Mattcrampy
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Registered: 05-29-2003
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On a windswept plain somewhere in the continental United States, three hooded figures stand around an odd contraption, one tinkering with it.

"Does it work?"
The figure by the contraption responds, "Well, I'm not sure. Avatars still seem to be broken, but oh, wait, I've got it. Didn't configure this properly. And... there we go."
Another of them speaks. "I wonder, where are we going to put this? Hasn't it been organised?"
"Yeah, Matt's on it. Where is Matt?"
The tinkerer replies, "I'm Matt."
"No, the other Matt."

A cellphone rings, and one of them answers it.
"It's me, Matt. I'm a bit lost." crackles out of the mobile phone.
"Okay," the owner of the phones asks, "where are you?"
"Ummm... London."

After major kinks (losing passwords and inexplicable errors in logging in count as kinks, right?) finally the measly update has been done.

I've done a few things: firstly, and most notably, Stuart's button work has been incorporated into the site, as well as trick's HTML suggestions. That annoying little black bar has disappeared, as well as the two extra backgrounds. The upshot: DROD.net loads at a decent speed now. Hooray!

The other, more minor thing, is that the new DROD FAQ is up. I'm not happy with this and plan to add more answers.

Also, congratulations to Erwin Hatch, Peter King, Chris Marks and Martin Salazard, who have finished DROD since the last update.

On the forum front, the new forum FAQ is up... but only on the new forum. We decided to switch to a new server to take advantage of a new PHP version and faster load times, and we're not ready to port everything over yet. More news as it happens.

My next priority is to get the site ready for DROD:AE. I'm still trying to work out what the overall structure will be, as there's stuff everywhere, but it looks like they'll be a section for the game itself, an info and hints section, a section on the Eighth and a section for architects among the new structure. After that, dealing with the two redundant images and getting the favourite icon fixed. On that note, if anyone can point me towards a freeware icon editor, that would be wonderful.

Speaking of architects... I've been discussing an idea I've had on the forum tentatively called Architect's Toolbox. This would be written by architects discussing general techniques for building particular types of rooms, the way I'm seeing it. If anyone wants to volunteer, they're more than welcome. I might have to ask Erik if he's got any time to write the inaugural one.

As always, comments, questions, deaththreats and bank account numbers to webmaster@drod.net.

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

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What you said at the beginning of the update was a bit interesting, but can you tell me who's who? I was just wondering.

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And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff:

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Malarame = Matt #1, Schik = Matt #2 (the tinkerer), Mattcrampy = Matt #3 (the one in London). At least, those are my assumptions.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Malarame
Level: Master Delver
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Registered: 02-04-2003
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You definately know this stuff better than I do. I tried to do some of the stuff you mentioned, but somehow, something always ended up going wrong and I always ended up breaking something. Good job!

____________________________
Matt O'Leary
Webb Institute
Class of 2007

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
-Groucho Marx

Mattcrampy
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Actually, it was Erik with the phone, Matt Schikore tinkering, and the third one that didn't speak was Mike. It was me in London, right enough. It's either that I couldn't remember offhand what Mike had said about the new server, or that he's the strong, silent type that ladies flock to. Whichever is fine with him.

The odd contraption, just in case you were wondering, was the forum on the new server. It has a different version of PHP, so some things needed to be changed.

I can tell you right now that Citydesk makes things a lot easier, as it handles a lot of the updating for me - the indexes are pretty much handled automatically, it lets me see the results of my HTML tinkering pretty sharpish and it even has a spell checker.

I'm not looking forward to redoing the buttons - any tinkering whatsoever means I need to work out what's actually going on so it doesn't blow up when I change it. On the plus side, it'll probably mean I can cut down those 5 images to three (I've seen some very useful code doing something similar on another site, and I'll have a peek at their source).

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

mrimer
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Wow, that's flattering. I feel like a Jedi or something! I'm admittedly not doing anything with the new forum except looking on, but meanwhile I've got my own tinkering going on... While we're trying to fix the last bug, all my creative energies are going into something good. The trio agrees it's worth it. News at eleven...or whenever that bug gets fixed.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Mattcrampy
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Just a small change - I expanded a question in the FAQ.

Also, secret page moved. I'm very interested to know how many people find it again.

Instead of going and braking the buttons, I've started re-organising the downloads section so we can put some completed holds up when Mike's clock reaches eleven.

I only hope it doesn't happen within the next week, because in a few days I'm going hunting for Prince Harry.

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Schik
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Also, secret page moved. I'm very interested to know how many people find it again.

heh i like particlewills message (wow thats much quicker this way)

I only hope it doesn't happen within the next week, because in a few days I'm going hunting for Prince Harry.

This sounds like some weird British euphamism for something, and I don't want to know what it really means.

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
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It's actually not.

Prince Harry is in Australia spending a year as a stockboy. While I'm not going hunting for him per se, I will be out the back of nowhere for a week. I found my digital camera again, so I'll take pictures for anyone who cares.

Matt

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?