There's been a LOT of speculation and misinformation going around about what trackr is, what it isn't, and how it will leave the whole of BF2S standing. I'm going to clean some of these up here.
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What is happening to all the sections of BF2S?
Homepage - Small rearrangements due to section changes below (wiki, forums)
Forums - Closed for registration and posting will be disabled. They will live on as historical archives.
My Leader Board -- Stays just as it is
FAQ - Will be moved to trackr (it is part of the wiki)
UBAR - Will stay at bf2s. It is programmatically generated by stats numbers.
Wiki - Will be moved to trackr under the better Library system
Rankings - Will stay at bf2s
Will there be any BF2s Veteran badges?
There will be no special status granted to members of BF2S on trackr. No, but there are groups that people can setup to achieve a special "oldies club"
Will there be any form of badges (wiki team/game server admins/donators, etc)?
To begin with, no there will not be. This is one of the forum features which will not initially be carried across to the trackr forums. It is a feature I had to add to pun (with great effort) and which I would like to bring back into trackr at some point.
Will there be a subscription fee?
No. I have NO idea where this notion came from, but it is absolutely untrue.
When is this move to trackr expected to happen?
Summer/fall '08
Why is this happening?
[BF2s] community tags in TF2, CSS and COD4 don't make sense. With community servers to be run in these games, we need a unified tag/name to operate under. By switching from a moniker tied to BF2 we can coherently expand the community without the name lockin.
So, what will the tag be like for Trackr? (instead of [BF2s] )
This is still being decided, but has a low priority at the moment (for obvious reasons).
Will I still be able to view my BF2 stats on BF2s?
Yes
Will BF2s still update stats in accordance with EA's stats servers?
Yes
What will happen to the BF2s forums?
They will remain in place, but will be closed to both posts and new registrations. You will still be able to login so that you may "edit" posts to grab the old source text.
What is the Library?
Basically, it's like the current BF2s wiki - but a lot more powerful. It is more integrated with the website and forums and provides users the ability to make posts about the wiki page itself. Additionally, the Library is more like a collection of wikis as opposed to a single wiki, which allows us to cover multiple games.
Will everyone be able to post guides into the Library?
Initially, no. The library will be locked down by user role. Anyone will be able to contact the "maintainer" for a particular section as well as make comments on individual pages, however.
What are "Groups" on trackr?
Being part of a group allows you to post content (forum posts, at the current time) which only other members of the group may see. Group membership can be open, open with approval, or invite only depending on how the group creator wants it.
Can I belong to more than 1 group (i.e, the BF2s, BF2 and TF2 groups?)
Yes, you may belong to multiple groups
Will there be a karma system?
No
Will our post count be visible?
No.
Will our date registered (on BF2s) be copied over?
Yes, I believe I will be able to copy that over as part of the user move.
Who is currently working on the Trackr website?
A lot of the BF2s wiki team, tech team, graphics team and the head admins and some game-server admins too.
Is additional help needed? Can I join the team who are working on Trackr?
Speak to one of the head admins with regards to what you can help out with (knowledge of coding, graphics etc) and whether additional help is actually needed.
When I go to trackr.net, all I see is a black screen and a single image. Where is the current URL?
trackr is still undergoing heavy development and will not be open to the general public till it's ready for release.
Can the current BF2s forums be copied onto trackrs new forums?
No, there is no importer from Pun -> Drupal
Will there be ads on Trackr?
Most likely there will be. Donations are nice, but they aren't regular enough to cover hosting costs -- ads are. However, as with BF2S, I will do my best to make sure they are as discrete as possible.
Will the current BF2s forum admins retain their status?
All current admins and moderators will retain their status. More will be added upon need.
I think "thread X" should be copied onto Trackr. Can this be done?
You are more than welcome to recreate threads on trackr, however the import will have to be a manual process.
The "Articles", or reviews, who will be able to write these?
Initially, only members with the correctly granted permissions. Eventually this may open to all members being able to post into the "draft" status of articles.
How will people get designated for said reviews/articles?
The people I've pulled from BF2S have shown their ability to write extensive and insightful reviews in forum posts. If people wish to apply to write these posts, I'll be more than happy to take PM's from them until the "anyone can write to drafts" system is vetted out.
Will the IRC channel change from #BF2s to #trackr?
Yes.
What will the avatar/sig rules be like?
At the current time, the same as on BF2S
What about forum rules?
Same as the current BF2s rules
Will I have to make a new forum account on trackr?
No. I've scraped together a script which will import usernames, email addresses and registration dates from pun to drupal. However, passwords will not be copied over. You will need to use the "recover my password" feature to set a new password.
I'm upset that I'll lose my reputation (karma and post count) by moving to trackr.
Your reputation is based on the impact you've had upon the community and how memorable you are. The karma number is a merely a representation of that, but is not its source -- your actions and words are. The number not transferring over does not mean your reputation evaporates.
Will this move to trackr assist in the demise of BF2?
I would not presume to say that the existence of BF2S Forums has any negligible effect on how long people continue playing BF2
So there is a clan database?
Yes, clans can register their tag/name and fill out their details. The system isn't fully developed yet.
Will trackr grow and provide forums for the latest games?
Yes. Obviously not every game that is released otherwise we would have thousands of sections.
Will there be D&ST and Junk Drawer sections?
The forums at trackr will attempt to mimick the BF2S structure.
Chuy posted that the new trackr forums will be...disappointing (functionally). Why the hell are we moving then?
The new forums operate under the Drupel software, BF2S under PunBB. Both, as default installs, are pretty basic. However, BF2S has been hacked up quite a bit over the past few years to get it to where it is now. The trackr forums will evolve is much the same manner, and likely quicker since I know what works already.
Will mod history be carried over?
No, but this doesn't mean it goes away.
How far has the site got so far?
As sections of the site mature, I hope to post some screenshots up so you can see what's coming.
Will there be a limit on the number of groups, that any one member of trackr can open?
To start off, groups will be created by moderators just to make sure an initial rush of members doesn't coincide with an initial rush of group creation. It may likely stay that way to keep the number of groups to a minimum without causing a lot of "ghettos" (groups which duplicate each other, have to little membership, and become abandoned.)
Will we still be able to have user titles? If so, will they still have to be set by a mod, or would we be able to do this ourselves?
Right now there are no titles. Based on what I've been seeing, this would not be a difficult thing to add. I think on trackr I may let those be user set. Right now, however, this is one of those features which is up in the air because it's not a default feature with Drupal.
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Feel free to post follow up questions and I'll tag them into the original post as we go.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is happening to all the sections of BF2S?
Homepage - Small rearrangements due to section changes below (wiki, forums)
Forums - Closed for registration and posting will be disabled. They will live on as historical archives.
My Leader Board -- Stays just as it is
FAQ - Will be moved to trackr (it is part of the wiki)
UBAR - Will stay at bf2s. It is programmatically generated by stats numbers.
Wiki - Will be moved to trackr under the better Library system
Rankings - Will stay at bf2s
Will there be any BF2s Veteran badges?
There will be no special status granted to members of BF2S on trackr. No, but there are groups that people can setup to achieve a special "oldies club"
Will there be any form of badges (wiki team/game server admins/donators, etc)?
To begin with, no there will not be. This is one of the forum features which will not initially be carried across to the trackr forums. It is a feature I had to add to pun (with great effort) and which I would like to bring back into trackr at some point.
Will there be a subscription fee?
No. I have NO idea where this notion came from, but it is absolutely untrue.
When is this move to trackr expected to happen?
Summer/fall '08
Why is this happening?
[BF2s] community tags in TF2, CSS and COD4 don't make sense. With community servers to be run in these games, we need a unified tag/name to operate under. By switching from a moniker tied to BF2 we can coherently expand the community without the name lockin.
So, what will the tag be like for Trackr? (instead of [BF2s] )
This is still being decided, but has a low priority at the moment (for obvious reasons).
Will I still be able to view my BF2 stats on BF2s?
Yes
Will BF2s still update stats in accordance with EA's stats servers?
Yes
What will happen to the BF2s forums?
They will remain in place, but will be closed to both posts and new registrations. You will still be able to login so that you may "edit" posts to grab the old source text.
What is the Library?
Basically, it's like the current BF2s wiki - but a lot more powerful. It is more integrated with the website and forums and provides users the ability to make posts about the wiki page itself. Additionally, the Library is more like a collection of wikis as opposed to a single wiki, which allows us to cover multiple games.
Will everyone be able to post guides into the Library?
Initially, no. The library will be locked down by user role. Anyone will be able to contact the "maintainer" for a particular section as well as make comments on individual pages, however.
What are "Groups" on trackr?
Being part of a group allows you to post content (forum posts, at the current time) which only other members of the group may see. Group membership can be open, open with approval, or invite only depending on how the group creator wants it.
Can I belong to more than 1 group (i.e, the BF2s, BF2 and TF2 groups?)
Yes, you may belong to multiple groups
Will there be a karma system?
No
Will our post count be visible?
No.
Will our date registered (on BF2s) be copied over?
Yes, I believe I will be able to copy that over as part of the user move.
Who is currently working on the Trackr website?
A lot of the BF2s wiki team, tech team, graphics team and the head admins and some game-server admins too.
Is additional help needed? Can I join the team who are working on Trackr?
Speak to one of the head admins with regards to what you can help out with (knowledge of coding, graphics etc) and whether additional help is actually needed.
When I go to trackr.net, all I see is a black screen and a single image. Where is the current URL?
trackr is still undergoing heavy development and will not be open to the general public till it's ready for release.
Can the current BF2s forums be copied onto trackrs new forums?
No, there is no importer from Pun -> Drupal
Will there be ads on Trackr?
Most likely there will be. Donations are nice, but they aren't regular enough to cover hosting costs -- ads are. However, as with BF2S, I will do my best to make sure they are as discrete as possible.
Will the current BF2s forum admins retain their status?
All current admins and moderators will retain their status. More will be added upon need.
I think "thread X" should be copied onto Trackr. Can this be done?
You are more than welcome to recreate threads on trackr, however the import will have to be a manual process.
The "Articles", or reviews, who will be able to write these?
Initially, only members with the correctly granted permissions. Eventually this may open to all members being able to post into the "draft" status of articles.
How will people get designated for said reviews/articles?
The people I've pulled from BF2S have shown their ability to write extensive and insightful reviews in forum posts. If people wish to apply to write these posts, I'll be more than happy to take PM's from them until the "anyone can write to drafts" system is vetted out.
Will the IRC channel change from #BF2s to #trackr?
Yes.
What will the avatar/sig rules be like?
At the current time, the same as on BF2S
What about forum rules?
Same as the current BF2s rules
Will I have to make a new forum account on trackr?
No. I've scraped together a script which will import usernames, email addresses and registration dates from pun to drupal. However, passwords will not be copied over. You will need to use the "recover my password" feature to set a new password.
I'm upset that I'll lose my reputation (karma and post count) by moving to trackr.
Your reputation is based on the impact you've had upon the community and how memorable you are. The karma number is a merely a representation of that, but is not its source -- your actions and words are. The number not transferring over does not mean your reputation evaporates.
Will this move to trackr assist in the demise of BF2?
I would not presume to say that the existence of BF2S Forums has any negligible effect on how long people continue playing BF2
So there is a clan database?
Yes, clans can register their tag/name and fill out their details. The system isn't fully developed yet.
Will trackr grow and provide forums for the latest games?
Yes. Obviously not every game that is released otherwise we would have thousands of sections.
Will there be D&ST and Junk Drawer sections?
The forums at trackr will attempt to mimick the BF2S structure.
Chuy posted that the new trackr forums will be...disappointing (functionally). Why the hell are we moving then?
The new forums operate under the Drupel software, BF2S under PunBB. Both, as default installs, are pretty basic. However, BF2S has been hacked up quite a bit over the past few years to get it to where it is now. The trackr forums will evolve is much the same manner, and likely quicker since I know what works already.
Will mod history be carried over?
No, but this doesn't mean it goes away.
How far has the site got so far?
As sections of the site mature, I hope to post some screenshots up so you can see what's coming.
Will there be a limit on the number of groups, that any one member of trackr can open?
To start off, groups will be created by moderators just to make sure an initial rush of members doesn't coincide with an initial rush of group creation. It may likely stay that way to keep the number of groups to a minimum without causing a lot of "ghettos" (groups which duplicate each other, have to little membership, and become abandoned.)
Will we still be able to have user titles? If so, will they still have to be set by a mod, or would we be able to do this ourselves?
Right now there are no titles. Based on what I've been seeing, this would not be a difficult thing to add. I think on trackr I may let those be user set. Right now, however, this is one of those features which is up in the air because it's not a default feature with Drupal.
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Feel free to post follow up questions and I'll tag them into the original post as we go.
