So Much Stuff, So Little Time

[shavethewhales]

So by now, You should all know that I like to make lots of promises, but unfortunately I can never keep many of them.
I'm still trying frantically to sort out the rating system, and then I still want to tackle the comment boxes/ add a review stuff, and once all that's finished, I want to start all over again and make a massive site revision.

The thing is, not only do I not have much time these days, but I'm new to much of this programming. I've never built interactive web aps before, so I'm still struggling to learn a lot of what I need to.

I want you all to know that when I say I'm going to do something, I mean it, it's just that sometimes it takes longer than I think at first.

I'm going to make an effort to get that rating system done by the end of this week, but we'll see what happens. Once I do get that done, the comment boxes and review uploads won't be half as difficult, and once those are done the new site version won't be such a massive task.

[Coaster]

I know you'll get it all done Steve. Of course we all hope it happens soon but it'll happen when it happens. I think the site will look fantastic once you get everything completed. I would also love to help but I know absolutely nothing about web programming. As you guys can tell I can ask some pretty stupid questions about some things at times. But I'm really not that dumb.

Web programming is hard is what I'm trying to say, even though I kinda got off topic there.

[shavethewhales]

Quick update - I gave up on making my own rating system, as it would take forever, so I downloaded a free version (it's not crappy though. In fact, it's really good.). I hope to have it up for a quick test by Friday, and hopefully it'll get implemented on the site this weekend. I've got a job interview tomorrow though, so we'll see how much time I have.

The comment boxes will come next, and will take much less time. I'll start working on the new template simultaneously.

[Coaster]

Yay! Good luck on the job interview Steve. Just be confident and know what your talking about you'll do fine.

[shavethewhales]

Yup... So I'm still having troubles with the database connection and other things... Who knows when all this will be settled out. It may be best for everyone to forget I mentioned anything and just wait till something happens.

Edit: Bad news, again. The rating system I downloaded simply cannot work with my host. I'll have to go back to attempting to build my own version, which will likely be pretty crappy.
I think for now, I'm going to focus most of my efforts simply on the new site version.

[shavethewhales]

Errr.

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to forget about the rating system and everything else for now and I'm just going to concentrate on the new site version. Rather than try to get test examples of the comment boxes, rating systems, and other things out before, I'm just going to throw it all in the new version at once.

So now you won't have to see anymore annoying small updates about how a particular feature is doing, it'll all just come in a heap next month.

[shavethewhales]

Quick update -

Again, so much is happening right now that I have little time for the site, but as always, the promise of being able to do much more with the site in the future looms ahead. Right now, I'm working on updating all the old files to the new site template, and I've nearly got the comment boxes for news reports and other things done. I want to finally tackle that rating system once and for all soon, seeing as I finally have figured out more or less how to build one, but next week I won't have a moment to spare, and who knows when I will.

Thanks for keeping up with the site though. Things should start picking up again soon, in time for us to hype up SDC and CC's 2008 projects. Hopefully by Christmas, I'll have re-designed the site again - but this time stuff will actually work!

[shavethewhales]

Another quick update -

The site is now fully on the new template, and I hate the way it looks more than ever. As far as features go, I've almost got the comment boxes done, I just need to figure out how to rig them up to be secure enough, the same goes for the add a review feature.

[Joy]

I dunno, I think it looks good. I think maybe we just need a logo; that might spice up the top left corner a bit. If you'd like me to do a quick text-based logo (perhaps THIS ONE minus the cowboy?), I'd be up for it.

~ "Becky" Joy ~

[shavethewhales]

Yeah that would be great and much appreciated if you want to. The only thing is that it needs to be a .gif to be able to work with the blended background.

As far as the rest of the site goes: I've kind of hit a road block. I'll be able to put in the comment boxes and probably the rating system as well on the articles, but as for the rest of the site, I need to put everything into an extremely-complicated database form to be able to have review uploads and rating bars and everything else all over the place.

I'm sorry I made so many promises before I knew what it would take, but there's still hope. Not only am I still working toward the goal of getting the site to the point that it can handle everything I want, but I'm also working on another big upgrade. This time, everything will work, it will look good, and I won't post any more annoying posts about it explaining why things aren't working or look so bad.

Until then, I'm just going to try to get the comment boxes up at least, but I'm stuck trying the get the proper security measures applied to them. We wouldn't want anyone crashing the site over a simple comment box.

[Joy]

.gif it is! What would be the width and height maximums?

I have a suggestion about the reviews thing... We have a system on a show fansite that I'm on where each entry in the episode guide has a link to a thread on the forum set up for discussion of that particular episode and a poll like "What's your grade: Excellent, good, poor, etc."

Maybe we could have something like that on here? It might encourage more people to sign up on the forum and join in the fray.

~ "Becky" Joy ~

[shavethewhales]

Yeah, you know, I might just set up a separate forum for ride/eatery reviews until I can get a better system up and do as you said...

[shavethewhales]

At last, I've finally figured out the comment system. I have a working model here -> http://www.sdcfans.com/tests/comment_box_test.php

I had all sorts of problems with my server, most of which I still don't understand, but I finally got this simple system working. I'll add a comment box to Coaster's article, and all future articles will have them.

Damn though, I didn't think that would take me so long. However, the good news is that I now know loads more about PHP, so all future projects should be much easier.

Well, that's one feature mostly down, several more to go.

[Coaster]

Yay!!!! I'm excited to see the comments I get.

[sdcfan17]

Why is it in a different language??