As de facto Technical Director and the designer and developer of this new site, I wanted to post an announcement of its creation from the technical side of things, as well as briefly go over the features available to Lotus Fleet members.
I've tried to provide many of the things available in our old, old site, that were not available in our old site, Enjin. The most important new features are the Shoutbox (in Enjin, but awkward to use), the Academy, the Forms system, Medals, and WYSIWYG typing.
The forum features can be broken down into sections and each section has a list of features. Since it is a list, I shall move to a format more suitable using the convenient list button in this WYSIWYG editor.
Header Section
The header has a majority of the features, or at least a link to a page with the features available on this site. The header is distinguished by the light-blue bar at the top of the page, and exists all throughout the Forums. Most of these features only apply to those logged in and/or a Lotus Fleet Member (cadet or Tier 1 and higher).
From Top-left to Bottom-right:
- Board index (breadcrumb trail): This is what is called a breadcrumb that will append links to the path as you go deeper into the forums. This allows you back to a specific page you passed along your journey, or if you choose, click on Board index to go the whole way home. It is called a breadcrumb trail because it is like Hansel and Gretel dropping breadcrumbs in order to find their way home.
- Show/Hide Sidebar: Allows you to hide the sidebar, which is the thing to the left of the forums. That will give you more space when you're typing and posts and such. It will remember your preference and stay that way until your browser cookie is cleared. Click it again to bring the sidebar back.
- User Control Panel: This is where you go to configure all your personal settings. As it is very extensive, a section detailing what can be done with this will be added in a later post.
- (0 new messages): It may actually say something other than 0, and if it does, that means you have a new PM! This is the way to navigate to the PM system, which is a standard mailbox system that is fairly self-explanatory.
- View your posts: Click here to see and search through all the posts you've ever made!
- Calendar: A very important item that will allow you to view official upcoming Lotus Fleet events as well as user's birthdays (if they log their birthday in the User Control Panel). There is also a "current week" view at the bottom of the main forums page. Certain users and Tier 4 and above may add events and make changes to existing events. If you plan to attend an event, please click the link for it and submit your status of whether you will be coming or not.
- Chat: This is a link to a bigger Shoutbox than the one at the top of the main forums page. If all you plan to do is chat, you can come here to make it a little easier.
- Medals: View a list of all the medals available and who has received them. You can also use this area to nominate yourself or others for certain medals. Also, Department, Division, and Fleet leaders should remember to continuously use this functionality to award the volunteers under them (without being asked) as it makes a great incentive to continue to work to benefit the Fleet!
- Thanks Toplist and Thanks list: We have a feature that allows you to Thank someone for their post, which shows up at the bottom of every post. The Toplist is the posts that have been thanked the most, and the Thanks list is the users who have been thanked and who they thanked. Please be mindful to use the thanks feature whenever you find a post interesting or helpful!
- Forms: This is where you can go to find all the application forms, Academy forms, and RP forms used for functionality of the Fleet and site. When you submit a form it may or may not be visible to you depending on permissions, but it will be submitted and processed by a Fleet Admiral or the respective person assigned to process it. It may also send out a PM depending on the form's options.
- Members: A list of the current forum members. Note that this is not Lotus Fleet members, but simply users on the forums.
- FAQ: You can check here for Frequently Asked Questions about phpBB in general. That is the tool used for these forums. Certain features like Shoutbox and Medals are add-ons and don't have any help associated with it. If you have questions, submit them in this forum: http://www.lotusfleet.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=44 (an easy way to get there is also to click the "Request Technical Assistance" link on the left navigation bar under Support and then click "Forums".
- Search: Advanced search of the forums for certain words or phrases within posts (or search by author of the post).
- Login/Logout: Where you can click to log in or out of the forums.
Well, that is the overview of the Header section and now I have to take a break to go get some breakfast!
However, there are still many features left to go over! I will be posting updates to this regularly in the days and weeks to come to include the Sidebar, Left Navigation Bar, and some important Academy and RP details. Please post your questions in the Technical Assistance forums so I know what to answer!
Note: RP is currently being reworked for security purposes so it is not an available link yet. This will be ready sometime mid-January. For current RPers who know where the RP site is, please continue to use this resource.
