Fans, Reviews and Preview of "Guides"
Posted by Jesse Andrews on Oct 27, 2008
Searching and browsing script by number of fans is now possible, reviewing/rating scripts is back (after a really really long hiatus), and a preview of "Guides".
My wrists have been really hurting but I took a bit of time and released a few fixes/features that have been nearly done for a while.
The previous work moving to sphinx included improvements to searching by number of fans a script has. I've deployed the frontend code so you can actually use it. The fans code might have issues (as I think it messes up when a user is deleted), so if you see anything, let me know!
In the spirit of helping users find the best scripts, I've decided to deploy ratings/reviews of scripts as it current is. I want to add ratings of reviews (5 of 7 people found this review helpful), so that the best reviews are highlighted. Rather than wait another week (or months), I want to get it out and see if there are any issues with the basics. The content of a review has a rating (1 to 5 stars), a title, and the actual review. The review can contain the same HTML as a comment - except no inline images.

One last thing that I've been working on that is still experimental is the concept of a "Guide". A guide is an article written by users that helps others improve their web. A guide can explain how to make the best use of a single script, or how to use several scripts work together to perfect the browsing experience. Guides currently are only visible to logged in users (this will change once the feature is finished and more guides are written).
I wrote a guide explaining what guides are. You can write your own or read guides written by others. The "Guides" feature need to be include features like commenting and ratings before being opened to the public (join us in the forum to discuss the feature)
Sorry that all of these features need polish, but I hope they are useful in state they are in.
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Everything's looking great, Jesse. I like the new reviews thing, and hopefully these features will work out well for the site.
One comment that I do have though is that it looks like users can (and already have) abused this feature by placing referral links that they can earn money from in the Guides (ie. the first link in this guide). This highlights though that this is another area on the site where there should maybe be some form of spam reporting feature implemented for guides and reviews? Unless one of the intended features of Guides is to advertise and I'm completely missing the point here. (You'll have to excuse me if this has been implemented and I'm just being blind).
Anyhow, this does look good, and I look forward to seeing how this does develop and grow when users start using the features.
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Hi Jesse,
The current site looks REALLY GREAT ! Thank you !
One question... Is there a timeout for uploading scripts ? Reason: I have a script on this site (thank you for providing this opportunity !). I encounter major issues while trying to update the script since Saturday (25th of October, 2008). It may be my problem having onely a DSL 1000 connection or again my problem having a script of about 730 KB or again my problem having about 144 script versions.
I had no problem uploading before the 25th of October, 2008. Dont know exactly what changed since the named date. Don't know if there are limits on this site. Don't know how to free-up space here (as about 100 old versions of the script can be deleted).
If this helps, I am using:
1 computer Vista SP1 + all the updates, Firefox 3.0.3
1 computer XP SP3 + all the updates, Firefox 3.0.3
Both run Norton Internet Security 2009. Even with this software disabled, I could not update the script.
Sorry for bothering you, but I could not update my script today. :( And it's not about me, but about the users of the script...
Thank you for your work, as this is really THE SITE !!!
Any suggestions on what I can do are welcomed !
THANK YOU !
P.S. Don't know what I can do, but am really impressed and so grateful to you !
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@ms99: Have you tried pasting it into the text box instead of uploading the file?
144 versions is a lot, and it's also a rather square number (though it's not a power of two) ... it might be an upper limit (bug) in this site. Jesse is typically pretty fast at getting updates for the site, so I'm not going to suggest creating a new script in its stead.
That's also a GIANT script. You might want to research splitting each language into its own file (which unfortunately looks like it would require a lot of alteration to your data structures). This would be utilizing the
@requireline in the greasemonkey metadata (which sadly lacks good documentation, as noted in my request for info How do I use @require and @resource? on the userscripts forums).login to vote
@khopesh: yes, of course, I've tried pasting the script in the text box.
Now, I've succeeded updating the script from the office PC (much better internet connection). I'll check this evening from home again. It may be my home computers/internet connection that cause this issue.
Thank you.
P.S. Splitting the script (the different language arrays in other scripts) is an option. But then I have to maintain a lot of small language pack scripts. Translations are provided every now and then by the users of the script. Don't know, have not tried it before.
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@ms99,
I've been debating building a translation feature - where script authors can ask for translations in various languages for various words. Then you can get an exported JSON file to use in your script.
As well other scripts that use the same words (if there is much overlap) can re-use.
Sound useful?
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@Jesse,
Thank you. I will answer this evening from home.
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A translation feature sounds interesting. Maybe it can work with my script, specially designed for translations: US_language.
I would be happy to translate to Dutch (NL-nl).
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Never mind.
Didn't saw it was Travian in the search bar....
Great job!
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Regarding translations, BabelZilla might prove useful (they specialize in translating Add-ons): http://www.babelzilla.org/forum?showforum=83
Getting back to the guides - syntax like [u:2] et al is wonderful ... any intention of making it work site-wide? What about allowing a syntax-highlighted code block tag, like
<pre class="sh_javascript">, which would allow specifying other SHJS-supported languages in addition to the obvious need for javascript (CSS and HTML would be key), and perhaps making that work site-wide, too?login to vote
I hope that you read this info before applying this new features!
BugMeNot login (sorry, but I prefer to be anonymous - anyway, admins can find out who I am...)
because of np, I'm no longer an active user on userstyles.org (I wish there will be an alternative site for userstyles.org)
even srazzano left this site (shame that things like that happening) - I used to use three styles by him e.g. this tooltip WAS so awesome ;'(
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@Alala (or whomever you are, since you're claiming to use a trash account via the bugmenot anonymizer),
I don't understand what you're trying to point out. Big deal, some lame user wants to make fun of another one. If abuse is too prevalent, the abuser gets shut down. If you worry about being traced, why do you want an account in the first place? Why not use bugmenot on userstyles?
Why are you complaining about userstyles.org here? The best you can get with Greasemonkey is by using Multi-line strings for one giant
GM_addStyle()statement (see my example in that guide). ... that's still not really what you want though.login to vote
I don't know who's Alala, but this user is crash (chipmark) (I know him).
He's complaining why the user -=Ben=- is still active after what he/she did. according to what Alala wrote here, srazzano left userstyles.org because Jason did NOTHING to -=Ben=- in spite of -=Ben=-'s dishonesty (fake rating etc.). I think that Alala is afraid that the same situation is liable to repeat itself in Userscripts.org.
read the following links carefully:
userstyles.org: [Closed] test
userstyles.org: Crash and MozNation (Commenting on -=Ben=-'s Styles)
userstyles.org: BEN & crash(ing reputation)
userstyles.org: [Closed] [POLL] BAN -=BEN=- from userstyles.org
userstyles.org: Editing Personal Information on Forums Broken
pretty (very) funny, though.