Community Forums Update & Start of Phase 3

Hex

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Hello everyone, I'm back with some more updates! This time is more about our Forums than anything, but also pretty much concludes the end of Phase 2 of our commitment plan. Let's dig into the details!

Forum Updates

The forums were looking a bit dated (again) but really just needed some light TLC to get things back up to normal. Honestly, the forums aren't a huge priority anymore considering Discord is definitely our main hub, but I still think it has it's uses, and it is looking nice is ideal for our community.
  • Forum Theme
    • NavBar was cleaned / tidied up
    • User login / alerts was moved to NavBar
    • Logo & Search Centered
    • Sub-Forums viewable on nodes
    • Icons were updated for certain items
    • New Logo / FavIcon
  • Node Cleanup
    • A lot of nodes were moved to "Archives"
    • GameServer nodes had multiple old ones combined into them
    • Staff Application node removed, handled via Discord now
    • Forum Games category was removed, Forum Games is now under "Off-Topic" Category
    • "Minecraft" node was put under "Gaming"
    • New "Event" node created under "Community" Category
    • News node was cleaned up in threads, lots of old threads moved to more appropriate nodes
    • New "Information" node that has more useful, updated Information
  • Thread Prefixes
    • Updated a lot of thread prefixes to be more clean
    • News prefixes are now more specific to allow filters per-server
    • Cleaned up / removed unused prefixes
  • Misc. Cleanup
    • "Servers" tab was cleaned up, now just directs to "Gameservers" Category
    • Discord tab now just directly links to Discord
    • Added back "Members" tab
    • Users can mention other users / groups again
    • Removed Pateron references and replaced them with Discord Premium ones
    • Cleaned up "Community Info" sidebar
Other than that, I do still have a new "Landing Page" in the works that will pop up when users go to https://escaperestart.com, it is nearly done but just needs a few tweaks before I put it out to the public - so be patient for that!

Moving to Phase 3

The forums were essentially the last part of Phase 2, which means obviously we will be moving on to the next phase of our Commitment Plan I laid out earlier. Not only am I super excited for this phase as it means our Servers will be getting more attention again, but it's also right on time! I'm going to break down some of the things we did for Phase 2 below if anyone is interested
  • Discord Updates
    • Cleaned up a ton of channels
    • Reset ranks and added new levels / rank bot
    • Introduced new channels
    • Introduced Economy
    • Combined Staff / Community Discord
    • Read more here:
  • Preparing for Redirection
    • Assigned staff per their requested server
    • Setup DevServer
    • Assigned team members
  • Demoting Staff
    • Personal DM's to each staff member
    • Noted each response
    • After 2 weeks, demoted all staff with no reply, removed all who resigned
  • Streamline Staff
    • Introduced new thread to explain staff roles
    • Made applications easier via Discord
    • Added Contributor rank to help with more "Niche" subset abilities
  • Streamline Forums
    • Explained above, to be honest
  • Return to MC theming
    • Mainly just updating Logos
    • Some social medias still need to be updated, not main priority
    • Slightly started work on Social Media with Digi, but it's slower
Phase 2 was definitely a bit of a challenge, but I'm glad we are finally past it! Things definitely have been picking up in the community recently and it's great to see. Moving on to Phase 3, we are going to be focusing more on the Servers, so definitely make sure to give your feedback now - and maybe check out our current Creative server to give feedback for that! We take all our feedback mainly on Discord, so make sure to join that!

Apply to Help Now!

We are still always looking for help! If you want to become a staff member of our community, now is the best time to do it! The Creative server is especially looking for staff, but other positions for SMP, Discord, and more are still open! If you don't have a lot of time but still want to help, then you should consider our new Contributor role - it's a less "responsible" staffing role, where you can help a server using your unique abilities like Building, Organization, or more!

You can apply for staff using this form right here!

I hope to see more friendly faces in our community, and staff team as we continue to make efforts on this revamp. Hope you all have a wonderful week!