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New Theme for Principia Discordia Forum

Started by Reverend Jeremiah, December 07, 2008, 10:33:49 PM

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Reverend Jeremiah

Quotethis sounds like something that would take at least half a year's work, and then another half a year to polish the errors out of? [and yes i know that Joomla is easy-peasy and deploys like a slick motherfucker or whatever, but you also know how things go versus how they are supposed to go

It would only take me less than 24 hours to set everything up that I was describing. I would even go so far as to scrub my test site (the one you see the new template on) clean and install everything there so that the development team could have a blank slate to implement their ideas onto. From what I am seeing the PD site would benefit greatly from one single system like I was explaining because you have a MASSIVE community. The biggest problem with that is inserting the SMF posts into the FIREBOARD posts. I have never done anything like that before. I have bridged SMF to JOOMLA. I have even taken the database of one site and inserted it into another (SMF to SMF). But I have never crossed software like that before. Im sure we will have some issues with that aspect of the assumed project, but I am also sure it will be successful.

Quotebtw CSS files are generally cached very well by browsers, so they don't contribute to load. (most) spiders don't even fetch them. it's database queries that seem to suck up most of this server's load.

This is very true, other than the contributing to the load factor. Database inqueries make up the bulk of these, but remember that EVERYTHING contributes to the bottle neck of the site as a whole. Remember..bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth...

Quotemy vision was to have the CMS for the entire site be the WordPress blog (it's pretty good at that and doesnt suffer from feature bloat too much like Joomla or other big frameworks), configured to have (virtual) "pages" at the root and for the subpages as they are currently, the actual blog (virtual) at /blog/ and the SMF forum at the place it is now, in a physical subdirectory at /forum/.

Your vision (I am assuming you are the head cheese around here) is what is MOST important. Your vision has made this site successful so far so I will never question your visions, nor will it EVER hurt my feelings if you outright refuse anything I suggest. I have primarily come to this community as a custodian of sorts. I see a few things that could be cleaned up here and there and organized better here and there. I could easily set up a test site and try to succesfully bridge SMF and wordpress for you if you wish. Did you know that you can do almost all of the same things that I said that JOOMLA can do with SMF as well? There is a mod called "tiny portal" for SMF that makes your SMF look more like a website/blog with a forum bridged clean. Tinyportal would feature all of the most recent posts on the forum as blog looking posts on the front page, which would help your community navigate the forum better and also encourage more postings to get "front page" status. You also have a blog system in the tinyportal mod as well (they call them "article posts", and the community can "submit" articles to you and you can aprove them or not, archive which ones make front page or archived for later use. This is the system I am using for my site right now... but my site isnt as much for the forum/blog as it is for the arcade and security among other things.

Quotethe advantage of this would be that it can be built incrementally on what we have now, step by step, and in the end would result in a solid combination of SMF and WordPress, which are (now) two quite separate parts of the PD.com domain, anyway. the people that come to the front page generally come looking to read the Principia book, while this forum ... well it's hard to define, but let's say they didn't come looking for the Principia
Easy enough to add pages for the book into the template of SMF. Most people think of SMF as a forum software. I look at it as an entire website. Just add extra PHP pages in the root, put a start link (or hell, you can link every page on the tinyportal front page of the forum) and each page will link in order from there like you have it now.

Quotei am intrigued by your ideas about optimizing SMF, though. i knew it was possible but i could never figure it out. it's a true resource hog you said you have seen the code, is it me, or do you agree it's horrible? [not that WP is much better, though so far it seems to be at least marginally so

Its only that way right out of the box. If you mod it here and there and take away certain things that are unnecessary then it gets faster and better.

Quoteoh and finally let me say, i only yet took a very quick glance at your SMF theme, but from first looks, it's absolutely wonderful thanks a lot for that!

Thankyou. I can change it around anyway you like it, so if you want the forum to look like your new wordpress template, I will be more than happy to change it around and to also help you mod it in the future.

the dreadful hours


Triple Zero

Quote from: Reverend Jeremiah on December 08, 2008, 07:51:06 PMIt would only take me less than 24 hours to set everything up that I was describing.

sorry but that's bullshit.

there's no way you can figure out what we actually want, port the two books to whatever CMS you have in mind, and the extra pages, links, the blog, the entire forum and all the rest including debugging (accounts, settings, etc) within 24 hours.

you might be able to do the last bit if you're some kind of android or something.

i work at an IT company, and I assumed you do too, and you should know that just because you know how something is done, and know it can be done quickly, doesn't mean it'll get done in that time :)

let alone, that for you to even attempt doing it in that timeframe, would require you to obtain server access, which, as you will understand, is not going to happen :)

QuoteThis is very true, other than the contributing to the load factor. Database inqueries make up the bulk of these, but remember that EVERYTHING contributes to the bottle neck of the site as a whole. Remember..bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth...

um, bandwidth is not really the bottleneck of this site, as i'm sure you must have noticed while browsing it :? (the server taking way longer to process the request than transmitting the data)

QuoteYour vision (I am assuming you are the head cheese around here)

no i'm not the head cheese. ECH is. Other people are mods and/or help out. I sorta help out with server stuff cause I'm a tech guy.

Quotenor will it EVER hurt my feelings if you outright refuse anything I suggest.

okay, good. because any help you'd like to offer here is most certainly appreciated! however, let's take it a bit easy to begin with :)

QuoteTinyportal would feature all of the most recent posts on the forum as blog looking posts on the front page, which would help your community navigate the forum better and also encourage more postings to get "front page" status. You also have a blog system in the tinyportal mod as well (they call them "article posts", and the community can "submit" articles to you and you can aprove them or not, archive which ones make front page or archived for later use.

as an example, this is one thing where i urge you to lurk a littlebit more, perhaps. we're not just any community. i am, for example, entirely unsure whether the members of this forum would want to compete for "front page" status.

if they want to publicize themselves, they can already do so in a lot of manners. if they want to be on the web, there's several blogs they can publish their writings to, among which the PD blog. but there's also print media, PDF releases, posters, and way, way more. seriously, take a look around.
Maybe you can find a smaller project you'd like to invest your expertise in first? If you'd take a look at the GASM subforum in Operation Mindfuck, there's loads of loose ends on the webhosting front that can be done. Fake news websites, ARG Games, del.icio.us feeds, etc.

it's not so much about the technology, but the creative output in as much different media as possible.

though, that's mostly the "Activitist" part of our discordian community. as always, there's more :)

QuoteEasy enough to add pages for the book into the template of SMF. Most people think of SMF as a forum software. I look at it as an entire website. Just add extra PHP pages in the root, put a start link (or hell, you can link every page on the tinyportal front page of the forum) and each page will link in order from there like you have it now.

sorry, but (IMO) no way :) SMF is fine (but not perfect) solid forum software, but as i said, have you looked at the code??

QuoteIts only that way right out of the box. If you mod it here and there and take away certain things that are unnecessary then it gets faster and better.

if you have suggestions for mods that would make our particular forum faster, we'd be happy to hear about it!

QuoteThankyou. I can change it around anyway you like it, so if you want the forum to look like your new wordpress template, I will be more than happy to change it around and to also help you mod it in the future.

well, it's not exactly a wordpress template yet :) it's just a piece of HTML+CSS. but if you want to make yourself useful right away, a piece of work I haven't been able to get around to, would be to make that HTML+CSS into a wordpress theme.
Just, not any theme. See, there's already the Sandbox theme for WP (at http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/ ), which is a very nice, clean semantic HTML theme for wordpress with loads of CSS classes and hooks to customize its looks in any way. If you could create a CSS for sandbox to look like my design, that'd be awesome and save me a lot of work, without having to give you all kinds of server access or to write actual code and stuff. I did a very similar thing for http://radiofreediscordia.org/ which is also a Wordpress site, with the sandbox theme, and a custom CSS.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Reverend Jeremiah

Quotesorry but that's bullshit. there's no way you can figure out what we actually want, port the two books to whatever CMS you have in mind, and the extra pages, links, the blog, the entire forum and all the rest including debugging (accounts, settings, etc) within 24 hours.you might be able to do the last bit if you're some kind of android or something. i work at an IT company, and I assumed you do too, and you should know that just because you know how something is done, and know it can be done quickly, doesn't mean it'll get done in that time let alone, that for you to even attempt doing it in that timeframe, would require you to obtain server access, which, as you will understand, is not going to happen

I pride myself on being a bullshitter from time to time, but right now isnt one of them. Actually I was only talking about the bare basic CMS installations, no themes, no content, just the software and mods. That would take me about 24 hours. You will also see where I offered a blank slate to do this work, where I would allow your team full access to MY database so that you can insert content and debug as you see fit. I do not want your access codes, nor do I even want any kind of admin status or mod status on THIS forum. I do not work for an IT company. I work on many things from high voltage to programmable logic controls for robots. I do work as a web developer on the side. I would never dream of having the entire site upgraded in 24 hours (maybe if I smoked crack and went without food and sleep :-)..maybe.)

Quoteokay, good. because any help you'd like to offer here is most certainly appreciated! however, let's take it a bit easy to begin with

Hey, no problem. I understand.. you dont know me from jack. No way did I jump up and say "Come on, what are you waiting for..lets do it do it do it" Like some Ted Haggard meth head being waited on by a line of gay masseuses. Nay I say. I will willingly help out with any project asked of me within my skill level, and I will be open and honest if I have never done such a thing before.

Quoteif you have suggestions for mods that would make our particular forum faster, we'd be happy to hear about it!

I gave afew suggestions with links to the mods a few posts ago. I will find some more for you soon as they come to me. You can implement the ones you see fit.

QuoteIf you could create a CSS for sandbox to look like my design, that'd be awesome and save me a lot of work, without having to give you all kinds of server access or to write actual code and stuff. I did a very similar thing for http://radiofreediscordia.org/ which is also a Wordpress site, with the sandbox theme, and a custom CSS.

Now thats more like it. I will be installing wordpress on my work site and get right to it. Im unfamilliar with this "sandbox", so it will take me a little while to study it up before I start producing. We obviously need to build some trust here, but please remember that I did not come to the table demanding things, only offering help.

Verbal Mike

Sorry to be a nag about this, but why not first of all just make the new index the site index, and take care of the details when the time/energy is available? Trip, the beta frontpage you made is just great, already lightyears ahead of the one pd.com has now... It would be a start.

(But then, I'm a perfectionist, I can sympathize if you feel strongly against doing things like that...)
Unless stated otherwise, feel free to copy or reproduce any text I post anywhere and any way you like. I will never throw a hissy-fit over it, promise.

Reverend Jeremiah


Triple Zero

the theme works on either, but for security reasons we try to keep up with the latest versions.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Reverend Jeremiah

Wonderful, I am finished installing wordpress here:

http://principiadiscordia.cosmicforums.com/

and am currently installing sandbox.

Faust

Quote from: Reverend Jeremiah on December 08, 2008, 10:19:57 PM
I work on many things from high voltage to programmable logic controls for robots. I do work as a web developer on the side.

Cool, I did plc's last year, no high voltage stuff just basic electronics.
Sleepless nights at the chateau

Reverend Jeremiah

I do it all on the heavy end Faust, crack open the manhole and work on the entire powergrid, to PLC's. I've installed clean rooms with the pull out sub floors and installed the computer equipment/cards/sensors on all the equipment. Pollish fiber optics and test them and cat 5 computer network connections. I dont get to mess with installing the programs but I work close with the IT guy to ensure that everything else down the line is giving the correct signal.

I do alot of powerhouses, millitary and heavy industry. Last year I was putting air scrubbers onto a smoke stack of a coal powered power plant. That was fun  :)

I mess around with software for fun.

Faust

Quote from: Reverend Jeremiah on December 08, 2008, 11:45:14 PM
I do it all on the heavy end Faust, crack open the manhole and work on the entire powergrid, to PLC's. I've installed clean rooms with the pull out sub floors and installed the computer equipment/cards/sensors on all the equipment. Pollish fiber optics and test them and cat 5 computer network connections. I dont get to mess with installing the programs but I work close with the IT guy to ensure that everything else down the line is giving the correct signal.

I do alot of powerhouses, millitary and heavy industry. Last year I was putting air scrubbers onto a smoke stack of a coal powered power plant. That was fun  :)

I mess around with software for fun.
so instrumentation in general. I have a choice next semester of specialising in physics or instrumentation engineering. Still not sure which to choose yet.
Sleepless nights at the chateau

Triple Zero

Quote from: Reverend Jeremiah on December 08, 2008, 11:12:51 PM
Wonderful, I am finished installing wordpress here:

http://principiadiscordia.cosmicforums.com/

and am currently installing sandbox.

cool, but I don't see the sandbox theme there yet, but the default WordPress theme?

and, judging from the "worklog" there, you seem to be editing one of the CSS files that came with SandBox? Those contain a heap load of style definitions you're not going to need at all. It's probably easier, and will yield a much cleaner and shorter CSS file if you'd start with an empty one, or * {margin: 0; padding: 0; } (to reset all margins and paddings and be able to really start from scratch).
alternatively, you can use the one I made for radiofreediscordia as a starting point: http://radiofreediscordia.org/wp-content/themes/sandbox/style.css
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Reverend Jeremiah

Quotecool, but I don't see the sandbox theme there yet, but the default WordPress theme?

and, judging from the "worklog" there, you seem to be editing one of the CSS files that came with SandBox? Those contain a heap load of style definitions you're not going to need at all. It's probably easier, and will yield a much cleaner and shorter CSS file if you'd start with an empty one, or * {margin: 0; padding: 0; } (to reset all margins and paddings and be able to really start from scratch).
alternatively, you can use the one I made for radiofreediscordia as a starting point: http://radiofreediscordia.org/wp-content/themes/sandbox/style.css

Thats the reason I switch back to the original template for now. Sandbox is still new to me and I was following the instructions it gave me. It gives column examples and then you can do all of the work on the original css. Im still getting used to the sandbox system, but it looks pretty simple. I will now put up the sandbox theme and leave it there. I was pretty much playing around with it last night just to get accustomed to word press. Today I will be doing the good work.

Reverend Jeremiah

This will be the back end information that appears near the template example thumbnail. What would you like it to say. I already titled it "Principia Discordia", but you can change around the rest of the stuff if you want:

/*
THEME NAME: Principia Discordia
THEME URI: http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/
DESCRIPTION: Rich with powerful and dynamic semantic class selectors, Sandbox is a canvas for CSS artists
VERSION: 1.6
AUTHOR: <a href="http://andy.wordpress.com/">Andy Skelton</a> &amp; <a href="http://www.plaintxt.org/">Scott Allan Wallick</a>
AUTHOR URI:
TAGS: sandbox, microformats, hcard, hatom, xoxo, widgets, blank slate, starter theme, minimalist, developer
*/

Reverend Jeremiah

#59
Work log

successfully spliced the best code from the blog with the help of radio free discordia site (good, I was having problems with the header) Also made the header background transparent so you can see the clouds through it. This code has a black text area on black text and I am still in the middle of working on it, but this will archive the code for me incase of major screwups because worklogging it on word press sucks (FUCK!! I hate Word Press).

*NOTE*

all of the images are not root images. I gave them their original url just so I dont have to fuck around with uploading it to the work slate. When the final code is accomplished you will have to "shorten" the image url's to fit properly with the root folder.

/*
THEME NAME: Principia Discordia
THEME URI: http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/
DESCRIPTION: Rich with powerful and dynamic semantic class selectors, Sandbox is a canvas for CSS artists
VERSION: 1.6
AUTHOR: <a href="http://andy.wordpress.com/">Andy Skelton</a> &amp; <a href="http://www.plaintxt.org/">Scott Allan Wallick</a>
AUTHOR URI:
TAGS: sandbox, microformats, hcard, hatom, xoxo, widgets, blank slate, starter theme, minimalist, developer
*/

/* modified by 000 and Reverend Jeremiah */

* { margin: 0; padding: 0; text-indent: 0; }

/* remove crud */
.entry-meta,
#access .skip-link,
#linkcat-3,
#blog-description { display: none; }

/* dithered background gradient */
body {
BACKGROUND: url(http://www.principiadiscordia.com/images/sacred chao head clouds.jpg) #000 no-repeat left top;
  color: #000;
}

/* centered 800px wide wrapper */
#wrapper {
  width: 800px;
  margin: 0 auto 0 auto;
  position: relative;
}

/* random logo + tagline */
h1#blog-title {
  background: transparent url(http://www.principiadiscordia.com/images/principiadiscordia header 2.png) top center no-repeat;
  width: 800px;
  height: 299px;
}

h1#blog-title a {
  display: block;
  width: 960px;
  height: 265px;
  text-indent: -5000px;
}

/* menu bar */
#menu {
  background: #FFF;
  height: 46px;
  margin-top: -15px;
  width: 800px;
}

#menu li {
  display: inline;
  padding-left: 24px;
}

#menu a {
  color: black;
  font: bold 14px/44px 'Courier New', 'Courier', monospace;
  text-decoration: none;
}

#menu a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }

/* right column body */
#container {
  background: #FFF;
  width: 727px;
  margin: 10px 0 0 230px;
}

#content {
  background: url(img/body-top.gif) -1px -2px no-repeat;
  width: 631px;
  padding: 16px 48px 96px 48px;
}

h2.entry-title{
  color: #000;
  font: bold 14px 'Courier New', 'Courier', monospace;
  margin-top: 16px;
  text-align: right; 
}
h2.entry-title a { color: #000; text-decoration: none; }
h2.entry-title a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }

.entry-date {
  text-align: right;
  color: #888;
  font: normal 10px 'Courier New', 'Courier', monospace;
}
.entry-date abbr { border: none; }

.entry-content p {
  color: #444;
  font: normal 11px/16px Arial, sans-serif;
  word-spacing: 1px;
  margin: 8px 16px 8px 8px;
}

.entry-content p:first-line { color: #000; }

#footer {
  margin: -72px 0 0 221px;
  background: url(img/body-bottom.gif) 0 0 no-repeat;
  /*opacity: 0.75;*/
  width: 688px;
  height: 110px;
  text-align: right;
  color: #888;
  padding: 20px 65px 0 0;
  font: normal 10px 'Courier New', 'Courier', monospace;
}

#footer a { color: #aaa; text-decoration: none; }
#footer a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }

/* sidebar */

#secondary {
  position: absolute;
  top: 307px;
  left: 4px;
  background: url(img/menu-top.gif) top left no-repeat;
  width: 208px;
  padding: 8px 8px 8px 8px
}

#secondary li {
  font: normal 12px 'Courier New', 'Courier', monospace;
  color: white;
  list-style: none;
  margin-bottom: 16px;
}

#streams li { font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; }

#secondary h3 {
  width: 208px;
  text-align: center;
  height: 60px;
  background: url(img/menu-heading.gif) 3px 17px no-repeat;
  color: #000;
  font: bold 24px/60px 'Courier New', 'Courier', monospace;
}

#secondary #linkcat-4 h3 { background-position: 3px -138px; }
#secondary #now-playing h3 { background-position: 3px -321px; }

#secondary li a {
  color: white;
  text-decoration: none;
  padding-left: 16px;
}

#secondary li a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }

#secondary p {
  text-align: center;
  padding: 0 16px;
}