I'm going to try to put together a visual guide - but it sounds like our URL is redirecting shortly so here's the quick and dirty.

At the VEEEEERY top on the left and right you'll see two brown V arrows, those will close navigation panels if you're having screen sizing issues. Each sub box will also collapse with those brown V arrows.

At the left when you're on the Main page:
You'll see a Green arrow indicating you're at News (as you should see a green arrow indicating you're at Community Forums now) - green arrow basically tells you where in the site you are.

Topics - general guild info, charter etc. It's also where news goes

Stories archives just gives an archive of the news articles

Surveys are polls - unrelated to polls in the message boards

Submit news - post a news whatever (stuff like Congrats on 80.. congrats on killing a big named.. happy bday etc)

Photo gallery is pretty self explanatory

Members list shows who's joined the site

Groups shows who's in which category

My account lets you adjust your account settings

Private msgs self explanatory

Guild Roster - go in and CLAIM YOUR CHARACTERS!! update your HQs .. access.. timelines etc.

Guild Events - this is where you can post an event for folks to sign up for (best if you complete the roster fill in first) There's also a calendar on the bottom left.

User Info box is just some general info..

Center is news stuff

Right side is a survey, 10 recent posts - only people with proper access will see posts here (so if you post in the members area and a guest visits.. they wont see your post scroll by)

Guild stats box is a lot of good info

More to come.. once you register I'll have to add you to the members group, so be patient.

-Wiz

Also - IN the Guild Events area - please be sure to set your time zone.

The date/time at the top right you see is NOT your time zone, it is Mountain time where the server is located. Not sure if we have a method to align that top right time w/ your personal time zone.

BUT - in the Guild Events area - it will say GMT - XXX hrs for your time zone whatever you have it set at.

-Wiz

One more note on the Guild Events - I noticed today's event (the Court of Al Afaz) I could get no details about WHO was signed up. Apparently, the day of the even - that event moves to Event Archives, where you can then view sign ups.

Not my ideal, but not my code - so, just please be aware if you are digging around for an event the 'day of' and can't find a way to sign up for it.

-Wiz

Bro, not sure what you did but the home page is much faster now, especially the last-10 marquee, doesn't studder like it was before

Thanks, I also initated Flood Controls - these are pretty aggressive and its going to catch some of our regular members. (Especially me - I click through stuff way too fast.)

If anyone gets caught in the Flood Controls - mail me in game on Wizairde or email at wizairde @ aol.com and I'll get you unblocked.

I'll see if I can't tone down the Flood Settings a bit if it gets too many folks.

-Wiz

Okay, I performed an upgrade to the site engine. Mostly its backend stuff, so folks stop getting banned when they're legit but we still should see improved performance.
Some upgrades to the boards.. so .. scream if something looks funky.

-Wiz

Wiz,

thanks for putting time and effort into this. I really like what you have done with the drop down menu. Very cool. And yes, this does seem to be faster loading on my end as well.

Only one thing i can see, is the Forum FAQ, Search, You have no..., and Logout "buttons" may be a little under-tall. Text is a bit on the squished side. Maybe bump them up by 10px-20px or so?

Edit: I guess I should state these are the ones you see when you are posting.

FzPz

All-

I know that the private message system can be a bit tricky to work out. I know i've sent PMs on here to people and had them sit a month because they didn't know they had a PM.

Here's some tips -

Go up on the left - click My Account > My Preferences - on that page the bottom two options 'Notify on new Private Message by email' and 'Pop up a window on new private message' - set both to Yes or whatever your preference is.

Mind you, make sure to set your pop blocker to allow pop ups for this site. And the mail will appear to come from 'wizairde@aol.com' notifying you that you have new mail. I may be changing this to noreply @ goldenstaff.org so you may want to add both to your non-spam list.

Hope that helps.

-Paul