Ahoy everyone! 
Our site administrator, @Keith, has recently upgraded the PiratesAhoy! forum to the latest version of XenForo, which brings with it a number of cool new features and enhancements.
In this thread, I will outline some of the key features that many of you may want to use or know about.
Thread Tagging
You can now add 'tags' to threads, which act in a similar way to Twitter hashtags. These can be used to filter threads when searching the forum, and are displayed at the top of the page beneath the thread title.
Obviously this system could get out of hand with too many tags, so for now we are limiting this to a maximum of five tags per thread.
In addition, while we will let anyone apply an existing tag to their own threads, we will only allow content creators (e.g. Storm modders and Hearts of Oak contributors) to create new tags.
Floating Notice Banners
By now, you're probably used to see notice banners scrolling across the top of the forum. With the forum upgrade, admins can now create 'floating' banners that will appear in the bottom right of the screen. We will use this to highlight new content or notify users of new threads and articles that may be of interest.
See an example below for welcoming new users:
These banners may only appear for a brief time, or they may remain visible until you dismiss them by clicking the 'X' in the top right corner.
Two-Step Verification
This is a big improvement to account security that you can opt into if you wish. Basically, two-step verification makes your account more secure by requiring you to enter a one-time code each time you log in. This code can be generated via a smartphone authenticator app, or it can be sent to you via email.
Of course, not everyone will want to go through an extra step before logging in, so it will be up to you to decide whether the extra security would benefit you or not.
To enable this feature, click on your account name at the top of the page and select Two-Step Verification:
You will be required to re-enter your password, and then you will be given the option to enable either app-based or email-based verification. If you choose the app option, a QR code will appear that you can scan with an authenticator app on your smartphone (such as Google Authenticator). Once done, enter the code generated by the app and the process be complete.
You may also want to generate back-up codes that you can use in an emergency (such as losing your phone), though you'll need to store these somewhere safe.
Finally, if you don't wish to use the extra login step every time, you can choose to "Trust this device for 30 days", which will only ask you for the verification code after a thirty day period. Non-trusted devices will require the extra step every time you log in.
For more information, see this thread on the XenForo forum, or contact me if you have any queries.
Link Title Conversion
To make your posts neater, any forum URLs that you paste into your message will now be shortened to display the title of the linked thread.
For example, the following URL...
... is converted to this link text: Notice - Welcome and Forum Rules! | PiratesAhoy!
New Posts Block
When browsing the forum index, you will now see a list of new posts on the right of the page, similar to the forum front page. This is handy if you want to see the latest activity at a glance.
Profile Posts 'Likes'
As with regular forum posts, you can now 'Like' users' profile posts. The user will be notified of this as they would if you liked one of their other messages.
Bonus! - Select Quote
This is actually a feature introduced in the previous forum upgrade, but for a while it was disabled in the default theme because of an error in the style templates.
Recently, however, we have resolved this problem and enabled the Select Quote feature in the default forum theme. Instead of clicking Reply and splitting up someone's post to quote different parts of it, you can now select a specific section of a post and quote that directly. This also works with the Add Quote feature that lets you collect a series of quotes and add them to your post in whatever order you want.
Those are all the key features in this upgrade. For more information on all of the above, visit the XenForo Community. We hope you continue to enjoy your time on this forum, and if you have any questions, be sure to let us know!
If you happen to come across any forum issues, please post about it in the Website Bugs and Problems forum and we'll see if we can sort it out.
Our site administrator, @Keith, has recently upgraded the PiratesAhoy! forum to the latest version of XenForo, which brings with it a number of cool new features and enhancements.
In this thread, I will outline some of the key features that many of you may want to use or know about.
Thread Tagging
You can now add 'tags' to threads, which act in a similar way to Twitter hashtags. These can be used to filter threads when searching the forum, and are displayed at the top of the page beneath the thread title.
Obviously this system could get out of hand with too many tags, so for now we are limiting this to a maximum of five tags per thread.
In addition, while we will let anyone apply an existing tag to their own threads, we will only allow content creators (e.g. Storm modders and Hearts of Oak contributors) to create new tags.
Floating Notice Banners
By now, you're probably used to see notice banners scrolling across the top of the forum. With the forum upgrade, admins can now create 'floating' banners that will appear in the bottom right of the screen. We will use this to highlight new content or notify users of new threads and articles that may be of interest.
See an example below for welcoming new users:
These banners may only appear for a brief time, or they may remain visible until you dismiss them by clicking the 'X' in the top right corner.
Two-Step Verification
This is a big improvement to account security that you can opt into if you wish. Basically, two-step verification makes your account more secure by requiring you to enter a one-time code each time you log in. This code can be generated via a smartphone authenticator app, or it can be sent to you via email.
Of course, not everyone will want to go through an extra step before logging in, so it will be up to you to decide whether the extra security would benefit you or not.
To enable this feature, click on your account name at the top of the page and select Two-Step Verification:
You will be required to re-enter your password, and then you will be given the option to enable either app-based or email-based verification. If you choose the app option, a QR code will appear that you can scan with an authenticator app on your smartphone (such as Google Authenticator). Once done, enter the code generated by the app and the process be complete.
You may also want to generate back-up codes that you can use in an emergency (such as losing your phone), though you'll need to store these somewhere safe.
Finally, if you don't wish to use the extra login step every time, you can choose to "Trust this device for 30 days", which will only ask you for the verification code after a thirty day period. Non-trusted devices will require the extra step every time you log in.
For more information, see this thread on the XenForo forum, or contact me if you have any queries.
Link Title Conversion
To make your posts neater, any forum URLs that you paste into your message will now be shortened to display the title of the linked thread.
For example, the following URL...
Code:
http://www.piratesahoy.net/link-forums/welcome-message-and-forum-rules.132/New Posts Block
When browsing the forum index, you will now see a list of new posts on the right of the page, similar to the forum front page. This is handy if you want to see the latest activity at a glance.
Profile Posts 'Likes'
As with regular forum posts, you can now 'Like' users' profile posts. The user will be notified of this as they would if you liked one of their other messages.
Bonus! - Select Quote
This is actually a feature introduced in the previous forum upgrade, but for a while it was disabled in the default theme because of an error in the style templates.
Recently, however, we have resolved this problem and enabled the Select Quote feature in the default forum theme. Instead of clicking Reply and splitting up someone's post to quote different parts of it, you can now select a specific section of a post and quote that directly. This also works with the Add Quote feature that lets you collect a series of quotes and add them to your post in whatever order you want.
Those are all the key features in this upgrade. For more information on all of the above, visit the XenForo Community. We hope you continue to enjoy your time on this forum, and if you have any questions, be sure to let us know!
If you happen to come across any forum issues, please post about it in the Website Bugs and Problems forum and we'll see if we can sort it out.
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