Messages

176

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: I have put a "share with facebook" type thing on the pages (temporarily?)..

« on: March 29, 2015, 03:43 PM »

Indeed! Discourse really is pretty well thought out. It's not perfect, but it's a lot more well designed and thoughtful than any other system I've seen yet. Others like Burning Board or IPB are basically like souped-up versions of SMF. They have more features, maybe some slicker elements and design, some nice touches like Lightboxes for images say, and some other Javascript fancery. But it's still a pretty traditional approach to forum discussion (for better or worse). Meanwhile systems with built-in forum-like features like Drupal have the advantage of complete integration, but at the expense of features and bloat, and also with a different but still fairly traditional approach, without such thoughtful changes as Discourse exemplifies. Finally, systems with integrated plugins such as Joomla's Kunena or WordPress BBoard are sort of the middleground between those other options, with decent but not ideal integration to their parent systems, generally fairly basic feature sets, and minimal-to-no unique features or ideas, a fairly standard approach aside from the integration.

If DC were anything but a forum-and-discussion-focused site I might recommend some other forum system with tighter integration to a CMS, but since CMS-type content is actually fairly minimal here (and would, IMO, be better handled in a Wiki-like fashion anyway), I feel like Discourse is a really strong option and a good fit...

For the software stuff, depending how serious you get about it, you could either use one of the nicer available Wiki systems (with some plugins or custom coding, as needed), or something like Redmine. Redmine, as you know, has a built-in Wiki system, file hosting, bug tracking, and even version control access. It may be overkill, which is why I'd probably suggest a more straightforward Wiki myself (which really should serve all needs as far as I can see), but Redmine is worth considering if in the DC migration you want to aim higher and give devs more and better tools to manage and maintain their software.

As you can probably guess, I'm anxious to see your post(s) about where you see the future of DC and hopefully including some thoughts on these kinds of specific systems and recommendations. If not Discourse, why not? If not a Wiki, why not?

- Oshyan

177

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: I have put a "share with facebook" type thing on the pages (temporarily?)..

« on: March 29, 2015, 03:23 PM »

Like many other things, I think Discourse handles this very elegantly. Rather than making you scroll all the way to the bottom or popping up an obtrusive sidebar/bottom-bar, or other thing, it just assumes that linking is something you might want to do for *any* post (original post or a reply to it) and gives you button to do that on every post. It's a variation of the fairly familiar and widely used "chain link" icon which brings up a little box with the URL to that specific post, small buttons to click to share with Twitter, FB, G+, and Email. I assume it's all self-hosted since it's integrated right in.

Here's a screenshot. The red box shows the share options that pop-up, the green box at bottom shows the link you click to get the pop-up (to the left is a Like button, to the right is Bookmark), the blue box above shows how these buttons (including Reply) are faded out until/unless you mouse over the post, in other words the focus is on *reading* rather than interacting/replying, unless you want to. Quite nice IMO.



- Oshyan

178

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Reference Overlay Tool

« on: March 22, 2015, 01:21 PM »

Thanks wraith, much appreciated!

- Oshyan

179

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Reference Overlay Tool

« on: March 21, 2015, 04:21 PM »

Oh man, this tool is exactly what I need!... except it's missing one thing. Any chance you can implement a new feature/option?

I was looking for something that would let me take a headshot image of me and let me easily overlay it dynamically on anything I wanted to, specifically web shopping sites for clothes. I think it could be very helpful for picking out clothing online. I can do it manually of course in something like Photoshop, but that's incredibly time consuming and would only slow down the process, while I'm trying to speed it up.

So, your tool is perfect, except it does not seem to support mask-based transparency/opacity (as opposed to overall window transparency/opacity, which you do support). Supporting transparency would be hugely useful, first because I can't get a good impression of how a shirt fits me (particularly the collar) if my head is surrounded by a white box that overlays some of the shirt. But also especially because it enables things like having a full body shot with only my arms and head showing - in the right positions - and the body transparent, to hopefully give an even better impression of fit. This is more relevant for color theory approaches to clothing rather than body-shape stuff of course, but it still seems quite helpful.

So if you can implement mask/transparency support that would be fantastic! An option to hide the UI controls would also be super nice, but not mandatory. Maybe like a double-click on the main interface will toggle show/hide the controls?

Thanks in advance!

- Oshyan

180

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder 10th Anniversary plans, ideas, changes, fundraiser?

« on: March 21, 2015, 02:33 PM »

Looks like I missed the main activity period of this thread, but in my opinion DC is great in concept and general spirit. It just needs better tools/implementation.

Due to the many-possible-editors nature of the main non-discussion content pages, I think some form of Wiki makes tremendous amounts of sense. I don't see a WordPress or other such site being as effective as a straightforward Wiki. A Wiki meets all the needs I can really think of, aside from possibly marketing/aesthetic, for which you could perhaps just have a few still static pages, or a Wordpress-powered collection of pages, but even that seems unnecessary if you spend a little time prettying up your Wiki and theming it nicely. Wiki can be edited by anyone, if edits go awry it can be reverted, they can be multimedia-rich (including video, with plugins), have table of contents, glossary functionality, indexes and lists (e.g. list of all software by a particular contributor, list of all software in a particular category), and allow more focused discussion around a given page which could allow e.g. simple bug tracking and app-specific conversation that is more directly tied to the app's page (this makes most sense after a coding snack or other app is developed and made available, i.e. for long-term, ongoing bug discussion, feature requests, etc.

The forums as a community engagement tool are nice, but those and perhaps also the donation/user support system that is tied to them, need some new features which might suggest a new system entirely. I could call out some specific features like user mentions (e.g. @javajones, which improves engagement/stickiness), threaded conversations, easier topic splitting and referencing, better mobile support, better quoting functionality, better notifications, and more. Some of these are possible to implement with SMF, either with plugins or custom coding. A more radical but likely more effective solution would be to consider something like Discourse, which I've been very impressed with thus far (to be clear I am not running my own implementation at this time, this is just what I've seen from its feature set and testing it in its own discussion areas). http://www.discourse.org/ There are other more SMF-like forums that have some of this capability built-in and might be less of a shock to the existing users, e.g. Burning Board https://www.woltlab.com/wbb/ but I think ios a major software change is going to be made at all, it's worth considering something more forward-thinking like Discourse.

As for donations, my first question would be whether donations are really intended for (and at this time really do go toward) not just the site but also individual users. Do people toss a dollar or a 25 cents toward someone for a good, informative post? Do software authors, coding snack writers, etc. actually get many contributions? And if so are they coming from a variety of people, both old and new users, or is it more of a small-ish group of people who support *each other* and the money just kind of circles around? In other words is it more of a token gesture (no pun intended), or an actual, functional, useful part of the site? If the donations largely support the site itself, practically speaking, then perhaps it's best to make that clear or optimize better for that (although if it's working now as-is and there is a reasonable balance, perhaps it's already fairly optimal). If there is a desire to encourage more contribution to individual members, perhaps the site overhaul could help address that with plugins/add-ons to e.g. Discourse and the Wiki, and a better-branded, better-promoted (more "surfaced") donation/support system, something like Patreon/Subbable for example but oriented toward how things work here...

That's my 2 cents for now. Big change is scary and risky, but if you don't want DC to continue to just coast along as it has done for the past few years, then such change is worth strongly considering.

- Oshyan

181

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« on: January 31, 2015, 01:02 AM »

Damn, looks like I missed some good stuff. 4wd, I am very jealous, that sounds fantastic. Always wanted to do an epic sailing trip. There's still time. That panorama of Blackberry Camp is stunning!

Car stuff is fun to. Man I used to be seriously into cars some years back. Never did make it to an auto show or anything (or GM world, haha; I do love to just "drive to drive" though). But I used to haunt the local Ferrari and Porsche shops a bit as a lad.

One of these days I'll get around to posting my final Iceland series, and maybe more (have some laying around unposted from a great Utah trip a couple years ago, etc.). In the meantime, keep posting your stuff guys! It's great to see.

- Oshyan

182

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« on: January 04, 2015, 02:03 PM »

Woah, looks like I missed a bunch. Thanks guys, great stuff!

Those are some awesome panoramas. And what an epic journey! Is that a single sailing excursion?

Jibz, I too am a flower photo geek. I haven't taken so many lately, but in my archives are many, many flowers, bees, etc. You've got some really nice examples over there on 500px. thanks for sharing.

- Oshyan

183

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« on: December 06, 2014, 08:53 PM »

Oh my god, I love super long piers!! That's awesome. Thanks for showing that.

We have one in the Bay Area, no longer functional unfortunately, but it used to be 3.5 miles long! http://en.wikipedia....g/wiki/Berkeley_Pier

- Oshyan

184

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: December 06, 2014, 12:00 PM »

I know, crazy place to start, right? I'm fascinated that someone in Dubai saw her and then decided they wanted to book this act from half-way around the world. Awesome.

- Oshyan

185

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: December 06, 2014, 10:57 AM »

I thought you guys might want to know that Abbey has her first paying, independent performance of Aerial Animation coming up mid-December in Dubai! So it all paid off. It's a very exciting moment.

Thanks everyone for all your support!

- Oshyan

186

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« on: December 05, 2014, 10:28 PM »

At long last, Part 2 of 3, for those interested:
https://plus.google..../6088425499534158033




Thanks for looking! And hey, please DO post your own photos and share your journeys, adventures, discoveries, etc!

- Oshyan

187

Living Room / Re: My cat needs your thoughts | RIP Saffron my dearest cat

« on: August 29, 2014, 02:44 PM »

Really sorry to hear that Jesse. It is indeed so hard losing a loved one, and 18 years together, wow. That's a big bond. Take the time you need, we're all here for you.

- Oshyan

188

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 27, 2014, 11:04 PM »

Thanks guys. I'm hopeful that she's able to create some kind of production company out of this and take the show on the road. Who knows. I'll let you know if that happens and you can all go see it in person.

- Oshyan

189

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 27, 2014, 09:09 PM »

Well, it's over at last and she didn't make it through. It was a pretty tense finale, they were the last to find out their verdict, and it was chosen by the judges. The way they structure the show is just so stressful... Anyway, she got really far and did great, I'm very proud of her. Thanks once again to all of you who watched, voted, and read about this little moment in my life.

- Oshyan

190

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 27, 2014, 08:21 PM »

Well, she's in the "Snapple Save" candidates, so she needs votes if you got 'em. One for each Google Account, just like before. Just search "snapple save" on Google.

Thanks!

- Oshyan

191

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 27, 2014, 04:20 PM »

Results are tonight, tonight! But there's important info to share as well. Read on...

They've got a new thing this year called the "Snapple Save" where the audience can vote from between I think 3 acts to pick one to advance, i.e. to "save" them from elimination. They are the "maybes" or something. Anyway, if Aerial Animation ends up as one of those, then she needs people to vote *live*, during the East Coast show, to get her through. So I'm going to ask for all your help again, if I may.

As far as I know this will probably happen near the *beginning* of tonight's results show, which means it starts at 9PM Eastern, 6PM Pacific, and it will happen *before* the airing on the West Coast. The stream I linked to above is from the East Coast feed, so it would work to watch that. Abbey said it would be between 6 and 6:15PM Pacific basically, and once it's announced there is only a 30 minute period to vote. Fortunately the voting happens all online, you just search "Snapple Save" in Google after it's announced and you can vote. If you're not watching, you can even just try searching for that around 6:15 Pacific and see if she's on there.

Here's a page with some more info: http://www.nbc.com/a...-talent/snapple-save
And a video, if you have access to Facebook: https://www.facebook...?v=10152473462559760

The results of the "Snapple Save" will be given at the end of the show.

I'll let you all know what ends up happening. Thanks again!

- Oshyan

192

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 27, 2014, 03:34 PM »

Glad to hear you enjoyed mouser. She had a tough couple of weeks leading up to this, she got sick, her partner hurt is back, but I think they did well in the end, especially considering the difficulties. Now to see what America thought.

Thanks to everyone who watched and/or voted! No matter what happens the support she has gotten from everyone has been amazing. Reality TV is a really tough environment, but it has been an opportunity to connect with such an expanded audience, I think it must be worth it, with the challenges and all.

Soooo... any other talents out there?

- Oshyan

193

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 26, 2014, 06:10 PM »

2AM it is then! Hard to sort out daylight time from non-daylight the world 'round. I wish we'd just stick to "Daylight Saving Time" permanently. Everyone hates "regular" hours. :-p

- Oshyan

194

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 26, 2014, 05:51 PM »

It's about 10 minutes to 4(PM) here right now, which will be 7PM on the East Coast. So about 2 hours from now for the live East Coast broadcast at 9PM EDT. I'm gonna say that's 1AM GMT. Hope that's right, looks right...

- Oshyan

195

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 26, 2014, 05:34 PM »

For anyone without TV or not in the US who wants to watch it live, here is a horribly ad-laden streaming link that usually works. Remember, it will come up at 9PM Eastern Time (6PM Pacific).

Here we go, just be warned: shields up and at maximum strength (ad and pop-up blockers, etc.)!
http://www.stream2wa...e-tv/nbc-live-stream
Usually one of those 5 streams linked at the top of the video area works. Even with ad blocker on, you may need to click the x's to close blank ads over top of the video.
This one in particular was working just now:
http://www.stream2wa...d=13286&stream=1

I shall not be watching, I'm waiting for it to show locally (9PM Pacific), so no spoilers please.

- Oshyan

196

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 26, 2014, 12:15 PM »

Awesome, you guys are fantastic! But apparently not very talented yourselves.

-JavaJones (August 26, 2014, 11:55 AM)

Would love to see one of the DC coders go on AGT/BGT and just sit there for 2 minutes and pump out some basic software like "Yeah?  And what, bitches?!"

-Stephen66515 (August 26, 2014, 12:11 PM)

Haha! Awesome. "Yes, I just made a basic word processor. Bam!"

- Oshyan

197

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 26, 2014, 11:55 AM »

Awesome, you guys are fantastic! But apparently not very talented yourselves.

- Oshyan

198

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 26, 2014, 01:14 AM »

Ahhh yes, clever devil. I love posting this to DC mainly because many other people I've sent it to have gotten confused about how voting works. I trust DC-ers won't have that problem.

- Oshyan

199

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 25, 2014, 10:02 PM »

Hah! Well, I think technically UK people aren't allowed to vote. :-p I guess I should have clarified the America part. But you can try! Internet voting should be available from 11PM Eastern Time onward, so um... what is that, 3PM, 4PM your time?

- Oshyan

200

Living Room / Re: Talents and talent shows

« on: August 25, 2014, 09:20 PM »

Well folks, Abbey's next performance on America's Got Talent has almost arrived. So here's the info to vote, if you don't mind helping out.

Her act is called Aerial Animation and the show is on tomorrow night, Tuesday August 26th at 9PM Pacific/Eastern Time/8 Central (it airs live for East Coasters, delayed for West Coasters). It runs for 2 hours and voting is at the end. There are 3 ways to vote, and you get 10 points *for each voting method* to distribute to the acts you like. You will be able to vote on the official AGT site here (after the show airs): http://www.nbc.com/a...icas-got-talent/vote

You can also do a Google search for "America's Got Talent" and you should be able to vote live on Google itself. This will be a voting "widget" on the Google search results page, you vote right there, don't follow any links. Again this will only work after the show airs. And since you're all DC-ers and you can handle complexity, I'll let you in on a little secret: you can vote 10 points for *each* Google account you have (not including Google Apps accounts). So if you have multiple you can just Switch Accounts and vote some more (if desired).

Last but not least, you will also be able to call-in (info should be on the page above, after the show). There are unique numbers for each act and it records one vote per call, automatically, then hangs up on you. It's kind of annoying, but not too bad to just keep redialing and wait a moment until it hangs up on you. I wouldn't blame you if you don't do the phone thing. But the NBC and Google site voting is easy.

Phone voting closes 2 hours after the show airs (local time, so if you're on the East Coast, phone voting is over at 1AM Eastern; they do it by area code I think), but I think Internet voting works until 9 or 10AM the next day, so if it's a little past your bedtime to vote at 11, feel free to give it a shot on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday will be the results show where we find out if she made it through. Again I think it's at 9PM. I'll post the results here afterward for anyone who doesn't want to watch (I wouldn't blame you, hehe).

Thanks everyone!

P.S. I was serious about wanting to see other people's talents. Anyone want to show anything cool? Are you a painter? Sculpter? Singer? Do you have perfect push-up form? A really interesting-looking eyeball?

- Oshyan