Rawr! Here is another batch of improvements made to the site:

Signatures Disabled for New Members

In order to help prevent passive spamming (where members join with the sole intention of advertising their signature link) as well as to encourage participation, signatures are now disabled for new members until they are promoted to the Green usergroup.

As per our Usergroup Promotion Rules, to become a Green Member a user must have made both 100 posts AND have been registered to the site for 30 days.

Pre-Defined Infraction Levels Restored

Our MySQL database was upgraded to a new version a few months ago which created a lot of glitches in the PokerForums.org database. As a
result, a number of areas of the site were effectively wiped out or reset, including the pre-defined infraction levels. These have now been restored.

Only administrators and moderators have access to the infraction system, but it will make moderating the site easier.

I have restored the following infraction levels: Blatantly Off Topic, Non-
contributive Post, Insult or Personal Attack, Spammed Advertisements - Existing Member, and Attack on Staff. You can read more on the infraction system at the bottom of the Official PFO Forum Rules.

Missing Custom Profile Fields Restored

Another area of the site that was affected by the infamous MySQL crash were the custom profile fields.


The following fields were restored:

• Limits Played
• PokerStars (username)
• FullTiltPoker (username)

Unfortunately, I had to delete the other 3 poker room profile fields as I couldn't figure out out which they were. However, only about 8 members actually filled them out so it's not a huge loss.

I also added a Poker Room Aliases category and put the PokerStars and FullTiltPoker fields in it for better organization.

Pre-Designed Avatars Added

I created a "Male Poker Pros" catagory in the Avatar section and created 20 custom avatars of 10 poker pros. This gives members some built-in avatars to easily select and choose from, and can be useful for new members when customizing their profile.

More pre-designed avatars can be added in the future, and I have plans on creating other sections such as Female Poker Pros, Sports Team Logos, etc.

To check out the pre-designed avatars, simply go to Profile (located at the top of the site) -> Edit Avatar.

Linkbacks Fixed

The linkbacks feature is now fixed and is displaying properly at the bottom of threads that have been linked from other sites such as this one.

Custom PFO Banners Created!

I had 6 custom banners created for the site. Previously, we only had 2 archaic 468x60 banners which I created myself 5 years ago.

The new banners can now be seen on our links page, but since I know most of you are lazy I'll post them below as well:

Banners look pretty good - I might have a word with you about them in the near future.

[/shady business deals]