Where did Alpha Go? (read this)

Echo

Since I Rails, I'm totally offering my services for this software.

Älphämönkëy

Echo wrote:

Since I Rails, I'm totally offering my services for this software.

Hot. I think I will be starting something where interested rails types can get together and we can tackle this.

Älphämönkëy

FyreWulff wrote:

I'm looking forward to a forumized version of this software to use on my site.. that is, unless I get the money for vBB first.

My patience has run out with the phpBB developers.

Oh man, you don't know the half of it. phpBB was a good piece of software, and then poor leadership killed it. They are publicly commiting code again which is always a "good thing" but I think that project is essentially stalled in terms of innovation. Now do you want to switch to Opinion as well, or are you looking for my phpBB mods? vB is good as is Invision. I just don't want to deal with MySQL anymore, which is why I am leaving.

I imagine the jail system will come over, or will that be forgotten? (or added later on)

Still up in the air. I like the ability to remove a users BBCode / linking abilities. So we will see. Something comperable will be there.

autono-wally, erotibot300

ooh ajax.
me

redx

<.<

>.>

so are there any plans for an additional forum?

Henroid

redx wrote:

<.<

>.>

so are there any plans for an additional forum?

Additional?

redx

Henroid wrote:

redx wrote:

<.<

>.>

so are there any plans for an additional forum?

Additional?

well... sub forum. i was wondering if They were Thinking about adding a new sub forum.

Bionic Monkey

Since it sounds like everything is starting from scratch, will the user names transfer over? Or will we all need to reregister again?

EvilBadman

redx wrote:

Henroid wrote:

redx wrote:

<.<

>.>

so are there any plans for an additional forum?

Additional?

well... sub forum. i was wondering if They were Thinking about adding a new sub forum.

If they had a round Table one would assume that certain ideas would be at the Top of their lists. Possibly not since the thread was locked and given a hearty deathknell.

FyreWulff

alphamonkey wrote:

FyreWulff wrote:

I'm looking forward to a forumized version of this software to use on my site.. that is, unless I get the money for vBB first.

My patience has run out with the phpBB developers.

Oh man, you don't know the half of it. phpBB was a good piece of software, and then poor leadership killed it. They are publicly commiting code again which is always a "good thing" but I think that project is essentially stalled in terms of innovation. Now do you want to switch to Opinion as well, or are you looking for my phpBB mods? vB is good as is Invision. I just don't want to deal with MySQL anymore, which is why I am leaving.

I was just mostly wondering if the similar features would be present in the Opinion software. I really don't want to deal with phpBB anymore than I have to. If I can have those features in a free software, it'll let me stall time until I can get a vB license (or, if Opinion has just the right amount of features I need, I'll just forgo licensing vB)

Toast

EvilBadman wrote:

redx wrote:

Henroid wrote:

redx wrote:

<.<

>.>

so are there any plans for an additional forum?

Additional?

well... sub forum. i was wondering if They were Thinking about adding a new sub forum.

If they had a round Table one would assume that certain ideas would be at the Top of their lists. Possibly not since the thread was locked and given a hearty deathknell.

Yeah, that thread getting locked? That was probably a hint.

Älphämönkëy

Toast wrote:

EvilBadman wrote:

redx wrote:

Henroid wrote:

redx wrote:

<.<

>.>

so are there any plans for an additional forum?

Additional?

well... sub forum. i was wondering if They were Thinking about adding a new sub forum.

If they had a round Table one would assume that certain ideas would be at the Top of their lists. Possibly not since the thread was locked and given a hearty deathknell.

Yeah, that thread getting locked? That was probably a hint.

Yeah yeah. I'll get there you mooks. Knock it off in this thread though.

EvilBadman

Love ya, you aplhiest of the monkies

redx

Bionic Monkey wrote:

Since it sounds like everything is starting from scratch, will the user names transfer over? Or will we all need to reregister again?

Much much more importantly, will my join date carry over?

rails still does sql, I don't see why they would not just keep that infromation in the old format and just use the same Db. I doubt much of the load is coming from storing the user info.


err... right?

Jasconius

Dear Alpha


Can we please bring back Social Devastation for the week prior to the shutting down of the current forums.

It would be so good.

Slungsolow

I'm up for learnin me some rails.

now I just have to get this installation running on this computer again.

Joeslop

Jasconius wrote:

Dear Alpha


Can we please bring back Social Devastation for the week prior to the shutting down of the current forums.

It would be so good.

I heartily endorse this.

Pheezer

alphamonkey wrote:

The largest webforum around, based on http://rankings.big-boards.com/ has 3400867 members in total, but gets by with phpBB 2.

That's gaiaonline. To say that they use phpBB2 is somewhat of an exaggeration. They started with phpBB2, and basically rewrote every SQL query. They also use a server farm to host their stuff. They have replication of databases like you wouldn't believe and a host of linux webservers up front. Last time I talked with Lanzer they basically had an entire set of racks devoted to them. A lot of the optimizations we use he developed, and I'm fairly confident he is using a few of my hacks as well.

Neat, I was unaware of that. Well, it looks pretty non-standard, but I didn't realize that it was just about completely re-vamped.

I mean, we don't even have the google adsense ads anymore, so the forums provide no revenue for Penny Arcade.

I actually forgot about those being removed. They slip into some kind of magical Internet blindspot for me automatically.

Midshipman

Man, I am really sad to see the search feature indefinitely removed (who knows how long before we have switched over to the new forum). Penny-Arcade has the best forum interface that I've ever used and the fact that it is being crippled and then eventually reworked is depressing. I regularly use the search feature and have missed it every time it was temporarily unavailable. I would seriously be willing to kick in some money if it meant getting the search feature back within a relatively short period of time.

alphamonkey wrote:

Yup. Robert has offered to buy us software and even a bit of hardware if it would make things easier, but again, my priority in terms of speed is the mainsite.

I guess our priorities are at odds. I couldn't really care less if the main page was slow or even frequently down. I care much more about the forums.

Captain K

I mean, we don't even have the google adsense ads anymore, so the forums provide no revenue for Penny Arcade.

I actually forgot about those being removed. They slip into some kind of magical Internet blindspot for me automatically.[/quote]
I've never really understood why we got rid of them. They never bothered me at all, and I imagine they must have helped to manage at least some of the costs of maintaining the forums. Any chance they'll return? It would make me feel less guilty about being a constant burden on the PA coffers.

Älphämönkëy

Captain K wrote:

the pheez wrote:

I mean, we don't even have the google adsense ads anymore, so the forums provide no revenue for Penny Arcade.

I actually forgot about those being removed. They slip into some kind of magical Internet blindspot for me automatically.

I've never really understood why we got rid of them. They never bothered me at all, and I imagine they must have helped to manage at least some of the costs of maintaining the forums. Any chance they'll return? It would make me feel less guilty about being a constant burden on the PA coffers.

One day Robert just told me to cut the adsense ads. So I did. I think it was because nobody was clicking on them. Seriously, the numbers were awful.

Henroid

alphamonkey wrote:

Captain K wrote:

the pheez wrote:

I mean, we don't even have the google adsense ads anymore, so the forums provide no revenue for Penny Arcade.

I actually forgot about those being removed. They slip into some kind of magical Internet blindspot for me automatically.

I've never really understood why we got rid of them. They never bothered me at all, and I imagine they must have helped to manage at least some of the costs of maintaining the forums. Any chance they'll return? It would make me feel less guilty about being a constant burden on the PA coffers.

One day Robert just told me to cut the adsense ads. So I did. I think it was because nobody was clicking on them. Seriously, the numbers were awful.

To be fair, a lot of the ads weren't exactly leading to the most legal or moral of things. We've got a lot of under 18 users.

redx

Henroid wrote:

alphamonkey wrote:

Captain K wrote:

the pheez wrote:

I mean, we don't even have the google adsense ads anymore, so the forums provide no revenue for Penny Arcade.

I actually forgot about those being removed. They slip into some kind of magical Internet blindspot for me automatically.

I've never really understood why we got rid of them. They never bothered me at all, and I imagine they must have helped to manage at least some of the costs of maintaining the forums. Any chance they'll return? It would make me feel less guilty about being a constant burden on the PA coffers.

One day Robert just told me to cut the adsense ads. So I did. I think it was because nobody was clicking on them. Seriously, the numbers were awful.

To be fair, a lot of the ads weren't exactly leading to the most legal or moral of things. We've got a lot of under 18 users.

I think they were worth keeping around to ridicule, even without the revenue. Some of the matches were pretty entertaining.

FyreWulff

I'm suprised there wasn't some sort of advertising that forumers could pay for, to advertise things. But then again, it probably wouldn't still be enough to really matter.

Älphämönkëy

FyreWulff wrote:

I'm suprised there wasn't some sort of advertising that forumers could pay for, to advertise things. But then again, it probably wouldn't still be enough to really matter.

ala somethingawful? I've thought about it, but that would take a lot of time on my part...

Dog

Slungsolow wrote:

I'm up for learnin me some rails.

now I just have to get this installation running on this computer again.

I've been wanting to learn RoR ever since the first time Alpha told me about it. Problem is, I can't seem to find any decent online tutorials and I don't want to drop $50 on a book for something I might not ever use.

Anyone know of any good tutorials for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Ruby?

redx

I'm currently reading through

Rolling with Ruby on Rails

kinda simple, but it seems like a good enough place to start.

Programming Ruby
The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide

I'll starting on that in a bit.


so, um... What sort of Licenes does RoR have? I am consdiering this "research" for my job.

Ledneh

A wee bit off topic, but this Rails stuff is super duper sexy. I wish I'd known of it a few months ago, to be honest, would have helped one of my little personal programming projects.

If you start programming bounties when the new system goes up I'll definitely try my hand :^:

Slungsolow

SeñorAmor wrote:

Slungsolow wrote:

I'm up for learnin me some rails.

now I just have to get this installation running on this computer again.

I've been wanting to learn RoR ever since the first time Alpha told me about it. Problem is, I can't seem to find any decent online tutorials and I don't want to drop $50 on a book for something I might not ever use.

Anyone know of any good tutorials for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Ruby?

I've been using my iMac to learn, so I just went right to the ADC. I am pretty sure that there are other tutorials out there. Not exactly sure what is best. I did buy the book, but it won't be here for a few more days.

Ballman

I have a small request for the new forums. I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but I think a "Goto page ___" or "Goto post ___" feature would be very nice to have, and could actually reduce the connection load some (think someone that wants to go to page 25 of a thread, but instead has to start from either end and work their way back, loading each page in between).

If this is already possible and I just haven't found it, feel free to ridicule me.

The Celestial

Ballman wrote:

I have a small request for the new forums. I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but I think a "Goto page ___" or "Goto post ___" feature would be very nice to have, and could actually reduce the connection load some (think someone that wants to go to page 25 of a thread, but instead has to start from either end and work their way back, loading each page in between).

If this is already possible and I just haven't found it, feel free to ridicule me.

There's a way to do it now, but it requires math. Just go to the last page of a a thread, look up at the address and change that last number to the post you want. 25 posts a page.

Which is another idea (shamelessly stolen from Librarium-Online, no idea what system they use). It would be nice to have a "posts per page" option in our profiles for those of use who are really lazy and don't like clicking next page.

Älphämönkëy

The Celestial wrote:

Ballman wrote:

I have a small request for the new forums. I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but I think a "Goto page ___" or "Goto post ___" feature would be very nice to have, and could actually reduce the connection load some (think someone that wants to go to page 25 of a thread, but instead has to start from either end and work their way back, loading each page in between).

If this is already possible and I just haven't found it, feel free to ridicule me.

There's a way to do it now, but it requires math. Just go to the last page of a a thread, look up at the address and change that last number to the post you want. 25 posts a page.

Which is another idea (shamelessly stolen from Librarium-Online, no idea what system they use). It would be nice to have a "posts per page" option in our profiles for those of use who are really lazy and don't like clicking next page.

If someone makes a "goto page ___" I would put that in the code. I have other things to develop first though

The "posts per page" option won't happen for scaling reasons.

Älphämönkëy

SeñorAmor wrote:

Slungsolow wrote:

I'm up for learnin me some rails.

now I just have to get this installation running on this computer again.

I've been wanting to learn RoR ever since the first time Alpha told me about it. Problem is, I can't seem to find any decent online tutorials and I don't want to drop $50 on a book for something I might not ever use.

Anyone know of any good tutorials for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Ruby?

Here is the order I did things in (electronically) :
http://www.rubyonrails.org/screencasts
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/20/rails.html
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/03/03/rails.html
http://www.slash7.com/articles/2005/01/24/really-getting-started-in-rails
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/06/09/rails_ajax.html
http://www.rails4days.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Rails4Days.pdf
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/

Personally I've been using the two books for a long time now and they really have made a world of difference. I was lucky as I had a mentor I could harass with questions.

Deusfaux

so alpha its not quite clear - do you want feature requests NOW or after the move?

redx

Deusfaux wrote:

so alpha its not quite clear - do you want feature requests NOW or after the move?

mabey once he gets the beta site thing up? Like, kinda a happy medium between bothering him when he is busy and before stuff is all locked down.

Like, seems like he might be kinda busy just doing bug fixes. Like, Opinion, probably does not have a post timer and some other features the a forum would need.

The Celestial

Well, I'm going to throw in one more request stolen from Librarium...

A check mark next to threads that we have posted in or are following. G&T moves hella fast and there's only a few threads that I'm interested in posting/viewing.

I realize we have the "Watch this topic for replies" option, but does that even work?

Jasconius

It doesn't.


There are some forum softwares that let you do that via a CP, and that is something I would like too.

The Celestial

Jasconius wrote:

It doesn't.


There are some forum softwares that let you do that via a CP, and that is something I would like too.

I'm not associated with their website at all, so don't take this as site-whoring. But does anyone know what software they use at Librarium-Online? I've really taken a liking to it over the years with the code they've put into it.

Jasconius

vbulletin, which is supposedly the uber mega.

redx

so... we are going a head with recomendations?

ok, well I'm just going to throw this out there. Lots of people like random sigage and avatars, right?

If you are regiggering the user info database anyway, couldn't you just do something like userdata.sig.1.sigdata instead of userdata.sig.sigdata and that way, if somewhere down the line, out of the kindness of your heart you felt like adding it, you could. (edit:seems like you would also want to add one of them niffty cashe_counter jobbies, to keep track of how many there are. Ruby seems nicely equiped to add things later to a database, and you could just increment it with the script you might eventual add, but... err... for some reason that does not seem like the bestest way to do it. )

Like, you could just let people access sig.2 and sig.3, and randomly pick one.

meh, or not.

I honestly know fuck all about this stuff, but it seems like a good idea in my head.