Two new features of the new forum software

[Hypnos]

Aside from a few bug fixes, (and a demand from my current company for you all to worship me, but really you needn't so just say hello instead - please pm!), two new features have recently gone live, topic ratings and the ability to change your display name. If you are interested in using either feature, they are each explained in the paragraphs below.

The first new feature is topic ratings which appear as a button in a thread when you view it, and you can select between 1 and 5 stars to award the topic. The average of votes so far then appears beside the topic on the forum's page. You can see an example of this beside the two "Greatest Ever Obs" threads in the obs and stories forum. I should point out that any rating is a POSITIVE rating. I.e. if a topic is unrated it gets no stars by it so to give it 1 star is a positive thing to do, because the topic will then receive a gold star. (Yay!) Of course if a few people have rated a topic 4 stars and you don't think it is that good, the only way to reduce the rating would be to vote with less stars. Not rating the topic at all doesn't count as a "zero star" vote in that instance. Users of Newbie level and higher may rate topics in allowed forums.

The second new feature is the capability to change your display name. This will change the name on all your posts, profile etc. but NOT your login name, and is found in "My Controls". You can track a users display name history through their profile if you believe them to have at some point changed their name, to avoid confusion. At present only Full Members and higher may alter their display name, and how often the feature may be used is limited. New users will be able to choose a display name that is different from their login name when registering, so in order to maintain fairness and allow existing users to take advantage of this potential security feature, there will be a one week "amnesty" in which everyone can change their display name, but only once. This will conclude on September 26th.

Enjoy the forums!

[Hypnos]

Display Name Amnesty has begun, each account should have access to being able to change their display name once and once only! Please be careful with your typing and spelling because I am not going to go back around and fix the spelling on 200 new names (and especially not after midnight, no matter who much you cry, no matter how much you beg...)

(This is also a "multiple account" amnesty as there will be a crackdown (meaning bans aplenty) after the amnesty is over, because of the display name change feature. Declare your multiple accounts now or risk losing them all! I'm in a historical mood too so I might decimate the forum with inspections. )