As many of you may have noticed, there are several new features around the forums. This is due to a software upgrade that recently came out from vBulletin upgrading the forum software from 3.6.10 to 3.7.0. Unlike the upgrade from 3.6.9 to 3.6.10, this upgrade comes with some new features.
These include:

* Thread tagging
* Search cloud / tag cloud
* Thread prefixes
* Reciprocal friendships between users
* Public visitor messaging on profile pages with 'conversation' feature
* User picture galleries with user comment facility
* User-created social groups with invite only and moderated membership options
* Extended member profile pages
* Customizable member profile pages with admin-controlled styling abilities
* Inline editing of custom user profile fields
* Lightbox viewer for attached images
* Notices system for navigation bar
* Multiple human-verification systems including reCAPTCHA, image verification and Q/A
* Social bookmarking integration


Thread Tagging - A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.

Thread Prefixes - Long requested by users, threads can now have administrator-defined prefixes to their titles.

Reciprocal Friendships Between Users - As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.

Public Messaging - While private messages between users have been in vBulletin since version 2.0, vBulletin 3.7 introduces the public messaging system, allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages.

User Picture Galleries - vBulletin users can now create albums and upload pictures to their account.

User-Created Social Groups - To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, vBulletin now includes a facility to allow users to create their own social/interest groups.

New Member Profile Page - In order to accomodate all the new features in vBulletin 3.7, the member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up.
The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface.
Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.

Member Customization of Profile Page - The administrator may choose to allow his members to use the profile page customization tool, which allows users to alter fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of their profile page in order to create a more personalized look.

Inline Editing of Profile Field Values - The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.

Attachment Viewing Lightbox - Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.

Navbar Notices - Administrators can now set up custom notifications that will appear underneath the navbar when visiting users fulfil specified criteria. For example, one may want to set up a notice to display when a user is a member of a particular usergroup, or to show a congratulatory message when a user has posted their 1,000th post etc.

New Human Verification Systems - In addition to the image verification system available in previous versions of vBulletin, 3.7 introduces the means for the administrator to choose the verification system employed on their board.

Social Bookmarking of Threads - Administrators can now define a list of their favorite social bookmarking sites and have them available for use on the showthread page for bookmarking threads.


These are most of the major changes to vBulletin with this release.
Here's an exhaustive list of some other changes not mentioned:

* Visitor tracking on profile pages
* Automatic resizing of attached images to match filesize or pixel dimensions
* Custom icons per forum (This isn't that new to us, is it?)
* Advertisement locations defined in templates


So, enjoy the new software, and welcome to vBulletin 3.7!

Hosted Project - Against the Darkness 2.67b


Today, 1)ark_NiTe released a newer and improved version of his famous map, Against the Darkness. Sadly it will probably be one of the last versions but luckily it contains long awaited bug fixes that everyone is glad to see.

Among the new content added is an "Elite" classed item ("Viper599's Shirt of Mastery") dedicated to one of the main testers, Viper599. So congratulations to him for making it into this map via an item.

Today, Steelb_l_ade has released the latest version of his Hero Arena Requiem Of The Gods with all the latest balances changes, new features, a new hero and much more!
Also, to top this, ROTG's official website has been completly redesigned with a brand new look, fully updated features, guides, heroes and of course much more functionality so remember to check it as well as the map.

Today Blizzard released a beta version of its next Warcraft 3 patch, 1.22. Currently the beta patch is only available and usable on their special "Westfall(Beta)" server (not the 4 standard servers) since it is still in the beta test phase.

To change server to the beta server so that you can use the patch, simply click the magnifying-glass icon located next to the "Battlenet" button in the main menu of warcraft 3 and select "Westfall(Beta)" from the list that appears. Appon logging in to the new server, you will obviously have to create a new account that will probably not be permanent (this is a beta afterall).
Note - When switching servers back from the beta server (Westfall(Beta)), you will have to redownload and install 1.21b. If you switch again from another server to the beta server you will still need to redownload and install the beta patch.

As this is a beta, no one can be certain if any of the chages are final as the patch could be totally redone for the final release. However remember to "stay tuned" for any further news about the 1.22 update. Expect a lot more to change thou in the propper release of the finished patch.

The Hive Workshop now has two new forums, General Gaming, and its subforum, General Moding/Mapping. These two new forums are where you can discuss any game you are playing, or show off any projects you have in other games.

Enjoy the two new forums