Forum status updates - read it here first...

[yanpa]

Meanwhile I'm gradually restoring the rest of the missing smileys, but as it's a very eclectic collection, there's no handy ready-made package or anything and it takes time to track down suitable equivalents.

[yanpa]

Old FG layout now partially restored, some tweaks to follow but it now looks much more like the old place

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Wow! What a brilliant job you've done! Thanks!!!
Fucking Superstar!!!!

[Taro Toporific]

Yeah!

death-to-the-crap-logo.png

[Coligny]

Can a thread cross sharing (like 'firstclass' bbs software 'routed' conference) be expectzored with Yanpa's forumz ?

[yanpa]

Can a thread cross sharing (like 'firstclass' bbs software 'routed' conference) be expectzored with Yanpa's forumz ?

Buggered if I know what you're talking about... any chance of an explanatory link?

[yanpa]

Yeah!

death-to-the-crap-logo.png

If you miss it, you can always switch back to the "prosilver" theme

Now 'scuse me while I nab that Domo-kun for the smilies collection.

[Coligny]

Can a thread cross sharing (like 'firstclass' bbs software 'routed' conference) be expectzored with Yanpa's forumz ?

Buggered if I know what you're talking about... any chance of an explanatory link?

Back in the days of neo-modern BBS software (just pre interwabs), Firstclass communication made a BBS server working with propietary clients or telnet (shivurz) that included a special function. Several different BBS forums could share common conferences that were synchronized at specific times serveral times a day (with the server dialing out between themselves). for the French "Marianne" network, all the shared conferences had [F] written at the end of their name to notify the sharing. Therefore users didn't need to register or dial different BBS to communicate on specific topics. It created a bridge between communities while allowing each BBS to keep it's specificities and own local userlist.

Yanpa's weather thread for example would be a prime candidate for this... It's not a crucial thread, but an interesting one nonetheless... (on Marianne, one of the usefull shared thread was called "Tribune [F]" and was the only place were flinging poop, pissing in the sink, vomitting on the table and shitting on the carpet was allowed...)


Makes much less sense in them days of interwabs... but still...

[yanpa]

I could probably write a script... if someone can inject an extra 48 hours into the week... If I give it a French name, will the French government give me a grant?

[American Oyaji]

I can't say I understand what he's trying to say.

[sillygirl]

Looking more like home.

Thank you SOOOOO much for your time and effort xx

[Coligny]

I can't say I understand what he's trying to say.

I are th3 spiritual son of Michel Rocard...

[yanpa]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

[Coligny]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

You forgot to say: "sort of"

[BigInJapan]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

That's a good idea as not everybody that comes across FG will know to click the "View active topics" link.
Also, I mentioned a little while back about the attachments not showing up to non logged in users, any luck with that?
This message -> You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

[Coligny]

Actually, having guests unable to stalk pictures and steal bandwith feels like a good idea...

[yanpa]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

You forgot to say: "sort of"

Indeed, "sort of", though the "-ish" was intended to convey similar.

Alas I do not have an original FG installation to compare against (at most a couple of static copies), so no idea what the precise original functionality was. Currently it displays the 10 most recently active topics visible to the user - if FG was using another algorithm to defined "hot topics", I have no idea what it is. (It was enough of a challenge to work out, in the context of the phpBB code, a) the appropriate way to extract the appropriate data and b) how to display it).

[yanpa]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

That's a good idea as not everybody that comes across FG will know to click the "View active topics" link.
Also, I mentioned a little while back about the attachments not showing up to non logged in users, any luck with that?
This message -> You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

I did have a look, but the obvious solution didn't work. Will have another crack at it at some point.

[Taro Toporific]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

ohnoes-it-s_ALIVE.gif

Oh nos, I may have to start drawing up the special guest list to the FG's relaunch matsuri.

(Now where did stash the current email addresses of Takechanpoo and Charles?)

[GomiGirl]

Alas I do not have an original FG installation to compare against (at most a couple of static copies), so no idea what the precise original functionality was. Currently it displays the 10 most recently active topics visible to the user - if FG was using another algorithm to defined "hot topics", I have no idea what it is. (It was enough of a challenge to work out, in the context of the phpBB code, a) the appropriate way to extract the appropriate data and b) how to display it).

This is correct but I don't think it was the last 10 posts from all forums. It was limited to The Ghetto, News, Media, Tech only. The sorts of areas where people were reposting news, photos and commentary of same.

The other forums were more personal announcements or limited access ones so not included in the hot topics or on the Front page.

The original idea of FG was for the posting of news items that were relevant to FG's and commentary as opposed to people posting their random bitches and gripes about living in Japan or how many chicks they have shagged. That sort of stuff was already well covered by other BBS's like JT, GP and BD.

Just as an aside - is Young Dudez still active? Or did they all retire cos despite thinking they were young stud playerz, they were mostly older dudes reliving their wonder years on-line.

[GomiGirl]

I know this is a bit premature - but just some notes on the front page as well.

There was a button under the posting window that was "not news" that when checked, made sure that the thread didn't appear on the front page. This was mainly used (if it was used at all) when people were just asking for advice, ranting etc.

The stuff that was fed through the the front page was primarily the same items in the hot topics - news, photos and commentary with the chit chat kept off it. The people visiting the top page, would have no idea about the in-joke goat references etc.

The people who were mostly feeding through the news items were always really good at adding photos or video to the top post. This addition of colour is really helpful in making the topic accessible and fun. Thus this made the top page accessible and fun.

Mulboyne and Taro were really good at laying out the articles so they had the correct lined references to the original source, the by-lines, a quote box and tagging everything well so the articles always looked great. The use of the [floatr] and [floatl] tags were useful in again making sure the page looked great. This set the standard to encourage others to follow suit and not just post a link without anything else.

I think they kinda had a text editor template set up for themselves so it was easy to follow the same format for posting new threads.

IMHO, this sort of "Professionalism" set FG apart from the other chit chat BBS's.

[yanpa]

Alas I do not have an original FG installation to compare against (at most a couple of static copies), so no idea what the precise original functionality was. Currently it displays the 10 most recently active topics visible to the user - if FG was using another algorithm to defined "hot topics", I have no idea what it is. (It was enough of a challenge to work out, in the context of the phpBB code, a) the appropriate way to extract the appropriate data and b) how to display it).

This is correct but I don't think it was the last 10 posts from all forums. It was limited to The Ghetto, News, Media, Tech only. The sorts of areas where people were reposting news, photos and commentary of same.

OK, makes sense, I should be able to tweak the query to limit the referenced forums.

The other forums were more personal announcements or limited access ones so not included in the hot topics or on the Front page.

FWIW each user will only see posts listed in forums they have access to, so our super s1kr1t inner circle posts won't leak out.

[yanpa]

I know this is a bit premature - but just some notes on the front page as well.

There was a button under the posting window that was "not news" that when checked, made sure that the thread didn't appear on the front page. This was mainly used (if it was used at all) when people were just asking for advice, ranting etc.

The stuff that was fed through the the front page was primarily the same items in the hot topics - news, photos and commentary with the chit chat kept off it. The people visiting the top page, would have no idea about the in-joke goat references etc.

The people who were mostly feeding through the news items were always really good at adding photos or video to the top post. This addition of colour is really helpful in making the topic accessible and fun. Thus this made the top page accessible and fun.

Mulboyne and Taro were really good at laying out the articles so they had the correct lined references to the original source, the by-lines, a quote box and tagging everything well so the articles always looked great. The use of the [floatr] and [floatl] tags were useful in again making sure the page looked great. This set the standard to encourage others to follow suit and not just post a link without anything else.

I think they kinda had a text editor template set up for themselves so it was easy to follow the same format for posting new threads.

IMHO, this sort of "Professionalism" set FG apart from the other chit chat BBS's.

Good to know, thanks. I'm looking at ways of portal-izing the front page.

I didn't know about the [floatr] and [floatl] tags, do you recall what HTML they generated? <span style="float:left"> or something?

[yanpa]

I have, in an act of post-midnight hackery, reproduced the FG-ish "hot topics" list.

ohnoes-it-s_ALIVE.gif

Oh nos, I may have to start drawing up the special guest list to the FG's relaunch matsuri.

We'll get there, slowly but shurely.

[GomiGirl]

I didn't know about the [floatr] and [floatl] tags, do you recall what HTML they generated? <span style="float:left"> or something?

Not sure as they were just in the BB code but not in the top options. You had to know them to use them.

BTW what are the list and list= buttons doing in the editing set?

[yanpa]

I didn't know about the [floatr] and [floatl] tags, do you recall what HTML they generated? <span style="float:left"> or something?

Not sure as they were just in the BB code but not in the top options. You had to know them to use them.

OK, added as <span style="float:left;padding-right:5px;"> (and the other way round), seems to work, can tweak if needed.

BTW what are the list and list= buttons doing in the editing set?

AFAIK they are standard in phpBB.

[yanpa]

Alas I do not have an original FG installation to compare against (at most a couple of static copies), so no idea what the precise original functionality was. Currently it displays the 10 most recently active topics visible to the user - if FG was using another algorithm to defined "hot topics", I have no idea what it is. (It was enough of a challenge to work out, in the context of the phpBB code, a) the appropriate way to extract the appropriate data and b) how to display it).

This is correct but I don't think it was the last 10 posts from all forums. It was limited to The Ghetto, News, Media, Tech only. The sorts of areas where people were reposting news, photos and commentary of same.

OK, makes sense, I should be able to tweak the query to limit the referenced forums.

Tweaks have been tweaked so that only quality threads (such as the Japanese Company Personnel Policies Going Global thread) are listed.

(As someone who likes to style himself as a not too un-professional database tweaker, the way in which the tweak is (by necessity) implemented pains me, but it seems to work).

[Yokohammer]

So ... when is this show going live?
How much more to do?

[Yokohammer]

It was a serious question, possibly poorly worded, so I'll try again:

When will FG.com be "officially" back in operation? As in, no more "FG.com will be back soon" front page, accepting new members, etc?

Approximate is good.

Thanks.

[yanpa]

Whoops, missed that post... anyway the forum itself is basically up and running, a few minor glitches still to sort but nothing dramatic.

The rest will depend on pending delivery of round tuits, as I've been kind of tied up in work the last couple of weeks which kind of puts a damper on things. Best I can say now is "next couple of weeks".