Mahz's Dev Journal

[Mahz]

Speaking of drafts, it just so happens that last night I had a dream about making a RP post on here. The server disconnected, but I was relieved to find it was still there when the page reloaded. I saw this grey message box with black text and border saying something like "Reloading your post...". Coincidence? Is the intention to have a floating grey message box? Because if so... like wow.

@SilverRain

It's not implemented on the server yet. Not sure what you saw.

However, the browser is often good about remembering text form data. For instance, I clicked a link while writing this post, clicked the Back button, and my unfinished post was still sitting here. So if you ever land on an error page or if your internet is down when you submit, you have a good chance of recovering your post by navigating back.

[LegendBegins]

These npm's really don't like running on Windows. First, a "WARN package.json @ No license field," and then "'env' is not recognized as an internal or external command" when running run-script reset-db.
I'll get it to work, but errors are always frustrating.

[Mahz]

@LegendBegins

Fortunately those aren't big issues.

You can ignore WARNs. That example is just whining that the guild doesn't have a license defined.

The "env" error is simply because Windows doesn't have that command.

Open up package.json and change line 7:

"start-dev": "env $(cat .env | xargs) nodemon --harmony --expose-gc ./server | bunyan"

to this:

"start-dev": "nodemon --harmony ./server"

Now the command npm run-script start-dev might successfully get you to the next error.

[LegendBegins]

@Mahz
Code really is just getting from one error to the next

nodemon isn't recognized this time.
Edit: Fixed that error. Now when it attempts to access it, there's a looping "topics" error; I've included the context for reference, since I am (obviously) not extremely familiar with the ins and outs of node/server handling.

Small Wall of Code

Error { [error: relation "forums" does not exist]
name: 'error',
length: 116,
severity: 'ERROR',
code: '42P01',
detail: undefined,
hint: undefined,
position: '61',
internalPosition: undefined,
internalQuery: undefined,
where: undefined,
schema: undefined,
table: undefined,
column: undefined,
dataType: undefined,
constraint: undefined,
file: 'src\\backend\\parser\\parse_relation.c',
line: '986',
routine: 'parserOpenTable' } error: relation "forums" does not exist
at Connection.parseE (C:\Users\Legend\Downloads\guild-master\guild-master\no
de_modules\pg\lib\connection.js:539:11)
at Connection.parseMessage (C:\Users\Legend\Downloads\guild-master\guild-mas
ter\node_modules\pg\lib\connection.js:366:17)
at Socket.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Legend\Downloads\guild-master\guild-master\n
ode_modules\pg\lib\connection.js:105:22)
at Socket.emit (events.js:107:17)
at readableAddChunk (_stream_readable.js:163:16)
at Socket.Readable.push (_stream_readable.js:126:10)
at TCP.onread (net.js:538:20)

[Draconilian]

Holy Shit things are happening again! woo hooooo!

[Mahz]

@LegendBegins Oh yeah, you have to first run the task that builds the database tables/schema.

By default, the guild tries to connect to a local Postgres database named "guild". You'll have to create that first. (Postgres seems to be the hardest part of all this because it installs slightly different on every OS and might need some permissions tweaking.)

createdb guild

Then run the task that sets up the database from the guild directory:

node --harmony ./server/reset_db

And now you should be able to launch the server:

node --harmony ./server

You can add me on Skype (dan_neu) if you want quicker/better help.

[LegendBegins]

@Mahz
Thank you; that means a lot.

[Akayaofthemoon]

@Mahz

Hey Mahz, I have a question that has been nagging at me for a bit so thought I would ask. Will there ever be a way for a GM to delete things that aren't theirs in the character tab only? The reason I ask this is that I have found that the character tab builds up in group RPs when people abandon it or never even join in or just make a post in a wrong place. I have one what it says I have 22 characters or players but most of them aren't there anymore and it makes it hard to view the ones that are. I'm sure yo will say no because this might cause issues or an over power thing but it is a pain when you try to ask people to do something like edit it. They can't even delete the post or anything.

Maybe will there be a way to delete your own posts? It might help that issue without having to worry about to much issues. I don't know, just thought I might ask. Also sorry if this has already been asked and or answered

[Shienvien]

There have been issues with players deliberately griefing things (including by nuking their own posts) even in RPs I've been in, so I won't support it. And then there are the 'I didn't do anything' deleter folks, which became abundant enough for us to have to implement storing of previous post versions.
Besides, I'd not be happy if a CS I worked hard on, but for some reason forgot to archive, were to be arbitrarily eradicated (besides, people who read back in IC would often still want to see the old characters).
Eventually, there would be more convenient way to summon mods, though.

[NuttsnBolts]

What I usually do, until something else comes up that may work, is place a post in the Char tab on day 1. That way I can update it with a bit of a roster for who is currently active and maybe some other important details. Granted that only works on new RPs.

I do agree that there can be an issue with giving GMs a bit of power with post management and accidentally doing some weird things. I know a hide post feature could be implemented, but you're still playing around with other people's post's.

[SpiritedDream]

My GM has made it so only he and the two Co-GM's can post in the CS tab, and we only adjust it to show who's the current players. We don't remove them from the OOC tab, so people can still read them there, but it does make it a bit easier to work out who's on what team (because it's two teams of four, plus NPC teams). Probably not the best way to do it, but it helps us keep it organised.

[Mahz]

@Mahz

Hey Mahz, I have a question that has been nagging at me for a bit so thought I would ask. Will there ever be a way for a GM to delete things that aren't theirs in the character tab only? The reason I ask this is that I have found that the character tab builds up in group RPs when people abandon it or never even join in or just make a post in a wrong place. I have one what it says I have 22 characters or players but most of them aren't there anymore and it makes it hard to view the ones that are. I'm sure yo will say no because this might cause issues or an over power thing but it is a pain when you try to ask people to do something like edit it. They can't even delete the post or anything.

Maybe will there be a way to delete your own posts? It might help that issue without having to worry about to much issues. I don't know, just thought I might ask. Also sorry if this has already been asked and or answered

@Akayaofthemoon

I'm generally reluctant to use deletion as a solution, but you expose a problem: there's no real system to actually manage the characters tab. And there's probably a good solution that doesn't involve outright deletion.

For example, it would be interesting to have an actual character system of some sort. From there would extend features like selecting the character you're posting as, giving GMs a place to annotate each character (particularly for table-top games), marking characters as active vs inactive (which would address your problem), etc.

There's probably some lightweight system that provides integration/structure when people want it and stays out of the way when they don't. In the meantime, I'm not sure what I can do to help. Maybe the upcoming shared GM space on each tab will provide a decent place to maintain a list of active chars until I can think of something better.

There have been issues with players deliberately griefing things (including by nuking their own posts) even in RPs I've been in, so I won't support it. And then there are the 'I didn't do anything' deleter folks, which became abundant enough for us to have to implement storing of previous post versions.
Besides, I'd not be happy if a CS I worked hard on, but for some reason forgot to archive, were to be arbitrarily eradicated (besides, people who read back in IC would often still want to see the old characters).
Eventually, there would be more convenient way to summon mods, though.

@Shienvien

Speaking of, historical post vandalism is a growing concern that I'll be able to address with my almost-finished post-history system. Imagine going back to a roleplay you poured many months into just to find out that one of the key characters simply vanished because they vandalized their posts.

At least with a post-history system, if someone vandalizes their posts, I can trivially execute a query like "revert all of foobar's edits made after 15 min ago".

[Dedonus]

Hey Mahz, I have a question that has been nagging at me for a bit so thought I would ask. Will there ever be a way for a GM to delete things that aren't theirs in the character tab only? The reason I ask this is that I have found that the character tab builds up in group RPs when people abandon it or never even join in or just make a post in a wrong place. I have one what it says I have 22 characters or players but most of them aren't there anymore and it makes it hard to view the ones that are. I'm sure yo will say no because this might cause issues or an over power thing but it is a pain when you try to ask people to do something like edit it. They can't even delete the post or anything.

Maybe will there be a way to delete your own posts? It might help that issue without having to worry about to much issues. I don't know, just thought I might ask. Also sorry if this has already been asked and or answered

@Akayaofthemoon

Just like @NuttsnBolts, I also reserved the first post in the character tab so that I can have a list of active players. Before I give any recommendations, I want to begin by saying I do not have much programming knowledge and do not know how much of my recommendations are possible to create in a reasonable timeframe.

Maybe a good compromise is allow GM's to "hide" or "minimize" the posts of people in the Character Tab that have been inactive. These posts could be visualized by a thin bar (like the one above each post currently that gives date posted, hyperlink, and source code). Also, to prevent the "I spend X amount of hours on this character sheet just to return and see it eradicated", people who originally posted the character sheet will still be able to view it normally. A moderater overide could also be added just in case the GM "abuses" this power, although if a GM (or co-GM) is abusing this power, then you probably would not want to play in that game anyways. I think (if this is possible) would be a good compromise because it allows GM's to tidy up his (or her) own thread(s) while protecting the data of the individual posters.

Just my 2¢.

[Ellri]

In our RP, we found a simple solution:
Require all players to put their sheets in Hiders.

[Rilla]

I find the simple solution of linking all characters in an early(often first) post to work wonders. Moving them between active/inactive as needed, so people can easily click them and go to active ones without having to roll through the all of them. I use a similar system in my character deposit, though arranged alphabetically and none are considered 'inactive'

[BBeast]

@Dedonus, with hidden posts, I think that such a minimized post should leave a place-holder, like a post-sized hider, which when clicked on by any user will then reveal the post. Of course, the simpler solution is for the GM to maintain a table of contents in the first post of the CS tab, as mentioned by other people.

[Ellri]

The first page list is only half-useful, seeing how the link on subscriptions can only take you to the latest post. Once the thread exceeds 20 posts, that'll put the standard view on the second page, where that list is not located.

@Mahz, when you code the 0^th post system, that it shows up on all pages rather than merely the first page? But of course is edited as one, no matter how many instances it has? Possibly that on pages 2-∞ it is "collapsed"?

[BBeast]

@Ellri, I agree. Having the zero'th post on multiple pages could be useful, but only if it were collapsed on future pages (because the zero'th post could be very large).

[Shienvien]

Having the zero'th post on multiple pages could be useful, but only if it were collapsed on future pages (because the zero'th post could be very large).

This. Collapsibility is a must if we're going to have something that shows up on multiple pages. Especially in OoC and IC, those could otherwise get rather obstructive. (Especially once I end up making my own RP and inevitably proceed to slowly murder the character limit.)

[Ellri]

yup, ability to collapse it if it appears on pages after first is a must.