# Administration Category > Administrative issues >  Massive upgrade and add-ons coming.

## Dave A

I've queued up a number of really cute add-ons for the site, but I've also been aware that there is a major vB upgrade in the pipeline.

vB 3.6.6 is being released on Friday - so the time has come. I'll be carrying out the basic upgrade on Saturday morning, at which point there might be some disruption to service for up to an hour.

From there I'll bring the other changes on-line - who knows how long that will take  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  but it won't affect service, just bring in new features.

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## Dave A

The upgrade stage has been completed. The board is back and ready for action.

The remaining fixes and additions should not affect normal functioning.

Please report any bugs or issues you might experience here.
I can already see one in the breadcrumb - a new image that is not in this skin.

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## duncan drennan

It looks like there is a formatting issue with the right hand side navigation column on the forum pages.

What are all the "odd-ons" that have been added?

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## Dave A

> It looks like there is a formatting issue with the right hand side navigation column on the forum pages.


Thanks for spotting that.



> What are all the "odd-ons" that have been added?


There is some tweaking which can be seen already. For example, there are now direct links to subforums available from the forum home page. Although I've still got to sort out that ugly little icon...  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  
There's also the Top 5 add-on at the bottom of the forum home page.

I've been working on three fairly powerful add-ons which I'll announce as they come onstream. The one looks like it's ready to go live now - I'm just tweaking a few of the subtler settings.

It's been a fairly slow process because I also took the opportunity to tidy up and clean out some of my dropped experiments.

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## RKS Computer Solutions

? Any more news on this Dave?

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## Dave A

Yeah. The area under the hood has been quite busy, but not exactly where I wanted it to be. vB.com is awash with upset people and patches are coming out every other day. I've managed to keep things looking normal for users here, but I can see areas in the background which aren't exactly what they should be still.

Whilst a lot of the new software is loaded to server already, I'm not hooking up the bridges until the vB base code changes have stabilised. Even then, I'll probably feed them in one at a time every other week.

At this point I think we should chat about the links and downloads manager. What I've got in there so far hardly qualifies as a demo of what can be done with that area.

Are we going to have a public member's directory?
Are we going to link to gov forms and brochures or have them available as downloads?
Are we going to have a "useful free software" section? What sections should we have under that?
How about Word templates for useful business documents?
Spreadsheets for various forms of business stats analysis?
What areas do we make public and what do we keep for members only? (Members deserve bonus content don't you think)

As we identify between us as to what categories should be introduced, I'll get them loaded and members can start adding their favourite links etc. As soon as it starts looking vaguely "resourceful" and I'm happy it's ready to be crawled, I'll take it public.

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## RKS Computer Solutions

Whichever categories you do go for, might I suggest that you orchestrate with certain key members to help in keeping the fluff out...  Maybe get members to be assigned to one specific category and have them keep it up to date, with you still in overall control of the entire thing...

IRobot posted an article from the guy from Hubspot re: Fremium software and business model, might want to throw and eye over that in order to help you decide what should be available to whom....

Let me know if I can help

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## Dave A

I wonder who is going to be the first to notice the new add-on...

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## RKS Computer Solutions

No idea, but the forum seems quicker...

Q?  for the Reputation module, why does it not display who added to your reputation?

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## Dave A

> Q?  for the Reputation module, why does it not display who added to your reputation?


So that we can slag you without fear of retribution  :Stick Out Tongue:  

More seriously, I think the theory is that it is more effective a system that way. I *can* get a report of who gave whom reputation scores in the Admin panel, but I think it's only there to help if there seems to be mischief afoot.

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## RKS Computer Solutions

so whats the new mod?

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## bullfrog

I never really browsed around the site a little more, so not sure if it was there before or not. Is it the wiki?

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## Graeme

Well there's always tech. support:

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## Dave A

And the winner is bullfrog  :Clap:  
I reckon that deserves a pen. Bullfrog, could you PM me a postal address?

I think this wiki business is going to be a bit of a learning curve. What fascinates me is the software that drives it is about double the size of vBulletin and yet it is arguably less user friendly and linking structures pretty well need to be built from scratch  :Huh:  

Anyway, I expect we'll learn as we go. Anyone a real wiki buff out there?
Any particular tips on managing that area we should know about?

I've already learnt how to do basic editing and to protect pages, but that just _has_ to be the first baby steps  :Embarrassment: 
At least I've got registration managed by the vB software, so there I'm on familiar ground.

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## duncan drennan

Hey Dave, not sure if you've been messing with things, but I just noticed that the nav bar links (Home | News | Articles | Forums) seem to be a bit confused.

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## Dave A

Do a refresh - you're getting cached (old) images.

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## duncan drennan

> Do a refresh - you're getting cached (old) images.


Ah, thanks  :Embarrassment:  Firefox's aggressive caching has its ups and downs. Wrt the right hand nav bar on the forum pages, I think it may be a CSS issue that the centre area (forum list) has a fixed width, or something along those lines.

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## Dave A

Can you give me a screenshot of the problem - I'm not following you.

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## duncan drennan

Here you go. I seem the same in Firefox and IE. With the other pages when you make your browser window horizontally smaller, everything scales with it (except the headings and logo), while for that page the main content (forum list) does not scale. I suspect the CSS has some wrapper (e.g. main-wrapper) with the width value set to a fixed pixel value. Not 100% sure how to resolve it though....

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## Dave A

Thanks for that. It's caused by the Top 5 Stats info box near the bottom of the page. With my widescreen setup I don't pick up on stuff like that.

I've done some restructuring to reduce the impact - now just to fill in that gap below the navigation menu on the right hand side...

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## Eugene

Dave - saw you did an upgrade last night. The web pages seems to load in a flash now. Great stuff! Saw you added a "Reload this page" link at the top left of every page, but the icon does not seem to show.

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## Dave A

So far I've just done the core update. I've hardly started fixing up the place again. And right now the server is down for a program update I'm looking to download  :Frown: 

I'll get there....

EDIT: I've fixed the missing Reload image - the reload works. If anyone is wondering what Eugene is talking about, it's this image  near the top left hand side of the page.

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## duncan drennan

On the home page, there are some icons/links missing. The "Go to first unread post" is gone, as well as the thread icon.

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## duncan drennan

Dave, it would be great to get the "Go to first unread post" links back on the homepage - I often use them (or is it just me?)

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## Dave A

I loved them too. It was a piece of custom code I spliced in - and I've misplaced my record of the changes needed to get it back.

I'll find it (I hope).

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## Ann Williams

Hi Dave

I know these may seem some silly questions after the reputation competition and questions etc, but here goes...

How much good/bad reputation is one given each time one receives a vote?

How does the reputation score that we see in the User CP correlate with the green bar/s?

Is there a 'log' of people with top reputation (so we know who be Confucius and can read their great words of wisdom) :Stick Out Tongue: ?

I have written 43 posts and have a reputation count of 47 with one green bar. From what I can see no-one has lambasted me for anything I have said (does that also show up?) How does this notch up in the greater scheme of things?

And, have you found that having a reputation system actually helps the forum?

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## duncan drennan

> How much good/bad reputation is one given each time one receives a vote?


That depends on the "Rep power" of the person giving the reputation (see the right of the part where user picture etc is displayed for a users rep power).




> How does the reputation score that we see in the User CP correlate with the green bar/s?


It seems that 1 green box = 100 (or part there of) rep points, i.e. 0-99 = 1 box, 100-199 = 2 boxes, etc.




> Is there a 'log' of people with top reputation (so we know who be Confucius and can read their great words of wisdom)?


Look at the stats at the bottom of the forums page.




> From what I can see no-one has lambasted me for anything I have said (does that also show up?)


I think all recent positive and negative reputation points show up in your User CP.




> And, have you found that having a reputation system actually helps the forum?


Dave, any thoughts on this so far?

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## Dave A

Duncan has covered the nuts and bolts of the question very well.

I think the effectiveness of the reputation system is directly related to the number of members who use it from time to time. I admit I'm not religious about clicking reputation when I read a post... Being in a rush or being interrupted being my main problem (for example - I started this reply 20 minutes ago, but had to attend to something in mid stride).

In judging how useful the reputation system might be in the long run, I think it will (in time) help visitors who are not familiar with the overall personalities as to how "trustworthy" any particular person's comment might be. There are also modifications that could change the "pips" to a comment, such as can be seen if you hold your cursor over the pips presently.

The system is perhaps a little too one dimensional and the deployment is still in its infancy to be taking scores overly seriously just yet. That being said, I think the pecking order on the reputation log as current is entirely reasonable.

I have also incorporated reputation as part of our permission structure. Nothing too onerous, but enough to keep unknown people away from more "sensitive" functionality until we have some measure of what we're dealing with - and folks who have been active and seen how various aspects open up over time will know what I mean.

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## Ann Williams

Ta for that Duncan and Dave

It seems to be quite a well thought out system and a plus for the forum.

It is interesting to see how well it is working as both a mechanism where good contributors will be followed and 'rewarded' for their time and contributions, as well as a means of picking up any problems with anyone who is out to stir trouble.

I have seen more than one online community that has been damaged due to one or two 'bad apples' who have been particularly vitriolic, unethical, chauvinsts (particularly religious), unprofessional, rude or a combination of these.

Unfortunately there is seldom any system to get an idea of just how bad or widespread this may be. 

This systems sounds like it should be able to pick up any particularly obnoxious people as well as ensuring that it is not an isolated incident or a personal vendetta.

Once again, well done and thanks for a great forum.

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## duncan drennan

It is quite an interesting system, and I think that the real value will be over time (as Dave has said). Right now the number of regularly posting members is relatively low, and the *quality of the people posting is outstanding*.

The obvious knock on is that most people are gaining reputation, but those who contribute the most widely useful stuff are gaining the fastest.

It is also nice that people who contribute realise that they are being recognised. I think we all have benefited from the time Eugene has put in to fill us in on the details of the NCA, and credit in general.

For me, it is really exciting to be a part of a great group of people, having a whole lot of fun, and creating something that has real value for all business owners and managers in SA.

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