I know there were social objections to a VIP page, but when it starts to be a tech issue, those may need to be reconsidered.

We probably do need to consider a combination of somehow blocking external links to specific posts within threads (and I have no idea if that's even possible), along with a static html page of any quotes from ME personnel or Tim. IIRC, the social objections were mostly about wanting to treat any ME personnel who happened to register not as VIPs, but rather as we would any other member of the community, i.e. treat them as friends as opposed to special guest stars. We had always done that with Tim, and it had usually worked pretty well. I don't think we ever actually expected Joss to post here, and for better or worse, every single word Joss utters is of great interest to the Buffy/Angel/Firefly fandom. And if he says it, they will come.

blocking external links to specific posts within threads

I don't know if that's doable. I know you can block all direct linking and make everyone go to the main page. I don't know how it works though.

If it hasn't already been suggested, maybe we can take twenty volunteers to Beta test Search, really run it through a ringer, and see what's the what?

Didn't we do that before we went live here? I thought we "passed" the stress test?

blocking external links to specific posts within threads

That's pretty easy to do. On showthread.php you check the referring URL and redirect if it's not buffistas.org. But what does it accomplish? Would the redirect use significantly less resources than bringing up a ten post page? Smart folks, once redirected, will just recopy and paste the desired URL and get to where they want in two steps instead of one. That would actually use more resources, not less.

I agree with Jon. Also, you're making the information functionally inaccessible.

How, then, am I going to find the discussion around Joss mentioning the movie? Search? Threadsuck? Paging through until I find it? None of those ease things up.

When I'm on the other side of this migraine, I'll try have actual ideas.

But Jon is also correct that the original search script has been tested. Right now, I'm looking at the MARCIE code, since that's first in queue.

I was wondering about MARCIE. Did Paul work that out? I haven't noticed him around lately, but there's lots of threads I'm way behind in.

I thought we "passed" the stress test?

We did. But it was on the test board. We won't know if search is an issue until it goes back into use. And, hopefully, it will all be fine and dandy. So we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Would the redirect use significantly less resources than bringing up a ten post page?

Well, I thought the idea of the Nilly Hollywood page is that it wouldn't use any database resources.

Paul sent me code. I'm the bottleneck -- trying to find time to fine toothed comb it.

Well, I thought the idea of the Nilly Hollywood page is that it wouldn't use any database resources.

Right. That was one idea. But there was also the suggestion that we redirect external links to the front page.

I was envisioning it as a combination, I guess. People get redirected to the front page and there's a link to the Nilly thread. But who knows? Maybe it wouldn't make any difference.

We can worry about it if it turns out to be an issue.

I was kind of weirded out by the idea of having such an archive (Hey! Look at us! Important folks stop by cuz we da COOLEST!) but I think something small on the right hand side, "Nilly Goes to Hollywood!" for example, would be funnier and help.

I mostly agree with Allyson, but just a few points regarding that:

• There are already links to the PTB visits in 'my' town (like here), and formerly in the Bureaucracy thread on WX, so it seems like the only difference, in order to ease things on the server, will mainly be in putting the content of the post in a HTML page, as the tracking them down are already done as it is.

• How complicated, HTML-wise, will a maintenance of such a page be? Because, in case we decide we want to do it, I'm making my baby-steps in HTML, and I'd love to both learn more and help while doing it, if I can.

• I'm highly amused by the Hollywood trip that is being planned for me here. I should probably start packing.