Welcome To The New Look Forum

[S.O.P.H.I.A.]

Thank you for your patience of the last few days, whilst the forum has been in maintenance mode. As you can see I have been extremely busy updating the forum to a new software and bring back somethings you liked that unfortunately broke on the previous forum. So what's the same?
 
Well, all the topics, posts, usernames, profiles, signatures (although may need updated) are all the same, profile pictures have also been transferred when it has been possible to do so. Unfortunately not all profile pictures have transferred. So please check and update you're profile.
 
The forum is now using 87% of the width of your screen.
 
So what's new?

• WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get editor for making posts

 
Within the editor, you'll also find a few different options, such as My Media, this will display the media that you have uploaded. Text colour options, undo and redo, find and replace text, smilies and more.
 
The quickly reply function will give you this as standard, but you can also switch to the full editor, the full editor will give you the ability to you, the attach files function. You can then place thumbnails within the post as you did previously, or if you prefer to you the image link icon in the editor for remotely hosted images, you can also do that.
 
It also makes the formatting of posts so much easier to do. This makes it easier for everyone else on the forum to read and comprehend what the member is trying to say. If it looks good when you type it, it will look good when it is posted. REMEMBER - WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).

• Search/View new content

Since your last visit, you can easily search for new content
 

• New topics/posts

The forum is now utilising two tone colour feature for read and unread topics and posts, as well as icons to the left of the topic/post.
 
Read topic/post/forum
Unread topic/post/forum

 

• Want to link to a post rather than the topic

 

Simply click the post number or the the arrow next to it and copy and paste the link in the relevant post in the relevant part of the post. This will then directly link to the post.

 

http://www.callofdutyzombies.com/CraigF/invision/index.php/topic/132437-the-face-behind-the-avatar/?p=1381455

 

Want to share this post on social media sites? Link you're CoDz account with your facebook, steam or twitter account (when signing in, select facebook, twitter, steam) then when redirected back to the site, select the option to link accounts).

 

• Status updates

Whats that we hear, you visit other websites to post status updates and the like. Why? Why would you leave the zombies unattended, protect the forum from the hordes and post your status updates directly from CoDz. This will also appear as a status update on the CoDz site and in your profile on CoDz.

 

Just link your accounts and then tick the box post to facebook/twitter when updating your status.

 

phew, the zombies have been contained, that was a close call.

 

• Topic quick view

How to quickly view the first and last post made within a topic.
 

 

• Embedding Youtube videos

 

Simply paste the link to the youtube video

http://youtu.be/XcHDICdxI7Y

 

• Embedding Vimeo videos

Simply paste the link to the Vimeo video

http://vimeo.com/83390470

• Member Ranks, Brains & Zombification

So, Brains and zombification return. These work as standard, part of the forum software and not a modification to the software. So the likely scenario of these becoming broken is very remote. However, some modification on these does exist.

 

• Brains is the reputation system, simply renamed to brains. Like a post to supply brains, this is exactly the same as it was on the PHPBB forum as far as I'm aware.
• Zombification, this is the member rank system and is based on post count. Reach a certain post count for the zombification to increase, the title of each rank needs to be determined.

So with the zombification, you'll see stars represent the level of zombification achieved. Simply click on the icon and a list will appear of the levels and what is required to reach these levels. What will also happen, is if you scroll down, you will see the team icons appear (see pictures).

 

 

 

 

• Personal Message

Here's a quick view of the personal message system
 

 

• Twitter Stream

You can now see the last 5 tweets in the sidebar on the main forum index

 

 

• Final Countdown

When active, this will countdown to the next event, next, game release etc

 

• Donate

As before, the donation system returns also, with slight enhancement. You can now view a status bar of the percentage of the donations received towards the donation goal for the month. (I've actually disabled the status bar, as it needs to be manually updated. However, I'm investigated an add on that will automatically change someones usergroup and supply the donor medal automatically) - it costs though and I've already paid for a few modifications myself.
 

• CoDz Youtube

The callofdutyzombies.com youtube channel, now feature prominently on the main forum sidebar. This is configured to show all videos currently on the CoD'z youtube channel. When new vidoes are added to youtube, they will be added to the sidebar (albiet manually)
 

• Smilies

• Brains - yip, they have returned, like someones post for them to be recognised with brains, you cannot like your own posts.
• Zombification - This has also returned and is based on post count, the introduction of the IPB forum, allows us to have a member ranking system in place.

• Users online today

At the bottom of the forum, you will be able to see who is currently online (within the last 15 minutes) and you can also see who has visited today.
 

• Forum stats

This will show you the stats for the site, how many registered members we have, the most online, newest member and the total posts made. I have also taken steps to combat spam, as you'll be aware, the spam bots on the old forum became rather annoying and admin and mods had to continually delete them and members could report them also. The likely scenario now, is that blacklisted and known spam bots will be blocked.
 
We are utilising stop forum spam database, to prevent bots from registering, we are also using KeyCaptcha rather than ReCaptcha to combat the spam also. The site stats information will inform you how many spammers have been successfully blocked. We can't gaurentee that none will get through, but we are doing are best to eradicate them completely - if you see any, let us know and report them as spammers.
 
Spammers reported will have post and PM function disabled.
 

• Awards

The awards system has returned, even better than before, now in the main links for the forum is the awards page, it will give you a complete list of all available awards in one place. It will tell you what you need to be able to receive a particular award. You can also see who has received this award and the reason the award was supplied and who supplied the award.
 
Here's a quick view of the awards system before the final edits are done, showing the listing of the awards (currently only User of The Month is active)
 

 
Final edits need to be done once the forum has been moved to the forum directory and before the forum is still in maintenance mode and before it goes live.

• User of The Month

Returns as it was before, only better. Now on the main forum index in the sidebar, you will see the User of The Month, it will give you certain details on that user, such as how many posts they have made, when they registered and so forth. You will also see two links "UOTM ARCHIVE" and "GO TO PROFILE". The UoTM archive basically does what it says, archives the previous UoTM into one place. Go to profile allows you to have a look at the User of The Months profile, you can comment on their profile, like profile and so forth.
 
Here's a quick view of the User of The Month archive, before final edits are done.
 

 
Final edits need to be done once this has been put into the forum directory and before the forum goes live.

• Status updates

You can now enter a status update, this will then display on the forums sidebar staus update, however, you can even post the status update to facebook and twitter once you have linked your facebook/twitter account(s)
 

• Calendar

It is what it is, it's a calendar. It will display birthdays, you can use it to insert things to do on certain dates and it can be used for organising COD play dates. You all know what to do with a calendar.

• Code of conduct

This now has it's own page and can be found from the main site menu.

• Wallpapers

This page has been updated and optimized, the larger files are downloads and the images are essentially thumbnails. This makes the page load a lot quicker and has been tidied up a little bit.

• Contact us

A new contact us page/form has been introduced. You can use this to request medals, contact us relating to any technical problems with the site or for general enquiries) - you can also use the relevant form for this also.

• Arcade

The introduction of the arcade will be new for everyone, with a certain amount of games added at the moment and more games will be added. You can request for a game of the week, see league leaders, challenge other players etc. With the forum games section, a new section has been added that will automatically post new games that have been added and will also post new high scores.
 
I think we have covered just about everything that you need to know, we have probably missed a couple of tidbits but just ask and we will respond to the question as soon as possible. Remember, this isn't just new for you the members, this is also new for the admins and the moderators too and will take a time in adjusting. I'm sure you'll appreciate the effort we have made to bring you new features and return old features broken on the previous forum.
 
Have fun and don't worry about your time zone, it should recognise it automatically.
 
P.S. It might be worthwhile editing this post, copying it or whatever and using it as the introduction to the members for the new forum?
 
Many thanks
Craig (A.K.A. Hells Warrrior)
Technical Support

[Hells Warrrior]

Tweet embedded in the post.

 

If time is a waste of life and life is a waste of time, then lets all get wasted and have the time of our lives.

— craig ferguson (@Hells_Warrrior) January 11, 2014

Tweet is simply embedded, nothing special to do apart from enabling HTML on the post.

[Hells Warrrior]

You'll notice that some images are showing as missing/broken.

I have changed the path that these are looking at for the image, I have now replaced the path "CraigF/invision" with "forum" - so that when the forum is transferred over that I don't have to do any skin edits (it will just work).

[Strwrsbob]

A HUGE thanks from everyone here at CoDz to Craig for doing amazing work on this update!

 

I hope you all enjoy the site, we are all incredibly excited for what the future holds!

[Flammenwerfer]

Doesn't it look all shiny and amazing, everyone?! Enjoy and love it as we do! And big thanks to Craig for making this happen!

[LiamFTWinter]

BAWLERS

I PUT NUMBERS ON THE BOARD

[Hells Warrrior]

I've got a special surprise up my sleeves as well, needed to wait until the site was transferred but it involves recovery mode

[Strwrsbob]

I've got a special surprise up my sleeves as well, needed to wait until the site was transferred but it involves recovery mode

Indeed, There is much more to come from this amazing man! 

[TheBSZombie]

It looks great. Was worth the wait in my opinion. Im glad brains was brought back. I never got to experience it personally but heard great things about it.

[Delta]

Reporting in.I give it a solid 10/10.And brains. Thank you.

[InfestLithium]

A massive thanks to Hell's Warrrior for the hard work he has helped in helping CoDz. I'm sure the entire community can't thank you enough friendo.

Now, autobots - roll out!

[Hells Warrrior]

We've also added an archive for the Users of The Month but unfortunately I ran into a bug limit as to how many I could add, need to wait for few hours and the recache everyting before adding more but the archive will stem back as far as we can and list all UoTM as well

[JakeDuck]

Wooo! It's good to be back again!

 

Thanks to all of the staff for your hard work!

[Boom115]

Very impressive Craig! I'll have to tool around with everything and get the hang of the new formatting, but I've never had a problem with spending a ton of time here before. Can't wait to catch up with everyone.

[DeathBringerZen]

Good job Craig. I knew you would do us proud when I saw you were the one helping with the site.

 

Edit: For some reason, it only shows one medal for me when I had a dozen or so, but I am sure that is just early teething issues.

[Awful Lawton]

10/10.

[Hells Warrrior]

There is a lot more to come, but in time - just a case of getting a few things looked at and work and what not but it will come ;-) others have been instrumental with this as well so big shout to the Mods and Nick.

 

I'm calling it a night, 3am in bonnie Scotland and I'm shattered and up in 5 hours for the daily grind - catch you all in a few hours and if you need or want me to look at anything, just leave a reply or PM and I'll get it looked at.

[thegrix]

Looks great. Awesome job to everyone.

[PINNAZ]

Hells Warrrior / Craig - you receive my first ever Brains! Thank you my friend.

Great job team. I look forward to spending many more hours here fimiliarising myself with the formatting & all the new goodies. What a great late Christmas present.

Thanks to all the donators who helped get my favourite website back online.

Can't wait to give out some more BRAINS!

Viva CoDz.

[Tasha]

Incroyable !  Great work Hells and our Staff team :-)

[Boom115]

Is it possible to have the game updates not roll up in new content? Or atleast unsubscribe from them. It's a cool new feature, but it just seems to clutter the posts.

[Hells Warrrior]

Leave it with me, I'll look into it later - just a case of telling the system not to look for new posts in that forum.

[nayrcraig]

It's awesome to see the site back up.

Congrats to everyone who was working on it and thank you for bringing it back.

[Lenne]

Yay!

 

It's back!!!

 

All this new stuff is exciting but it sure will take some getting used to.

 

Thanks to the whole staff. :3

[GRILL]

So good to be back and see everyone's shining (Internet) faces. Happy 1/15 day!