the forum and blog has been updated. I am now testing some of the new features for the blog. Will post more details soon.

Updates to the forum so far:

1) PM has been limited to one per 15 mins to prevent spam bots from spamming everyone. I will remove this limit for people who have reached a certain post number soon. This PM Flood Control does not affect admin or mods at this time.

2) Blog now has the ability to play videos, songs, etc.. WITHIN the blog post. All New Blog features will be posted in my blog: Check it out here:

http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...;showentry=1046

3) There is now an About Me page on your profile. Instead of showing your recent topics first, it shows your "About Me" page. So go check out your profile page(by clicking on your name) and edit it. Your signature is shown by default.

4) I have now enabled personal picture uploads again. Max size is 10KB.

5) New registrations sign ups are tougher for bots using the new span prevention features. Hopefully this slows down the amount of automated spam that the forum has been getting.

5) New Layout Template: I might switch to the new layout soon. Testing it out now. Noticed a few errors. Should be help load the page slightly faster.

more features to come as i find and test them.

Please let me know if you encounter any bugs.


There is a major forum and blog update coming soon. It'll be completely revamped.. Right now it's still in beta.. Once it gets out of beta, I'll wait a month or two till some of the bugs are sorted out. In the mean time.. this is the most updated stable version out.

hey ben you know you got two of the same smiley? just shouting out... here it is 2 . The number 2 smiley suppose to be the yellow laughing one.

You sure i have two of this smiley? I don't see where it repeats when i hit show all.

If you hit this smiley and go to the next page and hit the big yellow laughing one,(with no teeth showing, last row down, in the middle) and you get the same smiley. , you have to press submit post in order to see it . just letting you know , no big deal..

Good Job Ben ,but if this forum can play VDO from insert youtube tag that will be more interesting

Good to know. I'll check it out.


That feature might come in the next upgrade. But can you give me a site where this is used so that i can see an example of it?

I can report the same bug with this smiley.
I made a post using the yellow smiley, but when someone replied to me, it was reproduced as the blue smiley with a number "2" beside it.
You can check out my original post and the reply post here : http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...t&p=4227600

Thanks for letting me know. I will check it out. Not sure why it's doing that now. Did you guys noticed less spam since the upgrade?

update: Will be using a different theme for the forum starting tonight

update2: seems like I'm ahead of schedule.. using the new theme already.. Slight changes.. supposely loads faster.. if a member has a blog, it'll show up when you click the member's name pull down menu.

Let me know if you guys notice any errors.

Unfortunately, those forums that I know of are private, and I don't want to lure any troublemakers to that site.

Here's another that I googled: http://www.autocult.com.au/Post.aspx?id=31

Btw- this forum is quick. I like it.

Oh.. Yeah the blogs can do that now. Check out my blog for examples of ALL the media that you can link to: Ben's AF Blog Cool Stuff

In the next upgrade (and it's a major one), the forum will be able to do what the blog does in any post.

Great! I'm beginning to feel positive about this forum.

^likewise. looks great!

THANKS BEN! I really like the new skin! Aoppreciate your work. THanks man.

Dont know how this site can post the VDO ,its the different style board (static one)

http://topicstock.pantip.com/wahkor/topics...8/X7224338.html

At the reply 1 he used the code like this.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kz-kSfkaI2I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kz-kSfkaI2I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

By the way the design of the board right now look better and load faster.

I was like 'what in the world?' when I saw the new forum skin uploading before me. I don't mind the flatness, but I guess the dull colour palette got into me.

However with the faster upload I think I'm beginning to get used to it... maybe even like it. Thanks Ben, and yes allowing YouTube embedding would be quite nice. I'm not sure if that will affect the forum in any way though.

That Video feature that you want is coming.. It's already available in our blog. Check out this link: http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...;showentry=1046

You'll be able to link and PLAY a lot of media files in a forum post after the next upgrade.

Interesting new skin.

Good updates.

It has toruble loading though, I can only access the forum maybe half of the times I try. Because of increased traffic maybe?

the forum looks a hellva lot better. just sayin'...

now only if the mods will do their effin' jobs and can keep the trolls at bay...

Yeah, there was some lag tonight.. I'm checking to see what's causing it. Might be because the server is compiling all the stats during this time. I have a techie looking into it.

New mods are next.. and I know i have been saying that for a while.. but I wanted to upgrade forum first.. actually i wanted to wait till the even NEWER version comes out before accepting the new mods, but it seems to be in beta for the last 5 months. Even after it comes out of beta.. I'm going to wait a month or two so that all the bugs are fixed before I upgrade it. I'm just debating if i should have the new mods join before or after my upcoming two week trip.

enjoy your trip FIRST.

deal with the new mods issue afterwards. trust me, af/afers aren't going anywhere (even though people threaten to leave all the time, we are still one big happy e-dysfunctional family. ).

just my thoughts...

lol I'm pretty sure a lot of members got confused as i was testing the new "skin" live on the site today.. I would have this new skin up for five mins so i can see what needed to be change.. and then switch back to the old skin while i worked on it.. I kept doing that for a good hour or so. To me this skin feels the same, just different colors.. but i think the coding is "cleaner".. if anything it does look a little easier on the eye too.


Yeah I'll probably assign the mods after.. It's a quick trip anyway, plus I'll be checking on it daily.. so you guys wouldn't even notice lol. I wanted to hurry up and upgrade due to all the complaints about forum and PM spam..

It does seem like there has been a LOT less spam now. I still see a few spam here and there.. but i don't think it's bots. just some random person spamming their sites. Actually I found out from other webmaster that people are being paid like 1 cents per post.. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot in their respective country.

testing..

ok i guess i fixed it to by changing one name to elaugh while the other one to just laugh instead of laugh2

also added

You should make it so that any member who's been here for more than.. uh.. several months should be exempt from the new PM restrictions. I'm not a spammer. I just want to send two PMs.

This is not a cordial request.

If you refuse,

I'll start sawing off the fingers with a state-of-the-art mass-murdering ever-violent chainsaw to chop off those fingers from the Hand that I talked to.


Disclaimer: for the most part, j/k






PS: we need new mods Ben.

We need to allow embeding for videos.

I guess you haven't read the first page huh? lol I said the option was coming in the next upgrade and the feature is currently available for the blog.


I noticed something interesting today.. Seems like spammers would create an account and not spam till months later.. I just banned an account today after he spammed 16 topics.. I'm like hmm i though automated spam was pretty much gone lately.. so i checked his signup date.. and it was in Feb 2009.. 0 post till today..

Checking the server to see why it was down tonight.. might be a tad slow at times as i work on it.

^oh...ok. i just assumed i was banned again. lol

the site looks really nice.

damn I hate that once the server gets resetting.. The session database needs to be reset everytime otherwise you'll see the IPS driver error.

Looking good dude.

Seriously!


Embedded videos?




I get this IPS Drive Error whenever I use the search funtion without the "Filter by Member Name" option.

Thanks. I have contacted the board techs to see how i can fix the errors. Loving the feedback guys. Keep them coming. It'll help make AF that much better. Be sure to let me know of any error that you see. even if it's minor

Man I have been putting so much work into the forum and blog this past week.

hmmm seems like the search function is using too much server resources.. might have to disable it

man fixing that one error posted by pun187 caused me to turn off the board for like a day lol.. crazy.

nice new forum. faster than a cheetah so it's a plus.

like the new font... small and very pretty to read.

color layout is professional and simple. remember simplicity is the key to success.

anyway a suggestion.

can we have a science/astronomy discussion forum? i thought this would be an interest for people who enjoy debating discovery of nature.

I'll take your suggestion into consideration..

I have shut down the search feature to see if the forum is more stable..

cool, please do consider.

if you need mod for science/astronomy section, i will help that one.. but for only 1 month.. i left to taiwan in summer but be back to continue mod if needed...

i'll help participate in the promotion as well.

thanks.

How about a section on personal finance.

I like to be a mod for a long time.

How come the View New Posts button been disabled? It keeps saying I'm not allowed to use it?

I have disabled search for now to see how the forum is for a week. After a week I'll let you guys know what the results are.

Yeah I was wondering why the poster Search Topic wasnt working.

I hope the forum stabilizes for sure.

Thanks for keeping us updated Ben.

and i thought it had something to do with my 100% warning level...

i thought i was banned from this too. lol

thanks for letting us know.

sigh.. something is still causing the forum to go down sometimes.. still checking into this.

Seriously, do something to control jobocom.

Excellent. I like the quick loading times .

I am happy to see that our moderators are participating in the forum and not just working behind the scenes.

The updated forum is loading nicely.

So far so good but I'd like to see it when it's done. I'm missing the old features (view posts/topics from a user, view new posts). I like the way it looks.

We need an update on the recent downtime and temporary limited functions...... the natives are getting restless.

I'm currently on vacation in Asia. So when the server went down i didn't know. Although i do have tech peeps that SHOULD HAVE monitor the server.. They didn't do their job. They claim they did a reboot request but it didn't go through.. So I'm not sure what happen. Anyway i logged on during my stay and found out it was down for a few days.. not a good thing at all. I'll be back in a few days and is checking daily to see if everything is ok.

Thanks to all the members who emailed/messaged me with concerns about AsiaFinest.

Awesome!!!!