Renaissance Forum Upgrade - Discussion & Information

Discussion in 'Renaissance Discussion' started by Chris, Feb 8, 2014.

  1. Chris

    Chris Renaissance Staff
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    Welcome to the new Renaissance Forums

    After two weeks of testing, customization and tinkering we have deployed a new forum package that will grow with the server. Allowing for seamless facebook, twitter, compendium and SEO automation.

    Over the following weeks the staff will be working to customize the style and design of the templates to look and feel very similar to our old forums.

    The old forums have been archived but are still accessible in case players have posts with old links, bookmarks or links from the main website.

    On the right side of the home page of the forums you will notice that the server stats are now displayed, along with a button allowing you to customize the look of the forums.

    Feel free to post any suggestions, ideas, display quirks or other useful information that can help us perfect the new forums.

    So take a moment to make a post, pm a friend, like a post, or follow interesting players using the new UOR forums.

    Notice: The design of the forums is still very much "work in progress" so feel free to make any suggestions as we customize this design to suit our needs.
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2014
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  2. Dalavar

    Dalavar Well-Known Member
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    I liked the old "prosilver" theme of the prior forums, with the white and light blue background, dark blue link text, and black post text. It looks like at the moment, you can just change the color of the link text here, but the background is always black.
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  3. Ravn

    Ravn Member

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    I thing this forum style is horrible to be honest, and i relly hope you make it so, you can use the old one as well
  4. Jakob

    Jakob Well-Known Member

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    I havent checked all new features but what Ive seen so far is nice, like previewing threads, liking post (Wodan pays 10gp per like!!) and i can upload my comics (at least up to 1mb) directly in the forum post instead of using imgur.

    The design however, as stated, isnt very nice. Gives quite a playfull feeling, the old one felt more serious and was also easier to overlook. So I would prefer to have it look as much as possible like the old forums but with the new features.
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  5. Wise

    Wise Well-Known Member
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    I thought I was tripping out when I logged on this morning. I am still getting used to it but it seems alright thus far.
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  6. Ningauble

    Ningauble Active Member
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    It will take a little getting used to but I like it. Quite a few excellent new features. It's also considerably friendlier to browse on my phone than the old forum. Handy thing for my Saturdays at work when I can get away with such activities.
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  7. Zyler

    Zyler Well-Known Member

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    I need to get used to the new format but good so far.

    What defines: New Member, Member, Active Member.... o_O What are Trophy points?
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2014
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  8. Markos

    Markos Well-Known Member

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    I love it. People just need to get used to it but I think it is a HUGE upgrade, excellent work man.
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  9. snap dragon

    snap dragon Well-Known Member

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    I think it looks much better. But it kills my animated GIF avatar!!:confused:
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  10. Giant

    Giant New Member

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    Certainly is better
  11. Jupiter

    Jupiter Well-Known Member

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    Is it just me or is it hard to take this serious from a man who prances about in the most fabulous array of colored linens? I mean.. I'm just sayin'

    HAHAHA.

    When I first tested this, I do admit I felt an immediate "let me have my old site back" but then I realized that was just the resistance to change. I remember having the same experience when I adjusted to the old forums for the first time as well. I think we just get used to what we have, that we don't want to change.

    But for the little 'missing' pieces I think out of the box this new site all but makes up for them. For instance, I no longer have to open Franz's pictures in a separate tab to view the entire picture. It's much easier for my blood to boil as I read about his relentless assaults against the newbular population!
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  12. Jupiter

    Jupiter Well-Known Member

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    A note for all BBC code users, You can access the BBC coding by clicking the BBC code icon located at the far right hand side of the 'Reply' dialogue box. It took me a few minutes to find it.
  13. Huzke

    Huzke Active Member
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    I want my pile of gold back. Made me feel blinged out.
  14. Basoosh

    Basoosh Well-Known Member
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    Couple things I've noticed thus far:

    - Forums are insanely better on mobile devices. Great upgrade!
    - Hopefully this is a setting somewhere or I'm pressing the wrong button, but I do not like how it auto-quotes when you try to respond to a thread. I far prefer the old system of Reply or Quote.
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  15. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    The 'reply' link on everyone else's posts, is the Quote feature now. It Copies the post into your premade reply slot. I really love that the 'reply' window is just in the space where the reply will be when you click Post Reply.
    I think the style and formatting of text/backgrounds leaves a bit to be desired but it is much purpler than before, so that's a win.

    I personally don't care if it's an improvement in our feature set or usage, but if it helps in SEO, hell yeah. More power captain!

    Things that bug so far:
    Avatar size/shape leaves much to be desired. While I liked the round one you had at one point, this is nicer but still slightly cramped.
    Lack of Sales Icons in the Trade Forums, in line with the Topic. I read descriptions more than anything but i know several people relied on the Gold (buy) Silver (Sell) piles for quick trade forum browsing.
    Not sure on this whole Conversation thing, but maybe I'll get used to it.

    All told, nice work. Now can we get that crafting patch....:p
  16. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    Me likey so far. Gotta get used to it, but the new features I've seen look nice.
  17. Gideon Jura

    Gideon Jura Well-Known Member
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    .
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2019
  18. Dalavar

    Dalavar Well-Known Member
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    Forum appears to be using GMT as time zone. I think staff needs to set it; doesn't seem like any individual options.

    Additionally, I cannot seem to edit post titles, which is a handy feature for items that have been sold.
  19. Chris

    Chris Renaissance Staff
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    Noted. We actually never realized that people were using the old default phpBB theme. I will get a light version theme added to the theme selection list.

    We will be working to make the new forums as user friendly as the old forums. We liked the old forum design as well, however without mobile integration and mobile device support it was creating a ton of work for the staff. In the near future you can subscribe to our twitter feed and be noticed the minute an event post goes up.


    We will be adjusting the options to support things like large image uploads. We had so many players struggle with adding images this new system hopefully will make it much easier for them to use.

    As for the design it is work in progress still, in a few months I am sure we will have 4-8 vastly different styles that you can switch between. However the first step is getting the underlying mechanics, fonts, etc working.

    Fixed

    I will get that changed from reply to quote.
    Avatar size we have looked into increasing by making the small player info section larger.
    Samorite and I are working today to restore the post icons to the trade forums.
    The conversation thing works just like a normal pm, except rather than a long string of quotes it allows you to have a pm conversation in the same way you would have an IRC conversation. You can also invite more than 2 people into a conversation for multi party discussions.

    I am working on fixing this at the moment.
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2014
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  20. Chris

    Chris Renaissance Staff
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    Changelog:
    • Reply Changed to Quote
    • Fonts restored to match the old forums when reviewing messages.
    Working on adding a WYSIWYG editor to the BBCode edit option to allow posting in both the rich text and bbcode formats.
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2014
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