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Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:05 am Hi, and welcome to the new SilverHearts. There's some stuff that's the same, some that's different, and some that's new, and some that's not done. I thought I'd go over that here so I don't need to tell everyone over and over :)
So, what's the same? * Well, posting is more or less the same. We still have a quick reply box at the bottom of threads, you can still make new threads with a title, and it shows up under the server (more on that later). Threads are listed by most recently posted-on first, as you recall. * You can still edit your posts by clicking on a link in the upper-right corner of the post * BBCode, the stuff you used to make text bold, italic, or whatever, is the same. It's not complete yet, but more on that later * You still have the same username, and the option to have an avatar by your posts. What's different? * The organization is slightly different. While RP posts were separated by "servers," they were not associated with that server in any fundamental way. We had a fixed number of active servers, and renamed them if we wanted a change. Now, RP posts are associated with the "theme," so they need not be moved. If we stop RPing somewhere, I can just set it as inactive, and without any extra work, it will hide. Inactive servers can be found by clicking on the "View all themes" link at the bottom of the front page. * The listing of forums is no longer static. While I know I was used to the categories acting as a guidepost in the past, I think this will be more useful. Now, the most recently posted-on servers are shown at the top of the list, with this Admin's Notes section pinned to the top, and Characters and OCC pinned to the bottom. * Characters have a customized "theme," providing a field for the character's name and the theme it belongs to. This allows for better integration into the new character management, which I'll discuss later. * There is no longer a separate page for replying to posts. I hope this doesn't bother anyone! * No "personal" stuff in the user profiles. Not yet, anyway. If people want to put their location, AIM, etc., then I'm sure I can be persuaded to put this on the "to-do" * I trashed the OOC posts. More accurately, I didn't want to bother copying them all. Everything is still intact at the old site, though, of course. What's new? * Drafting! Now, when replying to a thread, SH will periodically save your post as a draft-- automatically! Of course, you can also save it manually, and discard it as well. If your browser crashes, or your internet dies, or your computer spontaneously combusts, your precious post is safe! For convenience, you should be able to press ctrl+s to manually save, as you expect. (Not sure if this works for apple+s for Mac-- let me know if it doesn't and I'll look into it!) It isn't active when editing, but there's less worry when you already have a post, right? Note that you can only have one draft per thread. * Watch posts LIVE! Though I haven't called it so anywhere but in the URL, my code name for this place is SHLive. If you're on the last page of a thread, SH will automatically insert new posts to that thread right on the page as you watch! This way, if someone posts before you finish yours, you won't be caught unaware :) * The Character manager. It is now more fully integrated into the forums. When you post a character, you're done. A thread is created, and an entry in the manager, as well. You can access the manager by clicking "Characters" up top, or just view it like a regular forum (As at the old SH) from the front page. Also, there are links at the top of each person's post to various sections of the character manager, much like there was at the old SH. I hope the manager is pretty intuitive, but I'll probably write an FAQ about it some time down the road. * Breadcrumbs! Well, maybe the old SH had something similar, but I like mine. This is the thing with the "You are here" near the middle-top of the page. * This layout! I made this layout from scratch, trying to get colors that would be easier on the eyes for long reading sessions, and a bit more color so this place doesn't seem so gloomy. What's not done? * Smilies. I haven't added them at all, but rest assured I will get there! * BBcode. Right now, I just have bold, italic, and underline. Eventually, I'll add links and images * Private messaging. There's not even a placeholder! But, this should not be too difficult when I get around to it * User pages (You know, when you click on a user's name). I'm sure you'll notice that they look super ugly right now, but it's low priority for me. * The FAQs. Not even started * Members list. This is LOWEST priority. I may never do any more to it. * "Facebook connect" one-click login. It's like 90%, but I have it disabled for the moment. I don't think you can link an existing account here to Facebook. This is pretty low priority, at the moment. * User location - Eventually, if someone is posting in the same place you are, or reading the same thread, you'll be able to see it. What have I finished that was previously not done? (Is that a mouthful, or what?) * Integration with SHCheck. Not sure how many use this anymore, but I'm definitely working on this. * The "New post" icons to the left of threads and themes. They work (sort of), but not very elegantly. I'm working on a way to make this work correctly. * (Some) BBcode: OOC brackets I'm sure there's a lot more, but that'll do for now. Feel free to reply with any comments or questions! |
| Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:34 pm The "New post" stuff should now be working exactly as you would expect it :) Let me know if something's weird.
I also updated SHCheck, and it now works with the new site. I did this yesterday, actually, but forgot to mention it. Update: Drafting is now enabled for new creating threads :) Note, however, that you can only have one "new thread" draft, and if you try to create a new thread on a different theme, it will have the same draft you were creating on the other. Also, it won't save the title of the thread you're creating. Update2: OOC stuff gets nicely separated again. What do you think of the color? I'm open to suggestions. A nice new feature is the support of inline OOC OOC: Example I was always bothered with the how much break there was around OOC that was supposed to be inline, and now it should look right :) Also, I've noticed that there's no timezone support, causing the times to be all out of whack. I'll look into this tomorrow/later today. |
| Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:09 pm All dates should now show in EST. This is a temp fix, but since we're all in EST it'll work for now. |
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