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Welcome to the new UOGuide Forum

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 6:21 pm
by JC the Builder
Over the past 5 years countless people have asked us to implement a forum on UOGuide. Well now all their wishes have been answered. I have worked very had to design and implement this forum. There are many special things about it.

Single Site Login
The wiki and the forum share the same user database. You can login to both with the same password. Unfortunately it doesn't login to both at the same time, but that will be added someday.

Integrated Chat
One way we attempted to build a community was to start an IRC chat. The problem was getting people to hang out in the room all the time. With no one around, people would pop in and leave. So it never had a chance to grow in popularity.

The forum has a chat module which you can view on the forum index and on a large dedicated page if you like. The messages won't disappear and you can catch up on all the ones you missed while away. You can also idle on the page and it will alert you by sound when someone submits a message. I have not investigated much into all the chat features yet, so more might be coming.

Drop Down Menu Bar
When all the extra modules were installed, there were up to 2 dozen links all fighting for space at the top of each web page. I found the perfect solution, which is what you see above. You can access the wiki, forum menu and search via drop down menus. More links will be added and the bar tweaked a bit.

Wiki bbCode
You can easily link pages on UOGuide by encasing it in w bbCode such as Broadsword.

Topic Icons
There are a selection of UO icon images you can use to personalize your topics. More will be added in the future. If you have any suggestions let us know.

Gold System
On this forum you can earn gold by posting topics and replies. Each topic earns you 5 gold. Each reply earns you 2 gold. You also got 100 gold for signing up on the forum. At the moment the gold does nothing. It will be used in the future for some stuff.

Too Few Forums?
If there is an overload of activity in a forum then a new one will be created. I think this is the best way to handle it instead of starting out with 100 different forums. For example all trading will take place in the UO Trading forum. If a particular shard becomes very popular, then a dedicated forum can be started for it.

I have a lot of ideas and plans to enhance the forum further. They will come together over the next few weeks. Please enjoy.

Re: Welcome to the new UOGuide Forum

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:41 pm
by JC the Builder
- fixed the broken User Control Panel links in the top menu
- rename FAQ link to Help & Rules

Re: Welcome to the new UOGuide Forum

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:03 am
by JC the Builder
Opps, I didn't set registered users so you could see and use the chat box. It is fixed now.