Mathowie updates code March 2003

March 20, 2003 12:20 PM

In an attempt to conserve resources, I've streamlined a good deal of the code for non-members, who should be getting a new flat homepage every five minutes. This shouldn't affect logged in users, but if anyone finds any problems, either post here or email me. I'm going to do the same with MetaTalk in a few minutes.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-related at 12:20 PM (30 comments total)

I also kind of stopped supporting Netscape 4 on the home page. Everyone gets the funkified CSS site from now on (it was less processing).
posted by mathowie at 12:23 PM on March 20, 2003

I'll sue! ;)
posted by GeekAnimator at 12:32 PM on March 20, 2003

O please please please don't stop supporting NN4. MetaFilter is the only site I can reliably read from my office (I can't even read my own!), since universities are notoriously slow to upgrade. Can you re-support it for members? Or just me?

If you insist, I suppose I can use lofi, but please don't do the same to MetaTalk.
posted by gleuschk at 1:00 PM on March 20, 2003

It's just the CSS sidebar on the front page that is displayed, which in NN4, kind of screws up the newest post on MetaFilter.
posted by mathowie at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2003

The site seems slightly zippier, so I'm hoping the changes are working out for everyone.
posted by mathowie at 1:12 PM on March 20, 2003

Yup. Screws it up most righteously (at the moment, it covers the first post and a half, and crowds the first two into a narrow column).
posted by gleuschk at 1:14 PM on March 20, 2003

Is the pony finally included in this upgrade?
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 1:20 PM on March 20, 2003

So you're the one, eh gleuschk? At least now I know.
posted by yerfatma at 1:43 PM on March 20, 2003

Alright, I'll toss the code back in, for you gleuschk
posted by mathowie at 1:48 PM on March 20, 2003

Matt, could you add a note to the static page, saying that the page is static and will be regenerated every five minutes?
posted by riffola at 2:07 PM on March 20, 2003

*hugs mathowie*
posted by gleuschk at 2:27 PM on March 20, 2003

could you add a note to the static page, saying that the page is static and will be regenerated every five minutes?

Why? It's got a timestamp at the top. I know Slashdot and Kuro5hin do this, and there's no indicator there. I don't think of MetaFilter as much of a breaking news source that it needs more than a refresh every 5 minutes or an indication it's not absolutely live.

I don't see what non-members lose by not knowing what I've already been doing since last year (I just streamlined the code that was already there).
posted by mathowie at 2:28 PM on March 20, 2003

gleuschk: Netscape 4?
Are you serious?
posted by rhapsodie at 2:33 PM on March 20, 2003

Oh ok, didn't see that. Sorry.
posted by riffola at 2:34 PM on March 20, 2003

non-members, who should be getting a new flat homepage every five minutes

Old-timers will remember, with that utterly misplaced fondness that only time can nurture, the days when Skippy still attended to the server with a second-hand screwdriver and a rusty can of Jolt, and the front page was rendered as static whenever something momentous, like a new episode of the Simpsons, happened... ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2003

"Netscape 4? Are you serious?"

I'm writing web applications for a major fortune 500 company where the company policy is to use Netscape 4. It is bad. Very bad. Beyond bad. The sooner everyone using this piece of crap gets used to the idea that it won't display pages properly, the better.

O please please please stop supporting NN4. We need to kill it. Shoot it in the head.
posted by y6y6y6 at 3:01 PM on March 20, 2003

i stopped supporting NS4 the day it was released... dead and buried... *wipes dust off hands*

unfortunately i'm in the same pre-diddly-dicament that y6 is in: quite a few of our clients still demand NS4 compliance (while preaching web standards for christs sake!)[/rant]
posted by poopy at 3:08 PM on March 20, 2003

Talk to the dean, rhapsodie. Then, when your spirit has been crushed utterly, come back and I'll try to explain the tenure system.
posted by gleuschk at 3:26 PM on March 20, 2003

But really, how difficult is it to update your browser? I can see the hassle involved in upgrading all the computers and labs etc. But when it is your office computer? All it takes is a simple (free) download or a disc and a two minute installation.

I knew that people still did use Netscape 4, but I didn't want to really believe it. I would rather prefer to be in denial, thank you.
posted by rhapsodie at 5:02 PM on March 20, 2003

hey, it's noticeably zippier for me too. kudos, mad props, much love.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 5:21 PM on March 20, 2003

But really, how difficult is it to update your browser? I can see the hassle involved in upgrading all the computers and labs etc. But when it is your office computer? All it takes is a simple (free) download or a disc and a two minute installation.

I'm going to guess that he's at some university with a psycho over-reactive IT staff that thinks giving users any control over their PCs is a horrible idea, and that they have configured the rights such that you do not have sufficient privileges to install anything on the hard drive.
posted by mathowie at 6:05 PM on March 20, 2003

Why don't those durn fool IT people upgrade! My very wealthy town's public library has hundreds of computers and a 100-megabit net connection but is still using NT 4 and Netscape 4. Ugh...
posted by ac at 6:38 PM on March 20, 2003

a psycho over-reactive IT staff that thinks giving users any control over their PCs is a horrible idea

Anyone who has been involved in administering a network involving either teachers or students (or, god forbid, both), will be nodding their heads and saying "it is a horrible idea, why would you even question that?
posted by dg at 7:26 PM on March 20, 2003

Another thank you for keeping support for NN4.x. I actually have the reverse situation from gleuschk. I have mozilla at work (although no control over my own desktop, yes I'm in academia). I have NN.bad at home since I haven't updated my linux for a long, long time. Everything works (modulo bad browser), so as soon as I have a spare minute I will update and then be able to ditch Netscape. I promise. But, in the mean time, thanks.
posted by noether at 8:02 PM on March 20, 2003

NN.bad = "mean time", indeed, noether.

gleuschk, just out of curiosity, what is their reason for using Netscape 4? This really amazes me. And as someone forced to use it, do you find that at least half the pages you look at are a mess... more? less? I want a first-hand account from someone in the trenches!
posted by taz at 11:13 PM on March 20, 2003

it hasn't been mentioned in a while, and given the leap in the quantity of posts lately it bears repeating: logged-in members should reduce the number of days posts that appear by default on the front page. matt, would it be hard to change that to regulate the actual number of posts instead of days?
posted by quonsar at 6:14 AM on March 21, 2003

If the number of posts each day approaches infinity but the number appearing on the front page remains fixed, the time elapsed since the posting of them will approach zero, as will the number of comments in each thread.

The overburdened MetaFilter will become the same as the early empty MetaFilter. Cacophony will be as silence.

I like it.
posted by liam at 7:00 AM on March 21, 2003

taz, from their point of view it works fine, so there's no reason to upgrade. Have you ever looked at a standard academic web page? You could view that thing with a pinhole camera and it would look the same. But yes, it's essentially unusable for any other purpose.

Most math department IT people are recent students who weren't good enough to go to grad school or go into business for themselves. Or, if they are good enough, they're only sticking around because it's easy money for minimal work.
posted by gleuschk at 7:25 AM on March 21, 2003

point taken about most academic web pages gleuschk; they look exactly like all the illustrations in the first html book I ever got, 100,000 years ago.
posted by taz at 10:18 AM on March 21, 2003

For those of you trying to get web clients away from NS4:

I wrote this essay in an attempt to help clients understand the issues. It has been successful on some very important projects. Please feel free to use it.

(I apologize for the self-post.)
posted by o2b at 12:52 PM on March 21, 2003