Forum and Moderation Changes

[nvrspk4]

Hey everyone.

Throughout the day we will be making several changes in an attempt to maximize your forum experience. We will be reordering forums, removing some, instituting new rules, and adding and removing some little things. Currently we plan to:

• Add a strikethrough shortcut on the editing toolbar (thanks Dollop)
• Announce the release of the support system
• Release the new temporary autoban (thanks LiquiidAcid)
• Add a few new boxes to your profile that will show publically
• Add new avatars designed by our superb graphics team
• Remove the social bookmarking option (thanks to feedback from members)
• Add a new rule regarding non-images between image tags (thanks to those who alerted us in feedback)

Replies to this thread will be made as each change occurs.

[nvrspk4]

Although our support system has been in effect for a little while, due to a temporary glitch with emails during setup we had to wait to upload a backup and switch over emails. Please be advised that if you changed your email recently, it MAY have changed back, so check your options and if it has simply change the email.

With regards to the support system, you can find it at www.habboxforum.com/support

Submit a ticket, either to Tech Support or Ban Appeals. As time progresses we will add sections for Forgotten Passwords/Hacked Accounts, and general forum help.

For now, please submit a ticket in either of those categories, even if the matter you need assistance with does not fit (obviously, anything other than a ban should be listed in Technical Support)

You should be able to login using your username and password on the forum, some users have had issues, try it out and if it works, let us know (it is most probably because there is no email attached to your account, if you were a (super) moderator or manager in the past.

Please note that you MUST have an email attached to your account or else you WILL NOT be able to use the support system. This is the absolute only way to appeal bans and retrieve hacked accounts.

On that note, administrators and (A)GMs will no longer reset passwords, change emails, or lift bans by PM appeal. In order to centralize everything and make sure we can review all decisions to make sure they were fair and done properly with due caution and respect, we request that you make all ban appeals, request for email changes, claims for the return of a hacked account or removal of safety bans over the support system. Forum staff can no longer help with ban issues and password/email problems over PM (although you still PM a Super Mod or administrator if you want a safety ban on your account.)


ALSO, VERY IMPORTANT. Please ensure that you SET a Recovery Message in options and WRITE IT DOWN. Remember your recovery message as you need it to reclaim your account. It is VERY DIFFICULT to reclaim an account should you not have your recovery message.


Hopefully the support system will allow us to reply in a more organized and timely fashion than the old "Contact Us". Currently I am only doing support tickets but we will slowly be phasing in other helpers, as well as CS staff for Forum Help. This way management can review all ban appeals and we can put a team on responding to appeals and ban issues, without mass mayhem.

One last thing, those with previous bans they wish to appeal must do so within the next two weeks. After that we will only consider appeals that are lodged initially within a week of the ban.


Key Points of this announcement:

• New support system - www.habboxforum.com/support (login with username and password
• Submit as Ban Appeal or Technical Problem
• ALL requests for email changes, removal of safety ban, ban appeals, MUST come through support.
• You MUST set an email in options
• You MUST set (and remember) a recovery message in options.
• You have 2 weeks to dispute any bans up to the present, after that you must dispute a ban within one week using the support system or let it lie, to avoid backups and such things.

Hopefully this will make the support process better for everyone involved.

[nvrspk4]

Hey,

We are releasing a new moderation tool (well not a tool but basically a type of ban) to try and reduce the amount of serial rulebreakers, without having to resort directly to the autoban. Many users have asked for a sort of "Last chance" and we hope to provide this with the temporary autoban.

Big thanks to LiquiidAcid who originally suggested this concept, and thanks to the Management team for helping to shape the idea.

Basically, the temporary autoban will be a form of autoban where, after excessive rulebreaking you are no longer allowed to make a new account for X days. If you do return on an account, your temporary ban is extended (you basically start the period over.) So if I get temporary autobanned for two weeks, and a week later I decide to create an account anyway, my new account will be permed and I will start serving the ban over.

The point of this is to give users a "Cool off" period where they can think over what they've done and so that they can realize that they are very close to losing the privilege of using the forum.

The temporary autoban list will be managed primarily by the Moderation Manager but (A)GMs may also make additions to the list. You will know if you are temporary autobanned because it will be included in your ban reason on the account that gets banned. You are, of course, welcome to appeal your ban, or your temporary autoban via the support system, however you must not create new accounts to use on the forum.

We will of course make tweaks along the way to fine tune the system and we have to see if it works well, but we believe this system will actually be a benefit to users, giving a middle ground between the permanant ban and the autoban, and giving a sort of last "heads up".

Of course, in extreme cases we may still go directly to the autoban, however in cases like repeated bullying, trolling, or bans, we will more likely use temporary autoban (depending on the severity.)

Thanks!

[nvrspk4]

- Only put image URLs in image tags - Any URL not ending in a valid image extension (.png, .gif, .jpeg etc) should not be put between image tags. You should not use a URL between image tags to do things such as log people out, increase profile views, or change their skins.

This rule has been added based on feedback from forum members where users were putting links between IMG tags to increase profile views, switch skins, log users out of Habbo, etc. etc. This is no longer allowed, and will be treated as a Signature Rule Violation. It will be dealt with more like a rulebreak than an oversized image, that is to say the first time you are caught with a non-image URL in your signature you will get a PM warning, then a warning, then an infraction.

Although we will not have Forum Super Moderators checking through ModCP every single user's signature, we will act on reports from members and moderators who notice (often the non-image URLs will display a Red X, however the Red X could also be due to the image simply not working correctly, you can right click and view properties to see if it actually is an image or is made to make you view a profile/change skins.)

Thanks!

[nvrspk4]

We've done three very quick things though not monumental, should make your experience a little better.

First of all, at the suggestion of dollop we have added a strikethrough shortcut to the editing bar, you can add strike tags by clicking the on your editing toolbar to the left of the spoiler option.

Second of all, we have introduced a box for "First Name". This box is entirely optional but many users have requested an option to display their first name to other users because they prefer being called by their name. We are going to consider adding it to the postbit, we will have to see how much it is used. You can edit your First Name by going to UserCP > Edit Details, it is up at the top.

And lastly, based on feedback we have removed the social bookmarking option as it isn't likely to be used much and members much prefer it wasn't there

Thanks!

[nvrspk4]

We've made a few quick and simple changes, they are:

• Removal of the HxSS Forums till next year
• Removal of the Beijing Olympics Forum (all threads were moved into Sports and Hobbies
• Renaming Big Brother to Reality TV and implementing Prefixes so the forum can be used year-round for various reality shows. If you believe we need another prefix, start up a thread in feedback. There are currently prefixes for:
  
  • Big Brother
  • I'm A Celeb
  • X Factor
  • Strictly

We will be uploading and introducing the new avatars tomorrow.

Thanks!

[nvrspk4]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting all these avatars up, we ran into some technical hitches. Anyway, they're here now and we've added a massive 30 new avatars! 26 will be free to use and 4 will be for VIPs only!

However, we have some user loyalty worked in!


Free for ALL users

(In next post, due to image limit)

Free for Users with 100+ Posts (and VIPs)




Free for Silver Members and Up (and VIPs)



__________________________





For VIPs Only






That rounds out this batch of changes, of course we will have more soon but for now this is all. The next improvements will probably be coming next weekend, but no promises! What are they? You'll have to wait and see!

Also, don't miss the information on the new Events Timetable on Habbox.com in another announcement in this forum!

Thanks, and enjoy the new avatars!

[nvrspk4]

These are the free for all users from the post above, due to image limits: