So, I'm watching /var/syslog as I'm navigating the BBS - and I'm seeing that where it gets SSL errors in the log, is usually where you see a pause on it rendering a screen on the BBS - but those pauses seem far shorter now. Not sure if this is a placebo or real - but try and be taking note of if things generally seem to have sped up a bit. I think the BBS will be a little more responsive. The SSL errors are still causing little delays - but it *feels* like they're not lasting as long as they were. I suspect pages with a lot of inline images that aren't in your cache will still take an exceedingly long time to display on your browser. 

But overall - this should be another big improvement for the BBS. 

I've been feeling very bullish on Citadel this weekend. The BBS has been getting better traffic and people aren't lurking - I'm seeing more curiosity traffic that runs through the BBS - and I'm getting it dialed in to where it is running really well and I've got a good recovery method in place if something goes awry. 
All we need is a few other users deciding that putting up a Citadel themselves is a good idea, and we start to set up a little network of distributed alternatives to major social media sites - and I think we could actually start to be a coordinated threat against sites like Twitter, Reddit and even Facebook. People will be able to find an atmosphere that fits their personality - and won't be terrified of upsetting the thought police. 

I've literally had a week long ban on Facebook for calling myself White Trash. They said it was hate speech. You can watch black people on Facebook calling themselves and one another the N word all day long on Facebook and Twitter - but a white person can't recognize their cultural legacy by taking possession of a derogatory term for their ethnic class. 

I really want to see Citadel becomce the hand that bites what feeds it, and mainstream social media sites handing us users with bandaged and bleeding hands all day long. 

I think it can happen. We just need a few more of you to throw up a Citadel. And that is about to get super easy. 

Yeah, I'm connected remotely, and there is no doubt that the BBS is running faster than it was. The 5mb is still a bottleneck, but I think SSL timing out isn't a factor anymore - or not a major one, anyhow. 

Very happy with the progress I made on tech projects this weekend, despite that I slept for 12 hours straight one day. 

There is no doubt that a lot of the feedback I am getting from people on Facebook who would like to follow me to The Sanitarium is that they primarily use phones, tablets or other mobile devices and it just doesn't work well on Mobile browsers - and it doesn't. 

Would something like this work? 

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-turn-your-website-into-a-mobile-app-with-7-lines-of-json-631c9c9895f5/

A big problem is that you can't share into Citadel from mobile. You can attach files - but the way that Chrome works with images - you can't really embed them in messages. There are some other issues too. Tiny input fields and other web-optimized details that don't translate well to a mobile experience. 

I've had this issue in the back of my mind for a while... but I just don't know enough about development to know how this could be fixed. I've wondered if that the fact that Citadel is basically a mail server might be part of the problem. 

Anyhow, I'd love to see a modern Android/iOS app that plugs into a Citadel BBS and presents it in a more mobile friendly format. 

Wed Jan 20 2021 22:04:47 MST from ParanoidDelusions

There is no doubt that a lot of the feedback I am getting from people on Facebook who would like to follow me to The Sanitarium is that they primarily use phones, tablets or other mobile devices and it just doesn't work well on Mobile browsers - and it doesn't. 

Would something like this work? 

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-turn-your-website-into-a-mobile-app-with-7-lines-of-json-631c9c9895f5/

A big problem is that you can't share into Citadel from mobile. You can attach files - but the way that Chrome works with images - you can't really embed them in messages. There are some other issues too. Tiny input fields and other web-optimized details that don't translate well to a mobile experience. 

I've had this issue in the back of my mind for a while... but I just don't know enough about development to know how this could be fixed. I've wondered if that the fact that Citadel is basically a mail server might be part of the problem. 

Anyhow, I'd love to see a modern Android/iOS app that plugs into a Citadel BBS and presents it in a more mobile friendly format. 

My company could definitely handle that.  It's really just a question of do you want to pay us, lol

Being a full stack developer has perks.

Will you take payment in me writing company blogs? 

If I manage to monetize The Sanitarium and can make some money off the site, investing in having someone design a web-app for it wouldn't be out of the question, to be honest. 

Sat Jan 23 2021 00:38:00 MST from TheDave

 

 

 

My company could definitely handle that.  It's really just a question of do you want to pay us, lol

Being a full stack developer has perks.

Ze Bad Germanz! 

I'm pretty sure TheDave is crazy... 

The lag between typing in the address and having the BBS respond has decreased. There is still a pause once it responds - but when you enter the address in the URL and hit enter, it changes to a white screen quickly, and the pause before it brings up the Welcome banner is not as long as it used to be. 

Logging in also seems quicker, as does going from room to room, unless a room is full of a bunch of inline images - which take a while to feed at 5mb/sec. 

I think the major bottleneck now is simply that the pipe isn't that big - not the hardware or the configuration. In the past I think I was asking a LOT of a 2mb Pi 3B+... and that along with misconfiguration of SSL and other configuration issues that was the cause of most of our problems - and some of those travelled with us to Debian when I moved to the i5. 

I think TheDave just doesn't remember how barely limping along this thing used to be. It is still not setting any land speed records - but we've upgraded from snail to a lame rabbit. 

Also, protip. If you enter a message and hit Post and get "not found" on a white screen up in the corner. Hit F-5. It will resubmit the form and your message won't be lost. 

I kind of like how sometimes The Sanitarium will tell you your login is incorrect or account isn't found or that your post didn't happen... it makes it feel more like an authentic Citadel that it is a little temperamental and moody. 

On Facebook when you lose a message, it is because of shitty UI design most times. Here - it is because the Citadel is fucking with you... on purpose. Because it is ornery. 

Sun Jan 24 2021 21:45:33 MST from ParanoidDelusions

I think TheDave just doesn't remember how barely limping along this thing used to be. It is still not setting any land speed records - but we've upgraded from snail to a lame rabbit. 

 

And then, just to spite me, the initial page took extra long this time, but the login and refresh to lobby was super quick. :D 

Citadel. 

Anyhow... I was coming to post that Ig, you should have Warbaby check out the Vampire V4 Discord Chat, where I've been disrupting the flow, being abrasive and argumentative with the developers, and demanding answers to questions I'm not even sure how to ask. 

I think he would enjoy seeing a *different* group of developers suffering me coming in like a hurricane. 

But... I spent the entire day reading forums and blogs and trying to figure out where TFM was so I could R it. It doesn't exist. 

And the developer I kind of crossed swords with - I saw his posts in the forums and thought, "that guy is one of THOSE developers..." 

Then he happened to chime in on my post, and was instantly defensive.... 

I was actually pretty gentle with the whole thing... made sure I reiterated how fantastic I think the V4 is... how much I hate the politics of the different owners of the Amiga properties and their lawsuits - how much I *like* the new V4 Apollo OS operating system they've designed on AROS... 

I had the volume turned up to about 6, instead of 11. 

I off to an auspicious start with the Vampire community. 

And here was the question... "I made a new drawer (directory folder) and it appears in text mode instead of as icons. This isn't something I'm familiar with an Amiga OS really doing by default. How do I make it behave the way I'm used to?"


Here was the answer - their custom Vampire OS, although they haven't documented it, uses Directory Opus as a Workbench Replacement. 

Which is cool. But I think they were like, "why don't you know this?" 

And the answer is, "because I stopped using an Amiga as a daily driver when the 68ec020 upgrades were state of the art." 

Sun Jan 24 2021 22:22:10 MST from ParanoidDelusions

I off to an auspicious start with the Vampire community. 

 

 

 

but then the message appears twice.

but then the message appears twice.

Sometimes. Lately, it hasn't been. I hit post, I get a "not found" I refresh, I check, and the message only appears once. The first buffer is actually lost. 

Mon Jan 25 2021 09:18:58 MST from Google Bot

but then the message appears twice.

You may be right, I may be crazy.  I don't really time this shit, and I never log out, I just stay on the lobby until I come back again, or stay where I last left off when I logged into Minecraft or facebook or youtube.  I have roughly 50 tabs open at any given time.

The context of this room is getting relatively difficult to follow, so it looks like a bunch of people having random conversations with themselves. 

Which would, in fact, make this room... 

On Topic. :) 

Jerry, here are instructions on how to upload/download to a room. 

They're as a word .docx in the TheSanitarium] directory room. 

Wed Jan 06 2021 11:13:03 MST from ParanoidDelusions Subject: Uploading and Downloading Files in Citadel

Uploading/Downloading Files from Citadel

Directory rooms have an icon that looks like a pallet with a box with two arrows on it. Click the icon

 

Click the “Choose File” button.

 

 

 

 

Browse to the folder where the file you wish to upload resides and click on the file to upload:

 

Enter a description and click Upload. The file upload will being.

 

To download, just click on one of the listed file names, and your download will begin.

The Sanitarium was running strange last night - not responding on Telnet over my internal network, responding slowly via webclient over both internal and external connections - so I rebooted it. 

Things still seem a little slow - and other things have changed. It isn't redirecting to the Welcome page on initial connect before log-in - it isn't redirecting to the Welcome page on Log Off, and when I first connect via HTTPS, it is re-displaying the "connection insecure" warning dialog. 

Something has changed. Not sure what. 

Not seeing any errors in syslog that appear new, and system capacity seems fine. No updates have been applied. 

Is there any way to toggle the CSS on the web server?  I'd love to see this be in dark mode.  Call me old fashioned but I hate white backgrounds.

Ig? Is this something users can change? 

Sat Feb 06 2021 03:17:35 MST from TheDave

Is there any way to toggle the CSS on the web server?  I'd love to see this be in dark mode.  Call me old fashioned but I hate white backgrounds.