MeetFighters News

Summary: There is a new site design. If you want to keep using the previous one, select it on your Administration page.

Unless you have just joined or are using a braille reader, you must have noticed that our favorite website has some new clothes.

I was personally unhappy with how the previous design (the one I now call "Orange Gym") turned out. Those of you who have been with us for some time might have come to believe that I can make a website work in terms of functionality, but my visual web design skills are somewhat... lacking. (Yes, that is a nice way of putting that.) I started out with some good ideas and best intentions, then started to tweak it, and experiment, and in the end I could never make it look "right".

So this time, I had some help: I bought a professional website template, and carefully tweaked it to fit this site. It wasn't easy, but I am much happier with the end results than I was with the last one. I call the new design "Black Streamlined" because it is black and it is streamlined. (Could it be that I seriously lack in imagination?) Anyway, if you somehow liked the older design better, or have a low tolerance for change, you can have it back. Go to your Administration page, scroll down and find a dropdown box next to "Site layout". Choose "Orange Gym", save, and you'll be good to go. Easy-peasy!

As a lark, I also retrofitted the original "AllFighters" design to the site. Those of you who have been around long enough to remember it might get a rush of nostalgia. :)

Obviously the new design will have some rough edges, but I didn't want to wait any longer before I inflicted it upon everyone deployed it. There is a lively discussion going on about said rough edges in the MeetFighters idea box. Join us there if you find something that looks odd or you have your two cents to share.

Where do we go from here?

I have some plans for 2013. These include:

• A dark text on light background version of the new design (I might end up calling that "Light Streamlined". Maybe not, though.)
• A Match Invite system.
• Continue to serve you the best wrestling website ever!! :)

That's all for today,
– Admin out.

Please read this section, it contains important information about your account!

Summary: Please visit the Your Locations page, and make sure that the markers are in the correct location. You can also set date ranges for your travel destinations.

I have made a change to the "Your Locations" page: it is now possible to indicate the dates when you are there. I have also made it easier to add new locations, or reorder your locations to make sure that the topmost one is the most current. Another change involves the location selector: hopefully it is more interactive and user friendly now. It lets you place your marker on the world map and quickly enter any additional data that you might want to share.

Please take a quick look at your locations and make sure your markers are in the correct locations. This will greatly help distance-based searches (i.e. when you are looking for opponents within 10 kilometers / miles) and the World Map of Meetfighters more accurate. It will also help potential opponents find you easier.

Smaller changes since the last site update:

• You can now switch between "flat" (ordered by date) and "threaded" view (ordered by replies) in forums and blog comments. (Tracker/2012-10-30 2)
• The photo peer review page now shows the categories as thumbnails. The menu is also reorganized.
• Profile pages now show past opponents that are common to you and the other member. (Tracker/2012-08-13)
• Member body weights are displayed in stones in addition to pounds/kilos in the UK.
• It is easier to upload and attach your photos to blog entries.
• A bunch of small fixes and enhancements for the Communicator and the Support pages.

There have been a bunch of changes since the last update!

• Abuse flags now require some justification to be provided by the flagger. This justification is only visible to site supporters, however, we hope that this change in the game will eliminate the use of frivolous abuse flags as a means of personal revenge.
• I did a rather big behind-the-scene optimization of the database. Surprisingly enough, this didn't break anything (that I know of)!
• Event organizers are now able to indicate who actually participated in the event and who didn't show.
• Notifications (e.g. new message or someone viewing your profile) appear in a more timely manner and produce a distinct sound effect.
• There is a new thing at the bottom of the page. I call it the "Communicator". It has a few channels, I hope you will find them useful somehow.
• The login or update notification settings for your favorites can be modified when you visit their profiles or after you add a favorite.
• It is now possible to reorder your photos as you want by dragging them up and down.
• Some updates to the Help and Support page for easier reporting of moderation appeals.
• Many, many small enhancements and bugfixes.

Enjoy the site! :)

What happened on MeetFighters on August?

• I have rearranged the forum page. There is now a separate forum for adult content, and a new one for videos and photos. I have eliminated some old forum categories that were superfluous.
• It is now possible to embed videos and photos in blogs and forums.
• You now get notified when someone responds to your forum topic, or replies to your forum comment.
• The system now asks you to confirm when you are marking someone as a past (cyber) opponent. Hopefully this will cut down on mistakes that end up as violations of Terms of Service §6.
• Is it now possible to search and sort members of interest groups. Useful for large groups with hundreds of members!
• You receive notifications when your favorites upload new photos or update their profiles.
• You are also notified when someone is looking at your profile.
• There is a new photo category for celebrity photos and copyrighted content.
• You can now see the date when a photo was uploaded to the site.
• You can see some profile details when you hover over a member's thumbnail pic.
• The weekly newsletter includes some recommendations.
• Setting an abuse flag on someone's profile automatically blocks the person.
• Lots of small bugfixes and enhancements.

Where are we going next? It's up to you! Visit the suggestion box and vote for your favorite feature!

Summary: MeetFighters.com is here, but we are not done yet.

First, it's time to celebrate: toughwrestler our highest ranking top member has recently met his 200th past opponent! Congratulations!

Back to other site matters, there's still a bunch of changes and fixes need to be done ranging from small (e.g. menu position under Opera browser is not correct) to large (find and replace every occurrence of "allfighters" in the site code). It's going to be some time before the new site is 100% polished, but I didn't want to wait any longer with the switch.

This week I was busy finding and fixing a bunch of bugs. Thanks for everyone who participated in the bug hunt or voiced an opinion. I also made some unrelated changes, the most visible of which is that two forum groups have been eliminated:

• "Events and Venues" have long been superseded by the Events and Venues pages.
• "Site matters" hasn't seen much use, and is much better handled by Bugs and Suggestions and Help and Support pages anyway.

I plan on adding a new "Adult" forum soon. I'm also going to replace the current forum code with something better in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!