New clips filter and history button for Twitch VODs and streamer profile search!
So today I pushed a new update I have been working on for the past week, it was motivated by Action asking if there was any way to search a specific streamers clips. It seemed like something we should offer especially now that we have our own server to go wild with. While working on it I ended up fixing a ton of other bugs and finally got around to making the VOD script available. I also spent a LOT of time experimenting with indexes. The new changes meant I really had to make sure things were going to scale and once again they now scale better than ever! lol. I wont ramble too much and will just get into the changes as there are a few to cover.
Clips - The new changes
- You can now filter by streamer and we have a new UI for filtering the data.
- You can now check clips from the last hour, 3 hours, 6 hours, and 12 hours allowing you to catch up on just the newest clips that you missed.
- Rewrote the infinite scroll for the clips page, should be much better now and increased the amount pulled per request and shown per chunk.
User Scripts
A while ago someone requested the functionality to open clips from our site in a new tab using ctrl click or middle mouse button rather than using our built in clip viewer. I thought it was a good idea but I was a little bit hesitant because it removed the 'view from other perspectives' functionality. So I made a script to replicate this when you opened clips from our site however I did not want it to inject it on every clip a user went to as it felt rude :p Some people did want that functionality so I had initially just made a variable that you could edit to toggle if it would but it was only meant to be a short term solution.
I had planned to make a page on the site where you...
Today we made the move to the new server.
So today was the day we finally moved from the old server to the new one, it was partially planned but a little bit unexpected at the same time. I had been intending to do it yesterday but put it off partly because I was busy and partly because I was anxious that the switch over would not go smoothly. I had done some testing of the new server but until traffic actually hit it I wouldn't know how well it would handle the load. I had planned to make a post before I did the change over and some other small last minute data pulls but all that really needed done at this point was to update the DNS. I was debating when I would do the change over today or if I would put it off yet again but at 1:30 BST I received and alert that the old server had went down. Our old host had assumed I had already done the changeover and had taken it down. I scrambled and pointed the DNS to the new server and crossed my fingers hoping that nothing would go wrong.
It seems however my fears were misplaced and the new server handled the traffic fine and everything seems to be running better than ever. I have been working on the site the past week and have made several performance improvements. I optimised the database and made the site use memcached for data cacheing as well as setting up OP Cache to improve the performance of the compiled templates/the site pages. We also now proxy all of our traffic through cloudflare which should help with performance but will also be another layer of protection against DDOS attacks in future.
So we are now at our new home and the change will allow me to offer a lot more features for the site. Action messaged me last night about adding more features for streamer clips and that is one of the first things on the list, also searching for streamer profiles by name, clips voting (prolly a little later) and a userscript to add a hasroot button to Twitch VODs which pulls data and takes you to the history of the current timestamp. I have had the userscript for...
Update on the server move for the site.
So this is a semi brief update to let you know the progress on moving to the new server.
I spent the weekend looking over potential hosts and settled on Kimsufi. They offer low cost dedicated servers on the OVH network which is the network our current host are on. During the massive DDOS attacks they stepped in and helped mitigate a lot of the traffic before it hit our box. Unfortunately (for me :P) Mopman has been busy preparing for his fiancee flying in today so it was left to me to set up the box with him fielding questions when he had time. I got there in the end though (20 hours or so) and the new server is running everything that we need. It wasn't just a case of moving over the website and database, I had to set up the entire server from scratch which is not something I have done for awhile (10+ years? at least on a production server). Definitely learnt a lot and will have plenty more to learn in the future running it.
You may have noticed some downtime today on the live site while I was doing the final database backup before we switch to the new server. That was the final step to bring the new server up to date with the live site. At this point we could immediately switch to the new server but I will be holding off for a few days. This time will allow me to do some improvements to the backend that are more difficult to do when the site is live will also allow for more testing to be done to make sure the final switch over goes smoothly.
I will post an update before we do plan to flip the switch just incase there are initial teething issues. I hope you will all bear with us through these changes but I think it will be for the best. I have a list of new things I plan to add (how about comments for blogs for one? Voting on clips is coming soon™ too) once we get through the server change.
Hope you are all enjoying the site and the RP.
Sean - ScottishRambler.
Mobile update and site move
We now have a mini menu sidebar available by default on smaller resolutions (you can also change your settings to view it on any resolution/device!). Previously all popups were using JQuery UI but they have been remade. Almost every page in fact has had some alteration, most of which will not be very noticeable on desktop. The mobile experience has vastly improved I feel and I spent many many hours testing it. I hope you will all enjoy it and if you have any issues with sizing / features PLEASE let me know via the feedback form. Too often I find bugs on the site that have existed for weeks but no one has informed me about. ALSO on android you can swipe the menu in and out using left and wipe swipes, on IOS not so much :P.! Time for the mixed news. When I started this site I didn't think anyone would use it, now we have steady 45k+ unique's and 10+million hits a month for the last 3 months....
So two things have finally happened that have been on the horizon for awhile. One is good news and one is mixed news.
The first is the mobile update, I was long aware that the site was pretty awful on mobile but I personally don't use mobile browsing for much of anything and when I started the site it wasn't a priority. At some point I felt that it was something I should address but I had never worked on mobile features before so it got put on the back burner. Recently I was feeling things needed some TLC and we had a potential helper that only uses mobile himself. This gave me the final push to address this long neglected aspect of the site. I started work on it thinking it might take a couple of days to make it passable. I was wrong :P
Where are we now?
Nothing good lasts forever but what we had was great while it lasted.
Welcome to all the new users. Just a note that this site is not affiliated with No PIxel.
Firstly welcome to the massive influx of new users that have been visiting the site, hope you are all enjoying it and the recent surge in popularity GTA RP is experiencing.
I have been watching GTA RP since SoE blew up when lirik and waffle started playing on it. Back then I made a small java application so I could see who was streaming on the server and eventually the site was born. It has come a long way over the past year or two so hopefully you enjoy the features we have now.
One thing I would like to clear up that there has been some confusion about is that this site is not the official No Pixel site, nor do we have any affiliation with them or any other servers. For any official information regarding No Pixel or to apply you will need to go to http://NoPixel.net. Their site is currently down right now so you may have to wait awhile, they also have a discord Official No Pixel Discord.
If you see any great clips, interesting things happening live or have any feedback feel free to share them in our discord Has Root Discord.
Sean.