From MCTrades, Have a Happy New Year!

Hello, MCTrades!

As 2017 comes to a close, I want to take a look at where we've reached as a site.

5,000+ Total Users Registered
8,000+ Total Discussions
50,000+ Total Messages
Operating for more than a year
230+ Diamond Members
130+ Emerald Members

These stats are absolutely insane. Had I been told last year MCTrades was going to grow this big, I'd have laughed and sent the messenger to an asylum. It is thanks to you all for getting us to this point

I also want to take this time to thank Jayson, our endlessly dedicated site administrator. The majority of the additions noted here were his additions.

While we're here, let's review some new additions to the site!

General Site Changes

Seasonal Snow - We hope you enjoyed our Christmas theme! While the logo and forum styling changes were temporary (or at least until a proper Winter theme is formed for Emerald members), snow will remain a permanent addition to the site! The snow will be displayed seasonally, so you won't be experiencing any chilly summer days on the forum...that is, unless you wish to always keep it on in your preferences! To toggle snow at any time, open your account preferences menu and select/deselect whichever options fancy you!

Security Upgrade - As some of you may have noticed through emails you may have received, we've upgraded our account security software. Certain notable features added are the ability to permanently trust a device in two-factor authentication, as opposed to only trusting for 30 days (you can manage all your devices at the two-factor authentication preferences page). You can also check all your current active sessions on our Login Sessions page, and remotely log out of any unknown devices. We've also installed a new trigger to lock accounts on the event of a compromise, notifying administrators and only making it possible to unlock the account through a link sent to the account's associated email. Login failed messages are now generic for all requests to make it a bit harder for attackers to know if they got something right or not. Finally, spam prevention and alternate account detection have also been upgraded.

Chat Tweaks - As most of you have already noticed, the shoutbox automatically filters external links (save for a few image hosts). This was implemented to help enforce Rule 2.6. Chat styling has also been improved, and in your account preferences menu, you can remove avatars, chat tags, and chat tag backgrounds, and enable name color based tag colors in preferences. To top it off, the chat’s icon text and styling system has been redone to optimize loading times.

MCAssociation/NameMC Styling Tweaks - Have you had a look at our new Minecraft Association profile page yet? Not only has better styling been added, but you can now access NameMC, Hypixel, and skin stats with the click of a link! Pressing on a username in a post will also by default redirect to their NameMC page.



Sticky Profile Posts - As suggested by Kiruv, we have implemented sticky profile posts. Emerald users can press the "stick" button on a post written by themselves to stick it to the top of their wall.

New Tickets System - I've had an old support tickets addon lying around. I initially took it off the site as it had a bunch of bugs, but the author appears to have put some more time into it. After a bit of testing in the upcoming weeks, we might implement such a tickets system to manage all support requests and possibly even automate certain tasks

Discord Server Changes

- Linked members now automatically get the "guest-support" role removed (it was previously done after a single message was posted once the rules were agreed to).
- A bug where members with "Allow direct messages from server members." enabled had their messages randomly deleted has been fixed.
- A filter only allowing the characters of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _, and "_" has been added. Changes are done through nicknames and is ran on joining and rule agreements. Your MCTrades username will always override. Characters not matching this filter will be removed. If the entire username gets filtered out, users will get the nickname of "Invalid Username". Usernames surpassing 20 characters after being filtered will be considered invalid.
- Unlinked users will receive a prefix of "UnverifiedN:" or "UnverifiedF:".
- A majority of links are now allowed to be posted in our Discord server, however is currently restricted to linked members and higher only. That being said, users abusing their ability to post links may be restricted to posting only MCTrades links.
- Unlinked members are now fully separated from those whom have linked their account to MCTrades other than staff members. Assists with decreasing impersonation and annoying ads over Discord.

If you haven't linked your Discord account to your MCTrades account yet, be sure to do it here.
Join our Discord server at https://mctrades.org/discord/

Bug Fixes and Optimizations

- Our username moderation system has been modified to allow usernames that start and end with “_”.
- Removed suggestion ratings from the "Post Ratings" profile sidebar.
- Removed multiple add-ons which are no longer in use or have been replaced.
- Backups of MCTrades are now set to run every half hour and are stored on a secure external system.
- Removed the "Pre-Release" resource prefix.
- The "No Permission to Reply" message has been removed from various sections such as thread drafts, the sub-sections of "Community Advice", the dispute archive, and more.
- Instead of completely removing the option, we've simply disabled the "People You Follow Only" option. The ability to completely block everyone from viewing your profile has also been removed.
- Users having their profile viewing permissions set to those you follow only or nobody have had the option reset to everybody.
- Rephrased multiple pieces of text to provide a simpler experience yet without degrading the text's integrity.
- Fixed a bug where the business accounts tab would show completely unrelated content.
- Fixed a bug where on slower network connections, the "Business Accounts" header tab would not have the correct styling until the page has fully loaded.

On behalf of the entire staff team here at MCTrades, we wish you a happy 2018. May this upcoming year be our best and brightest, and create the opportunity to move forward.

buildblox​