eG Forums Software Upgrade May 5, 2012

[Chris Hennes]

On Saturday, May 5, 2012, the software running eG Forums was upgraded (to IP.Board 3.3.1 3.3.2, if you are curious). Those who have visited before can see that this resulted in a major overhaul of the appearance of the forums. In addition to changing the way the forums look, there are a few changes to the way things work.

First, when posting you will notice a new editor interface turned on by default. This new editor works much like a normal word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word) and hopefully makes formatting your posts easier. For those who prefer to edit the BBCode markup directly you can toggle between modes using the lightswitch button in the upper left corner of the toolbar.

Next, we've disabled further uploads to ImageGullet: any images that are there already will continue to be hosted, but in the future we ask that images be put into posts either as attachments, or linked to from another image host.

Finally, the new version of the software supports more extensive social networking options: you will notice a number of places around the forums where you can opt to share content with Facebook or Twitter, and if you choose to link your accounts you can easily update your status by clicking on your username at the top of the screen.

Of course there are myriad additional changes: click around and explore!

While the software provider and the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters have tested the software extensively, there will of course be some bugs in the new version: if you run across anything that doesn't seem to be working correctly, please send me a message. Thanks!

[Chris Hennes]

Thanks to those of you who have sent me feedback so far, I appreciate your comments and your assistance in tracking down the various bugs we've run across. Here are a few answers to some common questions:

Where did the Help menu go? The link to the help files is now located at the very bottom of the page, to the left side.

How do I insert images in my posts? The easiest way is to attach them to your post, and then use the "insert" function to place them where you want them. For more information, see the Posting Help Page.

How do I get a list of active topics, like the old home page? You can still easily get a list of recent active content, and in fact our software provider has added a ton of customization to the page, including the ability to limit the display to just a subset of the forums. You can get there by selecting "View New Content" at the top of any eG Forums page.

I'll continue updating this topic as questions come in, thanks again for all the feedback.

[Chris Hennes]

How to a get to the first unread post of a topic? The easiest way is to click on the small circle or star icon to the left of the topic title: if the icon is solid, it means there are unread posts (the icon is a star when you are participating in the topic). You can also click the small down-arrow that appears to the right of the title when you move your mouse over it to get a preview of the topic: the box that appears will contain a link to the first unread post.

I am out of attachment space! Not anymore you're not. As part of this upgrade we've increased attachment space to 100MB for participating members and 500MB for donors.

How do I format a post from my iPad? Unfortunately due to a bug in the software the advanced editor is not available on the iPad, you have to use plain BBCode. Our software provider says this is scheduled to be corrected in the next version.

Why do all these personal messages say "deleted" when they are still there? The software is telling you that the person you were talking to has deleted the conversation, so you can no longer reply to it (hat tip to Kerry Beal for figuring this out).

[Chris Hennes]

Another thanks to everyone who has reported bugs: a few more updates—

Why haven't I been receiving e-mails about my topic subscriptions? The upgrade process erased everyone's e-mail preferences, unfortunately, and defaulted them back to not sending you any notifications. I've just reset them to send out the default e-mails, but I suggest you take a look at your notification options page to make any changes, so things are set up the way you want. You might also want to test it out by following this topic —just click the "Follow this topic" button at the top of the page.

What happened to the list of topics and forums I am watching? You can find it by clicking on your username at the top of the screen and then selecting Content I Follow.

[Chris Hennes]

How do I connect my Twitter and Facebook accounts so my updates show on the eG home page? You can set up Facebook here, and Twitter here. Once set up, you can use your Twitter and/or Facebook logins to log in here, you can (optionally) update your status by clicking on your name at the top of the screen, and your current status will be updated on the homepage. Syncing was broken earlier this week, but is fixed now.

[Chris Hennes]

A few people have written in to note that the software update disconnected their Twitter updates from the eGullet feed: if you would like your Twitter status updates to be shown on the sidebar on the front page automatically, have a look at your settings page and make sure the box titled "Update my Forum Status with my Twitter status (Import a status)" is checked. You can also push your updates from eG to Twitter by checking the "Export a status" option on the same page.