Welcome Back Community!! 
Your now viewing the forums on the latest version of the vBulletin forum software. We have successfully completed the upgrade and also installed the new features as announced earlier.
Changes in the Forum Software
As you can see not a huge amount has changed with regard to the appearance of the forum, this is because I worked hard to ensure the forum theme used in the previous version of the software still worked on the latest version of the software.
Clearly an upgrade of the forum software has lots of coding changes and upgrades to make the whole software application run more efficiently. You will notice as you use the forum the various changes that have occured. One noticiable one is the way in which you post messages and "edit" them.
One notable change is that "
Skype" is now fully integrated into the forum software and just like you can do with your MSN messenger and Yahoo messenger ID you can now put your Skype ID in your forum profile.
To do this:
User CP > Edit Profile > Enter your Skype ID > Save
I won't spoil the fun, go out and explore and see what else has changed !
New Features
Trader Ratings replaced with iTrader
The first new feature I would like to announce is the replacement of "Trader Ratings" with "iTrader". The old trader feedback tool doesn't work on the latest version of the forum software so I've had to upgrade that feature to the latest version (as released by the person who made the feature). The feature works in exactly the same way as the old one did, however it is now not accessible from the top menu. I've managed to place it in everyone's individual forum profile and also on the left hand side toolbar next to posts.
As can be seen below:
iTrader now shown in Forum Profile too.
Skype Integration and iTrader Link shown in above pic.
To view a person's trader rating you now have two ways of doing it:
1) Click on a member's profile and see the iTrader rating visible in their profile. Click on the number to visit the page detailing feedback scores and comments.
2) Click on the iTrader rating number underneath the persons forum username to the left hand side of a forum post or thread. Again click on the number to see detailed info.
Referral Statistics
A new feature that I have installed is
Referral Statistics. You can now view who has referred the most users to the forum and which users these were. The introduction of this feature is to populate more people to invite others to the forum and really spread the word about this community.
Each member of the community has a unique referral ID which can be found by going to the page
Referral Statistics in your "Quick Links" toolbar.
To refer somebody to the forum and to earn a referral credit just use the forum url and include your referral number.
For example mine is as follows:
http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/...eferrerid=2923
You can find out your unique number by visiting this page:
http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/...referrers.php?
There will be competitions for people referring the most users. I haven't decided completely on the competition yet so I'll hold back on what the details are, but it's coming soon!!
Sponsored Links
You will notice that sponsored links will randomly appear between posts on the forum. It's limited to one per thread and will show up at some point in that thread.
Separated Stickies from Main Posts
You will see that a toolbar now appears in each forum to separate the sticky threads from the main forum posts. The idea behind it is to make the stickies more clear and to ease navigation. This feature is 'on trial' and we will assess whether it's something we wish to keep in a month or two.
Updated Welcome Headers
When new members arrive to the website or when regular members aren't logged in you will now see a new welcome header. The introduction of this feature is really just to go along with the upgrade of the forum software and also update the wording in the welcome bar. For most of the members you won't notice it but it should hopefully populate more members to actually join the forums and join in discussions.
.. And that's it!
We hope you enjoy the new features and your feedback would be most appreciated. There may well be some technical issues that have appeared during the upgrade and a few functionality issues that need ironing out so over the next few days please bear with us and assist us by pointing out any error's that you come across.
Please post all technical issues in this thread:
http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/...7039#post57039
For all comments, suggestions, and feedback related posts, please post them here:
http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/...7040#post57040
Further to this you can quite easily contact me via PM or Email. (using the
Contact Us page)
Thank You for your patience during the last month or so, it's been a busy time for the forums! - Stay tuned for competitions and more new features!!
Many thanks
Linear Mode
March 2010
