Here is where I’ll let users know what all is happening to the site including changes in admin, new and exciting features, and general mayham and chaos.  Any editor can add onto this with whatever they like just make sure you postmark the “event” with a date and time.  S ince I’m a selfish bastard and live on the east coast we’ll go by that time.

12/07/09

- – - ->4:43PM<- – - -

—>  Changed the Recent Comments widget to include avatars, date/time of comment, and an excerpt of the comment

—>  Added a nice new dashboard system for users that is more deeply integrated, its easier to notice if you got new messages.  It’s viewable not only on your dashboard, but also when you are editing/writing posts.  It makes things much more organized.

—>  Also added a temporary Christmas theme for the holidays, I think it looks pretty nice, downside is no drop down menus, but its only temporary.

—>  Added a plugin that lets users redirect page links to external sites, you can do so at the bottom when you are editing a page.  The header is “Pages Link To” just insert the link.

—>  Redirected the mafia page to the mafia wiki which is essentially a porting of all mafia material written by I-am-a-panda, in the past couple of months the wiki has expanded to include new terms, games, roles, etc.  It’s also much easier to navigate.

—>  Edited the capabilities to allow Editors to create/manage polls.  Sorry about this not being active for a month for you guys, I forgot to change the capability when I made the switch to WP Polls from Polldaddy Polls.

11/19/09

- – - ->3:30PM<- – - -

—>  Users can now insert  youtube videos into their posts/pages and set those videos to autoplay.  Can’t figure out how to do so?  I have made a picture tutorial in the tutorials section in the wiki explaining step by step how to do it.  Enjoy.

11/18/09

- – - ->4:34PM< – - – -

—> Unprotected the main wiki page so everyone can edit it

—> Got a swine flu vaccine

—>Drank some eggnog

11/17/09

- – - ->3:24PM< – - – -

—> Added a CAPTCHA on the contact the admin form so I don’t get spam out the ass from fun filled spammers anymore.

11/16/09

- – - ->5:34PM< – - – -

—>  Fixed a bug with the polling system that allowed registered users to vote twice if they did so from a different IP.  I changed it so now registered users can only vote once per poll, thus making the polls more accurate.

11/15/09

- – - ->09:34PM<- – - -

—> Eliminated the old chat system and implemented a new shoutbox which automatically updates every minute and is available on every page so users will use it more, also this chat system saves up to 20 posts so users who just join can get into a conversation easier.  Also only registered users can use it so you won’t be able to pretend that you are people.

11/05/09

- – - ->5:56PM<- – - -

—>Implemented a new polling system so only registered users can vote thus preventing voter fraud.  Also this appears on the sidebar (virtually in all pages) so it is easier to vote.

10/24/09

- – - ->12:49AM<- – - -

—> Added some more tutorials to the Wiki-Community Portal Page
—> Added a link to the tutorial page to the “Helpful Link” section
—> Added a Helpful Links Widget on the side to help people more easily reach their comments dashboard, forum inbox, and tutorial page (how-to section for this site)
—> Sent John 2 more facebook messages asking for him to upload files so I can complete the integrated chat system (similar to facebook’s style), and for the members list. He hasn’t responded as of yet, I’ll see if I can catch him on the chat system.
—> Added a Random fact widget, some of the facts made me chuckle and some are interesting.

Goals:
1. Find a great poker game/tetris/hangman multiplayer game for users, and have it show stats/rankings/etc.
2. Get more people involved in the forums (mafia mini-game currently occuring)
3. Add more tutorials
4. Get more users involved with our wikipedia page
5. Revive the debaters cookbook and add to it
6. Get some more widespread opinion from users who are active about this site whether they like/dislike the direction of it. What they would like me to remove/add, etc.
7. Add a CAPTCHA to the contact form (i am getting 2 spam messages a day from it)
8. Get John to finish the messaging system
9. Get John to finish the members list

10/19/09

- – - ->1:11AM<- – - -

—>  Added messaging links to make it easier for members to pm/email/access their inbox

—>  Fixed the Contact form on the sidebar so it shows me the subject/name/email of the person sending the message, stupid default options

—>  Added warning message on the /b/ forum

—>  Made sloppy joes for dinner

10/17/09

- – - ->12:43PM<- – - -

—> Removed the sidebar from the forums thus making them wider. Will see if I can set the width to 100%, give me a couple days and I’ll probably have it down.

- – - ->12:11PM<- – - -
—> Added “Contact the admin” form on the sidebar. Originally had a button that let users email/PM/instant message me, but the stupid form kept popping up on mouseover instead of mouse click. No option to change to mouse click, bugged the shit out of me because i kept mistakenly doing it so i changed it to a nice simple little contact form. Anyone can use it, but I’d rather not have my email filled up with shit that could be done through PMs. So if you’re registered and know how to PM I’d prefer you do it that way, but fuck do what you want. It’s mainly for guests though.

—> Added a Recent Pages organizer on the sidebar. All the credit goes to JBlake for his great suggestion. It turns out that only the recent posts (stories on the main page) were showing up and not recent pages (opinion pages, etc). So I added one for any edit/creation of a page.

—> Brandon Clark got an editor slot and wrote two articles (which is more than I can say about some of you lazy bums) :P

Current Projects/Wants

1. Add a widget on the sidebar to show users that they have a new message. Currently there is not one available with my plugin, so what everyone who wants to help can do is: search “wordpress PM sidebar widget or something of that kind. If you think you have something PM me.

2. Add an integrated multipage chat system that requires your wordpress username and password to logon. I’m 90% sure I have the correct plugin installed but I don’t currently have the privileges to upload files to every part of the server. I can only upload themes and plugins. So I sent John a facebook message, if anyone else gets a hold of him let him know that I sent him a facebook message.

Basically the chat would be extremely similar to facebook with me and whoever i appoint having the privileges to kick users/ban ip’s etc. from it.

3. Add a couple multiplayer games to the site and let users on the site play each other, and display their stats to see who is the best player. I think it would be ridiculously fun. And also I could maybe award the winner with something.

Currently I can’t find a decent game plugin but if you find something like I’m talking about, think it would work, PM me pronto and I’ll test it out.

4. Another issue I have with the private message system is that there is no outbox, you can look and see what people sent you but if you want to remember what you sent them back there’s no way to do so, at least not that I can see. So yeah another PM System would be excellent, find one and I will award you +1 Internets.

Keep the suggestions rolling.

10/15/09

- – –>5:03PM<- – - -

—>  Changed the theme so that the font is more readable, it also helps out the forum a lot, previous setting was way to thin, this theme is wider.  Will look into removing the sidebar from the forum page to make forums even wider

—>  Added Forums to the site, give me your suggestions on what forums to add/remove.

—>  For those who are wondering about comment approval here is the deal:  Once I approve 1 comment from you I will never have to approve another comment again.  This will really limit spammers and have little effect on the good users.

—>  Currently working on a registered chat system to prevent users faking to be other users, john needs to get back to me because this involves manually uploading files to the folder.  As I have found out I can do this with themes and plugins but not just general files.

—>Also thinking about adding a widget to the sidebar on all the pages that shows your current new messages, can’t find one that isn’t free.  The current one we have involves paying 7 dollars to upgrade to that version (I think it includes a widget but not sure)  Will continue snooping around for a private messaging system replacement that includes a sidebar widget.

- – - ->12:19AM<- – - -

—>  Added a login box on the front so its easier for everyone to log in and out.

10/14/09

- – - ->11:33PM<- – - -

—>  Added 2 new cache plugins that if you haven’t noticed make page loading extremely fast.  Enjoy

—>  Limited the amount of login attempts to 4 made the lockout time 25 mins, after 4 lockouts the lockout time increases to 24 hours.  This will prevent hackers from stealing your passwords and infiltrating the site.

- – - ->8:25PM<- – - -

—>   Added Better page navigation on the right sidebar and at the bottom.

—>  Added a “Users Online” bar so you can see who’s on with you.  This will also help legitamacy in chat.  If they’re not signed in, then they aren’t the real person.

Debaters = People who are registered

Losers = Guests

Robots = Bots (spammers)

—>Changed the permissions so now even subscribers can send public messages (messages to a group of people)

- – - ->7:26PM<- – - -

—>Added the ability for members of this site to private message other members of this site and to also have “Public messages”  I’ll figure out what the fuck that is later.

Also if you’re stupid and don’t know where the message thing is, this should clear up any problems

- – - ->4:18PM<- – - -

—>  John said he installed the plugins but i don’t see any in my dashboard.  Found out that now that i have the new wordpress i can install plugins straight from the dashboard instead of manually.  Installed Intense debate plugin.  You can now imbed youtube vids, polls, smilelys,  also added complete legitamecy to the comment system.  Have to do a quick and easy signup on the website.  Can assign your own avatar, reply to comments, add info in your profile, link your comment profile on here to  your facebook.  Also if you make an intense debate profile, then please make a wordpress profile and i can link your accounts together so when you sign on wordpress you sign on your commenting account.

Obviously this is a massive change, it probably will piss people off because they won’t have a clue how to use it, I’m not aware of all its functions but that’s the reality of a non-paid admin job.  Deal with it.  I’ll get the kinks worked out eventually and we’ll have a kick-ass site.

Here’s a how to so i dont receive over 9000 emails

10/13/09

- – - ->4:20 PM<- – - -

—>  Have done a major revamp to the wiki page which includes porting over a lot of content from PoeJoe’s DebateFans.com website.  Changed the main page a good bit, have removed spammers and undid their negative changes

—>  Upgraded the ratings plugin, expecting a large group of plugins to be installed this evening by John.

10/11/09

- – - ->12:54 AM<- – - -

—>  Found out that the rating system for some reason is only working for this page and  a couple others, will figure this out probably tommorow

—>  Started a massive project with reorganizing DDOFans wiki.  The current efforts can be found on the community portal link on the side navigation bar of the wiki (link found up top left corner of this page)

- – - ->12:11 AM<- – - -

—>  Added 5 Star ratings on articles and comments, now you can rank the articles you read, and the comments.  Nasty comment that is just plain rude?  Rank it down.  Someone have a good point?  Let them know

—>  Askbob was awarded admin privledges on the wiki page

—>  Askbob contacted John about why he hasn’t been on lately and received the following responses  “Classes have got me pretty busy, trying not to be on the computer so much, and trying to get a girl…. I’ll be on later and write a post letting everyone know I’m still alive.”

—>  John updated the wordpress software to 2.8.4  (Wordpress is the software that is used for comments/pages allowing a lot of bug fixes to happen and security improvements

—>  Facebook messaged John a list of plugins to install (I won’t tell you the features yet to keep you in suspense, but some of them should really add to the site)

10/10/09

- – - -> 9:10 PM <- – - -

—>  Relinked the wikipedia page.  (Not sure how that got unlinked)

—>  Made an account on the wiki page, expecting to receive admin privleges on there from John, once I do I’ll reorganize the main page as most of the info on there isn’t too visible to most users.

- – - ->  1:04 AM < – - – -

—>  Askbob awarded with “amost full admin” privleges.  I can add/remove users and do pretty much everything BESIDES:   upload content, upgrade the site template, upgrade the wordpress engine, upgrade plugins, add new plugins, backup site data)  Basically I was awarded them to add Rezz to the site and deal with future users etc.  I dunno where John is, I’m just assuming he’s busy or something which I understand or maybe he just doesn’t feel like actively running the site,  who knows?  Will give you updates on this.  JBlake took charge and contacted John on facebook chat (yes me (askbob), JBlake, and John are friends on facebook (don’t know each other in real life))  In response John awarded me admin privileges.

—>  Askbob added Rezzealaux to the list of opinion writers/”editors” and gave him an opinion slot

—>  Askbob added cool avatars that reflect a users email address.  Don’t like your avatar?  Just change your email address.  This should help maintain legitimacy on the comments.  This way if someone is faking to be you on the comments it will be reflected on the avatars.  However users have been known to screw with people by changing their email addresses just to stir up controversy  haha whatever just enjoy.

—>  Askbob changed the sites rating from G to Mature (X Rating) and cursing and whatever content you want (barring illegal content determined by the US government such as Child Pornography, Terroristic Threats, Online Gambling, and whatever else is blatantly illegal.  Don’t get me in trouble guys just take some notes from /b/)  Also if people want to for some reason include porn go for it, just let me know beforehand so I can put a giant ass disclaimer upon entering the site.  Also don’t copyright anyone’s photos, etc.  Just ask for permission.  You’re responsible for what you post, and yes I have your IP’s that you enter and if necessary (if you do something really illegal) I will not hesitate to contact your ISP and get your personal information and report you for whatever infringement.

But yeah, freedom of speech including hate speech (negative feelings towards something or someone (as long as it doesn’t involve serious threats),  cursing, etc)

—>  Removed the Subscribe to Feed, it was getting in the way and I don’t think served that useful of a purpose.  If anyone wants it back let me know here.

—>  Added Recent Comments/Posts this way you can see whats going on where since you last visited the site.  If you want more than 5 displayed let me know.

—>  Added a new slogan for DDOFans which will change depending on my mood