 PM. ;)
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Well, it's 2:30 Pacific time as I post this and I see all the color, text options and the smileys....assuming the recent post link shows up when we are logged in now...it would be a pain to have to go in and out of being signed in to see that, so hoping it works...or will work.
Looking good so far ! :)
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Here's another neat...and new....feature...at least I'm pretty sure it is....don't recall seeing it before:
Hello MovieMan
Show unread posts since last visit.
Show new replies to your posts.
November 27, 2012, 02:39:24 PM
Those two features in red above are great as far as I'm concerned...the easier it is to see the NEW posts or threads, the better.
:)
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Yeah, I noticed that too. It's a lot more convenient. So far, she is about 75% complete. I think she will be adding the Adsense and the social media icons tonight and most of the other stuff will added tomorrow. The rest of the add ons will be operating behind the scenes.
All in all, I'm really pleased with the way everything looks and functions. :D
If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.
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Ome problem I noticed however, after posting a reply to a post i get directed to a blank page. However, if I use the back button I can see the new post I padded to the thread.
Seems as though i should be redirected back to the thread, no?
That's strange, it's not doing that for me. Is anyone else having that problem?
Another thing, we can't drog and drop text in the editor anymore - ;D
I will let her know about that and see if she can fix it. Any idea what could be causing that? Maybe a setting?
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I'm not sure if pretty URLs is activated yet. I let her know about the issues. ;)
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StorMe, thanks for the input. Could you help by telling me the browser and operating system you are using when you have the problem. When some have the problem and some do not one of those can be the culprit. I haven't yet added Pretty URLs so that can't be the problem.
I'll see what happens when I post.
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Thanks! As I thought about it, you might get a strange layout with a different browser but the page is served up by the program on the server. I too get the index after I post using FireFox. I will continue to see if any solutions can be found. Anyone else having this problem?
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Looking good!!
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Thanks, I appreciate it. The best thing about the new website is that its SEO and social media friendly. This is going to be critical to it's future growth.
Just this month alone, we have seen some positive improvements. We have added some valuable new resources for every state. The forum went from 20th place for the search term storage auctions to 15th place. We dropped from a 365,000 Alexa rank to 293,000. We have had the second best month in the forum's history for creating new topics. This has also been the best month for new posts since March.
Best of all, MovieMan hasn't ousted me yet! ;)
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We have had the second best month in the forum's history for creating new topics.
Best of all, MovieMan hasn't ousted me yet! ;)
Re statement one above: ;)
Re statement two above: :)
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FWIW, the blank page after a new post is still happening.
This hasn't happened to me. Is anyone else having this problem?
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Hmmm, I wonder why I'm seeing it listed in the 48th spot.
Just wondering, what is the percentage of traffic coming here from outside the USA and how many hits have you had from the Baiduspider in the last 48 hours?
I'm not sure. Sometimes the ranking is effected by your location but I don't think it would effect it that much. I check ranking a few different ways. I will select private browsing and then search for the term. But for more accurate results, I use this SEO tool seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/keyword-position.html I have tested several rank checking tools and found this to be the most reliable.
It appears that about 30% of the forums traffic comes from outside of the United States. The UK, Canada and Germany are the only 3 traffic sources that are even worth mentioning. Asian countries aren't even contributing 1%.
I'm not very familiar with Asian search engines but how does the Baiduspider effect traffic? I thought it was just a bot that crawled your site?
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Are you using Google Analytics instead of your own raw log files? if so, why would you want to do that?
Yes, I think Analytics goes into more detail doesn't it?
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How can there be more detail than your own server logs?
You forget, I'm about as tech savvy as a chimp in space. Yeah, I have the astronaut suit on but someone else is flying the ship. :D
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I just wanted to let you all know that we added Google Translate to make it easier on our visitors from other countries.
I'm sure you all have noticed the new smileys...kind of hard to miss. Yes, the new smileys are large and a little distracting; however, if you don't like them, I only have one thing to say to you. :P
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Yes, the new smileys are large and a little distracting; however, if you don't like them, I only have one thing to say to you.
Yep, they're cheesy as hell. I won't be using them and I gradually will be removing from any of my recent posts as well.
Edit:
Tried to the use the cool one thinking only the word would come up. How wrong I was.
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You'll get used to them. You have to admit it, some of them are pretty funny. What is the cool smiley doing anyway? It kind of looks like he took a bite out of his finger and is chewing it up.
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I just wanted to let you all know that we added Google Translate to make it easier on our visitors from other countries.
Ah yeah, there's a bit of a problem with that feature there Chief. If a username means something in a foreign language, it also gets translated. For example, my username "Alloro" when used in Italian means "laurel". So if I select English from the drop down box, all of my posts in the forum show up with laurel next to them as the username.
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I think the name Laurel has a nice ring to it. ;) If it's any consolation, the name Travis in Latin means gate keeper.