JKHub changelog

[Caelum]

I'll use this thread to keep track of changes I'm making to JKHub; especially technical ones and small design tweaks that don't deserve their own news announcements.

Other staff can do the same thing if they want to.

[Caelum]

• Fixed an issue where mod downloads would sometimes break with a "sorry, we couldn't find that!" error.
• Reduced time before you can reply to your own posts without being merged into your first post automatically from 5 minutes to 1 minute.
• Reduced rate limiting for searches to one search per 5 seconds for all usergroups (was 10 seconds for some groups, like unregistered users)

[Caelum]

• Hid the 'nonsense' forum for guests. This is one of several quality of life improvements for people who aren't logged in/don't have an account yet. Trying to improve the signal:noise ratio so guests see more JKA-related, in-depth posts, and fewer low quality off-topic ones. I'm playing with the idea of getting rid of nonsense altogether, but will post a poll and ask for feedback before doing anything like that.
• Deleted the 'disclosure' forum that was meant as a way for coders to privately share newly discovered security exploits. With OpenJK existing, coders being more scattered, and the forum not having any posts since 2014, it no longer served any purpose.
• Deprecated the 'editor lounge' forum: it's not deleted yet pending any WIP articles, but it will be deleted in the near future. Editors were intended as a way to let volunteers write news posts, but it didn't work out very well, and I'll soon be making large changes to the way news posts are handled (letting anyone volunteer news posts) that make the forum section and editors obsolete.

[Caelum]

• Deleted some very very old banned 0-post spambot/user accounts
• recounted statistics for total posts, registered users, etc

[Caelum]

• Removed the following usergroups: "Retired Staff", "Retired Staff" (there were two), "Retired Founder", "Members (Coder)", "JKHub Moderator", "JKHub Editor"
  • This does mean retired staff members will no longer have a badge under their username. That badge is now exclusively an indicator of who's a staff member and who isn't.
  • Other than that it changes nothing except simplifying forum maintenance.

• Deleted the 'editor lounge' forum after getting the OK on that.
• Made it impossible to tag other members in the mod request forum, as per this thread.

[Caelum]

• Removed inbox limits. The limit on private messages you can have in your inbox was kind of low, and anyone over that limit couldn't be messaged at all. All inboxes are now unlimited.

[Darth Futuza]

 

• Removed inbox limits. The limit on private messages you can have in your inbox was kind of low, and anyone over that limit couldn't be messaged at all. All inboxes are now unlimited.

 

Yay now I don't have to play delete half my messages every few months.

[Caelum]

• Updated the forum software to something that's still ancient, but slightly less so. Includes:
  • Security patches
  • Post editor fixes
  • Misc bugfixes

[Bek]

 

• Updated the forum software to something that's still ancient, but slightly less so. Includes:
  • Security patches
  • Post editor fixes
  • Misc bugfixes

 

I c wat u did there.

 

 

 

 

[Caelum]

I c wat u did there.

 

 

Ohhh no you di'int!

 

Fixed.

[Caelum]

• Changed text colors, shadows, and sizes in several places to improve legibility
• Changed border radius in a bunch of places to make rounded corners a little less round
• Disabled signatures for guests (nothing changed for people with an account)

Note that like all upcoming style changes, this only affects the "JKHub 2016" style (the default) - the rest will follow at a later point.

[Caelum]

Today's update is the one wherein I try out an experiment to combat recent file download count abuse (downloading own mods over and over) through design changes.

• Hid exact number of downloads on files (sorting files by download count still works)
• Hid exact number of page views on files Reverted; seems unnecessary on second thought
• Hid file size on download pages (it was broken and never displayed a correct size)
• Hid the information of which specific staff member approved a file.
• Changed a number of internal things to allow staff to better track attempts to game download counts
• Required a file to actually be downloaded before being rated - previously you could rate a file you hadn't downloaded Reverted; broken
• Hid "IP.Board" forum style which should never have been publicly viewable
• Hid "JKHub" forum style from style selection (the older theme, not JKHub Fixed Width) Reverted; broken
• Removed Herobrine

Some of this is an experiment; if you think hiding downloads/page views on files is a huge mistake and want to strangle me now, send me a PM and let me know. The idea is that it's inaccurate anyway and comments/ratings should be more interesting though.

[Caelum]

• Broke something
• Fixed something

[Caelum]

• Gave the JKHub Fixed Width style some much needed love and attention. It now has all the style changes the main style has and will be kept more up to date. Any changes, bug fixes, etc made to the main style will now also affect the fixed width style. There may be some brokenness here and there as I had to rewrite large parts - if you have any issues with that theme, just let me know and I'll fix them.
• Hid the old "JKHub" forum style from the selection again in a clever, non-broken way. Prevents people from accidentally picking an unmaintained and broken style with a slightly deceptive name.
• Hid signatures.

 

 

 

But Caelum, why did you hide signatures?!

It's an idea I've been playing around with for a while, and I pitched to several people on Discord who seemed reasonably positive about it. The basic reasoning behind it is:

• Avatars are a thing (and I might make those larger) - is there really any added value in having two images to represent people instead of one?
• Signatures don't usually contain anything very relevant - they often end up sort of distracting from the main content
• Statistically a lot of people already don't have signatures
• Right now, it's experimental and no signature contents are lost, but if we make this permanent, it'll speed up page load times

I'll hold a poll about whether we want to keep signatures next week, and as usual, do feel free to PM me if you feel strongly this was a terrible idea on my part. I'm just trying things out.

[ensiform]

Can you make avatars an option without having to hide them with an AdBlock as well?

[eezstreet]

To be fair, you say statistically, most people don't have a signature. Where did you get this data from? Are you polling the total member list, which has a lot of 0-post accounts, or are you polling from all accounts that have posted within a specific timeframe, such as a month or a year or something else?

[Circa]

From my observations, most people that actually post have signatures.

[Bek]

From my observations, most people that actually post have signatures.

Not to mention most people use their sigs to advertise things they've been working on. Although I will admit it does get annoying seeing another picture to represent a user, especially since it kinda ramps up loading times. 

[Caelum]

I'm on my phone right now and don't have time to type out an elaborate response, but: what about just blocking images in signatures instead? I'll probably post that poll sooner and include that as an option as well. I just want to give people a few days to adjust to the initial surprise of this first

 

EDIT: and other media. Anything that isn't text, basically.

[Guest Deleted]

Is it possible to have more information be put under forum avatars? Some examples: Current project: JKGalaxies Current clan: -=- Website: http://mrwonko.de/blog/index.html etc. ? Or maybe just more focus/those options + more on account profiles? (showcases, favorites, screenshot gallery etc. I dunno)

 

This would solve the problem of advertising. From my pov the website looks cleaner without signatures and less scrolling required to find content people are looking for. Its also 2016.

[Darth Futuza]

Or make signatures a user toggleable option?  (Show signatures/don't show).

[Sentra]

@@Caelum, where is a dislike button? I want to dislike every post of yours for hiding signatures :<

[Circa]

I'm all for disallowing images in signatures, only allowing text and links. But i think removing them altogether is a bit much. Being 2016 has nothing to do with it. Signatures are still a thing in email, so why not on a forum?

 

@@Darth Futuza that feature has always been a thing

[Guest Deleted]

?

[Circa]

@ the option is in Ignore Preferences in your settings.

 

The intention for forum signutures was to mimick email signatures. They turned into more of a billboard for many people, which can be fine, but as you said, many people make them look ridiculous and flashy.