TheMaster99

mysterion are you here ?

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/users/mysterion If you haven't noticed, there is now a user list/search page, link on the header.

The School in the Woods - Mystery/Fantasy Roleplay

Kyle Messor Kyle listened to the conversation with noticeable, uncomfortable interest. Kyle was there when the girl died, of course. It happened weeks before she appeared by the lake. Nobody knew her fate until it was far, far too late. But they didn't even know the half of it. Kyle, unfortunately, was in the business of knowing every excruciating detail. He is cursed in particular by his knowledge of Helen Schwartz. I've never seen something so... evil, he thought, gravely. Reluctantly, he began to reflect on what he knew of that fateful day. The day was December 21^st; early in the morning (or late at night, depending on how you see it). Schwartz had been missing for nearly a week, and everyone on campus was feeling uneasy. When Kyle woke up in the middle of a deep slumber, his first thought was that he couldn't believe he had just woken up. He was in the middle of a... dream, and he was about to – well, nevermind that, actually. Then he recognized the familiar, tugging feeling in his gut; he knew someone was about to die, and he had to be there when they did. Hurry up you dolt, the voice that Kyle hated so, so much growled in his mind. This is no time for erotic dreams. Kyle blushed involuntarily at Death's brash statement, although it was decidedly dark in his room, and more importantly empty of anyone but him. Without another moment's delay, he strode over to the window, pushed it open, and climbed onto the ledge. Closing his eyes, the skin dissolved from his face; shadowy wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, and the shadows in his room gathered to form a matching cloak. At this point, Death mostly took over at this point, as it always does. He leaned forward, falling out the window and with a flap of his most bizarre wings, he began to fly. "Where are we headed?" Kyle asked the voice. To a basement. Not far, it replied simply. They soared the rest of the way in silence, and when they landed Kyle could tell something was amiss. Silently, Kyle – piloted by Death – opened the basement entrance and climbed down the stairs, closing it behind him. The scene that lay before him... you'd think it was a real life horror story. And you'd then be surprised by just how correct that description turns out to be. Lit candles on the floor formed a circle, and in the center was... oh god. It was the missing girl from school. Helen Schwartz. She was chained by the wrists and ankles to the floor, in the spread eagle position, with runes etched into her skin. Her face bore a twisted expression; it was clear she had been crying, but lost the energy to cry long ago. And it was for good reason that she cried, for she had been subjected to the worst suffering imaginable. A human couldn't begin to understand what exactly she went through. To Kyle, though, it was clear, too clear. She had undergone severe spiritual torture. Examining her more closely, it became apparent that although her body was spread-eagle, her soul – what was left of it – was in the fetal position, begging for it all to be over. But nobody was there to hear the begging. No, when poor little Helen died, she was very much shattered; very much alone. Kyle kneeled down and picked up her soul, and was deeply disturbed by it. She was definitely... supernatural, but... I don't know. Her soul was so fucked up when she died, I have no idea what she could possibly have been. There were runes covering what was left of her soul, the same ones etched onto her physical body. It was by far the most disturbing pickup I've ever done, Kyle thought in hindsight, sighing. Bringing himself back to the present, Kyle attacked his breakfast, inwardly demanding that it distract him from his dark thoughts. Of course, his pancakes failed to respond, instead oozing it's maple syrup onto the plate lazily. Kyle sighed again, this time at the pathetic display of his pancakes. He turned to his bacon, hoping they would put up a more valiant effort. His bacon didn't dissapoint. Of course, bacon could never dissapoint anyone, besides perhaps a vegetarian. Or a pig, Kyle thought dryly. Realizing he was talking to his breakfast as if it was his opponent in a duel, he shook his head, pushing the absurdity past him. Looking up again, he found himself gazing at Jamie, and immediately he remembered his current predicament, which his predicament of the previous year had distracted him from. He offered to Jamie a cold, warning glare. Don't, he mentally warned. Of course, even as he did so Kyle knew that it would only serve to challenge him. And look where that took me last time, Kyle grumbled to himself as he began to pick at his food once more.

Mahz's Dev Journal

It's like watching two protégés squabble for the favor of their master.

@Hank

But I am the one and only master No, I'm just trying to get my point across. I don't see why such a system is worthwhile, and as I pointed out, if he feels it is important he can work on it himself, once his dev environment is set up.

Mahz's Dev Journal

<snip>

@Captain Jordan

It's a system that'll take less time to implement, won't require server space to implement, since images are stored elsewhere, and it makes it easier on users of the current system.

@LegendBegins

Mahz will eventually be implementing image uploading. Why would he spend the time to implement a system that allows users to use any avatar they want without them having to worry about the size, when he is going to eventually implement a system that will do the same thing anyways? The opportunity cost of implementing your system which will inevitably be deprecated is so low that it isn't worth it. If you care about it so much, perhaps implement it yourself? I have to disagree that the load will be on the server – but even if it is, it still will inhibit loading times, just to make trust in the user unnecessary. I'd like to think that the community is more than trustworthy enough to wait until image uploading is implemented, unless you think otherwise?

Mahz's Dev Journal

Maybe Verdana? The 'I' (i) is distinct from the 'l' (L), which seems to be your main gripe.

Mahz's Dev Journal

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.

@LegendBegins

If you mean doing it client-side on page load, consider the fact that this would have to be done for every profile picture on the page, and done every single load. It would have a devastating effect on load times. Obviously not something that is desirable.

Mahz's Dev Journal

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.

Mahz's Dev Journal

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's Dev Journal

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.

@Captain Jordan

Yes, but why would you install something just to implement one feature that will be deprecated once Mahz decides its time to add picture uploading? No offense but I don't see the logic behind it.

@TheMaster99

As I mentioned, it doesn't have to be done with PHP. It does have to be done with a server-size language like PHP. Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby, etc., any of these would work. I'm not certain how uploading the image is going to change much, HTML, CSS and Javascript don't have the capabilities to change and store modified images on the server. Something else will have to be used, unless Mahz has a trick up his sleeve that I've never heard of. ETA: No offense taken. It's just a friendly discussion. :)

@Captain Jordan

http://aheckmann.github.io/gm/ I found this with a simple google search, and there are most likely other options out there. Definitely don't need to install a server-side language for it :D

Mahz's Dev Journal

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.

@Captain Jordan

Yes, but why would you install something just to implement one feature that will be deprecated once Mahz decides its time to add picture uploading? No offense but I don't see the logic behind it.