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[Cosmo]

I'm working on a proper "Notable Claims" section and am adding a field to show what method of time travel a claimant used. Do these seem like they cover everything, or should I add/change something? Checking before I get too far into this to make it hard to change.

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[Classicalfan626]

Would travel through wormholes and interdimensional travel be included in one or more of the categories you put forth?

 

[Cosmo]

That could probably go under Dimensional/Time Slip, but I think I've made some of these names too ambiguous trying to cover all the things I could think of. I don't mind having MORE options as long as they don't overlap... Some of mine seem to.

I like the idea of a "Wormhole" category; maybe that should replace "Environmental/Nature"...

The Notable Claims section will have a little sidebar where you can filter by the following:

1. Status
    
    
   
2. Plausible
    
   
3. Debunked
    
   
4. (we probably can't have a "confirmed" option here...)
    
    
   
5. Time travel method
    
   
6. (the options you see in the first post screenshots)
    
   

[*]Came from...

1. The past
    
   
2. The future
    
   
3. Another worldline
    
   

[*]Posted on TTI

1. Yes
    
   
2. No
    
   

On the page itself you'll have a little sidebar showing this data, plus content from other fields (like original URL, the thread they posted in, whatever makes sense).

 

[Cosmo]

I found a way to... GASP... Actually get something done with TTIDB... Stop the presses!

I'll add a "time travel method" filter to these also.

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[KerrTexas]

I don't think we should label claimants as credible or not credible. Or as you listed, Debunked. I feel that it would discourage people from staying with us. Such as Zeshua. If labeled as debunked, don't think we would have as much as we do from him.

Mentioned previously, I believe, was how the Time Travel Claims section came to be in the first place. For awhile it was simply Time Travel Discussion and Fan Fiction. However, Chronohistorian's threads got so enormous that Raul said it was causing issues with the TTD section. So...he created the claims section, really for and because of Chronohistorian.

John Titor, yeah, I can see where he would warrant his own section, since there is so much on him AND kind'a sort of is our baby. People that get drawn into the JT saga, TTI would be a destination for anybody doing any kind of research on John.

Other than him...everyone else is forgettable. Not worth having their own 'tag' as it were.

Sorry to keep harping on it, but, if you look at the old index (oh God, he brought THAT up again),

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We added Administration above Time Travel Discussion. Real Science created was to appease Ray and Darby.

I am NOT saying to use this old index, however, look at it's simplicity. I wouldn't add to much to it. Maybe John Titor, Um, a History section, the Movies and Books could be subbed in Fan Fiction.

The amount of time you've put into creating all the different indexes is incredible. I can see creating a new look, but, all the shifting around of topics has been responsible for the archive section, and you getting burned out.

Modernization of the site, yeah, but, really would try to maintain what was "as is" as far as topics. New ones, yeah, but don't take out the old ones. and the live chat and private groups too, those are cool.

 

[Cosmo]

Notable Claims is completely detached from any of the forum threads; it is a new content type meant to act as a sort of encyclopedia/glossary of past claims or stories (whether they happened on TTI or not) that are interesting or notable enough to be added to a "hall of fame". They don't touch or affect any existing threads or the way the forums work at all.

Examples of stuff we'd have here are the Rudolph Fentz story, hipster time traveler, Charlie Chaplin time traveler with a cell phone, stuff like that.

Paula came up with a list of good ones that I'm using as the basis to get this fleshed out. When you visit that page, you'd see something like this:

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Anyone can nominate a claim as "Notable" (through a form or something), and if they seem worthy then they get added to this index. The community can help edit the content of existing approved entries so it becomes a sort of wikipedia of time travel stories, one entry per so all the good stuff can be put together in one spot (versus crawling through dozens of shitty threads)..

Clicking into one of those takes you to a page that looks a bit like this:

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The content here would be akin to a mini http://johntitor.com/ in that the story/claim is summarized (in a much longer form than you see in this screenshot, hopefully article length with headings and stuff) and links to the forum thread (if there is one), or outside URLs that can provide supporting information (Rudolph Fentz, Steven Gibbs, etc). Images and video embeds are possible also. This is meant to go beyond any claims that only happened here, as I agree that most of the others are forgettable. There are probably some diamonds in the rough though that have been long forgotten, and finding those is part of why this will help with content discovery.

As far as the forum structure, that is getting simplified to a very large degree:

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Time Travel Claims will be renamed to "I'm a Time Traveler" so its purpose is clearer and I will probably rename a couple of the others to be more in line with what the old index had. Anything outside of time travel (paranormal, off topic, etc) becomes a "group". All of the work you guys have done moving shit around will remain, none of this stuff throws that work away (something I'm being very cognizant of as I develop this). All that really changes in that regard is things will be easier to find and presented more cleanly. Once you see the whole picture it will make more sense

 

[Cosmo]

By the "debunked" tag I'm referring to things like Rudolph Fentz, which originated from a short story in the 1950s or the Charlie Chaplin time traveler (it's a hearing aid, not a cell phone). If there are notable claims from TTI itself, I'm happy to mark those as plausible or some other neutral sounding phrase so we don't discourage people.

By virtue of how this section gets organized though, only the most interesting ones would get added here a while AFTER the claim has run its course on the forum side. Obvious nonsense never even has a chance to get listed here.

 

[Cosmo]

As far as the time travel METHOD tags are concerned, here's a revised list:

• Time machine (John Titor)
   
  
• Other/Unknown (Charlie Chaplin, hipster time traveler)
   
  
• Magic (Outlander)
   
  
• Immortality (Highlander)
   
  
• Accidental Time/Dimension Slip (Rudolph Fentz)
   
  
• Wormhole/Environmental (Interstellar)
   
  
• Astral/Mental/OBE (HDRkid, maybe Moberly-Jourdain incident)
   
  
• Extraterrestrial (Doctor Who... Sort of. Refers to any outside technology not built by humans)
   
  

Stuff in parenthesis helps give some context, I'm hoping to standardize these methods the other content types in the database.

 

[KerrTexas]

Ah ! Very nice. My concern is blazing ahead too fast while letting what we already have not get the attention it needs.

 

[Cosmo]

I've spent some time rethinking the core categories based on suggestions from @PaulaJedi and @KerrTexas and think I have something that will work well. It's not a huge departure, but condenses a couple things, renames a couple others and offers a couple throwbacks to the original category structure.

The FORUM functionality will be for our core time travel subjects only. Anything beyond that lives as a group (Aliens & UFOlogy, Conspiracies, Off Topic, even the staff forums) and those have their own cool features that I'll show later. As I mentioned elsewhere, none of the categorization you guys have done on the archived threads will be lost, this just cleans things up and helps put the correct focus on the stuff we already have.

Here's the normal forum display:

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There's also a grid display option:

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Very convenient that everything lines up nice and evenly

There is also a "topic feed" view that looks a little like how Discourse does theirs, but has category filters down the side. There's nothing here yet, but the Discourse link should give you an idea.

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I seriously considered the Philadelphia and Montauk Projects as their own category, but I think those fit under the Urban Legends category. We can probably do them more justice by linking to the best discussions from a Notable Claims entry anyways, but I'm not averse to changing this once we see how it works out.

Are these good core categories? Anything missing?

 

[Cosmo]

I've merged a few threads into one so there's just one place to discuss the upgrade.

Have a couple more peeks

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Chat will remain and become better integrated into the entire system. Works much closer to how Facebook chat does, feels smoother than our current system and has some nicer options (still exploring, this is 10 minutes of setup).

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Clubs will probably renamed to something else... I'm thinking Dimensions or Realms, but am open to suggestions. Guilds? Dunno. Anyways, these are basically subreddits for things that are not specifically time travel related, which keeps the forum simple and free from clutter. You can add multiple forums, galleries, file downloads, calendars... And club-specific chat! That seems like a cool thing that might get people using it more.

Any member will be able to create a public Club. These are effectively sub-sites of TTI. At first, new Clubs will get held for moderation so we can help seed the site with some good examples for others to follow. Later on you'll be able to make one without approval, won't be very long.

TTI will sell account upgrades that allow people to create invite only clubs (which you can see exist but need to be invited) and private clubs (which you can't see they exist and need to be invited). You'll get some other features with an upgraded account but as far as Clubs go that's the main draw.

Touching quickly on the available club features:

1. Forums in Clubs are obvious. Talk about the things your club is about.
    
   
2. Blogs can be added for Club owners who want a separate, "official" place to post things separate from the forum
    
    
   
3. In the not too distant future, Club owners can create blogs that auto-import articles from RSS feeds, so great for a UFO club where we pipe in blog posts from Coast to Coast AM or something.
    
    
   
4. Galleries can be used for UFO photos in the Aliens & UFOlogy Club, members can create their own albums for their ghost hunting adventures in the Ghosts & Hauntings club, the Unsolved Murders Club could use it for old documents relating to crimes
    
   
5. Calendars could be used in the Astronomy Club to feed in astrological events. Eclipses, full moons, Mars close and visible, meteor showers. Unsolved Murders Club could use it for dates high profile murders occurred.
    
   
6. Downloads could be used by Mayhem and his Binaural Beats fixation, or eBooks about ghost hunting, or schematics for an HDR Club.
    
   
7. Chat is exactly what it sounds like. A chatroom for you to run and own.
    
   Here's how Clubs and the "Core" Forums are presented differently:
    
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   However, everything shows up integrated and visible in the activity feed:
    
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   This ended up being a longer post than I expected to make (trying to go to bed so I can wake up at 4AM) but I think this gives you a good idea of what my goal is here. I'm adding new stuff, yes, but I'm also making sure the stuff we already have can live alongside it all without any of it eclipsing each other.
    
   I think this beats the pants off any solution I could have done with WordPress. The TTIDB stuff won't have all the bells and whistles I could do if I coded it myself from the ground up, but it works and integrates with the whole thing (and gets a product out the damn door instead of screwing around with it since 2014).
    
   

 

[PaulaJedi]

I'm working on a proper "Notable Claims" section and am adding a field to show what method of time travel a claimant used. Do these seem like they cover everything, or should I add/change something? Checking before I get too far into this to make it hard to change.

You forgot regular time travel with a device or machine.

Never mind. I see it in the second window.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I agree that we should keep the mysterious feel and not label claimants as debunked or not. Let's allow the people to decide.

It promotes discussion.

 

[PaulaJedi]

So, are you switching software or not?

 

[Cosmo]

So, are you switching software or not?

Yes, but with some caveats:

1. We aren't losing anything we already have
    
   
2. You guys will likely get more tools and access to administer things than you have now
    
   
3. I will give you all logins to it to mess around and familiarize for about a week when I think its ready to go
    
   
4. The changeover will be scheduled; no surprises
    
   

 

[Cosmo]

A little bit about the articles section:

This effectively replaces the blog that was on the home page of the site for a while. Functionally, they aren't much different than a thread... You have the content and then you have the comments. The main difference is the layout they use and that they're browsable as their own collection (like movies in the TTIDB):

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Members will be able to submit their own articles, and the plan is for all of us to be able to review those and approve them if they seem like they fit with the theme of the site. Your accounts will be able to post what you like without being held for moderation because... You're moderators.

The article page layout is pretty close to the TTIDB stuff already shown:

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The other nice thing is existing threads can be converted into articles:

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Select moderator options, then Copy to Database.

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Pick the database to send it to.

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Then select whatever options make sense. You even have the ability to copy replies to threads over to the comments section on the article.

 

[Classicalfan626]

@Cosmo1598825723 - This stuff's really looking really good so far. Do you have an idea of when the forum software switch is taking place?

 

[Cosmo]

Honestly, I could probably set you guys up with accounts now to help massage the Notable Claims content if you're interested. You can also mess around with the Clubs and whatever else you like to figure out the features and see how they work. It's a holiday weekend though, I certainly don't expect you to waste it on my behalf

By Monday I'll have a good idea of what else I need to make sure I finish before figuring when to do the change. A rough guess is weekend after next, but I want to make sure you've all had a chance to play with it.

Most of what I still have to do is template work for the TTIDB stuff. Chronovisor can come later (Wayback project I was trying before), so that really just leaves a) making it pretty, b) filling TTIDB with some content and c) figuring out how to do memberships and what extra goodies you get with that.

Let me know which of you are interested and I'll get you set up

If you just want to browse around though you can get to it here:

https://newtimetravelinstitute.com/forums/[/URL]https://timetravel.institute/forums/

 


I've not tested any of the permissions so if you see or can something you shouldn't be able to, I just haven't checked on it yet.

 

 

 

[PaulaJedi]

You're the captain. Thanks for the info.

 

[Cosmo]

I just found out the new software has an arcade addon that was released not too long ago:

https://ipsproarcade.com[/URL]https://ipsproarcade.com

 


Might be something to look at later down the road if there are games that fit within the time travel theme. Wouldn't be adding Candy Crush type games or anything... Interesting idea. Posting it here so I don't forget.