TowRig.com - Diesel Discussion and Tow Tech

TowRig.com forums 3.7 first look

It's that time again!

The TRC forum software contains a plethora of new features, many of which have been long requested by users.

In terms of timescales, the plan is to upgrade the CK5 forums to run on vBulletin 3.7.0 on Monday May 5th.

So, to the important bit: what's new in 3.7?

Answer: Lots. But here, in no particular order, are some highlights...

Thread Tagging

A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/thread-tags-newthread.png

Tags can be added when creating a new thread, or to an existing thread by any user (with appropriate permissions).

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/thread-tags-showthread.png

Any users who then click on these tags will not only find all thread that have the same tag as the one clicked, but will also contribute to the building of a search tag cloud, which gives users a quick guide as to what has been searched for recently and most frequently.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/thread-tags-search-cloud.png

Thread Prefixes

Long requested by users, threads can now have administrator-defined prefixes to their titles.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/thread-prefixes-forumdisplay.png

Thread prefixes are divided into groups by the administrator, allowing different prefixes to be available in different forums.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/thread-prefixes.png

Reciprocal Friendships Between Users

As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/friends-edit.png

Public Messaging

While private messages between members have been in the forums since version 2.0, 3.7 introduces the public messaging system, allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages. I still will need to figure out the best way to set permissions on this.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/public-messages-profile.png

User Picture Galleries

Forum members can now create albums and upload pictures to their account.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/album-show-album.png

The ability to view these albums and pictures can be limited by the user to just board staff and people on their buddy list if they want privacy.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/album-show-picture.png

User-Created Social Groups

To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, the TRC forums now includes a facility to allow members to create their own social/interest groups.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/social-groups.png

These groups are enhanced by having their own public messaging system, and the ability to add pictures to the group from member albums.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/social-groups-messages-and-pictures.png

New Member Profile Page

In order to accomodate all the new features in 3.7, the member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up.

The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface.

Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/new-memberinfo-b.png

Member Customization of Profile Page

Members have a new profile page customization tool, which allows users to alter fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of their profile page in order to create a more personalized look.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/customize-profile-editor.png

I can lock-down customization permissions, in order to prevent the personalized pages being made too offensively awful by aesthetically challenged members... nobody wants to see some of those really ugly MySpace pages on TRC!

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/full-memberinfo-compare.png

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/customize-profile-memberinfo-b.png

Inline Editing of Profile Field Values

The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/profilefield-ajax-edit.png

Attachment Viewing Lightbox

Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/lightbox-showthread.png

Post Edit History

It is now possible to log all edits to posts and then review the changes at a later date.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/post-edit-history.png

Social Bookmarking of Threads

Favorite social bookmarking sites can be made available for use on the showthread page for bookmarking threads.

http://coloradok5.com/vb3.7/social-bookmarking.png