16 March 2005

You might have noticed some big changes since the last time you saw us

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Well the hard drive on the server died shortly after my last opportunity to add to the site from work. As far as I know these were unrelated incidents.

Due to complicated technical and emotional events of four years ago, it is a very tricky business continuing to use the site as we did before. Basically we were able to restore the site so search results will still be able to see it. But we’re no longer able to add content.

There was some consideration of just jacking the whole thing in. I mean no advertisers want to touch us with a bargepole, and we seem to be making enemies at a frenetic rate (which is fun for a while but loses its appeal over time). The site consumes a great deal of time and effort. This is all to say nothing of regular legal threats from Liberals.

Give the ALP some credit, we give them a very hard time (they are in Government) but while Labor folk have left rude comments and sent chastising emails they’ve never brought out the really heavy stuff the way Liberals do.

Sure, we know from experience that threatened writs never actually appear. But the stress involved each time is not something I’d wish on anyone.

I should thank the other guys in the team for standing by me in the fights I’ve gotten us into, sometimes ill advisedly. There have been times when I’ve considered buckling on a point of principle, down at the pointy end. But every time when I tell the guys what the deal is, and the trouble they could be getting into, they invariable say words to the effect of “stuff the bastards, lets keep going”.

Anyway the offers of help and concern during the crisis were such that we decided to keep going forward.

As you can see we’ve changed engine to WordPress which we think offers some amazing functionality (and will let us fiddle with it without getting technically petrified like we did last time).

It’s possible we might find a way to revert to the old site in the next few days.

For now you’ll need to register to submit news (on the other hand just email it in to root@the-riotact.com).

We haven’t caried over any of our previous registration information, so you’ll need to sign up again.

You won’t need to register to post comments, but the server will want to know who are (and for a moderator to have allready approved an earlier comment) before there will be open slather. We regard this as a compromise from our oft-debated intention to remove anonymous comment alltogether.

There are more changes than we can mention in this space but feel free to ask questions in the comments or via email.

It’s not going to be the same comfortable space we knew (and there are plenty of changes to come, because right now it’s on the ugly side), but we’ve decided to turn this problem into an opportunity.

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Bump.

Have not been here for some time. Have things changed much from this 10yo post?

Trawling through RiotAct …. I think this is about as far back as it goes on WordPress!

See #9 from S3 …. Sigh!

I can log in now thanks jazz

thanks spitfire3. I’m going to put up an article calling for suggestions as well so if anything else comes to mind…

We’ll also loook into the email thing for you. Things are still in a state of flux so bear with us as we try to sort them out.

Here are some suggestions, Jazz.

I’d like to see the discussions stick around on the front page a little longer before being relegated to archive-dom so they can be discussed a little longer. So maybe extend the length of the list of available stories on the front page?

As for the anonymousness, I support getting rid of the ability to post as an Anonymous Cowardly Canberran. I like to be anonymous myself to the extent that nobody (except admins) knows my real name, but I attach my nickname to my posts so that if someone wants to argue with me they can see what other posts I’ve put up also. The Anonymous Cowardly Canberran is not a worthwhile opponent because you can’t know what else they’ve said in other posts. I think that may be a hindrance to debating activity on RA.

I like your playground analogy about the bloggers, jb. I agree that RA isn’t a blog. Why would you want to be? I’m not interested in reading blogs. A site like this is far more interesting and valuable, because I get to read the opinions of a bunch of people in my city rather than just one person, and I get to contribute my own opinion. There might be other people that care what the bloggers say about RiotAct, but I think if you took a poll you’d find they’re in the minority. Ignore the blogs and soon you’ll find you’re streets ahead of them.

Also, I tried to register but the email with my password didn’t arrive, could someone check on that for me please? Thanks.

Thanks Caz

It’s true, use of a non-official blogging tool was holding back our popularity in the high school playground that is blogdom.

Hopefully now that we’re dressed like the other cool kids they’ll let us sit next to them at play-lunch.

take note people, while we are feeling vulnerable you may be able to offer us suggestions on what youd like to see in the new and improved Riot

Don’t go anywhere!
Just reduce the font size a little 🙂

Hope you stick around. This site is invaluable to us Canberrans

Homer: “Yes! Crisitunity!”

I’m glad you guys are looking at getting RA going again (in whatever form it may take). It really is the best Canberra-related site around. Take the Canberra Times website for example: it sucks. The commenting functionality is alright, but 1 or 2 stories a day? Jeebus, come on! Anybody’d think they were holding back to try and get me to buy the dead tree version (zif that’s gonna happen). Anyway, I haven’t been a member for long enough to know much about the fights you get into, but I know a good website when I see one.

Prior to doomsday I was registered as S3 coz like a good nebulous name. But a change is as good as a severe beating so I’ve just registered on the newly-arisen-from-the-ashes site as Spitfire3. Feel free to insult my new nickname. Some suggestions are: Shitfire, Spitfart, Pissfar, and Dickhead. I leave it in your capable hands.

Signed,
The artist formerly known as S3

OMG, you’re using blogging software! Does that make you a blog now?

I’m not too sure what I think of the new layout yep, but I’m probably hoping you do some work on it. I feel your pain re php-nuke however.
Glad to see you have things working again, i’ve had some more productive days at work recently, its good to know they will be going back out the window.

welcome back . . my lunch time “read-break” was looking kinda sad there for a while.

glad you guys are still here!!!

Yay, the yellow is gone!

Keep up the good work guys. Im glad you decided to persist rather than take the easy route.
Im not HTML guru, but I do know computers very well and if you ever need a hand, Id be more than happy to volunteer my services.

I really want the yellowness to go away too. I find this really hard to navigate. But that’s ok, at least it’s back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it’s ugly. But at least it’s here.

I’m assuming the yellowness will go away eventually?

Great to see the site back up and running.

glad you decided to keep plugging away, JB and co-conspirators. seriously, the Canberra Times website is so shit (Pryor cartoons excluded) that there’s no reason not to say RA is the bestest ever canberra community, news & independent ranting website in the world. you’re definitely my official source for being connected to the place, so for gods sake keep going or my sister is going to get really annoyed if you quit and I have to ask HER to do the necessary MLA-bashing and brothel reviewing.

z
expat canberrian.
oxford UK.

I hope you guys stick with it. Canberra-centric sites will one day rule the whole internet, and you don’t want to miss that boat, don’t you??

Worth noting that you no longer need to know html to post stories on this site,

very easy now to get things looking good without knowing html.

send me an mail and we can sort out the beer.

😉

I’m guessing that users have to re-register, as my old account details didn’t seem to work – might be worth letting the readers know.

Keep up the great work, and let us know where to send the beer.

Cheers

sounds painfull

what time is kickoff?

ten four good buddy. Rugby at UC saturday?

Administrator9:17 pm 16 Mar 05

Thanks guys.

Santa, We need to catch up on the weekend and I’ll get the CD from you.

David Heidelberg9:14 pm 16 Mar 05

Stick to it boyz!

I’m glad you’re hanging in there. As I’m currently not a Canberran, and need somewhere to view what’s going on.

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