Hello everyone!

In my spur to write more here and spam.. er I mean be more active and helpful with Project Alpha, I'm going to introduce two new featrures I'm attempting to roll out here:

1. Will It Work? (http://projects.projectalpha.co.uk/sandbox/willitwork/)
   After sitting down with a few friends during a recent upgrade of a whole bunch of computers from Windows XP to Windows 8, we discovered after doing our first machine, that there were dozens and dozens of things that went through the Windows 8 compatibility check but failed to work when it finally loaded... and on one occasion, this included Windows 8 itself!
    
   After this, we decided a useful collection of question and answer sections for working out whether software would work and on which operating systems would be useful, and what steps to take if at all possible to get our stuff working. 
   
   We decided to open this up to the public and allow others to add their queries and answers. You can find us at the address above.
2. List Mania (http://howabout.projectalpha.co.uk/lists)
   Ever wondered what the 14 elements of the periodic table are with only one letter in their symbol? Want to know which words have a "cie" or "ei" in them - breaking the supposed rule? Well we have a handy list of lists now, and if your list isn't there, we can always help you add it.
   
   Plans are in place to help people look up words that appear in multiple lists, or apply metrics such as years of birth, death, or so forth for famous people or duration of reign for kings and queens. The possibilities are endless, but right now it's basic and all about gathering information... oh and it really is bare.

Right. Recently I've been looking into resolving problems around Project Alpha and our software in order to make it work better or to improve the flow of operation.

These solutions refer to OpenBook predominently, and most recently include:

1. A new cetegory system
    This is more of an improvement on the existing category system. Essentially, adding chapters to categories meant that you could determine whether that story was appropriate for the kind of reading you desired. Now, the categories allow you to improve searching (which I will come on to later) along with flagging up little messages either on your story's synopsis screen or on the chapter itself. For example, using the "flag:kids" category, tells OpenBook your chapter is designed in a child-friendly fashion, and people are notified as such by a green box with a K in it on the synopsis screen, plus a longer more in-depth explanation on the chapter page
2. A new search engine.
    Although still in beta, it's newness is not in dispute. Nor is the fact that it is a search engine. Found at http://openbook.projectalpha.co.uk/search, the new search engine allows more functionality than the old, which was just a search for chapters in a certain category. We've kept the category search (click on any of the pluses next to the orange category names), but added with it a similar method of searching on characters and a search box feature to allow searching within subchapters for words and phrases.
   
   Admittedly, the whole thing doesn't do the whole gamut of what I expect it to do, but that IS why it's in beta.
3. TinyMCE's monstrous linking fiasco
   Whether you already knew or not, the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor was giving me grief, such that up to a point I wished to take it out! It was a problem with making static links dynamic, and hence they would break when content was submitted. This worked with traditional links and images. I'm not sure if they hindered TinyMCE's smiley system; it was irrelevent to check as I don't use that plugin there.
   
   Anyway long story short, I dug up an ancient parameter pass on MoxieCode's website which I inserted and when I tested it out, I was happy.
4. Public and Private stories
   Ah yes. In the old days, adding stories to OpenBook meant that everyone who looked for your work when it appeared on a search engine, or gave out a link to someone else's work would instantly be able to read that story. Although the idea of OpenBook was supposed to be the sharing of ideas and collaborative writing, so it transpired that not everyone wanted to collaborate and share with everyone else! 
   
   In steps Private stories. With a flick on the story edit menu, you can swap between everyone seeing your story and just people listed as creators or authors!

I think that's all the major updates that I've done so far that I can think of.

Don't forget!

Despite OpenBook being my baby and my creation, I feel lonely being the only person using it. I would love to see other people writing on it and helping each other out with their stories (I know I would help anyone who asked should I be able to!) Maybe some feature improvements would make themselves known and I can work to making them a part of OpenBook... or just to chat and make friends. 

I've said it many times before: I don't mind whether you're an awesome writer or just want to jot down ideas of potential "what if" scenarios. I invented the "technical:beef me out" category for just such an occasion! Come and join us, play with us, have fun and write what your heart desires... and if it turns out you don't like it, wipe it out and start again. It's as simple as that! (Beef me out on OpenBook - The category expresses a complete story in need of expansion or just adding of more details as suggested by the author)

Right-o. Let's update more stuff and see what breaks...

In the interests of security, passwords have been changed. This is purely an internal affair, but if things are using the changed passwords and they've not been notified of the change, they will stop working until someone fixes them...

Hi Everyone.

I'm just upgrading the old, boring website to a new, more exciting version running Equinox... :D

I hope you enjoy it and have fun looking around all the features; those that exist presently, and those which will come along in due course.

Fun times!

OzzyD