Forum Changelog

[Floris]

April 20th, 2017:

- Added IRC server thanks to @iso

- Test with server has been completed.

- Chat tab has been added to the navigation bar.
Note: Some Chrome browsers it won't load.

- We invite people to join our live chat (feel free to idle and say hi).
Note: irc.omgboards.com on port 6667 (SSL on 6697) in channel #omgboards

What's IRC? Internet Relay Chat, it's a way to live chat with other online members.

 

[Floris]

April 29th, 2017:

- Upgraded the SQL server to the latest stable.

- Restarted Web and SQL server.

- Did some basic maintenance to XenForo.

- Reviewed a few new user accounts for potential spam.

- Double checked the TSL/SSL certificates.

 

[Floris]

May 11th, 2017:

- Paid the Summer Server Invoice of $30 to keep the site online for the Summer.

- Paid $100 for a secondhand XenForo license so we can use the right license for this account, and keep the older one on xenfans.com

- Paid $10 for the domain names with namecheap.com and hover.com involved with the boards.

- Thank you @Mikey for paying for the Google services to keep mail online.

- Thank you @iso for paying for the IRC services to keep live chat online.

- Thank you @Nix for contributing to the domains and hosting for the Spring period.


If anybody is interested in contributing a buck or two, there's a donate button at the bottom of the page you're free to consider using.

 

[Floris]

February 16th, 2018:

- Whoo, it's a new year, and in the meantime the forum has been running as desired.

- Spam accounts have been manually reviewed, the spam filter did it's work: They were all justifiably banned.

- Naughty posters have been manually addressed, and everybody's posting as we want, all is well.

- 25,000+ members registered and while it's going slow: it's going!

- I will soon archive this thread as a 2017 post and start a new one for 2018 this Spring.

- Upcoming maintenance: The Spring update will include newer server hardware, a long-term resolution for the mail server, and an update to the software powering the forums and the services it requires to do so.

- Thank you all in the last decade for sticking around and don't hesitate to contact us. Make some content, we welcome it!

 

[Floris]

March 15th, 2018

- Upgraded the forum software to 1.5.17.
Note: And soft-patched to 1.5.18.

- Fixed the footer notice from 2017 to 2018 finally.

- Updated the description of a couple of category names.

- Updated my little todo list to get an overview of upcoming changes.

- Uninstalled a couple of plugins that we're not going to use.

- Made a proper manual backup of the website and database to offsite location.

- Made some changes to the internal staff forums.

- Prepared a -test- setup to play with prior to making any -live- changes.

- Reviewed some categories and stand alone pages (and took notes)
Note: They will be updated this Spring finally

- More to come Welcome to 2018 everybody (I know, it's already March)

NOTE PLEASE: In 2018 we're allowing people to comment in our changelog thread, unlike last year.

 

[Floris]

March 15th, 2018:

- Moved the donation button from the bottom of the site to the bottom of the frontpage side-bar.

- Removed obsolete code that was rendering avatars and loading a couple where we weren't showing them.
Note: This really helped with first-time page loads.

- Removed a few outdated links from the bottom right part of the footer.

- The copyright notice in the footer finally says 2018.

- Disabled our Trending/ plugin that was hardly being used.
Note: Maybe this Summer we finalize it and make it public.

- Updated the Popular Content page to show active content from 2018 onwards.
Note: It was 2017 by the way.

- Finally got around to changing 'cookies' to 'Cookies' in the Help tab dropdown.

- Removed the 'Community' and 'Sign up' buttons from the About page.
Note: They're kinda obsolete and logs showed they were hardly being used.

- Uninstalled a couple of plugins that were no longer in use.

- Quickly glanced over the categories and forums list, and didn't have to make any significant changes.

- A small update to the internal 'staff' forums so it's more '2018'.

Finally, some todo items off my list, hopefully all for the better. Bigger changes probably coming later this Spring.

Come post!

 

[Floris]

May 17th, 2018:

- Upgraded the forum software to the latest build.

- Made some internal changes in preparation for future updates.

- Have fun posting everybody!

 

[Vloop]

June, 2018

- Vloop (a true noob) was invited
- He is still finding his way around...

 

[Floris]

May -> September 2018

- From May onwards we've been disabling most mail notification default
- From May onwards we've been requiring to re-accept our privacy and terms policy pages
- From May onwards we've been compliant with GDPR stuff (we let XenForo handle it)
- From June/July onwards we've been updating the forum software (slowly)
- And we now have a Discord server if you want to join (more info)

Invite a friend, get a hug

 

[Floris]

September 15th, 2018:

- (temporary) removed inline post editing, you will now be brought to the full post editor instead. This is to address an issue with XenForo and Chrome 69's latest build. If you were unable to submit an edit to your post in the last 12 hours, please try again.

- Prepared the server and software for an upcoming manual seasonal backup and maintenance, and potential forum software update. Nothing you will notice, but at least now you know we're not sitting still.

- Created a sub-forum for information and vote-links for the Minecraft server.
https://omgboards.com/forums/mcvote/

 

[Floris]

February 11th, 2019:

- Upgraded the forum software, and hosting packages.

 

[Floris]

August 28th, 2019:

- Made changes to forum structure.
Note: Some categories got moved around and/or renamed.
Note: Some (sub)forums got moved around and/or renamed.
Note: A couple of sub-forums have been merged together.

- Made changes to the category titles and descriptions.

- Pulled the Sub-forum Minecraft to the frontpage, calling it the 1MB Minecraft category. Making it easier to find.

- Removed some empty sub-forums (after moving their threads to a better destination).

- Rebuild some caches and counters, and gave search engines an updated sitemap.

- Renamed 'The Library' (a closed forum) to 'The Historical Archives'

- Renamed 'Writers Hangout' (a public writers forum) to 'The Library', as it was more fitting.

- Renamed 'Design Den' to 'The Studio', and together with other 'do' forums, moved it to the newly named 'Creativity Corner' category.

Note please, that the overall frontpage is more compact, and the Minecraft forum is now easier to find.
In the remaining months of this year we will probably rewrite some of the forum descriptions to fit this new situation a bit better.

 

[Floris]

September 21st, 2019:

- Attachments to a post can again be over a couple of megs, in fact, screenshots can be up to 25 megabyte in size.
Note: We prefer if you keep things small so it stays manageable for us, but feel free to show off your artsy work or minecraft builds, etc.

- General maintenance has been performed on the database, more will follow in the coming months.

- Headsup: Donations (personal gifts) will be reconsidered for 2020; these are the ongoing (internal discussions).
Note: We have the option to discontinue donations, introduce a subscription model, or raise the price for lifetime.
Note: This is a headsup, in case someone wants in on the donator rank on Discord/Forum/MC-Server (currently 10 euro or up) before we remove the option or raise the minimum.
Note: Clarification: Any donation below the minimum is possible/welcome, but does not come with the cosmetic rank (a great way to remain anonymous for example).

 

[Floris]

November 7th, 2019

- Moved the Historical Archive to the bottom on the frontpage.

- Removed some sub-forums from visually showing on the Minecraft sub-forum (but they are still there).

- Small tweaks and reorganization, which might help with some cached-pages loading performance.

 

[Floris]

February 1st, 2020:

- Removed the ability to use the Contact Us form that we had in the footer.

 

[Floris]

June 22nd, 2020:

- Quite some changes to our forum structure.

- We've merged the content of the Archive into a single archive. Making it less cluttered.

- We've re-organized the main category, making it easier to find our OMG boards information, as well as having a place to introduce yourself to the community.

- We've moved the Minecraft category up, and pulled it's sub forums to the frontpage.

- The Minecraft category is now split up in a few things, at the top there is the 1MB information section, below it is the 1MB Players section, and then the vote links.

- There is a special spot for bug reports and player suggestions now, it's no longer a single thread.

- The hidden support tickets and ban appeal sub forums are now made public and put in the right spot.

- A few new things have been added to the players forum, making it more fun for players to participate online on the forums and not just in the game.

- A new super secret groups and ranks forum has been added, find it, .. don't miss out.

- And a new worlds/gamemode sub forum has been added, this way we can share all sorts of awesome information about our worlds.

- This is phase 1 of a couple. Throughout the Summer of 2020 we will be tweaking our forum setup and improving our permissions and features.

We strongly recommend to get an account on the forum in June, rather than in the future. (that's a hint)

 

[Floris]

June 26th, 2020:

- More updates to the recent changes on our boards!

- The Minecraft forum has been pulled to the frontpage, and given more attention. It should now be a bit easier for our Minecrafters to find the forums, and learn about the server, and see their lobby where they can post screenshots and discuss whatever 1mb related.

- The private staff forums from the 1mb forum have been moved to the website private staff forums, and the 1mb staff/helpers have access.

- Some counters and caches have been rebuild internally. Hopefully better representing all the recent updates.

- Some forum names and descriptions have been slightly changed, and soon the top menu bar will be simplified as well.

- The first steps towards the big forum update have been made, the next few steps are now discussed.

- A new super secret groups and ranks forum has been added, find it, .. don't miss out.

- This is phase 2 of a couple. Throughout the Summer of 2020 we will be tweaking our forum setup and improving our permissions and features.

We strongly recommend to get an account on the forum in June, rather than in the future. (that's a hint)

 

[Floris]

July 3rd, 2020:

- Merged the "About" tab with the "Help" tab, and renamed it to "Welcome" (and moved it to the first slot)
Note: Name might change over time.

- Removed the "What's New" tab, the forum still has "new Posts" and "recent Posts" to explore.

- Added "Discord" tab to the navigation bar, pointing to a Discord information page.


- Cleaned up the following elements, for example removing the post date or other information we don't really care about.
Note: Thread list
Note: New posts
Note: New profile comments


- The bread crumbs section has been simplified.
Note: The bottom bread crumbs navigation has been removed.

- The footer of the site has been simplified, and updated.


- Sidebar changes:
Note: The statistics block has been removed.
Note: Added links to my social pages. (Design will change over time)
Note: Moved the New profile comments block higher in the list.


- A handful of tiny little tweaks here and there.

- We've further emphasized content on the frontpage, and will continue to do so in anticipation of bigger changes that are needed to move forward with the site.

- Interested in keeping us running? We have the forums, discord, game servers, domain names, hosting, and require a pizza once in a while. If you wish to help us do what we do so you can be part of a great community: donate.
Note: Please consider a donation in the form of a personal gift to https://www.paypal.me/mrfloris

- Post on the forums, it adds karma to your life.

 

[Floris]

August 17th, 2020:

- Backed up the www/ files and database/ files locally.
We try to backup, it's not fully automated, so I do manual backups just in case.

- Ordered a new hosting solution for omgboards.com
Note: If you wish to help cover the cost, a personal gift to buy pizza or pay for the domain name, really helps: paypal.me/mrfloris

- Moved the site over to the new hosting solution.

- Moved more 32bit to 64bit

- Added another 1,5 gb RAM

- Got a better CPU/GPU combo

- Added an additional 10GB storage for cache/backups/buffer

- Upgraded the OS from outdated 14 to newer 18 lts server
Note: Hopefully 20+ in the future

- Removed packages we don't need.

- Upgraded packages we needed.

- Did basic testing, it all seems to work. Feel free to please report issues to me!

- More to come, this is the first step into renewing the site and making it a bit more ready for the future.

 

[Floris]

August 22nd, 2020:

Maintenance Update.

- Since we've moved over we've made some additional changes to the system. This is just to finalize those steps before we move to our next milestone.

- Internal version updated to OMGboards.com 2001-2020, version 8.2.0

- Some exploit configuration options have been re-enabled and tested.

- Caching has been tested and re-enabled, helping with page performance.

- Compression on page elements has been turned on, giving you less data, faster.

- Debug mode is used internally, and has been better configured.

- XenForo has been updated to the latest 1.5.24 version.
Note: We are aware that XenForo 1 is now End of Life, our next milestone is XenForo version 2.

- A github page has been created recently to help me and the team with OMG related things.
Note: You probably don't have a use for this, but you're free to take look.
Note: https://github.com/mrfdev/OMG

- All the domains related to OMG have now been properly setup.
Note: I .. hope .. I didn't forget something.

- Preparations are being made to import XenFans.com data into OMG.
Note: But we haven't decided yet if we're keeping the data private or partially public.

- We're working towards a dark-theme for XenForo 2.

- Donations are open on paypal.me/mrfloris

- General maintenance has been done to some categories for forums, sub forums, and their descriptions. Little updates to phrases, adding or deleting a word here or there.

- We had an issue with Email not being sent out, we've resolved this too now.

- Headsup: Please sign up for an account while you can, we might go a bit more private in the future.

- https://www.1moreblock.com properly loads omgboards.com now.
Note: Though ingame /forums will still link to omg directly.

- While we pull the data from Minecraft more to the frontpage, we're still an off topic discussion forum for friends and family. We will stick to omgboards.com with other domains pointing to it. We've changed domain names too many times in the past, we're going to stick to this one to keep the spirit of the original creations.nl alive.

Have a lovely time posting new content!

 

[Floris]

October 22nd, 2020:

Maintenance Headsup.

- This is a little heads-up that we're going to do some maintenance to the forums, meaning it might not unreachable for a little bit every once in a while, or simply deactivated while we work on stuff in the background.

- When: Hopefully later today (22nd) and otherwise tomorrow.

Looking for information while the boards are being worked on? Just join us on Discord and ask us in the #forums channel.

 

[Floris]

November 11th, 2020:

Software Maintenance.

- The October headsup has completed by now. What we were able to achieve is done, and the rest is scheduled for another day.

- The November maintenance is about the upgrade to version 2 of XenForo, but today it is about getting the account ready to take the next step.

- The Software Maintenance has now been completed, thankfully it seems that everything has gone smoothly. This was about the operating system and keeping things current. Organizing backups and making archives, etc.

I need more free time!

 

[Floris]

November 12th, 2020:

A thank you.

- Today we've terminated the old hosting account and have completed the data-move from the old to the new account at the host.

- This means some 'mini' sites are unreachable until I find time to work them out.
Note: omg/1mb were already moved.

- This year wouldn't have been possible without the continued support from our OMG and 1MB donators who've went to paypal.me/mrfloris and gave me a personal gift.
Note: Seriously, thank you.

- This year wouldn't have happened without the amazing support on all levels from the core people who are simply my friends @Nix and @Mikey.
Note: Your help behind the scenes with this community on every level has been amazing as always.

Your support from a smile to a chat, from a reference to a friend to a donation, it all means much more than you might ever realise. Can you believe this 'community' started at creations.nl on January 1st, 2001. But of course, has roots back to 1993? That's more than 25 years ago.

 

[Floris]

November 13th, 2020:

The next step done: XenFans.com

- Took the forums offline for maintenance as described below.

- Backed up the xenfans data and moved it to the OMG account.

- Backed up the omgboards data and kept it safe so I could roll back.

- Started import of xenfans.com into omgboards.com

- Completed import.

- Deleted old xenfans.com website.
Note: Next restart the certificates, redirects etc all update.

- Rebuild internal counters.

- Rebuild caches.

- Updated Staff positions.

- Moved nodes to private category for internal review.
Note: Time I will be wasting on another day.
Note: Private stuff will disappear in a private archive.
Note: Public content that we want to lock, will go to public archive if needed.
Note: Public content that we want to keep open, will go to their appropriate forum if needed.

- Opened the forums again.
Note: Thanks for your patience!

We're now another step closer to converting xenforo v1 to v2 in the (near) future.