Google Community - View Single Post - Forum Software Upgrade and Signature Policy Change

intelliot · 06-21-2008, 02:19 AM

Hi GCers,

I've upgraded to the latest version of our forum software. It has a huge number of new features, including:

Thread Tagging
Reciprocal Friendships Between Users: This turns GC into a complete social network, where you can create mutual friendships with other members here.
Public Messaging: Communicate directly on others' profile pages!
User Picture Galleries: Create albums and upload pictures to your account. You can limit visibility to just people on your buddy list (for privacy).
User-Created Social Groups: Create social/interest groups. For example: California Google Fans!
Social Bookmarking: You can easily add threads to various social bookmarking websites.
Visitor Tracking on Profile Pages: See who's been to your Profile.
Automatic Image Resizing
Forum Custom Icons: I'll be asking for your help in putting these together soon.
Social Groups: Each group has its own messages, which works the same way as Public Messaging for individual users (which is also new!)
Profile Customization? When I learn more about this feature, I may enable it.

Let me know if you notice any bugs

Signature Policy Change

I'm really excited about our Community's fast growth, and I want to ensure that we maintain a high level of post quality.

I've noticed that many low-quality posts have lengthy signatures attached, usually with multiple spammy links (which aren't related to Google in any way), such as:

Hot stars
Bad credit loans
Cheap/discount pharmacy
Pain relief
Luxury watches
Soma/health/cialis/ultram
Real estate
Shopping/sales

To eliminate this problem, I am disabling signatures for all regular users, effective immediately.

I understand that many users post here to promote their own website(s). That's fine. As always, you can link to your website in your Profile page, which users can easily reach from any of your posts by clicking on your username.

Furthermore, you can build up your reputation through good posts, and then mention your related websites in your posts.

To those who don't advertise a website here: thank you! I really appreciate your participation and look forward to making GC a more valuable Community for you.

I hope this encourages everyone to maintain their great posting quality and makes this Community a more vibrant and welcoming place for all.

(Paid subscribers-- those with Silver Membership-- are not affected.)

Changed Postbit Format

I've moved the user information to the left side of the post, instead of the top. I'm more comfortable with this way, as it's the way the forum looked when we first started with phpBB over 4 years ago. Also, with the trend towards larger and wider monitors, I think it makes a lot of sense to lay things out vertically, instead of stretched out horizontally. I hope you like it!

Thanks,
Elliot
GC Admin

06-21-2008, 02:19 AM	#1 (permalink)
intelliot Google Guru Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 2,528 Thanks: 15 Thanked 128 Times in 34 Posts	Forum Software Upgrade and Signature Policy Change Hi GCers, I've upgraded to the latest version of our forum software. It has a huge number of new features, including: Thread Tagging Reciprocal Friendships Between Users: This turns GC into a complete social network, where you can create mutual friendships with other members here. Public Messaging: Communicate directly on others' profile pages! User Picture Galleries: Create albums and upload pictures to your account. You can limit visibility to just people on your buddy list (for privacy). User-Created Social Groups: Create social/interest groups. For example: California Google Fans! Social Bookmarking: You can easily add threads to various social bookmarking websites. Visitor Tracking on Profile Pages: See who's been to your Profile. Automatic Image Resizing Forum Custom Icons: I'll be asking for your help in putting these together soon. Social Groups: Each group has its own messages, which works the same way as Public Messaging for individual users (which is also new!) Profile Customization? When I learn more about this feature, I may enable it. Let me know if you notice any bugs Signature Policy Change I'm really excited about our Community's fast growth, and I want to ensure that we maintain a high level of post quality. I've noticed that many low-quality posts have lengthy signatures attached, usually with multiple spammy links (which aren't related to Google in any way), such as: Hot stars Bad credit loans Cheap/discount pharmacy Pain relief Luxury watches Soma/health/cialis/ultram Real estate Shopping/sales To eliminate this problem, I am disabling signatures for all regular users, effective immediately. I understand that many users post here to promote their own website(s). That's fine. As always, you can link to your website in your Profile page, which users can easily reach from any of your posts by clicking on your username. Furthermore, you can build up your reputation through good posts, and then mention your related websites in your posts. To those who don't advertise a website here: thank you! I really appreciate your participation and look forward to making GC a more valuable Community for you. I hope this encourages everyone to maintain their great posting quality and makes this Community a more vibrant and welcoming place for all. (Paid subscribers-- those with Silver Membership-- are not affected.) Changed Postbit Format I've moved the user information to the left side of the post, instead of the top. I'm more comfortable with this way, as it's the way the forum looked when we first started with phpBB over 4 years ago. Also, with the trend towards larger and wider monitors, I think it makes a lot of sense to lay things out vertically, instead of stretched out horizontally. I hope you like it! Thanks, Elliot GC Admin Last edited by intelliot; 06-21-2008 at 02:59 AM.