paul

Please put all discussions about the new front page system, domain changes, blog system, fanfic question and what have you here.

So long story short, we hate the way vBulletin is going and the fact there is still quite a few bugs involved. So, we are moving to IPB once again. A new skin has been picked (that is just uber sexy), new shoutbox ready, and the works. All posts, user accounts etc will remain and shouldn't be effected. When will this happen? This weekend! YAY! Probably tomorrow at around 3pm PDT since I'll already be doing updates to my minecraft server. The downtime should only last around 10-15 minutes because I know kung-fu. Also, because I've done this change many times on many sites. Any questions can be posted in this thread. Comments can go in the shoutbox to be laughed at. Concerns can either go in the shoutbox to be ignored or posted on this thread and I may respond if I'm not bored.

So the site will be offline for a bit while things get upgraded. Don't like it? Don't care ^^, but I thought I'd be nice and give a little notice anyways.

In the past, there has been a lot of debate (internally not directly on asvs) about if STO is canon or not canon in the ST world. I was at first told it's soft canon with really no explination involved beyond that point. Recently, I was given a chance to get further information then had to wait for it to be publically released before I could comment on what I knew (due to NDA's and such). Basically it comes down to this - Star Trek Online had the opportunity to be full out canon. However, out of their own choice, they went with the "soft canon" label with CBS approval over majority of their work due to the simple fact they wanted to be able to provide a story without having to really STRICTLY adhere to canon (not to mention it'd be 100% boring as shit to play ^^). All storyline ideas must be approved by CBS. The Path to 2409 was approved by CBS. Ships are, for the most part, approved by CBS. So in most ways, STO is more canon than most books, games etc out there (as they are keeping CBS in the loop and asking "Daddy can I?" on almost every step where as books and other games really don't at all). So after some discussions with Tyralak, we have decided that the STORYLINE OF EVENTS can be used as a source in debates. What is not considered allowed to be added is any actions done by a player. The reason for this is even CBS wouldn't allow a players action to become anywhere near canon or else.. well lets just say there would be a lot of sexual actions going on ^^. Also, if a series/movie overwrites the 2409 timeline (from STO), that then becomes canon STO becomes non canon. Therefor, as of this point STO is considered "canon" for debate purposes, until a new series takes place after the events of nemesis (STX) which would then change the timeline as written by STO. So yes, if jason ever popped back up I guess he could have his damn personal shields now lol. As such I should mention that the power levels are designed for a game, not for canon so those will not be allowed to be added into debate as a source.

The site has been updated to it's newest version 3.1.1.20100618.0004 PLEASE NOTE THIS THREAD IS FOR SERIOUS REPLIES ONLY. NON SERIOUS OR BUG RELATED REPLIES WILL BE DELETED. YES, THIS IS A HEAVY MODERATED THREAD. Please post all bugs you find in this thread for this new version dubbed "bob" All bug reports MUST include the following - Skin you're using Exact link you find the bug at - if it's on a page please put that page and the link i'm supposed to click on Can it be reproduced? Any screenshots necessary. Thank you

As long as things go according to plan, starting tomorrow all users on asvs.org will/should have theirusername@asvs.org as an e-mail. This will be streamlined straight into your account here and it will be web based (meaning you'll have to check it here). Please note: Anyone using it for porn will be shot. Anyone using it for gay porn will somehow magically be unable to access the site and not be banned Also while I'm posting, the new icon and info uptop? That's Subspace Radio. It's a Radio station that runs live DJ's multiple times during the day and also has it's own auto dj system. ATM it's about Star Trek Online but it could be moving into Champions Online soon enough. So, now it's linked here. Don't like it? Too fracking bad kthx.

ASVS will be getting a little maintenance on Saturday, may 22nd in the wee hours of the morn. This is to upgrade to the latest ipb build and install a fixed version of the arcade. ... And to fill the void of the rest of the message i leave you with this - PICKLE BUM!

So for later today (or wednesday if i'm too drunk today) a few new little things are being added to the site First off, is a reputation system that allows you to comment when repping someone. And when you're repped the comments will show in your profile and on the right side bar. I would start giving/taking reputation btw... it's going to be critical soon (I won't say more than that). Secondly, a point system which will be tied into said reputation system is also incoming. Now it'll do specific ways of calculating points per posts, topics, etc etc. But fair warning, once I install it, it gives points based on character count SOOOO you might wanna start bolstering up your posts before hand (Please note - if yer seriously going to just spam random characters and not make any sense you'll find your ass on a firing line. Make some sense in your spam especially outside of the speakeasy). Other things are slated to be added but I don't wanna say cuz i'm an asshole. So get to posting!

In the next week, ASVS will be updating to IPB 3.2.0 due to it's stability, options, and overall just sexyness compared to what we have now. This is all good stuff However there will be a few major changes that should be noted. Arcade will be disabled. ASVS Mail will be removed. No one used it and it's just eating up DB space Reputation History will be going to make way for a new system Profile pictures will no longer be different from avatar pictures The SSR Radio stream will not function right at the start Awards are being removed and updated Economy system will be updated to include some new items The new front page system WILL be installed at the same time, however will not be accessible to anyone outside myself and ty. I cannot say exactly at this moment when the update will occur, as I'm finally finishing up my damn MMO. (Yes, again) However, it should be in the next few days and I only do major software updates at night so there ya go. Any questions can go in the engineering section.

Due to the major system maintenance last night (and the failed attempt the night before hehe), I was able to get the new ASVS Mail system installed and running! Meaning every user here now can have a asvs.org email account! Why would you want one you may ask? I don't know, but I spent a lot of time on it so back off.

Depending on my lovely schedule (gotta install an intake manifold in a car lol) the website will be offline tomorrow around 8:30-9pm PST to upgrade the site to the latest greatest toy (ie the latest version). Nothing will be loss downtime should be like 5 minutes blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda Questions can be posted here on this thread. Comments an go into the shoutbox, complaints an go into Jason's head.

You may commence with the drug reference jokes.

Please put all discussions about the new front page system, domain changes, blog system, fanfic question and what have you here.

Due to the long list of updates, here is the FU Store list of changes: <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">One-Click Purchase (with setting to enable/disable/show-only) <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Setting to disable the use of decimals and cents, for the more "simple" ibEconomy install (with round-up/round-down/nearest setting) <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Show points/donate button on post view either in bottom of post sidebar or as button which sits flush with the other post buttons for pretty integration <li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Points per Profile Comment (with settings to keep from being abused<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Upload Emoticon shop item added<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">New Shop Item: Promote to VIP Group with Timelimit -- This will promote you to a group that allows you to fuck with others, but not be fucked with for awhile<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">New Shop Item: Secret Message (send admin-created custom message via PM to self or others)****<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">removed Loan row from Overview if no current loans<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Stock value algorithm completely redone. Users should see steadier member/group/forum based stock value fluctuations. Share values should now more accurately reflect it's subject activity.<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">New Shop Item: Users can now purchase certain Awards.<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Profile Tab to display recent purchases and recent non-purchase transactions **** - NOTE: ADMINISTRATORS STILL KNOW WHO SENT SECRET MESSAGES. USING THESE TO VIOLATE ANY ASVS RULES WILL RESULT IN A BAN FROM THE STORE, OR THE SITE WITH NO QUESTIONS ASKED. These updates should all be done in 30 minutes.

On Sunday, Jan 30th at 11:59PM PST all ASVS sites will be going offline for approx. 24-36 hours. The reason for this is we are moving to our own server! This opens the door for us to have more functions on the site, plus hopefully, less lag! The length of downtime may be shorter however expect a full day's worth of down time due to the size of the sites, and DNS settings. All your post counts, reps etc will be copied over. Also, the front page system will be removed for the time being due to asshats not telling me what I need to know for the past 3 weeks to make it all work If you have any questions about the server downtime DURING the downtime, feel free to email me directly at askray [at] gamingradio.net and I can respond to any technical concerns. Anything else can go into /dev/null kthx (And don't email me when it's going to be up kthx)

Here is the major list of changes for the website. Changed to latest vBulletin ALL PASSWORDS WERE RESET FOR SECURITY REASONS YOU MUST RESET YOUR PASSWORD. IF YOU CANNOT DO SO VIA NORMAL METHODS, CONTACT PAUL OR TY Marketplace was readded with new options Experience system added for achievements and awards. Reputation has (sadly) been reset due to it not transferring properly. Rep messages are still being added slowly. You can now use the [/video ] tag to show youtube videos in post Shoutbox is completely redone. No more annoying loading thing at the top either New arcade is being installed (even though the forums are active). This arcade has a 1 click installer so we can keep new games in the system. User groups were changed, everyone was marked backed to Registered Users for the time being. Some forums (mostly hidden ones) were removed due to being inactive or a waste of space. Facebook integration is much tighter now! You can click on settings and link a lot of options to facebook! If you have any questions about the change over let me know

Due to the major problems with some of the back end software, I will be redoing the entire server from scratch Meaning, there won't be a website to visit for quite a few hours lol. Estimated downtime is around 6-8 hours for DNS resetting, server backups, etc.

So I had this long post about the changes going in and why it was going to take a month to do (lazyness, keyboard acting up so i'd have to wait till friday anyways etc) annnd my computer finally shits itself and dies lol. Soooo this will extend all the changes I was going to do by a factor of like a thousand since I'll have to do them all by netbook lol. (Including my DJing which will be much fun). Thank god I got an external for xmas that's all I'll say hehe. Anyways -- Over the next month, things are going to be changing. Right now, the FU store is totally offline and all post acquiring systems disabled. This will be one of the 3 main systems to be updated first. The other two being the actual IPB version brought up to 314 since 320 is apparently coming down the pipe line, and the new mail system being installed for all users. Other things in the works - Front page system Custom Pages for story writers (easier linking) New navigation bar with pull down menus for more things Main Engineering is going to be redone. This will be a Question/Suggestion area only all other posts are going the way of raycav -- in the gutter (okay well I hope raycav goes there one day but meh hehe) Neg rep icons will be added according to Enigma's ideas for them ASVS Arcade updated and about 160 games hopefully added Awards system redone and rebuilt to hopefully be more automated (or at least reactivated to be funny again) That's about it that I can remember. I stupidly saved it to the main HD of the laptop i was using as a main computer so yeah, lost that list >.> Oh well I'm sure I'll remember down the road hehe. If there is something specific you'd like too see post away I'll see about the possibility of it. Note for 3G/4G users -- There was reports that a certain ISP had blocked the site from access while another site hosted on the same server (subspace-radio.org) was accessible. After a lot of digging around, this is NOT an issue with the ISP but in how it's accessing the name servers that control how you get to this site. This issue is a top priority and hopefully should be fixed as soon as humanly possible. How it's busted is beyond me but I'll be redoing all the NS operations later this week since I have to streamline them anyways for other things coming down the road.

Yes, it's IPB 3.2.0 but whatever. I can call it what I want too cuz I uploaded it so HAH! Anyways, as you'll notice off the bat not everything is back up and going. The economy system is still offline, and the awards are non existent. They are returning and shouldn't be far behind. But I figured getting the forums back up and online so Jason can annoy you all would be a boost. The front page is now in full testing mode (once it's finished uploading there's a ton of files). This will be used to offer those that have fanfic's hosted here a nicer, cleaner looking link than a forum link. It also makes it look more nifty. We also have some other things coming that required the front page to be finalized so yay. I know a few things look quite different, and the final frontier skin looks A LOT different but I assure you it's being upgraded. I've also enabled the twitter system, which will allow you to tweet (if you have a twitter) threads, posts etc thus helping us advertise more You can also just login with twitter or facebook! More options are coming but this is a start. If you have any questions about anything OR find a bug, please post it here so I can find it and smack it down.

The first thing you'll all notice is that you're now back on the default skin. This is only temporary as the other skin needs to be updated to work with the new versions. The arcade will also be brought back later today. With this change, the status updates on the right side actually have threaded options so you can respond to each other more accurately instead of being lamers. Also, each thread as sharing options at the bottom so enjoy those. Also twitter has now been integrated so you can log in with that, set your statuses from there or here etc etc etc. Just take the time to look around there is quite a bit of changes. Enjoy.

From now on, I'll be technically referring to any changes as actual updates so I'm keeping myself in line to what I have done, what needs to be done and so on. This latest version is 3.1.20100511.1382 codenamed "Crybaby" Fixes done in this version - Down with blackfoot skin has been altered quite a bit to fall in line with the 3.1 changes in IPB. Already aware of the top notification box not being colorized with the rest of the skin, along with the in-bedded search option being off. Unix epoch time format that was being shown is now back to normal time formats Social Areas box uptop has been pushed into the global announcement areas to save time. New Posts/No new posts icons have been redone on both skins to temp ones. Developer group added for myself Ability to add colors to titles given to just me because i'm that cool SQL Optimization was run. Still aware of moderator team showing up wonky at the bottom. Any bugs please use the thread at http://www.asvs.us/i...111832-crybaby/ to report them. Enjoy.

The site has been updated to it's newest version 3.1.1.20100618.0004 Also along with this version is a new awards system where admins will be handing out awards for those that have shown they deserve it in certain categories. However, due to this version adding a lot of things into it, the down with blackfoot skin has been disabled totally. Meaning, it won't be coming back. I will make a new skin for those that like darker skins since I'm tired of doing major re-writes to skins due to changes in IPB. This shouldn't take TOO long but life sucks ^^ Also, the economy system has been disabled due to it exploding during posts. I hope to have this fixed shortly. Any bugs can go into the thread in the main engineering area. Thanks and enjoy

So, i said in an earlier post in main whatever the hell it's called, that I was already working on ways to promote the site. A few of these ideas are waiting for the next version of ipb to come strolling in soon which will be 1337 sauce. Mostly, the ideas are to make it More accessible - This comes in the form of using multiple login options as people tend to not want to have to register everywhere. More visible - While making it visible to raging trollers is all fine and dandy, we also need real debate which sadly enigma and jason suck at. With these two ideas in mind, I'm please to introduce the ASVS facebook fan page. Why this i'm sure you're asking. Well for starters, a LOT of people use facebook. I'm assuming you didn't even know you could log into this forum with facebook did you? Well you can. Our fan page not only gives you a way to freely help us advertise ASVS to all your friends, but it also shows the latest from our VS forums and Operations so you can always be up to date on the latest junk going on! More ways to help get the word out on other mediums besides trolling slots are in the works, including more social site interactions, Other ways to drag people here, and so on. If you have ACTUAL suggestions (besides spamming sites), please feel free to post them in main engineering. Any stupid ideas (or obvious retarded ideas) will be removed or my foot shoved up your toosh. One of the two. Enjoy.

So because I hate actually having to remember to boost everyone up in levels (it's not automated and sucks ><), the FU store is now open to everyone. So here is what you need to know FIRST AND FOREMOST IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SCREWED WITH THEN BUY THE NOT PLAYING ITEM IN THE STORE. THIS WILL STOP YOU FROM GIVING REPUTATION OR BUYING ANYTHING IN SAID STORE AS WELL. IF YOU ARE UNWILLING TO BE SCREWED WITH, YOU CANNOT SCREW WITH OTHERS. Everyone can now give +20 rep or -20 rep per day. Including to yourself. Administrators can give 100+/- a day. No raycav, you're not getting anything special for being a crappy mod. Now for some guidelines please make sure you understand these. Yes, you can purchase pin topic option. This will ONLY AT MAX last a week. I hate having 30 billion pinned topics so I will de-pin them after awhile. Of course others can remove them before then if they so please. No, you will never be able to ban another person ^^ You can steal other peoples reputation or add to it via a store. However, this obviously takes away the fact you don't get the points from just giving it ^^ Consider this EVERYONES only warning. If you do NOT set yourself to not be screwed with, don't come crying when it happens. You have been warned. Anyone that goes crying to ty or myself will be redirected to this post and told you should of read the important stuff area. You will not get points for replying to your own thread. That's just silly ^^ Points per rep have been modified. I won't say to what, but needless to say it's dickish to bad rep That's about it. Enjoy

So yeah, either today however most likely tomorrow, an arcade will be installed. This will give everyone more reason to spend countless hours on here... granted some people spend 20 hours a day reading the site so this gives them something else to do ^^ Annyywho the install should only take 15-20 minutes and it shouldn't blow anything up in the process so look forward to that. The FU store will be re opening today after a few stock issues where taken care of, and changing a few of the pricing structures around. So there ya go. Enjoy.