What's Coming in Physics Forums 4.0?

[Greg Bernhardt]

So the thanks-badge will no longer exist?

In its current form that is correct.

 

[Psinter]

Oh boy, oh boy. I'll be waiting for this... You know what, I can't wait. I'll try that forum myself now. I want to see how it works.

EDIT: Just tried it. I like it.

 

[DataGG]

Oh boy, oh boy. I'll be waiting for this... You know what, I can't wait. I'll try that forum myself now. I want to see how it works.

EDIT: Just tried it. I like it.

What?

What forum are you talking about?

 

[adjacent]

I'll try that forum myself now. I want to see how it works.
EDIT: Just tried it. I like it.

I thought it was visible only to staff. :p

 

[CAF123]

I thought it was visible only to staff. :p

Me too, I guess that is why DataGG is confused by Psinter's comment (I am too).

 

[drizzle]

Hey Greg,

Please allow PMs in PF chat room. Thank you.

Gad

 

[Psinter]

Me too, I guess that is why DataGG is confused by Psinter's comment (I am too).

Hihi! No no. There's a trial. You can see the dashboard, create users, be admin, post stuff, change templates, ban yourself... no wait, that last one is not possible.

 

[CAF123]

Hihi! No no. There's a trial. You can see the dashboard, create users, be admin, post stuff, change templates, ban yourself... no wait, that last one is not possible.

Apologies if that is indeed the case, but I see no such trial.

Edit: Ah, you meant the free demo on the Xenforo community website.

 

[Evo]

He probably went here https://xenforo.com/demo/

 

[Psinter]

That is what I meant. I was a moderator at a forum which no longer exists in the past (it doesn't exist in the present either). The tools from this one are way better than what we had. Specially when it comes to slaying spambots.

It was then that I learned that there exist huge communities out there that dedicate themselves to creating spambots and in creating spamming forum techniques. They even have forums themselves to help others spam other forums with tools and advises. I was so raging when I learned it, but such is life. For fighting bots properly, you need bots. Specially when they lock-target your forum and come in thousands. This one posses very good tools to make bot-slaying easier. That's something I liked.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I'm excited about these things!:

- Alert System (if you've been tagged/quoted, if your thread has been moved etc etc)
- Highlight text to quote
- User tagging
- Multi user PM conversations
- LaTeX preview
- Like system (replacing Thanks)
- New LaTeX enabled chat
- Improved search (no more using Google)

Although I hope alerts do not go through to email, that would be seriously annoying.

 

[micromass]

Although I hope alerts do not go through to email, that would be seriously annoying.

You can configure it.

 

[dlgoff]

Will the Library items be integrated into 4.0? I'm getting 404 - Page Not Found currently.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Will the Library items be integrated into 4.0? I'm getting 404 - Page Not Found currently.

The library is not compatible and was removed about two months ago. All the entries were moved to the few FAQ sub forums we have.

 

[dlgoff]

... was removed about two months ago

Thanks. Must be loosing my memory.

 

[LCKurtz]

Thanks. Must be loosing my memory.

Your memory is loose?? Better bolt it down. Wouldn't want you to lose it.

 

[Rocket50]

I like XenForo, but I've been using a lot of it lately so I'm getting tired of its layout.

I have a question though. For the reputation you can give to a post, did you pick the version with only "Like" or with "Like, Agree, Dislike, Disagree, Funny, Dumb, Information etc"?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I like XenForo, but I've been using a lot of it lately so I'm getting tired of its layout.

I have a question though. For the reputation you can give to a post, did you pick the version with only "Like" or with "Like, Agree, Dislike, Disagree, Funny, Dumb, Information etc"?

We have a custom style. Just the like. I'm not fond of the addon that gives you the other options.

 

[Rocket50]

We have a custom style. Just the like. I'm not fond of the addon that gives you the other options.

OK.

Hope everything goes smoothly with the update.

 

[Overflowing]

I like XenForo, but I've been using a lot of it lately so I'm getting tired of its layout.

Gonna be a bit of this with every forum software

I can't tell you how "bored" I am of the VB layout. Most forums run without a custon style and just tweak the colors a bit.

There are always, of course, certain basic functionality that you cannot really change without a highly customized style.

Here are a couple examples of some highly customized styles:

www.xenadmins.com
www.3reef.com
www.crazyengineers.com

 

[Evo]

Gonna be a bit of this with every forum software

I can't tell you how "bored" I am of the VB layout. Most forums run without a custon style and just tweak the colors a bit.

There are always, of course, certain basic functionality that you cannot really change without a highly customized style.

Here are a couple examples of some highly customized styles:

www.xenadmins.com
www.3reef.com
www.crazyengineers.com

Those are horrible! They don't even look like forums where people are able to participate! I participate at a number of forums. I would be put off.

What a mess!

And that first forum, WTH are all of those numbers?

I tend to gravitate to forums that are very simple and straight forward, see a comment, see a reply option, make reply. Done. I guess if I was a registered member they might make more sense.

The forums I belong to make sense even without being registered.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Those are horrible! They don't even look like forums where people are able to participate! I participate at a number of forums. I would be put off.

What a mess!

And that first forum, WTH are all of those numbers?

I tend to gravitate to forums that are very simple and straight forward, see a comment, see a reply option, make reply. Done.

www.crazyengineers.com has some nice things. In fact I think we're using the same framework.

 

[Evo]

They look more like a news source instead of a forum. Are they a forum? They remind me of Yahoo News where they report a story then people comment below. That's not what we will be like, right?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

They look more like a news source instead of a forum. Are they a forum? They remind me of Yahoo News where they report a story then people comment below. That's not what we will be like, right?

They use one of their forums for news/article type content and then display it from the homepage. I am testing something similar with a featured threads function.

 

[Overflowing]

Eco, I was giving those as examples of the flexibility of the software. And yes, they are forums, with a summary type home page or other front-end type of addon acting as a home page. Then you just click the 'forum' or 'community' link in the nav bar to see what you would consider the traditional forum layout (category, sub forum, etc) it's all there just a bit different.

The first one is highly specialized, specifically for people who are Forum admins of only Xenforo forums. So there are a lot of things being used to show off a bit. It's not a site anyone who is not an XF admin would ever use so forget about it.

All I got to say is don't fear change. XF is taking over the forum world more and more every day.

 

[Evo]

I don't fear change. I just welcome change if it's necessary, not because someone can do it. But I understand that Greg needed to make changes that VB didn't have, so a drastic change was necessary, although not ideal. I think due to this need we all need to get behind Greg because of the need, even if what comes with it is not what we really want. We need to understand this isn't something Greg is doing lightheartedly and he is doing all that he can to have as little impact as possible on our members. And I say kudos to Greg for what he is doing and not taking credit for.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just want to remind users to backup their PMs they wish to keep. I'll be making a more prominent notice in the near future. The plans are going well and we are still on target for next weekend.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I wanted to speak of a couple interesting alert features.

One is the tagging system allows for watched tags. So if you are interested in photons, you can watch the tag photons and when a user tags a thread with that, you'll get an alert.

Another is that the system will check if you have new alerts without refreshing the page or even having the window in view. You can be at a different tab doing your banking and look over and see the number of new alerts in the title. Facebook does this.

 

[Rocket50]

Unfortunately for me, the alerts never refresh by themselves. :(

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Unfortunately for me, the alerts never refresh by themselves. :(

We haven't upgraded yet :)

 

[mfb]

One is the tagging system allows for watched tags. So if you are interested in photos, you can watch the tag photons and when a user tags a thread with that, you'll get an alert.

Tag photos with photons, okay. *scnr*

Sounds very nice.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Tag photos with photons, okay. *scnr*

Sounds very nice.

oops! proof reading has never been my strong point

 

[dlgoff]

I don't fear change.

But there may be many old members that do?

 

[Rocket50]

We haven't upgraded yet :)

I meant on all the other XenForo forums I've been on.

 

[Overflowing]

That is a setting or tweak. The addon that Greg is referring to makes more calls to the server to update the alert notifications, specifically for the tab alert.