Site Updates (PJ) Archive

So, it's been talked about off and on for a looooong time now and it's about time to commit... we will be rolling out a new design with new features over the next few months. I want to take the next step and focus in on three things without sacrificing too much of what makes PJ a fun place:

1) Getting pixel artists paid (job postings, project ads, contests, selling shit)
2) Giving featured artists more of the spotlight
3) Helping pixel artists grow (ramp up them tutorials)

I can't make guarantees as to how fast this will happen, but I will definitely be setting aside time on a regular basis to get this done.

Many thanks to pixelblink for keeping the ball rolling.

Finally fixed that nagging Firefox bug with links not working by updating the editor to the latest version. Let me know if you encounter any WYSIWYG editor bugs.

We now officially have 10,000 members who've signed up at ye olde Pixel Joint.  That's gotta be good for something right?

Once again, sedgemonkey f*cked up on the voting for the challenges.  While correcting the voting last week I accidentally set a "spam vote" flag for the majority of all votes tallied.  No votes were lost, but the top 3 positions in the challenge were not correct. 

I've corrected all the voting and the awards and we have new winners for both Love Machine and Chinese New Year (just announced a couple hours ago).  My deepest apologies to all who got the shaft on this:  Setzer, iSTVAN, Krysis, Ensellitis, Skeddles, Tremulant and especially ThereIsNoCure who got robbed twice.

Please take some time to rate all the spectacular pixel work that came out of October.  There's quite a few Pixelween participants currently represented in the top 10 right now and rightly so.

I've always enjoyed collecting quotes from different sources (TV, Movies, Books, etc) over the last decade or so and I finally got around to organizing them and putting them into a little system.  Any PJ member can now add quotes to the system, rate quotes and post comments about a quote. 

Development will continue so the system will have some value for you guys... you'll soon be able to save quotes, search quotes, browse by subject and order quotes by rating, date, most commented on, etc.

Important Note:  No need to point out that quotes have nothing to do with pixel art you negative SOBs. It's just for "fun".

Over the last few weeks we've made several changes to Pixel Joint and the Pixel Joint Forum...

• Forum was upgraded to version 8 and with it some additional gallery/forum integration (still some minor bugs to fix, but working for the most part).
• Themes will now work in the forum.
• "Total Favorites Received" are now being stored in member's table for easy access.
• Upgraded database software which will increase performance.
• Added serverside caching to a lot of commonly accessed data which will increase performance.
• Added an issue log so all admins can view "contact" inquiries. 
• Added other miscellaneous admin tools for the gallery site including tools to quickly and easily remove spammers and other deviants.
• Added tools for multiple specific "link backs" (digg, reddit, del.ico.us, etc) for anyone interested in writing a newsworthy post on Pixel Joint.

Read the full post...

We're updating the forum to version 8 tonight.  Functionally it's very much the same -- it's just a newer version which will hopefully perform better.  If there are enhancements you'd like to see on the forum now is a good time to let me know while I still have the project fresh in my mind.

There's been zero testing beyond my lazy ass so there might be a few bugs.  Hit me up if you run into one and I'll get it fixed.

The community just keeps growing, and let's all congratulate MrColeman for being lucky! Good job keeping this place alive, guys! 

(Ed note:  There are 70 disabled/banned accounts included in that figure.  We actually have only 5934 active members, but close enough! )

I finally checked web stats for the first time since August 2005 (yeah, I know I'm a slacker).  From August 2005 to April 2006 our traffic has gone up 308% and our traffic is up 781% since April 2005.  Yay! 

According to my astute calculations we should have more traffic than the rest of the internet combined sometime next month. 

Just a reminder that creating dummy accounts to spam ratings will get you a perma-ban.  While we don't exactly have the NSA monitoring the usage at PJ we're not total freaking idiots either.  

Having 5000 members register at Pixel Joint seems like an important milestone even thought the vast majority of members don't do anything once they sign up. It's nice to see that so many people are interested in a dedicated pixel art gallery. Hopefully with the help of other pixel communities like Pixelopolis/Pixelation and deviantArt (specifically halfliquid) we can keep interest in pixel art going strong for years to come. 

We've got the awards system semi-working now.  Currently monthly pixel art is the only award working, but it won't be long before other awards are available.  If you've had a piece in the top 10 in any given month check your profile to see your spiffy trophy. Also, if you happen to run across any glitches please contact me and I'll get em fixed.

Many thanks to iSTVAN for quickly putting together trophy graphics.

I might have introduced a browser specific bug or two to the text editor used for commenting on PJ recently.  If you are using Safari or Opera I apologize for the inconvenience and I will be fixing the bugs tonight.

Edit: If you are using Safari or Opera you should be able to post comments now.

Howdy peoples, sedgemonkey here.

To help recognize the extraordinary work that comes rolling into Pixel Joint on a daily basis we will soon be putting an awards system into place.  You'll get a spiffy trophy/medal/ribbon graphic for your profile, bonus points and the admiration of your fellow pixel homies.

With any luck the awards system will be up very soon. Stay tuned. 

We're having some issues with email not going out for the forum notifications, the password reset and possibly other places.  If you get an error after posting a message in the forum it's probably related to the email notifications failing.

Not sure what's causing things to selectively bomb right now so it might take some time to get fixed.  I'll do my best to get it figured out soon.

Private messages will now notify via email assuming the recipient has the option to allow email notifications checked. Adding notification is one of those things that just took forever to get around to even though there wasn't that much work involved.  Hopefully all of you who asked for the notification feature will make good use of it. 

We've also added a beta of the Pixel Joint member map using Google maps.  It's still a bit buggy, but the major features are working for the most part.

We are upgrading our database server tonight so there is going to be some downtime -- hopefully not more than 15 minutes or so.

Edit: We didn't get to it on Tuesday night so the delay might be tonight (Wednesday).

I've been working on creating a map for all the members similar to Frappr, but a little more focused on accomodating 4000 member locations. The PJ world view map will have around 150 locations -- one for each country in the world.  When you click on a country on the map you'll have a detail view with all the map points for just that country. 

I'm slowly, but surely going to transfer every member (who has posted their location) to the new PJ location system.  This will calculate Longitude and Latitude based on country and/or city.  I've written a script to parse out recognizable cities, states, countries for members, but most people entered their locations in a casual format so it's going to take a long time before everyone is in the system. If you are interested in helping simply go to "Edit Profile" and update your location (Country/City).

Although it is nice to have a map for PJ members, the main reason I'm doing this is so I can get a good handle on how to integrate Google Maps and a geocoder system into a site. 

Hopefully you'll see a full map with all 3800+ PJ members sometime in the next few weeks.  Suggestions welcome!

I sent a personal message to all of the people who volunteered for the chat beta (16 people). Check your inbox when you get a chance and report bugs to sedgemonkey. 

Please DO NOT share the URL with other members yet!!!

Edit:  If the chat window won't come up please try disabling popup blockers for this site.

Thats right! The perfect christmas treat. Sort of. This is the second part of the 'Black Comedy' story and fourth episode in the series.
READ/LOOK AT IT!

Also check out the official website, if you havent already, here!

In other Black Hole news, I've updated the gallery with some more BH graphics for the still yet to be coded Black Hole Game. Do contact me if you think you can help me here, I'm happy to make it a community project!

/End Self Promotion

We plan on rolling out a web chat tool sometime soon where everyone can hang out and chit chat (similar to IRC except through your web browser) and we need some beta testers. All you have to do is play around with it for a bit and report any bugs/performance issues.

If you are interested please PM sedgemonkey or post your interest in the comments section of this news item. Please indicate what internet browser and operating system you use.  Thanks!

Yep, it took a while, but for anyone who cares I've completed the third episode in my Black Hole series -featuring a new style of art! Although I havent figured out how to update the old flash website, so bare with me.

Click here

And for previous episodes and stuff the old BH site has a new address here

Added the fun frappr pixeljoint map as a permanent link under "Community" in the navigation. Also added a font customization box on the front page so you can adjust the font size and font family.

Started heavy work on reworking the rating system so members can gain additional available points for rating based on their seniority and activity.  Also started work on making the highest rated pieces based on date/average rating rather than just rating. Who knows how long this will take, but I think it's definitely a positive step.

The Pixelween 2005 website is all finished.  Take a look at the rules and the gallery and don't forget to submit your own horror masterpiece!  There's only 18 days left!

Added a dropdown menu for member links and for your own profile (at the top of the page under your user name) to make it easier to get to certain tools.   Added a personal message count at the top of the page so you can quickly see if you have new messages.  

Created a script to clean up favorites count and keep it accurate from now on. When people would remove a piece from their favorites there was the potential to screw up the count with numerous page refreshes.  Not to worry... all data was secure -- it was just messing up the cached favorites count for a piece.

Added the following link in the upper right corner of pixel art detail pages so you can keep rating/commenting from piece to piece quickly.  Thanks to Helm for the suggestion!

Random Unrated Pixel Art

Added a couple new filters to the gallery search so you can find which pieces in the gallery are available for PixelTees purchase and Pixel Joint avatar. Thanks to Ripped Monkey for the suggestions!

Also added birthday field to the gallery site (instead of just the forum) and modified the members page so you can search for members by birth month.  Kind of fun to see if other members have the same birthday as you.

Added seven new themes to the Pixel Joint theme gallery including one by neota. To change your theme you need to be logged in...

My Profile >> Edit Profile >> Change Site Theme field >> Submit

If you have a theme you would like to submit simply download the template CSS file, edit the colors and send sedgemonkey your new code.  Altering graphics and borders is optional.

As some of you may have noticed there's a new Pixel Joint layout up today. If everything looks totally out of whack you might need to flush your cache or use the ultra-handy Ctrl+F5 for a quick remedy.

We've added some links to community resources right into the design (Pixelation, Pixelation IRC and Pixel-Arts.org) and we've added a fun little chatterbox page where we can yak away about this and that. One of the other major additions to this new design is a "lighter" feel and a more accessible (hopefully) front page.  We're still working on improving the design (including skinning support and member submitted header graphics), but you probably won't notice any other design changes for at least another few weeks.

Oh yeah, many thanks to Peppermint Pig for his awesome colors, design tips and Pixel Joint header text and iSTVAN for the first PJ header graphic!

We've had a few issues with OS X and Linux internet browsers not being able to post comments on the site since the last update and we are working to correct it as quickly as possible. If you are having issues please report them via PM or the contact form and check back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Added messenger fields (AIM, ICQ, MSN, YIM) for the member profile pages.  Also organized the profile layout a little bit so it should be easier to find relevant links.

Also added a couple admin reports that will make it easier to spot people who like to create multiple accounts to inflate ratings, comment spam or just be world-class assholes. It certainly won't put a stop to abusers, but at least we can keep the damage under control.

Pixel Joint now has an RSS feed for the news section for all you hip cats with RSS feed readers. You can find the link at the bottom of the news section on the front page. Not sure what RSS is or how to get feeds? Check out BBC's user friendly RSS description and you'll see just how useful RSS can be.  It's a bold new world my friends.

We also added a bunch of links to the member profile page. The layout could still use some love, but at least you can see people's news posts, link posts and SEARCH/FILTER a member's pixel art. The search a pixel artist gallery link is useful for browsing an artist with a larger gallery like pixelblink, iSTVAN, samson or sedgemonkey. 

If you've got more ideas for improving the site keep suggesting them in the Resources and Support section of the forum and we'll try and get to them. 

Due to numerous insulting comments by annonymous posters we are now requiring members to be logged in to post comments.  This will make it much easier for admins to track down offending posters. Here's a list of all the site changes that have gone down during the last few days.

• Members must be logged in to post comments
• Added "Report Comment" button so members can narc on each other
• IP is now logged for EVERY member action for easy fraud/abuse detection
• Improved member favorite gallery by adding page browser and streamlining display
• Links section will now open links in new window
• IE PNG transparency fix no longer disrupts PNG display in Opera
• Improved pixel art browser code and cleaned up a lot of garbage comment code for (small) performance boost

We have overhauled the links section so it's more organized. We plan on making even more updates soon as well so stay tuned. 

Note: When submitting a link make sure it doesn't  already exist!  The majority of submissions we've received so far have been links to sites that are already in the collection.

You may have noticed that a few things have changed on the pixel art detail page and I'm sure some people will have some gripes.

We had several requests to expand the space around the pixel art so larger pieces have more room to breathe.  The "Actions", the ratings and the zoom buttons all stick out more now and we gave more room for the description/details in the process. We even had some room for the "small file" which was an oft requested feature.  There's still some design bugs and cleanup to work out, but this IS the new detail page for the time being so tough titties to all you naysayers.

We also cleaned up  the url for the pixel art.  Instead of...
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixels/icons/icons/icon2000.asp
we now have...
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/2000.htm

Another note: 1ucas had a great suggestion that we rotate the front page featured "Hall of Fame" with 5 random top 100 pics. I think it's much better this way.

If you do have suggestions for how to improve the design please post in the forum or respond to this news item if you prefer.

Finally decided to boost up avatar size another bit (with a little prodding by Wolverine).  The max dimensions for your avatar is now 64 width by 64 height. Perhaps when the site is redesigned we'll bump it up to 100x100. 

We've finally released the new search tools for the pixel art gallery.  You can enter a keyword, filter by number of colors, image dimensions or whether the image is animated, transparent or isometric. With these search tools in place there is nothing that can stop us!!!

While we're on the subject of development I'd like to mention that we are doing our best to work out the "autologin" issues on the gallery site that some people are encountering.  Please bear with us while we work through it and report any login issues to sedgemonkey. 

Last but not least, we just want y'all to know that we will be putting out a pixel e-magazine and we are very happy that there are so many PJ members willing to pitch in. Hopefully we'll get it rolling very soon. If you have any ideas to contribute please post them in the forum under the existing thread.

The deviantART Summit was a meeting of artists in Hollywood, California that took place last Friday and Saturday.  I wanted to try and capture the flavor of the show for all you pixel pushers who couldn't make it to the show.

Enjoy the show!

Pixelblink and sedgemonkey officially announce the opening of "The Joint".  Drop on by and move in if you like. There will be orange drink and ginger snaps for all to enjoy in the lobby.

You can now create a room, a balcony or an exterior corner of the building. 

http://www.pixeljoint.com/thejoint/

You might have noticed a couple of errors on the forum and gallery. I assure you your data is being saved and is secure.  Please bear with us while the server transfer goes through even when you encounter the occassional *gasp* 500 error.  We are almost done, but it might take a few days for the domain to propogate on the Internet with the new address.

Update: We'll be moving the database over sometime this weekend so the site might be down for up to an hour and we're still working to figure out why some of the dimensions of the detail files are getting warped when uploaded.

Once again, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to PM me.

Howdy peeps.  We are going to be slowly migrating Pixel Joint to another server.  There might be some down periods for the site while we transfer files and the database, but no data will be lost. Just wanted to keep y'all informed.

My email domain is actually down right now so if you get a bounce back don't worry about it.  Should have it fixed in short order.

The biggest update this time around is the 'Weekly Showcase'.  We added this to give some extra attention to new pixel art pieces that are rated high.  This helps to counteract some of the issues of "bumping".  Other updates...

• Updated the gallery viewer... added a five row option.
• Added six new smiles to the forum and comments section (thx Blueberry_pie!)
• Lightened main background color.
• Added a feature page for the "L'il Dudes" Project -- more information to come on that.
• We also updated the Pixel Joint link banners with iSTVAN's bitchin' nerd.

Whew!  We're well on our way to getting this site in shape.  Hellz yeah!

In an effort to make the site easier to use we've made a few small changes...

• Consolidated the disjointed gallery views of Pixel Joint (newest, highest rated, ordered by letter, etc.) into a single page. Simply click on the Gallery tab to access all the pixel art views now.
• Replaced A to Z section with Features section so the goodies of the site are all in a single place.
• Tightened the Header text so it doesn't take up quite so much room. 
• Created a skin file for the WYSIWYG.
• Updated a few of the styles so hopefully the site is slightly more pleasant to look at.
• Cleaned up a couple ugly Firefox specific design issues.

We'll be moving forward with a few new features soon including special awards, pixel projects, a contributor page and pixel artist interviews. Stay tuned.

Added a WYSIWYG editor to the comments, links and news sections so you can add your own formatting without having to know HTML or BBS code!  Huzzah!

The kickass editor will be listed under the upcoming contributor section of Pixel Joint so you can install it on your own site.