patratzel: an exquisite corpse application

[evilchelu]

Hi pixel people,

My name is Cristi Balan, I'm a web application developer. You don't know me but I want to help

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Short version
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Me and my girlfriend have made an exquisite corpse style application that you can use, no strings attached. You can use it here:

http://patratzel.heroku.com/

Right now you can only login with twitter, because it was the easiest to get going.

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Long version
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For a long time I've been a fan of the old tiles.ice.org collaborative quilts and I've been searching for a reason to make a fun side project by making a web app that helps people run one. Unfortunately, I have very little skill when it comes to art.

I recently came across the HEXQUISITE CORPSE COLLAB I & II and the ISO collabs and I found them great!

I noticed that the last posts are asking for a new collab and I imagine that lack of time is one of the reasons the admins are not doing more of them.

So, for the last two weeks, me and my girlfriend have wrote an exquisite corpse style app in our spare time.

Right now it only supports square boards and you can only authenticate with twitter. Our plan, if you guys agree, is to give it to you so you can use it for the collabs. We want to add the hex stuff, fixed palettes, and maybe somehow figuring out if people can reuse their forum accounts instead of twitter. We could even host it in a subdomain of wayofthepixel.net if you want.

We don't want to make any money with it or charge the forum users or take users away from the forum or anything like that. Our main goal when writing it was to make some people happy and admins have more time. We plan on making more with the application but what I said above about the pixelation forum will always stand. We'll be doing this as a gift and we'll not expect or demand any compensation for it. If there is a lot of traffic and usage however, we might ask the forum admins to setup a hosting account for the application tho. Depending on how things go, we might even open source the application at some point.

You can have a look at the application here:

http://patratzel.heroku.com/

Right now you can only login with twitter, because it was the easiest to get going.

[evilchelu]

There is no palette being enforced on the tiles, and no admin controls yet (to approve or delete indecent tiles) so please behave

So, I would like people who want to use it to please respect the rules set for the last hexquisite corpse collab: http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=9305.0

Please let me know if something doesn't work, what do you think of the idea or if you have some ideas for it, etc

Thanks and we hope this makes at least a few people around here happy

ps: You can only use a relatively modern browser, such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox. Opera almost works but not yet. We don't have IE but it might work on IE9 (definitely not on previous versions). Even so, we don't recommend using IE.

[ptoing]

Wow, this was unexpected. Quite nice. I have no twitter, so I did not check it out yet properly, but I looked at what I could.

Time is an issue, yes, though I have to say the Hexquisite Corpse stuff was way less time intensive than say Secret Santa.

If you would make this into a fully usable web app where people can log in with their pix usernames that would be awesome.

Expect a PM from me.

[evilchelu]

Whoa, thanks for replying! I'm glad you like the idea.

We could also easily add facebook logins for the testing period, but we didn't to deal with people forgetting they logged in with twitter then logging in with facebook then ending up with two different accounts. Actually, since this is just for testing, we'll add facebook accounts and not care about the duplication for now

I have no idea yet on how to use the pixelation logins since I have no clue on how this forum software works. Here are some ideas:

1. if the forum supports oauth or oauth2, authentication can be really really easily added

2. have the patratzel app on a subdomain of the wayofthepixel.net then configuring the forum software to set the login cookie to *.wayofthepixel.net instead of www.wayofthepixel.net like now (this would also mean that we'd have to put the username in there, not just the sessionid like now)

3. add link to each user's profile page saying "login into patratzel" with a token that would just login with/create a linked account in patratzel

[evilchelu]

Just updated the application and changed twitter logins with facebook logins since I assume more people have facebook than twitter. Facebook logins are just a temporary measure until we get automatic logins working.

I also implemented a way that you can create an account linked to your pixelation account. I have talked to ptoing and sent him instructions on how to create the autologin links so you can easily log in into patratzel using your pixelation account.

However, if you want to login before they update the forum software, please PM me and I will manually create the autologin link for you via PM.

[Indigo]

I too have dabbled with the idea of automating the exquisite corpse collab.  I didn't get very far, but I did manage to make a php page that spits out the hex that accepts mouse events.  Not sure if it'd be of use for you, but you can see it here: http://calypsonstudios.com/websites/pixcollab/  PM me if you'd like the code or would like to bounce back ideas.

I could imagine that once someone reserves a tile using their pixelation account, a timer would appear on that tile.  If the user didn't submit a tile before the time ran out, that tile would be up for grabs again.  This would be pretty neat if you can pull it off.

[evilchelu]

@indigo: Tile expiration is already done and it's customizable once you create the board (which only I'm allowed to do for now)

Another fun thing that we added today: you cannot reserve a tile adjacent to a tile you already made!

[evilchelu]

@Indigo: Thanks for the example! For now we are still trying to make the code robust and nice for squares before adding hexes (and iso tiles afterwards). Your hex example looks nice but we're probably going to do the guessing from js instead of using a map area. If we get stuck on the algorithm I'll come running to steal your code

[evilchelu]

Hey everyone. We just deployed a new version of the code with what we worked on today. Check it out at the same url:

http://patratzel.heroku.com/boards/1

Important changes are:

* Firefox should now work. Opera still not there yet
* Logins with twitter and facebook and also pixelation work and have cute buttons
** (if you want to login with your pixelation account, please PM me and I can create a link for you)
* You can no longer reserve a tile adjacent to a tile you already made (the check is done in all 8 directions)
* Nicer look for the tile you save to work on
* Added instructions and better texts throughout
* Board border size is now customizable at board creation

[Rydin]

I don't like the idea of signing in with other accounts.
You should make it so a person can create an account just for patratzel.

[evilchelu]

I don't like the idea of signing in with other accounts.
You should make it so a person can create an account just for patratzel.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm sorry but, unfortunately, I disagree with you.

My goal is to make a very nice and helpful app that people can use and be able to focus on their drawing. Therefore I don't want to waste time to write all the code to handle signup, account activation with an email, password reset and password change, profile management, and all that. That stuff takes time and I'd rather spend my time writing features!

We are supporting twitter an facebook because that's what I assume most people already have. Personally, I don't ever want to create another account "just for one site" and with yet another password. We can also really easily add all the providers listed here: https://github.com/intridea/omniauth but we didn't want to clutter the interface.

We already have implemented logins especially for the forum users so you can have the same people you already know on the collab. I don't want to take users away from here, since here is where the community is and patratzel should be just an extension to it. I already PMed code to ptoing and once that is added to the forum you'll just be able to click a link and not even care patratzel is a different application.

For now, since it's in beta testing, pretty please indulge me and try it out, it's really great, I promise

The only information I get from facebook and twitter is that a user with username BLAH and fullname BLEH and avatar BLOH has successfully authenticated. All the logging in and password stuff happens on facebook or twitter. I only get told if it worked. It's really way safer than having your password stored on my server since if you use the same password everywhere and my server gets hacked, you're in trouble.

And, if you don't have either twitter or facebook, I can give you a link that logs you in with the same account as here. The autologin link looks like this:
http://patratzel.heroku.com/customauth/pixelation/autologin/USERNAME/AUTHTOKEN and since it's just a link, logging in like this is a safe process and I won't be stealing your account or whatever. It's in the same league as going to http://google.com and fearing your pixelation account will be stolen.

[NaCl]

I like using other accounts for it, I'm tired of making account after account for every little thing I want to do on the web. Linking my Pixelation account would be perfect.

[evilchelu]

I like using other accounts for it, I'm tired of making account after account for every little thing I want to do on the web. Linking my Pixelation account would be perfect.

PMed you your autologin link.

If you decide to use it please know that this is a test board and it'll also have people outside of pixelation on it and they might not do pixel art, so please don't be offended if they create random stuff

ps: I'm sorry this is the case but since nobody from pixelation was actually using it at the beginning, I asked some of my friends to help me test it out. Once enough people from here start using it I'll probably give someone administrator access so you can create boards just for you, and be sure people respect the rules.

[evilchelu]

After NaCL reserved a tile I realized that there's a question regarding what tiles should be reservable. For example, should the tile in the following pixture be reservable or not? I'm thinking that it SHOULD NOT because a tile should have at least a border on the horizontal or vertical axis but, considering it's at the edge, maybe it SHOULD? Opinions?

[TrevoriuS]

I'd say start with corners only, and then tiles which have at least 1 edge available of other tiles (so indeed, make this tile NOT available)

[ptoing]

That tile should for sure NOT be reservable. Only side to side tiles should work, not corner to corner.

[evilchelu]

Hey everyone. We just deployed a new version of the code with what we worked on today. Check it out at the same url:

http://patratzel.heroku.com/boards/1

Important visible changes are:

* seed tiles that have a corner neighbor done must also have a direct neighbor done in order to be reservable (the situation from the picture above)
* show hours left for reserved tiles to everyone
* changed format for pixelation urls

[evilchelu]

Hola again!

We deployed a new version with really exciting features. These features took a lot of under the hood work and they were written by the coolest girl in the world!

You can check out the application at the same url:

http://patratzel.heroku.com/boards/1

Important visible changes are:
* one click logins!!!! woohoo!
** if you click the pixelation icon on the patratzel you'll be authenticated by pixelation and then automatically logged into patratze
* boards can be restricted to only some authentication providers (so now we can have boards just for pixelation forum users)
* moderated boards
** board owner gets notified by email of new tiles
** board owner can approve/reject/send back tiles

[evilchelu]

Olá pessoas!

HUGE update today! Again, most of the features were written by Irina, my lovely girlfriend

You can check out the application at the same url:

http://patratzel.heroku.com/boards/1

Important visible changes are:
* FIXED OPERA!
* PALETTE SUPPORT!!
** tiles that don't respect the board palette will be rejected
* admins can now create and edit boards and change the following:
** width, height, tile size, border size, reservation duration
** seed tiles
** palette colors
** specify if a board is moderated or not
** specify what users can work on the board (for example, only pixelation users; or only facebook and twitter users)
* better error messages when uploading a bad tile
* better "time left" messages

Here's a screenshot of the create/edit board interface: