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Website upgrades ... whoo boy ..


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Hey folks,

Well if you've tried to get on at all on since early morning Sunday you'll notice that the website forums were turned off, everything was looking pretty sketchy and more to the point we had ads popping up all over the place at one time.

No we didn't get hacked. Ya'll were suffering through me doing an update to the website and boxing it up pretty good and then bringing in a professional to fix and sort things out. I'll atleast mollify myself in the fact that I 'almost' had it where I wanted it. Just didn't have the knowledge on one or two pieces.

Anyhooo, the software has been upgraded to the latest and greatest and I've still got some changes to make and software to reinstall as you'll notice that the shoutbox is now missing as well as some other stuff ya'll probably don't see.

In the mean time, you've got some new features to play with which I'll be configuring (along with the Experience bit I installed earlier in the week) which now allows you to have personalized spaces, albums for showing pictures (wife, kids, dogs, whatever) as well as joining certain social groups and adding friends and posting comments in the form of something like 'myspace'.

No it won't take over myspace by a long shot, but its there to be played with. You can find it under the user control panel and if you want to check out other folks you simply click on their names and follow over to see what they've got going.

I've still got to delve into all of it myself, but its there.

Sorry for the down time.

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Ah, something else for me to work on. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

As for those links down there, I guess those are links to sites that are 'random' bookmarkers. Basically the more people like something, a subject, a picture, a thread, if they hit one of those marks/buttons then it sends a signal to one of those sites and says 'hey, look at me!'.

People check these sites out and come across random links, stuff that people like. Like 'StumbleUpon'. Pretty aptly named.

Sorry again for the down time.

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Well, just when I was starting to figure this site out. But seriously, thanks for all the time and effort you're putting into this. I understand that it's part of the business but it seems to me that you could have been rightly satisfied with the better than average website you had but instead you go above and beyond to make it even better. You the man Nathan. Good luck with the finishing touches and then maybe you can explain it all to us.

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Alrighty, been going through this a bit more and working out a few other kinks and thought I would point out some of the stuff that we've got going on.

First, I think I've got any broken images that might have popped up earlier in the day taken care of. A bit more work but hopefully everyone will see it as it is supposed to be seen. If anything is missing, let me know.

The website is also at a 'fixed' size now. This is due to the software and the skinning that went along with it to make everything mesh together. This serves a dual purpose actually as we'll be adding some customization to the site in the near future with artwork across the top and sides. All in good time though.

You'll notice that in the threads now that most of the member info is now on the left hand side instead of spread out across the top. I did this in order to get a slightly updated look to change things out a bit as well as I liked the idea of having a darker bar behind the information and it just seemed cleaner looking in the long run. Hopefully this doesn't throw too many of you off, I know I had to shake my head for a moment after looking at it!

Lots and lots and LOTS of behind the scenes fixes for the software which we had superglued and duct taped in order to keep things moving along. Some software was interacting wrongly with others, links weren't working properly and some of the additions that I wanted to the site were seriously hampered because the latest and greatest wasn't installed. vBExperience for example is one of those programs that I wanted running on here but some of it was coming up with errors. It no longer is.

Speaking of Experience (that is those three colored bars under your user information), we'll be setting that up in full in the next two weeks and when we do, I'll most likely be doing a reset on levels. This is a fun little piece that I hope will help encourage community participation (contests, posts, galleries, etc). As you reach different levels, there will be new abilites and options available to you. Some might be quite mundane or something you wouldn't care about at first, but others will be sought after I'm sure. These will include the ability to change name color, upload animated avatars, more PM's available, ability to play arcade, discount coupons, free miniature with purchase, access to a sneak peak forum (two weeks before release, etc) and whatever else we can come up with to make things more interest. Please, if you've got some ideas or suggestions, holler and let us know.

The 'Thank You' hack has also been installed up upgraded (this was one of those duct tape things I was speaking about) and it is simply that little green circle with the check mark at the bottom of someones post on the right hand side, which you click when you think there is something that you liked and just wanted to say 'neat', but don't really see the point in posting one word posts. It's nothing huge but it is certainly a way to let folks know that you appreciate their posts and participation.

Down at the bottom of all threads now you will also see something called 'Bookmarks' which has four icons and say Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Google. Some of you very well may be aware of these and use them elsewhere, but basically, its a quick hot link which you can push on something that you really think other people will find interesting and it sends a buzz down the line to these websites which then make a note of it. The more times its hit, the higher it raises in rank and folks can find it upon these sites which generally give you 'random' links. You know, its the type of place you go when you are bored out of your mind and just want to look around at random. I don't expect these will be used much, but they are there for those of you that like this sort of thing.

Ahh ... now we come to the really big upgrades and additions.

We've basically setup the site to be much more socially orientated by creating friends lists, social networks, personal albums (this is seperate from the gallery), user created Social Groups (Brush Licker Anonymous, Society of Neverborn Watchers, Chicks that Kick Butt ... whatever), etc. This is basically where you can create something akin to a 'myspace' page for painters and gamers, post to each others profiles, share pictures of the animals, show your support for one of the factions and create a Society, and basically add a bit more interaction.

I expect the Social Groups will get a lot more use in the future when the game comes out and the factions are made available to everyone and you can join one group or another to show your affiliation (Guild, Neverborn, Resurrectionists ... etc). In the mean time you can also setup private groups so that ya'll can talk back and forth as a 'group' outside of the forums if you want (say, for instance, if a group of males wanted to plot the downfall of all the IP Queens ...).

Pictures and Albums - this is where you can show off anything that catches your attention. Me, I've created two albums, one for my family, one for my car (yes, I know, sad). The Gallery is pretty much for miniatures and contests, the photo albums are a bit more personal.

Also, you'll notice now that you'll get muliple types of private messages, and when you click on the link to read them, it'll come up and let you know whether it was a private message, friend request, post on your album or profile ... etc. Just a touch more interactive.

Think that about covers it right now. If there is anything not working or missing that you would like to see back, just holler, might manage to get to work on it here soon.

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Oh, and one other thing. Not something that I have used much myself on any of the websites that I frequent, but apparently TAGS are rather popular these days on websites as its a way for folks to 'tag' something with keywords and make it very easy for folks to find information on websites.

For instance, if everything to do with Malifaux was tagged that way, all you would have to do is click on that tag and it'll bring up every post that has been tagged in that matter. Or for instance every new release that we put out we tag it with the sculptors name, if you are looking for pieces by this particular sculptor, it'll bring it up automatically.

Something to play with.

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All in all, looking pretty good, FF. One question, though:

Friends: I know that it was something was in place before and if you added someone as a friend, a plus (+) sign would show up by their name when they were on. With all of the things that you've added, does adding friends do anything other than the "+" by their name?

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Not much other than it adds them on a quick 'PM' list, lets you know when they are on the site and shows them off in your profile. Think you can also setup private social groups for group messages between the lot of you and it'll keep it out of PM's and out of the forums.

Basically there for a larger site IMO, but its there.

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Installed an image resizer on the site today we've had a change in the size of the forum and how things are displayed and some of the larger pictures distort the forum.

In order to keep things looking clean an image resizer simply changes the size of the photo on the client side and conforms it to a the dimension set for the forum. If this has been done you'll see an information bar above the photo that tells you what the original size of the photo was and that if you wish to see the full size, you simply need to click on it and it'll enlarge it in the same window.

Example below ..

f_cutesleepinm_6cbb809.jpg

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Awwwwwww... and there was you Nathan, saying you don't like cute.... Or was it... irony!?..:eek:

Either way, cute kittens make me happy happy happy! Cheers - oh yeah and cheers for doing the photo resizing too... one less thing to get flumoxed by as I try to upload images for the first time for IPV.

EDIT: Will this alter the usual size limits and whatnot for uploading? I mean, what max size should you still be aiming your pic to be?

Edited by v22TTC
Added a question
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This resizing is just for showing off pictures in the forum itself - so basically anything with an image tag .

These are photos that you have linked off site, mostly about news or the like that we get here, and with the change in the forum size, it throws the formatting off. For the gallery itself here on Wyrd, the size limits and the like are still in place as everything will show up just fine in there, and if folks link the pictures from the gallery to the forum and they are too big in dimension, then it'll go ahead and resize them as well.

Technically its still the same size and you're downloading the same sized picture, all its doing is running a javascript that limits how you perceive it on the forum.

Hopefully I haven't confused the heck out of everyone, damn near did myself.

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Subscribed before or after the upgrades?

There was a fundamental change done in how the database and everything works with the upgrade as they've done some changes on how everything interacts in order to accomodate some other programs in the future. I know this has cause a few issues here and there and Artemis Black mentioned the same thing the other day but said that once he connected and subscribed again that things were working alright for him (unless I misunderstood him).

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