Forum Update - October 9, 2009

Hey everyone,

I pushed an update that has fixed a few annoying bugs, added some new features, and prepared the code for future updates.  This update is also a stepping stone for integrating features from other Stardock apps/websites. The change log is as follows:

1. Updated Profiles

A. Now showing the avatar picture instead of the personal picture.  At the moment I don't think we're showing the personal picture anywhere, so I'm up for suggestions on where to place it.

B. Now showing the friends list.  You can see your friends list in your profile as well as other people's friends.  At the moment, the only way to add/remove friends is either from ReadyToPlay or from ImpulseDriven.net's friends page. A future update will more fully integrate friends into the forums, including a separate friends page, adding friends, removing friends, and a way to manage friend requests, among other things.

C. Ability to add private notes for other users.  These notes can only be seen by you.  The Demigod site also has notes, but the two don't coincide for the moment.  In the near future (let's say early next week) we'll update the Demigod site so that notes are shared.

D. You can view your Compatibility Rating against other users.  This rating is based entirely off your ReadyToPlay profile, so only users who have used ReadyToPlay will show a rating. 

E. You can now give karma directly from the profile, without having to find a post first.

F. Also based on ReadyToPlay, you can view your own and other's games list.  Again, only users who have used ReadyToPlay will have a games list.

G. Added a Recent Posts section which shows the most recent posts a user has created.

H. Removed some unnecessary info or outdated data. This is primarily to clean up the profiles a bit and make the more interesting stuff more prominent.

I. Fixed some pre-existing profile bugs.

2. All forum dates have been changed to a 12-hour format.  All dates are still in EST.

3. The very annoying PM bug that showed an invalid PM count for all folders should be fixed (let me know if it isn't for you. You may need to send a PM to someone for it update, so feel free to send one to me).

4. Increased performance on the homepage.  There was some code running that shouldn't have been on the forum homepage, so I removed it.  The page should load a bit faster now.

5. Fixed some minor CSS/IE8 bugs.

Coming Up

1. New profile design.  With all of the new info on the profile, it's gotten a bit messy.  We'll have a new profile design soon that will become the primary profile for Stardock accounts across all sites.

2. Friend management.  That is, the ability to add/remove friends as well as manage friend requests from others.

3. New usergroups system.  Should make things far more interesting as far as what we can do with the forums (eg: private forums, better permissions, etc.).

4. Showing which users you have a note for or that you are friends with directly from a post/reply.

Known Issues

1. Wincustomize/JoeUser/possibly others are somewhat broken design-wise due to the decreased width.  Will update CSS soon.

Let me know if you notice any problems or have any suggestions for the above changes.

EDIT: For a good example of a fully-updated profile, check out Frogboy's: http://forums.impulsedriven.com/user/1

Bara