New Auto Search Feature plus other changes

[Heuer]

I have added a new feature which displays a list of similar (related) topics at the bottom of the current topic’s page. e.g. On a topic headed Horn push:


And you can see it in action at the bottom of this post!

I have also added a user notepad feature which allows you to make notes and jottings as you browse the Forum for later reference. The notes are private and only view-able by the writer/owner. You can find your notes under the Quick links hamburger menu, or top right if you are using the we-universal style (one with the black OTS in the header).


A few other changes have been made which I hope will make the Forum easier to use.

[Mark Gordon]

Fantastic, David! About the only further improvement that I can think of would be for one of our experts (you included in that group) to come over to my garage and fix my problem when I post a question. Now, that wouldn't be asking too much, would it?

[nefematic]

This is a neat feature David - Thank you!

[Heuer]

Thanks, I think it works well as a means of helping others. I have added quite a lot of things and maybe there are some of which you think are of no value, but they are a bit of fun to help our days along. To summarise my activities today, I have added:

• Fun with Flags (you need to have watched The Big Bang Theory to get that allusion) - region flags to help others when they reply
  New topic highlights in red (although I may change the colour) as some complained they were not obvious
  Activity statistics - who has visited in the last 24 hours etc
  New icons when replying to posts allowing various new functions - hover your mouse over them to find out what they do
  Button roll effect - basically a gimmick when you put you mouse pointer over a button, but it is cute!
  Blinking counter for new Private Messages - hopefully no one will now ignore their PM's
  Member time counter - how long you have been a member here, down to days, minutes and seconds
  Newest members list showing 5 latest members
  Personal Notepad so you can keep a track of what interests you
  'No quote' on last post - a personal bug bear where people use the quote button even though the post is directly above, now disabled
  'Similar topics' at end of thread - saves searching and hugely powerful and my personal favourite
  Added previous/next topic to screens
  Quoted images as thumbnails - if you do quote a post with an image it includes it as a thumbnail rather than the full photo to save space
  Sticky/Announcement icons in blue

Behind the scenes I have added IP address for Moderators to see, even more robust anti-spam traps and several Admin tools that will allow me to help users in difficulty. Plus a few frivolous ways to post your messages:
Please let me know if you find anything that jars with making the Forum easy to use.
See what I did there - three new functions in one post. Oops - four!

ABBC3_SPOILER_SHOW

Give it a go.

[mgcjag]

Great job David...You r a star

[abowie]

Ooooo clever!

[Heuer]

I have had to delete the 'Notes' feature as it was, for some as yet unexplained reason, preventing new people from registering on the Forum. I will let you know when it gets fixed.

[Heuer]

Notes Fixed!

I did have to delete all data though so any notes you may have made will no longer be there.

[shauniedawn]

Love the 'similar topics' feature - thank you

Shaun

[Barry]

A brilliant idea David, but can you explain how to use it? I searched Horn Push, but did not get what I had hoped. You know me, bloody useless at computers!!

[Heuer]

Barry

The new search feature shows other topics in the last 8 years which have matching words in the title to the current topic. So if you look at this post: http://www.myetype.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9207 the original poster used 'S1 Horn Push Refurb" as the title. The Forum software automagically looks for any other posts with the words 'Horn', 'Push' and 'Refurb' ('S1' is ignored as it has less than 3 characters) and appends them to the end of the topic page in case they are useful. The normal search function still works of course although it now allows you much greater control to find what you are looking for.

[Red Kite]

I always go straight to new posts.
All the titles are now in RED and its really "in yer face". Is it a setting i can change or something on the site ?

[Heuer]

The function is Forum wide. I can change the colour to a less bright one though. I will have a play.

[Red Kite]

Thanks David..... I like this colour

color=#008040

[Heuer]

Green kind of jars with the red icon (which I cannot change) on the left. I am now using a dark red #990000#

I could go darker red. Thoughts?

[nefematic]

A lot better now.

[Heuer]

Added a 'Show Post Links' function at the bottom of post page. Click on that and it will give you a link you can copy and paste for redirecting others to.

Also changed the colours for Moderators and Administrators to be more subtle.

[Heuer]

I have removed the Moderator names on each forum on the home page to clean things up. You can contact the Mods via the 'Team' link should you need to. If you want them back I can easily do so but give it a couple of days and see what you think.

[Heuer]

Members have up to now been able to choose one of six presentation styles from within their User Control Panel. The software has been keeping a track of the number of people using each which gives us a poll of which is the most popular. I really need to get rid of most of these different styles as they are becoming difficult to manage in terms of support, features and branding. For example adding a feature to the Forum will appear in different places for each style and adding logo's to each is a nightmare. I am therefore getting rid of the following styles: black, prosilver, we-clearblue and latte as there were only half a dozen members using them. You now have the choice of prosilver special edition (currently has the E-Type steering wheel logo) or we_universal (currently has the black E-Type photo). Ideally we should end up with just one for consistency. Please choose one or the other from your UCP and we will see which is the most popular. Those who were using the deactivated style's will default to we_universal until you choose to change it.

[mgcjag]

Hi David......that confused me.....couldnt understand why my layout had changed.....was on Clearblue.......but couldnt work out why this option had disapearec.......what ever you need to do to keep the forum up and running and easy to use is ok with me...thanks for all your effort