Jimmy-526 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Not the right place but still, some of you maybe knowing that I'm making a TGTAP newbie Guide. It takes a lot of effort. So I had a few questions. 1. What are all the names of TGTAP groups? 2. How many of them are joinable, excluding Mods, Admins and banned members? 3. What are the code modifications in here? 4. What Forum Softwares did TGTAP recently used(all)? 5. Any notable events? Thanks in advance. The guys who answer will be put in Credits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvoLuTioN Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 1. What are all the names of TGTAP groups? 2. How many of them are joinable, excluding Mods, Admins and banned members? For both 1 and 2 - AFAIK We Don't have any atm, We had the Sub Forum Gurus for a bit but looks like that has been scrapped. 3. What are the code modifications in here? What runs TGTAPWe are often asked what CMS is used to power The GTA Place. It is in fact completely custom written by Chris, this includes all scripts such as the polls, picture of the day, and affiliates. Our download database was, up until September 2007, powered by paFileDB. It was replaced with a custom made script written and implemented by Chris, due to massive insecurities with paFileDB, and the fact it lacked much needed community features such as user uploading and managing of files. Our forums are powered by Invision Power Board by IPS, Inc. News is posted in a dedicated sub-forum for each game and is displayed on the main website using a custom made script. SEO work has been completed by Chris on TGTAP's news, and also partly on it's download database. Source 4. What Forum Softwares did TGTAP recently used(all)? IPb 5. Any notable events? Husky using pizzas to masturbate. kthxbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy-526 Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Thanks Evolution. But I'm still not satisfied with answer no.1 & 2. I mean Groups like Elite and GTA Gurus are there. Is there any benefit to be a part of them? And so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerard Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 If you go to members (at the top), and click 'more search options' on the right. At the very very bottom of the filters there are some dropdowns. The 'show all' dropdown shows all the groups. None of the groups are joinable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy-526 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 So it depends on the Staff to move us into one? Thanks, I think I got it right. Whats GTA GURU BTW? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 To answer your questions about groups: Yes, everyone starts off the in the standard 'Validating' group when they sign up. When the user confirms his/her email address he/she is moved into the 'Members' group. Users who fail to validate their account in 7 days are removed. Most other groups are either staff or are now unused (such as the Banned group which is no longer used due to the way IPB now handles banning users). GTA Guru is someone who has proven themselves to have excellent knowledge about a particular GTA game, and is a respectable and trusted member of the community. They are given permission to moderate that particular game's forums. Elite Members was a group intended for veterans and other long-standing and decent members of the community. It is not in use at the moment. About the code: The main website is completely my own code, with the exception of some JavaScript libraries (jQuery). The forums are powered by a stock version of IPB (currently version 3.2). The large feature set means we don't have many modifications here. The only one in fact is the awards system. In early 2003, before we had proper hosting, I set up a forum at ProBoards.com (lol). A few months later I got hosting and set up phpBB (I think it was version 2.0 at the time). We used this for several months, maybe a year, I don't remember exactly, before we switched to IPB which at the time was at version 1.2. In early 2004 my hotmail account was hacked and through my emails the hacker managed to find passwords to the website's control panel, and subsequently deleted everything, including database backups, and since I had none saved on my own computer I had to restart the forums, hence why the earliest member join dates here are in February 2004. We've stuck with IPB ever since then and upgraded through each major version. Many code modifications were in place on older versions; we had a store, an arcade, a GTA style text-based RPG system I had coded myself which integrated with the store, and various other minor feature additions. The novelty of those mods wore off and we no longer feel the need to have them here. Notable events? Aside from the original hacking I mentioned before I can't think of too many but it depends what you class as notable, what sort of things are you hoping to hear about? I think there's a screenshot of 100,000 posts with 6,666 members somewhere which I guess was kinda cool if you like numbers. We've had a few weird member incidents: Mgilb, Lisa Juarez, me and kokane ... don't think they're relevant for a newbie guide though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy-526 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks for the info Chris. Indeed you have been doing a lot of work since 2002. Just a few more Questions. Did you use any SQL Hack to change your join date? Can my join date be changed to 17th June like my old account? What does it take to be an Elite? Do posts matter? Is it just a matter of contributions? Could I start a TGTAP Newsletter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Yes I did. No. Like I said we don't use this group anymore. It's only purpose is to show who's been around since the start, basically. Sorry I think that's pointless. We need things that will bring more people to the forums and keep them here and make them want to be an active contributor. A newsletter would basically like saying "don't bother coming to the forums, we'll let you know if anything cool happens." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerard Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Chris' join date was modified with SQL, but that's just a special case because he's the founder. Not something we'd do for other members, especially for the reason you gave. Elite member status is not something we give out. It generally just contains former staff and other members who made significant contributions in the early history of TGTAP. It's definitely not something we would give out based on post count, but we might for those who make very valuable contributions over extended periods of time. I really don't think a newsletter would be a good idea. Chris runs our social media strategy through Twitter and Facebook (amongst others) - I'm not sure why a newsletter would be useful, especially if it was just operated by a member. There are also data protection issues, and certainly we would not give a member total control over something like that (where they could go rogue and start spamming our members). There's also not much going on tbh. If Chris could send out an update every two weeks (or something) with highlights of the top GTA news and some interesting community topics, that could work I guess, but tbh I don't think email newsletters are particularly useful in this day and age where people look for what they want, when they want. A single webpage which contains a snapshot of TGTAP's recent activity and news etc would be much more useful, as people can access that on-demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamraherman Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Thanks for this one! I learned so much from it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy-526 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 @Gerard: I wanted a newsletter system via pm to subscribers only. Once again thanks for clearing the stuff. Just a suggestion. I hope it won't be any bad idea. Could we have a few new user groups apart from General Member groups? I mean GTA V cannot be the only thing to restart high activity. We could use Gta Modifications, reintroducing gangs(only with high activity). But anyway I still think I can add these data to the guide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 If we deem any to be necessary then yes, but for now, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy-526 Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 And a final one. What is the status bar near the member log for? What if it gets full? Doesn't it reduce if warnings are altered or taken away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerard Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 It's just a guide for staff to give them a quick visual representation of that user's history. Warnings do not 'expire' and are never taken away, deleted or altered. They are a record of behaviour and actions. Misbehaving users don't last long enough to make it full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLanceVanceDance Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I'm not sure this is the right place to post this question or not, but how do you change the name of a topic you created, if you accidenty mistyped it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerard Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Edit the first post, choose 'Use Full Editor'. If you can't edit it, hit report and ask very nicely for a staff member to do it when they have the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLanceVanceDance Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Thanks for the help Gerard. Very much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLanceVanceDance Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 (edited) A few more questions: 1. What is the purpose of the "restricted" and "site admin" groups? 2. On my profile, below my name, "member since...", and "last active" notes, there is a row of five stars. What is the purpose of those stars? 3. On the top right corner of my profile, there is a green box saying "neutral", with the number two on top of it. What is the purpose of that box? Edited March 3, 2012 by MrLanceVanceDance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerard Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 The restricted group is used by staff when a user has failed to adhere to warnings or whose standard of behaviour is below what we expect. Members of that group are limited in what they can do on this forum, and it limits their opportunity to cause trouble. The other two are standard IPB features you could look up anywhere. In fact, if you hover over them it TELLS you what they are. The stars are for other users to rate you. Nobody uses it so it's completely unreliable. The green box is the count of how many people have 'liked' your posts. In the past, users could rate posts up or down (not just like), which is why some people have a low/negative rating there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 1. restricted is for members who have repeatedly broken rules but not done anything serious enough for us to warrant (or care, for that matter) banning them. They lose most privileges and any posts they make must first be approved by a staff member before they are shown on the forum. Site admin is a now defunct group in which a few members were placed to distinguish them from forum staff. Site admins would write news and/or content for the website but not handle any moderation tasks on the forums. 2. It's your rating. If you go to other users' profiles you'll see these stars and if you hover over them (and click) you'll add to their rating. Nobody cares about this, few use it. 3. It's your reputation. IPB 3.0 introduced a reputation feature whereby you could upvote or downvote users' posts rather like you would on sites like Reddit. In 3.1 the default behaviour changed to something more similar to Facebook where you can simply choose to Like a post (in the bottom right corner of every post). This adds 1 to your reputation. If you get it high enough you will see ranks other than "Neutral". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLanceVanceDance Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) One more question: Is it possible to be removed from the restricted group, or is it permanent? And by the way, thanks for the responses guys. Edited March 4, 2012 by MrLanceVanceDance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Yes, it's possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLanceVanceDance Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) Okay. Thanks for the answers Chris and Gerard. I appreciate them. Edited March 4, 2012 by MrLanceVanceDance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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