SMF Media Gallery (SMG) - 2.0.5 is out! (December 2)

Started by SMGTeam, September 09, 2008, 03:14:05 PM

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Nao 尚

@anto> The problem is with your server I believe. What I don't understand is that it continuously sends a number of done items that can go higher or lower every time... It shouldn't. The code itself doesn't allow this.
Also, it supposedly had 2660 items to convert, but it completely "froze" at 1010. I figured maybe the gallery_pics table had entries for thumbnails, but I don't remember this. Anyway --- after it reached 1010 and stayed there for a couple of minutes, I simply changed "step=3" in the URL to "step=4" to force going to the next step, and it worked just fine.

@paulo> I don't have time to take you step by step through the complete installation of a mod. If you need help installing SMG, I can provide it for a fee. If you need free help, ask the support boards on simplemachines.org, not here.

@leighlife> You're my favorite bug fixer :) Since no one ever reported a comment on my site, I couldn't see this happen. This is Dragooon's code (yeah I'm quick & good at lifting responsibility off myself :P)
The fix will be in v2.0.1.

Regarding album IDs... It may be something I didn't think about. The problem with the default behavior in getAlbums() is that it sets $separate_children to false, which in turn makes children appear in both the root section, and as a sub-albums below the parent. The mgallery_album_list thing is then filled with these children twice.
Could you look into Subs-MGallery.php, line 1146, and replace add the "if" test to it, like this?

foreach ($albums as $tree)
if (empty($tree['id_parent']))
recursiveAlbums($album_list, $tree);
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

CiQ

Nao/Gilles,
how i can delete quota prof manualy? i can delete only record of profile in db?

Nao 尚

Nope!
I've been looking into it... Open MGallery-Admin.php and replace the original MGal_admin_quotas function with this:

// Membergroup quota's main function. This is soooo similar to permission profiles...
function MGal_admin_quotas()
{
global $txt, $context, $mgalFunc, $user_info, $mgalSettings;

// Doing any do-da-do?
$do = array(
'view' => 'MGal_admin_quotas_view',
'edit' => 'MGal_admin_quotas_edit',
'add' => 'MGal_admin_quotas_add',
'getalbums' => 'MGal_admin_quotas_getAlbums',
);

if (isset($_REQUEST['do'], $do[$_REQUEST['do']]))
return $do[$_REQUEST['do']]();

// Homepage then...

// Maybe deleting something?
if (isset($_POST['mgal_delete_profs']) && !empty($_POST['del_prof']))
{
// Get the ones to delete
$to_delete = array();
foreach ($_POST as $k => $v)
if (substr($k, 0, 12) == 'delete_prof_' && substr($k, 12) > 1)
$to_delete[] = substr($k, 12);

if (empty($to_delete))
fatal_lang_error('mgallery_accessDenied', !empty($mgalSettings['log_access_errors']));

// Profile to switch to..
$id_profile = (int) $_POST['del_prof'];
if (empty($id_profile) || in_array($id_profile, $to_delete))
fatal_lang_error('mgallery_albumSwitchError', false);

if ($id_profile != 1)
{
$request = $mgalFunc['db_query']('
SELECT id
FROM {db_prefix}mgallery_variables
WHERE id = {int:id}',
array(
'id' => $id_profile,
),__FILE__,__LINE__);
if ($mgalFunc['db_num_rows']($request) == 0)
fatal_lang_error('mgallery_accessDenied', !empty($mgalSettings['log_access_errors']));
$mgalFunc['db_free_result']($request);
}

$mgalFunc['db_query']('
DELETE FROM {db_prefix}mgallery_variables
WHERE id IN ({array_int:id})
AND type = {string:prof}',
array(
'id' => $to_delete,
'prof' => 'quota_prof',
),__FILE__,__LINE__
);

if ($mgalFunc['db_affected_rows']() > 0)
$mgalFunc['db_query']('
UPDATE {db_prefix}mgallery_albums
SET id_quota_profile = {int:id_profile}
WHERE id_quota_profile IN ({array_int:profiles})',
array(
'id_profile' => $id_profile,
'profiles' => $to_delete,
),__FILE__,__LINE__
);

$mgalFunc['db_query']('
DELETE FROM {db_prefix}mgallery_quotas
WHERE id_profile IN ({array_int:id})',
array(
'id' => $to_delete,
),__FILE__,__LINE__);
}

// Load the profiles
$request = $mgalFunc['db_query']('
SELECT id, val1
FROM {db_prefix}mgallery_variables
WHERE type = {string:type}',
array(
'type' => 'quota_prof',
),__FILE__,__LINE__
);
$context['mgallery_profiles'] = array(
1 => array(
'name' => $txt['mgallery_default_perm_profile'],
'id' => 1,
'undeletable' => true,
'albums' => 0,
),
);
while ($row = $mgalFunc['db_fetch_assoc']($request))
$context['mgallery_profiles'][$row['id']] = array(
'id' => $row['id'],
'name' => $row['val1'],
'albums' => 0,
);
$mgalFunc['db_free_result']($request);

// Load the album count..
$request = $mgalFunc['db_query']('
SELECT id_quota_profile, COUNT(*) AS total
FROM {db_prefix}mgallery_albums
GROUP BY id_quota_profile',
array(),__FILE__,__LINE__
);
while ($row = $mgalFunc['db_fetch_assoc']($request))
if (isset($context['mgallery_profiles'][$row['id_quota_profile']]))
$context['mgallery_profiles'][$row['id_quota_profile']]['albums'] = $row['total'];
$mgalFunc['db_free_result']($request);

$context['sub_template'] = 'mgallery_admin_quotas';
$context['page_title'] = $txt['mgallery_admin_labels_quotas'];
}


It should work this time. It appears now that Dragooon never actually wrote the code to remove the quota profiles... He probably added a placeholder and then forgot to do it. I copied/pasted the code from the permission profiles area, and fixed the variables to point to quota profiles instead.

Please tell me if it works this way.
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

leighlife

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 12:53:29 PM
The mgallery_album_list thing is then filled with these children twice.
That's exactly the problem in the album move fault I mentioned previously: the reorderAlbum() function is wading through a list with duplicates and thus setting the global album order values incorrectly for them.

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 12:53:29 PM
Could you look into Subs-MGallery.php, line 1146, and replace add the "if" test to it, like this?

foreach ($albums as $tree)
if (empty($tree['id_parent']))
recursiveAlbums($album_list, $tree);

The index is 'parent' and that now seems to have fixed the album move too, thanks!  I have two other changes in for that which I'll post later if I'm convinced they're necessary - so far I think they are.

paulmagno

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 12:53:29 PM

@paulo> I don't have time to take you step by step through the complete installation of a mod. If you need help installing SMG, I can provide it for a fee. If you need free help, ask the support boards on simplemachines.org, not here.


Well, you don't have to be rude...I was referred to this section because they said I needed to go to the mod section for help with a mod...and I certainly see you willing to help others...did it ever occur to you that not everyone knows programming and that maybe the people who needed the most help were the ones without that background?

In my younger days, I was a boxing trainer...I would not treat someone like a complete moron just because they didn't know everything about boxing as soon as they walked into the gym...

I had one very simple question...and one very simple follow up question that you could've answered in 5 seconds, yet you opted to use those five seconds to act like a horse's behind...Good Day

Nao 尚

@paul> When has "straightforward" become "rude"? I'm not paid for support (nor for anything else.) I don't have time and I'm doing all of this on the little time I've got left. Should I be on my knees begging for your pardon because I dared not take the time to say "Please" and "Thank you" in my post?! Pff.

@leighlife> Yeah, that was 'parent', it always is... I'll never get used to that. That's another inconsistency in the original table structure. Good to know it fixed several issues!
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

paulmagno

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 03:17:04 PM
@paul> When has "straightforward" become "rude"? I'm not paid for support (nor for anything else.) I don't have time and I'm doing all of this on the little time I've got left. Should I be on my knees begging for your pardon because I dared not take the time to say "Please" and "Thank you" in my post?! Pff.


It's called common courtesy...maybe you should step away from your computer world for a bit and take some classes in being a human being... Pff.

I bet I figure out the answer to my problem before you figure out the answer to yours...

Nao 尚

Quote from: paulmagno on October 26, 2009, 03:49:22 PM
It's called common courtesy...maybe you should step away from your computer world for a bit and take some classes in being a human being... Pff.
Okay, then we'll ask the other members here...

Guys, what do you think? Do you think this man can accuse me of being rude to him, and then pretend I don't know anything about life? Or do you think I'm already nice enough by replying to his post to give him clues on what to do when I clearly don't have time to deal with newbies? (And, should I repeat myself, I'm trying to use that time to work on all of this thing I'm giving away for free to everyone, including people like him??)
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

Arantor

Nao, we all here appreciate that you have given an awful lot to the SMF community, especially with some of its largest and most popular mods, and yes, it does take someone special to come back to that day after day after day to provide support.

You and I are actually a little alike at times, I know I'm guilty of answering a question with a one-line snap that makes perfect sense to me but not for anyone who is not a programmer or at least modestly familiar with SMF.

But remember that we were once neophytes to SMF too and maybe we wouldn't have gotten so far with such brisk answers. (Do you have access to the CSH group? Has a number of handy dandy manual links that can help in such situations)


paulmagno - the following page will explain what Nao was getting at: Manual Installation of Mods

The issue you're getting specifically is that one mod has already modified your index.template.php file and now SMG can't do the same because the code is different to what it expected to find.
Holder of controversial views, all of which my own.


anto74

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 12:53:29 PM
@anto> The problem is with your server I believe. What I don't understand is that it continuously sends a number of done items that can go higher or lower every time... It shouldn't. The code itself doesn't allow this.
Also, it supposedly had 2660 items to convert, but it completely "froze" at 1010. I figured maybe the gallery_pics table had entries for thumbnails, but I don't remember this. Anyway --- after it reached 1010 and stayed there for a couple of minutes, I simply changed "step=3" in the URL to "step=4" to force going to the next step, and it worked just fine.


Ok Nao/Gilles, i understand!  :)
Thanks again!
Anto

paulmagno

Quote from: Arantor on October 26, 2009, 04:10:27 PM
Nao, we all here appreciate that you have given an awful lot to the SMF community, especially with some of its largest and most popular mods, and yes, it does take someone special to come back to that day after day after day to provide support.

You and I are actually a little alike at times, I know I'm guilty of answering a question with a one-line snap that makes perfect sense to me but not for anyone who is not a programmer or at least modestly familiar with SMF.

But remember that we were once neophytes to SMF too and maybe we wouldn't have gotten so far with such brisk answers. (Do you have access to the CSH group? Has a number of handy dandy manual links that can help in such situations)


paulmagno - the following page will explain what Nao was getting at: Manual Installation of Mods

The issue you're getting specifically is that one mod has already modified your index.template.php file and now SMG can't do the same because the code is different to what it expected to find.

Thank you, Arantor...I wasn't asking for someone to hold my hand...just someone to point me in the right direction using terms a beginner could understand...I don't know a parse from a purse at this point  :D And it took less of your time than to answer with a snippy remark!

If I had talked down to every beginner who came into my gym, I wouldn't have been in business for 50 years...just because YOU know something, that doesn't mean everyone has to know the same thing...Actually, that's the reason we're asking for help...because we DON'T know...

thanks again...

Nao 尚

Quote from: Arantor on October 26, 2009, 04:10:27 PM
You and I are actually a little alike at times, I know I'm guilty of answering a question with a one-line snap that makes perfect sense to me but not for anyone who is not a programmer or at least modestly familiar with SMF.
I don't know how you do it anyway -- have you seen your daily post count average? ;)

QuoteBut remember that we were once neophytes to SMF too and maybe we wouldn't have gotten so far with such brisk answers.
Technically, my first ever post on simplemachines.org was a new topic to explain how to show the number of unread posts per topic in "unread posts" and other "latest topics" features. I guess that doesn't qualify as a newbie post so it's not something I could understand.
Leap back 10 years. I built my first website in 3 days back in 1996, one week after I first hit the web. The first version already had 30 pages, stylesheets and stuff. I guess one could say I've always been a web enthusiast. Leap back 10 more years. I've been programming since '86, even before I had a machine to actually test my code on (sic).

I'm not bragging or anything. I'm just trying to explain that I could hardly "remember" what it was like to be a newbie. I do see newbies on a daily basis (if only in my family), but it's easier to explain in real life, isn't it? It's not like I ever needed to train for online tech support. So, the tech support work I do here, I do as a favor to the community, not because I want to do it. I'm hoping to improve my mods enough to be able to completely stop giving support because people won't need to. The fact that I don't understand why someone who builds a forum would be unwilling to study how it works, doesn't prevent me from doing my best to help these users not have to go that way.

For instance, I'm currently waiting for anyone with mod_security to contact me and provide me with access to their board so that I could test some techniques to fix their problems once and for all. Unfortunately I have yet to receive an answer. Because of this, I will be more likely to be straightforward to someone who complains that SMG doesn't work on a mod_security-enabled environment. Same for tech support actually -- the more I'll see people complain that I'm doing a poor job at being a kind/nice/hypocrit contact, the more I'll be enclined to tell them they're getting what they paid for (i.e. nothing), and they'll get better support if they donate. (Which, of course, they won't do because "this guy is such a d**k".) Endless cycle. I can live with it. I'm not going to change my personality because working on SMF projects is becoming more and more of a hassle -- if only because my girlfriend keeps complaining precisely that I'm not making any money out of it. Try justifying your community work when you aren't being forced by a judge to do it, or a higher power that invites me to gain entry to Heaven by helping others. Sorry, I'm no believer. I just like doing these mods. But it doesn't mean I like doing tech support for it (and obviously I quite hate that.)

Quote(Do you have access to the CSH group? Has a number of handy dandy manual links that can help in such situations)
I don't have access to anything but the beta boards. I am not part of the team. The team welcomes my free, unending work, but is unwilling to deal with its owner. I got that long ago and perhaps this is also part of why I see no reason to do any favors to the community. I just work on stuff I like, and I try to provide honest support on it. But at this point, I'd much rather be working on underground mods that no one ever uses. That would save me all of the drama, I guess.

QuoteThe issue you're getting specifically is that one mod has already modified your index.template.php file and now SMG can't do the same because the code is different to what it expected to find.
If only SMF2 could come out of beta before 2012... That would be one less thing to deal with for mod authors, lol.

(Ahhh, it feels better to get all of that off my mind :P)
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

Arantor

Minor derail, sorry...

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 05:03:35 PM
I don't know how you do it anyway -- have you seen your daily post count average? ;)

Is that counting the fact that my first post was in April this year, or from the fact that I have an account from 2006?

Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 05:03:35 PM
It's not like I ever needed to train for online tech support. So, the tech support work I do here, I do as a favor to the community, not because I want to do it. I'm hoping to improve my mods enough to be able to completely stop giving support because people won't need to. The fact that I don't understand why someone who builds a forum would be unwilling to study how it works, doesn't prevent me from doing my best to help these users not have to go that way.

I know precisely what you mean, and it's the one reason I do only little mods. Gives me something to play around with, without the headache of major support endeavours. They don't have much in them to go wrong, and the ones that do make template edits are very selective in that, for that reason. Less angles for necessity for support.

I've also wondered that; but the days are long gone where websites are built by enthusiasts or technologists solely. Today's web is made up of the greatest and most wonderfully diverse of people, from all walks of life. And some of them want to start a community, and SMF makes it possible to do without being a technologist or a programmer or engineer.

I hear you on the tech support front; I've been a paid-for tech support for a company before now, never again.

The one issue (and it's not exactly a problem) is that people expect modders to be held to the same standard as SMF itself, i.e. being on call for support, maintaining, updating etc etc. but they don't realise how much time it takes; we invariably are development, support, customising, and most mods don't have more than one person looking after them. And, I'll be honest, it can grate how ungrateful and even spiteful some attitude I've seen (though, fortunately, not experienced on my mods) towards the modders gets.

Developers rarely make the best support people, IMO. Developers are better at making new stuff than rehashing old stuff.

QuoteTry justifying your community work when you aren't being forced by a judge to do it, or a higher power that invites me to gain entry to Heaven by helping others. Sorry, I'm no believer. I just like doing these mods. But it doesn't mean I like doing tech support for it (and obviously I quite hate that.)

You and I write mods because it's something cool and engaging. The downside is supporting it, but we'll figure out a solution someday :)

QuoteI don't have access to anything but the beta boards. I am not part of the team. The team welcomes my free, unending work, but is unwilling to deal with its owner. I got that long ago and perhaps this is also part of why I see no reason to do any favors to the community. I just work on stuff I like, and I try to provide honest support on it. But at this point, I'd much rather be working on underground mods that no one ever uses. That would save me all of the drama, I guess.

CSH is a requestable group (and, I believe, auto joinable) that grants access to the Support Helper board, but more importantly for you, a dropdown full of handy manual links such as the one to the manual page for manual mod installation. There is also a Greasemonkey script somewhere that lets you fill in your own links and select from a dropdown but I don't think it's RC2 ready.

QuoteIf only SMF2 could come out of beta before 2012... That would be one less thing to deal with for mod authors, lol.

For the most part my own stuff moving to RC2 is no huge deal, certainly less work than backporting from 2.0 to 1.1, but I'm not doing anything huge, which is probably why.

Quote
(Ahhh, it feels better to get all of that off my mind :P)

I bet :) Have a good day!
Holder of controversial views, all of which my own.


Nao 尚

Arantor, will answer tomorrow.

To anyone who has a mod_security-enabled server, or wants to have one, or may have one because of crashes but couldn't be so sure...

I may have good news for you.
http://smf-media.com/community/index.php?topic=1324.new#new

If you want SVN access to download revision 1135, please PM me over there using your account. (Honestly I think nothing prevents me from opening SVN access to anyone, but I'll let Dragooon decide for himself.)
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

chinaren

Nao, huge thank-you for your help fixing my gallery!  You are a hero! 


Much Kudos!  :D :D :D :D :D
The Opus Path - The Next Generation of the Written Word

paulmagno

<---- still not sure how asking for help offended Nao, but gets the hint...This is for tech people only and I won't darken your doorstep again with such "silly" questions as "why won't this work?"

The manuals explain how to download the mods...I followed the directions and it didn't work...so, now what? I guess just give up...

as for this little gem: "The fact that I don't understand why someone who builds a forum would be unwilling to study how it works, doesn't prevent me from doing my best to help these users not have to go that way."

Well, maybe, we aren't all as brilliant as you and simply don't understand the terminology involved. What if you walked into a bakery and didn't immediately understand all of the vocab or work involved in making a chocolate cake...would the head baker be right in looking down on you? Or would he be a classless jerk for treating you as an idiot for not knowing something that you had absolutely no need to know previously?

...it takes less effort to be a decent human being than it does to lord your knowledge over others and then whine about all the time you volunteer...poor baby...

I know my words are being wasted on such a petty individual, so I won't be back...take your silly mod and download it into your package management system! You act like you cured cancer or something...Geesh (Ahhh, it feels better to get all of that off my mind  :P )

chinaren

Paul, if you're still here.  'Simple' answer is:


You need to go to where you downloaded the mod from, and click on the manual instructions.  Find the file(s) in the mod that failed the test and try to locate all the parts in the file on your forum (you'll need to FTP to your forum and download the file first.  Best to download twice, one as backup and one to amend).  
What's happened is that some other mod has modified a part of the code that this mod is trying to find, so this mod can't find it.  Locate where it should be and then modify it manually.  Repeat for all parts of the affected files and save to your disc.   THEN apply the mod on the forum, THEN upload the amended files to where they should be via FTP.
Quote from: paulmagno on October 26, 2009, 03:12:25 AM
Quote from: Nao/Gilles on October 26, 2009, 02:55:06 AM

@paul> what error message?

It's the pink box that pops up when I try to apply the mod...This is what it says:

Error in Package Installation

At least one error was encountered during a test installation of this package. It is strongly recommended that you do not continue with installation unless you know what you are doing, and have made a backup very recently. This error may be caused by a conflict between the package you're trying to install and another package you have already installed, an error in the package, a package which requires another package that you don't have installed yet, or a package designed for another version of SMF.

*by the way, it says "test failed" next to the listing " ./Themes/default/index.template.php" , under the category "install actions"
The Opus Path - The Next Generation of the Written Word

Nao 尚

@chinaren> You're welcome.

And now for the fun part......... (The one where I help people and they treat me like ****** because I didn't smile and thank them for coming to ask for the free support. Is the bowing down supposed to be part of the American way of life or something?)

Quote from: paulmagno on October 26, 2009, 10:53:30 PM
would the head baker be right in looking down on you?
I wasn't friggin' looking down on you at all! I JUST DON'T WASTE MY TIME ON FORMALITIES FOR TECH SUPPORT!
Your bakery example is stupid. The baker is hoping to sell me something! I'M NOT! I don't have anything to sell you! Why should I bow down to you!

Now I do look down on you, though! Because you're only a waste of time.
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

Nao 尚

Where was I?

Quote from: Arantor on October 26, 2009, 05:27:42 PM
Is that counting the fact that my first post was in April this year, or from the fact that I have an account from 2006?
The fact you started in April. (I, too, opened an account long before I started using it. And I even had an additional one-year gap before I really became a regular.)

And I thought I was creepy.  :o

QuoteI know precisely what you mean, and it's the one reason I do only little mods. Gives me something to play around with, without the headache of major support endeavours.
Sure. But the only mod I really created myself is Footnotes. It's a real small thing.
Aeva? My first mod, but inherited from Karl... I had no idea where I was stepping into. Tough first year. Had many breakdowns. Ended up dropping development back in May, but then again the latest version was very stable. After I realized it was slowing down and everything, I decided to resume development, if only to fix YouTube support. Now it's come to a manageable size -- people stopped requesting new website integrations, and the post moderation makes it even easier. What a mess it could have become...!
SMG is yet another problem -- it used to be very manageable because we were two people on the project. Unfortunately, the other one left it without warning and I ended up having to fix his own bugs. This has left me very bitter because I had to go through the entire 2.0 Beta process by myself, without any help... So yes, I'm doing my best to give SMG what it deserves (hard work), but SMG isn't giving me back anything in return, so obviously it tends to make me even more bitter.
I'm thinking of stopping development for a few months, like I did for Aeva, but before that I also need to fix the issues that cause most people to come and ask for help. SMF1 menu edits aren't going to disappear overnight unfortunately (although, I'm wondering... Would it be entirely an unorthodox way of programming to post-replace the output buffer with a Gallery link somewhere? It could be possible if all custom themes respect a certain logic such as putting the menu inside a table with a specific class, or something), but as for the rest, I'm sure I can fix mod_security now that I know 99% of these problems are due to the ";id=" URLs.

QuoteI've also wondered that; but the days are long gone where websites are built by enthusiasts or technologists solely. Today's web is made up of the greatest and most wonderfully diverse of people, from all walks of life. And some of them want to start a community, and SMF makes it possible to do without being a technologist or a programmer or engineer.
I guess so.
But it was already the case back in 2002, when I started my own community. I didn't have much PHP knowledge at the time, okay I had absolutely no PHP knowledge, and learned as it came. At the time, forum software was just as easy to use as now, I think. I tried phpBB, Invision and SMF, and had no problem with either of these. The only concern was with customization. I wanted to have this or that feature and that's when I started really delving into the code. But a regular guy can install SMF (either years ago or now) without any knowledge of PHP. If they don't want to manage a website at all, they can also simply use pre-existing forum platforms (such as noisen.com :P), where they can create their own communities, boards, blogs, etc.
I'm guessing paul is the kind of person who would be better served with such a pre-built platform.

QuoteI hear you on the tech support front; I've been a paid-for tech support for a company before now, never again.
I've myself dropped development of Kyodai Mahjongg for many reasons, one of the better ones being that my ex had left time, and she was in charge of tech support... I was horrible at tech support (hard to guess, eh? :o), and after months of searching for a new tech support handler that never came (it was a paid job, mind you!), I gave up on tech support altogether... Was too tiresome. I have absolutely no problems with fixing bugs for people. But communicating with them is harder. Especially when they're n00bs.

QuoteThe one issue (and it's not exactly a problem) is that people expect modders to be held to the same standard as SMF itself, i.e. being on call for support, maintaining, updating etc etc. but they don't realise how much time it takes;
Actually, I think the SMF team should be commended as well for support, maintaing, updating etc etc. There's a level of quality everywhere that I have yet to see elsewhere. And they're not paid either! It's important to remember that. And they don't complain. Aw, screw them! I'm the one who's miserable here! Nah!

Quotewe invariably are development, support, customising, and most mods don't have more than one person looking after them.
Usually, these mods are given up to someone else when the original author is unwilling to keep maintaining/supporting it. So it's not that much of an issue I suppose.

QuoteDevelopers rarely make the best support people, IMO. Developers are better at making new stuff than rehashing old stuff.
What I need is someone who could forward me all of the issues/bugs/questions that are unanswered as of yet, so I could answer back, and they could transmit back to the original requesters. That way, I wouldn't have to deal with "acting like a smiling baker who wants to sell his bread even though he actually has nothing to sell and he has no reason to be smiling", or answering support questions that have been answered thousands of times before, etc.

Of course, just like for Kyodai Mahjongg, I won't find that jewel... Especially since it's an unpaid job this time :P

QuoteYou and I write mods because it's something cool and engaging. The downside is supporting it, but we'll figure out a solution someday :)
Quick question: how can you write 16.000 posts in so little time, and release mods as well etc.?
Are you working quasi-fulltime on SMF like I'm doing? Do you still deal with your own website? (I myself have difficulty keeping up with it... Especially since the release of Curve -- I have to update it to my custom code and I'm still weeks away from being finished...)

QuoteCSH is a requestable group
Oh-- then scratch what I said.

QuoteFor the most part my own stuff moving to RC2 is no huge deal, certainly less work than backporting from 2.0 to 1.1, but I'm not doing anything huge, which is probably why.
It's not about the difficulty of moving to RC2 (since I'm always working on the latest SVN, I'm more familiar with the latest RC than with previous releases), it's about the fact that most people are still using SMF1 and, at this point, it's crap. It's just like SMG2: I ended the beta session because I realized many people were still using SMG1 because it's "stable", even though the beta SMG2 was ten times more stable than SMG1. So it's still a bit buggy here and there, but not much really. I don't see any game-breaking bug around anyway. I'll be releasing v2.0.1 this week though. Especially now that I've got the mod_security fix ready.
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.

Aeva Media rocks your life.

CiQ


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