The forum has been updated today with the promised changes as part of the ongoing series of updates for the site. There have been a lot of changes to the forum this time, many of which are outlined below:

Fixed width & Full screen forum skins
For the first time there is now a full screen version of the UM forum skin. To use it, select "UM 8.0 Fullscreen" from the skin selection drop-down box at the bottom left hand corner of the main forum index. The full screen skin will use the entire width of your screen instead of sticking to the default fixed width. This will be of particular benefit to users with high screen resolutions. Users of 800x600 should stick with the fixed width theme.

Design changes
The forum design has been updated, i've lightened the colour scheme slightly, and removed the very cluttered navigation bars that were in the old design. The blog header area has also been updated and now correctly displays the blog icon and background.

UM chatroom returns
A completely new chat room has been added to the site and forum, replacing the antiquated chat room we were using before. To access it, simply click 'Chat Room' from the forum menu at the top of the screen, or the option from the left hand menu on the main site. A users online counter on the forum index will display the usernames of anyone in the chat room at any given time. The chat room is integrated with the forum user database so you will appear in the room using your UM username, and the room itself now supports many additional features which you can access from the series of buttons above the chat text box.

User posting ranks/pips update
To make the posting ranks and pip icons a little more interesting, the pips have been replaced with two new types of 'star' pips. Yellow stars will represent post rank milestones up to 1000 posts, which will then be replaced with blue circled stars up to 10,000 posts. Several new rank titles have been added to complement the new rank count milestones.

The new ranks are as follows:

0 Alien Embryo - 1 star
125 Ectoplasmic Residue - 1 star
250 Aparition - 2 stars
375 Extraterrestrial Entity - 3 stars
500 Remote Viewer - 4 stars
625 Astral Projection - 5 stars
750 Paranormal Investigator - 6 stars
875 Conspiracy Theoriest - 7 stars
1000 psychic spy - 8 stars
2125 poltergeist - 1 blue stars
3250 government agent - 2 blue stars
4375 alien abducter - 3 blue stars
5500 Majestic 12 Operative - 4 blue stars
6625 Telekinetic - 5 blue stars
7750 Non-corporeal being - 6 blue stars
8875 Omnipotent Entity - 7 blue stars
10000 Forum divinity - 8 blue stars
10000+ - TBA

Custom rank titles
Users with 1000 posts or more can now have their own custom rank title instead of using the default ones provided. This option is available from 'My Controls' >> 'Edit Profile Information'.

New forum board sections
Several new boards have been added to the forum, aswell as many changes to existing boards and categories. Some existing boards have been re-ordered to better categorise subjects together while others have been renamed.

The completely new boards are:
- True crime
- Space & Astronomy
- Natural World

As always after a forum update, if you find any problems or bugs then please let me know, more changes will be coming soon.

is this the end of the SQL errors ?


i pray to the gods it is

Wow!

....just...wow, nice one - looks fantastic

Looks very awesome!!

Although this update isn't related to the SQL errors, the fix I put in two days ago seems to have prevented any more of them from cropping up, so it's looking quite promising as far as that's concerned - fingers crossed.

nice job Saruman keep up the good work!

Chatroom looks great, bit lonely, but great nonetheless

Edit: Not that I'm not dreadfully impressed already, but will custom avatars for the chatroom be becoming avaliable?

Once everyone gets used to the chat room being there we should hopefully get some activity going on in there.


Some of the advanced features of the forum are not going to be available in the chat room because it's java based, which limits what it can do. I don't think custom avatar uploads will be possible, but i can't rule it out completely.

I love the changes. Great work, Saru!

Great changes, but I still can't figure out why some people have circles around their stars.

EDIT: Nevermind, I reread the first post. Still good changes.

Very nice update. I'll try to be around more often, a lot of older members have left so I've not been visiting as much. Everything looks good.

Loving the new look. Great job. And I also like the idea of having our own title once we reach 1,000 posts. And the pips are sweet too.

This place looks fantastic

I did not find this.
How did I miss it?

It looks ace, I actually noticed the header for once! Great Updates, I hope the next ones are just as good, or even better

How about a new board on all locked or closed topics.

Allo SaRuMaN
I just switched to 'Full-Screen' on my laptop and the Forum looks grreaattt!!

Most impressive now

Superfunkadelic banner I wub it!!!!!!!!

ooooh and the starssssss!!!

Now all we need is some PINK

I like it a lot. The fullscreen and banner are most pleasureful. Is there yet another update still planned?

Looks fantastic! Great work Saruman

Awesome work, SaRu!

The place looks Groovy!!

Saru!!!!!!Awesome, awesome, awesome job!:tu:

*hugs* Very very kewl looking, and purty, and...very well done dudey!

Jen xxx

I love the changes!!!

After popping into the chat room for a minute it didn't take me long to figure out it's not my forte. Way too many people seeming to talk all at once and I don't type that fast.

Congrats SaRu...great job.

Just 1 question..where is the Paleo section?

Excellent work, Saruman. I already enjoy the new look and feel of Unexplained-Mysteries. I applaud you for bringing back the chatroom and making it better than ever.

Palaeontology section is in the 'Science' category : Click Here

Thanks

Wow, I remember when a quote was just a little white box around some lines...

Awesome job, Sara... This truly is getting to be the top forum ever...

Chat's not loading for me though I still have the little red "x" at the top... Lol oh well this is definitely one of the better updates

The updates are awesome , i like the much cleaner professional look of UM now. I also love the new ranking system

In Chat, the "Wookie" sounds like a Sasquatch, ever thought about changing wookie to sasquatch? Can we get a real bigfoot scream? What about a Nessie and Were-wolf scream?
The site looks great, it's very cool.

What happend to the Multimedia section?

great job

when do we get ver. 9.0 ?








lol jk

Oooo, I have purty stars now...

Oh, little blue boxes...how I'll miss you

Thw wookie is the Lousianin term for Bigfoot ever heard of the Lousiana Wookie ( Yes i know it sounds weird, Chewy but c'mon

great job saru i can't belive some of my ideas made it ( I think ? )

I love the new banner on top of the page! Great Job!

The Stars too, great idea.

And I can finally see! -in full screen

^^ I know!!! How COOL is it!?!?!?!?!!?

The multimedia section has been merged with two other sections and is now called "Paranormal Books, TV & Media"

looks good, I like the top of the site (the header) looks much better than the last.

...that has changed right?

The chat room freaks me out, every time I go in there some weirdo not registered with UM comes in and asks if I'm cute, or female, or wants my name and address

Is there anyway to make it compulsory to register to use it?

I really like it. You still don't put in a ticker though.

oooh a major update. So Ive got stars now ? sweet.

I like the idea of having a true crime section in order to make sure the world of the bizzare section is full of bizzare stuff instead of stupid people doing bizzare stuff...

This is now the top thing i'm working on, expect an update to the chat room very soon.

the chat rooms great!!

theres a chat room...and limited wasnt your pic different?

Nice one Saru, now at least if I'm harrased I'll know who its by

I liked the bars better because they were less confusing and does your rank still go up and chnage even though you customized your name

your stars still go up, but the custom title is the custom title, it wont change unless you remove your custom title or even do what i did, and add in what rank you should be plus something else!


p.s. has anyone else seen Aztec's custom title!!!??? *cues the audience...*
"Aaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"





Jen xxx

This site looks great, wow!.

I love the custom under avatar names. nice improvement! and i likes stars!