Hey everyone! I know, it’s been a while Here are the notes for Barrens Chat v1.2, which launches today. I worked hard on this. Enjoy :)

REFRESH YOUR MOBILE AND DESKTOP BROWSER CACHES

Mobile responsive design

Barrens Chat is now responsively designed for smartphone use. Below a certain width (chosen carefully so as to support all mobiles as old as iPhone 4 to iPhone X), the site seamlessly adopts new dimensions.



This is due to the overwhelming proportion of people visiting barrens chat on a smartphone (60% of visitors are on mobile), and Google’s recent decision to index websites as ‘mobile first’. This change increases Google PageSpeed optimisation and thus search rankings.

I’m really happy with how it turned out - I didn’t have to sacrifice much functionality and the theme is still the same! If you are a frequent mobile user, please do report any bugs you come across so they can be brought to my attention! :) (Do refresh your mobile browser cache before reporting any issues please!).

Alliance skin

For all the alliance homies out there I have created a variation on the original theme just for you. It’s only a few very small changes here and there, but hopefully you will enjoy using it :)



To select the alliance skin, go to the username drop-down in the top right and choose ‘Alliance’ next to the brush icon. Guests may also switch skins using special cookies - thanks paybas for the awesome mod!

In the future I may develop more ‘flavours’ of Barrens Chat if there is enough support for it - one for each race… or one for each world zone? Let me know in the feedback thread! :)

Other features and changes

• Polls! you can now make polls natively on the site as requested in feedback. Just fill in the fields on the posting page and you’re done.
• There are now 45 profile backgrounds to choose from - every zone in Vanilla is there
• Discontinued ‘achievements’ feature due to feedback as well as technical issues with the extension - I may revisit the idea again in the future with a different implementation if there is support for it
• Revised how ‘Users who liked this post..’ appears when viewing topic as per feedback, its more minimal and interferes less with the flow of the post
• Increased the default initial height of full reply and quick reply textboxes
• Moved preview window, when visible, from underneath to on top of editing area
• Moved quick reply window, when visible, to directly below last post on page
• Added BBCode buttons in posting page for Blizz quote tag, center tag, spoiler tag, and mention tag
• Added a new [image] BBcode tag - how is it different to [img]? It makes your image a clickable link to the full-sized version of the image. You can still use [img] but it won’t have this neat extra.
• Darkened colour of spoiler hide/show tags as suggested in feedback to improve readability
• Improved readability of @mention tags by removing block background
• Removed admin level bar from myself, will maybe add staff badges for [mention]Syturio[/mention] and I in future
• Added a dropdown options menu for guests for switching skins, logging in, and registering. Login link also placed on guest avatar.
• Added a link to level bars which leads to the (updated) levels explanation topic
• Changed the graphic for the level 60 bar
• Other small graphical tweaks to the master sprite for clarity and performance
• Removed unnecessary ‘Last edited by… x changes’ section on view topic page as suggested in feedback
• Removed unnecessary ‘Logout’ navbar link when logged in, as you can logout from the dropdown menu
• Moderator control panel has been redesigned for use by our mod team
• Automatic daily database backup configured
• Latest profile viewers area now scrollable horizontally
• Removed unnecessary ‘Notifications’ link from user drop down menu
• Removed our Peon welcomer for guests - he may return in the future but with something more interesting to say :P
• Database optimised and size reduced from 15mb to 4mb, improving performance
• Replaced various extensions with alternative code to improve performance
• Credits page brought up to date, reflecting recent changes

Bugs fixed

• Fixed wonky appearance of email textbox when posting as a guest
• Fixed chrome bug which showed redundant styling on clicked pagination buttons
• Fixed chrome checkbox ‘black border’ bug
• Fixed mobile safari disappearing of styling on clicked buttons
• Fixed user session lapse issues
• Removed popup when marking all topics as read
• Removed redundant white popup fields appearing in registration page on entering illegal values
• Fixed phantom PM notifications issue where a PM was sent, then deleted, but still showed notifications that would not go away
• Removed redundant ‘test’ module from main preferences navigation
• Fixed user-select highlighting on BBcode buttons in posting page

Future development

Aside from bugs, new skins, and integrating tooltips for Wowhead Classic (when that comes out), there is little else I would like to develop on the site for the time being.

Instead, the focus from now on will be content, content, content. Let’s make BC the best Classic forum on the web in time for launch day :)

Do continue with the GREAT topics and discussion that you have all been contributing towards, and invite new people and publicise Barrens Chat wherever you have the opportunity to do so.

Your boy,
teebling