you can change your message editor interface in the 'edit options' part of your user cp page.
Enhanced Interface will give you the font formatting and image placement buttons like the ol' forum :-)

http://www.londonfgss.com/profile.php?do=editoptions

Thread Display Options > Visible Post Elements > Show Avatars

I knew you'd have an answer. Thankies

HI VB, one more thing that I am missing (or have been stupid and haven't noticed yet) is how many unread posts there are on a thread, from the 'Posts' view. Is that possible to add back?

And, just some general feedback - I too was worried but am loving it now - the speed increase more than makes up for the jarring shock of change :-)

Also, it looks like there are some cool new features like contacts and friends and things. Woo Hoo, toys.

+1 to this, really used to like when I could see how many new posts were in a thread, so I could check out the ones with lots of posts.

Nope. You've got me there. I could do it but it would involve additional queries that would affect the speed of the forum. I'd rather see things settle fully before adding new queries to the page.

So not right now... maybe in a few weeks when I've seen everything is stable for long enough to risk the extra overhead.

Just when we thought VB was basically God.

That's me back to being an atheist then...

Thanks, I was hoping the benefits would be felt soon enough to get the heat off my back.

Other things this has: Photo albums, social groups, and blogs.

I've yet to turn on all of it, but some of it can be found by poking around.

I think if you use Google Reader to check for new posts you will have to manually update the RSS feed; noticed mine stopped on 28th but added the URL again today and it picked up the new feed no problem.

Here's the feed link
http://www.londonfgss.com/external.php?type=RSS2

Yeah, you will.

I could redirect the RSS requests, but RSS readers are largely crappy and still wouldn't update the URL's that they have.

Hmm... I have an idea.

And it worked

You saw? I thought you'd changed yours already.

Hadn't deleted the old one so saw the message.

So, I feel like I keep asking you for stuff, but here's one more request (related to the above):

In addition to "Posts" and "Categories", could we get "Parent Category" (with a better name) so that we can nip back up to General or whatever.

I've taken your advice from another thread in using the Categories view, but would like to be able to jump up a level, instead of two, when I finish a thread.

BTW, if you need a techie (with zero VBulletin experience, admittedly) to help out with all this crap then drop me a PM.

I think you're doing it wrong. Try this first:
1) Open the Categories page
2) Open the first category you want to deal with
3) Open each thread you want to read in a new tab... close the tab when done
4) When you have closed all tabs, Mark Forum Read (if anything still is unread in there and you're not interested)
5) Just click back on that category tab and you're back at Categories

I've used that method to come back to BikeForums and Bowlie after months away and still coped.

"Parent Category" is such a strange and specific request and I think if you give the current layout more of a play you might find you don't need another shortcut there.

Ahh, the "new tab" approach - 'tis a good one.

It's just because I am on a lame laptop right now that has no scrolly wheel click button so I have not been opening new tabs in FF like I would on my normal computer.

Silly (slightly drunk) me.

Many thanks :-)

VB you seem to be working really hard at all this, and have done a good job, i may be getting over my fear of this whole computer thing. I'm sure i will have lots of user error problems in the next few days, but one i cant figure out is can i mark my old PMs read? when i first logged in i had 2 unread ones, i read them and now it tells me i have 338. also i cant figure out how to pm some one, can just reply.

cheers, and good job on the seamless transition, i go away for a few days and every thing is new and exciting again.

@wheels if i give you a image can you make it spin for me?

I've changed all of the URLs throughout the forum. All of the old ones should still work for the foreseeable future but the new ones should remain static and working forever (regardless of the software I use now or in the future).

You shouldn't have really noticed, and shouldn't have to care. But if you have bookmarks and want to make sure they work forever you should visit the bookmarks and update them with the new URLs.

So if you had bookmarked the bike porn thread, in Vanilla it was:
http ://www .londonfgss.com /discussion/27/1/bike-porn/

In vBulletin it was:
http ://www .londonfgss.com /showthread.php?t=27

And now it will forever be:
http ://www .londonfgss.com /thread27.html

I've changed the main RSS feed to be served via FeedBurner:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LondonFGSS

It basically means they'll get it once every 15 minutes, and even if hundreds of people subscribe to the feed it won't put any more load on this server.

All of the other feeds (direct to forums and threads) are still handled directly to this server, but as the majority of people subscribe to the global RSS feed I don't think those will be a problem at all.

and...
I figured out how to mark the posts as read. Select them all with the little box at the top. Scroll down the page and there is a little window which is defaulted to 'move to'. Click on this and it gives you the option to 'mark as read'.

That said, if you then go to the little messages thing at the top of the page it still tells me that the messages are unread! Is this another official bug?

More than one page of messages?
Unread messages in your Sent folder?

It adds up, it's just a bit numpty whilst it beds in. Imported data is weird, Vanilla had 18 database tables and vBulletin has over 160. I'm not sure where the "Read" information is stored otherwise I would've set it all to read on import.

ok i don't know if this was mentioned
but i need the idiot proof coding buttons above the reply box
its available in other vBuletin forums

this is what i mean

Do you not have those? Check your Options in your UserCp.

The ones not available to anyone are "Font", "Size", "Colour", and "Smilies". As basically all of those make the forum unreadable.

and we have outlinking now! huzzah!

Not sure I like this. The old format was cool. But I am old and hate change.

Hey VB, could you make it so that there is more of an incentive to log in?

On the old software, if you didn't log in, you wouldn't be directed to the new posts on a thread, it would just open up at the top, so logging in made it just easier to get around the site, and to post more spontaneously.

With this software, I think the site keeps a cookie on my computer so whether I open them logged in or off makes no difference to how threads are viewed.

..?

Sure.

All guests don't get to go to the end of the threads.

That's easily doable. And as I'm drunk I'll do it now (don't blame me if it breaks).

VB, it's all looking very good indeed! thank you.

oh yeah, what's with the mauve sky at the top of the page? always wondered.

Is it mauve? Shit. I thought it was pink. But I'm colour blind and my monitor isn't tuned. Ah well.

Kinda pinky mauve, more pink, three calibrated monitors and an ipod say pink.

dunno could be my screen? hmm. once when i was younger (but not that young i must admit) i went to see elton john at wembley stadium with my parents. he wore a mauve suit. it was shit.

i think the taking away of the creamy-yellowy-colour backdrop has heightened my awareness of the mauve.

mauve.