Welcome Back APUGers! Please take a moment to read this post.

[Sean]

Hello All,

The site upgrades are still in progress but at a level that we can re-open. If anything major arises we may have to temporarily lock the site to investigate and resolve. This would primarily be related to server or member access issues.

*PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REPORT ANY GLITCHES IN THE BUG THREAD*

This architecture runs modern codes, so if you are using an ancient browser such as Internet Explorer 6 you will likely have problems. Please contact us and we'll see what we can do help. I personally find the site is best on the latest version of Firefox.

There really is too much to list in regards to the new site. I figured you would rather the site be back up and running than me explain every little detail of what has changed. We have not re-invented the wheel, you should recognize many familiar functions and discover new functionality as you use the site.

The most noticeable:
-APUG has been completely rebuilt from the ground up including design and branding. Currently the APUG logo showcases a piece of sheet film, from time to time many analog objects will make an appearance in the logo.
-You will see a new members area at the top right of APUG, this ties into new posts notifications (for PM's, group invites and more), a link to your settings.
-Some major Gallery improvements (notice the gallery menu option for multi-delete of your images).
-A new links system and we are working to migrate the old links over.
-We have tighter integration between all apps.
-Better profile pages.
-Enhanced customizable blogs, group blogs can be created by members
-The "Chat Room" menu tab will display a live count of chatroom participants.
-Google search as default site search, this takes a load off the server and provides great results, click "Advanced Search" for the standard forum search tool.
-Sidebar improvements, be sure to click "configure sidebar" at the bottom of your sidebar to add or adjust new blocks.
-Back end systems contain massive improvements across the board to help with site admin, spam control and moderation.

Some functionality has not been enabled yet and will be rolling out over the coming days. Some pages or links may be broken so also feel free to report this. There is also a point release of the forum software due out this week (contains over 50 bug fixes) so I may apply this patch when released.

Some new functionality to expect soon:
-tie APUG into your facebook (optional)
-user feedback system for classifieds
-selective forum filter
-Best of APUG wiki style system. This system allows us to "promote" a forum post into it. The post remains in the forums but also becomes listed in the wiki. This will enable us to create a directory of our best content. We can then, for example, direct a noobie to the wiki post "Why are my negs purple?"
-mobile device access, WAP upgrade and tapatalk support for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Nokia coming soon
-chatroom "who's currently chatting?" page
-additional site theme options for making the site grey or dark
-and other misc additions

In closing..

All core systems, 3rd party applications, graphics and APUG custom modifications have been either upgraded or re-coded from scratch. This development took months, 100's of hours and a fair bit of expense (softwares and freelance coding). To be honest the expense was not something easily covered by advertising and subscriptions. In other words we would not turn away any donations to help get us back in the black, so if you feel compelled to donate you can do so by clicking here. It would be greatly appreciated to say the least.

Please keep in mind the upgrades were vast and we will come across unforeseen issues over the next few days. We will work through each issue as it arises.

I hope you enjoy the new APUG!

Thanks again for your patience during the upgrades!

Sean

[MattKing]

Looks great so far Sean - get some sleep!

[M.A.Longmore]

Thanks Sean !!!

[Sean]

Thanks guys! Yeah I'm pretty beat. I'll keep watch for a bit just to make sure nothing it out of whack, then get some rest. Still a bit of tweaking to do. Someone already suggested more visibility on mouse over links so will check into that.

[Kevin Caulfield]

Thanks for all your work, Sean. It looks great so far.

[Ken Nadvornick]

"You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!" -- Charles Duke, July 20, 1969

Ken

[Craig Swensson]

Big effort, looks great, well done,thank you

[Poisson Du Jour]

I can well imagine the amount of work that goes on rebuilding forums from scratch. Have heard about it in other forums locally and who have not been as successful. This redev. is quite sharp and snazzy. But much the same shades of grey are still there. Could really do with more colour; it's not a monochrome world...
But I really do like the clean layout and crispness of navigation which is familiar to me being a member of several other forums; it's very professional and organised in its first-on appearance — easygoing and modern.

Not sure when APUG went down; I got severely distracted late last Thursday and didn't get back to the web. But at least we would have got some creative photography done while APUG was down for the count. Didn't we...!?

[mooseontheloose]

Not sure when APUG went down; I got severely distracted late last Thursday and didn't get back to the web. But at least we would have got some creative photography done while APUG was down for the count. Didn't we...!?

I wish! It's too hot and hazy over here to get anything interesting.

And I like the new redesign -- very familiar (love the greys of APUG, I think it sets it apart from other forums) yet modern.

[maarten m]

thanks!