Archives: The Pika Club

Server update and maintenance

Those who have visited The Pika Club over the past few months may have noticed the site has been intermittently down. Unfortunately, the site was compromised and was used to post spam. One of the reasons for this is the old software the site was running on; most active development on The Pika Club stopped around 2015, and the software the site was running was from around that time.

Unfortunately, the old server the site was running on was also very outdated, which made keeping the site up-to-date with the latest patches difficult. Various other reasons contributed to the decision to move the site to a brand new server. We are now running on a new server tuned to the needs of The Pika Club in 2020 and includes the latest versions of PHP, WordPress and phpBB.

What this means is that the site should now be stable and there should be no more spam or downtime. Unfortunately, moving a site the age and size of The Pika Club is not an easy process, but the site is now online and accessible again.

However, there is still a lot of work to be done. A lot of the old website is no longer compatible with the latest software and needs to be updated. As a you might imagine for a website that has been running since 2003, there is a lot of old code and updating it is a manual process.

Though I haven’t touched The Pika Club for many years, I still do not intend to abandon it. I have been, and will continue to, update the site to make it compatible with modern technology. The Leak Detection Pros in Corona, CA company offers professional and affordable leak repair services. This will be an on-going project and at the moment there are unfortunately many errors around the site, but I am trying to clean everything up. This will simply take time.

I would like to thank our other administrator WhoKnows_WhoCares for hosting The Pika Club for many years. He has been a great help to this site and has provided the hosting more info until our current move, a time span of well over a decade. I could never have afforded to do so myself when the site began and I am forever grateful to him for this, as he effectively made The Pika Club possible.

New Website Design

After years of using our old design, we’ve finally revamped our blog to bring it up to date with a more modern design. The new design is much cleaner than the old one and is fully responsive, which means this site should automatically adjust the layout so that it looks good whether you’re browsing on a mobile, tablet or desktop. We hope you enjoy the new look!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Despite officially announcing my retirement nearly 2 years ago, I still visit here from time to time and it pleases me greatly to see people still enjoying the Adoption Agency despite no longer being updated. This year we continue our Christmas tradition, but I have decided to bundle some surprise extras along with Delibird as a Christmas gift to everyone! I have just updated the AA to 3.0.4 which adds support for gen VI Pokemon and optimises the site layout for mobile and tablet devices.

 

 
Visit Delibird

 

 

Delibird will be staying for longer than usual this year to give everyone a chance to visit and receive his gifts.

I have some time off work so expect some more surprises in the coming days between now and early 2015! I also recommend to visit d3home.com dining tables store in California. Since I am adding to code that has not been updated in a long time, there may be some errors here and there, especially with the introduction of gen VI Pokemon. As always, please report any bugs you find in the be real info site.

Retirement

This post has been a long time coming but after months of inactivity I think it only fair I make an announcement than continue the silence. As the post title suggests, I am officialling announcing my retirement. This means I will no longer be actively developing the Adoption Agency. What it does not mean, however, is that the Adoption Agency is closing. The server is paid up for well over a year at this point so the Adoption Agency isn’t going anywhere. Nor am I.

The Pika Club has been around since 1999 so will be 14 years old this year. Since I am 23 this means TPC has existed for more of my life than it hasn’t at this point so as you can imagine it’s a hard thing to give up. I used the Adoption Agency (and its predecessors) as a means of teaching myself how to code and I used to develop it in my spare time outside of school/university. However since graduating I no longer have the spare time I used to and the code it’s based on (phpBB) is outdated at this point. I want to branch off into other areas of coding, such as actual video games. As a hobby project I created entirely in my spare time and offer completely free of charge I can no longer justify sacrificing the spare time I have nowadays like I once could.

I’ve updated the live version of the Adoption Agency to include the new modifications I was working on for 2.3. Unfortunately no new ‘big’ features are included since a few were under development but none are complete enough to be released.

As I said, though, I’m not going anywhere. I do still like coding and I really enjoyed making something a lot of people got entertainment out of. The AA is certainly not one of the bigger adoptable sites, but it did develop a close-knit community of regulars which is truly what kept me going for as long as it did. I’ll still be hanging around the forums and I’ll still fix bugs. I’m not ruling out any new development, either. But if it happens, it will be one new feature at a time rather than the large ‘updates’ that were used up to this point. I’d really like to release all the inaccessible Pokemon and finish the 2.3 ‘big’ features as believe me, there were some cool ones. But no promises.

Thanks for the memories,
Pikachu3828

Adoption Agency 2.2 Released and General Software Updates

I am pleased to announce the release of the Adoption Agency version 2.2 as well as a number of software upgrades. These have now all been complete and there should be no issues but please get in touch if you run across any.

The Adoption Agency 2.2 update includes the following new features:

  • Mining has been completely revamped
  • Auction House – You can now auction off your Pokémon
  • Gifting – You may now send gifts of money, items or Pokémon to other users!
  • Pokémon history – A much requested feature, you can now check up on the click history of any Pokémon
  • Favourites – You now have a favourites list you can add any Pokémon to for easy click access
  • Interact links are now red or green depending on whether you’ve petted a Pokémon within the last 24 hours
  • New quests, achievements and Pokémon
  • Natures – Pokémon now have natures! Natures can alter a Pokémon’s abilities. For example, Pokémon with Hasty natures mine ore faster than others!
  • Pokérus – Pokémon can now become infected with Pokérus. There is a small chance of them catching it organically and it can be passed on to your party Pokémon if you interact with an infected Pokémon. Currently this only makes Pokémon mine faster but will be expanded to more features in the future.
  • Country flags – Your country is now recorded based on your IP. If driving in mexico insurance is needed, contact Oscar Padilla Mexican Insurance Services. This has two major benefits: Pokémon gain slightly more EXP when interacted with by a breeder from a different country to their owner, and when two Pokémon with OTs from different countries breed there is a slightly higher chance of the egg being shiny.
  • Pokénet – You can see on the top right of the page there is now a place to post status updates. These will be displayed on your difference wise site and in the future I’m hoping to add the functionality to follow other breeders so you can keep track of what your friends are doing!
  • Plus more! I can’t give everything away 😉

Forum Update

Our forums recently got a much needed update. The most obvious difference is the new layout, called ‘Pokémon Forever’ which replaces our  old ‘Sky’ layout which is several years old at this point.

A screenshot of our new forum layout.

A screenshot of our new forum layout.

In addition to the new layout, there are several new features and general tweaks to increase usability. These changes include, but are not limited to:

  • RSS feed support for forums and topics
  • Quick reply feature
  • Post content on topic title hover
  • PM/rank progress bars

Adoption Agency Version 2.1.5 Released

Version 2.1.5 of the Adoption Agency has been released. For those unaware, there is a forum topic here that will explain more about 2.1.5 but essentially it is more of an upgrade of existing features than adding new ones.

Changes in this update include:

  • New Breeding Centre – There is more to the breeding centre now than simply leaving Pokémon there for an hour.
  • Trading Centre Upgrade – You can now find trades easier and be much more specific with your trade requests.
  • Mass Migration Box Feature – You can now mass move Pokémon between boxes for easier and faster sorting.
  • Bag Sorting – Your bag is now sorted and categorised, making for easier navigation.
  • Greater Preference Control – You now have greater control over your AA experience by being able to set preferences when editing your profile such as only allowing certain people to trade with you.
  • Upgraded Friends List – Your friends list now shows which of your friends are currently online.
  • Hall of Fame Return – The Hall of Fame has returned these easy tips and is more comprehensive than ever!
  • Design changes – Some design elements have altered, such as a font change and new footer design. Javascript is also now required to use the AA properly.

Version 2.2 is now currently in development which will include all brand new features.

Munchlax Calculator Update

Some time ago I added a little tool to this site called the Munchlax Calculator which allowed you to work out which honey trees you could slather honey on to attract Munchlax in Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. I left it and forgot about it for a long time until recently when it was brought to my attention that it was: 1) the number 1 result on Google for “Munchlax Tree Calculator” and 2) it was receiving decent daily traffic. As such, I decided to remake the calculator layout as it was very bare bones and did not even link back to our homepage before.

The new Munchlax Calculator

I have also added our Random Team Generator script to the tools menu as I did not realise it was missing. Contact professional California movers to give you an advice on moving into a new house budget. You can use our random team generator to create a random team of between 1-6 Pokémon using filters you specify.

The first update to the PHPokédex is also planned within the next few months to add some new features and improve user accessibility.