Update on tranfer/upgrade and a rant

[Amka]

Most of the database is transfered over. On the other site, we have the upgrade already running. I myself haven't yet had a chance to take a look at it, except I know Vlad used a green theme.

Anyway, we are still waiting on register dot com. Yes, I'm going to say their name because they are mired in procedure and "I couldn't have made a mistake, I never make a mistake" mediocrity. With other competitors, how do they possibly think they can afford this kind of poor service?

No matter. Soon we shall be free.

So, we may have a freeze, in which we update the database to the most recent posts, but it will be relatively short. I'll be honest, though. I'm anxious. There are always glitches in these kinds of things. By being prepared, we're hoping to avoid them but these gremlins... they are very good hiders.

What I'm excited about is that we will have website (apart from the forum) content open to registered users.

[Rei]

Yay! I'm looking forward to this. Here's hoping it all goes through with only the most minimal of hitches.

[Petra456]

*crosses fingers*

[Gravity Defier]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Craig]

We talking about another forum? Sorry, I've been out of the loop for so long...

Salaam

[zeroguy]

Just switching hosts, and possibly a slight change/upgrade to the forum software? And a new rest-of-the-site, apparently. In any case, we're keeping the current posts this time.

[Amka]

Arg! They still haven't switched us.

I guess we will have to freeze things for longer.

Aaaand the gremlin shows his face. Due to security in the program, passwords do not transfer. You will all have to request a password change when the transfer is complete.

This makes me doubly anxious. When I tried to get on here to try to fix things, I couldn't remember which password I'd used to I requested a change and this software never sent it to me. I am here right now because we hacked into the system (Which we could do simply because we have keys not available to anyone else). Vlad assures me that this is because the email server at our other place was having serious problems, and it wouldn't be a problem here. Still, I do want to test it. Probably take a mod with me and have them try to change their password on the "new" pweb. If there is a problem we can get it ironed out before.

[Amka]

It looks like we lost a few posts. I'm not exactly sure how. Sorry to all of you users whose communications have been exiled to the ether. And to think that the juicy confession I posted is now gone forever.

But this seriously beats losing it all.

Sigh: We are still getting spam users. The reason users can't email through the site is easy: I'm sure the spammers would take advantage of it.

But I'm hoping some of the other software glitches are now fixed. Tell me if you get any bugs.

[Hegemon]

Thank you or all the work you've done.

[Gravity Defier]

Is the member name/birthday thread gone?

If it is, on the one hand I'm okay with it because some people never liked it and on the other, I'm a little upset because I did spend time trying to update it.


Other than that little inquiry, thanks for moving us to a more secure home.

[zeroguy]

The list is available here, if you wanted to recreate it. But that may not be completely up-to-date; I don't remember when it was last modified.

[Dr. Mobius]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phpbb#Security

The CAPTCHA system in phpBB2 has proven vulnerable to automated registrations, with numerous phpBB-based forums being swamped by spam registrations. Due to the feature freeze, the antispam solutions have to be installed separately. The phpBB team has published recommendations on protecting the boards from spam. At the moment, the best method is to use a question-answer challenge, implemented by Textual Confirmation or Registration Auth Code MODs.

[Amka]

I have no idea how we could have lost the birthday thread. I thought maybe just the sticky got lost and so when through to try and find it, but it simply isn't there. There was a lot of copy pasting into the database because for some reason it wouldn't automatically take in the new database. So maybe I guess I do have an idea that perhaps it got lost between sections that got copied.

Thank you guys for the info on how to patch the system. I knew when I saw the visual recognition that it was just way too easy for software recognition.

[Luet]

For those wondering about the difference in topic page numbers, I think there used to be maybe 20 posts per page and now there are 15 posts per page, hence more pages.

[Amka]

So who thinks that a fill in the blank "The enemy's gate is ___" is too elitist?

[Hegemon]

So who thinks that a fill in the blank "The enemy's gate is ___" is too elitist?

It's okay but there are a few PWEB'ers who would not have been able to join if we had used that back in the day. Most notably Limegiver, who did not read EG for many years. Come to think of it, I don't know if he ever read it.

But, for the most part, I think it's a good idea. We might want to change the thing up ever now and then though, because I suppose that eventually one of the spammers might take the time to get the answers and then write up a bot that can fill in all the blanks.

[Gravity Defier]

The list is available here, if you wanted to recreate it. But that may not be completely up-to-date; I don't remember when it was last modified.

Beautiful, zero, thanks. I'm pretty sure that's it with all the updates. It had been a while since anyone asked me to add/change anything.

Since John originally wanted it, I think I'll let him decide if it goes back up in a thread and how it goes back up if it does.

[Hegemon]

oh.. well.. i think it should be back, and that you should just make a thread with the stuff in there for me to sticky...

dunno what everyone else thinks though, so i'm happy to let others decide. i figure the bday stuff should be there at least, even if the other data is not.

[Eddie Pinz]

What I'm excited about is that we will have website (apart from the forum) content open to registered users.

Amka,

I know you are still working out the kinks with the forum transfer, but I was interested in what kind of website content there would be? Would it be similar to the content what was on Pweb 2.0? Will users be able to contribute? And what is the timetable on it?

No need to rush a reply becuase I know you are busy, but just somethings that I was interested in having answered.

Thanks.

[Amka]

WEBSITE:

Well, we are rushing because if we don't we'll lose momentum here and it won't be put up.

Anyway, it actually IS up now. I got my keys to use it this morning. The software is similar to blogging software, but more powerful, meant for an informative site kept by several people. We can have several sections. We can have polls. I saw it for about 10 minutes this morning between taking care of some things here and going to my workout.

So later this afternoon or evening, I'll post a link to it.

We ARE in fact looking for content moderators. This means you guys. I have a backup of all the content from the very first Pweb. The book covers, artwork, etc.

I am working on a book, and need to have it finished by the end of the year. I have a preschooler, a kid in elementary, middle, and high school. I am the language guru and narrator at http://www.geekatplay.com. So I'm a bit busy. So what I need is for someone to take all that cool stuff I have and organize it into the website.

ANTI-SPAM

As for the authentication phrase, I think that the people who come on here are either here because they love Ender's Game or a friend recommended the board. So they can ask, easily. In fact, it is recommended that the answer actually be given within the forum because this is mostly to stop spam BOTS. But there are human spammers. A legitimate user can easily get this information. So we may actually be able to stop those, too, by having information very easily known to any Ender's Game fan, but confusing to anyone else. I will have a sticky "New Users Instructions" post.

What do you all think?

[Luet]

Sounds good to me!

[Jayelle]

I changed it to 35 posts per page from 15. But was it 25? I can't remember.

[Eddie Pinz]

I am pretty sure it was 35 a page.

[Eaquae Legit]

It was 35, including the original post, and 34 without it.

[Yebra]

Should I get who the screaming figure is?

[Noodle]

So who thinks that a fill in the blank "The enemy's gate is ___" is too elitist?

It's okay but there are a few PWEB'ers who would not have been able to join if we had used that back in the day. Most notably Limegiver, who did not read EG for many years. Come to think of it, I don't know if he ever read it.

But, for the most part, I think it's a good idea. We might want to change the thing up ever now and then though, because I suppose that eventually one of the spammers might take the time to get the answers and then write up a bot that can fill in all the blanks.

Since I was the one who introduced LG to the site, I would have passed on the correct answer to him. At the same time, if we're just asking a fill in the blank question, why not make it something obvious like "The sky is the color _____" This way any english speaking human should be able to answer, but someone would have to write a bot to answer that question to sign up. Since the question always has the same answer anyways, a spammer that read EG could still join.

[zeroguy]

Maybe we need something a little more math oriented? (It is in fact ln(2), if anyone's wondering.)

Edit: No stoned kermit? I demand stoned kermit!

[Eaquae Legit]

I'd love it if we could get the old smilies back. Or really, to just get rid of the current freaky-looking defaults. I have a bunch of the old ones saved, but no skill to re-attach them to pweb.

[Oliver Dale]

Maybe we need something a little more math oriented? (It is in fact ln(2), if anyone's wondering.)

Edit: No stoned kermit? I demand stoned kermit!

If you look at the graph of sqrt(atan(x)*sin(1/x)), it seems to go to zero (or is that undefined?) as x -> 0. So, then the answer is just the limit of ln(2+0) as x->0. There is no remaining dependence on x, so it's just ln(2). But it's been a while since I've done limits (like, oh I don't know, 9 years).

[Dr. Mobius]

Philotic Web is two words.

[zeroguy]

If you look at the graph of sqrt(atan(x)*sin(1/x)), it seems to go to zero (or is that undefined?) as x -> 0.

sin(1/x) is undefined, but you know -1 <= sin(1/x) <= 1, and since lim atan(x) as x->0 is 0, then lim x->0 of atan(x)*n where -1 <= n <= 1 is 0, so the whole sqrt is zero.

[Young Val]

You boys are making my head hurt.