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This is an open discussion for the community in regards to the ongoing situation with the technical issues. We have some official announcements associated to this that we will also track in the post for you. The newest posts will be at the top of the list for ease of access:
"October 27 - Delayed Status Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/delayed-status-update/
"October 11 - Weekly Status Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/weekly-status-update-october-11/
"October 2 - Email Fix Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/email-notification-fix-update-oct-2/
"October 1 - Status and Tech Updates":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/status-and-tech-updates-oct-1/
"September 18 Status Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/status-update-sept-18/
"September 17 - Message from CEO":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/message-from-the-ceo/
"September 11 Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/weekly-status-update-sept-11/
"September 4 Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/contest-and-tech-updates/
"August 31 Tech Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/tech-update-august-31/
"August 28 Tech Update":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/op-tech-status-aug-28/
--Alex
Comments
As a strong proponent of updates being voiced in the forums and not just on the blog (or Twitter, or Facebook, etc...), I just wanted to say that I feel posting the updates on the blog and then specifically posting a notice *and link to the blog* is a reasonable compromise. It keeps the forum community in the loop and makes it easy for them to get to the info - without requiring a social media account or mixing non-gaming with gaming stuff, or requiring that they consistently check the blog for updates. This approach seems simple enough and still addresses the needs of the forum community (in my opinion) to be kept informed.
I have had a thought about the support site. In my opinion, dev should not invest any effort in fixing the issues with this. My reasoning is that I feel it would be best to replace it completely. There are many ways in which it is simply inadequate. There is no way to determine who a bug is assigned to (and thereby hold someone accountable, be it dev or the original poster being asked to submit more info), there is no way to filter on criteria such as current status or general category, and so on.
My recommendation does not mean that OP needs to spend a great deal of money, either. A quick search for "bug tracker" on SourceForge provides a list of open source options that OP could leverage.
"http://sourceforge.net/directory/os:windows/freshness:recently-updated/?q=bug%20tracker":http://sourceforge.net/directory/os:windows/freshness:recently-updated/?q=bug%20tracker
Because OP operates on a _freemium_ business model, where the standard service is free while premium services are subscription based, it is also possible that licensing will not be an issue. Given the technical knowledge pool that OP also has access to in their community, such a tool that allows tiers of access and control could also support the proposed community council to handle a great number of the bugs reported, while escalating true dev issues to the appropriate level. This bug triage (as we called it back when I was a software tester by occupation) also allows for determination of priority and severity, which helps dev focus on the most important needs first. The "discussion" model that has been implemented since the early days may have been best when it was just a couple of guys doing everything themselves on off hours, with little to no real user base, but OP has grown beyond that. The demands of the complexity of the system, the volume of users, and the layers of back-end personnel more than ever indicate a need for a more robust issue tracking solution. Just my two cents.
My problem with this thread is that it is yet another sticky... at this point almost the entire front page is stickied... can we remove some from the sticky list please?
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":https://a-god-rebuilt.obsidianportal.com
"OP's COTM April 2012":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/a-god-rebuilt-aprils-cotm/
Over 350 Fans, and Looking for More!
Just trying to help out.
Just trying to help out.
KillerVP's issue with the stickies really isn't a problem if you use the Categories tab, but then again I don't know of anyone who does (although surely some do). For those of us who monitor the entire forum for activity, even if only to monitor and not comment, the full screen of stickies does make our efforts far more work than it should be. As such, I agree with Killervp that something should be done. In my opinion, before unstickying things (de-stickying? shrug), I would get a firm commitment on replacing the forums, with a timeline. Note that I mean fully replacing the forums, not simply starting on the project. Many of the stickies can be merged for content, but would be best done when forums are migrated (assuming that they would require a new database back-end too). If that is going to happen within a month or less, then I would say wait. If it is not going to happen or take more than a month, then I feel the issue should be addressed fairly quickly since it does impact ongoing communication of the community.
I'll do you one better even, I'll start in on the Sticky posts now to clear it up some for folks.
Belrathius, this is actually something I am considering already and I appreciate that you actually peeked into this some already. I need to touch base with Tech on this as well, because I want to make sure that whatever we put in place can have a proper way of pushing things over to Tech still when needed. I'll take a look at those sourceforge options and see what is available.
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
but there are "other options":http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/unstuck
disenthrall is probably my fave :)
However, no actual fixes.
Oh, and a quick perusal of the help tickets are that there are around 100 tickets, at least, that were just randomly closed on June 15th, with no verification on whether or not they were fixed.
Just trying to help out.
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
@SkidAce, I'll be jumping into the testing environment today to get an idea of how progress is coming with the build environment errors. Our techs have been working on flushing out a long series of items (as mentioned on my last check, they had managed to find a series of issues in the login/logout/registration facets of things). To be honest, I really wish I had a grasp of the language this site is built on so I could provide more help on the tech side of things than just testing.
So, I am home sick today folks, hoping to be able to get some things done around here as a result.
Just trying to help out.
I noticed the default tags for YouTube videos changed, and neither the old nor new tags are working for me.
Are others having this problem? Is it on the list?
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
@killervp & SkidAce - Thanks guys!
Get well, and thanks for keeping regular comms going.
_~Mae_
~Mae
CotM Selection Committee
Just trying to help out.
That said, once there is a reasonable calm, a full rebuild on a more mainstream, current language would be a really smart move, both for future additions of features and general maintenance. But just my opinion.
@killervp - I can understand that sentiment, and from a development perspective I can see why that was likely not what was done (granted, I didn't get to see anything regarding the old version of OP or how it was built, so it could be the case and I would be unaware). With OP having been a good platform already I can see why there would be apprehension to just drop all of that and start over from scratch as opposed to fixing what was not working. As I mentioned, RoR is a very dynamic language and perfectly reasonable to keep using moving forward, even if a rebuild were considered.
@Belrathius - Absolutely correct there. Until we get things back on track here at OP I do not foresee the system being stripped and started over. Rather we must reach a point where the current system is stabilized and the expected functions and features are all working as intended. Once we get to that point we could put some real serious consideration into this, and I will at least be bringing it up with the tech team so I can get some of their insight on the process. I do want to mention again, though, that RoR is not some old outdated language. Heck, the language wasn't even debuted until December 13, 2005 (making the very existence of it just a decade in comparison to other frameworks). It also still receives active development and expansion, with the latest version having been released on August 24 (7 days ago). So, with that said, I don't know if abandoning RoR is needed, but the premise of a rebuild could still be considered.
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
I have a question, during the original reforge process bakers at a certain level got access to the beta environment so they could see the new features, provide feedback and find issues. Has any thought been given to doing something like that for what sounds like a pretty significant update coming soon?
I have been working in Software for way to long and know the challenges of getting enough QA on something as big and complex as OP especially when doing big changes, so having some beta guinea pigs as another set of eyes after yourself and the inner council have given it your blessing may be helpful in making sure this release is as great as it sounds.
Again thanks for everything you are doing to provide information and transparency around all of this it has brought me back in to using OP as I start prepping my next campaign.