Coming Soon:

CheersandGears - The Next Generation

Well it's time for us to upgrade to the next platform of the software CheersandGears.com runs on. It is a pretty big jump, so it won't all happen at once. A couple of features won't work right out of the box and all of our skin templates will need to be re-written.

Improvements coming with the upgrade:

1. Vastly improved search function.
2. A new area for articles separate from the regular forums, the forums will still be used for comments on the articles.
3. View New Content is now more customizable, you'll be able to select the forums you want to monitor.
4. View New Content will FINALLY work correctly and not forget to show you forums you haven't read just because you've logged on in the interim.
5. We will be far more visible to the search engines (we're already pretty good in this area given our size)
6. We will have an entirely new front page portal.
7. Drastically improved page loading speed.

Along with a whole host of other improvements.

During this time:

1. Advertising will be suspended. Any members that have purchased Premium Memberships will have their memberships extended by an equal amount of time.
2. The current front page portal will go away until the new portal is in place.
3. The skin template will look choppy until I get it's replacement installed.

I will post again here when the upgrades will actually start.

Looking forward to it!

Thanx 4 the update!

Can't wait for the changes

Sweet deal! Lookin' forward to seeing the changes.

Cort | 38.m.IL | pigValve + paceMaker | 5 Monte Carlos + 1 Caprice Classic

* PRE-SURGERY PARTY = ~5:30p-10:30p, Saturday, 10/29/2011 at Beef Villa, 1225 W Spring St, S Elgin IL *

"Looking at me now you might not know it" __ Emerson Drive __ 'Moments'

CAN'T WAIT

Change is always appreciated, good luck and wishing you a smooth transition.

I'm not sure I'm a fan of tailored View New Posts though. Will all forums be on by default, or will members have to choose which ones to monitor from the get-go?

all forums on by default

Will the new C&G actually have, you know, activity?

View New Content will FINALLY work correctly and not forget to show you forums you haven't read just because you've logged on in the interim

This is a big part of the problem with activity here. This function not working properly has absolutely killed boards out there that run the same software. The manufacturer was so stubborn about fixing it that I was contemplating taking us to a different software entirely just to get it fixed (a major undertaking), this release fixes the issue.

Will the new C&G actually have, you know, activity?

That came out more snipey than I had intended. What I'm saying is that it seems posting has fallen off a cliff and mote often than not anymore every topic is just an echo chamber. Will the new software endear itself to new users?

Well my reply still applies. I'm on C&G almost daily and even I miss threads because of the stupid software flaw. If you are missing threads because View New Content can't see them, then you certainly can't reply in the thread.

But yes, there will be a couple of format changes that I hope people will like.

Will the new article section reintroduce a 'newsfeeder' application?

No, the article section is for us to write articles in.

Newsfeeder can come back at any time, but I can't be the only one to maintain it... and that is what was happening.

It's bad for the site to just be the comments area for AutoBlog.

The ads and a couple of other back end things have been disabled. The upgrades will begin this week.

Everyone's board skin has been reset to default and the brand skins disabled.

There will be some downtime tonight. Don't Panic!

Edit: and there is a very good chance I'm going to break the front page tonight. Continue to not panic.

No panic....yet!

Here's the panic smiley in case anyone needs to bust it out.

I'm going to take the site down in a few minutes.

We're back on in Beta mode.

Super Web 2.0 Awesomeness!!!

We're having an issue with the second page of some threads not loading properly. I am aware of the issue and I'm working on a fix.

Also, before anyone complains about the look/feel, this is just the default skin. We will be moving to a custom skin in a few days.

Topic load issue appears to be resolved for the moment. But the ticket is still open while the software provider takes a look at things

Everything seems to take up more space in this new version... not liking it so far.

This is just the default skin. We haven't done any visual customizations yet. That will be coming after I'm confident that the upgrade's bugs have been squished.

Everyone should take the time to go in and check their signatures and profiles. Might be a good reminder to keep your information up to date.

Preview Post is broken, throws up an error page whenever I try to used it

Looks good, for the most part. I had to change my avatar, but otherwise, seems OK ... other than the issue I had last night with receiving the "server" issue messages....

Cort | 38.m.IL | pigValve + paceMaker | 5 Monte Carlos + 1 Caprice Classic

* PRE-SURGERY PARTY = ~5:30p-10:30p, Saturday, 10/29/2011 at Beef Villa, 1225 W Spring St, S Elgin IL *

"These hands are meant to hold" __ All-American Rejects __ 'Move Along'

I don't seem to have the option of pulling my avatar from Facebook anymore.

I don't seem to have the option of pulling my avatar from Facebook anymore.

You may have to disconnect and reconnect your Facebook account.

Seems to work ok for me..took a couple tries to figure out how to embed a YouTube video, but it's pretty simple once I figured it out. With the standard skin the forums look identical to another forum I frequent that uses the same software, so I have to pay attention to know if I am posting about 1:1 cars or model cars..

Edited October 27, 201113 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

Topic preview is working for me. What browser are you using and have you cleared your cookies since the upgrade?

Drew, thank you so much, I am glad I upgraded to premium membership...

LOVE the way the site is going, sir.

I had it in Firefox and I will update you once I clear my cookies. Also it happens in Chrome, but I use Incognito browsing so It clears the cookies when I close it.

Edit: Cleared My cache in firefox and tried the preview post once again... This is what I got. (Happens in chrome now too)

might be related to the blank topic issue we have going on. That ticket is still out there.

I got a note that the InvisionPower people will be in to look at our software issue today or tomorrow. There might be some flaky website operation during that time.

You may be working on it olds or I may be doing something wrong; but unlike the previous software, when I click the newer topics the content goes straight to the first post. I would like to view the newer posts just like the previous times.

You may be working on it olds or I may be doing something wrong; but unlike the previous software, when I click the newer topics the content goes straight to the first post. I would like to view the newer posts just like the previous times.

Click the blue dot next to the post title in the list. That takes you to the most recent unread post.

We will be having some sporadic downtown over the next 30 minutes.

Well that was fun and got us no where.....

We're on an old version of Linux for this here website thingy with no direct upgrade path to the new version. So we'll be down overnight while Z moves us to a new server I'm building now.

Yoo hoo. Anyone home?

I'm here. The wonder years is really hard to watch.

HUGE thanks to Z28Luvr01 for all of his help tonight.