Logging! (I'm serious this time!)

[Anastasia]

I'd like to give logging game 2 a shot. Yes, stop laughing. I'm quite serious - I think we can do it if we keep our shit together. From today on(Including Hotaru's little first come, first grab RP bit ahead), I'd like to post daily logs. Ergo, a few questions:

Hal, how viable and quick is your log checker?

I log #dunes, #evil and #terror. Try to keep into those rooms to make this undertaking a little more sane.

I'm probably going to handle what I can, but I won't be afraid to ask some of you to handle some logs.

If you do something GMless or minor, feel free to post it yourself. This is a good thing.

[Merc]

...

*refuses Ana's request to stop laughing*

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

*deep breath*

....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

*deep breath again*

....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

*deep breath once more*

....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*wheeze* *cough* *wheeze*

....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Halbarad]

The log checker is very reliable and easy to use - simply pick a log file from on your PC and it's uploaded into the checker. It will only work on mIRC or mIRC-based logs with standard formatting, so if you use some other client or weird setups, it may bork up on you. It will remove (pardon the regex here):

"@sets mode@", "@Quit *\(@", "@has joined #@", "@Topic@", "@Now talking in@", "@Set by@", "@Session Time@", "@You were kicked@", "@\* Rejoined channel #@", "@Session Start:@", "@Session Ident:@", "@changes topic@", "@\* Disconnected@", "@\* Attempting to rejoin@", "@is now known as@", "@has left #@", "@\*.* was kicked by .*\(.*\)@", "@Session Close@", "@Disconnect notice:@", "@^\s*$@", "@Send has failed@", "@alternate send method@"

(Note: The @ symbols there denote the beginning and end of a given search phrase.)

The main thing this will affect is that all nick changes are removed, so any 'effect' of transformations are removed, regrettably. It also will not remove any OOC lines or flubs - these will still have to be manually removed or edited. This DOES, however, scrub out almost all IRC clutter - kicks, joins, parts, fserv announcements, window closes, etc. However, from experience in posting game 1 I can vouch that that alone will save you about 75% of your editing time.

My advice in posting logs is a simple one - it does need to be done in bursts, not daily. Chronology is always a headache to work out when things start going out of sequence - and they almost surely will - so my advice would be to have someone spend an hour or two every week posting the logs of the previous week. Otherwise, daily log posting will end up with events out of sequence and confusing as hell to read later, unless massive editing is performed.

Also, for posting logs, bear in mind that Soulriders has a postsize limit of 65k characters per post. When factoring in the conversions to HTML entities ( '>' is turned into '>', for example ) no post should ever break about 62k or so prior to being posted.

First rule there is not necessary to follow, but the second will be. With those caveats in place, debate the value of posting logs as you will.

[Anastasia]

I say daily simply because I'll fall behind and not want to deal with it if a grand stack of unorganized logs await me. Daily at least gives me a fighting chance at 'em, you know? Anyway, since I keep gigantic log files, will the logger work if I just copy/paste log parts into another notepad and send that up?

(Ami-chan, go dunk your head in a vat of nice rabbit acid, hm?)

No edit this time, just a reason to make you jump as you worship postbot.

[Halbarad]

That'll work fine - it just uploads the file from your PC rather than giving you a paste window.

The other solution there is being iron-fisted with maintaining chronology in RPing. If it ain't going to happen for a few days and other things are likely to happen between, don't RP it until we get there.

[Anastasia]

That'll work fine - it just uploads the file from your PC rather than giving you a paste window.

The other solution there is being iron-fisted with maintaining chronology in RPing. If it ain't going to happen for a few days and other things are likely to happen between, don't RP it until we get there.

Pretty much.

I openly admit that the first few weeks are going to be messy with covering downtime events AND the start of Takeshi/Asher. So yeah. I may jus tstart posting downtime events with order notes and save your stuff until that's all done.

[Anastasia]

As an aside to Merc, do these posted logs help you at work at all? I figured that was one benefit to 'em.

[Ebiris]

Since my net access at work is now less restricted, I'll say that they're nice for me.

[Anastasia]

Since my net access at work is now less restricted, I'll say that they're nice for me.

Coooooool. That'll reduce the logs in your box, though!

[Ebiris]

Probably for the best. Cleaning it out could be messy, since sometimes I'd forget they're in there and that can cause problems.

[Anastasia]

Probably for the best. Cleaning it out could be messy, since sometimes I'd forget they're in there and that can cause problems.

Yeah, getting fresh logs is a problem when your box is full. It really sucks!

[Merc]

As an aside to Merc, do these posted logs help you at work at all? I figured that was one benefit to 'em.

Honestly? I generally don't bother reading logs. Haven't read the logs for Hotaru/Rei/Usagi scenes at all. What looks okay in an IRC screen just tends to look like a massive amount of text bleeding on my screen in a forum post. The only times I ever bother looking at a log is if I want to quickly refer to something that happened, not learning what's happened.

I tend to prefer summaries of scenes, since as a character, if I'm not in the scene, that's what the character would have gotten to learn of what'd happened, not an action by action replay of it. Just a personal preference for RPing purposes which when combined with the bleeding text thing doesn't generally get me to read logs. >_>;

[Anastasia]

Well, I can slap summaries at the top of the logs if you want, Merc. That's no big. <_<