Forums upgraded to UBB.threads 7.0

The forums have been upgraded.

Feel free to have a look around, experiment and explore! There are lots of cool new features, but for now, here are some things you might like to know.

Improved Text Editor Interface
<ul>[*]A much nicer formatting menu bar is now available.[*]Increase/decrease the size of the edit box on the fly with the up and down arrows located in upper right in the tool bar.[*]The VF command/button graphics are now found under the Smilies drop-down menu. Also note that the markup syntax has changed slightly (for those of you that type them manually). And there's a bug for now which doesn't render the plus sign correctly.[/list]

Private Messages
<ul>[*]Also known as Private Topics. [*]Multiple users can now participate in a single private message, and appear like a thread. [*]The maximum number of users that can participate in a single private topic is currently set at 5 (and is configurable).[/list]

Watch Lists
<ul>[*]Replacing the old Favourites feature are Watch Lists. You can watch forums, threads or even users -- very handy![/list]

Previewing Posts
<ul>[*]Pages don't reload when previewing posts or private messages.[/list]

What happened to the old threads?
<ul>[*]They're all still around, just in different locations.[*]The previous Help Center (Character and Technique Training, Console, Quest) is now the new Virtua Fighter 4 category. [*]The Character and Technique Training board now has Character sub-forums, and I've filtered all the existing threads into the relevant one.[*]The Final Tuned board has been integrated into the relevant VF4 sections (or character sub-forum).[*]The Virtua Fighter 5 board is now split up into different forums found under the new Virtua Fighter 5 category.[*]Junky's Jungle can now be found under the new Virtua Fighter Archive category. It is temporarily marked as read-only.[*]Jamboree was renamed to Match Making and can be found under the new Community category, along with expanded Tournament/Event related forums.[*]There is a new Media Center category. This has forums for announcements, buying stuff, and general media help.[/list]

Work in progress...
<ul>[*]There are still some modifications I need to make, mainly with managing the existing and old content.[*]Expect more changes to occur over the next few days. Content may move around or disappear, forums may be created or removed, that kind of stuff.[*]No, this is not the final colour scheme / stylesheet that we'll be going with. It was the default one available with the upgrade. It'll be changed eventually.[/list]


If you have any questions, or encounter any problems or bugs, please let me know in this thread. I'd appreciate your continued patience until the forums get a little more stable.

Thank you, welcome back and a belated happy new year!

 

Couple of things just came to mind.

Quoting old posts
Please don't quote any posts that contain command/button graphics. Since the markup syntax has changed, the quoted graphics won't display correctly.

Whoa, what happened to my PMs?
You may have noticed a whole bunch of PMs under "My Messages" which previously weren't there. Because of the way the new Private Topic system works, after the import it combined all your received and sent PMs as seperate threads. Even PMs you sent that you didn't specifically ask to keep a copy of will be available as well. So, don't freak out, and this may be a good time to clean up your messages -- the current limit is 200, and if you exceed it you can't receive any new ones! Also, rest assured that nobody else can read your messages. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

For the old schoolers
The Virtua Fighter Archive category will eventually be home to forums for all past VF games. Currently, Junky's Jungle is there in read-only mode. The plan is to split the content from Junky's into relevant VF boards, and then open it up to the public.

Any feedback?
Do you like it? Hate it? Think you'll get used to it? Have other suggestions? If you have any feedback on the new forums, don't hesitate to let me know.

 

More tidbits.

Cookies and Mark all Read
Accessing My Cookies and the Mark All Read feature can be found in the footer of the forums. These were previously located under My Home in the old forums.

New Thread/Post Tracking
You may have noticed that the New Thread/Post tracking feature isn't around anymore (that little red number that used to show you how many new threads/posts there were). This feature wasn't available in this version, but will be in the next upgrade which is currently undergoing beta testing.

Linking to Posts
Now you can easily links to any post within a thread. When viewing a post, the post icon to the left of the Subject is the URL for that post.

 

CLEAN OUT YOUR MESSAGES!

This warrants repeating. After the forum upgrade, all previous PMs that were sent by you will now appear under My Messages.

This includes:
1. All PMs you previously sent and specifically saved to your Sent PMs folder
2. All PMs you previously sent, even if they weren't saved by you, but still reside in another users My Messages.
3. All Read Receipts that other users requested when they sent you a PM -- yes, these appear as a sent message from you, and now appear under My Messages.

If you have more than 200 messages, other users will not be able to message you![/size]

In going forward, I think you'll find the new PM system will be easy to manage and track since all conversations are contained within a single thread.

 

You've probably noticed the new Portal Page, and content in the left and right columns. I'm just trying these on for size, so don't be alarmed if you see the layout changing on occasion.

Also, if the left or right columns aren't your thing, you can disable them under My Preferences.

 

A new stylesheet has been added, called vfdc_legacy, and has been made default. There are still some minor issues I'm dealing with, but it should render mostly OK in modern browsers.

Unfortunately, IE6's lack of CSS compliance means that you'll see ugly borders everywhere. If this bothers IE6 users, I recommend you stick with the ubbthreads stylesheet until further notice.

Thanks for your patience.