Fansub.TV Next Generation Project

[Maiku_Ando]

Announcing the Fansub.TV Next Generation Project

In an attempt to try to bring FTV back to life and bring in some new features I present this new project with the first changes starting this Friday (GMT).

The end result (planned to be complete by April 2017) will be that FTV will merge forums with another site I operate (MATV) to allow us to consolodate the software license and it will allow FTV to gain new software and features. It will be a merger in the sense that there will be a single forum (FTV's forum) in terms of posts and members, but BOTH sites will still look like and operate as their original names.

So FTV will still be FTV, the name wont change, the url (address in your browser) etc will still be fansub.tv just as before but it will also get a bright and modern new look / design. The new design is closer to how the front page looks.

Some planned NEW features (by april 2017) Now open to use !

• Updated Forum Layout/Design - Draft version is here.
• Image and Video Galleries - OPEN! (Go checkout the Christmas Gallery!)
• Mini Blogs (Note this is in addition to the existing blogs) - Open!
• Live chat system - Open - Click 'Chat' on the menu at the top.
• PM system upgraded to a 'conversation' style layout - Done!
• Mobile Friendly Skin - Done (could use some tidying up)

This is a large project which will take a long time and a lot of work to complete, there will be some times when things wont work or wont look right, and some times when I will have to take the entire site offline for a while.
I ask for everyones paitence during those times and while the main site is offline, FTV will be re-directed to a mini page that has some details / updates on whats going on.

Due to the large amount of work needed, it will be done in stages or 'phases' as follows:

Phase 0 (work already done so far)
A complete copy of Fansub.TV was taken and upgraded on a development server and a merge of the sites was tested. The new design/layout was also tested as well as ability to correctly operate as separate sites. This development site will be used to test and work out problems in advance of doing things to the main FTV site. So far it has been working very well and better than expected. Some of the original FTV site was also able to work again.

Phase 1 - Friday November 11th - Sunday November 13th - FTV will be offline.
This will allow me to take a backup of FTV and upgrade the forum to the right version for future work.

Fansub.tv will be redirected to a mini site to explain whats happening.
The original Fansub server will be shutdown
The entire server will be imaged and archived. In the event of a problem with the project, the entire of FTV can be restored like going back in time to that date.
Server started up
New forum software installed
Forum upgrade started
Testing
Server shutdown again
Entire server imaged again (its good to have backups at each stage)
server started up again
Fansub.TV directed back to the original server with new software.

NEW features after phase 1:

• Updated Forum Layout/Design
• PM system upgraded to a 'conversation' style layout
• Mobile Friendly Skin

Feel free to post replies / comments / discuss below etc, feedback is welcomed xD

Here is what the development site looked like after its 'Phase 1' was complete:

 

[ImTakes]

QUOTE "I got to see your nice post in the forum, thank you for that, but why did you delete it?" Maiku_Ando-san  Nov 10 2016, 02:12 PM



My post was acting glitchy-weird so I deleted it and am here to say ...

 

[Maiku_Ando]

QUOTE

"I got to see your nice post in the forum, thank you for that, but why did you delete it?" Maiku_Ando-san� Nov 10 2016, 02:12 PM




My post was acting glitchy-weird so I deleted it and am here to say ...

Thanks ! Hope everyone likes the update... xD

 

[Maiku_Ando]

If your reading this, then your using the new forum

Some of the features now operational:
PMs in conversation style.
A fully themeable and customisable layout and design. (Right now its just using the default theme that comes with it and the FTV logo slapped ontop and a blue bar removed).
Ability to customise your profile page
Comments and messages (a bit like the conversations previosuly) on your profile pages.
A mobile skin - makes it easier to use the site on a mobile/tablet.
Social media integration / sharing.
And it now understands youtube / media links and can show a preview / embed a video.

Please let me know your thoughts / comments and feel free to discuss any/all below.

 

[nijlandp]

It is indeed fun to see the site updated . Till now it does seem to function okay so no problems yet.

 

[Primula]

I like it so far a new change for ftv let hope it make it a little more active. Notice your poke =3

 

[Norren]

The site loads so much faster now!

Nice to see all the progress.

Edit: Interesting, just going to the Blogs page logs you out.

 

[Masich]

I was questioning myself yesterday, if I was on the right site xD

This honestly looks awesome and better compared to any other Forum site I have seen!

 

[Maiku_Ando]

I like it so far a new change for ftv let hope it make it a little more active. Notice your poke =3

Glad you like it, and yea the poke was to test the conversation thing xDD

The site loads so much faster now!

Nice to see all the progress.

Edit: Interesting, just going to the Blogs page logs you out.

Yea the blogs are still broken. The logging out thing is because the old session code isnt compatable so it logs you out. All the old site pages will do that until they have been updated.

I was questioning myself yesterday, if I was on the right site xD

This honestly looks awesome and better compared to any other Forum site I have seen!

lol and again glad you like it, still more stuff to come


Also I have now enabled Profile customisations - you can now put a background pattern or image on your profile, take a look at my profile for an example

 

[Norren]

I'm going to make a CSS suggestion:

.custom_fields .fc {
display: block;
max-height: 5rem;
overflow-y: scroll;
}

Wall of interests crits page length for over nine thousand~

 

[Masich]

I found a small error as may be noticeable...

I can't change my profile icon >.>

 

[Norren]

I found a small error as may be noticeable...

I can't change my profile icon >.>

A few glitches I found with that page:

1. There's a 100kb limit on uploaded images for it.
2. It appears to not upload at all.

It can however, load from a site, so you can post to imgur and load your avatar here.

 

[Maiku_Ando]

I'm going to make a CSS suggestion:

.custom_fields .fc {
display: block;
max-height: 5rem;
overflow-y: scroll;
}

Wall of interests crits page length for over nine thousand~

Yes the 'interests' will need to be fixed, maybe if everyone put their longer lists of interests on the 'about me' page and just put shorter stuff on the 'interests' box.

A few glitches I found with that page:

1. There's a 100kb limit on uploaded images for it.
2. It appears to not upload at all.

It can however, load from a site, so you can post to imgur and load your avatar here.

Sorry everyone, I had thought I had checked that, I have now set it to 1,000 KB so you should be able to upload images now.
There are hundreds of settings and permissions, somehow I missed the profile pic size!
If anyone finds other limits like that which seem to be a bit 'harsh' or not sensible, please report it / post it here so it can be checked. Many settings got changed or put back to defaults during the upgrade, so for a while it will be a case of find the ones still wrong and I will fix them.

I also increased the amount of PMs which an be in the inbox, so you dont have to delete them so much now.

 

[Primula]

Doesnt change the fact that THIS UPDATE KILL MY PRIMULA AVA!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!

 

[Maiku_Ando]

Doesnt change the fact that THIS UPDATE KILL MY PRIMULA AVA!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!

It broke my Rin ava too, just need to upload it again xD

 

[Ryu]

Doesnt change the fact that THIS UPDATE KILL MY PRIMULA AVA!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!

It broke my Rin ava too, just need to upload it again xD

same here but after a few days, i found how to animate my GiF ava like before...
ere your go :3 let me know, if your ava isn't animated for this forum upgrade

 

[Kid-Wolf]

I go MIA for a while and I see the place got overhauled it seems. Oddly enough I am okay with it.

 

[Primula]

lol forgot where I put the ava it was still connected to my photobucket haha

 

[Maiku_Ando]

I go MIA for a while and I see the place got overhauled it seems. Oddly enough I am okay with it.

WB Wolfie xDD

lol forgot where I put the ava it was still connected to my photobucket haha

lol
It will load a little faster if you upload the picture to the forum.

 

[Maiku_Ando]

As it would appear that everything is working fairly well, and a good number of you seem to think its ok, lets take a look at the next phase...

Phase 2 - (Date to be determined).
This will merge the sites together, and be the second large piece of work that will mean downtime.

Both MATV and Fansub servers will be shutdown, backups will be taken.
Depending on what server is chosen to host the merged site (probably Tohsaka) that will get the converter tool installed and FTV's backups copied onto it.
The conversion tool is run to merge the sites and copy over all the avatars and import the posts and members.
The merged site is checked and the converter is uninstalled.
The site will then come back online and I will have to go around and manually fix some things.
I will then have to copy over and setup the code thats been written on the testing server to make the sites run as 2 themes.
Finally re-open the site.
Following re-openning, there will be a lot of 'moderator' type work, ie moving stuff around and cleaning up etc.

NEW features after phase 2:

• Image and Video Galleries
• Mini Blogs (Note this is in addition to the existing blogs)
• Live chat system

Feel free to post replies / comments / discuss below etc, feedback is welcomed xD

Here is what the new Gallery from the development site looked like after its 'Phase 2' was complete: (some of you may recognise the content is from MATV)

And heres a little something else that wasn't originally planned but might be a good replacement for the 'Episode updates' or 'front page'. What your seeing here is basically MATV but in Fansub colours with the Fansub forum posts. I'd really like to know what everyones thoughts are on this, as this is a working system on MATV, so its easy to have it fully working for Fansub.