SWAT Portal 2.1 Features

Well ok, we already had two threads about the new SWAT Portal announcing a few upgrades on the News.
This thread is purely about the new features and the way things will be done in future here.

Even after 1 1/2 weeks Ive not done all the settings yet as I had to reinstall the entire website from the cratch and had to do thousands of settings since that. However I am close to the point that I can say the "its almost done".

So where do we start?
Of course with the obvious...

The Forum.
Most of you already noticed that its running much faster and much smoother than the old version.
Reason for that is for sure that some unnecessary scripts of the old forum has been removed but also that all other features have been improved or replaced by better versions.
Many features on the "old" Portal were included by plugins while they are not direct parts of the forum and can use the resouces much better.
Best example of this is the new User Profiles which by default contain personal user memo, a user gallery and some kind of social network where you can add and manage friends.

To stick with The Profile:
You also have the Newsletter management there, a notification center, the absence system, the build in attachment system (the old attachments were btw. removed -> this is the only thing that i was not able to transfer), personal calendars, friends list, group management and so on.
Tons of stuff you can use for organizing your activities.
I seriously suggest you take a look at your own profile and the profiles of other users to find out more about these features (most are really useful).

Now back to the forum itself.
The general structure of the forum boards remain... for now.
Ill still have to take care of the old RP board structure and for sure will introduce heavy changes in that area. But thats something i will announce somewhere else.
So what else is there to say about the forum in general...
It has an auto-moderation feature (which up to now is not active). This feature will lock, move, open or close threads based on specific settings. I hope this way we finally will be able to clean this forum and keep it clean.

Members can rate you and your posts now, next to the already know thanks button.
I was already told that this feature is the probably worst feature introduction for a forum. Well... I consider such statements a confirmation that my decision was correct. All the flames... the trolling and the other troubles we had in the past made clear that we cant go on like this any longer. I am of course able to see that not everything of that was bad. Some of these things of course had and still have their positive sides. But maybe its a matter of of how you voice your concerns and opinions. For those which worry to get a negative rating at some point... well does it really matter if all the other ratings you got are positive? For sure not. It is in your own responsibility how your ratings look like. Act fair, friendly and help where you can so everything will be fine.

Quotes:
Everyone who got quoted knows that you now get a notification which makes it impossible to miss replies.
I doubt that there needs to be said more about it, except that you also can turn it off if you want.

The Portal page:
There is not much to say about it... its working just like the old one. A few different boxes such as the Newsletter box and a new gallery box. Next to that is just a little bit more clean... faster and with slightly different structure. Next to that it serves the same purpose.

The Community Tab:
Also here has nothing been changed. The same links to the other SWAT websites.

The Gallery:
The new website has a build in user gallery that is directly linked to your user account. You can upload images and create Albums if you wish.
What this User gallery was not able to do is to support Global Subcategories similar to the Gallery we had on the old Portal.
Since we did not want to loose the thousands of images there I converted the old gallery so it is now compatible with the new Portal. So in the end we have 2 galleries... one for the users and one official for the games that we support. This is a sollution I can live with until the Forums User Gallery is able to support these global sub categories.

The Blog:
Thats the next tab in the menu (you also can access it from your profile).
Every member of this community got his personal blog. You can use it... or not... I actually dont care. Its your personal area on this website and unless you violate our rules or attack other members you can do whatever you want there.

The Downloads:
One of the most important parts of this website.
The old download database got completely replaced with a new, better software.
Putting aside that I can limit your download volume and the download speed if i want -> no there is no limit atm... the new download area contains all the downloads from the old one.
It has a major advantage over the old database... well a few advantages.
1. it is more stable
2. it has a better structure
3. it has nice statistics
4. it now is possible to list several versions of a file + addon + images + ... under one download
e.g. -> There could be a single entry called "Crossfire" and under that you find all Crossfire versions ever released + maps + updates
of course it takes much time to restructure the download area... but i hope to get some help from the staff members

The Wiki:
So whats new here.... hmm well its a new software version which is much more stable (the old one required regular fixes). Next to that the data from the old wiki has been completely transfered. So its fully functional.
Btw. the new SWAT Portal can support more than just one wiki. Now it is possible to introduced now ones if neccessary.

The Information tab:

• The Change log
  The Change log is as the name suggest a change log for the software we develop here at the SWAT Portal. Currently you can find the Crossfire logs in there but it of course would support other software too.
• Contact
  This creates a message to the admins.
• Donation
  Every donation helps to keep things running.
• FAQ
  The already known FAQ from the old site. Moderators can add new entries over the admin panel.
• Help
  Pretty detailed information about the features of this site. Really worth looking into it.
• Map
  The improved Google maps support -> works better than our previous version.
• Partner
  Here the Partner sites and supportes of SWAT aswell as our own banners can be found.
• Rules
  Basically the same rules that we had on the old Portal... no changes.
• Statistics
  No need to explain this.

Tools

• Calendar
  That Calendar is different from our previous one. Infact it is a Community calendar where every user can create different calendar types and share them with other users. (currently 5 calendars per user supported). As usual it can be used to create Event. These events can have different settings. Open for all or events that you need to register to or event for certain user groups. Really useful stuff for event managers and clan leaders if you ask me.
  I know that on the old Portal Events were shown at the top of the Portal view. Unfortunatly this is not working anymore as the neccessary box is not compatible anymore. When ive some time Ill write a new one. For now you can see active events on the Forum view when you scroll down to the area where you can see the users online. There all events of the next 7 days are listed. Another way to see which events are running is to go to the Portal view and search for the Calendar Box on the left side. This box has a small button that can display the events in that box.
• Chat
  Now at this point I remember our old chat. People logged in because on the forum view they saw somebody online there and suddenly nobody was online on the chat... then these people switched to the forum (without logging out) and were displayed as "online" on the chat until the next user entered it.
  Ok. We have a new chat system.
  It for sure is not the fastest chat since its a php chat but its advantage is that it works perfectly with this website.
  Even better.
  It supports group specific chat rooms. That means... there is a room for all members, one for Staff members, one for GRs, one for Clan leaders, one for CF developers, one for ASF, one for CSF,....
  Only members of the specific groups can join their rooms... all others are locked out.
  I would assume that this makes the chat a useful tool for all of these groups now.
• Clan Cash
  "Has our clan already paid for this months?" -> i am getting tons of such PMs
  To sort this problem out we will introduce the clan cash... somewhen... not right now. (i still have to find out how to do it correctly without causing problems to clans)
  Basically (in theory) clans can use the Clan Cash to rent their CF Systems and keep and overview about the payments.
  At this point i cant really said if it will work. Its something we probably have to test.
• Games
  Games... Games... Games.... the already known forum games. I have heard that soon a new games plugin will be available so this area for sure will get some updates.
• Lexicon
  The Lexicon... what is the Lexicon? The Lexicon is a Wiki type software that automatically links with the forum and all other parts of the portal.
  So what does that mean?
  If i type "Test Article" in a post and move my mouse of that text (do it) you see what is writen about this expression in the Lexicon.
  At this point there comes something into my mind again. The planned Crossfire Wiki. -> that would be a nice project for the Lexicon (of course with access limitation so that only members which the correct user rights can access that information -> this is btw. a good method to restrict access from new players and limit it only to ones that are active members of this community)
  -> i am just thinking loud
• Links
  This is a Link list for all the games that we support. You can add links to fan sites, servers, communities,... All these links require moderational activation... so no spam.
• News
  The News are for members that have too much time ^^. No seriously ... Its also a cool feature for me as i dont have much time to visit other games sites to get info about other games. The news simply cover feeds from other games websites so you can read them here at SWAT.
• Newsletter
  Didnt you dream of this feature? Another Newsletter for you. Well... in the past ive sent the Newsletters directly to the members without them being able to subscribe or unsubscribe. It did not happen often that i got mails back to stop the spam... but it happened. Now the members can decide for themselve if they want to receive such Mails.
• SWAT Toolbar
  The download Link to the toolbar.
• Ticketsystem
  One of the most important new features. The Ticket system.
  One of the most problematic issues here on the portal is chaos. People post where ever they want. So it happens often enough that people report about issues somewhere in a post of a thread which has absolutly nothing to do with the report itself. Since I can not always solve every problem instantly I have to search the report IF i can remember the thread, its content or the user which had the problems. Same btw. applies to pms.
  The Ticket system is a place where you can report the issues that you have and a Ticket is getting opened.
  Currently there are 2 categories for tickets ... the SWAT Portal and Crossfire. In there you can make site suggestions, bug reports or report broken rules.
  Depending on what you choose either I or a specific usergroup gets a ticket report.
  e.g. When you report about a broken server rule then all members of the galaxy rangers get the report and all of them are able to take care of that issue.
  I know that for some users this is pretty important since we had the claims that GRs dont do their job while the most GRs didnt even know about a given report.
  Reports about CF bugs... will be forwarded to the entire CF dev team. Staff members receive site bugs and broken rules reports.
  I believe the ticket system is a good step to fair treatment and better quality.
• To-do List
  The already known To-do list. We originally worked with such a list 1 year ago but then suddenly stopped. I guess its time that we start using it again. Staff members are able to add To-dos and also assign users to it.

Users:

• Awards
  One year ago we discussed an award system for the members of this forum. We came up with big plans... and finally dropped them because our software didnt support those plans.
  Now we have the necessary software and can bring those ideas back to life. With the award system special users that have done good work and helped this community can be awarded.
• Members
  The memberslist + moderators list
• Pillory
  Actually sorted alphabetically this "Users" part also has a 2nd sorting. In the middle you see the members... above them are the good members with their awards... and below there are the bad guys.... the trouble makers... the ones which deserve painful punishments.
  Ok... that was just a joke but the pillory isnt a joke. Every member that acts like a jerk or tries to harm members of this community simply belongs there.
  The Pillory shows.... warnings that got issued to members, suspensions, banned used and users which either wanted to delete their accounts or that were forced to delete their accounts.

And with that I have explained our site structure.... yay

While the pillory has been the last thing that i mentioned Ill say a few words about the Moderation of this site.
The Staff members (Moderators) got much more powers. Practically they are able to moderate most parts of SWAT starting with the forum up to the link list and wiki.
What else can moderators do... they can issue warnings to users... they can remove avatars and signatures (you can not enable them again) in case of violations of rules... they can issue suspensions which in worst case can lead to temp bans.

Right at this point I can already hear those which say "they abuse their powers" and such a crap (ive heard that often enough).
Yes the moderators have more powers than before... so do the normal members.
One of the keywords here would be the Ticket system that you can use to report stuff.
Additionally everything that moderators do on this site is getting logged. If someone did crap and I get a report... well you can imagine that I will ask a few uncomfortable questions then.

What else is there to say?
Smilies are listed in categories now (which are atm not visible when you edit posts -> will have to change that)
Almost every page of the Portal has RSS and ATOM support... so you can read out feeds if you want.

There are some additional features in preparation such as a full clan management system including memberlists, different char support, event and "raid" planer.
Support for a Feed bot... -> e.g. automatically posting news from your clan pages to SWAT
+ a few other features that i still need to review.

dunno yet