• PSO-World Site Upgrades

    by
    Ryna
    Published on May 28, 2016 02:59 PM
    57 Comments


    Welcome back everyone! Virtually every portion of PSO-World has received an upgrade as part of the site's 15th anniversary. Here are some of the highlights:

    Updated Forum Software
    The forum software has been upgraded to the latest version of vBulletin 4. The upgraded forum software offers several bug fixes, security improvements, updates to existing features, new features, and better compatibility with the latest generation of web browsers.

    Social Groups Overhaul
    Social Groups (AKA Groups) has received several updates. To access the groups area, click on the "Groups" link on the secondary navigation bar of the forum index. That will present you with a GUI interface to your groups, the most recently updated groups, and newly created groups. As for individual groups, instead of having what is essentially one long thread, Social Groups will behave more like individual forums. Members will be able to create new group threads and post pictures. Group leaders will have the ability to moderate these threads.

    New Search Features
    This might seem like a mundane detail, but PSO-World has a new search interface that provides faster and better search results. You will now finally have the ability to search your private messages!

    Activity Stream
    You can access the "Activity Stream" by clicking on "What's New" on the navigation bar. The Activity Stream offers a new way to keep track of the latest forum content including group discussion, news articles, forum posts, and several other content types. The Activity Stream offers several secondary navigation bar links if you want to browse a specific type of content.

    Updated Photo Gallery
    The PSO-World Photo Gallery has always been an easy to miss site section. Featuring game art, screenshots, and fan art, the Gallery has always represented a visual history of PSO-World. With the upgrade, the Gallery link has been moved to a more prominent position and several forum integration components have been installed. The Gallery itself has received several new features. Users now also have the ability to create albums under the Gallery system and upload pictures to those albums.

    New Themes
    As part of the site upgrade, PSO-World is receiving a new default theme called "Cosmic." This scifi theme was inspired by the early-years of Phantasy Star Online 2 and is optimized for a wide-range of displays. If you don't like it, you can choose from a selection of other themes by using the theme picker at the bottom of the page. You can set a permanent default choice by editing the Details area of your Profile.

    Here is a brief overview of the other available themes:
    • Blue-Steel - This was the default theme for the site for the last 8 years. Pick this style if you want to stick with a familiar look.
    • Darkness - A modern all-black theme.
    • Midnight Blue - A variant of Darkness with blue highlights. This is a good choice if you previously used the Classic Blue-Black style.
    • Vanilla - A light-colored theme that was designed for readability.
    • Classic Mira-Bluegray - This is primarily dark gray and blue theme. It is based on PSO-World's original default theme.
    • Classic Blue-Steel - This style emphasizes a variety of blues and is based on one of PSO-World's early default themes.
    • Mobile - This theme only works with the site's news/forum sections and is optimized for ease-of-use on mobile systems.


    Don't see your favorite old theme? There is a good reason for that. The forum upgrade process rendered the old themes incompatible with the current version of the site. Any returning old theme has to be rebuilt from scratch and that is very time-intensive. We're still taking a look at the old themes and seeing what is possible to rebuild.

    Simplified Site Navigation
    The clunky left-column link boxes have been replaced with a simplified top bar navigation scheme. There are four main tabs on the navigation bar corresponding to News, Forum, Guides/Databases, and the Gallery. Each section has several helpful links that appear below the main navigation bar when you browse to that section. The Guides/Databases choice will take you to a helpful link page that will allow you to access PSO-World's resources for that specific game.

    New Front Page
    As part of the upgrade project, PSO-World has a new front page article system. This new system integrates more seamlessly with the forum software. You can search the news section using the forum search feature. When a person replies to a news article, a new thread is automatically started in the News and Comments forum.

    Video Tag
    Use the updated [video] tab to embed Youtube videos in post. This works more reliably than the old video management system.

    Mobile Features
    PSO-World offers an easy-to-use mobile theme for the site's forum and news section. You can select it by picking "Mobile" from the quick style picker at the bottom of the page.

    Older Content
    The older content sections like the PSO Item Database and Guides system received several aesthetic and usability upgrades.

    The Future
    We view this as a starting point for further enhancing PSO-World and have several exciting features in the pipeline. We are very interested on hearing your feedback on the site upgrades and what else you would like to see.

    Bugs
    If you see anything broken or something that just looks weird, let us know by posting in the bug report thread.
    This article was originally published in forum thread: PSO-World Site Upgrades started by Ryna View original post
    Categories:
    1. PSOW
    Comments 57 Comments
    1. Ryna's Avatar
      Ryna - Jun 1, 2016, 10:01 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by BWS-1 View Post
      On a side note, something rather minor, but I was curious if it was possible (and if I'm not just a n00b for not knowing where to fix that) to assign what I want to see when I click on my profile as it loads for myself or all?

      Right now it's default to My Activity, but I wonder if I could set it to how it would appear on the previous site straight to Visitor Messages.
      The only option I'm seeing for customizing the default profile tab would change the default tab to "Visitor Messaging" for every user profile.
    1. BWS-1's Avatar
      BWS-1 - Jun 2, 2016, 07:42 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by Ryna View Post
      The only option I'm seeing for customizing the default profile tab would change the default tab to "Visitor Messaging" for every user profile.
      Thanks for the bit of info! Well, of course I wouldn't mind such change, but if I'd be the only one caring about that I wouldn't want it to affect everyone else!
    1. HsBlaze's Avatar
      HsBlaze - Jun 2, 2016, 11:15 PM
      This it a nice way to come back to the site! T-T
    1. Ryo's Avatar
      Ryo - Jun 3, 2016, 11:05 PM
      Love it! I was wondering when this would happen!
    1. stukasa's Avatar
      stukasa - Jun 12, 2016, 08:07 PM
      Overall very nice, great job with the upgrades! I do wish the Cosmic window wasn't fixed-width, though, otherwise I would use it. As it is, it's just too narrow.

      Also, I wanted to ask: Is there a way to change the size of embedded videos? The video screen is much larger now than it was in the old version of the site. That, coupled with the fixed-width window of the Cosmic theme, makes embedded videos feel way too large. I thought there might be a way for me to adjust that using forum code tags, so I wanted to ask.
    1. Ryna's Avatar
      Ryna - Jun 13, 2016, 06:53 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by stukasa View Post
      Overall very nice, great job with the upgrades! I do wish the Cosmic window wasn't fixed-width, though, otherwise I would use it. As it is, it's just too narrow.
      Thanks for the feedback! A fluid version of Cosmic is something we are going to look at. We've been testing out refinements to the theme based on the feedback we've received in this thread.

      Also, I wanted to ask: Is there a way to change the size of embedded videos? The video screen is much larger now than it was in the old version of the site. That, coupled with the fixed-width window of the Cosmic theme, makes embedded videos feel way too large. I thought there might be a way for me to adjust that using forum code tags, so I wanted to ask.
      The feedback was received for the old video system is that it was hard to use, buggy, and the videos were too small. We hope the [video] tag is working better for everyone compared to the old tag system. As for video size, there are no user-selection options for the video tag. The default video size is hard-coded in the forum display templates. What would be your preferred size for videos under Cosmic?
    1. stukasa's Avatar
      stukasa - Jun 13, 2016, 11:31 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Ryna View Post
      What would be your preferred size for videos under Cosmic?
      Thanks for the info! And... I think my opinion doesn't matter in this case since I mainly post song links, not actual videos. It's just that the videos nearly stretch across the entire width of the window on Cosmic. For the people who are actually posting videos (as opposed to music), that's probably not a bad thing, though.
    1. RadXXL's Avatar
      RadXXL - Jun 18, 2016, 03:52 AM
      well, this is really pretty.
    1. [Ayumi]'s Avatar
      [Ayumi] - Jun 19, 2016, 10:37 AM
      How do I delete old multi quotes?
      With the new update I have to keep manually deleting all of the posts I've quoted and it's getting very annoying.
      I don't see a remove option like I used to.
    1. Ryna's Avatar
      Ryna - Jun 19, 2016, 11:22 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by [Ayumi] View Post
      How do I delete old multi quotes?
      With the new update I have to keep manually deleting all of the posts I've quoted and it's getting very annoying.
      I don't see a remove option like I used to.
      Looking through the vBulletin bug repository, the mutli-quote bug was supposed to have been fixed for our current version. However, it looks like it is still affecting a few people. Here are the suggested fixes from the bug tracker:
      * Delete all of your PSO-World cookies and log back in.
      or
      * After you have finished multi-quoting all of the desired posts, click "Reply with Quote". Click the "Go Advanced" button. Post your message and the multi-quotes should be deselected.
    1. TaigaUC's Avatar
      TaigaUC - Jun 19, 2016, 11:36 AM
      Is it just me or has the forum been really slow to load lately?
      Also, I couldn't find a way to search and display by post. Used to do it sometimes.
      Yesterday, I was looking for an old post with an image I linked in it, and only got a list of threads instead.
    1. Ryna's Avatar
      Ryna - Jun 19, 2016, 11:49 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by TaigaUC View Post
      Is it just me or has the forum been really slow to load lately?
      I changed some server settings a few minutes ago. Let me know if the forum loads faster now.

      Also, I couldn't find a way to search and display by post. Used to do it sometimes.
      Yesterday, I was looking for an old post with an image I linked in it, and only got a list of threads instead.
      Try:
      1. Advanced Search -> Search Single Content Type Tab
      2. For "Show Results As", click "Posts"
      3. Enter the appropriate information in the Keyword and User Name fields.

      Let me know if that works for you.
    1. TaigaUC's Avatar
      TaigaUC - Jun 19, 2016, 02:20 PM
      Oh, I see. It was in multiple content mode by default. Thanks.

      I think the forum is loading faster now too, thanks.
      Will write more if I notice anything strange.
    1. Ryna's Avatar
      Ryna - Jun 19, 2016, 02:49 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by TaigaUC View Post
      Oh, I see. It was in multiple content mode by default. Thanks.

      I think the forum is loading faster now too, thanks.
      Will write more if I notice anything strange.
      Good to hear and thanks for reporting that issue.
    1. JCGamer's Avatar
      JCGamer - Jun 25, 2016, 01:24 AM
      hey is this mean we getting a new promotion like I dont know maybe add me as a Globe Moderator XD so this way we can have a pso world sex party yeah ? with pink rappy suits *wink wink*
    1. Ryna's Avatar
      Ryna - Jun 25, 2016, 06:28 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by JCGamer View Post
      hey is this mean we getting a new promotion like I dont know maybe add me as a Globe Moderator XD so this way we can have a pso world sex party yeah ? with pink rappy suits *wink wink*
      We're currently accepting applications for moderators for this forum section. If you wish to apply, send me a private message with your resume, detailed list of in-game accomplishments/feat lists, and three character references.
    1. aidon's Avatar
      aidon - Oct 11, 2016, 09:31 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Ryna View Post
      We're currently accepting applications for moderators for this forum section. If you wish to apply, send me a private message with your resume, detailed list of in-game accomplishments/feat lists, and three character references.
      Classic, I love it.
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