Verbosify beta-testers wanted

[zeborah]

Thunderbirds are go.

More or less: the software remains under construction and so does the layout -- but we have an nntp interface and a web interface and most importantly we have self-registration.

So can anyone who's interested, please head on over to https://verbosify.org/, click on "Register", create an account, and then read and post away to your heart's content via nntp or web or both.

Notes as I think of them:

• The nntp host is verbosify.org


• In the sign-up process there's a check-box - that's to do with nntp authentication. If you can't get your newsreader to work when the box is unchecked, then try checking it. (MacSOUP requires it checked, for instance.)


• alue.* groups relate to the software; verbosify.* groups relate to talk about actual writing, ie our ultimate purpose.


• Wow, we really need to update this layout.


• If you see any bugs, or features you'd like, please post about them in alue.devel. If the bug means you can't post to alue.devel, please post about them here or email me.


• Don't worry if something you do breaks something -- in fact Antti-Juhani gets excited when this happens. (I've managed to bring down the entire server more than once, though I think he's ironed out the bugs that allowed that.)


• We make no warranty, express or implied, about, well, anything. But it's fairly unlikely that your computer will explode or your cat sprout wings.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I looked at it and registered and I am a bear of little brain. Found navigation confusing, had to keep using the back-button on my browser to get to the main menu, can't see how to carry on a conversation . . .

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Do you have specific suggestions about making conversations easier?

The back link problem is noted, I should do something about that.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Mainly, I couldn't see any threading. But it may be there and invisible to my Saturday morning brain.

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I thought the threading was a little too visible...

If you look at a message, on the bottom of the page there are "thread prev" and "thread next" links, plus a list of both precursors and (direct) followups. A good example is https://verbosify.org/id/%3C4995784.DdHjke4DdE%40valdyas.org%3E

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

And Lo! There it is. I think my eyes skittered past that, equating it with the Geek Header stuff or something. Which fills up most of the first screen I see with Firefox.

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

As to that, I'll just quote Zeborah: "Wow, we really need to update this layout."

:)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I was computer literate, the office IT guy in fact. But that was because I was willing to RTFM and nobody else was. I gave up geekdom at about DOS 4.0 . . .

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

I feel addressed, but I've been too busy with other things to eve think about it. Also, from the end of this week I'll be away for two weeks. Substantial work (from me, anyway) probably won't come until the last week of August, when the girls are back in school.

[zeborah]

I can do some; but I don't want to step on your toes since css was going to be your thing.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

If I haven't managed to do anything by Saturday please do! We can't let it go unformatted for another three weeks.

[zeborah]

It's a deal!

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

The Geek Header stuff that filled the screen was a bug caused by a change in system configuration that made Zeborah's cunning header-hiding Javascript inaccessible. I'm now fixing that (in another way).

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

That change is now deployed (along with a rudimentary forum-like thread view).

[zeborah]

One thing that will help navigation is if we implement a header/footer system so that the verbosify logo (linked back to the homepage) shows up at the top left of everything, with the sign-in stuff all at the top right. I'm presuming (without looking at it because I just woke up and am off to church shortly) that this is part of the html I can edit; when I'm back this afternoon I'll try to remember my way around all that version control stuff and play with it.

[karinfromnosund.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm moving at the moment, but I'll go and have a look as soon as I have the time.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

Created an account -- will post when my brain has kicked back into gear. :) (Accursed heat wave...)

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Were you browsing it when the server went down? If so, do you remember what you tried to accesss?

(It looks like my latest change caused some sort of a crashing bug, but haven't been able to reproduce it yet.)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yes, actually! Here's what happened: I was browsing around in verbosify.writing, and then I went back to the main page (by stripping the URL back to verbosify.org, since there's no link back to there), and then I clicked on verbosify.critique. That was when it went down.

It wasn't struck out at the time (now it is), but perhaps my attempting to access a restricted area is what killed it?

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

The problem is that my code isn't dealing correctly with empty groups. It probably was broken for at least a month, but nobody before you was curious enough to try it :)

The strikeout happens because you've been logged out. That happens every time the server is restarted, since the login data isn't stored on disk.

Now to fix the bug...

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Fixed.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Ha! Curious to a fault, that's me. ;)

And yeah, that makes sense -- I hadn't realized that I was also logged back out.

[poetrychook.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to see Boots sprout wings..

[zeborah]

Boots doesn't need wings, she teleports instea.

<jumps> In fact there she is right now.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

Verbosify informs me that I am not authorized to post to verbosify.writing. I'm registered as Squid. Is there some kind of authorization process I'm not aware of, or does it just not like my face?

[zeborah]

Can you check that it's showing you as logged in while you're trying to post? It's been occasionally logging people out for reasons which I believe Antti-Juhani understands but I don't. AFAIK anyone registered and logged in should be allowed to post.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

It does show me as logged in. I'm trying to reply to the most recent post in the Great Wordcount Thread, if this information is useful. I haven't tried to respond to any other thread (because I have no content to add) or to start a thread (same reason).

[zeborah]

Hm, it lets me reply to that with the account I created last night. Bad verbosify!

Only things I can think of to test in the meantime are: is it letting you read the restricted groups? does it let you post to the "test" groups? Depending on how much time you want to spend kicking it, of course; I think Antti-Juhani's asleep at the moment due to Finnish timezones but once he wakes up he'll have a better idea than me of what's going on.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

It hadn't occurred to me to try one of the test groups. Dur. I cannot post to alue.test either, which bodes ill for the other ones. I can read the restricted groups. I have not tried posting to one.

[zeborah]

Useful information, thanks! albeit frustrating... Hopefully Antti-Juhani will know what to do with it.

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Logout happens:

– when you close your browser for any reason;
– when you press the logout button; and
– when the server goes down (because of a crash, because of the host system being rebooted, or because I've deployed new code).

[zeborah]

Thanks!

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

There was a bug: the registration process did mark you as a poster ON DISK but didn't mark you as a poster IN MEMORY. Thus the posting authorization activated when the server was restarted (which explains Zeborah's success) but didn't work straight out of registration (which explains your problem).

It's fixed now. Thank you :)

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[smallcaps.livejournal.com]

Note: I was on a group page when I went to register and it failed (looking for "/gr/register") and I had to click back to the main page to register (where it successfully found "/register"). Small thing, thought I'd mention.

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

Fixed. Thanks.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit late on the scene, but trying it out now. I'm not sure thunderbird wants to play properly, but we'll see.

[zeborah]

If it gives problems, try both with and without the tickybox ticked; if it still gives problems I'll see what Antti-Juhani can figure out.