Important Major Site Changes Coming This June

gif avatars.


This, just this.
And customisable titles like the ones back in JD.

 

I have a gif avatar in the forums, Crazy was experimenting with them a few months back as for the other changes seems like I'm going to have to start working on my tech forum stuff if I want to improve my post rank now

 

gif avatars.


.gif avatars will not be a part of the new forum layout. xF simply doesn't support animated .gif avatars out of the box. I will check to see if there is a plugin to add this feature but I make no guarantee it will be added.

And customisable titles like the ones back in JD.


Custom user titles will be allowed for staff only. If you look at my previous screenshot, you'll see under my username it says "Onee-sama". That's my custom user title.

 

hmm. I would like it if Asylum posts counted to posts (instead of off topic) but I understand why. Other then that I don't really have any kind of "I want this on the site" things to ask for. Whatever you come up with is fine by me.

 

That’s why so many other sites use Chatango over Arrow right?


its a free chat, of course more sites use it. That doesn't mean it is better though, I'm sure they both have their own pros and cons. And I was referring to the opinions of the members I've talked to on both DT's and DTR's chat.

 

So when can we expect the server to go down?

 

So when can we expect the server to go down?

The planned date for the forum is the 27th of May. Everything else will be done within the same week.

 

@veritasodiumparit
To my knowledge Chatango does have it’s own avatar stuff. Those will be visible if Spor chooses to allow them. I’d imagine he will, seeing it looks to be default in the settings.

Sporadic wrote:
Jay is sort of angsty over not using Arrow anymore as it is.

And yes I do think Arrowchat is a really nice chat in comparison to Chatango. I’ve heard few complaints of it. I haven’t heard many good opinions of Chatango though.



Yes, you can chose your own avatar on Chatango. It's easy to make an account on it and you even have your own profile where you can write stuff about yourself. There's even a background function to have a picture on each of your posts, but i think that costs money. Pretty much all sport streaming sites use chatango and since i visit those sites alot, i have used this chat alot. It is a good chat and very easy to use. I've never really had problems with it. Also, if it's free, why not? I have never heard of Arrowchat myself, but you said more sites use chatango because it's free, isn't arrowchat free then? If it's not, we should totally go for chatango.

 

Noobs wrote:
gif avatars

They will make a return. They’re able to be added here but an admin has to do it.


If you're referring to adding CSS like how .gif avatars have been "added" now, I don't support that decision. I'd much rather use a plugin that allows the member to add the .gif avatar like normal rather that using CSS to override elements. I don't like using CSS because it can cause other elements of the site to be changed unintentionally. Not to mention it's not as easy for the member to add, mainly because they have to setup an image rotator, give an admin that URL, then wait for them to add to code. Then if they want to change that avatar, the member has to go that rotator to change their AVI, even if they choose a static image. Just seems like a lot of work that could be avoided if there's a plugin that can achieve this within the forum.

 

@sporadic Will the migration help out the cost of maintaining the site or will it remain the same??

 

Also, if it’s free, why not? I have never heard of Arrowchat myself, but you said more sites use chatango because it’s free, isn’t arrowchat free then? If it’s not, we should totally go for chatango.


Arrochat isn't typically free but I can easily set it up as with the same version we have on DT/DTR for free or possibly I could pay for a license to the most recent update which has some better Xenforo forum integration. Least one perk I like with using a Xenforo compatible chat is only having to have one login for forum and chat. I do get that the plan is to use Chatango, but I have seen a lot of members say they want to keep the current chat, chatango is something they usually disable when visiting site, and/or chatango is something they dislike a lot. A few examples of those opinions are even in this thread, but I'd encourage the ones who care about this to go discuss it with the regulars on the DT/DTR chat, seeing they would be the ones who use it in the future, to see what our members opinions are and not just take my word for it

 

.gif avatars will not be a part of the new forum layout. xF simply doesn’t support animated .gif avatars out of the box. I will check to see if there is a plugin to add this feature but I make no guarantee it will be added.



http://pics.livejournal.com/simbada93/pic/00486p5w


They will make a return. They’re able to be added here but an admin has to do it.



so you're telling me theres a chance?

 

If .gif avatars return I have a Tari Tari one ready.

 

Noobs wrote:
so you’re telling me theres a chance?

I just assumed like with a lot of forums gif avatars were something that was supported by default. Seems we can get the PHP extension ImageMagick installed and have it selected as the Default Image Processor in the ACP to support gif avatars.


Do NOT use ImageMagick! It is horrible plugin that degrades the quality of the image, is way too difficult to set up that it should be, and dramatically increases load time. Also to make things clear, xF doesn't support .gif avatars on forum post. Most animated images will work on profile pages. I have found a mod that should allow .gifs to work natively that I'm testing.

 

@Hikikomori & @Sporadic: Some questions I've thought to ask after reading the last 4 pages.

So, given the above does that mean users can easily change the gif avi themselves? Also I would like to know if the sig size limit will be the same or change? If the static size doesn't change I'm ok with that but if at all possible if the gif size limit can be changed to match the static size limit that'd be great. A lot of members no longer use gifs in their sigs and some that do used/still use old ones they had but were forced to crop in order to keep and they just don't look right/as good. lol

There won't be any kind of avi/sig pixel/bytes limits will there?
Will avis be able to be used at say 150x200 or 200x150 and any other similar combination? If not, it would be nice if we can make it happen. (Along with gif avis of course lol)
Just to be safe (Because no gif avis was SOO not expected) , we'll still be able to have gifs in our sig right?
Will image galleries return and if so, will they be similar, the same or better/worse than the JD ones?
Will HTML be useable or just BBC?
You've said the new server/layout will be more in tune of JD's layout and functions, can you give a percentage as to how much of a match on a scale of 0-110%?
Will the birthday option still be used and if so, can you please make it so you don't have to list the year but just the month/day or just the month in order for it to accept it, show up in the users who have this birthday and so on? When this site first opened, it allowed me to do this, list the month/day but keep the year blank but, sometime before my b-day it sadly was changed over to something else and no longer allowed/accept anything but a full month/day/year so I had to leave it blank and use a different alternative but that means my b-day doesn't show up in the users who have a birthday section of the site. Also, will the users who have an upcoming b-day still be used?

Thank you to both of you and everyone else too for all your hard work, dedication and much more to this community/sites/forums and hang in there and keep up the good work! Natsuru knows you all can do it!

 

@Natsuru-san I'll send you a PM as I think that will be the best way to answer all you questions.