Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I've added the ability to display comments posted with an OpenID, but I haven't yet added the ability to post with an OpenID. The ability to display them had to be done first. Otherwise, it would be hard to test when I added the ability to post them.

I have now forged this message to appear as though it is coming from one of my OpenIDs. I'm using a generic OpenID icon right now, but I may include site-specific icons for OpenIDs from the major providers listed on the Login page.

Yes, I've answered a question about that too. The problem is that URLs in the database have been changed. I forwarded my answer to David Howe in the hopes that he has a backup of the database that could be used to restore the values, but he hasn't responded. I am waiting to find out if David can do something about it before I try a more iffy solution, which would involve comparing database entries to filenames and seeing what the best fit is.

Thank you Fergus. That will relieve some people.

Joe, David has reported that all the affected pages are member-submitted pages, and for these, the URL field isn't necessary. And I have confirmed this by looking at the database. So the problem is with the PHP code, not with the database.

Testing if I can post HTML

Editing file to test new code in usereditcomment.php

Thanks, Fergus. At least it's narrowed down.

Joe and David,

I have found a solution to the missing links problem, but it might not solve everything long term. As a test, I deleted the URL from one page whose link was not showing up, and after I did that, its link showed up in the index. So, if I deleted the URLs from items whose URL fields don't point to the actual URL of the page, that should put the links back on the index pages. But before I do this, I wonder if putting fake URLs in the URL field is serving any purpose and if there is code somewhere that will continue to put fake URLs in the URL field.

Okay, I have fixed the missing links problem. It came down to finding the function that creates the link url and changing an if to an elseif.

Unfortunately, the fix is not yet complete; here is the Link to Archabbot Chess from the Alphabetical Index section "Ar":

/play/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MParchabbottches

and it now returns a 404 (instead of the home page of the pbm system).

After some hacking, I found the true link which works:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MParchabbottches

-- replacing "play" with "www" fixes the link.

That one was easier to fix, since I already knew where to go. I fixed it by changing the relative link to an absolute link. But I'm surprised by the behavior of the program, because the page the link was on was in the www.chessvariants.org domain.

The Wargames category is "Wargames and Hierarchical Games." What are hierarchical games?

In game theory Hierarchical Games model conflict systems with a structure of control levels ranked in a certain order.  Thus in a wargame there might be an overall commander, several sub-commanders, and many unit commanders, per side. Troop movements and performance would depend upon the placement and movement of these commanders.

Are these team games? In a two-player game, the idea of different control levels doesn't make sense, because each player has complete control over his pieces. In the menu, I have "Wargames" instead of "Wargames and Hierarchical Games." Is anything lost by just saying "Wargames"?

They need not be team games.  The command/control structure may be used to determine movement of non-command units/pieces.  Have a look at Joe Joyce's Chieftain Chess for an example of an hierarchical game.

Whether or not the term "wargame" is sufficient by itself is debatable.  In the context of CVs it probably is.

Fergus, Hierarchical Games in the context of the index heading are games like Stratego or The Jungle Game where there is a capturing heirarchy (A can capture all pieces, B can capture all pieces but A, C can capture all pieces but A or B, etc.).  There aren't a lot of these games in the system, but we do at least a couple.

I have a suggestion: To add a regular expression search of link description to the "mainquery.php", possibly called "regexplinkdesc". I would find this useful; others who use the advanced search (Tony Quintanilla, perhaps?) might also find it useful. (I already find "regexplinktext" useful, but this would be useful too.)

Also, there is no icon for the "Shop" type (which claims to be an unknown type, although queries for such type work OK); this should be looked at too.

O, one more thing: Link descriptions should be allow to changed in member submission edit index information form.

fyi I received this message for page
http://www.chessvariants.org/Gindex.html

The menus are displaying improperly, and you are seeing this message
because of a bug in your version of Internet Explorer. Please report this
page so that we can fix it. Also, consider switching to Firefox or Chrome.
These browsers should work better with this site than Internet Explorer
does. 

Yes, it works fine in Chrome.  :)

Suggestion, that may be difficult to execute, but still, i'll leave it.
"Unusual shape" category should be devided into two subcategories: variants with none-rectangular cells (triangular, pentagonal, etc.) and variants with unusual connection and/or arrangement of rectangular cells (like cylindrical; well, maybe, not only rectangular - e. g. cylinrical hexagonal chess will belong to both categories).
One aspect - for new people at chess variants, who are only getting familiarized with CVs, these categories are probably more comfortable to be in one category, but for these, who already got plunged into world of CVs, this division will be helpfull for searching chess variants.

I think there needs to be a chess variant design contest. Maybe a 14-piece, 20-square contest for 2014?  Perhaps something else clever.

Problems, puzzles, positions and pieces link from Index page of CVP:

https://www.chessvariants.com/index/mainquery.php?type=Any&category=Singleplayer&orderby=LinkText&displayauthor=1&displayinventor=1&usethisheading=Problems+Puzzles+and+Solitaire+Games

This link got me thinking about two things: first, there may be many things listed in the Main CVP Alphabetical Index that are not found in this link that apparently should be; I'll give links to two such items here (the first is about Kriegspiel):

https://www.chessvariants.com/link/shChDetectiveBk

https://www.chessvariants.com/link/chess-variants-training

The second thing I thought about was the wild idea that could it be possible that someday there might be an attempt to give universal or near-universal strategic guidelines for chess variants of all sorts (CVP's attempt to classify CVs may help if classes of variants need to be treated seperately as far as strategy goes [that is, if CVs of the same class can all be handled at least to some extent with the same strategic ideas])? Note that puzzle or endgame positions being shown might not nearly suffice for imparting mastery of a given CV.