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I'm pleased to announce that we've released the next major version of slashcode, and upgraded the production systems as of today. Since yours truly forgot that May has 31 days, you're also getting it a day early. Here's the short list of what's in this update.
Slashcode 14.06 Changelog
Hate the red? Not a problem, go choose "chillax", and enjoy a nice refreshing blue look and feel for the site. Right now, we're only using it for CSS changes, but each theme can override the default theme in an inherited matter. At some point, we are seriously going to look at giving SN a facelift and moving away from the stock slashcode red. Now, with any change, there are those who will dislike it for one reason or another, but with a simple click in their preferences, they can simply go back to how the site was before.
Improved Threading (D1.5)
Perhaps our most user visible change with this release, this brings the discussion system out of 1997, and something closer to mid-2000s. For anyone who's ever used the old "Slashdot/SoylentNews Expandable Comment Tree", this is going to look familiar. I took the GPLv2-licensed GreaseMonkey script, modified it into a server-side script, then Paul went and made it work with CSS instead of page-scraping. The upshot?
A *massive* improvement to site usability, and threading, preventing you having to have millions of tabs open to follow any discussion. Now, obviously, there is still some room for improvement, such as an inline "Reply" box, but this should go a long way in helping in browsing comments. Due to the way its implemented, non-JS users will gracefully degrade to the "Threaded" view, and for those who simply hate it, feel free to flip your user preference from "Improved Threaded" to "Threaded" or "Nested.
Improved Threading is now the default for ACs, and if your preferences were set to Threaded or Nested, you were automatically upgraded. This feature, as with all features, will continue to keep evolve. If you're interested in improving it, and are good with JavaScript or CSS, come find us on IRC, and make yourselves known, or write a nifty GreaseMonkey script, and we'll migrate it into a server-side one.
NOTE: There was a slight goof which is causing Improved Threading to not quite work the way most people expect it to, its more "Improved Nested" at the moment. We're discussing on IRC about this right now, but as a workaround, set your browsing score to 4 which will make it work similar to the way its supposed to work).
Dead Code Removal/Site Optimizations
Inspired by the LibreSSL efforts to strip down and clarify OpenSSL, I've started undertaking a similar project through the codebase. As of now, approximately, 50k lines of code and other garbage have been jettisoned from the codebase, including most of the bloated and unused Javascript. As a practical upshot of this, our average page load size is now 3/5ths smaller than what it was in the previous release. There's still a fair bit of cruft in the codebase in the form of unused functions, dead code paths, and other junk, but I'm optimistic that by time we're done, we can skim another 10-15k lines of code out of the codebase, making it easier to audit and bugfix.
The following bits of code were completely removed:
I do hope you enjoy this round of fixes and improvements. That being said, I am sorry that some promised work didn't make it into this release, most importantly, moderation and metamoderation reworks. With luck, I'll find time between now and the next release to really start hammering on it, and then look at releasing it to production in the form of a point release. As always, post below, and know that your comments are helping decide the future of this site.
Until next time, NCommander
Slashcode 14.06 Changelog
- New user-selectable themes, including a Night Mode. Themes are now CSS based and use no images for effects.
- New collapsible comment with the Improved Threaded mode. (Has set as default for all users that have Threaded or Nested set. You can change it back if you dislike it.)
- New message display that shows all messages in reverse chronological order as a full message (now without the email footer). Also set the Daily Newsletter to be off for new users.
- Removed a bunch of unneeded code that will make page loading faster.
- Static pages (FAQ and About) are now dynamic and show the proper user menu and theme.
- RSS now encoded properly.
- Preferences update to make pages work together better. (Most of the work was on the admin side so most of you will never see the bulk of the changes.) Also fixed a issue with the Homepage Prefs where the reset to default would not set everything to the defaults.
- Updates to the Submissions system. The pages look better and now your past submissions are organized better.
- Login system updated to allow passwords with unlimited lengths and user names of upto 35 characters.
- Slashboxes fixed so that they show properly when you change your Homepage settings.
- Pollbooth updates to make pages look better.
- Fixed issue with long words and page elements overflowing their parent divs by adding word-wrap: break-word; to the css.
- Smoke-test of subscriber code; expect to see a few users with stars running around as we get the bugs out
- And a bunch of smaller fixes that you will be sure to notice.
A huge round of applause to paulej72 for going through the bug list and sorting out much of what was there. Furthermore, I'd also like to extend thanks to iWantToKeepAnon and TheMightyBuzzard for contributions to this release.
As always, feel free to submit your issues to our bugtracker where our crack team of flying monkeys will labor to try and make it part of future site upgrades.
Check past the break for more thoughts and comments on these changes.
Hate the red? Not a problem, go choose "chillax", and enjoy a nice refreshing blue look and feel for the site. Right now, we're only using it for CSS changes, but each theme can override the default theme in an inherited matter. At some point, we are seriously going to look at giving SN a facelift and moving away from the stock slashcode red. Now, with any change, there are those who will dislike it for one reason or another, but with a simple click in their preferences, they can simply go back to how the site was before.
Improved Threading (D1.5)
Perhaps our most user visible change with this release, this brings the discussion system out of 1997, and something closer to mid-2000s. For anyone who's ever used the old "Slashdot/SoylentNews Expandable Comment Tree", this is going to look familiar. I took the GPLv2-licensed GreaseMonkey script, modified it into a server-side script, then Paul went and made it work with CSS instead of page-scraping. The upshot?
A *massive* improvement to site usability, and threading, preventing you having to have millions of tabs open to follow any discussion. Now, obviously, there is still some room for improvement, such as an inline "Reply" box, but this should go a long way in helping in browsing comments. Due to the way its implemented, non-JS users will gracefully degrade to the "Threaded" view, and for those who simply hate it, feel free to flip your user preference from "Improved Threaded" to "Threaded" or "Nested.
Improved Threading is now the default for ACs, and if your preferences were set to Threaded or Nested, you were automatically upgraded. This feature, as with all features, will continue to keep evolve. If you're interested in improving it, and are good with JavaScript or CSS, come find us on IRC, and make yourselves known, or write a nifty GreaseMonkey script, and we'll migrate it into a server-side one.
NOTE: There was a slight goof which is causing Improved Threading to not quite work the way most people expect it to, its more "Improved Nested" at the moment. We're discussing on IRC about this right now, but as a workaround, set your browsing score to 4 which will make it work similar to the way its supposed to work).
Dead Code Removal/Site Optimizations
Inspired by the LibreSSL efforts to strip down and clarify OpenSSL, I've started undertaking a similar project through the codebase. As of now, approximately, 50k lines of code and other garbage have been jettisoned from the codebase, including most of the bloated and unused Javascript. As a practical upshot of this, our average page load size is now 3/5ths smaller than what it was in the previous release. There's still a fair bit of cruft in the codebase in the form of unused functions, dead code paths, and other junk, but I'm optimistic that by time we're done, we can skim another 10-15k lines of code out of the codebase, making it easier to audit and bugfix.
The following bits of code were completely removed:
- D2 (approximately 100 kiB of javascript per page load)
- Firehose
- Tags
- Jabber Integration
- World of Warcraft Integration
- Daypasses
- Many unused slash plugins
- Bitrotted support for PostgreSQL and Oracle (both very incomplete)
- Tagboxes (a MASSIVE amount code)
There's still a quite a bit of low hanging fruit, so if you like to blowtorch old codebases, grab the source and start deleting!
Subscriber Code Enabled
We're not offering subscriptions until post-incorporation, but we wanted to start looking and smoketesting this code in preparation for that happy day. Expect to see a few users with *'s after their name that marks them as a subscriber. As a note, the subscriber +1 pseudo-mod is disabled by default, so subscriber posts do not show up higher than they otherwise would.
I'd like to get a discussion going with the community on what sort of things you'd like to see from subscribing, so look for that article, and start brainstorming on what you would be willing to pay for (like shell accounts, USENET access, or some other service we could reasonable provide?)
I do hope you enjoy this round of fixes and improvements. That being said, I am sorry that some promised work didn't make it into this release, most importantly, moderation and metamoderation reworks. With luck, I'll find time between now and the next release to really start hammering on it, and then look at releasing it to production in the form of a point release. As always, post below, and know that your comments are helping decide the future of this site.
Until next time, NCommander
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Site Upgrade: Slashcode 14.06 Released
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
A is for Apple.
-- Hester Pryne
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Foobar Bazbot on Saturday May 31 2014, @02:32PM
I'd love to; where do I go to choose "chillax"?
I quickly scanned the preferences pages and didn't see it -- maybe I just overlooked it, but I think an exact location will help many people.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Foobar Bazbot on Saturday May 31 2014, @02:36PM
OK, I definitely overlooked it...
In case it helps anyone else, the "Select Theme" option is the first option in the "Homepage" preference tab.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Saturday May 31 2014, @02:37PM
I'll edit the top post to make that a BIT clearer. I forgot our preferences page still looking like something that came out of the space shuttle.
Still always moving
(Score: 4, Informative) by AndyTheAbsurd on Saturday May 31 2014, @02:41PM
I think Night Mode has the red for links set a bit too dim compared to what's around it. But that could just be me, because I'm an anomalous trichromat and my color perception is screwy.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 3, Informative) by paulej72 on Saturday May 31 2014, @03:08PM
I did not check any of the UI changes for color blindness. I was mostly worried about getting enough contrast between the elements given my color pallet.
I think there are a few online tools to check for this kind of stuff. I'll look into for our next upgrade.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday June 01 2014, @02:08AM
I already broke it :)
So I went to Preferences and tried out the various themes. What I got for Chillax was identical to Site Default. Night Mode gave me blue bars on white (oww, my eyes!!). SoylentNews was dark grey (restful!). Is that what I was supposed to see??
And then it took two tries to make it go back to Site Default. First attempt apparently did not save.
I usually have colors off in the browser anyway (and I actually like how the original red theme looks), but it's pleasant to have alternatives.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by paulej72 on Sunday June 01 2014, @03:46AM
For what ever reason, the page load after you save your prefs is in the old theme. I believe this is due to slash partially building the user page before processing the save request giving the old theme for that page. If you click on a new page you will get the new theme.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday June 01 2014, @04:28AM
Ah, okay, that would explain it. One of the original devs must have been a time traveller who did not grok doing things in chronological order. ;)
Incidentally, comment posting seems to have gotten faster.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Sunday June 01 2014, @01:47PM
The DB save is the last step of the page (the logic is .. wonky to say the least). Most of the speed performance was removing 100-200 kib worth of unused javascript :-)
(plus code removal which helps speed up Apache on the backend, though since comments are memcached, its really not the part that slows things down).
Still always moving
(Score: 2, Insightful) by tnt118 on Saturday May 31 2014, @03:16PM
The theme really makes the site significantly more enjoyable for me to read, so thanks for that. I'm also amused by the updated bookmark icon for chillax, so nice job there.
I think I like it here.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Saturday May 31 2014, @04:27PM
When can we start calling it soylentcode?
subicular junctures
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday June 01 2014, @08:22PM
Right now! :D
And since I'm posting: love the RSS, love the themes, and I've set all sliders to -1 :)
One more thing: in case subscriptions are extremely reasonable will we be able to gift subscriptions through the site?
One more thing: with subscribing and stuff I would love to be able to have a setting to make the various auto-moderation benefits be opt-in rather than opt-out when commenting.
One more thing: shell access always sounds tempting although I'm not sure what I would use it for.
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Monday June 02 2014, @01:13PM
1. Yes
2. Its debatable if the +1 for subscribers will survive at all. I'm not a big fan of it. Right now, the feature is enabled, but set to 0 pseudo-mode
3. Get creative :-)
Still always moving