2011-07-31: forum upgrade incoming

[infoxicated]

I'm going to upgrade the forum at 20:30 my time tonight, so you might want to back up any long post you're making because about ten minutes after I post this, the forum is going down.

Sorry for the inconvenience*.




*Not really.

[infoxicated]

Heh!

Funny story... was watching California Man in the background whilst doing this... and, well, long story short... I've broken the main site by copying forum files to the wrong place.

:redface:

Anyhow, that's that broken. :|

Forum still hasn't been upgraded, for those of you on the very edge of your seats. Looks like I have a bit of fixing ahead of me to try and resurrect the main site.

[infoxicated]

So, at the risk of talking to myself yet again, I appear to have rescued the situation.

The main site seems to be working now - let me know (if anyone actually still visits) if you have any issues. Same goes for the forum.

The upgrade managed to overwrite the custom user time field value I was outputting with each post. Right now it's too late and I'm too tired to figure out how I did it and where it went in the template, so if you relied on that information for all your timezone needs, you'll have to hang on until I can work it out.

Word to the wise - if you're ever upgrading a vBulletin forum, don't do it with a beer in one hand and one eye on a cheesy 80's comedy movie. :|

[SaturnReturn]

Sounds like a lot of hassle. Everything seems to be working fine at my end now though. :+

[blackwiggle]

Only those trying to sort out a Bling Brigade GG or other contest will be thrown by the timezone info not being available.

[Medusa]

Well...I loved the "forum is being upgraded" message you had on. Wish I'd taken a screenshot for posterity. (all I needed for a laugh)

[infoxicated]

That one's been there for ages, except it said doughnut instead of cake. I changed it to cake because I had some nice cake yesterday and thought I should spread the word. ;)

[MyNameIsBom]

I need to pay more attention in programming at school.... :P

[Lance]

I just need to pay more attention in general. :D

[Medusa]

Lance! You missed the mankinis! Heehee.

[q_dmc12]

Word to the wise - if you're ever upgrading a vBulletin forum, don't do it with a beer in one hand and one eye on a cheesy 80's comedy movie. :|

Have you been spying on me?! ;)

[infoxicated]

I just figured there were more folk than me out there doing it! ;)

I've replaced the timezone offset into the post headers now, so those that relied on it can relax, enjoy, and stop sending me dickish messages.

Although, to be fair, it was only blackwiggle that sent a dickish message. Fortunately his demands have now been met and we can all get on with our lives. Woo! :D

[blackwiggle]

Fishing?

[infoxicated]

Slow to respond?

[UB3R~JKP]

I see the Reputation system is back. Yay! (even though I wasn't here when it was around the first time. :P)

[infoxicated]

Actually, something isn't right... it should be completely reset, but I see that some folk have quite positive numbers.

Hmmm...

//edit

Right, got it now - there were two other queries I needed to run to reset everything.

We all start afresh. Renewed. Ready to be judged by our peers. Set to reap the benefits of a positive reputation.

Probably until some other bunch of twats goes and ruins it for everyone again, but such is the risk with online anonymity. :|

[UB3R~JKP]

Promise it won't be me. :D

[Medusa]

Hooray for the ability to display mutual admiration by means of little green squares which magically turn to character defining phrases!

[blackwiggle]

Yeah, slow to respond to something that didn't happen.
Only mention of the timezone thing was in open forum, in this thread, never in a PM.
Can't for the life of me see what's "Dickish" about say it only effected those that use it to organise Bling Brigade GG's.

The rep thing was always prone to abuse by those who chose to do so.
[Kigo/Ace got groups/ gangs between themselves to have that happening, never saw the point to it, so opted to ignore it]
I doubt I ever rep'd anybody, only if I truely thought it warranted it, never took much attention to it to be honest, never missed it when it was gone, doubt if anybody else did either.

Still, your paying for the software so you might as well use the options available.

[Darkdrium777]

I think he's kidding about the dickish part, but I might be wrong.

Green squares no longer an extinct species! ~yay

[infoxicated]

Yeah, slow to respond to something that didn't happen.
As loathe as I am to argue (this is a seeded gag that we'll come back to at the end of paragraph two), you did send me a terse PM about the timezone notification being missing.

Although it wasn't a massively dickish message, I thought it was worded in a slightly dickish manner considering you'd claim in subsequent messages that I did **** all to run the site and that others ran it for me, that I had to shoulder some blame for people using alt accounts, that my "perception of reality" was in question, and that I would always persist in counter quoting people until I "won" an argument. (See, I told you we'd come back to it! :D )

Those messages were pretty dickish in my opinion. And yes, I could quote them all on here for everyone to see - like you did on WipEout Arena with the private email that I sent you, but since I'd allowed you to "sweep that one under the rug" (that's French for "Le Arena Forum is accessible to registered users only, so you may not casually browse the hate that banned members of WipEoutZone are posting here.") it would be royally dickish to respond in kind.

So, for sending me those messages outlined in paragraph two (clearly the star of this post) I had a little dig at you in post number 16 (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showpost.php?p=205288&postcount=16) (not as catchy a song as Mambo No. 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_LN3XEcnw&ob=av3e)), which was dickish, I'll concede, but I hadn't realised it was the calibre of counter-dickishness that would be so totally crushing as to render all the previous dickishness as "something that didn't happen".

Who knew that dickishness on the internet was a zero sum game?

But yeah, aside from all that dickishness, the reputation system can can be a nice feature of the site if it isn't abused. (I'm not expecting any rep from Blackwiggle for this post at all!)

Let's hope it's allowed to be a success this time. :nod

[UB3R~JKP]

Is there any way to check if you get Rep by-the-way? I haven't got any yet but i'm wondering if I'll be informed somehow when I/If I do? :)

[infoxicated]

Go to your user control panel (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/usercp.php) and it'll tell you there.

[blackwiggle]

Quote:I could quote them all on here for everyone to see - like you did on WipEout Arena with the private email that I sent you

If you want to quote anything said in the last few PM's between you and I go right ahead, I have absolutely no problems what so ever.
Just make sure you copy & paste it verbatim, not reword it like you just did
with the Quote:I did **** all to run the site and that others ran it for me

Since it appears I have to defend myself from being miss quoted, and pass the "Dickish" back.
What was actually said to those that are reading this was:Copied & pasted from PM.
Excuse me.
You might own the site, but you have let others run it.
Be that to your want.
Expect people to do their own thing.

Slightly different turn of phrase from your version isn't it?

As for the tiny amount of Arena stuff that was ever posted, there was bugger all that could be taken as either a breach of confidence, or abuse towards you.
Everybody was more still in shock at your reaction to the posts between me and Colin Berry, that were taken as a personal affront to you more than to Colin, we were just having a laugh, he knew it, I knew it, everybody that was following the conversation at the time knew it, and no offence was taken, except by you.

Christ, if you knew how much time and effort I put in to stop the crap you were getting over the PSN and elsewhere, I reckon you would still be getting it now if I hadn't have stepped in, repeatably, as soon as I got wind of another possible attack.
The thanks I got was being [and it appears to be still in your mindset] tarred with the same brush as the person that was doing it to you, guilt by association.
Nothing could be further from the truth.

[infoxicated]

Ah, awesome - now we have some dialogue going - unlike in the PM's where I'd reply to you with an honest and open response, and you'd come back with yet another oblique message attacking me from a different angle.

So, while we're here and there's some chit chat going, could you explain to me and everyone else what was the point of those messages you sent me?

What were you doing? What were you playing at? What was the point? Why were you lashing out at me over your frustration at a previously banned member having an alt account when it was pretty frickin' obvious that if I had concrete proof I would have banned them again immediately?

Because I want to know what the heck goes on in the mind of Australians.

That's right - Australians. I think I've seen enough of you guys over the years to narrow it down to your nationality. The proportional representation of Australians is pretty thin on the ground, yet the crap I've had from Australians over the years on here would suggest there must be something going on down under that means that every now and then it's all guns blazing in my direction for the most random of reasons.

On the subject of you being banned over two years ago, I banned you when I was having a cull of people I thought were being dickish on the site. I later realised that I'd grouped you in with the bad lot and emailed you to apologise and unbanned you. This was the spark that set off your old fellow Australian mate who caused so much trouble on here and set off the chain of events that would lead to him terrorising me on the PSN for the year that followed.

Not much fun for anyone involved, which is why I actually would like to know how much time and effort you put in to stop the crap I was getting over the PSN. Because it seems that you put in enough time and effort that it makes me beholden to you in some way, and it appears, by extension, that you were working off some of that perceived debt in the form of attacks in the messages you sent me.

Bottom line is that I hadn't had a cross word with you in a very, very long time - I had even asked you to be a moderator on here because I thought you were a decent bloke. (Well, for an Australian. I kid, I kid - call off the rest of them. ;))

Yet all of a sudden you're being dickish in PM's and I just don't get that at all from the way things have played out. So go for it. The floor is yours. The ball is in your court. The world's your oyster. Etc.

[blackwiggle]

I'm English.
Damm, If only I was a red headed Scot, maybe things would be different.
Sorry.
I only LIVE in Australia.
Don't hold that against me, some of the Zones members live in France..Arrgh!

Your not beholden to me, all long term members of the Zone and Arena know to true situation.

Oh Hello...new found addled thoughts coming through in type
Attack/ messages...WTF are you going on about?
2604

The only reason I stepped in to stop the abuse was I thought it was mindless, uncalled for, petty, childish, and just a general PITA for all concerned.
But when you have a 25+ year old age gap between the perpetrator and the person that is trying to convince them to detest their abhorrent activities, well things don't always go as common sense would hope for.

[Darkdrium777]

That's right - Australians. I think I've seen enough of you guys over the years to narrow it down to your nationality.Uhhh... Really?
That's kind of a terrible thing to say regardless of context IMO.
You could also say the same for Canadians ain't that right? There's been a bunch of us that caused trouble too after all (Yours truly.)

Perhaps you should settle in PM once again before it goes any further? I certainly don't want to read stuff like that. :|

[infoxicated]

Oh come now, Darkdrium777, I was kidding. Joking. Messing around. Being playful. Tongue in cheek. I actually like Australians. Not saying I could eat a whole one, although they are probably healthier for you than Americans. :)


But when you have a 25+ year old age gap between the perpetrator and the person that is trying to convince them to detest their abhorrent activities, well things don't always go as common sense would hope for.
Post of the year so far for me. :+

[Darkdrium777]

I guess I fail, but someone else can tell me if I'm crazy in reading that the way I did considering the whole message it was in.

[infoxicated]

I don't consider either of the longer posts I made to be entirely serious. (Even post number 21 with the wonderful second paragraph. :))

Maybe I should add more smileys... I thought after all this time that folk would be able to judge whether I was being playful or not.

DD77, I'm a secular humanist. I love people regardless of where they're from or what they believe. I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt. I forgive them even when they've been mean to me and, despite having a long memory, I don't hold grudges. And, most importantly, I have no ill feeling toward any nationality.

After all, everyone else had exactly the same choice in the matter as I did; None. :nod

[Velocitar64]

What's arse-kicking without a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, anyway? :P

[blackwiggle]

No leave it in the open.
What has been said in PM's to Infoxicated by me can be read by all forum members in public as far as I'm concerned, I have NO problem with that.
Things can't get twisted if they are out in the open.

I do purposely try to spend a decent amount of time wording my posts/PM's specifically to counter act people misinterpreting/misconstruing them as meaning something else.

Still happens anyway.......:brickwall

[infoxicated]

I do purposely try to spend a decent amount of time wording my posts/PM's specifically to counter act people misinterpreting/misconstruing them as meaning something else.
Here's a suggestion. Maybe next time, instead of spending all that time carefully wording them, just don't send them to me at all.

That way I won't have to misconstrue a clutch of oblique messages blaming me for all you think is wrong with dealing with strangers on the internet.

In fact, why not just assume that we've both had a hard time doing so?

That would be great. :)