RidgidForum Upgrade

[Josh]

Here at Ridge Tool we have been working on a plan to increase our interactions with you on the forum. Along with the upgraded participation on our part we would also like to upgrade the forum itself. Our current forum software has served us well for the last 5 years. Its now time to start looking into upgrading to another software package with more features. Rest assured... we will move all the posts and all members safely over to the new forum software when we upgrade.

I would like you guys to look at this software as an upgrade option. vBulletin is very popular and has a similar feel to the forum software we are using now. it would allow us a lot more features as well as some speed improvements.

heres a list of the features, and a link to an example.

Threads

* Thread display options - sort by, sort order, from date
* Thread and forum subscription (notification by email optional)
* Thread preview on mouse-over (optional, via Admin CP)
* Active Users viewing thread shown
* New Post Indicator
* Printer Friendly versions on threads
* Admin tools for Threads - edit/delete/move/lock/Make sticky/ etc
* Email page to a friend option
* Similar Threads displayed on all thread views

Posts

* Linear, Threaded, Hybrid display views available
* Supports BB Code in posts
* Supports HTML in post
* Smilies
* Avatars
* Optional WYSIWYG or standard editors for posts and Private Messages
* Attachment images (.gif,.jpg, etc) are no longer in the database (optional, via Admin CP)
* Quick reply box (with optional "forced" click on post to quote)
* Preview post option
* Post rating
* User reputation
* Polls
* Post Reporting - report posts to moderators
* User post count
* Admin tools for Posts - edit/delete/move/ etc
* Preview safe attachments

Members

* Member List
* Member Search
* User Style picker
* Private Messaging
* Buddy list
* Member Birthdays shown on Forum home

Calendar Features

* Supports multiple private and public calendars
* Viewable public and private events (adminCP option)
* Weekly, monthly and yearly views
* Jump to Today option
* Add single, ranged or recurring events
* Add all day events
* Option to show calendar event on forum home page (adminCP option)
* Show events to specific usergroups (adminCP option)
* Calendar Moderation
* Private events reminder
* Ability to add custom fields

General

* Who's online
* Search

Heres a link to an example of the forum.

vBulletin Support Forums (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/)

Thanks,

Josh

[ 11-16-2005, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: Josh ]

[BadgerDave]

Looks an awful lot like SawMill Creek. :eek:

A feature I would like to see in any upgrade would be some kind of indicator in the response that would identify who a response is directed too. Something like a "reply to" prompt in the OPs' original post and also in all of the following posts. The second post and all sebsequent posts in a thread would have a place indicating who the response is directed at.

[canadave]

I like phpBB best.

--Dave

[plumber]

In as much as I am not a computer guru and know little about all of the acronynms its always nice to see that you guys are not resting on your laurels.

It will be interesting to see and use your new forum. Hopefully with all of the new features it will still be as user friendly as it has been.

Will it be introduced soon? And will Ridgid still allow for honest criticizm and frank discussions of issues important to tool users and their trades?

[canadave]

I should amend my earlier comment and add on to it. I think whatever forum software is chosen, I'd like to see it have a good, easy-to-use search option. Other than that it's all the same to me smile.gif

Dave

[Josh]

Badger Dave,

Honestly hadn't ever visited Sawmill Creek forums before. Just visited their site and your right its the same software (Powered by vBulletin Version 3.5.0). We would obviously customize it to have the ridgid feel and look but it would have the same functionality. It appears they just took the base graphics that shipped with the software. Whats your experience with that forum in comparison to ours (software comparison not community) like / dislike?

plumber,

You dont have to worry about us changing the way we moderate the boards. We will still allow criticism and frank discussions. We could go through the forum and clean up every post that has anything slightly negative to say about us but I feel that that would make the forum a rather worthless community both to you and to us. We love hearing that we are doing our job well at that you enjoy using our tools but we are also listening when you have issues with them.

To this point we have never removed a negative opinion from these forums unless it was a negative opinion that went to far about a fellow member (harrasment) We plan to stick to our current moderation style.

I believe that the new software (if we go with Vbulletin) would be just as easy to use as this forum while at the same time allowing some cool new features and the ability to grow the forum in the future. We are still very much at the stage where we are willing to look at other forum software as well. I would hope in the next few months we would get the new forum up. I just need to steal a little time away from some of the other things I am trying to work on here.

Keep the input comming! Thanks for the responses.

Josh

[ 11-17-2005, 10:47 AM: Message edited by: Josh ]

[oldslowchevy]

please please for us bad spellers please put in a spell check so i dont feel like a dummy with every post that i write

[KenM]

Of the forums I visit I think vBulletin is among the best. takes a little getting used to, but it is feature rich.
Thanks for having this forum and doing the 'upgrade'.
ken

[michael stephen]

cant wait to look at it.. ;)

[plumber]

Josh,

While you are taking suggestions for the new Forum I would like to reccomend an Electrical Forum up by the HVAC Forum.

Also an occasional contest for tools and accessories would be nice. And if you would like to send a nice new 300 or 535 my way for making such great suggestions I would be happy to accept. :D

[papadan]

Josh, the Vbulliten looks good to me. Oldslowchevy, it'll take more than good spelling for us not to look at you like a dummy. LMAO :D

[imported_PLUMBER RICK]

i'll second that chevy. a spell check would be great for us old school students. my wife is tired of proofing my posts. plus she falls asleep much earlier than i do.

plumber, you're right. too much computer lingo and it will make for a slow time. still trying to adjust to the NO CAPS. now if i can only work with the shift key.

rick.

:eek:

[plumber]

Rick, If I havn't already, I want to say thanks for switching to standard case typing. It makes it far easier for an old four eyed goat like myself to read what is written.

[Josh]

Alright.... vBulletin it is. It does have Spellchecking by the way. I need it just as bad as anyone on here ;) I am shooting for next week on the migration. We are working on getting ahold of the software and it should be up by the end of the year. It should be pretty obvious when we upgrade so i dont really need to tell you when it happens.

Just letting you know its on its way.

Josh

[imported_Bob D.]

Josh,

What will happen as far as logging in when we transition to the new software? Will we need to re-register or anything else?

Not that it matters to me but will we still have the member numbers, profile information and settings, etc. we do now, or have to set all that up again.

If you can just copy everyone's info from UBB to vBulletin, that would be easiest on us users, but more headaches for you I am sure.

[imported_PLUMBER RICK]

josh, my wife is glad to hear that the new format will have spell check. she can go to bed early and not have to look over my shoulder to edit my typos.

glad it's starting at the first of the year. we should be old pros come next year.

rick and jojo.

[Kevink]

I agree sometimes your a bit tired after work

[steelewoodworker]

Josh,

Sounds good. How will the ability to put .jpegs and other graphics be improved? Will we be able to upload directly from our computer as opposed to referencing a URL as we do now?

Jerry

[Josh]

On track for having the forum up by end of the week.

All current posts and member profiles will be migrated to the new boards so no need to reregister.

Direct upload is a feature of the new board. This will make it more difficult for us to moderate because of people posting inappropriate pics but it shouldnt change too much.

I am pretty sure everyone will be really happy with the new boards.

Josh

[Blister]

Hey Josh,
How about an answer as to who won the "Ride of a Lifetime Sweepstakes"
It seems to be a mystery to everyone I have talked to at Ridgid

[cjh20]

Josh,

This seems like a good time and space to ask this question: What are the moderator’s roles in this forum? I know that you remove spam and inappropriate posts, but do you have the authority/ability/responsibility to represent Ridgid on issues?

Two examples. First, if there is a problem with a tool that is often mentioned in this forum (ex arbor replacement) is it your responsibility to solve it? Second, if there is a specific customer service issue related to a Ridgid product, do you have a process to solve it?

You and the other moderators do a Great job in keeping the forum "clean". I was simply wondering if the moderators should be a "go to guy" for other issues.

Thanks for updating the forum and good luck with the software installation/transition.

Chris

[Josh]

Currently the moderators role is to make sure everything is running smoothly in the forum and everyone is getting along. These roles may change in the near future as we plan on growing the forum as a community of Ridgid tool users. We can usually direct you to where you can get help with a problem you are having but techservices is the official place to call to get your tool issues worked out.

We will keep you updated on our roles as they change. I think the wheels are finally turning and people are taking notice of the forum. Its no longer just a post a day forum. You guys have grown it to a community that is growing at a pretty solid pace. One of the reasons for the software upgrade is to better support the community and its growth.

Ride of a lifetime winnners -- I will post them as soon as I can find out.

Josh

[Josh]

If you havent noticed the forum software has been upgraded. I will be putting doing some maintenance on the new forums for the next couple of days so if you find something that isnt working right please post a reply in this thread. (should have a built in spellchecker integrated soon) For now you can use the spellchecker by clicking the ABC checkmark icon in the upper right of the reply window and following the directions

Enjoy,

Josh

[KenM]

Looks great, Josh.
I believe the clock is messed up, unless you're out in the Atlantic. ;-)

[wbrooks]

Ken, if you go into your profile you can change your time zone from the default of GMT to what ever time zone you want

[wbrooks]

Josh, I don't think avatars are working, looks like you can not toggle the radio button to allow avatars in the profile,
BTW - awesome job so far, love the WYSIWYG editor and spell check

[KenM]

Ken, if you go into your profile you can change your time zone from the default of GMT to what ever time zone you want

Thanks Wayne. I'm still looking, haven't found where to do that yet.
ken

[wbrooks]

Ken, click the USER CP link, then click edit options, 4th panel down is date and time options

[papadan]

Josh, I'll second Wbrooks. The Avatars are not working

[Josh]

Working on avatars and attatchment uploads.

[KenM]

Ken, click the USER CP link, then click edit options, 4th panel down is date and time options

Got it. Thanks Wayne.:o
Ken

[Josh]

Avatar uploads should work now. I also increased the size of attatchments that you can upload. Should allow a little more flexability. Anything else need fixed?

[Lorax]

Avatar uploads should work now. I still can't seem to get past this

Avatars are small graphics that are displayed under your username whenever you post.
Do not use an avatar
Note: if you have a custom avatar selecting this option will delete it.

Any suggestions?:confused:

I also increased the size of attatchments that you can upload. Should allow a little more flexability. Anything else need fixed? Now that you mention it, my truck has been running a little rough. :p I don't suppose you could........

[KenM]

O.K., Wayne helped me get in the right time zone.
Now, why can't I do an avatar? I go to CP, edit avatar, and the only option 'No Avatar' is selected, and no built in ones are available nor do I see where to upload a custom one.
Please help this dumb ole boy, one more time.:confused:
Thanks,
ken

[Lorax]

O.K., Wayne helped me get in the right time zone.
Now, why can't I do an avatar? I go to CP, edit avatar, and the only option 'No Avatar' is selected, and no built in ones are available nor do I see where to upload a custom one.
Please help this dumb ole boy, one more time.:confused:
Thanks,
ken

You aint the only one.:p

[BadgerDave]

I've been able to download the address to my avatar in the "Edit Profile Picture" which is just under the "Edit Avatar". The problem is thats as far as it will go. Last night when I did this, it did transfer my avatar into the "Edit Avatar" area but this AM it was gone. I deleted it and tried downloading it again but even though it does again appear in the "Edit Profile Picture" area this time it didn't transfer over into the "Edit Avatar".

[michael stephen]

i like this forum better..

[Lorax]

How come we are limited to only 4 smilies in our posts? :confused: I know some people get carried away, :eek: but I often need more smilies to express myself :p (especially when the ones in a guote you are quoting count towards the 4 smilie limit.:(

BTW Happy New Year Everybody! (sorry, ran out of smilies).

[HVAC HAWK]

what is with time that is desplayed . is this going to change to the time zone that we are in. on the old forum the time matched the time zone that we are in. thanks

[HVAC HAWK]

i think i changed my time zone but i had to use central time to get my time right

[papadan]

Still can't get the Avatar to work at all

[Josh]

Ok.. I'm back after the nice long weekend. I am looking into the avatar issue again. I can upload one for myself but that may have to do with me being Administrator :D I will look into allowing more than 4 smilies as well.

Later,

Josh

[Josh]

- Avatars really are fixed now. I verified it with a new user registration.

- I increased the number of images you can post in a post to 15 instead of 4 :) :( :confused: :mad: :p ;) :D :o :rolleyes: :cool: :eek: :) :( :confused: :mad:

- If you want to change your timezone you need to go into your User CP ->Edit Options and select your TimeZone. This will fix the post times. Everyone defaulted to Europe time when I imported from the old board. Thats just the way it works.

Hope this helps,

Josh

[Scott_milw]

Josh,
Just wanted to say thank for you work in keeping this upgrade darn near seamless!:):):):):):)

Scott

[Lorax]

:) :mad: :D :cool: :( :p :o :eek: :confused: ;) :rolleyes:

Josh,

You da man!

Scott_milw,

Where have I seen that avatar before? ? :p

[smorris]

Looks great, Josh! Much easier to use, and easy to find new posts.

For those who haven't found them yet, there are a bunch of buttons up in the gray bar at the top of the window. "New Posts" will list all new posts since you last checked for them. This will list them all, regardless of which forum they are in. when you are done, you can simply pull down the "Quick Links" button and select "Mark All Forums Read" and you will be all caught up! Much easier to use.

Steve

[Josh]

noticed the avatars a little small. I increased the legal size up to 150x150 instead of 80x80 if you guys want to reupload your avatars.

[Josh]

just to test attachments....

[KenM]

Thanks for all the effort you put into this, Josh.

[HVAC HAWK]

thanks josh nice job;) :D :)

[BadgerDave]

For those who haven't found them yet, there are a bunch of buttons up in the gray bar at the top of the window. "New Posts" will list all new posts since you last checked for them. This will list them all, regardless of which forum they are in. when you are done, you can simply pull down the "Quick Links" button and select "Mark All Forums Read" and you will be all caught up! Much easier to use.
Excellent tip Steve. I tried it and just like you said it really is easier to use. For us poor slobs still using slowpoke dial-up its also a much faster way to get through all the new posts. Thanks for sharing.

[smorris]

Glad I could help, Dave, and it is good to see Mr Badger back in all his glory! ;)

Another time saver: After you get your list of new posts, you will see a small blue checkmark to the left of the thread title. Clicking this will take you directly to the first unread post, no matter what page of the thread it is on.

Even better: "right-click, open as new window" on the blue checkmark. This will open a new window, with the thread scrolled to the first unread post. You can then read the rest of the thread and close it, with your window listing new posts still open behind it, or reply and then close it. This eliminates having to constantly click back to get back to wherever you were.

(Can you tell I spend way too much time on vBulletin forums?) ;)

[plumber]

Smorris,

Thanks for the tips.

Its taking awhile to get used to the new format. I really liked the other one but nothing is static for very long. Either things change or they fade away.

It looks like the RIDGID moderators are going to be more involved with the site and thats something I view as a very good thing. So congratulations on a successful changeover.

One question, whats the chances of compensation for providing a valuable service in providing free professional advice in the forums? Not a lot, maybe a few dates with the calender girls or some other hand tools.

Just a numerical answer will suffice.

1. Highly likely
2. Somewhat likely
3. Will consider for the future
4. Not very likely
5. In your dreams pal

[Josh]

Smorris,

Thanks for the tips.

Its taking awhile to get used to the new format. I really liked the other one but nothing is static for very long. Either things change or they fade away.

It looks like the RIDGID moderators are going to be more involved with the site and thats something I view as a very good thing. So congratulations on a successful changeover.

One question, whats the chances of compensation for providing a valuable service in providing free professional advice in the forums? Not a lot, maybe a few dates with the calender girls or some other hand tools.

Just a numerical answer will suffice.

1. Highly likely
2. Somewhat likely
3. Will consider for the future
4. Not very likely
5. In your dreams pal

1,2,3,4,5 depending on what angle you take on it. You will likely see some pretty cool Customer Community related changes to the website and forum in 06 that could benefit Ridge Tool Users and Site Members. This community is valuable to Ridge Tool and is gaining more attention each year.

BTW.. a date with a calendar girl is a 5 :D

Josh

[plumber]

Yes it is.

[cjh20]

Josh – Doesn’t the new software allow for sticky posts? Exactly how is that done? There are several recurring topics that might be appropriate. For example, as Bob D mentions in this thread New 3650 owner (http://www.ridgidforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7583), a permanent threat on assembly tips would save everyone time.

[Lorax]

Good idea. Worth considering.
However a thread might be more effective than a threat. :eek: Wouldn't wanna scare the newbies away.:p

[cjh20]

Lorax,
I need to remember that a spell checker shouldn't replace proof-reading:).

[L Turner]

In the welcome area and on posts what time zone are you in. For example when I got on this time it said You last visited Today at 7:16 pm. I am in Raleigh, NC. Nowhere near my time.

[steelewoodworker]

In the welcome area and on posts what time zone are you in. For example when I got on this time it said You last visited Today at 7:16 pm. I am in Raleigh, NC. Nowhere near my time.

L Turner, if you go to page 3 of this thread WBrooks explains how to set your time zone!

Jerry

[Josh]

Yes sticky posts are part of the system. I may start using them soon. I think that only the moderators can make a thread sticky.

Spell checking. You will need to download a plug-in to do the spell checking for IE. or an easier option is to install the Google bar and use its spell checking button. The google option is definitely the easiest.

Josh

[Lorax]

How about making this thread sticky so we can find it easier?

How about increasing the size of allowable PM's. 5000 characters aint a whole lot for some of us ol' windbags?

How about removing the 10 character minimum for responding to a guote? I usually like to include my responses within the quote and the program doesn't recognize that as a response.

How about putting a "reply" link with each response so we will know who a person is responding to? Each response would say "response to so and so".

When you get those done I'll post your "after lunch to-do list".:p :p

[michael stephen]

nice idea there..

[Shade Tree]

Ditto on Plumber's suggestion of an electrical forum. A lot of Ridgid tools are used for installation of electricals and it is a field that is as fraught with uncertainties as plumbing is for those of us who are not professionals.

BTW, what is supposed to go in the "Title:" box at the top of the "Reply to Thread"? :confused:

Shade Tree

[Lorax]

Ditto on Plumber's suggestion of an electrical forum. A lot of Ridgid tools are used for installation of electricals and it is a field that is as fraught with uncertainties as plumbing is for those of us who are not professionals. Already done!

BTW, what is supposed to go in the "Title:" box at the top of the "Reply to Thread"? :confused: Whatever you want.:p

Shade Tree

10 characters

[hellcatt200]

how about an easier way to post pics.if people have to " jump through hoops" to post them it is not worth it.I am impressed with this board in the way people can talk and ridgid not shut that person down. makes for good relations when the company isn't just out to make a buck.

[Josh]

You can add attatchments (images) by clicking on the paperclip. in the editor. If you want to post an inline image (displays right away in the message) then you have to post it somewhere on the web and link it in the message using the image button on the editor.

Merry Christmas everyone,

Josh

[michael stephen]

merry christmas and a happy new year to all!!!

[gear junkie]

How about a broader distiction between "senior member, member and new member". What about adding "proffesional" or "master plumber", I don't know, something along those lines. I could put out useless information, bad q&a but I do this 100 times and I'm a senior member? This would hold a place for guy w/ over 1000+ post.