gone daddy gone
posted by max on November 04, 2007 at 06:46:22 PM
hello buds and budettes,
I'm the type of person that is spectacular at starting projects, and horrible at finishing them. The last 30% of any project is three times as hard as the first 70% for me. As much as I've been trying to work on my new site, my mind keeps wandering back to all of the unfinished business on YTMND.
That being said I'm going to try and start finishing all of the stuff I've started for YTMND and never finished or implemented. As much as I thought I could stay away, I'm not very good at ignoring something so near and dear to me.
With that being said, I'd like to announce the (almost finished) YTMND API.
While a lot of you probably won't care or understand this, I think it should be yield some really neat stuff. With the help of BTape I've written up a lot of the documentation available at http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API. The entire setup is not set in stone, but it's set up enough to start working with. One of the great things about the API is that it provides far more finite data than the actual site does. Over the years I've added a lot of features to the back end and never implemented them on the front end, but the data is still getting collected, so it opens up a whole data set that has up until now been private. It's currently running on it's own dedicated server with a dedicated copy of the database, so you can hit it as hard as you'd like with no ill effects to the site itself.
I've created a few neat examples (you can see a list at http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API:Examples). I am hoping some other technical people who have ideas for the site will come up with some neat features. If things work out well, I may even implement new features that users write. Which brings me to the next topic:
The prize pool:
The collectors edition of the "World In Conflict" Game. which includes an authentic piece of the Berlin Wall. (Amazon sent me this and I have no idea why).
Three stacks of Fifty coupons for free Sobe Adrenaline Rush energy drink. (My winnings from the Snakes on a Plane contest).
1st Prize for developing the best application will be your choice of any two of the prizes.
2nd and 3rd Prize will be one of whatever is left over.
4th Prize will be wallowing in your own self misery.(since it's unlikely more than three of you will actually participate, this shouldn't be a problem)
More information here: http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API:Contest
This is really a community project, so use the wiki to provide feedback, ask questions or point out design flaws. It would be really helpful to get more information about how people want to use YTMND data and how I can make the API easier to access and use.
So now that that's out of the way, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering if I'm making any headway on things that might actually be of use to you. Well I haven't. I have been working on a new TODO with a realistic outline of what I plan on getting done over the next couple months, which I will be posting soon. One of my biggest focuses will be finishing the mod system, which has loomed over me forever. That being said, I've been postponing this news post for a long time, and I hope to start updating you guys more often so it doesn't look like I'm so absent since I'm spending every day working on YTMND stuff.
That's all for now. Also I promised I'd give a link to Stile for his new site www.lol2u.com, and welcome him to the world of chan-drama; so cheers.
I'm the type of person that is spectacular at starting projects, and horrible at finishing them. The last 30% of any project is three times as hard as the first 70% for me. As much as I've been trying to work on my new site, my mind keeps wandering back to all of the unfinished business on YTMND.
That being said I'm going to try and start finishing all of the stuff I've started for YTMND and never finished or implemented. As much as I thought I could stay away, I'm not very good at ignoring something so near and dear to me.
With that being said, I'd like to announce the (almost finished) YTMND API.
While a lot of you probably won't care or understand this, I think it should be yield some really neat stuff. With the help of BTape I've written up a lot of the documentation available at http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API. The entire setup is not set in stone, but it's set up enough to start working with. One of the great things about the API is that it provides far more finite data than the actual site does. Over the years I've added a lot of features to the back end and never implemented them on the front end, but the data is still getting collected, so it opens up a whole data set that has up until now been private. It's currently running on it's own dedicated server with a dedicated copy of the database, so you can hit it as hard as you'd like with no ill effects to the site itself.
I've created a few neat examples (you can see a list at http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API:Examples). I am hoping some other technical people who have ideas for the site will come up with some neat features. If things work out well, I may even implement new features that users write. Which brings me to the next topic:
The YTMND API Contest
In order to get more feedback on the API before I finalize this version, I need people to start using it. So I'm scraping together whatever prizes I can find to try and motivate some of you.The prize pool:
The collectors edition of the "World In Conflict" Game. which includes an authentic piece of the Berlin Wall. (Amazon sent me this and I have no idea why).
Three stacks of Fifty coupons for free Sobe Adrenaline Rush energy drink. (My winnings from the Snakes on a Plane contest).
1st Prize for developing the best application will be your choice of any two of the prizes.
2nd and 3rd Prize will be one of whatever is left over.
4th Prize will be wallowing in your own self misery.(since it's unlikely more than three of you will actually participate, this shouldn't be a problem)
More information here: http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API:Contest
This is really a community project, so use the wiki to provide feedback, ask questions or point out design flaws. It would be really helpful to get more information about how people want to use YTMND data and how I can make the API easier to access and use.
So now that that's out of the way, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering if I'm making any headway on things that might actually be of use to you. Well I haven't. I have been working on a new TODO with a realistic outline of what I plan on getting done over the next couple months, which I will be posting soon. One of my biggest focuses will be finishing the mod system, which has loomed over me forever. That being said, I've been postponing this news post for a long time, and I hope to start updating you guys more often so it doesn't look like I'm so absent since I'm spending every day working on YTMND stuff.
That's all for now. Also I promised I'd give a link to Stile for his new site www.lol2u.com, and welcome him to the world of chan-drama; so cheers.
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It's been in the "queue" for a long time, even got as far as the application design behind it. I keep going back and forth whether I should make a straight "subscription" type deal or an actual "friends and enemies" deal with a fully featured "alert" system, so you could see any time someone makes a site with a certain keyword or uses a certain image. Keep in mind, the API provides the functionality necessary to make a subscription system pretty easily. I think it's a project Btape is currently working on.
Neo: I think it would actually be a good thing. You mentioned at one point (and possibly still) you never visited YTMND anymore and wanted a way to know when "good users" posted new YTMNDs, (which was one of the original ideas behind the featured users setup). I think subscriptions would play a good part in getting people to have less of a negative attitude towards the site by allowing them to only visit when there is something they want to see as opposed to sifting through mountains of crap.
I like the look of the YTMND widget - I know Facebook's big with the kids these days (i know we all pretend to hate it, but half the people here probably have it) so it might be a cool route to run a YTMND facebook app that displays your widget on your profile. Show off your sites to people at your college, find ytmnders that are in your network. All that social networking sh*t max wants to keep off ytmnd itself.
Fourest, I know you think you're being funny, but you're really being an annoying little sh*t. You're treating this site into your own little play thing and all it's going to do is start alienating more people against you. Remember when we were friends and now all I want to do is fly to Canada and smash your monitor over your tiny little pinhead.
uhh, hank, let's set some things straight. ytmnd is supposed to be our own little play thing, fourest has always been an annoying little sh*t, and this reply thread is, for everyone but annoying little sh*ts, about vibration. don't be dragged down to fourest's level by talking about anything but vibration. for more things to do with vibration, see Atmosphere - Sound Is Vibration
I really like the User Asset Browser. Some of the more recent MP3 audio clips I've used play at around 90% their original speed in the previews. At first I thought it was a small bug, but I think it's something to do with how I saved/converted them originally; and they're at a normal pace in the actual YTMNDs or when you save them. It's certainly nice to see a confirmation that work is being done. Max, BTape, good work.
You'll need to have your own host, preferably one that allows you to run PHP scripts on your site, because you'll need to do that in order to proxy the API requests.
If you don't know about that yet, you can find out some information here or ask for help about it on the talk page: http://wiki.ytmnd.com/YTMND:API:Basic_Overview#Caching
Don't we have enough on him to get him banned or at least removed from the featured list. He has surpassed Josh Cube and Michael Wolfson in the annoyance meter. This is what I've been trying to tell you Fourest. You think this sh*t is funny, when all you're doing is being disruptive. You absolutely hate it when people goof on your sites, but you have no qualms doing it to others. I love all the revenge downvoting, too.
i would say that ytmnd's problem is newf*gs BUT... this newf*g problem has been going on for so long that they are no longer newf*gs. they are turning into the current f*gs then old f*gs with newf*gs coming in again.
i rarely see good sites on the front page and i am saddened by this. just sh*t OVER AND OVER AGAIN. we need a user blocking system for the people who are starting to join. a screening system i guess.
if you meet ANY criteria in the screening, you are denied access.