MeetFighters News

Hi All Fighters,

I've been busy, working behind the scenes on deploying a new database management system for AllFighters. The site now uses the open-source database PostgreSQL. Hopefully it will prove more robust and the site slowdowns of late will be a thing of the past.

Thanks so the new database, I have been able to re-enable the "online users" list. The previous database just couldn't handle the extra work.

Also, thanks to all the members who have donated, I will soon be able to buy a much-needed memory upgrade for the allfighters.info server. As a token of appreciation, it is now possible to search the members list for our donors. Thanks again, guys!

What else... Ah, yes: the suggestion box can now send you a message when a particular entry has changed! It's easy to subscribe to entries: navigate to the entry's page, and click the Subscribe button. (Unsubscribing is just as easy.)

– Admin out

Dear members,

I know it's been a while since the last site update and I'm sorry. In fact this might be the last site update for a while now as I am busy with some issues unrelated to AllFighters. I'm sorry if your favorite feature request is delayes as a consequence.

On a brighter note, here's the list of changes:

• Tracker/2009-05-27 2: You can view your messages with another member as a thread. You click on "thread" next to one of your messages, and violá! A list pops up with all the messages between you and the other guy.

• The Favorites page lists all your favorites, past opponents and blocks. It now got a clearer layout: instead of lots of buttons, it now has one combo box with all the stuff you might want to change.

• The World Map of All Fighters marker layout algorithm has been rewritten.

• The "Online users" feature has been disabled for performance reasons. I'm looking to buy more RAM for the server to alleviate some of the performance issues with the site. If you can help out, please do so.

Today I have finished work on a bunch of new features.

• Tracker/2009-04-14 2: Members now each have a picture gallery. You may upload up to 100 photos to your gallery. These will appear separately from your profile images. The same rules, however apply: no pornographic images. You can insert these photos into your blog (this is not implemented yet – work in progress).

• Based on a blog entry and the following discussion, the recommendation system has been changed. Positive recommendations are the same as before, luckily, most of the existing recommendations were positive. However, based on experience the negative recommendations no longer have free-form text, and are "multiple choice" instead. To prevent abusers from abusing the abuse reports (read that again), only members with at least three good recommendations can post these.

• Tracker/2009-05-15: You can now suspend your member account. While suspended, your account will not show up in searches and other members cannot send you messages. They can still read your blog and comment on it. You can restore your account to active status at any time, by simply logging in.

As always, your feedback helps make this site better. I would like to invite everyone to participate in the following discussions:

• Real vs Cyber Past Opponents
• Battle Reports

– Admin out

I got a message from travelstud regarding the recommendation system. Since his notions (and my reply to them) might be of interest to other AllFighters members, I'm going to post the message here:

I don't think this whole "reccomendation" feature is really a good idea. It creates bad energy and an atmosphere of bitchiness beyond what you might be able to handle in future... trust me you will run into many more problems with such a feature including maybe even legal issues. Wrestling personals is not an easy site to operate - it involves a lot of aggressive people and you cannot always control their thought process. By adding this reccomendation business - you are creating an atmosphere of "competing" for the most wins. Each person has different experiences with others - I may be bad to some people but I may be good to some others - and if ONE guy hates me for a personal reason and he is good to many others - then all it takes is that one person to destroy my reputation and vice-versa. I think its best to offer people a place to meet and find out for themselves if they are right for each other or not... rather than reading a positive or negative post about someone. Mark my words - in time you will yourself be fed up with the amount of complaints and bitchiness that this whole "reccomendation" business brings out in gay wrestlers... hence you should just remove it.

Let me begin with explaining the rationale FOR the recommendation system:

The recommendation system serves several purposes. It is a counterpoint to the member's own introduction. It lets you tell a guy how great it was to meet him. It lets you screen guys who have similar interests as you. It promotes a sense of community too: we are all here for the wrestling.

A less visible, but equally important benefit is that it discourages fakes and no-shows from registering en masse. It also discourages people from acting uncivil, unsafe, etc. since members have a recourse to tell other members about what he did to them.

Now, on to the points that you were making against recommendations:

The feature itself does not create "bad energy and an atmosphere of bitchiness". Asshats do. That's why there is a huge sign at the door that says "asshats are not welcome". I fully intend to warn, moderate and delete abusive members.

If someone "can't control his thought process" – maybe wrestling him is not such a good idea to begin with.

I don't see anything bad about an "atmosphere of competing". They have that at the olympics too, and I never heard of anyone complaining about it. Again, the problem is not competition, it's asshats.

About "different experiences": if you have some good and some bad, let both have their say. Readers will have to weight both. This is how the system is supposed to work.

About "getting fed up with complaints and bitchiness": I already am, which is why the site moderation works the way it does. If someone won't listen to reason, he gets moderated and deleted, both reduces my exposure to him. In the long run, I intend to delegate site moderation to members who have earned my trust and the respect of the community.

To summarize it: there are both benefits and downsides to the recommendation system. The benefits, in my opinion, far outweigh the downsides.

I am aware that the recommendations are prone to abuse. No other wrestling personals site has anything like it. I ask all members to use it wisely; also to be patient if someone isn't. In time it will work out just fine.

On an unrelated note, AllFighters now accepts your donations.

Hi everyone,

I made a change to the site so you can mark more than one location in your profile. In fact, you can mark up to 5. The intention is two things:

• If you commute to another city/country for work, you can mark both your place of residence and your workplace, and turn up in searches for either of them.

• If you plan a trip, you can mark the place(s) you are about to visit in your profile.

This change, however, proved to be more difficult than I originally anticipated and required extensive changes to the site's engine. For this reason, it is possible that certain things are now broken. Please let me know if you find something that doesn't work anymore!

In related news, I have closed a bunch of tracker entries today. Oh well, there's plenty more! :)

– Admin out.