I've been talking a fair bit lately of the forum upgrade - Although to be honest it's more of an overhaul/revamp than an upgrade. I would like to announce that this will happen during December.
An exact date has not been set yet but as the forums will be down for a day or two it will most likely occur close to Christmas day itself, assuming most members will be busy preparing for Christmas, this would be an ideal time as the site will be less busy.
The reason I'm calling this an overhaul rather than upgrade is because not only will the site be powered by different software, there will be numerous new features too. Here is a list of the major additions/changes.
New name - When I first started the site, it was for my work and wasn't even a forum at first, I went with [noparse]deadlystream.com[/noparse] as that was my user name on most forums and my Xbox Live Gamertag (it still is actually). As the site is now host for other mods (see below) I feel that it deserves a better name... The name will be announced closer to the time.
Mod Hosting - The new site will have better capabilities for people to host their work. There have been talks here about problems at kotor files and requests to make this site something similar to them so that's what I've done. In addition to mod hosting, anyone working on a major modification will be given their own dedicated forum for discussion of their work, they can also request a project slot in our bug tracker software (see below) and a sub domain to host a website.
Bug Tracker - There's a new and improved bug tracking application built directly into the forums, members will be able to report any bugs they may find and state which version they found them in and add feature requests. The mod authors can change the status of issues at any time, for example if they have been fixed and what version they were/will be fixed in.
Chat - The new site has a dedicated IRC server which can be accessed either through the forums, where you will be logged in with your user name or through and IRC client such as chatzilla.
Arcade - The new arcade system has plenty more games than the current one. These are currently being installed but I expect there will be over 75 games.
That was just a list of the major changes, there are numerous minor changes too.
We will most likely be needing more staff too, specifically for validating mod uploads and IRC operators. I will make a post when I know for sure how many we may need.
I'll let you know of the exact date of the overhaul at the end of the month, at this time I'll announce the new name too.