UKNova

A few mini-features have been added today, as a slightly-belated birthday present for the site!

• Thanks button. This is private to the uploader of the file, other users won't see your name when you press it. So if you want to thank the uploader in public you can still add comments below; if you want to thank the uploader but stay hidden, press the button instead.

• VIP users (and NovaFriends) can now make their own polls. Use the ‘New poll’ button next to ‘New topic’.

• A slight change to the new-posts icon in the forums: if you see a topic marked with the usual ‘new’ star (), that's a completely new topic. Old topics that now have new posts on them will be marked with the new-replies icon (previously seen on my-posts searches; )

If you're following either of these top-notch reality shows, then don't forget to vote for your favourites to win the series...

The Apprentice Vote: CLICK
I'd Do Anything Vote: CLICK

And watch this space for details of the First Annual UKNova Quiz... a devilishly difficult television quizathon with the chance to win some fabulous exclusive UKNova prizes.... coming very soon....!!! Oh yes!

OK, so not just the UKN1.0 interface, but also the post-watershed parental controls mentioned in the last announcement were April Fools. As was the Doctor Who “leak”, the multi-format Hotel Babylon and the audio-only Who.

Thanks to everyone who played along and “Sorry” to the Fooled in this year's minefield!

Normal service is resumed.

Or is it?

Yes, it is.

Ah yes, sorry about that. The thing about UKN1 was a lie. There is no Gap to Mind.

Anyway, software version 2.1.4 was uploaded earlier which (apart from the UKN1 Aprilfoolery) adds a bunch of bug fixes (in particular, forum ‘last updated’ times now catch up when topics are moved) and a few new features.

Parents will particularly welcome the new family-friendly controls, which shield under-18s from programmes uploaded after the traditional UK TV nine o'clock watershed. Adult members will simply have to answer a few quick security questions to proceed with a post-watershed torrent, as they may contain subject matter not suitable for children.

Questions and bugs to the Site Help forum as usual please. Welcome to British Summer Time!

Welcome to UKNova 2.1!

With this version, we've re-introduced some of the features from UKNova 1.0 that we didn't get time to include in the initial rewrite. And a few more, just for fun. Here is how to do them.

Friends list

Each user now has a friends list and a foes list. When you've put people in them, you can see them at the top of the Users page, with the usual green lights coming on so you can see when they're online. To put someone in either list, click their username to go to their user details page, then use the ‘Add to friends/foes list’ buttons at the top.

You can also control who's allowed to send you private messages, which can be useful if you don't want to be hassled. By default, anyone can send you messages except people in your ‘foes’ list. Optionally you can change this so that only your friends can message you — or not even them! See your user details page for the ‘Messages from’ setting.

Default search

This is like default categories in UKN1: if you don't like certain categories of programme, you can make it so your default list when you click ‘Browse’ doesn't show them. Unlike in UKN1, you can save any type of search, so you can exclude reseeds, or a particular programme you don't like (using a negative keyword search).

To set a default search, set up the contents of the Find box the way you want it and click ‘Find’, then click ‘Default to this search’.

RSS

You can now use keyword searches and filtering on upload type from RSS, as well as category-based searches as before. Again, to set it up perform the search you want, then click the ‘RSS feed’ link.

HD

UKNova will be carrying some High Definition torrents on a trial basis. HD torrents offer greater picture quality but are much larger downloads than normal, and won't play back universally, so they are not for everyone.

They will be clearly marked, but if you want to filter them out so you don't have to worry about them, you can go the the Find box and choose ‘Format’ ⇒ ‘Standard definition’, then set that as a default search. You can filter RSS feeds in the same way, or add ‘{HD}’ to your RSS client's exclude-filter settings to avoid downloading them by accident.

More information about uploading and playing HD video to follow.

New tracker

Starting at midnight, newly-uploaded torrents will start appearing with a different announce URL, on port 8000 instead of 1111. Hopefully the port change will help some users stuck behind firewalls that block the old port.

With torrents from the new tracker, you will once more be able to see whether you're ‘connectable’ (more info) or not. On the torrent details page, click the ‘Peers’ ⇒ ‘Show’ button to list the peers on a torrent; your own listing will be flagged ‘connectable’ or ‘not connectable’.

Timezones

You can change the rules used to display times to match your locale. On your user details page, see ‘Time region’.

Torrent comments

You can see your old comments from the ‘Torrent posts’ ⇒ ‘Show’ button on your user details page.

Donate-O-Meter

The Donate-O-Meter shows how the donations toward the current months server fees are progressing. (This is updated manually (usually once a day) at the moment, so don't be scared if you don't see an instant jump when you have donated.)

You'll also spot some poll votes around the place and maybe other little things. Finally, there's recently been a minor rule change: it was generally felt amongst the staff that the “Don't mention other sites with commercially-available material for any reason ever” rule was a bit too restrictive as originally implemented. Whilst we still wish to keep the forums free of invite threads and effective recommendations to download from sites with commercially-available material, there's no need to ban every simple mention of the Pirate Bay in a general conversation about torrenting. See the Site Rules page for the exact wording if you're unsure, but staff decisions are still final!

Any questions/comments on the new features to the Site help forum please!