Performing some tests

Good luck D1, see you on the other side!

Good luck D1, see you on the other side!

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Ignition Sequence Start...
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🙂

Hey Everyone,

I have converted the forums over to the new setup. Over the next few days I will be tweaking things and possibly making visual and theme changes as well. I don't think I will break anything, but for now the site is back online.

I did have to rebuild the forum structure so if I put any games in the wrong place let me know I was doing it all off memory. 🙂

I have removed or deactivated plugins that wpforo replaced. Over the next few days I hope to get to working on the rank system, setting up defaults for a lot of the features. So use everything and please report issues... especially ones that could allow people to be malicious 😉

Thanks

Wilco, thanks 🙂

@sscadmin

I so far like the new forum. 

I did like the recent posts on the side, but everything else is a lot easier now, especially if I'm going to check back quite a bit later. 

I have been busy playing with the style colors and things like that for the forums. I think I have the look/feel pretty close to what it was before (its better I think, a lot cleaner).

There is a 'Recent Posts' button at the top of the page and there is little drop-downs under the forum areas as well to help with recent posts. Still looking into all of the features, widgets and tweaks.

Things to do still:

• theme the private message section under your forum profile/account and other sections or areas members mention or hard to read areas
• work on ranks (taking recommendations for rank names)
• clean up older roles/groups left behind with wp plugins
• configure attachments/images in forum posting

@sscadmin

I think it's looking pretty good D1, although, if you have a choice of style, I really liked the Mk 1 SSC from when the forum first opened. Can't recall what you were using software wise back then but it looked cool, if a bit retro. Still, this is nice!

@geraldine

Ahh I was using phpbb back them with a CMS and many mods. It was a nightmare to manage and it broke a lot 🙂 Just because that mod authors or cms authors wouldn't update quick enough or support new mods that added functionality. So things would break or I stayed on a old platform and be forced to upgrade like I had to do a few years back when my host was forcing a SQL and PHP version update and my site software didn't support it at all.

Now Wordpress supports all the latest tech versions of PHP/SQL so thats a plus and makes the site more secure.

The mod support is good because I pay for these mods so in general they are well tested and updated when WP updates their product. 

For instance I am using Gantry its a theme engine of sorts for customization. For a while it worked ok, but I have been noticing recently I get odd behavior or mods do,t work right. I have a Download Manager that I paid for and people cant use it because theme for some reason won't display it? Tonight I downloaded a generic theme that looks ok and I am playing with it and the Download Manager is now embedded and working...

So as I am writing this I am going to change the site theme.... it will look like crap for a few days (sorry), but I think when I am done we should have everything configured and working. I just have to configure this new theme to use specific colors and hopefully adjust some layout things. So bare with me. Been doing a bit, shit I am still up and its 3am. I need to get some sleep 🙂

I will do some more tomorrow, signing off.

New digs, I like it. 😊 

@sscadmin

3 AM! 😮
Too right you need a rest D1 but thank you very much for your hard work though. That really needs to be said.

I really like this current look! Much more like the old forums and seems quicker too. Thanks D1 🙂

+1, great overhaul thanks! And the spelling check is back too 👍 

Thanks everyone 🙂

Yes I went with an entirely new theme, its more simple and seems faster. I removed all old pages and mods (dug through the database to make sure nothing was left behind). Even re-wrote some of the pages to better suit the theme of the site it is the subtle touches that count maybe you will notice them

Fixed the download area and setup permissions

Re-did the menu system

Created a fancy little background in SpaceScape 😉 

Re-did all of the usergroups and permissions

Still need to work on theme items, the site footer, need a better logo, pm system and ranks 😉 

Umm the private message system is in your profile area btw, I still need to figure out how to theme this section but I will get to it when I can.

Things that couldn't be salvaged with the move:

• Forum subscriptions
• Forum tags (please when you make new topics don't forget your tags it helps with searching)
• Private Msgs
• Topic view counts were reset

Taking a break to watch some football (Go Patriots!) and eat.

-D1-

Not sure if SolCommand still visits SSC but he made a space station model named after the site a few years back, thought it would be nice to see where everyone is living 🙂 Thanks SC!

Things are starting to come together nicely and the site seems to be running great thus far.

The station may look deliciously clunky but it's running very smoothly indeed! 🙂

@sscadmin

It was the dawn of the third age of space sims – ten years after the great space sim drought of the post millennium.

The SSC Project was a dream, given form by it's creator Dark One. Its goal: to prevent another space sim drought, by creating a place where gamers and games developers can work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, wanderers and knackered old Frontier Elite 2 fans.

Gamers and game devs, wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal . . . all alone in the night.

It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for great space games.

This is the story of the last of the free speaking forums for space related games. The year is 2019. The name of the place is Space Sim Central.

<wanders in - looks around, pokes a few things> Cool, D1... very cool, in fact! I've been in Spain, and missed the migration.

First click of the shortcut got me a 404, and my heart sank. But all is well - SSC endures!

Thanks Cody. Yeah SSC has been through a lot, but my plans are to have SSC be around for many years to come. Maybe one day SSC will be the longest running scifi and space gaming site on the web.... hehe I think it already is?  But to do that this station needs critical updates, to make it young again..... wish I could do that with my own body... maybe the in a few more years 😉

Yeah traffic may have dipped a little over the years... I don't mind that much because the people that come back day after day is like extended family and I appreciate everyone. So thanks for dealing with all my conversions and upgrades over the years.... if SSC ever has a 404 don't worry I am working on it 🙂

Hey Darkone, the new site looks great - you did have a busy weekend!

Much prefer the simple font too if I'm honest, the stylized one made me go rather cross-eyed trying to read large blocks of text! 🤪 

Couple of little issues I've spotted:

Chrome is shouting about non-secure pages when trying to access a few forum areas, it looks to be linking to https: addresses for these:

"General Coding and Mod discussion" (main section link) and -> Show Off

"Space/SciFi Combat and Simulation Game Discussion" -> X Series

"Free Sci-Fi Gaming Projects" -> Ad- Infinitum, FFED3D, Pioneer & XFrontier.

"FPS, Strategy and Tactical Scifi Games" -> The Precursors.

"Deep Space Salvage Yard" (main section link) and -> Heresy War. 

Also, when first logging in the download terminal takes me to the wordpress console page. If I go back to to SSC via the link at the top it then loads the page with the embedded file manager! It seems to behave OK after that, but can I reproduce by logging out and back in again.

If there's one feature I would request for future - that would be the ability to always edit own posts. (if we can't already)

I always end up typing far too much on forums and inevitably muck something up or forget something and want to edit hours later/next day!

Also it's very helpful to be able to update information in the first post of a thread - especially if it's about a mod 😉

Or for example, if it's sharing info about a free game offer etc and then want to update it once it's expired...

Cheers!

AndyJ

Thanks AndyJ for this feedback and troubleshooting. I will look into these issues, I am using chrome too so I will stick that in dev console and see what I see when trying to access these pages. Pinback also mentioned seeing a 'non-secure' style of error. I would be interested too know do you have any addin's for chrome or ad-blockers enabled or any specific security in place when your browsing? Just want to try to setup my browser like everyone else so I can replicate the issue. But I will do some digging.

Oh, you may know this. But since a lot of the site has changed you may need to flush browser cache or press ctrl-f5 2x and see if your experience improves.

Yeah I noticed some login issues sometimes, I will need to look into this because the wpforo forums had its own login system but can also use wordpress so I might have to see if there is a conflict somewhere. Like for instance when I login it sends me to the admin console instead of the base forum page like I would expect.

I can definitely fix the ability to edit issue, I will have that done today 🙂

So I will try to work on the issues through the weekm if not I will definitely have time on the weekend.

Made a few tweaks to the site and added a plugin for the menu system so it responds to a user being logged in or not. I also enabled editing for the posts/threads you create. I did only set deletion of threads as the creator within the hour, I believe they will not delete if a user comments then its up to a Pinback or I to remove.

I went to all of those pages in chrome with dev tools on, i saw some warnings but those wouldn't display or prevent access to the content because I was able to view and interact with these pages without issue. That's why I asked the questions about plugins or security access level on your browser/system. I did dump all of the caches on the site to see inf that helps.

Posted by: @andyj

Hey Darkone, the new site looks great - you did have a busy weekend!

Much prefer the simple font too if I'm honest, the stylized one made me go rather cross-eyed trying to read large blocks of text! 🤪 

 

Couple of little issues I've spotted:

Chrome is shouting about non-secure pages when trying to access a few forum areas, it looks to be linking to https: addresses for these:

"General Coding and Mod discussion" (main section link) and -> Show Off

"Space/SciFi Combat and Simulation Game Discussion" -> X Series

"Free Sci-Fi Gaming Projects" -> Ad- Infinitum, FFED3D, Pioneer & XFrontier.

"FPS, Strategy and Tactical Scifi Games" -> The Precursors.

"Deep Space Salvage Yard" (main section link) and -> Heresy War. 

 

That's the same issue I had a couple of days ago, but have not seen it since then, the only plugin I have is Adblock.

I note with pleasure that I'm a Commander again. After thirty-five years pushing a Cobra Mk III around, Commander is like a second skin.