Okay. The forum is back online. However, I have not yet upgraded the wiki which means that the user integration problem we had (new accounts can't login at the wiki) still exists. I think I'm going to take a lunch break and continue after that. 
Some notes about the changes:
IF THINGS LOOK WONKY OR YOU DON'T SEE NEW FEATURES AS LISTED BELOW REFRESH THE PAGE AND/OR CLEAN YOUR BROWSER'S CACHE. (Google how to do it if you don't know.
)
- I know the dragon's footing is broken in some browsers/pages, I'll fix it someday.
- some pop-up windows look weird because they grab the site's header template (the main navigation and the dragon) and try to use it. This is on my "to be fixed list".
- You can now choose to use your universal gravatar as your avatar here - check your avatar settings in your user control panel.
- talking of avatars: there's a bunch of new ones to choose from besides the dreadful default images that come with the forum software. They're in two categories: Hobb and Fantasy/Sci-fi. All made by me over the years (based on screen captures, promotional images and cover art) so no need to go looking for permission to use. The Hobb gallery is rather small, but there's of course more in the goodies section of the main site.
- As you've probable noticed, we have a new "theme" (the colours & layout of the forum) - I had to change it since the old one wasn't compatible. Again, if things look weird: clean cache and refresh the page. (There are still some minor details like font colours etc I might change later - feedback is appreciated!)
- I've forced a "classic" view for our new theme which means poster's info will be on the left side of their post, not on the top. This used to be something you could choose yourself in your personal settings. Yes, I'm evil.
- The Google "inline translation" that was previously included in each post is temporarily deactivated. I try to remember to bring it back once I fix a problem with the image files it needs.
- I've set an automatic pruning for new member accounts that have been created but not activated within 90 days. (In case someone keeps an eye on our member count and wonders why it will start to flunctuate a bit.)
- There's a new page on the user control panel in the miscellaneous section called "social sites" - you can use this to post information about your various profiles so others can come and visit. I can add more sites to it so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to tell me. This also means I've removed the old "twitter" boxes from the profiles, so if you want to keep advertising them please update your profiles. My apologies for the inconvenience, but this new system is easier to manage.
- At the bottom of every thread there is now a section of "share/bookmark" links. Again, if you'd like to see some other sites included, please let me know.
- I've added a system that will post a new thread to the "Upcoming books & other RH news" room every time the main page (theplenty.net) is updated. I haven't tested it yet, so we'll see how it works. (Edit: looks like it works nicely, though I'll probably have to manually delete unnecessary threads once in awhile. It does not seem to post links that were included in the original news piece, but it does post a link to the original news post so it's pretty easy to click that to access the links.)
- I've also added a plugin that should warn you when you're typing a reply and someone else has posted to the same thread before you hit the "send" button. Haven't seen that one ~in action~ yet either, so I'm curious to hear any reports about it. (Edited to add: seems to warn you when you're editing your own posts lol).
- Some older, defunct plugins (link to myspace videos, cell phone forum style etc) have been removed either because there are new features replacing them or they never worked properly in the first place. The two most important added codes, the [ [ wiki ] ] links and the spoiler codes should work just like before.
- Oh, and I won't be able to check things on a PC until tomorrow evening (I know the majority of visitors still use Internet Exploder as their browser). Mac browsers (Opera, Firefox, Safari, Flock) seem to be doing quite ok with the new layout.
Any comments, questions etc?
Some notes about the changes:
IF THINGS LOOK WONKY OR YOU DON'T SEE NEW FEATURES AS LISTED BELOW REFRESH THE PAGE AND/OR CLEAN YOUR BROWSER'S CACHE. (Google how to do it if you don't know.
)- I know the dragon's footing is broken in some browsers/pages, I'll fix it someday.
- some pop-up windows look weird because they grab the site's header template (the main navigation and the dragon) and try to use it. This is on my "to be fixed list".
- You can now choose to use your universal gravatar as your avatar here - check your avatar settings in your user control panel.
- talking of avatars: there's a bunch of new ones to choose from besides the dreadful default images that come with the forum software. They're in two categories: Hobb and Fantasy/Sci-fi. All made by me over the years (based on screen captures, promotional images and cover art) so no need to go looking for permission to use. The Hobb gallery is rather small, but there's of course more in the goodies section of the main site.
- As you've probable noticed, we have a new "theme" (the colours & layout of the forum) - I had to change it since the old one wasn't compatible. Again, if things look weird: clean cache and refresh the page. (There are still some minor details like font colours etc I might change later - feedback is appreciated!)
- I've forced a "classic" view for our new theme which means poster's info will be on the left side of their post, not on the top. This used to be something you could choose yourself in your personal settings. Yes, I'm evil.
- The Google "inline translation" that was previously included in each post is temporarily deactivated. I try to remember to bring it back once I fix a problem with the image files it needs.
- I've set an automatic pruning for new member accounts that have been created but not activated within 90 days. (In case someone keeps an eye on our member count and wonders why it will start to flunctuate a bit.)
- There's a new page on the user control panel in the miscellaneous section called "social sites" - you can use this to post information about your various profiles so others can come and visit. I can add more sites to it so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to tell me. This also means I've removed the old "twitter" boxes from the profiles, so if you want to keep advertising them please update your profiles. My apologies for the inconvenience, but this new system is easier to manage.
- At the bottom of every thread there is now a section of "share/bookmark" links. Again, if you'd like to see some other sites included, please let me know.
- I've added a system that will post a new thread to the "Upcoming books & other RH news" room every time the main page (theplenty.net) is updated. I haven't tested it yet, so we'll see how it works. (Edit: looks like it works nicely, though I'll probably have to manually delete unnecessary threads once in awhile. It does not seem to post links that were included in the original news piece, but it does post a link to the original news post so it's pretty easy to click that to access the links.)
- I've also added a plugin that should warn you when you're typing a reply and someone else has posted to the same thread before you hit the "send" button. Haven't seen that one ~in action~ yet either, so I'm curious to hear any reports about it. (Edited to add: seems to warn you when you're editing your own posts lol).
- Some older, defunct plugins (link to myspace videos, cell phone forum style etc) have been removed either because there are new features replacing them or they never worked properly in the first place. The two most important added codes, the [ [ wiki ] ] links and the spoiler codes should work just like before.
- Oh, and I won't be able to check things on a PC until tomorrow evening (I know the majority of visitors still use Internet Exploder as their browser). Mac browsers (Opera, Firefox, Safari, Flock) seem to be doing quite ok with the new layout.
Any comments, questions etc?
"Green nubs on the dry sticks of the clematis promised that the appearance of death was not death itself." - Ship of Destiny
Facebook
Google
Reddit
Twitter
Blogger
Tumblr
Pinterest