Four Island

Okay. A few days ago, I was discussing True Falsities' sad downfall, which was probably due to the extremely large network latency associated with it. I stated that I would just keep it that way until FourComment came around because no one uses True Falsities anyway, but I've now decided that that's not good enough.

I miss True Falsities.

It was a fun website. Many Four Island memes were started as an article on True Falsities and we cannot forget that it was True Falsities that spawned my favorite website project, Pillowcase :P. True Falsities died because I didn't want to let go of my commenting system, which was because I had forgotten one simple fact about True Falsities: I am not the only one that posts stories. Other people post stories! It doesn't matter that no one comments (if no one comments, don't fear the anonymous commenting!) because people are contributing via posts!

True Falsities was fun, so I'm going to find a way to revive it. So, as a first step, I disabled IntenseDebate so that people would actually visit the site again. But how would I encourage people to post again? That's where The Great TF Initiative comes in. Within the next 11 days, I'm going to write a total of 5 new True Falsity stories. They may be horrible. I certainly hope that they won't be :P. Anyway, I will write these stories and then, during the week of April 5th to April 9th, I will post one story a day. A week of True Falsities! Maybe that'll get people posting again!

Now I know what you're all (read: me, me and only me) thinking: "BUT WAIT STARLA YOU ALREADY FAIELEDEDADE YOUR ANNUAL GOAL!!!!!!" Because apparently, you're insane. Yes, I have failed my annual goal of posting on True Falsities twice a month because I only posted once in January and I didn't post at all during February or March. Well, if I post 5 times because of this, I will have made up all of the missed posts for January, February and March. Technically, this isn't allowed in the goal, but we'll make a special exception for this situation because of True Falsities' [near?] death. If True Falsities comes back to life and I continue to post twice a month, then it'll be great. :P

EDIT: I'm just realizing now that this is very similar to a post I wrote last year. Well, let's hope it works this time. :P

Some of you may remember last year when I asked people what to do in the way of a commenting system because the main reason people said that they didn't comment on my blog was anonymity. While I didn't really find a satisfactory solution for my website (other than partial integration with The Fourm), I tried installing IntenseDebate for most of my hosted sites/project sites, including True Falsities, Color Pencils and Bubble Blog. It worked out pretty nicely. IntenseDebate looked pretty and all comments were associated with a central IntenseDebate account that could be used on other IntenseDebate-supporting sites.

There was one problem, however.

INTENSEDEBATE IS FREAKISHLY SLOW.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about True Falsities and why it suffered the death that it did and I recalled the fact that it took a very, very long time to load. I took a look using Chrome's Developer Tools and I saw that it it had a network latency of 5 seconds. 5 seconds! And that's me.... accessing a website.... within my own house. 5 seconds. I can only imagine how long it must take for viewers overseas.

Clearly, something had to be done. I looked around at my other IntenseDebate sites and saw that Color Pencils and Bubble Blog were also loading hideously slowly (which may also have been the reason that those two sites died). I disabled IntenseDebate on True Falsities, and, what do you know? It started zipping along happily. But that wasn't acceptable--I wouldn't receive any comments without some sort of centralized commenting system.

So I did some looking around and found Disqus. It looked pretty neat. So I downloaded it and set it up on True Falsities. Oh, wait, did I saw that it was easy? No? Oh, well, good, because it wasn't. Because of some monstrous limitations placed on my server that are out of my control (and yet completely fixable by certain people that will simply not oblige), my server couldn't access the Disqus website. Apparently IntenseDebate did all of its processing on the client side.

So I then spent the next 2 hours finding a proxy and configuring the Disqus plugin to use it instead of straight Internet access. And it finally worked. But.... it was hideous.

I don't know why, but Disqus simply didn't want to work. I had a difficult time exporting my comments from IntenseDebate to Disqus, the actual comment forms looked bad and wouldn't even appear most of the time and everybody instantly became anonymous. Also, every single comment looked horrible because Disqus completely discarded any formatting information the IntenseDebate provided. I tore out my hair at this point. I was actually hyperventilating.

Clearly, Disqus was no good. So I looked around for another solution and found something called Echo. It looked pretty awesome. Wait, check that, IT COSTS MONEY. No way José.

So, at this time, nothing can be done. True Falsities, Color Pencils and Bubble Blog are stuck with immense latency and there's really no chance that anybody will go on those sites now because of it. Which is very sad. Because I like those sites and they are never posted on. I really didn't want to settle with this, so I did something thinking and came up with a thought. :P

As some of you may know, the specification for Four Island 3.0 includes a complete rewrite of the travesty that is the Four Island commenting system. I figured, hey, if this new commenting system comes out nicely, I may detach it from Four Island and let it be its own commenting system like IntenseDebate that people can download and use. Probably called FourComment. :P

I think this is a good idea. Because I want integration with social networks. Because I want ratings and notifications. Because I want my webpage to load.... quickly. FourComment should be very professional and I hope that I go through with this because the current state of commenting systems on Four Island is.... bleh. A big integrated thing with cool features and a professional look would make me very happy. :P And with that, another large project is added to the Four Island 3.0 specification. :P

Hmmph. It seems that everyone has disagreed with me. I would like to mention something: when there is an OTHER option, the implication is to comment and explain which RP you would like to see revived! Don't just leave me hanging! Unless, of course, you all meant indifferent, which makes me feel pleh.

Fourm RP - 1 vote(s)! Waiting Room Mk II - 3 vote(s)! Wish Fulfillment - 1 vote(s)! Other/Indifferent - 6 vote(s)!

Lol, I'm trying my hardest to revive RPs but it doesn't seem to be working! I've posted on Fourm RP and double-posted on Waiting Room Mk II but they're going nowhere! I think Wish Fulfillment is totally deadzorz, though. Maybe that shouldn't have been an option. Anyway, comment! I would like to know what you like! :P

I now have definitive proof that I have no life.

You know that site My Life Is Average? To put it bluntly, nothing that goes on there is average. It's all "I jumped out of a third-story window and survived!" and "I handed a piece of dog poop to my teacher and got an A!" It used to be funny, but now it's all lies. Most of the posts are so crazy that they can't possibly be real and I don't understand how they made it on to My Life Is Average.

So, I created "My Life Is Actually Average", a place where boring and usual things happen. This is a place where stuff that is ACTUALLY average occurs! It's so boring, it's actually sort of funny! :P To show how obsessed I've been with this website (that I thought of like 4 days ago), let's see how many posts have already been posted: 129. Lol. A few were submitted by other people, but most of them were from me.

Yes, you heard that correctly, YOU CAN SUBMIT STORIES YAY. :P They don't necessarily have to be true (the "actually" in MLIAA implies stories that are intrinsically boring, not true), in fact, most of my posts are modified versions of posts on My Life Is Average. But you're free to write true posts because they're much more likely to be average! :P

Anyway, I'm weird. It's true. But, go on My Life Is Actually Average! Post your boring stories! It'll be fun! Lol. :P

It's the end of the week once again and once again, I have put off updating the poll of the week until very late! Omigod! :P Also, once again, I have only posted once during the week, but this time I have an excuse: I want the Annetenna post to stay on the home page for as long as it can. Hopefully, though, I will post multiple times next week. ANYWAY, here are the poll results!

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes? Yes. - 5 vote(s)! NOT A CHANCE YOU FREAK I HATE YOUR THOUGHTS - 2 vote(s)! If I knew what Endlenge was, I might, you know, be able to answer - 4 vote(s)! Who gives a ****? - 0 vote(s)!

People seemed to warm to the idea of me reviving Endlenge. That's nice, and I hope I can do it some day. However, as Bluemonkey pointed out in the comments, it wouldn't be a very good thing to do right now, while I'm struggling to complete a project. I say struggling because I am a massive procrastinator. Yeah.

The story of how I came to love an album called Annetenna is sort of long and thus I won't publish it here. If anyone cares (they don't), I'll tell. It's not a secret. Let's just say it involves the TV show "What I Like About You". I can see your brains turning off.

I'll just jump straight to the point. Annetenna was a short-lived band that emerged from the ashes of another band called Ednaswap. They created an amazing debut album that was shelved by Columbia Records due to "internal organization". Annetenna decided to self-publish their self-titled album and put it up on their website for all to download. For free.

Now, the tragedy is that at some point, Annetenna's website went down. Along with all of their songs. Perhaps since the band went out of existence, they forgot to pay the domain renewal fee. Regardless, after that, the songs became difficult, nay, impossible to find on the Internet. Such is the bane of people who like music by obscure artists. :P

Anyway, I eventually tracked down someone who wrote a review (who has requested anonymity) of Annetenna and I went out on a limb and emailed them. To my delight, he replied the next day and provided the songs to me along with some live tracks. And I thought, "Why should I be the only one who gets these songs?" The album was originally available for free, and, while searching the Internet trying to find the album, I found many other people who really wanted to download this album. So I decided to put the songs up on my website for all to download.

I hope this page receives high Google PageRank because I want other people who want this album to get it. You can either download the songs individually or via a torrent that I will attempt to seed as often as I possibly can. Below, you will find a list of songs that you can download. They are all in MP3 format. Some of them also have a live version that you can also download.

1. Ultraviolet (live)
2. Oblivion (live)
3. Halo
4. 74 Willow (live)
5. Extraordinary (live)
6. What We Are Not
7. Don't Think About it Now (live)
8. Homewrecker
9. This is Not a Love Song (live)
10. My Favorite Song (live)
11. From All Sides (live)

Click here to download the torrent file. The torrent contains all of the files listed above, including the live tracks.

I hope that, for those of you who came here looking for Annetenna songs, I just made your day! And for the rest of you, who are just reading because you're my regular readers, well, I'll give you a hug anyway. :P

Well! This poll received many a vote! But in the end, one finally had to win! Well, I guess that there COULD be a situation in which MORE than one option won.... in fact, they could all, possibly, win, but they didn't! No, they did not! Let's just examine those results now....

Computer-y stuff - 7 vote(s)! Personal stuff - 4 vote(s)! Random fun stuff - 5 vote(s)! Other - 0 vote(s)!

Lol, I was terrifyingly late to this poll. It's literally 5 minutes to midnight. I have been too lazy recently; I'd wake up on Saturday and think "Poll of the Week? Meh, I'll do it later." CONSCIOUS DECISION. Then, I happen to remember at 11:48 PM. FREAKING OUT as I nearly just collapsed from drowsiness. It happened yesterday, too, with my weekly blog post, except it was an hour and a half earlier. I will have to stop being lazy, post more frequently and get more work done. MARK MY WORDS, MR ANDERSON, MARK MY WORDS. I'm not quite sure why I said that. Maybe I should go sleep now.

Once upon a time, there was a website. It was called Four Island. And now that I've finished plugging a website that you are already on, let me explain that there was a user on it named Drifty. She had an idea one day that went like this:

I wasn't sure whether to put this in Deck of Cards, Spam or here, but this is a collaborative effort and it's cool. I just thought this up.

So, want to write a story, but haven't got the time or drive? Why don't you work on a story with a small group? It can be insane, random, funny, sad or... anything!

My idea is that we form a small group, and we each contribute a character of our own making, using a bio sheet. Then, one person types up a chapter and posts it, another person makes another chapter after the first chapter and posts it and we keep on going until... THE END. The only rule is that you can't type two chapters in a row unless you has permission. Oh, and the story must make some sort of sense

Drifty

Yes, I am so insane that I archived the original post (if you notice, it doesn't exist on The Fourm anymore). Anyway, Drifty called it The Greatest Story and plopped it down in Storybook Time. And so, people found it, liked it and signed up. And soon enough, there was a full plot line in development. We called it Starfall. It is, as of yet, incomplete.

Then, I decided to enhance the actual process with some methods to make everything more organized. I pretty much went offically psycho over the entire project and proposed that we make a series of TGS projects, one after another, that had nothing to do with eachother.

The Greatest Story really became a part of Four Island, and although only one such project has ever been started (and is still, unbelievably, in production about nearly two years due to the massive procrastination of a user who I am proud to say was NOT me this time :P), the process itself has undergone a multitude of changes. TGS is no longer just a collaborative project, it's a process under which multiple authors can collaboratively write a book.

Now, TGS was created in April 2008. What am I doing talking about it now? The first TGS project is nowhere near completion. Another TGS project isn't going to start yet (though they are free to do so at any time). Besides, most of you know all this. Most of you know what I'm going to say next too. Who cares, I needed a post for this week. :P

No, the exciting thing is that I'm writing a website for TGS! It's referenced to as "The TGS Website" all over Four Island so now you can understand what I'm talking about all the time. :P Anyway, The TGS Website is planned to be a website where authors can sign up and join new TGS projects. Then, under the guidance of the TGS process, the authors can band together and write a book! Doesn't that sound like fun?

I'm writing The TGS Site in Ruby, oh glorious Ruby on Rails, so you know it has to be good! :P It probably will not be completed soon due to the fact that I'm a l*y porsiaor (TimTam doesn't want me aooiig during this post), but it will not become vaporware! Disregard the fact that this is the third effort so far at creating a TGS Website! I will discuss TGS and its website with you more and more.... and more.... and more later. Stay tuned for more excruciatingly painful details! Starla out!

Lol, nobody liked my suggestions. I want to know what "other" is! COMMENT!!!!!!!!

"Things To Do In A Time Of Great Boredom" - 2 vote(s)! "The Analytical Machine" or "Engima@home" - 1 vote(s)! "TCMP Lifeline" or "Appreciate Me!" - 1 vote(s)! Other - 5 vote(s)!

Anyway, yes, Feburary was a bit shy on posts. Sorry about that. I'm still good with my goal, however, as I posted once a week every week. I'll keep it going! But in March, I want to be more like Janurary, posting more than once a week. Be excited! :P

The other day, I was looking at some delicious Rails plugins when I scrolled to the bottom of the page and noticed a header containing the words "No Signup Forms". What? How is that possible? Well, for those who don't know, gradual engagement is a form of user registration that doesn't require registration forms. What? Insanity!

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. See, what you can do is let the user wander around and do their thing. When they want to do something that requires an account, you automatically generate an account for them and set a "remember_me" cookie to something like 5 years so that they are automatically logged on to their new, autogenerated account when they visit the site. Then they can modify their account settings to fit them and it's allllll goood! :P

Well, I instantly caught on to this idea because, like most Internetters, I dislike having to fill out forms. Wouldn't it be much better if we could just visit a site and do what we want without having to fill out long forms, confirm stuff and then check our email to activate the new account just so we can tell someone that $_SEVER is actually spelled $_SERVER? Yes, it would be much easier and much less annoying.

I see one problem with it, though. The whole system with the remember me cookie is very fragile. If a user clears their browsing data, switches to a new computer or is actually still frequenting that website after 5 years, their account will be lost to them as they were provided with no credentials with which they could use to log in again. I think a good thing to do would be to ask the user for their email address upon auto-generating their account. It's not like filling out a huge form and we could reassure the user that it's simply so we can remember them. Then, we can email them a welcome letter along with a random password that the user can use in case their cookies get mangled. That seems fair, right?

So, what do you, the user, think? Is entering your email address too much like having to fill out a registration form or do you think you would be okay with that? Imagine accessing a site, seeing that someone is wrong about something and clicking "Comment". A little popup appears asking for your email address, which you dutifully fill in. Your comment is then added to the post and next time you want to correct someone, you don't have to even enter your email address. Sound good? :P