Forums software update – September 2021

[Ess-Eschas]

Yesterday, we updated the forums software to its most recent version.

 

This was a fairly significant update. Most of these changes were behind the scenes, and shouldn’t affect the vast majority of forums features. The forums should behave largely as they have done previously.

 

However, you may notice a few small display changes. Most of these are fairly minor. Perhaps the most visible is the new badge system for displaying ranks. Rather than ranks being displayed in text below your profile, these are now attached to a new graphic, which you can see next to your profile picture. We’re currently working on ways to integrate this feature slightly better with the forums’ style.

 

One thing to be aware of is that this update has slightly damaged a couple of our board themes. At present, ‘Compact & Convenient’ and ‘Best Theme’ don’t quite work as intended. This is because the update isn’t entirely compatible with the code that runs these themes. We’re working on fixing those problems but, unfortunately, the complexity of the code means that that might take a little time. In the meantime, please can we suggest that you temporarily avoid using these themes. You can change themes using the ‘Theme’ menu at the very bottom of every page on the forums.

 

If you’ve never touched the themes before, don’t worry! You’re using the ‘Default’ theme in that case, which is working just fine.

 

While we’ve tested to ensure that other forums features behave as they should, there’s always a possibility that little teething bugs may still be lurking. That’s an unfortunate side-effect of a significant software update! If you find yourself experiencing any unexpected problems, or find any features that don’t seem to be working as they should, please do let us know!

[googoogjoob]

The rank badge system seems to have... entirely wiped out the custom ranks. They don't seem to be displayed anywhere, at all. Everyone just has the generic Geneforge ranks now. Depressing.

[Ess-Eschas]

Don’t worry. The custom titles haven’t bitten the dust just yet!

 

This is just a temporary quirk with the new badge system. It currently doesn’t mesh well with the older system we used to manage custom titles, which is why they don’t display just now. As part of our work on the new badge system, we’re looking into ways to work in all of our custom user titles. Rest assured that all these titles are still there behind the scenes! We’re just examining ways to display them under this new system.

 

So please don’t be depressed, Walruigisus! Custom titles are an important part of our forums community, and we’re not going to let them go without a fight!