Site suggestions/bugs

erargh, right. I'm stupid. I just looked where the X was leading, and it said "deletemap" or something, so I thought it was for my own maps. My apologies.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Forceflow</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>And Cass ... they'll learn. When I arrived here, my English was bad too. It improved. A bit. :smile:
</DIV></DIV>
Perhaps you did; I never noticed it because you didn't post threads like this: http://www.snarkpit.com/forums.php?forum=2&topic=3249&35

well cass, the only thing i can see that the thread does is actually draw a line between what are ....well.....adults and children, im trying to be kind, and condensed..... capice? :heee:

Doc B.... :dodgy:

i am just thinking out loud so dismiss this idea if its not possible.

OK, i have a spell checker with my IE, is there a way, to tie in a spell checker so that when you hit "submit" it takes you to one?

or

you know how cuss words have asterisk's? how about a spell checker that auto inserts them into mis-spelled words?

in the end however, i really don't think its a good idea for humans to police replies for such minor infringements. look where one more important like images ended up. at least typo's don't load slowly.

i think new members should be put on some sort of a probationary period. a time frame of the admins choosing, but one in which if any new member gets into trouble, whether their fault or not, they are banned from the site.

with this massive influx of new people character clashes are inevitable, but when measured against the time invested by people here much longer, the new person must be removed.

this sounds harsh, but it wouldn't take long for a few examples to stifle future possible clashes.

also, it should be noted that if someone not on probation deliberately went out of their way to cause a new member to be banned, they would also suffer some sort of a punishment, to discourage abusing the system.

harsh or not, some system needs to be in place, the newer members really need to realize that they are indeed new, and as such not in any position to create hostility un-necessarily.

on another note, this does not mean that new members are defenseless, the PM system is available and said new members can contact the mods/admin to intercede on their behalf. it is not a new members job to do it.

this system worked rather well when i ran [DRS] and could, given proper support, or refinement, fix many issues we currently have.

character clashes are inevitable, but they do not have to go badly.

i think new members should be put on some sort of a probationary
period. a time frame of the admins choosing, but one in which if any
new member gets into trouble, whether their fault or not, they are
banned from the site.

That would be a lot of work, and it would make snarkpit.com less attractive for new people, perhaps.

I had the idea of an auto-spell-checker, but to be honest why should my website waste valuable milliseconds correcting people when they should LEARN how to spell/type properly? I imagine there are some spell checkers which will work with forms you fill in your browser, perhaps it might be an idea to point people to those.

forceflow, i concur.. its been years and don't think i have not thought of it before now. only thing is i feel its needed, but do not know how to do it "fairly"

lep, i use the IEspell checker, i point people that way, but it seems more people are moving away from IE.

perhaps, some of the other browser users could point to them too?

also, the milliseconds option, could be voluntary (chosen in preferences) except for those chronically posting unsatisfactory replies.

i dunno.. this is Cassius's ordeal.. i am into images. and i use IEspell.

If you have Firefox, you can use Spellbound. http://spellbound.sourceforge.net

I kind of like GameFAQ's spellchecking deal, you can click spellcheck
if you want, even though most users never will. Also, I suppose
that admins could force spellcheck on more annoying posters and make
them spell every word right before posting... at the very least
it would be pretty amusing.

You could use an optional preview/spell check option when posting. I
know for a fact there are many ways to do this, especially in PHP.

I dont know if your host allows lib pspell, but that's essentially the
fastest and most clean way to do it. Although I aggree that people
should learn to spell and punctuate for themselves. I've seen websites
that would calculate the amount of misspelt words in a post, and keep a
track record, encouraging users to learn to spell. Worked very well.

Another sugestion

In the forum view, like where each topic has 'go to page x',
when the topic spans over multipul pages; could you have a 'jump to
posts since last visit' link per topic (regardless of the topic
length), I see you've worked some very spinkee code to display a text
message in the topic view already.

On a, personal note; Can I have the topics since last visit code for
use on my forums, assuming there is a line or two of phpbb code left
somewhere in snarkpit? :smile:

Clicking on the little snark on the left side of the topic title takes you to the first post since your last visit.

Could you add a line in the HL editing forum like this:

DON'T POST HL2 QUESTIONS HERE PLZKTHX

a hundred grand huh? you think?

Haha no there isn't much of phpbb left in the code itself, just in the tables and last visit data. All you will need is:

<!--code-->Code:

<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: courier"><PRE>if($findpost=='newest') {
$priorposts = mysql_result(mysql_query("SELECT count(post_id) FROM posts
WHERE post_time < '$last_visit' AND topic_id = '$topic'"),0);
$start = floor($priorposts/$ppp)*$ppp;
}
[/pre]

<!--/code-->where $ppp are posts/page in the topic view. And I learnt about pspell last night, we might be moving hosts soon so I'll ask the new ones about it :smile:

Excelent stuff, thanks fishy and lep. :smile:

This one has been bugging me for ages, cant think why I didnt post it sooner;

In the topic view, you'll see each topic has a green outline? On the
left, there is the outline / border, but not on the right. Makes things
look very odd indeed.

its entirely possible that the words "as small as possible" are being unintentionally overlooked in the editing and maps forums.

perhaps a bolder approach is required. or outright putting accepted numerical limits.

Having blank posts deleted would be
nice (You could do it when they're parsed to be put in the
database).

I think it'd be an easy way to get rid of Double
Posting. You could just go back and edit the post erase everything
and it'll be deleted.

However, then, I imagine, you have to
mess with the tables, so maybe you could also create a standard for a
blank space in the database, like NULL or something.

Just an
idea.

Well, I've made it so that the first time anyone posts a new topic in any of the editing forums it makes you read the 'read me first' topics first, so hopefully less n00bism ahoy in there!

i noticed the multi-lingual messages, you reckon you should include one in elite speech?

Probably!

sighs and prepares for yet another round of image debating

tutorials are one of our biggest assets, and treasures, so i am not discounting their importance. tutorials also contain on numerous occasions, multiple screenshots.

some of the recent tutorials contain images in excess of 100k, some almost 300k.

tutorials do not need hi-res screens to illustrate their purposes, so that argument is moot.

someone needs to check the screens along with typo's as part of the authenticating process.

at the very least a standard must be set, and strictly adhered to.

for most screens. 25 to 40k will suffice.. for the tiny message screens. 10 to 15k, and for the big hammer shots 75 to 100. (these are only suggestions)

One suggestion I have is for something similar to the "watch map"
system but for tutorials. Sounds pointless in a way due to browser
bookmarks, but would be kinda useful for people like me who don't yet
have the SDK for one reason or another but want to mark certain
tutorials for later reference.

The pop up windows with screenshots arn't working for me today, I just get white boxes in the default size and the corner says the page is done... If it loads properly it should at least load black first (never white).

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Myrk-</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>The pop up windows with screenshots arn't working for me today, I just get white boxes in the default size and the corner says the page is done... If it loads properly it should at least load black first (never white). </DIV></DIV>
mine.. its only white when the host is slow.. sometimes it will even throw a windows logo in for good measure. :/

[edit] all pop-up screenshot images are white for me as well..

this morning, they worked fine but now looks at watch at 10:15 am they are borked.

Can't seem to be able to access snarkpit at college, my computing teacher said something like it might be because of the java scripting.

Snarkpit doesn't use java, its PHP... and the popups work fine now, must be what Orph said.

Leperous of course will recode the entire site so it can be viewed at
college, $loth. You should be working, not browsing the net :razz:

If you're gonna half ass college just don't go at all like I did :biggrin:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Gwil</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Leperous of course will recode the entire site so it can be viewed at college, $loth. You should be working, not browsing the net :razz:

If you're gonna half ass college just don't go at all like I did :biggrin:
</DIV></DIV>
I get a lot of spare time at college :razz: Is there a way to work around this, some option possibly? As I've said I have tried using firefox, but no luck :sad:

Errrr no idea without knowing why it's blocked - might be deemed
unsuitable by the Net nanny type software - swearing, lots of images
MUST equal porn to those things.

Ask the network administrator (beware - network admins are reclusive
creatures who dislike human contact/sunlight/questions!) why it's
blocked :smile:

Ok, the site appears to be running really slowly again, while my
oktagone based website is running ok. You dont happen to have the
dedicated IP thing do you?

What do you mean by "you can't access it"? And Dred, it's attacks sometimes, other times it's probably just the server being rubbish (I'm on Mannoroth, oo the honour!)

Snarkpit doesn't use java, its PHP... and the popups work fine now, must be what Orph said.

... It's a combination ... how do you think there are popup windows?

Or $loth it could be that've blocked gaming related websites cos thats what they've done at my college which is helpfull for when we have to look for job vecancys and most of us on this course are on it to get a job in the gaming industry and the other half are interested in webdesign.

and I have to use eMacs just cos I'm no a multimedia design course damn them and there crappy, goodness.

I was talking in general Crono... theres the occasional little bit of java, but not enough to stop the whole site working!

I'm just after looking at the 'gallery of horrors' section. Being a 56k dinosaur, this took me around 20 mins!

Maybe all the images should be scaled down, or broken up over several
pages, Static88's image is practically a wallpaper (and its not even a
bloody photo!)

On a lighter note: Adam Hawkings and Bruce look the hardest, and aaron is dreamy :razz:

As a public service, I resaved a bunch (7) of the gallery pics so they'd be 30k instead of 120k.

http://snarkpit.com/pits/hugh/gallery

even if the images were spread over several pages, they would still take as long to load, but re-sized or optimized pics like hugh's would help.

and i'm not entirely convinced that some of the pics are who they claim to be, but i dont want to cause any trouble by naming names..... :razz:

wheres the gallery of horrors?

and i'm not entirely convinced that some of the pics are who
they claim to be, but i dont want to cause any trouble by naming
names..... :razz:

I must admit I was quite taken aback when I saw Triple H had started
level design...and that he claimed to be a student come to think of it


Dred - check the "people" section.

post
Sticky: Textures, skies and concept art. up in hl2 editing as well = D that post equalled unlimited awesome inspirations

Dont know if this has been suggested before, but how about a thread rating system. Much like the system they have over at steampowered.

I don't see the point?

Well if a threads score gets too low it automatically gets deleted, or the creator gets punished some-how....

I'm against that personally - threads are permanent but not in the same
sense as maps or users. They have a relatively short usefulness
lifespan, and as there are so many threads that pass through the forums
being able to rate them would be pointless.

Would it be possible to have something which "subscribes" you to a thread and pm's you if that thread has had a new reply?

We need a Forums Ettiquite (hope i spelled that right) in the hl2
editing. some of the newer members seem to be confused about Propper
forums ettiquite " a sticky at the top of the forum"

<table align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody><tr style="background: rgb(0, 51, 0) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;" onmouseover="style.background='#003300'" onmouseout="style.background='black'"><td>

</td>
<td></td>
<td style="font-size: 8pt;">Sticky: HL Editing Forum Guide - READ THIS BEFORE POSTING
or face the consequences!</td></tr></tbody>
</table>

When I go to other forums (example: Vlatitude) on another computer, going to the last read post actually takes me to the first post since my last visit to the site. With Snarkpit, it does the first post since I last came here on the computer I'm using. Is it possible to store each users last visit on the site rather than on the users computer?

Aaah, good point. It's never been a major hassle to me, jumping between
my work and home puter setups, but since snarkpit is easily the most
user friendly site I know of, why not push the boat out? :smile:

This would be a subtle (probably unnoticed by most) change, the only
major problem i see is the indefinate number of new 'one login wonders'
who would soak up such resources.

A nice idea though.