Two pots of coffee, and cat to keep me company, I have done a little work on this site to spice things up a bit.
But first:
I understand that some of you have been having problems registering. I think I have solved the problem by installing a themed registration screen that did away with the Wordpress default.
BUT… (and this is important) you MUST be sure that the email address you use is a valid one. This is the only way you are going to get a password — through your mail. If you don’t get the password, check your junkmail folder. Sometimes things wind up in there and you don’t think to check that folder.
Now on to the real goodies:
Instant Chat Room
I have finally finished installing the Instant Chat feature on this site. It is fully AJAXED and you must be signed into your account to use it. Also, you must have Java enabled in your browser. (sorry, Mac users, some of you are SOL)
You can find the chat room by clicking on the tab at the top right of this page.
Avatars
Avatars are these cute little pictures that you are starting to see on the page, both in the posts and in the comments. You can add your own little avatar by either going to the bottom of a comment page or by going to your user profile.
There is a size restriction of 50 x 50 pixels. If your graphic is larger than that, it will be resized. Images should be no larger than 100k or you will get an error.
As you can tell, animated avatars are possible, but only if they are smaller than 50 x 50 pixels. (if the program has to resize a graphic, it will break the animation)
Eye Candy
There are some other little features that I’ve added here, and I plan on adding a couple of new things in the next couple of days.
And yes, I am on the verge of launching my new web hosting service.
March 18th, 2007 at 4:58 am
I tried to register yesterday using my blog’s yahoo address and never received a password. So, I retried using my personal email address and got a password.
Maybe yahoo is too generic to be recognized?
March 18th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Have you tried looking in your spam/junk folder on Yahoo?
If I could find a way to block yahoo email addresses and not effect legitimate participants here I would. Yahoo is typically used for spammers.
I have since updated the registration screen and the way this site handles its accounts.
I’ve also purged the Spam Filter to remove any previous hooks that might have still been there to cause problems for Rocky.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Christopher, let me know if you would like an ‘invite’ to gmail. It’s a very good email program.
So Mr DJ, now I can use my eye of Horus grav? I dunno. That with what I sometimes have to say might be a tad much.
March 18th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Hi DJ Allyn, Yep, checked junk folder and nothing. Maybe I messed something up? Oh well, I’m here now!
Hi Mirth, Just setup a gmail account and I love it. Believe or not, I didn’t know aout Google mail until a month ago!
March 18th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Use whatever you want for an Avatar. Just remember, that whatever you choose will be resized to 50×50 pixels.
I am purposely not using (Gr)avatars here because they have to rely on an outside server, which has had a bad record of crashing for periods of several days at a time. When that happens, it will take forever for a website to open because it is looking for Gravatars that aren’t here.
This site uses its own Avatar system. The images are stored right here on this server.
March 18th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I meant a post grav rather than one to show on comments.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
The post and comments avatar are the same thing. They are associated with your User_ID number and will follow you whether you post a thread or a comment.
I could separate the two, but for right now I plan on leaving them the way they are.
I will eventually create profile pages, and I might set it up for a separate photo or graphic.
But right now, I have some other details to attend to, such as a small problem I’m having with this comment form style.
March 18th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
All the changes you are working at makes etr better ‘n better.
:clap_tb:
March 18th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Hello my favorite people! ETR is looking goooood. I love the colored comment boxes. Very cool!
I didn’t have to re-register, but that’s cause I have, well you know…a Gmail address. Mirth and I are cool…
March 18th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
You da Cool One, Missy. I just bask in your Light.
♥
DJ:
I’m getting a slooooow site load (and Liberaltopia is even slower). If this isn’t just for me, is it a temporary problem?
March 18th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Me too, I have gmail. I use yahoo less and less all the time. I should explain my avatar. It’s really very simple, I don’t think I’m Jesus (my DOG does though) Neo-tards are the cross I bear. Simple. Welcome back K-woman. How was your trip? BTW,did you know there were thirty thousand numb-nuts there?
March 18th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Totally OT, but check. out. this. vid.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cWvHbOoG3tI
Uh oh
&
WooHoo!
March 18th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Here’s the article that explains the vid:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/MNGHNONEPS1.DTL&feed=rss.news
March 18th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
BTW, As soon as I can get the three of us at the same place at the same time Audrey, Traci and I will ask David to plaster our mugs on the banner, or where ever he decides they shoud be.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I might drive down to the studio this coming Friday and take some pictures. It all depends on what my schedule looks like.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Did I mention that there is now a live comment preview?
You will find it directly below the “Submit Comment” button. As you type, it will display the comment as it will appear on the page.
We all can thank Busboy for wishing for something like this here.
March 19th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Nifty feature, DJ
March 19th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I made a personal avatar for the site, but as soon as I clicked the link to upload it, I got the following error message. Not a complaint, just a FYI.
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare cmd_avatar_install() (previously declared in /home/et2007/public_html/wp-content/plugins/userpic-avatar/cmdavatar.php:38) in /home/et2007/public_html/wp-content/plugins/userpic-avatar/cmdavatar.php on line 38
March 19th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
How large was the graphic file? If it was larger than 100k then it won’t take it. I have now increased the limit to 600k, but if you graphic is any larger than that, you might need to shrink it down first.
Also, click the “Delete Avatar” button first, before you upload a graphic.
Let me know if you are still having problems.
March 19th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I deleted avatar first and it worked. I had tried to upload it from within the comment, and that’s when I got the error message. Thanks DJ.
March 19th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
No problem.
March 20th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Was there really 30,000 Gathering of Morons there? Huh. It sure didn’t seem that way. They seemed out numbered.
It doesn’t matter anyways because America is not on the side of the numbnuts even if all 28% of them who support Bush come out to play! America despises them.
March 20th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I do not see a site RSS feed. We have had ETR as an RSS feed in My Yahoo for sometime now, but it has stopped updating after this site was moved.
By the way, I really like most of the changes. I am not a big avatar fan tho.
I am curious what you did that increased the traffic. I am not sure if it is more traffic, lots of arguing or both.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
I humbly asked the Mirthyone if she would be willing to contribute here, and she graciously agreed to do so. Her excellent commentary draws folks from other sites she graces. It is more traffic AND arguing. Also informed and quality commentary along with the odd troll or two.