It only took two guys two years...

Nao

  • Dadman with a boy
  • Posts: 16,079
It only took two guys two years...
« on November 1st, 2012, 06:27 PM »
...And 2 months, and 2 days.
Okay, maybe not 2 days, more like 6, but apart from Pete and I, you weren't there to count in the beginning, were you? ;)

Just in case you aren't aware yet, I finally managed to put the finishing touches to a 'usable' version of Wedge, and released it early this morning to early beta testers.

In order to download it, you'll have to request access in the relevant topic, but since this is still a private alpha, we're going to be giving access mostly to those of you who've been following us for some time (and posting along), anyone who seems serious about Wedge and testing it.

Our plans are to release a public alpha before the end of the year (well, just in case the Incas were right). We're going to try and keep Wedge in frozen mode, so we won't be adding any new (major) features, although we do have a few outstanding features (or bug fixes) which we plan to ship before we go public. And who knows, maybe we'll have a good week at some point and will even be able to go gold before the end of the year...? Naah, can't be.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #16, on November 9th, 2012, 11:31 PM »
Congrats! I wish I was one of those faithful followers! :lol: You are ninja's of the internet <_<  :thanks:

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #17, on November 10th, 2012, 06:43 PM »
Quote from Arantor on November 2nd, 2012, 04:01 PM
You're trying to quote Doctor Who, but neither I or Nao are the Doctor. ;)
...Or at least until proven guilty!
(Silly humans!)

@JPAnderson> It's not too late ;)

Plus, as I said earlier, we'll end up releasing a Public Alpha at some point..!


Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #20, on November 20th, 2012, 03:15 AM »Last edited on November 20th, 2012, 03:27 AM
Fantastic! I've been watching this for most of those two years, and I keep checking back to see just what the status is. I'm ready to move my forums to something more modern than SMF, as I'm getting tired of the lack of development with SMF. It seems even the mod packages aren't being developed any more.

I'm definitely hoping to be able to get Wedge soon!

While I know I haven't been posting much, I'd like to be able to set up a small installation on my server just to see what it takes and what kinds of features I'd be able to put to use in order to switch over my forums. Is that at all a possibility?

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #21, on November 25th, 2012, 10:55 PM »
Would you guys say Wedge is more efficient than SMF when it comes to consumption of server resources?

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #22, on November 25th, 2012, 11:29 PM »
I don't know, as I always say, it's going to save your server bandwidth, that I'm sure of.

Weird avatar.

eolith, yes it is, if you post more. But you didn't, even after that post. ;)

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #23, on November 26th, 2012, 02:37 PM »
Quote from Nao on November 25th, 2012, 11:29 PM
I don't know, as I always say, it's going to save your server bandwidth, that I'm sure of.

Weird avatar.

eolith, yes it is, if you post more. But you didn't, even after that post. ;)
Your avatar isn't such more beautiful :eheh:

I like the wedge progress so far, I found you at your beginning when selecting a forum and waving between SMF and MyBB.
Now I'm opting to migrate from Drupal Advanced Forum to SMF (they have a migration path), while waiting for your release: it seems to me it's the cleaner way to upgrade to wedge when it's ready for production.
The aim is to go for a SMF (wedge) + wordpress community site.
In the meantime I would like to see and try wedge: if you want me to post more a I can spam too ... Seriously, if you let me see wedge I think _I can post "clever" suggestions and look a little inside.
Good work

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #24, on November 27th, 2012, 06:56 PM »
Quote from Nao on November 25th, 2012, 11:29 PM
I don't know, as I always say, it's going to save your server bandwidth, that I'm sure of.
it will be interesting to see how wedge affects server ram/cpu vs. SMF.  i get the impression SMF has a lot of loose ends in terms of efficiency.  i have no data with which to quantify this, but there are anecdotal reasons why i believe it to be the case.

i think you guys ought to open it up to testers regardless of how many posts they might have here.  the more people running the software and attempting to break it, the better.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #25, on November 27th, 2012, 07:24 PM »
Quote
but there are anecdotal reasons why i believe it to be the case.
Such as?
Quote
i think you guys ought to open it up to testers regardless of how many posts they might have here.  the more people running the software and attempting to break it, the better.
Except for the inevitable hurdles of 1) upgrading (there's no working upgrader), and 2) people who shouldn't be using alpha software will end up using it only to complain when something is broken or missing, and then complain about the way we do things.

There have been an awful lot of people who've put their name into the ring not because they want to test it but because they want the latest shiny shiny. We're pretty good at weeding that out. Right now, if I'm honest, your tone is distinctly in this latter category; you want Wedge but you don't seem to want to say *why* you want it, just that you know you want it.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #26, on November 28th, 2012, 04:46 AM »
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Except for the inevitable hurdles of 1) upgrading (there's no working upgrader), and 2) people who shouldn't be using alpha software will end up using it only to complain when something is broken or missing, and then complain about the way we do things.
i was unaware of the upgrader issue.  and yes, it probably would be a **** storm if inexperienced forum owners, or people who simply don't understand a thing about development, were to attempt to use it at this time.  i'm an experienced forum admin, but in terms of development... i'm useless.
Quote
There have been an awful lot of people who've put their name into the ring not because they want to test it but because they want the latest shiny shiny. We're pretty good at weeding that out. Right now, if I'm honest, your tone is distinctly in this latter category; you want Wedge but you don't seem to want to say *why* you want it, just that you know you want it.
and right now, if i'm honest, i have to say you couldn't be more wrong in interpreting my tone.  i wouldn't put this software anywhere near my forum at this time.  it's not that i don't want to use wedge.  of course i do.  of course, everyone does.  i think it's brilliant what you guys have done here, and as soon as it's gold, i'll definitely upgrade... but i've spent years growing my forum and i've worked very hard to maintain it... so i'm not interested in endangering it with what's classified by the developers as pre alpha.  so... latter category?  me thinks not.  i'm happy to wait until i can upgrade with confidence. 

all of that aside, i haven't asked to install wedge.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #27, on November 28th, 2012, 04:57 AM »
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i was unaware of the upgrader issue.  and yes, it probably would be a **** storm if inexperienced forum owners, or people who simply don't understand a thing about development, were to attempt to use it at this time.  i'm an experienced forum admin, but in terms of development... i'm useless.
Which is why we're not giving it out to anyone except people we know that can deal with this stuff.
Quote
all of that aside, i haven't asked to install wedge.
No, but you *did* suggest it should be opened up to more people. There's a whole range of interpretations of that statement. It ranges everywhere from 'more people should try it, it might get more bugs found and squished' (unlikely) through 'more people should try it, because it's worth trying' and on to 'more people, including me, should have the option to try it' and all the way to 'if I suggest more people should try it, maybe I'll get to play with it in the name of testing'. Text is a wonderfully compact format, it cuts out so much of the non-verbal context that could easily change how your statement is interpreted.

But understand it from my point of view: I've seen many, many people make variations on the same statement, and the vast majority of them don't want it for testing, they just want it because they want it - they don't really want to help with the development or testing, they just want the software. I experienced this most vividly with SimpleDesk; 90% of the beta testers never submitted a bug report, or a suggestion or indeed ANYTHING. Why should this be any different? Yet virtually every one of the beta testers put in some variation about how it should be opened up for testing so that more people would find bugs.

Already the majority of people with beta tester badges haven't said *that* much, though what they have said has been pretty positive - and yet, I know full well that some of them have barely touched it for anything.

I make no apologies for my cynicism. I've been burned way too many times by people making requests 'in the name of the greater good' such as you might call it and almost every single time it's about justifying giving them personally a benefit rather than actually benefiting the greater good.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #28, on November 28th, 2012, 05:33 AM »
Quote from Arantor on November 28th, 2012, 04:57 AM
I experienced this most vividly with SimpleDesk; 90% of the beta testers never submitted a bug report, or a suggestion or indeed ANYTHING.
i don't find that surprising.  laziness and a tendency toward consumption are what i expect from human beings in pretty much any life situation.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #29, on November 28th, 2012, 05:37 AM »
And that's why we don't want to give it out to more people - we'd rather limit the exposure to people who are likely to actually do something with it.

Re: It only took two guys two years...
« Reply #30, on November 28th, 2012, 10:13 PM »
Yeah, I do this because I love to test things and because it's fun. I test things and make it into a quality software. I don't have a domain and put it live because I want shiny and latest software om my website. I just love bugs. ;)