Welcome to the new and improved In Passing!
Submitted by eve on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 3:04pm. News
See, I keep my promises. Sometimes I wait until everyone's forgotten precisely what I promised, or that I promised anything at all, but I keep them, nevertheless.

Wait, what I meant to say was, welcome to the new and improved In Passing!

This feature upgrade was more than partially precipitated by the discovery of Drupal, a very full featured content management system with all of the features In Passing needed. Drupal is open source, and best of all, it's already written, which frees the In Passing team (and I say "team" because I couldn't have done any of this without Benjy's mad tech skills) to focus on content (my real job around here) rather than worry about how broken the site was.

In Passing is up, but what you can see right now barely scratches the surface of what Drupal will allow us to do in the future. Before I start getting carried away and claiming people will architect cities around Drupal, let me describe the notable features currently enabled.

Drupal will improve your In Passing experience by allowing you to create user accounts, to ensure that no user can be impersonated in the comments. People who would prefer not to register will still be able to post in the comments, but their comments will appear as an anonymous user.

Furthermore, each user can have his/her own blog on the site, so you can record your very own things heard and seen In Passing. Remember, In Passing is all about chronicling the humor, beauty and utter strangeness of the world, and your posts should stay true to that theme. There are many other places (blogspot, livejournal, etc) to go if you would like free hosting for a more traditional blog about your life. The content of the blog entries will be the property of the original poster.

Finally, the site is still in a transitory state, so if you find anything wrong, drop me an email and wait a few days and hopefully everything will be straightened out and running smoothly in a week or so.

Go, register, blog! Have fun!
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Reply to...?
Posted by Mike on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 8:58am.
Honestly, co-opting a single, unrelated post and turning it into a monolithic thread about "politics" or "dreams" just seems like a really really bad way of handling things.
Like Saint, I hadn't realized that the dreams thread was off topic. The initial quote was about dreams and the conversation kinda just went from there. Granted, it has been going on a bit longer than usual. (hmm, two year anniversary's coming up...) There were other earlier threads under posts about dreams: they always ended up taking a similar direction. I'd kinda rationalized the thread away by thinking that restricting that particular conversation to one post on the subject would keep us from going through the same cycle whenever another dream-related quote was heard. (I know for a fact that there were quotes about dreams both before and after the one from Jan 2001 but I don't know exactly where they are-- just trust me on this one, okay?)

It wouldn't be the end of the world if it was made static, but I didn't realize we were making trouble or anything.

(Oh, and it looks like you need break tags to form separate paragraphs now, Saint. [<br>, <br/>] And I havent made any blog posts yet, Arlene. And I have no idea where this would go as a reply so I'm putting it in as a new post.)
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If the dream thread is just p
Posted by bsii on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 2:29pm.
If the dream thread is just people posting their dreams, it seems like that would translate very well to a forum for dreams. The dream thread isn't so much the problem as the politics thread is, anyway -- that's the one that broke things.

And the br tags really aren't necessary -- I'm not explicitly entering them. I just hit return a couple of times. Try a browser like Mozilla Firebird rather than IE, maybe? That's what I use and I love it.
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Posted by Saint on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 3:25pm.
You're right, the dreams thread would translate well to a dreams forum. And the poli thread would translate well to a general "What's your angst?" forum.

My concern was that, well, we tend to wander, and it wouldn't be cool to have to cry, "Eve! Benjy! Help, we've locked up another thread!" all the time. But, thinking about it, I realized that out of hundreds of threads, we've only gone over 1000 posts twice, and only over 2000 posts once (not counting the "passed by" area, which no longer needs to be open anyway, since y'all have generously given us all our own blogs to play with). So, surely, we wouldn't spawn many more of these problem tangents, or if we did, it at least wouldn't be a daily--or even monthly--occurance.

But will closing the threads and leaving them static be enough to let us at least view them without timing out? Because although I don't feel particularly inspired to post to the argument thread, I would kind of like to see it.
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My actual intention for "maki
Posted by bsii on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 7:03pm.
My actual intention for "making it static" is to just delete all of the existing comments on the big thread(s) in drupal and then use the old in passing code to render some pages that will just be linked from somewhere -- so they'd be static html, with no dynamic database connection required at all, and hence no possibility for timing out.

I'll play with it Sunday.
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Problem or is it just me?
Posted by Sewicked on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 7:14am.
Sooo, I'm clicking around & seeing what recent blog entries & comments Intelligirly & Inuki & Mike & Saint have made & the pages are blank. Like they have not made any. Pardon me for doubting this..but well, I do. Is it true, have none of y'all made entries or is it me doing something wrong?
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Subject line?
Posted by Jon on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 7:52am.
I checked this out myself, and it seems that if you don't enter anything in the subject line, the post does not have a direct link. You can probably test this, by either editing your own post (check it out in view recent posts, and then remove the subject line and check again), or by posting something without a subject. I'm not sure if it's a bug or a feature. :)
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Different route
Posted by Sewicked on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 8:11am.
I was getting there from people's names (click on name, click on recent posts or recent blog - get 0). Recent posts from the 'view recent posts' link - no problem.
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Posted by Saint on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 10:23am.
I don't think the "recent posts" link on our little bio works yet, or at least not right. Because you don't have any recent comments either, except for your blog entry, and you usually use a subject line. As for blogs, that link seems to work. I can't speak for the others, but I haven't heard anything worth putting out there recently, so mine really is still blank.
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Regarding large threads:
Posted by bsii on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 7:12pm.
Honestly, co-opting a single, unrelated post and turning it into a monolithic thread about "politics" or "dreams" just seems like a really really bad way of handling things. I'm trying to think of a better solution for organizing the random irrelevant conversations that will certainly develop in any community so that the comments about any given post stay mostly about the post, but it's kind of tricky.

My current top idea is to set up some forums with top level items like "in passing" (to talk about the site and site issues) and "politics" and "dreams" and what have you, and that way posts about those things stay isolated where you only have to see them if you want to, and the main comments stay free of the discussions that make new readers afraid to comment.

As for the original "big threads" (which are notably, the politics thread and the "passing by" section from the old site (which isn't actually on the new site at the moment)), I think the best plan of action will be just to archive them as static html pages, so you can go back and read them, but other than that they'll be effectively "dead threads" -- if you want to continue any of those old conversations, you'd need to start them in the proposed forums.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this plan?
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Political Thread
Posted by ParU on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 9:39am.
Actually Benjy - the long running 'political' thread is about a lot of things. Since I'm the one who's posted there the most, (or ranted the most take your pick) I suppose my opinion might be worth something (hint, hint).

I agree with Saint's point (below) that you can't predict which thread will go off like that and 'burying' it in the previous threads basically makes it a 'private' thread. (Which actually raises a different 'security' issue, ask Eve or me offline about it). Anyway, I too have a problem with 'archiving' the previous threads, One because I can't see them via dial-up and two, because I find the past discussions interesting to read (and others might also).

Also, we 'like' to be 'private' as then not everyone is bothered by my rantings.

So I'd recommend that you do what is necessary to make the political and dream threads accessible (maybe have an 'uber' group of 1000 - i.e. first 1000, 2nd 1000, etc. and then go from there).

Oh and thanks for all the work you've done on the site. Cause I know you're the 'unsung' hero of In Passing.
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Posted by Saint on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 10:59pm.
Well, the problem seems to be that the discussions do, mostly, evolve from posts that originally had something to do with the topic. So that it would be a question of realizing, 'oh, I guess this tangent is going to go on for a while...maybe we should take it elsewhere.' And then actually doing it. Without people responding to the now-moved topic on the thread it has been taken from. I dunno, I'm not sure if that would end up making less work for Eve and yourself, or more. (In our defense, I'd like to say, we all thought we were being fairly polite, burying off-topic rants in the back pages where new readers would hardly ever see them. And I'd still argue that the dream thread, consisting mostly of accounts of dreams, and being under the quote discussing a dream, is not an off-topic thread-heist.)
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Posted by Saint on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 11:01pm.
And, by the by, why can't I put a space break in the middle of a post? Other people can, I've seen it. Have I just been missing the short bus all this time?
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Um, I just make newlines in t
Posted by bsii on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 2:25pm.
Um, I just make newlines in the text entry box and they work? If that doesn't work, try including a couple of br tags in there...

(these newlines were inserted by just putting blank lines in the text entry box)

What browser are you working?
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Posted by Saint on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 2:43pm.
MSN Explorer. It only seems to be a problem when I'm replying to a comment; the rest of the time just hitting enter a couple times does the job. Putting br tags in works, so it's not a major problem. I was just puzzled as to why everyone else could do it, and I couldn't.
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Blog???
Posted by ParU on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 3:49pm.
So is blog a verb now? (see the last line on the original quote).

Or does Eve just have really poor grammar?

ParU (a novice member of the Militant Grammarians)
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Blogs...
Posted by paul on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 6:16am.
Aww, ParU, I thought you would know the answer to this one already! *grin* Go here: http://new.blogger.com/home.pyra

And the reason I was picking on you in particular, ParU, is that I know that you regularly visit the original web log- namely, http://www.jerrypournelle.com/

Heh. I gave up being an MG long ago- I'm an engineer, dammit, not an English teacher! (/McCoy voice)
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Posted by Saint on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 3:51pm.
Any fan of BtVS knows that any noun can become a verb without prior notice. And from a linguistics stand-point, if it seems to work, then it works; if people never came up with new words or new ways to use old words, we'd still be grunting with the apes.
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Verbing...
Posted by Hazel on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 5:01pm.
In the words of a great mind...

"Verbing weirds language"

*grins*
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Posted by Matt on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 7:17pm.
That's Calvin and Hobbes, isn't it, Hazel?

"You weird me."
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Heya!
Posted by MacielZanderChiara on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 11:35pm.
Inter'sting update to the site. I might have to add some of my own weird-quotes-in-passing!

*can't be bothered doing a proper introductary thing, if anyone wants one*
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Special Threads
Posted by BB on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 10:21pm.
Ooo... Its pretty. Nice job Eve and Benjy! I have a suggestion!

I would love easy access to certain long-running threads. I notice that nice pretty "site navigation" bar over there... What if you added links to say, the political thread, or the dream thread (which I've never been able to actually locate) in there?

Just an idea that popped into my head. Great site!
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Yeah, but how would you pick
Posted by Saint on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 11:13pm.
Yeah, but how would you pick which ones got linked? Lots of people hate the poli thread, and are happy that it's exiled way back there not bothering them. And the dream thread is the one about the dream involving the Mervyn's parking lot, January 27, 2002.
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Posted by Kris the Girl on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 8:06pm.
Well I just linked the dream thread under "interests" in my bio--that way I just have to click on my name, and the link is right there.
I hate the poli thread, but it would still be fine with me if there was a link to it--if you don't like it, don't go there. Simple.
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Ok, I'll go look at that... s
Posted by BB on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 6:55pm.
Ok, I'll go look at that... soon, I promise. Thanks Saint!
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Posted by Saint on Fri, 10/03/2003 - 10:26am.
Looking at Mike's link above, I started doubting myself--because the dream thread is dated Jan 27 2001. But that must be a mistake, since you still get to it by going to the year 2002.
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Hmm
Posted by Jon on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 8:13am.
I don't know... could account customization include some "favorite links", that could be internal IP posts? That way, if you liked threads A,B and C, you could have easy access to them.

Not knowing anything about the new system, I have no idea if that is possible.
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Moichendizing
Posted by Saint on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 3:45pm.
So, speaking of promises, will we be seeing In Passing t-shirts or coffee mugs in the near future? For that matter, is there still a donate button somewhere? Cause I was hoping to be able to use that, soon.
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Donating
Posted by An Aussie on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 3:21am.
The donate link can be found under Site Navigation in the left hand column.

"All your base are belong to us"
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Posted by Saint on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 10:06am.
I found that...after I posted the comment. I was hoping it would go unremarked, so thanks a lot! :P
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No Worries :-)
Posted by An Aussie on Thu, 10/02/2003 - 1:52am.
I figured you would have spotted it, but I was jumping at the chance to post something so that I could test out the new system :-)

I'm loving the reply-to-specific-comments thing! It used to get a bit tricky sorting out which comments were replying to which.

"All your base are belong to us"
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Don't feel bad
Posted by yoda on Wed, 10/01/2003 - 10:57am.
i don't think that link was there before...i was wondering myself. must be part of the whole work-in-progress thing. (keep up the good work eve!)
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Question
Posted by marinerd on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 3:06pm.
I'm wondering about logging in and out. If I forget to log out in the evening, does that mess anything up? Will I be timed out eventually?

I don't want to gum up the works, you know.
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Where'd "passed by" go?
Posted by Viki on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 1:25pm.
Like the new look but am completely unable to locate "passed by" and "passing by". Have they been dissolved in favour of all the new-swish dealies? I hope not, it was nice just to see a big page of people's random overhearings.
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"view recent posts"
Posted by Larry Hosken on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 1:47pm.
The "view recent posts" page will show you recent posts to the new-swish dealies. You can follow the links to read what people overheard.
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Glitch report
Posted by Mike on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 10:32am.
Seems like an unclosed tag can affect any post following it, as seen here. Is there some sort of auto-tag-closer dealie available?
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You're giving us a blog?
Posted by Mike on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 10:02am.
Well crap, now I'll have to develop a life of some sort!

(*goes off to push buttons and tamper with stuff*)
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Er....
Posted by steff on Sat, 10/04/2003 - 9:19am.
*goes off to dig out her gas-mask, baseball bat and "kiss your ass goodbye" kit.


.... oh, and a videocamera!*
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Help!
Posted by umrguy on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 9:57am.
So how do I get back to the "main" page, the one that shows the last 10-20 (or however many) quotes up there?

And can somebody tell me what the "create blog entry" part is for? (Sure, I could try it, but...)
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Posted by yoda on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 10:08am.
to get back to the main page, clicking on the In Passing logo up top works for me..
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Awesomeness
Posted by Larry Hosken on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 9:37am.
This is pretty cool.
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Looks good!
Posted by miss liss on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 8:44am.
It looks good - but I agree it will take some getting used to.

All the same, I think I'm going to really like it!

GO EVE!
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Heee, fun!
Posted by Kris the Girl on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 8:15am.
This is sweet, Eve. I love it. I'm so excited! Now I must go explore and play. You are the coolest.
» reply to this comment
Good stuff!
Posted by paul on Tue, 09/30/2003 - 5:43am.
Okay, when it first went up I was a bit confused- but that was because it didn't have any comments showing, because Team In Passing (TIP) was still working on that part. Now that it appears to all be here, I like it a lot. (But now I have to play around with all the HTML tags to see what they do...)

I also greatly appreciate that we can now add to overheard quotes. This will accomplish two things: to make it easier for the denizens of this site to share their own experiences, and to lighten the burden on our Site Goddess.

Thanks for all the work on this, Eve! I hope you enjoy the results of your labors as IP goes into a new phase...
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Wheeee
Posted by dave on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 10:24pm.
Wheee, off we go :) I'm just glad that I managed to snag my own name in time :D


mmm, penguins. There's good eating on one of those!
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Just delish
Posted by Andelka on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 9:53pm.
I think it's marv. (And I'm tired. Ergo the mild silliness.)
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Tumbleweeds
Posted by Joe Napalm on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 8:42pm.
Oh...sure...go and reinvent everything when I'm off on dialup and have to experience all the bells and whistles with agonizing slowness.

I'd sulk, but I'm too distracted by all the new toys. *Grin*

Thanks, Eve.

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist
» reply to this comment
Neat
Posted by Jon on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 8:19pm.
Neat, thanks Eve! It will take getting used to, but it's still purple, so that's OK. : )
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Hmmm
Posted by valleygrrl on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 5:44pm.
Interesting. We'll see how this goes. ;)
» reply to this comment
Posted by David. on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 4:57pm.
Very nice looking, Eve. Can't wait to try out all the features an'etc. Props to Benjy too!
I make mistakes, but I am on the side of Good, by accident and happenchance.
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Hard getting used to a new fo
Posted by wurmfood on Mon, 09/29/2003 - 4:48pm.
Hard getting used to a new format, but it looks good. :)
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