dBoard 2.0 Available for Testing

dBoard 2.0 is available for testing at: This is a complete copy of the board as of sometime this past Sunday. When testing is complete the main board will be upgraded to the new software.Reasons for helping test dBoard 2.0:

1. No moderation!
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2. Did you ever want to have full director powers? Just ask by posting to this thread! Directors can perform any and all board management operations, like creating new forums, suspending members, changing the boards appearance, and so on. Since the testing is being done on a copy of the board and not on the main board, no damage can be done. Of course, repeatedly copying the original board to the test area can grow tedious, so if too many "mistakes" are made I'll have to reconsider letting anyone be director.
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3. There are many improvements. Most are fairly minor from a user standpoint - the most significant changes involve board administration, but the Member List page has been completely redesigned using a browse table. Because I only have a database of 338 members on my development machine, not the nearly 4000 we have here, it became apparent when I uploaded to the server that the browse table approach needs some improvment, and I'll be working on that over the next day or two. The alphabet way of selecting member list pages will be making a comeback, but in much more useful form. In the meantime, give it try and let me know if you have any good ideas.
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4. The timezone problem is fixed. All times are displayed in your local timezone, unless you select a preference for the board's timezone.

Here's a list of things that need testing. Report bugs to this thread. Posting to a thread in the test forum is fine, except that with mad directors on the loose they might become lost.Ideas for things to test:

• Profile changes. Make sure every field can be modified and that it has the right effect.
• Avatar changes. Make sure can upload a new avatar, and turn display of the avatar on and off.
• Delete cookies. This is at the bottom of the profile page.
• Display the FAQ and Rules
• Search function. Variety of things to test here.
• Member list page. This will be changing and improving soon (and I've already noticed a couple bugs), but feedback and ideas are still welcome.
• Maneuvering around forums, threads and messages. Visiting different pages and messages.
• Connection to chat room.
• Board administrative functions.
• Changing board settings.
• Changing board appearance.
• Modifying the smilie suite.
• Examining, creating and managing forums and forum categories (don't update the search database - it takes forever).
• Member search functions.
• Registering a new user.
• Creating linked accounts.
• Merging member accounts.
• Suspending members.
• Making members inactive.
• Editing a members permissions on through his profile page.
• Creating annoucements.
• Modifying annoucements.
• Reading annoucements from forum thread pages.
• Deleting announcements.
• Logging out/logging in, both from Board Central and throught he normal login procedure.

That's a good outline, though I'm sure I left plenty out. All help very much appreciated.

So it's power you're wantin', is it! Let me check my box here. Let's see. We've got brains, a heart, courage, ah, here it is, power!Your wish is granted, Director AdminNosy!--Percy

Director status set for AdminModulous and AdminPD over at http://test.///cgi-bin/dBoard.cgi.--PercyThis message has been edited by Admin, Wed, 05-10-2006 11:28 AM

Hey, come on folks!Director privileges - just request them on this thread!No moderation!Set up the board the way you want (check out what I've done to the appearance).http://test.///cgi-bin/dBoard.cgi

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

The appearance of this board will not change, but anyone who has director status at the test copy of the board can change the appearance there. I changed the appearance to demonstrate how easily it could be done. I spent all of a minute changing it, so the shades of color chosen probably aren't a good match. An upcoming enhancement will allow you to set the size of the reply box through the preferences on your profile page.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

I've set your password at the test board to 1234 - recommend you go over there and change it.Thanks for finding this - biggest bug found so far!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

All may play. It's encouraged, in fact! You're now a director over on the test board. Suspend Jar to your heart's content - he's already suspended himself once already!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Well, that won't be any fun, but okay!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

For you new directors out there, the control panel is reached by clicking on the "Board Central" link near the upper right of most pages. Play with the control panel all you like, alter anything you like, but try not to delete anything or anyone. Any deletions can be recovered since this is just a copy of the board, but it's extra work to restore them.You can, of course, delete anything you create yourself, for example, if you register new members, or any new messages or threads you post.By the way, there are also some administrative options that appear at the bottom of most message pages for opening and closing threads, moving threads, and deleting threads.Though I'd prefer you not to delete things, otherwise please be as destructive as possible, and if you break something tell me so I can fix it.The link again: http://test.///cgi-bin/dBoard.cgi

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Unable to duplicate this one. Anyone else able to reproduce this?Maybe there are additional conditions that have to be present. Let me know if you learn more.This message has been edited by Admin, Wed, 05-10-2006 05:48 PM

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Will do! Much appreciated! Don't try to tackle the whole list, though. Many items have multiple fields with different settings.AbE: AdminPhat is now a director over at http://test.///cgi-bin/dBoard.cgi.This message has been edited by Admin, Wed, 05-10-2006 06:33 PM

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

The avatar problem is real, I'm working on it. When you say "member list update", what button or link did you click on? Do you mean the "Upate Member Message Lists" link at Board Central? Or something on the Member List page?

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Okay - I'm not too worried about this one, but I'll take a quick look a little later tonight. The problem is that over time the number of messages has grown so large that a scan of all messages to rebuilt the member message lists can't be completed before the browser times out. I'll make sure that this is what is actually happening.The avatar problem should be fixed. Thanks for finding it!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

You are cleared for takeoff over at http://test.///cgi-bin/dBoard.cgi.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Faith now has director privileges over at http://test.///cgi-bin/dBoard.cgi.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director