Tweet Moving toward the new, spam-resistant NitrateVille

[Mike Gebert]

So the problem is, at present NitrateVille is the weak link of defense on our server, because we're still running PhpBB 2 as our software. Otherwise our early 2000s functionality would be fine by me and most of you, I suspect, but crashing their server when spammers try to attack us is something our hosting company seems to not be happy about. And so, the day we knew was coming-- upgrading to PhpBB 3 with all its spam-resistant robustitude-- is in our near future.

My intention is to have a new template built that is all but indistinguishable from the present one, though I suppose if there are new features anyone wants, now's the time to bring them up. I'll keep everyone informed as the transition approaches, and try to make it painless, but something will change that someone doesn't like and somebody's post will get lost at some point. Hopefully it won't be too bad, and will present some cool new features, robot cars or jet packs or something.

more to come...

Mike, I'm sure that almost all of us will be quite happy with a Nitrateville that continues to operate. I know I will.

Bob

What he said.

The one new feature that I think would be great, which I have seen in a number of other forums, is the "last unread post" link at the beginning of a thread, which quickly takes you to the appropriate post, especially helpful in a long thread.

[Danny Burk]

The one new feature that I think would be great, which I have seen in a number of other forums, is the "last unread post" link at the beginning of a thread, which quickly takes you to the appropriate post, especially helpful in a long thread.

You can do this now.....first click "View posts since last visit" (just beneath "Log out [your name]" on the main page). When this list of posts appears, click the arrow just left of each thread title under "Topics". Of course, you have to be logged in for this to work.

I knew about the "view posts since last visit," but not the arrow that would get you to a specific post....thanks for the info, it would have been good to know a couple of years ago!

Hopefully it won't be too bad, and will present some cool new features, robot cars or jet packs or something.

more to come...

Judging from one of the current threads, some people wouldn't mind a built-in time-travel machine. Mike: Make it so!


Jim

[Mike Gebert]

I just wanted to give everyone a head's up on what's happening. I've found a PhpBB theme (ie, the look and feel of the discussion software) which is reminiscent if not exactly like what we have now in terms of a clean black and white look, and the developer is in the process of customizing it for NitrateVille in some fairly minor but attractive ways. Things will not be exactly the same, but the goal is, to be largely the same and not instantly baffling. I believe we will achieve that.

The sensitive part is transferring the old database to the new theme. What will most likely happen is that I will shut the board off at some point, do all that behind the scenes, and turn it back on when it's ready. The reason to do that is to not have to deal with posts being made during the transition process and then getting lost as changes are made. No idea when that will happen, or how long that it will take (hopefully hours not days), as yet, but I will keep people informed when it is getting closer.

As long as it doesn't take as long as the return of Napoleon.

[Mike Gebert]

Not even as long as the full-length cut of Napoleon, I hope.

[silentfilm]

Just don't do it when a Colleen Moore film is playing on TCM...

I know it's been brought up here before, but here goes. How would Nitratevillains feel about a chat function?

I know it's been brought up here before, but here goes. How would Nitratevillains feel about a chat function?

Only for the silent newsgroup. And shush.

Bob

[Mike Gebert]

My feeling is that we have a form of chat, except it doesn't depend on you being there at any given time, and it preserves a permanent record of information. The last point, especially, would be jeopardized by chat, and to my mind, a real loss compared to this form of slo-mo, non-real-time chat.

But I'm open to other arguments.

Chat can be fun for its spontaneity and unexpected avenues of discussion (says he, who's chatted online precisely once...), but there's always the risk of thorny issues mushrooming out of control and leading to nasty personal attacks. Speaking of which, would this chat function be private between members à la personal messages, or would it be public and visible to anyone anytime (or available only at certain hours)?

I'm OK with the idea of a chat function, if there's some way to provide reasonable moderation.

-Harold

[Mike Gebert]

if there's some way to provide reasonable moderation.

Well, there's an issue right there. I feel like I'm in front of the computer all the time, yet when something blows up, it does so invariably while I'm out for 3 or 4 hours and I come back to find a mess that's had time to spiral out of control... and some PMs asking why I haven't done something about it yet.

[Christopher Jacobs]

My feeling is that when people happen to be on line simultaneously and reading the same threads, any posts and quick replies are essentially identical to what any "chatroom" option could provide, as long people refresh the forums and threads each time instead of merely clicking "back" to the forum before reading the next thread, or "back" to the main forum before checking out the next forum you're interested in. Especially on broadband, it's more like "chat" when you remember to click directly on the forum topic rather than constantly using the "back" function. When you're on a dialup connection, however (as I am whenever I'm at home), it's always much quicker to click "back" because pages don't take as long to reload.

The few times I've looked at "chatrooms" they really tended to devolve into random drivel in a hurry, and were far more likely to be plagued with highly annoying txtspk abbreviations instead of coherent words and sentences.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/Old ... BluRay.htm

My feeling is that we have a form of chat, except it doesn't depend on you being there at any given time, and it preserves a permanent record of information. The last point, especially, would be jeopardized by chat, and to my mind, a real loss compared to this form of slo-mo, non-real-time chat.

But I'm open to other arguments.

Why not give chat a try? If it turns out to be a big negative, you could always take it away again.

Not everything needs to be permanently recorded for posterity, and there's nothing wrong with casual communication and spontaneity.

[Mike Gebert]

To answer this one now that we've gone ahead and upgraded NitrateVille— chat is a separate module anyway, so I decided to table any decision for the moment so we could go ahead and get the main system upgraded. But I promise to look into the pros and cons further.

In the meantime, note the Online and Offline buttons, which make it easier to know if your response to someone can be responded to in real time.