*peers around*
Interesting! I'm seeing some changes coming.
*ducks and puts up the tower shield*
Senior Software Developer
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Heh. Yeah, we rolled out some changes to the messageboards today.
Improvements: (at least, I think they're improvements :-)
We're displaying the three most recent threads in each forum instead of just one.
Paged threads are now bookmarkable. You can bookmark page 5 of a 10-page thread. Plus, if you bookmark the "last" page of a thread, that bookmark will always return you to the last page of the thread, no matter how many new pages were added since you bookmarked it. Note that you need to click the "last" link for this to work, not the page number of the last page.
The messageboard archives are now browseable in addition to being searchable. In any forum, click the archives link at the top of the page to see the archived threads. You can sort the list of threads by date, subject and number of posts. As always, you can reply to an archived thread and it will get moved out of the archives and back onto the main forum page.
Things that are broken right now but will be fixed Monday:
The mouseover text for the three most recent threads on forum pages is missing. When hovering over the timestamp of a post it should provide a teensy summary of the post.
Still on my to do list:
There is still a timeout on posting. It's a long timeout, on the order of an hour, but if you're writing a long post, do it in a text editor first. Then click "reply" or "add new post" and paste in your post. I really wanted to fix this today but ran out of time.
There is still a timeout on clicking "reply" or "add new post". If you've been reading a thread for more than 10 minutes or so, reload the page before clicking "reply" or "add new post". This will prevent you from being tossed to the front page (the usual symptom of a session timeout).
The ability to "subscribe" to a thread or forum so you can be notified when new posts occur. This is a lower priority than the previous items.
"Sticky" threads. (The ability for Paizo staff to say "this thread is always at the top of the page".)
Uploadable avatars. This probably won't happen soon because, well, because it's hard. :-)
Looks great! Thanks for all the time you put in here.
Uploadable avatars
Could you also provide URL links to avatars?
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Senior Software Developer
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Uploadable avatarsCould you also provide URL links to avatars?
That will probably never happen. It's too easy for a jerk to replace the image with something tasteless later.
Not that our posters are jerks -- I think we have the best messageboard community on the internet! -- but never underestimate the power of people to be stupid just to see what they can get away with.
... but never underestimate the power of people to be stupid ...
You could've just stopped there, Gary. ;)
How about the ability to send private emails?
A place for personal bios, plus a place for a hypothetical avatar bio?
As has been mentioned in another thread, I've found the "reply" button gives me the wrong quote (in this case, from 2 pages back in the thread).
So... we're back to the "old" format of only seeing the most recent post to a forum?
Yay! The new format is back, which I assume means Gary found the can of raid +5. :D
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Senior Software Developer
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Yay! The new format is back, which I assume means Gary found the can of raid +5. :D
*crosses fingers*
I think I fixed the showstopper. Along the way, I think I've fixed the problems with "add new thread", "add new post" and especially "reply" links. And a couple other small bugs. (They go crunchy-squish when you smash them!)
Oh, and something that's always annoyed us -- when creating a new post, its creation date is now the time you clicked "submit post" rather than the time you clicked "add new post".
(They go crunchy-squish when you smash them!)
Some of them even make this high-pitched squealing noise, kinda like a bug hitting a bug zapper. Those are my favorites - when you can hear their death throes...
*runs to go debug a shopping cart - crunch crunch crunch*
Yay! The new format is back, which I assume means Gary found the can of raid +5. :D*crosses fingers*
I think I fixed the showstopper. Along the way, I think I've fixed the problems with "add new thread", "add new post" and especially "reply" links. And a couple other small bugs. (They go crunchy-squish when you smash them!)
As a programmer, I know quite well the fun and exciting sound they make when you finally squish them. ;)
Oh, and something that's always annoyed us -- when creating a new post, its creation date is now the time you clicked "submit post" rather than the time you clicked "add new post".
Yay! That's always bugged me, too. ;)
Very nice, Gary - I've been wanting the archives to be available for a long time.
Is posting an email address a possibility? I'd like to get in touch with some of these people who are creating some of this wonderful stuff!
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Senior Software Developer
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Providing a way for people to contact each other directly is something we've been looking at, but I don't know when we'll get around to it. We've considered the email address thing, but making email addresses available on a public website is a touchy, spam-filled subject....
Providing a way for people to contact each other directly is something we've been looking at, but I don't know when we'll get around to it. We've considered the email address thing, but making email addresses available on a public website is a touchy, spam-filled subject....
I understand completely. As much as I'd like to contact some of the individuals that post here, I'm reasonably sure that most of them would quickly tire of having dozens, if not hundreds, of people contact them over a particular post.
One quick question, and this deals more witht he site as a whole & not just the 'boards: is it possible to diplay the number of people on the site at any given moment, including (as a separate entry) the # that are logged in? I suppose that's not a vital function, superfluous really, but I'd kinda like to know how many folks are "on" at the same time I am.|
Senior Software Developer
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is it possible to diplay the number of people on the site at any given moment, including (as a separate entry) the # that are logged in?
Hmmmm. This is actually a bit trickier than it looks because we have several different copies of the website all running at the same time. Each instance could easily display how many sessions are active on itself, but it wouldn't know about the others.
For what it's worth, at the moment, there are around 100 people currently using the site. (Not counting bots.)
Providing a way for people to contact each other directly is something we've been looking at, but I don't know when we'll get around to it. We've considered the email address thing, but making email addresses available on a public website is a touchy, spam-filled subject....
I have my e-mail public on other forums I post to (including WotC's site), and I even have it spelled out on threads on those boards specifically for providing contact information. I don't seem to get a whole lot of spam at the account name I display. One way around it, though, is to display it in a format that prevents miners from coming along and just grabbing it, such as:
zherog at yahoo dot com
Certainly, anybody who wanted to take my address and sign me up for spam could do so; but those annoying bots that crawl webpages looking for addresses won't pick it up quite as easily.
I understand completely. As much as I'd like to contact some of the individuals that post here, I'm reasonably sure that most of them would quickly tire of having dozens, if not hundreds, of people contact them over a particular post.
I don't think it'd be as bad as you think. As I said, my e-mail address (and IM info, too) is available on at least 4 different message boards. I rarely get e-mails or IMs from people at those boards. It's possible that that is influenced by the fact that each of those boards have a PM feature, and folks use that instead. I can't say.
What I think would happen would be that there would be an initial flurry of activity as people grabbed up e-mails or other contact information, but it would then slow down to normal "volumes."
That's just my hunches, based on what goes on at other sites I belong to.
Great job on the new look guys! I believe I can say that your work is greatly appreciated by all of us.
Ultradan
Heh. Yeah, we rolled out some changes to the messageboards today.
The messageboard archives are now browseable in addition to being searchable. In any forum, click the archives link at the top of the page to see the archived threads. You can sort the list of threads by date, subject and number of posts. As always, you can reply to an archived thread and it will get moved out of the archives and back onto the main forum page.
Uploadable...
I'm looking for the archives and the post by Gary in this thread said that I could browse them by clicking on the archive link at the top of the page. I'm sorry but I can't find this archive link. Can someone advise me please as I would dearly love to find the archives.
Thanks
Trying to get this onto the current board.
Let me just say that I love your messageboards. I came here specifically for the Shackled City board, but have begun to browse around a bit and contribute elsewhere.
One thing I'd love to see implemented is the ability to subscribe to certain threads so I can be notified when someone has posted a reply. It's quite a pain searching all the topics, and remembering where I posted in the past.
Keep up the great work!
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Chief Technical Officer
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I'm looking for the archives and the post by Gary in this thread said that I could browse them by clicking on the archive link at the top of the page. I'm sorry but I can't find this archive link.
It turned out that the manner in which we were making the archive browsable was causing major performance problems for the whole site, so we temporarily turned it off. Gary has come up with a better way to do it, but hasn't had time to implement it yet.
-Vic.
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I'm looking for the archives and the post by Gary in this thread said that I could browse them by clicking on the archive link at the top of the page. I'm sorry but I can't find this archive link. Can someone advise me please as I would dearly love to find the archives.
Thanks
I found this one by typing 'archive' into the search box.
Don't know if this has got them all (4 threads and 56 posts). I suspect not...?
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Chief Technical Officer
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I'm looking for the archives and the post by Gary in this thread said that I could browse them by clicking on the archive link at the top of the page. I'm sorry but I can't find this archive link. Can someone advise me please as I would dearly love to find the archives.
Thanks
I found this one by typing 'archive' into the search box.
Don't know if this has got them all (4 threads and 56 posts). I suspect not...?
That would be just the threads and posts that contain the word "archive."
There's still no browsability for the archive at the moment—just searching.
-Vic.
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