Great Western Coffee Shop

Sideshoots - associated subjects => News, Help and Assistance => Topic started by: JayMac on March 08, 2017, 08:50:30



Title: Ignore user?
Post by: JayMac on March 08, 2017, 08:50:30
Is there an 'Ignore user' button that can be activated in SMF?

If I can't see the BS, then I can't call out the BS.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: grahame on March 08, 2017, 09:20:35
Is there an 'Ignore user' button that can be activated in SMF?

There is no such option built into the software we're running, so nothing I can put to the moderation team for their discussion and consideration.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: LiskeardRich on March 08, 2017, 09:58:12
I saw a post the other day I wanted to call out as BS so know what you mean.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: JayMac on March 08, 2017, 14:18:59
Quote from: grahame link=topic=18065.msg210755#msg210755
There is no such option built into the software we're running, so nothing I can put to the moderation team for their discussion and consideration.

This?

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2299


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: grahame on March 08, 2017, 14:40:25
Quote from: grahame link=topic=18065.msg210755#msg210755
There is no such option built into the software we're running, so nothing I can put to the moderation team for their discussion and consideration.

This?

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2299

Thank you for that link.  It is to a module which is not compatible with the version of the software we are running. There is nothing I can put to the moderation team for their discussion and consideration.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: chrisr_75 on March 08, 2017, 14:54:47
Serious question - how do you manage in real life without an 'ignore user' button to click if someone says something you disagree with?

FWIW, I did think about asking about an ignore button recently, but I decided against bringing the subject up as I felt it didn't fit with the overall spirit of the forum.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: JayMac on March 08, 2017, 15:19:28
Serious question - how do you manage in real life without an 'ignore user' button to click if someone says something you disagree with?

Say, "I disagree." Or words to that effect dependent on the situation and level of BS. Then I can ignore them.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: grahame on March 08, 2017, 16:28:46
Question has been asked ... not having the option is one of the penalties for running old software that wasn't intended to run for very long (a year or two) but has lasted and lasted, and not having the resource / income to invest a lot of time into upgrades, etc.    With no advertising and no membership charge, it's purely down to the moderator and admin team's volunteer time, and my limited volunteer time as webmaster.     Give me a paid position (part time) and things could be done - but I suspect the gains would be small and my payment needs rather larger!


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: Chris from Nailsea on March 08, 2017, 18:19:52
Thank you, as ever, grahame, for providing the Coffee Shop forum for us all to use, free of charge and generally without problem.  ;)

May I ask that all of our members please choose to 'grit their teeth', rather than 'get the bit between their teeth', if they read something posted by another member with which / whom they disagree?

Thank you to all of our members here who are generally so restrained.

Chris.  :-X



Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: JayMac on March 08, 2017, 19:00:54
Question has been asked ... not having the option is one of the penalties for running old software that wasn't intended to run for very long (a year or two) but has lasted and lasted,

So, this won't work with the version of SMF running the forum:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=185

It seems to cover 1.1.2.

Which is it? Not technically possible, or not something the forum Admins wish to implement?


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: Chris from Nailsea on March 08, 2017, 19:38:05
Please, bignosemac, do desist.

The problems are technical ones: the basic software upon which the Coffee Shop has been developed and tailored over many years simply means that the introduction of any new external software will probably 'discomnadgerate' those personalised features.

It's not a price we're prepared to pay, basically.

Chris.  :-X





Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: JayMac on March 08, 2017, 19:56:20
Please, bignosemac, do desist.

The problems are technical ones: the basic software upon which the Coffee Shop has been developed and tailored over many years simply means that the introduction of any new external software will probably 'discomnadgerate' those personalised features.

It's not a price we're prepared to pay, basically.

Chris.  :-X

Chris, please understand...

I was merely seeking clarification of the reasons it wasn't possible. Your response has done that, so thanks.

However, I don't think your response needed its opening public rebuke.


Title: Re: Ignore user?
Post by: grahame on March 08, 2017, 22:08:50
Technical comment

The forum software is indeed old, but it's running on a recent operating system version, a recent version of PHP and a recent MySQL database all of which were released way later, so it wasn't originally developed for / tested with. Between PHP 4 and PHP 5, and between MySQL 3.23.58 and 5.6 there have been some compatability issues / changes - not major ones, but never the less a couple of things such as the search are less good than they should be.  Other rail forums have looked at upgrading / have upgraded, to the extent of archiving the old forum and starting afresh as they judged the upgrade impractical.

New subject

One of my paying customers has a suite of software written in Perl. Although the code is well written (remarkably so for Perl) it's old and shows signs of past battles to persuade in to behave in certain ways, with some obscure usages which even I with years of Perl am left starching my head about.   On the grounds that (a) I don't have enough time and (b) you shouldn't rely on having a single technical source for your business, my customer also has another person working on the code (and the co-ordination works well).  About 3 weekends ago, this other contractor installed a new Perl module on the customer's server - only to make it available for new work - but the effect was an incompatibility which broke the entire production site running on that server.  As we had a backup of the application code and data, I was able to get the customer up and running again with a couple of days, sharing my server which had previously hosted a test / training / development version - but working out exactly what the issue was with the module on the "proper" server has proven to be a nightmare that's burned up several days of my time.   As of 19:15 this evening, we have established exactly what the issue is, and tomorrow we'll be sorting it out.  Then at the weekend I'll take the site down during Saturday night and move it back with the data.

Combining these two elements

If I were to add a module to SMF without risk to the forum being down for extended periods, I would be well advised to set up a mirror server, install it on there, make sure it was 100%, before upgrading the live server. I ain't got the time, and I'm not prepared to take the risk that my customer's other contractor took.    Frankly, I'm surprised at the problems encountered - I wouldn't have expected them.   But I wouldn't go so far as to say I was shocked, as I know what can happen, especially when running with different bits of software that have little compatability issues between releases.

I'm documenting the above to give you a flavour of why I cannot easily jump in and start adding features;  if we had a permanent programming resource, we would probably also have a test suite using Gherkin and Cucumber, running continuos testing and integration under Jenkins, and be bringing our new features for you every two years (or more often if we could persuade you to by a new license for better software every 18 months  ;) ).   As it is, it works well enough; like an old lady we treat her with respect, accept her foibles and she does us proud. And if you get tired of listening to the old lady and feeding her occasional foibles every day, you're perfectly free not to visit.




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