=][= WELCOME BACK =][=

[Brother Tyler]

Welcome Back!

We're sorry that it took a bit longer than we expected. Some things happened during the actual upgrade that didn’t happen in our beta test, so we had to flex a little. While work is still ongoing, things are to the point where we can open the doors again and let everyone in to see the new shininess. This topic will serve as your basic primer to the new and improved Bolter & Chainsword. A lot has changed, however, so we’re going to break things down into (hopefully) digestible chunks.

First, though, it is necessary to thank a number of members for all of the work necessary to update the site from obsolete software and hardware. Countless hours were spent researching, preparing, converting, scouring, updating, and debugging everything so that the site can continue to provide you with the best experience for enjoying and understanding the Warhammer 40,000 hobby. The core players were Brother Argos, sibomots, Michael, and Kurgan the Lurker. In addition, the Moderati were instrumental in helping the core team to identify issues and refine things. The next time you are partaking of strong drink, raise it in toast to these community members.

[Brother Tyler]

A lot of things have changed. Some changes are due to the software, some are due to the new skin, and some are policy changes.

 

Software changes are beyond our control, except for those things that might require some changes to settings. Skin changes might be adjusted (and there are a number of things that we have on our list to change already). Policy changes can always be adjusted, but only after discussion, debate, and consideration for the Mission Statement.

 

BANNER IMAGES

The banner image will only change when you change pages or refresh the page. We’re looking into whether or not we can revert to the image rotating automatically. This is a software change, but may be something we effect through the skin settings.

 

CONTENT EDITORS

We no longer have the ability to choose between a text-based or WYSIWYG editor, having only the WYSIWYG editor. This is a software change.

 

FORUM STRUCTURE (CATEGORIES, FORUMS, AND SUB-FORUMS)

We made a number of changes that we hope will improve your experience.

• We re-named a number of categories (Forces of the Imperium has become “Imperium,” Realm of Chaos has become “Chaos,” Other Games has become “In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future,” and Lore has become “Fan-Made”)
• The loyalist Adeptus Astartes were consolidated in two parts. The first part was moving the Grey Knights under the Adeptus Astartes forum. The second part was merging the Adeptus Astartes with the rest of the Imperium.
• The Imperial Knights have been split from the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Talons of the Emperor have been split from The Imperium of Mankind. Although the codex is called Codex: Adeptus Custodes, we wanted the inclusion of the Sisters of Silence to be clear in the forum name, so the two organizations are explicitly named in the forum description.
• The Agents of the Imperium forum has been re-named “The Imperium of Mankind” and it serves as the forum for discussing all of those factions and sub-factions of the Imperium that aren’t covered in other forums, as well as for general discussion about the entire Imperium of Mankind.
• The Heretic Astartes have been consolidated. Only those Legions that have (or will soon have) dedicated codices have their own sub-forums under the main Heretic Astartes forum.
• The Chaos Knights have been split from the Lost and the Damned.
• The Lost and the Damned forum has been re-named “Realm of Chaos” and it serves as the forum for discussing all of those factions and sub-factions of Chaos that aren’t covered in other forums, as well as for general discussion about the Realm of Chaos.
• The Homegrown Rules forum has been split from the Strategium category and moved to the Fan-Made category.
• The Army List Reviews forum and its sub-forums have been deleted. Discussion about army lists will now take place in the relevant (sub-)faction or game forum.
• The Black Library forum has been split from the Lore category and moved to the In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future category.

 

All/some of these changes might be adjusted further if we find a better way to organize. We definitely want to give things some time, however, so that we’re not just responding to initial reactions (nobody likes change, after all).

 

There were two main factors driving these changes. The first was ensuring that every codex/codex supplement is covered in a dedicated forum/sub-forum. The second was clarifying that lore is covered throughout the site, with Amicus Aedes serving as the top level forum for lore discussions that aren’t more appropriate in more specific forums/sub-forums (having a “Lore” category was misleading). The consolidation of the Chaos Space Marine Legions was driven by low quantities of discussion in those forums for the Legions that didn’t have codices/codex supplements. If GW later publishes dedicated codices/codex supplements for any of those Legions, we can bring them back (they’re hidden in the background).

 

We did our best to go through all of the forums to find discussions that needed to be moved into the new forums, but please let us know if you find any that we may have missed.

 

ICONS

The icons/buttons to indicate pinned, locked, and active topics have changed. The pinned and active indicators are now distinct from each other (previously they were both green buttons that looked very similar).

 

EDITED BY

The edited by line is no longer a bright orange-yellow, instead fitting in with the content.

 

Overall, though the site remains recognizable as the Bolter & Chainsword, a lot of things have moved around. We recommend that you play around a lot. It can be daunting when you can’t find that thing you’ve always used, but you’ll get used to most things in time. If there are things that you just can’t figure out, or which you think can be improved, don’t be afraid to make a suggestion in the Suggestion Box (just hold off for a while, giving things time instead of having a knee-jerk reaction to change)

[Brother Tyler]

This is the best part! The new software comes with lots of shiny new gadgets that we’re pretty sure you’re going to enjoy having. Also, we turned on some features that weren’t turned on before, largely because the new stuff made those things worthwhile.

 

REACTIONS

Back in the bad old days, all we had was LIKEs. Now you have a range of reactions to choose from. The most important of these is THANKS. Giving someone a LIKE or THANKS reaction will add to their reputation. The other reactions provide a range of emoji-based reactions to express things like being happy/sad/angry about something, or even a “meh” for those things that you don’t care about. The emoji-based reactions don’t contribute to a member’s reputation (basically, anything that is a face is just your reaction). You can only give one reaction to any content, though, so think carefully about which one you choose. If you want someone to benefit, use either LIKE or THANKS.

 

And since there are so many more different types of reactions to choose from, we have increased the maximum number of reactions that you can give in any 24-hour period to 100. This may change (probably increase) if we find that 100 is not sufficient.

 

PROFILE PAGES

A nifty new feature is that you can add a cover photo to personalize your profile page. This is in addition to your avatar and serves as another way to demonstrate your individuality or loyalty or handiwork.

 

RANKS

You can’t see these yet, but the system now assigns ranks based on reputation. You can see your rank on your profile page, and it will appear as a small icon in the lower left corner of your avatar. The rank progression we’re going with is based on the site’s mascot Chapter, the Legio:

 

• Aspirant (0-10 points)
• Novitiate (11-100 points)
• Battle-Brother (101-1,000 points)
• Veteran (1,001-10,000 points)
• Venerable Brother (10,001+ points)

 

We have deliberately kept a simple progression with subtle additions. In the end, no one’s rank really matters except as a quick visual indicator of how much they’ve done for the community. Being a Venerable Brother doesn’t make one any better or more correct than an Aspirant, so please don’t let your rank go to your head. Rank doesn’t confer any authority or other benefit – it’s just nice window dressing.

 

Most of us are showing as Aspirants right now, but that will (should) change once the database rebuild is complete (20 days).

 

ACHIEVEMENTS

You can’t see these yet because the system is rebuilding everyone’s achievements based on all of the content that has accrued over the years. We estimate that it will take 20 days for this work to be completed. Basically, members will gain achievements, either reputation points, badges, or both, based on the things they do here to contribute to the community. There are quite a few badges that reward the creation of content, though the levels are progressive. In most cases, there is an initial badge awarded the first time you do certain things. In order to earn additional awards in the series, you’ll have to perform more and more of that action. There are some cases where awards are earned one time only. Then there are badges that can be manually awarded. We envision future challenges awarding badges either instead of or in addition to the signature images that were awarded in the past. There are even badges that the administrators might award to members for special achievements.

 

Did I mention that giving reactions can contribute to your own reputation and garner awards for you?

 

BEST ANSWER

This is one of those features that we had, but which we never turned on before. Basically, this allows a person that asks a question (as the first post in a topic, not as a reply) to select a post that they think best answers their question. The moderators and administrators can do this, too. Having your post selected as the best answer to a question contributes to your reputation score and can garner achievements.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

The moderators and administrators can recommend posts in discussions. This will make that post appear at the top of the discussion and will contribute to reputation scores and garner achievements.

 

PROMOTING CONTENT

While we haven’t set this up yet, it’s on our list of things to do. This will allow the moderators and administrators to share content to certain social media sites, reducing the work that was required to do this before (and hopefully resulting in a lot more quality content appearing on the B&C’s social media pages). Having your content promoted contributes to your reputation and can garner awards.

 

CALENDAR

We always had a calendar, but it was under-utilized and we didn’t turn on the full community calendar capability. That is turned on now and we’re excited to see how the community figures out to use it. Even more interesting is the fact that we can create multiple calendars (including some that are specific to clubs) and you can filter events as you see fit. In addition, members can write reviews of events after the fact (and this can contribute to your reputation and garner awards).

 

CLUBS

This one is exciting. Members have the ability to create clubs that serve special purposes for the community. Clubs can have their own discussion forums, calendars, albums, and download categories. We working on our policy for clubs so don’t start creating them just yet. We know that a number of special projects will transition to clubs, but there is broad potential for using clubs to serve the needs of the community and we want to give you a little freedom to explore the possibilities. Some core requirements, however, are that the full rules of the site will apply in all clubs and clubs will only be permitted for purposes that don’t duplicate existing forums (e.g., we’re not creating fan clubs for the Black Templars, Death Guard, Necromunda, etc.). We’ll provide more guidance on clubs in the near future, at which point you’ll be allowed to recommend your clubs.

 

LEADERBOARD

This is a nifty little feature that shows you the members that have earned the most reputation points that day. It’s not based on the number of posts anyone has made, but on the LIKES and THANKS that member has been awarded by other members on that day. Right now it’s a little skewed because only the moderators and administrators have had access to the site, but I’m confident that we’ll see more diverse members appearing on the leaderboard over time.

 

DIRECT IMAGE UPLOADS

You can now upload an image directly to your posts without having to upload it to a gallery first. You can even paste screenshots (we’ve been doing a lot of this as we identify bugs).

 

However, directly uploading images to posts won’t contribute to your reputation and won’t garner any awards, whereas using the galleries does both.

Also, the ability directly upload images isn't an invitation to the turn the site into a cesspool of memes. Excessive meme posting will result in the mods pulling out their meltaguns.

 

There is some other new stuff that isn’t available yet, so I’ll cover that later.

[Brother Tyler]

Boo! We lost some stuff.

 

CUSTOM BBCODES

Custom BBCodes are no longer supported. We had a wide range of custom BBCodes that enabled members to incorporate interesting formatting into their content. I used custom BBCodes extensively in creating the Tabula Astartes (and the other tabulae) and the resource topics. Many DIY authors used the custom BBCodes in crafting their articles. Unfortunately, this is a software change that we can’t reverse. The best thing we can do is scrub the legacy posts so that the custom BBCodes work therein, but further editing of that content and future posts won’t be able to use the custom BBCode.

 

One very noticeable area affected by this is signatures. While we’re doing work to fix this, it will be a bit easier if you go in and edit your signature yourself.

That said, a wide range of standard formatting tools are available in content editors, so most members won’t be affected much.

 

TITLES

In the past, most members sported a title that was identical to their member group. Members of the community that served in staff roles were awarded special titles. While we’ve found a way to assign these titles, we haven’t figured out how to make them appear. Yet. There are some add-ons that we might purchase from the Invision market, but I’m not going to spend money that is intended for the upkeep of the site on an indulgence. If we can figure out how to make titles appear, you’ll see them again. If not, sayonara. We might continue to award titles to staff members, but we’ll have to find a different way to make them public. This is really low on our priority list, however.

 

One thing this does affect is the Penitents – members that had been subject to sufficient discipline to put them in a last chance position, or members that had been banned but allowed back. Such members were on moderator preview, meaning that all of their content had to be approved by the moderators before it would appear in public. If a Penitent member sufficiently demonstrated their willingness to abide by the forum rules, the Penitent title was removed and they were welcomed back as full members. We rarely invoked this. If we are going to continue this concept, we’ll have to implement a new user group to do so.

 

PAINTERS

Brother Argos and madscuzzy became heroes of the B&C when they performed the work to bring the painters to the community. We had a range of painters, including Space Marines, Terminators, Scouts, Chaos Space Marines, Adepta Sororitas, Astra Militarum, Orks, Tau Fire Warriors, and Tyranid Gaunts. Unfortunately, the work to incorporate those into the site was extensive and they could not be converted with the software upgrade. We might be able to bring (some of) them back later, but don’t get your hopes up.

[Brother Tyler]

Staff members come and go as members move on with their lives. The work of being a moderator or administrator here isn’t easy, can be very time-consuming, and is purely voluntary – none of us receives any pay and benefits for the work we do here (other than those nifty titles that no longer show up).

We have had quite a few of the current mods move around within forums. In the interest of brevity, I’m not going to list those changes, instead focusing on the more noticeable changes.

 

First, please join me in thanking Dam13n for all of the work he has done for the community as a moderator (many will recognize him from the Official Rules forum). He has decided to hang his meltagun up and join the ranks of the Moderati Cedo.

 

Second, please join me in welcoming the following members to the ranks of the Moderati:

 

• Antarius
• Brother Adelard
• Jud Cottrell
• Mandragola
• Nemesor Tyriks
• schoon
• TiguriusX
• war009

 

You most likely recognize more than a few of these members, depending on where you spend your time. Each has been recognized as exemplifying the behavior expected of members of the community and they have graciously consented to further service as members of the Moderati. We brought them on board when the site went offline so that they would have time to play around with the new software and figure it out before we hand them their meltaguns. They’ll be assigned to forums soon. While the site exists for all members of the community, especially those in the Frater Domus group, the work of the Moderati is indispensable in keeping things running smoothly and we are all indebted to them for their commitment to the hobby and the community.

In addition, we created a new staff group that has proven absolutely vital lately. This is the Sacristan group – masters of the arcane technology called software and hardware and firmware. While these members don’t perform leadership roles, enforce rules, or craft policy, they perform the very necessary work of keeping the site running and converting from ten-year-old software to modern software. Please join me in welcoming sibomots to the ranks of the Sacristans (he’s the first Sacristan, actually) and in thanking him for all of the work that he performed, and will continue to perform, in upgrading the software and transferring us to new hardware.

[Brother Tyler]

The work to fully update the site isn’t complete, however. While all of the content has converted over, the database is rebuilding all of the relationships. There are roughly 5.5 million posts, over 50,000 members, a horde of images in a smaller horde of albums, and a bunch of files in the downloads. All of those relationships are being rebuilt, which will result in automated awarding of achievements and usability of the search function (it’s not working right now).

 

I mentioned earlier that the custom BBCodes will no longer work. One thing we’re (well, sibomots is) doing is scrubbing all of the custom BBCodes and using his technowarpcraft to make it so that legacy content that uses BBCodes will work. This will take time, and sibomots has both a day job, a family, and a life, so we’re not going to promise a deadline. While some work on fixing the BBCodes has been ongoing, we have found that the rebuild is undoing some of that work, so the fixes to the BBCodes will resume after the 20-day rebuild is complete.

 

Another thing that will happen after the 20-day rebuild is complete (hopefully before 20 days, and hopefully not after that time) is that we’ll be able to enable CloudFlare caching, which should make things a bit faster.

 

With all of the changes, we will develop documentation and tutorials to assist members in making the most of the site. The entire range of B&C 101 articles will be replaced and updated. We’re all in the learning stages, though, so it will take time to figure out the best/easiest ways to do things. In the meantime, we’re all learning by discovery.

 

EMOJIS

I'm not sure what happened, but our emojis were wiped out in the software update (they converted over just fine in the beta test). The battlefield role emojis have been loaded, and the rest will be uploaded soon.

 

BLOGS

We haven’t yet turned this function on, though I am very eager (understatement) to do so. Some of you may remember the old blogs function and how popular it was. If you scour the site, you’ll find myriad topics that are pseudo-blogs (only bastardizing the discussion forum format). We will eventually be turning the new blogs on, giving our members an even more powerful tool for sharing their Warhammer 40,000 content with the community.

 

PAGES

While we haven’t quite cracked the code on how the Pages function will work, it looks like it will give us functionality similar to the old Librarium (for those of you that were here back when that was a thing). There may be other uses for this function, too, so we’re looking forward to seeing how it can enhance your participation at the site and within the hobby.

[Brother Tyler]

That was a lot to get through, but it only scratches the surface of both the work it took to get us here as well as the future of the B&C. Change isn't always easy or fun, but it will be worth it in the end. We look forward to seeing how you, the members of the community, learn to fully realize the potential of the updated software.

 

In the meantime, if you'd like to earn some of those achievements I was telling you about, you should consider taking part in the B&C Reforged Contest/Challenge.

Did I mention that there will be prizes?

[Dosjetka]

On 6/22/2022 at 4:24 PM, Brother Tyler said:

[...] The core players were Brother Argos, sibomots, Michael, and Kurgan the Lurker. In addition, the Moderati were instrumental in helping the core team to identify issues and refine things. The next time you are partaking of strong drink, raise it in toast to these community members.

One person who does not feature in that list but who has contributed massively to this upgrade effort and certainly deserves recognition is, you guessed it, Brother Tyler. Make sure to add them to the roll of honour when you make that toast!

[Xenith]

Indeed, fantastic, hard work, BT. Your efforts (along with other admins and those mentioned) are appreciated and keep this place running. 

[derLumpi]

Thx for all your hard work! It's nice to have BnC back.

[gaurdian31]

Thank you for all the hard work! So happy to have the B&C back!

[SteveAntilles]

So glad you're back! If I had to spend another moment on that toxic as heck dakkadakka I was gonna lose my mind.

[Guzzlrr]

Man as a long time lurker. I'm genuinely over joyed it's back, looking crisp on the olde mobile as well. Good job guys

[Joe]

Lovely to see the website is back! It's a bit jarring not seeing a bar on one side of the screen telling me what threads have been created recently, however.

[Shield-Captain]

My withdrawal symptoms were getting really bad. So bad in fact that I actually painted some models.

Delighted at the new site. The Rubicon was a long crossing, but it was worth it.

[Slave to Darkness]

Oh thank god your all back... Ive been goin nuts the past few weeks. Whilst the missus collects she doesnt care about the finer points of Imperial Guard standard issue socks and I have been driving her up the wall. Time to catch up on some good hobby content, see y'all in the trenches. :) 

[Loquille]

Welcome back! I've honestly not known what to do with my browsing without the site, withdrawal symptoms.. 

 

Looking forward to exploring all the changes and improvements you guys have made. :) 

[Valkyrion]

I've genuinely missed this place and have been frantically refreshing Goonhammer and WarCom for my 40k fix, so welcome back, brothers!

I might have to find myself a fancy new avatar for the rebirth!

[Naryn]

I had no idea how much time I spent on the B&C until it was down! Love you all and let's do some great hobbying to celebrate.

[Rik Lightstar]

I'm so glad B&C is back, I've been feeling dirty going to dakkadakka

Rik

[Preliminary Bombardment]

Good work team! Glad to be back 

[Aramis K]

Great to be back and thank you for all the hard work

[lansalt]

It's great that this place is back!

[Ammonius]

Good work!

[Brother Kraskor]

Like a junkie shooting up I feel the familiar gentle glow of logging onto B&C. Well done all, thank you, good to be back!