ATTENTION! YOUNG COSMOS HAS MOVED!

Salvador

1. The “Log in to view private messages” is something that gets included with the phpBB forum software. There’s a thing called “Private Messaging” that allows one forum member to send a little note to another forum member without using email. This way if you’re in an environment where you don’t want to expose your email address, but yet you want to carry on a private conversation with another forum member such that other forum members can’t see it, you can. Of course, you have to be logged in in order to access it, so that’s why it says “Log in to…”. Once you log in, you’ll notice that the text for that item changes to “You have no private messages” (or, I presume, if someone actually uses it, then it would say “You have 1 private message,” etc.). Personally, I’ve never used it, and frankly I don’t see the point. If you want to exchange a private message with another forum member, then it would seem that email would be the way to do it. I believe its possible to just disable it entirely in the admin panel. I think that might remove it from the menus, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to experiment.

2. Yea, I notice that, too. It’s kind of annoying. I’ll have to dig into the code a bit to figure out how to stop it from doing that.

3. Here’s how the forum passwords / blog passwords thing works:

a.) The WordPress site has a username/password database of its own.

b.) The phpBB site has a username/password database of its own. The two are separate.

c.) The module that synchronizes them does all its work in the phpBB database. When you register, etc., its the phpBB forum that you register with. The phpBB database is the master copy of the usernames and passwords.

d.) Whatever changes are made in the phpBB database get carried over onto the blog database as soon as you log in. So when a new user signs up, initially they don’t have a username at the blog–just the forum (because registrations are handled through the forum’s registration process). But the first time they log in, it automatically creates a matching account with the same username and password on the blog. If you want to change your password, you do it at the forum. Then the next time you log in, it automatically changes your corresponding blog account’s password during the login process.

If you changed Mrs. Setterfield’s password at the forum, the change will be reflected at the NEW blog, not on the blog here at smartaxes. So if you changed something there, it will have no effect over here; only at the new blog at Virtual Creations. She might have problems if she attempts to use the newly assigned password here at smartaxes.

I just sent her an email and CC’d you. I reset her password again. I’ll help you guys work through the process.

Some technical issues.

There is a discussion related to some possible glitches in the Forum/Blog logins:

Helen Setterfield’s attempts to post on discussion forum

I created a temporary password for her there, but I don’t know if I broke something here!

Some kinks:

1. Is there a way to remove the “log in to view private messages” option? What does that option really do?

2. When I logged in there, it took me to the new blog, not the discussion forum. Is there a clever way to program the system so that it intelligently knows whether to go to the forum or the blog.

3. What happens if I change a password in the discussion forum, does it change it in the blog too?

I think Rick is on travel, for a few days.

Thanks for your help.

Salvador

But, is this the new “main” web site/portal:

http://smartaxes.com/youngcosmos/YoungCosmos.htm

That was my attempt at it.

Or is there another new one at virtual-creations?

Rick gave a try with this one:

http://www.virtual-creations.net/~youngcos

We would welcome feedback for sure.

Are you going to keep the main/portal site at Smartaxes or move it over to virtual-creations?

Haven’t thought about it. Do you have a preference? I think the main portal site at virtual creations would be a good idea.

I’ll be back in the saddle this week. Had some distractions going on at home the last couple of weeks. I’m going to try to get an RSS feed going for the forums so you can be alerted to new threads in a feed reader, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I’ve got some catching up to do as far as my own consumption of the actual content.

The new blog looks like its about ready, too.

But, is this the new “main” web site/portal:

http://smartaxes.com/youngcosmos/YoungCosmos.htm

?

Or is there another new one at virtual-creations? Are you going to keep the main/portal site at Smartaxes or move it over to virtual-creations?