Any features, serious or not-so-serious that you would like to see in this version of iamcal?
Auto Riff
Some sort of code that automatically adds a randomly generated "most excellent time travelling air guitar riff" when someone edits their post.
So rather than [edit] it comes up with [£&^$%^&£$%")(]
Perhaps it should have its own formating too and appear at the bottom of the post once it is edited.
A sound effect would be great too. But not essential.
Image Repository
A return of the image repository, to store any pictures that people put in posts so that we avoid the dreaded red cross boxes when people's images go down. Perhaps this could be automated to grab any images if they are referenced from other sites, and store them locally on iamcal?
Pedant Button
When ticked would automatically runs each post through an auto spell check before it is displayed so that pedants can read the page spelt correctly, and normal people without those very special needs can view it normally. Button could be toggled on and off depending on if you care that the site is correctly spelt or not.
Spellchecked words could be displayed in a slightly different colour.
Posted by
ellipse, around May 2005:
have all posts proof read and edited by alfie
i heard about this new fandangled site called flickr
i hear it makes an excelent image repository
As far as the images go, I mean so that when someone posts a little picture they got of google image search, it actually stores it on iamcal rather than referencing it from the original site. That way if the original site goes down or removes the picture, it still appears in its thread. I wasn't suggesting a gallery function as flickr does that rather well.
"have all posts proof read and edited by alfie"
Would be happy to, only people didn't like it when i had admin rights and went and corrected their posts.
Perhaps I should have asked first.
Posted by
WarHead, around May 2005:
Maybe a [Go to top] button..... or is that just for lazy tossers?
The ability to see who's logged in, or has been recently.
Info on what HTML works here.
Sorry, none of this is new stuff, really just what we had on v9. But then I have a limited imagination in respect of this webby stuff.
I think most of the 9 stuff will be reappearing as soon as Cal has time. We are prelaunch afterall.
But some new stuff would be cool.
Posted by
WarHead, around May 2005:
I'm sure he has some ideas floating around and ready to enter the glide path. I dunno how he finds time to do it all, what with the other fish he's continually frying.
Posted by
ellipse, around May 2005:
i think you'll find flickr does exactly what you need alfie.
my image post was from flickr
and you didn't really go in and edit peoples posts without their permission did you?
that's crazy, anal fixation, get you to a mental hospital, person in love with brock type behaviour
um, no I know what flickr does.
but on here people would always be posting pics from different sites.
not their own pics from flickr.
and when the sites they stole the images from went down, so would the images.
And yes I did edit people's posts but just for humour not for spelling. and it was only briefly funny.
but but but.
upload the photo to flickr, mark as private, link from there
i doubt i'd do it automated - that's just like saying i'll host all your files for free :)
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
Yeah, Alfie, you dumb fuck. (?)
I have to say, most of the things that I am missing are the things on version 9. It may be easier to list the things that we don't want back, + the new ones we'd like.
If Cal were to tell us some of the things he has in mind then we could not waste his time, I guess... (fish fish fish)
(I wouldn't be upset if we lost a little of the blue between each post, actually, it makse the page seem AWFULLY long)
"that's just like saying i'll host all your files for free"
That would just be Krazy with a capital Kay ;)
Posted by
ellipse, around May 2005:
"um, no I know what flickr does"
clearly you don't dude, because flickr does everything you are asking for.
just ask cal, he built the damm thing. And while cal would in no way condone such behaviour you can upload any old image to flickr, and then post from there to here.
Posted by
friday, around May 2005:
I found the layout of V9 easier to read if you are scrolling quickly down the page...
"you can upload any old image to flickr, and then post from there to here."
I know flickr CAN do that, I use flickr and am quite aware of what it CAN do. But, hey, thanks for telling me what I know and what I don't, you clearly know better than me.
But not everyone who posts an image on iamcal WILL upload it to flickr and then link it. So people will post pictures on here, of celebs, or animals, or goodness knows what. And they will link them directly from websites, or their own sites.
Then a few months later when someone looks back at a thread, it will be a sea of red crosses because half those links no longer work.
I was just suggesting that one way of ensuring a fully working archive on iamcal would be to archive the images locally as well as all the text. Then the archive would be complete.
Sure if we all posted them up to flickr and linked then they would stay. but that isn't what will happen.
If im posting an image found on google image search am I really going to bother to save it, upload it to flickr, change it to private, take the link and then post it in the thread? nope, I'll just link it directly cos I'm lazy. So will most people.
There are already images in these threads and as far as I can tell only one of them is on flickr. So what happens when some of the others vanish from the wider internet? Yup, red crosses.
God I've missed this place. I have so much bile stored up and I was going to have to buy a second home to keep it all in.
Posted by
ellipse, around May 2005:
never, ever be sorry
it's a weakness and brock will exploit it
Posted by
WarHead, around May 2005:
And second home in Didsbury will probably be expensive.
:D
Lib Dems got in here. Hoorah! Overturned a labour majority of 11,000 or something. Nice.
Not that my second home will get any cheaper as a result.
If only I could use my bile for some sort of power generation.
Posted by
ellipse, around May 2005:
if only you could use it for the power of evil
What we need is a big gallery with pictures of fat people.
Plus some kind of laser technology.
More Michael Jackson fans.
Posted by
ellipse, around May 2005:
and pie, more pie
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
Pies are a good thing.
I'd also like a feature where if you are posting from work, the page switches back to the thing you were working on before if someone walks up behind you.
Come on, Cal. You can do that, can't you?
Posted by
WarHead, around May 2005:
Pies are a good thing
except when the pastry gives you indigestion, so Cal should devise some innovative technology for neutralising indigestion in iamcal subscribers who like pies but are a martyr to their effects on their digestive tract. He can do that can't he?
BTW, David Hasselhoff's track 'Hot Shot City' is particularly good. I know that's not really relevant here, but I had to say it.
Oh, and on a much earler note, St. Albans went Tory. Bastards! And the St. Albans Independence Party only got 430. Actually, that's not bad, considering.
This is my idea for a feature-
It begins with a close-up of a guinea pig lying spread-eagled on the floor, each of its tiny legs fastened in place by sticky tape. The camera slowly pulls back to show that a woman, seen only from the knees down, is pacing around the stricken creature in bright red stilettos. Her voice is soft and low: 'You are my victim. Are you frightened, little man? You know that your destiny is under my heels...'
Posted by
bumdog, around May 2005:
JESSE.
Good to see you Mr Jesse.
Oh great, it's the arse puppy.
briefly straying back to topic-
i don't mean to sound ungrateful, but the new interface is very "noisy" for a discussion site. to the point of frustration.
eg
• large fonts and headers and random items looking pretty but sucking screen real-estate
• topic list sorted by initiation date, not last-post date -- to see if there's any activity, you have to randomly click all the topics and then page-down indefinitely. not much fun on dialup
• no sidebar, quicklist to see who's on, what the last N updated threads were, that sort of thing
• no ability to add budgethtml emphases
in essence:
• low signal-to-noise ratio
• little feedback/oversight for the discussioneers
• no ability for contributors to participate with more than plaintext
jeez. i sound like i'm whinging. sorry cal, i really am grateful it's (imminently) back, but you did ask for feedback.
(...i've got to get out of this country. i'm becoming a pom.)
...musing...
maybe a problem is that i was extremely impressed with the previous version's fit for and facilitation of an active lively "culture", whereas this version (so far) just behaves like a forum board. or a joint blog, come to think of it -- static posts dominating whole pages and comments appended but not visibly so to anyone coming in at the top level.
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
I like the layout, although the blue bits between posts are too big, but I mainly miss ALL the stuff off the old site.
:(
Maybe I just fear progress.
don't get me wrong-- it's quite pretty, in a purely aesthetic sense. well balanced, lovely fonts, elegant layout.
it just doesn't fit its purpose.
am currently viewing it in 2048x1536, and except for additional depth/length, it's no better than at the laptop's 800x600. i might as well be commenting on a blog.
so, even at *6.5 times* the viewable area, i am only able to see around 3-4 posts. pretty posts, but only 3-4 of them at a time. and they're not long posts. i could see more (and hence read faster) at 800x600 on oldamcal.
major bummer :(
that fading yellow pulsing is groovy tho
makes me want to just post and post
where's sul?
we need more beer
where's beer?
we need more sul
where's summer?
we need more sun
ok, gap reduced - it was way too large
full set of html tags reinstated (that was just an oversight in the filter). i'll add a help explanation for that in a moment.
"who's online" is coming soon.
ordering posts by last update is now done
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
[ickle]
*snigger*
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
While you're being generous and that.
Free beer to all users with a username starting with B!!! Yeah!
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
Oooh. Yellow 'new' flags like flickr has. Are they going to bear no fucking resemblance at all to new content like they do there?
;)
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
Now you use tags in your LinkLog, you could have 'related items', too.
No commenting on the blog?
Hello all.
The side bar is definitely missed.
Maybe it's just my ever-decreasing-eyesight/ever-increasing-masturbation ratio but I'm finding it a bit difficult to focus on the text. Or perhaps my subconscious refuses to focus because the content is banal shite; something I know which is impossible given the quality crowd.
So the approval process has gone in favour of a no-thread-starting-for-some-time rule?
um. Yea.
Oooh and when will I be able to show my wit to the world via a stunningly amusing user-page complete with picture? I demand the oppertuniy to repel women on the internet as well as IRL!
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
Dunno. You're doing alright so far, I can feel even
my skin crawling...
God, I've missed small text
Thanks for the compliment, mate. It's tough to keep such a high standard unattractiveness up without a visual aid.
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
No worries. It was the least I could do. Pretty much.
sul - if you find it hard to read, choose bigger text from the browser menu.
grim - there *are* related entries. click on a tag for all entries with that tag.
no comments on the linklog because mostly it doesn't need comments. weblogs that look like this:
blah blah (0 comments)
woo yay (0 comments)
foo bar baz (0 comments)
lorum ipsum (0 comments)
just look dumb. sidebar related stuff is in the works, probably as an IE/Firefox sidebar, so only you lot will see it.
and the approval system is still in the works. i haven't quite figured it all out yet, but there's nothing like idiots posting to motivate me ;)
Posted by
Brock, around May 2005:
Did somebody call?
CAL SUCKS CHICKEN COCK!!!1111oneoeonejuan
The ononejuan gag was always my favourite. :)
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
Cal - yeah, I guessed that, but "'Internet' and 'Games'" and "'Internet' and 'Security'" are good and different.
Obviously it's not even close to being important, I just thought you might like something to do =]
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
Also, is the 'new reply' thing working properly?
It's convinced there are new replies in the threads I've just looked at.
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
Otherwise, very pretty, especially the yellow-white fading thingy on your latest post.
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
Ooh, and the footer used to say 'tries to have valid' etc. etc.
Hand is not a cursor!
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
Ooh, and 'details' is spelt wrong on the Help page.
But I'm most impressed that the curved edges of the background table doesn't appear to use images.
How's that done, then?
Posted by
Grim..., around May 2005:
And last, but not least, in the six post marathon: Is the strapline coming back?
clustering/related post might come later, but i don't tag well enough for it to be of much sue yet.
new reply is working properly. it'll show new posts since the end of your previous visit to the site.
hand is a cursor if you want it to work on IE5[.5]PC, but fuck em. 'pointer' works fine in IE6, so let's just stick with that.
the 'details' typo has been corrected.
the curved corners *are* done with images - just loaded by the stylesheet. the whole layout is css - no tables anywhere. (actually, there are tables for the login and signup forms)
the strapline may or may not return. i'm still pondering it.
and now the entity validator (to stop stray ampersands messing up the page) is applied to discussion posts as well as linklog posts.
Posted by
Grim..., around 14th May 2005:
Yes, but the new reply will keep showing 'new post', even after you have read it...
yes, until you come back next time. a forum that doesn't would need to keep track of every thread view for every user. that's not really practical.
well, on this scale, maybe it is. but in general, not.
Posted by
Grim..., around 14th May 2005:
Maybe you could put the name of the last poster on the discussion page, as well as the time since the last post?
That would be cool.
Posted by
ellipse, around 14th May 2005:
ok
so alfie did not spot a spelling mistake?
i am shocked, and may possibly never trust his spelling again
Posted by
Orinoco, around 14th May 2005:
a direct link to the last post in the thread
Some kind of 'Back' button which takes you back to the last page you looked at.
And maybe a 'Bookmarks' folder where you could save favourite threads.
And a button that refreshes the thread so you can tell if new posts have been made.
And another button that when pressed, takes Brock out to the car park and shoots him like a rabid dog.
"the strapline may or may not return. i'm still pondering it"
awww the strapline was ace!
Hey Alfie, don't you love the strap on?
&*%^$&%^£*%^*(
no, you love the strap ON.
Posted by
Brock, around 14th May 2005:
How do Rabid dogs shoot? Woud they need a special gun to get their paws on the trigger?
About Cal Henderson
Cal is a Software Engineer who currently lives in Vancouver, Canada and works as lead web developer at Ludicorp, makers of Flickr.
He has previously worked at emap in London, UK and for Kaius Systems, his own comapny. more »
Can we get some spellchecking over here?
Although google has 206,000 results for comapny so you're in good comapny.
Couple of typos, nothing major:
on the about pages:
"Sites Cal hs worked on" has
on the linklog:
xbox360: "much better than it's ugly predecessor" its
Posted by
ellipse, around 14th May 2005:
also cal, i see a preponderance of Capital Letters
can we get some lowercase action over here?
More often than not, the name "cal" is all lowercase which is refreshingly self-depricating.
Although we deliberately lowercase the F in 'french' as a way of mocking the french.
Cheese eating, white flag raising, bicycle riding, onion selling, stripey shirt and beret wearing, garlic scented, street urinating, unwashed, 'rather make love with their faces than fight' arsebandits that they are.
Apart from Rene Artois, bravest man in all of france and inventor of Stella. he's cool.
Is this a bug or is it meant to be like this:
---------
To post topics you must have been a member for 2 days and have posted 10 replies.
You have been a member for less than a day and have posted replies.
---------
You *have* posted replies but I'm not telling you how many. It's a secret.
Posted by
Brock, around 14th May 2005:
It's more that if you can't count to fucking ten, we don't want you posting here anyway...
:)
Posted by
Grim..., around 14th May 2005:
Tilly! It's a a secret!
I can count to 10. Cal's software can't.
¿puedo utilizar caracteres especiales?
test
Apparently..
charset=UTF-8
another test
Posted by
ellipse, around 15th May 2005:
i can count to 12
I think I've cracked it, but there's a bug there somewhere
10 INPUT "What do you wish to count to;"; x
20 FOR i = 1 to x
30 PRINT i
40 i = i + 1
50 NEXT i
60 PRINT "Cheers sonny."
cheers for that, cal.
(
> refreshingly self-depricating.
deprecating
)
Posted by
Grim..., around 18th May 2005:
Doc - don't you need to use $x? (depends on which version you are using, I think.
Also, you have no carrige returns, so you'll get
'12345678910Cheers sonny.'
x$, rather than $x
but he wants an int, not a string, so x is the way to go
and doesn't PRINT add carriage returns? i don't recall (probably depends on the interpreter - long time no BASIC)
original basic added carriage return automatically, not sure what its various flavours do now
There is another bug.
The for loop increments the variable i. You don't need to increment i manually within the loop.
Yes! The bug was in line 40. Print does add carriage returns, so I would have ended up with;
What do you want to count to;? 5
1
3
5
Cheers sonny.
Man, that Basic takes me back to when I was 14. Duuude.
Posted by
Grim..., around 18th May 2005:
What did you do your BASIC on? My print carridge returns were manual.
And only once I moved up the the dizzy heights of Amstrad BASIC could I use these new fangled 'Ints' without the $ =]
No error handling either, Doc - what if I wanted to count to 0?
Ahhh, good call. You'd probably need a
15 IF i=<1 THEN PRINT "Stop playing silly buggers, sonny.", GOTO 10
I did my BASIC on BBCs at school, then on my Commodore 64, and then on my PC with QBasic. And then I stopped about nine years ago because I decided I'd rather be a novelist than a computer programmer.
And now I'm a novelist.
Okay, I'm not.
Polls:
- Yes
- No
- Jesse
- Richard Tham!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Appy
hasn't she been coming soon since forever ?
Posted by
ellipse, around 20th May 2005:
she was on flickr for an age and then she deleted her account
"hasn't she been coming soon since forever"
yeah, the photographer mut be knackered
Iamcal was banned by netnanny at some internet cafe I was in the other day. The fucking Nazi, cock-munching, Daily Mail reading, whores. What's their problem? But, being English and in a dodgy part of town I didnt complain. It was a sawdust on the floor sort of place. You know the kind, spitoons by the mouse mats. A load of blokes playing online poker - on the verge of a flame war. I was just glad to get out of there alive. Anyways, I'm rambling, so I'll move on.
I'm probably an idiot for asking this but is there some sort of reason for the whole fading yellow thing after posting using the enormous Post Reply button?
I think it's just so Salt can sit there smoking his bong and correcting PCP code and look at all the pretty colours.
You are right. The post reply button is enormous. I like it.
hmm
Posted by
ellipse, around 21st May 2005:
i do think the yellow should be pink
the reported spelling mistakes have been corrected
the bug with "you have posted {x} replies" has been fixed
Excellent, well done, have a biscuit. :)
We need some more MJ sprem in anas. I mean.
Posted by
Brock, around 22nd May 2005:
Haven't you had enough? Perhaps it didn't scar you the way we all assumed it did...
No, anything related to mj sends me in to a fit of laughter, especially since the whole sprem in anas thing has continued in other forms elsewhere.
like that tennis player?
anas full of sprem, I heard.