PKMN.NET: Major Changes Are Coming

[Joeno]

In the coming few days, you will start to see a number of changes being made to the site that will, in its own way, have a large influence on the site, although, in practice, most of this will not make a big difference to how things will continue on the site, but there will be ideological changes and differences will undoubtably be noted.

Let's start with the big news. Those who've been observing things for a while will not be surprised by the following announcement, and in practice things have been running this way, but it has been made official. Psythor, has in the past indicated he is no longer interested in working on the site or owning it, and has officially transferred his share to Typhlosion. This means that PKMN.NET is now owned jointly by Typhlosion and Joeno. Since we've sort of been working this way for the past few months anyway, it won't have an impact on most things.

That won't mean nothing will change. While we do generally honour the vision Psythor had for the site, one that caused us to join and do the things we do, there are a few things that we feel needs a shake up.

First, the item that may cause some dislike amongst some. Over the next few days, you may see some staff members being demoted. We greatly appreciate the work these people have done to the site, but for clarity to our members and to make it easier to keep staff on one line, we will want to work with people willing to dedicate themselves and be present. We realise this affects some popular staff members and we hope they'll continue to be popular members. Staff will be welcome to return if they are willing and ready to maintain interest.

Moving on to something simpler. Due to the change in ownership, it is also necessary for us to move to a new server. This is not just because we are forced out, we've also been needing and looking for a better server that allows us a more stable experience, with more possibilities for expansion and growth. Better value for money.

We will move to the different server soon after it has been set up, which currently seems likely to be either Wednesday 23 June or the weekend of 26-27 June. We will prepare before taking the server down, but it may cause an hour or two of downtime.

We will also be transferring ownership of the domain names. This should all happen seamlessly, but be aware that it may hiccup if the automated processed don't work like they should. We'll sort it out though.

Last, we realise some have asked for this, and we've finally been looking at it. At one time, likely after the server change, the site will get a visual refresh that, to be honest, is already making us look a bit uncomfortable at the current layout. We're still tweaking and changing some things and the final look will be revealed only then, but we feel nice things are on the way there.

We're also looking at making more changes, but those are undecided, unclear or otherwise yet to be worked out. While we feel free to make more changes, our vision of what the site should be is what it's been for many years and most everything will stay the same. Our main advantage now is that we can make some changes and increase our effectiveness in ways where we had to hold back before.

We will be around for any questions. We cannot speculate about the future and things can always change, but we hope this will help explain what is currently happening to the site on our level.

[Liam]

Ooh, the BIG thing has been announced. O:

So many changes! Very exciting!

[Neon Nocturnal]

This thread makes me feel a bit happier about the site now. There are some huge changes that need to be made aorund here and nearly every single thing I was concerned about has been adressed in your post. I'm glad I decided to visit the site this weekend. With your promise of changes and concentration on the site, I feel that this could be more than a weekends visit.

Who knows? This could make the full return of Neon Nocturnal!

[Lord Raven]

hmph, we'll see where this goes, I guess it'll be nice to see an entirely new website by the end of July when i'll be consistently active again

[Joeno]

Please be aware that there may be extended downtime starting later today (up to 48 hours depending on how fast DNS servers get updated) starting around noon or 1PM

UPDATE: And we're back. New server, so something may have not gone entirely right somewhere, let us know if and when you find anything

[The Librarian]

New server, so something may have not gone entirely right somewhere, let us know if and when you find anything

Funny you should say that. I just clicked the link to the Mantis thing in the top bar, and it come up with this:

APPLICATION ERROR #400

Database connection failed. Error received from database was #1045: Access denied for user 'pkmn_puk'@'localhost' (using password: YES).

Please use the "Back" button in your web browser to return to the previous page. There you can correct whatever problems were identified in this error or select another action. You can also click an option from the menu bar to go directly to a new section.

Previous non-fatal errors occurred. Page contents follow.

SYSTEM WARNING: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Access denied for user 'pkmn_puk'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

Don't know if it's anything to do with the new server, but it was working a few days ago.

[Joeno]

Database user needed to be set up properly. Fixed now

[The Librarian]

Not to be a pain, but I've just noticed a slight Dex related problem. When you search for say a Pokémon in the Dex, the page comes up, but there is no longer the drop down list of Pokémon in the top right corner. If you search for a Move, Ability, Region, Location or Item, you get one of the following messages:

Welcome to Dex's moves section! Please select a move to the right or something like that.
Welcome to Dex's abilities section! Please select an ability to the right or something like that.
Welcome to Dex's region section! Please select an region to the right or something like that.
Welcome to Dex's location section! Please select an location to the right or something like that.
Welcome to Dex's items section! Please select an ability to the right or something like that.

The last one especially confuses me, because you're searching in the Items section, and it's telling you to select an ability to the right. Also, since the drop down list I mentioned earlier isn't showing up, you cant select anything to the right.

One last thing is, I tried sending this in as an error report, but it came up with this message:

You did not enter a description. As you can imagine, that makes it impossible for us to do anything at all. Go back and try again.

I did try again, but it still wouldn't work.

EDIT:

Also, in the Cards section, if you click the Cards Album link at the side, it shows you your set totals, but doesn't show the links to the various card sections.

[Joeno]

The last one especially confuses me, because you're searching in the Items section, and it's telling you to select an ability to the right.

It's called a copy and paste error. They happen. No need to panic as much about it. Just a typo.

The other things should have been fixed.

[The Librarian]

Most of them look to work alright. The two thing I have noticed though are; searching for an ability now comes up with:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in /home/pkmn/public_html/dex/abilities.php  on line 12

And clicking on the individual card albums just takes you back to the Your Set Totals page.

The latter of these problems I've sent in as an Error Report, just to make sure that works too, which it does by the way. The former I can't send as a report since the bottom of the page isn't there.

[Joeno]

And fixed too.

Whoever had the horrid impression register_globals could ever be an inconsistently good idea?

[sylar]

you forgot to mention that in 3 days the site will be handed over to me and i will turn it into a site for a project similar to project mayhem. i dunno that seemed real important.

lol jk.

sounds good. i'm curious about this layout change thing... not that i don't like the current one, but the orange clashes with my current theme ;o