Forums Upgrade

Status
Not open for further replies.
Davy Darkrage

Davy Darkrage

Admin
Forums Closing Upgrade
April Fools. You didn't actually think we would do that did you? ;)

While I have your attention, I would like to announce the biggest update in community history.

This coming weekend, when you login to the forums you will be greeted with a modern, updated design.

teaser.png


..but don't worry. The changes are mostly cosmetic, and the site will continue to operate no differently than before. All the buttons and knobs will be found in the same places. The design you see today was created over three years ago just after the forums first began, so we could definitely use this refresh.

The new design will also scale down for smartphones and tablets so using the forums on mobile devices isn't such a pain anymore.

Along with the new design, we will be rolling out several new enhancements. The upgrade is being done in stages, so not all of these enhancements will be available at once. You should look forward to continuous improvements to the community over the coming months.

It should be noted that this update will be arriving in a "beta" form. There will be lots of cursed undead to fight off and parts the forums might not be in a fully-functional state over the next several weeks. Please please please report any problems you encounter.

I will announce more of the non-design enhancements over this course of this week. Watch this thread for more.

My continual thanks to all contributors of this community. I know we've been living in the dark ages for a bit, but it's a more exciting time than ever to be a member. Together, we can make this place greater than ever before.
 
Thanks to everyone for being a good sport about it ;)

I'd like to discuss some non-design related changes coming this weekend.

New post editor

Along with the new design comes a new post editor. The most useful parts of this new editor include the ability to paste or drag and drop images to upload them.

For example, you may simply press print screen and paste to the post editor to upload a screenshot. You may also drag images from your computer directly to the editor to upload them, so you no longer are forced to use the 'Upload a File' dialog.

This includes a completely rewritten @ tagging system that should work more consistently than our current version, as well as a new draft storage system, and a replacement for the ugly smilies dropdown.

Lastly, you will receive a note if new messages have been posted since you started writing your own so you may review them before submitting.

Post edit history

We will begin to log all post edits. Because of this, all members will now begin to be able to edit their posts indefinitely. No longer will the option to edit disappear after 5 minutes. Members that abuse this feature will have the edit limit restored for their account.

I will share more features in the update tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!
 
Oooh, some helpful features!

I can't tell you how many times I've noticed a spelling error (or something to that effect) "5 minutes later" and just had to sit there and stare at it; or to find after I've written my post that someone else has said something worth talking about between the time it took me to write my post and when I posted it.

Now all those minor pet peeves will be solved :D
 
Watch Forums

Members will now be able to watch entire forums instead of just threads. This is great for getting notified of new threads or posts you might be interested in, but of course it should be used with care. Watching a busy forum might flood your alerts ;)

Conversation Enhancements

You will be possible to "star" personal conversations to mark them for easy identification and filtering later. This is especially helpful to me because I often just let my conversations stack up until there's an overwhelming number to reply to. In any case it should be easier to keep track a lot of busy or unreplied conversations.

There will also be the ability to edit the status of multiple conversations at a time. No more 'leaving' conversations one by one to keep your inbox tidy.

Lastly, all participants will be displayed in the list and and popup.

To note, you can already filter messages by who sent you them down at the bottom of the conversations list.

New Members Page

The members page has been made more useful. You will be able to list members with the mosts posts, likes, points.. and the sidebar will feature any users with birthdays on that day.

Various Small Improvements

Besides all of these, a lot of parts of the forums are receiving some polish. It will be possible to easily unsubscribe from a forum email via one click from the email itself. Passwords will be encrypted using a stronger algorithm.

I have just a few more things to share tomorrow.

Punkin Pie said:
Forums is NOT Closing! Kelly Sunratte ! Poor Kelly sent me a message thinking the forums was closing, lol.
April Fools Kelly! :p Boss Davy Darkrage almost gave you a heart attack!
Click to expand...

Sorry Kelly Sunratte!! :piratemickey:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top