Weekly Roundup: 29 June 2009

[denise]

I surface from the depths of cursing at my Dreamhack (where I'm currently scowling at the bug to allow you to define a separate email address to show on your profile from the email address we use to send you comment emails and the like, after spending the morning trying -- and succeeding, mostly! -- to build something that will let you customize the footer text on crossposted entries) to realize that oh yeah, it is Monday. That means it's time for me to sound like I know what I'm talking about, dear readers, so come with me on a tour of this week's high points.

1. Development: Bugfixes

This week saw the resolution of 38 bugs, including:

• Fixing a bug causing errors when posting to a community with strict tagging permissions
  
• Multiple style tweaks
  
• Multiple fixes for better error messages, clearer workflow, etc.
  
• Fixing errors like missing tags on the "post an entry" preview screen
  
• Multiple cases of better/clearer error messages, workflow, site text, etc
  

None of these fixes are live yet -- they won't be until our next codepush. If you're ever curious about whether a fix is live on the site yet, you can view the Code Status page.

2. Fix-It Marathon

Meanwhile, in dw_dev, we're coordinating a Fix-It Marathon. This week is the Week of Bugfixes -- we're trying to get down under 400 open bugs by next Monday's update. We started at 472 at the beginning of the weekend, and are already down to 455, with lots of patches still waiting to be reviewed and committed. If you're thinking about joining us, check out dw_dev_training. We'll even give you your very own Dreamhack.

(If you've already got the code set up, but don't have a lot of time to tackle fixing bugs yourself, why not try reviewing some patches? We'll be starting up a discussion on code review in dw_dev soon.)

3. New Features

We've been doing some new features lately, both big and small. Little things in the works are:

• Allowing Inksome! as an import source
  
• The addition of the Network page to navigation menus for paid users
  
• The addition of a Delete Comment link to the Recent Comments page for comments you've made
  
• The addition of "view in original style" links to the navstrip if you're viewing a page with ?style=mine

There are some bigger features on the way, too, and we wanted to tell you about them so you aren't surprised. (In the bad way. We hope you're surprised in the good way.) Sometime in the next few weeks, we should be seeing:

Custom colors on the Reading page: Re-implementing LiveJournal's "custom friend colors", so you'll be able to view your reading page with the custom colors you define used as backgrounds. Right now, it's been implemented in Negatives and Tabula Rasa, and there's a patch waiting to be committed to implement it in Transmogrified.

Crossposting via downloadable client: Relatively soon, if you've set up your account to crosspost to another site, it will also crosspost if you update using a desktop client (as well as when you use the Update page on Dreamwidth itself).

Customizable crossposted footer text: You'll be able to define your own footer message for crossposted entries (the message that currently reads "This entry was originally posted at [link]. Comment there using OpenID.") and you'll be able to choose when that message gets added to the remote entry: always, never, or only when comments are disabled on the remote entry. (Okay, yeah, I'm really proud of that one. Enough to mention it twice. It was hard, okay?)

The icons page address will be changing: As the very beginning step in our efforts to get a bunch more pages into "your journal"-space, we're going to be changing the URL of your icons page. Instead of http://www.dreamwidth.org/allpics.bml?user=denise, for instance, my icons will be at http://denise.dreamwidth.org/icons/. (Yes, this means that eventually the icons page will look like the rest of your journal! We're going to be doing that to the profile, too.)

The display of names on your profile will be changing: People have let us know that they find the deleted accounts cluttering up the sections of their profile that they don't have control over -- the Has Access To / Subscribers sections -- really annoying. To fix this, we'll be changing that page so that deleted and/or suspended accounts don't appear in those sections of the profile only, unless you add ?mode=full to the end of the profile URL. (You'll always be able to see the full list in the full view mode.)

4. Hear Us Speak

The segment for which I was interviewed aired this week on NPR's Morning Edition:

Social Networks: They're Popular, But Do They Pay?

Meanwhile, a reminder that both Mark and I will be appearing at Azkatraz 2009 as a part of their MPA track on Monday, July 20. (Tickets are still available!) We'll also be attending, but not speaking at, OSCON '09. As we get closer, we'll also try to organize a Dreamwidth meetup in the Bay Area for the week that I'll be living on Mark's couch.

5. The Biz

dw_biz has been fairly neglected lately while we've been concentrating on code improvements, but that doesn't mean it's entirely dead. Beginning this week, one of our Terms of Service team will begin posting regular summaries of Terms of Service inquiries and policy questions so that everyone can know the answers, as part of our pledge towards transparent operations. We'll also have another open Q&A session soon.

6. Support

Welcome to new Supportites fairlight and dilate_andrea! (Meanwhile, we're all watching the support high-scores race between zarhooie and domtheknight to see which one is going to overtake mark first, or whether Mark will pull ahead even further.) If you're interested in helping out your fellow Dreamwidth users, check out dw_support_training for more information.

7. Suggestions

I mentioned this week's Fix-It Marathon, and it's important (I think, at least) to remind everyone that we don't just consider "this is broken" to be a bug: we also consider "this isn't working as well as it could be" to be a bug. If something's preventing you from enjoying your Dreamwidth experience 100% and beyond, we want to hear about it. Our methods for getting your input are a little clumsy right now, but that doesn't mean that we don't want to hear it!

• We're going to be implementing a better way of collecting suggestions soon, but until then, comments to dw_suggestions are the way to leave a suggestion for specific improvements. If there's a change you'd like to see, no matter how small, leave a comment there.
  
  
• If there's something that you do regularly that you think should be easier (but you're not sure how), or if there's an offsite tool that you use to make your life easier (like a Greasemonkey script or something like that) that you think would be awesome if everyone could use it, leave a comment in dw_coolhunters.
  
  
• If you're absolutely not sure where your feedback should go, you can email feedback@dreamwidth.org or open up a Support request in the Feedback category. It's private, and the only ones who can see it are me and mark.

8. Styles

A reminder: we're looking to expand our selection of themes available for the Tabula Rasa layout! Every submitted theme that's accepted will get its creator one month of Dreamwidth paid time. dw_styles has more information in Soliciting Tabula Rasa Themes, and so does the introductory post in dreamscapes.

*

That's it for this week! Time for me to go back to scowling at recalcitrant Perl modules (after I eat this slice of chocolate cake that's staring at me, of course). In the meantime, if you'd like to come hang out and be social with us in irc, we'd love to have you: irc.dwscoalition.org, port 6667, channel #dw.

We'll see you next week.

Comments

[mrkinch]

Is there someplace that I can track a bug's status without taking anyone's time? Does the Transmogrified comment box width problem at lower resolutions have a bug number and if so, where can I check on it? This is the glitch that affects me regularly and I am always looking for news of it. Thank you.

[denise]

I think you probably mean bug 967, yeah? There's a fix for it, just needs to be committed.

EDIT: and, reading comprehension technology 0%, let me try answering the question you actually asked: Bugzilla has about 95% of the identified bugs (the other 5% is stuff we're either still working on figuring out how to reproduce or stuff we haven't quite decided the best way to handle the fix yet), and you can track any bug by creating an account and adding yourself to the CC: field on the bug. We do ask that people not leave extraneous comments to bugs -- things like "this is really annoying me and I'd like to see it fixed" type comments, I mean -- but anyone is welcome to watch the activity on the bug.

For true spamminess, if you're really curious, you can (once you're logged into an account) choose to watch another user and receive email as though you were them; putting denise@dreamwidth.org or mark@dreamwidth.org into that box guarantees you will receive nearly every piece of bugmail that's sent out. (I think Mark gets every email; I've blocked emails for people adding themselves to the CC lists, but I receive notifications of every other change.) I do literally mean nearly every piece of bugmail, mind you: it's something on the order of 50+ pieces of mail a day in a good week.

[mrkinch]

Yes! omg, wheeee! Thank you! I'll shortly be a perfectly happy camper.

[denise]

And, because I'm having trouble completing a thought today: if all you want is a list of all the bugs that are being fixed, without all the other foofraw, there's changelog if you want one post for every change committed, and changelog_digest for one post per day rounding up all of the changes committed that day.

[mrkinch]

Thank you. I do in fact subscribe to changelog_digest but I don't know enough always to understand what is being talked about. This also applies to using my bugzilla account, although the definition of bug 967 is very clear.

I will stash your earlier response against the event of another bug becoming important for me.

[denise]

We aren't always that great at explaining ourselves, are we? *g* One of these weeks I'll do another Changelog Explained-type post for all the patches that week.

[cesy]

Also, feel free to comment on changelog_digest to ask what a particular fix does - there's often someone around who can answer.

Who watches the watchers?

[susanreads]

I clicked on that "watch another user" and got asked to (log in or) create a Bugzilla account. Can just anybody do that? If so, what's this "watch"?

While I'm here ... at some point I want to go through my outstanding issues (open support tickets, ones that were closed because the problem's on the bug list but the bug isn't going anywhere), things I never got round to reporting because I thought somebody else would have noticed (like your strapline at the bottom of the page being invisible in Transmog since the white stripe appeared), and Suggestions I'm keen on ... would you prefer one big support ticket and one big Suggestions comment or several little ones?

Oh, I didn't just come here to pick holes ... hurray for "View on original style"! (Will that also mean that after following a link with style=light I can change back?) Preview improvements, yay!

Re: Who watches the watchers?

[denise]

One big one is fine for each. :) And yes, you do need to have a Bugzilla account to watch someone else, but anyone can create an account. (Maybe one of these days we'll get around to hacking OpenID support into Bugzilla if nobody else has.)

(Will that also mean that after following a link with style=light I can change back?)

Yup. :)

[afuna]

http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=967 is the bug number. You can track the bug progress by doing this:

1. Create a new bugzilla account (http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/createaccount.cgi)

2. log in, go to http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=967

3. Look for the "Edit" link next to the "CC" stuff; click.

4. Add yourself to the list.

You'll receive all updates for that bug. (If you're curious about the status of bugs in general, changelog_digest posts regular updates in a format that's less overwhelming than changelog)


Oops! And I just realized that you've already gotten a reply. Notifications are still slowly trickling into my email, so I hadn't gotten notice of the reply yet.