Quarrels and Quills

Some members are experiencing problems viewing the site as a result of the new theme. Most of the problems are being experienced by those who are still using Internet Explorer 6. The site does work fine if you are using Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera. I am working hard to fix the issues with Internet Explorer 6, but it is taking time. I apologize for any inconvience this is causing.

Some of you may have noticed that the site was running considerably slower these past few days. I had noticed the slowdown as well, and had been working on trying to pin down the cause of the problems. After much investigation, I think I found the problem. It was related to a system called “FireStats” which was a new site statistic system. You might recall seeing info in the sidebar relating to the Site Statistics as well, and now only a blank space where that information used to be. While having and displaying that information was nice, I would much rather have the site load as quickly as possible, than keep track of statistical information. If anyone ever notices any issues with site load or any other bugs with the site, please don’t hesitate to send me a PM or post in the Sage’s Study.

Good news! Qwaring has finished updating Allos here on Quarrels and Quills. He actually was able to complete it quicker than he and I thought, which is awesome news. He will now be able to update the comics and keep you informed of the development through the Allos section. Just click on “Allos” in the top menu to access the latest comic and news relating to Allos.

The search button in the upper right corner is your key to searching the site and the web in general. Type in what you are looking for and click search. The search will query Google’s search database and return a list of pages on Quarrels and Quills that match your search request. Want to search the web for that same query? Just click on the web tab. Maybe you are interested in what people are blogging about what you are searching for, if so, then click on the Blog tab. Want to see the latest news articles relating to your search, then click on the News tab. Maybe you want to find images related to your search, well, as you might expect, click on the images tab. The Video tab, as you might expect, gives you video results for your search query. You can even get local and see what local businesses match yoru search criteria. You can fine-tune the local search by clicking on the little “gear” in the right corner (configure button), just above the results. This will allow you to change the local search location. News and Blog also has a configure button, that will allow you to sort the result list by date or not.

I may add additional functionality to the search at a later time. I’ve contemploated integrating local search with Google maps, and even linking to Amazon. I know both are possible, but I’m not sure exatly how to implement at this time. Besides, I still have a lot more to do on the site. I do hope you like the latest addition.

Edit: I forgot to mention, if you are using Internet Explorer 7, or Firefox 2.0+, you can integrate the Quarrels and Quiils search into your browser quick search. That way you can do all your searching right from your browser. And since Quarrels and Quills search is powered by Google, you have Google’s extensive database at your fingertips.

The webcomic “I Need A Hero” is now integrated into Quarrels and Quills. Adam Lima, the creator of “I Need A Hero” gave us permission to display his web comic when we were still named “Comic Book Review.” After the changes, I had been wanting to get tighter integration with the site, and now that has finally happened. Allos is in the works, and should be ready in the next couple of weeks, or sooner, if schedules work out.

Yes, there is a new and improved design and layout for Quarrels and Quills. I am sure that this new design will come as a complete shock to pretty much every one of the regular members. Of course most change can be shocking, but I promise, this change is for the better.

You might be asking how this could possibly be better. Well, for starters, I have integrated our forum software, phpBB, with WordPress, one of the most popular blogging software tools available today. This means that eventually members will be able to have their own free Quarrels and Quills blog. WordPress is even tied to the phpbb user list, so that you don’t have to log in multiple times to the site.

What if you are being asked to log in multiple times? I tried my best to make the integration as smooth as possible. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) I can only control the server and the site itself. Your computer may still be storing old information that is no longer valid. There are two possible fixes for this. First is clicking on the “Delete site cookies” link on the menu on the left. The second is to clear the cookies from your browser directly. If the first option doesn’t work, use the second. If both options still fail to work, go to the forums and let me know in the Sage’s Study. You don’t have to be logged in to post in that forum, but please, make sure you let me know who you are if you are posting as a guest.

In addition, I Need a Hero and Allos should be eventually integrated with WordPress. This will allow Qwaring to update Allos here without needing my assistance. If life should drag me away again, Qwaring should be able to handle the updates on his own. In addition, after the web comics and blogs are fully up and running, others may request their own web comic to run on Quarrels and Quills, and that can be set up on a case-by-case basis.

If you’ve ever browsed the site and found a dead or broken link here, you have probably seen the infamous “404 Not Found” white page. That page is functionally useless, as it doesn’t help you at all. Part of the new redesign is a better error page that will actually try to help you find what you were looking for. If you want to see it in action, just click on this link. I can’t find the page.

This is only part of what has been done, and more is in progress. This is something I’ve been working nights and weekends on since I returned earlier last month. Now you can see the latest reason why my posting has been limited of late. Work hasn’t been the only excuse. Please let me know what you think, and let me know any problems you may encounter. I know there are going to be bugs, but I hope I’ve removed most of the major ones.