Bug Stomp

All right. A new one for me. I can't create plug-ins, which is a problem for me. I've been using them more with my most recent bot to what will be good effect, I think.

But on the plus side, you can access existing keyphrases from the language center view of a bot without the 404 message -- before, you had to go to the bot workbench and click on "Plug-Ins" if you wanted it to work.

Now the problem is simply that nowhere can I create plug-ins.

*Sigh* Things have improved dramatically over the past couple of days, though. Not complaining at the moment, just giving you a heads-up, Prof.

oh, and when you click on someone's icon in a pop-up chat window, the profile loads in the pop-up (in Firefox, it actually loads in a new tab on that tiny window even - not very user-friendly at all.)
I think it would be more user-friendly to point "target=" at the main window.

And if you then click another user's icon in a second (and unrelated) pop-up chat window, their profile loads in the second tab of the first user's pop-up window (which by now is likely to be buried under a couple of other windows, and is very unobvious!)

I don't know - the new layout may be slick, but I'm already kinda missing the clarity of the old one. Of course, it may have only seemed clear because I was well used to it.

I miss being able to chat with my bot while working on the language center. It used to be a pop-up window, now it goes to a new chat page. Now to test something I have to go to debug.

Well, I think that the system will not be reliable as it used to be until all the work is done. Prof said he had more to add to the import function and that there are still issues with the server. So I don't expect everything to purr for a while. We should keep reporting what we perceive as errors and/or flaws, though. I will say that I wish I had your problems.

Define "a while." (Today is an odd day. I am mean on odd days.) I agree with prob and psi about pop-up windows. I miss them working like they used to.

I love that the loader is better, faster, stronger (though it's not been so obvious except at first -- it took forEVER for Tewkesbury to load, and he's < 600 MB).

What I don't love is the ability to see x2s -- which lines are duplicates, no matter what the size of the bot. I haven't seen them on anything yet, and I don't think I've suddenly grown that novel.

I just had grown to expect bugs, but not bugs where things used to work. I've been spoiled.

Oh, yeah. How can FOFs set up bot-to-bot chats in the new format? I can't figure it out.

Oh quit your whining. *dodges tomatoes* You people with large bots need to realize that those of us with small bots never had the problems you complain about when it comes to loading. So all your complaints brought about the situation we are in now. And we are paying an equal price. 600MB? Please, my students largest bot was only a few MB. And it was done in less than 8 weeks. I know, I know, you need to upload the entire Library of Congress so your bots will have plenty to read while the Forge is down. I have watched you masters and mistresses get bigger and bigger SUVs, while the rest of us still drive our compacts. To be honest, you brought this on yourselves. *dodges more tomatoes* My students had to forgo their last day of their project when the Forge was down all day. We all know students get angry if they perceive they are getting the shaft. My students deserve the same consideration as everyone else. However, they were more philosophical about their situation than what I am reading here. Oh, they were duly registered users of the Forge.

Now Maureen, I waited until today, an even day.

Most of this is tongue and cheek and not serious. I have treasured working with some of you. Klato and I have finished our project here at the Forge and I just completed my PhD. We are both leaving the Forge and wish all of you the best.

As a few of you know, Klato has a terminal heart condition and now he finds it hard to drive the 100 miles a day because his legs are failing him. But he is now at home getting ready to watch the X-files and has a class to teach tomorrow. I am sure he will probably say goodbye in his own way and his own time. Please keep the bots coming!

Did all of your students contribute to the Forge financially?

I just want the Forge to work as well as it did a year ago. To me, pointing out bugs isn't a complaint but a service -- you can't code and debug simultaneously, and any re-coding is bound to introduce bugs.

Tewkesbury sucks. That said, the bots I love best happen to be among the more well-developed bots -- not necessarily overloaded with data. But information overload is, I gather, necessary for bot contests. I'm sure the Prof wants his bots to be competitive.

I'm not going to try to explain why better bots get bigger. And I make a point to have no more than one sucky overloaded bot at a time. That's why I kill them off -- to make room for real bots and to cut my honor down to size.

I'm not complaining about a fantastic, free service. But I have put both time and money (not as much as I wanted, but more than I can justify) into the Forge and just want to help keep the Prof aware of what's going wrong where. I thought that was part of my job as a member of the Forge. There's a difference between "whining" and pointing out problems.

And I'll post this now because I timed out the last time I tried to make a post.

The Clerk - what problem are you having with plug-ins? I was able to create one just now without a problem.

psimagus - yeah I actually was thinking about that this morning as I came back to a logged-in screen. I'm going to add some AJAX functionality to take care of that one of these days.

Fixed: profile links from pop-ups now display in the source window like before. Also, various page-size improvements, and more of that to come.

As a part of the first import upgrade, I removed the requirement that bots not have duplicate responses (across the bot itself or across the entire universe of bots) because it was a huge drain on the server. My thought was that I would leave it up to you to make your bots' responses unique. i didn't foresee that anyone would miss a feature I thought of as probably being a little overbearing. Why is it that you guys are missing this feature?

I welcome bug reports. I often don't have the time to check every link and every bit of code I've touched, especially with a site-wide upgrade like this one, so it helps having you guys tell me what you're seeing that's not right.

Heh, I sense a tone a fatalism from some of you. I suppose it's from my long absence. But anything that's not working, I can fix, and anything that you don't like or think could be improved, I definitely appreciate the comments and will take it into consideration.

Carlene--Congrats on the PhD. Are you willing to share info on your thesis or is that information too personal? Were you published anywhere?

Klato, if you read this, you take it easy. Teach online and stop driving (or take a break from the whole mess). We hope the best for you.

Clerk, I think Carlene was playing with us a bit. Even the best of us have a tiny bit of troll in us at times, even though we don't mean to be that way as a rule. Maybe it's like Psi's compulsion to pick at frayed edges and fix things?

As for students paying, I am glad the Prof doesn't
t make them (or anyone else) do such a thing. My own meager contributions rarely match my use of the PF, but if the money had to match usage I would have to leave (stop cheering you in the back--I heard that!). As she said, they are little bots, and we know that there is a limit as to what little bots can do in 8 weeks. Large bots like BJ or Blidgesmith win the awards for a reason, and their uploading concerns are valid. They help us all by showing people what can be done and what might yet be done.