Ok the time has arrived where we start looking at upgrading the forum software! So many people have rightfully been asking for changes here and the site is now in a position to act on those upgrades. Here is some background, I've been working on these backend upgrades for several years and they've been in place and running for as much as long. Notably you've seen them in action with the iOS App, but they are present here as well. If you noticed some performance improvements over the years, its because of those changes. Now it's time to take the App's full fledged backbone and put it in full place for the web version and today marks the first public preview of that!

This change opens up endless possibilities of what can be done, but it has been a complete re-write and re-thinking of everything so there are a lot of things that work and a lot more that does not work. The goal for this first preview is to fix everything that is broken and then add back in the things that are missing followed by adding in the new features.

1. Fix what's broken (bugs)
2. Add missing features
3. Implement new ideas

If you feel inclined to try out the beta site and play around, use it find problems, give feedback on what works and what doesnt work it would be greatly appreciated

In the next post I'll setup a tracker post to help organize a TODO list for known issues or things being worked on so we don't clutter the thread with repeated comments on the same thing. But if you notice the tracker post doesnt fully describe a problem you are seeing by all means please make another post and let me know

As our first start we have implemented two of the BIMMERPOST sites, which are the original two sites so it is fitting to start fresh right where it all began:
https://www.e90post.com/beta
https://www.m3post.com/beta

Now aside from some visual touchups the big new things we have are a totally new search engine. The search engine is accessed from the top navigation bar. There will be an advanced search engine forthcoming, right now I am just playing with algorithms to see what works and what doesnt, so please feel free to try out the search engine and give feedback if you think the results are good/bad/otherwise. For sure advanced search that will give more results and fine tuned filtered will be introduced. Next there is an all new editor that gives you more control of how posts look and more true to what gets posted. It has many possibilities for us to add new elements.

And finally, as a general reminder this is a very early beta version so it's actively being worked on. You might suddenly see things break or change that because I'm essentially working on this place so you might be viewing the site during such a change

BETA Active sites

• https://www.e90post.com/beta
• https://www.m3post.com/beta
• https://g45.bimmerpost.com/beta
• https://g50.bimmerpost.com/beta
• https://g80.bimmerpost.com/beta
• More sites forthcoming

BUG/TODO Tracker

• COMPLETE [Search] - Advanced search and advanced filtering
• COMPLETE [User profile] - View a users post / thread history
• [Dark mode] - Expand dark mode use across all pages
• [Mobile] - Limited/non-existent mobile design
• [Email] - Send emails for all types of forum activities
• [Email] - Control panel updates to add control over the activities/types of emails received
• [Email] - UTF8 doesnt fully work, there is mangled mojibake
• COMPLETE [Settings] - Avatars
• COMPLETE [Thread list] - Stickies not clickable
• [Replies] - When reply is last on the page, the page should refresh to the next page where the post resides
• COMPLETE [Editor] - Add tooltips to the icons?
• COMPLETE [Editor] - Code block not fully correctly translating
• COMPLETE [Editor] - Strikethrough regression
• COMPLETE [Sign out] - Icon shifts during sign out
• COMPLETE [Postbit] - Show name of country on hover
• COMPLETE [Editor] - Drafts
• [Drafts] - Have a centralized place to view drafts
• [Editor] - Drafts accessable from app (and vice-versa)
• [Posts] - Signatures
• COMPLETE [Thread list] - Goto last post icon (date)
• [Threads] - Classifieds support
• [Threads] - Polls support

New additions

• Additional reactions (besides appreciates)
• [General] - Locale support
• [New posts] - Filter by MyForums

Thanks for asking!

A bug I've experienced:

I continued to get emails for posts to subscribed threads even after turning off that option in settings. Went on for weeks. I ultimately unsubscribed cause I could find no other way of stopping the emails.

An enhancement I'd like to see:

Several Reaction options for posts, not just Appreciate. Appreciate is a good one, but sometimes you just want to laugh or say "wow" or express sadness.

bimmermookie wrote

Thanks for asking!

A bug I've experienced:

I continued to get emails for posts to subscribed threads even after turning off that option in settings. Went on for weeks. I ultimately unsubscribed cause I could find no other way of stopping the emails.

An enhancement I'd like to see:

Several Reaction options for posts, not just Appreciate. Appreciate is a good one, but sometimes you just want to laugh or say "wow" or express sadness.

If you get an unwanted email for a subscribed thread again could you cope/paste that email to a PM to me so I can look into it and see what’s up

Certainly appreciate the extensive efforts for the new UI and functionality improvements; TY!

Bug Observation

> Notifications - Shows one (1) to review; no content displayed [example below]

smokinjoe64 wrote

Certainly appreciate the extensive efforts for the new UI and functionality improvements; TY!

Bug Observation

> Notifications - Shows one (1) to review; no content displayed [example below]

Great bug find. I think it has to do with the interaction between the old and new forum, however any interaction with the new forum should hopefully correct it. It’s one that we won’t know for sure about until we go fully into the new software. Until then I will keep a watch on it. Ps let me know how dark mode treats you, good bad or otherwise 👍

apptest wrote

Great bug find. I think it has to do with the interaction between the old and new forum, however any interaction with the new forum should hopefully correct it. It’s one that we won’t know for sure about until we go fully into the new software. Until then I will keep a watch on it. Ps let me know how dark mode treats you, good bad or otherwise 👍

As for dark mode, so-far so-good...much preferred in lower light conditions

apptest wrote

Great bug find. I think it has to do with the interaction between the old and new forum, however any interaction with the new forum should hopefully correct it. It’s one that we won’t know for sure about until we go fully into the new software. Until then I will keep a watch on it. Ps let me know how dark mode treats you, good bad or otherwise 👍

Bug Observation II

Notifications - "Mark all as read"
After selecting function works to 'grey-out' posts; however, notification counter doesn't reflect zero after page reload.

smokinjoe64 wrote

apptest wrote

Great bug find. I think it has to do with the interaction between the old and new forum, however any interaction with the new forum should hopefully correct it. It’s one that we won’t know for sure about until we go fully into the new software. Until then I will keep a watch on it. Ps let me know how dark mode treats you, good bad or otherwise 👍

Bug Observation II

Notifications - "Mark all as read"

After selecting function works to 'grey-out' posts; however, notification counter doesn't reflect zero after page reload.

Ok that part might be on purpose. "hear me out" 😁. The idea is that when it's highlighted in purple, that's showing you how many unread notifications you have. when its no longer highlighted (like what your screenshot has), then its a count of the total notifications you left in your box. You can test it out by marking one of those notifications as unread and refresh the page and it should go purple with a count of 1. try it out and see if it becomes more normal for you or if it still doesnt make sense after some time using it just let me know, none of this is set in stone, ill put it on the block for re-evaluation

apptest wrote

Ok that part might be on purpose. "hear me out" 😁. The idea is that when it's highlighted in purple, that's showing you how many unread notifications you have. when its no longer highlighted (like what your screenshot has), then its a count of the total notifications you left in your box. You can test it out by marking one of those notifications as unread and refresh the page and it should go purple with a count of 1. try it out and see if it becomes more normal for you or if it still doesnt make sense after some time using it just let me know, none of this is set in stone, ill put it on the block for re-evaluation

Understood...as suggested gave it a go.
On this occasion, outcome was as described - marked your last notification as unread after viewing, then refreshed.
> Previous posts marked (4) unread disappeared as expected.
> Reloaded page 'notification tally' then accurately illustrated (1) unread.
Lookin' good so-far...
Thinkin' once outta beta, updated UI instruction(s) likey needed to educate on 'how-to's' etc appropriate.

Appreciate responsiveness/replies to 'observations', etc

smokinjoe64 wrote

Understood...as suggested gave it a go.
On this occasion, outcome was as described - marked your last notification as unread after viewing, then refreshed.
> Previous posts marked (4) unread disappeared as expected.
> Reloaded page 'notification tally' then accurately illustrated (1) unread.
Lookin' good so-far...
Thinkin' once outta beta, updated UI instruction(s) likey needed to educate on 'how-to's' etc appropriate.

Appreciate responsiveness/replies to 'observations', etc

Curious, do you see the beta site as being in a place where you can use it permanently?

apptest wrote

smokinjoe64 wrote

Understood...as suggested gave it a go.

On this occasion, outcome was as described - marked your last notification as unread after viewing, then refreshed.

> Previous posts marked (4) unread disappeared as expected.

> Reloaded page 'notification tally' then accurately illustrated (1) unread.

Lookin' good so-far...

Thinkin' once outta beta, updated UI instruction(s) likey needed to educate on 'how-to's' etc appropriate.


Appreciate responsiveness/replies to 'observations', etc

Curious, do you see the beta site as being in a place where you can use it permanently?

To-date, my use is ~50/50 for 'browsing' and comparative purposes.
IMO, until equal and proposed improved functionality is complete...not quite ready for exclusive use.

smokinjoe64 wrote

To-date, my use is ~50/50 for 'browsing' and comparative purposes.
IMO, until equal and proposed improved functionality is complete...not quite ready for exclusive use.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Let me know if you see things that are needed to be done to plug holes

Happy to see a thread like this. So many forums are being left to bit-rot.

Having performed a similar thing* in 2017/2018 to rescue my home forum, I'm happy to beta test and report things as I see them and make suggestions for improvements.

*Believe it or not we jumped ship from vBulletin back then and went with a completely custom solution written from scratch by yours truly. It's been a wild ride, but it has us in a better position today than we've ever been in the past. If you're morbidly curious you can read about it here: https://www.sr20-forum.com/server-news/!77169-major-forum-changes-ahead.html

nice, excited to try it out.

my issue on the original set up is last year or so I would not consistently receive emails letting me know I have a message etc.. that needs attending to on the forums. So I have to constantly log in and check to make sure I didn't miss any messages. It would be nice if it was not so random and more consistent

GOLFFRR wrote

nice, excited to try it out.

my issue on the original set up is last year or so I would not consistently receive emails letting me know I have a message etc.. that needs attending to on the forums. So I have to constantly log in and check to make sure I didn't miss any messages. It would be nice if it was not so random and more consistent

For sure that is one of the main goals/fixes for the new forum. Because the old software still wants to send emails there would at times be duplicate emails or conflicts so for the time being its disabled for the most part on the new forum (barring account settings changes and registration). Once we are able to move 100% to the new site then I can very easily round out the email situation and we should be good to go, I'll add it to the above Roadmap but just to be aware of it, but it will literally have to be the last part of the process. TBH ive already built and put the pieces in place so its mostly just turning on the switch 👍

And yes looking forward to having you and more ppl try it out and post up here about anything and everything good or bad I want to hear it and put in patches. so far the use has been good and i've already been able to put in so many little fixes here in there in the background as more and more people are using it

apptest wrote

For sure that is one of the main goals/fixes for the new forum. Because the old software still wants to send emails there would at times be duplicate emails or conflicts so no emails. Once we are able to move 100% to the new site then I can very easily round out the email situation and we should be good to go, I'll add it to the above Roadmap but just to be aware it will literally have to be the last part of the process. TBH ive already built and put the pieces in place so its mostly just turning on the switch 👍

And yes looking forward to having more ppl try it out and post up here about anything and everything good or bad I want to hear it and put in patches. so far the use has been good and ive already been able to put in so many little fixes here in there in the background as more and more people are using it

awesome, I have no doubt you all will dial it in. Any other way I could help personally with anything just let me know. Cheers

G45 added to the list of beta sites https://g45.bimmerpost.com/beta

So... I regularly click on "New Posts" to check for updates to threads I'm following and anything else new that people are posting. But almost without fail, it will not show posts that I know are very recent -- more recent than posts it is showing.

I'm in the G87/G42 forum. I actually am interested only in G87 content, but this is what I get when selecting G87 from the forum list.

So I click on New Posts and threads that I know I or someone else posted to recently don't show up at all.

Here's just one recent example: there's this thread: https://g87.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2231960 The last post in it was by me, at 12:27 today.

But when I go to New Posts here: https://g87.bimmerpost.com/forums/search.php?searchid=146202140 it is nowhere to be found. Even though this list of "new posts" includes ones made an hour or two before mine.

Is this a bug that can be fixed? Or is it my settings?

Also, is there a way to see only G87 content?

Thanks!

PS -- I re-up my suggestion for reactions other than Appreciate. Sometimes you want to Love, or Laugh, or say this is Sad, or Helpful.

bimmermookie wrote

So... I regularly click on "New Posts" to check for updates to threads I'm following and anything else new that people are posting. But almost without fail, it will not show posts that I know are very recent -- more recent than posts it is showing.

I'm in the G87/G42 forum. I actually am interested only in G87 content, but this is what I get when selecting G87 from the forum list.

So I click on New Posts and threads that I know I or someone else posted to recently don't show up at all.

Here's just one recent example: there's this thread: https://g87.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2231960 The last post in it was by me, at 12:27 today.

But when I go to New Posts here: https://g87.bimmerpost.com/forums/search.php?searchid=146202140 it is nowhere to be found. Even though this list of "new posts" includes ones made an hour or two before mine.

Is this a bug that can be fixed? Or is it my settings?

Also, is there a way to see only G87 content?

Thanks!

PS -- I re-up my suggestion for reactions other than Appreciate. Sometimes you want to Love, or Laugh, or say this is Sad, or Helpful.

That new posts link is for our original site, not the new beta site. So I think these issues have to do with the old site? TBH g87 does not yet have a beta site implementation so im assuming it is. But check back here often as I will try to add G87 to the beta site list soon and you can see if you are having problems with new posts there

akkauntpleer wrote

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