1. The Move

Q: Are forums going to start anew out here?
A: No. Every message posted on old Quark boards before 07/30/07 has been copied here. Forums and threads are exactly the same as they were. Moderators may clean some old rusty threads up though, but that's up to them.

Q: Did my user information get copied here too?
A: Most, but not all of it. Your IMs (instant messengers, like AIM or MSN) were not copied. You need to go to "My Account" on the left, click on "Edit", then on "Extra Details" and re-enter them there. Your user id, name, signature, avatar all got copied. You may want to check that your signature got copied correctly, this can also be done under "My Account"->"Edit".

Q: Did my PMs get copied?
A: No, they did not. If you want to save your PMs, you will have to manually copy/paste them from the old site.

Q: I went to "Profile" and changed some stuff there (like signature), but the next time I logged in, everything was like it was before!
A: This is because when you log in, stuff gets automatically copied between the forums and Drupal, and it MAY overwrite the new things you entered. Due to some difficulties with syncing data between the forums and the main site (this is Drupal), things that are in your forum "Profile" may overwrite part of the data for the main site, BUT information entered under "My Account" (on the left of the screen-- also Drupal) should take precedence over that. So if you want something to stay changed, you need to go to "My Account" and modify it there, but not in "Profile". This is not the case for information that can only be entered on the forum-- for example, you can enter your birthday, and it won't disappear. When in doubt, if you can edit it under "My account," that's the better option. Contact Daen if you've been trying to change it and it keeps changing back.

Q: Would I be able to access the old site after the move?
A: Yes, but you won't be able to post new messages. The address of the old site is: http://quarksff.org/mambo

Q: I liked the old site better! What can I do?
A: Get over it.


2. The Features

Q: So, why the new site? Old one worked fine.
A: There isn't a single overwhelming reason, but there are a whole lot of things that are much better here.

• For members this includes expanded user information, much more control over board looks, a graphic text editor when posting on the boards, working polls, enhanced calendar functionality, and other small things. Poke around, I bet you'll find something new that you like ;)
• For officers, the content creation system is much more intuitive and versatile.
• And, finally, the website template system that we now use is actually well-developed and fully-supported, so it would be much easier for the webmaster to modify or add new features.

Q: Elaborate.
A: OK, here's what you can do now:

• You can go to Forums->Profile and enter a whole lot of information about yourself.
• In "Forum Profile Information" you can set such fields as your location, gender, IMs, your website and your birthday. If you set your birthday it will be displayed in forum-wide calendar (accessible by going to Forums, then to Calendar). Your IMs and website are displayed in Member List (left side).
• In "Look and Layout Preferences" you can set a bunch of options that'll control how boards are displayed to you. My favorite is "Use quick reply on topic display". It will make a reply form appear below every thread, and you won't have to click "Reply" button to reply -- it saves you one click per post. You can also choose how you want dates to be displayed on the boards and if you want the forum clock personally adjusted for you.
• You can use the Rich text editor practically everywhere, so you don't have to memorize html-ish tags and can simply click a button. Plus it adds a whole lot of text enhancement features. You can even insert Flash into your posts.
• If you're not in Utah, you can set your time zone by clicking on "My account" on the left, then "Edit", and scroll to the bottom.
• You can also now comment on the news items.
• You can look up activity for each member, what forums they post in mostly, and during which hours of the day.
• This is just a few of the new features, there are many others.

3. The Bugs

Q: This looks buggy.
A: True, there are bugs here, as there are everywhere. But we are actively working on eradicating them. You will notice that practically every day the known problems go away.

Q: I found a bug! What should I do?
A: First of all, check the list of known bugs (two questions after this one). Don't report it if it's there. Secondly, check if the old website has the same problem. If it does, it's probably not a bug, it might be an intentional setting. If it doesn't, PM current webmaster (Daen) or catch him on the shoutbox.

Q: I am using a Safari and...
A: Safari is rather leniently supported. We suggest you switch to Firefox, IE or Opera.

Q: I can't post from campus!
A: BYU has some kind of problem that causes problems for people trying to post from its network. There's nothing we can do to fix it on our end, because its BYU's problem. We've contacted their IT department and hope they will eventually fix it.

Q: What are the current known bugs?
A:

• The shoutbox will "break" if you type a long line without spaces, like a web address. This will be fixed. Exact timeline is not yet known.
• There MAY be a horizontal scrollbar on the bottom of the middle frame. This MAY get fixed. Same for scrollbars under individual avatars.
• Signatures may have escape characters "\". This is a remnant of copying from the old site. You'll probably have to clean yours up manually, since this is difficult for the webmaster to do himself.
• Post counting has been turned off. They still show up in the member list and member info as zeros. This may be removed at a later date, or potentially have post counting turned on. It depends on how it works out-- last time it was used in the club it created problems.
• If you type a long line without spaces in a forum post, a horizontal scrollbar will appear for the forum while viewing that thread. This will NOT be fixed. Don't type super-long stuff without spaces.
• When you log out, you can still see yourself in online users list. (This may be a browser caching problem. Not totally sure about it yet.)
• The shoutbox is an hour off. We're not sure what the problem is yet.
• The 'Remember Me' function only works for 24 hours. It's being worked on.

Q: Where can I go to find out what's on the webmaster's To Fix list?
A: There's a current list at the Webmaster TO-DO's thread. Check there to see if I'm currently working on something or what's next. Follow the instructions there if you'd like to see something added to it. I update it as I fix bugs and implement requested features, so be sure to check back if you have something there or before you request a new feature/bug fix.

4. Other

Q: Ahhh!! My/The poll is gone! Where is it?!
A: Just click the link on the left that says "Polls." That'll take you to all the open and closed polls currently stored on the site. As long as it says "open" next to it, you can continue to vote.

Q: I subscribed/unsubscribed to the newsletter, but that annoying menu thing is still there. How do I get rid of it?
A: You can disable it from your account settings. In the menu on the left, go to My Account, then scroll down until you see a section called "Block Configuration". Just uncheck the box there, and the newsletter menu will disappear.

Many thanks to Xirax for writing this up for us. I have gone through and made some minor changes in order to try to be more specific or clear and provide hopefully somewhat more specific information on how to work around a few issues. More questions/answers will be added to this as we run across them.

-Daen