New Layout

[Apech]

6 hours ago, Daeluin said:

Found it in the block settings. Should be there for everyone (except guests and unapproved members) now I think.

 

 

Yay!  Fantastic ... thanks!

[Golden Dragon Shining]

Haven't read through, are people having trouble on Firefox browser, with mine I was unable to reply to threads or message of any kind? I am writing this using Chrome.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Golden Dragon Shining

[Daeluin]

1 hour ago, Golden Dragon Shining said:

Haven't read through, are people having trouble on Firefox browser, with mine I was unable to reply to threads or message of any kind? I am writing this using Chrome.

 

I have not had any issues using Firefox (on OSX). Please be sure to completely clear your cache, as cached data from before the upgrade may still be stored in your browser and cause confusing seeming problems. CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE is the common command to open the clear cache dialogue.

[Daeluin]

On 5/20/2017 at 4:10 PM, Daeluin said:

I've rolled out a bunch of performance tweaks, figured out what went wrong last time.

  Reveal hidden contents

switched from (mod_php,prefork with no caching) to (proxy_fcgi,fpm,event,http2, with mysql datastore and memcached caching)

Hopefully things are a little smoother and faster load-wise now, than they were since we switched.

I think the old version may have been a little faster, though we are also all-ssl now too, which is nice.

 

Also system reserves the right to believe that 100 page views by a guest on a single IP address could possibly be 100 individual users , so our "Online Users" page is likely off by ~500 (right now it says 600+). I've got a support ticket open about this.

 

So it appears that we can't really do anything about the multiple users-per-ip thing, although we can hide the number of guests from displaying. Also, it appears that whenever there are "hundreds of guests" it means we are getting scanned by a bot. These bots may be friendly or not - lots of spiders out there crawling the entire internets. Tonight I've seen the baidu.com search engine crawling us and over the past 4 hours amazon's alexa has been crawling us.

 

Couldn't sleep, so good time to work on more server optimizations. Last time I focused on how code is run in the web-server and php-engine. This time I focused on database optimizations, switching the remaining tables from myisam to innodb, which lives more in ram, runs better on more recent mysql software versions, and is faster when writing to tables often (like we do with our posts/likes/edits/etc).

 

Still getting crawled by alexa, but speeds seem slightly improved now that more of the database is loading from RAM/cache.

 

In general, these optimizations aren't strictly speed-geared. Speed on a server without much traffic has a lot to deal with how well the code itself is designed. These optimizations are designed for more "industrial-stability," to let the server run under higher volumes of traffic more efficiently, without increasing risk of the server crashing and causing as little slow-down as possible.

 

I'll continue to monitor the RAM usage and ensure we are in a good place, but that's about all I have planned server-wise.

 

 

[Marblehead]

Regarding the "Online Users" I filter by "Logged On".  This removes all the "Guests" and shows only the active members.  (Non-active members don't say anything so their presence means nothing to me.)

 

[Marblehead]

Nice work Daeluin.  The Index page now displays members logged in at the bottom.

 

Now, if you could bring back to life the option for displaying the (logged in) members viewing the threads (like the old system had) I'm pretty sure that would be useful for many members.

 

Edited May 23, 2017 by Marblehead

[Daeluin]

14 minutes ago, Marblehead said:

Now, if you could brig back to live the option for displaying the (logged in) members viewing the threads (like the old system had) I'm pretty sure that would be useful for many members.

 

The "widget" added to the bottom there only has permission options for who can view it, no settings.

 

Many things are extensible by addons/plugins, however plugins tend to have inferior code security, frequently call resources in non efficient manners, require extra work for upgrading, may not always be maintained beyond a year or two, and can introduce bugs when the main software upgrades.

 

Alexa still going strong with 550+ hits in the past 30 minutes. That seems to be when the Online Users age out.

[Daeluin]

Alexa finally left us, just in time for Baidu to arrive.

 

There is a request in the conf for bots to wait 18s between page loads, so if they listen that should help.

[dawei]

8 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Nice work Daeluin.  The Index page now displays members logged in at the bottom.

 

Now, if you could bring back to life the option for displaying the (logged in) members viewing the threads (like the old system had) I'm pretty sure that would be useful for many members.

 

 

You have to go to the full list... then filter by logged in.  Then you can see it.  Seems bothersome change but we're seeing they removed about 30% of the previous features.     I think we'll want to get rid of showing guest as it is meaningless when one bot is counted 100 times because they looked at 100 pages. 

[dawei]

Welcome comments on this:

The new overhaul version of IPS4 re-theorized what it means to be a user group... and as a result, they got rid of 'validation' and 'banned'.   The former is more a problem we had to scramble to fix so folks can register....  and we're good now.

 

The latter, banned, means that NOBODY, not even staff knows from the front-end who is banned.   If you go find any banned member or their profile, you cannot know they are banned.

 

The only solution really seems to be for us to create a new group and move folks there manually whereas the previous software did it all automatically.

 

Do folks care that they cannot see someone as 'banned'  ?

 

I guess don't just think historical...will it matter going forward.

 

[Marblehead]

1 hour ago, dawei said:

 

Do folks care that they cannot see someone as 'banned'  ?

 

 

You've heard my opinions on that before.

 

[Daeluin]

6 hours ago, dawei said:

Welcome comments on this:

The new overhaul version of IPS4 re-theorized what it means to be a user group... and as a result, they got rid of 'validation' and 'banned'.   The former is more a problem we had to scramble to fix so folks can register....  and we're good now.

 

The latter, banned, means that NOBODY, not even staff knows from the front-end who is banned.   If you go find any banned member or their profile, you cannot know they are banned.

 

The only solution really seems to be for us to create a new group and move folks there manually whereas the previous software did it all automatically.

 

Do folks care that they cannot see someone as 'banned'  ?

 

I guess don't just think historical...will it matter going forward.

 

 

Edit: Too much explanation, not enough heart.

 

The heart is simply that I hope that all have the opportunity to learn their karmic lessons, sown already by their behavior and its consequences, without needing to also bear a brand or carry a cross. A cross that (as evident by this being our choice made here and now) becomes our burden too.

 

As someone attempting a spiritual path, I can only make the decision - alone - to do my best to hold all within my embrace of unity and harmony.

[cheya]

Personally, I would prefer that a member's profile indicate if they've been banned.

If it adds significant work for y'all (mods), not a big deal. 

 

Well, I wrote that before I read Dae's post (since edited )... to which I reply ... huh???? 

 

I do admit occasionally reacting to the banning of a member I viewed as troublesome with an eye roll accompanied by an exclamation of "finally!".... but that is rare. As is banning. And for me, that's over in about ten minutes. Maybe five. 

 

For me "Banned" is not equivalent to "Bad". It mostly means more like "didn't play well with others". It's not so much "who they are" (bad) as "what happened to them" or even "what was the result of their posting style?" Oh, they got banned. 

 

Sometimes, reading a person's posts, it's really obvious why they got banned. But, a number of times, reading ancient posts, I find something really interesting, and wonder what happened to that person, very interesting post, not posting for a long time... and then I notice... "banned". Sometimes it's a mystery. But I hardly ever pm those people, they're no longer getting messages...

 

Again, had my druthers, I'd like to know. And it's not a big deal either way.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2017 by cheya

[Daeluin]

6 minutes ago, cheya said:

huh????

 

Oh don't mind me, I'm over the top as usual. It's the whole ego thing in general, including my own - I'd probably prefer it if people acted more like cattle grazing while watching the sunset.

[cheya]

I looked up synonyms for banned, thinking maybe a less judgmental word... but they are mostly kind of nasty. I wasn't raised religious, so banning doesn't carry that vibe for me, like excommunicated. For me it's more like "sent home from sandbox."

 

Maybe come up with a different word/description for the category, something more neutral like "Posting privileges revoked"

[Apech]

"Ban them all," he thundered from his iron throne, as dragons spiralled over head.

[Kar3n]

There was a recent thread, prior to the upgrade, where the OP was banned and folks were commenting on the thread with the expectation of a reply from the OP. Finally, someone noticed the OP was banned and the conversation continued.  I wonder how far the conversation would have continued without that realization?

 

Banned or some other indication that a person no longer has posting abilities also keeps members from PMing to ask questions and is likely to keep the momentum of the thread going or to revive it with the questions asked therein.

 

Ultimately, like I said in a discussion with my fellow mods, admin and Daeluin...

On 5/22/2017 at 1:06 PM, Kar3n said:

Thank you for all you have done, Daeluin and dawei.

 

I know it was mentioned that the banned group was done away with. It is just an attachment for me, but I just do not think a banned member should be aligned with Junior Bums and Dao Bums. Is there not another way to distinguish the banned from members in good standing outside of the ACP?

 

Others may feel differently, and can I appreciate that. This is just another thing that has come to my attention that I need to work to let go of.

 

[Marblehead]

10 hours ago, cheya said:

 

Maybe come up with a different word/description for the category, something more neutral like "Posting privileges revoked"

Long term suspension.

 

[Apech]

7 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Long term suspension.

 

 

 

You need to add which part of their body they are suspended by.

[cold]

Hoist them by their petar(d) ?

[dawei]

I'm at a loss why they got rid of validation and banned as not part of their theory of 'user groups' but I don't think they will bring it back. 

 

There is some interesting discussion at IP.B on how folks feel about it and it is rather split down the middle with 'privacy' vs 'permission' sides... the former just says to not make such 'branding' an issue (Dae)... and the other side said, 'let the staff decide permission sets'.   An interesting middle ground might of been that there is a setting to say what groups can see them as banned or not...   I think it is likely more helpful to staff then members to see this but I wanted the latter to have a voice. 

 

It would not be any additional work going forward if we created a group, but the issue is all the past banned members have to be moved.   We would not have to use the word 'banned', as was suggested. 

 

SUDDEN REALIZATION...  we can't create a group, of any name, and apply that group to someone... because once someone is banned, we can't touch their profile         The restrictions and changes on the software is mind boggling.... 

 

Cases seems closed for now 

 

[Marblehead]

3 hours ago, Apech said:

 

 

You need to add which part of their body they are suspended by.

I could easily respond to that but I won't.

 

[Taomeow]

The "thank you" button and the "reply" button have disappeared for me.  I only see the "quote"  option under people's posts. 

 

The "notification" I just saw from Dawei refused to open first, and disappeared altogether next. 

 

Meow?

Edited May 25, 2017 by Taomeow

[Daeluin]

Meow.

I saw it too... seems fixed now.

[dawei]

6 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

The "thank you" button and the "reply" button have disappeared for me.  I only see the "quote" option under people's posts.  Can I please have the other buttons back?

 

Sorry about that... many fingers in the cookie jar...  but most of them are mine 

 

We keep testing some stuff as they unexpectedly popup.