Eric

This poll is to determine whether we should separate the General Chat forum into two different forums, one for talking about taxes and business, and one for more general discussions (birthdays, political rants, jokes, etc) I created the poll as a result of this thread, so you may want to read it before voting: Also, if you're for having two separate forums, feel free to suggest names for them.

It's not trivial to make a setting that would allow someone to automatically ignore birthday posts and other non-tax related discussions, because the forum software doesn't know the difference. A custom addon could be written to watch for certain phrases in topic titles, but it seems like it would be kind of a kludge to maintain through each forum software update. From my end, the easiest way to handle this would be to separate General Chat into two different forums, such as "Tax Talk" and The Water Cooler" or something along those lines. This is a change that I could easily make in just a few minutes.. so what's the next step? Should I just go ahead and do it? Should I make a poll first?

The icon is embedded in the executable for the program on the server, if I remember correctly. It is possible to hack the exe and change the icon. I used to use a program called Resource Hacker to modify DLLs and EXEs to do everything from remove the obnoxious ads from MSN Messenger to change icons for programs. I'm not sure if it's still around and up to date or not. You might search Google for something like Replace Icon EXE DLL and you'll get a giant list of programs made specifically to do just that... just be sure to do a little homework so that you know what you're downloading is safe and reputable. The problem is that every time you run a program update, it's going to replace the EXE with a new version containing the original icon. It's probably not worth the trouble, and would be easier to manually change the icon on each workstation so that you don't have to redo your work every time an update comes by. If all of your workstations are mapped to the server with the same drive letter, maybe you could put the new icon on the server where all workstations can access it, create one workstation shortcut using the new icon, and then copy the new shortcut file to each workstation. That seems like the fastest way to put a shortcut on each workstation with a custom icon.

I'm no PayPal expert, but I have used them to take payments for services, and donations on this site. I don't think a simple Buy Now button would work, unless you had constant prices for your services. Part of creating a Buy Now button is setting a fixed price for that button. You can send requests for payments by e-mail to your clients using the "Request Money" feature or "Create Invoice" feature. Your client will get the request/invoice in their email, with a link provided to pay the total with their PayPal or Credit/Debit card. Paypal Invoices

Quick Topic Previews When you're browsing the topic list, you might notice a small icon appearing to the right of the topic title as you mouse-over it. The icon looks like this: If you click that icon, a small popup bubble shows a preview of the first post in that topic, with an option to view the last post as well, all without having navigate to a new page.

Rating posts At the bottom-right corner of every post, there are two buttons for voting posts up or down, as well as the current score for that post. The buttons look like this: You can only vote on each post once, you have a maximum of 20 votes to use in a 24 hour period, and you can't vote on your own posts. The idea is that the highest rated posts are likely to be the most accurate/helpful.

Ahh, you are right, sorry about that. I don't know why the latest version removed the Go button then. In that case, I think Lion's recommendation is the way to go. Good idea, and thank you!

See my reply above. The Go button isn't needed, it automatically brings you to the page when you select something from the drop down.

Alright, I think I'm done. If anyone's got any questions or having any trouble since the update, gimme a shout. Here's some stuff that's new. If any of these things sound worthless, speak up, and I'll remove them. A mobile template was part of the upgrade, which should automatically be shown if you browse from a phone. If not, it can also be selected at the bottom-left corner of the screen just like the other templates. Rating system on each post. You can vote individual posts up or down to increase or decrease their rating. The icons to do so are in the bottom-right corner of each post. The idea is that higher rated posts are more likely to be accurate/helpful Topic Preview. When you hover over a thread title in the forum, there's a little icon to the right. Clicking it will show you a quick topic preview where you can switch between previewing the first and last posts in the thread without actually going to the thread. The Rating System icons look like this: The topic preview icon looks like this: There will be one more short maintenance day coming before the end of the year, but I'll try make it as painless as possible since I know it's getting close to that time of the year again.

Selecting an option from that drop down box should bring you to the selected forum without having to push a button.

The maintenance is running a little longer than anticipated, and there are still some quirks that need working out. I've opened the forum back up, but I'll be tinkering with it more tomorrow. Anyone who was using the CleanCut forum skin may need to choose to use it again, since it had to be deleted and replaced with a new version. Anyone who was using the Larger Text version of the regular skin may have to do the same after I finish up tomorrow. Thanks again for your patience!

I don't think you're going to be seeing any price wars any time soon. We'll probably never see a price war here. The US and Canada have the highest cell phone plan prices in the world, here are a few of the reasons. Phone companies here subsidize phone prices, so you pay $100 for a $300 phone, and then spend the next two years of your plan with an expensive monthly bill. Phone companies here all have to maintain their own cell phone tower infrastructure for the most part, which requires three times more towers for the same coverage area. Smaller companies can never enter the market because infrastructure costs are in the billions, limiting competition to very few very large corporations. In the US, phones are exclusive to each provider. You want an iPhone, then you use AT&T. You want a Droid, you use Verizon. In most of the world, every phone works on every network, so companies compete based on plan pricing instead of the hardware.

Forgot about the iPad. You can check multiple answers. Does the iPad have a big enough screen to render a normal website layout and still be useable (without lots of zooming to read text)? The reason for the poll is to see how many would find a mobile version of the forum useful.

I'll be performing some maintenance on the site this coming Monday and Tuesday. There will likely be a bit of downtime here and there, and times when things don't look quite right. There will be another maintenance time before the end of the year with some bigger upgrades, but I'll post again when that time comes. Thanks for your patience! Oh, one other thing, please take a second to vote in the poll. I'm interested in how many people use a smart phone device like an iPhone, Blackberry, Android phone, etc

You would have to leave your pump unattended for quite some time to be responsible for $32 billion worth of damages.

Would the forum benefit from a new "ATX Customer Advisory Board" section to keep these product enhancement related threads and polls organized? It could be a temporary addition, if that is the need. If anyone is interested in this, please send me a private message, along with any ideas you may have.

Are there features you're looking for beyond simple PDF creation? I ask because you mentioned the Professional version of CutePDF, when the free version's Print-to-PDF function works just fine. As always, when installing "Free" software, read all of the installation screens carefully, and uncheck any boxes that ask for your permission to install toolbars or other unrelated software. The only reason I mention this is because of the warning comments posted on the PDF Creator download page.

We have tons of bunnies here too, and they're not shy. I agree, rabbit stew does sound good.

There is enough money in the account to pay for hosting and software license fees for the next 12 or 13 months, and that's taking into account the spike in traffic that will come with next tax season. We went to Gram Russo's, an Italian restaurant here in town. The meal, the wine, and the dessert were all fantastic! The little bit of money that was left over after the meal went toward some lumber (cedar) to build Brandy some raised garden beds, which she plans on filling this weekend. Thank you all again :)

Thank you! ^_^

Thank you everyone who donated to the T.E.O.T.E. Fund! It was perfect timing -- My wife and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary with dinner on you guys! Thanks again, Eric and Brandy

You guys are really too nice. I added a new Donate button to the bottom of the Donations page. I tried to come up with an acronym that spelled something clever, but it just didn't work out. How long should I leave it up for?

I was a member of the "TST" at ATX during that BBQ, which I believe was organized by KC.. it was delicious! You guys are great, but please, don't spend too much. Gram Russo's (great Italian food) http://www.visitaroostook.com/organization/6619/presque_isle_inn_convention_center/ Irish Setter Pub (great beer) http://www.visitaroostook.com/organization/6803/irish_setter_pub/ (take your pick)

Right now, you can invite up to 5 people to take part in a Private Message conversation on the forums, but it's not instant like chat. As for the Chat software, it's not very advanced. There is no invitation feature that I am aware of, but you can private chat with other people who are in the room. These private chats are one-on-one only, but you can carry on multiple one-on-one private chats simultaneously with different people. Also, there are some sound effects that let you know when people enter the room, leave the room, and type messages, so even if you're not watching the chat, there are audible cues to let you know something is happening. These sounds can easily be turned off.

That the back-end of the chat system is handled by a third party (the people who sell the software). The up-side to this is that their servers are optimized to handle this type of traffic. The down side is that I have little control the software, and there is little room for modification. Technically, the chats are logged, but they're not accessible to the public, only the forum administrator for moderation purposes. Within the next few weeks, I think I'll get the free version going that allows 5 people chatting at once. If it looks like people are using it, I'll upgrade to the 20 user plan.