The Forum Evolution Party

[Rynstex]

One year ago I was sat at my desk putting off Uni assignments, uploading PHP files, installing themes and wondering if it would work. That’s just the thing, even with the amount of planning that went into it; there was always that risk that things could fall flat on their face.

We’re lucky that we’ve got such a great community on the forums, you’re the reason the forums are still going strong, that we’re seeing month on month growth in many relevant aspects. Who knows what the future has in store for the boards but with a community as good as yourselves the future is looking extremely bright.

So as we’re about to celebrate the one year birthday of the forums, we’d like to thank each and every one of you for your part in making it what it is today.

Time for some Feng Shui
Rest assured that we’re always looking for ways to improve the overall forum experience. Within the last couple of days we’ve re-jigged the forum layout slightly, putting more of an emphasis on gaming. All your old favourites are still present such as the grinds my gears thread which is still going strong with some 2,000+ posts.

The Game Night thread has evolved into a whole new forum section called Matchmaking, a place where if you want to find any multiplayer action that’ll be the place to go. It will also be the place to find out about the weekly Game Nights that happen every Wednesday.

Another new section added is The Cinema which will now become the place for any gaming related videos you happen to stumble across on your adventures through the Internet.

Tweaks and Improvements
There’s also a whole host of tweaks constantly being applied to make your user experience as seamless as possible. We’ve recently made a number of changes to the forums backend that should allow for a significant improvement to the overall speed of the forums. Along with that minor tweaks such as removing unwanted space in the posting area (between your signature and avatar) and more options in your profile for items such as Raptr have recently been added. Along with that, the way YouTube videos look when embedded have had a little spruce up making them slightly more appeasing on the eye.

Better Mobile Support
While we have currently been using Tapatalk as the means to provide a mobile version of the forum we’re not too comfortable with people having to pay for an app to do so. We’ve now recently installed new options that when browsing the forum with a mobile device will automatically assign a mobile friendly theme with extremely low bandwidth requirements. Allowing you to browse the forums with ease no matter where you are or what you’re doing and more importantly without eating up valuable data allowance. Please test it out and let us know how you find it.

Of course if you ever have any ideas or suggestions then feel free to let us know and we’ll see what we can do. We look forward to seeing your post counts increase through 2011 and beyond, thanks for being a part of it all

[justbiglee]

Awesome job ben.

[MarkuzR]

This is why we call you the Forum God. That, and it's an anagram of God Of Rum Awesome job as always mate, you're a credit to GL

[Toffer]

Rynstex:

I've only been here a short while but this is one of the nicest communitys I've had the pleasure of finding. The forums are nice and active and generally everyone has been very welcoming. Im looking forward to getting to know everyone more and I can say that this has been the best part of 2011 for me so far.

Good job on spit and polish work on the forums, every little helps!

[Bear1970]

God of Rum you say?

Then I've been worshipping at Ben's altar for a good 20 years

Great job Mr Ryn!! This is pretty much the only forum I'm active on now as every other one has gone to the dogs in one way or another! Thanks for keeping it alive! And thanks to Mark and Lorna for being awesome, and a big thanks to all you other forum regulars hugs for all

[FC360]

I can't give any suggestions of feedback about the forums as the ideas I have are a little big.

[Rynstex]

This is why we call you the Forum God. That, and it's an anagram of God Of Rum

Good lord don't tell Knikitta >.<

I can't give any suggestions of feedback about the forums as the ideas I have are a little big.

Big or small, it doesn't really matter

[Knikitta]

I heard Rum!

[Jokesound]

Excellent, Ben!
Thanks for being the forum god for and thanks to everyone else for giving me a healthy community to procrastinate in.

[Bear1970]

I heard Rum!

I'm always hearing rum.... it sings softly to me!!