Discussion Board Changes – Please Read

[Chris]

Hi Everyone..
After quite an endless week, the new discussion board is now active and hopefully everything has been transferred over correctly. I have just put a few notes together below to best explain why this has happened, and what issues people may have.

Why Upgrade?
For a start, the old discussion board crashed and despite lots of programming I couldn’t get it running properly again. Secondly, the previous board operated on an old software platform, and the developers haven’t released an update for many years.
The new software is fresh, up to date and most importantly, very secure… The development team are actively working on updates and improvements, allowing me to keep this board up to date as new versions become available.
Security was the most important issue for me.. The previous board had a few loop holes that spam bots could manipulate and use to create spoof memberships to advertise through private messages, and forum posts. The new board has an interactive genuine user check, detects false emails, and also gives Mark and myself greater control over checking every registration before they can post, private message, or view members profiles.

Known Issues
Membership: There were 25,000 users on the previous board, and the majority of those were false registrations (created by automatic advertising systems). Once the board was upgraded, these were all granted standard membership. So instead of individually checking the credibility of each member, unfortunately I have had no choice but to delete the majority of users with ‘0’ posts.
I understand that not all members wish to contribute to the forums, in fact many people just enjoy reading, and learning from the posts of others. So I apologise that as a result of the above situation, your membership has had to be removed.
You are more than welcome to re-register with the same user name, and once checked over by Mark or myself, you can read and post to your hearts content. Obviously you can still read the posts without registering. However I would strongly recommend, due to the nature of the membership checking, it maybe 48 hours before your membership is approved, and so registering now will allow you to get advice from the community when you really need it!
One note about registrations.. when you click the submit button, there may be up to a 30 second delay whilst your email address is confirmed by our checking system.

Avatars: What has a film got to do with a discussion board? The ‘Avatar’ is the little image displayed underneath your name when you post. I’m sure many of you had setup your own images, but unfortunately these aren’t transferred, so you will need to choose yourself another (or set your old one back!). Go to your User Control Panel, Select ‘Profile’, then ‘Avatar’ to personalise your profile.
Signatures: Again, I’m sorry the signatures were lost in one of the upgrades, so please update these yourselves.
Unknown Issues
It is inevitable that during the upgrade (I had to convert/upgrade the database 3 times), there will be posts, users, and settings that became messed up, so please let us know of anything you find, and I will do my best to correct it.

Conclusion..
My goal was to provide a secure forum, that can put the trust back into its members, yet retain the 24,000 posts of invaluable information for the benefit of the community. Fingers crossed, I’ve done it!

Enjoy the site (and new discussion board), and feel free to post here, or Private Message me with any comments, questions or concerns you may have…

Over and Out
Chris

[Saffy]

Thank you very much for all the hard work you have done on our behalf Chris - we really enjoy the forum and are glad it is back.

Stephanie and Chris - Duffryn Dexters

[Colin]

Yes thanks for all the hard work Chris. Good to have the Discussion Board back.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Well done Chris, it looks as though the content of the board has transferred very well, I hope it gets back up to speed quickly.

Thank you Chris

Duncan

[ann]

Many thanks Chris

This board is much appreciated by us all once again thanks to you both

[LarryMag]

Hello Chris

Having been away for while it was a pleasant surprise to see the new system. Well done, the discussion board is a very valuable resource for the likes me a newcomer to the Dexters and indeed all things farming.

So once again well done your efforts are much appreciated.

Regards

Larry

[Roy]

Hi Chris, and all...
The new board seems fine although I had to reset the password and had the usual problem of coming up with a new one to fulfil the latest advice on password security what with Caps and Nums etc. Just one thing though, is it possible to change the font/ background colour? it was a bit of a shock to the system before breakfast, I needed something a bit more subtle. More seriously it might hinder folks with reading problems like dyslexia etc, just a thought, anyway thanks for the efforts so far
Best wishes
Roy

[Chris]

Thank you all for the positive comments.

I apologise about the password issues. The previous system encrypts it’s passwords in a completely different way to this one, so there was lots to go wrong in the conversion!
Although we can’t access the passwords, either Mark or myself can enter a temporary password that will overwrite the previous one. Another issue that has come to light is email addresses being out of date, so again, let us know and we can update these for you without having to create a new user.

Obviously if you can’t get on to the board, you won’t be able to post your problems here, so email Mark at info@dextercattleforsale.co.uk

Roy: If you give me some pointers for exactly how the board will be easier on the eye, I will create an additional alternative style setup so you can then select it through your User Control Panel. I assume that lightening the background colour, and increasing the contrast between the font and background would be a good start?
Regards
Chris