Major updates

[Aaron Koehl]

Greetings everyone!

The 'Creek has undergone some major changes today; some changes are great, others will take a little getting used to. We're now running vBulletin 4, which includes a lot more features, a cleaner look, and a rewritten template system--this will allow us to start offering support for our ever-increasing mobile users.

We worked through the night on a lot of upgrades, reimplementing templates, and other system housekeeping. Initially, you'll notice the UserCP is now know as Settings in the upper right hand corner.

Other new things include Facebook profile integration- you'll be able to link directly to your Facebook, with the option of having your Facebook automatically updated when you post, for instance. This feature is currently turned off, but it looks promising, and will be turned on in the next few days.

Sometime next week, we'll start offering mobile access via the new iPhone/iPad app which will also support Android, I am told. BlackBerry users are out of luck for now.

There are also a host of group and community features under the Community link on the navigation bar. You can create your own public and private groups.. for instance, when we give away tools using the FreeStuff Drawings, this will be a way to opt in for certain prizes.

The new publishing system will be up and running this weekend, once we get some articles to seed the content. Very good threads with a narrative feel will be promoted to articles, as well. Again, if you're interested in having your tips, techniques, tool reviews, projects or other experiences published in a narrative, please post in our Articles and Reviews forum and send us a PM; we'll be glad to set it up for you.

You now have the ability to link and embed videos into your posts. This will be a great way to continue to share our experiences.

There's plenty left to do, but stay tuned as we continue to tweak our new ride.

(Coming soon)
- Google Search function
- New posts exclude forums feature
- Articles publishing area
- Friends of the Creek directory


Oh, if you find something that doesn't work, feel free to send me a PM. I'll try my best to address it.. I had to work my way through some vBulletin bugs already several times today.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Well - so far I have to say that I really like the new look! Looking forward to seeing what all the new features are all about!

[Doug W Swanson]

Wow. What a difference!

I'm sure it will take some getting used to but it looks great so far!

I was going thru SMC withdrawals....

[Frank Van Atta]

Can't see photos, just links. Don't think having to click on each one is an improvement.

[Aaron Koehl]

Thanks, Frank, no it's not an improvement, just a setting that needed changing.

[Michael Short]

Aaron,

Nice job on the system conversion. Thanks.

[Jim Underwood]

I like the new layout and organization. I'm also looking forward to the articles section being completed!

On the other hand I'm having a bit of trouble with the low contrast colors. The new colors are easy on the eyes, but difficult for me to navigate, because the titles/headlines don't jump out at me anymore. Anyone else having this trouble?

Great job guys! Keep up the good work...

[Paul Wunder]

Aaron,

Can something be done about the contrast? I can barely ready the words because the type is not dark enough,

Thanks for working so hard on the other changes.

Paul

[Scott Challoner]

Thanks for all the hard work Aaron. Looks great.

[Jeffrey Pan]

The changes look wonderful. Can't wait for the iPad app!

[mickey cassiba]

I've had no problems with the new interface. Pictures open as expected, fonts and contrast are great. Running Chrome on Vista. Good work Aaron and Keith.
Mick

[John Terefenko]

I can't stay logged on from day to day. I have to keep signing in. Is that something that will be fixed???

[Mick A Martin]

Great job Aaron, is there a way to select new posts like it was on the old forum. Checking the ones you want to view.

Mick

[Mike vonBuelow]

The type is hard to read or the background is way too bright... is that a setting I can change?

[Keith Outten]

Aaron is having to work on his list of items around his scholastic schedule this week but rest assured he will get everything back up to speed ASAP.

The color scheme may very well be changed soon.........Jackie doesn't like it
Aaron has to fix our banner ad menu, Friends of the Creek Directory and then reinstate his custom search utility. Not necessarily in that order.
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