The State of the Forum

Support Blender Artists Website Support
1

Hi All,

A lot of things have been happening in blenderartists-land the last few weeks so I thought it was about time to give you an update on some hot topics.

Posts not appearing / Spam Fighting
A lot of you have noticed that sometimes, threads and posts will not appear for a long time after you have posted them. First of all, I apologize for the lack of communication about this issue. This issue is closely related to our ongoing effort to fight Spam on this forum. While you may not be aware of this, dozens of spammers find their way to this popular forum each week. A while back I took stronger measures to make sure these spammers are banned as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the system that checks for spam is very strict. This means that along with dozens of posts containing hardcore pornography and mortgage advertisements, innocent posts may sometimes be flagged as spam too. The last few days I’ve improved this system so allow our wonderful moderators to catch these innocent posts as fast as possible. I hope that all these changes will keep our nice cosy forum safe.

Forum update
I recently updated our vbulletin forum software to the latest version to make sure we are running the latest security fixes. This update also provided us with some nice new features. For instance, soon it will be possible to create groups of users, for instance to set up blender usergroups around the world and chat with Blender users from your own neighbourhood. Other features will potentially only be available to members of an upcoming paid membership group. This will hopefully keep our site financially healthy. I want to stress that it certainly not my intention to remove any of the current functionality for normal visitors.
The forum update that was done to allow these features involved a lot of changes to our code and design-templates. If you notice any problems or design-faults in the site, please bring them to our attentions in the “Website & Forum” forum.

As always, I want to end this post by thanking the wonderful moderator team for their hard work. They are the ones keping this site up and running and they deserve alot of respect for that.

Your friendly neighbourhood administrator.

Roel “Goofster” Spruit

2

First of all, thank you guys (mods and admins) for all you do to keep the forum so nice.
I love the new profile features, but the images aren’t showing up. By this I mean that the images for menus and the “hide” button image isn’t showing, but a blue ? box.
Also the top of the forum has a Calendar link, but it is disabled.

Thank you all again!

3

Indeed it seems we were missing some images here and there. I’m not sure which images you meant, but I’m guessing it should be fixed now. If it isn,t please let me know where you are seeing these questionmarks.

The calendar link is removed

4

I see that they’re fixed, only this one is the one I can find. I guess it’s supposed to hide things, because that’s what it does.

Thanks Roel

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5

Thanks for the screenshot, it’s fixed.

6

Oops found another one.
At the bottom of threads.

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Picture 3.png720×208 6.61 KB

7

those were already fixed, you probably have to do a good refresh of your browser.

8

I could use the group option to create a group for otherkin Dragons who use Blender, the only problem is, there’s not that many who even looked at (nonetheless use) Blender, so much for that idea.:spin:

9

No, no, no no, i’ve had an idea for groups.

You know how new users and learners make swords, chessboards and shiney ball renders?

There should be a chessboard, sword and shiney ball appreciation group.

And you can have spaces between the lines now! :smiley:

10

The news page is a bit messed up, the banner comes infront of some of the main page.

Sorry for d.post.

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messed up.JPG986×652 90.3 KB

11

It seems that this forum (Website and Forum) doesn’t have the new format (i.e. number of posts, views, new reply box, and other formatting. It doesn’t matter that much nor is it too noticeable, but it is a bit strange.

Thank you for your work Goofster! :smiley:
These new improvements are very nice. I especially like the new image popups.

12

Thanks for the warning. I didn’t see this problem on my Mac machine. I made a quick fix by disabling the sidebar, will do a permanent fix in a few hours (at work atm)

13

i really appreciate the improvements, and i hope that no one else would flag me as spammer for i am just an innocent who wants to know how to use blender animation and all its function, god bless all… :clyde

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blend.jpg1024×819 38.6 KB

14

@ Goofster

Hi,
First of all, many thanks for all your work here.
I’ve just a short question.

If I try to load a full scale version of an attached image, nothing loads.
Could it be this is just working with allowing cookies?
Is this intended?

Pat

15

So when you click the attachment nothing happens? or do you get the lightbox popup and THEN nothing happens?

16

I like the changes Roel. Looks great to me. Thanks for the hard work.

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Looks great, Goofster! I esp. like the new columns for qty of replies & views. The lightbox thing is cool, too. (I’ve been wondering where to find that for my own sites! :smiley: ) Still no chance of adding the breadcrumbs to the bottom of the pages as well as the top? (please?)

18

Thanks for the update, Roel. And thanks to you and the mod team for all your work in meeting the challenges that pop up in running a site like this.

19

I get the lightbox popup and then nothing happens(endless spinning)
Only if I accept cookies it works

Thanks for the fast answer BTW

20

I’m quite new here and I wonder why can’t post in some areas e.g. in plug-in section once I may not post attachments another time (few minutes between) I may not post anything.
And once my post pass through and second time must be approved by moderator and doesn’t show at all.
Just asking for information.