SMF Newsletter - 2

July 08, 2006, 08:45:14 AM Posted by Trekkie101 on July 08, 2006, 08:45:14 AM in SMF Newsletter - 2 | 34 Comments
Its been a while and there hasn't been much of an update to the newsletter and no new releases but I'd like to assure you all that everything has majorly sped up around Simple Machines. Exams and work have taken a toll on most of our team lately but thats close to the end and everyones starting to come back at full speed and later on I shall talk about some of the new developments.

Get to know the team is nearing completion, and with nearly all volunteer's exausted we'd like to know what you want to see next, within reason ofcourse :P

You know those little bots that crawl the net with the bugging attitude of registering and posting as many junk links as they can? Well they've really started to make an advance on SMF communitys and to counter it we now have a captcha system. You may be thinking its taken a while to come to existance but we took it a step further and have an audio version to make sure we never compromise on accessability, it just isn't something we are prepared to do. Not everyone likes captcha, so in the admin panel you can turn it off.

Many cultures use SMF, and with that many languages are needed and we're happy to say that we support 31 languages, now in UTF-8 format. We ofcourse would love to expand so if you know a language we don't have and are willing to translate for us, please do tell us :)

Theres a small group of beta testers who are on the edge of their seat with burning news thats coming very soon, too big for this newsletter ;) so keep watching SimpleMachines to see whats under wraps. RC3 is almost ready to make an appearance to the public. RC3 will be the last RC before 1.1 Final. Since its often requested for a release date, I can now say as long as their are now major problems it's due out within the month.

TinyPortal has had an issue with its shoutbox, with its big user base it usually appears as though SMF has been hacked, we assure you it is not an SMF issue, and their is now a patch for TinyPortal available to fix this issue.

Server Problems, it really hasn't been our best month for server reliability, again it's not an SMF issue but rather a server configuration problem that we have been experiencing, we are stedily getting to the end of the problems and we are sorry for the problems it causes.

To be finished, checked, proof read and all that jazz later.

Comments


Compuart on July 08, 2006, 09:00:13 AM said
Wohoo, a new newsletter :D

Maybe a nice addition would be a link to an interview with a few team members.

Also it would be nice to add something about the internationalization. Something like

As of 1.1 RC3 Simple Machine Forum will have full support of UTF-8, the character set containing almost all characters known to exist. Anticipating the release of 1.1 RC3, we have converted simplemachines.org to UTF-8 and added all downloadable languages to a dropdown menu on the upper right corner of the default theme.

Amacythe on July 08, 2006, 09:01:50 AM said
Its been a while and there hasn't been much of an update to the newsletter and no new releases but I'd like to assure you all that everything has sped up around Simple Machines. Exams and work have taken a toll on most of our team lately but thats close to the end and everyone's starting to come back to full speed.

Get to know the team is nearing completion, and with nearly all volunteer's exausted we'd like to know what you want to see next, within reason of course :P

You know those little bots that crawl the net with the bugging attitude of registering and posting as many junk links as they can? Well they've really started to make an advance on SMF communities.  To counter it we now have a CAPTCHA system. You may be thinking its taken a while to come to existance, but we took it a step further and have an audio version to make sure we never compromise on accessability.  Not everyone likes captcha, so there is an option in the admin control panel which allows you to turn it off.

Many cultures use SMF, and with that many languages are needed and we're happy to say that we support 31 languages and will be adding number 32 shortly.  As of 1.1 RC3 Simple Machine Forum will have full support of UTF-8, the character set containing almost all characters known to exist. Anticipating the release of 1.1 RC3, we have converted simplemachines.org to UTF-8 and added all downloadable languages to a dropdown menu on the upper right corner of the default theme.  We of course would love to expand so if you know a language we don't have and are willing to translate for us, please do tell us :)

There's a small group of beta testers who are on the edge of their seat with burning news thats coming very soon, too big for this newsletter ;) so keep watching SimpleMachines to see whats under wraps. RC3 is almost ready to make an appearance to the public. RC3 is expected to be the last RC before 1.1 Final. Since its often requested for a release date, I can now say as long as there are no major problems, RC3 should be out within the month.

TinyPortal has had an issue with its shoutbox, with its big user base it usually appears as though SMF has been hacked, we assure you it is not an SMF issue, and their is now a patch for TinyPortal available to fix this issue. Add a link.

Server Problems.  It really hasn't been our best month for server reliability, again it's not an SMF issue but rather a server configuration problem that we have been experiencing, we are steadily getting to the end of the problems and we are sorry for the problems it causes.  Although we are proud to say we've grown more than we expected to when we got our new main server last November, that is no excuse.  We have attempted to plan ahead for even more growth and use that information to replace our main server very soon.

Proofed while still half asleep and added a few additional comments not including those Compuart suggested.

Dannii on July 08, 2006, 09:02:55 AM said
CAPTCHA is an acronym, so it should be capitalised.

Looks good. some more detail would be better, and more links.

Grudge on July 08, 2006, 09:03:51 AM said
I think the language needs cleaning up a bit (In particular the use of ofcourse) but sounds good.

EDIT: Looks like Amy may of cleaned it up :)

Amacythe on July 08, 2006, 09:06:57 AM said
Yes, I may HAVE cleaned it up, but I'll have to read it again when I'm awake.  Two and a half hours of sleep isn't enough for me on a weekend and I HATE waking up before the sun comes up.

* Amacythe crawls back to bed

Compuart on July 08, 2006, 09:13:08 AM said
Oops, I read too fast, there was already an internationalization paragraph. Hmm, maybe the two paragraphs can be merged ;D


H on July 08, 2006, 12:40:08 PM said
Looks good to me.

Could we post this newsletter in general support or general discussion and feedback?

The users who are moaning are the users that don't seem to look in the general boards

Trekkie101 on July 09, 2006, 11:24:10 AM said
Its been a while and there hasn't been much of an update to the newsletter and no new releases but I'd like to assure you all that everything has sped up around Simple Machines. Exams and work have taken a toll on most of our team lately but thats close to the end and everything is nearly at full speed once again.

Get to know the team is nearing completion, and with nearly all volunteers exhausted we'd like to know what you want to see next, within reason of course  :P. For those intrested in a more formal set of interviews I'd like to point you to a recent set taken by the AdminFusion Community featuring Amacythe, Thantos, Compuart, and David.

You know those little bots that crawl the net with the bugging attitude of registering and posting as many junk links as they can? Well they've really started to make an advance on SMF communities.  To counter it we now have a CAPTCHA system. You may be thinking its taken a while to come to existence, but we took it a step further and have an audio version to make sure we never compromise on accessability.  Not everyone likes CAPTCHA, so there is an option in the admin control panel which allows you to turn it off.

Many cultures use SMF, and with that, many languages are needed and we're happy to say that we support 31 languages and will be adding number 32 shortly.  As of SMF 1.1RC3 will have full support of UTF-8, the character set containing almost all characters known to exist. Anticipating the release of 1.1 RC3, we have converted simplemachines.org to UTF-8 and added all downloadable languages to a dropdown menu on the upper right corner of the default theme.  We of course would love to expand so if you know a language we don't have and are willing to translate for us, please do tell us :)

There's a small group of beta testers who are on the edge of their seat with burning news thats coming very soon, too big for this newsletter ;) so keep watching Simple Machines to see whats under wraps. RC3 is almost ready to make an appearance to the public. RC3 is expected to be the last RC before 1.1 Final. Since its often requested for a release date, I can now say as long as there are no major problems, RC3 should be out within the month.

TinyPortal has had an issue with its shoutbox causing a security hole, as the mod is widely installed it is often mistaken for an SMF issue, we assure it is not, the issue itself is not harmful and will not cause dataloss, but please do apply the patch that is now available from TinyPortal.

Server Problems. It really hasn't been our best month for server reliability, again it's not an SMF issue but rather a server configuration problem that we have been experiencing, we are steadily getting to the end of the problems and we are sorry for the inconvenience it causes.  Although we are proud to say we've grown more than we expected to when we got our new main server last November, that is no excuse.  We have attempted to plan ahead for even more growth and use that information to replace our main server very soon.

codenaught on July 09, 2006, 11:36:10 AM said
"team lately but thats close"
that's (that is)

"As of SMF 1.1RC3 will have full support"
As of SMF 1.1RC3, SMF (1.1) will have full support (?)

"Anticipating the release of 1.1 RC3"
Is it 1.1 RC3 or 1.1RC3? Use only one.

"We of course would love to expand so if you"
Comma? - We of course would love to expand, so if you

"RC3 is expected to be the last RC before 1.1 Final"
I'd not abbreviate: RC3 is expected to be the last release candidate before 1.1 Final

"the issue itself is not harmful and will not cause dataloss"
'Loss of data' may sound more familiar.

"Server Problems. It really hasn't been our best month for server reliability"
Drop the 'Server Problems' intro, it is not a heading. Maybe replace it with, 'You may have noticed some problems with our server recently'

Thantos on July 09, 2006, 12:16:12 PM said
Quote"RC3 is expected to be the last RC before 1.1 Final"
Do we really want to go down that road again?

Compuart on July 09, 2006, 12:31:02 PM said
It just has to be the last RC :P

Thantos on July 09, 2006, 12:33:06 PM said
Yeah but what if it blows up like RC2 did?  We'd seem like even bigger fools if we keep going "no no this one will be the last RC.  Oh wait, nope we need another."

Why corner ourselves if we don't need to?

That said it better be the last RC :)

Compuart on July 09, 2006, 12:41:41 PM said
Even if there were a need for an RC4, imho we shouldn't do it. We should just stick to the final and hope it'll be as bugfree as it'll get.

Trekkie101 on July 09, 2006, 12:43:04 PM said
Quote from: Thantos on July 09, 2006, 12:33:06 PM
Yeah but what if it blows up like RC2 did?  We'd seem like even bigger fools if we keep going "no no this one will be the last RC.  Oh wait, nope we need another."

Why corner ourselves if we don't need to?

That said it better be the last RC :)
Well then make a developent plan and stick to it and we won't need to worry ;) We've only underestimated the cycle once, we dont have a habit of it, and passing that on just makes sure that everyone knows we are very close to going final. :)

Grudge on July 09, 2006, 12:43:34 PM said
Quote from: Compuart on July 09, 2006, 12:41:41 PM
Even if there were a need for an RC4, imho we shouldn't do it. We should just stick to the final and hope it'll be as bugfree as it'll get.
Agreed - otherwise 2.0 will be coming out before 1.1 goes final.

Thantos on July 09, 2006, 12:44:43 PM said
I still say we should move to Google's development cycle :P

Trekkie101 on July 09, 2006, 12:48:15 PM said
Its been a while and there hasn't been much of an update to the newsletter and no new releases but I'd like to assure you all that everything has sped up around Simple Machines. Exams and work have taken a toll on most of our team lately but that's close to the end and everything is nearly at full speed once again.

Get to know the team is nearing completion, and with nearly all volunteers exhausted we'd like to know what you want to see next, within reason of course  :P. For those intrested in a more formal set of interviews I'd like to point you to a recent set taken by the AdminFusion Community featuring Amacythe, Thantos, Compuart, and David.

You know those little bots that crawl the net with the bugging attitude of registering and posting as many junk links as they can? Well they've really started to make an advance on SMF communities.  To counter it we now have a CAPTCHA system. You may be thinking its taken a while to come to existence, but we took it a step further and have an audio version to make sure we never compromise on accessability.  Not everyone likes CAPTCHA, so there is an option in the admin control panel which allows you to turn it off.

Many cultures use SMF, and with that, many languages are needed and we're happy to say that we support 31 languages and will be adding number 32 shortly.  As of SMF 1.1 RC3 we have full support of UTF-8, the character set containing almost all characters known to exist. Anticipating the release of 1.1 RC3, we have converted simplemachines.org to UTF-8 and added all downloadable languages to a dropdown menu on the upper right corner of the default theme.  We of course would love to expand, so if you know a language we don't have and are willing to translate for us, please do tell us :)

There's a small group of beta testers who are on the edge of their seat with burning news thats coming very soon, too big for this newsletter ;) so keep watching Simple Machines to see whats under wraps. RC3 is almost ready to make an appearance to the public. RC3 is expected to be the last release candidate before 1.1 Final. Since its often requested for a release date, I can now say as long as there are no major problems, RC3 should be out within the month.

TinyPortal has had an issue with its shoutbox causing a security hole, as the mod is widely installed it is often mistaken for an SMF issue, we assure it is not, the issue itself is not harmful and will not cause a loss of data, but please do apply the patch that is now available from TinyPortal.

It really hasn't been our best month for server reliability, again it's not an SMF issue but rather a server configuration problem that we have been experiencing, we are steadily getting to the end of the problems and we are sorry for the inconvenience it causes.  Although we are proud to say we've grown more than we expected to when we got our new main server last November, that is no excuse.  We have attempted to plan ahead for even more growth and use that information to replace our main server very soon.




Quote"Anticipating the release of 1.1 RC3"
Is it 1.1 RC3 or 1.1RC3? Use only one.

That was due to Amy and I writing different parts, I changed my version to 1.1 RC3 to increase readbility :) The rest are all now changed



Amacythe on July 09, 2006, 03:00:35 PM said
It sould be 1.1 RC3.  It was a typo due to the fact that I was still asleep dead :P

Trekkie101 on July 09, 2006, 05:04:03 PM said
Quote from: Amacythe on July 09, 2006, 03:00:35 PM
It sould be 1.1 RC3.  It was a typo due to the fact that I was still asleep dead :P

oops I wasn't clear, I had it wrong, still half asleep but double as brilliant :P

H on July 10, 2006, 07:59:43 AM said
QuoteTinyPortal has had an issue with its shoutbox causing a security hole, as the mod is widely installed it is often mistaken for an SMF issue, we assure it is not, the issue itself is not harmful and will not cause dataloss, but please do apply the patch that is now available from TinyPortal.

Are with for or against publicly supporting mods?

One moment we are against TP and the next we have it in the newsletters  :-\

Aaron on July 10, 2006, 08:09:38 AM said
I guess that's only logical, because some people blamed SMF making the exploits possible. Thus I do think it's not a bad thing to put it in the newsletter. :)

H on July 10, 2006, 08:33:48 AM said
QuoteI guess that's only logical, because some people blamed SMF making the exploits possible. Thus I do think it's not a bad thing to put it in the newsletter.

I don't disagree with it being I just think we need to agree on a unified stance.

Offtopic: we should have a security portal with quick links to exploit fixes

Trekkie101 on July 10, 2006, 10:26:04 AM said
Quote from: huwnet on July 10, 2006, 08:33:48 AM
QuoteI guess that's only logical, because some people blamed SMF making the exploits possible. Thus I do think it's not a bad thing to put it in the newsletter.

I don't disagree with it being I just think we need to agree on a unified stance.

Offtopic: we should have a security portal with quick links to exploit fixes

Originally it had mention to the large user base of the mod, which was my reasoning for including it. If the arcade had a huge exploit that was harming SMF forums, id do the same for it.

bloc on July 10, 2006, 05:40:36 PM said
Quote from: huwnet on July 10, 2006, 08:33:48 AM
QuoteI guess that's only logical, because some people blamed SMF making the exploits possible. Thus I do think it's not a bad thing to put it in the newsletter.

I don't disagree with it being I just think we need to agree on a unified stance.

Offtopic: we should have a security portal with quick links to exploit fixes
A security portal? as in a news site/page for exploits in mods...?

Amacythe on July 10, 2006, 11:08:26 PM said
I like the idea of a sticky topic/board/site.  I think we should only list the links to FIX mods that are known to have problems.  If we show there is another mod that hasn't been fixed, we are inviting everyone to abuse that flaw.

Trekkie101 on July 11, 2006, 07:15:43 AM said
Quote from: Amacythe on July 10, 2006, 11:08:26 PM
I like the idea of a sticky topic/board/site.  I think we should only list the links to FIX mods that are known to have problems.  If we show there is another mod that hasn't been fixed, we are inviting everyone to abuse that flaw.

I like that idea and would be willing to help :)

Although its not really our responsibility it would do a lot for our reputation. :)

Trekkie101 on July 12, 2006, 10:41:55 AM said
Any problems with the newsletter, could I hear about them now?

I'd like to launch it very soon, also ideas on where to put it?

Aaron on July 12, 2006, 10:44:28 AM said
Quote from: Trekkie101 on July 12, 2006, 10:41:55 AM
Any problems with the newsletter, could I hear about them now?

I don't have any problems with it. :)

Quote from: Trekkie101 on July 12, 2006, 10:41:55 AM
I'd like to launch it very soon, also ideas on where to put it?

A sticky in Chit Chat, like the previous newsletter? That's where most people will look for it now. Perhaps mention its existence in the news bar?

Compuart on July 12, 2006, 10:55:51 AM said
What Aäron said.

Amacythe on July 12, 2006, 12:20:14 PM said
Post it. :)

and thanks for writing it.

H on July 12, 2006, 03:01:57 PM said
Please put this in GD and Feedback not chit chat.

The whiners don't visit General Chat

Thantos on July 12, 2006, 03:29:31 PM said
Chit Chat is a better fit since thats where we've put the previous, the get to know topics, and other general info type of topics.

If someone doesn't want to visit it then they can't be linked or shut the heck up.

Trekkie101 on July 12, 2006, 05:24:55 PM said
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=99091.0

Its up :)

Someone want to add it to the board news?


Thantos on July 12, 2006, 05:31:48 PM said
Done
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