As far as i'm concerned the tutorials are the authors property merely presented on the Snarkpit, so please go ahead and republish it wherever you please.

Don't worry, I wont, just wondering.

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Aaron's Stuff

I've got a quick suggestion that would make things nice.

For viewing history (you know how threads you haven't read are yellow and bold, etc) currently it's controlled by cookies/sessions locally on the user machine, while that's cool and all, and it generally works, it'd be nice if it were also logged in the database, per user. Either cross reference them or something like that to make things a little more efficient.

The purpose of this is so you can go to any computer log in and get an accurate representation of what your user has seen rather than the computer you're currently sitting at. Plenty of sites already do something like this, but most of them have some issues that make it inaccurate.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Good idea, Crono. I've been thinking the same (the problem, I didn't come up with a solution like you just did).

Also currently (which might have little to do with the relaunch-site) it lists your own last posts as "new posts since last visit" in forums.

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Why snark works.

I'll see what I can do, although such as system (which phpbb3 uses) requires you to be logged in.... which is the disadvantage of doing things that way rather than with a cookie. I'd probably prefer doing it that way anyway though rather than the current method.

Still, at the moment I'm just getting the core functionality sorted and can worry about the bells and whistles later.

The way the database is set out is a little... um... well not what I'd expect in places and because we obviously want to keep all the current content I'm taking a little longer to work around it rather than starting afresh.

Ahha, you must be the coder that Gwil mentioned! Welcome to the site mate, good luck figuring out whatever gubbins Lep has going on back there :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Finally the secret is unveiled. Welcome and good luck with the coding!

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Why snark works.

You shouldn't have revealed your identity! You are aware that now you are a marked man? We have some sociopathic tendencies amongst the members here.

All you have to do for people who aren't logged in is mark nothing new. It's a special case.

Edit: One more thing, if you use the existing parsing code for a post that interprets special things (like bb and links), could you remove the requirement that a link needs a space in front of it to be recognized?

For example:

http://www.snarkpit.net (no space)

vs

http://www.snarkpit.net (with space)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah, thats what I meant by "it wouldn't work for ppl who aren't logged in". You don't actually have to do anything... if they aren't logged in then you can't match them up with any DB data so everything will just show as old by default... its not a "special case" or anything, its just that that method can't be used if you've got nothing to match the data against.

I'm a little unsure what direction to take with the parse code. Normally the way a forum would work is a post would have any html chars converted before being shoved into the database, and then you'd parse the string when you wanted to output it again. On here the string gets parsed before entry into the database, which means you can't correct any earlier errors in the code because the posts already have the html in place of the bbcode the poster would have entered.

What I think I'll do is parse posts on output... which will correct the above issue in existing and future posts... posts with existing html will be ok as the characters are only converted on input. Editing older posts may be a little weird though and there may be some display issues... I'll just have to play around and see what works best

With regards to the link issue above:

The bbCode is looking to match the string after either a space or a newline ( '\n' )

Problem is the preg_match is being called after the '\n' (which mark carriage returns in the input fields) are already converted to line breaks, so the pattern doesn't get matched unless theres a space there.

Just messing around with parsing on output and have sorted this out... looks as though its gonna be ok doing things that way.

Yeah, thats what I meant by "it wouldn't work for ppl who aren't logged in". You don't actually have to do anything... if they aren't logged in then you can't match them up with any DB data so everything will just show as old by default... its not a "special case" or anything, its just that that method can't be used if you've got nothing to match the data against.

Right, what I'm saying is: that's fine. It isn't something you should concern yourself with. It is still a special case, though, even if you don't have to do anything.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Thats now implemented in the new forums.

Quick update - things are going more slowly than I'd hoped, but we're getting there bit by bit.

If all goes well I'll be needing a few beta testers to help iron out bugs in the new site in a few weeks or so.

If you're interested, lemme know! Thanks

I have a small request. I would prefer if after a certain amount of time, say 30 min, it becomes impossible to edit or delete your own posts. If a poster can't handle what he posted he shouldn't have posted it in the first place.

What about if somebody posts after your post, than it edit your post.

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Aaron's Stuff

Ok I've added a check on the elapsed period from when the post was added, and if that is greater than a certain period (30mins by default) then non-mods will not be able to perform any edits.

The setting is easily changeable in the site config file, so Gwil or whoever should be able to alter it/switch it off if they ever need to in the future.

I'm willing to beta test the new site.

Also I can help with CSS if need be. The current site has a boat load of display issues that seem to be due to style interpretation differences between IE and FireFox.

drglass at gmail.com

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but when I choose a different theme, the menu titles are misaligned on there background. (the menu txt is lower than the black backgournd (basic theme)) I use the latest firefox.

Apologize if it's already been mentioned and/or this is the wrong place, I'm new to this site and it's very different to what I'm used to! (not a bad thing at all)

)

Just had a thought. How about allowing people to be moderators over their own threads? That way, if someone is spamming or being grossly off-topic the OP could edit or remove their posts (and perhaps even be able to ban them from posting in that topic, though i suspect this would need a little too much coding to implement).

Just a quick update... still beavering away and working on getting the last of the functionality finished off. Will be in touch with peeps once thats done.

I'm spending more time than I'd originally planned on things, but hopefully its gonna be worth it to make sure everything you guys need is working properly... plus its taken longer than I thought to reorganise the existing content.

There is a bit of a performance issue with the database at times too (as has already been mentioned), so I've been working on caching to help ease the load, especially in places such as the forums which can end up using an awful lot of queries.

Ah the larch! Why must you must escape on the lolinternet forums? I have much many good news to relay!

Good work Larchy :wink:

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Aaron's Stuff

Gwil said:
Ah the larch! Why must you must escape on the lolinternet forums? I have much many good news to relay!

I am r having much techy help stuff to be posting lately!

This post is brought to you courtesy of the new forum code (which is why the above bbcode won't be working for you guys - or, indeed that smiley)!

Larchy gave me a status update the other day, and he expects it to be not too long before we have a final stage to review collectively as a userbase. On another note, i'd just like to say how nice it is to see the forums busier - i've been offline for a couple of days and this activity is nice to see after a rotten flu virus.

Keep up the good work, Gwil & Co. Let's get the pit back where it belongs ... the spotlights ! :smile:

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

The disappearing post!

... heeh?

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Aaron's Stuff

I am unable to change the screens on my de_Substructure map profile. I'm a sad little panda. Help?

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Reality has become a commodity.

Did you try deleting your browser cache? I always need to to see the new pics.

I'd still classify this as a site issue, though. :/

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Why snark works.

Ok, they change over. It just took several hours. Thats one hell of a lag...

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Reality has become a commodity.

If they uploaded there and then, it was a cache issue. I can assure you they haven't been uploading for hours. You just needed to refresh.

I just tested it. Looks like your right. Maybe the site should be edited so that people don't get confused like i did. Maybe have the cash change with the picture. (im just guessing, i have no idea how a web site works)

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Reality has become a commodity.

I see your point! I'll add a message to remind people to refresh (hard refresh) after uploading, as to confirm the upload worked.

Actually It would be nice if you could use your map images from other websites (imageshack....) as a thumbnail image for your maps. If you want a thumbnail for your maps, you have to upload the images to snarkpit, could this be changed?

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Aaron's Stuff

Firstly I would say that that decision is a useability issue. Linking to offsite images can be troublesome due to lack of control over the content, loading speeds (if an offsite link is slow it would reflect badly on snarkpit as it would appear that it is the fault of the latter - ditto bandwidth limits - imageshack errors don't look very good!), images getting moved/deleted over time etc There is also the issue of how to handle thumbnail previews for offsite images.

That said, the way the whole site has been put together over the years is a little haphazard, and whilst it is possible to link to offsite images for, say, a tutorial it isn't for maps. There are quite a few inconsistencies like this.

Also, a lot of maps now aren't actually hosted on snarkpit and just include a link to filefront or wherever. Since most maps aren't actually hosted here linking to offsite images etc is perhaps less of an issue anyway.... but it'd be down to Gwil to change the current policy.

~~~~~

Secondly, as things have been kinda bodged together piece by piece over the years there is no single system for managing images across all the various sections of the site and its a bit of a task trying to unravel how everything fits together in some places.

To add linking to offsite images for maps it would probably require an extra column on the database table and a bunch more code to implement, which might not be the best idea given that the whole thing is already straining quite a bit performance-wise.

Oh ok, thanks larchy :smile:

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Aaron's Stuff

It wouldn't be particularly difficult to take remotely hosted images (like you currently can) then create thumbnails from those and host those on SP, where as the large images are hosted elsewhere. Which is half of what hosting images here does already for maps, you could just use more. (hopefully) This would also make it relatively the same size for a map entry. It'd be cool to figure out some compression methods for the maps themselves to be small enough to be hosted on SP ... but, whatever.

But the "blame", in general, for poorly hot-linked images falls on the user who posts them. Also, keep in mind, that many maps already have missing images.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well yeah... you can grab offsite images via http and bung them through gd to create thumbnails, but I think that may potentially introduce more problems m8

For example there would be the issue of how to synchronise thumbnails with offsite images, as there would be no way of knowing if the offsite images were updated... so the thumbs would still be of older images.

You could just grab the fullsize image too and resize&host that on snarkpit, but I think that would be somewhat futile because if you're going do that you may as well just get people to upload the images in the first place.

I would prefer not to introduce anything like this that could potentially cause problems in the future.

I did a new system for handling the mirrors of a map which lets you add as many as you like, and also lets people report dead links. I suppose something similar for the images might work too.

Can you post a link to a map with missing images? I have seen several without any images, but none with missing images where there should be some. I would like to see what has caused the problem as there might be a way to fix it. Thanks!

I don't like the idea of having 5 "offical" screens that are hosted outside, have no restrictions regarding image-size and no thumbnails. I'd rather see the 3 hosted images being the only "offical" map images. If the mapper needs more to present the map, there can always be links to external sites (like the current "additional information" link). 3 images with fixed file-size and resolution + thumbnails would be ideal. The 5 external ones are mostly dead links or ridiculous sizes since there is no control.

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Why snark works.

What reaper posted pretty much reflects my feelings on the issue. Disk space used by 3 restricted jpgs is minimal, and it guarantees integrity (well, supposedly) for future viewing.

Maps, I prefer we try and get things uploaded to the site, but as I recall we discussed this in the past some time larchy? Especially regarding growing file sizes.

Righty, I've fiddled on with the new map upload page this mornign to try to find the best way of handling this... you can now select how many screens you want to upload with a map, and the number is controllable via the new site config file.

Yeah we discussed the map size issue a while back and I made it so that you could control the maximum allowable filesize via the site config file... so no real worries there, its just down to how large you want your hosted files to be.

A possible issue might be that most hosts restrict maximum upload filesize to a certain number of MB. I would think this would be the biggest restriction you'll run into... but tbh with modern map sizes being really quite large it may be best to encourage people to use somewhere like filefront and simply add mirror links.

You can add as many mirror locations as you like with the new system, and there will be a system for reporting dead links so I hope that would be a good practical way of still maintaining a great map archive but not getting bogged down with massive costs for large diskspace and bandwidth useage.

looks at uberlords

Snarkpit needs synced again. The pages, aren't matching the posts again.

/2cents

As for images. Set a guide. Stick to it with NO EXCEPTIONS. If someone fails to follow the rule about size-shape-quantity, cancel their ability to post any screens. 'nuff said.

Snarkpit has been far to lenient about this and the policing of inconsiderate members is not worth the grief it causes. All it does is aggravate long timers against one another over a simple issue.

My longtime complaint seemed like I harped on size, but the root of the real issue was our inability and/or unwillingness to enforce any set standard.

When I return full time, I intend to be in a position here to rectify ANY image shortfalls.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

This particular connection at the motel I am staying at has a pretty good connection: 1.5 DL and 768 UP speeds and Snarkpit is still slower than most any website. Are we still giving considerations as to another, more reliable host Master Gwil?

In fact yesterday when I got here, the pages were taking upwards of a minute, to a minute 30 to load. Today, 15 to 30 seconds, so its not as bad but even 15 seconds on broadband is a lot.

I would still be interested in giving�a bit of financial assistance to the cause if you need some help.

Of course, getting a hold of me is difficult BUT if you contact Juim, Brasso, Monqui, Nickelplate or Bewbies, they all have my cell phone number. They can pass along a message.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Orpheus said:
more reliable host Master Gwil?

That would cost more money. I am just thankful that he is paying what ever cost it is to keep this site running and all the folks here.

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Aaron's Stuff

I can only stay on this computer for a few minutes at a time as its a public machine for the hotel.

I have not had a chance to read this thread through but I gather from your post Aaron that Snarkpit has already switched hosts???

If so, I am not impressed, or not impressed very much since as I said, the pages are still loading irregularly. Currently, they are loading fastly, but how long do you reckon it will last... :sad:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

As far as I am aware, snarkpit is with the same host. But getting a better host will cost more money then the current host..

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Aaron's Stuff

Not necessarily, I did scout out some decent looking hosts that came in or around the same price as the current one. I'm loathe to move the host until next Jan/Feb because

1) it'll be a big job!
2) the current hosting is paid up until that point
3) money is tight (isn't it always!)

Regardless, I reflect your concerns Orpheus and will keep looking into alternative hosting options. Globat have pissed me off anyway, they need a slap.

My thoughts go out with you Master Gwil. If you need assistance, call.

Call in advance though since I am out of touch generally at present.

Don't wait till you need me, before you reach out. I'd rather send you some money for no reason, than send it to late.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Suggestion: If this has already been proposed, feel free to consider it a second vote.

Reviews need to be coded so that new ones go on the front page as "New News."

In fact, the review section has no real notification of additions when made.

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The best things in life, aren't things.