Template

[Jim Axman]

As some of you noticed, the old templates have bugs when applied to the new upgrade.  I knew this going in.  As the software engineers develop the main package features, third party developers, that know how to make themes and other modifications, scramble to catchup with the new software upgrades.  I'm going to kick over to a theme that is 99% compatible with the new upgrades.  This also means that I'll turn off the ability for you to select your own theme, since it will not be compatible anyway.   Eventually, since I've previously dabbled in some theme modification, I hope to not rely on that which is developed, but to make my own changes when the spirit moves me. 

[Stephen Dietrich]

Not quite sure where to rely about the changes which I think is one of the problems here. Before there were actually 2 main categories, general and technical, where 99% of the site's discussion was carried on. These other changes are great but in the forum section, I think less is more. On a simpler note, there should be an option to navigate back to the categories section.  Stephen

[Jim Axman]

Stephen:  should be an option to navigate back to the categories

   

Hi Stephen:  how's the 300 restoration going?

As for categories:   at the top of each post, is the same navigation tree (which are clickable links)

Forum > Categories > Web Navigation > Template

Clicking on Categories takes you to all the categories (Boards).   It's true there are more now....we're trying to make the forum more of the central point of the overall website (as opposed to > separate distinct, often different software and different templates and navigation, segments).   This probably translates into  more boards on the forum. while I agree less is better for easy in and out... in some cases, especially with surfers (since we are opening the site up up for google searching by subject) you get very little opportunity to capture their interest, and the more of a smorgasboard you can present them (versus sending them all over the place through separate links) the better. 

I am giving some thought into adding a separate category for Sightings (pre-war and post war) again, to take them out of the General discussion.   There are some that have no interest in our sighting postings.... and for them, rather than have to drill-down through the general discussion category, they can simply ignore the sightings category when doing there daily check-in.  On a related subject, all images and postings of a sightings nature (cars for sale found on the internet), are captured painstakingly by John Ellis and put into a separate gallery software under (pre-war and post-war) sightings.   John does about 20 cars per week, which translates into about 4 hours of his time.  In most cases, those images in the sighting postings on the forum, stay on the forum (about 3500 last count) and I think unfortunately, a lot of surfers do not take the time to go to those separate links to view the sightings archives.   So this is all an effort to centralize things, save our time to focus on other things, make it easier for a quick navigational buffet of what we have to offer and hope that every returns another day, subscribes, etc....
Hope this all makes sense. 

[Stephen Dietrich]

The 300 restoration is going well. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to put my engine into the OTP. I have the tendency to focus on the easier tasks. So right now, there are so many "easy" tasks on the 300. The guy who was painting it, let the dash get weathered to the point where it was on the verge of being unsalvageable. I spent 2 weeks reconstructing the dash, piece by piece. It was very rewarding. I need to take a day to put the engine back in and then spend a little time to get it going. Too many projects and not enough time, I still have to finish reassembling my Porsche!!
I was refering to the ability to redirect to the forum from the choices at the bottom og the page.

[Jim Axman]

at the bottom of the page?  hmmmm  are you on your Mac?

the jump box is still there as before, on the lower right side.

Jump to: -----------------------------Categories-----------

Is the Mac showing something else?

[Stephen Dietrich]

No, I'm on the lap top. I guess I want to be able to jump to the forum section.

[Jim Axman]

At the bottom (extreme right) is a jump box.   Click on "Categories"  which is the main forum page

[Stephen Dietrich]

That sends me to the coverpage but how about an option to go directly to the forum.

[Jim Axman]

interesting?  It should send you to the overall forum.   I'll put that on my list of TTD (things to do). thanks for bringing it to my attention.  I never use the jump box, so was not aware. 
I do see ALL the forum categories (boards there), so you can easily select what board you want to go to.   

[Jim Axman]

Jump box?
Well Stephen, I spent some time looking at the templates that control the jump box and the bad news is the utility is controlled by Javascript.   I'm pretty good with html and php and cgi, but a total idiot with javascript.  I have found messing with it in the past, just the slightest change in a character ;" : > etc...will cause it not to perform functions following that part....so I think I will leave it alone for now.  I understand why it is going to the coverpage, because the author of the portal did not resolve that issue.  Chances are, on his forum, some developer will find a resolution and offer the change in a later upgrade portal version.   I would imagine the portal designer was scrambling to get out his version to be compatible with the new simple machines Forum software upgrade 2.0 beta 4, so there are some bugs yet.   Thanks for bringing this to my attention.  the work around, since it does show EACH forum board, is to stay away from clicking on "Categories" and chose a specific board (i.e. General, Technical, Links, etc..) instead.
The top navigation tree link will also take you back.  sorry I could not solve this at this time.

[Stephen Dietrich]

Not that big a deal. Stephen

[Jim Axman]

Well, I just load a modification to handle the "jump box"  problem.