Board software update

[MacHeadCase]

This morning MacApper forum's board software has been upgraded and some members might be experiencing some problems.

If you are havng problems and cannot log in, please use the Contact Us link on the forum's main page at the bottom right.

Hope to see everyone intact. :laugh:

[MaDDoG]

Well that explains my problems last night and again this morning. Tata off to work now.

[MacHeadCase]

I hope you have an uneventful day at work, MDDG.

[dtravis7]

Only issue here was it asked me to agree to use the Keychain info on MacApper. Otherwise all is fine.

[iKitten]

It had some hiccups earlier, but seems to be alright now.

[MaDDoG]

I logged in and had to type in my username etc again.

[MacHeadCase]

Well for the mods it's a total nightmare. Spambots are joining and we are talking about a possibility of hundreds a day.

[MaDDoG]

I hope you have an uneventful day at work, MDDG.

Interesting day actually. My new boss decided today that I actually do more than he thought and that my role was far more technical than he though as well.:unsure: What does that mean I wonder?:scared:

[MaDDoG]

Well for the mods it's a total nightmare. Spambots are joining and we are talking about a possibility of hundreds a day.

We will not waiver. we will not tire. we will not falter. We will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.

George W Bush 2001.

I think you mods can piggy back on this.:thumbup:

[MacHeadCase]

Ok.

Admins found out why the bots were coming in like if it was a free All you can Eat joint and it has been fixed. But it went to the other extreme.

There seems to be something that is borked in the board software install which prevents real, honest to goodness people to sign up and join us at MacApper.

So if one of your friends tries to join but can't, I would say that you let either MediaRight or Steven Owens know about it, maybe one of them can manually register your friend.

One of the Escalate Media coders dropped by a bit earlier to see what could be acting up this way, so it might be fixed already. But if it isn't contact one of the two admins above.

:coolthumbup:

[MacHeadCase]

Is it safe to do a gniah gniah gniah to the bots, do you think?

[Tanner31593]

INVISIBLE Image Verification...the best way to make this a bot-free forcefield! lol

[MacHeadCase]

Yeah MacApper just invented the best anti-spambot defence there is. Invisible captcha! :laugh:

[MaDDoG]

Is it safe to do a gniah gniah gniah to the bots, do you think?


gniah???

[MacHeadCase]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=35637418

I scared it. The video won't load. :rolleyes:

[MaDDoG]

I googled gniah and got this video file. It was in french so I thought MHC would know what it was about. Then I panicked cause I thought it might be rude so I removed it...thats all.

[MacHeadCase]

After all this time, it said it was still loading! :blink:

[iBones]

The image verification isn't working...so this things is a mess. Even the bots are confused.

[MacHeadCase]

That's the way! Confuse the buggers! That's the best anti-spambot deterrent there is: confusion.

[MaDDoG]

Just ignore them and they'll go away.

[iBones]

That's the way! Confuse the buggers! That's the best anti-spambot deterrent there is: confusion.Yeah BUT apparently nobody else can register either. Novel idea but not too effective. :laugh:

[MacHeadCase]

Very effective against spambots so I ain't complaining. It'll get fixed eventually. I have faith.

We got Tanner in, that's good.

[MaDDoG]

Faith - I remember her from school days.....

[iKitten]

Meh, we don't want to be overrun with new people anyhow. ;)

[Stretch]

Can we no longer edit our profiles?

[MacHeadCase]

The board software is in pretty bad shape as far as I can tell. As you can see from your member's page, a lot of items are missing. You'd have to get in touch with an admin, only they can change anything as it stands now.

MediaRight won't be available pretty much until Tuesday so your best bet is to get a hold of Steven Owens.

What is it you want to change in there?

[JohnTheMacGeek]

Yeah, I tried to edit something on there and it is currently missing. Nothing major. It can wait. But I do hope they fix this soon.

[MacHeadCase]

Well there's supposed to be a redesign of the entire website by mod-July. There is also talk of the forum getting re-skinned. I would imagine that they'll make sure everything is compatible then.

I am curious to what the new skin will look like. I quite liked this one, easy on the eyes, very readable. Hope they don't come up with a dark background and light coloured type on it. It makes my eyes bleed. :sleep:

[Stretch]

Hope they don't come up with a dark background and light coloured type on it. It makes my eyes bleed. :sleep:

you mean like my website?

[JohnTheMacGeek]

Well there's supposed to be a redesign of the entire website by mod-July. There is also talk of the forum getting re-skinned. I would imagine that they'll make sure everything is compatible then.

I am curious to what the new skin will look like. I quite liked this one, easy on the eyes, very readable. Hope they don't come up with a dark background and light coloured type on it. It makes my eyes bleed. :sleep:I hope you're wrong on the skin. I do like this one. It is easy to read and not too "busy".

[MacHeadCase]

you mean like my website?

Well it's your website, man! :biggrin:

[Stretch]

does it make your eyes bleed? ;)

[MacHeadCase]

Of course it does. ;)

Yes, I find it very hard to read. But it's yours so it's your tastes not mine and that's all that matters. :)

[iBones]

Ther are a lot of nice skins avaialbe. Dark skins look great but they are hard to read and very difficult on the eyes plus some graphics and smiles look terrible. I have a beautiful dark skin on one of my forums and nobody will use it. They all use the light skin. Just my 2¢.

And Stretch, your site looks great but I have to go take a nap now and rest my eyes. :tongue:

[MediaRight]

We don't want to take the design in a completely new direction, but we want to make it a bit more mac like. A few tweaks, a few gradients on things, and we'll do away with the diagonal lines.

[MediaRight]

Yeah, we're trying to get people on the board fixing, but Escalate doesn't do much work on weekends, or so it seems.

[Brown Study]

Where are the diagonal lines? Or am I missing something too obvious?

[MacHeadCase]

I'm not seeing diagonal lines either. Did SafariBlock eat that as well? :laugh:

[iBones]

No lines here.

So my question for the admins is simple: has the current skin been updated for vBulletin 3.7? I doubt it and that is why things are messed up. None of the new features are working and that points to a skin that is not 3.7 compatible. Why was the software upgraded before the skin was ready? D'oh.

[MediaRight]

Look at the background off to the side, squint, and tilt your head 45 degrees to the left.

The problems are arising because we have no idea who originally did the board skin. It was done before the site was handed off to Escalate, and their people are being a bit slower on this than we'd like. It'll all pan out soon, or so I hope. We're re-skinning soon too, so at worst, it'll take until then.

[iBones]

The problems are arising because we have no idea who originally did the board skin.There it is! ;)

You're gonna have to find a new skin that is 3.7 compliant. Lots of options out there.

At least the quasi mystery is now confirmed.

[MacHeadCase]

Look at the background off to the side, squint, and tilt your head 45 degrees to the left.

The problems are arising because we have no idea who originally did the board skin. It was done before the site was handed off to Escalate, and their people are being a bit slower on this than we'd like. It'll all pan out soon, or so I hope. We're re-skinning soon too, so at worst, it'll take until then.

Can we mods uhm, you know, see what your choices are gonna be? :tongue_smilie:

[MediaRight]

It may be custom done to match the new site theme when it's done. Not sure yet.

[MacHeadCase]

Well if you stick to this (http://macapper.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8784#post8784), it should be fine anyhow.

Just don't go dark background and pale type. It kills the yes. ;)

[MaDDoG]

ouch....sure does.

[iKitten]

I've been enjoying the simplicity. Hope that doesn't change!?

[MacHeadCase]

MR, maybe a good idea till this skin issue is fixed would be to add in the registration page an email addie (non-readable by bots -> emailmeATemail.com) where any legit person wishing to join the forum can contact one of the admins that could help them in the registration process?

Mid-July is quite a while's off, a good solid four weeks and no one is going to wait all this time, especially if there isn't a reason given for their impossibility of signing up.

[MediaRight]

We're trying to get this registration thing fixed asap, though.

[MacHeadCase]

That would mean that the forum's skin would be changed before MacApper's overhaul, then? Since it looks like it's the skin incompatibility that is creating all the issues...

[iBones]

That would mean that the forum's skin would be changed before MacApper's overhaul, then? Since it looks like it's the skin incompatibility that is creating all the issues...Bingo. :uhh:

[MediaRight]

I mean, it's up to the board coder, and the effort involved, but we'll get the registrations fixed at the very least.

[MacHeadCase]

As long as incoming registrations from airtelbroadband.in and bol.net.in are banned ahead of time, that's a good start. Before the floodgates were opened with the disabled captchas, the vast majority of our spammers came from there.

[MacHeadCase]

Adrian from Escalate Media did a bit of work on the board's code and registrations are now fixed, I was told. :coolthumbup:

[Tanner31593]

Don't go all LALALALA ANIMATIONS AND FANCY GLITTERY SPARKILY SHINY STUFF THAT MAKES MACAPPER TAKE 10 HOURS TO LOAD ON DIAL UP on us.
Well....on me. lol.
Am I the only one here with dial up?

This forum is pretty darn quick loading wise, it's the fastest forum i'm a part of.

So thanks!

[iBones]

Am I the only one here with dial up?Probably. :tongue_smilie:

[mathogre]

Signature images don't seem to work right now. I went to change mine, and all I was able to do was delete my current image. I cannot upload another, nor can I upload the one I just deleted.

[Rxx]

Am I the only one here with dial up?

This forum is pretty darn quick loading wise, it's the fastest forum i'm a part of.

Nope!

Im stuck with it for a few months until I go back to the uni.

*Virtual high five*

Also, the lines do actually drive me crazy. I cant help but notice them. And as Im waiting a few seconds for the crazy fast dial up connection to kick in, the whole screen is filled with them until the foreground loads. Makes me want to punch my computer. So thanks for wanting to get rid of them.

[MacHeadCase]

Signature images don't seem to work right now. I went to change mine, and all I was able to do was delete my current image. I cannot upload another, nor can I upload the one I just deleted.

for the time being, can you host your sig image? I think that unless you ask an admin to do this for you, the fixes will be done only in mid-July. What was seen as important to Escalate was to allow registrations and that has been fixed.

I would suggest you contact MediaRight or Steven Owens. Mods don't have those types of controls to fix this for you.

Sorry MO I can't be of further assistance.

[mathogre]

Thanks MHC! I can host it. It's not that big of a deal. I"ll do it later today.

[MacHeadCase]

Cool 'cuz the sig pic and your avie are way cool and look grrrrrreat! :thumbup:

[mathogre]

Actually I was changing it at the time. I usually do the sig first, then the avatar. I don't dare touch the avatar now, given how I can't use the built-in features to load a sig image. It would be my luck I'd be completely without an avatar. (Suffice it to say I'm a visually oriented person. Going without an avatar would be personally unpleasant.)

[MacHeadCase]

It doesn't allow to upload and change avies either? Maybe that explains why MD couldn't change his yesterday! :O

[mathogre]

I don't know if it will or not. I didn't trust it to try it.

[MacHeadCase]

Yeah till the repairs are finally done and over with, that's always a possibility. :closedeyes:

[iBones]

Hmmmm...mid July >>>>>

http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/felix.gif

[bobtomay]

L O L

[MaDDoG]

Just tried to upload a normal avatar as the one I was trying yesterday was an animated gif. Same result - vBulletin message of "Invalid file"

I did very recently change my avie though to the current one without a hitch.

[MacHeadCase]

Yep trav tried uploading an attachment in a post to help Browny and he got the same error message.

MD, would appreciate it if you sent a PM to MediaRight, not sure of the admins check posts in the forums a lot. A PM would be getting their attention in a timely fashion, me thinks. :)

Maybe more members have these same problems, btw.

I think MO got that message too, come to think of it.

[MaDDoG]

I PM'd Media Right yesterday and his answer was basically he would get back to me so they at least know there is a problem.. I will PM him again now and just let him know it was not just confined to the problem I was having.

[MacHeadCase]

Yep it's bigger. Looks like it seems to be a generalization...

[MacHeadCase]

BTW Is this problem for uploading pictures in sigs as well? Anyone try that to see?

[MacHeadCase]

Jeez I hate it when it slows down and refuses to load like this!... :glare:

[MaDDoG]

Do the admins admin?

[MacHeadCase]

Uh I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me...



Kidding. Well MR does make an appearance once in a while and he's a cool dude.

[MaDDoG]

It feels like a ship without and anchor here at times..........just drifting along

[MacHeadCase]

Hey! we mods try to do a decent job. We're steering a plenty! You should look at the banned users list. We got about 161 bans out of the whole total, all to ourselves since we joined and were nominated... We are SuperDupers! :laugh:

[MaDDoG]

you steer I'll dog paddle.

I mean without admin support this place seems to be left up to the the rest of us. Admin from my perspective, and may only because of time zone differences, don't seem to bee around much.

[MacHeadCase]

Well they're not online as much as we are, that's for sure. We're the blue collar workers, you know. :thumbup:

[MaDDoG]

And a great job you collar of blue people do. MaDDoG bows.

[MacHeadCase]

Why thank you sir. :)

[iKitten]

you steer I'll dog paddle.

...
I'll help propel if I can use an oar?

[MacHeadCase]

Nifty! Here are two in case one breaks...

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/8039/oarsqh1.gif

[iKitten]

Sweet! Now I can work out both arms. :biggrin:

[MacHeadCase]

Let's see if attachments work for me...


Nope attachments don't work for me either. I get this error message:

This is not a valid image file.

And it's a .gif for god's sake...

[iKitten]

Yeah, that! :mad:

[MacHeadCase]

Well I sent a PM to MediaRight as well. I scared him off I think. :tongue:

[MaDDoG]

To whom it may concern, due to circumstances beyond my control, or the control of MHC, I hereby resign my commission as self elected admin molester.

regards

Me

[MediaRight]

I don't know what's up. I'll put in a request for one of the guys to look into it, but that may not happen for a while. I'll be away on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday, if it's still not fixed, I'll start bugging someone.

As you guys know, this is all kinda a chicken wire and cardboard solution right now. Once we have a new theme, we'll take a look at everything prior to relaunch in mid-late July.

[mathogre]

Thank you so much! Whatever you can do will be greatly appreciated! :coolthumbup:

[MaDDoG]

Thanks MR.....

[MacHeadCase]

Can we paint the chicken wire to a colour of our liking? :tongue_smilie:

[MaDDoG]

We could do an al fresco landscape on the cardboard as well?

[MacHeadCase]

Oh yes yes, that would be divine. :)

[MediaRight]

Steve says we're having issues uploading images to WP too, so it may be a larger server issue.

[MacHeadCase]

Uh oh. Server needs steroids then.

[iBones]

Issues. We got some issues.

[MacHeadCase]

Well since this isn't a forum-only issue, looks like we won't have to wait till mid-July after all. Ya can't fix half a server. :lol:

[MediaRight]

Oh don't worry, you can. ;) Lots of websites run off them every day.

[iKitten]

Can we paint the chicken wire to a colour of our liking? :tongue_smilie:
:w00t: Virtual rep!

[mathogre]

Okay, image uploads work now. Thank you!!!!

[MacHeadCase]

Okay, image uploads work now. Thank you!!!!


Cool! Thanks for warning us, MO! :coolthumbup:

[iBones]

Testing...

[iBones]

Is this ^^^ what works now?

Mmmmmmmm...beeeeer.

[mathogre]

I was gonna say, "Mmmmm, donuts!"

[iKitten]

Donuts, YES!

[MaDDoG]

Lets see if my funky new avi works.....

[Tanner31593]

I can't wait until mid late July!
lol.

What if we were on MacApper, then hit refresh and then
BAM!
Everything was different.