Website Revamp

**hybrid** · #1 (**permalink**) 02-20-2008, 07:24 PM

Over the next few weeks the site design is being revamped, taking on a complete new look and added features.

Social Bookmarking
The standard bookmarking engine is being replaced with a cleaner and easier to use system.

Member Profiles
We have already added new member customizable profiles complete with the ability to create picture albums, social networking groups and blogs. The new profiles allow you to comment on other member’s profiles and certain members as your features.

Anti-spam Features
New anti-spam features are being setup to stop spam from hitting our forums, email and other areas, these are far more advanced than we have used previously. We now use ReCaptcha technology upon user registration, we have also banned a number of domains from registering, and these include Hotmail, Yahoo and MSN. Further measures have been taken to remove fake accounts from the site; these were being used by individuals for spamming, or gaining access without registering for a full account. Any account that is detected using multiple IP’s being used will be automatically banned.

Inline Video Posting
We have now enabled inline video posting, this will allow you to post any video from a site like YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, MetaCafe, etc directly into a post. Only the address url is required, our scripts will auto-detect which site is being used and embed the video correctly. More details on how to do this can be found in our Video Forum.

Other new features will be posted here when we have them available.

**divertree** · #2 (**permalink**) 02-27-2008, 04:22 PM

looks good hybrid ... the time you put into the forums definatly shows. how are the recapta images working for you? i added a feature to registration on my forums that requires a user identify a pic and, so far, that has stopped every bot that tries to register.

**divertree** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-27-2008, 04:25 PM

my post disapeared

**hybrid** · #4 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by divertree

looks good hybrid ... the time you put into the forums definatly shows. how are the recapta images working for you? i added a feature to registration on my forums that requires a user identify a pic and, so far, that has stopped every bot that tries to register.

Hi divertree,
Your post didn't disappear, all posts in this forum go into a moderation queue. Bascially, so I can control what gets posted.

ReCaptcha seems to be working fine, no spam has touched the forums since the keys were added. I've had to ban a few accounts, they were spamming accounts held on another website, with login details for this site. This happens a lot, and there are ways of detecting this behaviour, where the IP is checked against the user each time.

I try and put time into the forums as much as I can, but I receive a lot of custom work from overseas, needless to say I wish I could spend more time on this site, and on the other sites I administer.

**shithappen** · #5 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 10:00 AM

good news,hybrid...looks like will be more colours on this site!!!

**Guppy©** · #6 (**permalink**) 04-13-2008, 08:16 PM

I posted a message about 10/15 minutes ago, played 1 game, now I have to post another. Is this correct?

**hybrid** · #7 (**permalink**) 04-19-2008, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guppy©

I posted a message about 10/15 minutes ago, played 1 game, now I have to post another. Is this correct?

This probably happened due to BST occuring during its changeover. The main server is in the USA, they change their clocks roughly a week after ours. Just that time of year, it should only happen twice though when clocks do not all adjust globally.

The server would have then been behind by an hour, I had the server set to London GMT - but our scripts work slightly different, the core is server-side time, but some add-ons work by the offset settings per user settings, within your control panel.

**divertree** · #8 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hybrid

This probably happened due to BST occuring during its changeover. The main server is in the USA, they change their clocks roughly a week after ours. Just that time of year, it should only happen twice though when clocks do not all adjust globally.

The server would have then been behind by an hour, I had the server set to London GMT - but our scripts work slightly different, the core is server-side time, but some add-ons work by the offset settings per user settings, within your control panel.

ive been letting people play in the arcade unrestricted, but im thinking about changing the policy. regular members will still be given full unrestricted access, but people that have no intention of posting in the forums need to get the boot. lol.

**divertree** · #9 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008, 11:03 AM

ok ... that reeeeeely sucks that my post doest show up right away.

**hybrid** · #10 (**permalink**) 05-03-2008, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by divertree

ive been letting people play in the arcade unrestricted, but im thinking about changing the policy. regular members will still be given full unrestricted access, but people that have no intention of posting in the forums need to get the boot. lol.

I only added this feature because guests can take up a lot of bandwidth usage - which can become a pain, if sites start leeching your bandwidth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by divertree

ok ... that reeeeeely sucks that my post doest show up right away.

All posts made in the "Announcements & News" are moderated because its main use is for Announcements made by Admins - plus it cuts out people that would normally spam this forum, even though now we have many additional measures in place to stop this from happening. All other forums will show posts straight away.