Feature Request

[VAXman]

This topic is being established for you to contribute your ideas for new features on the Aural Moon web site.

[lamour]

I think a either a countdown timer or just a "time of last request" on either the request page or the "rejected because it hasn't been an hour yet" page would be a nice addition.

[lotus]

Here my wish list :D :


Eliminate Visitor locations, takes from time to time to errors and has no added value in its present form
Time print in Shout box, like in old black (the actual feature with the minutes when you pass over the shouter stops to work after a couple of shouts (at least in FF).
Refresh of the members online
There are 2 logout buttoms on the left, the first one does not work (here in FF), so could be eliminated
You mentioned, that it is possible to synchronize the WPN with the actual playing instead of having it at random refresh, that would be nice.
If you put in again Rogues Gallery I would even send a pic..:)
If possible, I would place Jim's AM MIssion Statement on Mainpage, like the "Help to support AM", maybe Jim could write a combined thing.
And, please, don't show Rogor always in first place in Members online when he is in...:D


That's all for now..:), I guess I you do only one or 2 of these it will cost you a hell of your free time..:(

[mossy]

If you put in again Rogues Gallery I would even send a pic..

....I think I'm going to faint :p

[roger]

yes, please! bring back the Gallery!

[gr8sho92]

I know that telling what tracks are in the queue is against "da rulez", but perhaps ordering the upcoming artists in play sequence is allowed rather than the current alphabetical view.

[VAXman]

I know that telling what tracks are in the queue is against "da rulez", but perhaps ordering the upcoming artists in play sequence is allowed rather than the current alphabetical view.
OK. Let me explain a few things about requesting.

1. The user can only request once per hours. This is enforced by IP address and a lookup in the database. This is one of the few nearly sure bets when it comes to request. Of course, we all know that the IP issue can be circumvented. I will, in time, get to having this be based on username now that it is incorporated into the database. Out of the mayhem that was that abusive over-requester has come some good things. ;)

2. Once you have made a request, the only sure thing is that you won't hear it within the hour of your requesting it.

Let me explain with an example. When it comes to requests, you can think of it as 2 queues. One I will call the Request Queue and the other is the Pending Queue. There is also a History Queue this the top entry being the item currently playing.


History Queue
ELP - Lucky Man
Gentle Giant - Alucard
...
...
...
...
...


Pending Queue
Yes - Heart Of The Sunrise
GYBE - who cares
Pink Floyd - Julia Dream

Request Queue
Yes - Close To The Edge
Pink FLoyd - Pow R. Toc H.
Genesis - Firth of Fifth
ELP - Karn Evil #9
King Crimson - Epitaph

Assume that no Genesis, Yes or Pink FLoyd has played recently.

Here is what will happen. SAM has taken the three tracks from the Request Queue (Yes, GYBE, and Pink Floyd) or has selected a track from the library. Since none of these has played in recent history, other users can request Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis. They cannot request any more ELP because it is NOW in the History Queue. Requests for an ELP will return "artist has recently played".
Since Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis are in the Pending Queue, SAM will not promote the requested Yes, Genesis, or Pink Floyd tracks anytime soon. What track will be next? Assuming that King Crimson has not played in recent history, SAM will likely put Epitaph in the Pending Request queue once the hour wait time has been exhausted.

So, what you are asking for is impossible. When you look on the Web Site and see the coming up list, what you see is the top 2 entries of the Pending Queue. The only thing that is a sure bet is the Pending QUeue but we are restricted in showing that.

The requests page collates artists in the request queue alphabetically. I could ORDER that queue by requested time but, if you understand the simple scenario outlined above, you will see that that too has no real relevance on what will play and in what order.


FYI, I will make this a FAQ item too.

[VAXman]

Here my wish list :D :


Eliminate Visitor locations, takes from time to time to errors and has no added value in its present form

Easily done.


Time print in Shout box, like in old black (the actual feature with the minutes when you pass over the shouter stops to work after a couple of shouts (at least in FF).

There are a number of things I want to change about the shout box. I'll work on this too.


Refresh of the members online

How often?


There are 2 logout buttoms on the left, the first one does not work (here in FF), so could be eliminated

I have referred this to the Dept. of Redundancy Dept. and I am awaiting their redundant redundant reply as to whether or not or whether not to remove the redundant redundancy. :)


You mentioned, that it is possible to synchronize the WPN with the actual playing instead of having it at random refresh, that would be nice.

All we need is an ACCURATE clock on the streaming server. I haven't a clue as to whether or not miniscule-n-flaccid Weendoze can be configured to use NTP. If so, somebody please tell me how. I tend NOT to touch things on that box as there are already enough festering boils, compliments of Billzebub, with which to contend.


If you put in again Rogues Gallery I would even send a pic..:)

Joomla does have a Gallery function. I've not looked at it. If people want a new gallery, the first thing I will need is something to post in it (ie. your photos).


If possible, I would place Jim's AM MIssion Statement on Mainpage, like the "Help to support AM", maybe Jim could write a combined thing.

It's software! Anything is possible unless you are cursed with the festering buttocks boil known as miniscule-n-flaccid Weendoze. I've seen more ugliness in Billzebub's brainfart known as Internet Exploiter in the past few days to make me want to drill my eyeballs out of their sockets with a power auger.

My question is where to display it. I think it should go in the FAQ but that is just my personal opinion and we can't have any of that around here now can we?


And, please, don't show Rogor always in first place in Members online when he is in...:D

Do you have a preferential order??? :D

I have been in that member list code. I would like to have members shown by status... (eg, Members, Patrons, Admin). I've already added the Admin. I need to look at the forum database some more to get at the patron status.


That's all for now..:), I guess I you do only one or 2 of these it will cost you a hell of your free time..:(
Oh joy, a list of programming tasks! :D

[Rick and Roll]

A few things...

Any reduction of redundancy is welcome. I addition to what Lotus mentioned, there are a few more stale items on the page...just blow them away...(actually just looking it looks like you have...that's good)

My opinion would be to farm out the Gallery, like the news is done with Mortis.

I'm not a big fan of the member status. Just more clutter. The user name should be enough....

About the request queue...also the shows can throw that off also. The queue looks good as it is.

[lotus]

Refresh of the members online
How often?

Once every 5 min?

[VAXman]

A few things...

Any reduction of redundancy is welcome. I addition to what Lotus mentioned, there are a few more stale items on the page...just blow them away...(actually just looking it looks like you have...that's good)

The real estate of the main page is limited so any redundancy should go.

Avian did, IMHO, a nice job of getting a lot of information on the main page without making it too busy. I've been trying to add more without debasing Avian's original design. Hence, things like the scrolling history.


My opinion would be to farm out the Gallery, like the news is done with Mortis.
That's probably doable. However, I still need to see how the Joomla Gallery looks and get it implemented. I'll need some photos for it but I suppose I could just toss in a few test photos.



I'm not a big fan of the member status. Just more clutter. The user name should be enough....
The idea would be to color code them. For example, regular members in white, patrons in gold, admins some other color which will contrast well against the blue background.



About the request queue...also the shows can throw that off also. The queue looks good as it is.
Forgot to mention that but you're right. The real issue is that I could show a longer view into the Pending Queue (ie., the coming up items on the main page if it was permissible) but I have no way of knowing what will be pulled from the request queue.

The one admin page I recently put together shows this clearly. Perhaps, on Thursday, I will capture one such page and show all in this thread. I'll blank out usernames but you'll get a better understanding since the page shows requests in terms of their request history (request time-stamp).

[VAXman]

Refresh of the members online
How often?

Once every 5 min?

That's the problem with AJAX (the A is for Asynchronous). I'd like to think about this and see if it is possible to have the update keep in step with users as they sign-on. If I can get the time set on the streaming server, I can handle the "ON THE AIR" refresh much better. That's won't help the member list though.

[Rick and Roll]

That's probably doable. However, I still need to see how the Joomla Gallery looks and get it implemented. I'll need some photos for it but I suppose I could just toss in a few test photos.



The idea would be to color code them. For example, regular members in white, patrons in gold, admins some other color which will contrast well against the blue background.



Forgot to mention that but you're right. The real issue is that I could show a longer view into the Pending Queue (ie., the coming up items on the main page if it was permissible) but I have no way of knowing what will be pulled from the request queue.

The one admin page I recently put together shows this clearly. Perhaps, on Thursday, I will capture one such page and show all in this thread. I'll blank out usernames but you'll get a better understanding since the page shows requests in terms of their request history (request time-stamp).

You should have a FEW photos!

The color coding is a nice touch.

For me at least, the 24 hour history coupled with the what's up next works just fine.

Sounds like a Thursday theme...."A place in the queue"..

[roger]

it's all good, Vax, thanks.



as far as pictures are concerned, do you know a good photographer?

;)

[VAXman]

You should have a FEW photos!
Yeah, 1 or 2.


The color coding is a nice touch.
The idea is to convey information without making the page busy. I can cite plenty of bad examples of that -- like most of the pages on MyWaste.com. In addition, it should be easy to find info. My fave example, see how long it will take you to find my name in links on HP's OpenVMS pages ( http://hp.com/go/OpenVMS/ ). No cheating with Google!


For me at least, the 24 hour history coupled with the what's up next works just fine.Which is likely how it will stay. I'm adding some code to allow a 'clickable' larger view window of the recently played history but I won't go back farther than 24 hours of history.

Sounds like a Thursday theme...."A place in the queue"..
You've heard it folks... Rick has called the theme!

[gr8sho92]

The requests page collates artists in the request queue alphabetically. I could ORDER that queue by requested time but, if you understand the simple scenario outlined above, you will see that that too has no real relevance on what will play and in what order.


FYI, I will make this a FAQ item too.

Wow, impressive write-up. A FAQ for this would certainly be a nice to have. I seem to be making a habit of asking for these.

FWIW, while I didn't understand the exact method used for managing the queue, I kinda got a sense for how it worked. Just showing the relative ordering of the request queue by request time itself is a gross enough cut and is what my original request was based on.

The whole purpose of this really is about time management and to get a high level sense of when one's request will get played in the next 60-90 minutes. (Even here there is a great amount of imprecision because it only takes a few 26 min plus long songs to mess you up.)

Thanks for listening,
Carl

[PeterG]

I've seen more ugliness in Billzebub's brainfart known as Internet Exploiter in the past few days to make me want to drill my eyeballs out of their sockets with a power auger.



I've got some 8" stainless steel spikes you can borrow....

http://auralmoon.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2995

[VAXman]

as far as pictures are concerned, do you know a good photographer?

;)
Hmm :headscrat

[VAXman]

Wow, impressive write-up. A FAQ for this would certainly be a nice to have. I seem to be making a habit of asking for these.

FWIW, while I didn't understand the exact method used for managing the queue, I kinda got a sense for how it worked. Just showing the relative ordering of the request queue by request time itself is a gross enough cut and is what my original request was based on.

The whole purpose of this really is about time management and to get a high level sense of when one's request will get played in the next 60-90 minutes. (Even here there is a great amount of imprecision because it only takes a few 26 min plus long songs to mess you up.)

Thanks for listening,
Carl
My ONLY issue with ordering it by the entry (requested) time-stamp is that people may misconstrue the ordering and then I'll hear, "Why did that request play before mine when I requested my at 0600 and that one was requested hours later?"

Also, since it is only a list of artists in the request queue, it's does seem easier to scan the list alphabetically.

[VAXman]

I've got some 8" stainless steel spikes you can borrow....

I don't believe those will do justice. Miniscule-n-flaccid's abhorrent abomination referred to as Internet Exploiter is so gruesomely hideous that the aftermath of gouging one's eyes out with a power auger would be an obsequious spectacle tantamount to IE's deplorable shitiness.

[gr8sho92]

My ONLY issue with ordering it by the entry (requested) time-stamp is that people may misconstrue the ordering and then I'll hear, "Why did that request play before mine when I requested my at 0600 and that one was requested hours later?"

Also, since it is only a list of artists in the request queue, it's does seem easier to scan the list alphabetically.

With the simple notion that people will assume that their request will play "right away", the FAQ will surely help, but then that relies on people to take the time to read the FAQ and we all know how that goes.

I won't lose any sleep over this either way. It's fine as it is.

:-V

[VAXman]

The one admin page I recently put together shows this clearly. Perhaps, on Thursday, I will capture one such page and show all in this thread. I'll blank out usernames but you'll get a better understanding since the page shows requests in terms of their request history (request time-stamp).

I took a snapshot (http://tmesis.com/am/snapshot.jpg) of the page which I created to show the request queue. As you can see, this is ordered from most recent request to the oldest still remaining in the queue. The yellow rows are pending requests. In other words, SAM has gone through the request queue and selected some tracks for play. Based on SAM's knowledge of what has played, this selection process is NOT linear as this snapshot shows. The oldest request (the Beardfish) in the queue has not been selected for play and there are also "holes" within the list. There is no correlation between the "requested time-stamp" and the actual play time as well. This was also a good example because 2 requesters requested the same track. SAM will permit this because this track or artist may not have played recently. Both are yellow (ie. pending). SAM has gone through the database and collects like requests into one play.

Listing artists on the request page is probably the best day to display what is in the request queue. The ONLY other way might be to display the artists as ordered in the sample snapshot (http://tmesis.com/am/snapshot.jpg). However, because only the artist is displayed, I feel it's easier to see what has already been requested when that is is collated alphabetically. Your input and opinion welcome.

[gr8sho92]

Vax, I have a FAQ writeup for you on setting up windoze to play AM. Give me an email address to send it to or I can point it here.

[VAXman]

Vax, I have a FAQ writeup for you on setting up windoze to play AM. Give me an email address to send it to or I can point it here.

VAXman@auralmoon.com or VAXman@tmesis.com

Thanks.

[gr8sho92]

Sent.