Recent changes in detail and to be discussed

Recent small changes that i want you to be aware of will be posted here with the date.
The Feedback section of the forum is the place to discuss anything in this thread, and let me know if you like it or not. Any small questions may be addressed in this thread, but will be deleted after they have been answered.

Old updates will get deleted as new one's come in.


10/7/11
- I have added the ability to change where the post profile is located. The post profile is the little bit next to a post which contains the posters avatar and details. Now at the top of a thread there is a small button which can switch this from the left side to the right side, as i know some people like it one way some like it the other. Try it out
- sorry the forum has been down for so long, i have been implementing a few small changes and made some preperations for some great big features.
- First off the homepage has changed slightly, there is now no 'topics' column and no 'posts' column, this information is situated under the forum title now. I think it looks nicer, but your feedback is welcome of course.
- I have also added the 'Quick User CP' to the right hand sidebar. So if you look over there now you wil see it, just under your avatar. Clitck it to see some useful links which are personal to you. As with anyything, if you have any preferecne as to what links could be included in there, or if you would like it placed somewhere else in the sidebar im happy to hear your thoughts.
- im sorry you have waited so long for such small changes, but there should be some good one's very soon.
- Still ignore the 'Status' field in your profile's, i am still working on that.

14/07/11
-The homepage has been put back to the old style columns due to the common dislike of the new style.
-The rules have been slightly changed in regards to signatures and a couple of other small things. Please have a look and familiarize yourself with the updates:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
- Today I have fixed a load of bugs relating to the post editor. These bugs included the BBcode* problems where it would insert the bbcode at the top of your posts, the issues with the WYSIWYG mode too where sometimes it would show the BBcode. Also with some of the insertion boxes (insertion boxes meaning the things like the URL box, which inserts a url in for you, and the video insertion box which you use to put a video in the post) have been sorted to work better. So writing a reply in either the advanced reply method, quick reply method and WYSYWYG method should be a lot more enjoyable.
- * BBcode is the code used in posts to change an attribute or add an attribute. Here are some examples you may recognise from posting on the forum;

Code:


 Bold = [b] [/b], image = [img] [/img], underline = [u] [/u]


15/7/11
- First off i would like to let you all know that the staff positions that have all been interviewed for will all be finalised by wednesday, so you should all have heard back from Kermit by wednesday, if you haven't heard back already. Please keep a close eye on your inbox.
- You may have noticed a few changes regarding the current staff; you can check the staff list page for any details of this (link to the staff list in the quick links on the left sidebar).
- Today i took the forum down to activate facebook integration. What this allows you to do, is to log in to the forum using your facebook account details, register on the forum with the facebook details, and easily invite friends from facebook to the forum. Let me explain a bit about this; first of all if you have a facebook account, you need to go to you USER CP, and click on preferences, then click on 'Associate my facebook account' and type in your facebook details and click accept to LGF. Once you have done this, you can now log on to the forum with a click of button, by clicking the FB button at the bottom of the homepage. Also, whenever you log in to facebook you are automatically logged into the forum, meaning if you visit facebook first on your computer and then come to the forum you will already be logged in. You can also visit your USER CP and click on Facebook Invite, which will bring up a list of your FB friends allowing you to invite them to the forum easily.
Registering is also a lot easier now, and can be done almost instantly by clicking the 'Register with facebook' button.
The benefits of this aren't much at the moment i am aware, but this opens up oppurtunities for some great features in the future.
- A staff member (Sarah) is also currently working on creating an LGF facebook fan page for you all to go and 'like' and join and get all your LGF Updates from. Congtact Sarah for details or any questins regarding the facebook fan page, and contact me if you have any issues with the facebook account integration.
If you have a facebook account, visit your user Cp now

16/7/11
- Today i have added on the homepage the ability to hide categories. In the purple header of a category you will see a little minus sign, click it and the category hides. It will be saved as hidden setting a cookie. This can be useful if there is a category you don't look at very often.

19/7/11
- HA well where do i start haha! okay well im sure you've all noticed the big change, there is now only one sidebar. The reason for this is i decided to have a big declutter of the homepage. so here is everything i can remember changing haha;
- Well the right sidebar is gone. The breeder ads are now on the left sidebar, and the left sidebar has lost alot of content.
- gone from the sidebar is the POTM widget, it was nice but unnecessary, so the potm winners get there photo put into the 'Previous POTM Winners' forum which has been added to the POTM section.
- Also, the 'current theme' is now displayed underneath the 'POTM Entries' forum.
- You'll notice the top posters has gone from the side too, if you wish to view this sort of information you can scroll to the bottom of the homepage and click statistics, and there is a lovely page with lots of interesting stuff on.
- the quick links have gone, they were nice but not needed again. So sorry if you liked them.
- The members news feed has gone but it is now situated in the 'Quick User CP' (which managed to secure a place on the sidebar), if you click the quick user cp now you'll see it, its a lot smaller now but it does what it needs to.
- For the staff, you will see the box to post in the members news feed just above the mod chatbox, which has also secured itself a spot on the sidebar still.
- oh the gmt time clock has gone from the sidebar too.
- Ad space can still be bought for ths sidebar, i'll probably say a maximum of 10 ads on it only though.
- You'll notice a few buttons missing from the navbar too, the ones which are missing are; classifieds, gallery and usergroups.
- Gallery is gone im afraid. it wasnt getting used and there was certain costs involved with the extra storage involved so im afriad its been taken away for now (we may see it again in the future, maybe), so i apologise to anyone which has pics in the gallery.
- because of the gallery dissappearing that means the classifieds has been reverted back to the old style, they are now just regular forums again, and theyre empty, so get posting please! haha, we don't like empty forums. And because of this change is the reason the classifieds button is gone.
- the usergroups button is gone just because the members don't really need it so it was clutter. The member list button is still there which can be used for finding members or there is always the list of staff which can easily be found in the forum information section for finding a staff member. (and of course we are all easy enough to find around the forum)
- the small change of the banner is now situated to the right of the page now rather than centred too. I think it just looks nice there since the forum boards are on the right, but feel free to voice your opinion.
- So i think thats it, i can't think of anything else at the moment, but i welcome your feedback in the feedback section (good or bad),and of course if you have any idea's on how to improve the forum further there is the suggestions section.
- and finally one last thing, a big thank you to Jolene (smsararas2) for her help and opinion whilst changing the place around! She was there giving me great advice all the way through so a thank you to her, but if you all hate it then i blame her

20/7/11
- the ads at the top of the page are now scrolling across, this allows more adverts to fit there, it stops when you hover the mouse over it, so there should be no differculty clicking on something.
- POTM section has changed a little, a new forum has been added to it for any other photo competition, random compeitions will be held here. So keep an eye out for any interesting competitions in here, i have started the first one off. One thing to make clear about this forum is that ANYONE can start a competition in here, anyone can start a thread explaining there competition, entry requirements and rules, and rewards. I believe Sarah is planning on writing some rules about this some point soon.

26/7/11
- Sorry i haven't made any improvements recently. Mainly been helping out a few other forums (i'm not a traitor, just some people need my expertise ).
- Just made a small change today, if you visit the review section and have a read of Kodie's first review, youll see that the threads in the review section are laid out a little differently. This is just nicer for the reviews i think. The replies to the thread are below as 'comments' to the review. You'll see if you take a quick visit.
- Also those of you who have followed us on facebook you will have seen the previews of whats coming up tomorrow, so expect to see that implemented at some point. Nothing major but some cool new features. If you haven't seen these yet, then head over to our facebook page to get your sneak peek!
- And also i just wanted to inform you all that we have two new staff members now, if you haven't noticed already. Kodieh is our first LGF Reviewer, you#ll see his name in green around the place. And Karagain is our new Leopard Gecko Supervisor, so she will be supervising the leopard gecko section and can help you with anything regarding that section now, you can find them both and the rest of us on the list of staff page now.
- Those of you who weren't hired this time, your applications will be kept and considered next time, also feel free to apply for any positions that are available or any you are interested in, however it may not be for a couple of months before we actually go about filling them.
- And last of all i just wanna give a big thanks to Sarah (gothicgurrrl) for helping out A LOT with the facebook page, she pretty much runs it (for those of you who don't know, i know nothing about facebook lol) for me, and yet despite looking after and sorting all that out she still had your Photo of the Month competition sorted out for you all! So a big thanks to her.

thank guys.
Keep checking back to this thread
as it will be constantly updated. Also keep an eye on member news.
Please leave any feedback to any of changes in the feedback section.

27/7/11 - More Updates!

- Okay then here we are once again with my little updates to you guys, (which you know you love reading ), its becoming like a blog this recent updates thread. lol.
- Which brings me on to my first change. The first change is this thread, i will no longer be editing the original post of this thread, i will simply just be posting in it with my updates like so. Its a lot easier for me for a start as you can imagine, also it will mean that all the old updates get left and are still there for new members to read through in months to come, as this thread is where most new features get explained. Its a shame we don't have every update thats been deleted but ah well... it will all be saved here from now on.

- and now on to proper changes lol, those of you who have followed us on facebook and seen the sneak preview pics will know whats coming really. First off i have added more colours to the forums post editor. Its not much of an update but the old one rubbish, so scroll down to the quick reply now and click the colour button...its pretty cool

- and the main thing that has been added in this update is the Like/Dislike system on every post (though you can't like your own posts... its just sad). This is pretty cool, it looks very similar to facebooks so it is easy to recognise for people. You will see it next to the buttons at the top of posts, a thumbs up and a thumbs down with numbers next to them, obviously these numbers represent how many people have liked or disliked the post.
Be aware that very soon it is very likely that the 'Dislike' feature of this will dissappear, im not sure why i added it to be honest, but i promised release for today so i will edit the script some time soon. So yeah very soon it will become just a like system.
And i apologise that it doesn't say WHO has liked the post but... well im not as good as facebooks programmers lol. Anyway, i thank you whoever made the suggestion (i think it was Sarah so thank you Sarah) and your welcome to me for making it happen lol. Sorry it took so long. Anyway im jibbering...

- and last of all i have had to change the review section back to look like normal threads. You'll notice in the last recent changes from yesterday that i changed the layout of it. Well after adding the like/dislike system there become major problems with it so i had to go back to the old way until i can find a solution. And also i believe some members were having problems with the viewing anyway. So i apologise to Kodie for that, since he is our current reviewer.

i think that is all for today Have fun liking each others posts and painting pretty colours in your replies. Feedback in the feedback section as always

Jordan.

29/7/11 - Changes

- as i predicted and thought i would, i have changed the like/dislike system to just a like system. I don't know if this has reset everything or not, but it shouldn't have.

04/08/11 - changes

- a small change and thats the little facebook ad in the top left corner which im sure you've all noticed.
- next change is the big change to how the profiles are laid out, they are ow laid out in tabs, which means a lot more can be put on them.

take a look at them; you have the profile tab where your info is, your attachments tab where your attachments can be stored, members get 1mb of attachment space and mods get 2mb of attachment space. I know this doesnt seem like much, but if you use the photo uploader (servimg) rather than attaching photo's as an attachment, you'll fin it is plenty
You have the visitor message tab which is basically a 'Wall' which you can use for asnything, updating your friends etc... and also anyone can ppost on anyones wall (apart frm if they are on the ignore list).
So yeah check them out and have fun!

10/8/11 - Changes

- First of all is the big change made last night, the LGF Points, im not gonna go into great detail here, since it was given a proper announcement thread with explanantions, and also there is a new forum in Forum Stuff section for it. But basically you can earn points and use em to get rewards.

- Next is, a change i made today and that is the Status Updater, you will see in the top left corner above the forums, (on every page a litle bit which says Update Your Status. We all have under our avatars a little status bit, which you can easily update from any page. You can use this to tell people your busy, or away, or eating, or anything you like. Its pretty easy to update your status, just simply click on the box in the top left of every page, hover over the Status bit and cllick the two arrows icon to change it. And then when you click the tick, it will be saved and people will now see the new status under your avatar. This can be very useful.

- Again thanks to Jolene for her help with the LGF Points, she helped set idea's down and think of some great items for the store. Thanks to all the other staff which helped too.
There is a thread in the LGF Points & Shop forum where you cans submit your own idea's for items to go into the shop.

Thats it for today... i think. Enjoy!

10/8/11 - Changes

Good morning everyone! As I was reminded by Jordan this morning, I have not updated here about the quiz changes. I think many of you by now have noticed that I have made some changes to the quiz and hopefully some great improvements, with the help of my Supervisors.

We have lowered the number of questions from 30 to 20 to try and make it a little shorter rather than the previous few hours at times. The quizmaster gets the crown still in the big chat room but also gets some say in whether spelling counts or not, and they have pretty much full choice when it comes to accepting answers and all. There is a new badge to give now for a week to the winner that goes on their profile. The winner as per previous still gets to make the quiz up for the next week. We are now posting an ad each week on the homepage so that there is a reminder each week and also there will be a PM sent out about an hour or so before the quiz to remind people to join. The link is much more accessible now so that people can join us much more easily.

We look forward to you all joining us and remember this is the first one where we all get LGF points for joining:D

Not a recent change or anything. But i just need to let you guys know a few things which might affect the place for a bit.

Most of you know im away at the moment, so there are a few things that will change, and they will only be sorted really when i get back from my hols. First off, on the 21st, the members chatbox is gonna dissappear, and whole floating bar that it is on, and it will return again around the 28th(ish).

And next, you may come on the forum and see the Status Updater box gone every now and then. Thats because im slowly working on a few things and upgrades to do with it, in the same script. So if you see it gone, i apologise, and if you wish to change your status, you can visit your User CP, or your public profile. I know, its a pain! lol.

---

I also just want to quickly let you guys know of a few things im working on, im letting you know, cuz i imagine, you lot will sooner or later notice that it is SERIOUSLY needed.

Not too long ago i added the 'Profile Wall' where other members can leave messages on your wall and stuff. I weirdly left out some sort of notification system... so when someone writes on your wall, you aren't notified in anyway, which i know is annoying and useless, so i want you all to know, that i am gonna be sorting that out, and to bare with me

We've also always had the option to add friends on the forum. But again there is no notification system for it, so you never know when someone has sent you a friend request, which again is silly. So, so you all know, im now sorting these notifications out. Also, you can set your WALL preferences now, so either no one can post on it, anyone can post on it, or just people your are friends with on the forum.

All right so we have a few late to post updates. I apologize, it was left in my hands to take care of and I ended up in the hospital for a night which derailed my posting.(I am healing so no worries:D) First of all some of the updates are on some of the features that were already here but were knocked out with the server issues the other day. The like system and LGF points are back on line and adding up again!! Thanks to the great suggestion by joneil (Jenni) we have added a chameleon section under the other lizards so we look forward to hearing all about your chams:)

Also the staff list has been updated to include a description of each persons position so if there is a problem or issue you know who to get in contact with. Now for mod and super, your benefits have been updated as well:D.

Changes - 4/9/11

So first of all, i have added a two new things to what is now called the Social Bar. The social bar is the bit at the top with the 'update your status' and 'your wall' etc.
I have added your friends list, and also the forum chatbox.
Very soon there will be a 5th box there, which will be a notification system, which will notify you all of new wall messages and new friend requests. LGF Points are earned automatically by gaining new friends and posting on walls!
Also, in the future the forum chatbox will automatically log you in when you click it at the top there. Expect to see these features soon-ish.

I have also added a video tutorial section to the caresheet part in the leopard gecko section.
So get posting your video's and please remember to use the embed option, a member of staff can help you with this.

Changes - 8/9/11

- The biggest change i made yesterday, which was the calendar. You can access the calendar by the button in your navbar. The calendar will become a greeat resource for new members to look at for herp expo's and reptile shows and important dates. Please feel free to add events in the calendar.

- After the membership paid the full amount for custom ranks feature it has now been installed. You can go into your user CP and edit your rank now. There is a thread about in this forum section so for more information please read that.

- Next is the guest section. The small section where guests could post without having to register is now gone. It wasn't getting used and there wasn't a need for it.

- The forum information section has been changed a little and you can see it above the introductions section. It now has the links to relevant forum info which you may need right there for you. Making it more obvious and easier to find.

- There have been a few changes to the rules, and a new section within thr rules page, this outlines your rights as a member. Please take a read of this and familarise yourself with everything.

Thank you

Today i will be taking down the Social Bar, and also i will be taking down the Calendar temporarily for testing.
A few members claim that their forum problems began after the introduction of these features, so hopefully i can find the issue within these features and get rid of it.

The calendar will come back as it has always been (well, fixed, if the issue was within it).

But the Social bar will come back as the new and improved social bar. Maybe some sneak peeks will make there way to LGF Facebook.

Just letting you know that i have added the LGF coin now as an emoticon so you can all use it by typing in : lgfcoin : without the spaces.

So its easy to do this now: 100

Changes - 8/9/11

- So this update is a little old but obviously a while back the social bar changed. Its now in the bottom corner. The chat logs you in automatically. And bla bla bla, you likely already know it all by now lol.
- Also, you will now get a pop up notification when someone has posted on your wall, or requested be your friend.

- now the more recent changes i have added are; Obviously there is the addition of the newsletter, which i hope you have all enjoyed the first issue of.
- The chat in the bottom corner now has a number next to the word chat. If you hadn't guessed it, thats how many people are in the chatbox. The number includes chatters that are 'away'.
- And lastly, just last night i added 'Post Numbers', you will see on threads now that each post has a number. So you can easily referecne a previous post, you can just say 'post number 6'. These numbers also are a unique link to that post.
- The 'Toggle Post Profile' button has gone for now, this helps speed up loading times of threads. However if there are a lot of people wnating it back i will.
- Threads now only show 15 posts per page instead of 25. This again will help speed up the loading of threads.

Enjoy

Changes - 8/11/11

Well sorry i haven't been able to update this thread recently but here goes...

As i write these updates, i write them in the most important update which was made today. The addition of LGF-QuickReply.
At the bottom of every post you will see a little reply button, which when clicked will bring up the LGF-QuickReply inside that post.
Some features of this new editor include:
- the ability to send a wall message to someone from a thread.
- the ability to PM someone from a thread.
- no 'Posted Successfully' page.
- The ability to save your post to use in other threads.
- clicking quote will quote the post you have the editor open in - though this is still not fully finished.

And i'll let you explore the rest. enoy using it. I made it myself obviously, so i will be always updating it and improving it.

The next update is the losing of the 'Pet Profiles'. I'm sorry to say that there is no longer the pet profile page in your profiles. It was to save space and bandwidth and loading times and such likes.

HOWEVER, if you had filled in your pet profile, it is stored in the database for if i ever bring this feature back, you will not have to re-fill it in.

Also, as always i'm open to feedback, and if the pet-profiles was something you would like back, feel free to make a poll somewhere, if you get enough votes, then i will gladly bring it back.
And maybe, the ability to buy the pet profile will become available in the LGF Points Shop.

Thats all for today, so til next time...

Recent Updates 29/11/11:

First off, i apologise for your long wait, i know the forum was down for a while.

Today a few features have been removed* to help loading times and the efficiency of other features.
The main one you will notice is the Color Box. we've returned to the old color box due to the fact the other one was inserted via Javascript, and one less script on the page is of course better.

Next is the return of LGF-QuickReply. I apologise for the hold up with it. But a recent update in the forum system script mucked things up and its taken a while to fix.
I wish i could say that it has returned with lots of new features, but honestly it hasn't. Though of course now that it is fixed and working again, i can begin to work on the features for it that are either not quite finished or would be useful.

SO... keep an eye on the thread specifically for the new editor.

You'll also notice that the original Quick Reply has been styled and replicates the LGF-QuickReply.

Last of all i apologise for the forum being down for so long for such few new features.
I hope you all enjoy using LGF-QuickReply again.

*As with all features i remove, if enough people would like the feature back, i'll be happy to bring it back.

I wish I had more feedback than what I'm about to write, but...

Great job Jordan. I personally love the little changes, whether it be removing a feature or adding one, as it doesn't make me suddenly come to this site and have to re-familiarize myself with it. Often, in my experience, forums will suddenly update with such major changes it takes me about 10 minutes to figure out where everything is again, and I consider myself some what computer savvy. I can't imagine what it would be like for someone who maybe is just getting into computers and/or the web. So your little changes allow everyone to try something new without losing the familiarities, and keeps them happy, as we all know change is evil

So again, great job, and I know you'll keep it up!

Thank You, haha I appreciate that. I'll try to always keep my updates small. I'll always be providing the explanation and detailing that i do in this thread

Thanks for your comments.

Changes made today

LGF-QuickReply
- Finished the Health Questionnaire button: Clicking on the 'Other' button will bring up a small menu. And clicking on the Health Questionnaire button will load the health questionnaire into the textbox ready to be filled in.
- I also removed the smileys box. I know smileys are important, but after a recent update, the images have moved location and it will take a bit of time to add in all the new locations into the editor script.
- A big upgrade to the text box. You'll notice its much more of a delight to use. For example when you click the B button and it inserts the bold tags, the cursor will be inbetween the tags ready to begin typing. Stuff like this.
- Still working on the ctrl+b shortcuts though.

Chatbox
You'll notice some big changes to the chatbox. So let me list them

- First of all, you can click the numbers button, which will show you who is online in the chatbox, without even entering the chatbox.
- Next, is the addition of notifications of new messages. There are two types of notification, the visual and audio. When a new message has been entered when you have the chatbox closed, the button will light up orange so you know. There is also the option to have sound turned on or off. So when a new message is entered a little beep will play. which can be very helpful when your on another tab.
Understandably not everyone likes this, and so you'll see in the bottom left corner the option to turn it off. *
- Next is the best new feature. The addition of private messaging within the chatbox.
I'll need to explain how to do this though.

First of all, the user who you wish to send the message to must be in the chatbox of course.
To signify a private message you must begin with '/pm'
Then you must put the username who you wish to send it to. You must put the username EXACTLY. Case sensitive and everything. I recommend using the list of online chatters on the left hand side for this, because if you click on a user's name in that list, it will enter the name into the chatbox.
Then a colon, followed by the message you wish to send.

SO here is an example. If you want to send a private message to me this would be what you enter into the chatbox:
'/pm Jordan: Hi there Jordan, love the forum!'

And that would send a message into the chatbox which only I and the sender can see.
Enjoy this new feature.


*small bug for google chrome users. If you have sound turned on, when a new message is entered you'll notice the scroll bar on the right turning blue. Its a little odd and i don't know what is causing it but i will look into it.

Made a few changes today.

- I got rid of the thanks button and system. And also the like button/counter. This is because sometime shortly I will be installing a new thanks system. A much better one which will display the names of the person who thanked each post underneath the post.

- I got rid of the LGF-QuickReply© edit mode. And the edit button will take you to another screen and to the big editor again now. I understand a few people were having problems with the edit feature. As much as I know what the problem was, it would be more hassle to sort it than what it is worth.

Very soon we may see the end of LGF Points and also the 'Update Your Status' box, due to both being a bit heavy system-wise.

Today I installed the new thanks system. You'll see the thanks button on every post.
You can't thank your own post, and of course you can't thank a post twice.

At the moment there is no notification of when you recieve a thank.
However there are more additions to come in the near future including:
- A recent thanking box, which will display the most recent thanks.
- A 'my thanks' box which will display all the thanks you have recieved and notify you of new ones.
- also in your profile the total number of thanks you have given and total number you have recieved.

I'm sure you'll all notice a lot of changes around the place. So i'm going to try and remember most of them, so you know.

Some features have been added some have been removed, some have been changed or updated bla bla.

The most obvious change is the styling around the place, you'll notice a lot of style changes, just generally things looking a little nicer.
So i'll let you discover all those changes on your own.

We've had a banner and logo change you'll notice, and also in the top right there is a little information box about you. When logged out, that will be a log in box.

The left sidebar has got slightly thinner, and you'll see a few new things there.
A box showing 10 most recent topics, a box showing the ten most recent thanks and a box showing your thanks, so you can keep an eye on who is thanking you. If you hover over the links, a small box will show with the users who thanked that post.

Next, the editors have had an upgrade. LGF-QuickReply has been removed, however it may return in the future. You won't see the 'your message has been entered' succesfully page anymore, not even when sending PM's.

Talking of PM's, the inbox page has had a little upgrade too

There's a small addition to your profile pages too, a little box which will show the last 5 visitors to your profile. You won't see your own name on it, and you won't see guests on it.

OH and adverts have been removed from the side of the page and that ad space will be unavailable. Ads are now at the top and the bottom.

I understand some people are recieving a small bug where it will say 'your message must be 2 characters long' even though their mesage is. I apologise for this it will be fixed soon.