At 3/27/02 04:33 AM, reaper-3 wrote:
--Activity Guide--
N=New Member
VA=Very Active
A=Active
SA=somewhat active
D=Dormant
I=Inactive
X=Vanished
PD=Pending Deletion
--Updates--
Shelt, put this one on the site. Since I put my name and level right, and freshened some activity lvls
Okay, let me try to explain some stuff again. I'm not trying to be an asshole - I'm just trying to help you guys understand.
The Blam Club Website is not static HTML. In other words, the information you see when you load the page was pieced together on-the-fly using PHP.
The PHP code gets its information from a MySQL database. The database is where the member information. target URLs, and other dynamic (changing) information is stored. Each member has his/her own row in the database which contains their specific information.
The advantage to a database-driven site is that the dynamic content can be changed and displayed in real time. The other major advantage is that I can grant specific access levels to certain people so they can change the information stored in the database without having to grant them full access to my web server - which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
The biggest problem I have seen thus far is this: The membership roster.
The problem occurs when the roster which appears in the forum here (which is maintained by whomever) and the roster stored in the database on my web server get out of sync. If the Blam Club Website was static HTML, I could copy the entire list from here, paste it into the HTML file, and all would be well.
I can't do that, however. You can't take something which is not in a delimited format and post it into a database table.
I created the membership roster (and corresponding databse) on the Blam Club Website with the intention of keeping a centralized, dynamic "master" copy. That way, the information was stored in one central location and could be changed by people with the appropriate access level. New members are added to the database instantly, eliminating the need to scan the forum for new mambers and add them to the list kept here.
What appears to have happened is that the roster on the website has been neglected to the point that it is badly out of date. Apparently, the roster posted here is considered to be the "master" copy and the one on the website is a "backup."
It would be much easier for the club operators to update the information on the website roster, keep it current, and copy it to the forum than to try it the other way around.
I know how much of a hassle keeping track of a user base can be. That's one reason I took the time to learn SQL. Databses are a godsend to anyone who has to keep up with large, ever-changing amounts of information. Believe me, I'm not trying to complicate things - I'm only trying to help.
