LOTRO Community Site Revamp July 28 - Aug 1, 2013 - ESTIMATED

[Sapience]

On Monday July 29 at 10AM Eastern time, the LOTRO Forums will be placed into read only mode and a forum, “Temporary Discussions” will be created for each of our supported languages (English, German, and French). Posts in these forums will not be saved or copied to the new forum. It is only being created so that players can continue to interact with us and each other during the maintenance. We encourage everyone to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook to keep up to date as we will be posting updates and status changes there. If there are issues during the deployment our social media channels may be the only means available to us to update you. We currently expect the migration to take up to 4 days to complete.

What is staying and being improved:

Official Forums
The forums will be upgraded to a newer version of VBulletin. Changes will include:

• The forum styling/appearance will be updated and will now scale to the full width of your browser window.
• A new “Community Digest” page that will have links to lotteries, forums, and updated news.
• The reputation system will be discontinued.
• Forum performance will be improved.
• Forums should perform better on mobile devices.

LOTRO Lotteries
The lottery widget is going away and a new Lottery page is taking its place. Several small changes have been made that should make it easier to see which lotteries you are eligible for, which you have entered, and your winnings after the fact. You should also now be able to see all lotteries, even if your character cannot enter them. The “no lottery” message should also now correctly state there are no lotteries running if there are no active lotteries.

Character Copy for Bullroarer and Beta.
The character copy system we use for Bullroarer and beta testing will be improved and easier to use.


The following features are being discontinued:

• The LOTRO Lorebook
• Player Blogs
• PvMP leaderboards
• Skirmish Leaderboards
• Character and Kinship Data and Pages
• Referrals
• Signup Rewards
• Item Icons / Tooltips
• Signature System

[Lyzau]

Thank you for the update. Looking forward to it!
Since it isn't mentioned as a disappearing feature, is it safe to assume we get to keep our Forum titles?

[zalladi]

Look forward to it. Also hoping (note, hoping) that the next 20 questions will be published when the new forums are up, but any time before 2014 would do.

I'm calling it now, people will rage and QQ about how they 'did not know' about the 4 days downtime.

[Sapience]

Thank you for the update. Looking forward to it!
Since it isn't mentioned as a disappearing feature, is it safe to assume we get to keep our Forum titles?

It is my expectation they will stay. It is my hope that the ability to switch between multiple titles will also be available.

Look forward to it. Also hoping (note, hoping) that the next 20 questions will be published when the new forums are up, but any time before 2014 would do.

I'm calling it now, people will rage and QQ about how they 'did not know' about the 4 days downtime.

WE had estimated the 20Q to come towards the middle or end of next week which puts them right in line with the reopening of the forums. So here's hoping.

Also, as I've said before, once it's posted in the launcher and facebook in 3 languages and tweeted, and posted here, there's not much else we can do.

[killykil]

No more PvMP leader boards?

[Eartholloth]

It is my expectation they will stay. It is my hope that the ability to switch between multiple titles will also be available.



WE had estimated the 20Q to come towards the middle or end of next week which puts them right in line with the reopening of the forums. So here's hoping.

How closer are we to getting pre order info on HD? Weeks????

[Cefely]

Are our join dates being transferred over?

[Whart]

A moment of silence for the blogs that once were.



But thanks for the heads up, and for the 'temporary discussions' forum during the downtime--otherwise it could have been a very lonely few days!

[GokuSS400]

On Monday July 29 at 10AM Eastern time, the LOTRO Forums will be placed into read only mode and a forum, “Temporary Discussions” will be created for each of our supported languages (English, German, and French). Posts in these forums will not be saved or copied to the new forum. It is only being created so that players can continue to interact with us and each other during the maintenance. We encourage everyone to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook to keep up to date as we will be posting updates and status changes there. If there are issues during the deployment our social media channels may be the only means available to us to update you. We currently expect the migration to take up to 4 days to complete.

What is staying and being improved:

Official Forums
The forums will be upgraded to a newer version of VBulletin. Changes will include:

• The forum styling/appearance will be updated and will now scale to the full width of your browser window.
• A new “Community Digest” page that will have links to lotteries, forums, and updated news.
• The reputation system will be discontinued.
• Forum performance will be improved.
• Forums should perform better on mobile devices.

LOTRO Lotteries
The lottery widget is going away and a new Lottery page is taking its place. Several small changes have been made that should make it easier to see which lotteries you are eligible for, which you have entered, and your winnings after the fact. You should also now be able to see all lotteries, even if your character cannot enter them. The “no lottery” message should also now correctly state there are no lotteries running if there are no active lotteries.

Character Copy for Bullroarer and Beta.
The character copy system we use for Bullroarer and beta testing will be improved and easier to use.


The following features are being discontinued:

• The LOTRO Lorebook
• Player Blogs
• PvMP leaderboards
• Skirmish Leaderboards
• Character and Kinship Data and Pages
• Referrals
• Signup Rewards
• Item Icons / Tooltips
• Signature System

The signature system being discontinued I completely understand....because it's been very buggy for a while now....however does this mean that there's not going to be a new forum/player signature system to replace the old one sometime down the line? (or is it too soon to say or tell?) Just asking out of curiosity that's all


also....one last thought/comment...... HURRAY FOR THE RETURN/REVAMP OF THE LOTTERIES!!!!!! (the lotteries have always been something i loved here. I've been somewhat sad about the lack of lotteries, but I'm really glad that they're returning again!!! I know that you guys at turbine are very very busy bees working on the game :P )

[Forgotten_Legend]

What is staying and being improved:

Official Forums
The forums will be upgraded to a newer version of VBulletin. Changes will include:

• The forum styling/appearance will be updated and will now scale to the full width of your browser window.
• A new “Community Digest” page that will have links to lotteries, forums, and updated news.
• The reputation system will be discontinued.
• Forum performance will be improved.
• Forums should perform better on mobile devices.

LOTRO Lotteries
The lottery widget is going away and a new Lottery page is taking its place. Several small changes have been made that should make it easier to see which lotteries you are eligible for, which you have entered, and your winnings after the fact. You should also now be able to see all lotteries, even if your character cannot enter them. The “no lottery” message should also now correctly state there are no lotteries running if there are no active lotteries.

Character Copy for Bullroarer and Beta.
The character copy system we use for Bullroarer and beta testing will be improved and easier to use.

this all looks wonderful! faster forums! faster forums! the only thing i'll miss about THAT is that i won't be able to fry up half a dozen slices of bacon waiting for the page to reload...

The following features are being discontinued:

• The LOTRO Lorebook
• Player Blogs
• PvMP leaderboards
• Skirmish Leaderboards
• Character and Kinship Data and Pages
• Referrals
• Signup Rewards
• Item Icons / Tooltips
• Signature System

wait... aren't most of these features the reason why the CURRENT beta community site was implemented? how many people suspected these features were also the reason for the slow forums? i'm gonna miss the lorebook and the blogs. too bad the lorebook hasn't been what it used to be back during SoA. i can see why it's being discontinued.

as for the signature system: are you referring only to the custom character banner signature that accessed the character's data base and updated character level and such?

[Nickysmom]

Will we get to keep our saved thread folders? Many of my saved threads contain how-to-do-things information.

[Sapience]

Are our join dates being transferred over?

That is the expectation, yes. Along with all current posts and your post count.

A moment of silence for the blogs that once were.

But thanks for the heads up, and for the 'temporary discussions' forum during the downtime--otherwise it could have been a very lonely few days!

The only downside is they won't be part of the migration and those conversations will be lost, but I did feel it was better than shutting everything for 4 days as well.

[Sapience]

as for the signature system: are you referring only to the custom character banner signature that accessed the character's data base and updated character level and such?

Yes.

Will we get to keep our saved thread folders? Many of my saved threads contain how-to-do-things information.

Good question. I suspect yes, but it might not be a bad idea to copy the information somewhere just in case.

[Eartholloth]

That is the expectation, yes. Along with all current posts and your post count.



The only downside is they won't be part of the migration and those conversations will be lost, but I did feel it was better than shutting everything for 4 days as well.

I would have went with shutting things down for 4 days.

[BelamanthDE]

The one question that matters is:

Will this update finally signal the end of beta for the community site? If so, will there be an end of beta event?

[Whart]

The only downside is they won't be part of the migration and those conversations will be lost, but I did feel it was better than shutting everything for 4 days as well.

That's ok, at least we will still have a way to ask and answer questions (which can be important for new folks during festivals), and I will still have something to do at the office other than my work

[KadinKohle]

Yay! Faster and better forums?!? Who could say, "NO!"? Crazy people, that's who.

Thanks guys, looking forward to a leaner and meaner overall community site. One question, visually will it be very different from the way it is now? I suspect the tools, etc. for creating posts will stay roughly the same since it's still vBulletin?

[Lenton]

Will this new forum have a 40 minute log out timer like the new DDO forums? That's my biggest issue with the new forums over there, and I am really hoping that the same "feature" does not come to LOTRO as well.

[botoo]

I think its a shame that the leaderboards will disappear, many ppl I know checked those or at http://dailystats.theblackappendage.com often. But as pvmp is just a sidedish for lotro, the pvp players will have to live with it.

[Malindruel]

The one question that matters is:

Will this update finally signal the end of beta for the community site? If so, will there be an end of beta event?

It doesn't signal the end of beta for the community site
It signals the end of the community site

Looking through the list of what is and what's not staying

We improve the forums and add new lottery page

EVERYTHING else is going bye-bye

[Redamber]

It is my expectation they will stay. It is my hope that the ability to switch between multiple titles will also be available.

Talking of titles, whatever happened to the titles we were going to get for taking part in the Rohan beta last summer?

Red

[Crell_1]

Talking of titles, whatever happened to the titles we were going to get for taking part in the Rohan beta last summer?

Maybe we'll get them with the new community sites.

[Jadzi]

How closer are we to getting pre order info on HD? Weeks????

Perhaps, perhaps not. A cursory item scan shows a number of items similar to those from the Rohan pre-order have been added to the client, under the naming scheme of 'Hammerhand' - but so too have items for the upcoming Farmer's Faire and Fall Festival. And to my knowledge there hasn't been mention of a Helm's Deep beta program just yet either. Given that technically, 'Fall' lasts until December, it could be a long ways off.

Back on topic, I'm sad to see the Lorebook go - it was clunky, laggy, and resrictive, but it had a wealth of information, including details on obscure things that didn't get released, and it sometimes made it easier to research things for the player-run wiki. Not to mention all that lore on places and people original to the game. Even the pages on Tolkien lore were nicely done, with those little timeline placements and so on. Plus the tie-in code on the forums, so you could generate tooltips on things, was handy for quick referencing. There's other ways to accomplish the same ends, but I'll miss the old girl when she's gone.

[Crell_1]

Perhaps, perhaps not. A cursory item scan shows a number of items similar to those from the Rohan pre-order have been added to the client

You might also note there are some signs that they are not quite ready for release into the wild so we can probably expect another update before pre-orders start.

Looking forward to not having to copy and paste my posts multiple times to get them to appear.

[Laire]

Hope there aren't too many-- if any-- extensions, but better it's working

I would love to see that 'beta' symbol to go!

Glad to see we can still have signatures, I hope the character count will be extended =)

I also hope there is not a short limit on log in time, that would be a shame. I'd like to stay logged in for a long time.

Look forward to this. Maybe one day we'll see pvp boards, character info, and blogs return. Who knows, I'll look forward to more stability.