Idle Chatter | A General Discussion Community

[btmgreg]

No fancy updates to post but I've moved my site from KnownHost to @MattW hosting services today. What a guy, what more can I say. Done an amazing job. I couldn't be happier.

For now, we wait until I'm ready and able to upgrade to XF2.3, it will probably be well into the second half of the year before I even consider it but today was the first step towards that process.

Your work ethic and drive is my inspiration. Not trying to be 'cheese' - just honest!

 

[Gemma]

Your work ethic and drive is my inspiration.

That's worrying. Don't know if I'm the best inspiration for anything technical

 

[Wildcat Media]

Don't know if I'm the best inspiration for anything technical

Of course you are!

We look at our own stalled projects that we haven't touched in months, then look at what you've done and we're embarrassed.

 

[Gemma]

Okkaaaaaaaay, lets try and get this showcase back on track...

Made some little tweaks to my "Book Club" section, this should be the final adjustments as we mirror the layouts of the other addons by @Bob that we use.



Another addon from Bob with a slight tweak is our Recipe Book (Showcase addon), I wanted the discussion thread associated with the item to have the exact same layout...and now it has, icons and all.



I've purchased and installed Enhanced Search (mainly for the new XF2.3 features) and tweaked the Similar Threads widget so it mirrors my thread list layout...



And I've started work on replacing my current social groups with the Social Groups addon by DBTech - this is something I'm hoping to finalise for when I upgrade to XF2.3/3.0



I'm also looking at moving away from the Audentio Feeds addon and hopefully will have something in place for the upgrade but maybe XF3.0 will have a feeds feature, who knows

 

[Wildcat Media]

I'm also looking at moving away from the Audentio Feeds addon

I tried it in testing and the staff hated it (and I didn't see the point to it), so I uninstalled it fairly quickly. With our visitors, they skew older, and have used forums like ours for decades--it's what they are familiar with.

It's just a matter of knowing the community and what they expect. The addon may work well for some sites, in other words.

 

[Gemma]

Been offline for two weeks and my brain is still on holiday but I've managed to cobble together a few updates....mainly tidying up code and small layout adjustments.

Small changes to my member profiles, mainly to the profile post comment system. I was also missing some icons so they've been added.



Slight adjustment to thread comments too...might look at switching addons for this once XF2.3/3 come out



I helped fund a new update to the Music Thread Starter addon by @Ozzy47 and his team - I've now modified my layout to accommodate the update



Similarly to the TV and Movie thread starter addons, stats now show if members like an album, have listened to it, and/or actually own it. Another change means that they can now import all the albums by an artist at once instead of one at a time. This addon is probably underused on my site so hopefully the changes will increase activity.

The changes have also been implemented into my Toplist addon so members can now create their own music lists and other members can vote whether they like or dislike the album



And I added some missing bits to my Book Club...this time I do think the layout is complete



As always, thanks for looking

 

[CedricV]

Inspiring, as always Gemma. Great work.

 

[Agentos]

Am I to understand that this is a custom add-on? It looks great and I would love to do something like this on my forum.

 

[Gemma]

Am I to understand that this is a custom add-on? It looks great and I would love to do something like this on my forum.

No. It is the newest members widget and forum stats widget which are both core (if I remember correctly) and a members recently online addon that I don't think is available anymore. I've just joined them all together using an html widget and styled it.

 

[Gemma]

Inspiring, as always Gemma. Great work.

I'll never understand the inspiring part everyone alludes to but thank you

 

[Agentos]

No. It is the newest members widget and forum stats widget which are both core (if I remember correctly) and a members recently online addon that I don't think is available anymore. I've just joined them all together using an html widget and styled it.

Is it possible to do something similar for me for some fee?

 

[Gemma]

Is it possible to do something similar for me for some fee?

Sorry, no. There is a huge difference between doing stuff for my own site and doing it for someone else. I'm no coder and have little computer knowledge.

 

[VBX Co]

Sorry, no. There is a huge difference between doing stuff for my own site and doing it for someone else. I'm no coder and have little computer knowledge.

That's a bit of a stretch, you've got to have more than a reasonable understanding to be able to create something as good as your site!!

Never mind the hours you will have put in to get it "just so"!! Excellent work @Gemma

 

[CedricV]

Sorry, no. There is a huge difference between doing stuff for my own site and doing it for someone else. I'm no coder and have little computer knowledge.

I beg to differ, lol. You're more coder than half of this forum. Don't be so humble.

 

[Gemma]

Giving mobile devices, mainly tablets, some layout love today. An area I often neglect

 

[Gemma]

We've made some small and not very exciting updates to Idle Chatter...

First off, I've not upgraded to XF2.3 - it's not worth the money I'd need to fork out to replace broken addons or the hassle of redesigning our site. I do have a locally hosted XF2.3 version with most of the layout complete though so I will look again once XF2.4 and XF3.0 are released. But for now, we'll remain on XF2.2.x

So, wee changes.

I got Team OzzModz (fantastic work by @Painbaker) to update the Game Thread Starter addon.

• it now uses the ForumType and ThreadType system
• you can now manually add games to your site
• visual stats have been added (like, played, owned) similar to what I got added to the other thread starter addons
• the rating system has been updated to allow users to quickly rate games without the popup/pressing of buttons
• user account page that shows games liked, played and owned
• integrated into the toplist addon to create game lists

As usual, I've changed the layout to suit my site.



We've made some other small changes around the site...

I've tidied up my "trending content page"



I've decided to go with a horizontal view for user info in thread view and changed the post comments layout



Our "book club" index (IMS addon by @Bob) has been tidied up and the layout css improved



Changed the thread filters on forum view - got rid of the drop down menu and added icons



And I've made some little changes to the "who replied" pop-up on forum view too...



Finally, I've made some small changes to the sidebar in member profiles to integrate the referral system into the info block - makes sense to have the ability to send referrals from your own profile, imo



I've mostly been offline since the end of June and I'm about to take an extended break until early next year but my wee site continues to chug along at the pace of a snail (we should hit 40K posts by the end of the year)

As always, thanks for looking

 

[Gemma]

One other small change we've made this week....we've finally gone live with @DragonByte Tech Social Groups after replacing the groups addon by truonglv (which started causing more and more problems with the latter updates).

I've changed bits and pieces of the layout to suit my own needs and I've still got work to do with the group discussion list layout.

 

[Gemma]

This will be short and sweet, real life is keeping me busier than I'd like and any free time I have is usually spent climbing mountains but I managed to squeeze a couple of minutes of work into my site.

So, I did a thing or two while playing around with XF2.3 locally and decided to bring some of it to my live site (XF2.2.x)

Gave the forum index a refresh, playing around with tabs, creating some new widgets and moving some stuff. The page defaults to Latest Activity but there are tabs for Latest Posts, Latest Threads, Forum Index, Profile Posts etc..



Tidied up my Social Groups index a little and also showed a little love to Profile Post Comments



As mentioned, I've been playing around with XF2.3 locally and I've almost finished a new look for my forum view/thread list layout...(it is based on @JoyFreak Nodes Extended addon)

It now shows the last post in the thread, along with the number of replies (clicking on the number of replies displays a popup with the number of replies per member in the thread, who were the last 5 members discussing the topic, links to the first and last post, a some other eye candy.



I'm quite happy with how it looks but.....others prefer the more traditional look so they can opt for that if they wish.

As always, thanks for looking. If anyone is interested in the new forum index layout pop over to...

Idle Chatter

An online community with a wide range of discussions, social groups, recipes and much more. Create and join discussions which interest you!

idlechatter.co.uk

and press some buttons, hopefully, nothing will explode or break.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Beautifully made forum! It gives me a retro memory in a round about way but still modern! Retro-modern!

 

[Gemma]

Beautifully made forum! It gives me a retro memory in a round about way but still modern! Retro-modern!

It's always good to see posts like this. Thank you!