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Username changes & Basement preview

Schweddy

Benevolent Dictator
Administrator
DP Veteran
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
13,938
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Location
Texas
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian - Right
Hey all!

Just a few things.. :)

Change your username
The system is now enabled to allow you to automatically change your username once every 90 days. The system will keep a history of all your username changes. No more waiting on the mod team to help and make sure everything is in sync. Click on the donations tab in your User Control Panel for more info. :cool:

Basement preview
We are also letting you know that we are working on a basement preview - it will be live shortly. Folks with more than 30 posts will be able to preview, but not be able to participate in the basement quite yet. They can see all the craziness going on down there in "The Dungeon". For folks that have at least 50 post counts, if they donate, they too can enjoy the full benefit of the entire basement. No worries. Folks with at least 250 posts still have instant access to all its ...ah glory. :)
Edit: The basement preview is live


Stubborn server
We are still working on the "hicups" every few minutes and are painfully aware of them. The issue is with the search indexing. Today, we tweaked several variables and upgraded the sphinx engine. That made it a bit better performance wise, but not great when it spins. We asked for a quote for 2G extra memory for the server. Looks like they want $175 for one time fee. Not entirely convinced that will fix it. We are closely monitoring.

Donations
Very close to end of month - about 50% shy of our donation levels. I really hate to ask, but I need to - we are at risk of not paying for our server for next month. I know this is direct. :(

When the bar turns green on the front page - consider waiting until next month. It means we have reached our goal.

I believe we will pull through this.
Thanks for making this place the most amazing political forum on the internet.
 
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I dont like the idea of being able to change one's username. The username is what we use to recognize members, its very personal. I dont know, just an opinion.
 
Hey all!

Just a few things.. :)

Change your username
The system is now enabled to allow you to automatically change your username once every 90 days. The system will keep a history of all your username changes. No more waiting on the mod team to help and make sure everything is in sync. Click on the donations tab in your User Control Panel for more info. :cool:

Basement preview
We are also letting you know that we are working on a basement preview - it will be live shortly. Folks with more than 30 posts will be able to preview, but not be able to participate in the basement quite yet. They can see all the craziness going on down there in "The Dungeon". For folks that have at least 50 post counts, if they donate, they too can enjoy the full benefit of the entire basement. No worries. Folks with at least 250 posts still have instant access to all its ...ah glory. :)
Edit: The basement preview is live


Stubborn server
We are still working on the "hicups" every few minutes and are painfully aware of them. The issue is with the search indexing. Today, we tweaked several variables and upgraded the sphinx engine. That made it a bit better performance wise, but not great when it spins. We asked for a quote for 2G extra memory for the server. Looks like they want $175 for one time fee. Not entirely convinced that will fix it. We are closely monitoring.

Donations
Very close to end of month - about 50% shy of our donation levels. I really hate to ask, but I need to - we are at risk of not paying for our server for next month. I know this is direct. :(

When the bar turns green on the front page - consider waiting until next month. It means we have reached our goal.


I believe we will pull through this.
Thanks for making this place the most amazing political forum on the internet.

Back to the top...

The way to say thank-you BACK is to donate. Hard to believe this site would have to just eke by. Anyone who's visited other forums knows this place is exceptional. Shouldn't be tough to raise cash.
 
I dont like the idea of being able to change one's username. The username is what we use to recognize members, its very personal. I dont know, just an opinion.

For 90 days, their username will stand out in italics. In their profile, we all can see the username change history. :)
 
I think the username change is a great idea. It will raise money for the site and you won't have to go through a mod anymore to get your name changed. :peace
 
I dont like the idea of being able to change one's username. The username is what we use to recognize members, its very personal. I dont know, just an opinion.

Totally agree. I have saw this cause major trouble on other forums and feel you should only be able to change your name once unless there is a safety concern that becomes an issue with a username.
 
Totally agree. I have saw this cause major trouble on other forums and feel you should only be able to change your name once unless there is a safety concern that becomes an issue with a username.
Very reasonable argument against being able to change ones username. Changing your name is not very popular at all. For those that wish to do so, we have implemented a long (90 day) transition period while people get to know and become familiar with the new name. Users that have changed their name will be noticed as their name will be in italics. This should alleviate any concerns of folks "playing the system" or attempts at not taking responsibility for their actions within the community.

This new feature isn't really going to be a revenue generator. I suspect it will not be popular, but it is however a great option for those that want to do so. It also automates it and removes needs for mod assistance and approval - of course the new name will still have to follow our rules, but that should go without saying. Anything automated is better in my book. :)

No worries, if fails to live up to our standards, we can always go back to the old way of doing things. :)
 
Very reasonable argument against being able to change ones username. Changing your name is not very popular at all. For those that wish to do so, we have implemented a long (90 day) transition period while people get to know and become familiar with the new name. Users that have changed their name will be noticed as their name will be in italics. This should alleviate any concerns of folks "playing the system" or attempts at not taking responsibility for their actions within the community.

This new feature isn't really going to be a revenue generator. I suspect it will not be popular, but it is however a great option for those that want to do so. It also automates it and removes needs for mod assistance and approval - of course the new name will still have to follow our rules, but that should go without saying. Anything automated is better in my book. :)

No worries, if fails to live up to our standards, we can always go back to the old way of doing things. :)

I donated the $10 for the name change. It took me to Paypal, I paid, and then it took me back to DP. Now, where do I input my new username?

edit: Nerver mind. The option appeared a minute ago in the "edit profile" section. Is there a reason why my avatar is not appearing?
 
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Stubborn server
We are still working on the "hicups" every few minutes and are painfully aware of them. The issue is with the search indexing. Today, we tweaked several variables and upgraded the sphinx engine. That made it a bit better performance wise, but not great when it spins. We asked for a quote for 2G extra memory for the server. Looks like they want $175 for one time fee. Not entirely convinced that will fix it. We are closely monitoring.
Hostdime is such an amazing hosting service. They will upgrade our server with 2G more memory at midnight on Oct 1 at no cost due to us being a long term customer. Hopefully this will help our server hiccups.
 
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Hostdime is such an amazing hosting service. They will upgrade our server with 2G more memory at midnight on Oct 1 at no cost due to us being a long term customer. Hopefully this will help our server hiccups.

That is just awesome!
 
Well, I guess it makes a perverse sort of sense. If a person has worn out their welcome using one name, at least they need to pay for the ability to plague the forum using another -- serial sock puppetry sanctioned by the site for the site's benefit.
 
Stubborn server
We are still working on the "hicups" every few minutes and are painfully aware of them. The issue is with the search indexing. Today, we tweaked several variables and upgraded the sphinx engine. That made it a bit better performance wise, but not great when it spins. We asked for a quote for 2G extra memory for the server. Looks like they want $175 for one time fee. Not entirely convinced that will fix it. We are closely monitoring.

Have you tried playing with lowering the process priority?
 
Reminder: Server will be going down about midnight for memory upgrade. Baring no issues, should take less than half an hour.
 
Ok, software and server appear to be working well. The server team will need to place us back on the rack.
They will take the server down for a few minutes at 4am EST.

Let me know if you still feel the studder again. I tweaked a few things and upgraded the search engine again.
 
*yaaaaaawn*
Ok, they tried to move the server back to the rack but had issues. They decided to move it back to the work area. So, we are back up - for now. Unsure when they will move us back to the server space area.

Checkin a few things then calling it a night.
 
Performance seems to have improved* a great deal with the memory expansion, tweaks and search upgrade last night.

Has anyone experienced slow/choppy/sluggish performance today?

*Knock on wood.
 
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