Jan 18, 2016

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Welcome to Section Eighty 2.0
What started as a profile overhaul project ended up morphing in to an overhaul of the entire design. Ironically, the profiles ended up being one of the few things that we didn't touch at all. The philosophy behind the design was very basic - innovate and simplify. Over the past year, 1.0 morphed from something very basic to something feature heavy. While each new feature was meant to add value to the experience here, what ended up happening was that we turned 1.0 in to something that was very bloated and fragmented. With 2.0, our intention was to marry these features and build something more streamlined - a forum in which our custom modifications felt like they naturally belonged. While we are no where close to done with this project, we're proud to say that it is far enough along to release publicly. So with that said, welcome to Section Eighty 2.0.

New Features and Changes
While there are some surprises that we'll let you discover as you use the site, here are a few of the major changes:

• Design overhaul: The site's design is now more streamlined and simplified. Issues of bloating are now all addressed. Every inch of the new design was given a lot of thought.
• Portal: The portal is a work in progress still, and we'll learn to make it better as we continue to use it. The portal is a place where all of our major features are married on one page, somewhere where you can quickly access everything that matters to you. Re-upload your avatar with a 700x700 picture to enjoy the high-quality image in your portal.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Featured Threads: Our featured threads are now built in to our sidebar in place of what used to be our user info spot. Because an actual mod was developed for this, you should see these being updated more frequently so that you know exactly what you've missed, even if you've only got 10 minutes to browse.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Most Liked: You can now see everyone's most liked posts as well as post liked threads. Click to view the profile of the member whose most liked content you wish to see, and hit the most liked tabs on the far right.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Day/Night switch: for those who do enjoy using both the day and night themes, you can now toggle between them easily by hitting the switch on the top left.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Dropdown user panel: Credit goes to able for suggesting this. The dropdown user panel has been simplified and cleaned up. Previously there were close to 20 links on here. Now there are the 10 most important ones with the rest available through the settings button. Also, you can now edit your user title straight from the dropdown by clicking on it.
  Spoiler: See Preview

  
• Bookmarking: you can now bookmark any post and save it in to your User CP. You can view these bookmarks by accessing the dropdown user panel on the top navigation, or you can insert them directly in to a new post by clicking the star icon under the quick reply box.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Post bit: From the start, we've always been obsessed with the post bit. How do we best minimize it while still giving users the opportunity to really personalize and own it? What we did was dumb it down and add functionality at the same time. You can now see all of the users posts, see all of his/her likes, see the user's profile, and quickly PM the user all by hovering over his/her avatar. In addition, we tried to bring prominence to the user title and really make it a part of the post bit, not just an after thought like it was previously. We will never have signatures on sxn80, but this should address some of that void. The profile overhaul is still coming though, and signatures will be available there so you can immortalize your favourite quotes from your least favourite posters.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Live Activity: Live activity has been updated and reworked for 2.0. By clicking the live activity tab on the home page, you can see a real-time stream of what's happening on SXN80.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Jump back to section: This isn't a new feature, but just something worth mentioning as it's easy to miss. We cleaned up the header on the thread/forum views. So now to go back to the section you are browsing, click the circular icon next to the thread name.
  Spoiler: See preview

  
• Search: We have re-done the search function, it's easier to use and access on both desktop and mobile.
  Spoiler: See preview

  

Final Thoughts
Thank you @Slyk and @Loyalty for allowing me to step back and create. But more importantly, thank you for taking my designs and turning them in to reality. A designer like me you can find anywhere. But coders like you guys are rare, and we’re blessed as a team to have you. It comes to no surprise that the one thing I didn’t come up with the design for is my favourite thing visually in 2.0 - the thread tags. Great job with that Slyk. And Loyalty, thank you for letting us think up functionality and then delivering every time. The new user title changer from the dropdown is brilliant man, and liking posts have never been so satisfying. Last but not least, @Koolo thank you for being a mentor, an older brother, and continuing to stick with the site when real life had be away from it. No doubt there will be weeks in the future when I’m not here, and no doubt you’ll still be here holding it down.

This is the dynasty. Welcome to the best looking rap forum forum on the internet, with no close 2nd in existence.

 

Jan 18, 2016

We really went back to the drawing board with this one, fam. Nearly every single aspect of our design was re-imagined from the ground-up. A huge goal of ours was to simplify the design without losing any functionality -- a cleaner interface, a better experience. While we've really managed to step up the aesthetics in Section Eighty 2.0, every change you see here today was made with a specific intent: improving the posting/navigation/browsing experience. I hope that shines through as you begin to explore.

...When working on 1.0 nearly 15 months ago now, we said that our ultimate goal was to have a fully customized theme -- a style that's unique to us, that contours to our current functionality, and one that allows us to grow our vision. If you take a look at what our original stock theme looked like, and compare it to where we're at now, it'll become clear that we've succeeded:

Spoiler: sxn80 version 0.0

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Shoutout to:

• Hasman: when he first presented this idea, I was so drawn-in that I didn't want to do anything but develop it. We succeeded in making 2.0 to the near-exact-pixel of what was originally drawn up -- the man is a visionary & a creative genius.
• Koolo for his continued dedication, next-level ideas, and for aspiring to & knowing that we can do greater and be the best. d--- near every intuitive mod concept you've seen implemented here so far has been his original ideas. The man eats, sleeps, & breathes sxn80.
• Loyalty: I can honestly say that 2.0 would not have happened without him. The project quickly became way too large for any one person to handle, and I likely would have had an aneurysm had it not been for him. Can't be happier with what Loyalty has brought to the team thus far. That's my partner right there.
• Our Staff & Plus members: We released 2.0 to them a couple weeks ago and their input has been invaluable to helping us fine-tune what you see here today. Thanks for being dedicated to SXN 80.
• Everyone else. Consider 2.0 as being a huge 'THANK YOU' for sticking with us. I know we've been teasing 2.0 for some time now, but now that it's here, I challenge the rest of the internet (not just hip-hop sites) to try to even come close to competing on our level. Stay with us. There's more good to come.

What's Next:
Know that even though we're launching 2.0 today, we already have plans for what we're tentatively calling "version 2.5". Next-next-level s---. Among those future features, expect to see PMs, profiles, & member cards to be overhauled, and to see The Portal to continue to be developed. Plus a couple other ideas that we're keeping under wraps for now..

We've invested a LOT of time in this project and I hope that you love it just as much as we do.

Spoiler: R.I.P. to...

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Jan 18, 2016

As a late addition to the staff, only joining in late Sept. 2015, I would like to mention how grateful we should all be for the staff and the work they put in during the first 10 months prior to that. I never knew how much time and money is invested into this site behind the scenes so that we can all enjoy discussing various topics.

Having been using a work-in-progress version of 2.0 since early November, when I had to go back to 1.0 to fix something I gasped at how much progress we made and how customized the experience now is. Unlike a lot of you, I couldn't stand Night 1.0... but now I've been using Night 2.0 for a week and it's hard to go back to Day. Luckily with that handy new day/night toggle, it's not too hard

My quick thank yous as well:

Koolo, who is willing to drop his own money into this forum on a daily basis to implement things that haven't been done before. Since I've been staffed he's been @'ing me, skyping me, and whatsapping me to fix things asap because he wants it to be a perfect experience. And I don't complain because working on this stuff for our community is much better than coding for my actual job. My favorite Koolo 2.0 feature: Most Liked Posts/Most Liked Threads: You'd think an awesome idea like this would already exist in Xenforo, but nope, that was all his idea. Custom-made.

Slyk - like I said above, I can't imagine the amount of work he's put into coding during the first 10 months of this site, basically doing it all alone. Then when 2.0 ideas came about, he jumped on the project and was working on stuff whenever possible. At one point he put in a 50 hour weekend coding the basics of Day 2.0 just so we could get it out to you all asap. Then again when he started Night 2.0... he worked on it for a few solid hours and completed most of it. And lastly - he's always able to quickly figure out a problem that I'm stuck on. The man's got work ethic! My favorite Slyk 2.0 feature: Portal avatar changer. Go to your portal, hover over the avatar - easily change it! Slyk came up with this last minute which just goes to show the custom add-ons for S80 will keep on coming!

Everything you see before you was created by Mike Tyson. When I first logged into the Staff section and saw several beautiful mockups of the portal, home page, several dropdown menus, the news page... I thought there was no way we can do something this custom and creative. Any time the staff sent an idea his way, he soon gave us an awesome mockup. Even though he's not a coder he put just as many hours in as the coders, if not more, creating everything you see on the site from the mockups to icons to graphics. My favorite Mike Tyson 2.0 feature: Account dropdown user title updater. (Inspired by able) - Don't worry about going to your settings and finding the right field to change that little user title under your name. Just hover over your name up top, click on your current title, edit and save!

And another BIG thank you to staff, mods, vets, plus, social media, news/leaks team, and everyone else for keeping the forum going while we were distracted and busy updating the site. A special thanks to Ordinary Joel who took on the huge role of global mod during this project and has been doing exceptional. And another thank you to Cyreides for providing the background music for the video in the OP.

A few quick shoutouts to the plus section for helping us debug 2.0 before official release! I missed the first few days on a cruise to Mexico, but since I have been back the following have been a great help in pointing out problems/inconsistencies: able, Jet, Mano, rapmusik, and many more.

Welcome to



Also:

 

Jan 18, 2016

This is the first gif I ever made by the way, learned how to do it all for you guys

 

Jan 18, 2016

i just liked 10 pages worth of posts b, i'm about to ddos my own site

 

Jan 18, 2016

@Mike Tyson ditched his doctor's appointment to be here for this today. n----- might die for 2.0. worth it tho.

 

Jan 18, 2016

I had this up since the soft launch for plus + staff

I was thinking about changing my avy but then I thought how disappointed my single avatar mentors @Worm @captain awesome and @Koolo would be if I gave in.