First of all we apologize for any inconvenience caused by the major update of our site. But we're not yet through. We're still have more things to add and to do. So pls. do not start a topic yet asking why this is missing or where is that. We do not want you to wait any longer so we opened the site already even if the update is not fully completed yet. So pls. be patient and give us time to rest. We've been working on the site for 10 straight hours now since midnight without sleep. :whew:

Update will resume tonight. Btw, you may safely do whatever you like right now. Post, shout, upload, play arcade, add friends, post a profile comment, etc. Everything you do will not be erased.

And pls. take time to read our new FAQ...
http://www.symbianize.com/faq.php

More detailed FAQ and descriptions of some of our new site features are there.


:bye::sleep:

We're done with our major site update and below are the answers to some questions raised after the update.

Q. What happened to the previous thanks count?
A. Gone for good unfortunately. :weep: Our thanks system is just an add-on. Its not really a built-in feature of our forum software. During the upgrade of our forum software, we experienced some errors relating to our thanks system so we were forced to reinstall the thanks system which resulted to removal of all thanks given to posts. We tried to reinstate the thanks count but it would result to errors like the one reported here (http://www.symbianize.com/showthread.php?t=53437). Having that error, we wont be able to open the thread with thanks in it. We can't find solution for that, we even hired someone to fix it but to no avail.

Q: The Shout Box (SB) is now placed below the forum index, can we put it back up there again or make it appear on every page of the forums?
A: No. :no: Our SB is just a part of our forums not the other way around and meant for casual talks only. Discussions should still be done in the forums. It shouldn't be used for requests and inquiries requiring serious answers. So to discourage such activities and to further promote forum participation, we placed it below the forum index so our members especially the newcomers will have the chance to view our list of forums first.

Q: I like the previous skin of Symbianize, can i use it instead?
A: No. :( Our previous skin is now history. We sometimes refer to the images (buttons, markers, logos, etc) of our website when answering inquiries related to the use of our website. If we have different skins, we might be referring to the image different from the skin used by the member.

Q: How about you consider adding new skins including those having dark backgrounds.
A: No. :no: Dark background skin is not suited for our website. We use images (buttons, markers, smilies, etc.) and username colors optimized for light backgrounds. Light skin also loads faster than dark skin. And ordinarily, dark skin is used by underground or pure warez site which we do not consider our website as such.
Aside from the reason stated above regarding multiple skins, adding another skin consumes significant amount of time. It is not as simple as installing a theme for your cellphone. We have to make the same changes we did in the other skin. We have features that other forum websites doesn't have that's because of our add-ons (arcade, awards, top stats, thanks, image resizer, etc). We have around 25 add-ons and everytime we create a new skin we have to 'install' those add-ons on that skin for those add-ons to function properly.
Having multiple skins also somehow decreases our search engine ranking.

Q: I read in the FAQ section that, if the board administrator allows, we can customize our profile page and have albums which allow us to upload more profile pictures. Is there a possibility we can enjoy these added features?
A: Yes. :unsure: There's a possibility but we have to check our resources first before enabling those features. We might offer those features to selected users only.

Q: Any news about additional user groups?
A: There will be a user group update this week or next week. The update might affect all user groups.

Q: Don't you think its about time to add more arcade games?
A: Yes. :yes: We are planning to add new games. We're just finishing our top priorities.


If you think we forgot something or you've got some questions to ask regarding our site update pls. post them in our Users Feedback forum. :)