Site Updates

So there was a time when this website needed advertisements to maintain itself. We tend to see a spike in traffic when a new game is released, so back then, the ads were actually paying to keep this site running. But now, with the lull in traffic, the ads barely pay to keep this website running; in fact, they only account for about 40% of this website's operating costs.

However, even though the ads aren't doing it anymore; doesn't mean this website is closing! Those non-forum sections of this website, the calendar, streams, media library, etc... are all add-ons I've written for this website and then have gone on to sell licenses for other websites. And those license sales more than enough pay to keep our home warm and cozy!

Because of this, I've decided to remove the advertisements for all registered members! If you log into your account here at 8WAYRUN, the ads will go away; they will only be shown to guests, as an incentive to get them to register and join our community. That being said, there are still advantages to becoming a Premium Member, such as username changes, animated avatars, signature images and more...

A couple of days ago, I disabled our old event management system here on 8WAYRUN.com. Some of you noticed, most of you didn't. The reason for disabling our event system was that I was working on a new one! There were several issues with our old one... mostly that it was poorly programmed.

This new version aims to fix many of the issues with the old one, as well as add several new features. This post is not only an announcement of the new system, but also a guide on how to use several of the new features.

So some of you know, I've been updating the ranking ladder a lot during the past few weeks adding a multitude of new features. The majority of these new features will be pointless in regards to SOULCALIBUR V, as they haven't been around since release date; they have been put in for preparation of the inevitable release of SOULCALIBUR VI.

NOTE: This is not an official announcement for SOULCALIBUR VI; nor would I claim to have any such advanced knowledge of such a release for said game.

Over the past few days, regular visitors may have noticed a series of small changes to the front page. This is from a brand new article and widget system I have recently implemented here on 8WAYRUN. I have done my best to keep the new system looking like the old system, but there are a myriad of changes behind the scene.

Firstly, and most importantly: the front page article list. The new system has a much better record when it comes to performance. The front page will now load three times faster (according to database performance, not necessarily your bandwidth constraints). In addition to this, you will notice the new larger feature slider which spans the length of the entire page instead. Fully response, this slider will work on your touch devices.

So a couple of months ago, we unveiled a large rewrite to the Media Library here on 8WAYRUN. The core function of the rewrite was to build up a "filter" system so that videos could be more easily sorted based on the character usage within those videos. The filters work in a *booru-style system that allows you to add and remove character filters at will.

Well as of today, that feature has been expanded! Now, in addition to character usage, players can also be tagged to videos; provided that player has an account here on 8WAYRUN. So in addition to being able to search for videos featuring both Talim and Sophitia, you can refine the search to include specificity of players as well! For example, you can easily locate videos featuring: Hwang and Ramon!

Naturally, since this is a new feature, and there have been zero players tagged in the past; I'm asking you users to help go through the almost 6,000 videos already in the archives and start tagging players!

The media library we have here at 8WAYRUN started with the best of intentions. It was supposed to be a place where users could find high quality and relevant videos to their interests. And at first, that's what it was; it housed tournament videos, skill projects and more...

However, since then, technology has changed. The ability to record and stream video is open to pretty much anyone. Buy a Live Gamer Portable for relatively cheap and you can get started in no time! Because of this, suddenly everyone is producing video and adding it to the media library, instead of just the high profile tournament organizers.

As you all have probably noticed, this website has been down for a large part of today. This downtime was in order to update the XenForo platform we use to the most recent version. This post is to explain many of the new features you will find, as well as try to explain the current known bugs.

This is a rather large update so please be patient with the changes.