Introducing... KillerSites Forums 2.0!

Stefan asked me recently to do some upgrades to the KillerSites Forums, and I'm excited to present an upgraded version of the current forums. Obviously, the major change is an upgrade to the visual look and feel, but there are also several extensions I installed that I hope will make the forum more user friendly for regular members and moderators alike.

New Features:

• Obviously, upgraded graphics, including a new login/logout/register buttons in the right of the navigation bar and a search field in the top right corner

• An "Active topics" section above the categories on the home page that displays the five most recently active topics

• The "Edit post" feature now is done with a bit of AJAX -- meaning less page refreshes and hopefully a better user experience

• Upgraded bbcode, with automatic code highlighting: You'll notice that there are now additional bbcode icons, including icons to insert HTML code, CSS, JS, and PHP. Code typed within these [code ][/ code] tags will automatically be highlighted for enhanced readability. This should be a very useful addition.

• Birthdays: This is optional, since I am sure some won't want to state their age, but now you can input your birthday into your profile. This might make it easier when replying to posts, since we might have an idea of the person's age when we are commenting.

• Updated "quote" functionality: You can now select the text you want to quote, and then click the "quote" button, and the text you selected will be placed within [quote ][/ quote] tags and entered within the quick reply box.

• Last Visit: If you select a user's profile page, it will now show the date when they last logged into the forum

• Textareas can now be resized -- just click and drag the handle in the bottom center of the textarea. Useful when posting a long topic.

• Signatures: Signatures (within reason) are now allowed for members with over 50 posts. Hopefully this number is high enough that it will discourage spamming, but low enough that beginning members won't get discouraged. Images within signatures are still not allowed, and links both within the forum and within signatures still have the no-follow attribute.

Moderator Features:

• Moderators now have the option to lock an unruly user out of a specific topic if necessary. (Click the "lock" button below the user's post to lock that user out of the topic. Click "unlock" to unlock that topic.)

• Moderators can now move specific posts into a new topic -- useful for handling off topic posts. (Moderators, click the "moderate topic" link at the bottom of the page, select the specific posts, and then click "move selected posts")

I hope that these changes will make the forum easier to use and more user friendly. If you have any comments, or notice any bugs, please post or send me a PM. Thanks!