Updates to forum (ongoing)

[thumb21]

To complete the Balkans, here's Albania:

       

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Thanks Alex / Lourdes / Koopa - uploaded new avatars

Alex - I uploaded Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the others you did except Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, because they are too big. I'd like to keep it less than or equal to 100px in width. Need to go back at some point and try to shrink some of the other ones as well. I tried setting a max width for the avatar image, which works, but it causes the big avatars to become a little less defined / blurry due to less-than-ideal rendering for the smaller image.

reagente - I'll upload Chad tomorrow


(just catching up on old submissions - not doing new ones)

Bosnia and Serbia v2.0

       


       

[Virginiá]

Made a number of performance-related changes to the forum. Hopefully it will improve forum load times for those brief instances where it seems to seize up for various reasons.

[PSOL]

I’m having issues where my posts aren’t going through even if I complete a post. Sometimes I have to do it twice.

[Virginiá]

I’m having issues where my posts aren’t going through even if I complete a post. Sometimes I have to do it twice.

Not really following. Exactly what happens before/after clicking Post?

[PSOL]

I’m having issues where my posts aren’t going through even if I complete a post. Sometimes I have to do it twice.

Not really following. Exactly what happens before/after clicking Post?

It doesn’t load properly and takes me to a blank slate. The title, thread, and post are not written with what was there beforehand.

[Virginiá]

It doesn’t load properly and takes me to a blank slate. The title, thread, and post are not written with what was there beforehand.

Not sure. I would just try and save drafts regularly if you're writing something big.

[Zinneke]

Made a number of performance-related changes to the forum. Hopefully it will improve forum load times for those brief instances where it seems to seize up for various reasons.

Do you think it will survive election day in the US?

thumbs up for all your great work!

[Virginiá]

Made a number of performance-related changes to the forum. Hopefully it will improve forum load times for those brief instances where it seems to seize up for various reasons.

Do you think it will survive election day in the US?

thumbs up for all your great work!

Hopefully! It may be possible to get at least some of the hardware upgraded by then, and the number of optimizations I've made to the software even since the 2018 election is pretty significant.

If I recall correctly, we were in pretty good shape for election night in 2018, so I think we ought to be fine.

[Former President tack50]

Made a number of performance-related changes to the forum. Hopefully it will improve forum load times for those brief instances where it seems to seize up for various reasons.

Do you think it will survive election day in the US?

thumbs up for all your great work!

Hopefully! It may be possible to get at least some of the hardware upgraded by then, and the number of optimizations I've made to the software even since the 2018 election is pretty significant.

If I recall correctly, we were in pretty good shape for election night in 2018, so I think we ought to be fine.

If I remember correctly 2018 was the first time in Atlas history where the forum did not crash correct? It certainly ran slower than usual, but there was no proper crash I believe?

(of course I wasn't here for any election befor 2018; nor for any election results in 2018 beyond like 9 or 10 est)

[Virginiá]

If I remember correctly 2018 was the first time in Atlas history where the forum did not crash correct? It certainly ran slower than usual, but there was no proper crash I believe?

(of course I wasn't here for any election befor 2018; nor for any election results in 2018 beyond like 9 or 10 est)

Midterm elections tend to be less active than presidential elections, both for the entire season as well as election night. 2018 was kind of unique in how much interest there was, though. I think we actually got more posts on 2018 election day than 2016's election day. But OVERALL, 2016 was just much more active on a day-to-day basis in the 30 day run-up to the final day. We had over 800 users online at the same time that night, compared to something like 570 in 2018. That is really what kills the server's performance - hundreds of users browsing at the same time, refreshing the same high-post threads, particularly registered users.

Usually the forum switches to registered members only during that time, but Dave and I have made a lot of improvements since 2016, so I'm not sure it will needed this time. I'm actually looking into a couple more changes that might solve some longstanding performance issues. It's possible we could upgrade the server hardware before election day.

Also, just to note, as usual we'll likely go into reduced functionality on election day so as to keep the forum operating smoothly. That would mean no Search functionality, since it was one of the top reasons the forum used to slow to a crawl during an election. I created an "election night mode" setting in the last major update for this reason - it'll disable a ton of things that most people don't use or care about, and will hopefully keep things running decently enough. I don't think we even ended up using it in 2018, but I'm definitely going to enable it this year.

[PSOL]

On the main website, I do like the addition of these file icons for the boards.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

On the main website, I do like the addition of these file icons for the boards.

I really don't, but that could just be my general aversion to change. I'm sure I'll get used to them eventually.

[Virginiá]

I thought about making a new shade of the previous icon, but to be honest, I just hated that. It wasn't clear what it even meant unless you read the legend at the bottom of the forum index page, and the basic style wasn't intuitive at all. Ideally, that kind of thing shouldn't need a legend. You should understand just by looking at it.

These are actually more informative than before in that there is a new icon that describes exactly what is "new." Before, it would be green if there were new posts on the main board or a sub-board, and dark gray if there was no new posts at all.

Now, it shows a faded pair of blank paper for no new posts, a regular, non-faded pair of papers for "new posts on sub board but NOT main board," and a regular pair of papers with scribbling (for text) to indicate new posts on the main board.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I thought about making a new shade of the previous icon, but to be honest, I just hated that. It wasn't clear what it even meant unless you read the legend at the bottom of the forum index page, and the basic style wasn't intuitive at all. Ideally, that kind of thing shouldn't need a legend. You should understand just by looking at it.

These are actually more informative than before in that there is a new icon that describes exactly what is "new." Before, it would be green if there were new posts on the main board or a sub-board, and dark gray if there was no new posts at all.

Now, it shows a faded pair of blank paper for no new posts, a regular, non-faded pair of papers for "new posts on sub board but NOT main board," and a regular pair of papers with scribbling (for text) to indicate new posts on the main board.

In which case, you failed to achieve the bolded point, tho to be honest, I don't think any iconography could convey that without reference to a legend. Sometimes icons are not the best way of conveying information.

[Sir Mohamed]

I thought about making a new shade of the previous icon, but to be honest, I just hated that. It wasn't clear what it even meant unless you read the legend at the bottom of the forum index page, and the basic style wasn't intuitive at all. Ideally, that kind of thing shouldn't need a legend. You should understand just by looking at it.

These are actually more informative than before in that there is a new icon that describes exactly what is "new." Before, it would be green if there were new posts on the main board or a sub-board, and dark gray if there was no new posts at all.

Now, it shows a faded pair of blank paper for no new posts, a regular, non-faded pair of papers for "new posts on sub board but NOT main board," and a regular pair of papers with scribbling (for text) to indicate new posts on the main board.

This looke better and more "modern" than before. Good work!

[Wikipedia delenda est]

I don't like the new paper icon for telling whether there are new posts. The darkened and lightened papers look too similar, so it's not very easy to tell what's new and the whole purpose is kind of defeated. In my view, the lit-up diamond icons were a lot more clear.

[Virginiá]

Well, just to clarify, there are 3 different images, and only one of them means no new posts at all - the faded one. The other two mean new posts, but which icon is shown depends on whether the new posts are on the main board or a child board.

I think TF is right, and that adding a 3rd icon probably makes it more confusing, but only because it's telling you more than the previous green/gray icon did. To make it simpler, just think of it like this: The faded icon of blank paper ( ) = no new posts at all, anything else means the main board or at least a sub-board has new posts since you last viewed it.

[Zinneke]

*raises hand in the classroom sheepishly*

Will there ever be a way to see a ranking of posts by number of recommendations?

[Virginiá]

*raises hand in the classroom sheepishly*

Will there ever be a way to see a ranking of posts by number of recommendations?

per thread or forum-wide?

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

*raises hand in the classroom sheepishly*

Will there ever be a way to see a ranking of posts by number of recommendations?

Pro-tip: you can find the most-recommended (and highest quality) posts on the forum here.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

*raises hand in the classroom sheepishly*

Will there ever be a way to see a ranking of posts by number of recommendations?

please no

the recommend button needs to be removed, not expanded upon.

[Zinneke]

*raises hand in the classroom sheepishly*

Will there ever be a way to see a ranking of posts by number of recommendations?

per thread or forum-wide?

both I guess

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Virginia, do you still plan on having mock elections for the general?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Virginia, do you still plan on having mock elections for the general?

Yes, the situation being what it is, we could all use a good laugh.