Post Mid-July Updates

[Mike]

Good evening,

Additional forum code changes have been implemented, including under-the-hood enhancements to the core forum software, as well as the first update to our content management portal system in some time (CMPS). We will be focusing on an upgraded Downloads section sub-system and the continued production of new forum videos and tutorials.

Be sure to check out Windows 8 Forums where an examination of the latest leaked build of Windows 8 revealed some surprising enhancements to the Windows experience. With Windows 8 still on the distant horizon, now is the time to join Windows 8 Forums and become an early member of what will be a platinum-powered open and free online community. Windows 8 promises no compromises, and we hope to do the same at Windows8Forums.com. With our goal always to promote fair and open discussion and support, Windows 8 Forums will be a clearing house for information. We hope to spell out these goals for you more concisely as we bring you up to speed with media, web, videos, and all sorts of great changes.

New members will notice that the registration process to join either forum has become quite arduous. We have implemented multi-layered spam protection into our registration form to prevent the proliferation of spam advertising by robots and all sorts of non-humans lurking the net with their wares.

Feeling rejuvenated, we hope to renew our vigor and give you an update on the status of our volunteer forum staff applicants. You should be seeing some new faces on board the Windows7Forums.com mothership, and this is a great thing! Before long, we will be participating in an online meeting that will be broadcast to all viewers soon.

We still have many areas to explore with Windows 7, so keep watch and thanks for using the website.

[Mike]

2011-07-21:

API key entered for translator service (previously blank after an update).
Switching server op-cache for better performance.
Possibility of slow server response through ping eliminated for server core.
Upgraded PHP to 5.3.6 and compiled additional PHP optimizers.
Evaluating MySQL response time.
Forum code update to vBulletin 4.1.5 post-Public Beta 1 7/20/2011 nightly build:

• VBIV-12677 Leave/Stay popup is displayed without entering anything in Editor
• VBIV-12691 Hardcoded phrases "Invalid route" and "Invalid action requested" in packages/vbcms/route/content.php
• VBIV-6945 Private message display options Date Filter has styling issues with narrower browser windows
• VBIV-4659 Hovering over user name in last post column always shows "X is offline"
• VBIV-8924 Addtional options on poll edit page are misaligned
• VBIV-12476 Invalid SQL query during cron.php
• VBIV-6689 showgroups.php Not Scalable
• VBIV-6101 Canonical URLs are not being enforced correctly
• VBIV-12506 Post links goes to incorrect thread page if there are posts by global ignored users
• VBIV-10885 "Page X of Y" pagination item has a transparent hardcoded background
• VBIV-10820 Missing closing </ol> in phrase options_options_vbcms_url_text
• VBIV-9643 Typo in phrases error_409_description and error_500_description "An unexpected error has occured"
• VBIV-7606 Cannot edit blog entry from list with option "Disable Problematic AJAX Features"
• VBIV-8940 Search ignore cache setting
• VBIV-11359 Depreciated Style Variables still showing in Style Variable Editor
• VBIV-6228 Postbit_lite Causeing Messed Up Profile Comments
• VBIV-7120 class_taggablecontent.php
• VBIV-12709 "Forum" missing in breadcrumbs when creating/editing/viewing a poll
• VBIV-10429 "right" value of "bodyheader_margin" has no effect
• VBIV-6319 recent_blogs_from_x Phrase in "Access Masks" Phrase Group
• VBIV-11420 Use of {vb:each} with $errors
• VBIV-3220 'Make votes public' option only explained in 'Edit Poll' - not in 'New Poll'
• VBIV-11359 Depreciated Style Variables still showing in Style Variable Editor
• VBIV-7378 Edit a template and get "adding child to non-existent node!" when using incorrect styntax
• VBIV-11814 blog_usercp.php?do=updateprofile => the preview it's a disaster
• VBIV-3017 Double-click 'Reply' goes to Reply With Quote advanced editor
• VBIV-12406 Phishing Security Patch: Domain Whitelist for AdminCP
• VBIV-12736 Smileyworld: Smilie Update and Bonus Pack / Documentation
• Updated the version number
• VBIV-7907 Security warnings due to Facebook Connect when site is using HTTPS / SSL
• VBIV-12746 Warning: class_exists() expects parameter 1 to be string, object given in criteria.php
• VBIV-12742 No "send private message" link on member page in some cases

[Mike]

Greetings,

Recent code changes should result in a 30% performance increase when pages are served from the website. Extensive work has been done in this area. An effort was made to replace the search engine with Sphinx search today, but this is still under planning as of right now.

[Mike]

In addition to Sphinx search, we are now using CSS sprites for most major forum images. This means there will not be as many browser requests for images to the website, as they are all being morphed into one giant CSS sprite image. This image is condensed, compressed, and hosted on the CDN. It includes items like post icons and forum icons. This significantly increases page load time. In some cases there was a reduction of HTTP requests by 4x. This can dramatically improve page loading times on slower connections and has required a lot of editing to get 100%.

[Mike]

Extensive internal work has continued into the day, adapting the CSS sprite model to our various website themes on Windows8Forums.com as well. This, combined with updated web server software, should provide a short-term boost. This is part of a larger plan to lower resource consumption and improve page load times.

In the meantime, efforts to process new moderator applications will continue over the weekend.

• Web server updated to 4.1.2.
• Most images are now rendered as CSS sprites.
• Replaced vBulletin Search with Sphinx.
• OPCache switched from memcache to Xcache
• vBOptimise switched to XCache
• VBSEO switched to XCache
• "Latest Videos" on front page altered
• Images are now being gzipped.
• Consolidating redundant theme templates where available (parent/child)

New systems are in a planning phase for Windows8Forums.com, as well as this site.