The major parts of the upgrade are complete... Yea!!!!! Most notable changes that will affects HT members are as follows:

Read Messages: The way this works has changed. Before if you left HT for more then 15 minutes, no matter if you read a thread or not, it was maked as read. Now, it will not be marked as read unless you really read it.

This way of you happen to come to HT for a few minutes.... say during lunch, but can't read all of the new posts, when you come back later the unread threads will still be marked as unread.

If you want to manually mark all threads a read, use the Quick Link > Mark Forums Read link at the top of any page.

Chat: we have changed Chat services. Support to integrate the old Chat into the forum did not exsist any longer. The new FlashChat is very popular and has widespread support so this will not be a problem in the future.

This means that those of you that used 3rd party apps to access Chat will no longer be able to do so. The new Chat should be easier for everyone to use and has a lot of new features. There are now seperate rooms for each topic of HobbyTalk.... just use the drop down at the very top of chat window to change rooms. This will allow different groups to use Chat at the same time.

Message Posting: The biggest change here is if you use the Quick Reply the whole page does not have to be reload when you submit that reply. This makes it a lot faster for you. There are other added message posting features that I'll let you discover yourself :)

Server: The server hardware was upgraded from a 2.0 Celeron w/1.5GB RAM to a E440 Core 2 Duo w/3GB RAM. This should serve us well for the next year or two.

Photo Album: The photo album software was upgraded to the latest version. This adds a few minor features but was need to integrate with the forum software upgrade.

Future: We still have some tweaks to do to the layout but everything is pretty much done. We are also looing to add a few goodies to HobbyTalk so we'll what that brings in the future.

If there is anything you would like to see in the future or if you have any comments on the upgrade, let me know here.

Hank, just wanted to say thanks for the continuing effort and attention to keeping the boards current.

I really like the new feature of not marking messages read until you actually read them. I often times have 6 or more tabs open with different things going on, and forget(!) what I was doing.
This is a first out of the different message boards I read.

Thanks again,
rhesus4 (John)

Since the upgrade, I can't seem to post on the boards anymore.
I compose my message, hit submit, and get the error that there aren't enough characters in my message.

Only the quick reply seems to work.
When trying to post the normal way, I have no luck.
Same with starting a thread, or sending a PM.
None of the buttons in the posting window work for me either.

Probably something I need to tweak on my end?
Running Win98SE and IE 5.5.

Let's try the normal reply and see if it works. If you see this then the normal reply (not quick reply) is working for me.

Guys, try and clear the cache in your browser and see if that helps. Might have some of the old files there that didn't get updated.

Cleared my cache, and my cookies.

Will wait until my daughter gets home to see if she can access the board.
She has a separate desktop on this computer.
If she can, and I can't then something is screwed with my desktop. IF she can't then something with my system isn't compatible.

I have also tried to reply via quote. Whch also doesn't work for me.
Something about the reply page seems to be the problem.
As I said, none of the buttons (text format, adding images, links, etc) are working for me.
I can select post icons, and use the submit and preview buttons.
But both of those bring me to the error message of "The message you have entered is too short. "
I am also seeing an error icon in my browser. Bottom left corner,
When clicked on, it give me this for the error report.

Line: 184
Char: 4
Error: Could not get the cursor property. Invalid argument.
Code: 0
URL: http://www.hobytalk.com/bbs1/newreply.php?
do=newreply&noquote=1&p=2264892

That error shows twice
With a 3rd error that is only different on these lines
Line: 179
Char: 6

Maybe it means something to you.
Is giberish to me.

this most likely is because you use an older IE 5.5 browser, and it's not handling the mouse over and cursor properties that this update brought in the programming.

if you can use firefox, it'll solve your problems, as i dont know if your pc is up to par to upgrade to ie 6.0.

this is my best guess....

Good one, didn't notice that. Yes, most likely it is the old browser you are using. You should upgrade to the latest version as that old version has vulnerabilities.

I hate it this new board stinks

Well, let's see if this works with Opera.

Seems to work.
Too bad Opera isn't more comfortable to use.

Can't upgrade to IE 6.0. And Firefox also causes major problems with my system.

What ever happened to backward compatibility?

IE 5.5 was released in 2000. IE 6.0 in 2001. The newer versions offer a lot of features that many web sites now use. Times move on. What you might try doing is going into My Settings > Edit Options > at bottom of page pick Basic Editor.

Woo Hoo!

Thank you Hankster!

This is what I was hoping to find.
On the page that I can't use the buttons, I saw something that appeared to be a button to change the editor type, but I couldn't click on it.
In Opera the button wasn't there.

I was hoping there was a way to change it.
Especially since I don't use the buttons when I post. I suppose it is a sign that I have spent way too much time on online boards, but it is faster for me to just type the BB Code in than to bother with the mouse.

I do understand that my OS and browser are getting old.
And eventually I will experience more and more sites where I have trouble.
But I prefer the old tech, as it is more stable for me. Especially since I still run Win 3.1 programs. (like my Quicken).
And I abhore current bloatware. I would rather have a dozen different programs that all do one thing extremely well, than to have them all bundled together in one program that hogs resources and is more hastle to use.

But again.
Thanks.
Happy times http://www.tylisaari.com/me/board/smilies/cloud9.gif

I understand.... I still use Win2K on one of my computers.... most stable Windows version to date. But again I have to watch on that computer what I run as many newer program won't run on it. Glad we found a solution for you.

Hey Hank, I keep getting kicked out of HT when I refresh or change forums and then I have to re login. Any reason why this is happening?

Thanks, Martin

Hey Hank, I keep getting kicked out of HT when I refresh or change forums and then I have to re login. Any reason why this is happening?

Thanks, Martin

what browser and os and version are you using? if in IE, check your security settings. if its too high, it could reject the cookie that keeps you logged in.... rejecting it and thus the next page you go to it makes it seem like your not logged in.

if you wish to keep the settings high, you can add hobbytalk.com as your trusted site to allow and accept cookies etc.

Might also try deleting your temp files and cookies. Sometime they can get corrupted or not updated with the new software changes. What O.S. your computer have and what browser/version?

I am also getting kicked off the boards when I am idle for a few minutes, like when I take a break and go visit the oval office. I have deleted my temp file and cookies. I am runnung XP Pro. with Internet Explorer 7.

Just a suggestion. I understand why topics remain marked as new until you mark the forum as read but since I'm lazy could you add a "Mark Forum Read" button somewhere in the frame?

Jim

At top right of page above the thread list

Forum Tools > Mark This Forum Read

Okay! I haven't been on for over a month ... All I want to know is "where are my 'previous' and 'next' buttons?" I use to read thru the threads sequentially and just go from one to the next. It's a pain having to go back to the thread list after reading each thread.

My fault.... I did away with them to save a bit of space.