Tag: Forums

Site gets Hacked, Forums get Upgraded

The website got hacked, so I took the opportunity to upgrade the forums.

So… the website got hacked a few days ago. I guess it was hacked mostly for fun and just because it was vulnerable. I talked to the hackers and found out that they got in through vBulletin. I never liked vBulletin, and it would have taken a long time to restore it back to how it was, so I just ended up starting fresh with some new forum software. The site should be much more secure now so I don’t expect to be hacked again.

The new software we’re using is called Xenforo, and it was made by the original creators of vBulletin. It’s a lot easier for me to maintain and it also runs much faster and smoother than vBulletin. I think everyone will really like it. The software is very new so I had to install a bunch of add-ons to get some of the functionality we had in vBulletin, but more stuff will be added as it gets upgraded.

I think most of the new stuff on the forums is self-explanatory. I’d recommend everyone upload new avatars because Xenforo supports higher resolution than vBulletin did. When you click on someone’s username, you’ll see a bigger avatar. The PM system is also pretty cool. They’re called “conversations” and it’s pretty similar to Facebook. Actually, a lot of stuff is similar to Facebook. I think it can communicate with Facebook also.

Oh yeah, and there’s another big thing I added that people have been requesting for a while. Chat. Yeah, now you can chat on the forums. When you’re logged in, there will be a bar across the bottom of the screen. You can use that to enter chatrooms or talk with people one-on-one. If you want someone to show up as a buddy in chat, you have to follow them in the forums. You can also create your own temporary chatrooms.

I think that’s most of the new stuff. We’re also gonna be moving the wiki to wikia for a number of reasons… mainly because it will be easier for me to maintain. Most people didn’t like the way it was set up on this site. So anyway, enjoy all the new stuff. I hope this will hold you over until the update to Super Mario Bros. Crossover comes out. And I haven’t been working on it lately since I’ve been working on the store and the new forums. It will be awesome when it comes out though.

Oh and I forgot to mention… all of the stuff from the old forums got imported except for the blogs. You can create new blogs, but the old ones are gone. It’s possible an importer might be created in the future, so don’t be surprised if all the old blogs show up at some point.

First Fundraiser a Success

We raised all the money we needed for the new forums in only two days. Now I’ll be raising money for random things, and I’ll be starting on the next version of Super Mario Bros. Crossover really soon.

Amazingly, we raised all the money we needed for our Forums Upgrade Fundraiser in only two days. That’s a little bit crazy, but it’s awesome. I already purchased the new software and I’ve been looking over the documentation. As soon as we’re ready, we’ll transition over to the new system.

Also, since raising the money was so successful, I’m going to continue trying to take people’s money… uh, I mean… accepting donations. There’s no pressure or anything, and people usually donate anyway, but now you can see a nice graph of what your money is going towards. This first batch of donations will go towards a bunch of random stuff because I just moved and for some reason can still barely afford rent. But the next ones will probably be a new computer and a video camera. So now people will know what their money is going toward, and it looks cool because it’s a bar graph that gradually fills. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like a bar graph that fills up? It’s like a health bar in a video game, but it’s even better because when it fills up, I get money. I wish all health bars could give you money when they fill up.

Also, I’m just about ready to resume work on the next version of Super Mario Bros. Crossover. I’ll probably start after we switch the forums over. Coolness.