View Full Version : vBulletin 3.7 To Be Released Soon
Young Writers online runs on software called vBulletin. We're using the most recent version, 3.6.8, but a massive update will be coming soon: Version 3.7
It seems it will have a lot of new features. Though we may not use all of them, you can get a sneak peek at some of the things YWO might be capable of doing in the near future. Among the interesting ones are social groups, guestbooks on profile pages, and customizing your profile pages with colors, etc:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=249460
Carraka
12-02-2007, 02:38 AM
Oooo!
Customizable profiles! Tag clouds! Question? Important! Looks exciting! -dances about-
Yeah, I know! :D
The only thing I'm worried about is whether or not the Bookstore will be compatible with this new version. There's a chance it will work fine, but there's a slim chance it won't. The good news is that the person who made it is still an active designer, so he'll probably update it if it isn't.
That's great. Hopefully the Bookstore will stay though!:)
Imelda
12-02-2007, 09:03 AM
They totally stole our ideas. :glare:
That makes no sense to you.
Um, no, it does not. :P Except maybe the friends list thing, since we already have that as an addon.
I think we may be able to add a thread content-rating system (G, PG, PG13, R) by manipulating the thread prefix thing they've got. That would be really cool.
jordanisonfire
12-02-2007, 09:31 PM
Like what they have on YWS? I suppose that would be good...
I think we may be able to add a thread content-rating system (G, PG, PG13, R) by manipulating the thread prefix thing they've got. That would be really cool.
I don't know if I really like that. I like YWO because it's one big community that we're all a part of (ok I admit that was cheesy:P) But the rating thing would split it up, make some people part of one community and others not.
Well, something like this would be an easy way to warn members that a piece's content isn't suitable for some people. Right now the best we can do is a warning at the beginning of the thread.
I'm open to opinions on this, but right now I don't see how it would divide the community.
It would divide it because it would take away from the things the younger members could read. For example, what rating would you give to George's story High School Weekend? I'm guessing it'd be higher than PG and I'm still not 13. So I wouldn't get the chance to read his story, and it's one of my favorites on the site.
Wait, it sounds like you misunderstood.
This would not restrict access to certain stories. There'd just be a letter warning on stuff that might offend people.
Everyone can still read and comment on everything.
Oh then yes I misunderstood:blush:
Ok now you can ignore my idiotic and pointeless comments:P
No, no, that's okay. Simple mistake, since this is all speculation ATM. ;)
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15
^ Take a look at that, except replace the "bold test" and "green test" with the letters G and PG. That's what I have in mind. Or they could have their own column. *Shrugs*
Shaun
12-03-2007, 06:36 AM
I like the idea of having a thing that lets people know if a story is G, PG, R, etc. You and I should talk about that. And it should in no way affect whether someone can read something or not :P
Right, right. No blocks at all.
How about every other day, the threads which certain age groups can see will change? G and PG one day, PG13 and R the next? If you can't see a thread you want, including one you made, tough luck, you must wait another day.:D
Shaun
12-03-2007, 07:42 AM
What? I'm confused by that...
Imelda
12-03-2007, 12:28 PM
I think ratings have no real value. For a start, we have different ratings in England, so yours are meaningless apart from the age ones. Secondly, slapping ages on things is ridiculous, because for example, gory horror stuff makes me collapse and I'm 22, yet many 12 year olds could deal with it just fine. Yet some stuff has deep, and rather cruel, themes that really aren't suitable for 13 year olds ... but who are we to say they shouldn't read it? They might deal with it just fine. I don't see what's wrong with a brief note before the piece saying 'this contains violence with blood' or 'this contains hints of sex' or whatever. It's much clearer, the author is covered because there was a warning, and if the reader doesn't like it, tough, they should have read the warning and know their own limits. :p
But it's up to you guys, so ...
What? I'm confused by that...
Jooooooke.:rolleyes:
Well, we can either use ratings, or words that state what kinds of "unacceptable" material are in those threads. But since it looks like we can only use one prefix, I think ratings are more feasible.
We'll probably have a little box or something where you select a story's rating, which explains them all. So even if you're from another country, it should be easy to follow. And we can color-code them, too.
About the PG-13 part...we could rename it so the 13's left out. Or something else, so it doesn't look like we're assigning ages.
Shaun
12-03-2007, 04:48 PM
Imelda, the ratings wouldn't hinder anyone from reading anything. They would be there to tell someone that the story may contain material that they might not like. If someone is really against reading anything with violence in it, they will now know "oh, hey that has violence" and can make the objective decision not to read it. But there'd be nothing to keep someone from reading something because they are too young or whatever.
It also might be a lot easier for someone to put a PG thing on their post rather than writing a few sentences giving a warning...but yeah.
We probably won't do it, but it's a thought.
Imelda
12-03-2007, 05:40 PM
Yes but then it's like ... PG in what way? Violence? Gore? Sex? Drugs? You have to put 'Rated PG for violence' or whatever. Like they do on DVDs. :p 'Mild fantasy violence' for dragon slaughter etc. :rolleyes:
Shaun
12-03-2007, 05:59 PM
Well, not really. I don't think we need to be specific. It's PG. It's going to have materials not good for little kids. I think if someone feels like they are able to handle a PG rated story they can handle PG violence...
"Mild fantasy violence" always cracks me up. :D
Yeah, this will probably be one of the last things we consider once we upgrade. If we upgrade.
jordanisonfire
12-03-2007, 06:18 PM
Shaun, let me just say something: we're teenagers. I think we surpass PG ratings. :D
Shaun
12-03-2007, 06:30 PM
We have some members who aren't teens yet :P Just so you know.
jordanisonfire
12-03-2007, 06:44 PM
Just Nyx. And she's mature enough to be past PG. :rolleyes: Besides, in England, PG can mean any age that's below 12. I'm not saying Nyx is from England, I'm saying it's a bit confusing for us. Why do English-American differences have to be so complicated and yet so irrelevant? :glare:
Imelda
12-03-2007, 06:45 PM
But, Mr Shaun, I can deal with sex, violence, drugs, but not gore. It makes me want to throw up. If something has graphic descriptions of innards slopping out, I don't want to read it. So that means I wouldn't want to stray into any of the PG stuff in case it was PG for gore.
And yeah, fantasy violence makes me laugh too. :p Like it's ok to kill things if they're not real ...
Shaun
12-03-2007, 07:20 PM
Because, Shadow, you guys intentionally take stuff that Americans make and change it to make it confusing...just look at the car...
jordanisonfire
12-03-2007, 07:40 PM
We made the car confusing? I'm not denying it, I'm just curious as to how we did.
Imelda
12-03-2007, 07:47 PM
We call the boot the boot and the clutch the clutch, and other such confusing things. :rolleyes:
No, you reversed the road directions. That's definitely confusing. :rolleyes:
Imelda, doing stuff for every single kind of offensive thing would make it way too confusing. A drop-down list with 4 things is good. But if it's more complicated than that, a lot of people would probably just ignore it and not waste their time checking off everything. And that would defeat the purpose.
Shaun
12-03-2007, 08:11 PM
Besides calling parts of the car weird things you also drive on the wrong side of the road and have the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car.
Just an update: They've released a Beta version of the next software update, which means they're making progress on it.
But given that Betas usually still have bugs which need fixing, and that we're not sure if the points/store system will work, we're not going to upgrade just yet. Once a stable version is out, and once Shaun and I agree, we'll upgrade.
Shaun
12-17-2007, 10:56 PM
Thanks for the update Mr.!
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