Mahz's Dev Journal

[whizzball1]

Latest push: Implemented a co-GM system, available in the edit-topic panel: A roleplay GM can now elect up to two co-GMs which will receive an orange "Co-GM" banner in their posts. It's purely ceremonial for now, but eventually GM/co-GMs will have some more controls available to them. However, it's a strong signal of authority to a roleplay's paticipants since players are required to obey GM/co-GMs (rather than bicker with them). Also implemented a username auto-suggest system which I'll eventually extend to the mention system to make mentions easier.

@Mahz

Does this include any way for administrators or moderators to change the GM of a roleplay, in case the GM has for example disappeared or abandoned the roleplay?

[Captain Jordan]

Latest push: Implemented a co-GM system, available in the edit-topic panel: A roleplay GM can now elect up to two co-GMs which will receive an orange "Co-GM" banner in their posts. It's purely ceremonial for now, but eventually GM/co-GMs will have some more controls available to them. However, it's a strong signal of authority to a roleplay's paticipants since players are required to obey GM/co-GMs (rather than bicker with them). Also implemented a username auto-suggest system which I'll eventually extend to the mention system to make mentions easier.

@Mahz

Bravo! Will the username auto-suggest system also be extended to PMs?

[BBeast]

<Snipped quote by Mahz> Does this include any way for administrators or moderators to change the GM of a roleplay, in case the GM has for example disappeared or abandoned the roleplay?

@whizzball1

At the moment 'Co-GMs' have no powers, just a fancy label, although they will in future. I presume that when that happens mods/admins may have the power to change co-GMs in such situations.

[Mahz]

<Snipped quote by Mahz> Does this include any way for administrators or moderators to change the GM of a roleplay, in case the GM has for example disappeared or abandoned the roleplay?

@whizzball1

I'll consider this sort of feature when there are actual co-GM-/GM-specific powers.

<Snipped quote by Mahz> Bravo! Will the username auto-suggest system also be extended to PMs?

@Captain Jordan

Some day™. The auto-suggestion system was easy to hook up for the co-GM form since you can only add one at a time, so the auto-suggestion UI can just take over the entire input. But the new-convo form is a comma-delimited list of usernames, so it'll involve some thinking + refactoring to implement.

[Captain Jordan]

<Snipped quote by whizzball1> I'll consider this sort of feature when there are actual co-GM-/GM-specific powers. <Snipped quote by Captain Jordan> Some day™. The auto-suggestion system was easy to hook up for the co-GM form since you can only add one at a time, so the auto-suggestion UI can just take over the entire input. But the new-convo form is a comma-delimited list of usernames, so it'll involve some thinking + refactoring to implement.

@Mahz

What I've seen other sites use is the auto-complete textbox to find a name, but then the name leaves the textbox and appears in a non-editable list with [X] boxes to remove entries.

[whizzball1]

<Snipped quote by whizzball1> I'll consider this sort of feature when there are actual co-GM-/GM-specific powers. <Snipped quote by Captain Jordan> Some day™. The auto-suggestion system was easy to hook up for the co-GM form since you can only add one at a time, so the auto-suggestion UI can just take over the entire input. But the new-convo form is a comma-delimited list of usernames, so it'll involve some thinking + refactoring to implement.

@Mahz

My main concern was that if the GM happened to delegate the RP to someone else or someone took over the RP, the all-important first post can't be changed, especially if the GM is gone for good.

[LegendBegins]

<Snipped quote by LegendBegins> The avatar system (via ImageMagick) only works on images. Is that what you mean? <Snipped quote by Genkai> Yeah, I had the same idea. I'll add a @Mention button for when all you want to do is @Mention someone. I'll change the text of the "Reply" button to "Quote". It'll also be much better when typing [@ (the start of a @Mention) pops up the auto-suggestion box. Though if it's too hacky to get that to work, I may just add a small input box to the editor that auto-suggests usernames and then lets you click some "Insert @Mention" button to place it into the post you're writing. Note to self: Currently @Mention and @QuoteMention notifications are only registered/sent upon post creation, not when editing a post. https://github.com/danneu/guild/issues/40

@Mahz

That is a part of it. Does the Guild prevent image-code injection, SQL Injection, flood protection, etc?

[Mahz]

<Snipped quote by Mahz> What I've seen other sites use is the auto-complete textbox to find a name, but then the name leaves the textbox and appears in a non-editable list with [X] boxes to remove entries.

@Captain Jordan

Yeah, that's what I would do since it's too much of a hack to make the auto-suggestion system aware of delimiters. However, I've been just using jQuery so far for all my Javascript hacks. It's pretty nasty for anything more complex than toggling a hider. Soon I'm going to switch to a library called React to write all the Javascript-heavy UI which makes things much much easier. The sort of interaction you describe is a breeze with React. Not so much with jQuery. I used jQuery to begin with because it's already a dependency for another library I'm using, so I just rolled with it.

[Syben]

Hey just some feedback, the co-gm text found at the top of the page is rather large compared to the gm text. I would take a screenshot but I am on my phone. ---Edit. Nevermind, text scales down upon page refresh. Still on phone.

[Mahz]

<Snipped quote by Mahz> That is a part of it. Does the Guild prevent image-code injection, SQL Injection, flood protection, etc?

@LegendBegins

- Avatar uploads are uploaded to and served from Amazon's servers. And first I check the binary blob to ensure it's an image. - SQL queries are all parameterized. - Not much in the way of flood protection yet, but that's not a security issue. Fortunately the guild's only sensitive data are private convos and email addresses, which narrows the surface area for me to watch.

[Mahz]

<Snipped quote by Mahz> My main concern was that if the GM happened to delegate the RP to someone else or someone took over the RP, the all-important first post can't be changed, especially if the GM is gone for good.

@whizzball1

Yeah, I hear ya. I agree that it's a great feature. As far as GM-/co-GM-specific powers, what do you think of each tab having its own post that's shared between the GM and co-GMs? It's kind of like auto-creating the first post in each tab except that it's optional/invisible until a GM/co-GM actually puts content on it. All GMs can edit it, and the revisions are saved so that a rogue GM can't just forever delete the content. It solves some issues and can be easily built on top of the current system without touching anything. ( At the moment I'm working on the roleplay/check tagging system)

[Mahz]

Pushed up a super basic tagging system (Roleplays and Checks only). It's still a work in progress, but I'm done for the day. Was gonna add some more tags but too tired to come up with more descriptions (visible on hover). Tags can be added/removed when creating and editing topics. Note: The system automatically gives you a tag depending on which forum you're creating it in. For example, if you create a roleplay in the Casual section, even if you don't select the "Casual" tag, it'll be assigned to your roleplay. The tag UI doesn't really reflect this yet.

[NuttsnBolts]

Pushed up a super basic tagging system (Roleplays and Checks only). It's still a work in progress, but I'm done for the day. Was gonna add some more tags but too tired to come up with more descriptions (visible on hover). Tags can be added/removed when creating and editing topics. Note: The system automatically gives you a tag depending on which forum you're creating it in. For example, if you create a roleplay in the Casual section, even if you don't select the "Casual" tag, it'll be assigned to your roleplay. The tag UI doesn't really reflect this yet.

@Mahz

Very nice! This'll should decipher the different styles and types of RPs around without looking through half the thread to get a feel for some RPs. :)

[Captain Jordan]

Mahz is on a roll today!

[Ellri]

Nice tags. Not entirely sure on the description for the high fantasy tag. Not all high fantasy is about defeating some great evil. Might be better to have its description be based around the magical content, which is usually fairly significant in high fantasy.

[Mahz]

Nice tags. Not entirely sure on the description for the high fantasy tag. Not all high fantasy is about defeating some great evil. Might be better to have its description be based around the magical content, which is usually fairly significant in high fantasy.

@Ellri

Haha, I couldn't even find two definitions online that agreed with each other. Even the wikipedia page meanders on and on.

[Mahz]

I have a question @Mahz can we get a "mention" button at the bottom of posts so we can just click that and have the mention tag already filled in? Would that be possible?

@Genkai

Implemented it. Right now when you click the button, the "[@Mention]" BBCode injects itself to the end of the editor and scrolls you to it. Would there be a more convenient way of doing that? Should it auto-scroll? Should it inject onto its own line like how the Quote button does it?

[Ellri]

True, @Mahz... No single definition is perfect. Perhaps we should just have the "fantasy" label until the time of multiple labels (like high fantasy, low fantasy, modern fantasy, etc.) are established? Some would say high fantasy is basically a tolkienesque world with magic, elves, dwarves, orcs. Others might say its something with high magic content. Others yet might simply say its a fictional world with the presence (or lack of) magic being irrelevant. We can't say which is right. Probably because all of them can be. Perhaps the goal should be the one that is general enough to fit the most? Could this one work? High fantasy: A fictional world typically involving magic, often including non-human species like elves, dwarves & orcs. Might also involve a good-vs.-evil conflict.

[Shienvien]

Nice tags. Not entirely sure on the description for the high fantasy tag. Not all high fantasy is about defeating some great evil.

Haha, I couldn't even find two definitions online that agreed with each other. Even the wikipedia page meanders on and on.

Solution: do away with the tooltip? Alternatively just have it as generic "Roleplay involving significant amount of fantastic, magical and/or supernatural elements." or some such - for example, the only RP that uses this tag in Advanced not only has many plotlines and many evils, but also lets your character be evil themselves, if they want to, never mind that good could fail completely. Edit: Er... Mentioning elves and orcs as an example is too specific for my tastes. And good/evil conflict is "every second plotline out there" rather than something inherent to fantasy. Also, alt-Earth scenarios are quite frequently fantasy/high-fantasy, so "fictional world" is not precisely always correct, either... (In return, there are plenty of realistic/sci-fi fictive worlds.) I personally judge fantasy by the presence of magic and the supernatural. I haven't really heard of high fantasy being used as a label for something without any magic/deities/supernatural/souls/some such? (Make alternate world / fictive world its own tab?) Also, was something changed in regards to the links during the latest pushes? It seems that the ones I was testing earlier now function as desired... Edit#2: The bookmark-thingies on posts now have white edges. Small detail, but fairly uncomfortable to look at. I preferred the subtler, black bubbles. Eeh, and what's with the ruleset? "Urban Dictionary" ... "nip-slips"? The first is probably composed by bored teenagers who have nothing better to do than give random words new, dirty meanings, and the second is something I cannot really picture any halfway decent person using... Oeah.

[Hank]

Goddamn, Mahzkrieg. You really are on fire today. Excellent work!