Mahz's Dev Journal

[Mahz]

@LegendBegins

Haha, I actually just pushed a provisional fix for our Skype issue as you can see on Github. In a moment I will turn it on if I don't see any unexpected console.warns. Finally.

Damn, those custom backgrounds look sick. I'd love to at least do that on the homepage to liven things up. Got a source on some cool bg images I can try out?

[Hank]

March 8 of which year, bro? Literally unplayable.

Seriously though, I'll see if I can't think of some simple QoL improvements.

[BrokenPromise]

As someone who runs contests, votes in contests, and occasionally participates in contests in the contest section, I would be stoked for a return of contest titles that contest mods can freely create and distribute to contest winners. Did I say the word contest enough?

Even better would be a medal system that let me design medals that a contest mod could then display on a user's profile.

[Mahz]

lol

we can be 100% sure it is not organized at all because as has been stated a trillion times before, it was made by mahz from the ground up which means there is no uniform method of organizing the code (or rather, organizing it by blocks). in fact, as far as i know, this has created large problems before because, while this allows the code from mahz to be versatile as hell and for him to add in (virtually (get it? virtual?)) anything he desires within the limitations of his coding capabilities, it also means that if you change something there is a risk of fucking everything coming down crashing.

it's for that reason why most 'simple' things end up being less simple on the guild. a point of frustration for me but i can see the benefits from mahz' side.

again this is to my knowledge and how i've had it explained to me a few times before - whether it is reality or not i couldn't tell, but the code for RPG is open source and you can look at whatever you wanna look at here to confirm it for yourself

I was catching up on conversations I've missed in this thread when I encountered this year-old post which manages to completely reverse the character of the challenges of a project like the Guild.

I'm surprised that your take-away from the last five years was that I was more encumbered by technical challenges than the struggle of consistently allocating my free time to this project instead of any of the other splendors that life has to offer.

Though I can see how you might arrive at this conclusion if, during a bout of Guild downtime, you're imagining me putting fires out in a server room when in reality I'm trying to enjoy my friends and family and tacos and beer on a beach while the clink of my shackles snaps me out of it.

The Guild codebase is relatively well-organized and it's extremely simple, especially for a legacy 5+ year old solo volunteer project that more or less delivers on the sheer dimensionality that is a modern forum.

For example, the areas in which the Guild does struggle, like its BBCode editor and the time sink of UI development, are basically incontrovertible challenges of my profession, yet I've managed to approximate, in my free time, commercial analogues that fund a team of developers to work on them.

[Dion]

@Mahz conclusion was arrived to due to several reasons:

First, at the time of writing I believe Hank was in the process of being made co-admin but as of yet had only the title, none of the powers. That was my first piece of info to go off of.
Second, many of the problems the site has are inherent to this site and this site only (in my opinion) and like you said, many of the problem areas of the guild, while comparable to commercial analogues, are still problem areas that have yet to be changed. The delete button on PM's was a function that we literally had to request, whereas other commercial analogues have this function built in even on free-to-host forums, and for which the code is afaik freely available online for the most basic of functions. It's only recently that you updated us on, for example, the fact that you'd been trying to get some in-text editor to work. If I'd known that earlier, I wouldn't have made the comment I made, which leads to my next point:
And third, getting any piece of information from you generally takes (as this post has illustrated) upwards of a year or more. So my conclusion was probably wrong, but really, it was based on the only things I was aware of at the time. ;)

I'm unaware of your technical knowhow, nor do I really care. You've given us the guild and tbh that's about as much as I would want or could reasonably ask for, so don't take this as a critique of your technical knowledge or your ability to overcome the challenges. That post was just how I saw things at that time and now that you've been back a bit more consistently than at the time of writing that post, I'd agree that my opinion/view has changed.

And for what it's worth, I think one of the things that has kept me here despite some of RPG's glaring (to me) issues is the (G)UI. So imo that timesink has paid me off and kept me roleplaying here.

EDIT: yes and pls RPGC moved to the top of the board like I PMed you about a month or so ago. Also a hundred times yes to the suggestion of having background images (customizable pls, I want to be able to put furry porn there without anyone being able to see ;))))

[Lady Absinthia]

@Mahz A time limit set up on the Status Board would be great. Not like a few second one but much longer or a limit to how many status updates people can post within a 24 hour period. Far too many times it gets used as a chat function and drama breaking out because people can reply so quickly. Also if some general information for how the status bar works right at the text entry box would be great. So many are not even aware they can delete previous posts so correct a typo so you get back to back to back corrections that spam it.

And still holding hanging on a ~feels~ upvote. ^^

[NuttsnBolts]

Improvements to Name request feature. Mostly a way to go back to old names, make easy case corrections, and some other possible improvements.

The tag system for roleplays could have some additional tags added. It's a useful feature that can help improve first impressions on what an RP may be about before you enter, read and realise that "Small group, fantasy, historic" covers so much more variety than you realise.

On the front page with the latest roleplays, perhaps ones that are checked as 1x1 don't get added since only two people are in it and it doesn't need to be advertised for others. That whole sidebar feature is a great idea, but sometimes it displays too much information.

[Frizan]

@Mahz

All I want to request is that the contests section be put a bit higher on the main page. As it stands, it is below even the literal test forum, and above only one other subforum, that being Suggestions/Problems. I could host ten contests a week and advertise in the status bar, but if people don't actually see it on the main page it may as well be just a myth to them. "Contests section? What contests section?" - Most people, probably.

It's honestly a bit baffling that the persistent world sits far above everything else, save for the News subforum while the contests section may as well be in the Guild equivalent of the Underdark.

[Lady Absinthia]

Yeah, would be great to see some areas moved about, granted not a high priority thing but hey a girl can dream right? ~day dreams~

• News and Newcomers
  • News
  • Introduce Yourself
  • Suggestions/Problems
• Roleplay
  • Meta
    • Contests
    • Articles And Guides
    • Roleplaying Discussion
    • Character Sheets
  • Roleplaying
    • Persistent World
    • General
    • Free
    • Casual
    • Advanced
    • 1x1
    • Arena
    • Nation
    • Tabletop
• Off-Topic
  • The Gallery
  • Off-Topic Discussion
  • Spam
  • Testing

Granted, this is just moving around the current ones. Would be a lot more if I was daydreaming about revamping the sections LOL

[Lord Wraith]

Yeah, would be great to see some areas moved about, granted not a high priority thing but hey a girl can dream right? ~day dreams~

• News and Newcomers
  • News
  • Introduce Yourself
  • Suggestions/Problems
• Roleplay
  • Meta
    • Contests
    • Articles And Guides
    • Roleplaying Discussion
    • Character Sheets
  • Roleplaying
    • Persistent World
    • General
    • Free
    • Casual
    • Advanced
    • 1x1
    • Arena
    • Nation
    • Tabletop
• Off-Topic
  • The Gallery
  • Off-Topic Discussion
  • Spam
  • Testing

Granted, this is just moving around the current ones. Would be a lot more if I was daydreaming about revamping the sections LOL

@Lady Amalthea

I would propose renaming 'Meta' to 'Roleplay Resources' or something of that nature with this arrangement.

[SleepingSilence]

I suppose if I must give my two cents when it comes to prioritizing sections. If any reorganization is going to be done, it should be this way and this is why...

1. News/Introductions/Problems&Questions > Only makes sense to still have these on top, because it would theoretically encourage members to know anything important going on about the forum itself. People would instantly know where problems are, and be more inclined to notice if new threads about problems show up. (Similarly beneficial to introductions.)

2. Roleplaying > We all come to roleplay. It's the most active and relevant thing. This should on the top next. (And it should be in order of popularity and actual use. *Observed by post numbers and frequency.*)

• Free
• Casual
• Advanced
• 1x1
• Nation
• Arena
• Tabletop
• Persistent World (This has proven to not be interesting to most roleplayers on site, it has no activity. It should not be in its own section, on the top above roleplaying. Nor at the top of the roleplaying section for that matter.)

3. *Every other add-on involved with roleplaying.* (The order is based of usage, but is more arbitrary as any order will do.)

• Roleplaying Discussion
• Character Sheets
• Contests
• Gallery
• Article&Guides

4. Miscellaneous (Has little/nothing to do with roleplaying.)

• Off-Topic Discussion (Makes both categories start off with discussion threads. Encourages dialogue.)
• Spam (Maybe changed to Forum Games & Spam. For accuracy's sake.)
• Testing (Hardly used and is better off at the bottom.)

[Briza]

As someone who runs contests, votes in contests, and occasionally participates in contests in the contest section, I would be stoked for a return of contest titles that contest mods can freely create and distribute to contest winners. Did I say the word contest enough?

Even better would be a medal system that let me design medals that a contest mod could then display on a user's profile.

@BrokenPromise

Bump! As a user who participates in the Contests, my two (2) cents worth believes that putting (more) merit into RPGC is a sound way to build more community... which is def. a positive thing. 🎈(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)

[LegendBegins]

Got a source on some cool bg images I can try out?

@Mahz

I'm assuming vertical work better than horizontal. Let me know if you have anything in mind; I can always edit other images and make their dimensions work on RPG, and it would be easy to upres any of them with Waifu2x.

Drop Incoming

[Mahz]

@Lady Amalthea A simple feature that would improve the status system for me is to let people reply to statuses directly instead of writing their own status responses. As if they were tiny little forum topics.

I agree though, you shouldn't be able to rapid-fire status updates and have them all appear consecutively on the sidebar. I'm thinking of a simple mechanism where only your first status message in a 15 minute time frame appears on the homepage or something like that.

Improvements to Name request feature. Mostly a way to go back to old names, make easy case corrections, and some other possible improvements.

The tag system for roleplays could have some additional tags added. It's a useful feature that can help improve first impressions on what an RP may be about before you enter, read and realise that "Small group, fantasy, historic" covers so much more variety than you realise.

On the front page with the latest roleplays, perhaps ones that are checked as 1x1 don't get added since only two people are in it and it doesn't need to be advertised for others. That whole sidebar feature is a great idea, but sometimes it displays too much information.

@NuttsnBolts

Improving the name change system is something I'm working on as we speak.

I'm open to adding RP tags, but I need some guidance. Wish there was an easy way to continually poll the community on new tags so we get a diverse amount of input. Like if any time you were on the New Roleplay page deciding on the right tags, you could cast a quick vote on what you'd like that doesn't exist.

Usually when someone tries to give me a list of RP tag suggestions, it's loaded with their own niches/biases like "Klingon" and "Borg". And every tag I add dilutes the existing tags, so I am cautious.

Interesting point about 1x1 RPs in the sidebar. My suspicions are that the sidebar does more to help the forum feel lively than serve as anyone's main resource for finding RPs. But I can also appreciate that it's nice to show up on the homepage when looking for players, and group RPs certainly have the harder job than 1x1.

[Mahz]

@Mahz

All I want to request is that the contests section be put a bit higher on the main page. As it stands, it is below even the literal test forum, and above only one other subforum, that being Suggestions/Problems. I could host ten contests a week and advertise in the status bar, but if people don't actually see it on the main page it may as well be just a myth to them. "Contests section? What contests section?" - Most people, probably.

It's honestly a bit baffling that the persistent world sits far above everything else, save for the News subforum while the contests section may as well be in the Guild equivalent of the Underdark.

@Frizan

Yeah, good point. Why is the test forum above *anything*? I'll fix that right now after I write some more responses. But please ping me here or Discord if I forget since I need to change it with a direct database update.

The PW category sits at the top so that people see it since it's basically a constant experiment and it's in a constant state of flux unlike the static roleplaying forums. This is surprisingly controversial but there's also the paradox that even worse visibility is going to ensure it never even has a shot. I figure everyone uninterested just collapses it. Ideally you'd just be able to move it according to your own preferences.

But this is also a general problem with the fact that the forums are presented as a stack. It's annoying that forums at the bottom are simply going to get fewer eyeballs. I think the model is kinda archaic for this reason and you'll notice that modern forum platforms like Discourse try to give everything equal visibility.

Your comment made me go "yeah, why *are* the contests way down there?" but then I remembered that the reason is because the homepage sidebar has a "Current Contest" widget that moderators can set that will show up at the tippy top. Which is even better than having to move the contests forum. I totally forgot about that feature, and it's basically been neglected since the long dead period where we had no contests.

I'll send you a PM to figure out if Contest Moderators can access the feature and if I need to fix the code so that you can. Sorry, wish we caught this a year ago.

Edit: Looks like you should be able to access the system according to the code. I just neglected to tell you about it.

Here's what it looks like:

Hider

@LegendBegins Actually, horizontal works better since vertical images will need to be stretched to scale to the aspect ratio of devices.

[LegendBegins]

@Mahz

Assumption shattered.
While we're on the subject of images, would it be reasonable to increase the resolution of profile pictures (though not increase their size; that value is fine)?

Image Dump Horizontal

[Mahz]

@LegendBegins You're referring to avatars, right?

I guess the simplest solution is to allow double the dimensions and letting them scale to the current width x height when rendered.

[LegendBegins]

@Mahz

Precisely. I believe that a little added detail in an image goes a long way and (IMO) would make things look cleaner, since some images come out looking blurry. Doubling dimensions should be more than enough.

[Ellri]

There's a simple reason the persistent world is not particularly active, @SleepingSilence... The story hasn't been launched yet and character sheets are still being reviewed.

[SleepingSilence]

@Ellri Not for nothing, but when not one character sheet has been considered finished/approved in 20 plus days, that doesn't tend to lead to an active RP. (Most RP's here die if it takes everyone more than a week to say/post anything.)

The fact there's at least five players on 'staff' should be obviously benefiting something, in some way. But since helping it be a speedy process or engaging with other roleplayers doesn't seem to be the point. It just burdens the RP if any of five decide to leave or are wholly absent. (Assuming they're even needed.) And I suppose the project hasn't even been finished yet, since its still undergoing recent OOC/CS updates. (Though if something isn't considered active yet, it probably shouldn't have been posted...)

But putting all that aside for a moment. I based the position at the bottom for post frequency and number. It's one RP. For something that's been on the top of the page for so long, and still doesn't have many users that have made any character sheets intended for an unlimited number to participate in. (And by all accounts hasn't even launched yet according to you...)

So if such updates are coming in the near future, yes, my proposal remains the same for the same reasons. But I wish you the best of luck.