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Message Board > Boolean Soup Development > Articles module


March 26, 2008, 19:31
Fiona games are terrible -9616558 posts	Okay, we're getting a bit of headway on the old bug-front and Frim is part way through a site-wide search feature. (A slightly ingenious one too.) So, I figured we should start thinking about what we want from an articles module so we can get it written and get some content into this site. What kind of features would we want, how does it need to be presented and organised, if we want to integrate a wiki system into it, whether the worklogs should use the same system etc... I'm sure we've probably had discussions on it in the past, if someone could dig up the relevant points it would be good. We've had an articles module in the past, for one reason or another it was disabled. I think the reasons were that no one was using it, and that the system was a bit clunky, confusing and not flexible. It worked by having set categories that were admin editable, you went in and started a new article, adding and editing pages to it. Then when finished you set it to enter the approval queue and a moderator took at look at it at their discretion - either approving it or rejecting it. Any suggestions on how to make this better would be welcome. ____________ laffo
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March 26, 2008, 23:54
Sandman F3n!x0r 1194 posts	I don't really like the current worklog system. When I come on there I don't have a clue on what's hot and not; the last 15 worklogs is nice, but doesn't fix all. Having 10 last worklog entries of one worklog is kinda futile too. I like the list of worklogs of one person, nice and tidy, but I'd like the option the list of entries to only contain the titles of the entries. Actually now I think of it, I like the current worklogs, but definitely not how it's advertised. The main page with its 15 last worklog posts and users with worklogs doesn't work well. Let's visualise some options here. The possibility must be incorporated to see if there are new comments and if there are new worklogs. So how about on the right two boxes, one with the latest comments (max 1 per worklog entry?) and one with the latest worklog entries (max 1 per worklog?). Now what to display in the center... popular worklogs? Hm that's something for the side too. Okay let's list the users with logs center, with the number of worklogs they have and possibly how many entries in total, this gives an impression of the activity of the user, so one can decide to click one person or another. So in conclusion: the main worklog page needs a kick in the butt. I don't know, but perhaps some of what I mentioned earlier can be used for the article system as well, 'latest' boxes or something. ____________ BennuWiki Yes, my avatar has grey borders in IE (so get a decent browser) ROOFLEZ ROOFLEZ
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March 27, 2008, 16:03
Rincewind programmer 1548 posts	In my opinion the current worklog system is excellent and suggested changes would not be for the better, but that isn't what this thread is about as far as I can see. Quoting Fiona: Okay, we're getting a bit of headway on the old bug-front and Frim is part way through a site-wide search feature. (A slightly ingenious one too.) So, I figured we should start thinking about what we want from an articles module so we can get it written and get some content into this site. What kind of features would we want, how does it need to be presented and organised, if we want to integrate a wiki system into it, whether the worklogs should use the same system etc... I'm sure we've probably had discussions on it in the past, if someone could dig up the relevant points it would be good. We've had an articles module in the past, for one reason or another it was disabled. I think the reasons were that no one was using it, and that the system was a bit clunky, confusing and not flexible. It worked by having set categories that were admin editable, you went in and started a new article, adding and editing pages to it. Then when finished you set it to enter the approval queue and a moderator took at look at it at their discretion - either approving it or rejecting it. Any suggestions on how to make this better would be welcome. I'm glad you're bringing this up, a nice tutorial/articles page is an important feature and we will be able to get some solid content on this website. As opposed to the worklog section which is supposed to be a continuous stream of new brain food (as characterised by "the latest 15 worklogs"), I think for the articles it's important to list categories first. People will most likely not have an interest in articles for languages they don't program in, and prefer to navigate to the categories relevant to them. To provide a shortcut for those looking for the newest article in a category, maybe we can link to the last article in that category next to the category name. Then, below all categories we could list the newest n articles, for those who do like to browse through them. If we are going to have a lot of main categories, this might be a bit too much down the page - maybe here we can indeed uses a box on the right instead. I think the category system should have click through nested sub categories like the existing Boolean Soup link section, that was brilliant. For actual article lists it would be nice to allow authors to upload a small picture that will be shown in front of each article. If no picture is uploaded, a default picture for that category can be shown. So, the actual article list would then be (from left to right): thumbnail picture, article name, a small article description, the author, the date submitted. Of course, there should be breadcrums on top and down the page. Concerning the actual article pages - the old article engine had a system to create multiple pages - that was nice. The old system however required you to navigate through these pages with a dropdown box, and while a dropdown box is nice when an article has a lot of pages, I would prefer to have page numbers written out like with forum thread pages (next to a "previous page" and "next page" link). A subpage to upload images and files for each article would be nice - most articles have images, and I think all of them should be on the Boolean Soup server (belonging to an article) and not externally linked, as that would result in broken image/link galore. Maybe on this image/file upload subpage all links to previous uploaded files could be listed (with a size attribute and a remove/reupload button behind them), and then the author can manually link to them in the article using BBcode (or a special file link tag as suggested by Frimkron, which would even be nicer than a direct url which could break when something in our url changes). As suggested in an old thread we could allow people to upload anything except files with extension .exe, .php, .php4, .php5, .asp, .html (and .bmp, ugh), and then let a moderator that would approve the article also check for malicious files. These files should not be accessable before approval (using a protected directory?). I think there should a total article upload limit around 5 MB. I think we should have the moderator do a quick check for decent paragraphs and headers in the article, and reject when for someone submits a big lap of text without any structure. A moderator should also check image file sizes (or maybe this can be done automatically), for example images shouldn't be bigger than 300 KB. Maybe there should be a convention for people to stick to - it's important we make sure the articles at least have some quality. When an article is rejected, I think it should not be deleted but stored so the original author can fix what is wrong and resubmit. It would be a pity if the whole article would be gone. And last but not least, maybe there should be a way to create "series" of articles. When someone for example wants to write an article every week on the same subject, continuing where the last article left off, then it would be handy for all these to be grouped in a "series" somehow. For example, each part of the series could automatically link to the other parts, and in the article index they can be listed all together (all parts of the series have to go in the same category). Relevant old threads: http://www.booleansoup.com/index.php?p=32&mode=viewtopic&id=262 http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=32&mode=viewtopic&id=135 And to quickly comment on some of Sandman's worklog suggestions: Quoting Sandman: Having 10 last worklog entries of one worklog is kinda futile too. I'm sure you can remember from Flamingbird this will not be a problem at all when there are more people writing worklogs. Currently it's only because Htbaa is the only one writing worklogs - and kuddos to him for that. Quoting Sandman: I like the list of worklogs of one person, nice and tidy, but I'd like the option the list of entries to only contain the titles of the entries. That exists, press the "Full worklog archive" button. If this link would also be on top it would probably be a little clearer. [Edited on March 27, 2008 by Rincewind] ____________ Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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March 27, 2008, 18:32
DTM Earthling! 823 posts	Quote: upload images and files for each article would be nice Would be nice for worklogs too. ____________ :o
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March 27, 2008, 19:49
Htbaa Perl 368 posts	I myself am not interested in writing articles. So I'll take a little distance. However, I like the way gamedev.net displays their overview of categories: http://www.gamedev.net/reference/. What I don't like is how they're displaying the entries in all categories: http://www.gamedev.net/referen … tegoryid=45#188. I like Rinces idea of "series". You see it on more sites and it works great. DTM's idea for uploading files for worklogs as well is a good idea as well. And thank you for the kuddos Rincy. Next worklog entry will be there soon. ____________ blog.htbaa.com
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March 27, 2008, 20:35

Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll take them all on board.

The front page of the worklogs got a slight revamp at the weekend (it's in the SVN).

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

As you can see we now have 10 latest worklogs, and instead of straight titles there's a little summary. The comments display is something that was requested about a billion times.
And finally I've tried to make that worthless list of people a bit nicer.

Latest comments might be a good idea too, I'll think about how to do that.

Quoting Rincewind:

That exists, press the "Full worklog archive" button. If this link would also be on top it would probably be a little clearer.

Shit, there's no breadcumb on that page... TO THE BUGTRACKERRRRRR!!

[Edited on March 27, 2008 by Fiona]
____________
laffo


March 27, 2008, 20:44
Sandman F3n!x0r 1194 posts	Quoting Rincewind: stuff Okay didn't know that existed, awesome. Multiple people posting is exactly what I was thinking about. If for some reason one guy posts a lot of shit in many entries right after other people they would be thrown out of scope. This is not my main issue, though, I just don't like the main page. So if you and others could give your own ideas on that idea and in particular what is better/worse than the current thing, then we have more opinions. Positive feedback is feedback too or should I consider your lack of feedback about other aspects as positive? (On a side note: all quote buttons seem to link to "http://booleansoup.com/1") ____________ BennuWiki Yes, my avatar has grey borders in IE (so get a decent browser) ROOFLEZ ROOFLEZ
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March 27, 2008, 20:50
Htbaa Perl 368 posts	The broken quote button is fixed in SVN. Or so Fiona said earlier. I like it how the users with blogs are being showed in the 2nd screenshot. But how about sorting it like this: afk bgl chm din ejo Instead of abc def ghi jkl mno If you get my drift... Read names in alphabetical order is nicer from top to down then from left to the right. ____________ blog.htbaa.com
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March 27, 2008, 20:52
Fiona games are terrible -9616558 posts	Hmmm.. I disagree about that ordering. I think left-to-right is more natural... ____________ laffo
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March 27, 2008, 21:42
Sandman F3n!x0r 1194 posts	Okay those screenshots make me happy, thanks. The ordering I like the way it is. About the "full worklog archive" button: I would like it more if it was a setting remembered per user whether the default view is like that or like the big one. Or perhaps by default a summary, like that screenshot? ____________ BennuWiki Yes, my avatar has grey borders in IE (so get a decent browser) ROOFLEZ ROOFLEZ
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March 28, 2008, 18:50
link3rn3l Whiskered 78 posts	excelent work , very nice , excelent look ____________
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March 28, 2008, 23:42
Woody HEAD BLACK MAN 722 posts	Fiona you have 97 new emails. ____________ boredome is the bitter fruit of too much routine
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March 28, 2008, 23:44
Rincewind programmer 1548 posts	Quoting Woody: Fiona you have 97 new emails. And Borezilla is out there to get you. ____________ Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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March 29, 2008, 00:19
Fiona games are terrible -9616558 posts	107 now [edit] Holy shit! A spore update! 106... [edit] That was the worst video i've ever seen. [Edited on March 29, 2008 by Fiona] ____________ laffo
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April 16, 2008, 00:57
Fiona games are terrible -9616558 posts	In my never-ending quest for more Python knowledge, I came across this web-based version of the Django web framework book: http://djangobook.com/en/1.0/ The interesting part is that you can comment on each paragraph if you wish, asking for clarification on things, pointing out a correction or an alternative way to do things etc. I thought this was -awesome-. The way most things are done is that you end up with a huge load of comments. The context is lost and needed relevant information is lost in the noise. The PHP documentation is a huge offender in this area and would most certainly benefit from a system like this - but I think it applies to tech articles in general. What does everyone else think of it? ____________ laffo
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April 16, 2008, 19:23
Htbaa Perl 368 posts	Really cool. But, you would need to force the author of a article to write it in a proper format so you actually have paragraphs. But being able to comment on certain paragraphs is a wicked cool idea. ____________ blog.htbaa.com
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April 16, 2008, 19:29
Rincewind programmer 1548 posts	Personally I wouldn't want people to comment on each little part of an article I've written, so if it's going to be implemented maybe it could be made optional, with a tickbox to enable it or something. ____________ Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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Message Board > Boolean Soup Development > Articles module

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