The Intergalactic Highway

Hello all,

As some of you may have noticed, the forums have had a significant update. The old version of the board, 3.0.12, was way out of date. Some third-party services and APIs were no longer supported, such as Version 1 of reCaptcha. So, the entire board software received a massive overhaul to bring it up to current. Unfortunately, things like our old style / template are no longer supported in the new version.

Please let me know if you encounter any errors or issues with the updated forums here.

First off-- nice color scheme! I like the updated interface.

That said, if it's not too much to ask-- is it possible to create an alternate visual template that we can change in our profile, or is that not possible? Something as simple as just swapping the white and dark gray/black? I ask because the thick white font on a dark background does not agree with my eyes (or should I say eye, ever since my botched LASIK surgery in 2010-- long story). The font on the old board was thinner and didn't give off as much of a "ghost" in my vision. This one is gonna bother my eyes if I read it for long.

Some new features that I've added:

• Social Network Login / Registration: You can now log in with your credentials from Google, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, Amazon, or OpenID. This will enable one-click login for anyone who is logged in with one of those accounts (after initial authorization). Should also fix any issues anyone has experienced with logins.
• Newly Registered Users: Brining us inline with the latest version also removed my customizations that broke spambots. We already had our first spambot. So, to combat this, I've set up a special set of permissions for "Newly Registered Users" (3 or fewer posts). All new topics created by new users (except in the Introduce Yourself! forum) will require Moderator approval before being visible. Newly Registered Users are also not allowed to post any links in their posts.
• Anal Stars: For every year that you're registered, you will receive a star under your name. Looking at the threads so far, we've got some old ass folks here!
• Simple Mentions: You can now mention people in posts by typing "@" and typing their user name, like @Warwulf . A drop down list will appear to allow you to pick a name. This allows people to be notified automatically that they've been mentioned (just like the Facebook notification). Or, alternatively, you could use the mention BB code, like so:

  Code: Select all

  [mention]Warwulf[/mention]

• Auto-Draft: When you start a post, the board will automatically save a quick draft of your post (currently set to every 60 seconds). It will hold on to these incremental drafts for up to 7 days. The drafts will be purged after that timeframe or after you finally submit your post.

Pending to do list item: Make a customized template for Beastbot.

So, I've created a darker version of the current style. The current one is called "Hexagon". The new one is "Hexagon Dark" and can be found by going to your User Control Panel (also found underneath your username in the upper right corner of the page) and then going to Board Preferences. See the image below.
]

@Beastbot, since you primarily voiced interest in this, I went ahead and set that style to be your default. Anyone else can go into those settings and choose for themselves. Here's a preview how this thread looks in that style. It's a subtle change. Essentially, I copied the color codes from the previous version of our forums that you mentioned worked well for you and replaced some of the colors in the current style with the same darker one. Also, I removed the bold style on the font so it's not as fat. I may do the same for the current style too, as Bold text really doesn't appear significantly different.

Ah, that works better! Thank you much!

Hi Warwulf!

Thanks very much for the awesome upgrade. I like the earthy colours as it works perfectly for prehistoric earth that our brilliant show was set

Nice changes!

Thank you, Warwulf! It looks great.

Thanks Warwulf!!! This looks awesome! It actually kind of remind me of the original, original Console a bit....