Community Update #3 - November 25, 2023

[wolfpaw]

COMMUNITY UPDATE #3 - NOVEMBER 25, 2023

 

'Tis the season! Hey ParkCrafters and welcome to the third community update! We have some exciting new announcements to share with you as we wrap up the year and head into the holidays! It has officially been half a year since ParkCrafters launched and we're already seeing such exciting projects, active threads, and a growing but tight-knit community. Thanks so much for being a valued member here, your continued support allows this community to live on for (hopefully) years to come. While we do have some exciting announcements to share with you today, there isn't a whole lot in this update as we're hard at work moving content over from the CSDepot onto ParkCrafters before it closes on December 8th. Check out what's new below!

---

Happy Holidays from all of us at ParkCrafters!

In case you haven't noticed yet, ParkCrafters and our Discord server have been redesigned for the Holiday season! Our Christmas theme includes both a light and dark skin, falling snow, updated colors, and more! You can change between the light and dark theme at the top right corner by clicking on the paint bucket icon.

Looking to revert to the normal look? You can always swap back to our normal default theme by clicking on 'Theme' on the bottom left corner of the page and clicking on 'ParkCrafters Theme'. Our Christmas skin will be available until January 2nd, 2024.

---

ParkCrafters continues to expand... so does our Staff Team!

ParkCrafters is currently looking for an additional moderator to help out around the forum and the Discord server! We're gaining a lot of new members and new content, so we're currently looking for an additional moderator to join our staff team. If interested, please send @wolfpaw or @Cody a personal message stating that you are interested along with the following:

• Username
• Discord Username (If applicable, Discord access is preferred)
• A list of games you create content in that we host on ParkCrafters
• Your timezone
• Any graphic design skills that you may have (Photoshop, GIMP, Illustrator, Video Editing skills) - This isn't mandatory but always appreciated!

If interested, please keep the following in mind to join our staff team here at ParkCrafters:

• As a moderator, you will be expected to act maturely and respectful of all members and content posted
• You must be an active member of ParkCrafters (login and view the site at least three times a week)
• Have a positive attitude and take on tasks that may fall to you to better the site or deal with issues
• Creating content in the games we host is not mandatory, as long as you're active you can make a good fit!
• Work with other staff members to come up with ideas, features, and events to promote activity
• Willing to help out around the community when needed
• Willing to help and moderate content posted on our Discord Server when needed

Signups for this new moderator position will close on December 3rd, 2023 at 11:59 PM EST.

---

CSDepot Migration is almost completed!

For all the RCT3 veterans and players out there, you've probably heard of the CSDepot that was hosted on ShyGuys World by now - a place to download a wide variety of additional content for RCT3. The CSDepot is planning to close on December 8th, 2023 - but fear not! ParkCrafters has put together a team of awesome and dedicated individuals who are currently moving all the download files over from the CSDepot onto ParkCrafters. I'm excited to announce that this project is almost completed and almost all the files have been moved over! We're currently on track to finish before the closing date of the CSDepot on December 8th! Once this project is completed, we will make a formal announcement so keep an eye out! I'd like to personally thank these really hardworking individuals who have helped tremendously with this project: @Knight Rider, @Kablary, @linux_doggo, @Wilhelm1407, @Cody, and @RobertaME! Be sure to give them your virtual round of applause for helping to archive all of these files for continued use and projects!

---

Even More Bug Fixes!

• Added X share link options.
• Improved the efficiency of sitemap generation.
• Improved the Node Form Helper to include only nodes where a member has permissions to create content for the "Create New" menu.
• Improved pasting images that were copied in Chromium-based browsers.
• Reset state of Account Deletion AdminCP Notification.
• Fixed an issue where moderators with only move permission couldn't see moderation checkboxes.
• Fixed an issue where banned users may show in the mention list if they recently participated.
• Fixed searching specific API endpoints not working fully.
• Fixed an issue where it may be difficult to set custom meta tags on the root page.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to restrict access to the SEO acp section.
• Fixed Bulk Mail (and other) filters not detected Yes/No and Checkbox Profile Fields correctly.
• Fixed an issue where a blank error message may be shown in some circumstances when testing mail settings.
• Fixed an issue where two messages assumed a gender.
• Fixed reverting templates not taking effect immediately when disk caching is in use.
• Fixed custom Header and Footer theme settings not validating code upon saving.
• Fixed members showing twice in the members list when viewing the list of administrators.
• Fixed acronyms in word expansion unable to be saved in Firefox if the expansion contained quotes.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to restrict access to the SEO acp section.
• Fixed staff only profile fields showing on search form for non-staff.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to configure a Reaction based achievements rule for Items that cannot be reacted to.
• Fixed an issue where issuing a warning removing achievement points may cause an SQL error.
• Fixed an issue where the leaderboard area filter would show comments and reviews for all content types, even if they didn't support comments or reviews.
• Fixed an issue where custom staff directory templates weren't shown while creating/editing the staff directory.
• Fixed an issue where some content (topics etc) created as hidden did not show in the condensed activity stream.
• Fixed an issue where synching topics for all content would create topics for items pending deletion.
• Fixed an issue activating Bit.ly in promotion tools.
• Fixed a potential error when issuing a warning due to PHP bug #66545.
• Added a new "Topics with No Replies" list to the Topics statistics section.
• Added a setting for each forum to exclude topics marked as solved that were posted before a specific time.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to downvote answers even when negative ratings were disabled.
• Fixed an issue where club forums were showing in global forum stats.
• Fixed an issue where empty answers (including image/embed only answers) may cause a json-ld validation error.
• Fixed linked files not showing a title on the download prompt when multiple files are available.
• Fixed new versions always requiring approval even if submitter is set to bypass content approval.

Known Issues:

• We're aware of the page not automatically refreshing once someone submits a comment on a status update and are currently working on a fix.
• We're aware of members not having enough local storage for images and attachments uploaded directly to our site and are currently working on a fix.

---

State of the Site Update

Lastly, here's a rundown of the latest statistics compared to our last community update of how we are doing!

• 191 Total Members (+68 new members)
• 2,527 Current Files on our Downloads Section (+2,230 new files)
• 194 Topics Created (+22 new topics)
• 2,421 Posts Created (+402 new posts)
• 1,656 Reactions Given (+400 new reactions)
• 2,448 Downloads (+1,611 new downloads)
• 1,771,274 Visits Since Launch (+622,720 visits)

---

Once again, thanks for a successful first 6 months of ParkCrafters! We've got loads of new features and more planned for 2024 - we can't wait to share them all with you! In the meantime, keep sharing your awesome projects and being one of the best communities ever! Until 2024 and Happy Holidays from the staff team here on ParkCrafters!

[Cody]

Great update @wolfpaw! Reflecting on what he said, we are quickly growing as we hit the 6 month mark. We are nearing the end of our massive move from the Custom Scenery Depot (uploading even more files today) and there are big plans frequently being discussed. Much of the community is from SGW and have adjusted amazingly. Our Discord channel is one of the most active communities I have personally seen and it is only a reflection of how much of a community ParkCrafters has become.

As far as a new moderator, it is a fun opportunity to contribute to the community more than just being a member. I am lucky to have been the first one on here and have had the experience of being one on SGW for quite a few years. Please reach out to either of us at anytime, I would love to see some SGW veterans apply for the spot and contribute to our staff conversations. 

For the file transfer team, it is almost over! Everyone is doing a great job, it has been a really large task for all of us and I am impressed at how quickly everyone jumped on to get things over. Every little bit counts!

As always please reach out to me at anytime, I love good creative discussions and maybe some chaos in our creative stories with our projects.

Happy Holidays!!!

[Wowman]

THX the holiday theme looks great