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About Me

I've got a lot of opinions about ways to improve the services Zathyus Networks has to offer. I've also got some general advice for board owners and theme designers that might end up being useful some day. For now, these thoughts are kept here where curious minds can find them if they look.
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Service Feedback (2)
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Feb 27

Details Every Theme Designer Should Know

Over the years I've compiled a list of tweaks I made to skins and hopefully made it into something that is useful for anyone designing themes. This will help you catch all the little details that are needed to make sure your themes turn out as complete and attractive as possible. If you have any questions or notice any omissions/mistakes, feel free to leave a comment and I'll address it. :)

See the last spoiler, Sample CSS and Codes, for examples to go along with the suggestions contained herein.

Obvious Stuff
Spoiler: click to toggle


Obscure Stuff
Spoiler: click to toggle


Default Theme Bugs to Correct
Spoiler: click to toggle


Test Board Needs - Every good test board needs to display certain features. Here are a few tips to display them.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Release Considerations - To allow users of your theme the most flexibility, these are the following things that should be allowed to be customized in your skin. Also includes miscellaneous advice for posting your theme release.
Spoiler: click to toggle



Sample CSS and Codes
Posted in Tutorials & Documentation on Feb 27 2013, 05:16 PM · 2 comments
Feb 27

ZB Hidden Features

This is my personal list of hidden pages and features of ZB that not everyone may know about. I really wish some of these were made more prominent, they're so useful! Please share the ones you know about too by commenting on this blog post. :)

Hidden Pages - The following links are listed as a generic formula to match them to your own board, but clicking them will take you to that page on this board.


Miscellaneous
  • Hidden BBCode - Can you think of more than the ones I have listed?
    • Tables used to be hidden, but they now have a special editor button all their own that shows up when posting. It doesn't show up in the BBCode key, nor in the ACP BBCode controls.
    • [member] - Not in BBCode key, but is in ACP BBCode controls and posts (if enabled).
    • [staff] - Not in BBCode key, but is in ACP BBCode controls and posts (if enabled).
    • [class] - Not in BBCode key, but is in ACP BBCode controls and posts (if enabled).
    • [note] - Not in BBCode key, but is in ACP BBCode controls and posts (if enabled).

  • You can restore a post immediately after accidentally deleting it. 0_0 Here's a sample URL from my test board, if you want to inspect the link address format.
  • Hidden Themes - Turns out this isn't a built-in feature and is just something implemented on this board. I'll cover it anyway though. :D (Thanks to Helena for sharing the secret!) You start by adding and enabling a theme in your ACP. Then you use a javascript to hide it from the drop down list, which makes it only accessible if you dig up the setskin link to that theme.
Code: Script Goes Above Copyright
 
<!--<script type="text/javascript">
$('#setskin option[value=SETSKIN NUMBER HERE]').remove();
</script>-->
Posted in Tutorials & Documentation on Feb 27 2013, 04:39 PM · No comments
Feb 27

Get the Word Out

So you've got yourself a board and you're looking to spread the word and get advice on how to be successful. You're already off to a great start just by taking the initiative to look for info like this!

Every forum needs members in order to keep it going. If you want to keep it fresh, you also need a steady stream of new members, which requires advertising. Here are some of the ways I have found most effective for drawing in new members. They have been tried and true for me since 2004, they should work for you too!

  1. Word of Mouth: Start telling people you've made a board and you would like for them to come check it out. You have to talk before people will listen. Go to every forum of which you are a member and put a button and link to your board in your signature if they allow it. Every time you post, people will see the button and may get curious! Remember not to over-do it though, that can have the opposite effect of what you want. PM advertising on other forums is always a big no-no, so keep your board's reputation clean by using official methods of spreading the word.

  2. Directories: If you have an InvisionFree or Zetaboards forum, make use of their directory system in your Admin Control Panel, it works! This is a very effective type of advertising that puts your name out there where people are specifically looking for your content. Directory forums also exist. These are more interactive and can really draw people in.

  3. Networking Boards / Webrings: There are several other types of websites that provide free advertising services for you. Networking communities, like most boards, tend to be involved in helping you so take full advantage of any reviewing or tips they offer. A similar type of website exists, called a Webring. It allows you to list your website on their advertising bar so long as you put the bar on your board too, but they are not typically personally involved in any other way. It's kind of like the bare-essentials version of networking.
    • Planet Nexus - The best networking board for InvisionFree and ZetaBoards forums. Includes extra board features and a webring.

  4. Advertising Boards: There are also communities driven toward letting you post your ad for other people to find. It has been my experience that putting your name out there is never a bad thing, but it may be easy to find your ad lost among many others at an advertising-only board if it's not organized into a directory. If an advertising board is strictly geared toward letting you advertise and doesn't have its own community or a member base that is also looking to join advertised boards, this is going to be a very short-term solution.

  5. Topsites / Top 100 Voting: There are a lot of these out there, most often based off of genre - so if you are an RPG board you will want to find an RPG Topsites. Try googling for options, using your genre as a keyword. Registering at a topsites puts your board in a list of other websites, and it ranks you either by how often your members vote for it, or by keeping track of how many people visit your board. It keeps track of visitors by having you install a little image in your wrappers, which is very unobtrusive, and it usually displays your rank so that your members can see how well you're doing. This also gets your members involved in forum promotion, so remind them to vote for you!

  6. Google Indexing: Every admin needs Google on their side! If your board has Google ads, it is being continuously indexed by the Google search engine - which means it's doing a lot of work for you. Even when you don't have ads, Google should still be crawling your board so that potential members can find your content. Make sure that most of your board is visible to guests so that Google can anonymously collect as much as possible.

  7. Alexa Traffic Ranking: Alexa is the leading traffic ranking website on the internet. It keeps track of how many people visit your board and how active it is, and ranks it against every other website in the world. This requires a little more involvement on your part. I highly recommend installing the Alexa Toolbar - this is how Alexa collects usage statistics for websites. Who better to report activity for your board than you, the person who should be the most active? Once you install it and get it running, all you have to do is let it sit there and collect data. Your usage alone will greatly boost your ranking, and if you encourage your members to use it too you should be golden.
    • Check your domain's current traffic ranking by going to:
      http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/YOURDOMAINNAME.COM

I hope these tips work as well for you as they have for me. Feel free to share other methods of "spreading the word" that you have found successful.
Posted in Tutorials & Documentation on Feb 27 2013, 04:28 PM · No comments
Feb 27

ZetaBugs (ZB Pros & Cons)

I made this gigantic list of bugs, quirks, and features I'd like to see incorporated when I was first investigating switching from IF to ZB. This is my public record of those concerns. I also have a supplemental blog post that shows which of these issues have been resolved. There are a lot of these concerns that I haven't gone back to see if they've been resolved or not over the years, so they may be stale. If they are, just leave a comment and let me know!

Bugs - Things that don't work like they should, miscellaneous quirks. Ones in red or orange are serious issues.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Cons - Anything I don't like, big and small. Ones in red or orange are serious issues.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Eratta - Miscellaneous notes.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Desired Features - New features they don't have that I want. Ones in red or orange are highly desired.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Upgrade Concerns - Annoyances when converting and potential losses.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Pros - Favorite features of ZB.
Spoiler: click to toggle
Posted in Service Feedback on Feb 27 2013, 04:07 PM · No comments
Feb 27

Former Pros and Cons of ZetaBoards (ZetaBugs)

I made this gigantic list of bugs, quirks, and features I'd like to see incorporated when I was first investigating switching from IF to ZB. This is my public record of which of those concerns have been resolved. It is the supplement to another blog post of mine which is the running record of ongoing issues I'd still like to see resolved.

Bugs - Things that don't work like they should, miscellaneous quirks. Ones in red or orange are serious issues.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Cons - Anything I don't like, big and small. Ones in red or orange are serious issues.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Desired Features - New features they don't have that I want. Ones in red or orange are highly desired.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Upgrade Concerns - Annoyances when converting and potential losses.
Spoiler: click to toggle


Pros - Favorite features of ZB that seem to have disappeared or stopped working.
Spoiler: click to toggle
Posted in Service Feedback on Feb 27 2013, 04:04 PM · No comments