babyjesus's blog: "fubar news"

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you an update on some of the larger things we're working on for fubar. It's been awhile since my last blog post, since we've added other features on the site that let me keep you up to date on what's going on. :-)

Bling ordering -- This is a lot of work since we have to completely redo the 'my bling' page. But, in the very near future you'll be able to organize your top 100 bling and the 'my bling' page will be categorized based on bling-type (ie: favorites, limited edition, special ability (autos, bombs, etc)). We'll also be increasing the amount of bling that's displayed on the home page and public profile page.

fubar Lite -- A super simple home page without the normal 'header' (ie: no scrolling stuff, shoutbox, bartab, etc). new members will get this by default (while we experiement and see if people like it). existing members will be able to change their home page type to 'Lite' from the profile settings page if they'd like to try it out. Opting for this home page also removes the header from all the other pages on fubar, so it should make browsing much faster but less functional (since it'll be harder to stay up to speed on your bar tab etc).

toolbar -- We're working on finally moving the bartab, shoutbox, and blastbox out of the header and into a small 'docked' toolbar at the bottom of the browser window. this way, it'll free up a lot of page space for other content on the page and you won't have to continually scroll down the page. it should also make the pages run *much* faster inside your browser. we'll also be enhancing the shoutbox when it moves to the toolbar so it acts more like a traditional IM client (ie: dedicated window for each person you're talking to). another benefit is we'll have the option of putting more stats into the toolbar such as your point total, fuBucks, online friends, etc.

fuMafia -- As most of you know, we launched this yesterday. Eric650 has spent a lot of time working on this, and it's pretty awesome! we're still working on some filter settings so people who don't want to play aren't spammed by their friends and a bunch of other enhancements to the game.

album skins -- You'll soon be able to skin your photo album and individual photo pages like you can skin your profile page. All the existing profile skins will still work, but we'll be giving skin authors the option to flag skins as 'profile' or 'photos', and the people who install the skins will be allowed to apply the skins of each type to that specific area. We'll also be allowing skins to be applied per-album, so different albums can use different skins.

more special ability bling -- Like Cherry Bombs and Auto-11's before them, people have been asking for more special ability bling so we're working on a few ideas.

fubar Poker -- You've asked for it for ages, and we started working on it a week ago! Soon you'll be able to challenge your friends to a game of poker (here's a little secret, you'll be able to play against your lame friends on facebook while you're playing from fubar too!)

fubar messages -- We're modifying the message system to split notifications up into a seperate folder from your normal/person member-to-member messages. This way your gift/bling/game notifications won't drown out your random messages from friends. Part of this enhancement will be the addition of a 'Save' folder, so you can move any important messages there for easy access.

stay tuned.. the next few weeks might get a little crazy. :D

-mike