Site Update - 17/01/2012

Live Article
This is now a bit better integrated with the rest of the site. Users are now able to specify on their profile page whether they would prefer to use the live article view if it is available. We still have a few performance concerns about the live article feature, so we won't be making it available on every thread at present and will continue instead to enable it on a case-by-case basis.

A few tweaks have also been made to the live article view itself. Specifically the comment entry form now anchors to the selected screen position when 'floated.' In other words, you can scroll over the article and comments, but the comment form will stay in the same position. We have also added a confirm dialogue when deleting comments.

Match Threads
As well as enabling the 1-Match ban, any article set as a 'match thread' will have the minimal time gap between comments halved from 30 to 15 seconds. Any match thread will also automatically support the live article view. We were kind of doing that anyway, but it's just easier for us now

Cross Tagged Articles
We can now specify the number of cross tagged articles, and the number of team tags within these articles that each user is allowed to make. This will probably be used as both carrot and stick; carrot for those that run prediction, sports gaming or similar leagues, stick for those that cross tag articles in a way that's likely to cause us a moderation headache.

Were You Even At The Game?
Want to give your after match thoughts a bit more credibility by proving you attended the match, or maybe you want to post your thoughts on the way back from a tough away trip but don't want to be accused of being an armchair fan? Well, JA606's new 'Were You Even At The Game Feature' is the answer...maybe.

Once a user has 'checked-in' at a stadium or other arbitrary location, the user will then have the option of creating an article that includes a link to this location at the top of the article. If the user was checked-in at or around the game, the stadium name will be included in the article, otherwise it will just say “View on Map."

The stadiums we have added to our system encompass the teams in the following leagues: “Premier," “Championship," “League 1" and the “SPL". The check-in displayed will always be the last, uncleared check-in made prior to the article creation. Users are able to clear the most recent check-in from their profile such that it will not be stored against any newly created articles. Users are also able to turn the article geo check-in off at any point by editing the article. The check in feature is restricted to “smart phones" only, as we thought it wise to block people tagging articles to their home address from a Desktop PC.

If you have any privacy concerns over the feature, don't enable it (it is disabled by default). When checking-in, your browser will ask for permission. You can accept or decline; declining results in a failed check-in. There are 1000s of smart phone & browser combos...if the feature doesn't work for you, we suggest it is a problem at your end.

For smart phone devices that don't have built in GPS, then the device IP address will be used instead. This will most probably result in a less accurate check-in.

This feature is obviously fairly new and one we will be looking to expand. We will keep our eye out on the forum for any related ideas.

Smileys
Nothing new – next release, we promise! <eek>

Miscellaneous
Numerous minor formatting and performance improvements that nobody will notice or even care about.