Presenting Morrowind Modding History v1.5

[Fliggerty]

Great House Fliggerty and Morrowind Modding History are very happy to announce a new version of Morrowind Modding History!

Morrowind Modding History v1.5 has been launched after many, many, many months of intense development.  While this is just a stepping stone towards the upcoming v2.0 debut, v1.5 features many neat additions that we just couldn't wait to let you have!

Improvements and Additions

• Entirely new search engine
• Search box auto-complete that will suggest items to you
• Much improved database interaction that improves overall site speed
• All of the site's front-end javascript has been rewritten to improve browser compatibility
• Navigation has been entirely reworked to avoid page loading problems
• Ctrl+click will now properly open a mod page in another tab only
• Brand new html5 based uploaders that are compatible with more browsers and do not limit the number of screenshot uploads
• Ability upload more than one additional file at a time
• Far more behind the scenes updates than I care to even get into right now....

Please, take advantage of the new features, and by all means, give me any and all feedback you may have!

[Leonardo]

What a pleasant surprise Fligg.  Well done!  

Ctrl+click will now properly open a mod page in another tab only

This is what it should have been possible 2 years ago when MMH v1.0 has its debut.  

[Leonardo]

There is also MMH v1.5 Bug Reports for your issues if you have any.

[Fliggerty]

What a pleasant surprise Fligg.  Well done!  :sheo:

Surprise!

Ctrl+click will now properly open a mod page in another tab only

This is what it should have been possible 2 years ago when MMH v1.0 has its debut.  :mockery:

Two years ago I couldn't sort out how to do it, and nobody that I ask about it had any idea how it was to be done.  Fortunately I've leveled up numerous times since then.  

[Leonardo]

So that means you have some sort of developer's chargen for quicker levelling.  

[Fliggerty]

Yeah...it's called 40 hours a week in an office doing it for a living.  

[latendresse76 Avoiding Ilsa Lund]

I must say it's much more responsive in posting the category listings. I like it looks good though teh sort options are a but hard to see but that can be changed in post production with the CSS. You looking for some CSS edits? if so shoot me a PM

[Melchior Dahrk ...indomitable will might rid Morrowind of all its ills.]

Navigation has been entirely reworked to avoid page loading problems
Ctrl+click will now properly open a mod page in another tab only

Messed around with it for a while, these two seem to work just fine. Finally! These are definitely the two that made my day the most.

But the search engine suggestions deal is pretty cool too. Though its reaction time is slow enough that I'd be tempted to just type in "balmora" and search than to wait for suggestions to come up.

[Fliggerty]

But the search engine suggestions deal is pretty cool too. Though its reaction time is slow enough that I'd be tempted to just type in "balmora" and search than to wait for suggestions to come up.

It was a lot slower in early development.  When I was using normal PHP methods to build the results, a typical return time was about 1450ms.  Last week I replaced it with a node.js backend, and it dropped to about 150ms.  I intend to replace the current autocomplete Reddis cache with a levelDB database, which is what Google uses for their autocomplete technology.  It's something that is brand new, and I've just learned of it recently.  I'm excited to see how it improves things!

[Melchior Dahrk ...indomitable will might rid Morrowind of all its ills.]

It was a lot slower in early development.  When I was using normal PHP methods to build the results, a typical return time was about 1450ms.  Last week I replaced it with a node.js backend, and it dropped to about 150ms.  I intend to replace the current autocomplete Reddis cache with a levelDB database, which is what Google uses for their autocomplete technology.  It's something that is brand new, and I've just learned of it recently.  I'm excited to see how it improves things!

I might have just been having a wonky connection right then. I just tried it again after your comment and it seems to be somewhere around 1.5s at the moment. So, not the 150ms you mention. But much better than I was seeing at first. As I said, it might just be my current connection. I'm looking forward to the improvement though!

[Fliggerty]

It will certainly be connection dependent.  I'm only a few hundred miles away from the datacenter, so my performance is always going to better than most others.

[Illuminiel]

Hi Fligg - just a few comments

I clicked on the Smithy first - haven't looked at that in some time but wondered if it had been updated as well - is it supposed to be scrolling all the images across continually? I found that a bit distracting and it wasn't clear what I was supposed to do - it didn't mention how I'd get the finished product as well or if their were any special terms of use - I wonder if other users have decided not to use it because of being unsure - maybe not - this is just an observation not a criticism

Then I did a search in MMH to see if I could tell any difference in the search engine - it does offer suggestions but it takes a moment to search - I was so slow on my first attempt that I had typed my whole user name and was left thinking that it didn't auto-suggest - however if I just type int he first 3 letters and wait a second then I do get a good drop down list - so great feature thanks

I then did a click on one of my mods as I didn't realize you had brought them all over from PES - it felt odd seeing them in MMH - in fact I'm not sure what MMH really is sometimes - it sounds like an archive but I feel like I am in a Dwemer Museum - the artifacts are just sitting there but you can still pick them up and use them - all my mods I still view as alive but seeing them captured here in MMH just feels odd as if they weren't ready to be put behind the cabinet glass - they aren't so much history as they are the present...

... and then I noticed the # of downloads - um... this is confusing - I suspect you captured the number when you imported the mod - right? Well my Solstheim rumour remover said it had 6991 downloads and yet on PES it is now up to 8174 downloads - may I recommend that you change the downloads number to the actual downloads from MMH please and not some past #?

[Fliggerty]

You know, the original purpose of MMH was simply to archive mods that couldn't be found anywhere else and make them available.  Since IGN.... *ahem* shot PES in the knee with an arrow (I couldn't resist) the focus has changed a bit.  Even though PES is still online right now and you can download mods from it, we have been told that won't always be the case.  And you certainly can't add new mods and most (all?) cannot be edited or updated.  While the same limitation with updating and editing your mods at MMH is true right now, the next incarnation is going to end that.  It will be a fully functional mod hosting site in every respect of the term.  As it is, you should be set as the "owner" of any of your mods, and therefore have the ability to edit any of them.  If you do not, please contact one of the stewards and they can rectify that.

As for download counts...that's a tricky thing.  I did port over the download counts from PES when I grabbed all of the other data.  I'm not really sure how to proceed from there though.  It's not exactly feasible to continuously synchronize them...at that point the download counts from MMH would become entirely meaningless.  At some point the two have to become independent of each other, and honestly I'd rather that just be at the point when I grabbed the data for the initial migration.

[Illuminiel]

Thanks for the reply Flig - it would be nice to see MMH become less of an archive and more of an active environment

Since you haven't migrated across Hall of Fame stats or comments perhaps it's not relevant to have imported the download numbers - I'd find it more helpful to see how many have been downloaded since the mods were imported into MMH - just a view

As an archive it would be nice to be able to sort mods by lists - for instance Telesphorus Mythic Mods was one of my favourite sites for years as it categorized mods - having that ability in MMH would be invaluable

Filtering mods by year of release or by theme is actually more helpful than searching through more generic categories like armour or clothing - being able to see all Ranger themed mods or Mage mods or Thief Mods would be good - otherwise it can be hard to find just what you are looking for

Now if Mythic Mods could be updated to point to MMH then that would work too

Anyway in any case thanks for continuing to care about all the 1000's of hours modders have put into their work

[Wolf undefined]

Congratulations Fliggy!

Looking forward to using it next time I hit 'instal' on Morrowind.

[Fliggerty]

One of the big features that will be added to v2.0 (which is in development now...this latest push is just a stepping stone to that) is the addition of tags.  In fact, tags will entirely replace categories.  So a single mod will be able to essentially reside in multiple categories at a time, and each one will be fully searchable.  When it's done, almost all that you just suggested will be possible.  

The thing that makes me kind of sad is that none of this is really all that new.... most of these things were either fully or partially implemented in The Holds of Skyrim; I spent a lot of time getting input from the community on what would make the ideal community-based mod hosting site, and I thought I nailed it.  Now I'm just working on taking all of the great things from that largely abandoned and rusting marvel of mine and hammering them into Modhistory.

[DerEider]

I've encountered problems with the History website. Its control buttons are apparantly not working. I left messages as feedbacck, but they apparantly are not sent by that page. following is copy of last message:
I would register/login but your buttons won't respond. It did send me to a MyAncestry website.
I tried to send you an email from this page last night but it apparantly went nowhere. It regarded the malfunctioning of downloading from the DeusXMachina Master Index Journalfix. It sent me to a nasty web browser infector by BitCocktail Ltd, from which has taken me a day to recover.  
As occurred last night, the "Send Message" button does not seem to work as well.

[Kiteflyer61]

I just checked and the download went fine for me. It was the correct file as well.

Sounds to me like you have some malware redirecting you to bad sites.

Are you running AV and anti-malware software?




KF

[DerEider]

Yes. Thanks Kiteflyer61.
Theoretically at least, I am running a Norton Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware/Internet security thing. Recently an "AVG" safe website checker was added. Not sure how effective it is, however apparantly NOT VERY !!
Also however, the "mirror" link to a DeusXMachina site appears to be bogus. I tried to link from another location and got to the same "FOR SALE" website.
And the msidirection from "Register" to MyAncestry happened twice.
Again, thanks for your assist.

[Kiteflyer61]

I just checked, and the mirror site was indeed not a link to the original DL site. It would seem the original has been taken down. I removed the mirror link.

I suspect the redirect is due to a failure of Norton or you have inadvertently installed malware that is redirecting you. The "AVG" safe website checker is likely bogus. I would suggest installing and running Spybot S&D ( http://www.safer-networking.org/ ). It's free and has never failed me yet.




KF