I am working on the last features in the forum that i want to have for the release.

Keeping in mind that "the enemy of better is best" I'm focusing on getting things done.

Josh had asked me quite some time ago to add next/prev thread buttons to the thread view. I've done one better and if you are logged in you can start from the top and click through the threads and it will jump you to the last post you saw in that thread. No more paging/scrolling to get to the new stuff.

I've also added quick links from the main thread index to the last posts you've seen.

There's are a bunch of other new features which I'll list out in an upcoming blog post once I get the final details finished up.

I still have to do:

* the improved view counter.
* make sure notifications are working as they should
* rework the daily digest generator.

* re-add support for inserting links and videos.

* implement a cache buster for javascript and CSS files so that you guys won't all have to clear your cache's when the new stuff is installed.

* do a bunch of testing/bug fixing/tweaking prior to release.

It sounds like alot but it really isn't. It's the 26th today so I'm going to miss yet another month end target but I think .... and I will probably have to eat my words ...

we're probably looking at an upgrade of the site next week!!!!

I have no idea what any of this means, but yay!?!

I'm so wiped out tired I didn't do a good job explaining. Once I have it all installed, it'll be a lot easier to point at things.

And this will then provide me the foundation upon which I can start building all the "above ground" stuff that people will actually use .. namely interactive MAPS!

Sounds like progress

In the home stretch now. I just have to keep the momentum up. Starting to get a bit tired.

View counters are working now. These should now filter out a majority of bots so the view numbers will be a bit more accurate.

Per forum thread I'm keeping track of the total number of views of the thread in addition to views by M-BY-MC members. This should give us some idea of the number of non-member lurkers we have, if any. (You know who you are.)

I've also got inserting photos into the forum working as it should, with all the cool new linking stuff working. I'll talk more about that later.

Still on track for next week.

I think I have the expanded forum notifications working correctly now.

Forum posts are now searchable from the new centralized search box.

Reizing of the forum post dialog works more or less now.

Tagging of forum posts works as does liking/unliking.

And I finally have quoting working, which is what I have spent most of today working on. This turned out to be more challenging than expected because of the rich_textarea editor. It's not nearly as polished as I would like it to be but quoting is used so rarely that I think we can suffer with a less than optimal solution. Its' roughly the same as what we've have currently on the site.

I have a feeling we're going to run into a lot of edge cases where the editor screws up. As they come up I'll fix them.

So, as of this moment, it looks like all that's left is:

1. redoing the daily digest notifier. not a big deal.
2. re-adding support for inserting links into posts (and tagging/liking/etc)
3. re-adding and improving support for inserting videos into posts. (and tagging/liking/etc).
4. expand and test the upgrade script so that we don't lose any posts in the forum (and where movies/links/photos are inserted turn them into proper likeable taggable objects)

There's going to be a bunch of obvious stuff missing most notably are the Photos and Videos tabs in your profiles. You be able to get to your own lists through the search box in the mean time. In an upcoming release I'll redo the profiles so they are much nicer.

Also there's no news/activity feed. That will also be later.

And finally, there will still no mobile site support. I may develop a mobile site and I may just opt to just build an app. Regardless,. the app will come first.

My target right now for an install of all this stuff is Friday March 8th. Assuming I make it, I'd like to suggest that we get together at Piratz for dinner on Saturday after we get back from Revzilla to celebrate the escape of Phase I.

I forgot. I do still need to do the glue code to redirect all the old permalinks to the new permalinks. No big deal. I just need to remember not to forget.

And cache busting. need to not forget cache busting.

Reports that I will be able to install the new m-by-mc software on Friday have been greatly exaggerated.

I'll have the last features done by Friday but not all the testing and preparation I need to do for the upgrade.

Setting my sights on next week.

Despite this being my own project, the fact that I have blown through as many self imposed deadline despite the crazy hours I've been working is really stressing me out.

Sorry it's taking me so long, guys. I'll get it done.

Progress continues. Tying up loose ends. Styling. Links a.k.a. bookmarks work. They can be added, tagged, liked and searched for. Per Duncan's request, you can pick an associated image from the page. It's far from perfect but it works in most cases. It's strange how these little tweaks make such a big difference. It's /great/ for product links on Revzilla.

The last thing on the list is to add youtube video support. I may actually have that working by Friday evening. But I still have to do a bunch of testing and finish the upgrade script.

Fortunately, I've been building the upgrade script as I've been doing everything else so all I have to left to do is write the code that crawls through all the old forum posts and converts them to the new format.

There's no point in me coming up with a release date. I haven't been able to meet any deadline I've imposed on myself. Next week some time probably.