Description: This will display a “View Profile” link to the account menu in user.php, which will take your users to their author profile page.

Requirements: eFiction 2.0

Difficulty: Easy

Modification History:
June 23, 2006 — Released Modification
November 30, 2006 — Updated, forgot a step

Files Involved:

• user.php
• languages/en.php

Instructions:

I’ve been making layouts for eFiction for a couple years, but it suddenly occured to me just how many fanfiction sites there are that look exactly like Luna because I’m using the same layouts I’ve released. XD

We need a fresh, creative, and distinctive look that strictly belongs to Lunaescence. No release or sharing, it’s ours in the biggest sense of the word. Pink really doesn’t count, because it’s too girly (and glitchy, sorry Jass) to be a primary design.

Sure, I’ll keep my other skins available, but there’s several hundred sites now that have some combination or derivation of Shinigami Blues, Marauders, and/or Zenlike. Shuriken is starting to make the rounds too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s thrilling seeing so many people using my designs and seeing them translated into so many different languages.

I just suddenly realized we don’t have a look of our own. And that bothers me.

Even though I probably can’t claim it on a resume, this site has been a huge education for me. I want it to succeed and thus, I’m going out of my way to learn things they aren’t teaching me in college.

I guess the problem is, I’ve started researching area companies and realized that I’m about to enter the big picture. Some of these design firms and agencies I’m looking at blow my mind by how cutting-edge they look, especially compared to my sites. I know I simply have a bad case of artist’s vision and inferiority complex, but I really need to up the ante.

I’m just not sure where I’m going to find the time to do that! XD

Additional Files for Shuriken

Raw Graphic Files: shuriken_raw_graphics.zip

Readme File: SHURIKEN_READ_ME.txt

Description: When you’re logged in, it returns “Welcome back, Username.” and then a list of quick account links below that. I usually put it beside the login tag so they switch places depending on the user’s login status.

This is actually the first mod I made for eFiction 2.0 and it originally went with the Marauders layout. However, when I discovered blocks weren’t considered part of the skins, I ended up keeping it for myself. ^_^

Marohi rewrote this entire block for me so it can now be customized. You can either choose to use the default version or customize the welcome message and links displayed to fit your site using variables.php. Our idea was to eventually try to include a DHTML drop down menu like DeviantArt or simply making account links appear in the regular menu area like LiveJournal.

Requirements: eFiction 2.0, with all current patches

Download Links: loggedin_v2_5.zip

Extra Files: Read Me.txt

To use, simply add {loggedin_content} to your tpls. Default CSS is .login and .quicklinks.

Please refer to the readme file for full instructions on how to use this block.

Modification History:

December 14, 2005: Mod Released

EDIT: I’m currently moving my domain, so the current link could be broken at any time now. I’ll edit this post once I’m done to give the new location.

EDIT #2: Fixed the download link.

June 23, 2006: I finally figured out how to make a link to the logged in user’s profile. Rather than update the original, I simply made a second version. What this second version will do is link the $username part of the welcome message with that person’s profile. You might have to alter some file names if you want to run both versions on your site.

July 08, 2006: Moved the download location slightly to make room for 3.0 stuff a little later.

November 28, 2006: Released version 2.5

Modification & Support Link: eFiction.org

I’m feeling rather proud of myself right now. I just completed a script to handle my fanlisting codes and I’m thrilled to say it’s working exactly the way I planned. ^_^

Looking at the page, you won’t see anything that truly different. My images will all appear to load normally. But if you look at the image’s URL, you’ll see it’s PHP rather than an image. *huge grins*

For those technically inclined, the script basically first checks to see whether or not the fanlisting code is being accessed from my blog. If it is, the script progresses and serves the image being called. However, if someone tries putting the image as part of their sig on say — Xanga or Gaia Online — the script will first log the attempt and then terminate.

To make it easier on myself if someone figures out how to circumvent the script, I even stored the fanlisting code directory in an array. That way if I need to move or rename the folder, I only have to edit just that particular line and every code will be changed.

I’d still like to add a few more security checks, but right now this is awesome. There are times I feel like I’ve learned nothing new in college and then I completely surprise myself by doing something like this.

I have no real problem with people using stuff, but I’m awful protective of my bandwidth. My baseline server costs are plenty without overage charges. Besides, they can download the fanlisting codes on the fanlisting sites and use photobucket. It’s just stupid.

College is going well. I got 100% on my first speech — talk about awkward, though. I’m not used to web cameras, so I stared at my monitor the whole time. XD I was so wooden too!

I really need to get around to calling my academic advisor, but I keep procrastinating. I need to get details about what I need to be doing to get an internship somewhere, but I’m feeling rather “meh” about the whole thing.

Well, time to get on my English homework. Yes, another level of English. -_-; Wish I could test out, but it’s business writing so I suppose I should pay attention.

Much ♥ — talk to everyone soon.

Description: This mod is merely an attempt to discourage spammers from hitting your reviews through logging of IP addresses, adding rel=”nofollow” attributes to links, and a few other, little things.

Please note that this is NOT going to stop everyone and I can’t guarantee this will stop them if they’re currently hitting you. I’m not even sure when the spammers got tired of trying to hit my reviews and moved on.

The general idea behind this mod is that we’re trying to make it difficult enough on them that they decide to move on to easier sites.

As usual, I can’t take total credit for this mod. Tammy, Carissa, and Seiji helped me a lot as these mods were taking shape.

Also, a note about IP addresses. IP addresses change, especially with dial-up users. They can also be spoofed or the spammer could have a relay set up so they post from an impossible variety of IP addresses. They simply aren’t a good way to control anyone. On my site, we mainly use them for statistical purposes and passive behavior control. However, that being said, one of my worst spammers seemed to be posting from just one ISP out of China. I banned the whole ISP for about six weeks and the spam from that person stopped.

I should also explain what rel=”nofollow” does. rel=”nofollow” is an attribute you can add to hyperlinks that tells search engines (especially Google — [1] [2]) not to figure the link in when their determine page ranks. Since the spammers are attempting to increase their page rank, this means they aren’t benefiting by spamming your reviews. Again, it doesn’t stop them… it just makes your reviews less appealing.

If you wish, you can skip adding the rel=”nofollow” tags to the links pointing to your reviews. Just make sure you leave the link replace function alone so it can add the nofollow tag to any links anyone attempts to leave.

For this mod, I used files from the latest release. (2.0.7, 28 Aug 2006 patch) The line numbers are all approximate and will likely change as you progress through this mod. Please consider them simply a guide to put you into the general area.

Requirements: eFiction 2.0.7 — Please make sure you are completely up-to-date

Difficulty: Intermediate - Advanced

Mod History:
12-November-2006 — Released mod to public
13-November-2006 @ 12:28am — Fixed a mistake. For line 97 of reviews.php I wrote chapter.title as title instead of series.title as title.
14-November-2006 @ 6:44pm — Added explanation of what rel=”nofollow” does
01-December-2006 — Solved edit review bug

Demo: http://www.lunaescence.com/fics/search.php?action=tens&list=reviewedstories

Files Involved:

• viewstory.php
• series.php
• reviews.php
• func.reviewform.php
• storyblock.php
• seriesblock.php
• languages/en.php

Instructions: