Lucasforums upgraded

[stoffe]

Lucasforums has now been upgraded to vBulletin 3.7. There are some minor changes to the layout of the forums, along with a fair amount of new features.

If you notice anything that doesn't look or work like it should please post about it in this thread.



Here is a quick list of some (but by no means all) of the new features available in the new version of the forum. Please note that some of these features might be disabled in the future depending how how well they work out.

• Multiquote - You can toggle multiquote for posts by clicking the quotation mark icon in the lower right corner of the post. Any posts selected this way will be quoted in your post when you click the "Reply to this thread" button.
  
  
• Linked quotes - Automatically generated quotes will now include a quick link which takes you to the post that has been quoted when clicked.
  
  
• Improved text editor - The text editor (where you write posts etc) has been improved with several new features making it easier and less annoying to use.
  
  
• Thread tags - When posting a thread you can specify a number of tag words that are relevant labels for that particular thread. When clicking on a tag in the tag list of any thread the forum will list all other threads that also had that tag word speficied. You can also use tags when searching for posts.
  
  
• More BBCodes - A number of new BBcodes used for formating text in posts have been added. The full list can be viewed here.
  
  
• AJAX features - Various features now use AJAX to allow you to quickly change things without having to reload the whole page. These include:
  • You can mark a forum as read by double clicking the icon to the left of the forum name.
  • Name completion for PM recipients, buddy/ignore list etc. Begin typing and the forum will show a menu with matching member names.
  • You can change the title of a thread by double clicking the area next to the title link (not the link itself) in the forum listing.
  • You can edit your posts directly in the thread display when using the edit link.
  • Viewing an individual post by a member on your ignore list no longer requires the page to reload.
  • You can edit your public profile information (interests, location etc) directly on your profile page.
  
  
• PM BCC - When sending PMs to multiple members you will now have place recipients in a blind carbon copy list to hide who else has receive the PM (like it worked before). Names placed in the regular "To" field will be viewable by all the recipients.
  
  
• Signature image - Like with your avatar, you can upload an image to use in your signature, lessening the need for using external image hosting services.
  
  
• Member Profile - The member profile screen has been greatly expanded to link together social networking features, blogs and picture albums with the normal profile information. There is a "public messaging" feature that allows members to leave messages at the profiles. You may also review any infractions you have received on your own profile.
  
  
• Picture Albums - You can host a number of pictures in your profile and arrange them into thumbnailed albums where public comments can be left for pictures. Albums can be publicly viewable, or restricted to only members on your Contacts list. Standard forum rules about what is appropriate applies to picture albums as well; LucasForums staff can view albums restricted to contacts.
  
  
• Social Networking - The new forum version includes various social networking features:
  • Friends/Contacts - The buddy list has been replaced with the Contracts and Friends lists. Your Friends will be viewable in your profile with quick links to their profiles. Friendships are mutual, i.e. anyone you add to your friends list must give their approval. Contacts, in addition to working like the old buddy list, can be used to limit who may leave public messages on your profile and do not have to be mutual.
    
    
  • Social Groups - Social groups offers a mini-forum of sorts where members can leave comments and share images in their albums. Groups can be public where anyone can join, or invite-only. Groups can be moderated by the group leader. Please note that normal forum rules also apply to social groups, and LucasForums staff can view invite only groups.
  
  
• Calendar Events - You can now add events to your private calendar that will show up as a reminder on the forum front page at the specified dates. Staff members can post public events visible to all visitors, while regular members can post private events visible only to them.
  
  
• Blog - You can now create a blog from your user control panel screen, or read other people's blogs by choosing "Blogs" in the quick links pulldown menu at the top of the forum pages. How many blog entries you have, along with a link to your blog, will be shown beneath your portrait on each of your forum posts.

The forum upgrade also offers lots of new functionality on the moderator side:

• Inline moderation - You can select threads in a forum display and choose a moderator action to perform on them from a menu at the bottom of the page. Similarly posts in a thread can be selected and an action applied to all of them. Threads can be locked/unlocked by double clicking the status icon to the left of the thread title in the forum display.
  
  
• Infractions - Infractions formalize the handling of moderator nudges and warnings. Click on the yellow/red card icon on a post to issue an infraction for that post. Posts that have had an infraction issued have a yellow or red card indicator in the lower bar. Members will be sent a PM about the infraction they've received along with the moderator's note/motivation.
  
  Each infraction is worth a certain number of points/strikes. Once a member has accumulated a specific amount of infraction points automatic measures might be taken, such as a ban from the forums. Members can review any infractions they have received on their profile screen.
  
  
• Deleted/Moderated message lists - You can view any messages or threads that have been soft-deleted or sent to the moderation queue from your usercp.
  
  
• Moderation tools - A number of new features for moderation is available:
  • Spam prevention - Moderators can delete messages "as spam", taking appropriate action against the poster and deleting any other posts they have made.
    
    
  • Copy posts - Moderators can copy selected individual posts from a thread into either a new thread, or merge them with an existing one.
    
    
  • Move posts - Moderators can move selected individual posts from one thread into either a new thread, or merge them into another existing thread.
    
    
  • Merge posts - Moderators can merge selected posts in a thread into a single post (to fix double-posting or the like).
  
  
• Thread redirects - When moving a thread you can now specify how long the Moved: redirect notice will remain in the old forum.
  
  
• Announcements - Announcements can now be added directly from the forum tools menu in a forum section without having to go through the moderator control panel.
  
  
• Integrated reports - You can now view all reported posts in forums you moderate directly in the forum. A message on the front page and in the top navigation bar will indicate any open reported posts.

[Jae Onasi]

Thank you for your work on this!

[El Sitherino]

I just have to say, it's beautiful work. Good job and congratulations, you guys.

[Rev7]

It is a little different, but different is good. I have to say that I too like the upgrade, so thank you! I think that you did a great job with it.

[Jeff]

Finally AJAX posting! Among a lot of other cool features.

[Emperor Devon]

I'm loving all the new features here! Props to tk, stoffe, and anyone else involved in it.

[Sabretooth]

Sweet, sweet AJAX! *kisses admin staff*

I was kind of hoping the avatar size limit would be increased, though.

And why do we have to specify a Favourite LucasArts game in the User CP? Why must there be only one?

And this should prolly be expected or something, but I'm having a bit of a slowdown with the forums here.

[Marius Fett]

Verrry nice.

Glad you got it all up and running.

So quickly too!

Congrats!

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

I was kind of hoping the avatar size limit would be increased, though.

That's not set by the vBulletin version. It's set by the admins.

Oook, sorry to be the first one to do this but...

I HAVE A PROBLEM

I can't edit my Profile information!

Every time I hit save it tells me the entry in the height in cm field isn't formatted right.

Even if I haven't enetered anything in there!

(Yes i've tried entering something in there and no it still doesn't work.)

[Diego Varen]

Thanks for all the new features. It looks good so far and I'll be excited to try it out.

[Pavlos]

Thanks for working on this, guys; makes the forums that much easier to use . Congratulations on it all working as planned.

[Pho3nix]

Awesome work on the upgrade, I'm liking it so far.

I'm not sure if this is a 'bug' or not but sometimes when I click on a thread, edit my profile etc the page sort of flashes for a second and then returns to normal as if It's reloading the page again.

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

I was kind of hoping the avatar size limit would be increased, though.

Same. :3

[Jason Skywalker]

Awesome! Keep up the good work guys.

[JediAthos]

Thanks for all the hard work! *Bows repeatedly* we're not worthy!

[EnderWiggin]

Sweet

Thanks to all the staff that worked on this; every change was a good one.

I'm kind of interested to see how the social networking's going to go though

_EW_

[Joshi]

Looks a lot more professional. I like.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Everything looking amazing so far. Special mention to the quotes.

[tk102]

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

And why do we have to specify a Favourite LucasArts game in the User CP?

Believe it or not by setting this to "required", many spambots were defeated. Now that we are using re-CAPTCHA and registration, I think it's safe to make this field optional again.

[Char Ell]

Thanks to tk102 and stoffe and anyone else who worked on the upgrade! Starting to check out the new features now.

Loving the multi-quote feature!
Also glad to see that moderators and the forums they moderate are now displayed on the staff page

[matt--]

Good work all all-round.

Anyone else seeing an issue with this popup layer?

(Using Firefox 3 beta 5, linux)

[Rogue Nine]

I have the same issue with Firefox 2.0.0.14 on Windows XP.

[stoffe]

Originally Posted by matt--

Anyone else seeing an issue with this popup layer?
(Using Firefox 3 beta 5, linux)

Originally Posted by Rogue Nine

I have the same issue with Firefox 2.0.0.14 on Windows XP.

Have you tried doing a hard-refresh of the page (CTRL + F5 in Firefox)? For some reason the browser didn't fetch the updated stylesheet for the front page, making it look like that for me as well initially. After doing a hard refresh the menu displays properly though.

[Pho3nix]

When I was going to change my avvy, this message came up : "You may not upload animated images."

Is this intentional?

[tk102]

Originally Posted by Pho3nix

When I was going to change my avvy, this message came up : "You may not upload animated images."

Is this intentional?

Was a default setting. Try again now.

[Ferc Kast]

LF looks much cooler & better; Still, what is the "Project Tools" option in the User Control Panel? And how does one edit it to use for any (mod) projects?

[tk102]

The addition of new projects is done via the Admin Control Panel. Adding a new project is akin to creating a new forum.

[igyman]

I probably haven't seen all the new features yet, but what I did see so far, I liked very very much. Great work!

[Ray Jones]

Originally Posted by stoffe

Have you tried doing a hard-refresh of the page (CTRL + F5 in Firefox)? For some reason the browser didn't fetch the updated stylesheet for the front page, making it look like that for me as well initially. After doing a hard refresh the menu displays properly though.

Worked for me. Otherwise no problems so far.

Also, gotta love the maintenance picture, I had this one as avatar once. Who chose it?

And I have another question...why is it that I have options like nuke thread, ban user, and reboot server in my user cp now? XD



Good work y'all, with this particular job and overall, here's my personal cookie for you:


-- "You know what, Chuck Norris once went into Burger King
where he ordered a Big Mac. .. And he got one."

-- "Oh goodness, mother's right. You sound like your father!"

Selfmade. ^^

<3

[Serpentine Cougar]

Nice work! Though I'm not quite sure what the 'picture albums' are for.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

Uploading pictures.

[Pho3nix]

Originally Posted by tk102

Was a default setting. Try again now.

It's working properly now thanks.

[Hayden Kered]

Nice upgrade and very useful changes!

[jawathehutt]

cool beans, Im liking it

[Negative Sun]

It's still very blue around here...Apart from that it pwns

Yeah I've noticed the forums seem way more responsive now as well, unless it's some secret power reserved for mods that I hadn't heard of yet...Posting and editing posts seems to go much much smoother now...

[EnderWiggin]

Agreed. I really like how the page doesn't need to refresh (for the most part) in order to post things.

_EW_

[Rev7]

Link


This stuff costs a pretty penny, so thank you again.

[Arcesious]

Very nice update... now I can start using AJAX and the extra BBcodes that used to only be available on other forums I went to...

[Serpentine Cougar]

Originally Posted by jmac7142

Uploading pictures.

Yeah, but I'm just not sure why it's needed... There's other places to upload pics on the 'net, and it seems like it would increase bandwidth use of this site. But maybe that's not a problem.

[M@RS]

I like the updates especially the blog

[littleman794]

the upgrades are pretty sweet..

[M@RS]

yep, they rock