# The Village Idiot Would Like to Make a Public Apology



## Michael Morris (Dec 2, 2003)

I know it, and I don't like admitting it, but I'll say it...

I messed up.

The drop downs are generated by a 71K script.  How many times can the server send that before bogging... Answer: not very many.

Why didn't the news site experience this problem?  I'm still not sure, but wager that the amount of visits has something to do with it.  The boards simply get much more traffic than the news site.

Another problem is that browsers in general don't like to render layers and tables in the same page.  But the page I designed does exactly that - causing all browsers to crawl.

I was prideful and arrogant at a time when I should have just listened.  Some steps will be taken to correct this problem, and one of them probably involves my figurative head on a plate.

Still, I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused and the attitude I espoused when the problem began surfacing.


----------



## diaglo (Dec 2, 2003)

we all appreciate the job you are doing.  

but as punishment for your latest transgression:


you are hereby required to do community service.  




which means coming to Hotlanta in a month and playing a session or 900 of OD&D(1974)


----------



## Desdichado (Dec 2, 2003)

Not a problem!  I, at least, appreciate the work you're doing.  As soon as you get that "Stealth" mode up and running, we'll put you on a float in the Macy's Day Parade and cheer you through the streets.


----------



## MerakSpielman (Dec 2, 2003)

It takes a real man to swallow his pride and admit his mistakes, MM. Glad for the apology.


----------



## Tom Cashel (Dec 2, 2003)

Ditto that.  You rock, MM.


----------



## Altamont Ravenard (Dec 2, 2003)

Stop hogging all the Meta Board!

(we forgive you)

AR


----------



## dcollins (Dec 2, 2003)

Appreciate the work and the acknowledgement.


----------



## Henry (Dec 2, 2003)

Michael, if God had meant for humanity to never screw up, he wouldn't have given us all the ability to laugh and point. 

But I think diaglo's on to something: We could instead take the people deserving of it, such as flamewar starters and trolls, and instead of banning them, force them to play in all those niche games that everybody loves, but nobody can find players for! 

*"For your crimes, I sentence you to 13 hours of Tales of the Floating Vagabond, 14 hours of Lost Souls, and 22 hours of.... Synabarr!"

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

"A-HAHAHAHAHA!"*


----------



## diaglo (Dec 2, 2003)

Henry said:
			
		

> *"...and 22 hours of.... Synabarr!"
> *




i'm not that cruel.


----------



## Hand of Evil (Dec 2, 2003)

Well, the thought was good and you are appreciated.  

Over 25 years ago I started my life working with data processing and I remember an IBM Tech saying "keep it simple", they are words to live by even today.  He also said "you run what you brung" too.


----------



## the Jester (Dec 2, 2003)

Henry said:
			
		

> *"For your crimes, I sentence you to ...22 hours of.... Synabarr!"
> 
> "NOOOOOOOOOO!"
> 
> "A-HAHAHAHAHA!"*




D00d, save that one for serial killers.


----------



## Krug (Dec 2, 2003)

Glad that it's been resolved MM!


----------



## Barendd Nobeard (Dec 2, 2003)

Henry said:
			
		

> *"For your crimes, I sentence you to 13 hours of Tales of the Floating Vagabond, 14 hours of Lost Souls, and 22 hours of.... Synabarr!"*



I'm so there.  What crimes will get this punishment meted out to me?  And can I invite MattyHelms?


----------



## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Dec 3, 2003)

Hey hey hey!!

I thought *I* was the village idiot around here!!! Besides, a REAL village idiot would NEVER admit a problem. Which is why you rock, MM!


----------



## DaveStebbins (Dec 3, 2003)

Like A-M Guard says, Michael can't be a village idiot. We never see him at any of the meetings!


----------



## Kid Charlemagne (Dec 3, 2003)

Hey, at least you haven't posted a link to that Roman D20...


----------



## Tom Cashel (Dec 3, 2003)

Where's Hammy McHamHam?

We need a greased pig.


----------



## Tallok (Dec 3, 2003)

Hey MM, these things happen, you've been doing a lot of work for the site  But, if you had entirely crashed the site...


----------



## Gnarlo (Dec 3, 2003)

Yeah, it was well intentioned (even if I am of the 'if it ain't broke, don't break it school  ), so I don't think Village Idiot applies.

Howzabout "Official ENWorld Tinker Gnome"?  Too cruel?


----------



## barsoomcore (Dec 3, 2003)

MM, you are doing a hard job that is, I imagine, largely thankless and consists, for the most part of doing really cool stuff that's really hard and takes forever that nobody ever notices, and every once in a while letting one little thing slip and getting roasted over excessive numbers of coals for it.

Website administration is one of those jobs like software testing and sound editing -- nobody notices a thing you do until the moment you screw up.

Two things that are great about how you go about your job here, MM:

1. You're always trying new stuff. The boards are always getting improved, updated, revisited. Which is great.

2. You're always quick to roll back any changes when a problem occurs. We so rarely have to put up with excessive tinkering and little "Hang on a second, I'll get this!" delays.

Good stuff.


----------



## Brother Shatterstone (Dec 3, 2003)

Michael, no need to be sorry, and thank you for the hard work.


----------



## tzor (Dec 3, 2003)

Remember that for every brilliant idea that works there is also a brilliant idea that doesn't work.  The only way to figure out which brilliant idea you have is to ... try it.

So unless you are talking about a 24/7 service where interruption will cause either serious financial loss or death (like an air traffic system) trying a brilliant idea that later proves to be a flop is just a few minutes / hours of someone's time.

So in other words don't sweat the details.  We appreciate everything you do.  Even when sometimes the magic doesn't work.


----------



## DanMcS (Dec 4, 2003)

> Why didn't the news site experience this problem?  I'm still not sure, but wager that the amount of visits has something to do with it.  The boards simply get much more traffic than the news site.




In earlier threads, you said the script should be cached, so each user would only download it once.  There appear to be two files involved, mm_menu.js and menu_contents.js, each a little over 30K.  Are they just not being cached?  So they get downloaded every time someone sees one of the forum page?  Ouch.  Is it being cached on the news site?  Doesn't look like it to me, when I refresh that page the download time is up from what I vaguely remember it being before the menus.  But you'd have to look at the http logs to be sure, see if there's multiple GETs for those two files from the same IP.

If you can't make it get cached (and I'm fuzzy on how that could be accomplished), then you might consider only putting the menu on the forums/forumdisplay.php and index.php, and not the newreply.php or showthread.php pages, which probably tend to get downloaded a lot more than the main forum pages.  I don't know if you did that before or not.


----------



## William Ronald (Dec 4, 2003)

Michael,

To quote the Bard of Avon, to err is human, to forgive divine.  Don't be too hard on yourself.  You are doing great job, and I have faith in you.


----------



## Michael Morris (Dec 4, 2003)

DanMcS said:
			
		

> In earlier threads, you said the script should be cached, so each user would only download it once.  There appear to be two files involved, mm_menu.js and menu_contents.js, each a little over 30K.  Are they just not being cached?  So they get downloaded every time someone sees one of the forum page?  Ouch.  Is it being cached on the news site?  Doesn't look like it to me, when I refresh that page the download time is up from what I vaguely remember it being before the menus.  But you'd have to look at the http logs to be sure, see if there's multiple GETs for those two files from the same IP.
> 
> If you can't make it get cached (and I'm fuzzy on how that could be accomplished), then you might consider only putting the menu on the forums/forumdisplay.php and index.php, and not the newreply.php or showthread.php pages, which probably tend to get downloaded a lot more than the main forum pages.  I don't know if you did that before or not.




On the news page they are combined into a single file, topmenu.js.

I'm going to leave things be for a moment, though I'm looking at other solutions.


----------

