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In this post from last year, I promised some new forum themes would be coming soon. Ok, so my idea of 'soon' may not be the same as everyone else's, but the themes are now installed 
Based around the updated Bitter Chocolate theme I developed last year, there's now a new Prussian Blue that replaces the old one (better logos and buttons), and a new version of Chocolate Lime. Additionally, there's a brand new one called MG Red/Grey, for all you MG fans
Feedback is welcome - but I can't honour any 'requests' for your particular car in the top banner. There are curently 39 images on a random sequence rotation. More will be added from time to time, and I'll use images from the gallery or photos from shows. If you want your car up there in future, why not create a photo album and get showing your car! (see new features notes below)
One of the criticisms of the MG theme that I'm expecting, is that it's a little garish! I'm planning on correcting this in the not-too-distant future. It's a bit loud at the moment
So how do you use the new themes? You can select them in one of two ways:
1) In the bottom left corner of this very page, there's a selector box containing all the different styles. Simply pick one and the screen will automatically update to the chosen style.
2) Click on "User Options" (top left menu bar), then click "Edit Options", then at the bottom there's a selector for "Forum Skin" - choose the one you want and hit 'Save Changes'.
The first option is more 'temporary' - if you log in from a different PC you'll be back to the default theme. The second one ties your choice to your account, so if you use a different PC from time to time, your theme choice will still be retained.
New features - the more observant among you will have noticed I've been upgrading the forum software a lot recently. The most recent updates were really to fix bugs and improve security, but you may have noticed there's a new image resizer. If you find a thread with a picture larger than 350 pixels wide, it'll be 'shrunk' on the page - and when you click it, a larger version will appear. You'll also have the ability to view other pictures on the same page in a sort of 'slideshow'.
Last year we performed a major update of the forum software - this brought in some new features, such as blogs, photo albums, and social groups. Since not many of you have used these features, I thought I'd take some time to highlight what you may be missing out on!
Photo albums: On the top menu bar there's a button marked 'Community' - click this, then click 'Pictures & Albums'. Once there, you can view other members' public photos (or their private ones if you're in their contact list), or create your own album and upload your own. Click the link at the bottom to create an album, perhaps for your car, and begin uploading photos. You can choose to make the photos public (visible to all) or private (only visible to your friends)
Blogs: Click on the 'blogs' link on the top menu bar, and you'll be taken to the blog section. You can read what other people have written about - perhaps they've been undertaking a restoration or modification and have documented the procedure, or perhaps they're just talking about some other aspect of their life. On the left, click where it says 'total blogs' to see who's been blogging, and read some of their comments. Then, when you're ready to start your own blog, click on the 'Post to your Blog' link on the left of the screen.
Social Groups: On the top menu bar there's a button marked 'Community' - click this, then click 'Social Groups'. Various areas of the country have social groups which you can join to arrange meet-ups or just discuss things 'off-forum'. You can see what members are in your area, and make contact with them more easily. This brings us nicely on to:
Contacts/Friends: Either from the above page, or by clicking the button marked 'Community' on the top menu bar and then clicking 'Contacts and Friends', you can add various forum members to your contact list. Once you have a network of contacts, you can choose to share pictures/albums with them, amongst other things.
Based around the updated Bitter Chocolate theme I developed last year, there's now a new Prussian Blue that replaces the old one (better logos and buttons), and a new version of Chocolate Lime. Additionally, there's a brand new one called MG Red/Grey, for all you MG fans
Feedback is welcome - but I can't honour any 'requests' for your particular car in the top banner. There are curently 39 images on a random sequence rotation. More will be added from time to time, and I'll use images from the gallery or photos from shows. If you want your car up there in future, why not create a photo album and get showing your car! (see new features notes below)
One of the criticisms of the MG theme that I'm expecting, is that it's a little garish! I'm planning on correcting this in the not-too-distant future. It's a bit loud at the moment
So how do you use the new themes? You can select them in one of two ways:
1) In the bottom left corner of this very page, there's a selector box containing all the different styles. Simply pick one and the screen will automatically update to the chosen style.
2) Click on "User Options" (top left menu bar), then click "Edit Options", then at the bottom there's a selector for "Forum Skin" - choose the one you want and hit 'Save Changes'.
The first option is more 'temporary' - if you log in from a different PC you'll be back to the default theme. The second one ties your choice to your account, so if you use a different PC from time to time, your theme choice will still be retained.
New features - the more observant among you will have noticed I've been upgrading the forum software a lot recently. The most recent updates were really to fix bugs and improve security, but you may have noticed there's a new image resizer. If you find a thread with a picture larger than 350 pixels wide, it'll be 'shrunk' on the page - and when you click it, a larger version will appear. You'll also have the ability to view other pictures on the same page in a sort of 'slideshow'.
Last year we performed a major update of the forum software - this brought in some new features, such as blogs, photo albums, and social groups. Since not many of you have used these features, I thought I'd take some time to highlight what you may be missing out on!
Photo albums: On the top menu bar there's a button marked 'Community' - click this, then click 'Pictures & Albums'. Once there, you can view other members' public photos (or their private ones if you're in their contact list), or create your own album and upload your own. Click the link at the bottom to create an album, perhaps for your car, and begin uploading photos. You can choose to make the photos public (visible to all) or private (only visible to your friends)
Blogs: Click on the 'blogs' link on the top menu bar, and you'll be taken to the blog section. You can read what other people have written about - perhaps they've been undertaking a restoration or modification and have documented the procedure, or perhaps they're just talking about some other aspect of their life. On the left, click where it says 'total blogs' to see who's been blogging, and read some of their comments. Then, when you're ready to start your own blog, click on the 'Post to your Blog' link on the left of the screen.
Social Groups: On the top menu bar there's a button marked 'Community' - click this, then click 'Social Groups'. Various areas of the country have social groups which you can join to arrange meet-ups or just discuss things 'off-forum'. You can see what members are in your area, and make contact with them more easily. This brings us nicely on to:
Contacts/Friends: Either from the above page, or by clicking the button marked 'Community' on the top menu bar and then clicking 'Contacts and Friends', you can add various forum members to your contact list. Once you have a network of contacts, you can choose to share pictures/albums with them, amongst other things.
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