Denise (![[staff profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small} denise) wrote in ![[site community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small} dw_news,@ 2010-05-19 11:09 pm UTC |
Greetings from the west coast! I apologize for the update being so late this week; I was traveling on Monday, got into town at around midnight, and then spent most of last night planning the panel discussions we're having today and tomorrow at the NCWIT summit here in Portland. This means I haven't had a whole lot of time to pull things together, but still, I'll try to cover what I can! (Next week's update shouldn't be so late.)
It's been a busy week in directions other than development, so we don't have a code tour for you this week yet -- we'll add it on to next week's. This week's patches were mostly styles-related -- minor CSS fixes and code cleanup -- but we also have a patch from![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kareila to implement the "show the community's userpic instead of the poster's userpic" preference, which is something that got overlooked in our revisions to the S2 programming language that journal styles are implemented in.
As usual, these patches aren't live yet -- we'll announce the next code push indw_maintenance when we're ready to release the new code. If you're ever wondering if a particular change that you've seen in Bugzilla or in a dw_dev code tour is live or not, check the Code Status page.
Meanwhile, for those who noticed that our "Dreamhack" hosted developer environment was down earlier in the week, it's fixed now! Sorry about that. The program has proven so popular that we ran out of memory on the machine-- we're making some changes to see if we can improve performance on the machine, and if we can't, we'll upgrade it.
As someone pointed out last week, I failed to mention how people should submit their artwork to be considered for vgifts! (Oops.) If you've got something you'd like to submit, you can send it to me at denise@dreamwidth.org. We're looking for gifts in all styles and genres, so send 'em on in.
Our Summer of Code students will be starting their projects this upcoming week! We've been spending the past few weeks getting them set up and settled, and next week begins the programming phase. As part of that, and in order to help out students have a good sense of what bits of their projects they should be prioritizing, we wanted to check in with you guys about what you'd like to see coming out of each project.
We've already asked about mobile and desktop clients, and the business statistics are something that you guys won't ever really see, but the other four could use your input.
(For all of these, please answer the questions in separate comments, and put the project you're giving feedback on in the title of the comment, in order to make it easiest for our students to find the feedback on what they're working on!)
This ischiming's project, and she'd like to know what you like and hate about the existing WYSIWYG/Rich Text editor (RTE). If you've got suggestions on this, please comment with:
* Whether you use the RTE as it is for updates or not. If you do use it, why do you use it? What pieces of it do you love? What things do you hate? Are there any features you'd really like to see added?
* If you don't use it, why don't you? Is there a particular problem that makes you not use it? Is there anything that you'd want to see added to make you want to use it in the future?
* If there were to be a RTE for comments (optional, just like the one for entries), are there any features that should be different than the one for entries? Is there anything that particularly should or shouldn't be added?
In order to givejportela a hand with enhancements to the polling system, we'd like to know:
* What do you love about the existing poll system? What do you hate about it?
* Among other goals, we're looking to enhance the ability to analyze the data gathered by polls, so some of the enhancements included in this project are things like ability to download a CSV file of poll responses, ability to view how each respondant answered all the questions of a poll, and ability to cross-correlate responses ("Of the people who said they like cheese, 41% of them said they also like wine; of the people who don't like cheese, 21% said they also like wine", that kind of thing). Are there any other data-analysis methods or reports you'd find useful?
panna is doing a calendaring/events type system -- you can view a sumamary of the calendar proposal. After you read the proposal, if you would find such a feature helpful, let us know:
* What kind of things would you use it for? What features would you want to see in it?
* Is there anything else you'd like to see included?
* Are there any other ways you can think of to integrate the system into your journal?
The spec for this is attached to Bug 759. This is going to bethe_wanlorn's project, and in this case, if you're interested in this feature you can let us know:
* How you, as a commenter, would expect this to work;
* What kind of tools you as a journal owner would want to see for managing and interacting with this commenting level (for instance, do you think it should fit with anonymous comments? be a separate comment security level? Etc.)
People who are using email addresses from AT&T, SBC Global, Yahoo, and Bell South may notice problems receiving email from us -- these providers are once again refusing at least part of our email as spam. We'll be doing the usual song and dance to be unblocked, but if your email address is with one of these providers, you might want to temporarily switch to a backup email address. You can change your email address and change it back once the problems are resolved. (Or, change it to a backup email address and then forward all the mail sent to that address to your mailbox of choice.)
Mark and I will be speaking at OSCON, the annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention, held this year in Portland from July 19-23. (Andfu will be there, too!) If you're interested in going, but the price tag makes you wince a little, you can use this code for a 20% discount on registration: os10fos.
*
That should do us for now! As always, if you're having problems with Dreamwidth, Support can help you; for notices of site problems and downtime, check the Twitter status page; if you've got an idea to make the site better, you can make a suggestion.
See you next week for our next update!
1. Development
It's been a busy week in directions other than development, so we don't have a code tour for you this week yet -- we'll add it on to next week's. This week's patches were mostly styles-related -- minor CSS fixes and code cleanup -- but we also have a patch from
kareila to implement the "show the community's userpic instead of the poster's userpic" preference, which is something that got overlooked in our revisions to the S2 programming language that journal styles are implemented in. As usual, these patches aren't live yet -- we'll announce the next code push in
dw_maintenance when we're ready to release the new code. If you're ever wondering if a particular change that you've seen in Bugzilla or in a dw_dev code tour is live or not, check the Code Status page.Meanwhile, for those who noticed that our "Dreamhack" hosted developer environment was down earlier in the week, it's fixed now! Sorry about that. The program has proven so popular that we ran out of memory on the machine-- we're making some changes to see if we can improve performance on the machine, and if we can't, we'll upgrade it.
2. V-Gift Art
As someone pointed out last week, I failed to mention how people should submit their artwork to be considered for vgifts! (Oops.) If you've got something you'd like to submit, you can send it to me at denise@dreamwidth.org. We're looking for gifts in all styles and genres, so send 'em on in.
3. Summer of Code Projects
Our Summer of Code students will be starting their projects this upcoming week! We've been spending the past few weeks getting them set up and settled, and next week begins the programming phase. As part of that, and in order to help out students have a good sense of what bits of their projects they should be prioritizing, we wanted to check in with you guys about what you'd like to see coming out of each project.
We've already asked about mobile and desktop clients, and the business statistics are something that you guys won't ever really see, but the other four could use your input.
(For all of these, please answer the questions in separate comments, and put the project you're giving feedback on in the title of the comment, in order to make it easiest for our students to find the feedback on what they're working on!)
3a. Rich Text Editor
This is
chiming's project, and she'd like to know what you like and hate about the existing WYSIWYG/Rich Text editor (RTE). If you've got suggestions on this, please comment with:* Whether you use the RTE as it is for updates or not. If you do use it, why do you use it? What pieces of it do you love? What things do you hate? Are there any features you'd really like to see added?
* If you don't use it, why don't you? Is there a particular problem that makes you not use it? Is there anything that you'd want to see added to make you want to use it in the future?
* If there were to be a RTE for comments (optional, just like the one for entries), are there any features that should be different than the one for entries? Is there anything that particularly should or shouldn't be added?
3b. Poll System
In order to give
jportela a hand with enhancements to the polling system, we'd like to know:* What do you love about the existing poll system? What do you hate about it?
* Among other goals, we're looking to enhance the ability to analyze the data gathered by polls, so some of the enhancements included in this project are things like ability to download a CSV file of poll responses, ability to view how each respondant answered all the questions of a poll, and ability to cross-correlate responses ("Of the people who said they like cheese, 41% of them said they also like wine; of the people who don't like cheese, 21% said they also like wine", that kind of thing). Are there any other data-analysis methods or reports you'd find useful?
3c. Calendar/Scheduling
panna is doing a calendaring/events type system -- you can view a sumamary of the calendar proposal. After you read the proposal, if you would find such a feature helpful, let us know:* What kind of things would you use it for? What features would you want to see in it?
* Is there anything else you'd like to see included?
* Are there any other ways you can think of to integrate the system into your journal?
3d. "Named Guest" commenting
The spec for this is attached to Bug 759. This is going to be
the_wanlorn's project, and in this case, if you're interested in this feature you can let us know:* How you, as a commenter, would expect this to work;
* What kind of tools you as a journal owner would want to see for managing and interacting with this commenting level (for instance, do you think it should fit with anonymous comments? be a separate comment security level? Etc.)
4. Email Delivery
People who are using email addresses from AT&T, SBC Global, Yahoo, and Bell South may notice problems receiving email from us -- these providers are once again refusing at least part of our email as spam. We'll be doing the usual song and dance to be unblocked, but if your email address is with one of these providers, you might want to temporarily switch to a backup email address. You can change your email address and change it back once the problems are resolved. (Or, change it to a backup email address and then forward all the mail sent to that address to your mailbox of choice.)
5. OSCON
Mark and I will be speaking at OSCON, the annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention, held this year in Portland from July 19-23. (And
fu will be there, too!) If you're interested in going, but the price tag makes you wince a little, you can use this code for a 20% discount on registration: os10fos.*
That should do us for now! As always, if you're having problems with Dreamwidth, Support can help you; for notices of site problems and downtime, check the Twitter status page; if you've got an idea to make the site better, you can make a suggestion.
See you next week for our next update!