Instead of doing a daily review, they go up as soon as they are posted, with one or two editors to remove stuff that doesn't belong as it appears (a report link like the one here with the report to moderator for bad posts).

Maybe I could just flag stuff that hasn't been reviewed yet, so people who wouldn't want to be potentially exposed to inappropriate material, could ignore unreviewed entries?  I'd have to put in some sort of mechanism for preventing spammers from taking advantage as well I guess.

Overall, I like the idea.  Some thoughts:

Would the design of the front page change to accomodate this?

Would the amount of time a song is on the front page depend on how many songs are submitted?  For example, if someone new decided to submit their entire stock of 200 parodies in the same day, or if there are just a large number submitted, could some parodies get their "front page time" shortchanged?  It would be nice if new parodies could be guaranteed 24 hours on the main page somehow.

it seems like a "if it aint broke don't fix it" situation to me

why?  do people have problems with the current format?  What problems?

As Jeff implied, the current system has some structure, which makes it easy to navigate.  A continuum of parody submissions, ordered by entry-time alone, wouldn't.

it seems like a "if it aint broke don't fix it" situation to me

why?  do people have problems with the current format?  What problems?

As Jeff implied, the current system has some structure, which makes it easy to navigate.  A continuum of parody submissions, ordered by entry-time alone, wouldn't.


One definite improvement of the new idea would be that Chucky wouldn't have to take the time each morning to approve/post the parodies.  Fifteen minutes of everyday he gets back.  If the update could at least be automated, combined with Chucky's suggestion for how to remove unfit parodies, that might be nice.

One definite improvement of the new idea would be that Chucky wouldn't have to take the time each morning to approve/post the parodies. 



oh, I didn't realise - I thought there were a few editors who did it

Would the amount of time a song is on the front page depend on how many songs are submitted?  For example, if someone new decided to submit their entire stock of 200 parodies in the same day, or if there are just a large number submitted, could some parodies get their "front page time" shortchanged?  It would be nice if new parodies could be guaranteed 24 hours on the main page somehow.



My one concern is shared with Jeff...as long as people were assured the same amount of time up front as they are now...I'd have no problem with the switch. 

Though I am on this board every day...I don't get to spend as much time on the parody site as I used to...and I would hate to miss somebody's stuff because I didn't get to the latest parodies before somebody decided to drop a ton of stuff in one day.

oh, I didn't realise - I thought there were a few editors who did it


just one editor on a section, though I think cool band names is currently getting double teamed to try and knock away the backlog.

It would save me some time, but the trade off is of course lack of control over what appears on the site.  The reason I'm thinking about it, is I'm wondering if people would check the site more frequently, or maybe comments would appear more often as parodies show up. 

it would certainly change the look of the front page, I'm thinking there would have to be a cut off for the number on the front page at a time, but maybe the current "parodies posted today" scheme could still hold up.

just one editor on a section, though I think cool band names is currently getting double teamed to try and knock away the backlog.

It would save me some time, but the trade off is of course lack of control over what appears on the site.  The reason I'm thinking about it, is I'm wondering if people would check the site more frequently, or maybe comments would appear more often as parodies show up. 

it would certainly change the look of the front page, I'm thinking there would have to be a cut off for the number on the front page at a time, but maybe the current "parodies posted today" scheme could still hold up.


I guess it would become like Latest Comments, which I check much more frequently than New Songs

- but I like knowing that I have 24 hours to visit new songs and comment, and that they'll all be there for the whole 24 hours

I have the same concerns as everyone else but I was also wondering:  Would this mean we'd get to edit them after they've gone up?  Because that would be awesome.  Would it change our author pages at all?  If you tried it and didn't like it, would it be difficult to go back?  Just wondering.

I have the same concerns as everyone else but I was also wondering:  Would this mean we'd get to edit them after they've gone up?  Because that would be awesome.  Would it change our author pages at all?  If you tried it and didn't like it, would it be difficult to go back?  Just wondering.


probably not... the author pages would also still be a once a day type update.  The major problem I have with the site at the moment, is that I don't use a database to drive it.  When I first designed it, I never thought I'd get the number of submissions per day I do now (heck, I wasn't even sure I'd get any at all).  So I designed it in the quickest/easiest way to implement it.  Now of course, it's starting to outgrow it's abilities.  Hence the reason search is gone.  I could rewrite it to do more stuff like cross linking parodies, and generating real time stats, but I'm afraid of how much it would slow the server down.  The server has to host the other decade sites (the messageboard and the sites I'm hosting for some companies I've done business for reside on a second server).

I know I don't have time in the next month to change anything really, but I'm curious as to what people think about the current system, etc.  My priority for the next three months is a visual redesign of inthe80s for it's ten year anniversary.

My initial reaction was that there's some really good messageboard software out there, which is staggeringly configurable to suit... and is also database-driven, to get you out of the current pickle.  Would you be using the same php board software?

It is a scary thought that each of the 30k or so parodies are their own separate web page... presumably the votes/comments bits are databases, though?

There's some definite "pros", though, to a messageboard style - user logins would prevent impersonation, for a start.  But I do like the current system: it's very friendly for new users (just post and go...), even if it is slightly creaking at the seams.

My initial reaction was that there's some really good messageboard software out there, which is staggeringly configurable to suit... and is also database-driven, to get you out of the current pickle.  Would you be using the same php board software?

It is a scary thought that each of the 30k or so parodies are their own separate web page... presumably the votes/comments bits are databases, though?

There's some definite "pros", though, to a messageboard style - user logins would prevent impersonation, for a start.  But I do like the current system: it's very friendly for new users (just post and go...), even if it is slightly creaking at the seams.


I'd homebrew it like I do everything else.  I wrote all this stuff for onlyonfilm.com.  Not a good example since the server issues screwed the way my script worked (php.ini configuration issues, ugh), but I'm getting better at it.

I don't need to change the style of parody posting to allow user logins for authors.  I've written some user authentication stuff for other projects, and could certainly do it for amiright in it's current state.  With all the years it's run like it currently has, I've never had much of an issue with people forging usernames, maybe a handfull at most.  So that's in the "don't fix what ain't broken" category.

Nothing on amiright or any of the sites besides inthe00s and onlyonfilm are in databases, not even votes and comments.  It's all flatfile ASCII text files.  It's the most portable solution (the site once ran on a 30 meg shared virtual host, with most of the same scripts), but it's not the best for large amounts of data. 

It's one of the reasons modification of parodies is such a nightmare.  There's ways around that of course, I did it for the misheard lyrics for corrections, and could probably do it for parodies. My philopshy for parodies though is different.  If you're voting on a parody, and someone changes it, to fix a typo or add new lines, etc, is the vote/comment still applicable?  You should never post a parody until it's 100% ready to go out the door.  If it's bad enough it needs a fix, it should be taken down and resubmitted, let people see it the proper way.  It also prevents someone from submitting a nice parody, and then replacing it later with something filthy or racist, etc.

Most of the stuff discussed now, hasn't really revolved around whether the parodies go up immediately or not.  Which is fine, I like hearing problems/suggestions.  It doesn't mean I can do them of course >grin<

Chucky,

If it will fix the search function and we still have author pages, I would agree to give up other functionability.  Incidentally, Ingeborg's author page won't load and every time she comments, it leaves garbage and bolding.  It is great to be able to see recent comments and stuff too.