I think we’re at the point where changes will start slowing down a bit, so I’m going to make this thread a changelog of further changes. I’ll start with the change I just made:
Added 5 new badges, which are all granted automatically based on posts in #modding-help. Check out the new badges on the badges page under “Community”.
Made two changes today. I disabled the who’s online list because I don’t think it’s actually helpful/healthy to the community and wasn’t really useful anyways.
Previously I had muted shenanigans by default for all users but I think that made it too inaccessible. I’ve gone ahead and put it back to normal. Keep in mind that doesn’t mean you’ll be notified for every new post/thread by default, it just means the category will appear on the main page again without you needing to open up the “muted categories” section. Of course, you can still manually re-mute the section if you so wish.
I also considered enabling signatures to allow users to personalize their messages a bit more. I’ve decided to leave it up to a poll which you can vote on or discuss here.
I’ve locked creating new threads in the meta category to trust level 2+. You can still reply to posts with any trust level. This thread will remain up since the rule didn’t exist yet.
I’ve enabled editing posts in slow mode threads.
Updated the TOS which had a couple place holder texts. I don’t think that document will every be relevant, but at least now it looks right. Thanks for pointing that out to me, @TheMKeyHolder
Sorry for so many changes today. I’ve decided to formalize how new emojis will be added with a new category called #meta:emoji-requests . Post your suggestions there and like the ones you also want to see. Mods have final approval on accepting requests.
The signatures poll has concluded and I’ve added signatures to the server! These are opt-in, so by default you won’t see them! If you go to your user preferences, the signature settings are at the bottom of the profile tab. You can enable seeing other signatures as well as customize what your signature will look like. Enjoy!
Also, while you’re there, I encourage you to customize the rest of your profile! The user cards that appear when you click on a user avatar look really snazzy 
Zergling for smash, not changing my signature until he’s added!
Proud to be
I start to complain when there’s no rain
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Woo, 4 days without a significant forum change! We’re stabilizing 
I’ve done some thinking on some new… special… categories I wanted to create, that wouldn’t really fit anywhere. So I’ve created #general to store them inside, and moved a thread I felt belonged more there. Effectively what this change means is previous posts that didn’t really have anywhere to go (and would probably have gone into #meta or #mods:mod-discussion, despite not really belonging there) can now go in #general as the default “this doesn’t belong anywhere else”.
Keep in mind it’s not for completely off-topic/shitpost threads. Those belong in #shenanigans.
First update in awhile!
I’ve created a new sub-category in meta: #meta:title-requests! I think this will do a good bit of encouraging people to engage within the community, and go for some of the harder to earn badges.
Here’s its about post, which should clarify what it’ll be used for:
Request titles here! The title of the post should contain both the suggested title as well as the current name of the badge.
Titles are the text that appears next to a poster’s username. If you go to your user preferences you can select a title - they are granted by having certain badges. If a badge does not currently grant a title, you may make a request here with the title you’d enjoy. Some titles are granted based on the group(s) you are in, but those are not up to community suggestions.
If you have a title you believe could be granted on some condition that does not currently grant a badge, you may still suggest it, and if accepted the badge will be created, however keep in mind those will have a higher threshold to reach before an admin will approve it.
The absolute likes requirement to add a title will change based on the size of the community, and the mods have final authority on approving or rejecting suggestions. When approved or rejected the thread will be locked.
Added a plugin to support MathJax in posts. no this was not just so I could use it here.
I also added another 10 GB to the server. Should last awhile, but if necessary I can keep adding more - each 10GB is just $1/month.
Updated discourse and all plugins for the first time in awhile, with many improvements overall. I also added a new plugin to enable ActivityPub, which should allow you to follow @mods@forums.moddingtree.com on any Mastodon or other ActivityPub websites and get notified whenever a new mod comes out. The plugin should, in the future, also show replies so you can see mod updates as well.
I also setup remote backups - previously they were just being stored locally, which doesn’t help all too much. Now the backups are going into a backblaze b2 bucket. This shouldn’t affect users.
And we’re back! We had some downtime, and had to restore from a backup made on October 8th, but the server is back up with the following changes:
