Mahz's Dev Journal

[Captain Jordan]

If someone is going to get mad over a dislike, then they are a kid. Other sites have the dislike button and only child get upset by it.

@Rare

And we have many, many children here. People have gotten upset (and banned) over less. Let's not try to add more fuel to the fire.

[HeySeuss]

Join status might just be a game changer in a lot of ways; less screwing around with a second interest check just to recruit for an RP that needs a few new players. (People tend to start asking "Is this still open?" right after you post the OOC, even before anyone else has a sheet up. )

[Ellri]

Well, post-launch interest checks can still be useful, like if the RP has gone a month or three, then has lost a player or three and needs to replace them. On that thought... Would it be a good or a bad idea to have interest checks without any GM/CoGM activity for n days to automatically get tagged as "full"? (With n being a fairly large number, say two weeks?)

[Captain Jordan]

Well, post-launch interest checks can still be useful, like if the RP has gone a month or three, then has lost a player or three and needs to replace them. On that thought... Would it be a good or a bad idea to have interest checks without any GM/CoGM activity for n days to automatically get tagged as "full"? (With n being a fairly large number, say two weeks?)

@Ellri

What would be ideal is if Interest Checks could be tied to the RP thread. Change the RP status to full, and the Check status changes. Change the RP status to open, and the Check gets bumped and status changed to open.

[Ellri]

hmm... that would be nice, @Captain Jordan. Maybe a also close function on the IntCk to "disconnect" it?

[oakman]

If someone is going to get mad over a dislike, then they are a kid. Other sites have the dislike button and only child get upset by it.

@Rare

disagreeing with someone through a well written and logical post > dislike buttons

[ZayZe]

@MahzIs the etherpad implementation still being developed? I haven't heard anything about it for a while... :(

[LegendBegins]

@Mahz I see you reenabled advertisements, correct?

[Mahz]

Latest push: - Finally put ads back up.

@MahzIs the etherpad implementation still being developed? I haven't heard anything about it for a while... :(

@ZayZe

I made really good progress, I built most of it, and I found out that the feature is possible and should integrate nicely. The hard part about Etherpad is that it runs on its own server and the guild's forum server will have to talk to it. Once I add an Etherpad server to the guild's deploy system (a system that is currently very simple), it's going to add a lot of operational complexity. More of my free-time will be spent on Etherpad maintenance and performance issues, and I'll have less time for other guild features. In other words, it will irreversibly introduce a lot of complexity for a feature that only a few people really care about, so I'm not in a critical rush. I hope you understand. It's still a feature I will implement, and I proved to myself that it's possible, it's just not a good time for it at this moment. Also, since scaling websockets (the tech Etherpad uses) is not something I have much experience with, I may implement a similar but simpler project so I can practice. I was thinking of building a quick chat system for the forum on a weekend and ensure that I can get that to scale to the guild's activity levels.

[NuttsnBolts]

@Mahz Notice the top right with the ad, and also the post count near "academy of heros". Both overlapping sections Mobile: Samsung Galaxy S4 Browser: Dolphin Browser

[Mahz]

@NuttsnBolts Thanks, I'll turn the ads off til I figure out a solution. Update: I think I fixed it? I'm going to play with google's resizable ads to see if I can shrink that ad on mobile.

[NuttsnBolts]

It's fixed on my end. :)

[Light the Dark]

Just wondering - are there plans to make email notifications an option? At least for PMs and subbed threads? I feel like I'm compulsively checking for a new pm on here when I could just have my email up in another tab. But I might just be a bit neurotic. xD

[Mahz]

Just wondering - are there plans to make email notifications an option? At least for PMs and subbed threads? I feel like I'm compulsively checking for a new pm on here when I could just have my email up in another tab. But I might just be a bit neurotic. xD

@Light the Dark

That's definitely a feature I will add. I've been trying to take a break from working on "boring" forum features like better notifications, so I can't promise a deadline though. These features are important, but sometimes they are just too draining on me.

[Light the Dark]

<Snipped quote by Light the Dark> That's definitely a feature I will add. I've been trying to take a break from working on "boring" forum features like better notifications, so I can't promise a deadline though. These features are important, but sometimes they are just too draining on me.

@Mahz

I can certainly understand that! It's nice to know they are planned for a future update, though. ^^

[Mahz]

Question for mobile users: I can put some work into the guild so that it renders to the width of your device. No more constant zooming. Most things that are implemented as columns when viewed on a large screen will be "stacked" when viewed on your mobile device. For instance, when viewing a post, the username/avatar will stack above the post content. But that also means that, when viewing the homepage from a mobile device, there will be no sidebar anymore. It will instead stack below all of the forums. Everything will be 100% width on mobile devices. I have a smartphone but I rarely use it for browsing the internet, so I have zero intuition here. What do yall generally prefer when viewing websites on your mobile device? Would you rather just see the non-mobile version and have to zoon, or would you rather I refactor the website so that it things adjust to your screen's width? Here's an example of a sidebar "stacking" below the main content as your shrink the window (or view on mobile device): http://getbootstrap.com/examples/blog/

[Captain Jordan]

Question for mobile users: I can put some work into the guild so that it renders to the width of your device. No more constant zooming. Most things that are implemented as columns when viewed on a large screen will be "stacked" when viewed on your mobile device. For instance, when viewing a post, the username/avatar will stack above the post content. But that also means that, when viewing the homepage from a mobile device, there will be no sidebar anymore. It will instead stack below all of the forums. Everything will be 100% width on mobile devices. I have a smartphone but I rarely use it for browsing the internet, so I have zero intuition here. What do yall generally prefer when viewing websites on your mobile device? Would you rather just see the non-mobile version and have to zoon, or would you rather I refactor the website so that it things adjust to your screen's width? Here's an example of a sidebar "stacking" below the main content as your shrink the window (or view on mobile device): http://getbootstrap.com/examples/blog/

@Mahz

Honestly, zooming on a mobile device is one of the most awful things there is. I'd rather have a squished, but full, experience of a website than keep panning from side to side or use an app which compromises on features.

[NuttsnBolts]

At the moment to write this post I am both scrolling back and forward and seeing my screen scroll just to see the whole text box. So to read properly I either have to zoom out and look at size 3 font or try to scroll back and forth with the feel of reading a newspaper through a magnifying glass. If you don't have scrolling you could reduce the font a touch, take out sigs, and just limit headers to names and an avatar. You'd also may want to think about a static dropdown menu at the top to allow for easy navigation. With some of the really long threads it would become a pain to scroll up to the top by swiping the screen 50 times.

[Mahz]

At the moment to write this post I am both scrolling back and forward and seeing my screen scroll just to see the whole text box. So to read properly I either have to zoom out and look at size 3 font or try to scroll back and forth with the feel of reading a newspaper through a magnifying glass. If you don't have scrolling you could reduce the font a touch, take out sigs, and just limit headers to names and an avatar. You'd also may want to think about a static dropdown menu at the top to allow for easy navigation. With some of the really long threads it would become a pain to scroll up to the top by swiping the screen 50 times.

@NuttsnBolts

omfg. If I had known it was so bad I would've done this weeks ago. Started making some progress.

[Shienvien]

As I noted before, I am not exactly a fan of avatars and various meta between posts - when I'm browsing forums on mobile, I generally have it set so that these parts are left out of my vision altogether. Frankly, I'd like a (perhaps cookie-based) device-specific* setting that would remove all poster-info besides the username (and perhaps online status, but only if it is on the same line) for cellphones if user info is to stay at the tops of posts for mobiles... Other than that... Eh, I suppose I really haven't found the experience inconvenient enough on mobile devices to conclude it needs fixing? (Edit: My textboxes actually adjusted to screen size...) *For enabling/disabling those things every time depending on whether you're are on any of your dozen computers or your single cell phone that actually needs the setting can get a it tedious.