Updates

[AquilaTempestas]

7th of July, 2015

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to The Artist's Zone!

 

The Artist's Zone was created to provide all writers, both novices and amateurs, original and fanfiction, a friendly and fun environment to discuss a common interest.

 

There are many forums established already which are focused on the art of writing, but I have yet to come across one that supports fanfiction. Fanfiction is a great way to practice your skills in your path to becoming a professional author, or just to practice your skills in general.

 

I hope that you come to love this place and that we will be around for many long years to come.

 

Planned Future Updates

 

- Upgrading the ranking system to include special images

- New logo to replace 'The Artist's Zone' text banner

- Special banners for chat and board moderators, tech support, contributors and promoters

[Kage]

The official fanfiction account for the Artist's Zone is now up! Visit it here: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6899570/

[AquilaTempestas]

Awesomeness! You might want to change the Xenforo to IPB part since we're now hosted on IPB.

[TheYorkieOfDoom]

Our DA group is available, join us here http://theartistszone.deviantart.com

 

 

Submission Permissions are as follows

 

Founder,Co-Founder and Contributors (Staff) : 

• 2 submissions to featured per a month (requires  approval, no self approval)
• 4 submissions to Original Fiction, Fanfiction, Digital Art, Traditional Art and Photography per a day and folder (Automatically approved)
• Ability to approve "Member" Submissions 
• Ability to submit Journals automatically

 

Members

 

• 1 submission to featured per month (Requires Approval) 
• 3 submissions to Original Fiction, Fanfiction, Digital Art, Traditional Art and Photography per a day and folder (Requires staff approval)
• Ability to submit Journals (Requires Staff approval)

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Group sizes:

Founder ~ 1 (AquilaTempestas)

Co-Founder ~ 2 (Nyan-Nyan IX and [free])

Contributors ~ 5 ( Four permanent and one rotational)

Members ~ Unlimited 

 

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All forum rules apply on DeviantArt as well as DA's rules.

To join the Deviantart staff team either note WhiteNeko-Chan on Deviantart or send me a PM here 

[AquilaTempestas]

4th of September, 2015

 

We are currently still building up our member base. Things are progressing a bit slowly at the moment, but hopefully in time that will lift.

 

We have reached almost 2000 posts which is quite impressive since we've only been around for less than three months. Well done everyone : )

 

All Chat Moderator positions have been taken. There are three Promotor positions left, but I'd really like some Contributors.

 

Let us continue to expand - if you know of anyone, let them know about us!

[AquilaTempestas]

14th of September, 2015

 

I am adding a polling system. The polls will allow the staff to propose ideas for forum improvement. Members will be able to report feedback by casting their vote on a preferred option.

 

Visit Polls

[AquilaTempestas]

17th of September, 2015

 

Today marks the day we upgraded the board to the current IPB version, 4.0.

With the upgrade comes many changes as you may have noticed.

- New member and staff titles [silver and gold members, and tech and mentor for staff. Contributor has been changed to Supporter]

- New interface. I've changed some things around to clean things up a little.

- New theme. The theme changes colours depending on your time of the day. Blue for morning, red/orange for afternoon, and black for dusk just to remind you what time of the day it is in-case you have forgotten

- You will be able to change the background image to one you desire (pictures will change every now and then). The background picker button is the paintbrush in the navigation bar to the upper right. Pictures will be rotated on a monthly basis to keep things fresh.

- New guides will be written. With a board upgrade, a few things have been renamed and changed. These will be explained in a guide.

- Countdown timer. 

- Followers system. Instead of friends, you have followers. If you follow someone, you get informed of their updates. Basically, you become their stalker.

What currently doesn't work

- instant reply to status update. If you want to reply to status, you have to visit that member's profile page. Immediate status reply will be added this week. At the moment, you will have to follow these steps to reply - Click Username > Status Feed > Type your message where it says 'Reply to this status'

- instant inform of message. I don't actually know if this is working properly at the moment. I'll be searching for a couple of testers to try some things out.

.

You will also need to change your display names back to your preferred name (this one applies to members who adopted names of Assassins). You can do this by clicking on your Username > Account Settings > Display Name

All members should now be able to upload attachments through PMs.

Please let me know if something is missing/not working by replying to the 'Upgrade' question in the Support area

 

Edited September 17, 2015 by Edward Kenway

[Lady Mechanika]

It's great Ed. I've had a play around using my tablet (kindle fire) and its easier to navigate than the old form and I can actually embed pictures into my posts now. 

[AquilaTempestas]

10th of October, 2015

As requested, here is the Original Works sub-forum.

If there is a sub-forum you would like to see, please inform me directly through PM.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2015 by Edward Kenway

[AquilaTempestas]

28th of October, 2015

User names now show their colour depending on their member/staff position.

Facebook page icon now appears both in the navigation bar and on the left side of the forum screen. Support the forum by 'liking' it!

'Staff Online' widget now appears on the right-hand side. It's now easier to message a staff member by simply clicking on the envelope icon.

Added music sub-forum for band and artists focused discussions.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Edward Kenway

[AquilaTempestas]

22nd of November, 2015

Since many of us here are gamers part-time, I thought it would be pretty cool to organize online gaming sessions.

This includes Xbox, Playstation, Steam and those internet games (Pokemon Showdown, Cards Against Humanity etc etc)

Issue a challenge here, post a leaderboard, and let the points accumulate!

If enough people join in the fun, we could even start a forum 'house' thing (Harry Potter style!)

JOLLY CO-OP

Edited November 22, 2015 by Lucifer

[AquilaTempestas]

1st of December, 2015

The first day of the Christmas month, and that means a new theme addition!

If you look carefully, you'll notice little balls of snow falling down from the top of the page.

Aside from that, I've renamed the 'Original Works' to 'Stories'. This includes both Fanfiction and Original Works since I just realized there was no fanfiction section.

In the coming weeks, I'll also be working on a written works archive site where forum members can host their written material. It obviously won't match archive and fanfiction.net, but hopefully you use it as a back-up place to store your works. You'll be able to upload originals, fanfictions, scripts etc etc. 

Edited December 1, 2015 by Raime, The Fume Knight

[AquilaTempestas]

12th of December, 2015

Christmas is fast approaching, and to celebrate this day, there'll be a few changes to the forum.

Of course, since I want this to be a surprise, I'm not going to say what it is except that you should find it useful/pretty cool.

There'll be a few new themes coming soon as well!

I do look forward to sharing these new updates with you on Christmas Day (for some of you, that will be Christmas Eve).

[AquilaTempestas]

1st of January, 2016

It's a brand new year, and that means the board has undergone a few changes!

• Clean Up. Some categories and sub-forums have been renamed and rearranged. Topics with little activity have been moved to the GRAVEYARD. Some threads have also been moved.
• Profile Backgrounds. You can now have your own background image for your profile.
• Reply to Status Update. You can now reply to a status on the index page rather than having to visit that member's page to comment on their status.
• Theme. A new year and a new theme to match! Every month, there'll be a new background.
• Twitter Feed. I have included a live Twitter feed. Detailed update notes will still be shared here, but the RSS feed allows for live quick updates so you can be informed immediately. 

Planned

If we get enough people to participate, I plan to start up a 'House Points' System. You will get sorted into a house (using a generic quiz on the internet) and you'll get to compete against other members for points. House points can be earned by participating in forum activities, winning forum games and co-op gaming sessions, completing art/writing challenges, and by recruiting members. There will be one House Leader and Board Moderator (to edit posts) for each house. 

House Leaders can issue challenges to other Houses. If you issue a challenge, you can determine how many points are won. Basically, the House Leader gets to determine the rules for the hosted challenge. Challenges can be anything you wish! Just post the details in the 

If you want this system implemented, please reply HERE to give me the thumbs up. If I don't have at least ten members participating, this will not happen. 

Only house members will have access to this area, and you can only view the house forum of the one you belong to. All house members can access the Challenge Zone however.

Also, to come in the future is the ability for Gold Members to have a song play on their Profile. 

Edited December 31, 2015 by AquilaTempestas

[AquilaTempestas]

20th of January, 2016

I've opened a new sub forum within the Stories area entitled 'Visual Stories'.

This is for stories, both original and fanfiction, that use a combination of images and words to tell a tale.

 

[AquilaTempestas]

22nd of January, 2016

Today I was prompted to upgrade to 4.1 from 4.0.

The board itself is mostly the same, however there have been a few slight changes.

• The text box is now a dark colour
• Your profile image backgrounds should now be a lot easier to see
• Updating your status has been improved - you'll now see a few options

New members now need 5 posts on the forum to gain access to the chat room. I'm also planning on introducing a new group called Platinum Members for those who hit 1000 posts. This will include a bunch of some cool new things available only to Platinum Members (including entrance to the Platinum Lounge!)

 

 

[AquilaTempestas]

13th of March, 2016

I figured it was about time for a theme update!

You can now also insert your own music files into a post by uploading the attachment.

To play the song, just double click on it. Please only use this for RP related material.

[AquilaTempestas]

22nd of April, 2016

The board upgrade to 4.1.10 is now complete. This doesn't affect members at all, but fixes up a few internal issues.

Aside from that, there's a new theme on the way! Hopefully, you'll like the new look.

In the future, I plan to incorporate a music store where members can upload their own songs and such.

 

[AquilaTempestas]

26th of April, 2016

The forum will be upgraded again to address a few minor theme issues. I'll do this when there is no one online so nothing gets corrupted during the upload process.

I'm also looking for someone to create a new logo to replace the current one, so if you're interested, let me know!

 

[AquilaTempestas]

22nd of May, 2016

Just a few slight extra.

• Under your profile field (when viewing forums), you'll now be able to see just how long you've been part of the forum 
• Replaced Location with Country. You can now upload your flag to display your location instead.

I'm also planning in adding an awards system to the board where members earn achievements/trophies.

[AquilaTempestas]

29th of May, 2016

Emoticon update!

Please read this thread for more details

[AquilaTempestas]

30th of May, 2016

I've started making a few changes to the forum.

This includes:

• Removal of inactive sub-forums
• Posts/Topic recount
• Updated guild information
• A complete listing of members on the board (though when we grow too big, it'll have to be removed due to taking up too much space)
• User options in post (more info below)
• Adding Twitch Live Streams (coming soon)
• Achievements/Trophies system (coming soon)

 

User Options in Post

From left to right:

Private Message, Ignore User, Find Content, Flag as Spammer and Add Warning (mods only)

[AquilaTempestas]

4th of June, 2016

Today our staff ranks increased in size.

Please welcome Magnus Bane to the Chat Moderators group.

Also, a warm welcome to Indigo Jupiter for joining the Mentors rank. 

I'm still open to members becoming Promoters, so if you are interested in promoting our board on other places, do let me know (tumblr, deviantart etc etc).

[AquilaTempestas]

8th of June, 2016

Tutorial guides are in the process of being revised to reflect on a few new changes.

This will include guides for all members regardless of positions. 

Hopefully, these new changes will make it easier for newcomers to become accustomed to the forum.

[AquilaTempestas]

17th of July, 2016

You're probably wondering 'why are some posts missing?' 

I did a forum upgrade the other day and unfortunately, some stuff happened with my FTP client and it caused a few crucial files to not be uploaded hence causing a 'forum meltdown'. You probably saw a blank white screen. Some of you may have had flashbacks of past meltdowns before. I know I did.

Fortunately, I’ve got back up copies of the forum for situations like this, and I was able to restore the board as it was on the 16th of July, 2016. On the downside, we have lost all content posted on the 17th of July and afterwards.

Updates Include:

• You can now see the group a member belongs to in PM chat messages
• Board Moderators will now show on the index page
• Top number of posters widget now shows on the side bar
• New theme
• ‘Go to Top’ button added to allow members to jump to the top of the board without having to scroll themselves

Changes Include:

• Tutorial guides edited
• New tutorial guides to help newcomers adjust to IPB
• Inactive threads (0 posts) moved to Graveyard
•  ‘TV and Films’ sub-forums merged
• Fixed pokèball rank images. Black background removed.
• Group Legend Key updated
• Sidebars re-arranged
• Staff position name change – Mentor to Adviser
• Colour changes for member groups to make it easier to read
• New member group – Community Leader
• Updated member badges (big thanks to Sakura for making them)
• Affiliates drop down menu in the navigation bar

Planned Changes Include:

• Blogging features. Members can upload content (such as stories!), reply and rate.
• New custom pages specifically for this board including an improved forum guide!
• Gallery. Rather than upload images in threads, add pictures to your own personal folders
• Forms! As the forum grows in size, replying to PMs becomes harder

Apologies for the inconvenience caused but at least we're back up and running again (and not completely gone) and that's what matters in the end.