Today's update adds a few goodies for Allods Online and Star Trek Online guilds, as well as some extras =)

Allods Online Themes

Theme Details: Oaloe Dark, Oaloe Light

Allods Online Item Tooltips
Item Tooltips for Allods Online are now integrated throughout the site, and will show information in the bank and dkp sections. You can also create an item tooltip anywhere with the [item] bbcode tag, such as [item]Hammer of Uplifting Dreams[/item], or by linking to content on http://allodsdatabase.com.



Login Block
There is now a login block you can add to your site. Adding the login block removes the user status bar, which along with the main menu block that removes the main menu bar, allows you to further customize your site's layout by moving top information to the side columns.



Star Trek Online Server Status
For Star Trek Online guilds, there is now a server status block you can add to your site which will show the status of the game's server.

Code Cleanup: CSS & Game Resources
We rewrote a lot of our css and scripts which fetch external game resources as part of this update. This resolved a few small bugs which had existed, such as webkit browsers (chrome, safari) hiding 1px of our side column, and should make features such as the item tooltips and server status blocks work a little nicer. If you notice any issues after these changes please let us know.

Today's update adds two new blocks to the site, along with a few tweaks =)

Twitter Block
If your guild has it's own twitter account, there is now a twitter block you can add to your site to display your tweets; just supply your twitter username. You can add this block from the layout tab of your site admin.



TeamSpeak 3 Block
As TeamSpeak 3 works differently and supports quite a few different features from TS2, we've added a new TeamSpeak 3 block. You can add this block from the layout tab of your site admin.



Voice Blocks to Free Plan
The Ventrilo, TeamSpeak 2 and TeamSpeak 3 blocks are now part of our Free plan =)

Accepting Guildapps Tweak
Currently, when you accept a guildapp it checks if there already exists a member on your site with the same email, and if so it does nothing (since they already have an account on your site); this was causing some confusion though as members would apply, forgetting they already had an account with the site that was flagged as inactive or deleted. So to try and avoid this, when you accept a guildapp now if there already exists a member on your site with that email, it will flag them as active.

Improved Members Admin Search
To make it easier to find existing members who may be inactive or deleted we've updated the live search on the members page to include a few new features. Users with the Members Admin permission can now search for members by email and account name, and can also search status by Active, Inactive or Deleted.



Allods Online Item Tooltips
Some initial integration with http://allodsdatabase.com is now live, allowing you to create tooltips by linking to content on http://allodsdatabase.com. More detailed integration with bbcode, bank and raid items is coming with the next update, along with a few Allods Online themes =)

One of our goals for twenty-ten is to be more social, and to kick that off we've launched a facebook fan page for MMO Guildsites this weekend. The fan page provides us a more interactive way to socialize with you all than this blog, and we'll also be using it to post some interesting content such as tips and tricks with our features and showcases for guild sites.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner and our new fan page ready, what better time for a contest? =)

Valentine's Facebook Contest
For this contest simply become a fan of MMO Guildsites on Facebook to have your chance to win a $50 gift card from Amazon. Contest ends February 14th.

this contest is open to anyone with an MMO Guildsites account (not just site owners as with most of our contests), so feel free to pass the message on to your guild members if you feel they would be interested =)

Update: the contest has now ended, congrats to our winner Esther Matut! =)

For the launch of Star Trek Online and Global Agenda, we have a few game specific themes now available.

Jarid (Orange, Purple, Green and Light Versions)

Theme Details: Jarid Orange, Jarid Purple, Jarid Green, Jarid Light

Skyn (Blue and Red Versions)

Theme Details: Skyn Blue, Skyn Red

If you like these themes but your guild plays a different game remember we provide you a full theme editor you can use to modify themes, and you can easily tweak these to be used for your game =)

For today's update we have some new features for World of Warcraft, Runes of Magic, Champions Online and more!

WoW 3d Model
Blizzard has recently added 3d models to the armory, and these are now available when viewing characters on your site. This feature requires our Premium Plan.



WoW Character Activity Feed
Blizzard has also recently added activity feeds for characters to the armory, and these are also available while viewing your character on your guild site. This feature requires our Premium Plan.

Runes of Magic Item Tooltips
Item tooltips for Runes of Magic are now integrated throughout the site. They are automatically enabled for bank and raid items, and you can manually add them anywhere with bbcode, such as [item]Snow War Hammer[/item]. You can also create tooltips by linking to content on http://runesdb.com



RunesDB Search
A new side block to search the RunesDB site is now available for Runes of Magic guilds



More Server Status Blocks
Server Status blocks are now available for Champions Online, Rappelz and Ether Saga Online. You may add these blocks to your site from the Layout tab of your Site Admin.



More Blocks to our Free Plan
The following blocks were previously only available with our Premium Plan and have now been made part of our Free Plan as well:

WoW Server Alerts - show server alert messages from Blizzard
Wowhead search - search wowhead.com from your guild site
Aion Armory search - search aionarmory.com from your guild site
WarDB search - search wardb.com from your guild site

We've been hard at work for the past few months getting the Audit log feature added to each of the site's sections, and with most now having the audit log we wanted to launch a new feature today based on it, "What's New!"

What's New
The What's New feature is a feed for all new content on your site. It is fully permission-aware, so your users only see what they have permissions to view.



What's New is available as a home or side block you can add from the Layout tab of your Site Admin, and can also be accessed at http://your-site.mmoguildsites.com/whats_new

We hope everyone's enjoying 2010 so far =)

Just in time for new years, we have one last update for 2009, the forums and polls update! =)

Forum Sections & Subforums
The forums structure has changed slightly, and is now as follows:

Forum Sections > Forums > Subforums (optional) > Threads > Posts

Forum Sections are dividers for your forums. They are also clickable now, allowing you to show sections of your forums on different pages if you like. Subforums are forums nested below another forum and inherit their parent forum's permissions.



Improved Forums Admin Page
The forums admin page has been updated to be much simpler and quicker to work with. Organization of your forum sections, forums and subforums are all done with drag-and-drop, and modifying or adding content is all done in place =)



Simplified Forum Permissions
Earlier in December we proposed some forum changes on our blog and requested some feedback, and proof that feedback makes everything better, we came up with a better solution based on the discussion =)

Forums now have a check box, "Allow threads within this forum to set additional view level permissions". If you check this, threads can have additional read/write permissions in that forum, if you don't, they just use the forums permissions.

By default this check box is unticked for new guilds to keep permissions simple. For existing guilds, we've parsed all existing forums, and if they have any threads with higher permissions then their forum they have the box checked, if not they don't (ie if you were using thread permissions in a forum they are still enabled there, if you weren't they are not)

Forum Post Previews
When creating a new forum thread or post there is now a preview button, allowing you to see how your post will look before saving it.

Forums & Polls Live Searching
Live search has been enabled for the forums and polls now, and should especially make finding content in your forums much easier.

From your top level forums page, you can click search to live search through all threads on your site. From within a forum you can live search through all threads belonging to that forum. And from within a thread you can live search through all posts belonging to that thread.

Forums & Polls Audit Logs
Audit logs have now been enabled for the forums and polls section of your site.

Forums & Polls In-place edit
In-place editing has been enabled for the forums and polls section now also.

That's all for 2009, but with lots more to come in 2010! Happy New Years everyone!

Congratulations to the winner of our Christmas Contest:

Kuroi Tenshi of Atonementaion! =)

Their prize is WET


Thanks to everyone who participated, and we hope you all have happy holidays =)

Orcish bells,
"help me!" yells,
me axe be cleavin' all da way!

... or something along those lines ... it's our "What game do you want for Christmas" contest! How's this contest work? It's easy, just let us know which game you want for Christmas in a comment on this blog post before December 21st, and on the 21st we'll randomly select a winner and mail them their game! =)

Contest Rules
Just a few simple rules.

• The game must be under $100USD in price (which should be most games).
• The game must be for a current system such as the pc, ps3, ds, wii, etc. (ie please no games for older systems such as sega genesis as they may be too difficult to obtain)
• The game must be relatively easy to purchase (ie please do not select a very obscure or foreign game, as it may be too difficult to obtain)

Who's Eligible?
This contest is open to both our free and premium plan site owners who created their sites prior to December 14th, 2009. As an example, if you created your site on Dec 13, 2009 or earlier you are eligible. If you created your site on Dec 14th, 2009 or later you are not (but our next contest won't be too far away!)

Happy Holidays!

Our next update focuses on the forums and includes some changes to their permissions, which we wanted to collect some early feedback on before we push live. How the forum permissions currently work is:

Forums can have a read view level and a write view level
Threads can have a read view level and a write view level

To view a forum, you must pass the forum's read view level.
To add a new thread within a forum, you must pass the forum's write view level.
To view a thread, you must pass the thread's read view level and the forum it belongs to read view level.
To add a new post within a thread, you must pass only the thread's write view level (the forum it belongs to write view level does not matter)

This system, while flexible, has a few drawbacks; the biggest being it can be confusing. Your users create threads, not just forum admins, and they shouldn't have to deal with setting permissions when creating a thread, so we want to simplify this.

Proposed Simplification

To simplify permissions for the forums, we want to remove thread permissions. Then, you would only set permissions on forums and it should be much clearer how it works. The new permission system would be:

Forums can have a read view level and a write view level

To view a forum, you must pass the forum's read view level.
To add a new thread within a forum, you must pass the forum's write view level.

You could then view any thread that belongs to a forum you can view, and reply to any thread you can view. Simple =)

Impact of Change

Currently a thread can have a view level different from the forum it belongs to, which poses a problem for this change to go live. We don't want to remove the thread's permissions, as it may expose it to members who shouldn't see it, and we don't want to just delete the thread either..

Our plan then is to parse each forum, and if it contains any threads that have a higher read view level then the forum, to create a new forum with those permissions and move it there; this is perhaps easier explained with an example:

An example of a guild's forums:

• Officer Discussion read/write view level of 4
• • all threads contained have read view level of 4 or below
• Guild Discussion read/write view level of 1
• • contains a thread called officer info read view level of 4
  • contains a thread called officer meeting read view level of 4
  • contains a thread called moderator info read view level of 3
  • rest of threads contain read view level of 1 or below

After the update, the guild's forums would be modified to:

• Officer Discussion read/write view level of 4
• • all threads still here as they had read view level of 4 or less
• Guild Discussion read/write view level of 1
• • contains all the guild discussion threads that had read view level of 1 or less
• Guild Discussion - View Level 4 read/write view level of 4
• • contains the threads officer info and officer meeting
• Guild Discussion - View Level 3 read/write view level of 3
• • contains the thread moderator info

This would allow us to make this change without deleting or exposing any threads, but may add additional forums to your site you don't want; you may then want to move the threads and remove the extra forums; in the above example, the "Guild Discussion - View Level 4" forum could likely be removed and the threads migrated to the "Officer Discussion" forum.

Feedback Requested

Of our active guilds, almost 80% are currently only using forum permissions; they have no threads which have higher view levels then the forums they are in; so for those guilds, this change likely won't cause any issues; their forums wouldn't be changed at all as they have no threads that have permissions set. However the other 20% do have some threads which have higher view levels then the forums they are contained in, so this change may affect you more.

In either case we would appreciate any feedback on this change, whether you like it or dislike it, and especially if you dislike the change if you have any suggestions or comments you could provide.

note: this is only a proposed change, if several users state they prefer to have thread permissions we will not go forward with the change