• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Site Update Today at 1pm Facelift starting

MadReefer

Vice President
Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Two things I noticed:

1) when selecting LOGOUT it just hangs and have to close browser for proper logout. This happens all my devices, PC, tablet and phone.
2) Can we switch the login default? It currently has "stay logged in" and I cannot find a setting to log me out once I close the browser.
 

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I have a concern with the updates new layout. Perhaps it is just a settings adjustment. In the previous iteration when I logged on to the forum. The home page showed I believe 10 of the latest posts based on date and time. I believe that is now obtained by hitting the lightning bolt. I believe this to be a possible forum for a couple of reasons.
1. I am seeing way less traffic. And this is an example of what I think is happening.
The other day I posted a question on kalk stirrers. And received no replies. It has been my experience that I would have received as many as a dozen in the past. I believe the problem is that I posted it in the tale of the tank as it related directly to my system. Therefore the new format considered it an old post and does not put it on the front page. By the time enough people view the home page and then hit the lightning bolt, it is no longer in the top ten and therefore not seen.
2. POTM. Technically the same thing because POTM is ongoing. It is not a new thread and therefore sent a tier down rendering votes lower (I submitted a photo on iteration one but despite being on site daily did not see the voting happening. I know for sure others did not see it either
3. The subjects on the front page also needs a see more button on the bottom of each section. If six things are posted before I get there I can’t see what I missed and have to lumber thru the site to find things. Definitely not good.

I hope I was clear and not being silly. I have honest concerns that people will not visit the site as much as they would if they can’t find the latest posts. Anything new should be readily available and anything legitimately old should be there for us to search for. I do not feel that is what I am seeing. Perhaps I just need to get use to the change. But if someone as active as I am is having trouble. New members have no chance of sticking around.
 
Having jumped all around the site. I guess what I would personally prefer is recent posts where on the splash screen. And not a second tier item. However. I will be sure to hit that lightning bolt whenever I log on.
 

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
First and foremost good work on a smooth transition over to the new platform.

I will nitpick a little as I was the one who took us from the old old site to the old site (one before this update).

1. I really don’t like the placement of the sponsor adds. I feel this location takes away from the site and lowers the navigation bar when that should be higher on the site.

366ADC41-0A1D-46C5-B065-AC96A15A1C78.jpeg

2. I don’t like the new navigation bar as it hides some the options (like the Join Us link)

3. I am very disappointed with the front page. It used to display the POTM winner, up coming meeting front a center. Now I understand we move to a new platform but before pushing it live some of those features should had been addressed. Even the upcoming meeting now is small and doesn’t display the embedded google map.

4. I noticed a couple of posts saying membership wasn’t auto upgrading. I know we had that issue on the old site but did address some of those. Also when an account had to be upgraded from the backend I handled it quickly not two weeks (again going by post so not sure on the the time frame).

5. Back to the main page - I don’t see the side bar that was always asked for. It had links to our social media pages, list of board members, etc....

6. As one of the things I pushed back against was the messaging members. Since the facelift I gotten two DM that I considered as spam DMs.

7. It seems that the posts on the front page are not showing like they used to which is causing folks to miss things; now personally I always used the ‘New Posts’ link, even on the old site, so that’s not a big deal to me.

8. I no longer see a link to display all of the club’s sponsors or even a link to print the member card (which I know wasn’t use much)

9. I don’t see the POTM banner on the winner

10. I did not see a RSVP option for the up coming meeting. I saw a poll which I did not like. I understand members didn’t understand the RSVP option but still was nice seeing a list of folks that were going and ones who were not.

Now again just nitpicking. I totally understand how much work goes into managing this site and know you guys are trying your best.

Keep up the good work guys
 
We have taken the time to point out the troubles or things that we don’t like or understand on the new forum. I’d like to make a comment on what I like...
the new calendar... I love it.
I never understood the old one and it served no purpose for me. But the new one is great. I can easily find what’s coming up and will make it a habit to check it. I think we should add all time sensitive things to it like due dates for purchases like the shirts, or when voting is up for things like POTM.
Just my 2 cents. I recommend you peek at it from time to time. Very useful.
 

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Is it ok to add things to the calendar? Ex when someone know that there will be an event like Philly Splash and add a link to the event?
 
Is it ok to add things to the calendar? Ex when someone know that there will be an event like Philly Splash and add a link to the event?
Don’t think it would be good if anybody could edit the calendar but it would be good if anyone notifies the board or whoever has the authorization to make changes that important events could be added. Would be quite useful. I forgot all about the splash. Freddy reminded me the night before.
 

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
After reading your first post here about the calendar, I became aware that I am able to add to the calendar. Don't know if that is because I am a Moderator, if everyone has the ability or if it was an over site
 

Trio91

Administrator
Moderator
You can add items to the calendar as they require approval by a Moderator before they post live.
 
Actually. Just realized I haven’t received any email alerts today. And I should. I follow a lot of the stuff that was going on today. Could be my end but since you asked. Passing on the info.
 
Ok, if anyone notices something wrong or off, please chime in on the forum

It may have nothing to do with the new software, it could be just something trio or someone did. Anyway... I’m talking about right at the top of the home page “upcoming events”
I see it shows the very next event we are having. And if you check the calendar. It’s there as well. I love this. Well done. Definitely will make my time on site smoother. And after all the complaints. felt I should let you know.
 
Earlier this month, we noticed that our current software version of xenforo was at the end of it's lifespan. You may or may not have noticed too much stuff on the front, but on the back (Admin) end there were some issues.

With this, we decided and BOD approved to upgrade to a newer version and while we were at it, it only made sense to give our front end a new facelift and our Admin side a more secure, updated upgrade. This has not been done, to my knowledge since the clubs inception so as far as I was concerned, it was long over due.

The upgrade will take about an hour or and this during downtime, the site will be placed into maintenance mode so you may not be able to log in. Items such as the calendar, gallery, taptalk etc will also be down until they are upgraded.

The new design template, may need some changes and will need some getting used to. Once it's up, all questions, comments and site suggestions will be welcomed. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Marcus
Will it be easier to post videos, always hard to do and no way to know if it posted unless u ask someone if it was viewable
 

MadReefer

Vice President
Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
In case you did not know this. On the New Post page you may see this message on your left. If you click the X and remove the filter you will see all posts not just unread ones. It could be why some of us are missing posts. I just recently realized this myself.
 

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