Forum Modifications

[Anubis]

It's been a long long time since we drew up a feature request list for the forum, and due to time constraints the items on the list never seemed to get off the ground in regards to implementation. Fortunately it would seem that we now have the time, and thanks to KJ we now have the means to install phpBB mods quickly via EasyMOD.

This afternoon myself, Ed and KJ have been fixing up several modifications to the forum to make life in general easier for everyone.
I'm sure that by now you'll have noticed the Youtube embedding mod, to help integrate video footage better into threads where appropriate.
Moderators will find that there is now finally a merge threads option available after much requesting over the last several years. Please note that this option will appear to moderators at the bottom of threads in the row of topic-tool-shortcut icons and NOT in the Moderator Control Panel for forums.
Administrative modifications have also been incorporated, allowing reasons to be presented to users in the rare event of their account needing to be banned from the forum (previously all that was displayed was a default "Your account has been banned" message rather than any reason behind this). Other administrative modifications also allow for the much easier incorporation of new modifications and modifications to the BB Code used within the forum.

Over the next several days we plan to expand these forum modifications to include several more from the old feature request list including image thumbnailing and a calendar for the forum, and possibly some modifications not on said list that we feel may be useful to the group. We will also likely be encorporating several more administrative tools to continue to make maintaining the forum easier and grant us more freedom in doing so.
Once we have worked our way through this list and established that introduced modifications are working as intended we may open up a new feature request list in order to try and add any features we may have missed. But for now, simply make good use of the new features as they come, and do not be surprised to see a new one spring up when you aren't looking

Any comments on this are of course welcome.

[Anubis]

The new [thmb] tags that you'll see on the Post Reply screen are the new image thumbnails modification. If you want to post a big image then feel free to use them

[BlackDove]

Testor then.

[MyImg test removed, reasoning below]

You FAIL.

Test from image shack.

[thmb]http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/2715 ... 88yxe6.jpg[/thmb]

[Anubis]

As an afternote, thanks to testing with BD, do not try and use any image hosted with myimg with the thumbnail tool. Myimg appears to have its own settings that block us directly displaying full sized images and therefore if you try your thumbnail will not work.

Imageshack works, as does Imagevenue, so other options are available. Just don't use MyImg

[Anubis]

XBox Gamertag mod has been installed. If you have an Xbox Live Gamertag then you can now go to your profile, drop your Gamertag name into the field provided and the forum will now display a Gamertag icon in threads alongside the MSN, AIM, etc icons under each user's post.

The icon will automatically link to your gamertag at xbox.com. Check the icon in the list just underneath my post for an example.

[Anubis]

Can I ask people what they would think of a subforum mod? I am thinking that it would allow us to include things like the WoW US Recruiting forum as a subforum of the main WoW US forum, add archived group forums as subforums of the main Archive forum, etc. It would save index space, further make it so that the index isn't half full of old groups without having to scrap the forums and just archive the threads.

Thoughts?

[Kon]

I like the subforums idea. I always thought our forums were a bit cluttered.

[M.Steiner]

I came across a subforum mod the other day when i was on about a global announcements mod to ya, as that mod created a subforum as well iirc. ~ Think this was it.

It should make the index a lot less cluttered being able to split some of those forums off into subforums. I like the idea.

[esd]

Too many forum subsections result in an abandoned-looking forum, because the posts are spread out more thinly... I say no.

[Anubis]

On a seperate note, we now have a Calendar mod installed as was requested on the feature list. You can reach it through the new link in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.

There is currently nothing in it, however if you want to add events you can do so by using the new options on the 'New Thread' page or by editing the initial post of an existing thread and making use of these same options. Hopefully this will be of particular use to the MMO groups who can use it to indicate when they have raids/events planned to help keep members aware of what is happening when

And please continue giving opinions on the subforums idea, nice to read different takes on it.

[Anubis]

To note, when I get a bit of time (hopefully this weekend) I'm planning to add a PM mod whilst displays a message at the top of the forums itself when you have a PM. Due to popup blockers and whatnot I'm aware sometimes people don't notice they have PMs, hopefully this will solve the issue.