We are almost ready to debut our new forums! This has been a long time coming and we can't wait for you to check them out. We are replacing our old, very outdated forums with newer forums that will offer new features and a much improved experience for all users. However, we do need to start fresh with new forum accounts, as it was impractical and unwise to try to retrofit our problem-plagued former system into the new forums. Here's how it will work:
On or around May 3rd we will bring the forums offline while we do the transition work. Expect a formal announcement on timing in the near future. Once the new forums are ready to open, we will place the existing forums into a read-only state long-term. You'll be able to view but not log into the old forums, and you will be able to find the forums at forums-old.lotro.com.
Just as you do now, you will log into the new forums using the same user name and password that you use to log into the game. Each forum account is tied to a game account. We expect a busy couple of days as players initially log into the forums, pick their user names, profile avatars, signatures, and more! Your existing forum name does not automatically carry over, so please log in at your earliest convenience if you wish to try to retain your existing forum name. We will work with players who feel their name has been improperly taken by someone else; if you feel your name has been maliciously taken, please send in a ticket to Community Support through help.standingstonegames.com and we will look into it. Just because someone else takes the name you want does not mean you get to have your preferred name, but we have the ability to rename forum display names as needed. It is also possible for you to change your own forum display name! Please be patient as we sort through the inevitable challenges of getting new forums up in a long-standing player community.
In many ways the new forums are set up to look and feel like the old forums, with mostly similar sub-forums and categories, but we've been able to add tons of new features as well!
Staff Tracker: This is the “dev tracker” that keeps tabs on everything we post.
There is a new “Post Thread” button on the main page that lets you post to any forum you can post in.
Posting has new formatting options: Discussion, Poll, Article, and Question! Here's how they work:
Discussion: This is what you are used to from the old forums. It's a standard WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Here are some of the improved or new features:
A new “Spoiler” text hider!
New List options
New Header options
New Smilies and other emoticons
Wider compatibility with video sites like Twitch, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, Dailymotion, Apple Music and more!
Better table formatting.
The ability to save and delete Drafts.
Better Previewing of your posts.
Functional options to “Watch this thread” and toggle on and off email notifications.
Poll: Ask players to vote! New polling features include:
The ability to allow voters to change their votes.
The ability to display votes publicly (or not).
The ability for results to be viewed without voting (on/off).
Article: In many ways this is similar to Discussion, but Articles feature the initial post more prominently and look a bit more like a web site news article.
Question: Question posts offer the ability of posters and readers to vote for what they think is the best answer given so far. The highest voted answer is prominently featured below the initial post. Think the way Reddit or Quora does it. The initial poster can also Pause voting on solutions.
Thread Types can be changed through Edit. Look for the three dots next to Watch/Unwatch to the upper right of the initial post.
Profiles: There are new profile options as well, including:
Your Profile: Your profile can now feature an image Profile Banner and the ability to update and maintain a posting feed! This gives you the same options as a regular Discussion post, just for your profile page! Maintain a blog, keep a public record, track your progress, give your friends a permanent URL to get the latest news from you, give your best screenshots, images, and art a home and more!
New Profile Posts: This feed lets you see profile posts by others.
Your News Feed: This feed lists posts by people you follow.
Your Account: This is similar to the prior account profile, but now includes additional options to show or not show your online status and current activity, receive news and update emails, receive active summary emails, and determine who can view the details of your Profile Page, messages, and more.
Custom Avatars and Gravatars are now available! Pick what you want within the limits of the system and our Community Rules.
New Sharing Options: Share pages, posts, and more to a wider variety of social media outlets, or just grab a link! Find the options in the “Share this page” box on a forum page or “Share” options below posts. For example, you can now share your Article to Reddit directly through the forums.
Better Search: Search Titles Only or posts as well! You can also search Profile Posts, Threads, or Everything, and set Newer than, Older than, minimum number of replies and more.
Bug Discussion Forums: Find them in the Player to Player Support Forums! Please note that if you want to post in the Bug Discussion Forums you need to enter your Bug Report Number. This number can be found in the email you receive once you've submitted a Bug Report to us through help.standingstonegames.com. While we want everyone to include their actual bug reports to us so everything can be easily combined and tracked, it is possible to submit a thread with a made up number if you need to. Entering the Bug Report Number field is REQUIRED to post in the Bug Discussion forums. If you do not include your actual bug report number you can expect us to not be able to best track your issue.
Creators and Makers: This is a new (basically rebranded) Fansite news section that existed under the old forums, but without gating for posting access. ANYONE who streams, records, writes, makes, draws, or creates is welcome and encouraged to use these forums! This is also the best place to post frequently about your stream or show if you like to do that.
New forum URL will be: forums.lotro.com Old read-only forum URL will be: forums-old.lotro.com
We look forward to reading your feedback in the coming months as we refine your experience. Thank you for being a part of the community here on the forums!
Some folks have seen the new forums in a livestream preview I did recently, so I wanted to follow up with a couple of things that are different since then. Most importantly, we will be shifting the style of the forums to be darker, similar to the dark background/white text seen currently. We do like the lighter look as well, so expect it to debut in the future once we have further work done on a "Dark Mode" style and have the opportunity to give you further choice.
Existing links will need to be re-done, and we recognize that this is going to be a pain point. All old forum URLs can stay the same with the change from forums. to forums-old. in their URL. If we have other things we can say about links as we get closer to the new forums we will.
Some folks have seen the new forums in a livestream preview I did recently, so I wanted to follow up with a couple of things that are different since then. Most importantly, we will be shifting the style of the forums to be darker, similar to the dark background/white text seen currently. We do like the lighter look as well, so expect it to debut in the future once we have further work done on a "Dark Mode" style and have the opportunity to give you further choice.
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Please please introduce a light background/dark text option as soon as you can - I know most people prefer dark background but some neuordivergents like myself find it very difficult to read. I never use the forums as they are because I literally cannot take in what is wirtten as my brain cannot process the dark background and white text. Thank you
Please please introduce a light background/dark text option as soon as you can - I know most people prefer dark background but some neuordivergents like myself find it very difficult to read. I never use the forums as they are because I literally cannot take in what is wirtten as my brain cannot process the dark background and white text. Thank you
That's the plan, but we just don't know when it will be ready. It'll be at least a few months and probably longer.
Existing links will need to be re-done, and we recognize that this is going to be a pain point. All old forum URLs can stay the same with the change from forums. to forums-old. in their URL. If we have other things we can say about links as we get closer to the new forums we will.
Did you decide that a simple redirect (a one-line change to the web server's config file) wouldn't work?
For example, you can now share your Article to Reddit directly through the forums.
This sounds good, and this is exactly why this game needs forum and not just these other things - where things trend for a day (or a minute) and then are gone forever never to be coherently organized or found outside of random searches. To convince all these people to come and post something interesting here, all these people who convinced themselves reddit or discord are so well organized or that forum only ever breeds 'toxicity' because nobody is being banned on a whim according to today's "standards"... well, that's another matter
When we remake our accounts will it retain our forum titles we’ve received or will we have to ask CS to re-give them to us? Like I got my Foul Dwimmerlaik title from donating to the ExtraLife and that came with a forum title of your choice reward and it would be nice if those carried over
When we remake our accounts will it retain our forum titles we’ve received or will we have to ask CS to re-give them to us? Like I got my Foul Dwimmerlaik title from donating to the ExtraLife and that came with a forum title of your choice reward and it would be nice if those carried over
Forum titles will not carry over. However, it won't be Customer Service handling forum titles, it'll be me. It's going to be a lot of work, but the plan is to chip away at it over time. I had been hoping to allow users to select their own forum titles, essentially doing away with the need for this management, but while the new forums have everyone set to give themselves new titles, it isn't currently functioning. If it doesn't work when we go live, I'll either have people submit tickets, private messages, or whatever and deal with it over time. There are literally thousands of you, though, so it won't be instant.
That answers my first question... my second one is... Remember the old game-generated character signatures? Any chance we can see those again? :-)
Originally Posted by Cordovan
Forum titles will not carry over. However, it won't be Customer Service handling forum titles, it'll be me. It's going to be a lot of work, but the plan is to chip away at it over time. I had been hoping to allow users to select their own forum titles, essentially doing away with the need for this management, but while the new forums have everyone set to give themselves new titles, it isn't currently functioning. If it doesn't work when we go live, I'll either have people submit tickets, private messages, or whatever and deal with it over time. There are literally thousands of you, though, so it won't be instant.
Forum titles will not carry over. However, it won't be Customer Service handling forum titles, it'll be me. It's going to be a lot of work, but the plan is to chip away at it over time. I had been hoping to allow users to select their own forum titles, essentially doing away with the need for this management, but while the new forums have everyone set to give themselves new titles, it isn't currently functioning. If it doesn't work when we go live, I'll either have people submit tickets, private messages, or whatever and deal with it over time. There are literally thousands of you, though, so it won't be instant.
In before I lose the "Fashion Hero" title FOREEEEVAH!" I assume I'd lose the profile pic which gave the the title as well?
TBH, can't wait to see new forums, I guess I can live without the long standing title.
In before I lose the "Fashion Hero" title FOREEEEVAH!" I assume I'd lose the profile pic which gave the the title as well?
TBH, can't wait to see new forums, I guess I can live without the long standing title.
Titles are one of the things that will have to be dealt with in the near future. The new forums are set up to allow for user-entered forum titles, but the system is not working. For now, hang onto your titles in a text document somewhere and we'll have more information about it in the near future.
Thanks for sharing this and for all the hard work that went into creating the new site. I've dabbled in web design, but never anything on this scale. Appreciate all of SSG's hard work.
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We expect a busy couple of days as players initially log into the forums, pick their user names, profile avatars, signatures, and more! Your existing forum name does not automatically carry over, so please log in at your earliest convenience if you wish to try to retain your existing forum name. We will work with players who feel their name has been improperly taken by someone else; if you feel your name has been maliciously taken, please send in a ticket to Community Support through help.standingstonegames.com and we will look into it. Just because someone else takes the name you want does not mean you get to have your preferred name, but we have the ability to rename forum display names as needed.
I doubt that this is a good idea. Others can prepare game accounts, try to get names of previous forum users they want to troll and post in their name. The result might be a flood of support cases. I am not really sure if this a goal to aim for. One can always hope that the community "behaves", but this might end up differently.
I doubt that this is a good idea. Others can prepare game accounts, try to get names of previous forum users they want to troll and post in their name. The result might be a flood of support cases. I am not really sure if this a goal to aim for. One can always hope that the community "behaves", but this might end up differently.
Deliberately sniping someone else's name maliciously will be a bannable offense, so we'll have to take care of it like we would any other personal attacks and trolling. It'll also be very easy for us to further rename them to get people their proper names back.
Deliberately sniping someone else's name maliciously will be a bannable offense, so we'll have to take care of it like we would any other personal attacks and trolling. It'll also be very easy for us to further rename them to get people their proper names back.
Deliberately sniping someone else's name maliciously will be a bannable offense, so we'll have to take care of it like we would any other personal attacks and trolling. It'll also be very easy for us to further rename them to get people their proper names back.
To save yourself some effort, a suggestion:
PM a random number to every active poster on the old forum.
Then, people can PM you the same number on the new forum to verify their identity. (Or create a special account for it so your inbox isn't overwhelmed.)
Edit: If you can't get an IT person or engineer to write that script for you, ask ChatGPT.
Last edited by Thurallor; Apr 14 2023 at 03:11 PM.
Maliciously is an interesting word - whose meaning is far from clear. Totally apart from how you would ever know someone's motivation if they are clever enough not to say it.
If someone takes my name - which I have had for many years - because it is a name they like and they were just typing in names they liked until they got one - that certainly isn't malicious.
If they knew I had had it for many years, but took it because they liked it with no animus towards me that still is not malicious.
If you want to protect names of long-time forum members the way would be to say that anyone who had a name for x years or more or xxxx posts or more or both could petition to get it back whether it is taken maliciously or not. That is not your approach, however. Note that I am expressing no value judgment here - but focusing purely on what your rules will be not what they should be.
As a lawyer who spent 30 years dealing with the meaning of words like malicious - it seems that the *only* way you could revert a name under that standard is if the person taking it actually said on the forums or in a message something like "haha I got your name eat poop and die".
Maliciously is an interesting word - whose meaning is far from clear. Totally apart from how you would ever know someone's motivation if they are clever enough not to say it.
If someone takes my name - which I have had for many years - because it is a name they like and they were just typing in names they liked until they got one - that certainly isn't malicious.
If they knew I had had it for many years, but took it because they liked it with no animus towards me that still is not malicious.
If you want to protect names of long-time forum members the way would be to say that anyone who had a name for x years or more or xxxx posts or more or both could petition to get it back whether it is taken maliciously or not. That is not your approach, however. Note that I am expressing no value judgment here - but focusing purely on what your rules will be not what they should be.
As a lawyer who spent 30 years dealing with the meaning of words like malicious - it seems that the *only* way you could revert a name under that standard is if the person taking it actually said on the forums or in a message something like "haha I got your name eat poop and die".
My expectation is that most of us regulars will not have an issue in getting our name due to the fact we're used to logging in regularly and will be able to carve out a few minutes to initially set up our forum accounts pretty close to immediately when the forums open. Also how it goes when new servers open, for example. Especially since it is easy to change display names at any time we will be able to sort out trolling. Trolls will be treated very harshly. I do expect a few edge cases where legit people take someone else's name because they wanted it and just didn't know or whatever, but we'll have to sort through it.
The intention is to presume that people who have had the name prior and have made regular contributions to the forums will get the name in a case of conflict. Thankfully, this doesn't need to meet legal burden, although the idea of a livestream'd me as judge People's Court to sort through forum names sounds like a fun and extremely terrible idea.