need feedback on this announcement:

Terulia Forum Service

Introducing the first full-feature web-based forum service that is able to integrate with BYOND games. Read on for details:

If you are a BYOND developer, then you know the drill... You need a forum to supplement your game, so you set up yet another forum at Invisionfree that few of your players are likely to find, sign up for, or use. All of your players collectively groan as they will have to register and e-mail validate for the millionth time, just so they can add yet another forum to the rotation of forums they check every day. You post an important announcement, and most of your players (even those who are online) will not know about it for hours or days or whenever they happen to check the forums.

This scenario has played out so many times that, 2-and-a-half years ago, I decided to do something about it. The Service has been online for a year-and-a-half, during which it has been extensively used and tested and has undergone all sorts of optimizations. Tom recently remarked, “Your forums are really fast (the fastest I've seen).” The forum service currently has ~300 users and boasts over 18,000 posts in 47 forums; pages are typically generated (server-side) in 0.1-0.4 seconds. In case of catastrophic data loss, the entire forum database is backed up every hour.

Here are a few of the reasons you should consider making www.terulia.com your primary forum service:

1) BYOND-authenticated user logins. If you already have a BYOND account, then you (and your players) can login securely through byond.com using your key/password without any additional registration steps. no e-mail validation required!

2) All of your forums in one convenient location. Once you have logged in and subscribed to one or more forums, your default forum “home” page will summarize all of the forums to which you have subscribed. With a glance, you can see which forums have new posts, or simply view the list of “Active Topics” to see the latest posts from only the forums to which you have subscribed. no more forum cycling – get all the information you need in a single click.

3) Instant notifications. How often have you completely ignored messages in your BYOND pager simply because you did not notice it was flashing? In TRC-linked games (see [ information here ]), your players will receive instant notifications of private messages and new posts. When you make an important announcement, all of your players, in whatever TRC-linked games they happen to be playing, will know about it.

4) BYOND key-based private messaging. The Service includes an easy-to-use private messaging system with an inbox, sent messages folder, trash folder, and optional user-defined folders. Again, there are no annoying confirmation screens. What if you forget someone's BYOND key? No problem; the Service also recognizes user nicknames (as specified in the User Control Panel) in place of keys.

5) Forum customization. If you have ever tried to customize an Invisionfree forum, then I have shared your pain. My own experiences managing other forums led me to create a management system that is especially useful for BYOND. Do you want to create a hidden/private forum? No problem - it only takes a few clicks. Do you need exclusivity? Terulia Forum Service has easy to use whitelist and blacklist features, and, additionally: simplified category/subforum management, easy to navigate/manipulate subforum permissions, and single-click functionality with common safety checks (no more “are you sure?” popups/pages). User preferences vary, so instead of forum-specific CSS, users are able to choose one of several color schemes. (If you do not see a color scheme that suits you, feel free to submit your own!)

6) Under development. Although the current system is well-polished, there is always room for improvement. If you have any comments or suggestions for improving the Forum Service, please do not hesitate to post them. Some of the features that are currently planned are: user profiles (including status and a comment box), friend list, a profile-based “home” page, and a revamped file upload/hosting system.

Are you ready to give it a try? Visit http://www.terulia.com to get started. Click the Browse link to see the list of public forums or use the Search feature (must be logged in) to look for topics of interest. Once you have found a forum you want to join, you can subscribe with a single click. If you do not find any forums of interest to you, it is incredibly easy to make your own.

For announcements and discussions regarding Terulia Forum Service, Terulia Relay Chat, and two of my other projects, you will probably want to visit Terulia Forum Service: Main.

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Sounds cooooool.

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Sounds good. I'm eager to see if it becomes popular.

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I think you should swap Forum customization and BYOND-based private messaging, so that the transition between points is slightly more coherent.

It looks good, really. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

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Shane wrote:

I think you should swap Forum customization and BYOND-based private messaging, so that the transition between points is slightly more coherent.

It looks good, really. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

done. and yes, please be critical. I'd rather get it perfect here than post something that could have been better.

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Awwwwsooooooooommmmeee! _________________________________________ Letha says: Mint is more of a man than me.

Grameramera wrote:

Shane wrote:

I think you should swap Forum customization and BYOND-based private messaging, so that the transition between points is slightly more coherent.

It looks good, really. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

done. and yes, please be critical. I'd rather get it perfect here than post something that could have been better.

The only other thing that bugged me was the use of contractions, which is me being nitpicky more than anything. It would look more professional if you expanded your contractions.

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Shane wrote:

The only other thing that bugged me was the use of contractions, which is me being nitpicky more than anything. It would look more professional if you expanded your contractions.

done (now I have to go back and proofread it again)

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Shane wrote:

Grameramera wrote:

Shane wrote:

I think you should swap Forum customization and BYOND-based private messaging, so that the transition between points is slightly more coherent.

It looks good, really. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

done. and yes, please be critical. I'd rather get it perfect here than post something that could have been better.

The only other thing that bugged me was the use of contractions, which is me being nitpicky more than anything. It would look more professional if you expanded your contractions.

If you put it that way, he also forgot to capitalize the beginning of his second last paragraph. :P

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Tea wrote:

Shane wrote:

Grameramera wrote:

Shane wrote:

I think you should swap Forum customization and BYOND-based private messaging, so that the transition between points is slightly more coherent.

It looks good, really. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

done. and yes, please be critical. I'd rather get it perfect here than post something that could have been better.

The only other thing that bugged me was the use of contractions, which is me being nitpicky more than anything. It would look more professional if you expanded your contractions.

If you put it that way, he also forgot to capitalize the beginning of his second last paragraph. :P

Well damn. How did I miss that three times?

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I was just curious how this was going. This system is soooo fast and elegant, I have to believe it'll take off if you can get the critical mass of users. Best of luck!

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reply to Tom:

T-t-tom...

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BYOND-authenticated user logins. If you already have a BYOND account, then you (and your players) can login securely through byond.com using your key/password without any additional registration steps. no e-mail validation required!

Should be

BYOND-authenticated user logins. If you already have a BYOND account, then you (and your players) can login securely through byond.com using your key/password without any additional registration steps. No e-mail validation required!

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