The Allure of Neglected Dragons

[bbik]

I got onto the site just fine, but when I tried to enter dragons, it timed out repeatedly. ...

Not sure what to tell you here. The server was sending me all kinds of error e-mails last week which the host refused to recognize as valid problems, but those seem to have finally stopped now (*knocks on wood*), so perhaps you happened to try adding dragons during one of those non-existent problem bursts? Let me know if it happens again, but in the meantime, it looks like things are fine, so I'm going to hope it was just a bizarre fluke.

 

 

Been trying to see how any views the egg or hatchling has got to go while I have it in the ER but when I click onto said object, instead of it coming up in the window like it had been doing I get the full dragons page. Anyone else have this happen to them?

Judging by the posts still turning up in all the various fansite threads, this is still a problem... But, somehow, it's actually not a problem for me at all. All the sites work just like they used to, which is even more confusing than them all breaking.** However, you definitely are not alone. A Help thread has been started here to try and get it fixed, but until then, unfortunately, we're all going to have to deal with it. Alternate clicking options include holding Ctrl while you click, to open each dragon in a new tab/window, or right-clicking and opening each dragon in a new tab/window that way. Those aren't nearly as convenient, but at least you can stay on AoND while you click!

 

** It just dawned on me, I probably had JavaScript disabled when I tried. That stops the stupid frame-busting as well, so if you'd like to continue using the iframes, disable JS when you visit fansites and TJ's "fix" won't work anymore -- just like before. Otherwise, try the options already mentioned, and I'll see what other ideas I can come up with to help, too.

Edited August 20, 2011 by bbik

[Jedi40]

Thanks for the info and I will try holding the Ctrl button while I click.

[dragongrrl]

Even though I see eggs and hatchlings loading on the pages, I keep getting the message, "Failed to connect to Dragon Cave. Either DC is too laggy, or it is down. Please try again later." when I try to load my scroll.

 

And now I'm getting the Internal Server Error. Is the site working for - and now it's back! Seems like it's been acting up a lot in the last few days. I'm not having the frame problem, (Firefox w/JS off) but is the frame issue causing extra lagginess?

[bbik]

Even though I see eggs and hatchlings loading on the pages, I keep getting the message, "Failed to connect to Dragon Cave. Either DC is too laggy, or it is down. Please try again later." when I try to load my scroll.

DC has been unusuably laggy in on-and-off bursts for most of the day, so it's entirely possible the API is acting up as well. If the problem persists, let me know, but I'm guessing the fail messages were accurate.

 

And now I'm getting the Internal Server Error.  Is the site working for - and now it's back!  Seems like it's been acting up a lot in the last few days.  I'm not having the frame problem, (Firefox w/JS off) but is the frame issue causing extra lagginess?

Internal server errors shouldn't have anything to do with DC's frame-breaking nonsense. I'm not sure what would be causing those now, since previously it was due to too much traffic, and the recent upgrade should have fixed that. As above, let me know if it continues, but I'm not really sure what to say about it at this point.

 

 

As for the frame breaking problems, I have a few ideas of how to deal with it, but I'm holding off for a little bit in the hopes that TJ will see reason and stop pretending that problems from years ago are still around today... And because I'm not sure which option is the less-bad one.

[bbik]

Sorry for double-post, but I want this to be seen.

 

As for the frame breaking problems, I have a few ideas of how to deal with it, but I'm holding off for a little bit in the hopes that TJ will see reason and stop pretending that problems from years ago are still around today...  And because I'm not sure which option is the less-bad one.

There's a "fix" online now. You might have to hard-refresh (Ctrl+F5) a time or three before it updates properly.

 

As I see it, there seem to be three semi-decent options to deal with TJ's change (Conveniently, each option is even being used on at least one site.):

1. Popup confirmation before DC takes over the page, and use the frame if DC is denied (like AoND)

2. Open in a new tab, and have the browser jump over to that new tab. If that tab doesn't get closed, all subsequent clicks will also open in that same tab, unseen (like Valley Sherwood)

3. Open in a new tab every single time, such that lots of clicking creates lots of tabs, and the browser will jump to each new tab when it is opened (like Silvi's Lair)

 

Personally, I don't care for any of those options. I still can't decide which is better/worse. But at least this way we can see and try all three. Which do you like most/least? Which would you prefer to see on AoND?

[rubyshoes]

I like the Valley Sherwood (or Silvi's) best. Either of those works good for me.

 

edit: As for what I'd like best for AoND, I like the silvi's option best.

Edited August 21, 2011 by rubyshoes

[Imzadi]

I'd prefer the silivi's option...it would work best for me.

 

*edited for usual typos

Edited August 21, 2011 by ainisarie

[Jedi40]

** It just dawned on me, I probably had JavaScript disabled when I tried. That stops the stupid frame-busting as well, so if you'd like to continue using the iframes, disable JS when you visit fansites and TJ's "fix" won't work anymore -- just like before. Otherwise, try the options already mentioned, and I'll see what other ideas I can come up with to help, too.

How do I disable JS?

[Fuzzbucket]

It's working fine for me, and I am quite happy for you to do whatever works best for YOU.

 

You know what you are doing; I don't !!!

[bbik]

How do I disable JS?

It depends on your browser, but usually there's a menu called Settings, or Tools, or Options, or something like that, which has a similarly-named item. The JavaScript enable/disable should be a checkbox somewhere in there. (for example: Firefox, IE)

[AngelKitty]

I think option 2 sounds the best and least intrusive. :3

[Bessy]

I am getting an annoying pop up window everytime I click the "check all" option. My javascript is enabled. Is this supposed to happen?

[bbik]

Er.... No. Should be fixed now; you might need to hard refresh for it to update. Not sure why that was still there, but I'm all for blaming rush-updates thanks to lack of warning about changes on DC's end.

[Jedi40]

It depends on your browser, but usually there's a menu called Settings, or Tools, or Options, or something like that, which has a similarly-named item. The JavaScript enable/disable should be a checkbox somewhere in there. (for example: Firefox, IE)

Okay thanks for the info and the links to help me out.

[Banuk]

The inbred checker on AoND never works for me. Is it broken, or am I just doing something wrong?

[rubyshoes]

The inbred checker on AoND never works for me. Is it broken, or am I just doing something wrong?

I had an 8th gen even gen that I had to try 3 times before it worked (DC lag maybe?). The shorter lineages work quickly but the longer ones take a while. Was the one you tried a long lineage?

Edited August 23, 2011 by rubyshoes

[Banuk]

I had an 8th gen even gen that I had to try 3 times before it worked. The shorter lineages work quickly but the longer ones take a while. Was the one you tried a long lineage?

Two of them were, but one was shorter. I got server error messages from all of them, though.

[bbik]

Two of them were, but one was shorter. I got server error messages from all of them, though.

What are the codes? The checker online is rather buggier than I would like (and I didn't notice them before I put it online, unfortunately), but a fix is in the works. I just need to make sure it doesn't break anything else, since it shares code with a couple other pages.

[Bessy]

The pop up for the "check-all" option isn't coming up anymore, so thanks, the fix worked!

 

But I still get a pop up when I click on anything (egg, hatchie, whatever) in the auto-refreshing NDER page. It says this:

 

"Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?

DC is trying to hinder your clicking.  Do you wish to allow it?

Press OK to continue, or Cancel to stay on the current page."

 

And if I say OK, it takes me away from the NDER to the view page for whatever I clicked on.

 

Is this supposed to happen? lol

[purplehaze]

@ Bessy - yes, TJ changed the way iframes work so that it is happening everywhere now. You can get around it by opening your clicks in a new window. I do it just by holding down CTRL while I click a bunch, then go back and close all those windows and click some more.

[bbik]

Or choose the other option and click Cancel, since you want to "stay on the current page."

[Wookieinmashoo]

And if I say OK, it takes me away from the NDER to the view page for whatever I clicked on.

 

Is this supposed to happen? lol

This...this is getting really annoying. I hate having to close extra windows so I pretty much don't click anything anymore.

[bbik]

Updates!

• Inbred Checker -- Fixed (I hope!) and expanded/improved. You choose how comprehensive you want the check to be, and if you check which dragons caused the inbreeding, you can also see how many times those dragons are repeated. It may still have trouble with lineages larger than 11th gen even (there are just too many dragons!), but for anything with fewer dragons than that, it should work.
• Lineage Viewer -- Also expanded/improved. You can now highlight inbreeding, or hide empty cells, in addition to the features which were already available. Hopefully larger lineages will load a bit faster, too.
• Viewer (Homepage and Popup versions) -- ER views are more evenly distributed. Instead of the former divide-by-two method to determine the maximum number of eggs and hatchlings to show, the specified number of ERs are now selected randomly then sorted into the proper section. This should help with the frequent inbalance in ER egg and hatchling numbers, and make sure the eggs get as many views as the hatchlings.

There may have been other small bugfixes as well, but if there were, I've forgotten. As always, if you find any bugs, let me know, and I'll do my best to fix them!

 

The next update will be the long-awaited breed tracker. Barring major problems, I don't plan to be working on any other pages until that's done, and I think I've squished the worst of the released bugs, so hopefully there won't be any more (DC/AoND) distractions to slow down the progress. School will still be an issue, but I'll work around it as best I can.

 

 

@Wookieinmashoo

Just to be clear, which extra windows don't you like? The popups which allow you to stay on AoND? The forced new tabs that other sites use? Or the overall hassle of not being able to easily open /view/ pages in frames anymore (which I can't do anything about)?

 

To everyone:

Now that we've all had some time to adjust and settle, what is the preference for how to handle TJ's frame-busting? When I asked a group before updating the site, most (even several popup-haters) voted for the popup. When I asked in this thread just after updating the site, the overwhelming opinion was for new tabs. Have opinions shifted? Are they still evenly split? Does anyone else want to share their thoughts/preferences? You can also use the Suggestions form to let me know, if you'd rather not post on the forum.

[rubyshoes]

I prefer new tabs.

[WraithZephyr]

[*]Inbred Checker -- Fixed (I hope!) and expanded/improved.  You choose how comprehensive you want the check to be, and if you check which dragons caused the inbreeding, you can also see how many times those dragons are repeated.  It may still have trouble with lineages larger than 11th gen even (there are just too many dragons!), but for anything with fewer dragons than that, it should work.

Apparently the Inbred Checker has some glitches...even when the generations are as low as 3rd/4th/5th

 

Default and Full settings will show a dragon as clean even when it is obviously inbred. Only the Recent setting showed dragons as inbred.