Welcome to SMF 2.1

[Jubal]

Dear all,

After some recent tech issues, we're happy to welcome you back to a slightly new-look Exilian, now running on the SMF 2.1 series of software rather than the old 2.0. This is a once-a-decade level of tech upgrade: the new version of SMF will come with a slightly different mix of features and, most importantly. This is the first part of a series of tech changes we're hoping to make, with the plan also being to move Exilian onto a new hosting package later this summer.

A few notes on the changes that you might notice, or that are coming down the line:

• We are going to return to a dark theme as default, though the current light theme, 'Skyclad', will remain available when we build the dark theme.
  
• One major new feature that's now available is post drafts! You can now hit the "save draft" button to keep the text of a post safely squirreled away for whenever you get time to finish your thoughts
  
• We'll be looking at other new features to be made available - the 2.1 series allows for tagging other users in posts and some improved notification systems - so do stay tuned for more updates there.
  
• You can't currently create multiple polls within a single thread: the mod we used to do this doesn't function on the 2.1 series, and we're actively looking for a replacement.
  

Most importantly, we're keen to have your thoughts and opinions on the new system: it's important to us that we're getting the look and feel of the site right going forwards, so if something doesn't feel right or there's functionality you're missing then please do let us know.

[Tusky]

Yay! Looks nice. Plus works nicely on a phone now. Don't have to keep zooming in and moving the viewport 😃

[Jubal]

Ooh, yes, I forgot to mention that we're supposed to get a phone responsiveness upgrade with this too I'm glad it works well, I've not tested it yet myself!

[Spritelady]

Yes definitely more phone friendly, can confirm!

[indiekid]

Looking good! not really related but my "Exilian" title graphic is still showing up all Christamsey - is that a permanent thing now?

[indiekid]

Also I like that Reply is easy to access at the bottom now

[Jubal]

Looking good! not really related but my "Exilian" title graphic is still showing up all Christamsey - is that a permanent thing now?

Might still be the flowery midsummer one?

If so, press cnrtl + f5 to "hard refresh" and you'll be back to the normal logo, we had that up for a couple weeks around midsummer so it may still be cached

[Glaurung]

Where should I look for the "Save Draft" button? It doesn't seem to be appearing for me in either the (new?) Quick Reply section of threads, or when I use the Reply button.

[Jubal]

That's weird, it's right next to the "preview" button for me.

[Glaurung]

No, definitely not there, in either case - just Preview and Post

EDIT: I have also now:
- logged out and back in again, in case this was needed to update my profile somehow - no change
- checked my settings, where I definitely do have permission to save drafts.

[Jubal]

Hm, yes I went through and made sure every usergroup had the permission earlier - it hadn't rolled it out to everyone, but I'm surprised that hasn't fixed it. Have you checked in other bits of the forum? I wonder if the unusual permissions set Announcements has might be blocking it?

[Glaurung]

I definitely checked in other subforums, but possibly not since yesterday. I hadn't appreciated Announcements had different permissions from other parts of the forum.

I have now checked again: it's still not available in Announcements, but it is available and working in other parts of the forum. Many thanks!

[Jubal]

Yes, Announcements and Articles have the "Staff Lock" set, which basically stops regular members from posting new threads, so we never get bot spam coming out through the main RSS feed or appearing on the front pages etc.

Corollary: are drafts working in the Backroom & Hidden Plaza and the staff forums? I may have a chunk of work to do to update those permission profiles...

[Glaurung]

Corollary: are drafts working in the Backroom & Hidden Plaza and the staff forums? I may have a chunk of work to do to update those permission profiles...

Those all have the "Save Draft" button appearing for me, and the one in the staff forum works correctly, so I'd expect they all do.

[Rob_Haines]

All looks good & new & shiny to me so far!