Mahz's Dev Journal

[Genkai]

Hey @Mahz could you elaborate a little on this: "A new interest check system where all interest checks just show up on one big list with a lot of filtering options. I would probably fit a tagging-system into this feature." Do you mean to have a Search Feature that can sift through all interest checks and have the ability to filter buzz words? Or are you thinking something else...? Like another section where all interest checks (1x1, arena, groups, general, etc) are and someone can look through them without disrupting say, the 1x1 Interest Check section? And as far as tags go, (since I'm not "for" them, I'm just trying to get a sense of where they'd be or how they'd be used and viewed in a normal subforum) where would they be seen? Would the OP of a thread toggle certain generic tags and then in the thread, they'd be at the bottom? But if someone's looking in a section, there wouldn't be tags unless say, you hovered your mouse over the title or looked inside the thread itself? Just curious as to how your idea would be implemented and what the greater details would be. I do see a usefulness to be able to find what you're looking for, if say you're looking for fantasy but don't know what level or size group you have in mind. But with the additions you've done recently, I'd say things are looking very nice.

[LegendBegins]

I'm 99% sure that PHP isn't used at all on the guild, so you'll probably have to find a purely node.js way to do it.

@TheMaster99

Just because it isn't used doesn't mean it can't be installed on the server. There is no pure node.js way to do it, it would have to be done by a server-side programming language, not a scripting language like JS. At least if you wanted true rescaling (so it creates and stores an image of the correct size on the server) and not just resizing a larger image.

Are you sure you're copying the link from the link icon (it's to the right of Raw at the upper-right corner of every post) and not the topic link? Post links look like this: http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/2404697 Topic links look like this: http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/75056-Something-Something-Title-Side Notice the word post or topic before the numbers.

@Captain Jordan

This is how our catalog URLs are coming out in the URL box. http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/19063-precipice-of-war-there-be-spaniards-in-my-coffee/ic#post-1272608 Yet, this one works. http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/19063-precipice-of-war-there-be-spaniards-in-my-coffee/ic#post-508933

@Dinh AaronMk

If you simply right-click on the link icon, and click on Copy Link Address/Location in the menu. (If you're on Internet Explorer, the menu item is Copy Shortcut.) The link you get that way will always redirect to the proper page, even if the pages or titles change.

@Captain Jordan

Though, I would personally be careful when saying that something "cannot be done" in a language. I've learned throughout the years of programming that there is often, if not always, a workaround to any problem.

Though, I would personally be careful when saying that something "cannot be done" in a language. I've learned throughout the years of programming that there is often, if not always, a workaround to any problem.

@LegendBegins

Seconded. EDIT: Did some googling, and it seems its actually really easy. In theory, anyway. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/170624/javascript-image-resize EDIT2: actually, that'd be done every time the page is loaded, for every image. Not efficient. But the point remains that it is possible. EDIT3: Too many edits. Anyways, perhaps something like this? No idea how it works, but it looks interesting. http://www.plupload.com/

[Mahz]

@Dinh AaronMk: I'm having trouble understanding what problem you're having. Nothing should have changed with URLs. As @TheMaster99 points out, the title is totally superfluous and doesn't actually do anything. For linking to posts, I recommend using their permalink form (Example: http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/2404669). That's called the "canonical URL" in that it will never change but will always redirect to the the right location in a topic. For example, while it hasn't happened yet, it's possible for the page of a post to change. If I update the system to display 25 posts per page instead of 20, then the pages will change. If I allow people to configure their own posts-per-page setting, then links to posts on pages will not be consistent. The /posts/12345 permalink will point to the right page and that's why it's a "permalink" (won't change), but a link to /topics/42/ic?page=4#post-12345 will possibly break. If you think you've found a bug that you can help me reproduce, I'd like to fix it.

The Guild already supports high res image embedding. What prevents using the same concept for profile pictures, and then have the server scale it down, and perform all the necessary alternations (such as the displayed resolution, as you mentioned)? For instance, is there anything that would make it impossible for the server to take these image URls, make the alterations server-wise, as if it were a local file, and display the altered output?

@LegendBegins

It's just a low priority feature because the effort-to-reward ratio is abysmal. To support server-side image processing, I have to allow image uploads to the server, ensure the processing can't be used to DOS the server, upload the resulting images to a remote datastore, ensure that uploading new images will invalidate the old images, and then maintain it. There's just a lot of moving parts for a feature that's only slightly more convenient than pasting an avatar URL into a box. It's something I will eventually do, but the opportunity cost is too high right now. I'm not sure what you mean by "high resolution" in this context, though. The avatar limit is 150x150 pixels regardless of whether you scale the image yourself or the server does it for you. I link to imgur.com in the avatar URL box because it has a built-in scaling service if you click "Edit Image". I count on people to not abuse the system by using a 5mb gif as their avatar. @Captain Jordan: GraphicsMagick and ImageMagick are language-agnostic command-line utilities (C libraries). Pretty much every language that runs on the server including Javascript (via Node.js runtime) has wrappers for it. Or you can just execute commands on the shell from the server-side language. For example, in Javascript: conosle.log(yield shell.exec('ls')) => 'file1.txt\nfile2.txt\nflower.png'. I think you may be looking at server-side Javascript (not much different than Python, Ruby, Scheme, ...) through the lens of client-side Javascript running in the browser. The latter is obviously very limited. The main drawback of Javascript is that it's single-threaded, but same with Python and Ruby and PHP -- effectively -- due to their global interpreter lock (GIL). You simply shell out CPU-bound operations to other processes. In this case, ImageMagick/GraphicsMagick, which may spin up a dozen threads to process an image before handing the result back to the Node.js process.

[Mahz]

Hey @Mahz could you elaborate a little on this: "A new interest check system where all interest checks just show up on one big list with a lot of filtering options. I would probably fit a tagging-system into this feature." Do you mean to have a Search Feature that can sift through all interest checks and have the ability to filter buzz words? Or are you thinking something else...? Like another section where all interest checks (1x1, arena, groups, general, etc) are and someone can look through them without disrupting say, the 1x1 Interest Check section? And as far as tags go, (since I'm not "for" them, I'm just trying to get a sense of where they'd be or how they'd be used and viewed in a normal subforum) where would they be seen? Would the OP of a thread toggle certain generic tags and then in the thread, they'd be at the bottom? But if someone's looking in a section, there wouldn't be tags unless say, you hovered your mouse over the title or looked inside the thread itself? Just curious as to how your idea would be implemented and what the greater details would be. I do see a usefulness to be able to find what you're looking for, if say you're looking for fantasy but don't know what level or size group you have in mind. But with the additions you've done recently, I'd say things are looking very nice.

@Genkai

The current interest check system (a subforum for each RP forum) grew from a limitation of vBulletin. You currently have to click into eight different subforums to browse all interest checks which is silly. It also causes a lot of fragmentation. A lot of casual RPs aren't much different from advanced RPs, and since not everyone cross-pollinates between the subforums, every interest check loses out on potential visibility. A better system would be to display all interest checks on one page. Free vs Casual vs Advanced, Tabletop, 1x1, Nation -- these are all merely traits of the interest check. I want to filter interest checks by Nation + Tabletop. Nation + Fantasy. 1x1 + Adult + Advanced. Titles containing "Naruto" + Free + Casual. Whatever. This way, all interest checks have maximum visibility, and you aren't forced into the current organization silos which, frankly, don't make sense. It's merely a hack that 1x1 is its own forum. It's something I want to launch alongside the current system at roleplayerguild.com/interest-checks as I experiment and get feedback. At first, it will automatically list interest checks in all the interest check subforums so that I can build it without disrupting the current system.

[Genkai]

So you're hoping to have one interest check section for everyone? (Like giving General Interest Checks everything plus a system to filter?) Won't that be a little chaotic or overwhelming? Would say places like 1x1 and Arena still have their own section because there, I don't see any issues. I could see how blending them for Groups would be helpful, but in regards to including the 1x1, it may be better left alone as is. And with tags, are you thinking Level, Genre, etc? Would we ever see tags for RPs that are say Open/Closed/Recruiting?

[Captain Jordan]

@Captain Jordan: GraphicsMagick and ImageMagick are language-agnostic command-line utilities (C libraries). Pretty much every language that runs on the server including Javascript (via Node.js runtime) has wrappers for it. Or you can just execute commands on the shell from the server-side language. For example, in Javascript: conosle.log(yield shell.exec('ls')) => 'file1.txt\nfile2.txt\nflower.png'. I think you may be looking at server-side Javascript (not much different than Python, Ruby, Scheme, ...) through the lens of client-side Javascript running in the browser. The latter is obviously very limited. The main drawback of Javascript is that it's single-threaded, but same with Python and Ruby and PHP -- effectively -- due to their global interpreter lock (GIL). You simply shell out CPU-bound operations to other processes. In this case, ImageMagick/GraphicsMagick, which may spin up a dozen threads to process an image before handing the result back to the Node.js process.

@Mahz

Fair enough.

[LegendBegins]

@Mahz By "resolution," I'm referring to the quality of images. Images can be a small size, but high quality, and the addition that I'm considering is code that will only scale down the display size of the linked image, without sacrificing the number of pixels in the original image, which can be done. That way, an upload system isn't required, as it still links to the original image, but displays the output in a different size. If I recall, pre-GuildFall Guild had the feature to link an image and display it as a profile picture, but it's entirely possible that it just uploaded the image in the URL to the site.

[Mahz]

@Mahz By "resolution," I'm referring to the quality of images. Images can be a small size, but high quality, and the addition that I'm considering is code that will only scale down the display size of the linked image, without sacrificing the number of pixels in the original image, which can be done. That way, an upload system isn't required, as it still links to the original image, but displays the output in a different size. If I recall, pre-GuildFall Guild had the feature to link an image and display it as a profile picture, but it's entirely possible that it just uploaded the image in the URL to the site.

@LegendBegins

You're right, I could simply scale it in the web browser: <img src="{{ user.avatar_url }}" style="max-width: 150px; max-height: 150px"> But the reason I don't is to kinda shame people that break the rule. When I see people with red "avatar too big" text, I sometimes fix their image or remove it entirely.

[LegendBegins]

You're right, I could simply scale it in the web browser: <img src="{{ user.avatar_url }}" style="max-width: 150px; max-height: 150px"> But the reason I don't is to kinda shame people that break the rule. When I see people with red "avatar too big" text, I sometimes fix their image or remove it entirely.

@Mahz

And I agree that people who break the rules should have some sort of reprimand, but I'm not sure if I'd say it's best to sacrifice convenience for a "test rule" of sorts.

[Mahz]

So you're hoping to have one interest check section for everyone? (Like giving General Interest Checks everything plus a system to filter?) Won't that be a little chaotic or overwhelming? Would say places like 1x1 and Arena still have their own section because there, I don't see any issues. I could see how blending them for Groups would be helpful, but in regards to including the 1x1, it may be better left alone as is. And with tags, are you thinking Level, Genre, etc? Would we ever see tags for RPs that are say Open/Closed/Recruiting?

@Genkai

It's just something I've been wanting to try out for a while. And it can coexist with the current structure as just another way to browser interest checks, so it's not very controversial. If you think about it, the current interest check system is not much different than a list of all interest checks where you click a filter for "1x1", "Casual", "Arena", etc. I think the forum should let GMs set their topic to open/close/recruiting and it should be filterable. Whichever forum you post your interest check becomes its first tag, and you can optionally add others. That's enough info to implement the first version of this.

[HeySeuss]

Filtering would simplify the number of places one has to look for interest checks, while allowing more options for sorting them. It'd probably make the whole thing a lot less laborious for people that have very specific tastes in RP's. For people that like the old system of checking by advanced, NRP, tabletop and so forth, there is the option of simply filtering by those categories and sorting by chronological order.

[Mahz]

And I agree that people who break the rules should have some sort of reprimand, but I'm not sure if I'd say it's best to sacrifice convenience for a "test rule" of sorts.

@LegendBegins

Oversized avatars can be draining on mobile users and people with slow connections. Just resize your avatar with 2 clicks and be done with it. Though, on that note, I also need to remember to add a "Hide Avatars?" option for users.

[Mahz]

Filtering would simplify the number of places one has to look for interest checks, while allowing more options for sorting them. It'd probably make the whole thing a lot less laborious for people that have very specific tastes in RP's. For people that like the old system of checking by advanced, NRP, tabletop and so forth, there is the option of simply filtering by those categories and sorting by chronological order.

@HeySeuss

Yeah, exactly. The nice thing about it is that it can be implemented in a noninvasive way that we can experiment with.

[Ellri]

A lot of people like recruiting from both casual and advanced. And a lot of people who fit in advanced don't yet dare go there because of the unfortunate elitism history that section had. Fortunately, not many of the elitists remain. Unfortunately, not nearly enough players remain in advanced. This new IntCk system should help on that. Quick thought... Will the system be able to "remember" the search parameters? Say if someone can't stand RPing in anime settings... Will it be able to remember that and consistently filter those away, or will said filter have to be enabled each time?

[Captain Jordan]

A lot of people like recruiting from both casual and advanced. And a lot of people who fit in advanced don't yet dare go there because of the unfortunate elitism history that section had. Fortunately, not many of the elitists remain. Unfortunately, not nearly enough players remain in advanced. This new IntCk system should help on that. Quick thought... Will the system be able to "remember" the search parameters? Say if someone can't stand RPing in anime settings... Will it be able to remember that and consistently filter those away, or will said filter have to be enabled each time?

@Ellri

A quick and dirty way to do this would simply be to expose the filter settings in the URL. Then people can bookmark the URL and poof, settings "saved." That is, unless Mahz really wants to add database fields for it, and update them every time someone changes their search, and restore them every time someone searches their IntChks, which sounds mysteriously similar to an unread message feature. ;)

[LegendBegins]

Oversized avatars can be draining on mobile users and people with slow connections. Just resize your avatar with 2 clicks and be done with it. Though, on that note, I also need to remember to add a "Hide Avatars?" option for users.

@Mahz

But won't that problem still persist when you include the option to upload pictures to the site directly?

[Captain Jordan]

Oversized avatars can be draining on mobile users and people with slow connections. Just resize your avatar with 2 clicks and be done with it. Though, on that note, I also need to remember to add a "Hide Avatars?" option for users.

@Mahz

But won't that problem still persist when you include the option to upload pictures to the site directly?

@LegendBegins

From what @Mahz was saying, that feature sounds more like an if.

But won't that problem still persist when you include the option to upload pictures to the site directly?

@LegendBegins

No, because the images can be resized during the upload process. Since they currently are stored off-site, this is not currently possible hence us having this discussion to begin with EDIT: @Captain Jordan - to my knowledge, it definitely isn't an if. It is merely far too unimportant to worry about at the time being. Significant features, bug-fixes, etc are far more important, thus image uploading won't really be thought about until it needs to be.

[LegendBegins]

But won't that problem still persist when you include the option to upload pictures to the site directly?

@LegendBegins

No, because the images can be resized during the upload process. Since they currently are stored off-site, this is not currently possible hence us having this discussion to begin with EDIT: @Captain Jordan - to my knowledge, it definitely isn't an if. It is merely far too unimportant to worry about at the time being. Significant features, bug-fixes, etc are far more important, thus image uploading won't really be thought about until it needs to be.

@TheMaster99

Though, cycling back to the beginning of the conversation, we have the ability to resize it in the embedding process.