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February 25, 2005

Under Development Page FINALLY Updated

I'm sure you've all already seen this, but in case you have not, go HERE to see what they've got coming up in the next patch. Highlights (IMO) include:

• Chat bubbles!! Silly, yes, but it's one of the things I thought was kinda neat about CoH's chat system. It could get annoying, in high population areas, sure, but I'd wager they have a way to turn it off.
• More Action bars (4 more, in fact). Looks like the devs have been watching Cosmos and other UI mods. Cosmos in particular, since they added a Quest Tracker (oddly similar to the Quest Minion in Cosmos).
• My Personal favorite: Warrior - Rage will now generate when attacks are parried, dodged and blocked. Finally I'll get rage when I'm just being beat on in an instance. I often can't land a hit to save my life (that happens when I attack things 4-8 levels above me, go fig). At least now I'll generate some rage and be able to DO something about it.

Posted by Feren at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Site Updates, Part II

So, I've gone and spent the day making a bunch of changes to the site. Nothing to the forum this time, all on the main page. New navigation. bar up top, links are not actual links, to other things, not site navigation. Tweaked a few other elements. I have also added a place holder page for an 'About Us' page. I'm not really sure what I want to go there yet, suggestions are MOST welcome. I also tweaked the Guild Roster page, I dunno, I still don't like it. I'm half considering changing it to a page, not a, and also listing Guild Policies and suchlike. Again, feedback is MOST appreciated.

Posted by Feren at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

Site changes and updates

Depending on how often you hit the site through the day, you probably saw some really strange things going on yesterday. I was doing quite a bit of work on the back end, enough so that I 'broke' the site at one point, and had to rewrite the entire script for the front page (not terribly amusing). Anyhow, a few changes, some bigger than others...

On the home page itself, I've rearranged the sidebar stuff to have a better flow, I feel. I have also decided to ditch the links to the IC and OOC forums, since I've rearranged those pretty extensively. So now, it's just one Forum link to the right, again. I moved the search function to the bottom, really it doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of use (since it only searches entries, not the forum, or any other pages I may create). I also edited the script for the main page to list the category that each entry is in as well as link to the archive for the category of the entry. Before, there was no way to tell what sort of entry you were reading (without jumping through a few hoops anyway). Now it lists the category in the by-line at the bottom of each entry. That should help keep the IC and OOC stuff straight (and keep people from thinking I'm more of a nutter than I really am). Today I'll be re-coding the Guild Roster page some. I don't like it's current layout, it bothers me something incredible. Yes, I am that anal-retentive sometimes. I have also lowered the number of previous posts to display on the main page. It was set to display the past 10, now it's set to display the past 7, it doesn't affect bandwidth a lot, but every little bit helps (yes, I'm also paranoid). If I get around to it, I also plan on shuffling around the sidebar a little more, as well as adding it to the archive pages eventually. We'll see how much I get done today (I'm at work, after all).(done!)

The forum has also gone through quite a dramatic shuffle, which is why there is just one link. I've completely split the IC and OOC forums apart into separate categories, and have added several more forums. This is as much for future planning as anything else. The way I had it setup originally, didn't allow for growth all that well, and would eventually lead to a total cluster fuck of information. This way looks a little (okay, a lot) sparse, since there are not many of us active here, nor are there a lot of posts, but down the line, it will pay off. Each forum has a description of its function, and the ones that I would like people to follow specific guidelines on posting, should have a post in them stating just that.

Any questions, shoot me a line, comment here, or babble on in the forum.

Posted by Feren at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

Guild Roster

I've added a post with our current Guild Roster. I changed the date so that it doesn't show on the main page itself, but if you dig back you'll find it. I have also placed a handy link over there to the right for faster access to it. I'll update it as it changes.

Posted by Feren at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

Guild Matters

My friends, with our 'guild', our family, I am striving so very much, to avoid a lot of the politics and in-fighting that is often inherent to such organizations. However, it does seem that a few ground rules need to be laid down, in order to keep everyone happy.

The first thing I'd like to say is that I would prefer it if our guild remain small, ideally no more than 15 members ((people's alts/mules/bank slot characters don't count toward this)). Once we've hit that number, I wholly plan on removing the ability of everyone to admit new members to our ranks. If someone does come along, who is just fantastic, then it will be up to whoever happened to meet them to introduce them to me, and others within our guild, and we can vote on whether to allow them into our number.

I'm also planning on re-arranging the permissions that each of the members have. I wholly intend on allowing any of the founding members of our guild to invite others, my sight unseen, to the guild, with the following conditions in mind:

• Anyone you invite MUST have a note tied to them stating who invited them.
• In you invite someone, who turns out to be a problem, you will temporarily lose you privileges to invite new members. Repeated problems of this sort will result in further disciplinary action.
• Until the new member has met (and preferably hunted) with at least 3 other members of the guild, they must remain at the rank of Traveler.
• When you do invite a new member, if ALL of the other founding members are not available to talk to/meet them, you must post a note ((on the forums)) introducing the new member to the others in the guild. ((Refer the new member to the forum to introduce themselves as well))

I am going to remove the ability to kick people out of the guild from everyone save myself. I will be adding two additional ranks to our titles to take care of problem and new members so that we never have an issue of people being removed from our ranks simply due to petty disputes. If you feel someone needs to be removed from the guild (and I am not immediately available), lower them to the rank of Pariah, and send me a letter ((or contact on the forum)) and they will be reviewed. The two new titles are as follows:

• Pariah - This rank is for members (ANY members) who by some means or another have come to require disciplinary action, up to and including removal from the guild. They will only be allowed to listen in to guild conversations, but not participate in them. If you demote someone to this rank, note it so, and I will speak with you in consideration of what their further punishment should be. ((If they have forum membership, they will be banned from the forum (they can still read, but not post), should they be removed from the guild, their forum permissions will also be removed.)) Before you brand someone as a Pariah, be sure you have valid reason. Frivolous branding of fellows will lead to severe disciplinary action. It is preferable if you have some sort of evidence of the offense/behavior warranting such a branding ((screenshot of the chat window, or a chat log (if you are using a UI mod that supports it))). If the behavior is witnessed and vouched for by two or more of the Brethren, that will also suffice.

• Traveler - This rank is for new members that have NOT yet met with at least 3 guild members other than yourself, They will have the least privileges in the guild second to the Pariahs. This is merely a temporary rank until they membership is assured (through meeting others and gaining acceptance).

In addition to these changes, I have decided to change our titles as follows:

• Leader - This will take place of 'Guild Master'.
• Brethren - This will take place of 'Officer' and is a rank only given to founding members of our guild.
• Fellow - This will take place of 'Member' and is the rank all fully approved members will hold.
• Traveler - This is the rank for all new additions to the guild, they will hold this until fully approved by others within the guild.
• Pariah - This is the rank for probationary members, those who have done some wrong, and are under review.

((Later today, I will be posting a sticky thread of all the guild members, and their ranks, as well as the full list of permissions for the various ranks))

Posted by Feren at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

Uploading multiple photos...

I found a mod for the new gallery system that was supposed to allow users to upload multiple pictures, by way of uploading a zip file with the pictures in them, and the server dealing with it. Unfortunately, after 3-4 days of tweaking, testing, and more tweaking, it still does not work properly (read: at all). *sigh*

Unfortunately, the developer of the mod has stopped working on it until the next update of the forum software comes out, which means getting this to work, without me learning a couple of programming languages, isn't going to happen all that soon. Sorry. I know that at least one person, Getharn, has several photos to upload, but at this time, the only way to do so is one at a time. The old Gallery will be going offline in a few days here, so if you need anything from in there, grab it quick, once it's down, it's going to be deleted from the server.

Posted by Feren at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

Gallery Changes

I've update the way the site will deal with the Gallery. The old gallery is still up, for now, so if you don't have those pictures backed up someplace, grab 'em quick. I'm going to be deleting that thing in, say, a week or so (unless I see all the pictures there moved sooner).

There are a few differences between the old and the new. The new one is tied to the Forum, so I don't need to create separate accounts for you; once you have registered for the forum, you're all set to go. Also, the new one automatically sets up a personal gallery for you (nice).

It doesn't have quite as many bells and whistles as the old gallery, as far as image manipulation goes (it can't resize images for you, for example. It's thumbnail creation ability is a little dodgy too. It makes them fine, but a few of the ones I've seen have wonky colors, or other weirdness about them. Frankly, I'm willing to trade the functionality for the ease of use and integration into the rest of the site.

UPDATE: I've tweaked the addon a bit, and dug for more info on my server. The thumbnails now look MUCH better than before. RTFM folks, rtfm *sigh*.

The Publicly listed galleries (just one at this time) are open to any registered users. There is a limit of 50 pictures per user in any one category (album) in the public galleries. In your personal album, there is a 100 picture limit. The pictures must be 128,000 bytes (125k) or smaller, and no greater than 1280 pixels wide and 1024 pixels high (if you have a rotated image that's 1024 x 1280 it won't work).

These limits were set to that we don't kill my allotted space, or monthly bandwidth allowance. I'll keep an eye on both and see what things look like as more pictures are added and more of the guild members come to the site. If it doesn't look terrible, I'll revise the limits.

I've also tweaked the design of the Forum a little to make getting back and forth from this home page and there a little simpler. Just click the big 'ol 'Wow.TableTopless.com' up at the top to get back to this main page.

If anyone has any suggestions regarding the new Gallery system, the forum, or anything else, let me know here, or in the forum.

Posted by Feren at 10:12 AM | Comments (3)

February 09, 2005

A Tabard has been chosen...

Well friends, it has been a momentous couple of nights. First our guild is finally formed, then new members are welcomed to the fold, and last night, after an amusing run through the Wailing Caverns, our Tabard was designed and purchased.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to the purchase cost of the thing, without the help, we would still be waiting.

So here is the design that was chosen, with fairly unanimous approval (of those present anyhow):

If anyone needs assistance in purchasing their own tabard (the cost is a gold.. 90 silver if you are in good standing with the town in question), let me know, and I'll see what can be done.

Posted by Feren at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

Chat away, yon monkeys, chat away...

I spent much of yesterday implementing a chat system for the site. Really, it's cause I'm lazy, and don't want to have to juggle AIM windows all the time, but that's besides the point. It works quite well, uses ICQ's IRC server, so I don't have to spaz over bandwidth, and it's nice and fast (as far as I've seen, anyhow). So go check it out. You'll have to be logged into the forum to access it.

Also, I'll be editing the layout of the forums and the gallery a little to make it easier to navigate around the site, as I get time today.

Posted by Feren at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2005

Huzzah! The Guild Has Formed!!!

Last night, I was finally able to get the charter fully signed and the guild is now officially formed. We can also welcome two new members to the fold, Darba and Ishne, both of whom joined us last night. Darba is a hoot, and heartily look forward to adventuring with her. Ishne I spoke with only briefly, but seemed to be a very bright your Tauren with much promise.

There are some 'business' matters that need attending to, though. The first is the matter of titles within the guild. I do not care for 'Guild Master', 'Officer', 'Member', 'Veteran', or 'Initiate' (I think that's all of them). I would like to change all of these titles, but cannot for the life of me think of any good ones. Let me know your opinions, perhaps we can vote on a good solution.

Also, I will actively be trying to gather up the gold to purchase our Tabard. I have two preliminary designs.

and

I'm open for suggestions though, if folks dislike those two. ((WorldOfWar.Net has an excellent Tabard designed tool if you wish to try your hand at it))

The cost of the Tabard is 10 gold for the design, and I believe it is an additional gold for each person to purchase one, but I may be mistaken. Donations are welcome, but not necessary.

Posted by Feren at 11:14 AM | Comments (1)

February 07, 2005

Autobots.... Transform, and roll out! Err, wait no...

How's it going folks? Things seem to be rolling along, though it seems that few folks are stopping by just yet. Then again, there's what, 6 of us?

Anyway, life has calmed down. My cold seems to have backed off, and I've gotten my head all sorted out after my grand mother's passing.

I'll be returning to my 'normal' schedule of gaming now, so evenings, with heavy lump of time of Tuesday nights. If anyone wants an album setup over on the Gallery let me know, and I'll see about setting one up for you.

I've added a 'Links' section over there to the right, that'll make it easier to get to the other bits of the site. Things may or may not change around more over the coming days/weeks/months as I feel like it, or something annoys me enough to change it. If there's something people would like to see, leave a comment here or over in the Forum and I'll see what I can do.

Posted by Feren at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2005

*cough cough wheeeeze*

I'm finally back from my damn business trip. Las Vegas sucks major ass when you're stuck working, oh, 12 hours a day, through the weekend, for a week and a half.

Glad to be home. Caught some nasty cold. Gotta go into work tomorrow, truck comes back with all out stuff, I should at least be there to unpack. Then I'll fake passing out or something, maybe try for Friday off. We'll see.

Peace

Posted by Feren at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)