We've launched the new Center v6! Register, post, and be merry.


What does this mean for you?

• You need to re-register on the new boards. Make a mad dash for those low member IDs. :O
  
• Everything on the old board is getting moved to another archive board (archivev5) and we will be starting with a new fresh slate
  
• Some of the forums have been moved, renamed, or removed. We've also added a couple new ones called Current Events and 13th Floor (a new project by Ghostfire)
  
• New features all over the place. Possible confusion. Better security.

Why?

Generally an upgrade process is a messy, time consuming, pain in the ass. This is a huge version jump unlike anything we've dealt with before. The last upgrade was from 2.0 to 2.2. This upgrade will be a major version jump to a 3.x based version. This means a lot of posts will get messed up, a lot of tags won't exist any more, and I have to support all kinds of stupid legacy shit.

We've taken this opportunity to fine tune things a bit and take this off to a new direction. We'll be enforcing the anti-trolling and flaming rules a little more closely and god damn it don't get your spam in my seriose (within reason). ALSO TAKE NOTE: We will be enforcing some light sig limits. No more signature banners that span half the screen (Ma) and no obnoxious animated GIFs (to be left to the judgement of staff). We'll be bringing back the current mods (Woofie, Jane, Lucy, and Chaoxytal). Effective immediately, Nappa will be head admin.

I will also be sending out a mass bulk email announcing the new version to hopefully snag back a few stragglers that may have left or whatever. the more activity we can sustain, the more likely we are to do another mod election...which would be exciting to do since it's been a long time.


What can you do?

Get people back. It's time to revive the Center. This place is becoming a depressing graveyard. Go out, invite your nerdy friends, find people on other boards, let's DO this shit. I'm going to try and make some effort to start recruiting campaigns and stuff within the first month or so. Go find people that left and tell them we're wiping the slate clean and heading off for a fresh start. I WANT ACTIVITY GOD DAMN IT. Oh and be here by 12am Eastern time on April 1st and join us in posting as much as you possibly can. I want to start this new version off with a bang like this version and I need your help to do that. That means be here, bring a friend, and post your fucking heart out. I want to see fresh meat topics from all of you.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for this, I am all ears. Also, just to reiterate, I'm not the previous board. It will be archived and there is a link to both archive boards in the Archives section on the forum listing.


What's New?

• Sweet updated skins. I'm pretty proud of my work done on the new Nostalgia skin. Ice skin has again been created from the default skin. It looks pretty damn nice too. Also give thanks to Chaoxytal for his services as an obsessive compulsive. I might work on a slightly less DBZ focused banner up top some time (maybe S18 can help if she is free?) but for now, we're sticking with an oldie but a goodie.
  
• Like button in topics. Seemed dumb at first but we're going to try it out. Mite b cool.
  
• Uploads are turned on. Enjoy. When you upload something and insert it into a post it actually puts a tag there so you can put it wherever you want. I'm still deciding on the amount of space you'll get for uploads but I think it will be fairly large once you hit the "Members" group. Also they are limited to 600x600 dimensions and if it is bigger than that, you can click on the image and it will expand. Actually pretty nice feature that will keep images from breaking hscroll.
  
• Double post merging. That means your posts will get merged together, Slyph. :P
  
• Chat tab. It uses a MUCH better chat called Mibbit. No stupid ass Java plugin that barely works. I'll be reposting the preconfigured mIRC there as well for download. I highly advise using this over the built in chat, but the built in is good for a quick chat or the computer lazy/illiterate.
  
• Completely revamped notifications system. I highly recommend that everyone go into their settings and look at the "Notifications" tab to see what is there. To get there click on your name at the top to bring down the drop down menu, go to "My Settings," then click "Notification Options" on the left.
  
• PM System changes. There is a mail icon at the top of the forums that will have a number hovering over it when you get a new PM. By default you will NOT get any sort of pop up (but I have set up defaults to EMAIL you at least). If you want the pop-up, that is in the notifications section that I just told you to look in (seriously, go in there now, stop reading and go look at the settings). There is a setting under "Private Messages" called "Show inline pop-up when I have new personal messages (latest will be shown)" which you will want to check if you want a pop-up on the forums for PMs. Also, I cannot believe it took this god damn long, but PMs are finally shown in the conversation style. Now you can see your messages back and forth in one place. This is extremely awesome. You can also have conversations with multiple people over PM. Currently you can invite up to 6 other people to a conversation but I haven't decided what the final limit will be. Feel free to make suggestions.
  
• New Post Editor. There is a richtext editor now. You can still type tags into it if you want, or just type out your posts and then format them like you would in Word or whatever. It is actually kind of nice. The button at the very top left corner will bring you into code mode if you really hate the editor but none of the buttons will work and you'll have to manually type out the code. The richtext editor itself actually seems nice enough that I don't feel the need to go into code mode and fix anything which is impressive. Also, the editor is bound to the Ctrl button so things like Ctrl+B or Ctrl+I actually work now. Kick ass.
  
• Search at the top of the forums. It is contextual so if you are in a topic, it will automatically search that topic when you type something in. The gray box next to the search tells you WHERE it is searching and you can click on it to change where you search. Click the little gear icon to do an advanced search.
  
• Another new profile screen. You can't turn it off so just get used to it. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see that a fair number of useless shit was removed vs the previous version. You have friends, but they're mostly in the friends tab and I don't see and comments are left in the "profile feed" area. You can also make Facebook type status updates (if you want). I think that shows when someone hovers over your name in a topic. You also have control over a few of the things displayed in your profile in your settings (friends, latest visitors, comment approval, etc). Look around in there.
  
• Steam tab in your profile. If you add your Steam ID (ie webheaded) to your profile settings, your Steam tab will show your Steam Community Profile. Really awesome. I will also work on doing something for XBL/PSN at some point if I can. I figure a vast majority of us are gamers so this is a good thing™.
  
• Stats tab in your profile. Shows your posting stats. Not really anything life changing...just seemed kind of neat for those of you that like pouring of statistics.
  
• Smileys have been pruned. We have a fuck ton of smileys and I got rid of some of the dumber ones that no one uses with some help from Ma.
  
• View New Content button at the top of the forums there. It's actually really damn cool. You can see what's new since your last visit OR you can see what is new in various other time frames (e.g. 24 hours, past week, etc).
  
• Skin changer at the bottom. It is the link called "Change Theme" and it is at the very very bottom left of the forums. It isn't really a new feature but it looks different and you might miss it. :P

If I think of any cool new features that no one is taking advantage of, I'll post in the new Tech Center forum. If anyone seems to be failing at something, ask about it there. If you can't find shit...same. Things might be a bit bewildering at first...though I did take the step of renaming all the shit that says "Personal Photo" or "Member Photo" to say "Avatar" so people could find the damn thing. It is in "My Settings" now, FYI.