ForumsNews and FeedbackAG3 Calendar: December 27, 2010. Codename: Falchion II

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cormyn
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cormyn
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Nomad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamberge

We're hoping that this coming Monday's beta release will find some stability on the Cassandra database that's affecting several pages on the site.

We should have game ratings ready, and an expanded set of activity stream/comment features.

If the Cassandra database is stable enough, we'll send out invite codes.

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sourwhatup2
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sourwhatup2
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Jester

So is it still today or is the release being pushed another day? xD

cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

It'll still be today.

sourwhatup2
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sourwhatup2
3,660 posts
Jester

Alright.. Just making sure.

Can't wait to be honest xD

cormyn
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cormyn
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Nomad

While we wait, here's a draft of our newsletter coming out today. We'll have some final edits, and more features/bugs to add to it:

Our 4th release focuses on shoring up our Activity Stream and Follow features as well as some miscellaneous bug fixes and enhancements throughout the My Armory section. We recognize that our initial release of the Activity Stream didn't quite have all the features users needed to really make it useful. Hence this release has been deemed "Falchion II".

Since we've made several "cosmetic" changes, we recommend that you clear your browser cache. If you clear your cookies in the process, you'll need your invite code to get back into the beta site.

Users who signed up for the beta after 9am on November 22nd will receive their invite codes in a separate Email later today.

We hope you are all having a great holiday, and we look forward to your feedback on this beta release!


NEW FEATURES
- Activity Stream redesign. We reworked the layout of Activity items and comments. Hopefully the display is more clear and useful to users.

- Dashboard update. We added some "fixed scrolling" to some key navigation elements so they never scroll off the screen. We also added new tabs to your Dashboard:
-- Your Kingdom (activities of your friends/followers)
-- Public Square (public activities)
-- Inbox (direct messages)

- Privacy Settings enabled. The privacy settings section has been updated and enabled. Check out the tools and let us know what you think of the structure. Currently, only Followers are affected by privacy settings changes.

- Deletion control. You can now delete your own status updates (which also deletes all comments your Followers left for that Activity). You can also delete any individual comment left by your Followers for any of your Activities. We also allow you to delete any of your own comments that you have left for other users on their Activities.

- Manage Friends and Followers. We reworked this section as well. You now have the tools to view who you are following, who is following you, and you can unfollow users who you currently follow.


BUG FIXES

- Users with short 3-letter usernames should be able to log in now.
- Relationships were not populating properly but should be okay now.
- Frequent database errors when browsing the beta site.
- My Armory was missing a box to list your Followers.


NOTES

- We are planning some sorting features for your lists of friends/followers (ie, sort them alphabetically) and they will be coming in a future release.

- The Dashboard tabs for Public Square and Inbox are not hooked up yet.

- Currently, you must reload the page to see any updates. In a future release, we hope to have "live updates" happen on the page without requiring you to refresh the page.

- The Utility bar at the top of the screen will allow you to read Activity Stream messages, but will only show you how many replies there are. A future release will allow you to see the replies and add your own comments right from the Utility bar.

- Deleting an Activity will remove ALL associated comments from you or your followers. Currently, any deleted messages are permanently removed from the system and cannot be recovered.

- To follow a user, you must view their profile page and click the Follow button. There is no search feature enabled on the site yet.

Initially, we wanted to implement game rating in this release, but we've moved it to our next release to make sure we had enough time to get some functionality working in this release, and also to give us enough time to test several game rating controls internally to find what feels right for the site based on feedback from employees.

To repeat a note from our last release: We currently only allow Following and Unfollowing other users. We are not ready yet to allow two-way Friendships, or the associated privacy settings. We will continue to work on these elements for a future release. Also, for the time being, activity messages, status updates, and comments are limited to 1,024 characters. Anything longer will be truncated. Biographies that were copied from AG2 were truncated at 1,024 bytes as well, but we will eventually update full biography messages for users before the final AG3 launch.

Also, please keep in mind that this is a beta, things will break, and your comments and activities could be deleted at any time! We are planning at least one wipe of all activity stream data in the next week or two, so please don't rely on AG3 as your sole method of communication with other users!


I added a bold attribute on that last bit on purpose... we're planning a wipe of all activity data and comments on AG3. (hey, it's a beta, you knew that when you signed up. Right? Right?!) Larry says it's planned for this week but I don't know 100% for certain yet.
Freakenstein
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Freakenstein
9,508 posts
Jester

November the 22nd only? Shouldn't it be a little more recent than that? :?

cormyn
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cormyn
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Nomad

No, we didn't send out any beta invites for the last release in mid-December.

sourwhatup2
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sourwhatup2
3,660 posts
Jester

I signed up like 1 or 2 weeks ago.. would I get the code today or no?

cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

mrtim, no, people who signed up after about 1pm TODAY have to wait until January 10th. Anyone who signed up between 9am November 22 and 1pm today will get an invite code in the next few hours.

cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

Newsletter and invite codes are queued up, but we're having a problem with our Email service... whenever they respond to our trouble ticket, they'll make their way out into the wild!

cormyn
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cormyn
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Nomad

Newsletter said:

Users who signed up for the beta after 9am on November 22nd will receive their invite codes in a separate Email later today.


The list of users getting the newsletter includes all of the users who signed up after 9am on November 22nd. Sorry if that seemed confusing.
sourwhatup2
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sourwhatup2
3,660 posts
Jester

Hmm.. Still haven't gotten it.. but I'll keep checking up on it.

cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

Sourwhatup2 ... did you see my message from mere minutes ago?

we're having a problem with our Email service... whenever they respond to our trouble ticket, they'll make their way out into the wild!
sourwhatup2
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sourwhatup2
3,660 posts
Jester

Sourwhatup2 ... did you see my message from mere minutes ago?


I did.. thats why I said I'll keep checking up on it til it gets there. :P
cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

We'll post when they start sending. We use a third-party service to deliver our Email and nothing's going through their system right now, so the newsletter to 900-ish users, plus 350 invite codes, are just sitting in a bucket waiting to send.

cormyn
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cormyn
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Nomad

Mine will be one of the first newsletters to arrive, since I had queued some draft newsletters to evaluate (which never arrived either), so that'll tell me when things are starting to roll out.

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