Major Forum Upgrade

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If you dont like reading long posts then best leave now. Forums4Games has been upgraded, not just a simple forum upgrade its a fairly major overhaul with a few changes and few new features and some old features being removed. Some are fairly obvious like the change of style, others are hidden away but very nice new features.

To make life easier this thread will be like a mini FAQ with each feature getting its own post, that way can link directly to the post in question rather than pointing people to one huge post that they wont be bothered to read.

This thread will be closed and no doubt add more to it this weekend, its late now and I am bound to forget to mention something. So any comments you would like to make post them here: Major Forum Upgrade Discussion Thread

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Forums Have Moved

One you may not of noticed, but the forums no longer live at f4g.net/forum. The forum part has been removed and f4g.net now takes you directly to the forums which means no more front page displaying the news. Not only have the forums moved though the structure of URL's has also changed and they now look a lot nicer. All old links will continue to work though so no need to worry about that

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Forum Tidy up

Had a bit of a clean up on the forums, ones that didnt really serve much purpose have been removed and old ones that havent been posted in for ages have been put into storage.

House Rules and House Directory no longer exist. They are now part of the all singing* all dancing** new FAQ which itself has also been updated to include the new features on the forum.

* FAQ does not sing
** FAQ does not dance

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Blogs


Blogs have been here for a while you just havent been able to use them, now you can. Visit the Blogs section to get started

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Thread Tagging

When you create a thread you can now give it tags. This may not sound all that good but can be put to good use, When you click on a tag or search for a tag it will display all threads with that tag. So if you are making an RP post about an event that a couple of guilds took part in tag the thread with the guilds names, posting a notice that will be of interest to certain guilds tag it with their names and maybe the location of where it will take place. Its a good easy way to help promote your guild, events or towns

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Friends and Contacts

A friendship is a mutual, two-way relationship between two users. It is initiated by one user and accepted by the other.
A contact is a one-way friendship. This could be where the other person does not accept the friendship, a friendship request is pending, or you do not wish to be friends at this time but want to show them as a contact only.


Where is list of friends and contacts displayed?

Your friends and contacts are displayed on the 'Contacts and Friends' page in your User CP. Your friends are also displayed in your profile page.

How can I request a friend, accept a friend or break a friendship?

There are two ways to request a friendship with someone.

The easiest way is to view the profile page of the person you want to become friends with and click the 'Befriend' link.

The other way is to add the person to your contacts first. Then from your 'Contacts and Friends' page ask to be their friend by checking the box next to their name labelled 'Friend'. Next, save the page.

If you know the username of the person you want to be friends with you can send a friend request using the box provided and clicking 'Add Friend'.

To accept a friend, go to your 'Contacts and Friends' page. At the bottom of the page you will see a list of pending requests. Check the box for the requests you wish to accept then check the 'Accept' button and save the changes. If you do not wish to be friends then select 'Reject' instead.


Breaking a friendship can be done in three ways.

• From your 'Contacts and Friends' page, uncheck the box for friend for the particular person and save the changes. If you no longer wish them to be a contact either, uncheck both boxes for that person.
• In your 'Profile Page', click 'Friends' and then click 'Break Friendship' next to the user's name.
• In the other person's profile, click 'Friends' then find your username and click 'Break Friendship'.

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Legend Of The Green Dragon



The game is back. http://www.f4g.net/lotgd sign up and have some fun

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Credits

Are gone
But will be back once we sort out something to spend them on

The Casino has also gone, was a nasty exploit worse than elrocco's brain eating links that could easily con people out of their hard earned credits. Nobody found it though

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New member profile pages

As you all know every member has a publicly viewable profile page. This page includes information provided either during the registration process or later on via the User Control Panel.

There are a number of ways to view a member's profile. Whenever you see a member's name, clicking on it will usually take you to view their profile page.

The members list allows you to browse all registered members, and quickly click through to public profiles.

You can also go straight to a profile if you know the username of the member by typing in the following into your web browser after f4g.net /members/<username of the member>.html as an example mine is Forums4Games - View Profile: Bumhug360 if a username has a space in it replace the space with a -


What's on the Public Profile Page?

The public profile lists information about the member under the 'About Me' tab. It also includes statistical information, such as the number of posts they have made and their registration date. This information is shown under the 'Statistics' tab.

Other information includes a list of Friends, their profile picture (if set by the member), and a list of members who have recently visited the profile page. A list of the members' albums and social group memberships are also shown.


What are Visitor Messages?

Visitor messages are publicly viewable messages posted on member profile pages. To post a message, click on the 'Visitor messages' tab, and use the form at the top of the section. You will only be able to use certain formatting in these messages, as described underneath the edit box. This message will be viewable by all visitors to this profile, including guest users and search engine robots. To communicate privately with a member, send a Private Message instead.

Visitor messages can be edited or deleted by site moderators or the member who owns the profile. If you see a visitor message that is not appropriate, you can alert the moderators by clicking on the 'Report' link. The 'View Conversation' link allows you to view all visitor messages between the member and the owner of the profile.

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Social Groups

A social group is a group of people usually with a particular interest or something else in common. It provides a way of communicating between members as well as sharing photos or other images.

You can get to the list through 'Group Memberships' section on your public profile or clicking on the groups link at the top of the page.

The Social Groups list page displays all groups that have been created. You can list the groups by the number of members, messages or pictures, the group name, when the group was created or by the date of the most recent message posted. You can use the controls provided to search for a group.


How do I join a group?

To join a group, click the group title then click 'Join Group'. When you have joined a group, its name will be shown in your public profile. You must be a logged-in, registered member to join groups.


Can I create my own social group?


As a registered member, you can create your own social group. Go to the groups page and click 'Create A New Group'. Complete the title and description for your group then select the type. There are three types of groups:

• Public - open to everyone. There is no restriction on who can join or who can post messages to it
• Invite Only - require an invitation to be sent to join them. Invitations can only be sent by the group creator or forum moderators and administrators. Invitations are sent by clicking 'Pending & Invited Members' at the bottom of the page for that individual group
• Moderated - open to everyone to join but messages need to be moderated before they will appear. They are moderated by the group creator and the site moderators and administrators

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Albums and Pictures


All registered members can create Albums of images that are linked to your public profile. Albums can be created by visiting the User Control Panel, and clicking on the 'Pictures & Albums' link, and then clicking on 'Add Album'.



Each album can have a title ('Joe's Holiday to Nepal'), a description ('A bunch of photos from my recent adventure') and can be of three different types: Public, Private or Profile.

• Public albums can be viewed by anyone
• Private albums can only be viewed by site staff (moderators, administrators) and your Friends and Contacts
• Profile albums are viewable only by you. However, you can use the images to customize your public profile

How do I upload pictures?

Once you've created an album you can upload images to it. Simply view the album and click on 'Upload Pictures'.

You'll have the option to give each picture a caption, and to set one image as the Album cover, which will be displayed on the public profile. To delete an album or edit the title, description or album type, click on 'Edit Album'. To delete an image, or to edit a caption or change the album cover, click on 'Edit Pictures'.

All members who have access to your album images can comment on them, in a similar way to Visitor Messages. You can delete any image comments from your albums, and report inappropriate messages to moderators.

When you have uploaded a picture, you can place it in your posts by using the BB Code text that is displayed below the image when you view it at full size.

To view everyones profiles click on the All Albums link at the top of the page

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Reputation

Reputation is a way of rating users depending on the quality of their posts. The reputation icon is visible in posts.

Reputation may be positive , negative or neutral . Neutral reputation is only given when the person giving reputation does not meet the criteria set by the administrator to affect someone else's reputation.

How do I give reputation?

To give reputation, click on the reputation icon in the relevant post. This will reveal a form to complete with the reputation type and the reason for giving the reputation. You may not give reputation for the same post twice.


How do I know what reputation I have received?

You can view the reputation that you have received in your User CP where it is displayed at the bottom of the User CP page. Here you will see the latest reputation that you have received and whether this is positive, negative or neutral. Your total reputation will be shown as series of reputation indicators in your posts and profile. The more positive your reputation, the more positive icons will be shown. The more negative your reputation the more negative icons will be shown.


What if I don't want anyone to see my reputation?

You can disable the display of your reputation by going to your User CP and selecting Edit Options. On this page you will find a check box labelled 'Show Your Reputation Level'. Un-checking this box will remove the display of your reputation and replace it with the Reputation Disabled icon. You can still give and receive reputation while your reputation display is disabled.

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vBExperience

The bars shown under usernames show the following

The top bar shows your points level and experience. You get points for being online (once per day), being in social groups, having friends, having people leave visitor messages in your profile, pictures in albums, referring new members, posting new threads, using tags, people voting on polls you have made, replies to threads you have made, people reading your threads, having posts made sticky, replying to threads, people viewing attachments you have posted. You lose points by having infractions.

Depending on how many points you have you will also have a level, more points you have higher the level (please no paying chinese companies to power level you!). A full list of points and ranks can be seen by clicking on the vBExperience link under the quick links section at the top of the page.

The second bar shows activity. This is calculated on posts made per day over the past 21 days.

Awards

There are also 3 awards given out, first is for Activity, second for Posting and Tagging and the third for Social Group membership