Here's a short list of some new features you might find useful:
Portal:
The MX-Publisher Portal is integrated directly into phpBB3, which makes creating modules a snap! Look for new and exciting Portal Applications to be added in the near future.
News and Announcements will be seen on the Portal Index if a moderator or administrator sets their post as an Announcement. So if you want your article to be front page news, click the Announcement or Global Announcement radio button when submitting your post.
- Currently only a limited number of forums are set to display these posts - we can change the list as neede via editing the Announcement block from the portal itself.
New menu system linking more to the Wiki than the previous menu. We'd like to inspire more people to start dumping useful information into our Wiki, instead of just on the forum. Create a Wiki account and become a contributor today!
Server Status and Quick Stats will show you at-a-glance which EQ2Emulator servers are currently running and what "mode" they are in. Server Status is the full page view, while Server Quickstats is a quick view from the portal Index.
Player / Server Registrations have been moved inside the portal and had some additional work done to them to hopefully make the process easier on the user. Player Registration has been split from Server Registration - and it is now more clear that you are required to create a Login Account before you can create your World Accounts.
Downloads and Galleries have been installed, but are undergoing some customization due to the modules I am familiar with are out-of-date from the newer MX-P portal software. I will get these going as quickly as I can, but this will offer us the option of an integrated file download section and Photo Gallery - both which can be linked directly to forum posts.
Forums: The forum software operates as standard phpBB, with a few enhanced features.
Sub-Forums are here! While most people do not care about clutter, having a front page 10 feet tall was getting annoying. phpBB3 allows for Sub-Forums to be created, so if you do not see your favorite forum right at the Board Index, look at the forum list again - below each description will be a direct link to a sub-forum (Development -> Server Core -> General, for example).
Posting Options have changed slightly, and I thought it only important to mention because I once got bit by this new feature.
"Save" does not submit your post!!!
What Save does is put a copy of your post in your Drafts folder under your UCP, allowing you to finish your post at a later date to submit. If you do not see a post you just entered, check UCP -> Overview -> Manage Drafts to see if you mistakenly clicked Save on the post.- Q: How do I submit my Draft as a public post?
A: When you are looking at the Manage Drafts page in your UCP, there is a small link "Load Draft". Click that, and it will pull your draft work into a new post where you can Preview and Submit. I know that is a little confusing, but it's kinda cool to allow you to get your posts set up the way you want without running out of session time, then submit later (well, for those of us who cannot post less-than 5000 words
).
After you have Load(ed) your draft, you will notice a Load button available. This will re-fetch your original saved draft, should you decide the changes you made were not what you wanted. Everytime you click Save, you save a new draft of the current post you are working on.
View New Posts is my favorite new addition (silly, I know). One thing I have always hated about phpBB is they never give you a way to view new posts from an easily accessible menu from anywhere in the forum. I have moved the "View new posts" link to the header, so no matter what page you are on, you can quickly go-to-top and click it to see a list of new posts!
Active Posts is something new to phpBB3. Forums are broken into Categories (Community, EQ2Emulator, Development and General). By clicking the link to the Category itself, you can get a quick overview of every post within the sub-forums of that category which have "active posts". These are not new posts since your last visit, only posts that have more than 1 reply (I believe) and are up to a certain age since they were last bumped. Still unsure of exactly how these work, but give them a look.
Post Attachments will allow you, the user, to submit screenshots, config files or other assorted bits of info directly into your posts - making support for problems or sharing of new information much easier than hosting elsewhere. File sizes for uploads is limited (1mb max), so test it out and let is know if there are any problems.
- Please do not abuse this privilege.
This does not sanction wares or any other copyrighted file uploads.
Be absolutely certain what you attach to a post or PM is legal, or your privilege will be revoked and your account warned.
User Control Panel (UCP) has a ton more options. Click the link at the top-left to access your control panel and set your account up to your liking. You can have Friends or Foes, upload a custom avatar to display next to your forum name, and Private Messaging has a ton of new options as well.
Search has been vastly improved with phpBB3, so there should be no more excuses why we cannot find info, yes?
There is a quick search in the banner, an Advanced Search option, and with phpBB3, you can now even search within a specific forum only while browsing that forum.Polls have changed slightly in phpBB3, allowing you to "change your vote" should you have a change of heart (don't we wish we could do THAT in real-life?) Not a common option, but it's there.
There are so many things updated in this software, it is impossible for me to name them all - but these are the ones I found most interesting or exciting. I hope you enjoy your new Community site! Now lets get back to work on our favorite project; EQ2Emulator!
Thanks:
Foremost, I want to thank LethalEncounter for not only allowing me to push this massive update to his personal webspace (grin), but for sitting with me for hours on end on IRC working out the details and testing, tweaking. Seriously, thank you buddy. I couldn't have done it without you.
A huge thank you to ZexisStryfe for creating our new sexy banner. We didn't even have to ask him to try a few, the first one fit perfectly! Thanks, ZS!
And last but not least, thanks go to the Content Team for taking time out of their busy schedules to hammer on the new site to make sure we weren't forgetting anything.
