12/22/24
August 21, 2008
Welcome to the New Server: SportsFilter has relaunched on a new Linux server with MySQL/PHP software driving the site. All weblog posts and comments have been moved over, going all the way back to the first post on Jan. 24, 2002. (Updated Aug. 21).
Gary, Kirk and I have a lot of work left to do, but you should be able to submit weblog posts and comments to both the front page and Locker Room.
The functionality and appearance of this site will improve as we port features and pages over from the old software. We're also picking up some features from the Drudge Retort, which runs the same software.
Thanks for your patience during the outage. Anything happen with Brett Favre while we were gone?
posted by rcade to editorial policy at 02:31 PM - 112 comments
And there was rejoicing ! Thanks for all the hard work, rcade. I've been suffering SportsFilter withdrawl.
posted by tommybiden at 01:12 PM on August 07, 2008
Thanks for all your hard work
posted by Monica Poland at 01:13 PM on August 07, 2008
Thank God! I was away for the first of August, came back and thought I had lost Sportsfilter FOREVER!
There is much rejoicing in Toddville....
posted by yzelda4045 at 01:26 PM on August 07, 2008
Hooray! All that and flags too!
posted by trox at 01:37 PM on August 07, 2008
doh. Previous post twas not meant to be blank. Christ this is ugly, though. ;)
(The RSS Spec thing cracks me up...)
posted by tieguy at 01:40 PM on August 07, 2008
Christ this is ugly, though.
I still have to get Kirk to undo all the graphical damage I'm doing.
posted by rcade at 01:42 PM on August 07, 2008
Yeah, figured that was some short-term pain. No worries.
posted by tieguy at 01:45 PM on August 07, 2008
(And thanks for doing it, by the way.)
posted by tieguy at 01:45 PM on August 07, 2008
Thank you. I'm so glad it is back. I don't really know what to do when I'm at work without SportsFilter!
posted by bperk at 01:54 PM on August 07, 2008
Way to go, guys! Thanks!
posted by BoKnows at 02:02 PM on August 07, 2008
Brett who?
posted by BoKnows at 02:06 PM on August 07, 2008
I was getting ready to jump off a tall building when you came back. Great job, guys, and a Bravo Zulu* to all.
*Navy for well done.
posted by Howard_T at 02:32 PM on August 07, 2008
Its ALIVE!!!
posted by curlyelk at 02:36 PM on August 07, 2008
WHOA! That's a lot of NEW in there!
posted by worldcup2002 at 02:37 PM on August 07, 2008
I don't like the ability for Visitors to post without signing in.
posted by visitor at 03:00 PM on August 07, 2008
Love, jerseygirl
I'm flagging this as Awkwardly Nice.
posted by jerseygirl at 03:00 PM on August 07, 2008
No... Words... Should have sent... a poet. *tear*
I'll call China and tell them they can kick off the 'lympics after all.
posted by JJ at 03:03 PM on August 07, 2008
I don't like the ability for Visitors to post without signing in.
Ouch. That's not supposed to be allowed.
posted by rcade at 03:04 PM on August 07, 2008
Another one who thought he'd lost Sportsfilter. Thank you for your hard work. MLB trading thread (July 31) is closed already? Grrrr! So let me say here that I'm trying and failing to contain my enthusiasm for the Dodgers acquiring Manny ramirez.
posted by Newbie Walker at 03:08 PM on August 07, 2008
Testes 123.
posted by justgary at 03:08 PM on August 07, 2008
Will we be able to flag the FPP itself, or just the comments? 'Cause I would flag this FPP as sexist, pugilist *and* racist if I could.
posted by NoMich at 03:10 PM on August 07, 2008
MLB trading thread (July 31) is closed already? Grrrr!
It's open now. Topics stay open for two weeks.
posted by rcade at 03:11 PM on August 07, 2008
Commenting just to log in apparently :)
Thanks for the haevy lifting on the move rcade. PLEASE get kirk in here ASAP though. The place is a mess ;)
posted by scully at 03:13 PM on August 07, 2008
Speaking of flags: I see that there is a "Flagged Comments" link up there at the top part of the site. Will we see who flagged what and how or are they anonymous?
posted by NoMich at 03:13 PM on August 07, 2008
I couldn't pass the quiz to join the last site. I do enjoy having sports tidbits to discuss with my BIL though. Glad you are back SF.
Mags in Texas
posted by visitor at 03:14 PM on August 07, 2008
How does one log out, if one was of the mind to log out, that is?
also thanks!
posted by jerseygirl at 03:14 PM on August 07, 2008
How does one log out, if one was of the mind to log out, that is?
We operate under Hotel California rules. You can log in any time you like ...
(Actually, I just added the login/out box to the front page.)
posted by rcade at 03:28 PM on August 07, 2008
Hmmm, when I click on my nick it shows only 2 posts. *sniff*
posted by scully at 03:38 PM on August 07, 2008
Props to rcade for the incredible job he did with the move.
Tragically, I'm going out of town this weekend, so I won't be able to help with the UI until next week.
posted by kirkaracha at 03:38 PM on August 07, 2008
Hope the trip is pleasure, Kirk!
posted by scully at 03:57 PM on August 07, 2008
/full mast did we lose the 'small' tag And how come I can't preview after the first time?
posted by yerfatma at 04:16 PM on August 07, 2008
Were some tags stripped during the move? This comment certainly got mangled in the changeover.
posted by lilnemo at 04:21 PM on August 07, 2008
And what's with the love for ul but not ol? What if I have 95 Theses or something?
(btw, thanks)
posted by yerfatma at 04:21 PM on August 07, 2008
Will we be getting the search function back?
posted by lilnemo at 04:22 PM on August 07, 2008
Yeah, 'nemo, it looks like however line breaks were handled in the past isn't quite how they're handled now. Maybe the site moved from Windows to Linux and all the /r are confusing the /n. Hate it when that happens.
posted by yerfatma at 04:22 PM on August 07, 2008
Were some tags stripped during the move?
I need to reimport the comments to handle paragraph breaks correctly. Some got stripped out.
posted by rcade at 04:24 PM on August 07, 2008
It also looks like not all of the Locker Room comments made it back?
posted by yerfatma at 04:24 PM on August 07, 2008
Also, I've quickly run a script to moderate all my comments as funny, but I've yet to win anything.
posted by yerfatma at 04:24 PM on August 07, 2008
Sonofabitch. SpoFi 1.0 used em tags instead of italics. Thats a lot of threads with repeated quotes.
posted by lilnemo at 04:25 PM on August 07, 2008
OHMYGOD!
The user numbers. They are gone. How am I supposed to know I'm right and someone else is wrong if I can't point to my lower user number?!
posted by lilnemo at 04:35 PM on August 07, 2008
"The new Number Two." "Who is Number One?" "You are Number Sixty One." "I am not a number I am a free man!"
posted by yerfatma at 04:38 PM on August 07, 2008
Every time I come back to the site, I have to log back in again. Am I missing a prompt to keep myself signed in?
posted by tommybiden at 04:40 PM on August 07, 2008
The user numbers. They are gone. How am I supposed to know I'm right and someone else is wrong if I can't point to my lower user number?!
They'll be back when the user pages get bios, post counts and comment counts. All that data is still there.
posted by rcade at 04:43 PM on August 07, 2008
I could just kiss you on the lips. I probably won't, but I could.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 04:49 PM on August 07, 2008
We'd flag that as "Unnecessary Tongue"
posted by jerseygirl at 04:55 PM on August 07, 2008
Oh no. Its ABSOLUTELY necessary.
posted by lilnemo at 05:05 PM on August 07, 2008
I'm glad to see SpoFi reborn, but dear lord it took a long time and a lot of contemplative scratching to remember my password.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:44 PM on August 07, 2008
Welcome back!
posted by Joey Michaels at 06:28 PM on August 07, 2008
Whoop! Great to see the engine updated an' all that.
posted by gspm at 06:29 PM on August 07, 2008
Whoah dude, the CSS is kicking in!
posted by NoMich at 07:11 PM on August 07, 2008
It's hip to be square!
posted by geekyguy at 07:18 PM on August 07, 2008
Whoah dude, the CSS is kicking in!
You're among friends, NoMich. Don't worry, the monkeys won't eat you. They are our friends.
Now come off the ledge and put down the banana for christ sake before one of these damn things attacks us again!
posted by scully at 08:18 PM on August 07, 2008
Wait 'til he sees the bats.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 08:22 PM on August 07, 2008
CSS note: all comments now get the blue hover effect like they were links, at least in Firefox (Windows or Mac).
posted by yerfatma at 08:27 PM on August 07, 2008
Woohoo. We're back, baby!
posted by 86 at 09:53 PM on August 07, 2008
Great job, Pantheon! Glad SpoFi's back.
posted by qbert72 at 02:12 AM on August 08, 2008
rcade, I just want to thank you for all the hard work that you guys put in to making SportsFilter what it is.
On that note, I was in freaking hell without SpoFi. What is wrong with you man?!!?
posted by BornIcon at 07:36 AM on August 08, 2008
Is it just me or does everyone else have to log back in everytime they visit the site?
posted by apoch at 07:52 AM on August 08, 2008
Not just you.
posted by 86 at 08:43 AM on August 08, 2008
Is it just me or does everyone else have to log back in everytime they visit the site?
That's a bug I'm looking for at the moment. Something's killing sessions.
posted by rcade at 08:55 AM on August 08, 2008
Yay!
posted by Venicemenace at 09:11 AM on August 08, 2008
(thanks guys)
posted by Venicemenace at 09:11 AM on August 08, 2008
ggj
posted by visitor at 10:14 AM on August 08, 2008
Something's killing sessions.
Sessions or cookies? Because sessions would only last until the tab is closed or someone surfs away.
posted by yerfatma at 10:50 AM on August 08, 2008
Nice work! Thanks.
posted by Hugh Janus at 04:21 PM on August 08, 2008
"And how come I can't preview after the first time?"
Another props to Rcade. But I NEED my multiple previews please because my hands work way faster than my brain (or something like that).
posted by cjets at 04:24 PM on August 08, 2008
RSS feed now shows up in bloglines as "1"
posted by scully at 05:51 PM on August 08, 2008
Weird. I'll fix that. Thanks.
posted by rcade at 05:55 PM on August 08, 2008
You don't know what you've got until it's gone. And now I'm happy it's back. Added bonus, I can stop checking your Twitter feed and thinking, are we there yet? are we there yet?
Thank you for all the hard work.
posted by kokaku at 07:54 PM on August 08, 2008
Damn. I trashed my computer for nothing...oh well the new one is nice :>)!
posted by visitor at 09:03 AM on August 09, 2008
My this is strange. Lots of new features and gimmicks.
One thing: I was a fan of comments having alternating backround colors, since I felt it made them easier to read. Not sure if it is coming back or not, but I figured I'd put it out there.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 01:22 PM on August 09, 2008
That's coming back, Ying. For some reason I haven't gotten it to work yet.
posted by rcade at 01:32 PM on August 09, 2008
I suggest sidebarring this thread to keep track of "transition issues".
Quirks: * Sport categories no longer link to posts on the specified topic. * Locker Room categories no longer link to posts on the specified topic. In fact, they redirect you to the Front Page. * User pages only show posts comments for the current week. But if you rifle through a few weeks the link for "Read more entries by User X" or "Read more by User X" will disappear even if the user has older threads/comments. You can alter the date in the URL to get to older stuff, but it gets to be a bit of a pain. * In threads, the Sidebar is lower than the Post. * Huge honkin' gap below the comment form (Guessing thats a placeholder for the footer).
posted by lilnemo at 03:45 PM on August 09, 2008
That's coming back, Ying. For some reason I haven't gotten it to work yet.
Awesome. Thanks.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:09 PM on August 09, 2008
agf
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:10 PM on August 09, 2008
Two things:
The em tag doesn't seem to have an effect.
Also, as far as I can see you can only use the preview comment option once.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:12 PM on August 09, 2008
* Sport categories no longer link to posts on the specified topic. * Locker Room categories no longer link to posts on the specified topic. In fact, they redirect you to the Front Page. * The em tag doesn't seem to have an effect. * Huge honkin' gap below the comment form * The 'visitor' option is not what SpoFi needed. * The em tag doesn't seem to have an effect.
All of these are fixed.
posted by rcade at 03:07 PM on August 10, 2008
Still seeing that big gap below the comment form (there's an invisible image with a height of 1000px). Really important to those of us who don't read anything, but simply page down to the bottom to add trollish comments.
posted by yerfatma at 03:43 PM on August 10, 2008
Will the feature that showed the amount of new comments since one's last visit be returning?
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:32 PM on August 10, 2008
I miss kirk.
posted by scully at 04:38 PM on August 10, 2008
Will the feature that showed the amount of new comments since one's last visit be returning?
Yep. I gotta figure out how Matt did it without crushing his database.
posted by rcade at 05:34 PM on August 10, 2008
I miss Spock.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:29 PM on August 11, 2008
I was going to post this witty rejoinder. But I'm going to have to settle for a link, because we can't post images anymore(?).
This aggression will not stand, man.
Tell me this is just a transition hiccup and not a SpoFi policy. The img tag hasn't really been that much of a problem has it? I can't recall it ever "really" being abused. PANTHEON?
posted by lilnemo at 07:23 PM on August 11, 2008
posted by rcade at 07:37 PM on August 11, 2008
Many thank rcade.
Said rejoinder for those with click-o-phobia:
posted by lilnemo at 07:41 PM on August 11, 2008
Quick question for the PANTHEON.
Are we to assume that Columns are now folded in with FPP's as far as posting is concerned? Or are they to remain seperate?
posted by lilnemo at 08:00 PM on August 11, 2008
Are we to assume that Columns are now folded in with FPP's as far as posting is concerned? Or are they to remain seperate?
That's not decided yet. I kept the "extended" box open for front-page posts to contain more information.
My preference is to treat columns like blog posts, but require the ones that link nowhere to get Pantheon approval to reach the front page.
posted by rcade at 08:39 PM on August 11, 2008
well messed-with, rcade. it looks different, but methinks a good different.
and just a thought, is there anywhere else the "admin's note" below the beginning of the comments section could go? i keep reading it and thinking it's supposed to be a witty comment that I just don't understand. possibly insert at the top of the sidebar or something? I do understand that it's important, but 'tis on the page twice, including above the comment box, where I'd think it's more read.
posted by boredom_08 at 01:15 AM on August 12, 2008
Well, this will take some getting used to I suppose. And I have to actually learn something about html now don't I?
Bummer. It was so much easier to be lazy.
posted by THX-1138 at 12:34 PM on August 12, 2008
Will the HTML buttons be returning?
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 08:46 PM on August 14, 2008
Wasn't there a FPP posting restriction? So as to only allow FPPs from members that have commented 25+ times, to keep out the riff-raff.
posted by BoKnows at 09:28 PM on August 14, 2008
Will the new naming of the directory from lockerroom to locker-room affect past links, or has a 301 been set up?
posted by scully at 09:14 AM on August 15, 2008
I'm finding it really hard to read comments with the new SpoFi. Is it possible to make the "posted by salmacis at 12:00 AM - reply" line made smalled and/or with a different colour background?
posted by salmacis at 11:34 AM on August 15, 2008
Best suggestion ever: Spell Check.
posted by BoKnows at 03:16 AM on August 16, 2008
I gotta figure out how Matt did it without crushing his database
I always wondered that too. If you figure it out, can you provide details? There's really nothing you can cache. I think the front page of Metafilter is static for non-logged-in users, which would relieve a lot of strain on the db.
posted by yerfatma at 10:05 AM on August 16, 2008
I'm back to work on the site after a couple days off from coding. The first big thing I'm doing is bringing back the old style userpages and usernumber links. Bug reports appreciated.
posted by rcade at 02:30 PM on August 21, 2008
I expanded the limit on post titles to 80 characters and post descriptions to 600 characters. SportsFilter didn't have limits before, so if these numbers are too low let me know. (They were shorter in the new code before I made this change.)
posted by rcade at 03:16 PM on August 21, 2008
bug or feature? it seems like random(?) hyperlinks are underlined.
posted by gspm at 08:31 AM on August 22, 2008
I love my user number. Thanks for bringing it back.
The thing I miss the most right now, though, is the "new comments" gizmo.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:43 AM on August 22, 2008
bug or feature? it seems like random(?) hyperlinks are underlined.
gspm, I believe that's the current style for visited links, though I'm not clear where it's coming from: Firebug shows the style as being inherited from some browser stylesheet on my end, but Firebug gets confused to hell by certain ways of embedding stylesheets.
Bug report: "Read more by [user]" links on member pages don't go anywhere. Also, the title of the page is "[user]'s blog", which is sort of weird.
posted by yerfatma at 11:29 AM on August 22, 2008
Ditto on the "new comments" button.
posted by hawkguy at 03:40 PM on August 22, 2008
Hi -- thanks for the updates. A couple of things:
-- I have no history now. Was this going to transferred over? I don't mind a clean slate, mind you!
-- I found it so much easier to read the site when comments were distinguished by alternating coloured background. Right now, the comments seem to just flow together
-- It won't keep me logged on -- it'll save my password in the little box but previously I was never logged out.....
OS X 10.5, firefox, if it matters....
Thanks again...
posted by rumple at 12:51 AM on August 25, 2008
OK, some comments:
* The "view older posts" link in the Locker Room brings you to older posts on the main site * There is no longer an archive by month or category that I can find * I miss the search engine
All of these are closely related to me wanting to reread the classic Red Dawn thread.
posted by qbert72 at 06:35 PM on August 26, 2008
rcade: I gotta figure out how Matt did it without crushing his database
yerfatma: I always wondered that too. If you figure it out, can you provide details? There's really nothing you can cache. I think the front page of Metafilter is static for non-logged-in users, which would relieve a lot of strain on the db.
I think you're right that the front page is cached for non-logged-in users. As for the new comments indicators, if I recall correctly, there was a cookie in previous SpoFi containing a datetime for the last visit. I'm assuming Matt used a single query such as
SELECT post_id, id FROM comments WHERE published_date > current_user.last_visit ORDER BY post_id ASC, id ASC
The result count of this query would yield the total of new comments. Then you only need a couple of loops in CF/PHP/whatever to get the first new comment and the number of new comments for each post. It's a single query on a single table, the least strain you can put on the db.
posted by qbert72 at 01:53 AM on August 27, 2008
Yeah, but you don't want to run a query for every post. Plus your query would only return posts with new comments and older vewrsions of MySQL don't support sub-queries so it's something more like:
SELECT p.id, p.title, p.body, p.create_date, COUNT(all.id) as all_comments, COUNT(new.id) as new_comments FROM posts p INNER JOIN comments all LEFT OUTER JOIN comments new WHERE new.published_date > current_user.last_visit ORDER BY p.create_date DESC LIMIT 0,20
But that feels naive to me. It's the kind of thing that works fine but I'd love to have a more efficient way of getting those numbers. but every single logged in user has a different last visit time. So you're back to hammering the db.
posted by yerfatma at 03:20 PM on August 28, 2008
And, of course, I left off the relevant joins for the two comments tables to tie them to the posts. Brilliant.
posted by yerfatma at 03:23 PM on August 28, 2008
I stayed away for a couple of weeks, but I don't have a history anymore either. Has my years-long slate been wiped clean?
posted by chicobangs at 01:00 AM on August 29, 2008
Will there be a new profile page feature? It was fun to keep track of all the fantasy results and read others sport bios. While my number was rather large and my history somewhat short, it is a feature I would like to see back. I also enjoyed the search engine for the archives.
Does the new SportsFilter plan to recreate those features? Curious what's in store.
posted by BoKnows at 01:46 AM on August 29, 2008
Yeah, but you don't want to run a query for every post
No, I don't. I forgot to say that I'm running my new comments query on top of the regular (non-logged-in) front page query, which should be fairly straightforward (apart from regular 'Oh, right, MySQL doesn't support this' drudgery).
Then the *new* markers are just 'joined' in code when outputting the page. You could even conceivably just parse the cached version of the page to add these markers, and forego the initial query.
I'm absolutely not certain I'm being clear here...
posted by qbert72 at 02:38 AM on August 29, 2008
Sweet Touchdown Jesus that was a lot of work.