Or, with shudderings and crossings of ourselves, as "He Who Does Not Like Cowboy Bebop".

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

That's one of those little conversations that somehow generate their own life force, isn't it? :)

-={(Astynax)}=-
"Shuddering at the mention of the Unmentionable Show"

Okay, what's wrong with Cowboy Bebop?

The First Foundation was only the beginning.

Well, I'm not so new, but I'd wager just-as-addicted fanboy (-man, -thing...whatever :)

I mostly hang out, and try not to annoy the Admins/Editors/People-in-charge too much...sometimes I even succeed (in not annyoing them).

Other than that, I'm probably right in the middle of the demographic for readers of Eyrie (do we HAVE an official demographic?). Computer gnurd, gamer, anime freak...yeah, that's a reasonable over-simplification...

Kind of sounds like what people will be saying about me eventually.

The First Foundation was only the beginning.

>Hello, I'm Mr. Fnord, and I don't exist.
>
>Don't you feel foolish reading a message from a fictional person?

Not really. I get them in my mind all the time.

--G.
["Mr. Director, it's Dorothy Wayneright on Line 2." "Tell her to hold, I'm still on with M. Bison."]
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Your mind must be an interesting place to visit for about three seconds, before the telepath in question goes barking mad.

(Of course, I once had two characters have a lover's quarrel in my head while I was trying to write a scene. And when it was a love scene with the two characters, well, that got REALLY bizarre. So I shouldn't talk)

--
Geoff Depew - Mephron
"Big O! Showtime!"

Hrmm. The only part that's really semi-disturbing is that he's leaving Dorothy on hold for M. Bison. What's up with that?

---------------------------------------
"You're a louse, Benjamin D. Hutchins."
---------------------------------------
Chad Collier
Digital Bitch
J. Random VFX Company

That's an unfavorable situation either way, but believe it or not, Dorothy is more easily placated. Unlike M. Bison, she doesn't believe in interpersonal violence as a stress reliever. :)

>---------------------------------------
>"You're a louse, Benjamin D. Hutchins."
>---------------------------------------

Zank you. I be here all ze veek.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

-- Bob

Right!

>Coolness... two of my three favorite fanfic (or something... ;)
>authors in one place.

I'm honored. (I must have done something right in the last few chapters of DW2, because I'm starting to get all these people saying, "it's/you're one of my favorites!" over the past few months.)

>Anyway. Hi. ;) Glad to see a familiar, er, face (well, you know what
>I mean.:)

A friendly keystroke is always welcome, right? <grin>

-- Bob
---------------
Come to the Wired. Ask for Lain. I will help you.
-- from Serial Experiments Lain: The Legend Continues

This sounds vaguely obscene.

Not that that's a bad thing.

-- Sean --

http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

and to Sofaspud, any updates planned for the couch anytime soon? there's several stories I'd like to read more of on there.

-------------
Lead me not to temptation, for I can find it myself.

Xervis
AKA
The Chrono Shifting Trigger

If death is only the begining, then
what is the end?

Me

I don't get it. Am I the only person on the forum who thought "An Encounter at Shamrock House" was completely and totally sane?

Completely confused,
Kitsune

There are a few examples of the species around here already <one thread or another is up at around 150 posts>. Anyone got an 'unweildy monster slaying sword + 5' around?

-={(Astynax)}=-
"Darkness beyond Twilight"

Hey, Mr. DCForum Hacker D00d... any chance of adding a "Start New Thread" button on the "Compose your message" screen? Maybe it'd help with some of these 100-article threads whose actual subject matter shifts six or seven times along the way. :)

--truss.

I suppose it is possible. I'll have to look into how best to code it.

-MegaZone, megazone@megazone.org
Personal Homepage http://www.megazone.org/
Eyrie Productions FanFic http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

A way for the admins to split threads would be handy, too. If I'd found a way to do that, I'd have broken up the "NXE Hostility" thread into about five different threads by now. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Now, this I know would be complicated. Doable ("It's only software."), but not simple. Have to do something so you can pick which post to be the break point, then move it and any of its children to a new thread. And, to do it up right, you should probably leave behind a post with a URL that points to the new thread...

-MegaZone, megazone@megazone.org
Personal Homepage http://www.megazone.org/
Eyrie Productions FanFic http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

OK, now you've got my geek blood going... how are the messages stored?<meaning, are they all independent records with some sort of master table, or are they like linked lists, a post has a pointer to it's parent {and maybe children}?>

-={(Astynax)}=-
"Darkness beyond Twilight"

Unfortunately messier than that - posts are stored in multiple ways:
- a flat HTML file of the entire thread (what you see with View All)
- a flat .txt file with all the posts in it in a delimited format
- a database.txt file stores the list of threads for the forum and associated data in a delimited format

So to do a move you'd probably alter the .txt file - removing the posts being moved, then adding them to the new location (or altering them in the file if staying in the same forum). You'd have to renumber them to avoid conflicts with existing posts in the new forum. There is already an ability for admins to move entire threads, so I'd imagine that'd be the starting point for this code.

Then rebuild the .html files - there is already a function to do that though. You'd want to call that once the .txt files were fixed.

And you'd need to update the database.txt file to reflect the new thread - that is probably also addressed in the current thread moving code.

Oh, and the data.txt file is a counter of posts for the forum, so if you add posts to a forum you need to incriment the counter appropriate. That's also probably handled in the same code.

Of course that all ignores things like the email notification files, etc - but there is no good way to handle those IMHO, so I'd ignore them. (Cloning them for any relocated branches would be uncool, IHMO.)

-MegaZone, megazone@megazone.org
Personal Homepage http://www.megazone.org/
Eyrie Productions FanFic http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

hideous hideous hideous. /me lost 2d6 SAN (I rolled a 10)
when looking at the storage structure for articles.

-jer (crusty old gweep and news admin)
--
jer@gweep.net
Ceci n'est pas une .signature

The flat HTML file is cool - it cuts server load, when you 'view all' you are hitting a link to a static HTML document. That's fine.

The large flatfile on the other hand... Yeah, I'm trying to encourage the next major revision move to individual files for each post. If I knew more, or rather, anything really about USEnet post formats on an newsserver I'd probably push for something closer to that.

The database.txt file I have no problem with - it improves performance by not having to parse all the posts for the relevant info.

Of course, the next major rev is supposed to support an SQL DB backend anyway, which is the better choice overall. (Probably MySQL - maybe others.) But a lot of users don't have access to a DB and need the flat file support.

If you have suggestions for article storage, please share them.

-MegaZone, megazone@megazone.org
Personal Homepage http://www.megazone.org/
Eyrie Productions FanFic http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Take a look at /var/spool/news/articles on rei - there are directory trees for the newsgroup hierarchies, and numbered text files in the directories for the posts. So, post #11570 on rec.arts.anime.misc would be /var/spool/news/articles/rec/arts/anime/misc/11570 .

There's also a fragile, easily-corrupted, and utterly critical file called 'active' which keeps track of things for the server. Jer can tell you more about that.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

DCForum is perl, yesno? or am I mis-remembering?
Why not just use perlDBI, then? that way, people can use whatever database backend they feel inclined to...including the semi-evil perl-DBI-flatfile <shudder><twitch>

ok, so the flat-DBI-flatfile is not overly pleasant...being able to swap database backends between mySQL, postgres, Oracle, and about a dozen others IS...Having used perlDBI for a few CGI apps in the past, I seriously recommend it

Perhaps a way for the users to quote to a new thread without copying and pasting. That way, when a user responsible enough to realize they are way off the original thread topic responds, they could make their own thread.

--------------------------------------
Whoa! What IS it?!

This is actually what my original feature request was supposed to say. I don't think I expressed it all that clearly, but you did it for me. :)

--truss.

Not that I realized I was restating anybody elses ideas, but you're welcome :D

--------------------------------------
Whoa! What IS it?!

It does now. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Catholic school? Doesn't take much to piss off many of those teachers <I'm a veteran of that battle ground myself, hell, I am, as I type this, wearing 'I Survived Catholic School', a shirt that never fails to get chuckles;) >

-={(Astynax)}=-
"11 and a half years, and somehow I'm not <totally> insane"

Why not? Is it the anime, the fanfiction, comic books, science fiction, or what?

Whatever it is, I may need to up my supply someday.

Peter Eng

Heh heh heh. Cool. Where can I get one for my last day of year 12, a few months from now? Make part of a great costume. Add a few guns (toy or real, your choice) and some fake wounds and get ready to give the nuns a heart attack.

Matrix Dragon
"5 years at a Catholic school and I'm insane, but at least I took a few teachers with me :)"

Well, mine came from and Irish Shop <that was it's name, the Irish Shop, seems to be a semi franchise thing> in St. Augustine Florida. Not sure where else you mgith get one:)

And as for scaring nuns, you could always go the blasphemy route, more legal;)

-={(Astynax)}=-
"Darkness beyond Twilight"

Ah well... Maybe I can make one.

>And as for scaring nuns, you could always go the blasphemy route, more legal;)

This is Australia. Blasphemy is almost illegal, thanks to minority groups.

Matrix Dragon
"Honestly Sister Sue, Eris is a far better choice then Jesus..."

Hmm, standard beach T-shirt shops often make custom shirts <for a charge per letter usually>

>
>This is Australia. Blasphemy is almost illegal, thanks to minority
>groups.
>

Really? And here I thought Australia was at least marginally ahead of the good 'ol US in the personal freedom dept. I guess idocy spreads worldwide faster than the ILOVEYOU bug.

>Matrix Dragon
>"Honestly Sister Sue, Eris is a far better choice then Jesus..."

Well, at least then my life would make a LITTLE more sense...

-={(Astynax)}=-
"My life is way to chaotic to have anything to do with jesus;)"

Nope, political correctness has almost crippled Australia. We had you standard anti-globalisation protesters last week, and the police were told off for standing too close to them while they wrecked a McDonalds.

>>"Honestly Sister Sue, Eris is a far better choice then Jesus..."
>Well, at least then my life would make a LITTLE more sense...

Mine did, that's for sure. Hail Eris!

>"My life is way to chaotic to have anything to do with jesus;)"

It's not his fault he doesn't understand chaos.

Matrix Dragon.
"Now, to partake of a hot dog."