Since the Grand Re-Opening of the Vault in the beginning of January, Cracked Egg Studios has been utilizing the new system to completely revamp the web site. In just a month and a half, a multitudinous plethora of new improvements have been made. Please also note that the web site has moved to http://www.crackedeggstudios.net until further notice.
Menu
The site's navigation menus have undergone changes once again, with links directly to specific Control Panel pages, a new Help menu, and the ability to search the Vault from anywhere on the site.
The right menu has been completely taken over by the Upcoming Releases list, which no longer uses an iframe but has been template-ized to match the rest of the site.
The New Releases and Games submenus are now Portals controlled by the Vault. The new Special Features menu includes links to the Downloads and Gallery sections, as well as the In Development Portal for members of Network Partner status or higher. The Affiliates have been moved to the left as well as the Contact Us link.
The right menu has been completely taken over by the Upcoming Releases list, which no longer uses an iframe but has been template-ized to match the rest of the site.
The New Releases and Games submenus are now Portals controlled by the Vault. The new Special Features menu includes links to the Downloads and Gallery sections, as well as the In Development Portal for members of Network Partner status or higher. The Affiliates have been moved to the left as well as the Contact Us link.
The Vault
Not only does the Vault provide tons of content, but the Discussion tabs connect directly to the forum, allowing members to start talking about what they have just read. Links to helpful Vault pages will soon be placed at the tops of relevant forums and threads.
Forum
A number of forums have been combined, and numerous threads have been moved. By eliminating virtually empty forums, Cracked Egg Studios hopes to cultivate more community activity by grouping the more accessed threads together.
Chat
Cracked Egg Studios has opened its own IRC channel, accessible by the link in the navbar. The chatroom enables members to converse in realtime without creating cluttered threads of many short posts.
Events
The Calendar has been divided up into several sub-calendars of interest: CES Web Site Events, CES Public Events, CES Releases Roadmap, and CES Development Schedule (only available to Network Partners and higher). All of these calendars connect directly to the forum, allowing users to discuss the events as they approach. Users can also RSVP for Public or Development events.
Downloads
The Downloads section has also been converted to a forum module, allowing users to rate and comment on files they have downloaded. Downloads still require spending various numbers of Celbos. No files are currently available for download, as we are still in the process of updating the torrent tracker.
Affiliates
Cracked Egg Studios has succeeded in establishing cross-domain integration, enabling members to log in and out of multiple affiliate domains at once. The Free United Club of Kids and Noey Productions web sites are still under construction; these links will become available once basic their conversions from DomainDLX are complete.
New Celbos System
The Celbos (or Points) system was first launched when the Downloads section opened. Celbos were designed as a way to limit the number of files members could download at a time and encourage them to support Cracked Egg Studios by purchasing the DVDs. Celbos were earned easily by making new threads, new posts, or writing longer posts. Members were quick to abuse this system by posting long meaningless threads.
The new system is based on shares. The number of posts and threads in the forum compared to a user's own contributions to the community is taken into account once a week when Celbos are redistributed. Various actions such as rating threads or downloading files can have positive or negative effects on your total number of Celbos. Members are penalized for periods of inactivity.
This new system makes the process of earning Celbos more complex, there is a greater aspect of randomness to it, and it rewards members who are most active.
The new system is based on shares. The number of posts and threads in the forum compared to a user's own contributions to the community is taken into account once a week when Celbos are redistributed. Various actions such as rating threads or downloading files can have positive or negative effects on your total number of Celbos. Members are penalized for periods of inactivity.
This new system makes the process of earning Celbos more complex, there is a greater aspect of randomness to it, and it rewards members who are most active.
Updated Profiles
Members who have had direct involvement with Cracked Egg Studios as a cast or crew member will have their credits added to their Member Profile. These members will also have a biography page in the Vault. These updates are still in progress, so please be patient.
New Posting Options
New BB-codes have been added such as google, youtube, channel, and vault. When posting new threads, it is now possible to add a brief description of the thread.
Security
Previously, all members were allowed to use HTML-code in their posts. This opened the site up to possible malicious embedded codes, so additional Usergroup Permissions have been added to minimize HTML use, and disable the use of certain tags. It is now also possible for members to use HTML, BB-code, or Smilies in their profiles.
A number of Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities have been fixed that had threatened SQL injection and the destruction of the entire web site.
A number of Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities have been fixed that had threatened SQL injection and the destruction of the entire web site.
Performance
MySQL queries have been reduced by one third or more on many commonly accessed pages such as home.php, forumdisplay.php, member.php, and showthread.php. This drastically improves page generation time, only further improved by the new template caching system.
