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mcmasterdonia

mcmasterdonia

Just like a queef in the wind, so is life
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TNP Nation
McMasterdonia
We are aware that some of them are not displaying properly. That is due to the fact that they are stored on Eluvatar's server which is currently down.

I am working to convert all of these images over so that they will be stored on this forum. I am unsure why it was not like this to start with.

Just a heads up that the admin team is aware of it and that I am working to fix it.
 
I have stored all of the images on the forum and updated the skin with the new links to the images. We will no longer have to rely on Eluvatar's server for the images.
 
The embassy flags automatically change based on a webpage. I have been considering swapping this over to something more reliable which I will also need to raise for discussion heh.
 
I think we could house them here. Might take some time to me here, but it's not rocket science. That way we won't have to worry if someone else's server goes down we're stuck. If our site goes down...well...the whole site is down.
 
The reason why the embassy flags are externally hosted is so that they can be updated automatically when a region changes their in-game flag. Manually keeping the flags of 40+ embassies up-to-date would probably be too tedious.
 
r3naissanc3r:
The reason why the embassy flags are externally hosted is so that they can be updated automatically when a region changes their in-game flag. Manually keeping the flags of 40+ embassies up-to-date would probably be too tedious.
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I'm not the most tech savvy, but how would one be able to externally host an image that from your own server but that is sitting on the NS server without downloading the image and saving it on your server?

In other words by hosting it externally, how are you able to automatically update the flag whenever it updates?

I don't believe flags change all that often so the initial setup would be a pain in the butt, but maintenance shouldn't be all that time consuming. I uploaded Ainur's. Took about 5 mins and I also created a webpage that links directly to the NS. In theory, if I make that page admins can make use of it in the future if flags change and they want to quickly find a region's new flag since it links directly to NS.

If you think there's a better approach, please feel free to let me know. Our broken links look ugly.
 
I believe that what Elu did was create a script that downloaded them every so often and uploaded them to his server, so that the ones on his server would match the ones on the NS site. Since access to Elu's server is not rate-limited like NS is, there were no ill consequences for frequently refreshing the embassy page.
 
That way of doing it has the added benefit of a consistent image name - even though NS adds random numerical characters to all uploaded flags, Elu would have been able to save each new iteration on his own server by the same name - so rather than the link going from ...balder_8121304.png to ...balder_9912476.png, it stays constant as .../balder/flag.png. This can be done with a script which checks the API and looks between <FLAG> and </FLAG> tags for each region.

I imagine eliminating rate limits was the big reason to do that, though.
 
Crushing Our Enemies:
I believe that what Elu did was create a script that downloaded them every so often and uploaded them to his server, so that the ones on his server would match the ones on the NS site. Since access to Elu's server is not rate-limited like NS is, there were no ill consequences for frequently refreshing the embassy page.
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Aye, both Elu's and my repository work along these lines.

As I said in the admin request thread, I would be fine with TNP's forum using the links from my server, either temporarily until Elu's server is fixed, or permanently.
 
Thanks for the offer r3n. I'll bring this up to admin team. Essentially there are two options:

  • Upload the Embassy flags and put them on TNP's server.
    Pros
    Eliminates relying on someone else's server for the images.
    Cons
    As regional flags update, we'll need to manually update flags.
  • Utilize r3n's server to update Embassy flags.
    Pros
    Eliminates need to manually update flags.
    Cons
    Holds flags outside the TNP server, so if r3n's server goes down or something happens as with Elu's, the flags will also go away.

Does that sound correct to you? Either way, we need to update the flags. I'm leaning toward's r3n's server but I'd be fine with either approach.
 
Seems right to me.

I'll give Elu another poke. I mentioned it to him last week and he said he may look into it. If he plans to fix it imminently, it may be worth waiting for it.

EDIT: There is by the way a third option, getting rid of the flags altogether.
 
Elu's server must be running again as the images are back.

There are a few embassies that need to have their description fixed: Canada, Global Right Alliance, The Beach, and Versutian Federation.

Also, Ainur is currently using an uploaded image, so you may want to edit that one as well, to switch it back to Elu's server.
 
My own personal preference as an admin is that we have a policy of having this sort of thing backed up in two places, not one. Then if there's an access or availability issue, we can simply switch to the updated secondary server until we find a new server, or the primary server comes back and is updated.

Yes, it means updating at two places, but you know what? That's preferable to the current situation with the flags, the government page, the two SC pages (alerts and records) and so forth.
 
I'll drop a tarball of the contents of www.thenorthpacific.org by the other root admins, in case it needs to be reconstructed at some point.
 
Eluvatar:
I'll drop a tarball of the contents of www.thenorthpacific.org by the other root admins, in case it needs to be reconstructed at some point.
Click to expand...

Edit: Bah it's not quite that simple, but I'll do what actually needs to be done for someone else to be able to replace me easily.
 
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