Hey folks,
We've spent the past few days working hard to fix a lot of the issues on our website and server to help improve your Marble Blasting experience.
Firstly, we've moved WebChat to it's own dedicated section on the site. We made this change to hopefully reduce duplicate sessions and chat confusion while users were browsing the home page and forums. To replace Webchat on the Home Page and Forums, we've added the old Shoutbox that was used on the Under Construction page (some of you may remember from back in January).
We are also pleased to announce a Private Messaging system has been implemented on our website. Registered users may now send private messages back and forth to stay in touch. Users also have the ability to create contact lists or friend groups, allowing members to easily send out a private message to a group of friends or a group of developers working together on a single project.
Finally, we are happy to announce the launch of our Website Achievement system! Active participation in forum threads and helpful contributions to website content will earn you more achievements and in turn more achievement points. In the future, you will be able to unlock new features on the website and (possibly) in some of the Marble Blast mods. (These unlocks may include colored usernames, custom VIP marble skins, extra downloadable content, etc.) More information about the Achievement Reward system will be announced when the structure is finalized.
Lastly, I'd like to provide a list of all of the changes that were implemented during the downtime this weekend:
- Transitioned our website from the 'innacurate.com' host to a NEW domain, hosted on our very own VPS.
- Upgraded all of our back-end services, ensuring all plugins, modules and components were up to date.
- Imported all of the Vault posts (as best as we could) from the old forums into our site.
- Post Counts were adjusted to reflect the imported Vault Posts. User Post Counts should reflect (roughly) the number of posts you had on the previous forums.
- Implemented Website Achievements
- Installed the Forum Private Messaging system. You can access your Private Messages by clicking the 'Private Messages' tab on the forums, or by selecting 'Private Messages' from your Profile page or the Profile dropdown menu.
- Removed the 'Users Online' module from all pages.
- Added a 'Edit Forum Profile' link under the Profile dropdown menu. Please note your Forum Profile contains your social media urls, avatar, and forum signature, while your traditional profile allows you to modify your username, password, email, and username color (if enabled).
- Added the Shoutbox from the 'Website Under Construction' page to the bottom of the Home Page and the Forums with History Log buttons.
- Removed WebChat from the Home Page and Forum Page.
- Added a WebChat link to the top navigation, accessible only by logged-in users. WebChat (as a result) now has it's own dedicated page to help reduce duplicate user sessions and compatibility issues with other portions of the website.
- Created new Rating icons, and restricted downloads ratings to registered users only.
- Created a new MarbleBlast.com Logo.
- Removed the 'Powered by Gantry' logo from the bottom of every page.
- Implemented the 'Community Highlights' feature on the home page, showcasing new and popular content.
- Updated the Sponsors page, adding several entries and removing one entry.
- The Front News Page now shows a maximum of two articles, down from four.
- Removed the 'Text Size' toggle at the bottom of every page.
- Added a Donate button to user profiles. Donators are automatically flagged for account upgrades and will receive exclusive content and beta access upon reaching certain tiers of donation thresholds. More information about the Donation system will be announced later this week.
Thanks,
~Aayrl