26 Reply by corenominal

(22 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

The hangout has finished. It finished rather abruptly when my connection dropped. Apologies for that.

Anyhow it was good to have a chat and I would like to thank everybody who joined. Tonight's hangout was the second attempt at this and I think now is a good time to have a rethink. Personally, while I have really enjoyed the experience, I am not sure that the system provides an ideal environment for constructive conversations -- both hangouts suffered with audio problems and the text chat is quite basic. Also, I am conscious that some people are not overly happy with using a Google service and I would not like to think that anyone should feel excluded.

So, would it be better to drop the Google Hangouts in favour of holding monthly IRC meetings? I figure IRC will be a lot more accessible and it also has the advantage of being logged etc.

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27 Reply by corenominal

(22 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

Okay, the hangout has started. Please feel free to drop in and hang out smile

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28 Topic by corenominal

(22 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

Tonight, at ~1900 GMT, a #! Google+ Hangout will take place. It will be a public hangout and anyone is welcome to join. As with the last hangout, I am hoping it will take the form of a social gathering, with the option to discuss anything #! related.

The #! G+ page can be found at: https://plus.google.com/u/0/113530262282189325822/

I hope to see you there! smile

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29 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

Kuno wrote:

Login via myOpenID failed - probably because my "persona" was not personal enough...

The myOpenID service is strange. I have been using myOpenID for a good number of years (I even use it as a delegation service on my blog), but it took me a while to figure out that I needed to create a 'persona', before it would return my email address.

I can foresee myOpenID being a problem hmm

Go to forum: News & Announcements

30 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

johnraff wrote:
corenominal wrote:
johnraff wrote:

Another idea - how about adding gravatar support?

It should be working already? Hmm.

Ah is it because google+ don't use gravatars that I don't get one on #!? Maybe when there's a "settings" page it'll be fixed.

This is strange, it should be working. Gravatar support is totally independent and is not connected to the OpenID service you use. Are you sure you have a gravatar associated to your email address?

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31 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

lcafiero wrote:
corenominal wrote:

I will try to elaborate more in the coming weeks/months. The only other thing I wanted to mention is this, please do not expect any quick fixes. I am approaching this as a long-term/ongoing work in progress.

Anything some of us can help with (asks the guy who used to do documentation for Fedora . . . )?

Hey Larry smile I am hoping that there will be plenty of opportunities to help with improved documentation. As you are aware, good documentation can be the key to a successful project and this is something I would like the new site to excel at.

As stated, it is still early days for the new site, but it would be great to get your input and help as and when parts of the site go live. Thanks for the support! smile

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32 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

rhowaldt wrote:

^ indeed. what i'm wondering is 'how do other forums handle this stuff?'
is it a PunBB thing, or have people noticed this on other forums as well?
i'm not on that many forums, but the other one i use is IP.Board-based (which is non-free i think) and this issue is not there.

rhowaldt wrote:

not sure how all this technically works, but isn't it possible to just set a 'read'-flag for a user or something?

corenominal wrote:

Yes and no. In theory, anything is possible, but considerations have to be made for how intensive the operations will be. For relatively few users, not a huge deal, but would it scale?

still thinking about this too. correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't this just a matter of setting a 1 to a 0, so to speak? doesn't seem that intensive an operation to me?
(i might be wrong!)

Setting a flag is super easy, and yes, it is not overly intensive. However, looping through a table to read the flags for each topic/post can be quite intensive.

I agree that it is something to be looked at, but to be honest, it is not super-high on the agenda at the moment. If possible, I would like to try and avoid getting bogged down in details at this stage smile

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33 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

vicshrike wrote:
corenominal wrote:
scket wrote:

Just an idea, why not disable ads for accounts that have donated as certain amount? Might encourage donations!

I would be happy to code this, if there is enough interest smile

With a time limit?

Yes, a dollar for a minute of ad free browsing! tongue

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34 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

rhowaldt wrote:
corenominal wrote:
rhowaldt wrote:

not sure how all this technically works, but isn't it possible to just set a 'read'-flag for a user or something?

Yes and no. In theory, anything is possible, but considerations have to be made for how intensive the operations will be. For relatively few users, not a huge deal, but would it scale?

i personally find it very annoying to work with. the result is that i feel i need to read the forum-threads quick enough so it won't reset, which is not very comfortable. i'm curious to hear whether anyone else is running into this.

Not a real solution, but I tend to open the "New posts" page in a separate tab and work my through the links hmm

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35 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

zuperkoleoptera wrote:

Any ideas on 1st functional aspect (other than the registration) of the new site and when we should look into it?

And wouldn't be nice to create a new subject dedicated to the development of the new site, mayde under development or so?

Not really. It will be quite an organic process, with parts of the site going live as and when ready. With regards to documenting what is happening with the site, I am hoping to have something ready soon smile

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36 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

scket wrote:

Just an idea, why not disable ads for accounts that have donated as certain amount? Might encourage donations!

I would be happy to code this, if there is enough interest smile

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37 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

rhowaldt wrote:

not sure how all this technically works, but isn't it possible to just set a 'read'-flag for a user or something?

Yes and no. In theory, anything is possible, but considerations have to be made for how intensive the operations will be. For relatively few users, not a huge deal, but would it scale?

vicshrike wrote:

...and for the long term/work in progress bit,  were on Debian, right!

Right! big_smile

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38 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

rhowaldt wrote:

the only real issue i have with the forums is the way 'New posts' are handled. when i click on that, i get an overview of all the posts i haven't read. when i wait long enough, and click on 'New posts' again (without having clicked on any specific post), i get a different list where stuff i haven't read yet is being marked as 'read' based (apparently) on some amount of time. this sucks. this makes me miss posts etc. is this something i can expect to be changed in the future with the new setup? and has anyone else noticed this?

For sure, it is an interesting problem/issue. I am not sure it is possible to come up with a solution which suits everybody, but it is definitely an aspect we can work on smile

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39 Reply by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

VastOne wrote:

This will take quite an effort, we are here with you, whatever you need..

Thanks, buddy, appreciate it! smile

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40 Topic by corenominal

(45 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

Some people may know that I have started working on a new website for the project, but I have not really explained what I would like to achieve by doing this. Hopefully, this post will explain my thinking behind the idea.

So, 3 or 4 years ago, when I put together this existing site and forums, I did what many free software projects do; I tried to stitch together a bunch of web applications to make a site. I selected WordPress for the blog, PunBB for the forums and DokuWiki for the erm... wiki. I then wrapped them together as best I could with some custom pages and scripts for the front page and download pages etc.

I have never really been happy with this and I think the project and our community deserves better.

While the individual applications do their jobs, they do not work/play well together. For example, the blog, wiki and forums have 3 separate authentication systems. They also use 3 different mark-up languages, which sucks. There is no real cohesion at all. Also, if we wanted to introduce more services into the mix, such as a bug tracker, this would probably involve yet another authentication system, or some fugly hacks.

Now, I do not want this to turn into a total rant, so I should state that it is not all bad. Despite what I perceive as suckage, the site has fostered a most excellent community. I attribute this to 2 main factors:

  1. You guys rock!

  2. PunBB works really well. It is quick and easy to use and very reliable.

So, for the new website, I would like to emulate what PunBB does well, but without the added baggage which comes with using off-the-shelf software. I would also like to try and avoid how many sites, including this site, box-off different areas. For example, we currently have 'howto' guides on the wiki and on the forums. Why? We also have a blog for announcements, along with a forum named "News & Announcements". There is so much duplication of effort, it is unreal.

Now, I am fully prepared to hold my hands up and take the blame. While I could possibly claim ignorance in the beginning, I think I have known for a while that the current site has been far from ideal at serving our community. As the kids would say, it is suboptimal, and I want to fix this.

Anyhow, I think I have ranted enough for one post. I will try to elaborate more in the coming weeks/months. The only other thing I wanted to mention is this, please do not expect any quick fixes. I am approaching this as a long-term/ongoing work in progress. The new site will continue to run in parallel with this existing site for some time to come.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. I will do my best to answer.

Thanks for reading smile

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41 Reply by corenominal

(30 replies, posted in CrunchBang Talk)

pvsage wrote:

Installed with no problems on my system...

Same here smile

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42 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

Dave W. wrote:

What will happen to this site? Will we still be able to access the info?

Good question. I do not think I have tried to explain what I would like to achieve with the new site, yet. I will try and get some thoughts down and write a new post. smile

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43 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

ShadeOfHades wrote:

What about people who like to keep things sepperate? Those whom don't wish for everything to be interlinked?

I know I'm probably the odd one out here, but I'd prefer to keep things online sepperate and distinct. Not to have my time here in #! forums merged into my time in Google, or anything else.

Gah, I'm so bad at talking right now. Sorry for piping up. >_<

It is a valid concern, but all OpenID does is authenticate the user. The CrunchBang site only requests the email address from the OpenID provider, nothing more. Once the user is authenticated, there is no more communication. I hope this eases any worries you might have.

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44 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

corenominal wrote:
jpope wrote:

What about https://www.myopenid.com/ as an openid option?

Good one, I will look into it. I am not sure why I did not include it already, maybe there was an issue I have forgotten about. Hmm hmm

This is now supported. Note, I have found it a little flakey as a service. Also, anyone using myOpenID will be required to create a 'persona' on the myOpenID site and supply a valid email address. If a persona does not exists, the login will fail with a cutesy error message.

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45 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

johnraff wrote:

Another idea - how about adding gravatar support?

It should be working already? Hmm.

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46 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

lcafiero wrote:

It's not a strike issue, but is there some way to put the ad on the bottom? I'm probably in the minority on this one -- and I certainly don't want corenominal to go without -- but the ad is a kind of huge birthmark on the face of an otherwise beautiful page.

Yes, but it is not going to happen. I know the adverts suck, I do really, but the adverts and donations are my only source of income. Sorry sad

johnraff wrote:

Would you consider adding Wordpress to the list?

Sure. I have just added myOpenID and I will look at adding WordPress. I know WP offers a username based URL scheme for their OpenID login system (e.g. johnraff.wordpress.com), but I do not know if it is possible to query a single URL. I will have a play around.

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47 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

jpope wrote:

What about https://www.myopenid.com/ as an openid option?

Good one, I will look into it. I am not sure why I did not include it already, maybe there was an issue I have forgotten about. Hmm hmm

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48 Reply by corenominal

(8 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

pvsage wrote:

Now...how's about links to the February Stable releases for those who prefer to avoid backports? wink

Hmm, okay, let me give it some thought.

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49 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

el_koraco wrote:

I completely agree with you, I was just pointing out that one or two people will think you and Google want to kill their cats.

Understood wink

P.S. No word of a lie, I actually had to scoop up my neighbour's dead cat this morning after it got hit by a car. Poor sod sad

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50 Reply by corenominal

(97 replies, posted in News & Announcements)

vicshrike wrote:
corenominal wrote:
vicshrike wrote:

Nothing happens when I click on sign in.

Hmm, have you visited the site before? If so, try clearing your cache. If not, please could you give me some details about your browser?

Yes I have tried earlier for fun, did as suggested and wiped all history to be sure to come clean to the party. Registered now smile  Iceweasel 9.0.1

Good stuff smile

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