We've undergone a lot of site software upgrades recently. This thread will describe some of the more notable improvements (There were hundreds of bugs fixed and minor improvements which won't be mentioned):

Software Improvements

• vBulletin was upgraded from 3.0.6 to 3.5.4
• Inline moderation allows multiple threads or posts to be have moderation actions performed without a visit to the admin or moderator control panels
• Completely rewritten message editor with ability to instantly switch between standard and WYSIWYG modes
• Database-based thread and forum read marking
• Custom avatar and profile picture resizing
• Profile pictures can be saved to filesystem
• Attachment upload via URL in addition to local upload
• Completely rewritten Paid Subscriptions system - now known as Payment APIs. New support for 2checkout, Worldpay and Authorize.net
• Improved registration image verification to out-fox those pesky bots
• Ability to preview signature edits

Forum Additions

Members who have visited the forum - This addition is displayed near the bottom of the front of the site, underneath the "Currently Active Users" section. It displays PFO members who have visited the site in the last 24 hours.

Our Chatroom has been upgraded. There are a few new features such as having user's avatars displayed in private message windows and such, but the majority of the changes have been bug fixes.

However, our much beloved bot has been completely fixed, and now works just dandy again, although he has had a bit of a name change: PFO_Bot_v4.5.7. He can also learn and unlearn commands properly now.

The bot also now displays in the Members currently using PFO Chatroom section of the site.

Setting Changes

First off, regarding the much-talked-about Marked Forums as Read Cookie problem.

This is the time in seconds that a user must remain inactive before any unread posts are marked read. This setting also controls how long a user will remain on Who's Online after their last activity.

Our new software now supports the following options on this matter:

Inactivity/Cookie Based

Once a user has been inactive for a certain amount of time (the value of the cookie timeout option) all threads and forums are considered read. Individual threads are marked as read within a session via cookies. This option is how all versions of vBulletin before 3.5 functioned.

Database (no automatic forum marking)

This option uses the database to store thread and forum read times. This allows accurate read markers to be kept indefinitely. However, in order for a forum to be marked read when all threads are read, the user must view
the list of threads for that forum. This option is more space and processor intensive than inactivity-based marking.

Database (automatic forum marking)

This option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read. This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.

Now, I've set this to Inactivity/Cookie Based because our server needs to be handled gently - we are a large forum with over 100,000 posts and getting close to 5,000 members so we need to be careful about processor intensive commands.

I can at least now tell you how long this session is based on now, the answer is 900 seconds, or 15 minutes. I can change this, but the problem lies in how the forum displays who is currently online; if I change this value to set longer marked forums as read cookies, it will alter the Who's Online value as well. Therefore I'm leaving it as it was before.

Moving on, the following settings have been modified by yours truely:

The maximum number of characters anyone can use in their signature.

This has been changed from 400 to 375, this is more than enough.

Maximum characters per post.

I've increased this from 10000 to 12000.

Maximum characters to allow in a private message.

I've increased this from 10000 to 12000.

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KiD[ReD]
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