Bungie.net Beta

Background

The Bungie.net BETA was a test site for the next update known as Bungie.Next. Before the beta was set up, Bungie.net was shut down and left in 'read only' mode for almost 48 hours. During this time some of the Webteam posted in the Community Forum saying that it was nice with no members postings. The beta was set up and ready on January 10, 2013, at about 10 AM PST. The old version of Bungie.net was moved to the subdomain 'halo.bungie.net.'

Features

The Beta had many new features for members to use. This table will go through each one with notes and images. *Please note; the Beta theme is actually white, a userscript made some images black*

Main Navigation Bar

Beta Features

Feature	Notes	Image (.gif)
Main drop down menu	The beta only has one menu which had a few main pages.
Notification bar	From left to right; Friends, following, Notifications and Conversations.
Profile drop down menu	Profile, Settings and Sign out are the only options.
Search bar	With the new search bar you don't need to select an area to search in.

Forum

*Please note; the Beta theme is actually white, a userscript made some images black*

Feature	Notes	Image (.gif)
# hashtag system	The forums have been merged into one leaving a hashtag system inplace.
Share thread	Threads can now be shared via a few leading social sites.
Permalink	All posts and threads can now be permalinked with just a click of a button.
Like/Dislike button	As requested, members can now like/dislike threads.
Pictures & Videos	Members can now post videos and pictures in the forum.
Hide Button	The new 'Report' button. This allows threads and posts to be hidden from view.

User Profiles

*Please note; the Beta theme is actually white, a userscript made some images black*

Feature	Notes	Image (.gif)
Login	Members can now login via Windows Live, Google, Facebook and PSN.
Change UserName	Usernames can now be changed. The user 'ID' can also be changed.
Notification Options	Notifications can be changed to suit the user for phones and desktops.
Mute/Un-Mute	An option to stop seeing posts from certain users.
Follow Button	Like on twitter, members can follow other users to see what they are up to.

Groups

*Please note; the Beta theme is actually white, a userscript made some images black*

Feature	Notes	Image (.gif)
Chapter Avatars	Groups now have avatars which are shown when threads are posted in the forum.
Joining Chapters	An admin can choose how members join groups. Groups can now be 'closed'.
Ban Time	The amount of time a user can be banned in a group has increased and has more options.
Announcements	Threads in groups are now seen in the forum by ticking an 'Announcement' box.

Thread Ratings

Officiality, its unknown what each shield meant and how they were gained, however they were linked with threads. Shields were given to threads by how many likes a thread had or how many members had replied to it. The shields have been laid out in the order of Bungie's image. All information has been collected from this thread.

Name	Notes	Image
Blue & White Shield.	This shield appears when a thread has had a lot of replies.
Blue Shield	This shield appears when a thread has been 'liked' after a certain amount of times.
Grey Shield	Heated thread.
Normal Shield	All threads start off like this. (New and old threads, depends on popularity).
Empty Shield	Cold Topic (Disliked or hidden a lot).
Employee Shield	An official Bungie Moderator or Employee thread. It is only Gold if they have ticked 'Official Ninja/Employee thread' box when creating it.

Forum Titles

Only two titles existed during the beta: Bungie and Ninja.

Site Bans

Achronos (Bungie.net Overlord) said this about the new ban system:

Most moderation is done by the community now. See stuff you don't like? Hide it. See a user you think should be silenced? Mute him. You don't need a reason. If you do give a reason (from the drop done in the hide/mute dialog), your personal hide list also becomes a report. Enough reports, the moderators are asked if the report is correct, they yes/no it, and then the system bans them according to a set of rules that takes into account the offense and your history.

And don't worry about giving a bad report. There is no punishment for giving a bad report. All you have to know is that if you see content or a user doing something you think is inappropriate, hit hide or mute. We'll take care of the rest.

As for the bans - there are WAAAAAY less things that will get you banned. Most things (like spamming, religion, politics, or offtopic/bad tagging) that needed to be bannable before don't have to be - you just use your hide and mute buttons. That pretty much leaves posting porn, personal info, threats, and a few others. Hide/mute those too. That's why you don't need to worry about bans being global. That's why everybody who was previously banned before was also unbanned.

It is a new world - we believe you're ready for the new powers you have, though.