Yes, it is seamless at the moment. Will it be in 5 years from now? Perhaps. Since I'd like to see LAShTAL working perfectly in 5-10 years from today I have to keep planning in advance... a lot in advance. 😀

"until the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis shall arise..." - Liber CCXX, III, xxxiv

Actually, even beyond that. Even Hrumachis will need some place to store data too. 😀

Due to an importan upgrade I have to perform on LAShTAL server we will experience a short downtime tomorrow around 10AM(London time). I will let you know once the system is stable again.

While we'll be happy that the _system_ will once again be stable, what of the users? Any upgrade possible to improve their stability?

Ah, is that why "Lashtal.com/portal" shows a blank page instead of the homepage?

Markus

Blank page on /portal was not intentional.  I'm terribly sorry for this unplanned glitch. Update that I'll be doing tomorrow morning has nothing to do with website directly, this blank page was caused by something else. I'm on it.

No worries, eol! And by the way, thanks for the great work you're doing on this site!

Markus

Fixed. There was an error with caching module we're using, it should be all fine now.

Server upgraded. If you notice anything not working properly, please, let me know. 🙂

Hi all,

I will be fixing some issues on the forum in the next 30 minutes. I have just created a backup in case something goes wrong. Try not to post anyting till I get back to you, if possible. There is a minor chance that I will have to revert to backup I just created meaning that anything posted beyond this point may get lost.

Ok, I'm done. Everything ought to be OK now and no messages were lost. 🙂 Please, let me know if you notice any issues of forums.

i think the time on the forum posts are out, you appear to be working one hour in the future!

Yes if you are in London, not if you are somewhere else in Europe. I'll set our default time zone to UK. 🙂

shouldn't it be Cairo Time?

Some minor cosmetic changes introduced in the last few minutes. Apologies for any inadvertent glitches.

why, you're looking ten years younger if a day!

😉

I like the repositioning of the menu items at the head of the home page.

Thanks, Mick, for the feedback. Just experimenting with some ideas before the next substantial upgrade. Simplicity is obviously the key with more modern sites and that's the direction we will be heading in.

Hi all,

I have to perform a few important upgrades on LAShTAL server. One of those requires server reboot. I plan to this maintenance work tomorrow morning ~10AM(CET). I don't expect to have downtime for more than 15-20 minutes. I will post an information here once everything is done.

All done. Everything seems to be working fine. Please report any issues that weren't there earlier. 🙂

Excellent as usual! Thanks!

I've added an 'Events Calendar' to the bottom of each page - sparsely populated at the moment but future news items with dates attached will be included...

Thanks!

It might be useful to include an 'agenda' view or the like as in the monthly view one would have to know when an event was taking place in order to select the date.

cheers,
Wm

Thanks for the feedback. I've added a List tab - click on it to see all events in the month you're currently viewing. It's a little bit ugly at the moment, but hopefully it's a step in the right direction?

oh yes, that is quite helpful.

Extensive change of design for the site was implemented earlier today, with a more 'standards-compliant' Theme which should make browsing of the main site and these Forums a more agreeable process. As usual, please alert me via webmaster@lashtal.com of any unanticipated problems...

93, Paul and eol!

Looks way better! And I have the feeling it is also way faster. Thanks!

Love=Law
Lutz

Looking good Paul!

Indeed - it is definitely faster - both on mobile and desktop. Perhaps now those arguments going round and round can actually reach escape velocity!

The posting widget boxes have changed from a barely visible dark gray on light gray to a very visible black on white.

However, the forum Replies and Topics have changed from a very visible black on white to a less visible light blue on white.

I fail to understand the universal trend among web developers to make letters less and less visible by reducing the contrast between the font and the background.

Further changes today, including a more legible, larger font on the main page and in posts. Additional changes to come over the next few days, including new functionality.

Keep checking back!

The latest round of improvements has eliminated the "New Forum Topics" sidebar. While not as useful as the old version that listed new topics and new replies together, this was still useful, as there doesn't seem to be any other way to know of new topics now, unless one opens each subfourm to check, or is there some other method?

Anyway, if the "New Forum Topics" sidebar could be restored, i think that would be helpful.

The latest round of improvements has eliminated the “New Forum Topics” sidebar.

I hadn't noticed that, ignant666. Personally I would prefer it if the 'Recent Forum Replies' and 'New Forum Topics' were merged, so that all furum postings were together in the one view.

I agree that the "old way", with new topics and new replies integrated in a "Recent Forum Activity", like the one that used to head the old version of the main lashtal page, would be best, but at least would like to get back the "new topics" sidebar that just disappeared.

Done. Apologies for the omission.

You might also find the following menu item useful: Content | Members | Recent Activity

Thanx very much for restoring the "New Topics", and for the tip as to the "Recent Activity" page

I too will make the comment that the site is now faster. Unfortunately I hadn't been coming here much because of the speed issue after the site revamp because of my shitty internet connection. I am really pleased now as it seems to be back to as fast as it ever has been for me. I just hope that any future upgrades don't tinker with the speed.

Yes, it does seem faster. The main improvement in my opinion is in the sharpness and freshness of the display. The font seems a lot clearer.

Thanks for the feedback here and through Private Messages and emails; it has all been positive and constructive.

Additions over the past 24 hours:

1 - A new Menu option: Sitemap. This gives you a (very!) long page that includes a list of all the News items on LAShTAL.COM, all in an easy to search and easy to access format.

2 - A new header that includes quick and convenient icon links to LAShTAL.COM's main social media locations: Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest and Instagram.

3 - There's a new tabbed block to the right of the main page giving quick and convenient access to News items (Popular and Recent) as well as recent Comments and a list of Tags used on the site.

There's no additional loading time for the site - with the exception of the Sitemap, which takes a while to prepare!

Best wishes to all Members here,

Paul

social media locations: Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest and Instagram.

what? no SnapChat?

Have to say... Major improvement on all fronts. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication Paul & eol.

PS only thing I noticed and may have overlooked... How do we see who is online? I am a nosey bugger.

@ptoner - Oops! I'll return the list of online users later today. Didn't think anyone used it or found it interesting...

For what it's worth, I find the whole upgraded, or new improved Lashtal website an absolute pain to use. It's not just that I have to hunt each time to find the forum replies - they now seem to be buried deep beneath relatively stale articles - it's the whole experience which is, simply put, is clunky.
Some times there is virtue in avoiding progress.

@ptoner wrote:

PS only thing I noticed and may have overlooked… How do we see who is online?

Now back in place (bottom left).

Thanks Paul.
Just looked at it.. either I am the only one on, or its not showing others activity.

Also the formatting of Youtube/Video content is a bit off. The ratios are wrong.

A further observation is that the "Recent" tab only checks the news items. It would be much more beneficial to see actual posts that have recently been posted on, or latest posts created, maybe even both.

Scrap that.. realise you already provide it above that box. Opps. Sorry.