The image system has been updated to support galleries, thumbnail images of anything uploaded, as well a simpler page to view all the pictures you've uploaded so far. More details can be found on the Admin Blog [blog.min-data.co.uk].

Further features on the images may follow in the near future, but will not be disclosed until completed. Hope you like the new image stuff!

I have been busy over the past few days, and as such a range of new features and bug fixes are now up.

But before I go into that, there is a page on the wiki for demanding new features. The page is here [wiki.min-data.co.uk].

The main new feature is the ability to comment anonymously. There isn't really much to say about that other than the IP addresses are logged (but displayed only to MDUK admin), and abuse will not be tollerated.

There is also a new BB code to link to blog entries, which is [blog=ID]text[/blog], where ID is the ID for the blog entry (the number in the address bar of the browser). For example, [blog=1]Hi[/blog] gives this: Hi [Min-Data UK Blog]. This is done in anticipation for another new feature, which I hope to get up in the next 24 hours, which is the ability to use trackbacks.

There are a few bug fixes too, such as selecting text on the main theme in IE, and images now work as well.

Well, I have to get back to coding the trackback stuff. Shouldn't take too long ... it is mostly done already

I have recently changed RSS Aggregator [blog.min-data.co.uk], which led to some problems with comments on MDUK. For those people who don't want to read my blog (the people I like to call "silly" ), basically I changed RSS aggregator and the new one doesn't show when a feed is updated, so I don't know when a comment has been added to MDUK (not a major prob, I refresh too often anyway).

There were several ways around it, but the simplest seemed to be to just add some more functionality to MDUK, so here it is ... RSS feeds for comments.

The address for the main feed is at http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/comments/ , and to do it for a specific blog, just add "?BLOGNAME" on to the end. There are other parameters, such as changing the number of comments shown, or changing to an Atom feed, which are the same for the normal feed and can be seen here [wiki.min-data.co.uk].

Just for quick reference:

• Main feed (RSS 1.0): http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/comments/ [blog.min-data.co.uk]
  
• Main feed (Atom 0.3): http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/comments/?t=Atom [blog.min-data.co.uk]
  
• Ciber's Blog (RSS 1.0): http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/comments/?Ciber [blog.min-data.co.uk]
  
• Ciber's Blog (Atom 0.3): http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/comments/?Ciber&t=Atom [blog.min-data.co.uk]

Of course, if you don't want the feed for my blog, change "Ciber" in the above examples with the relevant blog name

- Ciber

One of the main problems with Min-Data UK v2 throughout all of it's life has been the lack of documentation. The only help available was either by asking an admin or reading a stupidly out of date help page.

So, we have decided to do something about it. How? By launching the Min-Data UK Wiki [wiki.min-data.co.uk], which is aimed at providing help pages for mduk, but we might end up using it for other things too. More info there.

Please feel free to add to it.

- Ciber

All the way back in 2003 the production of Min-Data UK v2 started, after Min-Data UK v1 never caught on. It was a big project, and as expected it took a long time to complete. After months of work, on the 2nd of May 2004, it was deemed to be sufficiently complete to go live, and then it slowly gained users. The first ever blog entry [blog.min-data.co.uk] was simple, but at least it worked.

Now, a year on, the day of Min-Data UK's first birthday, we are still going strong, getting more and more users as more features get added. In fact, as a celebration of this event, we have even more new features to add, including the ability to sort a blog into categories and the option of making it possible for only friends to view a blog entry.

I would like to thank everyone who has made it possible for Min-Data UK to last for so long, in particular all of you frequent visitors. Without you, I doubt we would have lasted 6 months.

Over the next year, I would like to see Min-Data UK continue to grow, but to do this, we need more users. The best way to get more users is through word of mouth, so please, go out there and get more people to sign up on MDUK.


Thanks for everything all of you have done, and if you find any bugs with the updates, don't hesitate to contact me.

- Ciber

There appears to be a problem with the server at the moment, with the server load being about 210 and imap has failed (apparently). Hopefully this will be fixed shortly.

Also, tomorrow (2nd of March) there will be some downtime due to site maintenance.

We apologise for any inconvenience any of this may cause.

I wanted to write a long blog entry, and the easiest way to do bits of it seemed to be to use lists. However, MDUK didnt have a list BB code thing, so I added it

[ul] <-- starts a list
[/ul] <-- ends a list

[li] <-- starts an item in the list
[/li] <-- ends an item in the list (not required)

So, for example:

[ul]
[li]hi[/li]
[li]I rock.
[/ul]

comes out as:

• hi


• I rock.
  

Minor bug with the alt text of links has been fixed. Some other stuff has unintentionally been added in the process

- Ciber

After having the same emoticons for ages, we have changed them.

Firstly, I would like to thank Matsi for creating the old ones, which, although they were nice, were not that easy to work with due to the size.

Secondly, thanks to SEF who created the new ones

There are only 10 emoticons available at the moment, but when we have time, more will probably be added.

- Ciber

The RSS feeds have now been recoded and are a lot nicer, etc. In recoding the RSS feeds, I also added in Atom 0.3 support, and made the feeds more accessable (for those people using Firefox, there is a nice RSS thing at the bottom of all the pages, which shows the Atom and RSS feeds. There are also Atom and RSS links in the menu things for the blogs, underneath the blog admin, etc.

You may notice that the address for the RSS feeds has changed from http://blog.min-data.co.uk/rss/ to http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/ . If possible, please update your rss aggregators, but it isn't vital as the old address now shows the new content.

There are some nice new features in the new RSS feeds:
- User - Shows the blogs for a specific user
- t=ATOM/RSS-2.0 - Change the type of feed (Atom or RSS)
- n=20 - Change the number of blog entries it shows

Eg:
http://blog.min-data.co.uk/feed/?Min-Data&t=ATOM&n=40

Hope you find these features useful

- Ciber