El-Hazard Online
General => El-Hazard Online => Topic started by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on November 07, 2004, 11:11:33 pm
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Sorry guys. -_- My backing up just isn't frequent enough, I guess. For anyone who's new to this, my host occasionally goes into a "lockdown" mode where the backup partition of their server maxes out and all disk writes fail in a destructive manner, by zeroing out files. Such as the board index, which results in the 0 / 0 / NA forum headers and could destroy your accounts if you modify them during the lockdown period through profile modifications and whatnot. It's the only problem I've had with an otherwise great cheap host. Note, for example, that the major parts of the site fortunately continue to work just fine. But we're missing recent posts and other threads have inaccurate post counts which will cause display errors and it's very tedious for me to have to go through and correct them by hand.
But this is becoming a hassle to keep up with the forum during crash times. So I'm asking you all -- would you like a seperation of the forum from the main site onto a different server? (I'll probably just use my personal webserver I maintain for avatars and whatnot.) If so, here's the major problem: Accounts of the site will be very difficult to keep in sync with the forum (across two different servers), so there probably will no longer be any way of using shared accounts between forum and site. So I'm thinking of revising our current systems and I'd like your input:
My idea is something like I run a forum which is just a forum; your accounts exist there as forum accounts and that's that. But should I have seperate site accounts? Or should I just allow all files universal access? I mean, I do have 100GB transfer per month, and at most we usually only get up to maybe ... 2GB per month. ^^; So maybe I shouldn't worry about it like I used to. Plus I don't El-Hazard is that popular right now that the following would occur -- I'm just afraid of someone out there linking to my site as a place to get goodies (where I imagine a surge of interest for free goodies could overload the transfer). It'd also deprecate the MrWhat-powered Fujisawa Exam, which just isn't nice. (Obviously I could find other use for that, though. If nothing else, a status on the would-be new forum.)
Admittedly, this YaBB is also, by a technical standpoint, kind of archaic. This could be a chance to move up to a newer, better forum type if you wish.
So... discuss. And hope we don't have a disk lockdown again any time soon before this is resolved. ^^;
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I don't know if I have a direct answer for this problem, but let me try to describe what I like and what I want, off the top of my head.
I check the forums and the Picture Of The Moment regularly. I glance at the EHOL home/index page when I remember to do it, maybe once every week or two. I've already pillaged most of the goodies on the site, and so I haven't used any other part of the site for some time.
I know the POTM suffers from low participation, but I'd like to see it continued. And maybe some extra goodies like ratings could be added to it, when Real Life allows. I have no problem at all with separate logins for POTM and the forums. If forum usernames and POTM/site usernames are separate, that might make it easier for you to purge one-time leechers and other dormant accounts from POTM and the site.
No worries about the Fujisawa Exam, on my end. It was fun, but it was honestly something that I just threw together as quickly as I could. Making DLs freely available to all is your call, but as you said, we could probably think of some other "prize" for passing the exam. (I think we've talked about giving users their own EHOL home pages. Maybe passing the Fujisawa Exam could give a user their very own El-Hazard page or mini-site to play with.)
Can we keep the EHOL Round Robin in some editable format? Maybe migrate the three topics to a new message board? I signed off on it, but I've had a couple of ideas for it since then. Just maybe, it could come back someday...
I like the YaBB message boards. I would like EHOL to keep YaBB, or to move to something with a similar look/feel, if at all possible. (I gave up on Anime On DVD for a few reasons, but one was that I found their message boards almost unusable. And please, no message boards that lock you out of your own posts after a certain time. I quit Sake, Bugs and Angels before I really got started there, because I refuse to post where I can't edit or delete my older posts.)
An unrelated thought, and a low priority, but I've been meaning to ask for some time. Do the newer YaBB versions support RSS feeds? It'd be nice to have an EHOL RSS feed for LiveJournal. Again, not needed at all, but a "wish list" item. Maybe something to think about while considering a new message board.
That's all that comes to mind, at the moment. It's very late on a Sunday night, and I still have stuff to do. (Who needs sleep?) I'll post again if I think of anything else.
Thanks again for all your work, Bob. At this point, I've written off 2004, but I'll try to get back to Japanese translations and some other stuff, next year.
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I know the POTM suffers from low participation, but I'd like to see it continued. And maybe some extra goodies like ratings could be added to it, when Real Life allows. I have no problem at all with separate logins for POTM and the forums. If forum usernames and POTM/site usernames are separate, that might make it easier for you to purge one-time leechers and other dormant accounts from POTM and the site.
I considered PotM in the equation but forgot to mention it. I think it ought to remain linked to the forum logins for ease of identification between forum posters and their respective image responses. In other words, if the forum is removed from here and placed elsewhere, PotM comes with it and is updated if need be.
But I would indeed like to flush out all my dud accounts. In fact, here's a POSSIBLE layout if I continue site accounts seperate from forum accounts: Registration for site goodies requires passing the exam. Then we just worry about lockdown when people try to register. ;P
Can we keep the EHOL Round Robin in some editable format? Maybe migrate the three topics to a new message board? I signed off on it, but I've had a couple of ideas for it since then. Just maybe, it could come back someday...
I know some other forums offer conversion packages that can convert the posting formats of one popular board to another. If we change from YaBB anyway.
I like the YaBB message boards. I would like EHOL to keep YaBB, or to move to something with a similar look/feel, if at all possible.
I generally like YaBB, but there are a few quirks about it that have always irritated me. For one, I don't think HTML is so dangerous that it should be permenantly disabled. Some side effects of this are evident when people post things they type in MS Word and they get filled with special coded characters that appear as corrupt garbage, for example.
In all honesty, my current favorite forum type is PHPBB, which hosts The Moogle Cavern, an unrelated forum/site I frequent. Of course, I know the webmaster performed a lot of mods to it, so maybe it's not really as nice as he has it setup. I currently don't know any PHP so... that'd be a tough thing to start out with. ^^;
But, of course, it's a ton easier to just stick with the YaBB I'm already using, so if changing to another forum type isn't popular I won't push it.
I gave up on Anime On DVD for a few reasons, but one was that I found their message boards almost unusable.
I don't know what theirs are like, but I know I've seen some really bad layouts. Don't worry; I'm quite fond of the style used on YaBB and PHPBB, with the thread/message stack type views they both use.
And please, no message boards that lock you out of your own posts after a certain time. I quit Sake, Bugs and Angels before I really got started there, because I refuse to post where I can't edit or delete my older posts.
I completely agree. I would never utilize such a script, don't worry. :P
An unrelated thought, and a low priority, but I've been meaning to ask for some time. Do the newer YaBB versions support RSS feeds? It'd be nice to have an EHOL RSS feed for LiveJournal. Again, not needed at all, but a "wish list" item. Maybe something to think about while considering a new message board.
RSS feeds aren't listed as a feature of current YaBB, so I'm guessing not. I'm also somewhat unfamiliar with the term... care to give me an example of what you want?
Thanks again for all your work, Bob. At this point, I've written off 2004, but I'll try to get back to Japanese translations and some other stuff, next year.
No problem. I'm stuck on a big project right now, so this site has suffered from some slack. So it's a combined non-effort at the moment. ^^;
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I personally wouldn't mind a seperation of site and forums. As long as all the wonderful El-Hazard content isn't going anywhere ;) Big props to you and the other site creators for creating the best El-Hazard site on the web
SmkViper decides to stop with the blatent suck-up ;D
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Bwah hah ha! What timing! I had just posted a major out-of-character rant (yes, I do speak out of character, albeit rarely) a few days ago in response to the election. Less than a day later, BAM! It's deleted. I guess the Universe just isn't ready to see me take off the Jinnai mask.
Anyway, as for the change, I'm for whatever you guys are up for. I like YABB myself, but if you think that there's a better way to go then I support your decisions. I still post at an EzBoards forum, for God's sake. You can tell that forum types don't really matter to me, as long as the conversations and the people I talk to are fun and interesting. And this place has fun and interesting by the bucketloads.
Of course, if you for some reason decide to switch to EzBoards, I'm afraid I'm going to have to order MASS HANGINGS. Yes, I said MASS HANGINGS.
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I agree with Mr. What. As long as one is able to edit and delete one's own posts and the messageboard isn't too unfriendly, I probably won't mind any changes.
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RSS feeds aren't listed as a feature of current YaBB, so I'm guessing not. I'm also somewhat unfamiliar with the term... care to give me an example of what you want?
Soitenly. Here's the RSS page for the Yahoo! Groups El-Hazard Fan Club, with a brief explanation of RSS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/el-hazard/rss
If you click the RSS link at the bottom of that page, you get raw unformatted XML in your browser. You can use RSS links in stand-alone RSS newsreader programs, or browser plugins, to link to the most recent updates to syndicated sources-- although, in my past experience, RSS newsreaders were kinda primitive, and a well-organized set of bookmarks works just as well for me. The technology may be more useful by now.
But you can also aggregate RSS sources. For example, here's a LiveJournal feed of the EHFC:
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=el_hazard_feed
Each weblog system is a little different, but if you "friend" that feed in LJ, then EHFC posts appear in your LJ "friends" page, along with all your other subscribed feeds, as if they all came from one place.
I just Googled "RSS YaBB," and I found some possible add-in type things, such as RSS Feed v1.0 (http://www.mineralarts.com/yabbsphelp/RSSFeedHelp.html).
DISCLAIMER: This has become temporarily irrelevant to me, as I've become sick and tired of the whole weblog thing, and I've moved all my LiveJournal bookmarks to an archived list, and I've sworn off for at least a few weeks.
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Bwah hah ha! What timing! I had just posted a major out-of-character rant (yes, I do speak out of character, albeit rarely) a few days ago in response to the election. Less than a day later, BAM! It's deleted.
Is the whole topic gone? I hope so. I've had to deal with the damn politics at work, on the radio, on LiveJournal, everywhere. This past weekend, I even had to discuss politics with my 75YO mother, fer cryin' out loud.
It's Bob's show, and he (or anyone else) can use any kind of avatar, of course. But pleeeeze. EHOL is one of my favorite refuges from reality, and talking politics here feels like driving a Caterpillar D9R (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Bulldozer) through a Pfaltzgraff (http://www.pfaltzgraff.com/) display case.
Of course, if you for some reason decide to switch to EzBoards, I'm afraid I'm going to have to order MASS HANGINGS. Yes, I said MASS HANGINGS.
On the other hand, I submit that, in this case, the Pure Evil Genius of our Lord God Jinnai doesn't go far enough. EzBoards are awful. If EHOL comes within a parsec of an EzBoard, then BITS WILL BE CUT OFF (http://echoalpha.com/wacky/Scissors_800x600.jpeg) prior to the MASS HANGINGS. And there will also be INJECTIONS (http://echoalpha.com/wacky/BlueOrRed_640x480.jpeg).
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Is the whole topic gone? I hope so. I've had to deal with the damn politics at work, on the radio, on LiveJournal, everywhere. This past weekend, I even had to discuss politics with my 75YO mother, fer cryin' out loud.
I imagine. ^^; Well, it's not -gone-, but it's become lost and would need a manually reconstructed index entry. Oh well. Perhaps it's best to let it rest.
EHOL is one of my favorite refuges from reality, and talking politics here feels like [much pain]
Fair enough. I'll definitely leave it go, then. My avatar will probably change eventually. I tend to get bored with any theme. :P
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By the by, speaking of the EHOL Round Robin... I was wondering if anyone would be interested seeing this thing in fanfiction format? Each post shall be seperated, the poster credited for each submission, minus all the non-story elements like OOC notices and such. We can then post it up at Fanfiction.net or some other story site (maybe even on EHOL itself) for the pleasure of the plebian masses to read.
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By the by, speaking of the EHOL Round Robin... I was wondering if anyone would be interested seeing this thing in fanfiction format? Each post shall be seperated, the poster credited for each submission, minus all the non-story elements like OOC notices and such. We can then post it up at Fanfiction.net or some other story site (maybe even on EHOL itself) for the pleasure of the plebian masses to read.
I have no objections. In fact, it had been a long-standing fancy of mine to suggest exactly such a thing. I wasn't going to until I had mustered up the time and devotion to actually DO such a thing. Which never actually happened. :P
If someone ELSE wants to do the work, though, by all means, be my guest! ^_^V
As for other topics here:
Political discussion = bad
ezboards = bad
seperation of main page from forums = okay
Mass Hangings = family entertainment
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By the by, speaking of the EHOL Round Robin... I was wondering if anyone would be interested seeing this thing in fanfiction format?
There's so much going on in this topic that I can barely keep up with my responses.
Actually, when I wrote all that Creepy Experimental Fan Service, I was thinking that hardly anyone would read it, here, and that it wouldn't be republished elsewhere. But, what the heck. I'm learning to care less about what people might think about me. If the other "major players" would like to see the Round Robin on FF.Net, let's Make It So.
And I'll volunteer to do the heavy lifting, if you'll be patient with me. I've already started compiling a story-only version for my own use, awhile back, in-between bouts of real life panic. I'll continue this, as time allows, with the goal of posting it on FF.Net.
I think we've lost d.t., but I'd also like to have explicit permission from Rowan and Andrusi to republish it.
Okay with everyone to post it on FF.Net under my username? With credit to everyone else in the story description.
I'm also thinking about a couple of short stand-alone sequels after I finish the 800-pound gorilla Hana Ni Arashi. Sadly, I became a Pixy Misa fan a few months too late, and d.t.'s version of Yakage didn't get enough screen-time either. And if I can ever start cartooning again...
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I think we've lost d.t., but I'd also like to have explicit permission from Rowan and Andrusi to republish it.
Of all those names, Andrusi will be the easiest to get in contact with; if he doesn't reply here, he's a regular of Moogle Cavern. :P
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Okay with everyone to post it on FF.Net under my username? With credit to everyone else in the story description.
Hey, it's okay with me. You, for the most part, have been solely responsible for completing this monumental and massive work of fanfiction insanity and thusly deserve most of the credit. Without your fanatic devotion to seeing this work through, this little Round Robin story would never have seen finish.
Now if we can only convert it into an online doujinshi... hmmmmmmmm.....
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I think we've lost d.t., but I'd also like to have explicit permission from Rowan and Andrusi to republish it.
Doing so is fine with me. I've actually been hoping somebody would compile it so that it would be available outside the messageboard. I'm also kind of curious as to just how long the round robin is. It's been going on for...what, a year now with interjected periods of relative quiet?
Hey, it's okay with me. You, for the most part, have been solely responsible for completing this monumental and massive work of fanfiction insanity and thusly deserve most of the credit. Without your fanatic devotion to seeing this work through, this little Round Robin story would never have seen finish.
I agree. The contributions you've made to this round robin are astounding, and considering you've been a part of it from the beginning to the end it's only fair that you receive the most credit. Besides, you're probably the most recognizable one of us over at Fanfiction.net's El-Hazard section anyway.
Now if we can only convert it into an online doujinshi... hmmmmmmmm.....
:o :o :o
P.S. I'll try to have the epilogue posted before Thanksgiving. My apologies for taking so long.
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Sorry for my delayed response, I have no valid excuse. At any rate Bob, I think a forum/site separation would take care of the problem. Certainly, it would necessitate users setting up seperate accounts. But alot of sites now, especially BT trackers like Boxtorrents and Hongfire require seperate log-ins. And unless you have cookies disabled in your browser (or you log in frequently from a public or work computer), I don't see it as being much of a problem for users.
The latest version of YaBB has some cool features (and a few dumb ones like +/- Karma Points which are basically a tool for backbiting... but it can probably be disabled too), and you should be able to upgrade the forum to it w/o losing any posts or accounts.... in theory at least. I'm not sure how your h4x0r to the current forum would affect and upgrade though. ^^;
As far as offering content to non-members....... it's your call ultimately! You're the one who painstaking culled all of these El-Hazard trinkets from all over the place. The only thing I'll say is that making people sign up sort of encourages them to become part of the community (in theory at least, doesn't quite work that way on my site/forum). 100GB of bandwidth a month certainly is more than enough to cover it though! My gawd.....that's alot ::is jealous::
PHPBB is OK, but somehow it kinda rubs me the wrong way (reminds me of AnimeNation forums, I suppose). And Bob, I love ya man but if we go to EZBoards I'm commiting seppuku over a live web feed! J/K Do what you gotta do boss!
P.S. - POTM is an endless source of entertainment, please retain it if feasible!
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The latest version of YaBB has some cool features (and a few dumb ones like +/- Karma Points which are basically a tool for backbiting... but it can probably be disabled too), and you should be able to upgrade the forum to it w/o losing any posts or accounts.... in theory at least. I'm not sure how your h4x0r to the current forum would affect and upgrade though. ^^;
The posts themselves will translate fine... and if I'm removing tied site registration I can probably just use it vanilla... the only thing YaBB has never supported is my custom skinning. They only expect solid coloring. Of course, maybe something can be done using CSS tricks I'm not aware of...
The only thing I'll say is that making people sign up sort of encourages them to become part of the community (in theory at least, doesn't quite work that way on my site/forum).
In theory indeed. We have almost 600 site registrations... how many post here? :P
PHPBB is OK, but somehow it kinda rubs me the wrong way (reminds me of AnimeNation forums, I suppose).
It's OK. The option seems unpopular enough I won't bother. It was just a suggestion if anyone didn't like the YaBB... but I'm not getting that notion. ;)
And Bob, I love ya man but if we go to EZBoards I'm commiting seppuku over a live web feed!
Been there, man. I won't do that. I swear. :P
P.S. - POTM is an endless source of entertainment, please retain it if feasible!
Definitely. Since it's disk based and best tied to the forums, it'll probably just move along with it. At least the scripts will. I imagine the picture hosting can remain el-hazardonline.net specific.
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Sweeeeet.
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It's OK. The option seems unpopular enough I won't bother. It was just a suggestion if anyone didn't like the YaBB... but I'm not getting that notion. ;)
Well, I'm quite a fan of phpBB myself- It's just so customisable, and you can conceivably base an entire site around it (hence maintaining a unified login system). The decision's yours, of course, but I thought I'd speak up in favour of my preferred system.
dooky
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I've already started compiling a story-only version for my own use, awhile back, in-between bouts of real life panic. I'll continue this, as time allows, with the goal of posting it on FF.Net.
I just spent about six hours trying to post the EHOL Round Robin to FanFiction.Net, with one turn per chapter.
Apparently, FF.Net does not support stories longer than 200 chapters. And apparently, FF.Net does not offer a warning when a story exceeds this limit. The story simply disappears.
I went to the Help page (http://www.fanfiction.net/support/) for an e-mail address to request recovery of my incomplete story, if possible. I got this message:
FanFiction.Net's Support System is currently offline while a new version is created and installed.
And then, I got this message via e-mail.
MrWhat,
Title: "The El Hazard Online Round Robin"
[cut]
Main reason for removal: "''"
the above story has been removed because it violated the guideline detailed on the upload page.
This infraction has been recorded and once you reach a certain limit, your account be automatically banned. Moreover, as a result of this infraction, you will not have upload access for a period of time.
I've been locked out of my account until January 9th, literally for no reason.
On January 10th, I will delete my fan fiction from FanFiction.Net. Between their asinine upload filters (exactly why is it necessary to filter out asterisks and underscores?), their shoddy treatment of some fan-fiction friends of mine (here's the latest example (http://www.livejournal.com/users/geoduck/47344.html)), and this, I've had enough.
I still have a nice clean story-only version of the Round Robin. I'll put it on echoalpha.com, and I'll look into MediaMiner.org (http://mediaminer.org/) and the Tenchi Muyo! archive (http://tmffa.com/) (I think there's enough TM! content to slide it in there) as time allows, and after I've cooled down.
If someone else wants to post it to The Pit Of Voles, then they can copy my work from echoalpha.com, and they can deal with those damn-fool user-hostile idiots themselves.
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I just spent about six hours trying to post the EHOL Round Robin to FanFiction.Net, with one turn per chapter.
Apparently, FF.Net does not support stories longer than 200 chapters. And apparently, FF.Net does not offer a warning when a story exceeds this limit. The story simply disappears.
I went to the Help page (http://www.fanfiction.net/support/) for an e-mail address to request recovery of my incomplete story, if possible. I got this message:
And then, I got this message via e-mail.
I've been locked out of my account until January 9th, literally for no reason.
On January 10th, I will delete my fan fiction from FanFiction.Net. Between their asinine upload filters (exactly why is it necessary to filter out asterisks and underscores?), their shoddy treatment of some fan-fiction friends of mine (here's the latest example (http://www.livejournal.com/users/geoduck/47344.html)), and this, I've had enough.
I still have a nice clean story-only version of the Round Robin. I'll put it on echoalpha.com, and I'll look into MediaMiner.org (http://mediaminer.org/) and the Tenchi Muyo! archive (http://tmffa.com/) (I think there's enough TM! content to slide it in there) as time allows, and after I've cooled down.
If someone else wants to post it to The Pit Of Voles, then they can copy my work from echoalpha.com, and they can deal with those damn-fool user-hostile idiots themselves.
What a buncha a**holes. Ima delete my (small) work too, I dun want to support a site that ends up treating its users like dirt...
I'm sorry you hadta go through that.
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(Pardon the thread-jack in progress.) My story-only near-text-only back-up of the Round Robin is here, if anyone wants it:
http://echoalpha.com/fanfic/EHOLRR.html
I deleted about two-and-a-half of my "scenes," and I tweaked a few other bits of mine, but hopefully, I didn't foul-up anyone else's replies. Let me know if I need to fix anything. There might still be a few fonts and things that need to be cleaned up.
Again, my compliments to the other writers. If you sit down and read this thing from beginning to end, it all comes together really nicely.
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FYI, I've chosen NOT to move this forum to my other server... since I'll probably be off to a big ol' university by next fall (God willing) and at that point probably won't pay for the DSL that runs said server... so, you're stuck here for a while. I'll just have to come up with a better backup routine. ;)
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Well, works for me! Better than having no EHOL forum at all. Good luck at Univ Bob!
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Well, works for me! Better than having no EHOL forum at all. Good luck at Univ Bob!
... assuming firstly I get accepted and then "A way out of a financial mess is discovered as if by magic!" as foretold by my fortune cookie (acceptable student loans and whatnot) ... then, yes, I'll put your luck wish into a jar and open it when the time is right. :P