ok, I totally redid the look of the latest reviews table on the main reviews page. I made it where it shows the author's final decision graphic on the left (whether or not they suggest to buy the product) and everything else to the right of it.

I also made it where the important announcement is only on the top of the pages for beginners and validating members. Everyone else gets that taken off, thus not having that huge annoying thing reminding you of how to write a review.

I made the write a review link blue and bold to be more noticable.

I made a "home" link in that line of reviews system links, where you can quickly get back to the main reviews page.

This system is very detailed and great. I am now only looking to add a few features, make that table with the categories better. get graphics made for the system, and find SOME way to have the actual review pages look much better. The reviews themselves are so plain looking and it is annoying me.

When a lot of people start using this system, it will be great becuase then you can see who else has the same favorites as you, the products will have averaged scores instead of how it is now where there is simply 1 score in the averages, and authors will start having scores. As it is now, nothing is really useful becuase it has not been used enough. But the true greatness of the features will be evident when it is more widely utilized.

NOTE: Although searches and entering an existing product title do not work for words less than 3 letters long, if you type in the entire title, even if all words in it are 3 or less letters long, it will work properly. The only way search and product title entering when writing a review will not work is if the entire product name is 3 or less letters long. Even then it MAY work. I just know it won't work entering only one 3 letter word for a product which has more than that one word in it.

I am closing the reviews system for a day or so and then hopefully will have version 2.0.0 ready. Basically I feel the need to jump version #s all the way from 1.0.0 to 2.0.0 because:

1. I have worked like crazy on it and added 30+ new things on my own, so it signifies the changeover between it being solely compguy11's work (based off of my feature ideas, of course) to being more of a collaboration. He has pretty much stopped working on it totally, so I am considering everything from here on to be my work unless others help me with it.

2. Although it has still said version 1.0.0, there have been AT LEAST 4 bug release versions and a couple feature release versions. So I would say currently we are on version 1.3.2 or something like that.

I added a HUGE amount of coding earlier today, so that is why I must close it while I am sleeping becuase I have not had time to test it and be sure nothing bad happens.

I am going to make an entire forum section here all about the reviews system, as I still believe it will be the main selling point to come to this site. No other site has it and none ever will unless it gets so popular here that I decide to allow it.

Version 2.0.0 will be ready and opened later today, barring any setbacks.

I am very pleased with what I accomplished. The only thing I had help on was the new tagging system for reviews and I almost had that totally correct myself.

There are over 50 features/bug fixes and I spent hundreds of hours working on it. I finally have begun to udnerstand the coding process and thanks to compguy's original system I was able to learn how to add my own features.

What's very pleasing is that now when I throw together coding many times it works immediately. I think I am most excited with what I did for an awards system. Basically it now keeps track of how many reviews, rates, deal submits, etc... which you have done in the current month. At midnight on the first day of each month it then resets your monthly totals and it shoves your last month total into a new place in the DB. Thus I can see who had the most of different things for the past month and once I add fields to the profiles, you can see what you have for the current month too, including how many times your reviews have been rated a perfect 5 stars/hearts by members. I can then give the top people points as rewards each month.

Other than that setup, everything was done in the same file most features are in. But I am am excited that in such a small extra file I created it is able to effectively run the task of resetting totals each month.

I have tested almost everything. I found MAJOR bugs from the original software not caused by me and fixed them myself. All I need to do now is test a few more things to be sure of everything later today, add a link for you to browse all reviews, add some things to profile. But any of that can be done later except I do need to test to be sure all points giving works properly and also I still have to add a couple lines of coding.

I am excited about the possibilities of the system once people come here and I am going to start advertising the site based on this system, as we are the only site to have it and I personally love it.

I won't call it 3.0.0 until I somehow redo the writing process itself.

Also later today I will make a complete section of the forum for the reviews system, as it is going to be a major part of the site, in my opinion.

The Reviews System is definitely going to be the easiest place to rack up points.

Thank You

Jason

Man, I am so stressed. I tried every combo of points and other fields being given and taken. I had to keep up with a lot of numbers for 3 usernames for probably 10 hours of final testing.

I think I am waiting another day before opening it and talking about the system and changes. I have fixed over 20 bugs and added a lot of things. Some are only admin side changes and some are features for the public.

What I need to do is FORCE myself to release it without having every feature I want to add. I keep thinking of new things to add and so it delays it and gives me more things to test.

I really only have 2 areas where I may still add something before release. Profiles (will only take a few minutes) and considering adding fields to the add form (would probably take an hour to figure out how).

I have to then edit template bits for 19 bits to make them all be the same in the other skins. Umm... that's about it other than making a reviews area on the forum and tell what I changed.

So long story short... I will open it back within a day barring any setback. Doesn't seem like anyone other than me cares much about posting them now anyway. I am eager to finish it where I can add reviews myself and advertise around the system. lol

I am also going to start giving a lot of points to people who find bugs I don't know about. There are 4 bugs which I probably won't fix before this release.

Yet another day to wait.

I just spent 14 straight hours on things ebcuase it got so tricky with so much math involved in the features I added.

Now everything SEEMS to be perfect except for some reason when 1 deal is submitted, it is not allowing another. I am pretty sure that was not an issue before I changed things.

I added some features this morning which I thought I would never add. On the spur of the moment I tried adding something I wanted added for 2 years now and I finally got it to work.

So anyway later today I will simply spend a few minutes checking out that bug, MAYBE add things to profile, then I have to transfer skin bits. So it won't take me more than a couple hours finally.

There are 2 major bugs, but they aren't my fault. The author ignores me about fixing them.

Sigh... yeah. So 1 more day. lol

I'm actually done with everything that needs to be done. I just don't have time right now to update all of the skins and explain the features.

It's bugging me that the link bar doesn't show on the favorites page too. I finally just put it there with nothing around the links where at least the links show up. Also several other bugs.

If you look at the support area at how many bugs aI have for reviews system, you will see why it took me forever. I fixed most of those bugs and then added like 20 features.

lmao this is like the gnr cd Chinese Democracy, isn't it? Will it be released this century?

I for real will open this back up later tonight at some point.

I have finished everything except I just hate how basic the review profiles are and just in 20 minutes I made it look so much better. So I want to do a little more on that then it's as simple as me spending 10 minutes in the database to get all of the skins updated.

I actually like the way I am changing profile around. It was just simple rows one after another in the past and now I am making one half of it take up all rows so it's like a square on one side. I temporarily put a "no ohoto" picture there above some info. Later I will try to allow you people to submit a photo for your review profile, separate from your normal avatars. Or maybe I would just use avatars or something. Sure looks better with ANY picture than how it was.

Honestly I badly want to change the favorites page too. I think I know a good way actually. I just thought of one as we speak. lol

So tonight or tomorrow morning I will just open it back and explain everything and then if I want to do more, i will do it at other times.

I really was lazy last night is why I didn't get much done on it.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Although the site is dead lately I still am trying my best to get things opened and working well.

No point rushing this. But I will probably be done in the next day. Really I have everything that needs to be there anyway, but I was just trying to do a little skinning and i pretty much took 2 days ogg. I've only spent maybe 2 hours on it the past 2 days whereas before that I spent 160 hours in about 15 days.

I'm going to have to go ahead and just open this later today I guess. There are still many things I wish I could do with it, but at some point things have to be released and other things changed later. Basically I don't like the look of some areas and there is a major bug in IE which I am trying a workaround for, but it won't last forever... I started trying to fix it for hours tonight and I find out it most likely is the forum software's fault, not the review system software's.

The reviews system creator sure did a nice job in the beginning, but I wouldn't use him again becuase he has horribly supported this. I have fixed 50+ bugs myself and I found out he didn't secure it at all either so I had to work on that also.

I fixed 2 more severe bugs and several small bugs today. I feel like it was my most successful day as far as squashing bugs. I fixed some tough ones.

Only thing left to test as far as security is make sure people can't delete others' deals, take a couple links out where they shouldn't be, reskin a little. I want to add more features, but I may release it later today regardless, as long as I get a little done.

I'm deleting this topic once I open the system again becuase it's just me tlaking to myself.

Anyway just a few changes helped a lot for the actual look of the pages. Most of this time has been me adding features and fixing the author's bugs he won't fix himself. But I have also skinned the past few days becuase I want it looking better.

I am sure I will be done with enough things to open it later today. Then there are other features I would like to add also, but I will just have to wait becuase I want to try to make the sports betting modification myself also.

This is becoming ridiculous. I have to fix so many of his bugs that I am taking forever to even re-open things.

Most features I am going to just wait to add if I haven't added them. That way I can open it later today. I will just finish securing the file, add 1-2 fields on the add form, finish profile, and fix a rating box skinning issue. I would LIKE to also change some more of the look, but if I can't do it by later tonight I will just release it and add it later becuase I am tired of how long this is tkaing.

You guessed it: Still closed. lol

If you look in the support area, you will see why though. I keep finding tons of his bugs and have to fix them myself. I finally have most bugs fixed and the ones thata ren't fixed are pretty difficult, so I am done with bug fixing.

All I have to do now is simply skin and change things over to all skins. So it's pretty much all done now.

I should wait until late Halloween night to open it back where it will open on the first day of a month. But I may open it later today instead. Keep in mind that monthly totals are now kept becuase of a task file I created. So if you do write a review the last day of October, your monthly total will only be there for 1 day then will reset to zero.

I'm going to open this later today I'm sure. What held me up is I wasted HOURS trying to reskin a part of it which is extremely complicated and it worked so poorly that I ahd to change it back and those hours went downn the drain.

I am fairly pleased with what I have now. I just don't like the look of a couple tables and also I am deciding what info should be in some of the tables and what should not be there.

I will just release it later today and I will get people's opinions and change it if people convince me of what needs to be changed.

Basically done. I just need to write up what has changed and that's about it. I would like to still figure a few things out though. I am unsure whether to put an information box at the top of product pages, unsure whether reviewers should enter a conclusion summary, unsure where to place some certain things, would like my views counter to count monthly ones also, but I am not sure if it is so necessary. I think I will do it though where I can show a list of the most actively viewed products or reviews for a month. That actually should be done for products rather than reviews I think...

Anyway a few things I need to finalize is pretty much it. It's annoying I haven't just finished it for this version and opened it. But time runs out and I need to go sleep.

Oh also I am deciding whether to keep the buy images in the main tables AND show images for how people rated the reviews or else neither or one or the other.

ANYWAY I can always change things later, so I will finish this tonight and then move on to other things such as seeing if I can make a sports betting component and also trying to work on gallery and the site in general some more.

lol

This is getting annoying. Going to wait until later today. Guess I ahve been daying that forever, but now I have things "almost" how I want, so I might as well take another day to fix a couple thigns and be sure what I want showing in tables. That's about it. Honestly if I truly wanted to badly enough I probably could even add most of the other features I want to add all tonight.... But I may not attempt anything new like that.

I am mainly trying to decide whether or not to keep up with views for products like I already added to revies. I probably will indeed add that. And it would be best to add that before opening it rather than start counting views later.

The main things I probably will wait until another time to do are a stats page witha lot of tables of stats and also a page with the top rated products. Although.... like I said they maybe could be added quickly tonight actually. Especially the top products page.

I am annoying myself by not just opening it and taking a break. Sigh.

For sure I will open it tonight/tomorrow morning becuase this is getting ridiculous.

Not that anyone is even reading this. lol

I just added a detailed stats page which took hours and 230+ lines of coding to add. I am now trying to be sure if it is ok or needs to be broken up to be speedy enough.

Almost done. One bug that is perplexing me. I even added in almost every single thing I wanted now. It's really only a matter of deciding what to show and what to leave out of tables and then making a topic explaining things.

lol this is fun talking to myself.

ok I am about to try to finish this up. It may just have to have some bad sorting in a few areas becuase I can't wait forever for somoene to helkp me figure out why it is sorting improperly.

About done. Almost have figured out fixes for most things and also have added almost everything I wanted to add. There are 2 more features I would LIKE to add and a couple not working properly. That's about it. I am going to just open it without the other features later today or if I have time I will add watered-down versions of them for now to have something there at least.

Not that anyone is paying attention, but finallyyyyyyyy I am going to be done with this today. I am possibly adding one more field to the add form and then just finishing minor details.

It's amazing how many hours I spent today to achieve 2 things. It was really complicated. In fact both of them will "seem" like minor things that wouldn't take long, but due to the setup of the system it took probably 8 hours.

Sorry for the delay... If anyone even noticed this anyway. haha.

I am done with everything other than mental decisions on how to have things set up. The features are all in. Other than 3 I want to add later on.

Blah. I just spent 4 hours fixing bugs. (as you can see in the bug tracker section of the site)

I wanted to get some new features in by the end of this week. I have a concert and wedding to go to this weekend so hopefully I get things done later today.

The main things I want to do is make adding a review easier and make some things look better. That's about it other than those bugs I fixed and a totally redone favorites section.

I dow ant to add favorites as reviews too not just the products. As a means to track when reviews you like are updated.

I also want to improve graphics and add more features, but justa few this weekend probably.

I have temporarily disabled people from adding new reviews. Mainly because I am in the middle of altering the writing process and I need to stop in the middle.

I am trying to have the category selection process more ideal. In the past it was set up where if you were writing a review for a product not yet reviewed the category dropdown on the last step had EVERY category in it.

The problem was you could easily put an existing "product" as a category! Or you could put "Movies" for the category when really you have to choose one of the subcategories so it would cause reviews to be in wrong areas!

Now you will actually have yet 1 more step in writing the review, but it will make it much easier to select the proper category.

Basically now the new step is that you must first choose a root category (movies, video games, etc...) and then that final dropdown will only have the PROPER subcategories within that root So it will get rid of tons of categories which don't need to be in that final dropdown. Thus much more likely you will pick the correct one.

Now I am mainly just trying to think of the best way to organize the names in that final list to make it even less confusing.

I have a lot to do this weekend, but hopefully I will finish what I want to finish with the Reviews System. I think I willjust finish this, finish favorites, add review count to main page, and change the skin some.

So it should only take a few hours of work and then I will add some reviews myself.

Man. That one day I spent 4 hours simply fixing bugs. Now I have spent at least that long solely on redoing the writing review process. I really want to be to a point of thiunking hey it's good enough for now and then take a long break and actually use the syste,.

Just need to finish several small things now. Also trying to decide if maybe CDs should have an extra field for artist instead of having categories by the artists' names. Because as it is... if I don't have an artist's name there, you can't even write a review of their cd. So it's a pain. Plus you can't sort ALL cds by ratings because they are all in subcategories of the artists!