I have reached a point with the new software where it's ready for introduction & trials. It runs off a different database and that's a copy of the real DB from about 10 days ago, so what's there is just temporary and likewise, anything posted there will be lost when the formal and official xfer of the DB takes place sometime soon. This includes everything: Articles, comments, private mail and even new account signups, which are/should be functional.
The software behind it is COMPLETELY different. This 23-year-old legacy site is written in Perl, a programming language that was very popular for web work but is now all but obsolete, replaced with the modern day Python and other more modern tools. I did use AI in every aspect of this new site, primarily to write & debug the programming code as I dictated what the code needs to do. A big part of my motivation for doing this in all new coding tools is to learn these newer tools, but I've also enhanced the interface for easier and hopefully more pleasant use as you will see. You'll no longer need to manually add HTML elements like "
". Previewing of comments & articles is no longer needed as you'll see the final look & feel as you edit your posting, so previews, and the quote box are both gone (you can paste what you want quoted directly into the single edit box.
What is not yet in place is the user setup section where you can at present select "skins", have a bozo list and so forth. I've hardly looked at that. Ping lists are not active as I don't think anyone's using them. With far fewer users than this site used to host, they don't make sense to reenable, but I'm open to restoring them. The Tag lines I've not done anything with and may not bother with them. Keywords when posting articles are also not enabled. I would like to create at least 2 other skins for the site, one of which is the original that Christine which is just too good to not retain as part of this sites legacy. I do want a dark theme as well as that's my personal preference. I expect to create those alt themes after the new site is formally put on line.
Posting youtubes has built-in supported. All you'll need is the basic YT URL and putting it in the media popup box makes the complete video frame appear in your edit box, and you can drag/drop the edges to size it & position it however you wish.
Your current account creds should work fine on the new site, and feel free to register new accounts at will with this version as again, all activity done with the site will be lost when the formal xfer takes place.
I have seen an increasing problem with bots, AI or otherwise, patrolling the site and it's creating an extra burden on the site, slowing now responses for real users. The new site counters this somewhat by requiring the user be logged in to view some pages, and I'll be adding more defenses as well. That will mean that use of the new site will be very restricted to users not logged in.
Because these bots will read this post and start raiding the new site, I won't spell out the full URL or post a clickable link. Here is the basic link: freedom4um.com:1443 but prepend the word "new" in front of it with a separating period. You must include the :1443 at the end. This is the "port number" which is non- standard & suitable & necessary in the development process. This is just for now as bots will see the site once it goes live.
Let me know your honest thoughts, either here or on the new site. Positive & negative are both welcome and especially bug reports. I fully expect negative feedback as that's inevitable, but for my part, since I'm supporting it I get to manage it as I see fit in the manner that best meets my goals so that's what I'm doing. This upgrade absolutely will take place, I expect within weeks, and I will be managing further updates and no doubt fixes for some time after the formal transfer occurs.
Freedom4um, or more accurately, the software I've called Pingunite after which I chose my screen name here, is by far the most successful and long-standing software project of my life. Nothing else comes anywhere close, so I do take a bit of pride in the project.
Thanks, and check out the new site and let me know.
#1: Prefrontal Vortex To: Pinguinite (#0)
Absolute ancient chad.🫡
Prefrontal Vortex posted on 2025-09-11 18:44:56 Reply Private Reply
#2: Prefrontal Vortex To: Pinguinite (#0)
Prefrontal Vortex posted on 2025-09-11 18:47:47 Reply Private Reply
#3: Prefrontal Vortex To: Pinguinite (#0)
Overall the landing page looks better on mobile, except maybe for the layout of the menu items (Home, Headlines, etc), which just wraps without alignment.
Prefrontal Vortex posted on 2025-09-11 18:52:35 Reply Private Reply
#4: titorite To: Pinguinite (#0)
titorite posted on 2025-09-11 19:04:58 Reply Private Reply
#5: Ricky To: Prefrontal Vortex (#2)
Me Too.............
Ricky posted on 2025-09-11 19:44:04 Reply Private Reply
#6: Prefrontal Vortex To: Ricky (#5)
Prefrontal Vortex posted on 2025-09-11 21:17:56 Reply Private Reply
#7: Pinguinite To: Prefrontal Vortex (#2)
If you visit http://new... instead of httpS, then you'll get that, but with https, the site should come up fine. The "S" is for the secure socket layer (encrypted) version of the site which these days is standard. When the site is switched over live, then visits to "http" will auto redirect to "https", but for now, https should be used.
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-11 22:20:41 Reply Private Reply
#8: Pinguinite To: Prefrontal Vortex (#3)
I want it to appear decently on mobile devices automatically. That will be part of further development with the alternate skins, dark theme and such. That may be possible purely with alternate CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) settings with no programming changes. I think it is.
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-11 22:25:44 Reply Private Reply
#9: Pinguinite To: Ricky (#5)
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-11 22:28:24 Reply Private Reply
#10: Ricky To: Pinguinite (#9)
Ricky posted on 2025-09-12 04:50:07 Reply Private Reply
#11: Ricky To: Pinguinite (#9)
Ricky posted on 2025-09-12 11:05:44 Reply Private Reply
#12: Pinguinite To: Ricky (#11)
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-12 11:50:43 Reply Private Reply
#13: Ricky To: Pinguinite (#12)
Ricky posted on 2025-09-12 12:23:18 Reply Private Reply
#14: Pinguinite To: Ricky (#13)
Coding projects still outstanding are a PW recovery page, the "setup" section where various preferences I still want will be configured, and the entire admin section where articles/comments can be edited or deleted, accounts can be managed, and whatever else in that section I think is needed.
I'm noticing that the site is slow to respond when I preview here. That has to be due to bots constantly hammering the site against which I'll make the new site more resistant.
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-12 12:47:01 Reply Private Reply
#15: Ricky To: Pinguinite (#14)
Ricky posted on 2025-09-12 16:26:20 Reply Private Reply
#16: FormerLurker To: Pinguinite (#0)
Rest assured bro it should all work. Guess who helped train the AI..
😁😁😁
FormerLurker posted on 2025-09-12 20:57:30 Reply Private Reply
#17: Dakmar To: Pinguinite (#0)
Well done, thank you for all you do to keep this site up.
Dakmar posted on 2025-09-12 21:19:46 Reply Private Reply
#18: Horse To: Pinguinite (#0)
Horse posted on 2025-09-13 18:27:15 Reply Private Reply
#19: Horse To: All (#18)
Horse posted on 2025-09-13 18:28:13 Reply Private Reply
#20: Pinguinite To: Horse (#18)
You need "freedom4um.com" followed by colon ":" and then the 1443
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-13 20:09:36 Reply Private Reply
#21: Ricky To: Pinguinite (#14)
Ricky posted on 2025-09-14 01:17:35 Reply Private Reply
#22: Horse To: Pinguinite (#20)
https://new.freedom:1443/
Still says the DNS error BS.
Horse posted on 2025-09-14 02:11:41 Reply Private Reply
#23: Pinguinite To: Horse (#22)
new.freedom4um.com:1443
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-14 03:31:58 Reply Private Reply
#24: Pinguinite To: Ricky (#21)
The "new" site is using a separate copy of the database which was created on Aug 23, copied from this site. That's why it shows no activity since then. You can go ahead and post stuff there to try it out. It will/should work fine, but when I do the live xfer for real, that DB will be deleted and the new one will be the one from this site so it will be fully up to date. But for now, you can post whatever you want there to try it out. No articles or comments posted there, nor private mail, will be saved when the new xfer is done.
Pinguinite posted on 2025-09-14 04:33:14 Reply Private Reply
#25: Ricky To: Pinguinite (#24)
Ricky posted on 2025-09-14 15:23:31 Reply Private Reply