• With the number of recent threads from brand new users that we have observed in our Classifieds forum selling goods under questionable circumstances, we have instituted a new policy restricting new members of iLounge from posting new threads in the Classifieds forum until they have reached "Regular Member" status.

    New users become Regular Members once they have made 10 posts and been a member of the iLounge Forums for at least 7 days. Prior to this time, members may still read the Classifieds forum, and even respond to existing threads for items being sold by other members, but they may not create new threads advertising their own items for sale.

    This will hopefully help to protect our user community by discouraging fraudulent users from signing up and posting classified ads without having at least a very basic level of established membership in our forums.

    Obviously all users should still exercise due diligence when making use of our classifieds forums, but we hope that this restriction will help to decrease the number of blatantly fraudulent ads that we have been seeing in recent weeks.

    Please be sure to review our Classified Forum Policy for more information.

Welcome to the new iLounge Forums!

GO TO ADMIN PANEL > ADD-ONS AND INSTALL VERTIFORO SIDEBAR TO SEE FORUMS AND SIDEBAR
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I'm pleased to announce that we have completed our upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin and a whole new template design for the iLounge Discussion forums.

vBulletin 3.8 provides a myriad of new features, not all of which have yet been implemented. Basic forum posting and editing features are of course available immediately, while more advanced social networking features may be phased in over the next few weeks.

Significant improvements that may be of interest to our user community are as follows:

Multiquote: You can now quote multiple messages in a single reply. Look for the "Multiquote" buttons below each post.

Quote backlinks: A link appears in qUoted messages to link back to the original post that they are quoting from.

Private Message Enhancements: PM e-mail notifications now include a preview of the private message in question. Further, users can now choose to receive private messages only from users on their buddy list (and administrators and moderators, of course), and the general private messaging system has been greatly enhanced in terms of the sorting and filtering capabilities. Users can now see other TO recipients of private messages they receive -- a BCC (blind copy) field for recipients who should not appear on the received messages.

User Profile enhancements: Users can now customize their own user profile pages to a much greater degree, and can also directly control the privacy options for which parts of their profile are visible to other users.

Signatures: Users can now upload a 300x50 image directly to the iLounge forum system for user in a signature, in accordance with the Forum Policy on signatures. As a result, the IMG tag can no longer be used in signature blocks. Existing signatures will continue to work without modification, but any modified or new signatures will need to use the uploaded image feature rather than an IMG tag.

New Posts Link: The New Posts option at the top of the forum now idisplays all new posts in the past 24 hours, rather than new posts since the last visit.

This highlights the most significant changes at this point, but look for more new features coming online in the future.

We hope you enjoy the new layout and some of these new features. Please reply to this thread with any comments or issues that you may be having with the new system.
 
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ReyZero

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+1 Looks pretty sweet so far.
Don't notice a single difference on the mobile version yet :(
 

Code Monkey

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The old forums would adjust their width based upon your monitor resolution. The new ones must be fixed because more than 40% of my screen (width 1680) is wasted on the charcoal gray border. Very squished looking on a wide screen monitor.

If my math is right, you set the site for 800x600 monitors, and that's flat out ridiculous.
 

jwc110869

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I don't mind the width at all. It has a book feel to it. People now need to learn to space their paragraphs.

And I suspect there will be longer arguments, with that new "Multiquote" feature.
 

melsmusic

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I like it so far. I haven't viewed it on anything larger than an 8.9" screen to comment on the book look.
 

Code Monkey

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I don't mind the width at all. It has a book feel to it.
I haven't owned an 800x600 monitor for more than 15 years. I haven't used an 800x600 monitor for over 10 years. There's no excuse for such a narrow fixed width, period.

Let the fools still struggling by with pre-1993 technology adapt, not those of us who purchased a computer sometime since the end of the Clinton administration.
 

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Ugh! Seems like a giant step backwards....

There's only one thread-view option now? (Linear) If so, the FAQ page should be updated.

What in the world are "Friendship Request" emails, and why is that control panel option ON by default? Why no FAQ info?

At least "Visitor Messaging" gets a FAQ entry, even if the explanation isn't very good. But why is a new option enabled by default?

Multi-quote -- wazzup? The button turns from orange to green to orange.... Any guide to how it works?

"Get New" still seems to be working (for which I'm very grateful); will it be quashed in the future? Like, if I'm gone for two days, how does Get Daily help me get caught up? Seems like a waste of good cookies to stop offering Get New ;-)

Maybe limiting content to a 771px-wide column makes sense from a branding perspective, but it certainly reduces my enjoyment of the forums. (Actually, it's a real head-scratcher to me...makes the whole place look like a Blogger rag ;-) RIP, liquid layout! Greetings, 13" screen simulating overlord ;-)
 

jwc110869

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I haven't owned an 800x600 monitor for more than 15 years. I haven't used an 800x600 monitor for over 10 years. There's no excuse for such a narrow fixed width, period.

Let the fools still struggling by with pre-1993 technology adapt, not those of us who purchased a computer sometime since the end of the Clinton administration.
I would tell you about setting the zoom, on a Mac, but I already know your opinion on that.:rolleyes:

Actually, it's a Firefox thing, and not a Mac thing
 

Code Monkey

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I would tell you about setting the zoom, on a Mac, but I already know your opinion on that.:rolleyes:

Actually, it's a Firefox thing, and not a Mac thing
Actually, like most of Firefox, it was an Opera thing first ;)

Still not a solution, that just turns everything into large print books for old people.

The fixed width is flat out stupid, there is no possible good excuse you or anyone can give me for making a website to 1994 standards in 2009.
 

baggss

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Not a big fan of change for the sake of change, but I do like the new look.
 
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ReyZero

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Fixed width is okay, I can live with it. But, the layout should be centered, not justified to the left. It looks really weird all squeezed over to one side.

Other than that, great work!
Mine's centered, maybe your browser is just a freak!
I just noticed on the mobile forums, the chief avatars are showing in the announcements and stickies, and they are kind of huge compared to everything else.
 
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There's only one thread-view option now?
Actually the other views should still be there. Seems that it got toggled off somehow during the upgrade. It's now been fixed.

What in the world are "Friendship Request" emails, and why is that control panel option ON by default? Why no FAQ info?
The "Friend" concept is what has replaced the old buddy/contact lists. It's now more of a two-way relationship thing. The FAQ for it is under the Friends and Contacts section.

At least "Visitor Messaging" gets a FAQ entry, even if the explanation isn't very good. But why is a new option enabled by default?
Visitor messaging is really just a place where people can post notes on your profile. Generally harmless, but yes, enabled by default. Each user has the ability to customize the privacy on their own profile as well as turn features like this off. Unfortunately, it is enabled by default for existing users, probably based on the logic that most users won't take the time to turn it ON, but certainly will turn it OFF if it becomes a problem.

Visitor messaging was left enabled as something of an experiment as we're looking at more fully exploring some of the other social/community aspects that the new version of vBulletin has to offer. On the other hand, if the Visitor Messaging feature becomes a problem, it's also something that can be shut entirely or restricted only to more established members (as with profile viewing in general, it's use is already restricted to "Regular Members" -- those with 7 days of membership and at least 10 posts).

Multi-quote -- wazzup? The button turns from orange to green to orange.... Any guide to how it works?
Multi-quote is covered under the Replying to a Post FAQ item. Basically, you click the Multi-quote buttons to indicate which posts you'd like to reply to, and then click the general "Post a reply" button to compose a reply with the quotes from all selected messages. Note that this will somewhat break the threaded or hybrid views, as the reply will simply get tagged on at the end (it's impossible to thread it when it's a reply to more than a single post).

"Get New" still seems to be working (for which I'm very grateful); will it be quashed in the future? Like, if I'm gone for two days, how does Get Daily help me get caught up? Seems like a waste of good cookies to stop offering Get New ;-)
Get New should still be available somewhere, albeit it not necessarily as a shortcut right now. The Advanced Search still offers the ability to select "Your Last Visit" under the "Find Posts" option. If there's enough demand, we could bring that back as a shortcut, but the "Today's Posts" option is likely more useful for most users, since it remains somewhat consistent in terms of the information that is shown.
 

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Actually the other views should still be there. Seems that it got toggled off somehow during the upgrade. It's now been fixed.

Wunnerful! Yup, they're back now; no longer jonesing for Hybrid View ;-)

The "Friend" concept is what has replaced the old buddy/contact lists. It's now more of a two-way relationship thing. The FAQ for it is under the Friends and Contacts section.

I've read that section of the FAQ, and there is no mention made of "Friendship Request Email" (as it's called in the Options window of CP); the closest I could find was this bit in the "Buddy List" section of the CP: "To add a user to the list, enter their name into the empty text box and click...'Friend' to also send a friendship request." But still no real indication that this will involve an email being sent (presumably from iLounge servers?). Seems like this should be opt-in, not default enabled, since it involves email sent from iLounge(?)....



Thanks for the reply, Jesse! Esp. the FAQ links; found my way to the forums faq page once, but then lost track of it (p'bly linked as big as my nose.... ;-)

Condolences on the fixed-width layout...looking forward to the first 780xN image ;-)
 

eqblues

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I dont mind the fixed width too much. So far I like the new look and I havent run into any trouble since the switch.

I like the multiquote button a lot, but I hadnt given it much thought that it probably WILL mean longer winded discussions from now on.

I havent poked around in the settings or my profile yet so I dont know whats up in there. If I find something annoying or bad, Ill be sure to come to this thread to whine about it. haha.
 
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I like the multiquote button a lot, but I hadnt given it much thought that it probably WILL mean longer winded discussions from now on.
Well, there actually is a limit to how many posts you can multi-quote. I think it's set at 3 right now.

I havent poked around in the settings or my profile yet so I dont know whats up in there. If I find something annoying or bad, Ill be sure to come to this thread to whine about it. haha.
There's quite a bit of new stuff in there, but the good news is that it's very configurable in terms of what types of notifications you receive and what parts of your profile are available to other users. In fact, there are a few aspects of it that we haven't even enabled yet.... The major new features at this point are being able to design your own profile style, a bidirectional "friend" system that goes beyond the simple "Buddy" list that was there before, and the ability to post "visitor messages" to other user profiles, kind of like a Facebook wall (this is customizable on a user-by-user basis as to whether you want it enabled at all or only for your own contacts, and you can manage any visitor messages posted on your own profile as well).
 
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I've read that section of the FAQ, and there is no mention made of "Friendship Request Email" (as it's called in the Options window of CP); the closest I could find was this bit in the "Buddy List" section of the CP: "To add a user to the list, enter their name into the empty text box and click...'Friend' to also send a friendship request." But still no real indication that this will involve an email being sent (presumably from iLounge servers?). Seems like this should be opt-in, not default enabled, since it involves email sent from iLounge(?)....
I see what you're getting at.... Yes, the e-mail notifications are not clearly explained in there, although they're basically the same as any other notification that you would receive from iLounge, such as new thread or new private message notifications. The user simply receives an e-mail indicating that you've requested to add them as a friend.

Condolences on the fixed-width layout...looking forward to the first 780xN image ;-)
Actually, we do have that covered as well. External images in posts are resized to a maximum 600 x 600 resolution, with the option to click on the image to see the full-size version. Even in the old forum templates it was not uncommon to see the occasional gargantuan image that would mess up the formatting.

See the Your Desktop thread for some good examples of this (that particular thread being the one that most commonly contains large images).

Note that image attachments (as opposed to third-party links) are already limited in much the same way that they always have been. As an added new feature, however, browsing through thumbnail attachments presents a very cool "light table" effect. Click on any of the attached images below for an example of this.
 

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S2_Mac

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Seems to be the de facto thread ;-)

Small glitch -- when logging in, the tab sequencing is messed up. Enter your user name in the top "User Name" input box, then press Tab key -- the insertion point moves to the next "User Name" box (and not the Password box) at the bottom of the page; press Tab again and the insertion point jumps back to the "Password" input box at the top of the page; etc. Assigning unique tabindex numbers to the "bottom" input boxes fixes things nicely....
 
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