james3mg Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 Maybe you should make it possible to read public stories without login, so new users are able to get a taste of how this works, without having to register?/PascalI could, but...registration only takes 3 seconds and doesn't even require contact information or any kind of verification! Maybe I could have a random story or a snippet available on the login page as a preview, or maybe a basic synopsis of "What is this? including examples instead. Opinions, anyone? "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal257 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I could, but...registration only takes 3 seconds and doesn't even require contact information or any kind of verification! Maybe I could have a random story or a snippet available on the login page as a preview, or maybe a basic synopsis of "What is this? including examples instead. Opinions, anyone?Yeah, but thats what I meant. A new user should be given an overview of what the page/game is about and maybe what the community has done so far (story snippet/ random story)./Pascal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Yeah, but thats what I meant. A new user should be given an overview of what the page/game is about and maybe what the community has done so far (story snippet/ random story)./PascalAn overview is a good idea, and a title list of currently unfinished stories that can be participated in (if one registers).Registration only takes 3 seconds and doesn't even require contact information or any kind of verification!It's that simple and hassle free!Maybe I could have a random story or a snippet available on the login page as a preview, or maybe a basic synopsis of "What is this? including examples instead. Opinions, anyone?Maybe one really good story should be available to read without having to register (or the first half even ... so they have to register to finish reading it), plus some enticing snippets from others (i.e. unfinished stories, etc) would also be a good idea.I forgot to look, but do you also display the number of registered users on the Login/Register page? Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 An overview is a good idea, and a title list of currently unfinished stories that can be participated in (if one registers).Maybe one really good story should be available to read without having to register (or the first half even ... so they have to register to finish reading it), plus some enticing snippets from others (i.e. unfinished stories, etc) would also be a good idea.I forgot to look, but do you also display the number of registered users on the Login/Register page?Good ideas, thanks to you both. I'll work up some kind of 2:1 side-by-side layout below the login boxes, with a detailed overview (with graphics) on the left side, and a list of stories and active/total user count on the right. The Travian story that's proving fairly popular right now is actually developing quite well, and may make the perfect example/sample/teaser. Since this is all fairly simple, I may be able to release this along with my next revision, which will include user RSS feeds for notifications. "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Good ideas, thanks to you both. I'll work up some kind of 2:1 side-by-side layout below the login boxes, with a detailed overview (with graphics) on the left side, and a list of stories and active/total user count on the right. The Travian story that's proving fairly popular right now is actually developing quite well, and may make the perfect example/sample/teaser. Since this is all fairly simple, I may be able to release this along with my next revision, which will include user RSS feeds for notifications.Good stuff, and I've just added to 3 of the stories. Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 (edited) OK, those features have been included in version 1.0.0.11, which is now live! Also, the source code (which has been substantially updated and contains the new files necessary for the front page walkthrough information) has been uploaded and made available in the OP. Like the rest of the site, it's not graphically very smooth, but like I've said all along, I'm trying to get all the functional stuff up and running first, then I can make it look prettier One of the big new features is easy to miss; RSS feeds for every user have been added...in IE or FF (and probably others) the RSS feed icon will now light up once you're logged in, allowing you to subscribe to the feed which will give you the latest story updates without you having to check in. For now, this feature meets the need I wanted the e-mail functions for, so I'm putting those off 'till later (if ever). The RSS feeds do not require you to be logged in, to ensure reader compatability. Since there's nothing private in the feeds and it would be hard to "stumble across" someone else's feed address, I think this is the best way to do it. I think I've got the feed set up so it's not annoying. You'll see one item for each story you're subscribed to. When an update happens, the old item will go away and a new item will take its' place. That way, you don't have hundreds of redundant items. For stories you're not subscribed to, you'll only see a single item that the story exists, in case you want to contribute, and whenever a public story is finished, you'll see one item telling you it's available to read, whether you were subscribed or not (since you may want to read it anyway). Unless your feed reader caches old items (a la Outlook 2007), you shouldn't ever see more than one item per story at any given time. If you don't like it, don't subscribe That's the great thing about RSS feeds; they're opt-in. So use it if you want, and don't otherwise. As always, further feedback is always appreciated! I didn't get a story snippet on the front page in this update; I'm still trying to figure out how best to do that, and if I want to. Edited March 10, 2009 by james3mg "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 OK, those features have been included in version 1.0.0.11, which is now live! Also, the source code (which has been substantially updated and contains the new files necessary for the front page walkthrough information) has been uploaded and made available in the OP. Like the rest of the site, it's not graphically very smooth, but like I've said all along, I'm trying to get all the functional stuff up and running first, then I can make it look prettier One of the big new features is easy to miss; RSS feeds for every user have been added...in IE or FF (and probably others) the RSS feed icon will now light up once you're logged in, allowing you to subscribe to the feed which will give you the latest story updates without you having to check in. For now, this feature meets the need I wanted the e-mail functions for, so I'm putting those off 'till later (if ever). The RSS feeds do not require you to be logged in, to ensure reader compatability. Since there's nothing private in the feeds and it would be hard to "stumble across" someone else's feed address, I think this is the best way to do it.I think I've got the feed set up so it's not annoying. You'll see one item for each story you're subscribed to. When an update happens, the old item will go away and a new item will take its' place. That way, you don't have hundreds of redundant items. For stories you're not subscribed to, you'll only see a single item that the story exists, in case you want to contribute, and whenever a public story is finished, you'll see one item telling you it's available to read, whether you were subscribed or not (since you may want to read it anyway). Unless your feed reader caches old items (a la Outlook 2007), you shouldn't ever see more than one item per story at any given time.If you don't like it, don't subscribe That's the great thing about RSS feeds; they're opt-in. So use it if you want, and don't otherwise.As always, further feedback is always appreciated! I didn't get a story snippet on the front page in this update; I'm still trying to figure out how best to do that, and if I want to.Great Stuff .... or at least I'd probably think so if I could get to the page, but it seems the server is down again ... which happens a lot for me recently.Thanks for all your work again, on this nicely evolving project. Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 12, 2009 Author Share Posted March 12, 2009 Server has been restarted I wish I could figure out why that happens...if anyone feels like looking at the source code to find where it's hanging, I'd sure appreciate it! Otherwise, I'm going to have to build in logging stuff so I can figure out what's going on. "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 It's looking pretty good mostly. It's a little too wide for my 800 x 600 resolution (1.5 cm), and I think the right column should be half again as wide (everything looks too squashed. But hey, you've made a great effort ... I'm impressed. The other thing that effects me, is the size of the images you use. On my 56k dial-up connection, that page takes some time to finish loading. Maybe you could reduce the resolution and size of the images? Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 13, 2009 Author Share Posted March 13, 2009 (edited) It's looking pretty good mostly. It's a little too wide for my 800 x 600 resolution (1.5 cm), and I think the right column should be half again as wide (everything looks too squashed. But hey, you've made a great effort ... I'm impressed.The other thing that effects me, is the size of the images you use. On my 56k dial-up connection, that page takes some time to finish loading. Maybe you could reduce the resolution and size of the images?I'll look into it (I got your PM too)...thanks for the heads-up . I also noticed with your new story that my feed lists it as "ready for me to contribute again", rather than "has been started"...I'll confirm tomorrow on different account types and see if I can get that locked down correctly. Edit: I think it's an issue with admin-type accounts only, so it shouldn't affect most of the users. Pretty sure it's a check I built in when I thought that I would have users only see feeds for subscribed stories, and I wanted to make sure that admins saw all stories...but then when I changed my mind and allowed there to be notifications of new, unsubscribed stories, I never removed the admin check. Easy fix I'll just pick up in the next build. Edited March 13, 2009 by james3mg "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 I'll look into it (I got your PM too)...thanks for the heads-up . I also noticed with your new story that my feed lists it as "ready for me to contribute again", rather than "has been started"...I'll confirm tomorrow on different account types and see if I can get that locked down correctly. Edit: I think it's an issue with admin-type accounts only, so it shouldn't affect most of the users. Pretty sure it's a check I built in when I thought that I would have users only see feeds for subscribed stories, and I wanted to make sure that admins saw all stories...but then when I changed my mind and allowed there to be notifications of new, unsubscribed stories, I never removed the admin check. Easy fix I'll just pick up in the next build.Good Stuff!I just tried to check it out, but the usual has happened again! Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 16, 2009 Author Share Posted March 16, 2009 (edited) Good Stuff!I just tried to check it out, but the usual has happened again! Dang it. I can't figure out why it's doing that. It's been restarted again.I'll try to write another script that checks to see if the site is responding...something like every minute or so. If it's not responding, it'll then restart the service. We'll see if that works any better. I'll let you know when that's in place so you can let me know if doesn't respond any time after that.ThanksEdit: OK, I managed to get that script written, so *hopefully* there won't be any more issues. If that proves to be the case, I'll include the source for that script in the next source code dump. Though I'd still like to find the root cause, as simpler web servers I've written in AutoIt never had this issue. Let me know if you hit an error loading the site from here on out.I expect that I'll be able to finish the user control part of the admin page tomorrow, so I'll probably be updating and posting the server and latest code. I'll post here when I do. Edited March 17, 2009 by james3mg "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 17, 2009 Author Share Posted March 17, 2009 (edited) v1.0.0.12 is live and the source uploaded into the OP. This should fix all known issues to date, including file sizes of the graphics on the login page (files resized slightly to maintain a nearly equal width and saved as .gif files for better compression). It also includes user controls for admin accounts, and fixes the issue I mentioned a few posts ago with the xml feed showing incorrectly for admins. Maybe most importantly, I've rewritten and supplied the KeepAlive script so hopefully the server won't go unresponsive anymore. The first version was restarting the server every few minutes, whether it needed it or not. The new version seems to be working well so far, but let me know if you find an error page when trying to load the server, because it means I've got to find a new method for the KeepAlive script There are a number of new stories; please take a few minutes and contribute! Edit: I see I've netted a single star on this thread...is that a good thing or a bad thing? Edited March 17, 2009 by james3mg "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 v1.0.0.12 is live and the source uploaded into the OP. This should fix all known issues to date, including file sizes of the graphics on the login page (files resized slightly to maintain a nearly equal width and saved as .gif files for better compression). It also includes user controls for admin accounts, and fixes the issue I mentioned a few posts ago with the xml feed showing incorrectly for admins.Maybe most importantly, I've rewritten and supplied the KeepAlive script so hopefully the server won't go unresponsive anymore. The first version was restarting the server every few minutes, whether it needed it or not. The new version seems to be working well so far, but let me know if you find an error page when trying to load the server, because it means I've got to find a new method for the KeepAlive script There are a number of new stories; please take a few minutes and contribute! Edit: I see I've netted a single star on this thread...is that a good thing or a bad thing?Great, it loaded first go and reasonably quick, and is looking much better ... I wouldn't give the right column quite as much width though, as most of the detail is in the left one, and in my opinion the space on the right further down, makes the left column (full as it is) look a bit squashed/cramped (you could reduce width of the right column by a third maybe) ... unless of course you intend to add more to the right later, that will need the width.I didn't even think about giving you a star (never do most of the time), but I will now that you mention it. Thanks again for doing all this! Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Well I've been back, and logged in again ... no problemo, even added to some stories and started a new one. Pity we can't get the whip out, and get some of the others moving ... that gives me an idea for a Roman story. I must say I like how any new story get immediately displayed at the top of the story list ... Login page right column. Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 v1.0.0.13 is live, but is a small enough change I'll wait for the next version to post the source code. The big change is the addition of an announcement section of the login page, but I also modified the layout of the login page slightly, and made sure it is displaying consistently, no matter which of the four ways you view it (first time vs after invalid creds, and remembering vs not remembering your username). Going through that made me realize I need to streamline the login page codes...that will probably happen in the next version. It looks like so far there hasn't been any downtime since yesterday...we'll see if my band-aid will continue to work. "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 The site is looking pretty good now, though I suggest a buffer of a space (start & end of every line of text), so that it's not rammed right up against the margins. I was tempted to start another story, because I couldn't yet add any more to the existing ones, but I believe we have enough ongoing ones for now ... so come on everybody, write something so I can let my creative juices flow ... textual ones that is. Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLuvsU Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Very impressive, have signed up and started writing. [center][/center]Working on the next big thing.Currently Playing: Halo 4, League of LegendsXBL GT: iRememberYhslaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Very impressive, have signed up and started writing.Great!Let me be the first to welcome you!Now maybe, I can start adding more to some stories? Make sure brain is in gear before opening mouth! Remember, what is not said, can be just as important as what is said. Spoiler What is the Secret Key? Life is like a Donut If I put effort into communication, I expect you to read properly & fully, or just not comment. Ignoring those who try to divert conversation with irrelevancies. If I'm intent on insulting you or being rude, I will be obvious, not ambiguous about it. I'm only big and bad, to those who have an over-active imagination. I may have the Artistic Liesense to disagree with you. TheSaint's Toolbox (be advised many downloads are not working due to ISP screwup with my storage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james3mg Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 (edited) Version 1.0.0.14 has been released (source code linked in the OP) and is live on the server. HTML is now disabled in all fields except the admin's announcement box. The RSS feed will not be available from the login page anymore, since it was exposing the feed of the last active user. Most significantly, the length requirements are now enforced at the server level; you must contribute at least 5 words, and no more than 45 words. There is now no way around these requirements (previously, sending POST data straight over TCP instead of using a browser could post more than 45 words, and there was no minimum length requirement). I know TheSaint's original game required 3 words, but I thought I'd up that a little so that you couldn't ever read the entirety of a user's contribution until the story was closed. Besides, 3 words is awfully lazy We've got a few new users in the last few days, and actually have a few stories which are newly active again, so check it out again if you haven't recently! I think at this point that all significant avenues for abuse have been either closed or are easily fixed (users banned/deleted, etc), so I'm comfortable publicizing the game to a wider audience. I'm still working on a few enhancements which I'll release when they're ready. Most significantly, an in-game messaging system. But I still want to allow EDITS to posts, rather than blanket deletions, and open those options up to story owners (creators) as well as admins. By the way, except for two hours last night when part of my server's TCP stack freaked out, there has been no downtime in the last two weeks or so. Edited March 31, 2009 by james3mg "There are 10 types of people in this world - those who can read binary, and those who can't.""We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~Robert Wilensky0101101 1001010 1100001 1101101 1100101 1110011 0110011 1001101 10001110000101 0000111 0001000 0001110 0001101 0010010 1010110 0100001 1101110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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