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Minor tweaks
custom changes
Bernard,
Firstly let me thank you again for all your help. Monday we officially launch the site and with the exception of some very specific tweaks www.techcolosseum.comis ready for prime time!
I've adjusted the query.php file to suit our site, and customized the poll.php file so my admins see a Lives... or Dies... voting option in place of the default Answer 1 and Answer 2 choices.
A couple of other changes that would be good for our site, but not most others I suspect... would be to have in the advanced options 'poll_with_results' as a default setting and have for the advanced options of the post an image function set to 'set as page icon' as the default choice (rather than have to be selected).
Also I want to change the look of the 'today', 'yesterday' 'on April XX' headers that divide the blog entries... but I'm not sure which file to adjust.
None of these tweaks are urgent so if you're busy don't sweat it, but when you have time, if you could teach me how to make these changes I would appreciate it.
Wish us luck (and hope lots of sites pick up our press release)
Cheers,
Timser
Firstly let me thank you again for all your help. Monday we officially launch the site and with the exception of some very specific tweaks www.techcolosseum.comis ready for prime time!
I've adjusted the query.php file to suit our site, and customized the poll.php file so my admins see a Lives... or Dies... voting option in place of the default Answer 1 and Answer 2 choices.
A couple of other changes that would be good for our site, but not most others I suspect... would be to have in the advanced options 'poll_with_results' as a default setting and have for the advanced options of the post an image function set to 'set as page icon' as the default choice (rather than have to be selected).
Also I want to change the look of the 'today', 'yesterday' 'on April XX' headers that divide the blog entries... but I'm not sure which file to adjust.
None of these tweaks are urgent so if you're busy don't sweat it, but when you have time, if you could teach me how to make these changes I would appreciate it.
Wish us luck (and hope lots of sites pick up our press release)
Cheers,
Timser
Files
 | Poll tc v3.zip 3,759 bytes, 224 downloads You need the version 3 Edited by Bernard on June 7 2005 Zoom |
| Poll tc v2.zip 3,570 bytes, 158 downloads Unzip this file and place poll_tc.php into the directory for overlays. Compared to the previous version, this one allows for automatic return to the home page. Edited by Bernard on May 13 2005 Zoom |
| The poll overlay used at techcolosseum 3,289 bytes, 237 downloads Unzip this file and place poll_tc.php into the directory for overlays. Edit sections based on poll, and modify the overlay field from 'poll' to 'poll_tc' (without quotes). This specialised version:
Edited by Bernard on Apr. 29 2005 Zoom |
Comments
Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: Please use the specialised poll overlay attached to this page, it will help a lot. Also, please rename the modified query.php to query_tc.php, and edit it to suppress the token @reference. Update the link in your menu accordingly. These two changes are aiming to better address your specific needs, while preserving the ability to benefit fom YACS next releases. Each time you consider to change some file with the keyword @reference in it, please share this with me to evaluate if the change can be put back in YACS core set of scripts, of if it has to be part of some extension. I'm crossing fingers anyway... |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: To modify the rendering of dates, simply modify the style p.date in the .css file.
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| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: Thanks for the poll_tc file, it works exactly as we need. As to the p.date in the .css file, I cannot find the p.date in my techcolosseum.css file? I've scoured it and used the find/replace function but for some reason I can't see it. Any ideas? |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: Actually after checking a few of the other .css files I found the p.date details in the skeleton.css file and have pasted it into my techcolosseum.css file and it seems to be working fine. Thanks, Timster |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: Are you happy with the launch of techcolosseum? I know it's quite early, and that popular web sites definitely need some time to esablish. Just wanted to share your feeling... |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: Launch is good, so far however only a few sites have picked up the initial press release, I need to put some personal pressure on the journalists who I have relationships. One of the sites who did post a news item saying we started is a large PC hardware enthusiast site that gets lots of traffic, and in the votes we are seeing some stories receiving 500 plus votes which is good, I'll have to check my webstats over the next couple of days to see what the traffic actually is/was... Commenting is not being done too much, but we have even had a few comments from people invovled with the products we've been giving the thumbs up or down to which is nice. So we have achieved our goal of getting some initial traffic, but how much of that traffic will stick is unknown. Our next goal will be to go to E3 in LA and make sure we have a lot of unique content to our site... and maybe try and get slashdotted. We have other features that we intend to roll into the site soon. Thanks for your best wishes. Tim |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard, Tuesday we received almost 1000 unique visitors and we expect about the same for Wednesdays stats and then probably it will drop off somewhat. Our next step will to provide unique content that other sites can link to and we plan to do that by providing live coverage of E3 and Computex trade shows coming up in the next month. One of the feedback we got from a site visitor was this: > You guys need to fix it where viewers can vote on the front page while > staying on the front page. It sucks to have to vote and then return to the > front page and then scroll all the way down to the next story. After > scrolling down again and again, to vote on every story readers are going > to get tired of it and not come back! Sucks... people are so brutally honest  but its good to get the feedback.Again I suspect this is a tweak that is not applicable to most websites who use the YACS polling function but it certainly would work for us. Can you help us out? Is it possible that after voting the site would refresh and show the appropriate changes in the poll bar, but have the readers remain in the same position on the home page ie, hovering somewhere above the present content? Let me know, Timster |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: This one is feasible, definitely. On the rewarding page that comes after votes a link will be added to go directly to the home page. Also, each poll will have an id to avoid scrolling. Let me work on that in coming days... Thank you for the feed-back and the suggestion. On the web, navigation makes it all... |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: I think what we're trying to avoid would be going to the 'rewarding page' at all... If I understand correctly what you mean. That way the only people who would go to another page at all would be the ones who click the permalink, and also those that click the 'view results' link. However voting should still refresh the page but leave people at the present entry they are voting on. Does that all make sense? Timster P.S. I put a YACS code in the title of one of my stories and the effect shows up in the permalink but not on the home page. Is that a little bug? You can see the example here: example and on the home page the effect doesn't show up. |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: At the moment YACS codes are filtered from titles at the home page... Another tweak for tonight... Regarding the polls: let do it as a two step process. First, I would like to streamline the voting experience by modifying polls in the core YACS. Secondly, I would change the specific poll_tc.php script to stick at the home page on vote, but only at techcolosseum... |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: I have pushed a nightly update of YACS that should ease your pain. Please take a look at http://www.yetanothercommunitysystem.com/yacs_demo/ The demo site features an article with a title that has some YACS codes. Also, the voting page of the poll correctly links to the right place at the home page. As usual, the nightly built is available for download at the index page for scripts. Thank you for your next feed-back. |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: All is going well, we have over 1000 unique visitors per day coming from various sites we've sent some of our exclusive news coverage about ATI graphics to, as well as our launch PR... so we have traffic to build on. I'll definitely update my build soon, probably after the polling stuff is fixed up also. I have another quick question  what's the best way to turn off a poll (stop people from being able to vote) ? But still have everything viewable to the site visitors.
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| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
" what's the best way to turn off a poll (stop people from being able to vote)? " At the moment there is no way to disable polls. On the other hand, YACS already supports locked articles. Let me extend this to polls as well. To prevent people from voting you would add the keyword 'locked' to the options field. |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: How's progress coming on the latest tweak? I'll be travelling off to L.A. for the E3 gaming event this weekend and I was hoping to fix up the polling effects by then. Any ideas when it might be ready? Tim P.S. Don't forget to stop by our site next week to vote on the Booth Babes! |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
" How's progress coming on the latest tweak? " Well, it's done, plus some tweaks I have added such as a cookie to prevent multiple votes Please visit the script index page, as usual, to download the last on-going version. Also, please extract the special polling script from the new archive posted to this page. With this version:
Actually 67 files have been modified since the last stable release. I have not tested this extensively, but since you are in a hurry, please proceed. Tomorrow I will check any help message you could send... |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: As always your service is great thanks again. It look as if you've implemented a redirect script to make the effect happen. Is it impossible to have people stay on the home page? If a redirect is the only way to go about this for a solution, can you tell me which file to modify so that I can have it say something like "You will now automatically return to the home pag"... the redirect is a bit slow. Also is there anyway that every poll entry can produce a unique in page link so when the redirect takes people back to the home page it takes it back to the specific poll they just voted on? Cheers, Tim P.S. I relaunched an old Mambo based site of mine as I found a new sponsor. If you're into robotics at all you might check out my www.mobilerobotics.org website. |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: the redirect is the only way to properly do it. Of course, we can tweak redirection parameters to better suit your needs. " the redirect is a bit slow. " * Parameter#1 -- time to redirect This one is set in overlays/polls/vote.php Can be set to 0, but with possible flashy effect. " redirect takes people ... back to the specific poll they just voted on? " * Parameter#2 -- where to go My understanding is that people are voting on several polls at the home page, therefore the need to go back to the home page as swiftly as possible. But of course this can be changed in your specific polling script at overlays/poll_tc.php. Actually you can instruct the voting script to go anywhere, from the voting page to the permalink or to an external site. I also had a look at your site on robotics. Interesting to see that YACS is not too far away from what Mambo offers, except maybe for the layout of the home page. Would you like to have such a boxed layout with YACS as well? |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: A faster redirect option is great. Also I can't remember ther correct 'term' for the kind of link I'm talking about but sometimes when you are on a web page and you click the link... you don't leave the page but just go further down or somewhere else on the 'same' page... 'back to the top' styled links if you understand my meaning  If the each poll/blog entry could create a unique id or one of these types of links, when you returned to the home page (which is what I want) you could also be pushed down to the actual blog you just voted on rather than back to the top of the home page every time. Does this make any sense? Sorry this is a bit of confusing one to explain. As to MobileRobtics.org, I don't really like that boxed layout myself, it just looks quite different than the sites previous template which was a way to make the site look relaunched without much effort. |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: I *think* I have understood your point and will, in the version 6.5 of YACS, provide a voting script able to silently redirect you at the right place. Keep posted until the end of this week... |
| Timster 100 posts |
Hello Bernard: Just checking it to see how progress is going? It looks like you are a bit busy also with some new users which is good. I'm back in Taipei from E3 in LA now and looking forward to YACS 6.5. E3 was great and Computex is next week so we'll be busy at this end also. Cheers, Tim |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: Actually, I made a typo. The version 5.5, that has been released some days ago, should suit your needs. Please check it out. |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: I just installed YACS 5.5/May 21st version and after voting on Tech Colosseum the person very smoothly returns to the home page... but only to the top of the home page but not to the specific poll/blog entry. Will that ever be possible? Or no? Thanks, Tim P.S. I am now suffering from a problem where my writers for the site are not motivated. I personally know it takes a lot of work and time to build a site and community but they are impatient and not happy with only 300 to 500 visitors/day which personally I think is a good start to build from... damn. |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: The poll_tc.php version 2, published some days ago, is supposed to redirect directly at the right place. Have you downloaded it from this page and uploaded it to your site? |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: Hmmmmm even with the new file poll_tc it doesn't seem to be working... got any ideas? Tim |
| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: Let me check this during the next week-end... |
| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: Any luck yet or is this an unsolvable mystery of life? Tim
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| Bernard from nearby-an-airport Associate, 6940 posts |
Timster: Sorry, I had in mind this one was closed, when it was not. Please use the next version of poll_tc.php, at poll tc v3.zip, to generate self-redirecting URLs during votes. Does it work as expected?
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| Timster 100 posts |
Bernard: Works like a charm! Presently my site is not being updated. I'm recruiting new writers for a stake in the ownership, I've got a few people who are interested so we should get moving again in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for the support. Tim |
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