Admin Posted July 5, 2019 Posted July 5, 2019 You will see that I have changed the site back to IPS as I just lost far too much money trying to get things developed for Xenforo as I didn't want just a Facebook alternative but instead a full function support system for all pilots. I hope you understand but after just losing another $1,500 USD to developers in trying to get things like a Classifieds system, a Flying Clubs section and many other great enhancements to improve the site for everyone I just couldn't keep giving away my money to rip off developers...although I just got $250 back after a PayPal complaint I won't see the rest of the money. IPS has all these great extra enhancements already built in and @Ahmed Zayed is back to help with site development and we have been able to fix some of the issues we previously had. I so much know that I have stuffed you around so much and all I can do is apologise till the cows come home but like a Pheonix, Recreational Flying WILL rise from the ashes and be such a comprehensive full on solution to everything, to every question you may have, an enormous full repository of everything related to Recreational Aviation with so much more than any social media entity can provide. What you are seeing right now is the standard IPS site and over the next few days I will be posting in this thread information as I get things back to normal and as I turn each feature on, so please, if you see this thread come up in the What's New page then read it to find out more. Please, if you have any comments, problems or anything else, just start a new thread about it and others can join in on them. 2 1 2 1
Admin Posted July 5, 2019 Author Posted July 5, 2019 I have just updated the Main Menu. After I setup the other sections like Classifieds, Suppliers, Aircraft, Tutorials, On This Day etc, they will then be added to the main menu. This will be done in the coming days after I have the site running smoothly like we had never changed...well sort of 1
Admin Posted July 5, 2019 Author Posted July 5, 2019 I have turned the Blogs on however I still need to migrate the existing blog entries over and set a few things up in that section. I have also turned the Clubs section on but there is a lot of configuration to do in this as well but it is there. Both of the above will be done today after I have tuned the What's New section which is the next priority 1
Admin Posted July 6, 2019 Author Posted July 6, 2019 I am happy to say that the Blogs Section is now up and running with the data migrated from existing Blogs. The Blog System is a great asset to the site for users to either create their very own blog about anything at all, their training story, the build of an aircraft and in fact it can be anything that you want to create your very own Blog about. So I hope you enjoy this great new feature...start blogging !
Admin Posted July 6, 2019 Author Posted July 6, 2019 A "Go To Top" button has now been added. As you scroll down a page you will notice an orange arrow-up appear in the bottom right corner of the page. Clicking this will scroll the page back to the top. Hope this helps
Admin Posted July 7, 2019 Author Posted July 7, 2019 I have got the new Clubs section up an running. This is a very powerful addition to the site and is packed full of features. I have just created a Private Club for Instructors to get together and discuss pilot instruction in a closed group which requires members who wish to join in this group can ask for access but discussions etc are kept private. Clubs can be made open to everyone, semi private to club members only or completely private, you can choose what you would like your club to be. The Clubs section is a great opportunity for flying clubs and schools to create a presence of their own and have their own: Forum Event Calendar with rsvp capabilities Sharing files/downloads between members Their very own Photo Gallery Their own Video Library Adverts between members Their own Sponsorship page to promote their club sponsors Their own Blog List their own suppliers to promote them Tutorials and much more ...you can even charge a membership fee if you like !!! I can even set it up that if you have your own domain name, I can have your domain name point directly to your own Club section so you have no cost web hosting whilst providing you with an advanced web site that has all the above features. PLUS as new additions are made to Recreational Flying these additions are passed over to your club as well. If you currently have a Facebook page, well, you know how limited you are with that so why not also have a Club here that works in with your Facebook page for all the other features that you don't get with Facebook Don't forget you can also start your very own special interest group here as well with a Club, a specific aircraft type group, a specific interest group, a regional flying group etc Go on, start your Club (group) today and invite others to join your group...and enjoy
Admin Posted July 7, 2019 Author Posted July 7, 2019 WOW, we are powering ahead here...the Classifieds system is now up and running and the best of all...IT'S FREE I have created some standard categories at this point for all your classifieds so select which one best suits your type of classified and enter away. Let's get the Classifieds section up and running and populated with anything that you may want to convert to cash...there is even a Non-Aviation category for you to use For commercial users I have also enabled the "Store" facility as a test to see if that works well. The Store feature is very much like an ebay store so when you list a classified it will show a link to your store for users to view your other items you have for sale. To turn the Store feature on simply go to your Profile settings and turn the store on. Let's see if that helps everyone here at Recreational Flying A great new feature for everyone
Admin Posted July 8, 2019 Author Posted July 8, 2019 At long last the Recreational Flying Google Earth Airstrip Database is coming back and it is even better. What makes it better is it now has the ability for site users to add their location to the map as well so if anyone is flying to a specific strip they can see which other Recreational Flying members are also near that strip to organise a catch up, help to see the area, things to do, places to see, available accommodation etc. The new Recreational Flying Airstrip Map will help bring the social aspects of our flying together. The map also shows the location of Clubs and Schools etc More on this very soon as all that is to do is to reformat the current list of Airstrips and import that into the mapping function...hopefully the developer doing this will have that done in the next day or so. This will be a great asset to everyone here 2
Admin Posted July 8, 2019 Author Posted July 8, 2019 I have been able to add the Prefix system to the site like we had before. Prefixes help to define your thread better when you start one with a small icon being displayed just before the thread title. Hope they help
Admin Posted July 8, 2019 Author Posted July 8, 2019 Ok, the Maps facility is now operational for everyone. In the main menu you will see the addition of the Maps option. You will see on the Maps page all the different Airfields have been imported and you can select which level of Airport, Airfield, Airstrip etc that you would like to see plus you can add any comments to any of them that you may like to make. I hope to add other map components for you to select from but at this stage there are: Members Major Airport Licensed Airport Unlicensed Airfield Private Airstrip Clubs and Schools
Admin Posted July 8, 2019 Author Posted July 8, 2019 Oh, forgot to mention...the maps will slowly update with users locations over a period of time so it doesn't strain the server with trying to add nearly 12,000 users all at once on the map
Admin Posted July 9, 2019 Author Posted July 9, 2019 Profile completion done. There are some components of the site that derive information from a user's profile such as the User's Location Profile field in order to populate the Maps section which enables the opportunity for greater social interaction between site members. The system will ask for these profile fields to be completed when a user logs in...currently the fields are: Location - as described above Aircraft - so owners/pilots of specific aircraft types can help each other Country - so pilots are not caught out between different laws and conditions between countries Thanks for your help and understanding in this
Admin Posted July 9, 2019 Author Posted July 9, 2019 We have long awaited a means to give commercial suppliers a chance to promote themselves here at Recreational Flying without the site being hijacked. Well now there is a whole and extremely powerful dedicated section to suppliers. Suppliers can create a whole page for them to promote themselves, list their products and even release news items like special sales, new products, etc. For site users you can look up a supplier for what you may need even see what suppliers are local to you from those that are listed and get in first with some bargains. There is even categories for places to visit, accommodation and more and if you would like to see any other categories added then please just let me know. Please help to get this great new section of Recreational Flying populated with as many suppliers of products that will help other site members know where they can go to to get something they may need. Access the new Suppliers section along with all the other new sections from the main menu column and enjoy.
Admin Posted July 9, 2019 Author Posted July 9, 2019 Ok, so what's next... I have added many great new features to the site now which are waiting for you all to use and populate Next features all require some lengthy amount of work: Overall Site Theme - I need to get an overall site theme going as in the colours, styles, fonts etc...I have asked @Ahmed Zayed explore all the hundreds of different ones to see if he can find one that will suit us... @Ahmed Zayed developed an Xenforo one Videos - as the Gallery can only accommodate pictures all the entries that have a video attached to it will need to be manually moved over to the new videos section Aircraft - all of @red750work in over 100 aircraft listed in the old aircraft section will have to be manually moved over to a new Aircraft section which I haven't defined the best approach for this new section as yet Tutorials - a tutorial section needs to be added and there is a couple of different alternatives for this...once I have worked out the best approach then all of the tutorials will need to be copied and pasted over Events - the events calendar is going but needs to be populated with upcoming events...this does require some time but only initially to get the basic and recurring ones in first Articles - the articles section is installed but not yet activated as it requires a bit of effort in time to start populating it and defining a way to keep it getting populated Aviation News - still to be defined exactly how I am going to achieve this ToDo's down the track - On This Day, Iconic Aviators section and more So there is a current snapshot of what is still to do but each one will be more time consuming to get going but in the mean time there are a lot of new sections on the site that I hope you will all start making use of
Admin Posted July 10, 2019 Author Posted July 10, 2019 I think the best solution for the Aircraft section is as seen in these screen shots. There is one little piece of coding left to size and center the aircraft image properly on the entry page but I think it looks good. Naturally any comments you have please start a thread so I can hear your thoughts. Subject to your thoughts I should be able to start painfully migrating the aircraft over to here through a copy and paste of the information which should take a couple of days.
Admin Posted July 13, 2019 Author Posted July 13, 2019 The coding for the new Aircraft Section is completed and waiting for @red750 to approve before I copy across all the previous Aircraft Section entries so that is looking good and will serve as the same look and feel for other sections of the site like Famous Aviators etc. There are two things that I have started threads on asking for your input before I can continue with them: Site Menu Structure proposal Site overall theme - Pick one Can you help by having a look at these two and adding your vote/comments...thanks
Admin Posted July 14, 2019 Author Posted July 14, 2019 The Thread Post # has been added to posts in the top right hand corner of each post. T%his enables a user to be able to make reference to a specific post # within the thread if they don't specifically need to Quote the contents of the post
Admin Posted July 17, 2019 Author Posted July 17, 2019 SORRY, HAD TO REVERT AS I JUST REALISED THERE ARE NO SUB MENUS - WILL GET @Ahmed Zayed to look into it and advise No doubt you can now see the new overall Theme of the site has been updated with a fresh look...hope you like it. Any comments you may have you can place them in the Discussion Thread on it at:
Admin Posted July 20, 2019 Author Posted July 20, 2019 Hopefully you will have now noticed that the new theme has been turned on thanks to @Ahmed Zayed having fixed the sub menu issue with it. Hope you like it...the site, I think, is not only going well but now also looks good and there is still a lot more to come in creating the one single overall respository of information to help all aviators...please let all your flying colleagues know 1
Admin Posted July 21, 2019 Author Posted July 21, 2019 I have caught up with converting all the 1st Class Members and set advance permissions for them. They now also have their own 1st Class Members forum where they can post what they like between them (without any moderation) plus given the opportunity to score any 1st Class Member Only Clear Prop Shop specials. If I missed any one PLEASE LET ME KNOW To become a 1st Class Member and help support the site's costs with a $50 yearly donation simply click your avatar at the top of the main menu and select "Manage Subscriptions" from the drop down. Thank you to all those that help support the site by either being a 1st Class Member or helping with the management of specific site sections
Admin Posted July 21, 2019 Author Posted July 21, 2019 Oops, I have stuffed things up with the sub menu...hoping @Ahmed Zayed can jump in and save the day and fix it
Admin Posted July 21, 2019 Author Posted July 21, 2019 Phew... @Ahmed Zayed has saved the day and all working properly again...thanks Ahmed 2
Admin Posted July 24, 2019 Author Posted July 24, 2019 You will now notice the paint brush in the right side of the sub menu...this is a tool that allows you to select your own main colour scheme for the site just in case you don't like the default one I have selected. Note that if you select a different colour another button will appear next to the paint brush allowing you to undo the change and come back to the default...enjoy
Admin Posted July 24, 2019 Author Posted July 24, 2019 I have commenced the reduction of the main menu by creating a main section with sub section features. This was highlighted in the thread: The first one is the new Media section which will contain: 1. The Photo Gallery 2. The Video Library 3. A new sub section with various aviation Articles 4. The upcoming resurrection of the Aviation News section from around the world I am going as fast as I can to bring to you all the great new sections however I am also weary of bombarding the Whats New page with so many new entries for a given subject area as I populate those new sections. What I need to populate now are: 1. Migrate the remainder of @red750 aircraft entries from the old software one by one (still about 60 to go) 2. Migrate all of John Brandon's Flying Tutorials into the Tutorial Section (that's a big job itself) 3. Migrate all the Videos from the old software and from the Gallery into the Video section (the old software combined photos with videos, this software uses separate sections for photos and videos) With so much work to do in these areas I apologise if I flood the Whats New page with so many entries. Don't forget you can start adding your own entries into these sections for everyone to see You can add YouTube, Vimeo etc Videos straight into the Video Section You can ALSO add a video that you have taken straight from your phone
Admin Posted July 25, 2019 Author Posted July 25, 2019 Thanks to @Ahmed Zayed we have our Weekly Newsletter now working again. This one is slightly different than before and I welcome any thoughts and suggestions you may have on it when it is sent out on Sunday so please advise Under the Main Menu Option "Members" you will see a sub menu of "Newsletter settings" which provides you with a facility to turn on or off your Newsletters
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