SGS Website / Email System Revamp!

WinterPhoenix

WinterPhoenix

Founder
Staff member
Founder/Lead Developer
If you've been paying attention to the SGS Website the last several days, or you have Community @Events Notifications turned on in the Discord, you might've noticed that we've been working on the SGS Website and Forums, bringing everything up to date and looking just a bit better than before.

Along with the changes to the web server, we've also moved our Email System away from Google and toward other services.

A quick overview of the changes​

The technical dry stuff
  • Upgraded the server from 1 Core / 1GB RAM to 2 Cores / 2GB RAM
  • Moved the MySQL database and website files to SSD storage
  • Updated SolsticeWeb from Ubuntu Server 16.04 to 20.04
  • Updated MySQL Server from 5.7 to 8.0
  • Updated PHP from 5.6 to 7.4
    • This was actually done a while ago, but had stability issues with the out of date Forums software
  • Updated XenForo (our Forums software) from 1.15.10 to 2.2.3
  • Switched Automated Emails (Forums, Donation Emails, etc) from Google Workspace (G Suite) to Mailgun
    • This actually seems to make sending emails way faster!
  • Switched Email Receiving from Google Workspace to ProtonMail
    • If you don't know ProtonMail, it's an email service that actually cares about privacy/security. I've been using it personally for years.
  • Google used to be cool, and now it's a huge company with billions of dollars, and they got rid of the "don't be evil" motto. That should give you some ideas for why we moved away from it for SGS.
The more general stuff
  • Updated the SGS Homepage and Projects page with New Background Images/Logos for both GMCL and Yuki
  • Updated the SGS Homepage to pull the Latest Announcement using the proper XenForo REST API introduced with 2.x and Added a "See More Announcements" button
  • The Forums now have a new Theme, based on the default XenForo 2.x theme, with some modifications to make it a little closer to the old XenForo 1.x theme we had
    • If you see anything weird with colors or anything else, let us know!
  • Disabled logging into the Forums without Steam
    • Apparently some of you managed to figure out a way to get around the original Steam Authentication addon's implementation and made normal passwords for yourselves.
    • All of the old passwords we had in the database have been wiped out. We don't want your password. It's why we make you sign in with Steam!
  • Copied (almost) all of the Discord Announcements since December 2018 to the Forums, since we haven't been using the Announcements section for anything. All future announcements will be posted on the Forums, Discord, and elsewhere simultaneously!

Check it out​

www.solsticegamestudios.com

Solstice Game Studios

A small independent video game developer that creates games and game servers for Garry's Mod.
www.solsticegamestudios.com www.solsticegamestudios.com

Have thoughts on any of this? Comment below or in the Discord!

Love You All~ đź’–
 
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If anyone's curious, two-step verification still works as expected despite us only supporting Steam login. This means that even if your Steam account became compromised, your forum account can be kept behind an extra layer of security.

Settings to enable this verification step can be found by clicking Account Security Settings here.
 
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