Site suggestions/bugs

Bugs in search system :sad:

if I search on tables for example then I get this

Search: Results
Searching for tables
Search limited to Half-Life 2, in All/Misc. related pages

Warning: opendir(editing/entities/HL2): failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/snarkpit.net/httpdocs/index/query.php on line 71

Couldn't open entity directory

<table style="font-size: 8pt;" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="90%">
<tr><td colspan="2"><div class="subtitle">Glossary</div></td></tr>

<tr><td align="right" valign="top">tables:</td><td>no words found</td></tr><tr><td height="10">

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><div class="subtitle">Entity Search</div></td></tr><tr><td align="right" valign="top">entities:</td><td>

Warning: readdir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/snarkpit.net/httpdocs/index/query.php on line 73

Warning: closedir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/snarkpit.net/httpdocs/index/query.php on line 83

no entities found: search doesn't include mod entities, so try browsing manually</td></tr><tr><td height="10">

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><div class="subtitle">Tutorial Search:</div></td></tr><tr><td>

</td><td>no tutorials found</td></tr><tr><td height="10">

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><div class="subtitle">Forum Search:</div> (searching Half-Life 2 editing board)</td></tr><tr><td align="right"></td><td>prop_physics mass / weird behavior</td></tr><tr><td align="right"></td><td>prefabs
can i use the hl2 prefabs like chairs etc?</td></tr>
</table>

Leperous, here's a suggestion:

I think it would be neat if there was a place where people could
request a tutorial. For example... If I'm looking for a tutorial
about creating realistic canyons and cliffs, but can't find what I'm
looking for, I submit a description of the tutorial I need.
Eventually, enough people will make requests for different tutorials
and a sizeable "Most Wanted" list would be compiled. Hopefully
experienced mappers would browse through these and see something they
know how to do well and then decide to make the tutorial and upload it
to the site. I think more people would be interested in creating
tutorials if they felt that people really wanted to know how to do the
things they are explaining. Also, this feature would potentially
be a good way to bolster the amount of tutorials we have on the site,
by providing more communication and interaction between those who want
to learn specific techniques, skills, etc. and those who already
possess the experience and the knowledge.

There would definitely have to be some sort of administrative
regulation/filtering, to make sure the tutorials being requested aren't
too large in scope, or too crazy, or too unclear.

I think it would be nice if the Snarkpit became the authority on
tutorials as that would potentially draw more mappers into the
community.

What do you think?

Yes, I've been thinking about that a lot recently too, I'll see how other websites (e.g. Powertabs.net) do things.

Just noticed that most model and prefab download links are borked and have probably been so ever since the site became .net. :sad:

This isn't so much as a suggestion as a question about the content.

I was just making a post in the editing forum and I wanted to color
code all the entities, options, and values to make my post look all
snazzy. I didn't know which color to pick for each, and ended up
just pulling up one of Lep's tuts and trying to go by what he
did. That got me wondering if there was a page somewhere with the
standard for what to colorcode different things when you're talking
about hammer and editing.

Does it exist? If so, can someone point me to it? I know
that this kind of a silly thing to want to do, because it's not like
most people color code their posts but I find it useful when reading
tutorials.

All the model/prefab downloads work, please point one out to me that doesn't?

And I've been thinking about also allowing you to use the tutorial bbcode in your forum posts, but the way it's set up isn't quite so simple to apply :/

Someone slow me down before I hurt myself, but I had another idea:

I'm not sure if this falls within the scope of this site (probably not)
but I thought it would be pretty cool there was a little box near the
bottom of the front page with a monthly (or whatever interval works
best) spotlight on a member of the Snarkpit. The spotlight would
consist of an interview written by a volunteer (or one of the head
honchos if they have time) and maybe one or two choice maps (or models
as the case may be) that the spotlighted member chooses.

Some sample questions:

Q: What's your favorite part of the mapping/modelling process? Conception? Building? Refinement? Release?

Q: Do you have any advice for the aspiring mappers/modellers out there?

Q: If you were offered a job in the industry would you take it? Who would you want to work for?

Q: What impact has mapping/modelling had on your real life and overall happiness?

Etc. Etc.

Hmm now that I think about it the interview would have to be pretty
good to make this interesting. But it would be kind of nice to
showcase some of the members I see around here. There's some
great work just collecting dust on the member profiles. The
member recommended map could be a great way for some newer members to
see some of the good work that's been done in the past.

I don't know if adding original content is something frivilous and
unnecessary considering that this site objectively seems just to be a
support structure for mappers, but at the same time I sense that there
is a strong sense of community.

Shrug It's just an idea I wanted to share. Thoughts?

I think its a great idea but I don't think, at this moment in time, we
have the community to support it. A monthly spotlight on members needs
a fairly large bank of members with sizeable and quality back
catalogues, and these days we aren't exactly drowning in those. Much of
the "old blood" has left the community and the "new blood" that has
taken its place - mostly those brought in due to soure editing - don't
have enough released work. Places like CGTalk and DeviantArt would
manage due to being generic enough in their scope that they attract
thousands of members, but I think its pretty hard for a relatively
small community to have enough content for such a feature.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Well, I'll keep the idea tucked away in the back of my mind and maybe
sometime in the future it will become feasible and I'll bring it up
again.

It would be neat if we could find some people in the industry to talk
to. have some examples of ametures going pro? just a little
something to a.) get snark pit some non-newbie-mapping-question traffic
and b.) give us mappers hope for a better (payed) world.

There's always DesPlesda's interview with KungFuSquirrel, chock full of
insights into his creative process and getting a professional career...
or not.

http://www.snarkpit.net/features.php?page=articles&id=68

I guess it could be cool to put up some non-DesPlesda style serious
interviews with KungFuSquirrel and Finger since both have gone on to
work in the industry.

I can't believe I read the whole article. Although it was pretty funny in parts.

Refreshingly inane :biggrin:

Reno, Reno, Reno, always so negative :biggrin: I have a plan, and it's called the "2005 SnarkPit Mapping Competition."

Well it is getting to that time of the year :wink:

Here we go again

/opens up new valve hammer and starts on thousands of test maps

takes off shirt Yessss! 2005 Contest! Brrrring it on! :smile:

Here's a bug for you. Just checked the "users online" box as it's at 23 at the moment and it included the following:

habboi :: Just logged on...
habboi :: Browsing General Banter board
habboi :: Just logged on...
habboi :: Just logged on...
habboi :: Just logged on...
habboi :: Just logged on...

That's a lotta habbois...

Also, I can't seem to get past the first page of the Competition
thread. It says there is only one reply and only one page, but I just
posted on a second page!

More Habboi's than anybody could handle :biggrin:

I just noticed another bug. The competition thread has quite a few
replies, but I noticed it said on the general banter forum that it only
had one. I clicked it, sure enough there were loads of replies, and
when I went back to the forum view again it had changed to say there
were 0 replies.

EDIT: Err, yeah, what Loco said :smile:

site, running sooo slow. FF 4am EST -5

55sec load time on this page.

I think the Habboi and topic-post-count things are related problems to do with the server, and not my dodgy coding. Hopefully it won't come back :/

I thought SnarkPit was a gonner. Dead for two days.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

It's running super quick now.

Not really, it doesn't seem like they've upgraded the server at all (though I did find out that I'm hosted on the same IP as about 900 other websites... hmm).

HOWEVER it does seem that something serious happened to the server over the weekend, and right now nothing can be written to the server- meaning I can't fix bugs, chapters won't work properly, and things such as map screenshots, files can't be uploaded and obviously pits won't work :/

Sorry about that, Lep. I have two suggestions. Dunno if they have already been pitched or not:
1. Have being able to 'see all' smilies an option for when you reply to a messege...not ONLY when you are editing a messege you already wrote.
2. Have a 'delete post' button for double posts.
The second one I can understand why you wouldn't want that, as people may use it to just delete their posts, but...

Suggestion:

Front page news is important events. Not to minimize the importance of mappers news, the front page needs to be about "site" news primarily.

I suggest that site news be sorta like a sticky thread, where it remains on top for a predetermined time. With this method in place, if several mappers have news all at once (which our total member numbers may have happen more often) the real news would not slide down the page into oblivion so rapidly.

Also, if the news on the front page had links to the mappers news, instead of two pages with the same news, this would make less to read on the front page. IE Orpheus releases new map today... Reno updates work in progress.. Wildcard gets pilots license today.. the links would lead to the profile of the individual, without the need to clutter the front pages with less world shattering tid-bits.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

That's an idea, though perhaps it would be more useful to put some 'quick news' thing like that next to 'proper' news! (like PHL used to do with its hosted sites)

Looks like the pits are back. I've just managed to update mine and upload some files.

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My site

taps foots impatiently

HEY!, wait a cotton pickin minute...

My thread finally regains first place and suddenly the topic with the most replies disappears?

I WANT MY STAT BACK! :razz:

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Hey, Lep, why did you dump the weekly map round-up thing? It was a
great idea and it would be nice to have something like that when
snarkpit will finally be fully stable again since there have been quite
a few good maps released since then. If you don't know what i'm talking
about, look at the top of the news page, at your own post actually :smile: .

http://www.snarkpit.net/index.php?page=archive&date=02/2005&site=

Because im curently on study leave for my GCSEs im doing alot of
revision its leaving me little time to visit the site. I added the RSS
news feed but it doesnt wanna work properly, all the links are going to
snarkpit.com rather than .net and it hasnt got all the news in it.

I'm not really sure if you are aware of this, Lep, but Opera users can't post (myself included, unfortunately I'm using IE to type this). Each time I go to post, I get this error: http://img275.echo.cx/img275/5821/sperror2io.jpg

I've tried turning JavaScript off in my preferences, and it didn't work. I tried using quick reply AND normal reply, and neither worked. My friend couldn't make a topic, but I haven't tried.

Please sort it out, it's frustrating having to come in IE just to post. :smile:

Thanks in advance.

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I seem to have done toilet on your floor

It's meant to detect Opera and force you to use standard textarea posting, but if it doesn't then you can click on that 'having trouble posting' link and save your preferences..?

Recently, as in the last 20 minutes, I've been getting an error.
I'll be clicking around, and maybe 1 in 5 times, I get a white page
with this text;

The Error Message; said:
There was a problem connecting to the database; please press refresh or come back later.

Then I press back on my browser (firefox) and click the link again and
I get in fine. It's not really a big deal since I can get in
easily by doing the aforementioned, but I just thoguht I'd bring it to
your attention.

Leperous said:
It's meant to detect Opera and force you to use standard textarea posting, but if it doesn't then you can click on that 'having trouble posting' link and save your preferences..?

Well, a couple things. I've tried turning Java off in my preferences, and still have nothing - it just stops the menus and stuff from working. Also, the 'Having trouble posting' link doesn't even show up on Opera.

I'm certain it's not just me because me friend who also uses Opera cannot post either.

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I seem to have done toilet on your floor

Testing whether disabling JavaScript in Opera helps at all.

[edit] It worked! I'd still like this to be fixed though, since I don't want to have JavaScript disabled in every site, just to post on this site.

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I seem to have done toilet on your floor

It doesn't do it for me, with the newest version of Opera. Is it trying to do the fancy WYSIWYG editor with formatting buttons, or just a plain old textarea with no formatting buttons? Can you please post a full screenshot, rather than just that of the error message?

Hmm.. just testing it out.

[edit] Wow, it seems to be working now. Cool. :eek:

[edit again] It was just a plain old textarea with no formatting buttons, no formatting buttons or anything.

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I seem to have done toilet on your floor

Andrei said:
Hey, Lep, why did you dump the weekly map round-up thing? It was a great idea and it would be nice to have something like that when snarkpit will finally be fully stable again since there have been quite a few good maps released since then. If you don't know what i'm talking about, look at the top of the news page, at your own post actually :smile: .

Can you please point some out, I've been away for the last few days and don't have much time to root around?

I said this earlier (not in this thread) but this came up below the Post A New Topic in "Half-Life 2 Editing":

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/snarkpit.net/httpdocs/forums/newtopic.php on line 22

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www.filefence.com. Free vmf hosting!

Not sure if I missed this before, but I'm liking the new "go to page" drop down menu.

Unfortunately, it's still pretty ugly :sad:

shrug

With me its function over form.

2 things:

1. I don't know what ATM was referring, but the 'GO TO' finction is in front of the regular drop down menu (}like if you drag your mouse over forums, it goes behind the go to feature.)

2. Have you considered adding Competions and such under the 'features' section?

Great site, Lep, and keep it up. :smile:

Not a suggestion or a bug. I just noticed a curiosity.

My spell checker used to always want to replace "Snarkpit" with "Snakebite" It now seems to accept Snarkpit, but it wants to separate it to "Snark" and "Pit"

The spell checker must either update periodically, or learn from the times I use it. :razz:

Snarkpit is moving up in the world. :biggrin:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Suggestion/Complaint:

With the influx of so many new members, there has been an increase of score boosting in the maps section. To many new faces are scoring s**t maps highly because they are buds someplace else on another site or in a clan somewhere.

I feel it should be considered to impose a probationary period on members to be eligible to vote/score on any maps posted. Most especially when the join up date is within days/weeks of joining the snarkpit and comments uproariously on a map.

Sure, this might/could scare off a few new members but would it be any great loss since their only contribution in many cases is commenting on said map and departing?

I hate even suggestion this because it stinks of elitism, but its becoming apparent that some sort of a probationary period is necessary. I hate having to impose restrictions that should be already instilled in people.

Please consider this before discarding out of hand.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I agree entirely with Orpheus. Might I also add that there are many
members with only 1 post as their entire snarkpit activity and that
many of the people who join only post 1 or 2 times in the forums before
disappearing.

I don't really see why thats a problem Andrei, nor what anyody could
ever do about it. We can't ensure people are turning up for the long
haul :sad: The other issue is more of a concern.

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

ReNo said:
The other issue is more of a concern.

I agree. I do not see how we could make people return.. I do not see why someone would not, but.. shrugs

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The best things in life, aren't things.

All i'm saying is that members who are on "trial period" (until they
have 100 snarkmarks or something) should have their profiles removed if
they don't post anything for large periods of time. That way we won't
have a 2 million member list with only 1000 users who are actually
active.