Major system upgrade in December 2007

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear members and friends of the Discussion Community,

This is to advise that the forum will be undergoing a major upgrade in December, which will introduce a number of features we are certain you will enjoy.

Please be advised that any major upgrade always involves certain periods of interruption: there will be a period of time today in which the forum may be entirely unavailable, and in the days and weeks ahead, certain features will be 'tweaked' to enable them properly.

More details on the new features to follow in due course. In the meantime (and as the upgrade takes effect), please feel free to use this thread to comment on 'bugs' or specific issues with the new features. (Please only use this thread to comment on issues with the upgrade: more general forum questions can be addressed in their own threads.)

INXC, Dcn Matthew
Monachos.net

[M.C. Steenberg]

As a follow-up to the above, please be aware also that certain features of the current system (e.g. enhanced display of Private Messaging, post edit histories, etc.) will be disabled during the upgrade process. This does not mean that they are gone for good; but it is necessary to disable them whilst we upgrade the core software.

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear all,

To whet appetites, I thought I might share a few of the features that will be added to the Discussion Community as part of the major upgrade to take place later this month:

New member picture galleries: The somewhat cumbersome ability to include pictures with your member profile will be updated with a new galleries system, that allows you to upload as many pictures as you like, configuring them into organised galleries you can share with others.
Social networking through member profiles: You will be able to connect with friends in the Community through your profiles, similar to the ability to create networks of 'friends' on such services as Facebook and MySpace. Friends will have links and photos on your profile, etc.
Social groups: Following on the above, there will be the ability to designate 'social groups' within the Community, such as 'Byzantine Chant Enthusiasts', 'Greek Speakers', 'Translators', etc. - both system- and user-defined - so that groups of members with similar interests can connect with one another, share posts and photographs, etc.
Public Messaging in profiles: The Discussion Community already has a robust Private Messaging system that allows you to send private messages to other members; and we will be adding a new Public Messaging system that allows members to leave messages on each other's profile pages, readable by others. This will give new resources for friendly, inter-personal conversation between groups of members outside the focussed areas of discussion in the main forum.
Customisable profiles: You will be able to have much more control over your user profile. While it is already possible to customise your profile with information about yourself, links, etc., you will soon be able to define your own colour schemes and layouts for your profile pages, set up connected photo galleries, add your own backgrounds, etc.
Better display of attached images: Instead of opening in a new page, images attached to posts will display in a small 'viewing box' that appears when you click on the image's thumbnail in the post.
Integrated bookmarking with networking sites: If you're a member of networking sites such as Facebook, Google Bookmarks, etc., you will notice features in the Discussion Community that allow you easily to bookmark threads and areas for integration in your accounts on those systems.These are just a few of the new features that are being introduced during the forthcoming major upgrade. Please be advised that not all of these features will come on-line at the same time; and that there will, of course, be a period of 'tweaking' in which things may not work just right as we get the new features sorted out.

Please watch this space for news on when the upgrade will take place and these features start to become available.

INXC, Dcn Matthew

[Father David Moser]

Integrated bookmarking with networking sites: If you're a member of networking sites such as Facebook, Google Bookmarks, etc., you will notice features in the Discussion Community that allow you easily to bookmark threads and areas for integration in your accounts on those systems.

On this and other features which involve integration with existing social networking systems, might I suggest you look at some kind of linkage with "Orthodox Circle" an already established Facebook/MySpace type of community which is specifically Orthodox.

Fr David Moser

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Do any of you find that you are no longer receiving Forum posts through your email inbox? I notice that in the past two days I haven't received any posts at all in this way. I checked that for the Subscribed Threads it says 'instant notification' (actually I reclicked this two different times to be sure) but still I'm not receiving any posts from the Forum.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Rick H.]

Yes, now that you mention it, I realize that I have not received them as well.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

I'm still not receiving the Forum posts through my email.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Nicolaj]

Okay just find out about the 2008 beta version of this forum and I turned it on..... well I have to say I like it! It is a little different but very comfortable for the eyes and easy to handle, did find all my favourite features in little as five minutes!

Don't know if more is to come but what I see at the moment I love it!

In Christ, Nicolaj

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear all,

In response to recent posts in this thread:

E-mail delivery problems.

I do not have any idea what might be causing this; nothing has been changed on the current system setup at all - so this would have to be either (a) a freak problem, or (b) a remarkably-timed coincident about something else on the server. I shall look into it.

Please could I ask that if e-mail problems continue, could they be discussed in a separate thread in the About the Forum area (http://www.monachos.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=11), rather than in this thread on the forthcoming system upgrade.

The new '2008 Beta' appearance.

This is currently in development, and is nowhere near ready for 'public consumption'. I had not realised that there was a roundabout way to access it, though some found it! In any case, I have disabled that means of access: the 2008 layout is far from complete, and at the moment large portions of it do not work properly. This is, in part, because it is a new layout being designed to work around the forthcoming new system features (enhanced profiles, groups, albums, etc.), which are not yet on-line -- so the new design is in some sense a 'shell' being built around those core features.

Once the new core is on-line (which should happen either later this month, or in earlier January) and the design is is nearer complete, we will open up a short 'beta' period, where we'll ask a few members of the Community to test it out and locate any remaining issues / quirks / bugs that the coders, technies and I may have missed.

INXC, Dcn Matthew

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear members of the Community,

An important note to say that two core elements of the system upgrade will take place today and tomorrow.

Please be advised that there will be periods of interruption the provision of the forum during these phases, and certain portions of the forum will be temporarily unavailable as they are converted.

With thanks,
Dcn Matthew
Monachos.net