PPCGeeks Changes

**mindfrost82** · #1 (**permalink**) 08-01-2009, 11:57 PM

PPCGeeks Recent Changes

As most of you have noticed, we've undergone some major changes here at PPCGeeks.

On 7/29/09, we upgraded our forum software (vBulletin) from v3.6.x to v3.8.3. The old style wasn't 100% compatible with the new version, so we had to create a new style. The owner of the site wanted a more professional and clean look, so as of this posting, we've settled on this style. There are two versions of the new style available. One has a grey background (the default), and one has the old blue background. There is a quick link selector in the upper right of the pages.

With this upgrade came new features in vBulletin. The user profiles has been greatly improved, with lots of new features. You can leave visitor messages, add friends, create photo albums, join/create social groups, and much more. There's also the ability to Quick Reply to PMs rather than clicking on the Reply button. You'll also noticed a new notifications system to alert you of different things (visitor messages, PMs, Friend Requests, etc).

There are tons of options available in your UserCP. You can set profile privacy, turn off visitor messages, etc.

We added a Snap, Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2 forum.

We increased the storage space for PMs (250 for users, and 1000 for VIPs).

We removed the RSS icons from the forum listings and moved them to the top of the forum. When you go into a forum to view the thread listing, you'll see the RSS icon at the top.

We've also added some new hacks/addons to make the site better.

Now, in addition to the Thanks button, we also have a No Thanks button. When you click the Thanks button, you will be adding 5 rep points to the poster. When you click No Thanks, you are taking away 1 point.

There's a Thread Starter hack. Throughout a thread, you'll see the words "Thread Starter" in bold under their username for the OP of a thread.

We added a "Retired Staff" usergroup (which has purple usernames) to honor those staff members which are no longer able to serve on the staff.

We completely redid the portal page and now have our own news articles with News Writers (in blue usernames). Right now, the majority of the articles come from other sites, but eventually we will be getting our own, unique articles.

You can also mark threads as favorites. When you're in a thread, there's a drop-down box to the top right which says "Thread Tools". Under there, there's an option to Add To Favorites. After you mark a thread as a favorite, you can view the list in your UserCP. You can also mark individual posts as favorites. There is a link in the upper left of a post (next to the post date and time). This is a great way to track your favorite threads, and works along with the Personal Stickys hack we've had for a while.

Below is the changelog for all of the updates and changes that have happened:

Changelog-
7/24/09 - Increased PM storage (1000 for VIP, 250 for users) (I also increased the staff, but we can ignore the quota anyway)
7/24/09 - Added forum for HTC Snap, Diamond 2, Touch Pro 2 (moved Apache, and Touch HD to Other Devices)
7/24/09 - Moved RSS icons off of homepage (see this post)
7/29/09 - Upgraded to vB 3.8.3
7/29/09 - Created new default style
7/29/09 - Added left side bar to style
7/29/09 - Added Google Ads to new style
7/29/09 - Added Personal Stickys, Advanced PM options, Post Groan, and Thread Starter hacks
7/29/09 - Added RSS icons to new style
7/29/09 - Changed Thanks layout to old style
7/29/09 - Purged old xCache on server to speed the site up
7/29/09 - Changed Retired Staff from yellow to purple to go with new style
7/30/09 - Removed the scales from postbit
7/30/09 - Renamed Groan button to No Thanks and set it to reduce rep by 1 point and changed Thanks to green and No Thanks to red
7/30/09 - Added rep back in the postbit
7/30/09 - One Touch Spam Ban hack added
7/30/09 - Made News Writers name in blue
7/30/09 - Disabled some old hacks to speed the site up
7/30/09 - Reorganized the portal page for news
7/31/09 - Changed the order of the Thanks/No Thanks buttons
7/31/09 - Added vBFavorites - Create Favorite threads/posts/users and list them in your UserCP
7/31/09 - Fixed dropdown boxes (Community, Notifications, Search, and Quick Links) on the homepage in the new style
7/31/09 - Tweaked new style more and made a version with the old blue backgrounds. Added a link in the upper right to switch between the two
8/01/09 - Tweaked font colors to blue background style
8/01/09 - Made it so that users can say No Thanks and Thanks in the same post (in case they accidently say No Thanks)
8/01/09 - Added a "Back to Top" link below the Page Nav links in posts
8/01/09 - Added facebook, twitter, and myspace icons back in postbits
8/01/09 - Reorganized the header to make room for the new banner (phones will be linked once I get the final banner and image map from MightyMike)
8/02/09 - Added ability to remove Thanks and No Thanks in case it was an accident
8/02/09 - Added glowing usernames back in IE
8/03/09 - Removed header tabs to added links below banner
8/03/09 - New chatroom is working
8/03/09 - Made No Thanks not deduct any rep points
8/03/09 - Added Google Ads to homepage
8/03/09 - Disabled the No Thanks system because of abuse in the 5 days its been active and the debate over it
8/04/09 - Made banner phone images clickable

8/04/09 - Fixed Treo Pro link (was linking to Treo 800w)
8/04/09 - Tweaked some server settings, then undid them after bad performance, then did some new ones

**darren.wlsn1** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 12:01 AM

things look better each day frosty, nice to see the phones on top and the twitter ect buttons back. (fancy ones)

**sanmanc** · #3 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 12:05 AM

This is looking better each day. I like that the tabs were moved to the right. It confused me at first because I couldn't find them earlier.

Batman · #4 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 12:15 AM

i like that you guys made it look more proffesional but yet kept the phones at the top that made this site unique..keep up the good work guys

heartisall · #5 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 01:04 AM

Do you plan on making the phones at the top clickable as they used to, I used to use them all the time to jump quickly to each part of the forum?

**shaggylive** · #6 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heartisall

Do you plan on making the phones at the top clickable as they used to, I used to use them all the time to jump quickly to each part of the forum?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mindfrost82

8/01/09 - Reorganized the header to make room for the new banner (phones will be linked once I get the final banner and image map from MightyMike)

Patience - a minor form of despair disguised as a virtue.
Ambrose Bierce

**Whosdaman** · #7 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 02:03 AM

Frost, you think you can change the quick reply box inner color to something else other then the background color, makes everything blend in together

**guitardoc64** · #8 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 02:19 AM

Looking very good. I'm liking the new look more and especially the new features. It's like the site got a ROM upgrade.

**BRIVERS73** · #9 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 02:20 AM

Site is really looking good great job Mindfrost

**lawmangrant** · #10 (**permalink**) 08-02-2009, 06:53 AM

Nice job on the updates everyone! Very Nice!