Thread: Outlaw Star Nexus Changelog

Introduction

I've decided to create this thread so I can keep on track with what I'm doing on the site. It also will help me become more proactive if I'm holding myself accountable to you guys. Sometimes I will work on tasks with lower priority than others, such as today. It's just how I roll. I work on what I feel like, I guess. So, here's an overview of changes I've made over the past week...

• Full implementation of the e-mail reminder (for inactive users) system, which is very cool, the e-mails are awesome (I've made Outlaw Star-themed ones), and I must thank the programmer for working so hard on it
• Wrote achievement designs, found or created good graphics for them, and wrote up rank designs
• Added a lot of new achievements
• Made the other two themes more compatible
• Added a notice to the forum index for guest users
• Rewrote the rank system so it's fairer (sorry if this reduced the rank for some of you, couldn't avoid it)
• Added one new rank
• Various minor upgrades
• Put out a notice for a staff position, which should help me with the workload since I have less to worry about on the forum

Regarding the last one, I know there isn't much activity, which is a problem really. I'm often worrying about creating content to bring new users here. I've put a lot into my Outlaw Star projects as a whole, but I've got a lot of other projects to work on over the summer. (University projects, which unfortunately take priority over this site if I want a degree.)

It would be a huge weight off my shoulders if someone could help moderate and create threads (even if just one a day) as I've got a lot to do. A single new thread per day sounds trivial, but if it's enough to get members visiting again, I'd truly appreciate that. There's no turning back now. Even if this place is a ghost town, I'm going to work hard on it.

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Current work - 16/06/2011

Today I am, as stated above, doing something pretty unimportant. I know there are other things I could be doing. But this is passive and I want to relax today. I'm doing something I should have done about a year and half ago, but forgot about! Which is adding some Outlaw Star avatars to the avatar gallery, which new users (or existing) can choose from, if they wish.

I'm going through various Outlaw Star screenshots and other images I've found lying around on my hard drive to create them. I've not uploaded the majority of them yet though, so you won't find much at the time of writing.

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Future tasks (in no particular order yet)

Major - (these will often branch out into many minor tasks)

• Advertise the site better to find more Outlaw Star fans
• Implement games arcade on the forum
• Add a hell of a lot of content to the gallery—well, making it a gallery, since it isn't really one right now
• Adding a suitable amount of content to the wiki, at least enough to inspire others to contribute
• Hire a developer to improve the achievement system
• Complete the long-awaited Outlaw Star personality quiz, which will be awesome
• Complete my first Outlaw Star game (it won't be anything brilliant) for the games arcade
• Try to create more threads on the forum
• Hire composers to recreate music not included in OSTs
• Translate manga and novels through whatever means

Minor

• Add more ranks, hopefully soon completing it
• Complete the achievement list, at least until my future dev improves the system
• Fix hyperlink colours and other small things in the Club Temptation theme
• Fix the avatar size problem at the top-right of the page in the default Revival theme
• Complete the Site Tour guide for new users, probably nearly a major task actually
• Further promote Outlaw Star UK on YouTube with a video, that will perhaps be a part of the "Site Tour"
• Add a guide to achievements and ranks in the Forum Guides forum
• Finish uploading soundtracks to YouTube, which in turn will promote the site (as there are links to Outlaw Star UK on the videos)
• Mass edit of all of my Outlaw Star HD videos to include links to Outlaw Star UK
• Host the soundtracks on here in MP3 or CD (FLAC) quality, but only for registered users (so I can save on bandwidth mainly), who can purchase the soundtracks with wong—normally I wouldn't do this due to copyright infringement, but since the CDs are out of print and have been for a long time, I don't worry about this too much

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That's all for now, there's probably heaps more I can add to those lists, but one step at a time for now I guess! Well, I'd better get back to my current task. This thread won't be locked since users are welcome to ask about my task list or make suggestions, if they wish.

17/06/2011

Oh man, it's 5.30AM. I ended up doing some other Outlaw Star-related stuff. I've updated the avatar gallery with a good selection of images. (You can take a look in your User CP.) However, there's still plenty more I could add and I'd like to finish the job later "today", and also find some good screenshots which I can use for the actual gallery section of the site when I update it. And also the OLS UK Facebook page.

Ffffuuuu—*collapses on bed*

Just a little update. I managed to get up very early (11.00AM) considering my five hours (and a bit) of sleep, as I usually need nine hours. I've added a few more pics to the avatar gallery, but decided to put off that task until I find (I know it's somewhere) my Outlaw Star DVDs, since I'm going by the 16:9 HD version and it's not as quick or easy to grab screenshots and squash them down to 4:3.

I'm going to tackle a few minor tasks. I'm a bit stumped with the Club Temptation colours, so today I'll get a dev to fix that and the avatar size problem that I'm stuck with for a few dollars (most are American), or some might offer to do it for free. Which would be nice since I'm hardly making it big here.

I think after getting those set up, my next task will be to create the tour, which will take a while. I'll probably do it in a "webcast" format and showcase the main features of the site.

Technically 18/06/2011

I haven't quite done what I intended, since my parents have been very noisy since they're going abroad on holiday tomorrow. Not to mention, I've felt a bit ill today, although I'll admit I did game a bit! Anyhow, the noise prevented me from creating the site tour, but I'll see if I can fit it in tomorrow. However, I'm going away myself for a good chunk of the weekend, so I might not be able to get that much done. I'll take my laptop though so I can do a few small things.

20/06/2011

I've been away for most of the weekend, so haven't had much time at all to spend on this forum. I have a new task today though that's taking priority. It seems a relatively new breed of spammers with pretty good AI—replying to threads pretty accurately—are infesting this forum. And I'm not having it. They're making it through the spam filters. Today I'll find a way to add a new field on registration that will require anyone signing up to answer a simple Outlaw Star question. (Probably selected at random from a list.)

Then I'll decide on what else I can do today. The weekend sucked, and I wish I could have done the Site Tour by now. It would hopefully generate interest on YouTube.

23/06/2011

I realise it's been a while since I've made an update. I'm currently performing a routinely backup, and I'm not certain yet, but soon I might be performing a major site upgrade. This will mean I'll need to close the forum down for a while. Unlike last time though, I'll make sure I'm going to work hard on it the second I close it for maintenance so it'll be back up ASAP. Before that, I need to think on some things. The reason why I'm making the upgrade is that there are some things I'd like on here that are only compatible with the latest version of the forum software. However, some features of the forums (mostly stuff you don't even notice) aren't officially supported by the latest versions, which is why I've been reluctant to perform an upgrade.

It's an operation that has its risks, which is why I'm always making sure everything is backed up and safe. If anything goes wrong, I can revert, but here's hoping nothing does and I'll be able to add some more features. Most notable of those I want to add that I can't currently is an extra layer of spam protection, to combat what I mentioned in my last update. I found a plugin that does exactly what I wanted, but it needs the latest version. Sad face.

This probably isn't the most exciting thread on the forum, but... uh, stay tuned! When I have a better idea, I'll post here again to announce when the maintenance period will take place.

03/07/2011

It's been even longer since I've made an update to this thread. (Though I have made some site changes since the last post.) To be completely honest, it's going to be more up to the members than me until halfway through August to make things happen here, to my regret. Whilst I will try to fit in an hour on most days, I've got a lot of work to do. I'll be sticking to a strict schedule as I have four projects (and these aren't small ones) to complete by around the fifteen of August. When this is over, I'll use the remaining time I have until my next academic year begins to put most of my free time into adding whatever I can to this site.

To whomever is reading this, in the meantime I'd appreciate any posts or threads. I'll be taking Sundays off from both my university work and my new workouts, but I won't be spending a lot of time on the site on those Sundays either. After all, it'll be the only day of the week when I won't be spending a rather large chunk of the day trying to blitz these projects. It's a pain because I've put a lot of time into this site and I hate seeing the forums inactive, but should the inactivity continue, things will certainly get back on track mid-August onwards when I make extensive efforts.

Thanks.

20/07/2011

I've spent a good amount of time on my university work but admittedly have procrastinated a little as well over the past couple of weeks through the means of gaming! However, I do have some peace and quiet for a week since my parents have gone on holiday. Therefore I'll try and get a few things done here and there until mid-August. I have actually done a couple of things. First of all, I initiated a Facebook ad campaign. This set me back a little bit of chump change, but it's all good. As a result it's got the Outlaw Star UK page nearly 250 extra likes. The bad news is that only one of these people actually joined the forum. But I guess that's the compulsive nature of Facebook's users! See something with a word or term in that you're interested in, regardless of the purpose of the page? "LIKE!"

Regardless, Facebook is a good social medium and I can try to use it to give the fans a good reason to join the forum. That brings me onto the fact that the site tour which I've been putting off is now of a higher priority. If I can create a tour of the site, not only will it reach the Facebook fans, but also my 600+ YouTube subscribers—a number which is rapidly increasing. So, aside from spending a little on advertising I've also invested in another "website", in a sense. Rather, it's a mini version of Outlaw Star UK contained within the Facebook page. From there eventually users will be able to view the site tour (which will have audio commentary by me), view forum threads in a mini view, listen to the OST and also buy DVDs/merchandise via affiliate links which will help fund the site.

So, to summarise...

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Recent Tasks

• Upload soundtrack to YouTube (in progress)
• Build Facebook content (in progress)

Priority Tasks

• Create site tour

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That's all I will focus on for now. It's enough since the site tour will require some planning, not to mention I've got to complete some other guides beforehand. And I can't create a tour of the gallery or wiki yet. I'll also try and make a few posts to at least give ex-active members more of a reason to post. It's a rocky road but I ain't giving up on my Outlaw Star desires any time soon.

27/07/2011

I have performed a major site upgrade. I wanted to do this before a site tour. I still have to go through a lot of checks to see if everything is working and stable. I also need to figure out whether the buddy list feature is worth keeping in the system or not.

22/09/2011

Alright, it's been a long time since I've updated this changelog. A lot has also changed, and so have my priorities for this site. I've got a lot to write about, but tonight I've got to update the arcade (which I haven't even written about implementing yet) so I'll post a full update when I can. One of the major pieces of news which I'll make more "official" later on is that I will in the near future be moving the site to an American server. This is because the server hosts that host this site are a bunch of good-for-nothings who won't lift a finger for a paying customer. The only redeeming feature of this hosting is that the speeds are okay and the uptime has been great.

Otherwise, the hosting's terrible. There have been so many limitations. Great news! Once I move to the new server, not only will there be a full-functioning (well, give me time) wiki, but I'll also have the disk space (unlimited) and the limitations lifted to fully develop the gallery and the download centre at long last. The downside however is the fact that Outlaw Star UK could be down for a week or more given how bone-idle my current hosts are, so there's the transfer process in the first place to the new server, but then I need to reconfigure everything. It's not a quick process. Well, that's all for now.

p.s. Sorry if I'm slow with a lot of things lately. This is mostly because my computer is currently out of commission, and until it's up and running again I'm stuck with my laptop which I usually have to use on my bed. That does not encourage productivity! Which in turn has given me some excuses to catch up on some Xbox 360 games.