Status report

OK, so I've been out of action for a few months and wanted to get back into this.

Did you want us to test a live site upgrade?

I'm genuinely confused by the two version on Github (probably doesn't help that it's 3.30 in the morning when I'm typing this).

Which one should I use? Common sense is telling me to get the 
one named Vaporware.

GitHub has three repositories:

- One for eFiction 3 with latest hotfixes
- One with the eFiction 5 code
- One with the eFiction 5 installer

The last two have been split up because they are not meant to be put out together. Once ready, you will upload the installer files and one package with the eFiction 5 files that the installer will then unpack and put in place, because we all love uploading hundreds of little files. Not!

This will happen once eFiction 5 goes somewhere near alpha - which should be soon-isah. I know this may have sounded like this a few times long ago, but I have decided to make cuts to the initial release, basically keeping it at the functionality of eFiction 3 + some things that are already completed, prepare the database to accept extensions and push as soon as possible.

Currently, it's basicaly missing the last third of story edit, the member preferences stuff which is not too complex, some logging and notification routines and a few checks of the admin panel.

The search function is not a beauty yet, but she can handle things so that'll have to do for a first.

Okay, I decided to adopt the teachings of Pareto and postponed a few of the more exotic and non-essential things.
This has lead to me finally making ground, and after finishing the user preferences page, which should happen soon-ish, there is only some feedback editing stuff in the user panel left and things should be good enough to wrap them together as a first alpha.

I know that things are still rough, the installer is acting like a spoiled brat and sometimes the db load is too high (will implement some cache stuff here), but apart from that it's pretty exciting - and scary.
I never published a program (a) that huge to (b) that many potential users, and yes, sort of scared.

Never the less, going forward, one stumble at a time 🙂

Any recent update?

Any recent update?

Yes, I am also curious about the status, I think we're all eagerly awaiting, do let us know what we can do to help (testing, donations, etc) and thank you so much for your hard working and keeping the script going!

Sadly the last two moths were pretty demanding on the daytime-job and left me rather exhausted.

But there'll be some off-time the next two weeks and I just picked up work again.
Currently working on the installer to allow fresh installs, currently only upgrades are implemented.

Is the installer ready? I'd love to try out a fresh install for a new archive I want to set up.

Is the installer ready? I'd love to try out a fresh install for a new archive I want to set up.

same here. I have a 3.5.5 install that is at the very beginning and if I could install 5, I would scrap what I have and start over. Some of the "Responsive" skins that I've downloaded don't want to work correctly with 3.5.5.

So I'd much rather just jump to the most modern version and start from scratch there instead of building a 3.5.5 install and only try to upgrade later.

I see there's a new home page (if it's not all that new, that just goes to show how often I end up here!) powered by WordPress... is there any possibility of eFiction turning into or branching into a plugin? That would be pretty darn amazing and probably take a lot of the work out of rebuilding eFiction 5 from scratch.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty darn committed to it, at least until AO3 releases its software (which hopefully won't come first! They've been in beta forever) or I can find a good fanfic archive WP plugin. I reiterate that I would happily donate even just a few dollars a month toward a Patreon with other fans in the hopes of it giving Sheepcontrol more time to work on the software, or else pay someone to make headway (and get any annoying tasks out of the way).

I see there's a new home page (if it's not all that new, that just goes to show how often I end up here!) powered by WordPress... is there any possibility of eFiction turning into or branching into a plugin? That would be pretty darn amazing and probably take a lot of the work out of rebuilding eFiction 5 from scratch.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty darn committed to it, at least until AO3 releases its software (which hopefully won't come first! They've been in beta forever) or I can find a good fanfic archive WP plugin. I reiterate that I would happily donate even just a few dollars a month toward a Patreon with other fans in the hopes of it giving Sheepcontrol more time to work on the software, or else pay someone to make headway (and get any annoying tasks out of the way).

I have been suggesting the same thing to the current caretakers of the code, to start a patreon or kickstarter and market the software as a DIY Fanfic Repo software and possibly turn it into a business licensing the software.

Will it make them a million dollars, no, but it would be a decent chunk of change in their pocket. Even if they keep it open source, they could do like Linux where there is the "Official" code line, and other people are allowed to make their own flavors but there will always be the "Official" distro.

Well first of all, sorry for hiding under a rock for about an age ... I got stuck in details, overwhelmed by the size the project has obtained and basically fell into some anabiosis, which sound better then "I chickended out".

Well I am back, I managed to do some cuts on features, focusing on finishing what's already there and somewhat functional and - what's most important - stuff that's been there all the times.

The review crisis has been resolved to the most extent, and I just finished the installer (yes, the part that builds an archive from scratch).
The script isn't too happy with all the tables being empty, so I'll have to do some fixing here and there, but I think it's coming alone quite well.

Once the last errors, some review-things (like edit and delete) and the big story edit/moderation chunk are done, there will be some sort of beta-release.

Covering to the monetary issue:

This project will never go "pro", period.
There are several reasons, first of all there is enough self-made pressure already because I promised this to all of you and especially my wife - I don't need no feeling of having to deliver for the money. I got that on my daytime job already, thanks enough.
Then there is the legal stuff, as long as it's free everybody can ask for their money back and customs can slap another 300% on top, no fox given  :wacko:

If anybody feels that their purse is filled quite well and they want to get rid of some currency - be my guest however.

That's great news! I can't wait to try it out 🙂

Just checking in to see if there's been any updates in the last five months?  Thanks!

MDg

Actually yes, just not as much as I'd like to and didn't get to do an update on the status.

https://github.com/eFiction/v5_1-vaporware/graphs/code-frequency shows the project submits.

The code base is more or less leaving alpha, just a few more features to finish.
Beta phase will be a lot of completing language files, brushing up the frontend and finding all those little bugs that somebody must have put in the code - I mean, why should I have done that, wouldn't make sense  😎