The New Boards

[Webmaster 20]

As you can see, things are FINALLY starting to settle down as far as the look and feel of the boards are concerned. While there are still a number of issues to still work out (such as fixing the smileys to remove the white border from around them, uploading the blue ones from the old board, adding some extra functionality to the quick reply and regular reply screens, etc)... there are a number of new features that you might find handy.

 

Calendar

This is one of my own personal favorites. The board calendar can now actually have a REAL use. GMs can add new events to the board's calendar directly to post new events and such. We can post new RECURRING events on the board (such as the meeting times of each of our sims), as well as having public and private events. Public events mean they're viewable by all members. Private events means it's available only to the individual (sort of a personal to-do list).

 

Better Notifications/Tracking

You now not only have the ability to track indivudal posts (where it will notify you via e-mail that a post was responded to), but you can also subscribe directly to a forum. That way you can be notified via e-mail when someone posts in a specific forum itself (such as your ship's bios or logs forums).

 

To use this feature, scroll to the bottom of any post in the forum you are wanting to subscribe to. Then find the following image and click on it. To subscribe to the individual topic, click on the "Track this topic" link. To subscribe to the forum itself, click the "Subscribe to this forum" link.

 

If for any reason you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from the notifications to the topic, then just click the MY CONTROLS link at the top of the forum, find the subscriptions section, click the appropriate link (for topics or forums), and check the topic you no longer want. Finally click on the Unsubscribe button.

 

Ability To Save Posts Easier

For those of you who like to save posts (especially for logs and such), this will be a real treat for you. The boards now have the ability to save posts directly as HTML for you to edit, display in a printer friendly version, AND export the topic DIRECTLY into a Microsoft Word Document.

 

So if you have a log that you want to save and edit again later in Word or another editor, this will be a fun feature for you.

 

To use this feature, scroll to the bottom of any post in the forum you are wanting to save/print. Then find the following image and click on it. Then click on the "Download / Print this Topic" link. You will be able to pick the option you want from there.

 

Avatar Gallery

The way we handled Avatars before always was pretty messy. The new system makes it easier for Avatars to be uploaded, added, and viewed. They're now broken down into "Gallaries" where related Avatars can be grouped togeher.

 

In addition to improving that, the board also now enforces Avatar size limits and file size limits.

 

Improved Tracking of Viewed Topics

You may or may not have noticed after you view a topic, when you refresh the list of posts, it does not keep displaying the ones you have seen already. The board now uses improved cookie technology to keep track of what posts you have seen already and will update itself on the fly without having to click "Mark This Topic As Read". While it's not PERFECT yet, it's a much greater improvement over where it was before.

 

You can now mark entire forums as read (go to the forum itself and scroll to the very bottom of the page) just like you could before with the old board with marking ALL forums as read. (You can still mark the entire board as read from clicking the link on the very bottom of the front page of the board.)

 

My Assistant

This is a new feature found on the top, right hand side of the board that will help you manage the boards here a little better. Some of it's features include:

 

· Viewing the moderating team

· Viewing the day's active topics

· Viewing the day's top 10 posters

· Viewing the overall top 10 posters

· Viewing your last 10 posts

· Seeing what topics are new since your last visit

· Quick searching for topics posted earlier on the boards

· Quick searching of the board's help files

 

It's designed to be a "mini-companion" to help you manage your online session a little easier. While it will be of use to some folks, it's definately not everyone's cup of tea. And there is certainly no requirement that you use it.

 

Poll Issues Fixed

There was a problem with the poll system before where if you viewed a poll without voting, you lost your ability to vote in it. This issue has been fixed. You can now also use images in poll choices, and have a bit more flexability with they're use.

 

Some Back-End Changes

What update would be complete without giving the Admins more tools? :D

 

We can now track folks easier who abuse the forums and have additional tools to deal with any kind of problems, including temorarily removing posting rights for a fixed period of time (like 12 hours or a week), or requiring all of they're posts to be approved before showing online. A9, Sovak, and myself can also easily change member's names and individual elements of a person's profile (including signature) if inappropriate. So don't think you can get away with anything now. :rolleyes:

[Garnoopy 0]

Webby ~

 

Will you be brining back the board birthday feature? I always liked seeing who's bday it was at the bottom of the forum.

 

Other than that everything is lookin good.

[Dumbass 0]

Will you be brining back the board birthday feature? I always liked seeing who's bday it was at the bottom of the forum.

Gee, Garnoopy, did you have something special planned this Thursday? :rolleyes:

[Webmaster 20]

It's already on the board. It will only show though if there's a birthday that day. :rolleyes:

[Garnoopy 0]

Thanks for clearing that up Webby. Much appreciated.

 

Now why would I have anything planned for Thursday Mr. Vanroy? :rolleyes:

[Dumbass 0]

OK, I'm confused about something.

 

Why is it when I go to this site from work (using Mozilla and behind a corporate firewall) I am automaticly logged in as Dumbass (even though I tell my browser to not remember my settings) but when I enter this site from home (using Explorer) I have to log in manually (even though I tell my browser and this site to keep my settings)?

[Webmaster 20]

It has to do with your computer's cookie settings and how it's processed. It may also have to do partially with being behind a proxy. I'm still trying to nail down all of the details myself. But on your home computer... if you're using Windows XP, make sure you have it set to accept cookies from the domain. That's how your sessions should be tracked.