LegendBegins

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Mahz Could you perhaps clarify the download and install instructions on github? Unless there's a random error that isn't allowing mine to install, but because I could only assume that I am supposed to run node.exe, and enter the commands shown on the instructions list, I attempted to execute the shown commands, and only received an error. If you could either make the tutorial more in-depth, or name the directories that the necessary files are located, it would be greatly appreciated, as it isn't currently clear what downloaders are supposed to execute. Though, I haven't used github before, nor worked collaboratively on a programming project as large as the Guild as a patcher, so perhaps that's tied with it. Though if it is, it would still be helpful to other contributers that are inexperienced with servers, github, or node installation. https://github.com/danneu/guild

Mahz's Dev Journal

Definitely. I'll trigger Twitter's Typeahead.js dropdown whenever you've typed the string "[@<letter>" into an editor. It's pretty slick. In other news, I'm almost done with the feature that tracks the forums and topics that users/guests are viewing. That allows me to bring back the "Off-Topic Discussion (17 Viewing)" numbers on the homepage and the "7 Users and 8 Guests are viewing this topic: Mahz, Genkai, Captain Jordan" on the topic view. I always loved that feature and it's been heavily requested. Makes the forum feel more alive.

@Mahz

I completely agree, and love that feature, myself.

That's quite fine, after all, any bugs would be easier to fix for one than both PMs and Mentions. And fair enough. *nods* I did have a thought which is in regards to our PMs but when you do manage to get a proper Who's Online/Viewing This Thread (which I assume won't be for a few weeks or a month) is it possible to have people viewing the thread at the top, rather than below on bottom where it used to be? I was just thinking some people just go to certain threads to see if their partner(s) are reading the post/IC (which would be good to differentiate between which tab is being looked at, if possible) and rather than scroll down to see, it might be more convenient if those viewing were at the top than the bottom. But then again if it clutters the top too much, I understand. Just a thought.

@Genkai

Personally, I prefer it at the bottom, since it isn't particularly a primary part of a thread, but a nice addition to show the popularity or current viewership of a topic. Besides, if one topic has a hundred or so viewers, it could make the list quite noticeable.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Can't allow HTML/CSS without heavy pre-processing to enforce a whitelist of safe usage. Which is exactly what BBCode is.

@Mahz

I really would recommend against implementing code for HTML. No matter how many holes you cover up, someone will be able to break it; that system is too vulnerable.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Ah, yes, the question on the previous page reminds me. I'm in favor of resizing the arrow that links to the last page to make it bigger. It's difficult to click instead of the latest poster, at times, especially on mobile.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Well, if you wanted a temporary solution, I'm aware that some websites contain a border on the sides that scrolls down as you scroll down, and that shouldn't be memory intensive, and it would add art. The only reason I say "temporary" is because I think that auto-scrolling borders are a little bit unnerving to the eyes.

@LegendBegins

I don't like auto-scrolling borders. I like auto-scrolling panes like Facebook's chat or search bar, but I don't like cluttered edges on webpages.

@ravenDivinity

I don't like them either, but I did say "temporary."

Mahz's Dev Journal

( To give credit, @redPANDA made that mockup you're referring to) Implementing a skin is a big effort, but it's something I'd like to do soon. The guild right now is pretty ugly, though I reckon one of the biggest offenders is simply the weird, unrelated mix of greys and the lack of contrast between its dark colors. Example: Also, there are too many white elements that are just blinding against the darkness. Like code tags, the trim of the editor, and other random components that leave spots in my eyes. Sometimes I surf the guild with sunglasses on. I'm not really skilled enough with colors and design to run with redPANDA's mockup as it currently stands since they just stubbed out the homepage. I'd need help with other pages like convos and topics and posts and user-profiles. Though they might be down to stub the rest of those pages out. But, moreover, I'd need some feedback on whatever the next skin will be including feedback on redPANDA's ideas. I'm reluctant to put a few dozens of hours of effort into something that just one user and I came up with. A short-term idea is to aim for a less ambitious re-skin, just pick better colors that work with each other, and polish what we have. Like swap out the generic looking buttons with more stylistic buttons and weave a coherent style through it all. That's actually a quick iteration I might put a few hours of effort into this weekend. At least it's not so open-ended.

@Mahz

Well, if you wanted a temporary solution, I'm aware that some websites contain a border on the sides that scrolls down as you scroll down, and that shouldn't be memory intensive, and it would add art. The only reason I say "temporary" is because I think that auto-scrolling borders are a little bit unnerving to the eyes.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Though speaking of Guild styles, are we ever going to implement the home page art that was submitted around page two or so? As for coding, as soon as I download the Guild onto a flash drive, I'll begin work as well.

Mahz's Dev Journal

I really hope that's not going to bite you in the ass once the database has accumulated a high amount of posts/convos. Deletes are going to be a bitch if that happens.

@Captain Jordan

It scales because it's incremental at the same cost whether there are 2 posts or 1,000,000 posts in the topic.

So it essentially generates "pages" based on the number of posts to display, while no true pages are being generated, but simply a number of posts to display before breaking forward, which is why you can't go back? Because there's theoretically no place to go back to?

@LegendBegins

Yeah, pretty much. If you hover over your "Next" button on recent-posts, you can see that it's passing in the ID of the last post on the current page. I could probably implement the "Previous" button as the inverse. Probably in the time I've been talking about it here.

@Mahz

Heh, nice hack, there. But yeah, you could just have it put the ID of the first post on the last of the current page.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?

@LegendBegins

The hack is that, unlike for posts and PMs, there are no pages for recent-posts and convos. I go through great length to get fast pagination for posts and PMs by monotonically increasing a number that starts at 0 for each post/PM in that topic/convo (I call it the post.idx and pm.idx). That way it's easy to calculate which range of idx to query from the database given a page number and the amount of posts/PMs to display per page. The database is fast at "WHERE idx > X AND idx < Y" queries. That system doesn't work as well for things with high churn like convos, so I'll see if I can get a previous-button working with the current hack.

Indeed, a simple javascript back would be an easy hack for the meantime.

@Captain Jordan

Oh man. Didn't think of that nasty hack which actually isn't that bad since a user is never deep-linking to a page of recent-posts or convos. It'll be my quick plan B if plan A sucks.

@Mahz

So it essentially generates "pages" based on the number of posts to display, while no true pages are being generated, but simply a number of posts to display before breaking forward, which is why you can't go back? Because there's theoretically no place to go back to?

Mahz's Dev Journal

No fun at all @Mahz. Hopefully it passes quickly! I was wondering if you could implement two things in the PM list. I've noticed there is a page forward button and one that takes you back to the first page. Do you think you could add another button so that we can go to the previous page (Now I think about it, it also applies to the recent posts on the userpage). Also, do you think you can bring back the PM count for each convo on the PM list? It was a helpful way for me to distinguish between convos with similar names and people involved.

@Kirra

1. I'll see about adding a "Previous" button for recent-posts and convos. That there's only a "Next" button is a bit of a performance hack since it's easy for the server to calculate. I didn't try to add a "Previous" button yet since I figured it wasn't so common for people to be iterating through history. But yeah, bit of a usability annoyance. 2. Haha, I didn't realize the convo message count wasn't displaying. Must've typo'd something. I will fix.

@Mahz

Would a back button be more difficult than telling the server to go to page - 1?