Updates.

[Rob]

Since I'm getting questions, bug reports and suggestions thrown at me from every direction, I have created this one thread in which I can answer questions and post updates about how the site is progressing. Note: This thread will be closed, so you will have had to ask your question somewhere else in order for the response to be posted here, most obviously in the Welcome back to TeenHelp.org thread!

Bugs and Suggestions - We have a dedicated area of the site for these. I will not deal with bugs and suggestions posted anywhere other than in our Project Tools software.

[Rob]

Returning Staff

In response to questions of whether old Staff will be reinstated, the answer is "it depends". Specialist staff members (Disputes, Operations and Procedures, Performance Committees, Talent Officers) and crucial staff members (Super Moderators, Chat Moderators) will be reinstated immediately. For everyone else, it depends on who you are and what you did.

Everyone will be considered on their individual merit (how long you were on Staff, and how good a job you did). HelpLINK Mentors will not be reinstated at the moment because we don't have a HelpLINK system, though some of you might be able to transfer to Live Help Operator.

It will likely only be a small number of people who will be re-added straight away (perhaps a third), and the rest will be asked to re-apply. The reason for this is that the Staff application questions were written a very long time ago, and some of them weren't very good at determining Staff suitability. Therefore if you were accepted based on that application, it doesn't necessarily make you suitable, and we want to make sure that you are. So if we are unable to say you're suitable on the grounds of your previous Staff life, we'll ask you to demonstrate your suitability again by reapplying. The application questions are being rewritten for this purpose.

If you were an old staff member, message me with your old username and which positions you were, and you should soon know if you are being re-added. Believe it or not, I don't know everyone's first names, locations, and avatars to be able to recognise who's an old staff member.

How to retrieve old account data

It is possible, at least for some of you! Google keeps records of many of the pages on the site, so you may be able to retrieve some profile data, blogs, posts, etc if you're lucky.

In Google type "site:forums.teenhelp.org". This will limit your search for pages on forums.teenhelp.org. Then follow it with a search term, such as your username, the title of a thread or blog post, and see what you can find. For example "site:forums.teenhelp.org rob" might return my profile (it doesn't because Google doesn't like 3 character search terms, but if I had a longer username it might.). This isn't fool proof, and not everything is stored, but you may be able to find some of your old stuff if you're lucky. Hurry, though, Google doesn't store it forever!

Old statistics

I have a record of old statistics and these can be uploaded if we want them to be. It might be a bit odd to put up old member counts, though, when those members no longer exist.

Posts displaying the wrong way around

This is a minor setting mistake on my half. This has been corrected, but existing users will have to change it manually through their User Options.

[Rob]

Main site

The new main website is now live. Quite a lot of content is missing from this at the moment but it will be migrated soon.

[Rob]

Stickies

Angel is currently posting up copies of our old stickies. These are likely out of date, and may reference or link to places that no longer exist. These stickies will be updated in due course, so please be patient.

[Rob]

Videos section

Back online and fully functional.

Avatar page

Back online. Content not written yet.

[Rob]

Temporary Staff positions

To help get the site and some of its content back on track we are creating a number of temporary Staff groups that will each exist to deal with one particular area of content. Those who do well in a temporary position will be more likely to be offered a permanent Staff position in the future, or a promotion if already on Staff. To enquire please send a private message to Mel by clicking here.

Positions you can apply for:
Articles Working Group: Write and refine articles.
Videos Working Group: Select new videos.
Stickies Working Group: Update existing stickies and write new ones.
Terms of Service and Rules Working Group: Update Terms of Service, Chat Rules and Forum Rules.
Training Manual Working Group: Update Staff Training Manuals. (Must be current or former staff member.)

(More specific details about all roles will be given later.)

[Rob]

Donors

There are currently plans for the way the entire Donation system works to be changed, which might also include an entirely new set of incentives. No donation incentives will be re-applied at the moment, and depending how the new donation system is set up, they may not be re-applied at all.

Beta Testers

Beta Testers do not count as Staff, and will not be re-added at the moment. We don't currently have any need for the position. When we do, we'll likely open up 'applications' again.

[Rob]

Avatar page

Is back online with content.

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/mainsite.php?page=avatar

Chat Rules page

Is back online.

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/chatrules.php

[Rob]

Registration system

Has been brought back up to date.

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/register.php

Contact Center

Is now live again.

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/contact.php

[Rob]

Email

All email services of the site are now fully functional, including custom email addresses (e.g. contact [at] teenhelp.org), post reporting, etc.

Invitation system

You can now once again invite your friends to join TeenHelp.

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/profi...?do=invitation

[Rob]

Subdomain

The site is now once again accessible via our http://forums.teenhelp.org subdomain.

[Rob]

We now have a Who's Chatting box back at the bottom of the Forums.

[Rob]

Since the site has now been back online for some six weeks, this is going to be my last update of re-introduced features before I unstick this thread and we get on with developing the site as normal.

Staff Application system

Back online. See here: http://forums.teenhelp.org/showthread.php?t=5016

Search menu

The search menu now contains options to search for today's posts and unanswered threads.

Thread autolock

Threads will once again be automatically closed when they have not been posted in for 14 days.

All Albums

You can now once again view a list of all photo albums on the site.

http://forums.teenhelp.org/all_albums.php

Undismiss notices

If you would to view a notice you have previously, closed, you can do so from your User CP.

http://forums.teenhelp.org/profile.p...smissednotices