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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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As I've mentioned in various places for some time, I'm tentatively working on a custom software solution to host community sites. The obvious motivator for it right now is for this community. If it'll be what is ultimately used, I don't know, but having been around the block with CMS software packages and always being disappointed in some way, well.... if you want something done right, do it yourself. I'm close to having the core CMS features complete and it'll eventually be handy to have some testers. I can make my own user accounts and do things until I'm blue in the face, but it's not the same as having others interact with things their own way. When I bring testers in, the present features will be: User Account Self-Management- Registration - Forgot Password E-Mail/Reset - Activation E-Mail Resend - Profile Settings Member ListGroups & Clubs- Join (public groups) - Request Membership (private groups) - Leave Groups - Notification PMs/Notification Settings (group moderators only) Private Messages- Send PMs - Read PMs - Delete PMs - E-Mail Notification of new PMs The obvious big missing piece there is the Forums. I'm trying to get the fundamentals down first which will go quite a long way towards making the Forums easy to add. For example, the Group memberships will dictate Forum access and the Private Message write/read logic will be largely the same. This makes the Forums a natural component of the website rather than having a detached, "different" feeling like is so common with CMS websites. And then the Forums will be the jumping off point for news articles. That said, this will be pretty bare bones for some time. Polls, attachments, etc. are on the roadmap, but are of secondary importance. Now for some questions for the community members... Are you interested in helping test the site?It could work well out the door or you folks might blow it apart. I don't know. This is completely built from scratch using coding concepts I've developed over a decade of UI development. Some of those I'm not even sure will scale well. WYSIWYG or BBCode Editor?I'm honestly torn on which direction to go. I love the flexible design options of a WYSIWYG editor, but as a perfectionist, making it work just right could drive me mad. I've already spent an embarrassing amount of time on this. Flat or Threaded Forum Views?I've never used threaded mode in my life and would love to completely ignore its existence, but if folks actually like it, I'll explore supporting it. I have noticed it's not even an option given to users here...
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Rank: Administration
Groups: Registered User, Server Admin
Joined: 9/7/2006
Posts: 3,043
Points: 1,344
Location: Abbotsford British Columbia, Canada
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I like this type of forum. Everything organized and sectioned.  ahhhh_crap wrote:no, splinter has ethics and whut has emotions
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Splinter wrote:I like this type of forum. Everything organized and sectioned. Well, that's a given. The forums will certainly have the typical category->forum->(subforum)->topic organization. I can't imagine forum software without that structure.
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Rank: Fuckstick
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 12/14/2007
Posts: 1,169
Points: 2,697
Location: Near Seattle
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I am interested in testing. A simple editor like the one we have here is fine by me, it gets the job done (even though it does weird things with links). I haven't had much experience with Threaded views, but it seems like they might help prevent derailment of actual discussion. But it also makes posts seem less important the farther indented they are...it's kind of a toss up. It's awesome hearing that there's progress being made!  Quote:Razor: As hard as one might try no one will ever be able to pull one over on Super Penguin. Backpack of Win
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Super Penguin wrote:I am interested in testing. I'll shoot you the address in a PM. I want to keep access to it controlled for now, until I gain some confidence in the reliability of the basic workings. Quote:A simple editor like the one we have here is fine by me, it gets the job done (even though it does weird things with links). Yeah, I'm thinking of falling back to that. If BBCode seems limiting I can always expand the tags to give more and more HTML-like flexibility. Plus then I won't have to worry about filtering for exploits (javascript, embeds, etc.) Quote:I haven't had much experience with Threaded views, but it seems like they might help prevent derailment of actual discussion. But it also makes posts seem less important the farther indented they are...it's kind of a toss up. For now, when you reply to a post, I'll track what post is being replied to. So I'll have the data to build the threaded view, but I won't worry about supporting anything but flat for now. I think it's really what most people are use to. Quote:It's awesome hearing that there's progress being made! For now. I'm not going hardcore into it, really. I'm just taking pot shots at getting the base functionality complete while watching Stargate episodes and browsing. It'll need some spit and polish but all the account tools should be feature-complete. For now.
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Still moving along... Facebook:To improve accessibility to future members, I've tied the code into Facebook. This will offer would-be members a quicker registration/login process, if they also use Facebook. Down the road this will allow those quirky little "Like" links, etc., that will improve the site's exposure. Other similar offerings might be added down the road, now that this basis is in place. Some of the registration flow still needs finalized. Mail Server:Though more-so a server change than a progression of the site code, this still affects the future site. For some time the SMTP mail server has been open to relaying, which means spambots have been able to use it to send email to others. I didn't know how the fuck to stop it since I didn't install the software to begin with so... I removed everything and started from scratch. It should be more secure now. Which means the server shouldn't be blacklisted. Which means emails (registration, notifications, etc.) from the site shouldn't be rejected by users' ISPs. Templates:Bleh. I've long planned to eventually implement Smarty templates to the site code, but opted for the "quick&easy" solution of embedding HTML in the PHP files in the short term. But the more screens I write with embedded HTML, the more work I'm making for myself later on. So I've decided to begin implementing them now. Which is a pain. Which means the alpha site might not function right for a bit. But it's for the best, long term. In theory.
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Rank: The Fucking Fury
Groups: {pDs} Member, Administration, News Editor, Server Admin
Joined: 5/8/2006
Posts: 609
Points: 120
Location: Seattle, WA
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Let me know what you need from me. I read ALL your private messages.
"I don't want the salami." -WDF
WDF: I told her that she could come over if she brought beer.
Sirus: Wait, you made the recovering alcoholic bring beer?
WDF: This shouldn't surprise you, this is me we're talking about... It'll be a test.
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Sirusdv wrote:Let me know what you need from me. At the moment it sounds like the plan will be to archive this site once the new one goes online, which I'll take hosting responsibility for. In the interest of it being a fresh start I wasn't planning on migrating users, so trying to migrate forum content will probably be impossible. So if you can continue to host the archive (read-only) site, that'd be awesome, or I can try to find a way to make a copy of it into plain HTML that I'd be able to host. Not sure there's anything like that, though. If I can get the dump of the database maybe I could at least retain the conversations in some other way.
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Moving along, moving along... I've replaced the existing Members and Messages screens with Smarty templates. This includes making "common" templates for things like table headers (with sorting support), search support, navigation support, etc. So it takes a bit more time investment up front, but goes more smoothly after. Besides that there's been bug fixes and general improvements here and there, including with session cookie handling and some of the dirty inner workings of private messages. Anyway, just wanted everyone to know I haven't lost momentum just yet. And for a little extra tease, I should be making a sizeable donation soon to the server fund, once I get my tax return.
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Rank: Fuckstick
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 12/14/2007
Posts: 1,169
Points: 2,697
Location: Near Seattle
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Rikaelus wrote:Moving along, moving along...
I've replaced the existing Members and Messages screens with Smarty templates. This includes making "common" templates for things like table headers (with sorting support), search support, navigation support, etc. So it takes a bit more time investment up front, but goes more smoothly after.
Besides that there's been bug fixes and general improvements here and there, including with session cookie handling and some of the dirty inner workings of private messages.
Anyway, just wanted everyone to know I haven't lost momentum just yet.
And for a little extra tease, I should be making a sizeable donation soon to the server fund, once I get my tax return. Yay! I haven't been able to try out much on the new site by the way, it looks like I need to confirm my account by email but I don't think I ever got an email. I haven't tried recently though, I'll do that soon. Quote:Razor: As hard as one might try no one will ever be able to pull one over on Super Penguin. Backpack of Win
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Super Penguin wrote:Yay! I haven't been able to try out much on the new site by the way, it looks like I need to confirm my account by email but I don't think I ever got an email. I haven't tried recently though, I'll do that soon. Yeah, I saw your account in that state and it made me look into whether or not my mail server was being blacklisted. And it was. I went through and completely re-installed all the mail server software components and--if I'm reading it right--the server should be unlisted in 3 days. I also made it so un-activated accounts only exist for a period of a few days, before they need to be recreated. It's a measure to prevent the database filling up with bogus user accounts, but does mean you'll need to re-register. I think registration via Facebook has been added since you tried the first time, so that'll be an option for you now, too, which is a little quicker and doesn't require the email verification.
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Rank: Fuckstick
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 12/14/2007
Posts: 1,169
Points: 2,697
Location: Near Seattle
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Rikaelus wrote:Yeah, I saw your account in that state and it made me look into whether or not my mail server was being blacklisted. And it was. I went through and completely re-installed all the mail server software components and--if I'm reading it right--the server should be unlisted in 3 days.
I also made it so un-activated accounts only exist for a period of a few days, before they need to be recreated. It's a measure to prevent the database filling up with bogus user accounts, but does mean you'll need to re-register. I think registration via Facebook has been added since you tried the first time, so that'll be an option for you now, too, which is a little quicker and doesn't require the email verification. Ooh, snazzy! Quote:Razor: As hard as one might try no one will ever be able to pull one over on Super Penguin. Backpack of Win
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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It looks like my mail server blacklisting has lifted, so hopefully all emails from the site should get to their destinations. I should be alerted if it gets blacklisted again, but it should be strapped down now security-wise. I've also found a pretty decent chunk of code for parsing/rendering BBCode for display. I'm working now and getting support added for all the options the editor gives. Since I don't have the forums up yet, the only place to test this is with the Biography/Signature under your user account settings.
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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Okay. Ditched that BBCode package and trying a new one. It has pretty good support out the gate and already seems to be working, but I'll need to dig in and tweak things to customize the look, add some new features, etc.
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Rank: Administration
Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User, Server Admin, Administration
Joined: 3/27/2008
Posts: 1,702
Points: 3,101
Location: Arizona
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The new BBCode editor has proven reliable. I might add some more code controls to it eventually, but no reason to focus too much time on it right now. I've got the "read message" portion of the Private Messages complete as far as functionality goes, but will continue to tweak what the "frame" looks like. It took quite a bit of time since it'll be much the same frame that'll be used for forum posts, so getting it done here will work in two places. Various other bug fixes, improvements, etc... Edit: Okay, all PM-related functionality is present except email notifications. That'll be on tomorrow's plate... at least in a primitive form.
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