KerbalX.com - Craft & Mission Sharing

[XLjedi]

Yeah...  and I get points...  AND?

[swjr-swis]

2 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

and I get points...

That's it. Up to you to give it any kind of value or significance you want.

Feel good, or bad, or blasé about them. Watch how they develop or try to glean some sort of indication of what crafts/techniques gets more points, or what day of the week is the best to publish a craft, or whether the phase of the moon has any relation.

Or you could ignore them entirely and silently shake your head at anyone who even gives them more than a passing thought.

The points won't care what you decide to do with them. They're just there, adding up. Or not.

[XLjedi]

OK, so no real relevance then, that's fine... I was just curious since they occupy a rather prominent area of my profile.  Thought I was missing something, or they played into the popularity rank or something.  Can't see where I'd ever down-vote anyone though.  LOL, unless they just blatantly repost your craft or something stupid.

[katateochi]

@XLjedi I put the points system in because it felt like something that was needed, and I'd hoped it would take off a bit more than it has, but it seems KerbalX users are quite stingy with giving out upvotes, or perhaps there are just a few users who upvote things but the vast majority just ignore that feature.  So with that there isn't much that I can do with them.  The main thing points do is on a per craft basis enabling craft to be sorted by "popularity". Popularity is a factor of views, downloads and points with the download count having the most impact.  As far as users go they don't really do anything as users aren't ranked except for the top 10 list, but that is entirely to do with the number of craft uploaded.  The one thing having points enables is being able to downvote; downvoting someone else's craft will cost you 5 of your own points, but as you say there is very little call for craft to be downvoted (I think it's happened only a handful of times).  It's there to provide a less severe option to reporting a craft (if someone was to repost one of your craft, which is against the KerbalX rules, then reporting it is the right way to go anyway).

[XLjedi]

Thanks kat-ochi, I was curious about whether or not they factored into the popularity rank in some way.  Also interesting to hear that a down vote would actually be more punitive to give than receive. I noticed the prominence of the point count in my profile, and I was actually thinking along the lines of maybe there was a reward for some level achieved?  ...like you could buy badges or achieve a rank or something like they do on certain other sites.  (not suggesting you add that feature, your site is great as-is)

14 minutes ago, katateochi said:

@XLjedi I put the points system in because it felt like something that was needed, and I'd hoped it would take off a bit more than it has, but it seems KerbalX users are quite stingy with giving out upvotes, or perhaps there are just a few users who upvote things but the vast majority just ignore that feature.  So with that there isn't much that I can do with them.  The main thing points do is on a per craft basis enabling craft to be sorted by "popularity". Popularity is a factor of views, downloads and points with the download count having the most impact.  As far as users go they don't really do anything as users aren't ranked except for the top 10 list, but that is entirely to do with the number of craft uploaded.  The one thing having points enables is being able to downvote; downvoting someone else's craft will cost you 5 of your own points, but as you say there is very little call for craft to be downvoted (I think it's happened only a handful of times).  It's there to provide a less severe option to reporting a craft (if someone was to repost one of your craft, which is against the KerbalX rules, then reporting it is the right way to go anyway).

Seems obvious to me why people don't use the upvote more...  there's a selfish motivation to not upvote/promote others if it means raising their work above your own. 

Edited April 25, 2017 by XLjedi

[slubman]

1 minute ago, katateochi said:

Sorry for the slow reply! been away for a couple weeks. 

That's an interesting idea, wouldn't be straight forward though.  Would you want to be able to say "has mod X but not mod Y"? Just having it work to exclude a set of mods shouldn't be too hard, but having it able to include some while excluding others would be tricky (both from an implementation (keeping search fast) and and interface point of view).  I'll think about it. 

Just being able to say crafts that do not use mods X and Y will be good enough for my use case.

[Starslinger999]

Is there an option to download all crafts from a specific hanger? If not, could you please add one? Would save me soo much time

[XLjedi]

I did a search on "KerbalX Mission" and didn't find anything... 

Was wondering if there were plans in the works to expand KerbalX to be able to host missions created in the new Mission Builder?   Granted, it's not out yet...  but hoping KerbalX might host user created missions fairly soon after release.

[katateochi]

On 2017-4-29 at 4:34 PM, Starslinger999 said:

Is there an option to download all crafts from a specific hanger? If not, could you please add one? Would save me soo much time

& @Raptor9 
This is getting added, although it's slightly more complex than I initially thought (isn't everything!) and I also got totally side tracked by family stuff this weekend so my aim of getting it done by today isn't happening. but sometime this week I should have this added.

[katateochi]

On 2017-5-5 at 4:49 PM, XLjedi said:

I did a search on "KerbalX Mission" and didn't find anything... 

Was wondering if there were plans in the works to expand KerbalX to be able to host missions created in the new Mission Builder?   Granted, it's not out yet...  but hoping KerbalX might host user created missions fairly soon after release.

Yes I want to add this. But at present I've no idea about how the mission files will be constructed. Hopefully each mission will just be a single file and follow Squad's almost-but-not-quite-xml format that saves and craft use. So to start with it'll just be a very simple feature that enables uploading and sharing the files, but then I'll try and dig down and see what info I can read out of each mission so information can be auto populated about it and enable searching for missions. At the very least I hope I'll be able to extract what bodies the mission will require you to visit, so we can have a search that could look for say "missions to Dres" (like anyone's going there  ), but right now I don't know anything so.....we shall see. 

[adsii1970]

@katateochi: Still here... still waiting for instructions!

[Raptor9]

8 hours ago, katateochi said:

This is getting added, although it's slightly more complex than I initially thought (isn't everything!) and I also got totally side tracked by family stuff this weekend so my aim of getting it done by today isn't happening. but sometime this week I should have this added.

No worries, no rush.  IRL always comes first.

[katateochi]

@adsii1970 is now a moderator on KerbalX!! Thanks for offering to help with this! 
There's now two moderators on KerbalX, adsii1970 and me. Thankfully the KSP community is awesome and doesn't produce much bad content on KX but if there is anything that seems inappropriate then let us know, either via PM or a message here, but the best way to report something on the site is to click report craft/comment and select a reason why you're reporting it.  Basically I try to maintain the same standards as we have here on the KSP forum and also aim to stop people re-posting craft made by someone else. 

[katateochi]

On 29/04/2017 at 4:34 PM, Starslinger999 said:

Is there an option to download all crafts from a specific hanger? If not, could you please add one? Would save me soo much time

@Raptor9

Site update
Bulk downloads of hangars is now available.  On each hangar there is now a link to download all craft as a zip.  
If you are the first person to click that link since the hangar was last updated (name changed or craft added/removed/updated) then there will be a 10-20 second delay before the zip starts to download.  All subsequent requests for the zip will happen instantly (until the hangar is next updated).  

The reason for the long delay on the initial download is actually to remove a delay which would slow the whole site down.  When the first request for the zip is made you get transferred to a background worker which generates the zip and uploads it to Amazon AWS and you have to wait for that process to complete.  Starting the background worker takes a few seconds, but doing it this way takes the load off the main site.  The next person to request the zip will just be handed a redirect to the zip stored on AWS which will be quick and also means the burden of downloading the file isn't on the main site. It does mean greater load on the Amazon storage service which will increase the cost of that, but right now I can't tell how much it will be increased by (hopefully it'll be in the order of a dollar or two a month).  
If should also be secure against people trying to scrape content off the site.  Each request for the zip generates a unique signed url which is only valid for a couple minutes, so bots can't just find urls to the zips and requests for the urls have to originate from KerbalX.  

Edit:
also, downloading a hangar zip will increase the download count for each of the craft in the hangar and add them to your downloads hangar, just as it would have done if you'd gone through and clicked download on each craft.

Edited May 13, 2017 by katateochi

[XLjedi]

One possible idea for a future update... 

When looking at the Users, I see there is an option to sort users by number of craft uploaded which does not strike me as being particularly useful.  I would be more interested in sorting users by their total number of downloads, and/or the total number of points the user has accumulated.  This might also be a way to give your point system some relevance.

I've also had instances where I'd like to PM someone and/or post a message to their profile page or hangar page.  ...like asking for clarification on what someone might be looking for in a hangar they've created.  Alternatively, if there was a "KSP Profile" link that could be added to your profile page, you could just have a simple redirect here for people to chat, without recreating the wheel.

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by XLjedi

[Starslinger999]

3 hours ago, katateochi said:

@Raptor9

Site update
Bulk downloads of hangars is now available.  On each hangar there is now a link to download all craft as a zip.  
If you are the first person to click that link since the hangar was last updated (name changed or craft added/removed/updated) then there will be a 10-20 second delay before the zip starts to download.  All subsequent requests for the zip will happen instantly (until the hangar is next updated).  

The reason for the long delay on the initial download is actually to remove a delay which would slow the whole site down.  When the first request for the zip is made you get transferred to a background worker which generates the zip and uploads it to Amazon AWS and you have to wait for that process to complete.  Starting the background worker takes a few seconds, but doing it this way takes the load off the main site.  The next person to request the zip will just be handed a redirect to the zip stored on AWS which will be quick and also means the burden of downloading the file isn't on the main site. It does mean greater load on the Amazon storage service which will increase the cost of that, but right now I can't tell how much it will be increased by (hopefully it'll be in the order of a dollar or two a month).  
If should also be secure against people trying to scrape content off the site.  Each request for the zip generates a unique signed url which is only valid for a couple minutes, so bots can't just find urls to the zips and requests for the urls have to originate from KerbalX.  

Edit:
also, downloading a hangar zip will increase the download count for each of the craft in the hangar and add them to your downloads hangar, just as it would have done if you'd gone through and clicked download on each craft.

Thank You! You saved hours of downloading for me.

[MoeKitsune]

Just a quick suggestion: There should be a "mark all notifications as read" button. I've been away frm the site for a while and I have 300+ notifications.

[Impossible Aviation]

The site is currently broken again. It tells me I have an unpublished craft, but when clicked, it only shows an error page. This makes me unable to upload or update any craft now because the "unpublished craft" can neither be edited nor deleted. Please heeellllp...

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by Impossible Aviation

[katateochi]

@Impossible Aviation You should be able to start uploading another craft (via the site, not via the mod) and it will give you the message about unpublished craft and then give you the option to continue with that craft.  That should take you to the form you get after uploading and from there you can click cancel (at the bottom), which will discard that craft. Then you should be able to upload again as normal.  
Unless that's what you've already been trying and you're hitting that error page during that process.  If so, can you tell me exactly what steps you're taking before that error happens and I'll look into it.  I'll also be able to remove that craft from your account....but can you send an email to support@kerbalx.com from the account you used when you signed up, just so I can verify the account before I go in and delete anything. 

 

 

On 2017-5-13 at 1:10 PM, XLjedi said:

One possible idea for a future update... 

When looking at the Users, I see there is an option to sort users by number of craft uploaded which does not strike me as being particularly useful.  I would be more interested in sorting users by their total number of downloads, and/or the total number of points the user has accumulated.  This might also be a way to give your point system some relevance.

I've also had instances where I'd like to PM someone and/or post a message to their profile page or hangar page.  ...like asking for clarification on what someone might be looking for in a hangar they've created.  Alternatively, if there was a "KSP Profile" link that could be added to your profile page, you could just have a simple redirect here for people to chat, without recreating the wheel.

 

I could add a sort by total points to the users page, good idea. A sort by downloads would be tricky (points are stored on the user object, but to get total download count it would require selecting all their craft from the DB which on a list of users would be mem intensive / slow).

I do want to add a more in depth messaging system, but it's not straight forward and raises some questions about how to moderate private messages (in the case of someone using it to be unpleasant).  There is already a KSP profile link option on user profiles (see on my profile), but not everyone adds their KSP profile.  (you can add links to KSP profile, youtube account and twitch account on the profile page).

Edited May 14, 2017 by katateochi

[Impossible Aviation]

1 hour ago, katateochi said:

@Impossible Aviation You should be able to start uploading another craft (via the site, not via the mod) and it will give you the message about unpublished craft and then give you the option to continue with that craft.  That should take you to the form you get after uploading and from there you can click cancel (at the bottom), which will discard that craft. Then you should be able to upload again as normal.  
Unless that's what you've already been trying and you're hitting that error page during that process.  If so, can you tell me exactly what steps you're taking before that error happens and I'll look into it.  I'll also be able to remove that craft from your account....but can you send an email to support@kerbalx.com from the account you used when you signed up, just so I can verify the account before I go in and delete anything. 

 

 

I could add a sort by total points to the users page, good idea. A sort by downloads would be tricky (points are stored on the user object, but to get total download count it would require selecting all their craft from the DB which on a list of users would be mem intensive / slow).

I do want to add a more in depth messaging system, but it's not straight forward and raises some questions about how to moderate private messages (in the case of someone using it to be unpleasant).  There is already a KSP profile link option on user profiles (see on my profile), but not everyone adds their KSP profile.  (you can add links to KSP profile, youtube account and twitch account on the profile page).

I think the "unpublished craft" is corrupt, please just delete it. Currently it is preventing me from performing any upload action!

https://kerbalx.com/ImpossibleAviation/Super-Fishbed

 

 Whenever I try to upload another craft, the only option is to click the link and go to the "previous craft", but that craft page is broken as already shown above (Error Code: 500)!

 

This is the second time the unpublished craft becomes corrupted. Why can't there be a button to delete the unpublished craft without having to go into that page?

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by Impossible Aviation

[XLjedi]

1 hour ago, katateochi said:

I do want to add a more in depth messaging system, but it's not straight forward and raises some questions about how to moderate private messages (in the case of someone using it to be unpleasant).  There is already a KSP profile link option on user profiles (see on my profile), but not everyone adds their KSP profile.  (you can add links to KSP profile, youtube account and twitch account on the profile page).

OK, I see the KSP profile link now...

But I have to tell you, even after you clued me to it, I looked at the hyperlinks on my profile edit page for a good 5 mins for something like "KSP Forum Profile" before I finally figured out it was buried under: "Add links to your channels" ...which meant absolutely nothing to me.  Guess I'm an old guy and "channels" is what you kids are calling it these days, LOL.  I think what also threw me a bit, is that there is a link for KSP Signature on the root page area; so I was kinda thinkin the KSP Profile might be there too?  Maybe a hyperlink for "KSP Forum Links" and put the signature and link to my profile under that?  ...the other 2 options for youtube and twitter maybe made more sense as "channels"

I can setup the link to my KSP forum profile now, thanks!

Edited May 14, 2017 by XLjedi

[XLjedi]

As a follow-up...   I did add my KSP forum ID to my profile page in the format suggested:  175658-xljedi

https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi

...and it appears to have done nothing.  I don't see any "hit me up" link like the one on your profile when I view my profile?

I also tried the full URL:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/profile/175658-xljedi/

Doesn't seem to work?

 

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by XLjedi

[swjr-swis]

1 hour ago, XLjedi said:

As a follow-up...   I did add my KSP forum ID to my profile page in the format suggested:  175658-xljedi

https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi

...and it appears to have done nothing.  I don't see any "hit me up" link like the one on your profile when I view my profile?

I also tried the full URL:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/profile/175658-xljedi/

Doesn't seem to work?

It's the KSP logo on the top right of your profile page - it links to the KSP forum profile.

[katateochi]

@Impossible Aviation I've removed that craft for you now. I also grabbed a copy of the database as it was before removing it, so I'll have a poke around and try to see why that craft was causing a problem and see if I can find a fix for this issue. 

@XLjedi yes I agree "channels" might not be the best term.  The process for setting those links works in the same way for all 3 so they all got put together, probably a case of thinking more as a coder than as an interface designer! I'll see if I can make it clearer (while still satisfying my need for unified code! ). 

Edit - oh and as @swjr-swis says, the link on your profile page is showing and linking to your KSP profile. 

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by katateochi

[XLjedi]

9 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

It's the KSP logo on the top right of your profile page - it links to the KSP forum profile.

Ohhh... I see.   Well that's not very intuitive at all, is it?

I gotta mouse-over it before I realize it links to my profile on the KSP forum.  I actually didn't even realize that linked to the forum, it's just a KSP logo... if anything, I woulda thought it would link to the main KSP website?

I guess I'll put a hyperlink to it in my profile description text then. But yeah, if you can rethink this one in your spare time, you've got the feature to link to KSP forum profile buried in channels... and then when you do find it and enter your info, the resulting link is not evident.