We just got this fixed (sorry this took so long) -- and I'm working on moving news articles (the GiantBomb blog) to our new blog/forum system. This should really only take a day or two at the most -- then after that, dave and i will be cooking some good stuff for you duders.
Alright duders - so if you haven't already noticed, we just finished up pushing the new forum code out this afternoon. Big ups to Andy (the Man-dy) for speeding up the migration script. This enabled us to go ahead and make the push this afternoon instead of later this evening (cause we have a hot review coming at ya that we didn't want held up).
andy is a wizard!Anyway, we've received a lot of feedback from you guys regarding bugs (and we've squashed almost all of them - i'm working on a few more right now), but the feedback has been mostly positive. Our hope is that it brings the overall readership of your blogs up - so we can start more interesting discussions around stuff that's important to you guys.
Next Steps:
So what's next. Well, we have to roll this out on ComicVine, and from there I'll probably go back and fix a few notification bugs before Dave and I move onto the next community feature.
So, we keep going back and forth on what the next big feature we build out should be (grammar rockstar). We're looking at doing either some sort of Achievement System or possibly a Groups/Battles System. There's pros and cons to each, and both will eventually get done - we just don't know which one to do first.
Have any suggestions? Reply below and lets see what you guys think.
the blog/forum code that was supposed to get pushed last night will be delayed a day (due to testing on our staging server), and will get pushed out this evening. so, expect some scheduled downtime tonight (monday night) at around 10:00pm.
the script that migrates all of your data took significantly longer to run on our staging box (one of the reasons for pushing back the launch), so i'm gonna try to make some tweaks to speed it up -- because we don't want to be down for that long.
i'll post an update later in the day w/ whats going on. just wanted to give you dudes a heads up.
If you've been reading the past few Development Diaries, you may have noticed that I've been working on a fairly large forum/blog re-write. Basically, what we're doing is allowing users to (optionally) attach their blog posts to a board in the forums. You can read more about it here, here and here.
So I'm cleaning up a few random bugs and we should be rolling this new feature out this weekend.
The Rub: Due to the complexity of the data migration, we're going to have to take the site down for (by all estimates) about an hour while we update our servers with the latest code and move all the data around accordingly.
We plan on doing this Sunday evening (late) - apologies to all you European users out there :(
Anyway, if everything goes well, we should be making the move at like 10:00pm Sunday night and the site will most likely be down till about 11:30 (maybe later) that night. We'll be keeping you dudes posted as we get closer.
Thanks for all of your support. Can't wait for you guys to get the new tools.
Just a quick update for you dudes in between testing. So, we ran the data migrations on a snapshot of the most recent prod database backup here at the office and everything transferred over really smoothly. (Basically, what we're doing is merging all of the Blog data with our Forum Topic data and all of our Comment data with our Forum Post data) So right now, Dave and I are going through and making sure all of the stuff we moved around still works and that the new stuff we added works.
We've found a few bugs here and there, but everything looks to be pretty solid. I running through and fixing as much as I can today and tomorrow so we can hopefully get this code merged and pushed out later this week. Hope everyone's having a great day - stay good and if you're thinking about buying Saints Row 2, check out Ryan's Review right here.
So the forum code we're re-writing (allowing you guys to attach your blogposts to the boards) is almost there. Hit a few roadblocks, but I have it to a place where all I have to do is finish rewriting the comment logic then test the data migration with a snapshot of the prod data and we should be able to push out towards the middle/end of this week. I was talking w/ Snide yesterday after work and we both think that this is a worthwhile endeavor and will really expand your awesome blog content to a larger audience. Look for another update as we get closer to launch.
As for the other dudes..... Andy is currently working on the API stuff - so any programmers out there that want to use GiantBomb's data to build their own web application, check out this post: http://www.giantbomb.com/news/beta-testers-needed-for-our-api-tools/370/ by snide for more info. Maxwell and Ethan are both working on our new site (top-secret ;)) and Dave's been going back and cleaning up a bunch of old bugs.
Dave's also been working on designs for our new acheivement system - which I'll be jumping on as soon as I get this forum code finished up..... and its gonna be pretty awesome. We have a ton of fun ideas we've been tossing around and I think we'll launch something that'll stoke all you guys out! I'm excited to get on that project and work on something fun for you dudes asap :)
Stay good guys - enjoy your tuesday...... and if you have a digg account, help us try to get this awesome guidedugg
So - in developing the feature to allow Blog Posts to create Topics in the Forums - I'm getting more and more frustrated. The migration process has become painful - and what I thought was going to be an semi-difficult, week-long project has turned into a real bitch.
Long story short - I've been hitting a series of roadblocks all week. Don't think I'm going to be able to get this feature live for you guys by the end of the week. Looking at the situation - I have a feeling its gonna be more like next week sometime. Which sucks, because it pushes back all of the fun achievement-y stuff I wanted to be working on.
So we got the notification stuff out and I'm hoping you guys are digging it. I know for me personally, the PM notifications are a godsend. Its nice to finally be able to know when somebody comments on your blog or your review, etc. and be able to PM them back directly. Also wanted to let you all know that I've been gathering all of your Email Notification feedback (there's been a tremendous response - thx), and I'll be talking w/ the guys over the next few weeks on how we can tweak this so that these emails can become a little more meaningful to you guys. In the interim, hopefully they provide a nice little slice of activity going on around the site.
So What's Next:
Right now, I'm working on a project to bring more content to the boards. Dave noticed that you guys all tend to write some amazing blogs. These blogs tend to be well thought out, and well written. He noticed that while these posts were really high quality content - only those of you with a bunch of friends received comments / feedback on your blogpost. At the same time, we noticed that the boards on GB (and ComicVine for that matter) go off! There's a ton of activity on the boards, so why not give you guys the ability to optionally create a new forum topic after you create a new blog post.
Functionally, everything will remain the same. You write your blog, you associate it to whatever you like, you publish it. However, after you publish it - you'll have the option to attach your post to a board. This will essentially create a new topic with your post as the title and your post body as the first post in the topic. The idea is that this will give your blog much more visibility to the entire community, while providing you with more readership and more feedback. Again, its important to note that this is all optional. If you wish to keep your blog "private" and have it reside simply in your profile, you can totally do that as well.
ETA:
Anyway - I'm currently working on all of the interface components right now. I hesitate to put a hard date on this launch, cause things always come up - but I'd say we're on track for something by the end of the week. So keep your eyes out - and as always, we appreciate your feedback on these new features.
For whoever lives in the bay area and haven't heard, there was a huge fire on Angel Island last night..... its still burning but they have it under control. I got some pretty crazy pics from my roof last night. Here's a few.
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