No Nonsense Gamers - Monthly Newsletter: November 2012

Hey No Nonsense Gamers!! It’s time for another monthly newsletter. It’s crazy how time flies! We’ve got Thanksgiving coming up, then Christmas and New Year’s shortly after that. So first and foremost we want to wish everyone a safe and happy upcoming holiday season! To our foreign brethren who won’t be celebrating Turkey Day, I will be sure to post a pic or two of our local festivities so that you may live vicariously through our typical American over self-indulgence :9

Ok, let’s get right into business. This newsletter is going to include a full breakdown of all the forum updates I’ve been working on so grab some tea, settle into your chair and get ready for a long read.

New BF3 Server Admins:

We recently added Linchpinn and Phragg our BF3 Server Administration crew. Both come to the table with past Battlefield administration experience and are going to be working to help keep our server clear of the nonsense. They will be especially crucial during late night hours when griefing and teamkilling really seem to take off. Thanks to both these guys for giving up a few fractions of playtime to help run the server!


Planet Side 2 Releases in 4 days:

This is really exciting! This will be the first game we’ve launched into with a new division! Jaamaw and company have been doing a kick ass job. We've brought a lot of awesome new people on board since the launch of the division and I expect we'll easily double that a few months after release on 11.20.2012. If you haven't been following the Planet Side 2 subforums you should check them out. There are awesome videos capture by various members of the NNG crew, screencaps of NNG dominating entire continents and the typical hijinks we get ourselves into. If you have any thoughts or ideas on how we can continue to make our PS2 division better please get in touch with Jaamaw.


Griefing in the Battlefield 3 Server:

So you may or may have not noticed but griefing seems to be at an all time high. Let's keep doing what we do best and handle the bullshit swiftly. Don't get sucked into petty arguments or trivial matters. It's not worth the time or effort. If someone is breaking the rules repeatedly, drop the hammer. If someone needs a warning or a /kill, then please do so but refrain from getting pulled into public squabbles. It's not good for our image. Admins that goes for all yall. I'll just drop this little excerpt here as a reminder on what you signed your life away to:

So anyway, ministory time:

Linch, SolidSteelXP and I had the great displeasure of playing on an XTG Armored Kill server last night. When I first spawned on the US side I ran into the Viper and took the gunner's seat. The pilot sat there. Right away I knew something was wrong. I saw his friend run up and I knew what was going to happen. He tk'ed me and took my seat. Could I punish him? No. No punishment system. So at the end of the round I tk'ed the admin, who was actually the pilot, and he used the kill command on me. How nice!! So players can't punish for intentional TK's, but the admins can. As the round went on they continued the bullshit. Within 15 mninutes, Solid, Linch and I were all banned from the server. These servers suck. Ours on the other hand rules. We do a kick ass job, we have good people and we know how to run it properly. Thank you all for being who you are and helping NNG rock out! Couldn't do it without all of you.



Battlefield 3 Aftermath Is Coming Soon:

On 12.03 Aftermath will be released to all Premium players. While I don't expect that we'll be running it on our server, I think we should definitely arrange some pub stomps on other public servers. From the new environments and vehicles, plus that Crossbow it could end up being a lot of fun. We've seen what running Armored Kill on the server for a couple weeks did to us so I think we're going to have to pass this one up all together. Our server seems to have found its niche and we should keep it that way. The expansion packs really seem to be trailing off in terms of popularity. When searching for a 64player AK server (hardcore) in the US you only get about 8 to choose from. All but one are completely empty. These lackluster attempts at DLC are I believe, designed to pacify us until Battlefield 4 comes out. In furtherance of that opinion it is publicly known that DICE currently has a skeleton crew of 10 designers working on BF3 DLC. The other 100+ of them are working full capacity on Battlefield 4 already.


Language In The TeamSpeak Server:

I will keep this one short and sweet. We have a language filter in our BF3 server. That sets the precedent for how all other language should be used in every other game or channel we are in. Those caught breaking the rules will be 1: Called out on it, 2: Potentially removed from the community. We have no problem with swearing or cursing. Derogatory or racist terms are a 100% no-no. There are also a few select four letter words that are usually considered to be highly offensive by many people, so please, keep it clean. Thanks.


Website and Forum Changes:

OK this one is going to be long so you may need to refresh that cup of tea I mentioned earlier on

Over the past couple weeks I've been working on implementing various enhancements and changes to the website. Some are minor cosmetic enhancements some dive deeper into core functionality and usability. I can't emulate the awesome patch notes like the PS2 devs do so bear with me.

Upgraded to Xenforo version 1.1.3. Fixes:

• Plain BB codes didn't always work correctly when nested
• PHP 5.4 incompatibilities fixed
• Missing forum info when merging posts
• Dots are not removed from integer params in URLs in all situations where necessary
• In-page navigation with quote attribution links does not change browser history
• correctly

Forum User Enhancements:

• Added list of users who viewed thread to thread header area.
  
• Thread voting: This is going to be a test phase. Could be a slippery slope. We'll see how it goes.
  
• Edit Thread Title: Members who start a thread may edit the thread title by editing the first post and selecting the 'More options...' button.
  
• Edit Thread Prefix: Members who start a thread may edit the thread prefix by editing the first post and selecting the 'More options...' button.
  
• Add Poll to existing thread: Members who start a thread may add a poll to the thread by editing the first post and selecting the 'More options...' button.
  
• Lock / Unlock own thread. Members who start a thread may lock/unlock the thread by editing the first post and selecting the 'More options...' button. However, they may not unlock threads that were locked by an administrator or a moderator.
  
• User Name Change: Members may change their user name X amount of times by selecting the 'Change User Name' link on their Account page. Option to display previous names via a tab on the member's profile page.
  
• User Action Log: Deletion of posts, changing usernames, editing post messages (with optional grace period time limit), editing thread titles and thread prefixes, are logged and displayed via a user log in the Admin Control Panel (ACP).
  
• Display a 'Last edited by' note: This option displays at the bottom of each edited post message.
  
• Edit Reason: Users may provide a reason for their edits when editing posts.
  
• Post Edit History with the ability to compare posts: Each edited post has a list of previous edits. Clicking on one of the edit information links opens the pre-edited version of that post in an overlay. You may also compare edits via an overlay.

Conversation Enhancements:

We've been heavily leveraging the Conversation tool on the forums as part of our recruitment and application process. It's a brilliant system so I'm trying to make it a little more user friendly and manageable for long term stuff.

• Easily see conversation participants: Conversation participants will now be visible in both the conversation list and the inbox popup menu. In the conversation list, the participants will be displayed as usernames. An overlay with all the participants is also available. Should a conversation have more participants than can be displayed, a '... and x more' link will be available to you which opens an overlay with a list of all the participants.
  
  View your Inbox here: http://nononsensegamers.com/forums/conversations/
  
  
• Easily see who has left a conversation permanently: Participants who have left a conversation permanently (ie will never receive further responses), are now displayed with a strike-through their username and an X at the top right corner of their avatar.This is invaluable information as before you did not know whether a participant will ever see/read your message. If all participants have left a particular conversation, the reply box will now be hidden to prevent sending out a message that no one will ever see/read.
  
• Multiple conversations manipulation: All conversations now have a check-box beside their title, allowing for the selection of multiple conversations to be processed inline all at once. Actions that may be performed inline are:
  
  
  • Leave a conversation​
  • Set Prefix
  • Stick / unstick
  • Mark read / unread
  • Lock / unlock

• Prefixes: This option provides certain usergroups the ability to create their own prefixes and assign them to their conversations for easy referencing. Conversations are searchable by prefix.
  
  Create prefixes here: http://nononsensegamers.com/forums/account/conversation-prefixes
  
  
• Participant groups: This option provides certain usergroups with the ability to create Participant Groups. These groups of multiple recipient names are then available via a drop-down menu when starting a new conversation. This is a great time saver when you often need to start a conversation with the same group of people such as people who need to be looped into Recruitment conversations of Welcome Letters.
  
  Initiated in your profile page here: http://nononsensegamers.com/forums/account/conversation-groups
  
  
• Inbox size limit: 50 conversations for registered forum users - 100 for admins. A visual percentage bar and text is displayed on the conversation list page, giving you a clear indication of exactly how much space you have left in your inbox. Once the limit is reached, you are prevented from starting or receiving new conversations. Should a member be blocked from receiving a conversation, they will get an alert indicating that person X has tried to contact them but could not get through due to their inbox being full.
  
• Auto Respond to conversation starter: With this option, you are able to set an auto response message to new conversations you receive while on vacation. Each member can set a start date, an end date, and the message that will be automatically posted for them whenever they receive a new conversation.
  
  Initiated in your profile page here: http://nononsensegamers.com/forums/account/conversation-auto-response
  
  
• Moderator Auto Respond after X number of days. This feature ensures that conversations directed at moderators do not go un-answered. If one of your moderators is contacted but he/she has not logged-in for X number of days, the system will first attempt to auto respond with the moderator's Auto Response message (user group permission required). Should this moderator not have an active auto response, the system will then respond with the Mod Auto Response suggesting the member contact one of the other moderators instead.
  
• Sticky a conversation: Conversations can now be set as Stickies. A Sticky ensures the conversation will always remain at the top of the list. Simply check the box next to the message you wish to sticky and select the appropriate option from the drop down.
  
• Locked conversations display a 'locked' icon as well provide the appropriate status text when viewing the conversation.
  
• Option to allow admins and moderators to reply to locked conversations: This saves moderators from having to start a new conversation whenever a member contacts them with a locked conversation.
  
• Inbox popup last poster avatar: When you mouseover a conversation in your inbox a popup preview of the message will display along with the avatar of the last person to reply.
  
• Kick Participants out of conversations: Option to allow certain user groups to kick a user out of their conversation via a link in the participant's mini avatar. A kicked user may be re-invited back into the conversation at any time. Please note that those users who leave the conversation on their own accord cannot be invited back as per default XenForo behaviour. Administrators and Moderators cannot be kicked out of conversations. Use this ethically please.
  
• Maximum Conversation Participants: 20 participants per conversation for registered users. Unlimited for admins.

Closer:
In one month we'll be celebrating No Nonsense Gamers' 1 year anniversary. If anyone has any ideas on how we can celebrate let either Orestes or I know. If we all agree that a simple pub stomp session while consuming alcoholic beverages is the way to go then I think we'd be fine with that
As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding NNG please do not hesitate to reach out to senior staff. We're here to help.
Another good month for NNG is well underway. Let's keep kicking ass people!!!!
Thanks,
Orestes and Ghost
-NNG Community Leaders

 

"If anyone has any ideas on how we can celebrate let either Orestes or I know."

Yeah, get your asses to Viking country (totally not expensive at all!) and I'll buy you a round of Norrlands Guld!

 

I'd be down! We're planning on going to Denmark for our honeymoon next year. We'll be in your hood!

 

Awesome

 

QTF

I am going to bake something awesome and invite orestes, troph, and scyo over. Party in MD!

 

I had hopped that QTF meant something really offensive or disgusting, but it seems that QTF and QFT are pretty much interchangeable....

 

I meant QFT. Damn my dyslexia.

 

I won't say no to baked goods...but...how can we pub stomp people if we are sitting around eating cookies at your place!

 

meh we can do the pub stomping one night and the baked goods on another. NNG 1 year anniversary should be a month long celebration.

 

Brilliant!