Dear Stratics, When are we getting our old Forum back?

[Setnaffa]

It's been over 6 weeks since we lost the old forums, so I do believe it's time for an updated status on this. After all, I am a paying customer. Sure - only $3.45 per month, but paid nonetheless.

I know alot of folks like the look and feel of the new forums, but there is one thing missing....

Years and Years of facts, tips, information, and recommendations on how to play, prepare, build, or succeed at playing UO.

We've also lost the professional Forums. I was the moderator of the Paladin and Tailor forums. Now they are gone. Where are new players supposed to go to learn about training skills and learning how to use a profession with these valuable forums gone? Please don't say uHall. This place is still a festering pool of whiners (I guess I can count myself in that group), nerf lords, etc. that is really only fit for veteran players who know what's really going on.

We had separate Trade forums for each shard so everybody wasn't fighting to stay on the front page.

The new forum application (vboards?) has some good stuff (emoticons everywhere!!), but I can't change the title of my posts anymore. I also can never tell whom is replying to whom unless I change to the Threaded or Hybrid modes and both of those modes are less than ideal.

So when are we getting our old forums back? If not, when are we getting the old content combined with the new?

 

[Gallahan]

As we announced, we are staying with VBB permanently. However, we will be importing all the old posts and accounts. So you will have your FAQs and what not back. It's a fairly painstaking process so all I will say is it will be done "soon". We're as anxious to return to normal as you are.

I can't change the title of my posts anymore

You should be able to do this. If you click "edit" you'll initially just see the body of the post as editable, but if you click "Advanced" then the subject will open up as well.

 

[Basara]

Gallahan, unless you've changed some settings, no it won't change the titles.

You can change the title IN the post, but you can't change the title visable in the list of Posts in the forum, unless you have certain privileges in the forum, above and beyond that of a normal moderator. Ask *zigzag* about where this came up on UO Players Corner with some of the posts there, and what we had to do to get around the limitations....

 

[Gallahan]

Ahh true apparently once at least one person has replied to the thread the title is locked. This is something we can look at changing in the future if it becomes a big deal. In the short term, you can just msg an admin or moderator and they should be able to change it for you.

 

[Gallahan]

Actually I can do even better - this should now be fixed. The thread creator should be able to edit the thread title even if there are replies.

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

Gallahan, unless you've changed some settings, no it won't change the titles.

You can change the title IN the post, but you can't change the title visable in the list of Posts in the forum, unless you have certain privileges in the forum, above and beyond that of a normal moderator. Ask *zigzag* about where this came up on UO Players Corner with some of the posts there, and what we had to do to get around the limitations....

/agree

Gallahan - I posted in staff area about the fact that the forum list is truncated from the thread window which is truncated from the real message title. It was a "is this supposed to work like this?" type post.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

Heya! *waves* and...
If we could get a auto-reply-to- "re:so and so Name" type thang ... like the old forums Had ...
sweetness
(Saves having to quote to SEE whose being replied to ...in/on the reply ... you talking to me? you talking to me? Huh? what? whose said that? you did! nuhuh ... I was talking to him! "who Him?" that him! thats no him! tis a her!)
{wink}

 

[kennykilleduo]

As we announced, we are staying with VBB permanently. However, we will be importing all the old posts and accounts. So you will have your FAQs and what not back. It's a fairly painstaking process so all I will say is it will be done "soon". We're as anxious to return to normal as you are.



You should be able to do this. If you click "edit" you'll initially just see the body of the post as editable, but if you click "Advanced" then the subject will open up as well.

Uhh Ohh , he's blackrock infected , he used the UO dev teams favorite lines....j/k , the board set up we have now is good.


Can we import our old post counts and keep new names.....

 

[Kebet]

As we announced, we are staying with VBB permanently. However, we will be importing all the old posts and accounts. So you will have your FAQs and what not back. It's a fairly painstaking process so all I will say is it will be done "soon". We're as anxious to return to normal as you are.

Since you are keeping this format, will you be able to do something eventually for the screen challenged (like me ) so the posts will fit nicely on the screen??

 

[Gallahan]

What problem are you having Kebet? Are you having to scroll horizontally? If you select a "widescreen" stylesheet using the stylesheet selector at the top or bottom of the forums, that should be exactly as wide (but no wider) than your screen resolution.

 

[Azureal]

Is being able to change the title of your forum post something posters should be able to do anyway? I cant remember being able to do that with old forums, or any forums that I post on, due mainly to it being abused by idiot posters, which lately Stratics seems to have more and more of.

*shrug*

 

[Shotgun]

looks like the old forums did "crash" on purpose so they could go with the new style. i like how they "claimed" to be working on getting the old ones back when they first "crashed" but now they are saying they are staying with the new style. guess they didnt work too hard on getting the old style back.

 

[Kebet]

What problem are you having Kebet? Are you having to scroll horizontally? If you select a "widescreen" stylesheet using the stylesheet selector at the top or bottom of the forums, that should be exactly as wide (but no wider) than your screen resolution.

Yes I have to scroll sideways to see the entire post. Do you mean the Quick Style Chooser? I chose UO Wide Screen (boring colors though) but I still have to scroll over. I dont see anything like that at the top. I have noticed that is is a bit better though. I can see both the post and the posters name on the screen when I scroll over and I couldnt do that before. But it still doesnt fit my screen.

I just noticed that when I use the Go To First New Post arrow that it lines up the post perfectly! If it is a new thread, I have to scroll right.

 

[Deb]

I am hoping we can at least get the profession forums back soon,
alot of useful information was in them.
I am getting use to this style of forum..but miss the profession
ones horribly.

 

[christy1221]

I am hoping we can at least get the profession forums back soon,
alot of useful information was in them.
I am getting use to this style of forum..but miss the profession
ones horribly.

Me too. I was needing to use them a few days ago.

 

[Basara]

Is being able to change the title of your forum post something posters should be able to do anyway? I cant remember being able to do that with old forums, or any forums that I post on, due mainly to it being abused by idiot posters, which lately Stratics seems to have more and more of.

*shrug*

Actually, it was part of the old forums, and quite often used by moderators when updating the FAQs on the Profession Forums, and other forums that had FAQs.

For example, when I was updating the Mining FAQ on the Mining Forum, I would add the new section, then go back to the first post and edit the subject line to change the date...

For example:
From

"Mining Skill FAQ (Last Updated 06 April 2008)"

to

"Mining Skill FAQ (Last Updated 15 April 2008)"

Note that I REALLY want to get that FAQ back, as I don't have a copy saved of it - I updated it on the fly, using quotes from the FAQ version that predated my becoming the moderator of that forum, editing them for the most recent updates, then typed new sections in directly from my notes (notes I had discarded, not realizing that a few short days later, the Forums would go down).

 

[Littleblue]

I miss the blue/grey color scheme, I wish I could remember the name of it. I'm hoping we get some more color choices soon. *smiles*

 

[Teeshy]

As we announced, we are staying with VBB permanently.

I hadn't registered til now cos I hadn't seen an announcment saying these would now be permanent. I was hoping that they weren't =P

There's a problem I have with the display of the boards, that I emailed about right when you first started using these. To quote my email:

I'm probably one of the very few people that use the forums still
stuck on 28k dialup. As such, I browse internet with my browser set
to "cached images only" and manually load individual images that I
want to see (by right clicking and load image) - but to do that, I
need to be able to see an image "placeholder" (I'm not sure of the
official term for it =P)

Anyways, for some reason, with the forums you've just put up, if there
is an image in the body of the post, I can't see that placeholder, to
load the image.

I can see "placeholders" for the smilies, avatars, reply with quote, online status etc, just not of images in the body of the post.

Please to be fixing!

 

[Kiss]

I like old....thats what I want my old stratics account back!!!

 

[Gallahan]

looks like the old forums did "crash" on purpose so they could go with the new style. i like how they "claimed" to be working on getting the old ones back when they first "crashed" but now they are saying they are staying with the new style. guess they didnt work too hard on getting the old style back.

We are working hard on getting the old posts and accounts back, just not the old forum software. We announced the first week after we'd had the temporary boards up that we would be sticking with them. We did this as a result of overwhelmingly positive user feedback. I was personally flooded with emails/PMs requesting we continue to use these boards.

We did polls across a dozen forums that received over 1,000 votes. Of the 1,000 votes 70+% were in favor of keeping these boards.

And it makes sense that people feel that way. VBulletin (these boards) is pretty much universally considered to be the best forum software. UBB (which powered the old forums) is barely even supported these days and although it was good many many years ago, has shrunk to less than 1% market share.

 

[Azureal]

@ Basara - Give Mods all they need to keep the boards up to date, just limit what the general peons can do

 

[Stomp]

We had our guild forum hosted by stratics guild forums.

Will you be allowing guild forums again, and will you be able to restore the threads in those forums. We had a lot of guild information held there and nowhere else.

If you will be allowing guild forums again, would it be possible for the forum owners to administer the users allowed to access their own guild forums ?

Thanks,

 

[Setnaffa]

I used the Title the same way Basara did in the Professional Forums, but I also changed the title of my posts in the Trade forums to show the status of my items I was selling or buying (i.e. adding the word SOLD when an item was sold or lowering the amount of available gold or the price).

 

[Shotgun]

We are working hard on getting the old posts and accounts back, just not the old forum software. We announced the first week after we'd had the temporary boards up that we would be sticking with them. We did this as a result of overwhelmingly positive user feedback. I was personally flooded with emails/PMs requesting we continue to use these boards.

We did polls across a dozen forums that received over 1,000 votes. Of the 1,000 votes 70+% were in favor of keeping these boards.

And it makes sense that people feel that way. VBulletin (these boards) is pretty much universally considered to be the best forum software. UBB (which powered the old forums) is barely even supported these days and although it was good many many years ago, has shrunk to less than 1% market share.

its funny cuz i never seen any of these so called polls on the catskills forums. guess you just took a poll at the office and people said "oh yeah we like these much better" and do you really think that 1000 votes covers the majority of people on the forums?? i would think not.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

its funny cuz i never seen any of these so called polls on the catskills forums. guess you just took a poll at the office and people said "oh yeah we like these much better" and do you really think that 1000 votes covers the majority of people on the forums?? i would think not.

City of Heroes/Villains
EA Land
EVE Online
EverQuest II
FINAL FANTASY XI
Lineage II
Lord of the Rings Online
Pirates of the Burning Sea
Star Wars Galaxies
Tabula Rasa
Toontown Online
Ultima Online
Warhammer Online
World of Warcraft
Chat/IRC
^ Forums^

Stratics forums ...
We did polls across a dozen forums that received over 1,000 votes. Of the 1,000 votes 70+% were in favor of keeping these boards.

across a dozen forums that received over 1,000 votes (possibly 12,000+ votes TOTAL) of which (possibly FOR each) 70+% were in favor
+
personally flooded with emails/PMs requesting we continue to use these boards.

AKA: Vox populi

Even if it "was" just 80 votes each for a Dozen forums ...for a mere total of 1000 ...1000 voices could be a pretty good reason ...

--------------
Ah! forgot about this

Currently Active Users: 2337 (177 members and 2160 guests)
View Who's Online
Most users ever online was 3,017, 05-14-2008 at 02:48 PM.


Temporary Stratics Forums Statistics
Threads: 5,805, Posts: 65,041, Members: 3,998, Active Members: 3,107

1000 votes that "chose" to bother casting "a vote" ... across a network (Stratics network)

sounds reasonable

 

[_zigzag_]

We had our guild forum hosted by stratics guild forums.

Will you be allowing guild forums again, and will you be able to restore the threads in those forums. We had a lot of guild information held there and nowhere else.

If you will be allowing guild forums again, would it be possible for the forum owners to administer the users allowed to access their own guild forums ?

Thanks,

Yep, we are for sure wanting to offer guild forums again, and actually this forum software will allow more flexibility when it comes to administration by the guild itself, as you suggest. To what degree yet, we aren't sure. We are exploring some of the mod's etc. for Vbb also to see what may be available we can incorporate.

I do believe the recovered data included the 'old' guild forums, ayup.

 

[Shotgun]

City of Heroes/Villains
EA Land
EVE Online
EverQuest II
FINAL FANTASY XI
Lineage II
Lord of the Rings Online
Pirates of the Burning Sea
Star Wars Galaxies
Tabula Rasa
Toontown Online
Ultima Online
Warhammer Online
World of Warcraft
Chat/IRC
^ Forums^

Stratics forums ...
We did polls across a dozen forums that received over 1,000 votes. Of the 1,000 votes 70+% were in favor of keeping these boards.

across a dozen forums that received over 1,000 votes (possibly 12,000+ votes TOTAL) of which (possibly FOR each) 70+% were in favor
+
personally flooded with emails/PMs requesting we continue to use these boards.

AKA: Vox populi

Even if it "was" just 80 votes each for a Dozen forums ...for a mere total of 1000 ...1000 voices could be a pretty good reason ...

--------------
Ah! forgot about this

Currently Active Users: 2337 (177 members and 2160 guests)
View Who's Online
Most users ever online was 3,017, 05-14-2008 at 02:48 PM.


Temporary Stratics Forums Statistics
Threads: 5,805, Posts: 65,041, Members: 3,998, Active Members: 3,107

1000 votes that "chose" to bother casting "a vote" ... across a network (Stratics network)

sounds reasonable

that still doesnt cover the thousands that DIDNT get a chance to vote, maybe then things would have been different then ya think? if not everyone got a chance to vote then saying 70% covers the majority of people is total bs

 

[Teeshy]

(...)
Anyways, for some reason, with the forums you've just put up, if there
is an image in the body of the post, I can't see that placeholder, to
load the image.(...)

Aha! I found a fix =) Yay! If I turn images *off* in the board options, it shows them as links, instead of imbedded objects with no indication of them being there. So now I can just click a link if there's an image I want to load =D

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

that still doesnt cover the thousands that DIDNT get a chance to vote, maybe then things would have been different then ya think? if not everyone got a chance to vote then saying 70% covers the majority of people is total bs

And how about the thousands that are not registered and know nothing of Stratics? There's that group as well.

Seriously, the stuff will be back ... but reformatting and testing that the reformatted data WILL work is high priority in all the Stratics areas. We're talking terabytes or more of data in the forums and accounts.

Either you (the general public) want it and will accept ALL inconsistencies and faults, or you want it right with as few issues as possible ... one or the other. I've years of business conversions under my belt and frankly none can touch the enormity of what Stratics is trying to do for all of us.

 

[Stomp]

Appreciate the reply and the good news.

Please post when guild forums are available again. As Gm of a guild I am lost without a place to post relevevant guild info. ICQ just isnt the same, and ingame I dont always manage to catch people. Forums allow people to keep up to speed ( such as from work) even if RL busy.

Can I suggest you also allow for the previously available "secret" guild forum. This was a great place for GM/Emmisaries to discuss guild policies/membership, etc.

Hope you can reinstall forum posts, most of my guild have all ( or almost all) their chars in the guild, and its so hard to remember who is who without the member thread we maintained on the forum !

 

[the 4th man]

I miss the profession forums bad.....as it stands, I can't find squat as what to PEACE at what skill level.

 

[Kiminality]

I miss the profession forums bad.....as it stands, I can't find squat as what to PEACE at what skill level.

If you look at the Hunter's Guide, you should be able to search by "barding difficulty" (or something to that effect). That should follow the same pattern for difficulty-based skills (something like your skill + 10 for target difficulty)

that still doesnt cover the thousands that DIDNT get a chance to vote, maybe then things would have been different then ya think? if not everyone got a chance to vote then saying 70% covers the majority of people is total bs

So?

• 70% of the people who voted is... 70% of the people who voted...
• If you don't vote, you don't get your vote to count...

Those two statements are so obvious, it's a waste of bandwidth to even post them, but it seems like it's necessary.

The only BS I'm seeing is you, with a bee in your bonnet.
If you read the the general forums, or otherwise kept up to date with what was happening with the forums, you would have seen the polls.
The same goes for everyone else.

 

[Shotgun]

i read the CATSKILLS forums and there was never a poll there asking if we wanted different forums. if you dont poll EVERYONE then how can you say the majority of people want it? like i said before this is becoming more like EA everyday, kinda hard to tell the difference anymore.

 

[Kiminality]

Yes, I know.
The point still stands, though. If you bothered to keep up to date with what was happening, then you would have seen the polls.
You (and others) failed to keep up to date, and now you're projecting.
You want everything dropped in your lap?

The majority of people who answered the poll liked VBB.
The views of those that didn't answer can't exactly be measured, can they?
The major forums were polled. If people don't even skim the topics of those major forums, then who's fault is it?
Surely you can't expect polls to be placed in every forum on the network. That would be a legendary waste of resources, and then people like you would still find reason to complain.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

if you dont poll EVERYONE then how can you say the majority of people want it?

**btw ....you might be th only one that missed it ... the rest kept it secret from thee ...

Fine ... and what have you learned from this young padiwanisan ?

NEXT TIME you need mount up with your battle pack ... and right to the big cities... AFTER a global disaster ... and quickly sieze power while confusion abounds ...
settings rules and process's and appeal boards for fairness governed by grassroot representations supervised by elders ...

Hold full and complete the individul concerns and desires , and mold them into one cohesive force that can finally, at last, right all wrongs in this corner of the internet ... full broadband notices individally tailored to hold ALL citizens at an equal state of knowlege and power ...

From there, good young padiwanisan, you can launch the revision of the entire internets ... so that no soul(internet or no) is overlooked or lost ... mandatory hourly polling to be sure everyone is on the same page, re-education camps for those lacking in either natural social grace ... or falling away from the standards newly set ...

There is no thing that can not be accomplished ... if your knowlegeable and prepared ...

NEXT TIME ... there you WILL be weighed and measured ...

I guaruntee !

I guaruntee !

I guaruntee !

NOW ... go and pack your bag and wait ... and shush ... practice your breathing.

 

[xenonthemage]

i read the CATSKILLS forums and there was never a poll there asking if we wanted different forums. if you dont poll EVERYONE then how can you say the majority of people want it? like i said before this is becoming more like EA everyday, kinda hard to tell the difference anymore.

We can't put a poll on each and every forum. It would be too time consuming. We put polls on forums that had the highest traffic. There is actually no poll in the world that ask each and every person. Most polls are samples of the population anyways. Hopefully that helps understand why catskills didn't get a poll of their own.

 

[kennykilleduo]

I admit I didnt like ew forums at first , but the more I tool around and customize my views , the better it gets. U hall with the Warhammer background is neat..

 

[Charleigh]

I am hoping we can at least get the profession forums back soon,
alot of useful information was in them.
I am getting use to this style of forum..but miss the profession
ones horribly.

Tell me about it! I never realised how much i used the prof forum till it disappeared! Stupid me did the schoolboy error of turning carpentry down so i could soulstone it and turning med up so i could replace it with that. Forgot i had been kicking some trolls butt and watched (seemingly unable to move) as my carpentry went down at the rate of knots as my med flew up from 0!!

Once my brain had re-engaged, carp was down to 95.8!! I GM'ed carp years ago and now have to find a way to get back to GM with the least amount of woodchopping. I wouldnt mind but the reason i was stoning it was that i had spent weeks chopping trying to get my gypsy headress, and had never wanted to see a tree ever again!!!

 

[the 4th man]

"If you look at the Hunter's Guide, you should be able to search by "barding difficulty" (or something to that effect). That should follow the same pattern for difficulty-based skills (something like your skill + 10 for target difficulty)"
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found what you were making reference to Kiminality, appreciate the point in the right direction.....don't know how I missed that, but thanks again.

Just gonna require some homework.