Mahz's Dev Journal

[Shienvien]

Do you think I could address this issue then by implementing some form of Captain Jordan's suggestion of letting you easily clear all notifications for a topic while viewing that topic?

Mahz

To some extent, maybe. Not so much when I have plenty of the threads open as tabs (and scrolled to the last post), as I often do with the faster-moving ones. Now, if they just reliably disappeared when I was looking at the thread... But either they won't do so reliably or the poor server would keel over.

[LegendBegins]

<Snipped quote by LegendBegins>

This has come up in the past and I think @Shienvien is right: shouldn't your @mentions be guaranteed to send a notification?

As far as I can tell, being able to put yourself in a position where you wouldn't receive a notification would remove a guarantee that gives the @mention system its value. But perhaps this can be resolved by the proposal in my previous post where I simply make it more convenient to see and clear all notifications from within a topic while you're viewing it.

What do you think?

@Mahz

I would say it would help. Either that or the ability to opt out of everything other than @Mentions. Either way, if someone actually is calling me from the other side of the Guild, I'll notice it. But yes, system approved. :ThumbsUpSmileyThatDoesn'tExist

[Mahz]

You should now be able to edit the join-status of your roleplays.

For three months this was broken, and I just had to delete one line of code.

[Ellri]

We forget... Did the coGM label in a thread ever get any more power that a regular thread viewer, @mahz?

Oh and it's a bit of a bother that the @mention buttons erase all whitespaces before them. Generally those whitespaces have been put there intentionally.

[Mahz]

We forget... Did the coGM label in a thread ever get any more power that a regular thread viewer, @mahz?

Oh and it's a bit of a bother that the @mention buttons erase all whitespaces before them. Generally those whitespaces have been put there intentionally.

@Ellri

Reading the code, these are the co-GM permissions:

- CAN update topic join-status
- CAN update topic tags
- CAN update topic title
- CANNOT update topic co-GMs

I'll add this info to the "Manage Co-GMs" panel. (Update: Done)

Also, agreed about @mention injection. Made an issue for it: https://github.com/danneu/guild/issues/64

[Ellri]

Good to know.

Is either letting coGMs editing first post for each tab or a GM/coGM note thing at the top of each tab a likely feature to be added anytime soon?

Oh, and thought of another semi-crazy idea, @Mahz... How about GMs being able to make announcement type posts in their threads? Say if there's something they want all players to note, rather than general chatter.
Perhaps a shiny frame or somesuch?

[NuttsnBolts]

Is either letting coGMs editing first post for each tab or a GM/coGM note thing at the top of each tab a likely feature to be added anytime soon?

Oh, and thought of another semi-crazy idea, @Mahz... How about GMs being able to make announcement type posts in their threads? Say if there's something they want all players to note, rather than general chatter.
Perhaps a shiny frame or somesuch?

@Ellri

For the first post of each tab, what about a reserved post that only the GM/Co-GMs can post in. That way if someone decides to post character sheets in the CS section, their posts will never be before the owner(s) of the thread.

An announcement like form at the top or side of the RP would also be a good utility for the GM(s). Occasionally I know I have to refer back through the pages to find something that was important when there have been a few pages of off topic discussion. Having it pinned to a section that reoccurs on each page would improve the flow of information.

[SilverRain]

<Snipped quote by Mahz>

Each was multiple hours, but the minor one was only about one.

<Snipped quote by ArenaSnow>

They were longer than an hour, but what you describe is part of why I believe it to be an attack. It seemed like the server was overloaded with requests, so few got through.

@LegendBegins

Can I add a bit from my own experience? If the downtimes mentioned are the same occurrence as what I saw then this bit might help:

I was able to load the PMs page, but I would get a bad connection error when I would try to view a PM... something like 502 Bad Gateway... I don't recall. I could load the Index page and Users page fine however.

----------

All this mention of coding is starting to fire up my impulsive coding soul. Now I'm restless and want to code some random stuff just for the fun of it. My heart's racing now just thinking about it... An Excel spreadsheet maybe (yey macros)? But I do have other priorities like documentation... Haaalp! I can't think straight anymore! =o

[Shienvien]

All this mention of coding is starting to fire up my impulsive coding soul. Now I'm restless and want to code some random stuff just for the fun of it. My heart's racing now just thinking about it... An Excel spreadsheet maybe (yey macros)? But I do have other priorities like documentation... Haaalp! I can't think straight anymore! =o

At some point during my early programming career, I decided that every new programming language I meet shall have my implementation of Minesweeper. Write Minesweeper in, say, any assembler of your choice... (Or don't; that might be a bit too much to swallow. Rather, try something ridiculously newbie-friendly, like Python, first. Or C++ with Qt, if you want a median difficulty - I don't know your level or prior experience, after all.)

Who hasn't disabled macros in their text and table editors, though, do it (but for very old versions, these should already be disabled by default). Macro viruses should've died lonely deaths a long time ago...

An announcement like form at the top or side of the RP would also be a good utility for the GM(s). Occasionally I know I have to refer back through the pages to find something that was important when there have been a few pages of off topic discussion. Having it pinned to a section that reoccurs on each page would improve the flow of information.

Wouldn't appending it to the OP already cover everything that is important enough to deserve "pinning"? It feels a bit superfluous.

[Centimane]

I'm not sure if it's been brought up before, but could a means of inviting new participants to PMs be added? This doesn't seem to be possible currently (though I'm relatively new here, so I may simply be missing something obvious).

In the same vein, it would also be nice if there was a feature to remove oneself from an ongoing PM thread, as well as for the OP of a PM thread to have the ability to remove participants if needed/desired.

Apologies in advance if I'm asking questions that have already been answered elsewhere, or reporting "bugs" that are there by design or that have already been fixed.

[Shienvien]

I'm not sure if it's been brought up before, but could a means of inviting new participants to PMs be added? This doesn't seem to be possible currently (though I'm relatively new here, so I may simply be missing something obvious).

In addition to interest check threads, marking the RP as "Apply" or "jump-in",or - if you have had contact with them and have the feeling they might be interested - pinging them in the thread or even PMing them?

In the same vein, it would also be nice if there was a feature to remove oneself from an ongoing PM thread, as well as for the OP of a PM thread to have the ability to remove participants if needed/desired.

Things like that are planned and fairly high up in priority, as far as I know.

[LegendBegins]

@SilverRain
You caught the end of it, there. When the supposed botnet finally began to retreat, the server became less overloaded little by little, allowing the main page to be accessed, then the threads, then the topics, and then the actual ability to post. If you got in on occasion before then, it's likely because your IP happened to "squeeze" within the plethora of requests the botnet was sending. It's not outlandish. That also reminds me, @Mahz that the site falling was gradual. It began with pages not loading every time and slowly got worse until the site was inaccessible, but gradually became better in chunks.

If you have no experience, go with Python. If you have little experience, try a slightly more difficult, but still high-level language such as Java or C#.

I personally started with a slightly dumbed down version of Lua (RBX.Lua for the curious, used on a game called ROBLOX), then went to Java, "learning" Javascript and C# at the same time since Java and C# are practically the same language, and Javascript is obviously very related to Java. Afterwards I started C++, but I haven't done much there yet because lazy.

EDIT: It appears that my trophy now gives me a fancy userbit. Unexpected, but neat.

[Centimane]

<Snipped quote> In addition to interest check threads, marking the RP as "Apply" or "jump-in",or - if you have had contact with them and have the feeling they might be interested - pinging them in the thread or even PMing them?

@Shienvien

I mean being able to invite new participants to an ongoing PM thread of any kind, not necessarily one that has something (or anything) to do with an Interest Check or ongoing RP thread out in one of the general subforums.

For example, I am a co-GM in a game currently running in the Advanced forum. During a period when the game's primary GM was out of commission due to RL issues, I had begun a PM collaboration with one of the players, filling in for the GM on a longish post for the IC that was to be posted up all at once when completed. Without really thinking about it, I had begun the PM with only myself and the player as participants; when I then tried to add the primary GM as a participant so that they could participate if they returned sooner than expected, I found that I could not.

Other PbP forums (and forums in general) that I've been a member of have had the ability to "invite" new participants to a PM thread at any point, and by any current participant of said thread, and I've repeatedly found this functionality to be useful, especially where PbP games are concerned. Additionally, some forums I've been a member of have allowed a participant in a PM thread to "uninvite" themselves, in effect removing themselves from the conversation (without necessarily deleting said PM entirely), and some have given the OP of a PM thread admin-like privileges that allow them to not only invite new participants but "uninvite" existing participants (perhaps because they're being disruptive to the conversation, or because inviting them was an unintentional mistake).

So I figured I'd bring it up here. :)

[Shienvien]

I actually read the "PMs" as "RPs", somehow...

Javascript and C# at the same time since Java and C# are practically the same language, and Javascript is obviously very related to Java.

I disagree, but that would be a topic for another thread, else we're going to derail the topic even further...

I disagree, but that would be a topic for another thread, else we're going to derail the topic even further...

Well I exaggerated a bit, but they are quite similar. I agree, though, that we shouldn't derail this thread any more than we have to

[LegendBegins]

I actually read the "PMs" as "RPs", somehow...

<Snipped quote> I disagree, but that would be a topic for another thread, else we're going to derail the topic even further...

@Shienvien

<Snipped quote>

Well I exaggerated a bit, but they are quite similar. I agree, though, that we shouldn't derail this thread any more than we have to

@TheMaster99

Before we do so, I'd like to point out that the syntax is extremely similar, which is what most people mean when they refer to the languages themselves being alike.

[Mahz]

I've only ever used high-level languages. Mostly Clojure these past few years.

I got into programming to build things. Going back to learn C just feels academic, and at age 26 opportunity costs are starting to feel steep.

Never thought I'd ever be using Javascript full-time (which I wrote the guild in), but I switched to it last year because of its ecosystem and because my business partners already knew it, so we were immediately productive. I actually found it unbearable as a server-side language until I discovered async/wait semantics using yield and generators.

Also, I've been able to reuse code on the server and browser for the great hack that is the guild's BBCode parser which is always a big deal. It allowed me to implement a decent starting-point editor (the guild's other great hack) and enables me to eventually provide something more user-friendly like a WYSIWYG editor for those that like that sort of thing.

<Snipped quote by Shienvien>
I mean being able to invite new participants to an ongoing PM thread of any kind, not necessarily one that has something (or anything) to do with an Interest Check or ongoing RP thread out in one of the general subforums.

For example, I am a co-GM in a game currently running in the Advanced forum. During a period when the game's primary GM was out of commission due to RL issues, I had begun a PM collaboration with one of the players, filling in for the GM on a longish post for the IC that was to be posted up all at once when completed. Without really thinking about it, I had begun the PM with only myself and the player as participants; when I then tried to add the primary GM as a participant so that they could participate if they returned sooner than expected, I found that I could not.

Other PbP forums (and forums in general) that I've been a member of have had the ability to "invite" new participants to a PM thread at any point, and by any current participant of said thread, and I've repeatedly found this functionality to be useful, especially where PbP games are concerned. Additionally, some forums I've been a member of have allowed a participant in a PM thread to "uninvite" themselves, in effect removing themselves from the conversation (without necessarily deleting said PM entirely), and some have given the OP of a PM thread admin-like privileges that allow them to not only invite new participants but "uninvite" existing participants (perhaps because they're being disruptive to the conversation, or because inviting them was an unintentional mistake).

So I figured I'd bring it up here. :)

@Centimane

Those are definitely features that most of us want!

The obstacle is simply that it's non-trivial and non-fun and non-quick to build. I will most likely implement a way to delete/leave convos sooner than later, but introducing a way to invite users to an existing convo isn't really on my roadmap yet.

[Ellri]

@mahz.@TheMaster99's trophy thing does not look too good on Android tablet. It extends roughly 8 characters into the post.

We'd provide a screenshot, but not going to dig up an uploader till we're back home.

[Centimane]

@Mahz Thinking about it, can you not recycle the coding you're already using for the "[+ Create Convo]" button? Obviously that's creating a PM thread at the moment, but excising that portion and instead only keeping the bit that INSERTs the inputted usernames to the specified PM thread's list of participants seems like it would work fine. Then just rename the recycled button "[+ Invite]" or some such, and there you go.

If not, it seems like a relatively straightforward stored procedure could be written (assuming you're using T-SQL) and then called by the hypothetical "[+ Invite]" button using the Java.SQL.CallableStatement class.

Of course, knowing as little as I do about both your database schema and how you've structured the site's coding in general (by which I mean, "pretty much nothing"), I could be grossly simplifying the problem here.... ;)