MessageBase Code Development

Finally, after 3 years of planning and development, LLabmik Software Development is happy (and relieved!) to announce the latest iteration of MessageBase.net!Amazing that it's already 26 years since the original MessageBase Version 1.0!The new version is written with advanced architecture, implemented using .NET 8 and Blazor Interactive Server.

Currently about a year into converting MessageBase codebase to Blazor and .NET 8.Originally rewrote it in .NET 7 and it was working great, just doing final bug checking and testing, then .NET 8 introduced many architectural changes and it's set me way back. Had hoped to switch over by end of 2023. But as you can see, that's about over (Or over where you are, dates are set to your local time zone here.) so not gonna happen...But once it's done, can release the "door games" Raid on the Forest of Horrors and Wild Frontiers 1888! Raid (ROTFOH2 is a Blazor-based rewrite of my old ROTFOH/Raid on the Forest of Horrors game that was somewhat popular about 20 years ago. Just some adaptations to both to syn with .NET 8 and ready to fly.

Well, we're back again on yet another new web server. Problems with the last one, so got a new one. Sorry about the interruption in service.

You will now see the subject of a message displayed in the end of the URL, this is called slugification, and helps search engines index the content on the page.For example, you will now see /messages-are-now-slugified at the end of the URL when reading this message.

Had an RSS feed here years ago in a previous version of MessageBase's code. Have added it again, with newer, better code. Available at the top of the main page, or from here: MessageBase RSS Feed

Have been on a serious productive run on adding features to MessageBase, hope you enjoy!Added an "Online" button which will show you how many people are on the site (Both logged in and anonymous browsers)Have added a "Chat" button which allows fully encrypted chatting. Emoji's are supported too!Can now Like or Dislike posts on the site. (You must be logged in to vote on a post)Added a "Highest Rated" button which will show the highest rated messages.Hope you enjoy! Many more things to come.Reply to this message with any suggestions for improvements, ideas are very welcome!

Test

Finally got the money for a business internet connection. Can finally host MessageBase on port 80, so from now on come to www.MessageBase.net instead of the old https://messagebase/ address (Still works for now, but will eventually go away.) Faster connection too, so the site will be faster.Woohoo! :)

Soon as Visual Studio 2010 drops, I plan to begin a (yet another) complete rewrite of the MessageBase codebase to utilize the incredible power of "true" AJAX and Model-View-Controller architecture. This site's too slow, and too unfinished.Planning exists only in my mind at this time, will be coming up with an actual project plan this time, so this should be pretty cool when it's done.

After many years, the server I've been using finally fried out. But then again, it's been plugged in and running for most of the past eight years, so it really was a great machine. (A moment of silence for our lost server, Zeppelin. It was a good machine, who served us well. It will be missed.)So I've had to rebuild everything from backup and split the load out amongst two servers for now (Using old Pentium III desktop machines for now until I can afford another real server.) and it seems to be performing excellently for a couple of older servers! :)Nice thing as well was I hadn't been updating the code for a while either, and had to make some changes to the code, since back when I originally wrote MessageBase 3 I was a bit stupid and hard-coded the server names instead of using a config file. And the code I had checked into source control would not build, so had to spend some time getting the code to build. But now that means I have a working codebase and can now start working on the additions and rewrites I've been planning to do to MessageBase for quite some time.So we're back online, now all we need are more people using the site, so tell all your friends! :)