The "Kickback Answers Relaunch Questions" thread
 

So as you may or may not know, myself, Den-O, Shin Densetsu, and Sentai Tamashii, with the help of Tony Bacala, have been hard at work behind the scenes for over a month now getting the site ready for our big 2.0 relaunch. As we've gotten closer, I've begun teasing with my signature.

The sig is actually our new logo, contorted and twisted and put through a ton of filters just because. But you can KIND of get a gist of it.

Until we relaunch, I figure I'll answer any questions I can that you may have about the relaunch - what new features there will be, what changes can be expected, etc.

So ask away! If I can't answer it (because of TOP SECRET DETAILS), then I will state as such.

Will your avatar be the official mascot like TFW's?

With the relaunch, will there be a way to prevent spammers now?

Will we lose the side bar thing that shows the latest top 5 posts? I normally use it to keep up with stuff.

I remember that teaser you had on Twitter and I dont think it had it.

Do we get popcorn gif?

Will we still have the "Newest Poll" Sidebar?

Will the PM Message limit increase to 100 like TFW?

I assume that bug testing went well?

Will there be new limits on signatures and avatars with the reboot?

Someone won the mascot contest over a year ago, started to draw something up, and I never heard back. The mascot that won did have the "T" visor on a helmet, but it incorporated something from Sentai/Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, and Godzilla on it.

I will have to dig up the old files. But no actual "mascot" planned as I type this, though it can always change.

Most spammers are simply bots - programs running through web browsers. We put in and change security measures so that no bots "learn" how to register on our site perfectly every time. We also have a registry that's updated frequently that autobans accounts.

For what it's worth, it's caught 55,125 spambots on its own as of today. If 1 or 2 slip through the cracks, we can handle that.

The teaser image was just a slice of the actual site! The sidebar at the time wasn't ready for showing and was still in development - thus, I cut it out. Yes, the side bar will be back in action, and even better.

The only thing is we won't be able to showcase the polls on the side bar anymore, as that is a unique feature to vBulletin Portal, which is what we use now.