SITE CHANGES – ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT:
Changes have been made to the Account Settings Page. In particular, members may now enter in a secondary email address to assist in validation if a member loses access to their primary email address and gets locked out of their account. The secondary address also assists in matching donations with donors in our system as a surprisingly high percentage of donors use an email address on this system that is different from that they use with their PayPal account.
SITE CHANGES – FORUMS:
1. A number of tools have been built to assist moderators in dealing with their volunteer roles. These include tools in detecting users with multiple accounts and in managing the moderation process.
2. Additionally, over the last two months, numerous 'sticky' threads the were obsolete have been 'unstickied'. Additionally, numerous random posts were removed from the Rules, Info, and Guidelines section. In some cases, threads were recreated and the original rule post with discussion was moved into the 'Admin and Moderator Initiated Topics' section.
3. A competitive tournament style online video game competition system with a large number of flash games was set up and is being tested by several hundred of our donors.
4. ve started an initiative to identify ways to improve the management, organization, and structure of the forums (and of the main site). A key part includes identifying members interested in helping out with key parts, and additionally, forming mini-committees as appropriate.
5. re identifying issues that need to be address prior to our next forum upgrade. For example, the next forum upgrade while minor in appearance may require all members to reset their passwords. As such, we will soon be strongly encouraging members to update their email address and other contact information on the main site settings page.
6. A number of structural and permission changes were made to make the site easy to navigate for new (non-validated) members looking to view the forums and gain further access.
7. We've added 'iOS' and 'Android' to the title of the Console and Handheld forum section.
8. At one time, the site was set so that no one could edit a message beyond 7 days after its creation. For the last two years, the limit has been lifted. Recently, it was reinstated, at 30 days. It came to our attention that an ex-user was successfully threatening and pressuring people into removing posts from the Negative Feedback section here. We did not believe that was in the best interest of the forums. Unfortunately, the system does not automatically include the ability to vary this limit for different user groups or forum sections. Users are not bringing to our attention older threads that they wish to edit. We are reviewing the situation and coming up with plan that serves as many of our joint needs as possible.
9. The site goes down for maintenance each night beginning at 1:15 AM PST. The forum nows put up a bright red banner beginning at 1:05 AM PST giving people a reminder/warning that it will soon shut down suddenly.
SITE CHANGES – VAPS:
A number of changes have been made to VAPS that are up and working, though may need some minor refinement, especially with our sudden upgrade to the CentOS 6.x operating system.
1. "Working" is a new VAPS game field. Does a machine work? Blank, Yes, No, and Partially Working are valid choices. This is particularly useful for 'for sale' records.
2. Member Location, Machine Condition, and Working fields were added to the following 'for sale' reports:
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/newest-for-sale.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-nearest.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-arcade.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-pinball.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-other.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-parts.php
3. Machine Type (ie: Music, Slot Machine, Trade Stimulator) was added to 'For Sale - Other' report:
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-other.php
4. We deleted all VAPS 'Wanted' entries from users that haven't logged in for at least 3 years. (Reduced records from 7346 to 6321).
5. We deleted all VAPS memberships from users with no game entries (but with bio and haven't logged in for at least 3 years, or without bio and haven't logged on in 3 months), and don't have a forum account. (Reduced member records from 8029 to 6190)
6. VAPS got a new pull down menu system that is cleaner than the previous chaos. It is particularly cleaner in areas that had a lot of page options available, such as the 'Trading Reports' center.
7. Some 'jquery' table sorting has been added to nearly every table throughout VAPS, making nearly every column sortable on every page. A few of the pages have the existing column sorting system still in place, and will for a few months while we look at some metrics. Additionally, some emergency changes to VAPS occurred when we suddenly upgraded the operating system. As such, please excuse any oddities on the pages.
SITE CHANGES - LIBRARY
1. The Library also got a new pull down menu system like VAPS.
2. PayPal donations are now automatically tracked by the site. If the system does not have any site account information to go a donation, it attempts to look for the email address in the member database against both the primary and secondary email address fields.
3. If the system learns of a donation and can map it to a user account, it will automatically attempt to validate a new user of the forums. Thus this 'validation' process now typically takes 2 minutes, instead of the 2 to 5 days it used it. [It does not automatically adjust the 'fruit' symbols yet.]
4. Logged in members can view a 'Your Donation Receipts' option under the 'Donors' tab of the Library. Selecting this option will provide a user with a number of charitable donation tax receipt letters that are formatted for printing.
5. The menu bar on the top of each page in the library show you the number of unique contributors to date along with the dollars raised today in real time. Donate to Paypal, the page should update itself within 2 minutes. [Note that under 1/5 of the total 'Raised to Date' is 'in kind' donations. Not all of it is cash.]
6. We've begun working on a 'State of the Nation' report for the Library 501(c)3 charity.
SITE CHANGES – OTHER
1. In the past 60 days, we've taken over 600 uploaded machine photos, approved, cropped, and posted them online.
2. We've added the first three upcoming events from the main site's events calendar to a little box on the main site page.
3. There have been literally hundreds of minor bug fixes to various scripts.
UPCOMING
Key areas of focus in the next 2 months are going to be on the submission queues for the main encyclopedia and finding way to make them more efficient; the main site game detail page; the forums; and the Library.
Thank you for your interest.
Greg
Changes have been made to the Account Settings Page. In particular, members may now enter in a secondary email address to assist in validation if a member loses access to their primary email address and gets locked out of their account. The secondary address also assists in matching donations with donors in our system as a surprisingly high percentage of donors use an email address on this system that is different from that they use with their PayPal account.
SITE CHANGES – FORUMS:
1. A number of tools have been built to assist moderators in dealing with their volunteer roles. These include tools in detecting users with multiple accounts and in managing the moderation process.
2. Additionally, over the last two months, numerous 'sticky' threads the were obsolete have been 'unstickied'. Additionally, numerous random posts were removed from the Rules, Info, and Guidelines section. In some cases, threads were recreated and the original rule post with discussion was moved into the 'Admin and Moderator Initiated Topics' section.
3. A competitive tournament style online video game competition system with a large number of flash games was set up and is being tested by several hundred of our donors.
4. ve started an initiative to identify ways to improve the management, organization, and structure of the forums (and of the main site). A key part includes identifying members interested in helping out with key parts, and additionally, forming mini-committees as appropriate.
5. re identifying issues that need to be address prior to our next forum upgrade. For example, the next forum upgrade while minor in appearance may require all members to reset their passwords. As such, we will soon be strongly encouraging members to update their email address and other contact information on the main site settings page.
6. A number of structural and permission changes were made to make the site easy to navigate for new (non-validated) members looking to view the forums and gain further access.
7. We've added 'iOS' and 'Android' to the title of the Console and Handheld forum section.
8. At one time, the site was set so that no one could edit a message beyond 7 days after its creation. For the last two years, the limit has been lifted. Recently, it was reinstated, at 30 days. It came to our attention that an ex-user was successfully threatening and pressuring people into removing posts from the Negative Feedback section here. We did not believe that was in the best interest of the forums. Unfortunately, the system does not automatically include the ability to vary this limit for different user groups or forum sections. Users are not bringing to our attention older threads that they wish to edit. We are reviewing the situation and coming up with plan that serves as many of our joint needs as possible.
9. The site goes down for maintenance each night beginning at 1:15 AM PST. The forum nows put up a bright red banner beginning at 1:05 AM PST giving people a reminder/warning that it will soon shut down suddenly.
SITE CHANGES – VAPS:
A number of changes have been made to VAPS that are up and working, though may need some minor refinement, especially with our sudden upgrade to the CentOS 6.x operating system.
1. "Working" is a new VAPS game field. Does a machine work? Blank, Yes, No, and Partially Working are valid choices. This is particularly useful for 'for sale' records.
2. Member Location, Machine Condition, and Working fields were added to the following 'for sale' reports:
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/newest-for-sale.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-nearest.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-arcade.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-pinball.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-other.php
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-parts.php
3. Machine Type (ie: Music, Slot Machine, Trade Stimulator) was added to 'For Sale - Other' report:
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/reports/forsale-other.php
4. We deleted all VAPS 'Wanted' entries from users that haven't logged in for at least 3 years. (Reduced records from 7346 to 6321).
5. We deleted all VAPS memberships from users with no game entries (but with bio and haven't logged in for at least 3 years, or without bio and haven't logged on in 3 months), and don't have a forum account. (Reduced member records from 8029 to 6190)
6. VAPS got a new pull down menu system that is cleaner than the previous chaos. It is particularly cleaner in areas that had a lot of page options available, such as the 'Trading Reports' center.
7. Some 'jquery' table sorting has been added to nearly every table throughout VAPS, making nearly every column sortable on every page. A few of the pages have the existing column sorting system still in place, and will for a few months while we look at some metrics. Additionally, some emergency changes to VAPS occurred when we suddenly upgraded the operating system. As such, please excuse any oddities on the pages.
SITE CHANGES - LIBRARY
1. The Library also got a new pull down menu system like VAPS.
2. PayPal donations are now automatically tracked by the site. If the system does not have any site account information to go a donation, it attempts to look for the email address in the member database against both the primary and secondary email address fields.
3. If the system learns of a donation and can map it to a user account, it will automatically attempt to validate a new user of the forums. Thus this 'validation' process now typically takes 2 minutes, instead of the 2 to 5 days it used it. [It does not automatically adjust the 'fruit' symbols yet.]
4. Logged in members can view a 'Your Donation Receipts' option under the 'Donors' tab of the Library. Selecting this option will provide a user with a number of charitable donation tax receipt letters that are formatted for printing.
5. The menu bar on the top of each page in the library show you the number of unique contributors to date along with the dollars raised today in real time. Donate to Paypal, the page should update itself within 2 minutes. [Note that under 1/5 of the total 'Raised to Date' is 'in kind' donations. Not all of it is cash.]
6. We've begun working on a 'State of the Nation' report for the Library 501(c)3 charity.
SITE CHANGES – OTHER
1. In the past 60 days, we've taken over 600 uploaded machine photos, approved, cropped, and posted them online.
2. We've added the first three upcoming events from the main site's events calendar to a little box on the main site page.
3. There have been literally hundreds of minor bug fixes to various scripts.
UPCOMING
Key areas of focus in the next 2 months are going to be on the submission queues for the main encyclopedia and finding way to make them more efficient; the main site game detail page; the forums; and the Library.
Thank you for your interest.
Greg
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