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Originally Posted by indizine

“Well done Steve for not making a pigs ear / dogs dinner of the migration ”

Thanks Sandra for your kind words, support and feedback during the testing 

It has been a team effort, and Paul our developer has spent many long nights wading through some interesting challenges, Clive seems to have a sheer talent for spotting bugs and breaking things, and thanks to Jan for the new smileys and avatars.

But it does mean that we now have a base platform that we can tweak, edit or change oursleves, and build in functionality that members actually request rather than pointless bells or whistles.

First thing on the agenda is a smell checker!!

Old forum members may get a daily notification of subscribed threads which may be a little out of synch. This is because we have moved to a new database, but should sort itself out after a few days. Any new contributions will show correctly in the daily subscription email moving forward.

You will only have a maximum of 1 email per day, and this can be switched off by logging into your profile.

I think you're right Jo, in fact pretty much agree with all of the comments in the thread 

But if we could overcome liberal human right policy and put prisoners to work, wouldn't that be the solution. You need to pay back to society, so work for it, but in obscurity, no media, no platform. If you're in for life, then you will be worked for life and have plenty of time to reflect.

Interesting reading the response about there being 20,000 prisoners being on remand, so using the innocent until proven guilty logic, this would only apply to convicted criminals. If there is a miscarriage of justice, at least you're still alive (and probarbly quite fit).

But we now have a pool of resource to be used for manual labour, lowskilled work that could offset the costs of keeping them locked up in the first place.

I do like the description of the target demographic - Young Mans Lifestyle Sector

So the days of the smutty lads mag are numbered as the internet matures and so it seems are young chaps who prefer the likes of GQ, Esquire and hair gel. Apparently sales have plummeted by 70% over the last 8 years.

I suspect it will be marked as a victory for equality, sexism and removing adult content from shop shelves.

But it always reminded me of a classic carry on film, iconically British slapstick comedy smut, not PC, but fairly harmless 

Nuts magazine could fold - BBC News

Most issues ironed out, forum live and working on mobiles.

I think the Google engineers have too much time on their hands, and judging by all the replies by David Hasselhoff, so has he! 

Google Photobombs with David Hasselhoff

Social Media in business terms is all about online reputation. Projecting a transparent, modern approachable image, with a fine balance of promotion and relevant content aimed at your target market.

You will never please people all of the time. As long as you are open and honest, making a genuine attempt to resolve issues if and when they do go wrong, then reputation wise, you can't go too far wrong. Or can you?

Unless of course you set up that Social Media page in a wave of optimistic enthusiasm, then for whatever reason, it doesn't go as well as expected, or you get side tracked onto something else.

All of a sudden, you now have a big hole in your social media and online reputation strategy, as that unloved and unmanaged page becomes the target of possible abuse.

An example of this is the Facebook page for Sheffield City Council, last updated on the 29th June 2012.

Maybe this is a classic large organisation example of a poor handover, or the marketing person left un-expectantly and no one checked to see what they were working on.

Either way, in their absence is a slowly rising sea of abuse, and a building stream of negative feedback.

.Gov sites such as Councils are easy targets, so it’s more important for them to be closely monitored, but it does show the risk of abandoning those half-hearted or unloved social media projects.

I guess the moral of the story is if you are going to give up on a social media outlet, or are no longer able to resource, then remove/delete/suspend it, and protect that valuable online commodity, reputation!

Anyone else have any Social Media horror stories or have any examples they can share?

1. Padlock and Drawing pin symbols

Any topic that shows a padlock symbol simply means the conversation is closed and you can't add any more comments. If you think a topic (thread) needs to be re-opened, then contact us and explain why.

The drawing pin just means a thread has been made "sticky". In otherwords a moderator thinks the thread is important, so it is pinned to the top of the forum.

2. Threads, Posts, Quotes, Thanks and Smileys 

A thread is simply forum speak for a topic or conversation. So if you post a new thread, you are starting a new conversation that people will have the opportunity to reply to.

Forums try and combine similar topics together, so if you select forum home from the menu bar at the top of the page, have a look for a forum that interests you, and join in or start a new thread.

Underneath any thread, or underneath the last comment, you will see a post reply button. This is how you add your own comments to the conversation.

If you are replying to a particular comment, you may want to quote them, or part of the comment. If you press the quote button on any post, it will automatically open up a reply window with quoted comments from the post you have just quoted from.

You can edit this quote, eg if you just want to shorten it to reply to a particular point. Quoted text stands out in a different colour as well as being wrapped in "quotes", so it's obvious to the reader.

A simple and straight forward friendly gesture. If you think a post was interesting, or agree with a comment, instead of replying with "I agree", just simply select the thanks button. Any thanks from you will be displayed as a thumbs up on the post.

When you create or reply to a post, one of the options is to add smiley symbols. These can set the mood of a post, and are a good way of conveying humour or emotion in the confines of text on a screen. You will see a smiley icon in the text editor, if you select it, it will open up and give you a number of smiley options, such as:    

We also use the standard editor abbreviations to create smileys as well, such as colon bracket.

3. Social Media Bar

The social media bar sits below the first post of the thread. If you think the post, thread or discussion is of interest to others, then select the relevant social media icon you have an account with and share it. If not already, you will be prompted to log in, then you will be able to share the content.

4. User Profiles and Private Messaging

At the top of any post, you will see an image, photo or avatar of the forum member.

If you move your mouse over this, a small window will open that displays the members statistics, show any social media information, and if they are happy to be contacted privately.

If you select the image/avatar or username, you will be taken to the members full profile, where you will see the users statistics, social media links, any business details, post history and a Private Message link (if enabled).

To send a Private Message, select the link and follow the on screen prompts.and as well as any recent posts they may have had.

If it is your profile, then you will see an edit option in the right hand corner, which will allow you to add details and select options in your profile.

Touch screen users will simply be taken straight to the members profile, as below:

5. Avatars/Forum Images

Avatars are just forum representations of yourself. If you go to your profile, which is called My Profile and is in the menu bar at the very top of the page, you will see an option that says edit profile.

Selecting this will allow you to edit any details of your forum profile, including forum signature, changing your password and adding a forum image of yourself.

We have added some example avatars, so if you don't have an image you want to upload, then why not choose one of our avatars to reflect your forum persona!

6. Still stuck or confused? 

Feel free to reply to this post or start a new thread in this forum with your question. 

Forum is now functional on the new platform. Will spend the weekend testing, but anyone is welcome to join/post etc, and feel free to shout out if you see a bug!

I'll formally contact everyone next week when we are happy everything is ok.

We are just cutting over to the new forum and iroining out a few lumps and bumps, in case you wondering whats happened to MLF!