Posted by Kim on December 15, 2013, 3:50am
Phew! That was a more harrowing install than usual.During tonight's update, many thousands of posts were moved into new databases and converted for future efficiency. But I am compelled to admit that unfortunately, during that process, I lost eight posts. Despite much rooting around I wasn't able to get them out of the backup. The people involved were all sent a gift as a heartfelt apology. This has never happened before. I have an idea how it happened this time and am taking steps to prevent it ever happening again, but that doesn't change what happened this time. So seriously, I'm really sorry to those seven people who lost a post!
But looking on the bright side, this update was chock full of lovelies.
The overarching theme for this patch was Group Moderation Powers. Some of you are growing your groups big and strong, and are starting to run into more complicated social situations, brewing over a much longer period of time.
In an effort to give Group Moderator teams as robust a suite of tools to keep the peace as possible, I give you tonight's update.
Group updates
- Groups no longer have moderators for individual forums. Instead, groups simply have moderators, that share responsibility for patrolling ALL of the materials group members can post, on and off the forums. This choice was made to simplify interfaces and reduce confusion about what permissions are being granted at any given time.
- Groups now have private moderation logs, which allows those with moderator permissions to keep a permanent record of member misbehavior, and any other notes they think will be useful in future member management. This can be a huge help to keep a team of moderators on the same page, prevent multiple people from trying to moderate the same issue at once, and determine long-term behavior patterns.
- Comments on group news announcements can now be deleted (by group mods)
- Comments on group events can now be deleted (by group mods)
- When a group mod deletes a forum post/topic, or a comment on an event or news announcement, they will be automatically walked through the process of notifying the user and logging the action into the moderation log.
- The interface for moving topics between forums now takes place within the group aesthetic rather than the main site aesthetic. Small thing, I know, but baby steps! Consistency is increasing and that is awesome.
- A group's official chat thread now has a small notice on it indicating its purpose and how it is different from other threads.
- Groups that have no founders (because the founder deleted their account/was banned) will offer the foundership to people in the following order:
- Any member with edit permission or promotion permissions
- Any moderator
- Any GM
- Any member
- Small changes were made to the forum management interface, just to make it more consistent with the rest of group edit panels.
- Group founders can now choose to be GMs or not. Sometimes, you just want someone else to run a game for you. I totally get it!
- Group founders can choose whether to be displayed in lists of moderators, in case they want to focus on "big picture stuff" and not get contacted with disputes. However, group founders always retain the ability to view the moderation log and other mod powers.
- "Featured members" widgets are now set individually, so you can feature different sets of people in different widgets. For example, you could set one up to showcase your GMs, and another to showcase your moderators, and still another to showcase a contest winner.
- Groundwork laid for group moderators to eventually give temporary bans to unruly members; I apologize I didn't get the interface done this time around, but it will be first into the next patch!
Not necessarily group related updates:
- Users without portraits got a brand new default pic -- using our logo gryphon rather than the old question mark.
- FORUMS REFACTORED TO REDUCE LAG. YAY YAY YAY YAY. This is a work in progress but we've made huge progress. If you've been avoiding using the "Recent Forum Posts" widgets in your group because of the resultant lag, go ahead and give it another try.
- A bug in the store that occasionally made it hard to add gifts to multiple people to your shopping cart has been corrected.
And what's this? Darth_Angelus has prepared a mini-adventure for this update as well! Check out how the Princess and the Hero mediate their Group's first disagreement.
Next: Looking for last minute gifts for your RP buddies? »
« Previous: Site will be closed Dec 15 at 2:00am PST for maintenance
Comments
Don't worry Copper, that bug has been fixed! 
I also just gone done working on making the invisible posts visible again. Woohoooo!
I'm glad you guys are liking what you see so far. Keep the bug reports coming!
I also just gone done working on making the invisible posts visible again. Woohoooo!I'm glad you guys are liking what you see so far.
Keep the bug reports coming!
Wow! This is amazing Kim!
I especially love the new mod controls, being able to keep all mods in the loop and make a permanent record of bad behavior is an insanely good idea. This would have been really useful in the past and I'm glad we have it now!
Well done!
I especially love the new mod controls, being able to keep all mods in the loop and make a permanent record of bad behavior is an insanely good idea. This would have been really useful in the past and I'm glad we have it now!
Well done!
Aw man how new and exciting! Although my own group is no more than a personal info dump, I am psyched for all these new features you've put up!
And congratulations on bug-sniping! *plays taps for the posts lost in the great move*
@Freaxx & Luvable: although I'm not the one who does the coding, let's still see if we can help you! What happens (or doesn't happen!) when you try to make a post? Is anything loading? Not loading? Epically blowing up like an action movie?
And congratulations on bug-sniping! *plays taps for the posts lost in the great move*
@Freaxx & Luvable: although I'm not the one who does the coding, let's still see if we can help you! What happens (or doesn't happen!) when you try to make a post? Is anything loading? Not loading? Epically blowing up like an action movie?
The issue with posting in groups is now resolved!
Yeah, I'm not able to post on the forums either.
Whoo for new updates! Thanks Kim!
I can't post in the forums... :S
Seven is a lucky number and yay for the updates.
and yay for the updates.
A minute of silence for those who have lost their lives in the Great Exodus of 2013. *salutes*
Still, kudos on what you've achieved so far Kim! One day our groups will be the best groups.
Still, kudos on what you've achieved so far Kim! One day our groups will be the best groups.
Wolfy-T
December 26, 2013
6:46pm