gnosis's blog

We got a report today that someone was having trouble getting past the CAPTCHA on our submission form, so I looked into it and the problem was related to a change I made last week. Some readers may remember that we had a rash of spam comments on the site last week and as part of the effort to curb that bullshit, I ramped up the security so that reCAPTCHA challenges were case-sensitive. I'm not sure why, but that made it impossible to correctly answer.

reCAPTCHA is a robust service used by millions of sites, so I can't imagine that their system is just totally broken, but it definitely screwed things up for us. So, if you've been trying to register a new account or submit a score or story for DNN, please try again! Sorry for the inconvenience. -G

Dear Event Organizers,
For the sake of the wider derby audience, please please stick to the published schedule. Being late happens sometimes, and that's ok. It's starting early that's the problem.

I've been keeping my eye on Yahoo! Pipes for a couple of years now, waiting to see if it would actually be useful for anything.  I finally thought of something fun to do with it!

DNN RSS-Feed en Français
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=4d1a60d01aadd97021e14e18612b3849&_render=rss

DNN RSS-Feed in Deutsch
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=kP9lz5013hGpQ_MVrbQIDg&_render=rss

Note: these translations are done by a free service, so they're a bit slow sometimes.  Still cool, tho.

I don't know about the the rest of you derby fans, but I really didn't see this coming. I personally don't know a lot about the internal workings of the Gotham Girls, but everything about them, from the cohesion of their All-Star team to the flow of their web site has always seemed, just...solid, immutable. Sure, it's a big, big, city and could probably support several leagues. But there's only supposed to be one GGRD.

Minnesota Rollergirls Janitorial Artist Wet Spot sent in this great time-lapse of an entire night of MN Rollergirls action.  Sweet.

Check it out!

Hey all!  As the the DNN community has grown and become more involved, we've been seeing some very long discussion threads lately.  Which is friggin' awesome, by the way!  But it makes keeping up with comments tough sometimes.  The answer: comment sorting!

I've enable a new feature on DNN that allows you some control over the way you view the comment threads.  Look for the controls at the very top of each thread.  The system will remember your settings and apply them to all comment threads.  Enjoy! -G

The 3.1 update has already been widely addressed in multiple fora, including Justice's review here on DNN, but the discussion on cutting has clearly been re-opened after the big impact these penalties had during the Western and Eastern regional tournaments.  After boutcasting the majority of those bouts, the letters B, O, and X are nearly worn off my damn keyboard.  I feel like I, too, need to express frustration on the cutting issue. 

The San Diego Reader has this enjoyable post about one fan's discovery of modern derby, what it's all about, and the graphic details of the San Diego Derby Dolls' injury history.  The post can also now be known as one of the few things that makes Bonnie D. Stroir cry.

In response to a couple of comments and a direct request, I've added some new code to the DNN site today that  allows quoting previous comments in your comments.  A useful and common feature that we've been lacking.  Subject lines will also be filled in automatically now in a more intuitive way (though you can still change them to whatever you want).

More proof that we listen!  Keep those suggestions coming and we'll continue to build DNN for your derby pleasure. 

In other news, I've decided to suck it up and go to ALL 3 major WFTDA tournaments this fall.  DNN will be seeking sponsorships to help defray the costs of doing live coverage.  Get in on the ground floor and we'll give you the best bang for your derby-fan-targeted buck!

[EDIT] - We quickly realized that the auto-subject thing, though convenient, led to a lot of very nondescript, non-useful comment subjects in our home page "Discussions" box.  So that's disabled now.  You'll have to type in your own subject.  Be creative!  You can even swear!

For us visual learners, here are some quick, ugly and totally unofficial tournament brackets:

[ wildly incorrect brackets removed ]

Nevermind....  These were based on the much simpler brackets of last year.  I'll try to put new ones together in the next couple days that include all of the consolation / double elimination bouts.