Some changes are coming.

We have some changes that are scheduled for this week. We have a new code base for the forums and those changes will be established around next Wednesday. We are basically getting a new page technology that works on many things ?under the hood?, however there will be various cosmetic changes as well. You?ll notice that some things will look a little different. You can get a preview of some of these changes by visiting betaboards.theforce.net. What you see there will soon be implemented here at boards.theforce.net. Naturally, with a new code there are many things that can go undiscovered at first. That can go for either updated features or possibly unseen bugs. Administrators and moderators have been going through this new system and trying to compile a list of all the things that we notice are different. What we?re trying to do is get rid of any bugs before this is released to everyone. Again, you can get an idea of what everything will look like by visiting betaboards now. If you notice anything that you think we need to know about, you should post it here.

Now, Grimby The Hutt has also been working on something unrelated to this new code base. In addition to this new page technology, we?re also receiving some new features thanks to an updated script code from Grimby. This new script code will open the door to many things. One of those features is the introduction to a global announcement system. With this system, we?ll be able to make a simple announcement, like a new MSU posting or an interview with a writer from the Clone Wars TV series, and that announcement will be broadcasted to the top header of each forum. The announcement would fit in the header and use the colors from the current forum?s stylesheet so it will blend in nicely with the current scheme of each forum. This means many things. Most users don?t know about the Comms forum or know when something special is going on, but with this new system, notifications will be much easier to generate. Because of that, implementing new ideas - or even just starting new discussions - will be painless. This feature will be available soon.

I have ideas that center around these new changes and I really believe that this opens things up and makes things much more unchallenging to implement. We all know the forums have slowed down, but all I think that means is that we must be more efficient. These changes are a step in that direction.

 

So we'll be able to preview PMs? I know betaboards has had that feature for a long time now.

 

I have seen the betaboards, and I pronounce them . . . good.

 

Cosmetic changes are nice, and thanks to Grimby for all the work, but your thread title is misleading.

 

This sounds pretty cool.

 

looks neat and tidy - difficult to tell from the user end exactly what the differences are, which I guess is a credit to the coding to make it look similar to the current appearance.

qft

 

The Greatest Show On Earth

If we do not make the changes, they won't come. Their union will prevent it.

 

I noticed signature preview mode, and board post counts in the header too.

 

Yeah, you can preview most things now. PMs, unban requests, signature changes, etc.

And yeah, the forum stats show themselves in every forum now.

 

This will make it easier for us Comms Monkeys to calculate the traffic drop off. Sweet!

 

Really guys? Misleading? I don't think that is really necessary. I never cease to be amazed by the level of ridiculous nitpicking some of you are capable of. Is this thread title really that important in the grand scheme of things? Do you have nothing else to be concerned with? Try looking at the changes that are coming along, changes that the admin team has been working hard with zerosleep to get up and running. I don't think it serves anyone to focus even slightly on something as trivial as this thread title.

 

In the strictest sense, the title is accurate. But, I suspect that most of us who saw the title before opening the thread expected major stuff, like the opening/closing of forums, stepping down of someone, wholesale changes, etc.

I don't care myself, but I'm just making an observation.

 

KW is correct.

 

I understand that someone might have let their own hot button issues influence their perception of what the thread contents might include. I do not understand thinking it's a big enough deal to warrant two different users specifically pointing out that the thread title is an issue. That is where the disconnect is happening. It's flat out not a big enough issue to type out and hit post. It's far more productive to just grumble to oneself that one's expectations were not met and then focus on the important issues at hand.

 

Tim, you do realize that you are right now doing exactly what you are griping at us for doing, yes?

 

There is a big difference between constructively trying to explain why something is not necessary and suggesting we move beyond it and back onto topic and the "I agree with so and so" stuff people have now done in this thread twice. What I am doing is called moderating the discussion.

 

At this point, I'm not sure any participation should be frowned on unless it's worthy of being edited or banned over. This place isn't overflowing with posts, you know?

Just to post about the subjects in the original post, it's good to read about the changes on the way, and I'm mostly glad to see the betaboards back .

 

I am concerned about the bugs in the new version. I hope they get worked out soon.

 

The title of the thread didn't bother me because I've been wantng a Global Announcement system for quite some time now. That's the sort of thing I don't mind the administration handling behind the scenes.

 

1) you aren't comms mod.
2) both of the users in questions actually contributed to the purpose of the thread, then commented that the thread title was misleading to them. Conversely you've just complained that those users thought that the thread was going to be about something else without actually contributing to the discussion yourself (in those posts). There's a strong degree of irony and hypocracy to your posting, which has evoked me to respond to something without actually contributing to the purpose of this thread.

 

Alright, my initial response was immature and unnecessary. Suffice it to say that you know full well that mods can participate in Comms and even help nudge discussion in one direction or another, malkie. You also know me and you know my intentions are good. We have some pretty major changes coming in the boards software and 506 was giving a heads up on that.

Right now, my biggest concern with this process is that a good number of bugs and software issues have already been found by a few mods testing it. I really hope we can get a comprehensive list to zerosleep soon so he can fix them. I am looking forward to Grimby's announcement system. I think that will be a useful tool in continuing to foster communications between the administration and the userbase.

 

Tim, we all can (and should) participate in comms, and help form useful, constructive discussions, but you clearly used the word "moderate" rather than "participate". I'm not nitpicking, just merely commenting on your choice of wording as it had pretty strong meaning behind them.




With any switch in coding there will undoubtedly be bugs, and some won't show up properly until there is the entire userbase is using it. My hope would be that they are reported clearly without "JC sucks now" type posts, and my bigger hope is that the bugs are fixed as quickly as possible, and not put on the zerosleep slow-list.

Is the entire IGN board system changing, or just us? If it's just us then I'd be concerned about how quick things will get changed. Also, are there any big changes to the admin portal?