Website History
PCB has had a bespoke website since the server launched, which has undergone several redesigns and rewrites in the server's history.
Version 1
The original PCB website was hastily put together in order to unify the community both off and on the server. Launched several days after the classic server first opened, the website featured only basic information and a forum.
Version 2
Version 2 was scrapped quite early into its life cycle after launch. The website however is notable for integrating with the Minecraft servers, bringing features such as player economy balances, player avatars and real-time maps.
Version 3
Version 3 was the face of PCB between 2011 and April 2018. It brought with it even further integration with the servers, featuring:
- In-depth economy stats
- A real-time player ban lsit
- Real time player economy balances
- Server and forum rank synchronization
- Staff promoting and more
Version 4
Version 4 featured a complete rewrite of the PCB website in the Laravel framework in order to prepare for a new discussion forum platform. On 17 February 2018, a new homepage was launched, with the old SimpleMachines Forums remaining.
On 15 April 2018, the migration from SMF to Discourse was completed. Planning began as early as late August, 2017 and took a great deal of time and effort due to the need to convert data from SMF's format.
Version 4.5 Redesign
On 22 June 2021, a new homepage design was launched. The remainder of the site was iteratively upgraded between then and 6 May 2022.
Forum Deprecation
Due to the community generally switching to using Discord instead of the forums, they were deprecated on 9 May 2022 along with other services such as the wiki.