Posted by Kim on September 1, 2011, 2:35am
- We broke even for the first time ever!
- We got two new templates
- We saw the mods continue to be concerned, engaged, and too sexy for their shirts
- We proved ourselves in combat
- We did mad science
- What all this means for the future
We broke even for the first time ever!
Party streamers!
Confetti!
Shake up the champagne!
For the first time ever, the RP Repository broke even on its operating costs! We're coming into our own! We're in the big leagues! We're superstars!
Uh oh.. It's happening again. I'm so happy I have... a case of the italics!
But it's not hard to see why. Breaking even is fantastic news. Some might even say Epic news.
Get it? Get it?
Since April, 2010, the RP Repository has been supported off my personal paycheck. Not any paycheck I receive for the nearly full time hours I spend developing the site. Oh no. From the paycheck I get as a web developer working for clients. You know. My other full time job. While building this site has truly been a labor of love, no amount of lovin' can keep the lights on and the server humming. And as the site has grown bigger, it's become more expensive to support.
A site that supports itself financially is one that can be relied upon to remain stable.
All those little contributions in the form of Epic Memberships and character slots are increasingly going to be the reason the site is able to continue existing.
But merely existing is a little dream, and we're not in the business of small dreams around here. I still eagerly look forward to the day when the RPR is ready to hire full time staffers, to help develop things that a single person could never hope to accomplish on their own. We shall become a veritable RPing empire!
For now, breaking even is a huge step in the right direction. Thank you thank you for your support. I'm looking forward to many more years of the site being awesome.
I love you guys. Srsly.
We got two new templates
In honor of a truly legendary piece of history, this month saw the addition of two new templates: Burnt Offerings and Phreatic Eruption.
Because Burnt Offerings was so popular, today I'm releasing three more colors!
The Mods are concerned, engaged and ravishingly gorgeous
Figuring out how to enforce rules without being smothering can be a staggering balancing act. Being a site with an inordinate number of international users, we have the additional complications of rating structures being different in various countries. To say nothing of how complex and downright silly ratings guidelines are in the U.S. to begin with!This month, the moderators have been having many discussions about how to best handle all sorts of different situations -- both ones that have already happened, and hypothetical ones for the future. As a result, some of the guidelines that help our moderators do their jobs were expanded, clarified and updated.
Of course, this is an organic review process that will never really stop, and I won't post about it every time that it happens. I just wanted everyone to know how hard the moderators work to figure out what's fair. Even if they make a decision you don't agree with now and again, just know, I've watched these guys debate, struggle with hard questions of balance, and do their very best to keep this place safe, friendly and fun.
We proved ourselves in combat
While we're on the subject of the site expanding and the challenges associated with it, this month has seen a number of cases of art theft that required Admin intervention.Not only that, but our servers endured a full-scale assault from robots apparently based out of China. Woe, that we humans would use our creations against one another!
Occasional skirmishes of this nature are an inevitable fact of digital life, and our swords stand ready to defend the keep. However, blazing with righteousness to protect the fair city of the RP Repository takes its toll. Galavanting about setting things right and resisting sieges represents a significant drain on development time.
So just remember -- When you double check with an artist to see if they're okay with you using their artwork as a reference on your character profile, you're not just doing the right thing, you're actually helping me to spend more time programming features and creating templates that everyone can enjoy. Now that's awesome, you big sexy development-helper you.
We did mad science
Last month, I mentioned that I was going to be conducting a series of experiments to measure the true sources of lag and other occasional problems our server experiences.I won't bore you with the exact details -- it's heaps and heaps of numbers. What I will say is that all together, the data is compelling, with wide-reaching implications for future development.
Hidden within it is the key to battling the horrid two-headed monster known as LagAndDowntime, creating more advanced ways to play than ever before, and surviving on our current tiny server as long as possible before a new exodus is required to a larger one.
What all this means for the future
After deep meditations with martial arts masters, after hours of wearing a lab coat and drawing science-y symbols on chalk boards, after training montages set to 80s pop, the way forward seems clear.I now know with precision where the biggest demands on our server come from. I have data proving that we're outgrowing some of our older systems. And we all know that some of the quick fixes, rushed through to alleviate some of the computational burdens like notifications caches leave something to be desired.
I could fix all this under the hood, and you might not notice anything in particular was happening. You'd just have to take my word for it that things were better and more likely to be reliable.
Except... It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight, risin' up to the challenge of our rival
If we're going to go big, if we're going to challenge the way things have always worked, let's go really big. Real, lasting changes for the better in the code that governs how the site functions will require me to make alterations to nearly every page on the site. Those fixes could be invisible, but if almost everything is coming under review, then why not bring everything under review?
Let's face it: The site has been developing rapidly for the last year and a half. New features have appeared and been slapped on top of old features, hot glued to the macaroni picture of our pages. Yes, it's great to have new things, but as they accumulate, they aren't often revisited to check whether they still made sense in the contexts of the other things that they're piled in with, layer up on layer. We are too good to let our upgrades actually be downgrades, in terms of the ease and appeal of our aesthetic. Inevitably, with newness piled tenuously high, threatening to topple, unexpected interactions between old and new cause browser display bugs, and our look has become a leaky sieve through which bug reports and maintenance time continually streams.
No longer. We will bring forth order from chaos. We will even make the site stop glitching out in the rickety Internet Explorer browser. A daring promise, I know.
By the by -- The realization that this kind of major work was about to be undertaken is the reason the video tutorials have been delayed. I didn't want to release them just so they could be outdated a month or two later. They're in process and will appear with great alacrity when the change is nigh.
To prevent even more horrendous bugs because of clashes between old and new, the biggest changes will need to be released all together, at the same time. That means the changes won't trickle in. There will be a calm before the storm, and then blammo! One day, the world will have shifted, and there will be a better Repository waiting for you to explore. You should expect a brief development freeze (that means no patches will be applied, no new features released) of about a week toward the end of September while preparations are made for the change-over.
And then we'll probably have to have some kind of party.
Comments
Phrostphyre
September 3, 2011
10:54pm
This makes me want to learn coding so I can help. I have never ONCE wanted to learn coding. You sly devil, you. Trying to get me to learn coding. 
Glacontour
September 3, 2011
6:13am
There totally has to be a party I can sense some awesome coming around the corner, definitely. Keep up the good work~!
I can sense some awesome coming around the corner, definitely. Keep up the good work~!
Thanks for all the encouragement and support, guys. I will be sure to take care of myself and take breaks as necessary. I'm just so thrilled about the opportunity to make a lot of things better all at once! 
It is indeed an exciting time for the RPR.
It is indeed an exciting time for the RPR.
May the force be with you!
Minerva
September 1, 2011
5:58pm
Looks like I joined this place just in time to understand some of the great changes that it's going through. Wish I had the pocket change for a membership, but right now I don't even have the money for my own internet connection! It's great to see this much heart behind a website. Also, yay, new Burnt Incense! I used it for my Ash character until I didn't feel content with the ... blueishness of it. He's not very... blue. Now there's not blue, huzzah!
AH, and I'm just in time to see these new changes. Best of luck with it all! It sounds like it will be fun to be a part of!
This means I have a good excuse to keep going until I have 80 available character slots.
Hoolllly crap. August turned out fan-diddly-tastic and then some! And this new and exciting future frontier sounds like the biggest epic blast to hit the interwebs, mmhhhm. We're starting some sort of awesome Roleplay Social Revolution in a daring new world where lots of changes happen "kablammo"! I am down with that and always will be.
In the famous words of a certain Elite Four member, because it's just plain fitting for my mood for this, "Hoo hah!" B)
In the famous words of a certain Elite Four member, because it's just plain fitting for my mood for this, "Hoo hah!" B)
Wooo!
Sounds totally awesome! August was a good month, though trying for sure. But I'm very glad things are getting worked out and that we're all heading for a wonderful future! I look forward to many years to come with RPR
SeraphicStar
September 1, 2011
5:30am
All wonderful news!
Woooo, congratulations with breaking even! And good luck with the planned changes! It sounds like a terrible lot of work. Don't get overworked! At least not more than you might already be. 
Remember the blocked door and the complaining neighbours!
And good luck with the planned changes! It sounds like a terrible lot of work. Don't get overworked! At least not more than you might already be. Remember the blocked door and the complaining neighbours!
Good times await us!
sounds like a blast! Looking forward to a new rpr
Kim
September 4, 2011
1:18am