Happy Holidays!

If you hadn't already noticed, we're all off on vacation. Things tend to slow to a snail's pace this time of year. Never fear though, the Bungie.net sites should be back in business again next week. We have big plans for the new year, including some fun surprises for the Thu7th and Reconciliation and the Seventh Column sites. Enjoy the holidays and happy Halo LAN partying!

More Messaging Features

Now there's a way to get rid of that little message icon after you've read your messages. We've added a delete button to the right of every message that lets you zap the poor sucker right out of existence. When all your messages are cleared, POOF!, your You have messages indicator goes away!

I've also added a silly little feature that will quote the beginning of a message when you click the sender's name to reply, making it just slightly easier to keep track of conversations.

Old Database Woes

Miguel pointed out that I forgot to mention one thing about yesterday's database improvement. We weren't tracking who entered what before, except when a field in the database itself did so. This means we have no knowledge of who entered what for entries prior to yesterday's change, and so there's no way to allow authors to modify their own entries for these old ones. There's no way around this, except to recreate the offensive entries. Sorry.

Chapter Database Improvements

We've made two changes to the way databases work that several of you have requested. First, you can now edit the title, description, and security settings for an existing database from the db view page. (No more having to destroy and recreate your databases to make changes!) Second, there's now a third security setting for who can edit database entries--when this option is set users can edit their own entries. This is the default edit security option, as I imagine it will be the most useful. Play around with these fixes and let us know what you think.

Chapter Clean Up Round 2

Update: Searching for chapters will no longer display disbanded ones.

I've gone ahead and done what I said I'd do and disbanded more inactive chapters. I'm still being nice though, and have only disbanded ones that show not a stir of life. We'll let things settle down for a bit, and then after the holidays I'll put these new message indicators to good use ... there are still about 20 chapters I'm almost positive the founder has never looked twice at.

Incidently, we've made it so that the names of members in your chapter's new member request queue link to the player profile page. I can't believe no one suggested this (or that we overlooked it)!

Lame-o Message Indicator

A lot of you have requested some sort of indicator that tells you when you have new messages. There's now a half-assed version of this in place--when you have messages a little mail icon and a note will display below your name on the navigation bar. I say half-assed because it will always be present when you have messages within the last 48 hours, regardless of whether you've read them or not. We'll get something more sophisticated in place down the road, but hopefully this will help until then.

All The Linking Goodness

I've updated the list of links over on the right side. This isn't supposed to be comprehensive, so don't flood us with requests to add your site. The link list is merely a jumping off point into the vast world of Bungie's online community.

New Job Opening at Bungie

For those of you with talent and experience in creating and designing awe-inspiring game environments, today could be your lucky day. Hop over to Bungie.com for details. [url=/Inside/Jobs/Page.aspx?section=Jobs&subsection=Main&page=1]Jobs Page[/url]

Think You're So Smart

You imagined that duplicate screenshot. Go check for yourself. Us, slipping? Never!

Multiplayer Guide Part 6

Wow, today is a huge day at the T&R; site. To top things off we've also posted the sixth installment of Mordia's multiplayer guide. This one talks about the various gametypes and includes pointers and a few suggestions what to avoid. It's essential reading, be sure to check it out.

Cutscene X50 Posted

We've also posted the storyboard art from cutscene X50, sure to be a classic. Be forewarned though, this one is a HUGE spoiler, continue at your own risk.

More Screenshot Goodness

We've posted another round of Halo screenshots from Dave and Peter, aka Mordia and Candyman.

More Site Fixes

We've made a couple more minor fixes to the site. I'd call them features, but they really should have been there already. First, you can now view previous Top Stories and old news via the links on this page. Next, the time that a message was sent is now displayed alongside the date. I know, I know, it's insignificant compared to what we could be doing with messages. To that I say: Don't worry. We have plans within plans.

7th Column Needs Motto Badly

Hear ye, hear ye! The 7th Column is in dire need of a motto. Unfortunately the latin version of Bungie's corporate motto won't do, and the only alternative we've come up with I can't even write here without translating it into Latin first. We need your help!

That's right, we're looking to you, the members of the 7th Column, the bread and butter of the organization, the men and woman (yes, I know of one) on the front line, to help devise a new motto. Think up something witty, something profane, something that captures the true essence of what the fan club is all about, and send it to webmonkey@bungie.com. If we use your idea we may even send you a nice thank you present.

FILEBALL Launches, Mill Returns

Our old friend Gary Simmons writes: "Attention Gamers: A new era in community online gaming has just arrived! Introducing FILEBALL, a game players and mod makers comprehensive automated online game file archive and information resource. You might recognize us, we've been around before under a different name. This is not just another stinking Internet burial pit for your original game maps, plug-ins and add-ons. This is a fully interactive and customizable online database community where you can present your own hard work to the world or download the work of others. You can get valuable feedback via user ratings, full reviews or on the Fileball forums.

You have FULL PERSONAL CONTROL over your own gaming files. Submit them when you want, removing or replacing them as YOUR need arises. Membership in Fileball is absolutely FREE and only requires an easy registration process for full member benefits! Non-members may download any of the files as well as rate them for the community. We are mod makers ourselves, we built Fileball as a mod makers dream machine and we want to share it with you.

The Fileball community experience is unrivaled. Each game inhabits its own distinctive web site suited to the particular game it represents, yet each site shares the same database, membership roster and central organizational hub. Envision Fileball as ancient Greece with each of the game sites as one of the City-States. As such, each unique game site fosters a community feel in a larger environment without all the hemlock, wooden horses and sweaty guys in short skirts.

Online at this juncture of the time-space continuum at Fileball:

• The Mill - all your favorite Myth Plug-ins, Maps, Recordings and Utilities
• The Sims! - Skins, Furnishings, Full House Packs and Utilities
• Lh'owon Ar'kives - all the Marathon maps, utilities, TCs and net maps.
• Liandri Depot - Tons of Unreal Tournament mods and utilities.
Quake, War/Starcraft and Halo is in the works but YOU decide what game mods you want next at Fileball!

News Truncation Change

I've also implemented what I think is a better news truncation system. Now news stories get chopped at their first paragraph break instead of at a set character limit. If you're submitting news please keep this in mind and style your post accordingly.

News System Modification

I've broken the news on this page up by day, which I believe will make it much easier to browse. If this goes over well I'll do the same thing on the Seventh Column and Thu7th and Recon news pages. As always, message me and let me know what you think. We have some additional changes to the news system we're also tinkering with, so stay tuned.

Our Fist, Your Chest?

I really like the 7th Column logo, the fist with the lightning bolt derived from the old Bungie flag. Just wondering if any fanclub members feel the same way, and would like to wear it on a T-shirt as much as I would (ahem ... Bungie Store). Since we don't have polls quite yet message me (click on my name in the news story header) and let me know what you think. UPDATE: I've started a thread over at the Bungie Sightings forum, http://bs.bungie.org/cgi-bin/bsib/topic.cgi?forum=10&topic;=14. Feel free to jump in.

Accepting New Members

Looking through the chapters makes me wonder if everyone knows how to accept new members. The following chapters have membership requests pending (number of requests in parentheses):

7th Reality (2), 108 Dragunz (1), ArsTechnica (1), CMU's Keepers of Tru7h (1), Chi-HALO (2), Chaos (1), Colonial Marines (3), DC Metro Hell Razors (5), Ft. Wayne Halo Freaks (1), Fallen Angels (1), Grand Rapids Rampage (2), Gator Gamers (2), Halo Miamians (1), HalOtown (1), Halo Hokies (1), Halo Elite (1), Invisible Dream (2), Master Chief's Rogues (2), Mercenaries of Light (6), Minn. Infantry Assembly (1), New York for Myth (1), Old Players Of Myth (1), PSU HALO (2), RIT (1), Turks (1), The Fedyakin (1), Tucson Halo Players (1), The Death Slurpies (2), The Elite (3), The Elite Marines (2), The Silent North (2), TEAM HALO (2), Wisconites UNITE!!! (2)

Some of you are already on top of this, but many need to accept at least one member to ensure your continued existence. (Seriously though, only accept members if you're ready for the responsibility of running a chapter.)

When you have new members waiting you'll see it in your chapter's navigation bar. The number of new members waiting is a link. Check out this picture to see what I'm talking about: http://www.bungie.net/images/site/bnet/news_images/new_members.gif

Chapter Cleanup Phase 1 Complete

I've started disbanding inactive chapters. Somewhere between 10 and 20 that were founded in November and that showed no pulse, not a single sign of life, got the axe today. I was actually pretty lenient though, leaving chapters alone that have membership requests pending, even when they had zero activity. I won't be so nice next time. To survive the next round you must meet at least one of the following conditions:

• Your chapter was founded in December
• You have at least two members
• You've posted at least one news story
• You've created at least one database

Sidebar Customization Bug Fix

I just fixed a minor bug FrogBlast pointed out that was stopping some of you from customizing your group's sidebar. Things seem to work now, but be sure to let me know if you have any problems.

NEW FEATURES: Maps, Profiles

We've added a few new features to go along with all these bug fixes:

• When you search for chapters you'll now see a link that shows you a map of the chapter's headquarters, courtesy of MapQuest.
• The player profile page now includes games played and a list of chapters the player belongs to. You can update your games played info using the Your Settings link and modifying your public profile.
• Changes in event attendance now get recorded to a group's activity log.

Major Bug Fixes

We've just posted a huge site update that includes the following bug fixes:

• The member list bug has been fixed. The list will once again show up for your chapter, and long lists won't crash the site.
• We found and fixed the messaging bug that was displaying the "Can't add row" message. It's still a hack, but it's a more stable one.
• The upcoming events and overview pages now show more events, and allow you to view all future events.
• Last bug not least, we overhauled our caching system, fixing a nasty bug and hopefully making the server much more stable.