Upgrading the forum

[admin]

It is time to upgrade the forum software from 2.0 to 2.1. It is a bigger upgrade than usual so I wanted to notify you before I do that. You can read about the changes here.

One of the big changes is that it will now be responsive, i.e. work better on mobile devices. You can also save drafts.

It will be a slightly different look but still very recognizable, I think.

I am planning to do the upgrade early next week.

[Ken S]

I will welcome finally having the ability to save drafts. All too often I have almost completed a long post only to have it disappear when I am interrupted.

Over the years I have come to appreciate the excellent friendly service from Tormek IT.

Ken

[RickKrung]

That will be interesting.  The ability to save drafts will be welcome and it makes me think of another feature that would be most helpful, too late for this upgrade, but maybe in the future. 

It has to do with posting photos and then embedding them in the text where they are relevant.  This embedding involves inserting the URL to the posted photo, inline into the text stream.  Now, one has to attach them and then post the message before the URL is available.  This requires posting an incomplete message - a "draft" if you will - and then going back, harvesting the URL(s) and then editing the post to insert the URL inline. 

As part of saving drafts, it would be most helpful if the URLs are available in the saved draft version, so that harvesting them can be done while the message is still a draft, and then all posted as one completed message. 

It would be very cool if by strange chance, this feature is already realized, but not likely.  I have never posted anything about it and do not recall anyone else having mentioned it.  Please keep it in the "want in the future" box. 

Rick

Edit: Yes, just checked this out and the feature described above IS realized, see my post below. 

[tgbto]

Nice ! Thank you for keeping the forum up-to-date so we can continue to be active members for years to come...

[sharpening_weasel]

Wait, there are two Kens now?? Jokes aside this is excellent news. Thanks to both of you for keeping this place running smoothly!

[Ken S]

Sharpening weasel,

Fortunately The admin and Ken S are two different people. The admin is not named Ken and runs the IT department for Tormek in Sweden. Ken S is a full time grandfather living in Ohio.

Our IT guy is terrific. I do the best I can......

Ken S

[BeSharp]

Ken, you are terrific too. All that work as a volunteer .., for that, I am thankful.

[Ken S]

Be Sharp, thank you for your kind words. 

Ken

[TireguyfromMA]

+1 on BeSharps comments and thanks!  After less than a year of getting into the sharpening world, I still consider myself very much a newbie/rookie.  Learned so much from the generosity of knowledge and experience from this forum and Ken is right at the top.  Thank you!

[Ken S]

Thanks, Tireguy. For the record, after thirteen years of using Tormeks, I'm still learning, too. I have been fortunate enough to have had some unusual opportunities working with some real experts and am pleased to share this knowledge.

In addition to the forum and the handbook, we now have a substantial and growing number of excellent online classes on the Tormek youtube channel. We are able to ask individual questions and, even better, unlike traditional classes, we can continue to learn from them be watching them either in part or in total over again whenever we wish..

Ken

[3D Anvil]

I like the new look! 

[RickKrung]

I will welcome finally having the ability to save drafts. All too often I have almost completed a long post only to have it disappear when I am interrupted.

Over the years I have come to appreciate the excellent friendly service from Tormek IT.

Ken

Due to this mysterious disappearance problem, when I'm working on a long post, I often copy it to a text editing program, like Notebook, so that it doesn't get lost.  Only problem is, it still happens sometimes when I have not done this. 

Just noticed something that seems new in the new forum interface.  In the date line where "Unread Posts" appears, there is what I think is a new filtered search category: "Updated Topics".  I use a lot of forums and I do not recall ever seeing this one.  The list was a lot longer than the Unread, but I'm having trouble figuring what exactly and Updated Topic is that doesn't show up in Unread - when a new post is added to an existing topic. 

And while working on this post, I tried the Save Draft feature and started looking for how the new forum interface handles images.  Images are NOT SAVED WITH DRAFTS. This seems like a significant DOWNGRADE.  But... happily, the code for embedding images inline in a post is provided and a button to insert that code is also provide ... at least it appears that way, so trying it now. 

You cannot view this attachment. 

You cannot view this attachment.

With the above images, I confirmed that saving a draft AND exiting does not save attachments.  However, while one is still working on a draft, using preview and without exiting, attached images are saved and redisplayed in "Preview", so they are temporarily saved such that they can be posted if one completes the post to the posting stage.  Checking that by posting now. 

Edit: yes it worked, so this addresses my wish list item and I think the loss of attachments in drafts is an unfortunate oversight, being able to insert an image inline without formally posting the message and then going back in to Modify it in order add images and saving of drafts are significant work savings and forum upgrades.  Thank you Tormek. 

Rick

[SergeiDubovsky]

Nice! Any news on Tapatalk? It would be super great to have better access on mobile devices.

Thank you!

[Ken S]

Sergei,

Support sent me this regarding tapatalk:

" The question about Tapatalk reminded me that one of the big changes in 2.1 is that it makes the forum responsive, i.e. better to read on mobile devices. Maybe then there is no need for Tapatalk at all? "

I use my cel phone only as a phone and do all of my forum work on my ipad. I have not noticed any access problems with my ipad, which shares the same operating system as apple's iphones. Am I missing something?

Ken

[cbwx34]

Sergei,

Support sent me this regarding tapatalk:

" The question about Tapatalk reminded me that one of the big changes in 2.1 is that it makes the forum responsive, i.e. better to read on mobile devices. Maybe then there is no need for Tapatalk at all? "
...

I was thinking the same thing... the upgrade works way better on the phone.

I haven't used Tapatalk in a long time... the only real advantage I remember (other than formatting) was the ability to subscribe to several forums, and get all recent posts in one "feed".  (Don't know if it still does that.)