Important stuff about events and calendars

[endquote]

When I did the 2009 upgrade, I installed the event forums (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123416) plugin to make a tight integration between forums and calendars. I tried to make both the upcoming parties and upcoming club nights forums point to the same calendar, but that didn't really work, and no one was able to post to the parties calendar. This is fixed, but there are some things you need to know.

There are now three calendars.

Legacy Events (http://nwtekno.org/calendar.php?c=1) -- This includes all events that were posted before today.
Parties (http://nwtekno.org/calendar.php?c=3) -- Things from the upcoming parties forum posted from now on.
Club Nights (http://nwtekno.org/calendar.php?c=4) -- Things from the upcoming club nights forum posted from now on.


Where the events are shown:

On the home page, all events from all calendars are shown.
At the top of each of the upcoming forums, events from that calendar are shown (none right now, but they'll appear). This is pretty handy, I think.
If you click "parties" or "club nights" in the top navigation, you'll see those calendars.
To see just the "legacy events" calendar, go to one of the other calendars, and scroll to the very bottom right to the "calendar jump" box.


Info for event promoters:

If you have an event in the wrong calendar that you posted this week, delete it from the calendar and the forum (separately) and make a new one in the proper forum. Sorry for the inconvenience but that's how it's gotta be.
Same deal if you have an event in the legacy events calendar and you want to put it in the new one. Delete, the old event, make a new one, and edit your old thread to point to the new one.
If you hit "new thread" in one of the upcoming forums, you'll get a new event form for the appropriate calendar.
If you get an error when posting, follow the new instructions on the error page. There's an issue there that I'm still working out.
If you hit "new thread", you're going to be entering an all day event. This is probably ok since everyone knows when events tend to start and end, and it simplifies the calendar so that events which start at 10p on one day and end at 6a the next don't span two days.
If you want to do a "ranged event" with specific start and end times, or you want to do a "recurring event" which happens repeatedly on some schedule, go to the calendar using the links in the top navigation, scroll to the bottom left, and hit one of the new event links there.


Yes, this is a pain in the ass. However as the "legacy" events pass, things'll slowly move to the new ones and all will be well. Thanks for your patience as we work out the kinks in the new site.

[djsence]

cool.

It works much better now and it is extremely easy to post an event. thanks!

I was thinking would it be possible to color code the event.

like Portland would be green, Seattle would be red and then "other" be in a different color? I think it would help people read the calender a bit better and it would be so much easier to distinguish what is going on near by.

[meeotch]

I was thinking would it be possible to color code the event.

like Portland would be green, Seattle would be red and then "other" be in a different color

Great idea, but choose different colors to help out our colorblind friends (and because I hate Christmas colors)

[a'damn]

It would be super duper if one of the options at the bottom of the View Calendar Type thing was "All"

That way, people who don't really care about whether or not the event is a "Party" or "Club Night" can simply view the list of events happening on whatever day.

Please and thank you.
xoxox
-A'damn

[endquote]

The calendar on the home page shows all events from all calendars.

Agreed that it would be nice to have it on the calendar page too, but the forum software doesn't roll that way.

[Emperor]

Is there a way to format the listing of entries more like the previous version? The current listing of parties is damn near impossible to read on the home page.

[endquote]

Not without pushing the forums way down the page so that everyone misses them, no.

I'm really not sure what all the outrage about the home page calendar is for. If you don't like it, collapse it and/or use the full-page calendars, which are much easier to use anyway.

[sea.envy]

Not without pushing the forums way down the page so that everyone misses them, no.

I'm really not sure what all the outrage about the home page calendar is for. If you don't like it, collapse it and/or use the full-page calendars, which are much easier to use anyway.

i don't use this site for it's event listings anyway, and as such i have it collapsed now (which i didn't know i could do - thanks :) ), but i think one of the issues is that it is basically just an unreadable wall of text. that is my unbiased opinion.

also, uh, any word about fixing the quick reply issue? :D

[endquote]

There is no quick reply issue, it works as designed.

[thehunt]

I'm not positive if you know what people mean about it not working like it could

as can be seen on seattlednb.com (only if you are logged in as a user)

you don't have to click quick reply in order for the quick reply box to be available to type in.
you can just start typing in the box and hit "post quick reply"

Seattlednb.com is a very similar board to the new nwtekno
It is "Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3"

on seattlednb.com, you can still click quick reply button, and it will shoot you down to the bottom of the page, so you can start writing, but if you don't hit it, you can just start writing in quick reply box anyways

If ya'll don't want that feature avaiable to use, than I understand
but if you want to make it like that, maybe its just a setting that can just be turned on on ya'll's end

[endquote]

I get it, and changing it is just a setting, but by having it enabled by default, the threaded/hybrid modes don't make any sense. vBulletin recommends doing it the way we're doing it, not the way seadnb is doing it.

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/vboptions_group_posting

[groovinkim]

i have the feeling a lot of people haven't tried using the other viewing modes yet.

to try them, you'd click display modes at the top right corner.

[sea.envy]

actually, no, i haven't :)

didn't even know that there were diferent options actually. after reading the vb manual page, i can now see why you guys have it the way it is. not that i had any doubt that you guys know what you're doing...


:P

[groovinkim]

there's soooo much that's changed since the last version of the board since it had been so many years since it was updated. i learn something new every day. i've started posting tips in the board questions section 'cause in theory everyone could read the whole faq but in practice i think it's easier to figure stuff out bit by bit vs. all at once

[Osiris]

First, I want to say that I LOOOOVE the new NWTekno. I have been working with vBulletin myself for years on the Oracle Gatherings forums (http://www.oraclegatherings.com/delphi/ - mostly tumbleweeds there now). I am most fond of the way the new calendars/threads work. I think the whole process is more intuitive for me, but I would consider myself an Advanced vBulletin User.

NWTekno has always been a bit esoteric with vB codes and such if you want to do anything besides plain text and it took people years to become acquainted with that. I know we live in one of the tech/web capitals of the world, but not all of the people who want to use this site know anything about anything about the web. Most potential users out there have used a word processor and that is what they have in their tool bag before coming here. The learning curve has always created a certain number of lurkers while those with more knowledge, or time and interest to learn, figure the thing out and start to participate.

So, the previous NWTekno had some challenges, but the learning curve just became a lot steeper. I am aware that most of the "blame" lay squarely on the developers of vBulletin and not our AWESOME NWTekno Dev team. This software is NOT open source (or at least it wasn't last I checked) and there is only so much an admin can do.

Before the upgrade I remember often seeing the number of users on the site at any given time was usually in the 200-300 range and got as high as almost 900. Now I see on average about 50. I don't know about anyone else but all the threads I was following before the changes were having 4 - 12 posts daily and now I see days go by with nothing but internet crickets. This can be due to users who have not yet returned from the read only period, but most I think have not yet learned how to use this new site. I know that eventually, even if no additional steps are taken, people will slowly figure it out and come back as posters, but can we make it easier for them to come back? The reason I am a part of the dance community in the NW is its INCLUSIVENESS which this site in many ways makes possible. I believe this virtue is more important than a list of features and would gladly take less options in favor of ease of use for the less experienced, as much as I love the facelift myself.


Most people do not want to be bothered by settings and such and I propose that an approach be taken to focus on helping those with less time and knowledge to participate. Here are some suggestions:

1) Set new (maybe all!!!) users to the easiest user default settings i.e. Full WYSIWYG for new posts and replies so they can use their word processing experience right away without having to find the settings that they will not understand anyway. If all users were set to WYSIWYG then those advanced users who prefer to vB code (the old way) can easily go to their settings and change it back. I know there would be grumbles, but I have already helped promoters and party people set up the WYSIWYG and that has brought them back as posters. I am sure there are other settings that newbies might appreciate.

2) BRING BACK THE HOME PAGE - at least in concept. It was so much nicer to come to that home page as a less infomed user and just see what is happening this week and click. Most posts on events happened in that last week because that interface was simple. The curent list of events at the top of the forums is just noise and people with small browsers may not even scroll past that to see the forums before giving up. Every website has a different way of determining what metrics they use to hone their pages to the ideal user experience, but with a site like this you want active users with longer visits and more pageviews. I have seen a few numbers thrown around but the average length of time people will look for something before giving up seems to be in the seconds (less than a minute). The number of competing events on this site is high and threads get bumped back a page or two in a day sometimes making it really difficult to find your page unless you are at least an intermediate vBulletin user and know where the new search button is hidden. Something closer to the old home page would significantly help.

3) Try the seadnb style of quickposting. The average user is going to see a box that looks like a place to post and try and post. When it doesn't do anything BLAM they get frustrated and may give up. They may come back to lurk, but it is possible they never find the Post Reply button because the quickreply box is such a dominant part of each page. I know that this change is not recommended because it messes with threaded views, but threaded is not this forum's default view and if it is between the few who want perfect threads vs. the many who don't even know what that is, I vote with the many.

4) Bring back the icons for sections so people have an image to associate with what they are looking for. The sheer amount of text noise one must wade through is almost painful without breaking it up. I actually thought the original site was elegantly minimal making those icons really important to the whole scheme of things.

Thank you endquote, groovinkim and team for all the hard work and help. Again I acknowledge that there is only so much you can do, so please do not see this as a rant, but rather my desire to help. I know how hard it is to please everyone, but you never go wrong by making things easier for the newbie. Please PM me if you want to discuss anything in more detail. I have poked around the vBulletin adminCP for years and would love to lend a hand, even if just as a researcher or moral support.

Love and Blessings,

Osiris

[matytek]

I still can't figure out quick reply, HALP?

[meeotch]

I still can't figure out quick reply, HALP?

First, click this icon http://www.nwtekno.org/air/buttons/quickreply.gif at the lower right of any post. This activates the quick reply box at the bottom. Then you can type in there and click Submit.

[1Worlds finest]

The calender needs its own section. It look way to close together with tiny print and it looks sloppy.

[groovinkim]

the calendar actually has not one, but two sections. they're explained in josh's initial post.

to see them, you would click either "parties" or "club nights" at the top of the page.