Hello All, If you’ve been on the site during the last few weeks, you may have noticed some changes, some server errors, and perhaps some new stuff. We decided that if we’re going to keep the site going, we needed some pretty major upgrades. So, this is what’s been happening:
Switched to HTTPS
We’re now https://boardgaming.com instead of http://boardgaming.com, thanks to LetsEncrypt.org which provides free SSL certificates. More secure is always good, but it also means that we were able to enable the purchase of gems.
If you’re browsing the site and do NOT see the little lock symbol in the address bar of your browser (or any other notice that says the site is not secure), let us know by posting it as a comment below (along with the url of the page).
Gems Available Again
Visit the Gems page to purchase more gems if you have run out of BG Gold and want to heart more games. Remember, hearting games is one way to manipulate the “Popular” widget on BG. But more importantly, the purchase of Gems will help keep BG running.
Going Mobile-Friendly
We’ve been working on making the site more responsive, which means making it work in browsers of various sizes – particularly for mobile devices. We’re not 100% done with that, but it’s vastly better than it was. Our goal is to enable our users to quickly access the site after playing a game to log their played game.
If you are seeing weird stuff on your phone when viewing BG, you may need to clear your browser’s cache. On iOS, this is done by going to Settings & Safari then scrolling down and clicking on “Clear History and Website Data”. Unfortunately, that clears the history for all sites, but it’s the only way I know of to update the style sheets that control the look of the site.
Powering Up!
This is just a teaser for now, but we are introducing a way to support the site AND get some great bonuses, including making it easier to record game plays. So, if you see blue gems on people’s avatars, that means they are Powered Up. We’re still beta testing for now, but hope to launch this officially in January.
Hiccups and Errors
During the process of upgrading the server, we lost a week due to an unexpected roll-back of the database. This means that we lost a week of reviews, comments, posts, etc. Sorry about that.
Due to the upgrade of the server, PHP, and WordPress plugins, there will likely be more errors here and there that need to be fixed. So, if you notice an error message on a page that doesn’t go away in a couple of days, please comment below or email us.
Looking Forward to 2019
We couldn’t keep things going without Tiana901. She deserves a HUGE thank you for all the work she has done adding new games to BG and maintaining the weekly “What are you playing this weekend” news discussions! BG could not continue without the work our volunteers have done over the years.
From the development side, our focus for 2019 is to enhance the experience of recording played games, and this will be done in connection with a fundraising campaign.
I would like to see where members are from: city/state/country!!
Thanks to everyone for all the hard work they do for this site, no matter how small the contribution.
This is my favorite board gaming site!
Have a great 2019 everyone!
@Stargazer How nice of you to say.
@Jon Yay, I am glad that the web site will continue to be a home for gamers into 2019. I appreciate your thanks. That is so kind of you to say.
Good news to see the site carry on!
A big hearty Thank You to Tiana for all the work she has done!
This is good news!!!
Great news! Keep up the excellent work!
Good luck with the New Year! I will be following you!