Forum and Group Updates		August 2, 2008, 7:51PM
	by: eon topic: Site News bookmark this article view bookmarked articles go to archives
I've made a series of small updates and refinements to the forum / group platform. While small, some of these changes will make things a lot easier or more interesting to use. Updates: 1. Video posts, BBCodes and you: It is now possible to display YouTube, Google and MySpace videos directly inside of forum and group posts. Previously, if you tried to do this, the embed code would be stripped out (for security reasons) and the video would not appear. Well, if you use an embed code it will still be stripped out, but I've introduced new BBCodes which will allow you to do this safely (and more quickly and easily). It's as simple as taking the address of the video page and putting it inside of the correct BBCode tag. As an example, you could post a YouTube video with a code like this: [tube]Address to YouTube video page goes here[/tube] In addition, when you post videos this way, a 5-star rating icon will appear, allowing viewers to rate the video. These ratings will be unique to DS (separate from the video site where the video is hosted). To view the guide to the new BBCodes, click the New Post link and then click the link for BBCodes. Or just edit any post and scroll down a bit. There are other newly added BBCodes which will make it easier to add links, images and other things to your posts. 2. Search functions. Searching in forums and groups has been updated to include two new fields. One will limit the age of posts you search (so you can narrow down your results if you only want more recent posts). The other will let you display search results as either 'Topics' or 'Messages'. Previous search results have all been in 'Topic' format. That is, when you search for a certain keyword, you just get a list of topics containing posts which match, and you need to go hunting through them to find whatever you're looking for. Now, if you set results to 'Messages' you'll get to see a preview of each individual post which contains the keyword you searched, as well as a link directly to that post. In most cases, this makes it much easier to find what you're looking for. Try it! 3. Andromeda signatures in forum and group posts. The optional 10 rotating signatures that are available to Andromeda members will now appear in forum and group posts. This is significant because images are allowed in these signatures (they are not allowed in regular signatures). Previously, my concern here was that I didn't want the forums cluttered with too many large or obnoxious images that are repeatedly posted in sigs. To help keep our forums and groups from being cluttered this way, I have set a limit on the size of images which may be posted inside of these signatures. That limit is 400 pixels wide by 100 pixels high. 4. Refinements and bug fixes. I've made a number of other small refinements and bug fixes to the forums and groups. For example, signatures and "updated by" notices are now stored separately in the database from the actual messages. What this means is that when you quote posts, the sigs and "updated" notices will no longer appear in the quoted text. They will also be absent from search results. This will reduce clutter overall and make things easier to read. I fixed quite a few pesky bugs as well, many of which were long standing. So if you had any favorites, they are probably gone now. (Sorry.) This is all a part of my overall plan to modernize our forum/group platform to increase it's features and ease of use. There will be more to come in this department (eventually). For now: Enjoy...

ImAWhat Article Editor

Thank you. I'm glad you made these changes and additions. The search clutter really messed me up, so I was glad that you did that. Props on this and your site's continuing success. ------ Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and hurt you. August 4, 2008, 2:58PM

ImAWhat Article Editor

Knock it off, Joe. You hover too much. Find someone else to engage. Seriously. ------ A mere sleight of wits. August 6, 2008, 9:33PM

Ashmedi

Oh hai. Does this work on Polls? ------ We make decisions, not choices - Ashmedi August 13, 2008, 9:39PM

Adrian_

our post isn't showing on our group for some reason October 8, 2008, 9:02PM

batmans401k

Eon, You are awesome ------ We RestA Dream Has Power To Poison Sleep October 17, 2008, 2:02PM

trigger.happy.jack

More pr0nz! O_O ------ ☣☠☣ November 27, 2008, 12:37AM

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