Post by Ray on Oct 1, 2016 21:12:43 GMT
The Town Bulletin
Vol 2, Issue 1
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Happy October everyone!
As September comes to a close, it's time for a (very overdue) town bulletin! This was started in 2015 as a monthly instalment of news/updates and general news about the sapling every month. I'm going to try and reinstate this for as long as it's needed. I think the best way is to create a monthly volume for the town bulletin and release mini newsletters via email when necessary.
Since the last instalment back in December 2015, the forum went inactive for almost 3/4 of a year! Now I can happily say we are back up for good! Almost the whole staff are back! We will strive in creating a pleasant and relaxing environment for all animal crossing (and non-ac) fans to meet new people and play together. We are always here if need our help and will continue to keep open-communication to our members!
A big welcome back to the returning members as well as new members who have been popping up over the last month. I can't stress enough how great it is to see all of you here together making this place what it is. Without our user base, the sapling would not function. Our dream is to one day see this place busy & thriving. So much that not even we can keep up with all the new posts! So thank you to everyone, every single one of you matters to us! So much every member will be receiving 100,000 sapling bells just for being amazing! [bare with me on this, will take some time to get around to all of you!]
September's New Features & Updates
Alot of things have changed in the last month, this is probably going to be one of the biggest changes we've ever had! I've been compiling a list of changes over the month just because it's so massive!
Karma System Removed
Remember the Karma System we had before? No? WELL NEITHER DO I! It was a wifi rating system built to allow members to see who is a good or bad egg when it comes to playing animal crossing online. It never really stood out and was a bit vague in the sense that no one new what it was or how to use it! So it is now abolished! We will be creating a new system in the near future which allows users to properly rate each other and leave reviews so be sure to look forward to that!
Notification System
We now have a new notification system that will alert you when someone transfers you bells on the forum, a staff member edits your money or you receive a trade request (in the form of shop items). A small notification box will fade in at the top left of the screen whenever a user receives a notification (for desktop users).
Furthermore, the number of notifications you have (be it messages, friend requests or just forum notifications will now be displayed in the browser tab itself (similar to facebook). E.g. (1), (2), (3)
Autumn Forum Skin
It is autumn in animal crossing new leaf! So the forum skin has been changed to match this! With this skin, all 4 seasonal skins have now been created. This means the forum has seen a full cycle of the seasons, wahay!
New Affiliates
We have recently clean sweeped through our affiliates and expanded our horizons. We now have 18 new affiliates, all which are active forums which I highly recommend you visit! With our new partners, we hope that we can expand our user base as well as help them in return!
Profile Layout
Your profile has undergone a small transformation. The overall layout has been improved for efficiency and general use. Your mini-profile information is now display on the left of your profile. You can now see your status update in your mini profile without having to go to a random post you've made just to see if it works! Here is a before and after screenshot example:Before
After
Soon we're looking into bringing some sort of 'profile comments' system where users can posts public comments on other's profiles for everyone to see.
Inbox & Thread Layout
What might seem like a minor change can sometimes have a BIG impact! We've modified the look of how your inbox and the forum thread pages are displayed (for desktop users). Threads are easier to distinguish from one another, and sticky threads/announcements are now separated entirely from normal threads by a divider line. This will help make the board a bit cleaner and easier to navigate.
Before
After
Collapsible Categories
You can now click the header of each forum section on the homepage and collapse them! This will allow you to hide categories you don't post in as often or for people with smaller screens and don't want to page to be really long.
Thread Types in Item Exchange & Villager Plaza
Something we've noticed which is quite common on popular animal crossing forums, is the ability to set your thread under certain types. For example, in the relevant forum, you can now specify whether you are selling, giving away, auctioning, buying, cycling or trading! For the Villager Plaza guidelines, click here and for the Item Exchange Guidelines, click here.
Happy Birthday Notification
A small but quaint update. On your birthday you will receive a pop up notification!
As a birthday present, you will receive 50,000 free sapling bells, only if you log in on that day though! So remember to return here on your birthday just for the notification!Monetary Sign Up Bonus
All new users will know this but there's a permanent sign up bonus for new members. This gives our newest members some starting cash in their wallet when they register and login. 25,000 Bells gets added straight into their wallet so they can shop right away! [sorry to our current members before this was created!]
New Mini Profile
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The mini profile has probably been the biggest change this forum has had in terms of being completely different to the previous version (minus when we moved from the last hoster zetaboards). Many days and hours have gone into implementing this new mini profile which was a complete nightmare to build, however I am extremely pleased with the result. There was so many technical issues getting it to work with everyone's profile and the money system that I almost gave up on it, but now i'm glad I didn't. Users can now see their profile status updates in their mini profile (which gives it purpose). I omitted the dream address from the mini profile to save space, it is now just in the profile. Your shop items will also show in your mini profile up to 16 items.Every user now has a mini profile background which was requested by our members! The entire mini profile has been redesigned to show more information and be more compact (plus it looks delicious).Below is the old layout followed by the new layout:
Minor Updates
Here is a small list of minor updates worth noting:
- Rules & Regulations 1.1 released. -
- Image Resize [images get resized automatically if they are too big] -
- Embedded Youtube Videos [if you paste a youtube url directly into your post, it will embed it automatically] -
Forum Suggestions
Forum Suggestions
The best part, all about what you guys wanted! Over September. there wasn't many new suggestions but there were some old ones which have finally been implemented! Here is a list of the suggestions which have been added:
Custom Emoticons: This has been a long time coming but we finally have our own unique custom emoticons!! All staff and members agreed this would be a great idea. They are the emotions you get from shrunk in new leaf (which I thought were perfectly appropriate) You can select them when using reply to a thread or by using the keyboard shortcuts! (hover over them in the smiley list to see)
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Mini Profile Backgrounds: I have to admit, at first I was unsure what people meant by this! But in everyone's mini profile there is now a custom background which can be changed by going to your profile - > edit - > personal -> scroll right to the bottom and post the url of your image. Must be 200w x 345h. Click here for a full explanation.
We currently have 2 exciting competitions going on where you can win forum bells and in game bells! Be sure to sign up and participate (who doesn't like free stuff?). We hope to see you all in the events and have fun!
Know alot about video games? Test your knowledge in the video game quiz! You get 20,000 bells just for participating and can potentially win up to 400,000 bells (forum or in game). Hope you all take part!
Many of us have played various games with different menus / hud displays. Prepare for the ultimate (omg I recognise that but cannot remember for the life of me) brain freeze
. You must guess as many huds as you can, the more the better! You can win up to a whopping 1 MILLION BELLS if you come first so get cracking everyone and come join the hud/menu competition!
Do you have an event you want to see happen? Be sure to mention it in the Forum Suggestions!
So, you guys may or may not have noticed a new section at the top of the page! Guides.
- Ever need to google an animal crossing guide or help page because you've forgotten or need quick help for animal crossing new leaf? We've decided to collect every useful guide around the internet we can find and haul it all into one section for convenience! The Guides section will show a list of links from haircut guides to hybrid breeding. We hope you will use them!
- As mentioned earlier, be sure to look forward to the new wifi rating and profile comments systems which are on the way!
Forum Events & Competitions
We currently have 2 exciting competitions going on where you can win forum bells and in game bells! Be sure to sign up and participate (who doesn't like free stuff?). We hope to see you all in the events and have fun!
Know alot about video games? Test your knowledge in the video game quiz! You get 20,000 bells just for participating and can potentially win up to 400,000 bells (forum or in game). Hope you all take part!
Many of us have played various games with different menus / hud displays. Prepare for the ultimate (omg I recognise that but cannot remember for the life of me) brain freeze
. You must guess as many huds as you can, the more the better! You can win up to a whopping 1 MILLION BELLS if you come first so get cracking everyone and come join the hud/menu competition!Do you have an event you want to see happen? Be sure to mention it in the Forum Suggestions!
Upcoming features
So, you guys may or may not have noticed a new section at the top of the page! Guides.
- Ever need to google an animal crossing guide or help page because you've forgotten or need quick help for animal crossing new leaf? We've decided to collect every useful guide around the internet we can find and haul it all into one section for convenience! The Guides section will show a list of links from haircut guides to hybrid breeding. We hope you will use them!
- As mentioned earlier, be sure to look forward to the new wifi rating and profile comments systems which are on the way!
Community Spotlight
This month, the Admin and Mods would like to give the Community Spotlight to Villagers People Love That You Hate Thread! Not a very active thread but a very funny one! Marshal/Peanut are currently taking the reigns! Go talk about which animal you hate, and why!
Member of the Month
This is a brand new award dedicated to the best member of the month, for either being super friendly, extremely helpful, productive, fun or all of the above! This month's member of the month isssssssssssssssssssssss (*drum roll*)
!!!MIMI THE GREAT!!!
Do you want to nominate someone for next month's Community Spotlight? PM your Moderators/Admin and let us know!
Conclusion
I am extremely excited to see this place returning to life and plan on sticking around for the long haul! We're extremely thankful for the users who have stuck by us throughout the years and even moved with us to the new forum (when we used to be with zetaboards). We are doing our best to drive more users here so eventually the sapling will be the best and biggest animal crossing community out there!
That's all for September 2016! Remember to get stuck into the current forum evens/competitions and keep going to the Forum Suggestions post for ideas on how to improve the forum or ideas for new competitions. We listen to every one of you and appreciate the help! Keep posting and one day we will be massive!
