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Wow. I feel as if I've been hit over the head with baseball bat...this upgrade has taken more than 48 solid hours to complete, but it is finally done. I haven't even left my house for more than half an hour, total, since this all began! Really, though it's such a relief to have it over with. Watching all my hard work over the past 6 months come into reality is a great feeling. Here's a look at some of the new things in GTP6:
New Logo and Design
As you've probably already noticed, we now have a new logo. It's a simple, modern, effective symbol of the world. It's the perfect logo for our site, because it relates to our "planetary" name and also symbolizes the global reach of our community. We also have a completely new look for every part of the site. A few elements of the design may look familiar - I've used many of the same colors from GTP5. I haven't done much testing across different browser platforms so there may be some problems, as always if you find any please report them to me as soon as possible.
GTP6 Lite, still has a few tweaks here and there, so what you see now might or might not be the final version. I'm just going to keep playing around with it until I get something that I'm happy with.
You will also notice new Google Ads on both the main site and the bottom of forum pages. These will alternate between default ads for our own GTP Store or ads from sponsors, depending on the page you're viewing. Please click on these ads if you see something that interests you...the site is becoming a very large financial strain and I would really appreciate the support.
New Homepage and CMS
Our main site is now controlled by Subdreamer, a powerful Content Management System. Our old system was a wobbly hand-made piece of ****, and I couldn't even update the site to add GT4 info or new videos that you guys submitted. That's all a thing of the past, now, though, so expect a lot more on the main site. If you check the homepage, you'll also find that I can post news articles to the site and keep it fresh and updated. I want this to be a way to highlight things going on in the community, so if you have anything going on of importance in the forums (a thread with exciting/important news, large online racing tournament, etc.), please be sure to let me know so I can post it on the homepage. Please use the Contact Us form to submit this information.
New GTP Store
The GTP Store has been completely re-launched with all new products and designs, featuring our new logo. If you find something that you like, please don't hesitate to order it. We receive a small portion of the profit from these items and of course we appreciate the extra help and support tremendously.
New File Download System
As you may remember, we had to remove many of our most popular video downloads due to the extreme stress they were placing on our server. We simply didn't have enough bandwidth to pump out all the data at the same time and as a result the site became inaccessible. Fortunately, as a feature of our fantastic new Subdreamer CMS, we have been able to integrate our file downloads with our forum member base. Now, you must be a GTPlanet member to view all of our video downloads, so you're membership just got even more valuable! Hopefully this will both prevent leeching and will also help grow our community at the same time.
What about GTPremium?
Without question, one of the most talked-about new features coming with GTP6 was GTPremium, a monthly subscription-based service that removes ads and gives you more features around the forums. While upgrading the site over the past few days, I've decided that I need more time to dedicate exclusively to this service before it's launched. Expect to see GTPremium within the next month or so, and keep an eye on this News & Announcements forum for information as I release it.
New vBulletin 3 Features
The biggest change to GTPlanet, other than the new layout and design, is the upgrade to the latest version of our forum software, vBulletin. This new upgrade contains a plethora of new options and features, of which there are too many to list here. Here are just a few of them...
Here is a list of all the changes that were made to size restrictions and limits. These changes are not retroactive. For example, if you have uploaded more than 12 MB of attachments, all of your old attachments will not count toward your 12 MB limit. Only attachments that you post after the limit was put in place will count.
With all that said, I do hope you enjoy the new site. I've worked very, very hard over the past 6 months, designing and tweaking this new style just the way I want it, and of course the upgrade has left me exhausted. If you have COMMENTS or SUGGESTIONS regarding the new site, please post them in this thread. If you have QUESTIONS or PROBLEMS regarding the new site, please START A NEW THREAD in our Questions & Comments Forum.
Thanks, and enjoy the site!
New Logo and Design
As you've probably already noticed, we now have a new logo. It's a simple, modern, effective symbol of the world. It's the perfect logo for our site, because it relates to our "planetary" name and also symbolizes the global reach of our community. We also have a completely new look for every part of the site. A few elements of the design may look familiar - I've used many of the same colors from GTP5. I haven't done much testing across different browser platforms so there may be some problems, as always if you find any please report them to me as soon as possible.
GTP6 Lite, still has a few tweaks here and there, so what you see now might or might not be the final version. I'm just going to keep playing around with it until I get something that I'm happy with.
You will also notice new Google Ads on both the main site and the bottom of forum pages. These will alternate between default ads for our own GTP Store or ads from sponsors, depending on the page you're viewing. Please click on these ads if you see something that interests you...the site is becoming a very large financial strain and I would really appreciate the support.
New Homepage and CMS
Our main site is now controlled by Subdreamer, a powerful Content Management System. Our old system was a wobbly hand-made piece of ****, and I couldn't even update the site to add GT4 info or new videos that you guys submitted. That's all a thing of the past, now, though, so expect a lot more on the main site. If you check the homepage, you'll also find that I can post news articles to the site and keep it fresh and updated. I want this to be a way to highlight things going on in the community, so if you have anything going on of importance in the forums (a thread with exciting/important news, large online racing tournament, etc.), please be sure to let me know so I can post it on the homepage. Please use the Contact Us form to submit this information.
New GTP Store
The GTP Store has been completely re-launched with all new products and designs, featuring our new logo. If you find something that you like, please don't hesitate to order it. We receive a small portion of the profit from these items and of course we appreciate the extra help and support tremendously.
New File Download System
As you may remember, we had to remove many of our most popular video downloads due to the extreme stress they were placing on our server. We simply didn't have enough bandwidth to pump out all the data at the same time and as a result the site became inaccessible. Fortunately, as a feature of our fantastic new Subdreamer CMS, we have been able to integrate our file downloads with our forum member base. Now, you must be a GTPlanet member to view all of our video downloads, so you're membership just got even more valuable! Hopefully this will both prevent leeching and will also help grow our community at the same time.
What about GTPremium?
Without question, one of the most talked-about new features coming with GTP6 was GTPremium, a monthly subscription-based service that removes ads and gives you more features around the forums. While upgrading the site over the past few days, I've decided that I need more time to dedicate exclusively to this service before it's launched. Expect to see GTPremium within the next month or so, and keep an eye on this News & Announcements forum for information as I release it.
New vBulletin 3 Features
The biggest change to GTPlanet, other than the new layout and design, is the upgrade to the latest version of our forum software, vBulletin. This new upgrade contains a plethora of new options and features, of which there are too many to list here. Here are just a few of them...
- Improved database structure, providing faster loading times for all pages.
- The title of the last thread posted to in a forum is now displayed on the forum home page.
- Calendar events for the upcoming days are now displayed on the main page, along with Users Online, Birthdays, etc.
- When viewing a list of threads in forums, you can see which ones you have subscribed to (indicated by the small envelope icon).
- Searching in threads alone is now possible, via a form at the top-right of each thread page.
- "Who's Viewing this Thread" allows you to see who's also viewing a thread at the same time you are.
- Attachments to posts are now displayed as clickable thumbnails to help threads load faster.
- New WYSIWYG Post Editor allows you to see exactly what your post will look like in the post editing window.
- You can now attach more than 20 files to just one post (if images, all will be thumbnailed).
- Thread subscriptions can now be divided into different groups. For example, you can now subscribe to a thread WITHOUT getting email notification. You'll find these options when you subscribe to a thread or you can set these options by default in "My GTPlanet".
- Your signature can now be edited with the WYSIWYG editor and can also be previewed before going live.
- You can now preview Private Messages before sending them.
- You now have the ability to view and manage all attachments that you have posted, in "My GTPlanet", "Attachments".
- Each user now has a limit of 12 MB of attachments that they can post. This limit does NOT apply to all attachments that you have posted before we upgraded to vB3, just attachments that you will post in the future.
- Avatars are now displayed on the member list.
- ...and many other little surprises that you'll just have to find on your own!
Here is a list of all the changes that were made to size restrictions and limits. These changes are not retroactive. For example, if you have uploaded more than 12 MB of attachments, all of your old attachments will not count toward your 12 MB limit. Only attachments that you post after the limit was put in place will count.
- Avatars must be under 20 KB.
- Maximum of 50 PM's can be stored at any one time.
- Maximum of 500 characters in signatures.
- Minimum of 10 characters per post (not including quoted text).
- Maximum of 12 MB of attachments.
With all that said, I do hope you enjoy the new site. I've worked very, very hard over the past 6 months, designing and tweaking this new style just the way I want it, and of course the upgrade has left me exhausted. If you have COMMENTS or SUGGESTIONS regarding the new site, please post them in this thread. If you have QUESTIONS or PROBLEMS regarding the new site, please START A NEW THREAD in our Questions & Comments Forum.
Thanks, and enjoy the site!
).
