I figured it would be a good idea to start a thread about new features at ECN to help bring others up to speed with some obvious (and not so obvious) features. Please add your observations and tips here so that we'll all get up to speed faster.

Bill

Here's 2 New features that are not so obvious:

We now have a PM (Private Message) feature, which is a way to communicate with members without sending emails. Members can include up to 5 recipients and keep track of each (as to who has read what).

Regarding the 'Online' indicators, the little guy included in that is a 'mood' indicator. (Try hovering over it to see what it says) He is also found in the top right-hand corner above the FAQ link and can be changed by clicking on him.

Bill

There is a Personal Calendar and a Public Calendar. Personal calendar is there for your use only and can't be seen by anyone else.

The Public Calendar will show Member's Birthdays (if included in Member's profile) - but not ages, and other items can only be added by Mods or Admin.

Bill

Hey Bill I like the up-grade so far. Alot of typical feature found on some of the other forums I post at, and a few that aren't. Still trying to get used to the new look and feel.

But- Just one little thing.... Do you think there might be some, ah... Don't take this the wrong way, but some more masculine looking smilies available?

Hey! I hand-picked each one of those! LOL

We can change or add new smilies eventually. We've got to iron out some Bugs first and make sure links to old threads get directed to the new versions.


Bill

Oh my Lord, where am I?!?? I get sick and stay away from the net for one weekend and ECN begins to resemble my wifes' scrapbooking forum Have we reached our final upgrade now? I think I could get used to this

LOL!

There are still some modifications to be done and tweaks here and there, but yup, this is the New ECN...


Bill

Bill,
One thing I can't get over with this new Forum, is how quickly the pages load.
It's great!.

One other thing,
If you have no need for it, you can remove the Left Hand Side menu.
You can do it in your Preferences.

There's quite a few options that can be changed in your Preferences menu including a selection of color schemes (styles) for the Forum. You can select one and press the 'Preview' Button to see how it would look.

To those that may not know; your preferences and your Profile settings can be accessed by clicking on the 'My Stuff' Link in the top bar above the Forum.


Bill

I have changed the time in the prefrences foward by 5 hours. Now when I post it shows the time that I posted in the UK.
Will the people in the USA see the time I posted as UK time or will it change to US time on their screens?

Kenny,

Time shown on your post is 5:09 pm for me (which is just a couple min. ago).


Bill

Question for people using 800 x 640 screen resolution:

With the left column on, and using the default style (ubbcentral - Blue) does this thread - and others containing a quote stretch the screen out causing you to scroll?

Does it look different (better) switching to the UBBThreads style?

Reason I ask is that I found the quote box was using a set width and I changed it to a % of available width (in the UBBthreads style) and want to make sure it looks OK before modifying the other styles.

Bill

P.S. - For people using higher resolution with or without the Left Column - Does the UBBthreads style look the same proportionally?

Bill, Thanks to you and your team for the upgrades at ECN, You must have had some sleepless nights and long 20 hour days.

I think this new layout and new options are awsome.
The pages are loading a lot faster too.

Many Thanks

Raymond

Thanks Ray!
I'm pretty pleased with it.


Bill

I enabled something New tonight.

Members should now be seeing Red Numbers ( ie. (1)) in the Main Forum Display page next to # of Threads and/or Posts. This is supposed to signify # of New Threads and Posts since you were last in that area.

(FYI: You can make them all go away by clicking the 'Mark all Read' link near the bottom Left of page.)

Bill

P.S. Does anyone like this new Feature? - or do you find the Red #s annoying?

There is an 'Active Topics' Link in the Bar above the Forum that will show you the active topics in the last 24 hrs to 7 days. If you hover over the thread link you will see a preview of the last post in that thread, and clicking on it will bring you there.

If there is a little arrow ( ) to the left of the link, clicking on it will bring you to the first new post in that thread since the last time you were there. (I think ... )

Here's a direct link to the 'Active Topic' list for the last 24 hrs:

>> 'Active Topics'

BTW, the Active Topic link is one of a few things that does not appear for non-members or if you are not logged in.

Happy Birthday!

Our first Featured Birthday in the new Forum Calendar is VAElec!

If you put your date of Birth in your Profile (under 'My Stuff') your Birthday (not year born, though) will show up in our Calendar.

Bill

I like the idea that you can make the number of posts per page bigger

Note:

I made the modifications to the ubbcentral (Blue) style so the Quote Box wouldn't stretch out the page on 800 x 640 Resolution.

If anyone notices any negative results please let me know.

Bill

I was having a senior moment before while trying to post a thread for Ray and I was nearly ready to PM Bill.
But, had I have opened my eyes, I would have noticed that at the end of that line of icons in this reply window, there are 2 arrows, these increase/decrease the size of the post window when you are tapping out a reply to a thread, saves a LOT of scrolling and annoyance, I can tell you!.

Greg,

Yes, you can set it according to your preferences. I think 20 topics/page and 10 posts/page seems like a good setting. I made that the default, but that will probably only affect the New people that sign up from now on.

Bill

Mike,

I saw the arrows and that it made the window bigger, but I didn't know it kept going!

I learned something new there myself, Thanks for passing that on!


Bill

Not a problem Bill,
Although one thing I do find a tad annoying is when you go to post a reply, you only get the last reply of the thread, not a biggie, but the old software used to give you up to (I think 20 replies and then it would give you a link back to the thread titled "Click here to review thread", sadly we don't seem to have that feature now, but I could be wrong.

No problem with it as set at the moment. The quote box just reformats to fit the post window, whether the left-hand column is on or off.

As Bill and other mods. will know, I played around with photos to see the effect a couple of weeks ago. When a photo exceeds the message-window width you'll get a scroll bar at the bottom of that post only, not to scroll the whole screen as would happen with the old software.

If you're using 800x600 resolution, I would suggest turning off the left-hand column so that more width is available for photos, otherwise images of 500 pixels or so are likely to result in horizontal scrolling.

Now why would we want to do that - I think it's masculine enough.

I want smilies with whiskers, eating steaks from a BBQ and drinking Man's beer.
Just kidding dear.
Good Lord, haven't we been de-nounced as men!.

In the 'Who's Online' box, what's the meaning of "invisible" and "anonymous"?

Alan

Alan,

"Invisible" is someone who does not want to be seen and "anonymous" is someone who is either not a Member, or not logged in.

Bill

Bill
On other boards that I post on, they give you a grace period after posting to go back and edit spelling or other mistakes. You can edit mistakes in the first couple of minutes after posting without the edit stamp coming up on your post. Any chance of that on here??

walrus,

It's already here and currently set at 12 min.

Bill

Bill
If you look in the Flooded on Tax day thread, you'll see I made a post at 6.15, saw a spelling error, went in at 6.16, corrected it and it left a Edit mark?? Is it working correctly??

walrus,

When you make the edit there is an option to leave a mark or not. There is also a choice to leave a signature (if you have one).

By default it is set to leave the mark, you'd have to select not to.

Bill

Bill
Thanks, guess I should look closer,

You would not believe some of the things I miss ...

Bill

Hmm, don't know if anyone noticed this but, we now have RSS on the individual forums (IE General, Business etc.)

Ian A.

Where did you see that Ian?.

Hey, there's a birthday calendar! Wow!

Just a small question Bill,
Why does the "log-in automatically with each visit" option not work?
I've ticked it a number of times, but it seems to have no effect.