Machvergil Comic number 043

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Archive for the ‘Pardon our Dust’ Category

FYI: MV5Forums is dead

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Just as an FYI, remember when I tried to install BBforums via Worldpress and an effort to replace the version 4 site forums?

I didn’t.  I forgot.  And now it’s full of spammers.

Given that we have the gamenight forums now, I’m going to pull the plug on the whole thing.  I’m sure no one I care about will miss it.

So the RSS is broken…

Monday, May 12th, 2008

And I’m not entirely sure why.  More on this as it develops.  *sigh*

Quick update on the comic script

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

After some detailed analysis I have concluded that my current implimentation method cannot be done with WordPress without compromising it’s security as well as forcing me to make a manual patch to wordpress any and every time it updates. As such, my short term solution will be to have the comic link to a small, short-form page that includes the navigation in a working fashion and simply have the banner reference the latest comic (see the way applegeeks lite works). Then I’ll do some research into what it takes to make a WordPress plug-in. If I can turn this into a plug in, then I’ll do that.

Until then I’ve turned off the script for presentation’s sake.

Like the phoenix

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

So you may have noticed a few things are different around here. The first is that things look different. You’re quite observant. What was up before was the default WordPress template. While it did it’s job, my pride doesn’t let me use use CMS default templates for too long. What you see before you is a simple theme based off the “Pardon Our Dust” site. This was done mostly so I could make a low-tech, light template to test the more important new feature.

You may have noticed I have used a comic as the “banner” for the page. You may have also noticed this comic appears to be a Machvergil comic. You may have also noticed, it’s a new one. Again, you are quite observant.

As promised way back at the beginning of the year, it was my hope to do something creative again regularly on the site. I’ve spent pretty much five months debating it and I decided “You know, people seemed to really liked two things I’ve ever done: Rhapsody & Requiem, or the machvergil comics.” So I decided I’d go ahead and give the Machvergil Comics another go.

(more…)

Patience Wearing Thin…

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Crystal Graves from R&R

So today I installed bbPress which is the free forum software made by the makers of WordPress. I installed it because it advertised integration with WordPress. Sure enough, it does use the wordpress user database just fine and also is just as fast loading, light weight, and accessible as the wordpress site itself is.

However, the problem remains: much like WordPress it does very little of what I want it to do out of the box. The only avatars is supports are those stupid Gravatars, and it offers no support for signatures. It also doesn’t provide an easy way to just drop it into my WordPress site without using the illusion of them both using the same theme.

You can pop over to here to see what has come off my efforts thus far and weigh in on bbPress, but I feel like this is starting to turn WordPress into a deal breaker, which is a shame because I do love it’s superior post writing features and accessibility over Joomla by a bunch. Ohhh welll….

Oh! The attached image today is of Crystal Graves from Rhapsody and Requiem. I was poking around the R&R site for design ideas and was feeling a little nostalgic. Yeah I know it’s not new but it’s what I had time for.

No site update yet but… here’s a picture!

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Latest Vergil Sketch

What is this an art blog now?! Yeah maybe it is… I dunno. I made an effort late last week/early this week to activate a forum plug in and after doing so understood how much it sucked. So instead I have found an alternative system, but have not made the time to build it yet. I also haven’t made the time to make the new design yet. I apologize for how slowly this is going.

That said, I did make the time to add another sketch. Here’s our good old boy Vergil. He’s not doing much of anything, and that’s because I consider this a study sketch to get used to drawing him again. Feel free to leave feedback!

Image Gallery Online!

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Mach and Vergil ready for action!

So remember how normally the image gallery is the last thing I do when I set up a new site? Yeah. Not this time. Eat it!

Please have a look around a comment about how you like the new gallery. Notice I will adjust the new design when it rolls out so that everything fits better. Also I’m too lazy to do all the tagging and what not that I’d need/like to do later.

Machvergil 5.0 test – Welcome to WordPress

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Alright everyone, as I write this it is 18 minutes past when I wanted to go to bed, but I have wordpress installed so I can start evaluating it. As you can see I’ve translated the “Pardon our Dust” posts to this site so you can still read them. If you do want to access the old “Pardon our Dust” site, just hit up www.machvergil.com/index.html.

There’s still a lot to do around here. Obviously I’ve done nothing visual to the site yet, and I still have plug-ins to add. I’ll keep you posted! Feel free to login and try to comment too if you can.

Machvergil 4.0 archive online – new site in progress

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Palus-the man within

Okay so I’ve moved the old, broken, dying Machvergil 4.0 site off the site root and into a new location. If you want to read old posts or post on the forums, or check out any of that stuff while you wait for the new site to go up, feel free.

In my search for a replacement site, it’s bolted down to pretty much two options:

WordPress might win out in the end and here’s why. Drupal strikes me as a more powerful CMS with more features out of the box. Unfortunately what comes with more power often means it’s more of a pain to work with. While I love the fact that it comes with template control, user control, blogs, comments AND a forum right out of the box, neither the forum or the designs are what I want them to be. After reading an extensive document about making custom templates for Drupal, I’m convinced that’s a headache I don’t really want to go into.

Meanwhile, WordPress while less feature complete out of the box, does have blog posts and commenting out of the box, and since wordpress is so hugely popular, there are addons out there for any feature we want to get back on machvergil, be it the image gallery or the message board. I also know from working with it at my job that WordPress is great about adhering to web standards, something very important to me at a personal level, where as I am much less confident of Drupal’s ability to do that.

I will probably install one or the other in the coming days and give you guys the link so you can try it out and tell me what you think. Until then go back to machvergil 4.0 and drool over the bikini clad elf girl or something. Oh and in case you hadn’t heard I did update my professional site, so feel free to look at the new stuff there too.

Machvergil 4.0 is sick. It’s Mach’s fault I swear…

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Shriarra\'s Hiding armor concept

So those of you who have been around lately know that the site hasn’t been working as good as it used to. Half the time she wouldn’t load, and I was having problems with it spitting out duplicate blog entries. At first I just thought she was getting old and a simple update of her software would fix ‘er. Alas I attempted that tonight (April 3) and it had no effect – the Joomla 1.0.x build of Machvergil 4.0 was just as prone to loading failure, and it turns out the old simpleboard is just right out not compatible with Joomla. Since the Simpleboard/Joomlaboard guys are no longer in the biz, I can’t get support for it either.

After all my tests I can say with certainty the database Machvergil 4.0 uses is shot – or at least it has been shot and is now bleeding a slow slow slow death. So my plan is this: I am going to back up Machvergil 4.0 and put it in a new directory so we can continue to reference it if needed. In the mean time I am going to be looking up alternatives to Mambo/Joomla for a brand new Machvergil 5.0 that I’ll develop sometime in the near future.

Some fun facts about Machvergil 4.0:

  • It was the first time I implemented a CMS. N00b mistakes might have helped with its demise.
  • The site has been up since 2005. That’s the longest standing build-mode of any Machvergil site to date at just over 3 years.
  • Machvergil 4.0 uses it’s own database, meaning the rest of my Mambo/Joomla sites (www.adamclegg.com, and Kitty’s www.ikitayo.com ) are still fully functional and good to go.
  • Machvergil 4.0 never got updated to Joomla from Mambo. It was running an out of date CMS with out of date modules and components. Further more, some of those modules and components straight up cease to exist now because their developers are no doing their thing (see the Simpleboard/Joomla board people).
  • I think now the user counter was broken, or at least has been for a bit. So maybe all those times I saw 60+ users online it was lying to me.

So, stay tuned for more news on how things are going. I’ll probably update this space from time to time with more info. Until then, peace!