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Messages - markham
1
The Pub / Re: Not So Mixed Signals
« on September 7th, 2013, 08:32 AM »
At 63 I am probably the oldest member here and as I was brought up in the pre-politically correct age, I'm going to call it as I see it; if I unintentionally ruffle a few feathers, then so be it.

Firstly, both Nao and Pete should be thanked not only for their tireless work on the Wedge project but for being so forthright and open with each other and with us. Pete's a self-confessed introvert - though you wouldn't know it from his prolific postings - and I suspect it took him a lot of courage to expose his true inner feelings in a semi-public forum; Nao is more garrulous. Both have proven track records as software developers, certainly for SMF type software and both are perfectionists - Nao is well-known for trimming every redundant byte from JS scripts, for example, and his Mahjong game is simply beautiful.

There appears to be some criticism of Pete's fewer code commits whilst Nao commits more frequently. It seems to me that this simply a difference in style: Pete, being more introverted, keeps his code 'close to his chest' whilst he hones and perfects it; it's a matter of pride to him that code he commits works as flawlessly as possible. Nao is more of a 'write-commit-test-edit-recommit' person. Neither of their personal work flows is better or worse than the other, they're just different approaches. But was it really necessary for Pete to feel that he was being treated like some errant schoolboy whose homework was being marked by his teacher and thereby undermine his self-esteem to the point where he feels he can no longer work on the project?

One issue that has cropped-up very recently is that of restricting the customization of Wedge's look and feel. Nao has designed some very attractive themes but - and here I agree with Pete - the only major difference between two sites running Wedge may be the colours employed and that would be a Big Mistake, in my view. It could well be, for example, that a Forum owner doesn't want the standard sidebar to appear in "Message View" and only on the "Board View" ('Home' Page) - that would certainly be my personal preference FWIW.

Given Pete's knowledge, experience and amount of thought he has put into Wedge, as well as his suggestions for making it better, I find it a very sad state of affairs that he feels he can no longer contribute to the project. I truly hope that he and Nao can come to some understanding which would allow Pete to continue participating in an advisory role - if nothing else. And if he does, Nao, I also hope you will listen to him and pay heed to his advice!

As for the gentleman who suggested that Pete should "snap out of it" and "man up", I have nothing but contempt for those remarks and I suggest that you, sir, show some humility and compassion for your fellow man.

Finally, @Arantor: Pete, thank you for your kind words, encouragement and advice last year when I was developing the Slideshow. I still have hopes that you will incorporate it as a Wedge Plug-In!
2
Other software / Re: SM.org compromised
« on August 7th, 2013, 09:38 AM »
Quote from Arantor on August 7th, 2013, 04:10 AM
The problem is if a user hasn't changed it in a period of time (e.g. a week after it was force-expired), it needs to be changed automatically but there are security issues with that, e.g. if the user's email is outdated, but also emailing a new password out is inherently insecure too. There's not really a truly great way to solve that aspect.
Can it not be automatically and silently changed to some random series of characters (without sending out any notifications)? Should that user attempt to log-on in future, he will have to go through the "lost password" routine.
3
Other software / Re: SM.org compromised
« on August 4th, 2013, 07:06 PM »
Quote from Arantor on August 4th, 2013, 06:55 PM
Quote
This is my last post here over a year ago
Yes, because May 12, 2013 is more than one year ago.
So you are the new Doctor Who and posting from the future! :eheh:(Sorry, Pete, I couldn't resist!)

4
Features / Re: More sidebar complications...
« on July 14th, 2013, 01:04 PM »
On my Samsung Note 10.1 (Android 4.1.2) I get different results depending on which browser I use. With the 'standard' browser, the skin changes to Wireless and there's no button to control the sidebar's appearance. However, if I use Firefox (v22), the default skin is Weaving and I do have that button.

Rather oddly, when viewing this site (and only this site has this affect), the 'standard' browser is forced into landscape mode and will not switch to portrait. The Firefox browser works in either screen orientation as one would expect.
5
Features / Re: Calendar
« on November 16th, 2012, 04:01 AM »
Quote from Arantor on November 15th, 2012, 05:04 AM
Just going to leave this here :whistle:
Great idea, I like it! However this raises an issue and I have a suggestion also.
By including dates such as "Independence Day", which country's Independence Day are you meaning - America's? Tanzania's? There's a boat-load of them (and some countries have more than one!). This really only becomes an issue, albeit fairly minor, for those of us who run Forum sites aimed at visitors and expatriate residents of a foreign country who often need to be reminded of those days that banks, government offices and businesses will be closed.
Leading on from that, may I suggest that you make a clear distinction between "Public Holidays" and "Notable Days". SMF currently bundles these together which I think is wrong. For example, I believe it's important to remind people of Armistice Day but nowhere is it a Public Holiday; it is, I suggest, a Notable Day.
6
Features / Re: Calendar
« on November 16th, 2012, 03:31 AM »
Quote from Arantor on November 15th, 2012, 03:26 AM
Filter *what* by month? You can view the calendar by month...
Sorry, should have made it clearer. On the Admin Page - where Public Holidays are added and removed, have an option to filter all the defined Public Holidays by the month - i.e. 'all holidays for February'. This would make it much easier to maintain and remove dates that are no longer necessary (i.e. holidays for fixed dates in past years).
7
Features / Re: Calendar
« on November 15th, 2012, 03:21 AM »
On the Admin page, have the ability to filter by month. Also provide the option for 2 scheduled tasks to be run only on January 1st, one would delete non-recurring public holidays and the other "events" that are not carried-forward to the new year.
8
The Pub / Re: Logo Madness
« on September 13th, 2012, 05:43 PM »
Your latest has my vote. It reminds me of Concorde - the finest aircraft ever to take to the skies and the brilliant cooperative effort of Britain and France. Just like Wedge!
9
Plugins / Re: Something I started working on
« on September 6th, 2012, 06:15 PM »
That's cool!
10
The Pub / Re: Getting ready for an alpha release: CSS fixes
« on September 2nd, 2012, 06:49 PM »
Yup b and HTML seems to be the best choices.
11
The Pub / Re: Skin showdown
« on August 30th, 2012, 02:47 PM »
Quote from Nao on August 26th, 2012, 12:09 PM
Johnny, you didn't tell us what your browser is... (And version!)

Also, to agent47, Johnny54, markham, spoogs: can you try and be more specific about what you like in Wuthering? I swapped the fonts (Segoe UI / Arial) for Weaving and Wuthering yesterday to, maybe, help you determine if this is due to the font choice. (You can easily switch between fonts with developer tools like Firebug or Dragonfly, of course.)
Quite simply I prefer Wuthering's layout and colour scheme; for me, it is the easiest on the eye. It is really as simple as that.
12
The Pub / Re: Getting ready for an alpha release...
« on August 28th, 2012, 07:39 PM »
Quote from Arantor on August 28th, 2012, 05:07 PM
Quote
I don't see the point of using youtube-nocookie, really..? Aren't you being a bit paranoid? What's in that cookie anyway?
This is the internet where your privacy is being eroded every single day. I don't know about you but I don't like my privacy being eroded daily. I don't like the fact that if I watch a YouTube video, Google is tracking that fact and is able to track what I'm watching.
If that's being paranoid, then you can put my name down for that club. The point is,  we really don't know what exactly is in those cookies. Whenever anyone embeds a YouTube video, I do edit the post to change the URL to the non-cookie version. I'd rather not have to do that.
13
The Pub / Re: Getting ready for an alpha release...
« on August 27th, 2012, 10:05 AM »
Quote from Arantor on August 23rd, 2012, 03:24 PM
Though it would be nice if we can get Aeva to use the no-cookies version of the YT embed code, and ideally using the iframe method rather than a Flash object
I agree completely about using the no-cookies version. As to iFrame versus Flash, I've noticed recently that more and more videos refuse to work if embedded in an iFrame, so maybe both mechanisms should be available?
14
Development blog / Re: Speeding up development
« on August 7th, 2012, 04:52 AM »
I like the basic premise that Nao proposes. If Wedge calls home when the Admin CP is loaded, it could get all the update information at that time including an indication that the database schema needs to be updated. The Admin could be asked if he wants to update and if so, the entire site is placed in maintenance mode whilst the update script(s) execute. This could possibly be direct server to server so no need for the admin to download the update and then FTP it to his site.
Or is that too simplistic a view? :)
15
The Pub / Re: Bloc Madness
« on August 1st, 2012, 12:12 PM »
Frankly guys, who cares about his opinion anyway? If Bloc has given up on VBBS then great, one less competitor. I'm certainly not swayed by his boorish remarks and criticisms when he has probably about the same level of knowledge of the code as I do! He obviously doesn't have the stamina and enthusiasm to see a big project through.