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Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 October and November 2024 are YE 46.8 in the RP.

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Nebula Templates: I will try to get better contrast on the nebula templates, especially for code boxes and the notices boxes.

Reports: This is the moderator/admin bar. Sorry, but this will stay where it's at. For me, I also see user registration alerts here. There is an option to disable the reporting system and send all reports to the staff forum as posts, which I'd consider if there was staff demand for that. However, I think the reporting system is more efficient.

Site Navigation Bar: I really like having the navigation at the top, so it's consistent across the entire site. It's the one element that ties the forum, wiki, and other pages together. I don't plan to get rid of it, although I'd consider appearance changes. I've thought about making the forums that site's actual home page but I don't want to have to put buttons and banners on the forum.

Shift-Enter: I'm sorry, this software doesn't support it and it doesn't seem to be a priority for the devs. On the other hand, you've gained WYSIWYG reply boxes!

Dark Theme: I will see if I can make a dark blue version.

Notices: Most of these can be dismissed (use the X button). I think the only one you can't get rid of is the avatar one. Since we don't have an announcements forum, this is my main way to communicate to the forums users. The notices appear after a certain number of posts, so new users don't see them all at once. I can see conditions for them like post count, usergroups, etc. For example, people in the "site supporters" group don't see the notice asking them to become a site supporter.
 
Good I was about to ask you for that, since I am one and I am seeing the notice.
 
Nashoba said:
Good I was about to ask you for that, since I am one and I am seeing the notice.
Click to expand...
So far, only the people who used the forum upgrade method (the forum's built-in subscription donation option) have the Site Supporters usergroup set up. If you pull up your user profile in the admin panel you should see the usergroups and can add yourself.
 
I just did that. It seems there is no way that we can do the opposite, pull up a group and see who all is in it. At least not what I can find.
 
Nashoba said:
I just did that. It seems there is no way that we can do the opposite, pull up a group and see who all is in it. At least not what I can find.
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Under the search user field there's a link for advanced search. Check a "Secondary Usergroup" and his search and it will find all the people in that group. I just tested it.

Edit: Unless that's their primary usergroup, apparently. Primary usergroups should probably stay set to registered user.
 
Two Complaints:

1. Guest posting. That's just ASKING for the spamhorde.
2. Wiki autoposting: Please turn it off.
 
I'm sorry. I'm really not trying to be sour about this... but I really don't find that XenForo has contributed to our community all that much. I see way too many "can't do", "can't support" to be overly pleased with it.

Wes, I get that you're probably attached to it since you're presently working on it and all enthused by the possibilities... but if that namely includes a newsreel banner you're going to paygate, my enthusiasm has taken a huge "I-don't-find-this-website-very-welcoming" nosedive.

Do we have the safety net of returning to phpBB3, at least? Really, the advantages have in no way really balanced the inconvenients - and that not me being conservative. So far, this change has been a giant pain in the neck.
 
I love the new forum. There's a few things it doesn't do as easily but from where I'm sitting this is a major, major improvement and I'm glad to be not stuck in 2007 still using the old phpBB.

1. Guest posting: I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure it's not enabled. Even if it was, we have a moderation queue and CAPTCHA to stave it off. Also, the new forum has made it very easy to fight spam registrations as it is tied into a central blocklist database. It's been worlds better than phpBB, where my only option was delete spam as it came and do mass-delete users with zero posts.
2. Wiki autoposting is an experimental feature I'm playing with. Here's how it works: The forum can make posts based on RSS feeds. For example, NASA's image of the day, or the Star Army wiki's feed. These posts are typically posted into the moderator queue and the forum mods will decide whether or not they want to post it. So for the NTSE, recently created/changed articles might show up and the mods might post them for community review/discussion. The automated posting is currently disabled and I have to trigger it manually.
3. I don't know what Fred is referring to with the paygate. Nothing on this site requires payment. But I really could use some donations right now (for the new starmap, $400 is needed ASAP, we just spent $165 on forum stuff, and we need funds for starship art for the Mishhu revamp) and using the forum's announcement system is a good way for me to get people's attention and pass the tip jar around. All of the notice banners can be dismissed except for the the one that people with no avatars see until they upload one.
4. In the event we need to abort the move, a XenForo to phpBB converter does exist. But I don't plan to go back, I have been very satisfied and the reaction so far has been mostly positive.
 
In terms of the guest posting, just today a guest by the name of TedTalks posted and necro'd an old thread. So apparently guest posts are one, also indicated by the fact that the auto-post function for the wiki posts under a guest account named Star Army, not a full account.
 
Aendri said:
In terms of the guest posting, just today a guest by the name of TedTalks posted and necro'd an old thread. So apparently guest posts are one, also indicated by the fact that the auto-post function for the wiki posts under a guest account named Star Army, not a full account.
Click to expand...
That was one of my experimental forum robots. Do not be alarmed! So was the Star Army one.
 
The point is that they're guest accounts though, not full accounts. If guest accounts were disabled, they shouldn't be able to post.

The only way I can see that not being true is if the disable only prevents creation of guest accounts, not the usage of one.
 
PayGating:
if I don't donate, I'll keep seeing the headline that I ought to because I'm not part of some usergroup. Isn't that a bit... blatantly elitist? Some people donate huge amounts of time, setting submissions and commission artwork that - even in the most selfish reasons - do positively affect this setting.​

Mishhu revamp:
since when? Why do you need to revamp a race you didn't want to use anymore?​

Starmap:
why in heck spend 400$ on a starmap when you can just ask Exhack and motivate him into finishing what he started (which, not incidentally, was also accessible and editable by other people too), or just take the time to do it yourself if you want it done right without being dependent on anyone?​

New forum:
like I said, I think you're biased by your shiny new toy. I know I haven't found much to learn in the different very wide layout, the right sidebar, the conversation system, it's fairly memory-heavy misleadingly minimalistic interface that gives Firefox (with 8 GB RAM) some choppy scrolling-down, and how a newsreel and avatar have practically been forced on me - because whatever was there before was not broken. You're even oblivious to some of the problems all of those PM-turned-into-conversations might end up into for your users; to the point of recommendations of a stronger manager for them falling very flat.

That all adds up, transforming my tolerant first take on this of "stay cool, it'll all work out" to a less-encouraging "no, it obviously won't - and Wes will hear none of it". Not everyone shares in your love story with your new forum, but we're kind of forced along.​
 
Fred, I have already told you twice in this thread that the notices can be dismissed in one click. They do not reappear. There is no paygate. The usergroup setting is there only because it'd be silly to ask someone to donate when they are already donating.
 
Can we go back to the old forums now? This is boring and inconvenient. And a dashed sight more annoying to navigate. On the old forums, I could click on the desired sub-forum right away. Now, I have to play with a stupid drop down bar. Das Sigma does not approve of things dropping down. Especially men's trousers.
 
Personally, I like the new forums. It takes some getting used to, but it has a better, more up to date and modern feel to it. The previous one was getting along in its years sadly.

In regards to the new starmap, I am very much hesitant to that idea. We need to get the very most for the very least to help our community, and my biggest concern is that it cannot be easily updated at all. As nice as a commissioned one may look, it is likely not to be the way to go due to this reason. Right now, I know Arieg is working on a map project of his own, breaking it down into clusters or so. It may be worth asking him about some map work too before we start slowly working our way up other options.

And then the Mishhuvurthyar. They really need some love, but in all honesty? No artwork. Not yet. Revamping the articles themselves and so forth should be done first to see how the community responds to the changes. Then we should consider artwork. In all honesty, fixing up the Mishhuvurthyar is something I've wanted to do - I'd like to speak to you about that if we got the time.
 
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While I do like the new forums, Fred brings up a few points that should not be ignored. One of which is the PM system, the PM system leaves a lot to be desired, considering that we can only talk to five people at once. This might be good for small groups of players, but considering that we have factions with A LOT of people? It isn't possible with this limit to alert ALL of the members of a faction to a new survey, or in the case of a plot, a new chapter.
 
I too am having scroll issues. Super-laggy scrolling is bad. granted, my computer is old, but the PHPBB forums (which I run on my own site) don't have this problem.
 
Here's an user that supposed has widely praised add-ons for XenForo: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/authors/syndol.2319/

Maybe that can help... some. But I don't except it'll alleviate much in the way of what we actually need, since we're kind of stuck with XenForo's flawed structure in relation to our community's needs.

Which is why I bring up the following: Wes, I get that you want to make good on your investment. What did this cost you? 140$ and 40$ for this month for a 180$ total? If we pay you that sum, can you agree to go back to the previous forum that's still over StarArmy.com/Roleplay ?
 
Scrolling: I think this is mainly a graphics issue with the transparency and large image backgrounds. I can make some templates that don't have transparency and a background image that you guys can use. I plan to do some more template work this weekend or sooner if possible.

Announcements to large user groups: Make a post, and have Nashoba or me put a link to it in the notice board. I can limit notices so that they're seen by only a certain group (e.g. Neshaten, etc). Your group members would see a notice telling them to read your important post when they visit.

What did it cost? It cost $140 for the forum software license and $25 for the template the nebula styles are based on. Extending our license for the forums will cost $40 annually.

Going back to phpBB: I don't plan to move back to phpBB, because this board is much better. Even if you tried to pay me off. Please stop asking.

Mishhu revamp, Starmap: I'm not going to discuss them in this thread because they're off topic.

Add-Ons: Please suggest them in the add-ons suggestions thread in this forum. I'm not ready to install ad
 
Update: As requested, subforums are now listed on the forum index. I've also put descriptions there (instead of tooltips) but I'm not sure I'll keep them (they are something you probably read only once, then they just become stuff to scroll past).
 
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