Update Diary thingy

[This Land]

The forum is going to be upgraded very soon, as soon as i have a whole day to myself the software will be changing on this forum.

Now during the upgrade there will be a bit of downtime and after that things may look very different and non tlkgo-ish while i have a play around and test new stuff, but the forum itself will still be 100% usable.

Im Going to have a complete re-fresh in how the forum looks and how it links to the website and You - the members get a say in it =3, i will be asking for feedback and your ideas ^^.

I have had a little play around on a test forum and things seem hopefull.

May i also take this opportunity to thank every one of you who come on TLKGO, you all have made this place a nice little community in which you should be proud of. Recently i havent been active in any RP's but im hoping to change that =3

So yes, loads of changes, Yay ! =D

[Deleted]

Wow leave for about a month and you guys change everything. LOL.

[This Land]

Hehe ^^

Just to let everyone know, the forum is still going through mild changes to if you see anything out of place, don't worry im just working on something

[This Land]

Done some Navigation bar and custom page stuffs

Added a new "Welcome" page which has replaced the old home page. Added a new "About TLKGO" page to replace the old history page. Plus tonnes of other minor tweaks that aint that interesting to talk about hehe, but they just make the place look that little nicer ^^

Remember that the member profiles have changed alot since the major update, have a good look around with the features, they are pretty cool ! You now can update your status which will be shown in your profile and mini profile next to all your posts, you can follow members and keep track of their activity and the Private messaging system is alot nicer as it is shows as a conversation and not individual message.

Coming soon~

-TLKGO fanart gallery to replace the old one. =3

-Member suggestions

[This Land]

Been doing alot of background stuff recently (whole night of it last night Oo) mainly cleaning up the server and making all things load more efficiently. (I finally got the TLKGO music video working smoothly with a more fitting player bar wooo xP)

Also added a new "announcement" icon

I plan to work on the smilies and fan-art gallery today =3, which leads me onto this, if any of you have any images or artwork relating to TLKGO itself or any of the roleplays, feel free to pm me them along with a description of what the image is about, They will get displayed on your very own TLKGO gallery page

Thats all for now, i am experiencing power cuts today so plans may change, we will see xP.

[This Land]

Ive finally added 3 replacement smilies that Kanu Kindly done for me (sorry kept forgetting D8)


The latest major thing is i have added our full featured live chat again, which can be found via the top navigation bar. It was tested last night and its in full swing. I have been delaying putting it back in after the update because I wasn't sure if it would be used due to the shout-box being added. The shout-box is brilliant but we found out last night it can struggle on long conversations. So i added live chat again ^^

The good things about the live chat is that its far better when it comes to proper chat and multiple conversations as the re-fresh rate is instant (shout box can lag) also have different "rooms" instant private messaging plus loads of crazy sound effects (option to mute is there too xP) that tend to keep us all having a good laugh xD. I can download the full logs aswell so if any live roleplays are done or a conversation you want to keep, then i can do that for you

So yes, if any of you start to strike up a conversation in the shout-box, feel free to use live chat instead ^^

[Ruby_Fehu]

What are the new smiles? And I think you should do another photography thread like we used too.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Other than that one... haha

[This Land]

I Have been requested to enable the Bookmark Feature on the forum, i decided to go a step furthur ^^

You can now find TLKGO "Paw prints" on the navigation bar ^^

[This Land]

Yay, forgot to say the mobile version of this forum now has our colour scheme , dont know why they didnt release it sometime ago but hey ho xP

[Ruby_Fehu]

I've seen it, I went on my phone one day and it was orange not white

[Lionel]

Is the Dungeon master Rp or what was it called coming?

[This Land]

ah sorry, I seen this question sometime ago and forgot to respond

Well pulsar was going to be the guy to sort this out but he hasn't been around on TLKGO for ages now. I still keep in touch with him just I never really asked him about it because he was busy with other things. But next time i speak with him i will ask and let you know =3.

[Pulsar]

The Dungeon master RP thing was an idea I came up with to make something new on the forum and to deliver a different Rp style/situation than what we currently had available.
Unfortunately some personal matter popped up for me and I had to put the project on hiatus.

Whether or not it will be brought through is something both TL and I will have to discuss.

[This Land]

Mini Update
Added advanced options to quick reply box. This should make things a bit easier instead of going into seperate "reply" area ^^

[Zorayda]

Oh, nice! I like it, I did think opening the reply box in a separate window was a bit of a hassle. Good job, TL!

[Deleted]

:DI have alot of ideas, I would like to unleash, first of all, some of us might be more visual, and I would like to use more pictures, cause to me using pictures from the movies and other fan art are MORE FUN to make posts more eye catching. And I have always wondered, if you want to go the the Elephant Graveyard, or to Pride Rock, or even the jungle, where do you go for that? and lastly I would like to be able to share websites where TLK fans can view and buy merchandise from different sites, like Hot Topic and Disney Store and a new one that's coming out I hope. My Purpose as a TLK fan is to help TLK's Popularity GROW!

[Pulsar]

Those are some interesting ideas gothprincesskiara, but I'm not sure we could implement some of them. For example, allow members to post images for RPs could start to get very messy. While I can understand that some people are more visual based, this forum has always been a text based one. There's also the issue that if people start attaching images to their posts, it will lengthen the load time for a page. While one person posting 1 picture with their text post for an RP wouldn't be too taxing on someone's internet connection, several members posting images in their posts would start to take a toll. It's an accumulative effect. A page that is several posts worth of text will load noticeably quicker then say a page with the same amount of posts but with added pictures. Also to touch back on what I said a moment ago, everyone has different internet connections, a page that would otherwise load quickly for some, might not load as quickly for others. Text tends to load pretty fast and doesn't take much out of an internet connection in order to load it up, pictures however do. And while I can appreciate that some members might have good/fast connections (such as myself) we need to be considerate of those that don't, such as members who might live in less developed areas.
It's the same reason we restrict the size of an image that a member can have in their signature, while one member having a picture in their signature is fine, when several do, it starts to add more loading time.
In short, while the idea of being able to post pictures with posts for visual cues does sound good, I don't think we'll implement it, your suggestion is appreciated though.

I'm not sure I understand your suggestion about the Elephant Graveyard, etc. If you're referring to posting pictures of them as reference in an RP then it would fall under what I have just stated above. If you are referring to having them as areas outside of RPs then we would have no need as the forum already has areas dedicated to most aspects used by the community. Perhaps you could elaborate on it further for me?

As for your last suggestion, if you have found somewhere that sells TLK merchandise, you can share the links in the Out of Africa section, which is for posts of a more general nature. The thing about it is though, while we trust members of the community, there wouldn't be much stopping someone from posting a malicious link (one that contains a virus). For reasons like that I would be a bit hesitant about allowing members to start sharing links around the place. I'll need to see what TL has to say in that regard.

[mane6]

Since GothPrincessKiara already mentioned the Elephant Graveyard, I was thinking this is were the old Rps & The very long ended RPs could be stored.
I know there was already an area for this, but an Elephant Graveyard would be better. Or we could have a cloudy place, call it The Kings Of The Past Board,
and put all abandoned/finished rps in it, that people can choose to finish.

Again, I know there are areas for this.. buuuuut, my mind went crazy.

[KanuTGL]

Jumping in here, sorry xP

In regard to mane's post above, that is precisely what the "Roleplays of the Past" board is. (It doesn't seem to be used a whole lot recently though. I can point to a couple of RPs that should go in there by now, staffers... ) If I remember correctly, there was discussion on what to call it when it was first made and the name "The roleplay/elephant graveyard" was rejected xP

As for sharing links to TLK merchandise and such, I'd put that in the "Exploring the Pride Lands" board rather than Out of Africa. Out of Africa is for all things off-topic, whereas Exploring the Pride Lands is dedicated specifically to TLK-related discussion :3

Otherwise I agree with Pulsar regarding images in roleplay posts. For mobile users, images are a huge pain to load and I also think that including lots of images would break the flow of the text, making the RPs harder to read. And that's not even mentioning the copyright issues that I know would crop up, ahem...

However, I will say that including other media in roleplay posts isn't all bad. For example I'd like the idea of having a small banner image in the opening post of a long RP, to "set the mood". In The Seeds of Fate I once included an image of the monsters that were chasing the cast in a post to give everyone the same idea of what they looked like, but it was done as a clickable link that didn't disrupt the post itself. In The War for Surra Zorayda once did a similar thing where she embedded a link to a piece of music that would go along with her post. So if it's done subtly in ways that let the users decide for themselves if they want to "enrich" their experience or if they just want to read from beginning to end (ie by embedded links), I wouldn't be opposed to such things being more common.

[Pulsar]

I believe the Role-plays of the Past was supposed to be inspired by "the great kings of the past" from the movie, the concept that these things that were amazing had reached the end of their time and moved on but were still there in some form to inspire.
I had also planned on clearing out some "dead" RPs that are lying about in the forum, so you don't need to worry, it's on the to-do list.

As for the TLK merchandise, it is capable of going in the Out of Africa section, out of africa isn't stated as being "Off-Topic" it is a general section where one can "post about anything and everything". "Exploring the Pride lands" is about general TLK discussion so merchandise could also go in there. I just happened to list the other section instead, they'd fit in either. My concern is still present that members posting links would have me worried, while I'm sure many members on the forum are cautious (and while I'm not suggesting any of our members would have malicious intent), you never know what you'd be getting yourself into for clicking a link.
The same can be said for members having links in posts to music and pictures, while that's all fine and good I would err on the side of caution.
There's nothing wrong with the creator of a post attaching an image to set the scene on their first post, perhaps if they have a specific view they want to establish with the other members (like your example with how the enemies looked) or say to establish the visual look of an area or terrain. But something like that I would restrict to the first post. As I've stated previously, too many members posting pictures would have an accumulative effect and slow down load times for those with less effective internet.

[Deleted]

What I meant by suggesting Elephant Graveyard ,Jungle or Pride Rock is Role play based, if you wanted to role play something like a Lion goes to the Elepant Graveyard to explore or to scavenge for food, or some hyenas wanted to live in the Elephant Graveyard, or If a lion wanted to go to the Jungle to live the life of Hukuna Matata, and wanted to role play there, I suggesting there should be a role play board threads for Every Lion king universe locations, The Pridelands, Pride Rock, Elephant Graveyard, the Gorge, The Jungle, The Outlands.

and there is another TLK forum you can look at that im learning to use too, you can look at it to get some ideas, they are like this one but broader, not to say they are better then this but just something to look at for ideas www.mylionking.com/

[Pulsar]

Those sound interesting. Having a general area where people can drop in and drop out rather then RPs with some sort of base idea or story does sound interesting. Unfortunately sections like that wouldn't be much different from the Free Style Section where members can already just make random RPs and just base them in one of those said areas. What your idea sounds more like to me is like an MMO standard where there is a persistent area and role-players would come and go between each thread. While a giant universal Role-play does sound cool, the thing about that is that it could get very messy with people leaving one area thread and moving to another. Plus it also then comes to what would be allowed in these threads? Are original characters allowed? What about sic-fi and fantasy characters? or are they excluded? The idea sounds good, but in practice I'm not sure it would work out as well.

I had a look at the forum you linked, it's interesting alright. Seems like it's a mixture of an RP forum as well as something along the lines of www.lionking.org and fanart.lionking.org. I had a look in their RP section and it seems rather basic compared to what we have here on TLKGO. Many of the RPs there have people post the character's descriptions etc in the actual RP itself rather then have it in a separate section that can be browsed through. I don't think there's anything we could really learn from that forum at least on the RP side of it. Perhaps we could Expand into other areas like the way they have fan-fiction sections and such, the thing is that most of our current sections allow for things like that already.

[mane6]

WhyDon`tWeJustStealThingsFromLeaHaleleleleleleelLikeKanuDoes?

Hahahahahahaha

Erm.

Well.

Im sure people will come up with great ideas. How about some different forum themes? I know they take time to make, but perhaps the same set up, different colours for posts and a different banner. Like a banner at night, and its called `The great kings of the past theme`

[Ruby_Fehu]

I actually quite like your idea Mane, it's up to TL and Pulsar though and it would be slightly difficult seeing as they're both busy often.

The problem is though, all the members are in different time zones so what be night for some may be day for others etc.


I have an idea, but I'd need to speak to TL and Pulsar again, my idea is that we do like a Lion King related quiz once a week and whoever is the winner can get some sort of price, maybe a custom title for that week or some artwork, fanfiction etc. But the prize should be related to Lion King or each person's OC.

[Pulsar]

Different theme colours would certainly be an idea we could probably pull off, likewise for creating a new banner. I'll speak to TL about it and we'll see what we can do.

The quiz would be cool also, we'll need to decide what the rewards would be though and if we can keep up with giving them out every week. We'd probably need to try do it in such a way that everyone also has a fair chance and that no one gets the chance to potentially cheat by looking things up.

[mane6]

Now That Quiz Would Be Awesome.

And with the theme I ment it dosen`t have to be night in that timezone. xD

Perhaps If They Got The Title Awesome Quiz Winner Of Teh Weeeek Or something.

Also, perhaps we could do Member Of The Month? {NominateClaryAllTeim}

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ohh and lmao awww you little cutie and yes, we could do member of the month. Again I like that idea. Pulsar, TL and I will probably do a call today to discuss these ideas

And Pulsar, maybe as an add on to whatever we might give a prize, the winner could do the quiz the following week so the winner always has to change.

You guys are all full of really good ideas :3

[Kirsui]

Speaking of banners.... I'm sure everyone is familiar with this banner at the top of our lovely site:



Ever since the new logo design came around like ages ago, I've been working on an update for that nifty banner we have (since I made it in the first place xD). I sent a few progress images to TL about it, but I never managed to finish it.

So far it looks like this:



I think the idea was to make it work better with the logo, and while the first image there is just a rough sketch, the 2nd one is almost done. I never got around to fixing the little bits of shading that still bothered me in it, but I think I could get around to doing that now. (Plus it's obviously missing all texts and stuff)

What do you guys think? Making any changes should be fairly simple even though the banner is nearly done.

EDIT: On that note, I could probably make different versions of the banner for different colour themes if need be.

[Pulsar]

That's a nice banner Kir, it would certainly fit the forum's current colour scheme also.
We'll see about other colour versions, I don't want you taking on more then you can handle, especially since you have been busy recently with college work on top of also opening up drawing requests for members here on TLKGO.
Plus who knows, if we're doing different banner colours based on theme, maybe we could do completely new banners for each one.

That one there does certainly look nice and new though, I think i'd prefer that over the current one.