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Development Update 6/2 Usually I update the development journal on Monday, or at least Mondayish, if you generously allow me to count Monday as a 48- or 72-hour day. However, due to general craziness in and about the office, I'm updating this on the weekend, which is really stretching the whole concept of Monday. The upside of this, however, is that I will have preternatural accuracy about the events in the coming -- err, last -- week. I'll just do a quick rundown on some of the stuff that we're working on, and then hopefully do a more elaborate development this Mondayish. General Craziness So, summer is our boom time, with the lucky conjunction of school vacation and big events. Our summer event is coming up, of course, but also planned for this year is the release of a project that has been underway for quite a long time (cough Battle cough). This has implications for all of Gaia, because a lot of the infrastructural changes we've been working on has been as a direct result of Battle requirements. So, if the devs and artists seem a bit more frazzled then usual, that is one of the reasons. Username Changes Due to some changes on the backend, we're tightening up the restrictions on user names and e-mail addresses a little bit. We're no longer allowing people to have e-mails as user names, for example, and we're requiring every account to have a unique e-mail. This should only affect a handful of people. IP Blocking Some of you have been getting e-mails saying that someone is trying to hack your account. Now, if you have an appropriately strong password (and appropriately strong does not mean "naruto", if you were wondering), then you shouldn't need to worry about it, but the irritating thing is that someone could block you out of your account by doing this. We have closed this exploit, we think; now, someone trying to hack into your account should block them from trying more than 5 times, but should not block you from being able to log in. Stuff Going On - Gradually clearing up blacklist problems (i.e., people that can't receive a password verification e-mails); if you are having a problem, post in this thread and eventually I'll get to you. - Every couple months we take a look at stuff that is slow on the site, and that time is rolling around again. You see, there is a tendency to add stuff (more images, more code, whatnot), gradually increasing the load time monotonically for everyone until finally we do something about it. So, we want to do something about it, and I'll start a couple of threads asking for feedback. - You may have noticed that we increased the signature limits the other day, or, at least, don't count URLs against the signature limits. Thanks to omgwhat for increasing the limits and adding the nifty character counter in there. - New inventory pages should roll out soon, hopefully this coming week. Fieryange1 has been slaving away to add pagination to the inventory, meaning that the load time for large inventories should be substantially less. I don't know that we're getting down to 15 second load times for people on dial up, but it at least should be much, much better for people that have a lot of items. - Arranger problem selling back to stores should hit this Tuesday (6/10). - We're moving most of the CAPTCHAs to a probabilistic system, which means you'll see them a lot less. If we're pretty sure that you're human, then you should see them a lot less often, and if you're a bot, what the hell are you doing reading my journal anyway? - This is part of a larger strategy to do quite a bit more antibot stuff in the coming months. - Other miscellaneous bugs fixed this week, including: fixed some Paypal payment issues; fixed an exploit that allowed images to be displayed for people that had turned the redirection warning off; fixed a bug that prevented mods from deleting journal entries; fixed a problem in Liam's quest; changed account settings so that people can show the month/day but not the year. - Item norm hit beta!

Posted by: Panagrammic Sun Jun 08, 2008 @ 11:26pm

Read my journal!

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Cube B
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Commented on: Sun Jun 08, 2008 @ 11:39pm


	Woo! Item Norm! I can't wait to see how it turns out. ^^ I also like the new Capcha idea. The spoken stuff is terrifying though. O_O

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 01:05am


	thanks again for your help on the blacklist problem! i can't wait to see the new inventory setup, i hope it all works as planned....

snufflypoo
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Lady Kayura
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 01:28am


	Glad to hear that the people trying to hack into my account can't block me out anymore. I was wondering when some site would raid Gaia by making 100's of bots to try to log onto people's accounts, fail and block them for extended periods of time. Glad this issue was looked into before someone thought of this. As for inventory: Yay!!!!!!!!! <3

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 01:29am


	As long as my inventory doesn't take like half an hour, I don't care! As long as it loads, period sweatdrop

Kathleen Starr
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France Hopper
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 02:12am


	Bloody hell that's a lot of stuff. I'll start with the biggies: Item norm beta - finally! Captcha improvements - awesome; interested in seeing how they turn out Battle - any possible release date? Sig limits up - Woot! Nice to see urls not counted anymore. But that doesn't mean I'm going to try and stuff more into mine. New inventories - should be interesting, any screenshots? One other thing I noticed, despite haven't "Remember me" checked, I've been forced to login some times, particularly last week. Were you guys doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff? So far it hasn't become an annoyance, rather a little flag "Oh wonder what changed this time?" Sounds like you got a pretty big load there so I'll end now. Hope you get some time to relax. Captcha: home Moorhead

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 02:52am


	Item Norm? Did I miss something?

Ginji of Thunder
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dBEf-GAEc-18E-BBAf
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 03:00am


	Item Norm hit beta?! AWESOME! scream

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 03:04am


	Yay! New Inventory pages!!!!!!!!! Thank you Panagrammic dear for all your hard work 4laugh !!!!!!!!! Sorry to bother you about this, but in your last (I think?) journal entry you said that you had fixed the problem of not being able to sell back to the store from your inventory arranger. I've been checking every couple of days to see if it's working or not...but so far tis a no go (I still always get the error message) sad . Would you mind looking into that? Thank you very much! ~Azurae Skye

Azurae Skye
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Chocobo Princess
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 03:34am


	It's clearly been a busy time for your department, and now we are finally seeing some results of your hard work! Way to go, team! domokun Way to go, Fieryange1, with the pagination idea; great thought! blaugh Ooo, hints of big event for the summer . . . whee I can hardly wait, as usual! xd

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 03:34am


	@Ginji of Thunder: Item norm has been mentioned in some previous entries but see especially the journal entry by DARKNRGY about it. @Azurae Skye: we have an arranger fix going out this Tuesday that should take care of sellback problems, I'm hoping.

Panagrammic
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Smaddy
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 05:28am


	Lots of good changes, yay! 4laugh I'll be very happy when the selling-from-Inventory is working again. The counter on Signatures is great, too. Now I need to find some time to finally update mine. (Captcha says, "tongue upon". Oh my! xd )

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 05:40am


	[♦] [♥] [♦] ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ I want to cry now I'm so happy T ^T.Thanks for the update as usual heart . Shameless Edit:I feel for the developers and artists getting their workload increase,but the hard work is post appreciated.Also,I hope item norm fixes the problems with the customizer not loading when you have x amount of items in your inventory.Btw,Panagrammic, that link you posted to DARKNRGY's entry doesn't work,but this one should. ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ [♥] [♦] [♥]

Makoto_Gin
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XDmaster4
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 06:54am


	when i click the journall links i get redirected to my own jorunall sweatdrop i also like to know what item norm is

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 08:30am


	I can't remember the last time that I was given a captcha in the forums. xP It's been awhile. I think it's pretty spiffy that you're able to make them appear less often to those special humans. <3 XD I'm glad that someone is looking into the Arranger Sell Back feature. I miss it... and keep trying it to see if it's fixed. sweatdrop It's just so handy! <3 Yay item norm <3

Ginger Flare
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Queensnw
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 05:07pm


	Yay for new inventories! I can't wait the old one to go away. Both of the links that I click on for the item norm just leads me back to my own journal. Is that a security thing? How do you know that I am not a bot with AI, hmmm? I could be collecting data about you humans so I can take over the world!!! <.<

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 05:27pm


	Congrats to all the devs for item norm going beta, and thanks for the sig limit increase. You guys are awesome. Don't work too hard. Remember to take frequent bathroom breaks and stay hydrated. xd Excited about battle!

AlexDitto
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Jiang Ryudo
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Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 09:46pm


	All sounds like awesome stuff to me! Thanks to all you devs for doing your best to make the site a better place to be. I don't mind the CAPTCHA's purely because they make me laugh and they are a problem for bots, but I can see how they could be annoying to others. In any case, keep working hard and roll on inventory system! Hooray! heart

Commented on: Mon Jun 09, 2008 @ 09:54pm


	can't wait for the inventory sell back to start working again. awesome improvement list.

vix diesel
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Lazarus Larkin
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Commented on: Tue Jun 10, 2008 @ 12:32am


	You guys should chill when it comes to Battle. We've lived five years without Battle; nobody's gonna explode if we have to wait a little longer. In fact I know I'm not alone in thinking the site doesn't even particularly need Battle sweatdrop

Commented on: Tue Jun 10, 2008 @ 01:47am


	Thanks for the update, Pan. smile I'm really looking forward to both the summer event and battle. smile

Morteana
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Werty-kun
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Commented on: Tue Jun 10, 2008 @ 04:52am


	Hey Panagrammic, remember that PSP sending PMs problem? Well, it kinda magically got fixed! lol ~pan You are the best! lol If it stops working again, I'll let you know. Thanks a lot! lol

Commented on: Tue Jun 10, 2008 @ 02:08pm


	ღI'm so happy for the siggy changes! I'll have to thank omgwhat in a few. On another note. I'm having a problem with giving comments in the profiles. I don't know who to speak to about this, so I'll just let you know. ^.^; I don't know how long this has been going on. I've only started using the comment system a month ago. But, for some reason my script isn't working. Just as you see in this comment, I have a picture at the top and a nice green color for mah text. Well, when I post a comment in someones profile, all I get to see is:. Quote: <div style="text-align center"><strong> <span style="color #FA0042">ღ</span><span style="color #569B6E">Test comment</span><span style="color #FA0042">.</span> </strong></div>

Digital Puppetry
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How so Joe
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Commented on: Tue Jun 10, 2008 @ 02:30pm


	There may be plenty of fish in the sea Yay for item norm, new inventory arrangement and for sig limits! I've the same problem as cipher cake though, with my formatting and profile comments. My pictures don't show up either. =[ All I get is this code (see below) Instead of how it should show up, like it does in this comment! <div style="width: 100%; text-align:left;"> There may be plenty of fish in the sea</div> Random text, blah blah blah... <div style="width: 100%; text-align:right;"> but who really wants to date a fish?</div> but who really wants to date a fish?

Commented on: Wed Jun 11, 2008 @ 12:04am


	hmm was there something fixed or fiddled with Monday morning? I've been having trouble logging in with internet explorer since then.

Sweet Angel Mary
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Lady Rebellion
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Commented on: Wed Jun 11, 2008 @ 01:03am


	---appropriately strong does not mean "naruto"--- I love you. xD Any news on the Arena's yet and are you guys seriously planning on an auto post formatter??? D: I would love away to kill the post styles if you did and if it it at all possible or at least put some restrictions on them. sweatdrop A lot of us really don't like them at all.

Commented on: Wed Jun 11, 2008 @ 12:13pm


	I'll second that. I've got a fast connection at the home but when I'm on elsewhere I notice a bit of difference. The formating seems to slow down loading comments and such and can be hard on the eyes (especially on a POS CRT.) I voted drop them but if some restrictions on put on them, that might work. That or make a strip formatting when browsing the forums option in your profile (yes I know sigs and such can go off. That helps a bit.) Just my 2 cents. Fulton honors (one that makes a bit of sense lol)

France Hopper
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Nobara
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Commented on: Wed Jun 11, 2008 @ 03:01pm


	If pagination of inventories works anything like it does in stores or on the MP, I don't like it. I have probably 1300 items. I dont know how many items there would be per page, but unless it was like 100 I wouldn't like it. I probably have 200 items just in the accessory tab. If there's say 20 items per page (I think that's how it is in the stores) that means I'd have 10 pages of accessories I'd have to scroll through. And paging through my inventory to sell things back in stores is slow enough, I don't want that while I'm trying to make an outfit. I like being able to see all of my stuff in a catagory at once. Or at least I hope there'd be a button to show all. Like when you access your inventory not through the dress-up page. Or maybe you've been talking about that all along, and not the dress-up page. If its just the 'my stuff' page, I guess that'd be okay.

Commented on: Wed Jun 11, 2008 @ 11:18pm


	I am fascinated and intrigued. Especially by the faster loading times, and the item norm. I don't mind Captcha, it's fun <3 The one below either says "foi Maher" or "For Maher" FOR MAHER INDEED!

Cleocatra
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France Hopper
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Commented on: Thu Jun 12, 2008 @ 02:33am


	Hey it appears Towns maybe be a little bugged up. In the gold bar I'm getting "-3 User not" I'm guessing that would go on if the box was big enough. EDIT: It happens after I bump something and get gold from it. Pretty funny error. Car Yates EDIT 6-12: ROFL. I take it, Pan, that the label friends was that chat with friends thing? Nice announcement too. But why can't we make our own labels?

Commented on: Fri Jun 13, 2008 @ 06:04am


	Quote: ... and we're requiring every account to have a unique e-mail. Yeeeeah... Coulda sworn it had always been like that. Quite the headache when you have mules, incidentally. Quote: ... now, someone trying to hack into your account should block them from trying more than 5 times, but should not block you from being able to log in. Finally!! It literally took me over a month to get back into one of my accounts because of this problem. Quote: - You may have noticed that we increased the signature limits the other day, or, at least, don't count URLs against the signature limits. Thanks to omgwhat for increasing the limits and adding the nifty character counter in there. This is fan-bloody-tastic! Trying to pull off even simple signatures in the past has never been easy; this will help a lot. biggrin Quote: - New inventory pages should roll out soon, hopefully this coming week. Yes yes yes!! biggrin biggrin biggrin

CooperationIsKey
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Cube B
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Commented on: Sun Jun 15, 2008 @ 01:12am


	Oh! I was wondering if you'd read my thread? It's Copypastable if you don't like links. http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/site-feedback/npc-talk-because-one-sided-conversations-are-boring/t.41006775/

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