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Refreshing the look of NewBuddhist in 2019

LincLinc Site ownerDetroit Moderator

Last year you may have noticed I made a new logo for NewBuddhist but never did anything with it. Things continue to move slowly but surely toward updating the site.

Currently, I'm working on rebuilding our humble server from scratch on a much less expensive service. I'm taking the opportunity to update quite a few things about how it works and performing much overdue maintenance to how I upgrade our software on it, so it's taking many full days of work. A member of our sister site, Icrontic, has been pitching in as well.

Sometime in the next few weeks, I expect we'll have some brief downtime as I do the final migration of the sites. I'll post an announcement beforehand with details. There won't be any changes or data loss.

Shortly thereafter, I'll be upgrading Vanilla (we're a year behind) which will bring some new features. I'll write more about those too as they launch, but the biggest thing will be an easier-to-use text editor.

Finally, not long after all that, I'll be updating the design of the site. It will be fairly dramatic, but you'll very much recognize it as NewBuddhist. We'll swap to the new logo and have a much fresher layout, but the general color scheme will remain the same. The mobile experience will also be made consistent with the non-mobile site so it won't feel like 2 different sites depending on where you browse from.

In general, the software will still work the same. It'll just look a lot nicer. :chuffed:

lobsterpersonJeffreyVastmindLee82federicaShoshinZazen1BunksKundo
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Comments

  • <3 Thanks @Linc Hope it all goes well. Good luck. <3

    @Linc haz plan ... ;)

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    It sounds like some drastic renewal under the hood and on the surface both...

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    And this illustrates exactly what re-birth is all about.
    Same, but different. And hopefully, an improvement too.

    Kundo
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited December 2018

    (Btw, that logo is masterful. Can't wait to see it "in action".) This is going to look Ay-Mayzing!! Thanks. @Linc, for everything you do.

    lobster
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    @Linc -- As always, thanks for your efforts. Without you, I'd be sunk.

    I do hope that whatever improvements you make, they will not make life too complex for computer-doofuses like me. These days, at my age, "improvement" is too often a code word for unusable. :)

    Seriously, many thanks.

    lobsterBunks
  • KundoKundo Sydney, Australia Veteran

    You rock @Linc
    ??????❤️❤️❤️

    lobster
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited December 2018

    Thank you for your dedication, Ling. Happy New Year!

    P.S. As long as you're working on an overhaul of sorts, I'd like to put in a plug for the return of the old emojis, if I may. They were cool.

  • VimalajātiVimalajāti Whitby, Ontario Veteran
    edited January 2019

    IMO this is the friendliest Buddhist forum I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. Keep up the good work.

    VastmindfedericaLotusMindlobster
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    Sometime in the next few weeks, I expect we'll have some brief downtime as I do the final migration of the sites.

    I'm tentatively slating this step for next Sunday, Jan 20.

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    @Linc one thing that occurs to me that would be really worthwhile is a way to rate threads in the search results. The only way right now to see if a thread is going to have good content is to see how many pages of replies there are, which gives some indication of the amount of interest/controversy a thread had.

    But perhaps it might be possible to use the number of insightful’s, awesome’s and lol’s on a thread to construct some kind of metric to identify the more interesting threads? If there are even a couple of posts with 5+ insightfuls it is often a good thread to read, or if there is an average of 3 awesome’s per post it could also indicate a consist high quality.

    person
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    @Kerome said:
    But perhaps it might be possible to use the number of insightful’s, awesome’s and lol’s on a thread to construct some kind of metric to identify the more interesting threads?

    That is a good idea.

    It's a bit beyond the scope of something I can do for 1 site (that's more a product-level feature idea) but I'll suggest it internally.

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    I believe we do take the discussion score into account already, which adds up reactions for a number. That informs the order of search results, along with other factors. We don't currently display information about that, however.

    person
  • ColinAColinA Explorer

    @Linc said:

    Sometime in the next few weeks, I expect we'll have some brief downtime as I do the final migration of the sites.

    I'm tentatively slating this step for next Sunday, Jan 20.

    Is the site shutting down today?

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    No idea... I'm sure @Linc will give ample warning.... :)

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    @ColinA said:
    Is the site shutting down today?

    No. First, I've had to delay a day. Second, it should take less than an hour when it does go down.

  • ColinAColinA Explorer

    Thank you @Linc . Wow , less than an hour! That's super efficient! ?

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @ColinA said:
    Thank you @Linc . Wow , less than an hour! That's super efficient! ?

    @Linc? Efficient? Doesn't cover it. You haven't seen him play 'Battleships'...

    person
  • ColinAColinA Explorer

    @federica said:

    @ColinA said:
    Thank you @Linc . Wow , less than an hour! That's super efficient! ?

    @Linc? Efficient? Doesn't cover it. You haven't seen him play 'Battleships'...

    Remind me never to engage @linc in battleships.

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    @Linc said:

    @ColinA said:
    Is the site shutting down today?

    No. First, I've had to delay a day. Second, it should take less than an hour when it does go down.

    Has this happened now? The site looks pretty much the same...

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    No, @Linc will give ample and advance notification.

    You'll know it when it happens, the site will look different.

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    edited January 2019

    Sorry about that, folks. I had an extremely frustrating weekend last week that resulted in a stalemate. Basically I spent 2 days wrestling with server configurations, which while ultimately successful, ate all my allotted time for the actual migration. I will try again Feb 10.

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Sorry to hear that, @Linc. Best of luck, and fingers crossed . Thank you. :)

  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    edited January 2019

    NOTHING
    In the beginning there was nothing and God said "Let there be light," and there was still nothing but everybody thought for sure that they could see and feel something.

    Good luck @Linc <3
    May all servers be servile ;)

    Kundo
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    Moved back one more week. I swear I'm getting closer. :awesome:

    federicaDakini
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Yes, @Linc, like looking through the wrong end of a telescope: The farther away it seems, the nearer it really is.....

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @Linc, how's things...? :)

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    Things are a little rough. :eh: I hit a series of weekends where I was busy, which broke my momentum. Trying to get back to it.

    federica
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @Linc remember the old saying:
    "Nobody ever lay on their bed, dying, and said 'Gee, I wish I'd spent more time in the office!' "

    Kundo
  • @Linc said:
    Things are a little rough.

    I believe that is NT1 :p

    I hit a series of weekends where I was busy, which broke my momentum.

    <3

    Trying to get back to it.

    Enjoy your weekend B)

    Kundo
  • Lee82Lee82 Veteran

    Congrats. I did notice the downtime.

    What has actually changed then, at least on my mobile phone it appears much the same?

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    edited May 2019

    Visually, nothing yet. We moved from an old server I couldn't update to one I freshly built with a friend over the winter. Now I can actually upgrade our forum software, and then our theme.

    personlobster
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    The one little thing you might notice: The site is secure now, only accessible under HTTPS.

    lobster
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    I do believe the site got much faster, too.

    lobster
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    Bravo @Linc <3

    A lotus blooms because of the mud. Everything is in the root/routes ...

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Secure! Yay!!

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @Linc said:
    Visually, nothing yet. We moved from an old server I couldn't update to one I freshly built with a friend over the winter. Now I can actually upgrade our forum software, and then our theme.

    Why am I picturing you in a hard hat, with cement, bricks and a trowel?

    (See how hip and up-to-date I am? Why you have a dinosaur overseeing your site is beyond me, sometimes...!)

  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    Thanks @Linc! Not sure if it’s related but I can’t post photos on the site anymore? Anyone else having the same issue?

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited May 2019

    let's see...

    It seems to work if I take a general image found via google and post the URL, but selecting an image from a personal file...? Nope. Me neither...

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator

    Yeah, file attachments are broken. It's been noted and I'll try to sort it out soon.

    BunksShoshin
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    Thanks @Linc =)

  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    edited May 2019

    It'll just look a lot nicer.

    I was going to send a post as we were unaware of the server updates ...
    'liar, liar, pants on fire' :p

    However everything is in the preparation. Many thanks @Link, looking forward to the 'easy bit' ;)
    ... looking nicer. Good luck with that and many thanks 🙏🏽 <3

    Bunks
  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    edited May 2019

    Hi @Linc - could not login from my ipaid - cleared cookies - still no.
    Using Palemoon on my Puppy Linux - and I am in :)

    Just so you know <3
    Update ... Ipaid IOS now working for NewBuddhist B)

    Bunks
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    When I sign in, it doesn't show that I have, but when I click on a thread, them I can see that I'm actually signed in...

    Vastmind
  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    edited June 2019

    deleted. My sign in is working.

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @Linc said:
    Yeah, file attachments are broken. It's been noted and I'll try to sort it out soon.

    Forum members should also know that this issue affects profile avatar pictures too.

  • nakazcidnakazcid Somewhere in Dixie, y'all Veteran

    @Linc Thanks for the Https encryption. I feel a bit safer using the site now.

  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    'Best of'
    is empty

    Profound ... but empty :3

  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    Update 'best of' is back again ...
    Emptiness really is forming again ... and vice reversa :p

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