Quite some time ago I read a rant complaining about how information on the internet doesn't age our wear down. I thought it was pretty interesting, but I forgot about it till now. Anyway, I wrote this little script that allows users to post messages that fade away over time (more specifically they fade a little every time the page gets a hit) and eventually dissapear. You can see this running here. And here is the code: 

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use CGI qw( header param );
my $new = param("post");
my @pallet = qw( 000000 1E1E1E 3C3C3C 5A5A5A 787878 969696 B4B4B4 D2D2
+D2 F0F0F0 );
my $url = "http://yoursite.org/url/for/cgi";
if ($new) {
open(POSTS, ">>/path/to/message/file");
print POSTS "0 $new\n";
print header;
print "<PRE>meme added\n<A HREF=\"$url">go back</a></pre>";
} else {
open(POSTS,"/path/to/message/file");
my @posts = <POSTS>;
my $post;
print header;
foreach $post(@posts) {
$post =~ /(\d) (.*)/;
my $shade = @pallet[$1];
my $text = $2;
my $x = int(rand 400);
my $y = int(rand 400);
my $z = int(rand 5);
$z++;
print "<font color=#$shade size=$z STYLE=\"position:relative; left:" .
+ $x . "px; top:" . $y . "px\"> $text </font>\n";
}
close(POSTS);
open(POSTS, ">/path/to/message/file");
foreach $post(@posts) {
$post =~ /(\d) (.*)/;
my $num = $1;
my $mesg = $2;
$num++;
if ($num == 9) {
1;
} else {
print POSTS "$num $mesg\n";
}
}
print <<CREATE;
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<table>
<tr>
<td bgcolor=#08082C>
<BR>
<FORM METHOD="GET" ACTION="$url">
Meme:<INPUT TYPE="text" STYLE="background-color:#B4B4B4" NAME="post" S
+IZE="30">
<INPUT TYPE="submit" value="create">
</form>
<BR>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

CREATE

}

[download]
BTW I know all those BR tags are annoying, sorry about that

"Sanity is the playground of the unimaginative" -Unknown

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Fading Message Board
by Chmrr (Vicar) on Mar 10, 2002 at 03:38 UTC

    First off, I think this is a neat idea. When I first saw the code, I was just going to make the "<BR>"x20 suggestion; then I thought I'd do some indenting, too. Then I thought about only reading from the file once; and so on. Anyways, shown below is how I'd go about writing this; the demo is here.

    Update: Dog and Pony should never have mentioned it fading over time; I've wasted yet more time on this now. Whee! Anyways, demo is here. It also uses an exponential scale for the colors now; hitting the page causes anything that's there to "decay," as does letting time pass. Entering the same meme again makes it "fresh" again.

    Update: Code has been moved from here to here.

    perl -pe '"I lo*`+$^X$\"$]!$/"=~m%(.*)%s;$_=$1;y^`+*^e v^#$&V"+@( NO CARRIER'

[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Fading Message Board
by premchai21 (Curate) on Mar 10, 2002 at 02:29 UTC 
    print "<BR>\n" x 0x15, <<CREATE;
...
CREATE

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Fading Message Board
by Dog and Pony (Priest) on Mar 10, 2002 at 02:37 UTC
    Interesting idea. :)

    I have a tweak suggestion - how about a page fades when it doesn't get hits? Or rather, perhaps, that a page needs to have enough hits often enough - or compared to other pages or something - otherwise it fades into oblivion?

    This way, the pages that are - and stay - popular is retained, while the not so good or important ones fade away.

    This is of course totally dependant on what purpose you are after, but that might be a useful option for this?

    This isn't critique or anything, just an amendment. :)

    You have moved into a dark place.
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
[reply]
      I have a tweak suggestion - how about a page fades when it doesn't get hits? Or rather, perhaps, that a page needs to have enough hits often enough - or compared to other pages or something - otherwise it fades into oblivion?
      Better yet, why not just use FreeNet? That's the organizing principle behind it's nodes, aside from the anonymity. ;-)

      Matt

[reply]
Re: Fading Message Board
by Emphyrio (Beadle) on Mar 16, 2002 at 22:03 UTC
    Cool effect! You might want to change the
    if ($new) {
        ....
} else {
        ....
}

    [download]
    into a 
    if ($new) { 
        ....
}
....

    [download]
    thing though; then you don't have to click 'back' each time you post, and you see the result immediately..
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Fading Message Board
by Juerd (Abbot) on Mar 18, 2002 at 12:07 UTC

    Quite some time ago I read a rant complaining about how information on the internet doesn't age our wear down.

    Your post has inspired me to create http://juerd.nl/prik.plp. (Note: Requires Mozilla or MSIE)

    It's in Dutch, but the first button will let you post a message. Please don't flood it (there's no check for that, yet).

    The source (PLP) is at http://juerd.nl/prik.plp.source. It's a few-hour hack and coded badly, sorry 'bout that.

    Thanks for the great idea, ++beretboy! 

    U28geW91IGNhbiBhbGwgcm90MTMgY
W5kIHBhY2soKS4gQnV0IGRvIHlvdS
ByZWNvZ25pc2UgQmFzZTY0IHdoZW4
geW91IHNlZSBpdD8gIC0tIEp1ZXJk

[reply]

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