patrick.net

I made the font a bit larger. Substack has a pretty big font and that seems to work well for them.

Pat, How did you make this?

@The_Deplorable

First I found the image at https://imgflip.com/memegenerator by doing a search there, then added the text via that site, then took a screenshot, edited in Mac Preview, and annotated with text to put in patrick.net/memes

Took less than 5 minutes.

Patrick says

then added the text via that site

This step I don't understand...

How do you add text "via that site?"

Thank you for the answer.

The_Deplorable

The_Deplorable says

Pat, How did you make this?

If I want to create a meme, I use https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

And I normally do a screenshot to remove the watermark - it produces the image first as a preview, then you can turn that into the "final image" with a watermark.

You can upload images, and entering text is pretty simple. You might want to click the "cog" on them to modify attributes of the text.

richwicks says

You can upload images, and entering text is pretty simple.

Yes, yes, yes... Thank you both!

The_Deplorable

I look forward to seeing memes from you on patrick.net @The_Deplorable!

The likes/dislikes should be able to be toggled on and off, instead of one and done. I'm sure the few dislikes on otherwise very popular threads are from accidental clicks. Happens (esp. to people with big hands) from time to time

@mell I would prefer that too, but it's moderately difficult because I don't have an easy way to tell if a user has voted on a thread before, the way I do for comments. So some malicious user could click like and unlike over and over, or via a robot, to spam a user with thread "like" emails.

For comments, there is a row created in the database for each like. If the row exists, I know not to send out the email again on a second like of that comment by that user.

For threads, there is a more complicated table of views, likes, and other info, but the row exists for each user+thread as soon as the user views it.

Patrick says

mell I would prefer that too, but it's moderately difficult because I don't have an easy way to tell if a user has voted on a thread before, the way I do for comments. So some malicious user could click like and unlike over and over, or via a robot, to spam a user with thread "like" emails.

For comments, there is a row created in the database for each like. If the row exists, I know not to send out the email again on a second like of that comment by that user.

For threads, there is a more complicated table of views, likes, and other info, but the row exists for each user+thread as soon as the user views it.

Makes sense, in that case I'd prefer to do away with who (dis)liked my thread, if people engage they obviously like it or see value in it being discussed. We already have the who liked your comments feature which is plenty and personal enough imo. If you did away with the notifications on the thread (dis)likes, then you only need to track whether the user voted on a thread or not, and the total score can only be 1, -1, or 0, so they can't upvote or downvote multiple times, but they can toggle and you don't care how often they change their mind or reverse an accidental click. Maybe put a rate limit on the like/dislikes thread url, doesn't matter if those are different threads, nobody needs a thread (or comment) like/dislike more often than once every 10 seconds, so if it's more often you don't write to the db and just return.

That's true, if I eliminated thread like emails (there are no thread dislike emails), then it would be easy to let users undo their thread votes.

Pay people with Patrick Dollars when they post, or post and pass a like threshold number, even better. Create a new currency!

I could do that.

But what would people be able to buy with Patrick Dollars?

Patrick says

I could do that.

But what would people be able to buy with Patrick Dollars?

People would immediately cheat if they had any worth, producing posts endlessly to "make money".

Hey Patrick,

I can help you convert from URLs to embedded videos, but for some sites, like Rumble, I have to use something like curl, or wget to retrieve the information.

IF you are able to have a new entry of a post to fire off a program to modify the entry of the post, to call something like Perl, or C or whatever, the post can be modified to create the embed link. I know precisely how to do this with Rumble, and I don't mind figuring it out for new sites either.

For Rumble, I download the page to STDOUT, parse the data, and extract the embed link. I have written this in Perl, but any language can do it, except Javascript, because I don't think that can trigger a call to wget or curl - which are programs under linux to act as a web browser to download information.

I'll be happy to help. New entries into your mysql database (I know NOTHING about mysql) would have to activate an external program. Can you do that? Seems like it should be possible. I could do this with "inotify()" in C, and have that trigger another program. When the SQL database changes, if you can pull the latest post, produce the text of it, allow perl to read it, allow perl to convert it, and resubmit it to the database, I can do it.

Considering how shitty social media has become, you could potentially become a competitor.

The way some on here are debating/fighting seems to indicate that there is a larger split in the population, not just along party lines. It may be something bigger and we should all reflect on it. My suggestion would be to have threads with invited guests only where you can ask them for their opinion. Doesn't have to be exclusive, i.e. only invited people see the thread, so there is no obvious "exclusion". I may know a lot of things at this age and have made up my mind on others, but that doesn't mean that you can always live the way you want and avoiding the issues you rail against, sometimes you have to face em and collaborate, or you don't listen to your own advice and create issues for yourself ;) And it would help me reflect more on myself if it's genuine opinions/advice without a lot of cockfighting. What do you think, everyone and @Patrick? Not a moneymaker, but would make the site even more valuable imo.

@mell I love the idea of invited guests.

I can make a page for current users to invite someone to participate in a thread. But how would we get the email address of the person we want to invite?

Patrick says

mell I love the idea of invited guests.

I can make a page for current users to invite someone to participate in a thread. But how would we get the email address of the person we want to invite?

When you create such a thread, you have an additional field or fields where you enter the current usernames of those you wish to invite. Your backend creates the thread and stores the participants, and when a user is logged in and (re)loads your site there is an additional query for threads to show where their current username is invited to, or something similar.

@mell But how would I invite anyone who's not already on the site? I would need his or her email address?

Or is this just for current users?

Patrick says

mell But how would I invite anyone who's not already on the site? I would need his or her email address?

Or is this just for current users?

I was thinking just for current users, extending it to new users as a general invite to the site is a great idea as well, but not in my scope :)

With 3 kids, 1 wife, 1 mom (of my oldest) plus my original and already large expanded/extended family (and married into another one) in my life there is plenty of action/drama at times. I may have some practical advice as well, lol

I mean I hear some of you fiercely fighting about the exact detailed comings of the rapture, I'm just saying a quick thank you prayer to the Lord when I can finally lean back at the end of a long and successful work day with womyn and kidz (successfully kept) at bay, indulging in a great wine country red. That's as far as I can get, that and browsing patnet ;)

Patrick says

But how would I invite anyone who's not already on the site? I would need his or her email address?

Or is this just for current users?

I think people here are more tech savvy. I use a burner email account I legit never check. Most dudes I know under 40 have at least 5 email accounts. I think those over 40 here aren't using their real email account either. This isn't soy boy dip shit world.

Even though I'm the don't give a shit about privacy user, I still do. Whether he remembers, I have emailed Patrick my real first name at least. If I end up doing a Socal meet up I still won't give my name. I will show photos of my family and shoot the shit at a bar. I have to meet people to gain a level of trust.

I'm cocky but my record with trust is pretty god damn impeccable. I'll call a person out on one interaction and someone else there will take a year and tell me I was right. It happens monthly where people tell me I was right. The key is the ability to be self deprecating. Know your flaws. I'll admit mine. Most don't and you've lost my trust at that point. Especially if they're obvious flaws.

@WookieMan I honestly don't remember your first name if I ever knew it.

BTW, I'm going to be in Chicagoland in late May, also in Ottawa, IL. If you're anywhere near those, I'd be happy to buy you a beer. Send me an email:

p@patrick.net

mell says

"My suggestion would be to have threads with invited guests only..."

This is no longer a debate. It is propaganda.

I can see one Globalist inviting 3 or 4 other Globalists and the end result is propaganda and the destruction of the patrick.net forum.

The_Deplorable says

mell says

"My suggestion would be to have threads with invited guests only..."

This is no longer a debate. It is propaganda.

I can see one Globalist inviting 3 or 4 other Globalists and the end result is propaganda and the destruction of the patrick.net forum.

I'm not talking politics. There are other things besides saving world politics from your keyboard. This is more about advice and experience about certain lifestyle/family issues and events. No need to involve 1000 users on it

mell says

"I'm not talking politics. There are other things besides saving world politics from your keyboard. This is more about advice and experience about certain lifestyle/family issues and events. No need to involve 1000 users on it"

mell, can you accomplish the same thing by giving your thread a very narrow (and well defined) title?

I have a suggestion.

Implement polls.

Hi, Patrick - I'm only seeing two pages listed for viewing for several weeks now. I used to see 6. Code change?
Thanks

@rocketjoe79 Thanks for telling me, I'll figure out what happened.

@richwicks OK, I think that's not too hard. I'll do it.

The_Deplorable says

mell says

"I'm not talking politics. There are other things besides saving world politics from your keyboard. This is more about advice and experience about certain lifestyle/family issues and events. No need to involve 1000 users on it"

mell, can you accomplish the same thing by giving your thread a very narrow (and well defined) title?

If someone is looking for input from certain members and doesn't want all of patnet to know about their topic/issue, the invitation scheme is preferred imo.

rocketjoe79 says

Hi, Patrick - I'm only seeing two pages listed for viewing for several weeks now. I used to see 6. Code change?
Thanks

@rocketjoe79 That was a bug! Should be fixed now.

Thanks again for telling me.

Very Welcome - thanks for the quick fix!

I think you ought to reverse the bell and link links.

Instead of a bell, it should be something like "top of thread", and the link itself should place you on what you last read.

I hate symbols. It's not like we cannot read here.

@richwicks To me, it seems like clicking the title of one thread in a list should take you to the top of that thread, where the title is.

I admit the blinky thing is not obvious, given how many people never noticed that they can click on it. I could just replace it with text like "latest unread comment" or something.

Patrick says

I admit the blinky thing is not obvious, given how many people never noticed that they can click on it. I could just replace it with text like "latest unread comment" or something.

I think it should be at the left of the title of the thread, and not at the end and it should not only be the blinky thing, but text next to it (perhaps as an image) "latest post".

Second @Patrick - I want to know - how is it you pull in images from other sites? I want to fix the problem with Rumble, where people have to click the <> Embed link, open a window, and copy the lower text box.

I figure you MUST be running a program to pull off the image in some way. How are you doing this? If I knew, I could solve the Rumble problem.

Patrick says

BTW, I'm going to be in Chicagoland in late May, also in Ottawa, IL. If you're anywhere near those, I'd be happy to buy you a beer. Send me an email:

I somehow missed this one. Ottowa is relatively close. Too late now. Everything for me is 30-40 minutes away outside of Chicago city limits. Starved Rock visit? Or just family? One of the cooler areas of northern IL. I'm roughly straight north of Ottawa. Don't want to give distance or town.

WookieMan says

If you're anywhere near those, I'd be happy to buy you a beer.

Maybe you could meet at Maddie's Place.

richwicks says

I think it should be at the left of the title of the thread, and not at the end and it should not only be the blinky thing, but text next to it (perhaps as an image) "latest post".

@richwicks That seems like a good idea. Will do, just need to switch context from working on genealogy stuff.

richwicks says

Patrick - I want to know - how is it you pull in images from other sites?

It's like this:

function cache_image(image_url) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        const parsed    = url.parse(image_url);
        const protocol  = parsed.protocol.replace(/:/, '');
        const rand      = md5(Math.random().toString()).slice(0, 8);
        const tmp_path  = `/tmp/${ rand }`;
        const file      = fs.createWriteStream(tmp_path);

        setTimeout(() => { reject(new Error('image load timed out: ' + image_url)); }, 3000); // wait max three seconds

        PROTOCOLS[protocol].get(image_url, response => { // global['http'] will refer to the global http var, eg
            response.pipe(file);

            file.on('finish', () => {
                file.close(async () => {
                    const normalized = await normalize_image(tmp_path).catch(error => reject(error));
                    resolve(normalized);
                });
            });

        }).on('error', err => reject(err));
    });
}