|
rockon1824
|
May 29 2008, 10:12 PM
Post #1
|
I'm so glad that I'm an island.
- Posts:
- 8,919
- Group:
- Administrators
- Member
- #2
- Joined:
- June 28, 2006
|
Hello Music-Talk users!
Undoubtedly you've noticed that things look a bit different around here. We have made a ton of changes to better your Music-Talk experience. The update you see here has been in the works for well over a year! So, with no further ado, I'd like to introduce you to all the facets of the third major installment of Music-Talk:
- New Forum Software! This is the major component of the upgrade, and the reason it took so long. We've moved from InvisionFree to a brand new amazing forum hosting service called "ZetaBoards". It's much easier to use, much better to look at, and has about ten times the features. I know some of the new features will take time to get used to, but if you are having any trouble, feel free to PM a staff member or ask in Site Discussion. A quick breakdown:
- Joinable groups
- Blogs
- Collapsable categories
- Member legend in online user list
- Topic/Post search
- Advanced Account Security page
- New PM system which groups back and forth messages into a single PM conversation
- New style for PM pop-up
- Markers for topics that you have posted in
- Online status of a user is listed in their posts and profile
- View a single post page
- List of all posts made by a member
- Enhanced avatar gallery.
- New BBCode tags: indent, spoiler, flash videos, table, text border color, and text background color
- Custom profile fields
- Enhanced portal
- Beautiful new site-wide color scheme and skin. ("Default" on the new forum skin changer). Complete with new graphics designed by Dion and I, including smilies.
- New site design. Every page on the site was completely redesigned and I believe you'll find it more professional and suited to make browsing the site much easier.
- New site areas. While some parts of the site have been consolidated, there have also been many new things added. For example, we now have an "Artist of the Month" section in Music (see the thread in Artist & Genre Discussions for more info) as well as the ability for users to nominate videos for the Video of the Week in the Music section of the site. In addition, we have RSS Feeds so you'll always stay updated. We have also revised how MT Points count, which you can read about in the updated FAQ.
- Major changes in forum layout. As I'm sure you've figured out when you clicked to read this thread, the forums have been moved around and up and down and left and right. We've made many changes to the forums, including:
- Moving site-related items to the top of the index, and grouping all of them together (now the New User Introduction forum and the Archives are grouped with Site Discussion, News & Announcements, and Site Contributions).
- Moving Indie into the Modern & Alternative rock forum in Artist & Genre Discussion.
- Expanding the Writer's Corner. It now has two sub-forums: Original Works and SotW, as well as a main forum for writing tips, advice, and literary discussion.
- Expansion of Recording & Composing (formally "Tabs & Recordings"), it now includes sub-forums for Original Tabs & Recordings and Cover Recordings, in addition to a main forum for recording and composing help.
- Movement of Guitar & Bass into Music & Instrument Discussion as a sub-forum.
- The Inferno has been split into two forums for General Discussion, now located towards the bottom of the index page. "The Inferno" is for more serious conversations and discussions while "The Icebox" is for polls, surveys, and games.
- New and redone skins. Besides the new default skin, I have gone back and adapted our old MT skins to the new forum styles, but this time, you'll find no kinks in the Starry Night or Green Dream skins; however, you will find all the original headers and post buttons that may cause waves of nostalgia for all you MT vets. In addition, there is the wonderful "Zeta Original" skin, provided by the creators of ZetaBoards, as well as skins specifically for "The Inferno" and "The Icebox" that I've designed.
- Ad-free hosting. I'm personally paying for hosting to get rid of that ugly yellow ad banner at the top of the site.
- New elite user group. We have added a new user group called the "Aristocrats" that is for our members who have over 1000 posts.
- Updates on the Rules and FAQ. There have been many changes to these, so make sure to reread them.
- A plan of attack for promotion. The MT staff will be working very hard to get new members to the forums, and hopefully you'll help us with that quest!
Of course, there have been many other little things, but those are the major ones. It has been a lot of work, but I can honestly say I'm very proud of how it's turned out and can't wait to see this community grow. I would like to extend my personal gratitude to the staff and everyone else who made all this possible, as well as all our members who have kept this place going for the past year and a half. That will now finally pay off 
And remember, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, concerns, or complaints about anything site-related, just post them in Site Discussion or PM a staff member! We'd love to hear what you think.
Thanks,
-Morgan 
NOTE: The upgrade still has a couple minor components that I will be adding over the next week or so, so stay tuned. Additionally, there are a couple minor bugs with the software that will be fixed soon. Also, all posts that used the "size" tag were kind of screwed up, so if you come across any posts that are a bit messed up by that, just Report them, and they will be fixed.
|
4:18 PM Jan 6
