My remote linking rules effectively break RSS readers. To be specific: online RSS readers. For example, Google Reader? Since it's a website that sends a referrer line, it trips the rewrite rule and blocks images and links to music that I've posted. FeedBurner SAYS there are 15 subscribers to my feed, but... I don't get comments on my blog from 15 different people, so I'm inclined to take that number with a grain of salt.

However, for all you out there who are reading with RSS, I need you to verify if you can see images or use links to music. I will provide an example at the end of this post. My theory is that only online readers akin to Google Reader are affected. Offline readers, when you click a link, are going to open a browser and (hopefully) navigate straight to the link and be able to bypass my filter... If it doesn't, tell me the name of the reader you're using and I will attempt to manually allow you access.

Of course, I expect nobody to leave comments, because I've just invoked that age-old rule that when I specifically ask for input, nobody responds... If that's the case, I will assume that nobody cares and I'll leave things the way they are! Thank you for your attention! And now? The links!

Everyone enjoyed that Big Brain Academy music (haha, not)! Let's link that: Title (Big Brain Academy)

And here's an image of... Gilligan's Island?

If the music link doesn't scream Forbidden, and you see the DVDs of Gilligan's Island, then your reader works.

I didn't tell anyone, but I was forced to disable remote linking due to some... Unforeseen consequences with folder indexes. Where when you access a folder without an index page, you see a list of files instead? That was broken due to the rewrite rules I had in place, and I didn't have time to fix them, so I just shut them off. Of course, I still really don't have the time, but I did spent the morning fixing it!

Now, all images people link to from their own sites will get that lovely little paw-print image instead, as it used to be. But now folder indexes work! Turns out there was a problem with the .htaccess files in each of the folders that were broken. In each of those folders, you need to put Options FollowSymLinks Indexes if you want the files to show up. Otherwise you're slapped with a lovely 403 Forbidden! I read where it's sometimes a good idea to forbid images, but that makes it look like your site's broken... And I think it's far cooler to have an unexpected image to pop up on the perpetrator's site! BUT! In addition to images and indexes working properly now, I went ahead and prevented anyone from remotely linking to any MP3 file I have hosted anywhere on my site. Those dudes are far larger than any image, so I thought I should do something about it. The audio files, though, WILL slap you with a 403 Forbidden... Can't really redirect those.

Unless... I make a recording of myself SAYING that "no linky lol" thing. Hmm. Or, better yet, make it so when people link to an MP3 of mine, they hear TW screaming about Zadok shaving off his beard. Either way, MP3s can't be remotely linked anymore. Plus, I was also able to completely lock down certain folders that I only ever intended to be personal hosting folders... They have indexes, however, so someone could discover them, and that's fine. If I wanted them hidden, I'd password protect it. I'm not stupid! But now nobody can remote link what I don't want them to... And with my new-found understanding, it will only get more restrictive from here, bwahaha! But never fear! Everything on this blog still works perfectly, and the links I share with people will still work perfectly. You just need to navigate directly to the location rather than use someone else's link.

For the record, WWW2.RIVENWOLF.NET is now an invalid address...

For those of you who still use it, you've had PLENTY of time to switch to WWW.RIVENWOLF.NET.

In an effort to streamline my remote linking rules, I've decided to remove that access point.

So, as you know, I'm stoked about Stargate Worlds. I got a birthday email from them and decided to check them out again to see if they were far enough along to have beta testing... Lo! Behold, they weren't ready, but they were getting very, very close. Goody! I started getting involved and I subscribed to the New Thread RSS feed and the News RSS feed so I could keep track of developments. Started posting comments and replies, but that kind of dwindled off as I realized that people were talking about the same thing over and over. A typical forum, not really their fault... It's just what happens when you're waiting for a game to come out. I've been down this route more often than I can count.

But! Yesterday, CME decided to have a stress test of their registration servers. I'm going to assume that these are the servers that will carry personal payment information. Regardless, people (including me) started getting emails telling us that we were cleared to go register for beta testing. Read that very slowly, okay? REGISTER... FOR... BETA... TESTING. It was not a beta invitation, it was a chance to register for receiving beta invitations. They made it perfectly clear that random testers will be chosen from those who actually register, but that all the forum members should be registered, which only compliments what's been said all along.

We all know how the general population acts around here, don't we! I'm quick to point out stupidity and hypocracy whenever I can... It's a duty of mine! Sort of. Anyway, when it was announced that people would be randomly chosen for testing, what did the beta forum fill up with? People who felt it was their responsibility to list their "qualifications" for beta testing as if a) CME would even care, b) this was some sort of job to be hired for, c) they didn't read the countless messages saying testing members will be chosen RANDOMLY. This went on for weeks on end... Until yesterday!

Beta registration messages were sent out. Major milestone, to be sure, but everyone overreacted and/or didn't read the messages. With my RSS feed, I started seeing massive amounts of new threads being created that claimed "YAY!! I'M IN BETA!! WHO ELSE IS?!" Woah-woah-woah. You were only put into the system that would help randomly select people, you little goof. If you would bother reading what CME tells you, then you'd know this. Personally, they should all be glad that I'm not in charge somehow... Anyone who goes and posts how they should be picked for testing when we specifically told them it wouldn't matter? I'd manage to remove them from the list. Anyone who goes ballistic and announces that they're a tester when they're not? I would settle for public humiliation by a moderator. However, if, by chance, they ARE a tester now and they felt the need to tell everyone and their dog? ZIP! No more testing privileges, as you just seriously compromised your Non Disclosure Agreement and showed everyone that you can't be trusted not to leak information. But, alas, I'm not in charge. Lucky for them.

But! It would be awesome to get picked for beta testing somewhere around the month of... June. By then, I'll have my monster computer built and I'll be able to run SGW like you wouldn't believe. Mmm... 64-bit quad-core 45nm technology... dual SLI 9800 GTX... 4GB DDR3 RAM... A regular powerhouse of graphics and physics processing. No water cooling... Just some massive air movement. I CAN'T WAIT! College only lasts two more weeks and then I can get started! Plus, there's Okami Wii to buy... Mmm... Okamiii.

Because it will be inevitably asked of me sooner or later:

No, I'm not going to Mysterium.

And since I'm feeling especially persnickety right now, I'll tell you why:

Reason #1: I have no desire to pay registration fee. To me, that crushes the entire "gathering of friends" idea and thrusts the whole thing one step closer to being just a random "Myst convention". I think they should stick with the donation thing... After all, I really never saw the attraction of amusing everyone with fleeting little events that keep everyone away from each other. You could say that I should just not choose to go to those events, and I would have agreed. But now I have to pay for them, and I'm not going to.

Reason #2: On top of that, most of the people that I wanted so badly to meet can't go, so now it'd be me paying a colossal amount of money to see people who I would probably be better off not seeing me... Or vice versa. With all the two-faced Uru opinions cropping up now by the people who chased me off after sharing the same opinions early. Seriously... Have you been reading MystBlogs lately? Turns out that now, in addition to all the diatribe (that doesn't even matter since Uru is gone) about what should have been changed, some people are even saying that user-created Ages aren't the best thing to mix into canon... Now WHERE, oh WHERE have I heard that before? Oh wait! Me! But anyway, I abstain. Fact remains, though, that I honestly don't want to see anyone and I most definitely don't want to PAY to see anyone. Not that kind of money. Not when I'm planning on purchasing a super computer to encourage my isolationist tendencies!

Reason #3: That leads me into the 3rd reason, although I mostly explained it in the second. Not only are my closer friends not attending at all, but all the rest are going to be the people who think they're better than me for sticking Uru out to the end or some such crap. I don't want to talk to these people on the Internet, so why would I have a desire to meet with them in real life? Maybe so I can test their ability to defend an argument in real time? So they don't have a chance to sit on my blog and come up with a flat remark concerning my opinions and then sign it anonymously. Nah, I won't subject them to that kind of torment. It really wouldn't be fun to crush them in the first few seconds... Hmm. Or WOULD it...

Reason #4: I would much rather prefer a gathering of my most trusted friends... Just a few. No more than 10, maybe. Just to hang out without all the Myst swamp gas floating around the hotel atrium. Then we could really hang out and not be distracted by the plethora of events that a self-appointed committee feels it has to provide us. But, even with this small circle of friends, I have to choose between who I want to see the most. Isn't that great? Oh well... After a time, you start to understand the position of each side and the choice gets easier. That's no big deal to me, but I could still see it causing problems.

Reason #5: I really don't have a fifth reason, but I'm going to make one anyway, because everyone knows 5 is awesome... Oh wait, no, they don't. Nobody plays Myst or Riven anymore. They're all whining and crying over the second failure of Uru to notice, or whining and crying over those who bailed early and whine and cry that if we really cared, we would have stayed and somehow made a difference. All these newcomers who've only played just Myst 3 or just Myst 4 or just Uru. Even the last Mysterium I went to was a full-force Revelation indoctrination. It was no "Myst convention", it was a "Revelation party". With Uru fresh on everyone's mind, I see this as being more an "Uru-erium" rather than Myst. I would ask you to go and see if I'm right or not, but I'm going to bet that anyone who goes is going to have clouded judgment and won't notice in the first place.