POF Upgrades

[Batleth]

I'm sure many of you have noticed we've shut off the forums a couple of times lately to do maintenance. I'd like to explain a bit to keep everyone informed of what we've done and what we're planning on doing.

First time it was off this year, I moved several files around on the server to make it easier for any vB (the site's software) updates we'll be making. This included moving some files that make up our skins which then had to be fixed.

Nick had just taken the site down to upgrade vB3.8.x to it's newest security patch. We do plan on updated to vB4.x in the near future. This will drastically change a lot here on the forums and something we are and aren't looking forward to..lol. The early versions of vB4.x has been very buggy and we've been waiting for them to clear up the worst of the problems before installing it here. Since there is a lot of cons and pros with installing vB4.x, I'll explain later when we add this to the site.

Soon, we plan on updating the Gallery here on POF. It'll have some new features and better intergration. I'll have to see what all the new features are once Nick gets it installed. I'll try to post up something if there are a lot of changes but hoping most will be minor or stuff that doesn't directly effect the users.

We also plan on adding a 2 step link. This is basically a warning message saying you are leaving POF's domain and not responsible for any content outside our domain. This is mainly to cover ourselves legally but a warning that some are leaving our website might be important to our younger members. There will be a whitelist, so links to POTCO/Disney and any other "safe sites" shouldn't contain the warning.


Commentary:

Here at POF, we try to provide a community for the game POTCO since Disney doesn't provide forums or communities outside their MMO games. We do our best to keep it suitable for all members of a family to view and participate. Because of this, we may appear to have some strict policies about certain subjects. I'll be the first to admit that our policies may not be for everyone's likings but please, try to respect what the mods and admins of the forums are trying to do here. All of them are volunteers that put in their own time to help the community to be safe and enjoyable experience here on POF.

Some of you have recently displayed some hostile and disrespectful opinions of the mods just trying to do their duties. But if the mods didn't do their jobs, this place would quickly turn into a spam and troll war infested forum. I don't think any of us really wish this to happen here. We want to try to provide a place where people can be encouraged and not put down for the smallest comments.

We all know that POTCO has had it's many ups and downs during the life of the game. Please, debate topics and not people when making commentaries about gaming issues. Once you begin to debate the people, it gets personal and someone's feelings is going to get hurt sooner or later. This is also against our policy guidelines. A mod will have no choice but to edit your post and enforce some kind of punishment depending on your past violations of policies. Now this isn't something we enjoy doing. I'm sure the mods have other things they'd rather be doing, but they do need to keep civil order here on the forums.

Well, you guys have listened to me ramble on enough. I did want to thank those that take the time out of their day to report policy violations here and to help make for a better community. We're all in this together. Mods, admins, guild masters, officers, etc. We're all pirates playing the same game seeking out some fun. Let's try to keep our community a fun place to be as well.