So essentially what we have here is the same forum as what we had previously, the big difference here, is that it has been written from the ground up for version 4 and the framework behind all the code and functions has been rewritten from the ground up and modernised and in a way future proofed for a few years anyway.
So what are the changes, I will list these as I go on but what I will do is list what is currently disabled.
Twitter sidebar - this will be updated and will return in due course
Twitch video overview - this hasn't been updated by the developer yet, we don't have a timescale but it will return.
Arcade - this has not launched yet, it is in the process of being upgraded but at present no timescale exists.
Medals - we have the option of 2 here (the one we just switched too and the one we had) - neither have dates confirmed for the new one we just added on the previous version is the one that is currently being updated. We haven't lost any medals, they will return as before.
Youtube video sidebar - we'll add this back in, it was a plugin we used but we hope to offer something better and we are currently looking into this.
Frontpage - this has gone in it's previous guise, it will be returning but central to the entire community. The forum is currently the frontpage of the site (always has been for sometime) this willbe changing once we have things ready (shouldn't be too long).
Code of Conduct - Not currently visible, we'll add this asap but working on fixing a few kinks first before we add additional things back in.
So What are the major changes?
Responsive design, basically meaning that from any device everyone should have the same experience. The site adapts to the screen size. for example
Now we appreciate that not everyone likes mobile designs and they think full site access is better, we appreciate that so the choice belongs to you, you can use the full site version by selecting from the theme dropdown menu at the foot of the site and selecting "Mobile Non Responsive" - this will change the default when using mobile and will also be the same when you access the site from a desktop/laptop.
Followers
This used to be friends, friends basically showed you had a list of friends but didn't really do anything. Now you have followers. Please note, that as part of the upgrade, friends got converted to followers, now what will happen is when a follower posts a message or has any activity on the site you may receive a notification in one of several ways. Yes you will get spammed.
To take contol of this, you can do the following go to the members profile and then
We'll add more options to this in due course but if you want to stop messages, untick "receive notifications for all new content posted"
Featured Topics
These have now changed significantly, easier for a staff member to feature a topic and we can feature 5 in total (that's what is currently set), the likely scenario is we will have 1 topic listed as featured and then across the top of the forum a new featured content system that shows as many feature content topics that we wish to set.
One of the other big changes is the editor itself, you'll notice that a lot of the familar tabs are gone, this is because they aren't really needed anymore. What you see when you type is what you get (wysiwyg editor) - the huge difference with this is 2 fold in my view.
Want to include an image? Just paste the link (needs to end in png, jpg, gif etc).
Want to insert soundlcoud? Just paste the ink
Want to include vimeo? Just paste the link
Want to include youtube? Just paste the link
Want to include twitter? Just paste the link (see)
I'm sure you get the jist of it.
Auto scroll back to the top
This will appear on the right side of the screen whenever you are not at the top of the page
Emoticons
We are adding loads of new emoticons and we are also supporting emoji's as standard and are vectored (images so to speak).
The old faithful emoticons still exist but we'll add more to this as well
We'll be adding some new ones as well such as look emotions
We have lots of new features yet to be added, some cool new integration options such as zombiefication and prestige being linked, the brains system is now part of the like system - so if you like something don't fret about whether it's good enough, we have something in store for great content.
This is just some of the things that have changed, I'm sure I have missed a lot but it gives a general overview just now.