[GecKo]

Welcome to the new NZHondas.com forums.

As time goes on we'll be rolling out new functionality, for now we would rather keep it basic so you may familiarize yourself with the changes.

To come:
New Themes
Membership Enhancements
Proper Membership Subscription System
And several other minor modifications.

Things worth noting:

vBulletin
Yes, we've crossed to the dark side. Over the past 12+ months, we've tried every other major alternative. It just happened that when we started looking at vB, everything we wanted seemed to be falling in place, so that's the way we went.

Sub Forums
One of the biggest changes we've got is sub forums. Now when you're posting up a Meet or a part for sale, make sure you put it in the correct forum.

Thread Prefixes
These also go hand in hand with the new subforums, as at the moment that's the only place they're being used. With the last forum, you had to manually specify a prefix (Ie, WTB, etc), with this system you are forced to, and you can also search by these prefixes. In the meets section, it will be up to the original poster to edit his thread to update the prefix.

Unread Threads
One of the common complaints we got with phpBB is that people would login to check their new threads, and would find that there weren't any. This is because phpBB used a cookie/session method to check what threads you had and hadn't read. With vB we have that option, but we also have an option to store that information in the database. What this means is that if you don't read a thread, it'll always class that as you never reading it.

There are ways around that, if you use the 'New Posts' link at the top of the page, it'll show you every new post since your last visit, and then the rest. You will see a message (The threads below have not been updated since your last visit but still contain unread posts.) between those threads. If that's not your flavour, just click the Mark Forums Read link near the bottom of the forum index.

RSS Syndication
If you use Firefox/IE7/Some other sort of RSS app, you may have noticed a small RSS icon in in the title bar (). You can use this to subscribe to the current page you're at. If you're on the forum home, it'll show you the latest posts across the forum, if you're in Parts Exchange, it will show you the newest parts exchange posts, if you're in a particular thread, it'll show you the latest posts that are available. This is a good way to keep up with the forum, with out actually having to load it up. Particularly good if you're somewhere where you maybe shouldn't be browsing the forum? Hmmm?

Better Search
vBulletin has much better search algorithms and better search options. I won't go in to great detail, but check out 'Advanced Search' when you click on the Search option at the top of the page. If you're browsing a forum, you'll also see a menu for just searching that forum, likewise for posts.

Another point worth mentioning is the Similar Threads section. This section will show at the very bottom of the page when you're viewing a thread. It shows threads that vBulletin thinks are relevant to the one you're viewing. Because this is a fresh import, it will take a while for those to be generated on the forums, but as time goes on they'll get better and better.

Social Networking
BeBondaBook? Yes, social networking, it's here. I was once quoted as saying 'Bebo is for pedophiles and 14 year old girls, which one are you?' but alas, you either join the masses or get over taken!

We've enabled User Profiles, Gallerys, Social Groups and added IRC chat client integration. We're not to sure what sort of use these are going to get, and will be adjusting Gallery limits and image upload sizes as time goes on. Again, I won't go too much into detail, except to say everyone should enable Visitor Messages in their Control Panel so people can leave messages on your Public Profile, and to explore/create Social Groups. We will be allowing custom profile styling eventually, for a demo check out VTAKYO's profile, you can even set a background image. Naww.

Post Reporting
Everyones a moderator! If someone makes a post that you think is against our rules, report it. This can be anything, post in the wrong forum, abusing another member, that sort of thing. There is a button under the persons nick in their Postbit (The postbit is the block containing the users nick, avatar, location etc) giving a quick description, and all the moderators are notified.

Thread Subscription/Private Messaging
These are two areas which have greatly improved. You can create subfolders for storing PMs and Subscribed threads, you also have multiple options for choosing in what way you get notified of new replies in either. Again, I won't go into great detail, but if you didn't use the subscribed thread option in the last forum, you may find you might here! Look through your entire User Control Panel for other settings.

User Infractions
Ahh yes, the business end vBulletin has a much better system to control bans. Because of this, we've removed the blanket ban we had on free email addresses. We now have a system that pretty much works identical to licence demerit points. If you step over the line, you'll receive an infraction from a moderator, these vary in points and how long you have them (Continually posting topics in the wrong forum will net you 10 points that will only last for a week, sexual harassment will net you 50 that will last for two), when you get to 100 you're automatically banned for a period of time, depending on how quickly you got there.

To be honest, this will probably result in LESS bans, as everyone is going to know exactly where they stand. Previously we didn't really have a solid way of dealing with users consistently breaking the rules, so no one knew (Or maybe cared? Heh) when they were on their last legs, now that is totally transparent.

My only advise here is if you are one of the lucky few who get infraction notices, don't immediately flip out over it, as you'll more than likely get another one. There will not be one infraction that will get you banned straight away, so just chill out and PM an online moderator if you don't think it was just, and take it from there.

I'll be updating this post as the time goes on..

Issues:
We expect there to be a lot of issues that people are having, whether they're to do with the forum or user issues, either way, we want to hear about them asap. Make a topic in the Help/Feedback Forum