You can either post the request to this, or to the forum at this topic.  If you choose the forum, there's no need to register, as that area is guest accessible.  You simply make your request.

Rules for sub category/sub sub category requests..

• Sub category requests- We require that you have stories ready to be adding before asking us to do this.
• Sub sub category (pair specific) requests-  We require before being asked to make one of these, that the user provide links to 10 stories showing the need FOR the request.

Format for request (you'd do this in a comment here, or in the pinned thread in forum)

For sub categories-

Sub domain name-
sub category name-
Do you have stories for it?-


For sub sub categories-

Sub domain name-
sub category name-
sub sub (pair specific) category name-
Can you show me ten links to stories already in the archive for this pair?
Do you have stories for it?

Feeling the need for a rant...

For the last two years, I have devoted at minimum 30 hours a week to AFF.  Mind you, I work full time, have a family, and other obligations BESIDES AFF.

In the course of that time, MOST of the members I've come in contact with are decent people.  Then there are the few that ruin it for everyone else in any number of ways.

• The ones who INSIST, for example, that I have no right to a private life.  That I must devote ALL my time to AFF 24/7.  Forget about my job, my family, and my obligations for them.  I don't think so.
• The self serving lot, who think they are entitled to whatever, just because they feel like it.
• The ones who think that rules only apply to everyone else, never them.  Ever.

So here's what I'm doing in future.

I have reprioritized to suit my own needs for a change.

I'll give the site some time, but never again to the point of exhaustion where I get sick (which has happened twice now, since October 2008).

I am taking care of my own stuff like my personal life, my own site, and etc first.

If the few of you selfish, self absorbed nasty little individuals who think I shouldn't be taking care of my life have a problem with that, I really don't give a damn.  Whine at someone else and see how far it gets you.  It won't.


 

 And here I thought it was just me...

In any case, please be patient, I'm sure Nexcess will have the problem straightened out shortly.

Well, considering that for at least the next year, I'm STILL limited to three category levels, only of two of which are posting levels, I've come up with something that will help a bit for the single fandom subdomains.

I've already deployed it here.  I'm planning on doing this archive wide within the next few days as well.

Now, while I may be limited to what I can do RIGHT this second, this does not mean that I cannot continue cataloging for when the new software is finished.

At that point, I can make similar changes, down a level, in the multiple fandom subdomains.  As well as put sub sub sub categories with specific pairs listed in their parent categories for the Crossover toplevels.

We (manta2g and I) are also looking at possibly incorporating some python generated scripts and mini programs in efforts to help further enhance what we're doing for the future software.  Dunno for sure yet on that, we're still kicking it around.  Good thing about python is that it is truly cross platform.  That makes a difference.

Plus, I'm thinking with a combination of different algorithms we've been looking at for security purposes, I expect there will be many huge improvements we can make over all.


Back at the ranch here though...

Here is how this last change will work for the immediate.  Please keep in mind there are only three levels I can work in right now.  Top level, sub level, sub sub level.

At top level, will now be an AU/AR category, and a Crossover category.  These are non posting, as all top level categories are.

2nd level in AU/AR is comprised of the default schema I've already deployed throughout the archive, for pairing types.

3rd level in AU/AR are pair specific categories.

2nd level in Crossovers is a bit more complicated.  First, there are the pair types, plus, where the crossover world (i.e. BtVS/AtS) has 5 or more stories, it then gets a sub category.

3rd level for Crossovers is at the moment being devoted to pair type in the crossover world 2nd level categories, for pair types. 

Once we have the new stuff written and in place, I'll be able to work up to 9 levels deep.  At that point, that is where all this cataloging comes in to play.  Just as now (in single fandom subdomains) we've set a minimum of 10 stories for a specific pair for a subcategory, it will apply there too.  So, while I may not be able to ADD those right this minute, it will be done when we have the software written to handle it.

For example, in the BtVS/AtS subcategory in Crossovers alone, I already have earmarked 7 different specific pair categories that need to be created.  We've still got to sort through the rest of the het sublevel, as well as the entirety of slash, femslash  and threesomes.  So I expect more will be added as we finish up.

Now, to why this is being done.  Those of you visit AFF regularly know that the search engine is not designed to handle the amount of data we have.  At maximum, that search engine is only able to handle up to 200mb of data to search.  It has to search through 6.3GB, so searching is pretty useless.  We have a search engine module which can handle very large datasets.  That's not the problem.  The problem is the current software itself.  It simply will not support more in the way of major changes without imploding in on itself.  That, of course, is not what we want.  The data loss would be huge and simply unacceptable.  If you look back at the other related posts about that here, you already know that's why we're repairing the corrupted table inserts, rather than outright deleting them.  If at all possible, we're striving for NO data loss at all for stories already there, as well as maintaining whatever new is added.  So, this is to help compensate for the search engine that can't.  This way, a reader likes AU/AR, they can go straight to it an find what they like much easier.  Same goes for Crossovers.

Apologies for the time this is all taking, I wish we could do this faster.  Both the clean up, and various moderation tasks.  But, there are only a few of us doing all this, and real life commitments and little things like sleep tend to make it so one can't devote every waking second to the task.  *sigh*  The site itself is huge and takes much time to go through, whether as a moderator, or when looking for the glitches and marking/noting them for repair.

Next few weeks, for example, my time is even more tied up in knots than normal.  I'm down to one day off only a week, while we find a new hire to replace someone who was let go last weekend.  It's temporary, but overtime is always good.  ;-)

this is going to be a loooong post...

After I was out sick for over a week, there was much that fell behind.  Needless to say, between my being ill, and another of the mods having to replace her computer, there is much that is backlogged.  As a result this post will detail several upcoming things, as well as general status of some things.

Disclaimers and updating them
I did a one time task, and updated the disclaimers archive wide, with the exception of stories in crossover sub categories.  Those need all worlds involved in the story to be properly disclaimed.  For the miscellaneous categories and sub categories, the disclaimer I added is quite generic.  It still covers the pertinent points, for the most part.  The authors need to finish that part of the update.  I simply do not have the time to manually edit each and every story in the many crossover sub categories, nor the many miscellaneous categories and sub categories.

As before, the moderators will be going through and checking these, and letting the users know what, if anything needs changed and/or corrected with the disclaimers.  The link to the FAQ I'm giving below contains the bare bones of what is needed for each type of disclaimer, as well as other information the users should be aware of.

More information at this link: 
www2.adultfanfiction.net/forum/index.php

Tasks in progress that have been delayed

These will all be addressed and caught up, and not necessarily in the order listed.

• Dealing with the plagiarists (there seems to have been an explosion of this lately)
• Upgrading the forum so that guest posts no longer have to be approved, and are immediately visible again.  I do this work from one of my other machines which was infested with viruses, took about 30 hours for the damn thing to completely scan a little over 260GB of data.  So, now that the machine is clean, I can do this and a few other things I do from that machine.
• Eliminating the minor infestation
• Adding the requested FAQ files
• Adding in a couple fairly major changes to the archive which are admin functions (for more than anything, handling the spam bombs in review boards), but making sure it doesn't crash it due to the script's age.  That's always an issue, so we have to be very, very careful when adding in tools and/or improvements.  Because of the difference in language structure with what we're currently writing in, and what the archive itself is written in, it can cause all kinds of weird problems, as well as crashing the whole thing.  So, as I said, we're very cautious in adding anything very new to the old scripting.
• Continuing the clean up of the archive itself in preparation for the new stuff being written.

There's bunches more, but I'm tired so I'm not going into more detail than this at the moment.

*sighs*  back at it I go....

Well, I've been a bit sidetracked from it, while getting the archive moderator situation fixed.  All the new mods are training up very well, and the entirety of the archive is now looked at daily.  Apparently this is not the way things were done before?  However, with an archive THIS size, it's truly necessary.  21 subdomains to check, and my head is still spinning at the fact that they were not each looked at every day, as they should've been.

Anyway, still in Buffy>Het>Buffy/Spike(William), almost done with it.  As soon as that's complete, the rest of it should fall right into place in very short order.  Then, we go on to cartoons.  Hopefully, we'll get back into it quick enough to make some real progress here very very shortly.

Well, as a result of this ongoing repair, the archive now supports successfully over 1 million unique visitors a month!  This last month, July, the site overall had the most traffic ever in its history; 1051030 unique visitors.  Mind you, were it not for the ongoing repair and organization, there is no way in HELL the database would have supported that kind of traffic for the archive.  It's actually the first summer I can remember in quite a few years where there wasn't constant "downtime" because the database was getting overloaded.

We've finished the sort for both the Crossover and AU subcategories in the buffy subdomain, and are now working on the het sub sub Buffy/Spike.  There were 667 stories that were unsorted yet, so we have to go through those and note the glitches and etc.

We've added another sub sub to Crossovers, Anita Blake/BtVS.  I expect as we continue to go through the remaining sub categories, that there will be more sub subs added to both AU and Crossovers.

This, after only sorting the General category in the buffy subdomain..

forum post detailing added sub sub categories and where they live

To date:

Have found and repaired the various glitches and other problems in the books sub domain.  Have recategorized and sorted where a sub category has 75 or more stories and is remaining at second level.  Where a sub category has 200 or more stories, it has become top level, and has been sorted accordingly.

The sorting helps to compensate for the sucky search engine. until we actually get the thing replaced with one that is meant to work with a large database.  That IS a ways away, however.

Have found all the glitches in the buffy>general category, also sorted from it to the second level categories where the stories should actually go now.  Most of those second level categories did not exist prior to this.  Also, for second level categories, where there have been ten or more stories concerning a specific pair, a sub sub has been created, and the stories moved.  For Crossovers, the sub sub sort is based on crossover worlds.

Am about two thirds done with repairing the different corrupted stories and chapter that have been found and posted in forum so far for where we've sorted in general.  This being the oldest part of the archive, I'm not surprised that so far, it's got the worst of the corruption.  My team and I are currently working in AU for final sort and corruption check for that sub category.  Next up is Crossovers, followed by the pairing types.

This is the last of it....

Here, I'm going to detail out EXACTLY what we're doing.

This is the cleanup phase and what is entailed.

First of all, what we're doing now, much of it SHOULD have been done following the subdivide of the database tables.  However, due to being politicked out of what she was doing, manta2g wasn't able to do anything about it until recently.  So, those that were left in charge, did not do what was necessary to finish up fixing things after the first major crash, nor did they do things to prevent the subsequent minor crashes which followed.

This is actually where I come in.  I actually have done this sort of thing for years, as part of my job IRL.  Not only have I prevented major db crashes, I've had to recover from them as well.

Data insert and how it works with this program.  In other words, why certain categories were redirected to the forum software....

On to the next segment (I am not normally this wordy dammit).

Query basics.

This should help explain exactly HOW a relational database works, by using SQL (structured query language), and why certain levels of nesting are better for a database.

Yes, I say part 1.  I'm going to be going in depth about many things, including past history with this particular database that I'm working on.

So, let's start with the 2003 crash, and how it came about.

First of all, at the time, the operating system for the dedicated server only allowed a maximum 2GB size database. 

It is SO much easier than it used to be.  Now all I gotta do is make sure all the images are there, edit the css the way I want it to look, and it's DONE.

UGH.  Damn thing wouldn't go away.  I finally MANUALLY removed ALL fields from my db, but was left with a menu entry in my forum.  Killed it in the ACP, killed it everywhere else.  Turns out that the damn function call for the menu was actually in TOPIC view of ALL places.  Anyway, it's no longer there.  So now I can actually SKIN the thing.

The upgrade took a BIT longer than I wanted to.  Had some weird glitches in the process, and had to have an Invisionboard tech finish it up.  Once that was done, got to the adding modifications part. 

So, have added several in the last ten days, all but ONE are working well.  The one that did not, I uninstalled, of course.  Have a couple more to do (mostly having to do with extra maintenance options) and then I start skinning the thing...

In the meantime, the SQL server is behaving in a bit of an odd manner.  Seems to be running slow.  So, have the site host doing tracking so we can see where it's bogging down and fine tune the thing.

Oh yeah, will finally be able to upgrade and re mod my OWN damn forum now.  LOL.

The kind I like of course.  =)  As soon as it's all set for me to do what I need to do, I'm doing that forum upgrade.  Have all the mods that need to be ported in ready to go as well.  

UGH.  KNEW it was gonna be a booger to convert from 2.x to 3.x of phpBB.  I went through contortions to get the thing done with a populated board.  Took a bit over 9 hours altogether to get just the conversion of the database done.  From there, there are updates you have to do in the admin panel (all for the search function), or the search engine in the forum will NOT work, as well as other things to be sure that everything actually is done, and the db came over correctly.  Then of course, you have to reskin the thing after the upgrade.  At least that part is easy.

Then we get to the SMF board and skinning IT.  It's just downright weird.  Sort of a combination of skinning a board and skinning a CMS.  No big deal, I'll get it down in no time...not like I've never skinned a board more difficult (*cough* Invision *cough*) to skin.  Gotta make a gdk for the thing tho, it'll certainly make things easier.

HOPEFULLY, I'll have some time off in the near future (my two days was cut to one, the other third shifter got sick) so I can actually reskin my own damn board.