FINCHforum

With the help of the mod team, I have been adding a lot of features to the forum lately, and I appreciate your patience as I've had to fix a number of other errors the changes created. Thanks to everyone who has reported errors and made suggestions! Although the work is not yet fully complete, I figured I should start explaining what some of this new stuff is & how to use the more obscure things... If you have questions just let me know.

1. Added more smilies. You can advance through 3 pages of smilies to chose the perfect one ;)
2. Added more ranks, so now users with over 2,000 posts can be more than just "proven." I hope to add even more soon. (If you have ideas for any fun ones or ones you'd like to see, let me know!)
3. Added a user-rank progression bar so you could see how much further you (or someone else) needs to go to achieve the next rank.
4. Added the ability to reply-all to PMs and search PMs.
5. Added board statistics (visible at bottom of the main page along with the 'who's online').
6. Added birthdays (& ensured that whether or not you wanted your birthday/age made public was an option you could control via the user control panel!) - if you chose to make your birthday public, you'll get a birthday cake icon under your avatar on your birthday, and your name will be announced at the bottom of the main page when your birthday approaches & is here (this is only viewable to logged in board members).
7. Added ability to attach images in PMs and increased the mailbox size for PMs
8. Added Off-topic Canary & Hookbill forums
9. Added the ability to "like" a post. You can use a setting in your User Control Panel > Board Preferences > Edit Global Settings to select if you want a PM sent to you when someone likes your post.
10. Auto resize image attachments in posts. The "upload attachment" feature also explains what file extensions are accepted, and if you mouse-over the extension type, you can see the file size limitation imposed by the board.
11. Added more BBCodes to use for adjusting the style of a post - there are even more available for use in your signature if you want to get really fancy!
12. Added a "quick reply" editor for speedier responses
13. Added 'gender' option to profile
14. Added avatars to the memberlist view
15. Added ability to view the 'latest topic' posted to a given forum/subforum on the main forum page, and not just the timestamp/last member to have written something
16. Added a "welcome our newest member" section to the bottom of the main forum page
17. Cause external links in posts to automatically open in a new window
18. Added ability to log into the forum using your email address instead of your username
19. Added ability to easily manage the "friends" and "foes" function of the board - these are the smiley & frowny faces that are visible under a member's avatar... clicking someone's smiley face makes them a "friend" (which puts them in a "friend's list" that's easier to access when writing PMs so it's easier to send a PM to a friend, for example); clicking someone's frowny face makes them a "foe," and their posts are automatically hidden from your view and they won't be able to send you a PM. The only way I know of that a person can determine that they've been added to your foe's list is if they try to PM you (they get an error message saying you can't send a PM to someone who listed you as a foe).
20. Added PM "blacklist" (users you ban from contacting you) and "whitelist" (users you want to always be able to contact you) options.
21. Added link in the user control panel (UCP) profile editing section to allow you to easily view/access your 'public profile' so you can see how it appears. Also added a link to allow you to more easily access topics you've started.
22. Added ability for any newly created topic to be cross-referenced against all the other topics already in place on the board, to help cut down on repeat topic creation. So if you want to start a topic on Zebra finches, the board will check to see if there's already a topic on that subject, and give you the option of adding to that topic or continuing to create your own.
23. Added a "Rules" page to emphasize the terms of service of this forum.
24. Added "share on twitter" and "share on facebook" buttons. These automatically show up on the FIRST post (the original topic-starter's post) in a topic & not in the replies. This way if you want you can share a link to the entire topic on your facebook or twitter page.
25. Added ability for mods/admins to have both a regular rank (based on # of posts they made) and a 'special' rank (to indicate they're a mod/admin)
26. Added a new gallery format. This gallery enables you to more easily share photos you've uploaded in other areas of this forum (such as in a post). If you create a gallery of your own, a link should also show up to your uploaded images in your profile.
27. Ability to delete your own account/registration. Note that doing this will not delete your posts, only your profile & log-in.
28. Give moderators option of automatically notifying the starter of a topic if their topic has been moved, etc.
29. Ability to mention other members in your post - aka the "@ u" button now visible near the profile, PM, email, and map buttons - if you click that button, you'll see "@ username" show up in your quick reply box. Alternatively, you can type the @ sign followed immediately by the person's username you wish to mention in your post. (If the name has spaces in it like L in Ontario, you type "L in Ontario" immediately after the @ sign. Do not put a space between the @ and the username or "user name" (if it has a space in it) for the mention to work correctly. What a mention does is highlight the member's username with a link to their profile in your post. It also sends a PM to the member telling them they've been mentioned in your post. If you decide you don't want to receive a PM everytime someone mentions YOU in their post, you can change this setting in your Control Panel > Board Preferences > Edit Global Settings
30. Fixed the ability to search for addresses in phoogle map (so you don't have to drag your marker all over the world to get it near where you want it!)

Coming Soon (I hope!):
-ability to add your facebook link to your profile
-a 'mini chat room' function (if you guys would like that)
-a fixed style/layout for a 'mobile version' of this site (so it'll be easier to navigate the forum on a tiny phone screen... it may not be as purty but there would be less scrolling, etc.)
-modify phoogle maps so that if you elect not to be on the map at all your marker is actually *deleted* and not just set to show up in a default location somewhere near the coast of Spain (there are currently like 2,000 markers all centered at latitude/longitude 42,3).
-auto resize uploaded avatars



Phew. Let me know if I forgot to mention something you've been wondering about!

Is all this amazing, or what!?!?

I just read this....well Happy Birthday to us!!!!

Thank you for all your time and effort to make this forum even better!!!!!! It is very much appreciated!









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Crystal that's alot of changes thanks for your hard work and a mini chat would probably be a good idea as this will let people talk to each other about interests other than birdies.

Thanks very much, Crystal!

This is all awesome! Thanks mods, for all your hard work!!

Wow! What great upgrades! I am already enjoying many of the new changes. I agree a chat option, like on FB chat, is a great idea. I also love that we can add photo files to a PM. Great Job!

I agree with everyone else. Thank you so much for all your hard work and the changes implemented. I am loving all the changes and I am excited to see the "coming soon" changes as well. Great job on making an already great forum even better

Being a non-techie type myself, I am absolutely awed by all these changes. Crystal has been working non-stop to implement them--thanks, Crystal!

Crystal

thank you, thank you, thank you.....wonderful changes.

LOVE all the new "goodies", thank you Crystal and moderators for all the hard work that you do to make our time on the forum enjoyable!