News Item - July 02, 1998 04:56 PM
On [Voting to FAQ], keep in mind the whole thread is involved in what will be included in the FAQ, not just the single post being voted in. This way all votes can be directed to one message & get the whole thread examined for information. Obviously the message with the most 'information' on the subject will be the one catching votes. If you think the thread is deserving of FAQdom, look for the post with the most substance & vote there. The final result will be a concise Q/A with all the pertinent info from the whole thread.
Written by Dallas DamonZ
News Item - July 02, 1998 11:50 AM
We recovered Member IDs up to the mid 800s (backed up last week) now... Once again, sorry for the inconvenience. Greg is working on a search tool for the member profiles, that way you could search for other Zers in your area, or some specific mod on their car, or whatever is included in the profile! :)
We've also discovered a bug in the new [Vote to Delete] & [Vote to FAQ] that we couldn't recreate previously w/ our testers on the test board. We're working on getting that fixed since it's already being utilized for everyone's gain (FAQ)... Don't worry, we're watching & handling it manually in some cases, it will be automated after the script is ironed out.
News Item - July 02, 1998 10:49 AM
I just inadvertently wiped out part of the user profiles. If you login and are rejected, you will have to re-create your account. This will probably be the case if your member ID is over 570. In any case, you probably want to check your profile if you have modified it in the last 2 weeks or so. Terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Sometimes UNIX just sucks. :(
Written by Greg (Dallas)
News Item - July 01, 1998 12:19 PM
Couple of new items for your enjoyment... We've added graphical [Vote to Delete] & [Vote to FAQ] notes on the main forum. If there's an next to it, it is being voted off. When it goes, all followups go with it. This can happen anywhere in the tree. next to it means it's almost gone. is toasted! :) Three strikes, you're out!!! While there are 's on the board, you can simply click on the 's to vote against, you don't even have to read it if you don't want to (this will help kill flames as rapidly as possible). The [Vote to FAQ] works much the same way, except it will send the message to the FAQ area to be inserted into the upcoming FAQ. ,,... You'll have to read the message to vote for it... otherwise we can't make a concise FAQ for the board. We'll start developing the FAQ from here on out.
We've also cleaned up the 'Sig' portion of the coding & created 'smarter' n/m's... if you don't type anything in a message that has text in it, only alter the subject line, the board will add n/m afterwards.
Our new server is arriving in pieces now. The last piece should be in tomorrow. Sometime next week we will be making the switch to the new server wich should 'theoretically' be 4x faster than this one.
The Twinturbo.NET sticker sample came in yesterday. I really like them... They are 1"x12" in size w/ indiviual lettering, so you can choose if you want the 'www' on the front or not. They are going to press today, we should have them early next week for purchase.
News Item - June 26, 1998 06:14 PM
Things are going to change on tt.NET shortly. We just placed an order for a new server today. With all the scripting going on, the current server can't go as fast as we'd like to see. I personally would like to return to the 'full' follow-up tree, making navigation a little easier. We dropped it because of the processing overhead involved, with the speed returned, running full tree won't be detrimental to the 'experience'. :) Once the new server is in place, I'll call for links & rides stuff... please don't send any yet, it will get ignored. I want to get things settled in on the new server before getting those areas started. The Events forum is about to be live soon too. It will be a discussion for upcoming events, like the NIRA drags at Ennis this Sunday, or the East coast event going on... a discussion 'forum' for those things will be nice...
Stickers are being protoed right now... hoping to have a sample in my hands by the end of next week.
Later
News Item - June 17, 1998 02:14 PM
There are still a few problems here & there & some user issues to be dealt with... Overall I think things are going rather smoothly for the amount of coding we're running in the background. Occasionally things pop up that users are doing we (testers) never thought of that pose new challenges to us. :)
From time to time errors happen & people send mail to me at ttzd@dallas.net, most of the time we just fix the problem & go about our business, so don't be upset if you don't receive a return mail about it (kinda like the power company & a blackout, only takes one call to know about it, but we appretiate each of you that let us know).
We're looking into the double footer/html sig thing right now... This is the software being dumb, not the users. :) Thanks to all that reported it.
Also Search is almost ready to go (whew!) & I will be calling for LINKs info shortly.
News Item - June 14, 1998 02:14 PM
The forum was down for a bit today to implement some bug fixes. The IP tracking was getting clunky & causing certain issues that the solutions were just unbearable, so we opted to ditch it. TT.NET is now functioning on cookies... Simple ones to that only carry your user name & delete themselves after you close your browser. If you're like me & surf w/o cookies enabled, you won't be able to login at all. Please check under Edit->Preferences->Advanced-set 'Cookies' to 'Accept all cookies' or 'Accept only cookies...' & check 'warn me before accepting any cookies' depending on preferences for you Netscape users. For Internet Explorer users, it's View->Options->Advanced & basically the same item listings.
We also have cleaned up the user directory for multiple entries. If you couldn't get your initial login to work for some reason & lost your chosen screen name due to login error... modify your current profile here & just change your screen name instead of making a whole new profile. Unfortunately, we lost a few of the user profiles during the transistion. We apologize for the inconvenience of re-entering your user information if you were involved in this. :(
Something else we've removed for streamlining are the visible IPs on the main forum board. We want the average new thread to stay on the board for 3 days & keep the board length around 100-125k for quick download. The IP listings were taking up too much visual real-estate for the return they offer users. You can still find the IPs in the messages themselves, we left them there for convenience.
News Item - June 10, 1998 02:54 PM
OK, here's the first item on the forum news! This page will exist only while we are making improvements to the forum, eventually the meat from this will make it's way to the FAQ when things are fully settled in...
We are currently working on the login routine to streamline it & make it as close to 100% user friendly as possible. The biggest problem is a profile size limitation we are re-designing to get around. If you are having problems w/ adding a signature to your profile, try trimming back some of the lesser items on your MODS list in the profile... We'll have it fixed shortly, so this is only a temporary fix. Soon you'll be able to list every single mod on your Z
Once the login is adjusted to meet our new user needs, we will have the search engine installed. We really want the engine to index every word to make sure the search results you are looking for are found & returned. Unfortunately, the indexing methods we've used result in an index file that is actually larger than the amount of data indexed... not a very good plan, but it is VERY fast! :)
We run another board just for testing on another site so downtime here will be minimal & our testers are continually evaluating our upgrades over there so we don't have to mess with your use of the board here.
Also, we're not taking requests for more Links or Reader's Rides yet. But, when the time comes here's what we'll need... Rides: 1. 256+ color .jpgs in a minimum of 500 x ??? resolution. 2. One nice clean shot (or a couple) of the outside with the car on the street/parking lot/etc., so I can clean up the bottom & leave whatever shadow is there around the bottom of the car (just like TTZD's). 3. A couple shots of what makes your car unique from stock (interior, bodywork, wheels, etc.)
We are going to use the MODS list from the user profiles as the text portion of the page, so you can update your own mods as neccessary. Links 1. 256+ color .gifs/.jpgs in a maximum of 200x200 resolution. 2. A short discription/list of things in the site.
Just thought you might like some lead time... :)
