Forum Update

Hey all... We're going to attempt an update of this bulletin board system this weekend. So please limit comments and access. We hope to up and running again by Monday morning. Thanks for your patience.

Looks good from here!

PS: Where is the Like button??!

Ty -

I realize this is still a learning curve, but is there a way to only see "new threads" vs "active" ? Similar to old BBS (and others)... would be nice to just see the ones that have changed since the last login.

WISH LIST:

Would be nice to embed pics locally vs a 3rd party host.

Seriously a LIKE button would be good to show support and agreement and acknowledgement of changes or posts - otherwise how will Jack know we actually ready these things?

We're still figuring out how to use this newfangled BBS. In fact, this is just a test message.

Jack and I decided to update our forum software ("Ultimate Bulletin Board") because, basically, we felt guilty and hypocritical about not updating it earlier. You all know what we--especially me, the billing guy--think about people who don't update their software regularly!

The point is, there wasn't any particular problems that motivated us, nor were there any new features that we had to have.

Nonetheless, we of course got some new features. Perhaps the most significant, and one we've actually needed/wanted for a long time, is the option to "send me an email message every time somebody posts in my forum(s) of interest."

To access this feature and specify the forums for which you want to receive email notices:

-- Click on your name at top right of any screen

-- Click on "Followed Lists"

-- Select the category of things you want to follow (forums, threads, users, normally only forums)

-- Click on the "Edit..." text at top right

-- Make your selections

-- Be sure to click on "Update Followed Forums" at the screen bottom to save your new setting

Hopefully this cool feature will be of benefit to you.

A few additional points:

1. Jack and I are not particularly knowledgeable about the new forum software, so we can't tell you all the new features and options it has. However, we will learn those things over time, and inform you of them as we do.

2. Frank, to answer a question above, and in general: when you display a topic and hit the Reply button, and begin your response (although this applies also when you create a new topic), you will see a "Use Full Editor" button at the bottom. Try that. You'll find happy faces, image links, other links, bold/italics/fonts, and all the usual editing stuff.

3.Frank, I don't have an answer for your "like" button. Will let you know if I find something.

4. If any of our devoted readers know some UBB tricks, tips, or whatever, that you think we should implement or at least know about, please feel free to let us know.

5. At some point, I'll probably start experimenting with themes. I don't dislike the one we're using, but it's a little dull and I've seen better. So if it looks different one day, you'll know what happened.

And Steve, thanks for your sympathies above. The conversion was actually fairly painless, and we were down for little less than an hour.

Must say the 'Follow List' with the 'Email Notifications' are working very well.

Hey Team.... Our update to the new bulletin board went fairly well, with some exceptions which we're trying to figure out, resolve, fix, etc. The two specific problems we've noticed are (a) links that refer to the old board instead of the new, and (b) a few blank topics. We are fixing those as we get to them, but could use your help.

If and when you encounter one of those problems, please post a note here with page/topic/thread details or send an email message to ty@microsabio.com.

Thanks.

Given that replacing all the broken links in the system is quite a large undertaking, and given that we don't know how much the links (to other topics) are actually used, we're going to stop trying to replace all the links and wait for input. So please, if/when you encounter a link that takes you to the old bulletin board (which, by the way, should work fine and display the desired info), let us know via a post here or email message. We're going into "fix on demand" mode, and give up on our attempts at perfection!

At the bottom of most forum pages is a drop-drown menu offering you a "style" that you can use to view the bulletin board. When we updated to the new version, everybody's style was set to "UBB Central - Zen."

There are now other choices, which you might want to consider.

The proper, or in my opinion the best, setting is "Default Style." What that means is that you will see whatever style that Jack and I have selected. The important aspect of that choice is that you will see the same colors and layout features as everybody else viewing the board.

So please take a moment and either choose a style that you like or—our recommendation—change the setting to "Default Style."

As you probably know, one of the long-time problems / difficulties / issues with this bulletin board software has been the INability to post images with your notes. You had to post the image on some third-party server, and then link to it from your post.

I'm happy to announce that we can now insert images directly into our threads.

When you start a new thread, or reply to an existing post, and use the "Full Editor," you should see a reference to "Attachment manager" at the bottom left of your screen. Click, then follow the obvious steps; that's all there is to it.

About time, huh?!!

PS. Attached is one of my favorite pictures. Look carefully to discover its secret.

That's great news thanks Ty!

Hey guys - maybe just time to pay Guido and get it over with??! Gotta admit this is a new one!

We already paid Guido, but then Carmelo, Luigi and Baby Face came knocking.

But I think we've finally paid them all off (we did have to give them your name as a potential customer though, so I advise going off the grid for awhile.)

Oh man...!!