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2008-12-30 15:14:59

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Updates 2008-07-04

Information and discussions about the updates applied to Elftown 2008-07-04.

Last visitors

The last visitors list in your house is gone forever. It was a mistake from the beginning and is both a privacy problem and it sends no useful information that is often misinterpreted. It leads to problems with people asking "You visited my page, but didn't write anything!" and stuff like that. And people tend to freak out when ex-boyfriends, guards or other creepy people view their house. They are better without this information.

Update: The last visitor list is back, but to get added to the list, you have to press "Add me!" on top of the last visitor-list. It's a nice way to say you have been somewhere without doing something, but it doesn't make it hard to browse around houses in private and it doesn't make people freak out for no reason.

Javascript

There is javascript all over the place now, and forms tend to get bigger on focus. Too big forms have been removed to make the pages slimmer. More things like that is to come, especially in the forums.

The edit mood button is now at your mood.

Wiki-pages

All the wiki-page buttons are moved around. They are much smaller and placed more logically now.

Small stuff

Random wiki-page, commenting on diary-notes in your own diary, hints on if the one you're commenting on in a forum is a member of the forum you're placing the reply in, and some other small features are also added.

Buttons

The boring flat buttons are replaced with cool new 3D-buttons. Some image buttons are removed.

Stylesheets

The old stylesheets that aren't "index.css" work badly. I forced the default stylesheet on everyone until I can fix the other ones.

Updates 2008-07-07: Mood history!

You now have a mood history. You can either access it from the friends' mood to the right or from your or your friend's house at the mood. You can only list your friends' moods. So get going to write some mood about what you're doing!

Updates 2008-07-08: New order to the right

The order of stuff to the right is changed again. The new messages, guestbook and forum boxes are moved to the top, and the status to the bottom. The member and wiki changes are moved above your own bookmarks.

Updates 2008-07-08: Watching poll-comments

You can now watch poll comments. You automatically watch the poll you create.

There is also more space in the (wiki, member) changes lists.

Updates 2008-07-09: Last visitor-list faster (Some Ajax)

When you add yourself to the last visitor list, the page no longer reloads. Can someone with Safari and IE 6 and 7 confirm that this works there too?

More Ajax...

When you register or change your username or password, it's checked to make sure it's OK. Same goes for changing a wiki-page's name (copying the wiki to a new name).

There is now alos a last visited list in people's houses. It will list the houses you have pressed "Add me!" on.

Updates 2008-07-10: Preview! (Yaj! Ajax)

There is now a preview button on top of the wiki-edit box. I'll give the other exit boxes the same later.

Updates 2008-07-14

More previews, some forms are hidden before you press them (Edit your image-description and some wiki-buttons to the right). There are "online" and "moods" buttons on the top to the right.

Updates 2008-07-15

A comment-button on people's guestbook-messages instead of a comment form. The comment-button turns into a form on mouseover... I think it's pretty convinient, but it's not standard for a button.

Bugfixes and the hide alarm button doesn't redirect you to another page.

Updates 2008-07-16

Some colour-changes here and there.

There are now "Stumble!"-links on the wiki-pages (at the rating section) and on the start.html-page (at the bottom). Click on them to suggest the page to the people using www.stumbleupon.com !

Updates 2008-07-24

Lots of things:
A new cache for notifications about which forums you're a member of, your new forum replies and watched houses and wikis. I think I've tested everything (like editing forum-protected wiki-pages, kicking out members from forums and so on), but there might still be something that isn't working. Elftown should be much faster though, especially close to restarts.

Invitations for wiki-pages! You can now invite people to look at a wiki-page. One person can only be invited once to a wiki-page, then it's up to them to watch it or not. You can invite by clicking at your friends, invite everyone from a private forum or write extra names. If people misuse this I'll put some limitation on it.

The emails to members are fixed a little (to handle invites and poll-comments and some details).

The multibadge-function for the crew is revamped. Should be easier to add badges now and there is a badge-button in people's houses.

Orders of the wiki and member changes are in order of with the last update first now.

The old "go to next posting"-button was very slow (almost a second) if you were a member of a lot of forums with no postings in them. I remade it, and I hope I haven't introduced any new bugs. One change is that it sometimes refers you to a deleted posting, but you'll not notice that because you'll get a redirect. (You can still view deleted postings by clicking on a link to them.)

Updates 2008-07-25

Bugfix and speed-up: The names of secret forums are better cached and totally with yesterdays speedups the forums are now about 6-7 times faster than before. I also fixed a bug that made you not become member of a secret forum you created.

Updates 2008-07-28

Your wiki-watchings, house-watchings and thread-watchings and hidings are now cached agressively. Might be some bugs there. Update: Yes it was! All wiki-pages and comments done 2008-07-28 11:18:33 to 2008-07-28 15:22 (4 hours) didn't give notifications, as far as I can tell. Shouldn't be a huge issue, but update/comment again if you want to be sure people are notified!

The mailing is changed. Elftown will now stop emailing people who haven't followed links in the mails sent to them for a month (Typically people who have non working email-addresses). [Mortified Penguin] should be among those people, if I remember correctly. I'm not 100% clear if people might have problems with that they have to follow links in the emails once a month at least, but this brings down the load on Elftown to send a lot of emails that no longer are read.

Some small fixes.

You have a list of "Interesting people:" down to the right. It's selected by looking at whom you are watching. If someone else watches the same person as you are, you'll have a chance of seeing someone who that person is also watching, but you aren't watching yourself. Or to make it simple: It shows someone that someone like you might have on watch.

Updates 2008-08-01

The code hind the slots on Mainstreet is totally rewritten. I've cleaned out 4711 bugs already, so I think there are some left. They are much faster now, the comments work better and you have them on watch, unless you decide to unwatch them.

The notifications for news, messages and guestbook messages are now gone if you don't have any. (Loads of bugs just fixed)

Small updates...

Updates 2008-11-24

Wiki-pages can now have a category. If they have, the wiki-pages in that category have previous and next links to each other. (This is a pre-feature to an upload art feature)

You have a share-link to the right of wiki-pages and in your diary so that you can post about stuff here elsewhere (Facebook, MySpace and so on).

Update 2008-12-02

Everyone now has an upload-form to the right of wiki-pages to upload images to wiki-pages.

In your house you now have an Art Upload button.

In your presentation you now have a list of index-pages in the wiki where you can list your wiki-pages. When submitting a wiki-page, you're asked if you want to list that wiki-page there. These index-pages can be selected as categories to other wiki-pages that you submit. Example:

1) You create/edit a page called "Hedda's images" and select that it's one of your index-pages.

2) Now you can upload art and create wiki-pages and select that they are a part of "Hedda's images".

3) You'll get back, previous and up-links on the pages of the category "Hedda's images" and "Hedda's images" will have links to the pages in the category.

4) You can make a total mess with this, so don't! ;P

Update 2008-12-21

You now have an image upload form at textareas! If you think this was as easy to do as it looks, then you're dead wrong, but don't worry about that... <img:stuff/zabuN-gif.gif>

Update 2008-12-23

Popup search: A search-page will now popup when you highlight one or a few words. It's a little irritating, but as far as I can see, it isn't in the way.

Update 2008-12-30

Small fixes. A function to make uploaded GIFs having one colour transparent is added. If you select a GIF image in "Upload Image" above a textarea (or below the wiki-edit textarea) you'll be asked if you want to make it transparent. If you don't select a colour, it will use the colour that is most common in the border of the image. It doesn't work if you upload a JPEG or PNG image.

Feel free to comment on this page!

2008-07-05 [Balthizar]: Whatever..happened in that long butt down time cause the Navi bars to become verticle again and down the middle in the area they are supposed to be.

2008-07-05 [Lothuriel]: I understand somewhat, why you did away with the last Visited list but, I for one will miss it. I loved seeing who had visited my house. It's how I met most of my friends. Could we perhaps give the Guards a +1 Cloak of Invisibility so that people can't see when they visit? I dunno. Other than that, I love the new stuff. Especially in the wikis. I love that the upload button is now to the right and not all the way at the bottom of the page!! Kudos [Hedda]!

PS. The new green buttons are smexxxy!!

2008-07-05 [Khronos Atmosphaera]: Hey, do donors names glitter on their house page? O.O My name is glittery! And everyone else who has donated... their names glitter... or am I insane? DX

2008-07-05 [Lothuriel]: Yes isn't that awesome!! I love my new glittery name!!

2008-07-05 [Linderel]: I don't much care for glitter... Could there please be an option to turn it off? <_<

2008-07-05 [Lothuriel]: It's not that noticeable....Couldn't you just ignore it so it doesn't get taken away? <img:44166_1164145230.gif>

2008-07-05 [Atayemi]: I thought my eyes were going crazy when I saw the sparkles.. plus I think people may get jealous of others if their name sparkles AND if they can have different colours on their houses. I don't know. *shrugs*

2008-07-05 [Linderel]: Eh, I'm not suggesting it be taken away entirely. I just don't want to see it, myself... It's annoying xD

2008-07-05 [Atayemi]: *nod nod* I agree, it would be nice if it was optional. :3

2008-07-05 [Lothuriel]: I was trying to funny [Linderel]....

FAILED...

2008-07-05 [Kelaria]: I like the glitter! :P It's one of my favorite things! :D

Anyway, I wanted to say that, though I still miss the old buttons, the new green ones are growing on me ;) The color reminds me of moss, and we all know that moss grows abundantly in enchanted Elven-filled forests! ;D ^_^ so... yay for the new button color! ^^

2008-07-05 [AuroraLumos]: I like the glitter ^-^ (though I get excited by simple things like that... :D)

2008-07-05 [Lothuriel]: LOL..glad to know I'm not alone.

2008-07-05 [Kelaria]: Still want the last visitors list back though... *sigh*

2008-07-05 [Atayemi]: *nods* Same here, [Kelaria]. I prefer the green buttons to the blue ones. They look much, much better, although I think that the flat buttons we had before were more suited to ET. :)

2008-07-05 [AuroraLumos]: I like the 3D buttons too, though I agree that I miss the last visitors list... gave me something to do when my friends weren't online XD

2008-07-05 [Lothuriel]: I guess now we are forced to be unlazy and use the random members button and actually take the time to sign guestbooks, hehe....*sighs*

2008-07-05 [AuroraLumos]: hmmm true *sighs also*

2008-07-05 [Sauron]: Maybe there should be a vote about all that?

2008-07-05 [Imperator]: I would like it if I got more guestbook signatures... I kinda wondered what it was for since no one appeared to use it much.

2008-07-05 [Sauron]: Yeah, but you think THESE changes will bring people more guestbook signatures?

2008-07-05 [Imperator]: Whatever [Lothuriel] thinks is what I think. :P
(That's code for "I have no idea") but I think I'll go sign 20 guestbooks now...

2008-07-05 [Sauron]: You're walking a very dangerous ground with that statement :P

2008-07-05 [Imperator]: *gasp* Then I retract it unparenthesis and unquote my second line.

2008-07-05 [Kelaria]: This change is not going to encourage me to sign more guestbooks :P
I do that rarely, I prefer to private message people (mostly my friends). So... yeah... I still think the 'last visitors' feature should be returned... or at least made optional! Seriously, you can't get a better idea than making it optional! Come on people!!

2008-07-05 [Zantia]: Wait..never mind lol

2008-07-05 [All_Most PUNK]: Read the wiki.

2008-07-05 [Jitter]: I'm very very happy it's finally gone. I had several _insert foul language here_ going like "Oh you visited my house. Don't come again, this is MY house" *rolls eyes*

Oh and.. glitter..? huh?

And where do older comments go? There's no 0 1 2 3 anymore O_O

2008-07-05 [Linderel]: If you're a donor, your name has this glittery stuff on it. It's annoying.

2008-07-05 [Jitter]: Ohhh now I see.

I'd rather it to be purple :P Other than it is pink it doesn't bother me :P

2008-07-05 [Zantia]: I liked it in a way. I used to browse people houses through that and also I don't know other sites that have it so I kinda liked it here, it was a different sort of feature I guess.

Oh and it also made finding people easier when you could't remember a name.

2008-07-05 [Cia_mar]: hey how are we supposed to find our "last comment"???
i am looking on here and there is not a way to look at the older comments!
so since i posted it 2 days ago and was not able to check online for the next day to see if there was a response ..and now i can't?

hope this is some bug that will be fixed!

2008-07-05 [Linderel]: Read the news, please. :P

2008-07-05 [Cia_mar]: just did//// thanks

this sux... :(

2008-07-05 [Cia_mar]: oh... and i still think that the last visitors list should be returned... since that was my original comment, figured i would voice it again

2008-07-05 [Imperator]: The Elftown top brass has been curiously silent about that. *musical voice* Scandal investigation! :P

2008-07-06 [Remos Page]: just a question
do you guys only do a back up every 30 days?

2008-07-06 [windowframe]: [Imperator]; I think he's said all he needs to, and wants to say, on the page itself. ;)

2008-07-06 [windowframe]: [Remos Page]; no, back-ups are made more frequently than that, but there was an error with the back-up script itself, and the new script (which went wrong) was implemented a month ago. That's my understanding of it anyway. Anyone with more technical know-how than I is free to correct me. :P

2008-07-06 [lacy_azlin]: how about a way to have yourself logged in for a bit of time, even if you open another page? It gets annoying constantly having to log in..

2008-07-06 [windowframe]: You can change the length of time before you are logged out due to inactivity on your house page. :) Just edit your profile, and it's one of the options there. I have mine set to a month. :P

2008-07-06 [Cia_mar]: what do you mean Lacy?
i am able to have several pages up (ET pages) and dont have to re log in....

2008-07-06 [Remos Page]: perhaps you would like me to hack in to ET and make a program to send me the data base every day to my company server and then you can ask for it back when you have trouble next time ;p

2008-07-06 [Ramirez]: I wonder if instead of removing the last visitor page, guards can make it optional to make themselves invisible, and if you block someone they're unable to see your page, and/or you can't see theirs? Maybe that would settle some disputes?

2008-07-06 [Zantia]: [lacy_azlin] Means that when you navigate away from elftown to another site and then go back to elftown again you have to relogin. Like the way deviantart keeps you logged in until you log out yourself while being able to leave the website. If that made sense XD
I wouldn't mind elftown having that to be honest because this is the only site that doesn't have it in the sites I visit. I think it's something to to do with cookies o_0. And for some reason my browser will never save my login name and password either so it's a bit of an inconvenience.

2008-07-06 [Lothuriel]: Well [Ramirez], as I said before. I guess we will just have to stop being so lazy and actually use our random members search button....and while we are there, we will have to make our lazy fingers actually take the time to write a message in someone's guestbook.

*sighs*

2008-07-06 [Zantia]: Since when did elftown become obsessed with guestbook comments? I thought it was more about the art and talking to people about their art?

2008-07-06 [Ramirez]: I don't think that using the last visitor list for finding people was lazy at all. I thought it was a fantastic idea. It's so much harder to find active members and get around smoothly. I personally was a house zapper and I found a lot of great artists and writers through house zapping. Now it's harder to find active members since you can only see them when they log in or when they comment places. Or if they're featured on the front page too, I guess. =/

2008-07-06 [Ramirez]: Yay! Thank you for bringing back the Last Visitor list!

2008-07-06 [Imperator]: That's cool but now it basically is a guestbook. Why have regular guestbooks when people can send messages or hit the "add me" button?

2008-07-06 [Cia_mar]: thank you for making the last visitors list return
even if it is only optional... it is nice to see when people wanted to get added to let us know when they were there

2008-07-06 [Artsieladie]: Elftown must have moved to America!

2008-07-06 [Avatar15]: No need to get offensive.

2008-07-06 [All_Most PUNK]: It's probably the best way to keep it and correct (at least partially) some of the problems that it brought (and that most members never knew about, unlike guards).

2008-07-06 [Artsieladie]: No offensiveness, really. Just a bit of some dry sense of humor, 'tis all that I originally intended. It just seems like something that would be done in America by those that eh-um, supposedly run it? One can tell I'm a huge fan of the American justice system, right? ;)

What problems? *ish curious* ;)

2008-07-06 [All_Most PUNK]: The kinds mentioned in this same wiki and in the forums that you are part of :P

2008-07-06 [Zantia]: See now why are my updates/staus bit below the unimportant information all the time...I like to be able to see my updates when I log on first. Not have to scroll down. And on wiki pages I don't care about all the wiki information and who created it blah blah, I wouldn't mind having to scroll down for that if I needed to but I don't to be honest. But I do like that the wiki buttons are in a decent place now and that they stand out more. The status box was fine where it was before. Yes i'm lazy and so are a lot of other people so I don't see the logic in moving them. Myspace did something like that a little while ago for sneaky advertising and everyone kept clicking in the wrong place. I don't know how many people noticed that but at least here I am able to put a little more input into the society and it's actually listened to. One of the many charms of this place actually. :3

2008-07-06 [Kelaria]: ...okay, so I really wanted the list back, but not like this. *sighs* this really is pointless. Few people will actually take the time to click 'add me'

One of the reasons people wanted it back was to see people who visited, but if someone's not going to take the time to write in your guestbook, do you really think they'll take the time to FIND the add me button (or if they already know where it is, to click it)??

I don't mean to keep complaining, but I'd rather have it gone than have it be the way it is now. I was all set to let it go, but this is not what we meant by optional...
Plus, the new placement of the list is really illogical, as it just pushes down the status list further so that one can NOT see if they have a new message no matter what page they're on now, without having to scroll down, which is stupid!

2008-07-06 [Ramirez]: I like it the way it is. People who don't want to get seen simply don't have to be so there's no worrying about people you don't like looking at your page because it's simply irrelevant since you can't tell anymore. I personally like the button because one of the main reasons I zapped around ET was to leave my mark everywhere so it'll lead back to my own House, selfish yes, but it's one of the best ways for people to stumble across your home. Also people who have houses that are actually worth seeing will be the ones pressing the buttons because they want to be zapped back. I'd rather not be wasting my time clicking back on some little 12 year old kid with a provocative picture of themselves up anyways. If they're too lazy to press the 'add me' button then they're not worth viewing their page anyways. Make a little effort, seriously. It's the happy medium between completely getting rid of the last visitor list and having it originally as it was. You can still find people who take the effort to press the button, and those that don't--who cares? Either they don't want to be seen, or they just don't want to click the add me button. It's no real big loss. =/

2008-07-06 [Kelaria]: If that's so, then why not just have the guestbook??? then people can be "seen" AND leave a message!

If it's going to be kept this way (which I can live with, as this is only the internet after all), at least move it down to where it used to be! I do not want to have to scroll to see if I have new messages every single time I click to a new page (I'm sure I'm not alone in this).

2008-07-06 [All_Most PUNK]: You have the list and the guestbook. What's wrong with that?

Changes make some people happy and some unhappy. I'm sure lots of people agree with you and lots agree with the new way. It's just the way it is.

2008-07-06 [Kelaria]: Would it be possible to make the sidebar customizable? I know it's possible on other websites and works very well... then everyone could be happy with the placement of things because they'll each get to have them their own way. That's a really good compromise, I think.

2008-07-06 [Zantia]: Well thats what I was saying about the status box. It shouldn't be so low because it's the most important box in my opinion.

2008-07-06 [Kelaria]: Agreed. I always loved signing in and seeing, right away, if I had new messages. And, when I did, it always brightened my day (unless it was from some asshat being dumb).

2008-07-06 [windowframe]: I asked in the forums about making the side-bar customisable, but it's apparently not desirable because there are different boxes and layouts on different pages - one layout on Main Street, one on the wiki, another in the forum, etc. But the order might still get faffed around. :) It's seems a general consensus that the Status box should be high, so we don't have to scroll to see if we have no messages/forum postings, etc.

2008-07-06 [All_Most PUNK]: Kelaria: Something of that has been discussed in the suggestions forum and Hedda gave some reason why it doesn't seem possible or useful at the moment. I admit I don't remember them right now.

The thing, Zantia, is that everybody has an opinion. And most of the time they are opposite between them. Just like you think that's the most important box, other people prefer to have the wiki ones before. It's hard or impossible to make everyone happy.

2008-07-06 [Kelaria]: A compromise for the status bar problem would be to have it higher when viewing houses, and then stay the way it is now on wikis and mainstreet... doesn't that sound like a reasonable compromise?

2008-07-06 [All_Most PUNK]: It sounds like a suggestion, yes. You could probably make it in the forum.

2008-07-06 [Zantia]: Yes but it seems a lot of people think that's the most important box.

Shouldn't there be polls about all these anyway before the changes are made? o_0

2008-07-06 [Kelaria]: Where do I find the suggestion forum?

2008-07-06 [windowframe]: <forum:Elftown, Suggestions>

2008-07-06 [All_Most PUNK]: Kelaria, press the button Forums and search for Suggestions. It's the correct place to put this kind of ideas.

Zantia, yes, but there's also a lot of people who don't think it is.
Considering the amount of changes made and the number of member, do you think that it's realistic to think that we could make polls and reach consensus for everything? There are places to make suggestions and give ideas, which are listened to and contemplate. That doesn't mean all of them will be used, but they all are considered. You can find the suggestions forum like Kelaria and there's also the wiki ERA (this also for Kelaria).