New CoasterBuzz features

I'm going to try and remember everything that's new and improved on CoasterBuzz.

• Club members: You may have to logout then back in if you're seeing ads.
• Most forum functions should be generally faster.
• New profile options, including the other major IM clients, hide signatures, keep your details private, and best of all, set your time zone. My junk even compensates for daylight savings if you live in a place where it's used.
• Private messages. You can send messages right through the site, and read them here on the site.
• E-mail. No more e-mail addresses displayed in profiles. If you want to send e-mail, you can do it through a form on the site, linked from the user's profile.
• Posts by people... links can be found in profiles and from your "my account area." See what you've been posting.
• The favorites and e-mail notifications are back, as is the search, which is a little zippier than it used to be.
• Pinned topics: Important stuff stays at the top of the topic list.
• Private forums are now really private. There's still a moderator forum for us to talk about you behind your back, you just can't see it. :)
• Monster data caching. In simple terms, it means that there's less database activity when you read the forums, so stuff appears faster.
• A point warning system. Get three points and you're out until the points expire. Don't be naughty!

I'm sure there's other stuff too, and if I think of it, I'll edit here.

*** Edited 11/13/2003 6:02:58 AM UTC by Jeff***

Hey, Jeff... I'm not sure if the
[quote]quote tag[/quote] is working well for folks who are using the plain text box for new posts. It didn't work for me in another thread.

Are bold and italic working? How about the url tag

You said you're using the plain text box? I'll have to look into it.

This may seem odd, but the solid line seperating post from signature, really distracts me. It feels like it breaks up the page more than it needs to be.

Probably just me...

At any rate, the speed increase is really noticable and does the added checkbox in our account options to turn off vanity items hint that avatars may be coming in the future?

EDIT - the solid line doesn't look as bad in the default color scheme - I was using the obnoxious purple. *** Edited 11/13/2003 5:41:08 AM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

No, no avatars here. I just didn't change the text from what it was in the default UI. There are lots of little things like that I'm sure still creeping around.

Good, was hoping they weren't coming :)

Just a minor bug... In the new profile feature for viewing others' posts, when one chooses a display option beyond 'show posts from Last Week', the results list your own post(s) instead of ones for the requested user.

Good spot... easy to fix.

My favorite is when "show posts from: all" is selceted on General Buzz, all 635 pages show up. It takes up some room but I like it.

As for the site speed, it's slightly noticable since it was already fast for me. I guess this really effects dial up users.

Overall, nice update. I miss the yellow intamin elevator lift track though. :(

Looks great Jeff!

The forum stats is a nice touch, and the Private Message feature should come in handy.

I have to agree with Lord Gonchar about the signature lines though, it does seem to split the page a little more then it needs too.

But besides that I really like the new version.

EDIT: Actually after looking around at a few more topics the only time the signature line comes out very thick and across the whole post is in this topic. *** Edited 11/13/2003 5:57:58 AM UTC by CoasterDude316***

The stats may not actually be right. The truth is that it's hard to simulate hundreds of simultaneous users in testing (not hard, but time consuming and I'm lazy), so while it's kind of neat, it might very well be kind of wrong.

Looks very nice. Even faster than before! I agree the PM feature will be VERY useful.

Are those stats normal? 3 "guests" for every member?

I never realized so many people just lurked around here!

Wow, there's only 14 people on the site now, i've never seen that before. Very Nice Jeff, I like. Glad my ca$h is going to something good around here;). j/k. Keep it up, and I'll send another $20 next year!

I like it the overall presentation is cleaner and more well laid out.

I have a question about the points system. How exactly does it work? Do the moderators do this or can other users do this? Just curious about it.

I like it so far. Sure as always there will be a period of "tweaking". BTW, I hope the hunt for a new job is going well.

Awesome Jeff! Great job. :-)

-Tina

Very cool! I love the speed

Good call on hiding email addresses.

Hell, anything that makes spammers' lives difficult is a good call. :)

(Anything that causes them bodily harm is even better.)