Version 3 is coming, y'all! I shall dub it the "finally useful!" version of this board.

Seriously, though, lots of things are going to be changed, and this topic is about describing the upcoming changes and helping to brace everyone for them. Further, this topic is useful for you providing me feedback during the development period.

One thing that isn't changing is the site logo, which by a strong majority in the recent "Pulse of LouHI" survey decided that we should keep (at least through Version 3 — I'll ask again before Version 4).

This new Version 3 is going to be released differently than Version 2, which was released mostly all at once. Version 3 will be released in phases. This is because the list of planned changes for version 3 is so long that it will be difficult from a development point-of-view to roll them out in one full swoop. On top of that, this approach is certainly better for the users of the board, registered or not, as they can adjust to the changes on a more gradual basis, instead of getting overly surprised, and worse, lost.

Some notable changes in Phase 1, to be released fairly soon, will be:

• Save posts as drafts. The ability to save your posts as drafts so you can work on them off and on until you are ready to submit for the public to see. This should help with creating more thoughtful, more organized posts.
  
• Easily share topics with others you know not using this board. The ability to share topics with friends, family or colleagues using ShareThis technology. You will be able to share via e-mail, AIM, social bookmarking and networking sites, etc.
  
• Safe delete of topics and posts. Topics/posts deleted by users and moderators will be recoverable. Deletions won't become final until the administrator intervenes.
  
• More reliable e-mail delivery. Enhanced e-mail delivery that improves the chances of e-mails sent from the board arriving in the inboxes of the board users.
  
• Easier to follow or not follow topics by e-mail. Watching (and stopping the watching of) topics will be easier to access and less cumbersome to activate.
  
• Fantastic new urban visuals. Ten new banners, including some aerial shots of Louisville provided to me by Donald Vish.
  

And there's lots of additional changes coming ahead in Version 3. Excited yet?


On edit: Enhanced the presentation of Phase 1 notable changes, added "Safe delete of topics and posts" and revised the topic title.

Steve Magruder — LouHI Administrator and web programmer


Please become a fan of Louisville History & Issues on Facebook

OK, here's the list of changes for Version 3 Phase 1 that I've just released. Please report any bugs that you find to steve@historyandissues.org. Hope you like the revisions!

Version 3 Phase 1 Revisions

• Board logo banner updates: Removed four banners, added ten new ones. Created images/branding subdirectory to store banners. Redesigned display selection software to make it PHP-based rather than JavaScript-based (it's easier to add and subtract banners from the mix now). Banners no longer have to have a specific structured, sequenced name — they can be named anything and thus whatever is worthwhile.
  
• Topics, posts and private messages can be saved as drafts. If a user is logged in, they will now see a "View your drafts and posts" link near the top of the index page. Note: there will be enhancements to this new feature in later phases.
  
• Changed "E-mail topic to a friend" to "Share this topic" using ShareThis technology, and moved the link to the top of the topic, on the right of the big-font topic title. If JavaScript is turned off, defaults to old technology as "E-mail this topic". "Share this topic" will be available to all site visitors, while "E-mail this topic" will continue to only be available to those who are registered and logged in.
  
• Made deletes of topics/posts by users and moderators "safe" — that is, safe-deleted topics/posts can be recovered by the administrator or deleted for good, depending upon what is best called for. Note: there remains loose ends with this line item that will be taken care of in later phases.
  
• Moved "Watch this topic for replies" link to the top of the topic, on the right of the big-font topic title. It was also renamed to "Watch this topic", given a tooltip, and the confirmation was removed, making watching/unwatching a topic feel more efficient.
  
• Enhanced delivery of e-mail in various ways, including header improvements and "chunking" admin mass e-mails into batches.
  
• Moderators and the administrator can now delete multiple posts from a topic on a topic page at once. This is a useful tool in dealing with cases of multiple spam posts.
  
• The search flood limit will no longer be invoked for the search links at the top of the forum index for users who are logged in: "View posts since your last visit", "View your drafts and posts", "View topics you started" and "View topics without replies".
  
• Now displaying the poster's full name on the left-hand side of each post in the Topic Review section shown at the bottom while posting a reply.
  
• Exposed "Watch this topic" and "E-mail this topic" links to users not logged in, but if clicked, takes the user to the login page.
  
• Reduced size of linked forum names in various topic lists to reduce their emphasis.
  
• In tooltips associated with posting-related buttons, now using more flowing language, such as “Post a new topic in {forum name}” (instead of “Post new topic”).
  
• Upgraded tooltip technology.
  
• To enhance SEO, now using "rel=nofollow" on login-bound links exposed to spiders.
  
• Now displaying "Friend of LouHI" rather than "Recommended Link" for ad links at the bottom.
  
• Moved the standalone board logo (used by the feed generator) to the images/branding folder.
  
• Renamed "forums administrator" to "administrator" everywhere.
  
• In expandable quotes in posts, changed the action word "Contract" to "Shrink".
  
• Did some minor template revisions.
  
• Did some cleanup in the main language file, rewording some strings.
  
• Version 2 bug fix: Forum notifications were being sent out upon deletion of a post. They should only be sent out upon the creation of a new topic or a reply.
  
• Version 2 bug fix: "BBCode Guide" link was missing when posting a private message.
  
• Version 2 bug fix: Made corrections to code related to search indexing adjustments that occur when a topic is moved from a non-indexed forum to an indexed one.
  
• Version 2 bug fix: Rarely, the processing of a Wikipedia term (using the 'Wiki' BBCode) would trigger multiple PHP warnings.
  
• Mod 1 update: Further enhanced e-mail delivery with more extensive header changes, affecting the entirety of e-mails sent by the board.
  
• Mod 2 update: Further enhanced e-mail delivery by adding an extra helpful parameter to the mail() call.
  
• Mod 3 update: Phase 1 bug fix: "Save as draft" functionality wasn't properly integrated with featured topics functionality.
  
• Mod 4 update: Phase 1 bug fix: The number of topics/posts tracked for a user wasn't decremented when one of their topics/posts was deleted using the delete button.
  
• Mod 5 update: Phase 1 bug fix: Made the Preview button always be the leftmost (and thus default) button when posting. This was done because it was too easy to accidentally save a post as a draft — when the cursor is on the subject edit field and the Enter key is pressed, if there was content in the message text box, the post would be saved as a draft — now in this scenario, a preview will be generated and the user can continue editing the post.
  
• Mod 6 update: Reduced the font size used by the footer text, as it was interfering with the space used by ad links.
  
• Mod 7 updates:
  
  
  
  • Redesigned the Most Recent Topics RSS feed to include a topic text teaser, the topic author, and the full names of the author and last poster. As part of this redesign, moved the topic's forum from the item title to the item description, after the topic text teaser.
    
  • Added the topic author to each entry on the Most Recent Topics page.
    
  • Clarified what the Most Recent Topics page is all about in its page descriptor.
    
  • Updated the FAQ: Removed one FAQ that talked about the unusual title in the RSS feed items (which is no longer unusual) and updated a link in another one.
    
  
  
• Mod 8 update: Phase 1 bug fix: Double quote marks in the title and summary of shared topics weren't being communicated to ShareThis correctly. There was also some malformed HTML related to topic sharing that was corrected.
  
• Mod 9 update: Version 2 bug fix: Field focusing on posting pages was inconsistent and illogical. If posting a new topic, the cursor properly focused on the Subject field, as it's the first logical field for entry. However, if editing a post, the cursor didn't focus anywhere (should have focused on the Message body), and if posting a regular reply or quote reply, the cursor focused on the Subject (also should have focused on the Message body). Subjects will be rarely changed when editing or replying, so focusing on them rather than the message body doesn't make sense.
  
• Mod 10 updates:
  
  
  
  • Phase 1 bug fix: When editing a post, the cursor jumped to the end of the message. This was changed so that the cursor will be placed at the beginning instead. This was more of a bad redesign than a bug.
    
  • For Internet Explorer, now highlighting the currently focused field (except for select fields). This was already working (even with select fields) for Firefox, Opera and Safari.
    
  • Cleaned up the site style (CSS) code to reduce errors and better separate out Internet Explorer-specific features.
    
  
  
• Mod 11 updates:
  
  
  
  • Added support for Google Analytics.
    
  • More code and style cleanup.
    
  
  
• Mod 12 updates:
  
  
  
  • Added support for Mint analytics software.
    
  • Version 2 bug fix: Two doctype statements were output at the top of the printer-friendly topic pages.
    
  • More code cleanup.
    
  
  
• Mod 13 update: Redesigned the RSS feed so that subscriptions and linkbacks can be tracked with Mint analytics software. As part of this, the site feed file is now louhi-rss.php rather than louhi.xml. Hits to louhi.xml will be redirected.
  
• Mod 14 updates:
  
  
  
  • Added a site cookie for use with Mint analytics software.
    
  • Added a page title to the "profile updated" confirmation message page (beyond aesthetics, this helps with analytics page tracking).
    
  • Revised some profile editing-related strings in the main language file to enhance consistency and clarity.
    
  
  
• Mod 15 update: Enhanced resistance to spambots.
  
• Mod 16 update: Added code to prune old or expired administrative data. Cleaned up some code in the process.
  
• Mod 17 update: Added a page title to the "Reset password" and all information/error pages for aesthetic and analytics page tracking purposes.
  
• Mod 18 updates:
  
  
  
  • Removed all topics from the RSS feed that come from forums where the authorization for viewing and reading wasn't set to "all".
    
  • Enhanced the authorization check code that determines what topics are listed on the Most Recent Topics page based on the authorizations of the user seeing them.
    
  
  
• Mod 19 update: Added code to prune additional old administrative data.
  
• Mod 20 updates:
  
  
  
  • Made improvements to smart field focusing to make it work with private messages and drafts, and work better with posts that quote a previous post.
    
  • Enhanced Wiki BBCode processing to handle recent changes to Wikipedia article formatting.
    
  • Further restricted access to the RSS feed generator.
    
  
  
• Mod 21 updates:
  
  
  
  • Moved smart field focusing JavaScript code to its own .js file, for the sake of server and client efficiency.
    
  • Blocked off some JavaScript code for use with IE only.
    
  
  
• Mod 22 updates:
  
  
  
  • Fixed bugs in and improved formatting of the "Last edited by" information and signature attached to each post. Also lengthened the signature divider for aesthetic purposes.
    
  • For IE only, added form field highlighting for password fields as well as most form fields within administration.
    
  • Updated the copyright years.
    
  
  
• Mod 23 update: Reworded and simplified the content at the top of administrative e-mails.
  
• Mod 24 update: Revised and reformatted the yellow box message shown at the top of every page for board visitors who are not yet registered.
  
• Mod 25 update: Version 2 bug fix: Wiki BBCode processing produced an incorrect result if there was a period (.) in the middle of the bolded term.
  
• Mod 26 update: Version 2 bug fixes: Two different bugs in Wiki BBCode processing.
  
• Mod 27 update: No longer going to prepend RSS feed items representing sticky topics with "Sticky: ". It shouldn't matter to the feed consumer that a topic is sticky or not, and it may distract from the topic's title.
  
• Mod 28 updates:
  
  
  
  • Added a basic infrastructure for collecting donations for the sake of covering advertising costs.
    
  • Enhanced the formatting of the page that displays when the database is down.
    
  • Added two URL substitutions in aid in board administration.
    
  
  
• Mod 29 update: Added footer links to the LouHI Facebook group as well as the LouHI Firehose.
  
• Mod 30 update: Now showing locked topics in the LouHI Most Recent Topics RSS feed.
  
• Mod 31 update: Improved the performance of Smart Field Focusing by no longer waiting for the page to finish loading before correctly focusing the appropriate field and placing the cursor in the right spot.
  

Here's a quick preview of the major changes I have planned for Version 3 Phase 2:

Major rework of forum and topic watches. This will include the ability to have forum notifications sent by e-mail in daily digests, and topic notifications will now contain text from the topic reply. It will also be easier to start watching a forum using an easy link at the top of the viewforum page for each forum. Notifications will also be better formatted and any existing bugs in the formatting will be fixed.

"Share this forum". This will work like "Share this topic", but it would be for sharing whole forums with friends.

Forum guidelines rewrite, with easier access. What's currently called "Forum Rules" will be totally rewritten using ideas from the book Managing Online Forums and placed in their own special page that will be reachable from its very own menu link.

Tooltip reformatting and fixes.

Minor polling enhancements and fixes.

Even more new banners!


Planning for Phase 3 is still ongoing, but it looks like I'm going to be redeveloping the menu, search, breadcrumbs, pagination, login, registration/activation and "who is online" in that phase.

On edit: Added entry for polling enhancements and fixes.
On edit 2: Topic notifications won't necessarily contain the full text.

For those following this topic, I have made several modifications to the current Version 3, Phase 1 release since it was made available on October 29. Check them out, two posts above this one.

I give more clues about what's upcoming in Louisville History & Issues in this WebCommons blog post. In the blog entry, I also give some insights about technical aspects of the software underlying this site.

Check out Version 3, Phase 1, Mod 7 details in this earlier post. The main thing changed was how the RSS feed is put together.

On edit: This isn't a software change, but I just realized that the RSS wasn't being updated every quarter hour like advertised in the FAQ, but instead every half hour at :15 and :45. I updated the cron job to run every quarter hour as it should.

Well, I was originally hoping to have Phase 2 ready by Christmas, but it turns out I'm quite a bit behind schedule on that. Phase 1 has needed a good number of updates, and I've been busier with other projects. I'll keep working on it, and I hope to release it in the short-term future.

Update... As Phase 2 planning and development has proceeded, I've come to realize that a lot of line items have gotten piled up for it, and holding it all together was becoming too unwieldy. Therefore, I will be releasing Phase 2 in parts, like 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.

OK, here's the list of changes for Version 3 Phase 2a that I've just released. Please report any bugs that you find to steve@historyandissues.org. Hope you like the revisions!

Version 3 Phase 2a release highlights:

Did a significant redesign of the login system and board menu. Now, logging in will take place at the top of most board pages, along with enhanced registration encouragement.

Added two new menu options: "Active Polls" (viewing all active polls) and "About" (links to the rationale for Louisville History & Issues).

Renamed "Forum Notifications" to "Forum & Topic Watches" and did a significant redesign of that page, especially with regards to managing watched topics.

Newly registered citizens will now receive an automated welcome message in their Private Messaging inbox.

(Experimental) If a topic you started is moved, you will now receive an e-mail notification about it (unless you turn that feature off in your Profile & Preferences).

Added the capability of displaying a board-wide admin message. It will be mostly used for warning users about upcoming system updates.

Lots of bug fixes and sensible little enhancements, especially with regards to polling, private messaging and topic posting/viewing/printing.

Lots of aesthetic updates to give the board a fresher, crisper, more productive feel.


Here is the full list of changes:

• Forum and topic watches:
  
  
  
  • Rename "Forum Notifications" menu option to "Forum & Topic Watches", revise the tooltip and icon, and shift its position more to the center.
    
  • Rewrite the page description to ensure that the reader understands that watched topics are managed on this page as well as watched forums.
    
  • In watched topics, link to the last post.
    
  • Implement topic and last post preview tooltips in watched topics.
    
  • Clean up the formatting of the page as much as possible, including wording and structure of tables.
    
  
  
• Menu / Tooltips:
  
  
  
  • Add an "About" menu option that points to the Rationale topic.
    
  • Move the four "View..." links into the menu, so they can be linked to from all site pages while logged in.
    
  • Rename "Citizenry" menu option to "Registered Citizens".
    
  • Revise tooltips for various site menu options. Along with this, modify some page titles, breadcrumbs and table headings.
    
  • Hide "Groups" menu option from non-admin users; it's only being used for administrative purposes at this time anyway.
    
  • The tooltips for external links with “Go to...” sometimes spills onto a second line. Make these tooltips a little wider.
    
  
  
• Polling:
  
  
  
  • Create the menu option “Active Polls”, which links to the full list of open polls. Display a number in parentheses next to the menu option correlating to the quantity in the list.
    
  • Colorize the poll result bars. This change fixed the bug where a poll with hidden results looked like it has buttons for clicking.
    
  • Enhance precision in poll results, to one decimal point.
    
  • In the string “(Voting in progress; You must be logged in to vote)”, include a link for logging in.
    
  • Add a link to go back to voting from the results page, if the user hasn't voted yet.
    
  • Fix these bugs:
    
    
    
    • Individuals with the authority to close a poll can't close it unless they have already voted; this doesn't make sense. As part of this fix, provide for closing the poll on the voting selection page.
      
    • In a multiple choice poll, the maximum choices number entered is allowed to exceed the actual number of choices.
      
    
    
  
  
• Featured topics:
  
  
  
  • In topic listings, show the "FEATURED" box before the topic title.
    
  • Enhance the coloring of the "FEATURED" box, depending upon its location.
    
  
  
• Other forum-related features:
  
  
  
  • Bold the “Mark all forums read” link.
    
  • Make minor visual enhancements to the forum index layout.
    
  
  
• Topic posting/viewing/printing:
  
  
  
  • Don't show signatures in the printer-friendly view.
    
  • In printer-friendly view, show the poster's real name.
    
  • Rename "Submit" button to "Post".
    
  • Fix these bugs:
    
    
    
    • In the printer-friendly view, {L_QUOTE}", "{L_WROTE}" and "{USERNAME}" are displayed instead of what's supposed to be substituted for them.
      
    • In the printer-friendly view, the select/expand/shrink function is displayed with the "Code" block, but shouldn't be.
      
    • Printer-friendly pages don't show the site icon.
      
    • On printer-friendly pages, right and left-aligned images bleed into the following post. The divider between posts should clear all.
      
    • In the printer-friendly view, the Post graphic didn't stay with "Posted:" if the subject line spilled to the next line.
      
    • The printer-friendly view template includes an IE-only style file that no longer exists. Therefore, formatting of these print views may have been slightly skewed for IE users.
      
    • If a user cancels their account or their account is deleted by the admin, their topic/post drafts are not removed from the database along with the user's other records.
      
    • In the list of drafts, the "Time of Draft" spills into a second line at inconsistent points.
      
    • If the characters '!', '{' or '}' are included in a URL, the URL isn't parsed and displayed properly.
      
    • If a user visits an unread topic, leaves the topic, and stays logged in while another user writes a reply to that topic, the topic is denoted as unread again in topic lists with an orange "New posts" icon. But when the little "View newest post" icon is clicked on, it takes the user to the post they already visited, rather than the new post.
      
    
    
  
  
• Private messaging:
  
  
  
  • Rename the feature to "Private Messaging" from "Private Messages".
    
  • Rename "Submit" button to "Send".
    
  • Eliminate the JavaScript-based popup message for alerting the user to new private messages.
    
  • Turn the menu option red if there are any new private messages.
    
  • Use darker yellow for page selection background color.
    
  
  
• Login / Registration:
  
  
  
  • Redevelop login to appear at the top of most board pages, alongside the registration encouragement message. Many websites show the login form at the top of the page until the user logs in, so having that will make the site more professional.
    
  • Update the registration agreement with regards to cookies — the info as it stood wasn't fully accurate and comprehensive.
    
  
  
• Profile & Preferences:
  
  
  
  • Improve the description for canceling the user's account.
    
  • In the Location edit field, add a note requesting the user's city and neighborhood.
    
  • Remove preference for whether the user sees a popup message if they have new private messages waiting. This entire feature has been eliminated.
    
  • (Experimental) Add preference for whether the user is notified when a topic they started has been moved. It defaults to Yes.
    
  
  
• Administration:
  
  
  
  • Add a system message block to the header area that can be used for temporary purposes, such as letting everyone know that system maintenance is to occur around a certain time.
    
  • Add a mechanism for sending an automated welcome private message to newly registered citizens.
    
  • Pruning should remove prune-age topics with expired polls. Currently, by phpBB design, it avoids removing topics that have polls, whether expired or not.
    
  • Do some formatting cleanup on some Admin Control Panel pages.
    
  • Fix these bugs:
    
    
    
    • Pruning doesn't remove all topic/post-related data.
      
    • Pruning potentially removes global announcements. Both these and regular announcements should be preserved.
      
    
    
  
  
• Performance / Stability:
  
  
  
  • Attempt to stabilize sessions as much as possible, including ensuring that the session ID is maintained no matter what links are clicked through on the site.
    
  • Enhance system handling of multiple errors by catching and listing them all and requesting the user to contact the administrator.
    
  
  
• Housekeeping / Code Cleanup:
  
  
  
  • Move all .dat files to the data directory.
    
  • Remove unused .php files from root. Update robots.txt as part of this.
    
  
  
• General aesthetics:
  
  
  
  • Redo the site icon to achieve better color contrast and crispness.
    
  • Enhance the IE scrollbar colors.
    
  • Move "You last visited..." and "The time now..." statements to other spots on the index page to conserve space.
    
  
  

Following are Phase 2a mod updates:

Mod 1 — 5/14/09

• Revise the wording of the e-mail sent out for topic move notifications.
  
• Bug fix: The example e-mail link in the BBCode Guide was formatted incorrectly.
  
• Revise the informational message that displays after a topic move is executed.
  
• Bug fix: The post-registration activation instructions reference to the login page was outdated due to changes in the login system.
  

Mod 2 — 5/14/09

• Stop using a smaller font size for lists.
  
• Use a more descriptive heading for the “board disabled” message.
  
• The “account activated” message page should contain a link to the forum index and make it clear that's where the new user is to log in.
  
• Enhance the “Forum & Topic Watches” menu option icon.
  

Mod 3 — 5/14/09

• Bug fix: Formatting of "Watch this topic / Share this topic" went askew after the list font size was changed.
  

Mod 4 — 5/18/09

• Create a Guidelines link in the menu options that points to the Forum Rules topic.
  

Mod 5 — 5/18/09

• Move the admin message to the spot above the menu, and enlarge the font size of its header text.
  
• Don't show the admin message if the board is disabled.
  
• If the board is disabled, and the user isn't the admin, remove the useless "Forum Index" link.
  
• Bug fix: When the board is disabled, the header text for the informational message box that is supposed to display doesn't display on all page loads.
  

Mod 6 — 5/26/09

• Rename the term "Prospective Citizen" to "Unregistered Citizen". "Prospective" might have been too easily misunderstood.
  
• In the yellow-boxed registration encouragement area, the greater-than symbols to the right of "Open an account on Louisville History & Issues" may have been confusing users to look in a specific direction. So, I added lesser-than symbols on the left. These were meant to be symbols used to make the text stand out.
  
• Did some minor code cleanup.
  

Mod 7 — 5/29/09

• Add a Welcomed bit flag to the user table that is set if the welcome PM is sent successfully to the new user. This flag will be exploited in future development. (Fixed some issues with the Welcome PM feature too)
  
• In private messaging boxes (lists of private messages), prevent the date from wrapping.
  

Mod 8 — 6/2/09

• Revised the yellow-boxed registration encouragement area: reworded the message and did minor formatting changes.
  
• Bug fix: Deletion of unactivated users wasn't removing private messages.
  

Mod 9 — 6/3/09

• Added capability of sending the Welcome PM to all registered citizens who haven't yet received it.
  
• Fixed minor bugs with the Welcome PM feature.
  
• Cleaned up formatting of a couple admin control panel pages.
  

Mod 10 — 6/4/09

• Bug fix: If a user account is activated, then it becomes de-activated because of something the user did, like requesting a new password (or the admin needs to de-activate their account for some reason), and the activation period (currently seven days past registration) is depleted, the account is incorrectly automatically deleted. This automatic deletion was supposed to be meant for new accounts that had never been activated.
  

Mod 11 — 6/13/09

• Added anti-abuse headers to notification e-mails to better ensure that they are not treated as spam at their destination servers.
  
• Revised various e-mail templates to enhance readability and informativeness, and also to hopefully better ensure they are not treated as spam at their destination servers.
  

Mod 12 — 6/22/09

• Bug fix: The user preference setting for "Notify me when a topic, started by me, has been moved" wasn't correctly initialized to True for new users.
  

Mod 13 — 6/24/09

• Bug fix: The ban system wasn't blocking banned users as effectively as it was supposed to.
  

Mod 14 — 6/24/09

• Bug fix: For users authorized to reply to a locked topic, using "Quick Reply" unlocked the topic even though it should have maintained the locked status.
  
• Bug fix: In locked topics, the "Quick Reply" text edit box was being shown to users not authorized to reply to the topic.
  
• Performed some code reduction.
  

Mod 15 — 6/25/09

• Minor caching cleanup.
  

Well, I'm now finished with all the mods (I think) to Version 3 Phase 2a development. Now on to Phase 2b!