MMAForums.net has been upgraded with a plethora or new features and improvements. While not all of the following have been enabled, most of them have and should go a long way to improving the forum.
*Note: The screenshots below show the forum's standard default skin, but the actual functions and features are in our customized skin 
Video Posting Feature
Since we're an MMA forum where discussion revolves around professional fighting, I've finally added the ability to embed actual videos into posts. This means clips of fights, weigh-in's, highlight reels, etc.
Adding a video is as simple as can be: simply paste the URL of the video in the post, and it will automatically be displayed as a playable video.
YouTube - BloodSport OST Music Video
Video is compatible from the the following sites:
YouTube v1.0.0
Google Video v1.0.0
MySpace Video v1.0.0
MetaCafe Video v1.0.0
Yahoo Video v1.0.1
Koreus Video v1.0.1
Sapo Video v1.0.1
video.google.co.uk v1.0.2
Live Leak v1.0.2
Photobucket v1.0.3
Gametrailers v1.0.3
MyVideo v1.0.4
GameSpot v1.0.4
Veoh v1.0.4
StreetFire v1.0.4
Stage6 v1.0.4
Sevenload v1.0.4
Izlesene v1.0.4
Vidiac v1.0.4
Xtube v1.0.6
VidMax v1.0.6
RedTube v1.0.6
OnSmash v1.0.6
GodTube v1.0.6
PornoTube v1.0.6
BrightCove v1.0.7
YouKu v1.0.7
LiveVideo v1.0.7
Break v1.0.8
ExpertVillage v1.1.2
I will be creating guidelines for video posting in the official forum rules, so be sure to refamiliarize yourself with the forum rules soon.
New Sub-Forums Added
Eight (Yes, 8!) new forums have been added to the site in order to give dedicated discussion areas to specific fighting organizations.
First, the sub-forum
The Ultimate Fighter has been added underneath the popular
UFC Discussion forum.
Next, a new forum called
DREAM Discussion was made, and the previous
Pride Discussion forum has been moved underneath it as a sub-forum since the organization has since perished.
Lastly, a new forum called
Other MMA Organizations was made and it has 5 sub-forums within it for
WEC,
EliteXC/Strikeforce,
KOTC,
Cage Rage, and
K-1.
The addition of these forums should help organize the forums a lot better.
Inline Spam Management and Prevention Tools
Deleting spam and banning spammers has always been an arduous task for moderators and administrators. While it only takes about 30-40 seconds to ban a spammer and delete the thread, when staff wake up to a dozen spammed threads, it can quickly become tiresome.
Fortunately, this is now much faster and simpler:
For staff, threads and posts can be selected in the usual inline moderation fashion, and then the new 'Delete Threads/Posts as Spam' command can be selected which will load the spam management interface. This contains options on a single page for removing the spam posts and threads, banning the spammers and finding other spam they may have posted.
As the screenshot below illustrates, staff can now delete multiple spammers and delete multiple threads in the same area. It will also only ban the member who created the spammed thread, so if legitiate members replied to the thread, they won't be banned.
Staff can now delete spammed threads and ban the members in a fraction of the time it took previously.
Thread Tagging
Note: I have currently disabled this feature as I do not think it would be used.
A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.
Tags can be added when creating a new thread, or to an existing thread by any user (with appropriate permissions).
Any users who then click on these tags will not only find all thread that have the same tag as the one clicked, but will also contribute to the building of a search tag cloud, which gives users a quick guide as to what has been searched for recently and most frequently.
Thread Prefixes
You may have seen this feature on other forums: threads can now have administrator-defined prefixes to their titles.
Thread prefixes are divided into groups by the administrator (me!), allowing different prefixes to be available in different forums.
I have not added any thread prefixes yet as I have not thought of any that would be useful yet. If you think of some that might be useful, let me know and I'll certainly consider adding them.
Reciprocal Friendships Between Users
As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.
Public Messaging
Members can now communicate publicly via their profile pages with our new public messaging system. It works similar to "The Wall" feature on Facebook:
User Picture Galleries
Members can now create albums and upload pictures to their account! No more need for Flickr or 3rd-party image hosts:
The ability to view these albums and pictures can be limited by the user to just board staff and people on their buddy list if they want privacy.
I've created
Tyler's Test Album as an example. Check it out to see how the photo album's work.
You can easily organize your photos by creating folders and moving them back and forth. And, of course, all the photos you upload are easily added into posts with a simple BBCODE URL that is located at the bottom of each photo.
Members can also comment on your photos!
User-Created Social Groups
To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, members can now create their own social/interest groups.
These groups are enhanced by having their own public messaging system, and the ability to add pictures to the group from user albums.
I created the sample user group
GSP Fans as an example.
New Member Profile Page
The member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up.
The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface.
Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.
Member Customization of Profile Page
Members can now use the profile page customization tool, which allows the altering of fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of the profile page in order to create a more personalized look.
Inline Editing of Profile Field Values
The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.
Attachment Viewing Lightbox
Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.
Post Edit History
It is now possible to log all edits to posts and then review the changes at a later date.
Inline Moderation Enhanced Authentication
When performing inline moderation actions, board staff will now be required to re-authenticate themselves if they have not done so in their browsing session.
This prevents the possibility of unauthorized parties acting as a moderator on a public computer where a board staff member has accidentally ticked the 'remember me' box.
Navbar Notices
Custom notifications will now appear underneath the navbar when users fulfill specified criteria.
For example, there is now a message displayed to members who have registered but never posted, encouraging them to post!
New Human Verification Systems
I had a custom plugin that did this previously, but it's always better to have built-in features when possible, and eliminate 3rd-party plugins.
Basically, this new feature lets the administrator (me) choose what type of spam-protection to use against bots that automatically try to register and post on the site.
User Change History
In order to track changes made to users' profiles by staff, a change log is now kept for various user profile fields including username, usergroup etc.
Social Bookmarking of Threads
Note: I have disabled this feature as I don't think that anyone would use it, and to be honest, I don't think that many threads would be accepted on the Social Bookmark sites.
I hope you enjoy all the new features and improvements!
Huge List of New Features & Improvements!
Linear Mode
