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Site Administration Welcome to the new Army.ca!

Pertains to site upgrades, performance, and general operation

Mike Bobbitt

Administrator
Staff member
Owner
Directing Staff
Reaction score
201
Points
1,210
Folks, I am very happy to welcome you to the new Army.ca!

You will notice a lot of changes, most for the better, and some we will have to work through. For the techies in the group, we have migrated away from using Simple Machines to using XenForo. The former was a great foundation, but was simply not keeping up with the times for features, appearance, and usability. XenForo is actively maintained and growing fast.

Here are a list of the known issues to date:
  • Display names are gone, they don't exist in the new software. Usernames are all there is now, so your account name may look different. You can edit your profile and change your name there.
  • If you had a comma in your username, it's not there any more. So if for example your account name was "Yes, Please!" it is now just "Yes Please!" There were about 25 or so accounts changed in this way.
  • The way Subscriptions are managed has changed, and they are now available as Account Upgrades. Existing subscribers still have the same banner, and same access to the Subscriber Only areas. I will work on hiding ads from Subscribers as well.
  • The Army.ca and Milnet.ca themes are in place, but will likely need some tuning as we go. I have not yet completed the Navy.ca nor Air-Force.ca themes - please be patient!
  • Most of the non-forums pages don't yet work (such as the Quotes, Military History, etc.). I do plan to port these over.
  • MilPoints are gone. I currently do not intend to port this feature over.
  • Please report any other issues, and I will track/fix/cry as needed.
On the good news front, there are many new features, here are some highlights:
  • Automatically saved drafts! (I inadvertently put that feature to the test in making this post. :))
  • Two factor authentication is now an option, and I highly recommend enabling it for your account. You can use a phone app to provide a numeric key to confirm "you are you" at a new login. This means, if your password is compromised, the bad guys still can't get into your account.
  • Media and resources are now integrated into the forums. Media is simply as it sounds, when an image is included in a post, it will be added to the media library. Let the political memes roll! Resources are other files, and to set the tone, I have uploaded a few pro formas I have found useful over the years. I encourage folks to do the same, within the bounds of OPSEC and copyright.
  • There are many, many new features - feel free to poke around!
Thanks for your patience through these changes, and if you find anything amiss, please let me know soonest.

Alright, time for a coffee!
!
coffee drinking GIF


Cheers
Mike
 
I believe clicking a thread title will take you to the earliest unread post in that thread. You can tell if the URL has /unrtead at the end of it:

E.g. https://army.ca/forums/threads/canadian-topgun-pilot.133461/unread

There isn't a "new" button like we used to have, but this should have the same effect. For multi-page threads, there are pagination buttons to take you to the last page, etc.

Not sure if that's what you were looking for or not, but hopefully it gets you going in the right direction!
 
I went to "What's New" and latest posts popped up.
 
I get thet you're still working on this but two things:

Clicking a thread title doesn't take me to the last post (or last unread post), it takes me to the first post; and

I already miss the "mark all as read" button. I can see that the forum (and sub-forums) titles are in bold if there's new posts in them. That's going to drive my OCD right up the wall if I don't go and click on all the unread posts. :oops:

Ha, cancel my last, just found it!! :cool:
 
Yeah it’s going to take some time to figure out all the nuances. I do believe once we get past the “but we have always done it that way” bias life will be good. But getting there may be a little painful. :)

For the new/unread posts I’ll poke around. I think if the thread name is bold clicking it will take you to the new unread posts.
 
Avatar pics for most seem to be distorted..but a welcomed change to the site Mike
 
Looks Good!
I see there is an "Approval Queue" link in the top left corner. Would you like the DS to action anything with that, or to just leave it be?
 
Folks, I am very happy to welcome you to the new Army.ca!

You will notice a lot of changes, most for the better, and some we will have to work through. For the techies in the group, we have migrated away from using Simple Machines to using XenForo. The former was a great foundation, but was simply not keeping up with the times for features, appearance, and usability. XenForo is actively maintained and growing fast.

Here are a list of the known issues to date:
  • Display names are gone, they don't exist in the new software. Usernames are all there is now, so your account name may look different. You can edit your profile and change your name there.
  • If you had a comma in your username, it's not there any more. So if for example your account name was "Yes, Please!" it is now just "Yes Please!" There were about 25 or so accounts changed in this way.
  • The way Subscriptions are managed has changed, and they are now available as Account Upgrades. Existing subscribers still have the same banner, and same access to the Subscriber Only areas. I will work on hiding ads from Subscribers as well.
  • The Army.ca and Milnet.ca themes are in place, but will likely need some tuning as we go. I have not yet completed the Navy.ca nor Air-Force.ca themes - please be patient!
  • Most of the non-forums pages don't yet work (such as the Quotes, Military History, etc.). I do plan to port these over.
  • MilPoints are gone. I currently do not intend to port this feature over.
  • Please report any other issues, and I will track/fix/cry as needed.
On the good news front, there are many new features, here are some highlights:
  • Automatically saved drafts! (I inadvertently put that feature to the test in making this post. :))
  • Two factor authentication is now an option, and I highly recommend enabling it for your account. You can use a phone app to provide a numeric key to confirm "you are you" at a new login. This means, if your password is compromised, the bad guys still can't get into your account.
  • Media and resources are now integrated into the forums. Media is simply as it sounds, when an image is included in a post, it will be added to the media library. Let the political memes roll! Resources are other files, and to set the tone, I have uploaded a few pro formas I have found useful over the years. I encourage folks to do the same, within the bounds of OPSEC and copyright.
  • There are many, many new features - feel free to poke around!
Thanks for your patience through these changes, and if you find anything amiss, please let me know soonest.

Alright, time for a coffee!
!
coffee drinking GIF


Cheers
Mike

Thank you Mike!

Will Ferrell Christmas GIF
 
Looks Good!
I see there is an "Approval Queue" link in the top left corner. Would you like the DS to action anything with that, or to just leave it be?

Thanks... I've cleared out the approval queue so we should only see new/legit items there from now on. Appreciate the feedback!
 
Mike, really like the new site - will take some time to figure out the new chrome!

Question - is there a PM function? Can't seem to find one, or my PMs I had saved.
 
Yep that’s it. Has a number showing unread messages:

1608837434007.png

Looks like I have some replies to send!
 
Good work and fast, too. Will take some getting used to.

Note that most of us are back to being "Guests", that our milpoints have seen some radical reductions and our smiley selection has been robbed of all the good ones like "Cheers". I'll use this one instead.

:poop:
 
Ahh, found the old PMs - it's under "Show All" in the little envelope.
 
The “Guest” issue is fixed, I believe.
I’ll add more emojis as time permits.
MilPoints... may be gone for good. Open to feedback on all of the above!
 
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