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An announcement about the new forums

AntonyF

AntonyF

Administrator
Staff member
It may be a bit of a culture shock, this one. There's quite a few changes, but at heart this is the same system you're used to. So there's no need to panic.

Upgrade to 6.5.1
Firstly, the messageboard software has gone up 6.4.1 to 6.5.1. There are not many changes that users should be aware of. We admins have a funky new control panel. But in terms of the general site, there's a quick reply form on each thread (it saves you loading the reply page) and I think that's about it. :) For those that are interested, the full gory details are at:
http://www.ubbcentral.com/support/version.php?product=UBB.threads#6.5.1

Change of style
I've been wanting to make it unfixed width for a while, and here it is. Gone have the vestigtes of old B5TV.COM too, like the header. I'd like to tinker with the style sheets a bit more, to get scalable text, but you now have control over your own style sheet. Go to 'my home', then 'display preferences' and you can choose from a number of pre-supplied style sheets.

Premium members
This is probably the biggest change, and one I should have ideally told the premium members about first: I have removed the premium member status. The reasons are numerous... I haven't let people join in ages, I've not taken any membership fees in ages. The benefits were sketchy, and the site isn't like it used to be anymore. There are three factors though that are important about this: <ul type="square">
[*]I am still massively appreciative of the premium members, and this isn't a dumping of them. I will be sending an email to premium members to explain some of my thoughts a bit more.
[*]I will be adding a status, so that premium members will be labelled as "Founding members".
[*]The whole avatar thing has changed, see below.
[/list] Avatars
Have a field day! You can now upload your own avatar. Choose whatever you want, it doesn't have to B5. The requirements are that it's no more than 100 x 100, and no more than 5k. I think the rule will be no animated graphics, but I am open to discussion on this one. There will be no hard or fast rules on the avatars, just keep them appropriate. The admins reserve the right to ask you to remove an avatar that we don't deem suitable for whatever reason.

There are still a selection of stock photos to choose from.

Tinkering
There's still a few bits I want to do, like get rid of those damn flaming hot topics. But this is mostly it, so any feedback just hit me with it.
 
PS: I'm a very tired now, this upgrade was a NIGHTMARE that went on way too long. Now it's done, I'm off to bed and hope that it all works in the morning. :)
 
Avatars
Have a field day! You can now upload your own avatar. Choose whatever you want, it doesn't have to B5. The requirements are that it's no more than 100 x 100, and no more than 5k. I think the rule will be no animated graphics, but I am open to discussion on this one.
Click to expand...

Ooh .. fun! :D

There will be no hard or fast rules on the avatars, just keep them appropriate. The admins reserve the right to ask you to remove an avatar that we don't deem suitable for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Damn ;)

Looks good so far .. will need to get used to it, but that was to be expected. Trying a different style sheet now .. the blues. Some of the graphics look .. quite obviousley made for darker backgrounds .. I wonder if it would make sense to replace them with something more neutral? Or if people should just not use style sheets :D

I like the new feature of being able to reply with one click only - woo :D

Looks .. strangely wide somehow though :confused: .. probably just a matter of getting used to that though :D
 
Yeah, the images will need to be altered. I've ditched some of their horrid basic ones, but I will need to alter some of mine. They were always designed for a dark background.
 
Is the "Tahmoh Penikett rules" in the upper right hand corner really necessary?

Other than that it's not really all that bad. I think I will come to like it. And I can finally get a Kosh avatar of my very own!
 
Go to 'my home', then 'display preferences' and you can choose from a number of pre-supplied style sheets.
Click to expand...
"Frosted" looks really nice. Makes the fonts smaller too, like before.
"Wild" is perfectly 1980s. :)
The rest seem to be variations on the larger-font theme. I think I'll stick with Frosted. Looks a little more tidy...
 
Woo!!! This is all fun stuff! :D

Me likey! ;)

But I can't upload my own avatar. I started with one that was like 110x83 and it said it was too big. I even resized the sucker down to like 30x17 and still kept getting the same message. :confused: :rolleyes:
 
RW, are you sure it's under the dimensions? If you look at the properties in Windows, then advanced, what does it say?
 
I really like the new wider look, a very positive change.

As for the avatars, please discourage the use of animated graphics. They are EXTREMELY annoying.

Other then that, great work.
 
Regarding RW's problem .. could it be that there is a file size restriction too and that you're saving it as a JPG without any compression --> over the limit?

Try finding a slider called "compression" or something like that when saving the file .. under "options" or "file options" .. can't really say where it would be without knowing the program :D

That or come online on MSN and let me do it :D
 
<font color="blue"> Ah, it's horrible, it's horrible! Just kidding. I'll get used to it. And AVATARS! Yay!</font> <font color="purple"> Jepp, jepp. </font>
 
That's .. Vir, is it? :eek:

And RW: I checked, your avatars at other places are way too big in file size for the restrictions here. It's not a question of the measurements, it's a question of compression --> file size. I can explain in detail how to take care of that if you come online on MSN at some point :D
 
1166.jpg


Allowing people to upload their own avatars has been my best decision EVER.
 
Hmm .. as for myself .. to keep my avatar or not ..

.. on the one hand, something new would be cool ..

on the other hand .. it really is awfully me ;) .. and since I wouldn't survive using a swimsuit shot of Kribu anyways .. :eek:
 
While amused by the animation... I would still be inclined... to recommend against using animation in avatars. Slows down page loading.

And experience indicates: while the first animated avatar may be neat, seldom are those which follow afterwards... up to equal standards.
 
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