Setting up

[Hyarion]

Because we really should have a thread about all the little things that need to be tweaked. PM cap, white backgrounds, IMG tag on signatures, custom avatars, etc.

Also, ALTIMAAAAA.



(joking, joking)

[Dark Pulse]

A lot of this stuff is known and being worked on, so just be patient for now. We're still setting up shop, more or less, so just bear with us while the kinks are all worked out. It's gonna be a few days before everything's 100%.

[Hyarion]

I hear you, just being proactive here. I figure this is more for when most of the known stuff has been worked out, etc.

[Kotonoha]

This is more of an extra, but is it possible to add a spoiler tag in vBulletin?

[Dark Pulse]

I'm quite sure there's a mod out there we could install that would do it. I'll look it up and see if I can get it installed.

[Tobias]

Is the board time listed somewhere? The time stamps aren't much use without a currant board time clock to use as a reference.

[Mike1984]

This is more of an extra, but is it possible to add a spoiler tag in vBulletin?

AnimeSuki has one, and I'm pretty sure they're using vBulletin, so it has to be possible somehow.

[Dark Pulse]

Is the board time listed somewhere? The time stamps aren't much use without a currant board time clock to use as a reference.

Time is synced per-user profile. In other words, all times will be local to the user, per whatever timezone they have set in their profile. The time is listed at the bottom of the page, but it's currently a bit hard to see due to the skin being a WIP.

For the record, the board defaults to GMT.

AnimeSuki has one, and I'm pretty sure they're using vBulletin, so it has to be possible somehow.

It is, and I know how to add it. But as I don't have admin powers, I have to wait for one of them to get on so I can tell them what to do to add it.

[Mike1984]

Time is synced per-user profile. In other words, all times will be local to the user, per whatever timezone they have set in their profile. The time is listed at the bottom of the page, but it's currently a bit hard to see due to the skin being a WIP.

Yeah, the clock is definitely a little fast.

[Dark Pulse]

So I noticed. I don't know if we can fix that, though; it may be synced to the server's clock, which means it has to be adjusted on the server, and that's something that's not affected by the board.

[DragoZERO]

I guess I'll suggest some nice vB add ons...

Essential:
Separate Sticky and Normal Threads
Force Users to Read a Thread
Doublepost Prevention
VSa - Advanced Registration
VSa - Sub-Forum Manager
VSa - Advanced Permissions Based on Post Count
VSa - Advanced Forum Rules

Nice to Have:
[AJAX] Post Thank You Hack

[Mike1984]

Force Users to Read a Thread

Well, I'm going to shock everyone by saying that I'm not particularly fond of this idea....

Doublepost Prevention

Don't like this one either. We're a small enough forum that, IMO, we can trust people to not double-post stupidly (except for very new users, and they can just be told not to), and there are situations where it's just necessary to do so, for whatever reason (either to bump the thread, or because the original post is too long). Technical restrictions like that just tend to piss off people who have a legitimate reason for doing it.

VSa - Advanced Permissions Based on Post Count

This one seems somewhat unnecessary to me, honestly. I don't think people should need a certain number of posts before they can do things, it tends to make the forum seem elitist, and to annoy newer members. Plus, it encourages post-spamming (which, with the Elder's around, is pretty likely anyway).

[DarkMAN]

I don't see a need for that double post prevention thing. It wasn't really an issue in the previous forum and it might get in the way in the fanfic threads when people want to post more than one chapter at once.

^ well, I basically agree with mike on those.

So, do we set up the "pancakes" filter again?

[Erlkonig]

Well, I'm going to shock everyone by saying that I'm not particularly fond of this idea....



This one seems somewhat unnecessary to me, honestly. I don't think people should need a certain number of posts before they can do things, it tends to make the forum seem elitist, and to annoy newer members. Plus, it encourages post-spamming (which, with the Elder's around, is pretty likely anyway).

I agree. On both occasions.

Also, can the character limit be altered?

[Mike1984]

I don't see a need for that double post prevention thing. It wasn't really an issue in the previous forum and it might get in the way in the fanfic threads when people want to post more than one chapter at once.

Yeah, this. The only time I could see it as being useful is for a couple of users who can't understand the concept of "don't double-post unnecessarily", but it seems to me like it would be more work to exempt the majority of the forum from this mod than it would be to just tell those people not to double-post.

So, do we set up the "pancakes" filter again?

Well, I'd prefer not, but I suspect I'll be out-voted on that one again. I'm not sure, though, if it's possible to implement it on here, and if so what the result of doing so would be (if, for example, it's not easily bypassable (e.g. with italics tags), I would have a serious objection to it, because it could get in the way of legitimate fanfics etc. which happen to want to use that word).

Also, can the character limit be altered?

Yeah, this. I got close to the old BL one a few times (hell, I hit it once...), so unless you want five posts in a row from me on some topics, it needs to be of a similar length (IIRC, BL was something like 50000 characters).

[DarkMAN]

Well, I'd prefer not, but I suspect I'll be out-voted on that one again. I'm not sure, though, if it's possible to implement it on here, and if so what the result of doing so would be (if, for example, it's not easily bypassable (e.g. with italics tags), I would have a serious objection to it, because it could get in the way of legitimate fanfics etc. which happen to want to use that word).

Relax I was only joking.
(we should think of a new word to filter!) ;D

Yeah, this. I got close to the old BL one a few times (hell, I hit it once...), so unless you want five posts in a row from me on some topics, it needs to be of a similar length (IIRC, BL was something like 50000 characters).

Also that min. 10 characters should be lowered.

[Dark Pulse]

We'll be working on the character limits, sig image stuff, and so on. I'd be doing this now, but again, I don't have permissions for that sort of stuff.

I'll talk to Altima once he comes back on, or possibly EvoSpace if I catch him on.

[ranmafan]

Whoa, it's back, nice job.

Few problems that I see:

- Colour scheme: a lot of text is unreadable (mostly blue on black, but also some black-on-grey text boxes and white-on-gray text in places...). Example (mouse over "General discussion"):

As I'm writing this, I see the same problem with formatting help icons (transparent icons with black lines over black background).

- Default character encoding: it's set to iso8859-1 in the headers right now, which is bound to cause the same issues as the old forum (i.e. able to post non-ascii text with "inline" encoding, but breaking every now and then). That really ought to be switched to UTF-8 as early on as possible, especially if converting the database is involved.

- PMs from other members
This is more of an IMHO, but I find it really irritating to find out that email notifications were disabled by default only after you get a whole pile of PMs. On some forums, it takes a while to notice the notification prompt even when you're online... Not too important, but could save a bit of frustration.

- Lastly, this little bit:

.. you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, ...

I mean, I'm not complaining, but given how this all started, do you really need that in there...

[Cruor]

Awesome solution to Pancakes filter: Waffles.

But yeah, I agree with Mike on what he dislikes. Though, the force to read thread thing can be okay but most people would ignore it. Double posting is necessary sometimes to update old information some people ignored due to other matters at the time (this happened a lot in the Animeandgame forum and I think it happened to the Mahoyo thread too).

[ranmafan]

A few more examples where the colour scheme breaks:


(That one also seems to have been scaled down without a warning. And yeah, it's picking up some really crappy font from somewhere... haven't looked into that yet)





Also, I couldn't find a "custom avatar" option (i.e. where you can upload your own)...