TGCaps Forum Update June 3, 2013

I've done a major upgrade to the TGComics and TGCaps Forums. On the surface it's mostly small changes. The look and feel is slightly different, but these small cosmetic changes will make it easier for me to update going forward.

Some significant changes are as follows:

• You'll now be able to add a new topic at the bottom of the main forum "Latest Discussions" page (be sure to select the Topic where you want it to go). On Topic pages, you'll now see a New Topic link in the upper right of the page to start a new topic.
• We've added smilies. I've always been against smilies in the past, but after having run this forum for a few years, I realize they have their place and can hopefully lead to better, more civilized communication.
• You can now embed Vimeo video in addition to Youtube.
• The icons for bolding, linking, etc. have changed. You can hover over the buttons to find out what they are.

I'm hoping these changes aren't too stressful for people .

The BIGGEST change I am making is to make the TGComics Forum now CLOSED to non-members. The main reason for doing this is because of all the problems we've been having with people who are logged in to the site but not truly logged in to the forum. I'm thinking these problems will be solved (or at least fewer) if the Forum is inside the "members-only" area of the site.

Before now it was a hybrid. Anyone could read all the posts on the TGComics Forum. They couldn't post anything, but they could read stuff. This change will make for a more closed community and a potentially smaller community, but with all the problems we've been having, I think it's the best solution, and since all the other content is already behind a firewall, I don't think it's too much of a hardship for folks to have to be logged in to view the TGComics Forum.

The TGCaps Forum will remain as it has been, in that anyone can peruse the posts but can't see the pictures or make posts.

Also, it appears the spellcheck doesn't seem to be working. I'll do my best to get this fixed, but I've had to keep it going as a hack in recent times because it's no longer supported in the forum script we use. If I can't get it to work it may go away.

Also, I'm sorry to say that there appears to be a problem with the conversion of avatars on TGCaps. Please upload a new avatar to your TGCaps account. Sorry for this!

Finally I wanted to add that this forum upgrade is the first step to the relaunch of TGCaps. The next step is moving everything to a new server. After that, we will relaunch the whole site. Thanks for your patience with this slow process.

I'm uploading an old set of avatars that might do the job for some folks - or might resurrect an old avatar that's a blast from the past. In any case, check on your avatar and update it as needed!

I like the changes and new look, including the smiliies (sic!).
But just noticed that the 'sign out' tag is now gone from the bottom of Forum pages.

Good catch. I think that's simply an oversight on my part (one of the differences between the two forums). I'll get it fixed very soon.

And if anyone notices any other glitches, let me know.

It's back!

Got the spellcheck working so speckchell away!

Noticed that was convenience on Caps but not Comix.
Thanx for the quick fix

Now another one: The Comix Forum link here goes to the login page now. That's definitely a result of the changes, but don't they still share account mgmt? If so, the link should realizes users is logged in here and thus authorized there too. But then maybe I'm wrong?

The two forums share the same database, but they're on separate sites, which means separate cookies, separate logins (with the SAME username and password). So you can be logged into the one forum but not the other (even though it's the same username and password).

Complicated and convoluted, yes! Easy to understand, no!

I just noticed another minor issues - looks like the "Forum Polls" might now be linked to the wrong threads. There's an unrelated poll linked to the Jet Dream thread:
http://tgcaps.com/caps/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=29&topic=2284&page=2

Great catch, Sue! Sometimes I don't remember how the two forums are different. Fixed!

Hi everyone, going by the postings It reads like things are proceeding at a comfortable pace here. It also reads like you are looking at a reconstructed web page. Can I look see? Where is it? I wanna play too!!!
Great work to all involved,
Helen