GeneralDirection

Problem is that won't work for my purposes. What I'm trying to do is put my sig images on rotation using a little PHP script I coded up. The issue is that PHP isn't an image file extension and the board rejects it.

Tried to change my sig image today and got the message "Oops! You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community!" Why should it matter what extension I want to use? GIF is allowed, so animated sigs are allowed (duh), so what's the problem? If I go to any other forum (IPB or not) and change my sig image link to end with a non-image extension it works just fine. :/ (Yes, I know what I'm doing, if it didn't work it'd get treated like a broken image link.)

I eat breakfast pretty much every day. Always have, and probably always will. Otherwise I'll be a generally disagreeable person until lunch when I get to eat. I don't eat much though...even when I'm really hungry.

Nova was suddenly jolted awake from another long blackout, half-expecting to wake up back on Earth. But clearly, he was still on...whatever this new world was called, much to his relief. He looked up and found himself staring into the concerned orange eyes of an aquamarine unicorn. Nova shook his head in an effort to wake himself up, further messing up his already wild mane, which was mostly black as night, with several streaks of cobalt blue throughout. Well, it appears I'll be staying here for a while, might as well try to enjoy myself while I'm here. He thought to himself.

"Ahhh...hey. I'm...um...not doin' so hot. It's not every day you're executed by your worst enemy that you've been running from all your life, and then show up in a new world as a pegasus." He weakly grinned. He tried his best to focus on the pony talking to him, but would frequently zone out and then refocus again. "So what's your...um...name? Yea, that. Name. Would you also mind telling me just where it is that I am?"

(@@GeneralDirection I can have Flutters or Lyra find you, if you want. I could get Flutters go back to her cottage and find you near the Forest or think something up for Lyra.(BTW, completely unrelated, but I love your avatar. Go Canterda/Canada!))

(OOC: Either one would be great, I will leave it up to you, and thanks, great to meet another BC brony! Now apparently I have a character limit to reach...)

Nova closed his eyes and took a deep breath, greedily drinking in the sweet smelling air. He couldn't remember the last time he had been by himself and completely care-free. Solitude had been such a luxury on Earth, but here it seemed to be available in abundance. I could really get used to this! He thought. But something didn't seem quite right, and as he looked down at the lush green grass in front of him, his cobalt blue eyes widened when he saw that he no longed had hands, but hooves, and they were a brilliant blue colour. So bright they could almost be passed for cyan. Nova slowly turned his head and looked at his back, which was not only a rich blue, but sported a new pair of wings, too. He blinked a few times in confusion. I'm a...pegasus? He asked himself in disbelief. This last realization was too much for Nova to handle, and at that, he promptly fainted. 

(OOC: Holy crap you guys posted a lot. You ain't making it easy for me to jump in here...who's supposed to find me? I could use RD but I really don't want to have a long conversation with myself...and you seem to have something going on in town already...I will post what I can but you guys gotta give me an opening here please. :/)

As Nova collapsed, his world once again turned to black. Only this time, he felt like he was falling. Falling into an endless pit. His 'freefall' lasted for several minutes, before he reached the 'bottom', where he arrived in Equestria. After an hour, he woke up and tried to comprehend his surroundings. It was a complete sensory overload. Nova found himself in a grassy field, that stretched for a good kilometer in every direction. Beyond that were forests with a varied amount of foliage, and then beyond those were great snow-capped mountains that towered above the valley he was in. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Even though he was alone, he felt...content. This was a strange feeling for Nova, but he was gonna enjoy every single minute of it.

(OOC: I've purposely left this open-ended so I can see what you guys have got before I continue...)

*BOOM*

An explosion rocked the alleyway as an army truck went up in a fireball, sending pieces of it flying in all direction, killing two Russian soldiers. 

Apparently, they found out which of their trucks I hijacked this time. Nova Flyer thought to himself, who had jumped out of the truck moments before a grenade exploded, which had been thrown into the cab by a Russian. Now, as he had been for his whole life, he was running from them once again. Nova had no idea what life was like before the war started, for he had been born in the midst of it twenty years ago. Back then, the Russians didn't have control over nearly as much territory as they had now, but they were as brutal and cold-blooded of killers as they are now. At least that's what he had been told, anyway. Nova couldn't remember most of his childhood, something that his friends had attributed to the traumatic event that had taken place in his early teens. Him and his family had been holding back a group of Russian soldiers that had started to attack their small town. They fought valiantly, but the Russians proved to be a force too great for them to deal with.

His whole town was then captured, and everyone save for Nova and a few of his fiends were chained together in a long line, and then forced to walk to an empty field outside of town. There, Nova and his friends were tied together, and sat down several feet away from the rest of the townspeople. Then, in an act of absolute brutality, the entire line of people was executed by the Russian troops. Nova shut his eyes before his family was shot, not wanted to forever haunted by the scene of them falling to the ground, lifeless. After the bloody massacre, the soldiers moved on, presumably leaving Nova and his companions to die from dehydration. But they weren't going out that easily. For years, this band of friends put up a good fight against the invading Russian troops, against seemingly impossible odds. But the odds slowly became more and more stacked against them, and over time Nova lost all of his friends to Russian forces.

Now only he remained, as the sole survivor of his town. Once again, he found himself running, and not knowing where he was running to. He just had to get out of there, and away from the Russians. But his escapade would be cut short. As he rounded the next corner, he found himself in the sights of a Russian. Nova ducked behind a metal container, and drew his homemade weapon, which he had assembled from various other broken guns he had found. He would get his ammo from opponents he defeated. But as he took aim, what he didn't notice was another soldier that had crept up behind him. With one solid blow to his head, Nova was knocked out, and his world slowly faded to black. As he faded away, the last words he heard were from the Russian that hit him with the butt end of his rifle.

"We've been looking for you for a loooong time!" the solider jeered.

(OOC: My assumption is that the humans will now all wake up together in the same room, seeing how no one has been killed yet. Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

also, please help me with the plot, it's my first hosted RP you know. :3

Thank you for letting me be RD! I know that wasn't directed at me, but I'll gladly help you out with the plot if you so desire. :3

Wish I could listen to music at school and work. Unfortunately it's a safety hazard for me to wear headphones of any sort at school, and at work I basically talk to people the entire time I'm there. So that doesn't leave much spare time. I'd say 3 - 4 hours a day. Probably 5 - 6 on weekends. 

Ooo, I call Rainbow Dash if we're doing that sort of thing! If not, here's my OC: http://mlpforums.com/page/roleplay-characters/_/nova-flyer-r3144

I'll just have to adapt his backstory a bit. Watch this space.

Thanks for the advice,but i take online school.

 

Brohoof!!

/)

Oh good, I`m not the only one. Actually, I used to take online school, grades 7 - 12, not anymore though. Kinda hard to take CT/HD mechanics online. :3 Most of my friends used to be online until I moved to where I am now. There's only a few of them that I keep in regular contact with nowadays. I went the online route because I don't do very well in a traditional school setting and never made any friends there anyway. Nice to meet you. /)

It's so cool to see so many PC gamers here...sadly all my RL friends and xbox and PS addicts. They say that PC gaming is dead...but I know otherwise. I think I paid about $500 for the machine I have now...get a nice big monitor and you can have way more fun than on a console. I'm really looking forward to Star Citizen, actually. :3 PCs might be more expensive initially but in the long run you'll save because you don't need anything else, you can do pretty much anything with it. Plus the amount of good free/inexpensive games for PC may surprise you.

Hey there! Welcome, fellow Canadian brony! I don't live in southern Ontario anymore, but I was born there, and the rest of my family still lives there too. You're gonna have a great time here!

lol wish i could but im happy where i am  i also play brony music while i work so i stick out like a giant beacon.

This is possibly the most awesome thing I've read all month. I don't know how you get away with being able to listen to your own music, but please, if you ever get a desire to move, come work at RCSS #1522, thanks.

At RCSS we don't have much MLP merch, 1 DVD, 1 coluring book, 1 sticker sheet from the 3rd gen, and a few other toys. We do have those lovely self-checkouts though, don't have to talk to anyone at all. I don't really see what the big deal is though, and I don't think 99% of the population really cares about what you're buying anyway.

We also have the little ones that cost around $2, whatever their proper name is. I specifically look for the last RD one we have every time I go down there. I think it's still there too. We had MLP chocolate at Easter time, afterward it was 50% off, I almost got one.

Hey there! Welcome to herd, fellow Rainbow Dash fanatic! I'm sure you're gonna have a great time here.

What I like: Rap metal, hard rock, nu metal, post grunge, alt rock and metal, and whatever Glaze and TheLivingTombstone is considered to be. 

However I have been known to listen to pretty much anything that isn't straight up rap or country.

If we all went to Equestria, that would suck. Sorry, but it's a catch 22. Everyone's dream of going to Equestria doesn't involve everyone going to Equestria, but rather, just themselves, and maybe a few others. But not our millions-strong fanbase. :/ Plus the lineup to see Rainbow Dash would probably wrap around Equestria twice. 

indeed they look pretty good....though I"m wondering what the size of them is going to be? I'm hoping at least 14'' -15'' tall.When I got some free cash, I"ll probably be getting one.

Website says 10.5", sorry.

I'm waiting for 4DE to come out with Rainbow Dash. If she looks as good as Twlight and Pinkie do, there's no way I'm missing out on that! Currently don't have any plushes though.

Not really. My absolute fav is Rainbow Dash. She's athletic, competitive, and a bit of a loud mouth. Pretty much everything I'm not. The one thing we have in common is loyalty. I think I'm the most like Twilight, actually; the quintessential nerdy bookworm and rational thinker.

If whoever loves me wants me to stay the way I am, then changing myself would be a pretty boneheaded move, wouldn't it? I'd loose their love, and my friendships, so what's the point? As much as I'd like to become a Pegasus, I'd have to pass on that.

I think you guys hit the nail on the head, and it largely reflects my personal experience with IP.Board as well. It's a fantastic way to start a community, because it comes with a lot of really rich and useful functionality right out of the box. Might I say, it also has my favourite AdminCP ever; I find vBulletin's rather horrible. XenForo's is organized a lot better than vB's, but IP.Board's still feels easier to navigate around and appears to have more settings and customizations available. The issue with IP.Board is that its codebase is very antiquated, having originally been written for PHP 4 and MySQL 4.x and never properly refactored for modern systems (and IPS are the kind of company that supports the lowest common denominator of hosting environments). Coupled with lacking software development practices, the result is over half a million lines of PHP that gets less and less stable the more you try to do your own thing with it. MLP Forums is a helluva lot more than an "out-of-the-box" community, and what you see is a combination of over 100 addons and modifications to a base IP.Board. I could rant all day about the crazy things IPB does to avoid prepared statements, the nasty surprises its input filtering presented for connecting Pony.fm to it, and other architectural issues, but... suffice it to say that we're at the point where we're working around IP.Board moreso than working with it. XenForo honestly looks like the only real alternative at this time. Zend wouldn't be my first choice of framework to build a forum system on, but it gives me more confidence in the stability of the software than IPS's in-house attempt at a framework. What's there seems to be very well built, but XF seems a bit barebones in community features, and especially the management side; I'm not a fan of its ACP. That said, perhaps it's time to take a demo for a spin again and see what's changed in the past couple of years.

I'm honoured that you'd be considering other systems, and I wish you best of luck in your research, hopefully you guys can figure out something that works better for you. Again, if you guys choose to go the custom-coded forum route, I would like if there was some way I could be a part of that process.

I don't know what I think

I don't really know the differences.

I don't really know anything at all about these things

I don't feel that we need to change

 

However I do want to hear more about these alternatives. ...I'm curious...

Well, all these different forum software types are essentially different ways of doing the same thing: creating and managing a community, and enforcing its rules. What sets each apart from the other is the way in which it accomplishes these things. They will all look different, but most share the same functions. It's the unique features that set each board apart and provide reasons for choosing one over the other, plus the look and way the board is laid out. Some board software has 'exclusive' add-ons and that may be a reason why a site admin will choose a certain kinda of board. The way the admin control panel is organized and how easy it is to do things using it is also a very important aspect to consider. (Which is why I think XenForo is having success lately.)

The best way to experience other forum software is to try a demo. Google something like "phpBB demo" or "XenoForo" demo, depending on what you want to play around with. The major ones are phpBB, Simple Machines*, Proboards*, Invision Power Board (MLPForums uses this one), vBulletin, and XenForo. There are also a few other minor ones out there like MyBB but they tend to be mostly based off of the other more popular software. Wikipedia is also a good resource for finding out more info on forum software.

(*IMO these two are the worst, and Proboards is only available through their own hosting system, making it the worst of the worst.)

Hopefully this helps somewhat.

You might be interested in this thread: http://mlpforums.com/topic/59878-finally-show-accurate-plushes/

These plushes look pretty good for being only $25. At the moment they've only got Twilight and Pinkie, but the rest of the mane 6 will come in time. Personally I'm waiting for RD (shocker). Otherwise, getting a custom-made one will be your best bet if you don't want something that looks horrid. ^^ Won't come cheap though.

Too expensive to fly out to Maryland. Plus I have no time, I'd pretty much get there and have to turn around and go back. Not my idea of fun. I'm strongly considering going to BronyCAN though.