h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's true actually. Most of those that have properly tested the new Pliny are actually using it as their main skin.

I use Pliny the Younger as my main skin for day-to-day conversations etc, but neither version Pliny is any good for editing entries, so I have to do writing, sub-editing and curating in Ripley, still.

There's a Ripley skin?

Heh... yeah... several. Brunel, Alabaster, Classic, plain.

I know about A, B, C and P, but Ripley?

A skin specific link please, or it didn't happen

Ripley isn't a skin, it's what "drives" those lovely skins

Well, Ripley isn't a skin. Ripley is the legacy framework for the site itself. So all the old skins are working under Ripley while the new skin, which was introduced at the end of the BBC era was known as...

Oh, hell... what was it called....

BARLESQUE!, that's it...

Anyway, the default skin, formerly known as barlesque is running on the new framework, Pliny. Pliny is much more stable than Ripley at the moment and should soon be replaced by "Pliny, the younger" which should not only be even more stable, but should also include some of the functionality that we love in our older, Ripley based skins.

Once the new Pliny is up and running the legacy skins; brunel, goo, alabaster will be ported over so they're not going away.


I hope that explains the situation. Others here can probably clarify anything I muddled, or omitted or plain got wrong.

Sounds about right

Well, to quote Gnomon:

'I use Pliny the Younger as my main skin for day-to-day conversations etc, but neither version Pliny is any good for editing entries, so I have to do writing, sub-editing and curating in Ripley, still.'

That's what gave me the impression that Ripley is *also a skin. Just saying. But I'm dropping it, if you will...

I believe Gnomon was referring to a test version of Pliny that's not online for the public yet.

But you're correct. Pliny isn't specifically a skin.

And sadly, Ripley is short for this world.

Technically, Pliny is a skin and a framework, but that gets confusing

The Ripley framework, and the skins on it (Goo and the other two (well, three really if you include Plain)) will be around until such a point where we no longer need them. That'll be when all their functionality, and styling has been transferred across to the new framework.
Believe me though, the new Pliny is really good

Ripley has been held together with bits of chewing gum and elastic bands for ages now. Luckily the major numbers of visitors to the site (those readers I keep on about) see the site through Pliny. Which is stable.

The functionality is being introduced, so we get the best of all the old versions we've enjoyed and used, but without the risk of the site collapsing under the strain. So, to begin with, we turned all the editing tools off while Pastey has been building from scratch. At the moment, I can report that I am able to sub-edit and curate very well in the latest version. I really hope this will be available to the general user quite soon now.

Baron Grim, Barlesque and Pliny aren't quite the same thing.

The BBC sold us Barlesque, but it didn't work, as it was tied into the BBC security system, so it couldn't be got to run on its own. Pastey had to write huge chunks from scratch, but used some bits of Barlesque, so the end result, which he called Pliny, looked the same.

The he and his team rewrote a load more of it, to produce the new version of Pliny that will be being be launched soon.

Like I said, "formerly known as Barlesque".

But thanks for the clarification.



Now, what was I calling barlesque toward the end of the Beeb days?...


Burlesque? Barelyskewed?

Actually there's only one skin and it's name is alabaster - all the others are just cheap knockoffs

You sound like me when the topic of the Alien films comes up.


There is only ONE Alien film. It was a SciFi HORROR film, not an action adventure and not whatever the last three poorly written sequels are pretending to be. (Or was it 4 or 5 sequels... and what the hell was Prometheus? Seriously, what was that? It made less sense than Resurrection!) It SCARED people. It made your blood pressure rise and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. And it did it without over-the-top special effects. It made you more scared by showing you only 3 full frames of the actual creature after a 5 minute "chase" scene that mostly plays out as dots on a screen.

I still have a hard time believing the same guy that directed Alien also directed Prometheus. It makes my brain hurt.

I agree wholeheartedly BG. Horror nearly always derives from the unknown. Building tension from some unseen horror is a skill, but one available to many directors. Retaining the horror when you reveal the source, is the real trick.

I have lost count of the films I have been drawn into for the first half hour only to be sadly disappointed at the reveal. 'Giant Alien Tomatoes?'

Hey guys, just thought I ought to point out that I'm now an ex-subeditor, so I shouldn't have the active version of the badge on my PS.

Thanks,
Alex
U566116

Oh, I wasn't aware, thanks for letting us know.

Well I hadn't actually said properly, but I hinted F1733544?thread=8295670

Thanks Milla