We've been on line for two weeks now, maybe not long enough for everyone to test the waters, but I'm curious if some of the features satisfy what everyone is looking for. Just a few examples, you have 30 minutes to edit or even delete a post compared to 0 at CM when it was up. You can add photos and attachments to your post, up to 5 per post, compared to 0 back then. There is no limit to the number of posts per day, compared to 10 at CM. Also, you can track a private message and you can see when the last time a member has been on line here. And yes, you can change your avatar photo as many times as you like without it being screened first. Just don't get too frisky...

One other noticeable difference, many forums, including CM, the admin staff would rarely participate in discussions, except to clarify some rule. One reason we have these forums is that both Joshua and I miss the participation talking and listening to what our friends had to say, so we will not be hiding behind the curtain, and will post regularly and we will not take advantage of our position. We really were lost there for a while. Oh yeah, and I hope our rules are brief, easy to understand and easy to find.

I'm just checking, are you pleased with what we've created here? Is there any feature that is difficult to use, or a feature that we could possibly implement?

Your feedback would be appreciated. We turned this around in a short time, so we may not be 100% complete just yet.

Hey Guys and Gals..

I thought i would create a fun little topic for anyone working on or needing help with their Car or Truck repair.  
It may be a way we can help each other in saving $ or just getting some good advice.  

Post what you’re working on and any Tips..  OR
Post what you need help with.  

We are as we've said, not a dating site, but we are allowing our members to take the discussions where they want, so we've opened a new forum, "Relationships" where you can discuss those kinds of experienced be it a bad date or what to do or how to do it. We've moved several threads that seem to look like they belonged there.

Big change, up to now, if you quote a post, the quote showed the same color as the new post and it was hard to differentiate between the two. Especially if the quote also contained another quote.

Well, now, quotes show with a light gray background and you can now tell which is the quote and which is the new post.

I have a question on how we show a post when it includes a quote.  Right now we allow quotes that are two deep. That is, if you "reply" to someone, it will quote the original post, if they had a quote, that will also show. Beyond a quote that shows another quote, it gets confusing. We can cut that back to a single quote in a reply if that's less confusing so let me know what you think.

One other thing, I'm use to the quote being a different color to make it easy to differentiate. I will ask Flattbear if we can make that change if possible.

We just added two new clickable functions to the header bar.

View Today's Posts - you can view all posts and threads that have been active for the past 24 hours so you can see all recent activity. Real handy when you're in a hurry.

View Unread Posts - clicking on this will bring up all threads that have posts in them that you've not read yet. Neat huh...

If you have any issues, something doesn't work or you have questions, let us know. We're almost there, but still have a few things on our punch list.

https://youtu.be/A9xJe_aabaI?si=8xwpKTki3rAF0MqX

Setting up how you view: Go to "UserCP" and select "Edit Options". There you can either leave all selections to "user default", or change how you want to view threads and posts. As far as the "thread view mode, the default is, "threaded", which means you can scroll though all the posts in that that thread. If you only want to see one post at a time, then select, "Linear", but it's not recommended. You can change this function while viewing a thread by making the change in the upper right corner of the tread or post, but again, it is recommended you maintain the "threaded mode".

Also, be sure that the "Display posts in classic mode." box is checked. if not, the poster's avatar and info will be displayed above the post, not to the left.

Viewing threads and posts: You can select "home" on the upper control bar and that will take you to the main forum page where all available forums are displayed.  Clicking on the header logo will also take you to the home page.

You can view all new  post from the past 24 hours by selecting "View Today's Posts" on the control bar.

Note that any threads that contain posts that you have not read, will show a small green arrow to the left of the thread.

Portal: The portal is set up displaying a random selection of recent posts. We cannot control what it displays, so the best way to view posts, add new posts or starting a new thread is to link to either "Home" or "View Today's Posts".

Private Messaging system: You can send and receive messages from any other member, and you will be notified by email and when you log on here. You can access your messaging system from your "UserCP", or by clicking on, "Private Message" on the header bar.

Message notification: You should receive an email notifying you that someone has sent you a private message. There is also a notification at the top of the page, en envelope icon showing the number of messages you haven't read plus a banner above the "welcome" banner telling you there are messages waiting to be read..

Send/receive messages: Sending and receiving messages is like posting on the forums. To start a new message, go to your UserCP and click on "compose" at the top of the list. You can enter one or more usernames to send your message to. To reply to a received message, simply click on "reply".

Block or Ignore: You can prevent another member from sending you messages. Click on their name or avatar and at the bottom, click on "add to ignore list". This will also prevent you from reading any of their forum posts, so think wisely about using this. You can restore communications with them by clicking on the "remove from ignore list" button in the same place. Note that you cannot ignore a moderator or an admin. If you have an issue with a staff member, please discuss it with another staff member, or send a message to the owner by clicking on "contact us" at the bottom of any page.

Tracking a sent message: Messages are tracked by default and you can check when a message has been read by clicking on, "tracking" on the left sidebar when in the messaging system. By the same token, a person can refuse tracking on a message by clicking on "deny receipt" when selecting a message to read.

For those of you that are use to an extensive profile about you, your likes and dislikes and lots of photos, that's not what we have here. Your profile is mostly about your settings and some info about you (see Bio below). To access your profile, click on  "UserCP" in the upper right of a page, your profile list will appear on the left.

You can change your email address, password, signature and avatar here.

Avatar: you can have a small avatar on your posts, they can be a picture or any .jpg that is around 150 pixels in either direction. Our software will resize anything that is too large. Note that your avatar is not your primary photo and can be most anything, we have a specific forum, "Member's Hello", for adding personal photos that are larger.

Bio: When viewing your profile, click on "edit profile" in the column on the left. You can make several changes there, and this is where you can add your location and a short bio, visible when someone views your profile. Again you can have a thread in the "Member's Hello" forum for extending your bio and adding pictures. You can add to your thread, so we please ask you start only one thread there.