Announcements

[Scott]

Welcome once again, one and all, to ZU! As I'm sure most of you are aware, we had a bit of down-time to ensure the last bits of our re-launch were prepared.

I won't bore you with all the details here, because if you really want to know, you can go read about it right here, and take a moment to see the brand new ZU outside of the forums (for those of you who I'm sure don't do that much).


We've got ourselves a brand new forum style to go along with it, and I've spent the better part of my waking hours over the past few days getting it prepared. The forum skin and main site Jason has decided to call "evolving," because over time this summer I will be slowly adding more pretty features to it, but for now, I think it makes for a rather nice viewing experience. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you aren't looking at it right now, you can take a peek using the style selector box way down in the bottom-right of this page (and every other forum page, too).

Obviously, all our old forum skins will continue to be available and supported with new vB features as they are created.

[Jason]

Scott is (finally) back - and now that we're back on track, I would like to officially state the revamp's launch date: June 25th, 2008.

We need the extra week and a half for Scott to finish coding the site and forums, and for me to finish adding images to the rest of the game sections. Next week I'll be off to the Bahamas (from tomorrow through Friday), so I won't be able to work on getting images for the site during that time - that gave me last week and will give me some of the week of the 25th to finish it up. Scott will be finished coding on the 21st so that we and our beta testers can run through the site and iron out any remaining bugs before going live.

So, look forward to the 25th. It's going to be a huge day - a huge week, in fact, because we've lined up great updates back to back. Think of it like a big launch party. I won't spoil what's coming, but we've got stuff from the ZUBC, from our article writers (possibly more than one if they make it on time!), and from other people who I won't yet mention! You'll just have to wait and see what happens at launch.

I say the 25th because I think it's a nice Wednesday and I think we can stick to it. I'm 99% positive that we'll be able to launch on the 25th of June! But, stuff happens, so I'll keep you all updated if my computer blows up into a million pieces and I can't upload images. =P

[Scott]

For details and discussion, see this thread for more details.


Just a little while ago, we updated our vBulletin forums to version 3.7.0! This update has huge amounts of changes all over the place, and I'm still piecing through various things to make it all pretty. So, please forgive the mess while I clean up stuff like double commas in places, and the like.

I suggest you click on somebody's profile, if you want to see big changes. For the full listing, see the thread above.

[Jason]

So proclaimeth the Anime_Queen in the General Chit-Chat section:


*laughs and ducks*

Hey now! No need to be cranky! and we're still getting used to this - sure, we might be a couple of months late, but HECk have we got a show for you!

We listened to all sorts of comments all of you have been gracious enough to give last time in response to the first cast; and we hope you thoroughly enjoy what we have for you now!





The ZUBC is proud to present, to you, the 2nd ZU Community Podcast!


Grab your overdue ZCast through itunes here!


AltERnatively, get the MP3 file directly through ZU!


Contents:


- Beneath the ZU Spotlight - featuring the best and brightest of the ZU community - by Selah
- Chatroom more accessible? - TALKING POINT- with special guests: chat veterans Yami and Stephiroth
- Inner workings of the Internet:Serious Business board - a look at the I:SB trends from teh experienced eye of ZU's wisest Big Bro Davidia
- Cody's Rant - what? you think we'd let you escape after the first time? Cody's baaaaaaaack!
- Of LOoOoOoOng nicknames 'n nicks in general - TALKING POINT
- Playing with Sayings - Our mysterious sophisticated gentleman confronts yOU with a riddle- the esteemed Future
- ... Interview .. with .. the Man. . THE LEgend .. THE LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARS!
- The Casual Gamer - with ZU's famed one and only Man of World: Hombre De Mundo
- Brawl this, Brawl that- what the hECk? -TALKING POINT- Hombre, Liah, Bret and Connor delve into and review the game! did it live up to the hype?
- Do you hear that? .. a Zelda rumour? - TALKING POINT - hosts and Hombre :>
- ZU's got talent!! - a musical feature; this cast: Grass :>
- ZU COMMUNITY NEWS WITH ROSCOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEE RHODES!
- How to survive a ZU meetup - for all the prospective meetups under planning? here;s the definitive guide from meetup veteran Dom!
- and finally : Your Feedback! read, listened to and commented on ^____^

Not to mention, within, we've got scattered around the podcast, propaganda statements from the leaders of the three most prominent fanclubs around: Cody, Power Shot and Kitsoonay's fanclubs! So, listen out for them! =D



Make sure to send any feedback you want to possibly be featured within the next podcast to zcast@zeldauniverse.net!


I also Ask that you keep checking the ZU Community Works section for all sorts of new developements regarding the ZCast and how YOU can get involved!


Myself and the Cast co-director Hombre De Mundo would like to give our sincere thanks to all who contributed to Podcaste the Seconde:


Ideas people! - Peefy, Hazz, Shikaino

Recorders ^___^ - Dom and Jason

Mailbag/feedback laddie - Awkin!

Our Contributors:

- Hombre De Mundo's Casual Gamer and guesting on the Brawl and Zelda talking points
- Future/Jaap's Playing with Sayings
- Cody's usual unnerving rant xD
- Selah for the Beneath the ZU Spotlight ^-^
- Powershot, Kitsoonay and Cody for their most humorous Propaganda clips
- Yami and Stephiroth our guests for the Chatroom talking point
- Aniday for the most awesome film-ic intro
- DIUM for being responsible for the BEST reporter alive for the Community News

Our Interview Guest- Lars

Music Contributors - Jason and Grass

Of course not forgetting Our hosts - Asci , Liah and Link

And neither are we our most esteemed Editor- Margar!



Enjoy!



-

[Scott]

I have been asked to share with you all some (potentially exciting) information.

The Graphics School, hidden deep within the Synthesis of Imagery forum, is again open for business and looking for students. If you are interested in expanding your knowledge and understanding of a graphics editing program, this is a good way to do it.

At present, there are teachers for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, GIMP and Microsoft Paint. You can head over to The Graphics School to check out the various teachers, and send a PM to one to request to join their class. You are, in fact, encouraged to do so, since many of the teachers are feeling sad and student-less. Help make them happy again!

See this thread for more info.

[Scott]

Earlier this evening, a few malicious users found a way through our passwords and such, and decided to deface the site. As part of their "fun," the databases were also deleted, so I had to restore from backups.


I must apologize for the forum restore from last week, but it was the most recent backup of our databases.


If you have registered since the 22nd, you will need to do so again if you wish to post, and all posts made since then are gone and cannot be restored.

[Janus]

Attention all ZUers! The time has come for you to play the part in helping breed the new members of this community! If you have been a member for 3 months and have at least 50 posts, you can adopt a newbie to raise as your own.

Everyone speaks of how new members need to work on their spelling, grammar, and even maturity. But you can do something about it! Adopt a member and contribute to the community in the best way possible: by creating responsible, intelligent members and insuring that ZU will continue to thrive as an excellent community and site.

If you would like to become an adopter send a PM to Comrade or Galdeep explaining why you want to be an adopter and why you think you’re suited for it. Name the PM “Why I want to adopt.” If you are seen fit to be an adopter, you will be approved.

Don't just complain about new members, teach them. The time to act is now! Be an adopter and help breed the future members of Zelda Universe.

Adopt A Newbie Today!

[Jason]

If you go into your User Control Panel (User CP) you'll see two new options! One is a simple addition of Google Talk into the list of IM services you can add your screen name to (I encourage everyone to use Google Talk - it rocks, yep). The other is a little more fun:

You can now enter your Wii friend code into your profile. This will show up next to the IM icons on every post, and will also display under a "Game ID's" section of your member profile page. To see someone's Wii friend code in one of their posts, hover your mouse over the Wii circle icon. Next to your cursor will pop up text that tells you the person's Wii friend code. On a person's profile page, the code will be displayed next to the Wii icon, like any other IM screen name is.

So please share your Wii friend codes with all of us (and your Google Talk handles of course) - I've already stuck mine on here. It's about time I got some friends!

(Yes, that means add me. Nobody around my area has a Wii to add me anyway )

[Leminnes]

GRAPHICS SCHOOL OF ZELDA UNIVERSE

Graphics School of Zelda Universe is officially open! The GSZU is a place for people to go if they'd like to learn more about how to run a graphics program, make better signatures, learn the basics of design, learn to make sprite comics and more!

The forum can be found here: http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/graphic-school/

The forum includes Teacher Positions and Teacher to Student Assignments and will soon include teacher homerooms, where teachers post student assignments.

Applications to become a student or teacher can also be found here: Graphic Arts School Applications

Thanks!

[Scott]

As all of you who use the default forum skin have surely noticed already, ZU has a new, shiny forum skin to match the main site!

I am sad to say it took far longer than it should have, with me doing very little for a long time... but it is here now, and I am pleased with the product.

A big thank you goes out to Leminnes, who made the main site design, of which this skin is, very obviously, heavily based upon. Thanks also to numerous staffies for offering suggestions on various points of the skin.

If you wish to comment on the skin, there is a thread here for that.

[Power Shot]

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the newest section of ZU, the Zelda RPG Section! Please remember to follow all the rules of this special, classic forum, and join in our RPG.

Please read rules concerning characters before submitting them.

Oh, by the way, my name is Power Shot, and I am one of the two RPG Moderators. The other is my ally and comrade in awesome RP'ing, Ameera Mae Laramie!

[Scott]

For those of you familiar with the various colors of the staff, you don't need to remember those, anymore. While the banners haven't changed just yet, the names of staffies in the "Who's Online" list and such have changed.

To quickly identify what type of moderator/admin is, refer to this list (or look at the forum leaders page):

Webmaster
Administrator
Super Mod
Global Mod
Section Mod
Forum Mod

[James]

Effective immediately: All name changing will take place through PMs. If you wish to get your username changed, you must PM any Super Moderator or Administrator (spdude will not do name changes. Remus will more than likely not respond either). Please try to put the subject as "Name Change" and bold the username you wish to have.

The only other condition we will continue to adhere to is that you must have been here for at least (2) months prior to your first name change. After your two months are up, you can make as many name changes as wish.

However, any mod has the ability to deny any changes at their discretion. Keep that in mind when you are about to make your next change.

The list of mods who can do changes:

Leminnes
Sadida
Shetani
SuperDecimal
Sea
James
Scott

That is all.

[James]

Originally Posted by Rules

In terms of text, if you have a large signature image (near the 400x150 limit) then you should keep the amount of text between three or four lines. If you have a small image (400x40 and down) or no image, then more text is fine, but should not exceed seven or so lines."

Lines of text include the spaces between lines. The more "lines" you have the more cluttered and spread out a thread is. Please adhere to these rules as well as the image rules.

Lines of text are not controlled by the new update, and therefore is still a hassle to mods.

[Scott]

For quite a while now, we have had rules for what you can put in your signature, as far as size. This being no greater than 400px by 150px, and two images. That means your images together shouldn't add up to more than either of those numbers.

As of today, we have a new functionality on the forum, which makes the lives of the super mods & admins much easier. That is signature limits set in vB.

The "edit signature" function will not allow you to use images larger than 400px by 150px, and will also prevent you from having more than 3 images in your signature. (This is actually a larger number than the earlier rule, which has been two images, as I said.)

So, if you get a message telling you you can't use the signature you specified, that's why.

[Scott]

Once again the forums live, after our brief downtime to upgrade to vB3.5. Enjoy.

[Lioness]

Attention, ZU members- we have been lenient regarding the content of signatures and avatars, and that is going to change.
The list of content not allowed includes but is not limited to:

-Nudity of any kind (including artistic nudity- that is only allowed in the Artwork section)
-Borderline hentai/ecchi/soft porn (cleavage, panty shots, tight/revealing clothing)
-Depictions of sexual intercourse
-Profanity
-Obscene gestures
-Phrases suggestive of sexuality
-Graphic violence

If your signature or avatar contains any of these or anything else that may be considered offensive, we ask that you remove it immediately. Zelda Universe is a site intended for all ages, and its forum content should reflect that.
Note that the size limits still exist-
130 x 100 pixels for avatars
400 x 150 pixels for signatures and not above 100kb

[Jason]

The staff presents to you the brand spankin' new Technology Forums. For everyone who ever had to go through the trouble of sifting through General Chit Chat threads or simply felt out of place posting about computers in there, you now have a home.

The forum will stand as an electronics and technology discussion area for the tech-savvy and the people who are not so keen on newer technology. So no matter who you are, if you're looking for some electronics discussion, that's the place to put it. However, make sure not to confuse any of your threads with things that may be better suited in General Gaming or Entertainment.

Please note that it is planned in the event that this forum does not remain active, it will be removed. So if you want to keep the Technology forum on ZU, make it active!

And so, I bid you all adeu, and happy posting! ~~Jason

[Lee]

Due to the continued growth of ZU, we are planning to imp