Question about groups...?

Zen

Zen

Posts: 763   +49
I was just a little curious to know, with this new forum setup, maybe I'm just not looking in the right spot, but where did the "groups" go? The Microsoft group, Linux group, The Coffee Shop etc. etc. where did they go? I'm hoping that these things just need time to catch up to the forum changes and will be available shortly!
 
We'll have to wait for a more official answer from Julio, but I assume groups on the old forum were lost in the transition :(.
 
You've got to be kidding me! There's a chance that the groups are now gone! I know the Administrators and Moderators right now have and will be investing a lot of man hours into this forum change, but you guy's aren't the only ones, you all will be investing man hours in the evolution of TechSpot, while all my man hours, granted probably no where close to you guy's, are now most likely lost! I was so much enjoying moderating things with those groups, it helped make me feel like I was doing something for this place.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! :(
 
:( Yeah, I believe the groups were a casualty of the upgrade, but I could be wrong so there's still an inkling of hope. On the bright side, there are plans to introduce more things for users to do in the long haul and that's made possible by the new platform. Somewhat of a bittersweet situation, but you should have plenty to look forward to.
 
Hi Zen, to be completely honest I don't have an answer for you right now. I will check out groups and how Xenforo manages those (if at all) tomorrow when I come back in better shape. Here's a status message I just posted on another thread regarding our forum move:


Apologies in advance if I can only offer a vague reply for now. We just spent 16 hours straight working on this forum move that obviously didn't go without hiccups. But on the bright side our dedicated team of devs were up to the task when things turned sour in the middle of the transition.

We did our homework and chose the best community platform from all of those available out there. But even ourselves have been unable to explore it and learn it in full until now. That said, many of the things that we are getting questions about or requests are readily available, just in different places, and more often than not, in better shape and form than before.

The "My posts" equivalent is "Your content", from the top menu drop down on the right side of the screen.

Just today we fixed over a dozen bugs that we didn't imagine were going to be there after the move, and we hope we can keep improving and fixing more things in the coming days and weeks. After 16 hours straight, I'm calling it a day (at 5am), but we'll be back for more very soon. Thanks for your understanding.
Click to expand...
 
Groups was not a must-have feature when we searched for our new forum platform, it's not a key feature of the site although we see the value for TS members. Removing a feature is not an easy decision, but even Julio only discovered the Groups feature last year. I don't think they were widely used.

That's an explanation for why we haven't included Groups in this new transition, it wasn't a priority. I know Julio would love to implement Groups for the few users who use them and I've already contacted him with a possible solution for Social Groups, which I'm sure we'll be analyzing for future implementation.

I can't promise Groups will be implemented nor an ETA if we do implement them, what I do promise, and I think Julio feels the same way, is that we'll be looking for alternatives and if we find a good one it will be part of the site. We might even make them more prominent, I feel the VB implementation we had was very hard to find.

[Edit]: Looks like Julio gave a more direct answer in the post above, but we still have to look into that add-on, which does looks promising.
 
Indeed, I already bought the add-on so we can look into it... waiting for an email with the login and code.
 
Thank you one and all for at least taking the time to answer my question here. I'm just rather going to look at this from a side of optimism, and take what Julio had to say about the "add-on" and about "give us a week" thing! I'm just hoping that this "add-on" allows for data "recovery", for it's going to be a pain in my butt to try and remember everything, group names, group images, group topics and conversations, but more importantly...."group memberships"!

But I'll just kick back, try to relax and see where this take us!

Again "thanks"! :D
 
The add-on indeed has an import feature, we haven't tested and we just found out about it. Thats why I didn't want to get anyone's hope up, because we haven't tested it.
 
No worry's Mario, no worry's! I'm just glad to hear that there is indeed an "add-on" feature for groups, I'm glad to hear that it's already been grabbed and soon most likely be tested. But more importantly, I'm glad to hear it has an "import" feature, would have been a real "B" word to try and recover all the groups I've set up by memory!

Thanks Mario for letting me know all this, it is most appreciated!
 
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I'm pretty sure it's of small consequence, but I did get access to the MS XP group (of which I'm a member). I tested with a small post and it went up the way it usually does. I just entered the word "groups" on the search option and there it was.

Hope the add-on option works out OK.
 
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The groups still work, but I had to type in the URL (actually, the browser remembered it and I chose it from a dropdown menu).
 
For those interested this is the direct link: https://www.techspot.com/vb/groups/

If the groups add-on works out we would import directly from there so there would be no data loss, if it doesn't workout you can keep using the vb groups, although it's kinda deprecated, for as long as they exist.
 
Nice to hear that.
And congratulations on the Enthusiast title, Dawn! :p Just noticed it.
Looks like there is a lot to fix yet on the new platform.

And before I forget: Nice job, Julio, Mario, Per, Matt, and everyone else involved in this enrichment! :)
 
Thank you so very much Dawn for figuring out a way to access the groups! This way of doing things is kind of like using the back door approach, but heck, whatever way that works is what's most important! I'm glad all the groups are still there and hope that one day there will be more of a front door approach. So again thank you Dawn for being an awesome detective, and thank you Mario for offering up that "direct link"! :)
 
Any changes to settings done in XenForo will not update the vBulletin groups, and vice versa. You must change them in both systems.
 
Just a little curious to know if there have been any advances in the area of having our groups back on this new forum format, without having to use the now discontinued older forum format?

I'm still trying to keep relaxed about all of this, but today I had a revelation in regards to an idea for a new group, but had to stop myself from lifting a finger. For if I start it on the older forum format, I haven't been given any assurances that the newly created group would survive the transfer to our new forum.

So any update about this would be most appreciated.

"Thanks"
 
So far, I haven't seen any "community in a community" system on XenForo. But Julio says he's upgrading to Xenforo's latest version very soon. Maybe we'll see a group plugin/addon then?
 
Considering we are still fixing a few bugs here and there and stuff in our to-do list, give us at least 2 more weeks until we migrate the groups. Could be sooner but I can't make any promises. They will be here soon though! :D
 
No worries, Julio! We know you guys already have a lot on your plate, and more pressing issues. Sorry to bother about the thread to be moved. It kinda skipped me to PM Matt instead. :D
And speaking of PM, is the "attach a file" option still there? Because I couldn't find it. And, I didn't get "new PM notif or popup like earlier, so I had to manually check if there are any.
 
Oh. Maybe I'm getting you wrong, but here's mine:Capture.JPG
Sorry if I didn't make my statement clear, but I'm talking about the Private Messaging (PM) system, now labeled "Conversations". There, even the "More Options" button (equivalent of "Go Advanced" I think) doesn't offer file attachment.
I think your screenshot is that of the "Reply to Thread". Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
To be honest I don't recall ever using attachments via PM before, so on Xenforo we are not offering them as we thought those would be unnecessary/nobody was using them for that purpose. Am I wrong?
 
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