Forum updates, changes, and maintenance thread

[TheGeekRedneck]

This locked and sticky thread is for the admins to post updates relating to the forum and it's operation in general.

[TheGeekRedneck]

Changes today:

• SSL/TLS redirect should now be in place for the entire website.
  
• All pages the site serves should be GZipped now for speed and effiecency.
  
• StopForumSpam and other anti-spam measures have been enabled for registrations effective immediately.
  
• General aesthetic edits to the forum theme are continuing today as I continue to bring our signature colors and style back.  If you see something broken make sure to let me know about it.
  
• Signature character limit raised from 255 to 1024 and MyCode/BBCode no longer counts against said limit. Please be responsible with these enhanced limits and don't do anything too annoying.
  

[TheGeekRedneck]

Changes today:

• Additional style tweaks
  
• MyFancyBox plugin installed.  This is a LightBox style plugin that makes viewing attached images on the forum much better.  If you click an attached image in a post or PM, the image will zoom into a lightbox style display instead of opening in a generic new browser window.  Example below...
  

[TheGeekRedneck]

Changes today:

• Added PostImage free image hosting to the forum.  When editing a post you'll notice an "Add image to post" link located underneath the editing text area.  Clicking this will bring up a popup window where you can drag and drop images and have the MyCode (BBCode) for an appropriately sized thumbnailautomatically pasted into your post on-the-fly.  (Clicking on the image opens a new window with a fully sized version of the image)  This is visually more appealing than the built-in image attachment function of our forum software.    NOTE: Users should be aware that this is a third-party service and you may be subject to the terms of their service.  Use responsibly.
  
• Additional style tweaks - getting rid of the ugly green accents on various buttons and hovers.
  

[TheGeekRedneck]

• Added PTR records for our IP addresses in an effort to make the backend email stuff happy.