Modding on the Spectrum

I list here all changes since November 1, 2022, the day the forum went live. Furthermore, I include minor changes (which don't have their own topic) and changes which haven't been documented publicly before (like the second changes to the forum structure on Nov 11, 2022).

2023

Jan 20:

• minor change to the "show on side" layout of the Recent Topics section: added a small gap between the user avatar and the read/unread posts icons (they did overlap before)
• integrated Simple mentions: how to use

Jan 23:

• minor changes to the Neurodiversity hub

Jan 27:

• major changes to the Neurodiversity hub

Jan 29:

• added glossary links to the each section in the Specific Neurodivergent Sections

Feb 1:

• added shortcut links to the modding hub for easier navigation

Feb 2:

• new BBCodes non-breaking space and hashtag
• enabled forum search function for guests (is needed to make the hashtags work)

Feb 6:

• fixed the link to the tag cloud that displays all tags
• finally fixed responsiveness of embedded YouTube videos on mobile devices, see tutorial
• increased maximum height of embedded code (if the code is embedded with the [code][/code] BBCode)

Feb 24:

• added auto-saving drafts feature

Mar 9:

• guests can take part in polls now

Apr 10:

• integrated social login: Google and Steam

Apr 11:

• a list of similar topics is shown at the bottom of each thread (extension: Precise Similar Topics)

Apr 17:

• I replaced the "Who is Online" list with the "Activity in the 24 hours"
• The account that I created to test the social login via Steam is now the official test account of the board

Apr 19:

• removal of the traditional forum ranks keeping only the special ranks like Site Admin or Moderator
• The post counter is hidden in mini profile. If you want know how many posts a user did write, go to the full profile by clicking on the username.

Apr 21:

• Altbert is our new moderator helping us out approving the guests posts before they are visible to the public, once the guest posting feature is enabled on May 6, 2023.
• created hidden Training Area for moderators/admins

Apr 23:

• fixed YouTube profile field allowing "handle" links

Apr 24:

• restructure of the Forum Related Stuff area to improve navigation

Apr 25:

• decluttering the post formatting buttons bar
• implementation of the quick access navigation bar at the very top of the board allow you a quicker access to the games you are interested in for example; extension: MegaMenu, Sticky Menu, Navbar for phpBB

Apr 30:

• added Discord and Disqus to the social login
• changes to the Recent Topics section: members can now control its position (top, side, left), the amount of displayed topics, the sorting order (by topic start time or by last post time), the option to display unread posts only and there's the possibility to disable this section completely. All settings can be found under User Control Panel > Board preferences > Edit display options.

May 6:

• activation of anonymous guest posting in all subforums

May 7:

• fixed tag input field for registered users and guest post writers

May 31:

• There's a Hot Topics section below Recent Topics now making finding significant threads easier.

Jul 1:

• New BBCodes: InlineSpoiler and TextWidth

Jul 6:

• The "Hot Topics" section has been renamed to "Topic Spotlight" and I placed more emphasis on gaming related topics.
• The new "Game Spotlight" section is right below Topic Spotlight giving certain game discussion sections more exposure

Jul 8/9:

• added quick links to the subforums of each game in the Game Spotlight section (e.g. General Discussion or Mod Showcase)
• the quick links in the [ Modding ] section open in the same tab now (e.g. "ᐅ The Elder Scrolls series") using the new url2 BBCode (test: open a link in a new tab, in the same tab)

Aug 23:

• I set the maximum width of the middle part of the board to 1650 pixels (prior to that this part of the board was set to phpBB's default maximum width of 1152 pixels) and edited the header image accordingly

Sept 7:

• opened up the Starfield discussion areas

Sept 15:
changes to attachments and user galleries:

• increased the file size limit from 0.7 MB to 1 MB
• the maximum dimension of 1800 x 1800 pixels is suspended; images will be resized automatically
• increased image limits in the user galleries:
  • Miscellaneous album: 20 images per user
  • Starfield - Public Gallery: 20 images per user
  • Personal user album: 50 images per user, unlimited number of subalbums

2022

• Nov 2: added Recent Topics section and the ability to thank a user for his or her post
• Nov 3: (first) changes to the forum structure
• Nov 5: New smilies created by pinwhalestock from pixabay.com
• Nov 6:
  • installed and activated Advanced Polls
  • added posting restrictions to the Neurodiversity forum
• Nov 10:
  • newly registered users can use BBCodes now (this was beginning of the end of restrictive "Newly registered users" group)
  • implementation of the non-public "Internal Discussion" section for discussing subjects related to the future of the forum. I ask you to not ask for access yourself. Who gets access should not be discussed publicly. The final decision is up to me alone (or future main administrators of this board). It's the first and (probably) last time I mention the internal discussion section publicly.
• Nov 11:
  • (second) changes to the forum structure:
    I put the Neurodiversity sections below "Forum Related Stuff" and moved Skyrim to Bethesda Games. I removed the "Other Moddable Games" section and listed all moddable games categories (Bethesda Games, CD Projekt Red Games, BioWare Games) under the Neurodiversity sections. The Lounge stays at the bottom of the board index.
  • added the Jumpbox on Index extension
• Nov 12:
  • the "Newly registered users" group has been suspended for the time being
  • added the OCD discussion to the [ Neurodiversisty ] hub (the OCD discussion is visible to registered users only)
  • changed the visibility of the specific neurodivergent sections
• Nov 13: automatically open links in new tabs
• Nov 15:
  • installed and activated 24 Hour Activity Stats extension (not visible to guests)
  • guests can view attachments now
• Nov 16:
  • implementation of "gallery" and "gallery2" BBCode (a selection of attached images will be shown in a two column layout) and text alignment BBCode (options: left, right,center, justify)
  • fixed the search function of the board to allow more common words
• Nov 17:
  • implementation of User Galleries and personal user albums
  • listed the user guide in the board index for an easier access (can be found in the Forum Related Stuff hub)
  • listed the User Galleries in the board index with an explanation how to add images to it
  • limited the number of images a user can upload to the Miscellaneous album and the personal user albums
• Nov 18:
  • renamed two forums: the new name of "Play Area" is "Gaming Corner" and "Dance Floor" is now called "Jukebox".
  • various fixes to the layout of the user gallery, albums and images.
• Nov 20:
  • anonymization: the IPs of all registered members were anonymized and IPs of new members will be anonymized; implementation of the anonymized usage statistics
  • personal user albums are now shown next to the "Miscellaneous" album
• Nov 23:
  • strikethrough BBCode has been added
  • created the hub General Modding Discussion and moved the topic Mod hosting sites there
• Nov 24: changed the forum description of Skyrim - General Discussion
• changed the "Skyrim-LE" tag to "Skyrim Classic"
• Dec 2, 2022:
  • first update of the forum software
  • changed the IP anonymization method to hash in order to see the amount of guests visiting the forum in the last 5 minutes/last 24 hours
  • various changes to the phpBB Gallery extension
• Dec 4: added "hr", "indent", "floatl"/"floatr" and "box" BBCodes
• Dec 5: added several beverage and food emojis
• Dec 6:
  • implementation of Smilies Categories
  • added burger emoji
• Dec 8: various changes to the settings of the board trying to solve the "I'm logged out so quickly" issue which some members may experience
• Dec 11:
  • (third) changes to the forum structure (moddable games discussions)
  • specific neurodiversity discussion sections became visible to guests
  • added the possibility to hide sensitive information inside a post using the "hide" BBCode
  • it's possible to embed an image (direct link) with a customizable image dimension
• Dec 13:
  • added anchor and goto BBCodes
  • sushi (nigiri) emoji and festivity emojis
• Dec 17: fixed layout of embedded YouTube videos on mobile devices
• Dec 18: the strikethrough ("s") BBCode is displayed within a line instead of being forced on a new line; > replaced div with span inside the HTML replacement code of the BBCode:

  Code: Select all

  <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">{TEXT}</span>

• Dec 19:
  • All image thumbnails with an width of 400 pixels or greater will open in light box on all mobile devices which have a screen width that is larger than 100 pixels. See first paragraph in this post.
  • Images that are embedded with the imgc BBCode will now display with the specified thumbnail width, provided the browser window is large enough. See second edit of this post.
  • added Inline Code BBCode ("c"); demo: inline code