ovas.ca website changes

[dan2x38]

Suggestion - how about drop the Your Profile box and add more to the recent post box?

Either way it is all good... ya know what they say, "a change is good as a rest"... 

[Jeff1192]

It's back but on the left hand side now - and fewer posts to conserve room.

Ahhh.....tks.

Jeff

[Rybren]

Thanks Peter.

[garnpet]

Suggestion - how about drop the Your Profile box and add more to the recent post box?

Either way it is all good... ya know what they say, "a change is good as a rest"... 

The Profile box can be minimized for those who want the extra space.  Just click on the plus sign in the upper corner of the Your Profile header.

[dan2x38]

The Profile box is sort of reduntent since the same details (basically) are displayed in teh header. yes you can minimize it true enough. Also notice there are 7 recent posts there now KEWL!

[FocusFin]

Love is never having to say "you did a good job".

You did a good job Peter 

[Severum]

I LOVE that the recent posts box is on the side of the forum! It lets me be just a little lazier.

Great stuff!

[garnpet]

I will be doing a bit of maintenance on the For Sale board this evening.  Most of you have noticed that the For Sale board contains items way back to 2008.  Time for a clean up!

The For Sale board will be renamed "Classifieds - Archive" and it will be locked.  A new (and empty) For Sale board will be created.  Any posts in the former For Sale board from September 13th onward will be moved over to the new board.  Eventually the Classifieds - Archive board will be deleted.

[robt18]

Saweeeeet idea! Makes the deleting a whole lot faster! Let me know if you need any help (doubt it, haha)!

[garnpet]

Done.  If you see any problems please PM me.

All posts from September 1st were moved to their correct boards (FS, LF, or FF).

[twisty]

I really like the new landing page...Looks much more modern and Web 2.0. Great work!

I do have some concerns about the new layout.

The major "annoyance" is having to click 3 times to Enter the Forums. When I click enter forums I expect to do this exactly. I find it redundant to have to click enter forums 2 more times.

This might just be a workaround before the whole site gets converted, but just thought I'd put it out there.

Also who ever is writing the content should avoid lines such as "Click HERE". This is considered improper by todays HTML standards.
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/noClickHere


Just noticed another thing, Permalinks aren't enable on the Wordpress APP. When you enable Permalinks, Wordpress re-writes a friendly URL which makes Generating/Reading Web stats easier.

Currently Wordpress prints the following URL for the Enter Forum Page
http://ovas.ca/ovas/?page_id=62

If permalinks was enabled it would print the following URL
http://ovas.ca/ovas/enter_forum

Does Ovas use Google Analytics for Web Stats?

[holachicka]

I personally think that the word "porn" in the forum rules should be changed to the more appropriate way of saying it, which is "Pornographic".

"9. Adult Content.

Do NOT post any messages with adult content such as: porn and sexually oriented material, illegal substances, gambling and links to sites containing such content."

[garnpet]

At the most recent OVAS Exec meeting it was decided to reopen The Lounge to all forum users.  All previous topics have been removed and we are starting new.

A few rules changes though.  There will be no selling of items (fish and non-fish) in The Lounge.  As well we are not going to permit the advertising of any businesses or services that are related to or provided by forum users.

Please read the forum rules and abide by them at all times.  Any posts that are not suitable for a family-oriented website will be deleted.

[garnpet]

You might notice a drastic drop in the number of registered forum users.  I did a bit of maintenance today while doing a water change.

deleted 503 accounts that had zero posts and have not logged on in 2010
deleted 107 accounts that had less than 5 posts and have not logged on in 2010 or 2009

[holachicka]

wow - thats a lot of users. Great job cleaning up house!

[RebeccaB]

Has there been any more consideration to starting a "South American Cichlids" section on the forum....it seems only fair to dedicate a section to fish from this region since more and more members are getting into discus and other SA cichlids and there is currently a section dedicated to Africans.

Thanks.

[mseguin]

As a cichlid fan, specifically of the south American or West African varieties, I think a general cichlid section might be a better choice? I'm jsut not a fan of making the sections too specific, you msis out on a lot of great info.

[garnpet]

The Your Profile box on the right hand side has been removed.  The information is also at the top of the forum.

During the next few weeks the Articles/Info box will be cleaned up and most of the information will be moved to the ovas.ca homepage.  If you can't find something, please look there first.

If you miss the links that were in the Profile Box and want to see them again and you don't see them at the top of the forum follow these directions:

Take a look at the Hello <forumname> line just under the OVAS logo, follow it all the way to the right hand side where you see the date and a plus sign.  Click on the plus sign.  That should solve your problems.

[garnpet]

Some of you may have noticed a user on the forum called OVAS-Webmaster.  This is a new account that I will be using from time to time to do maintenance and post cleanup on the forum. 

Over the next few days I will be cleaning up some of the sticky notes we have on the forum.  Ones that are still relevant may be reposted under the OVAS-Webmaster account.

[dan2x38]

How about a Cichlid board still but with two child boards. One African Cichlids covers Great Lake and West African ones. The other child board make it New World Cichlids that way it covers all the Americas not just SA ones... food for thought?