News

Today, I have released an updated version of the En Garde Ranking System. There have been 42 changes made, including minor adjustments, optimisations, and fixes. The most important update for both owners and users is that the entire system now communicates with the web server via HTTPS for added security. Furthermore, the RO En Garde Rankings Board now cycles through four different views and includes new configuration buttons. Advanced communication has also been implemented to significantly reduce requests to the web server.

To upgrade, replace the RO En Garde Ranking Tracker and the RO En Garde Rankings Board as they communicate with each other. The RO En Garde Names Display, to be used with pistes created by Rifkin Habsburg, remains unchanged and does not need to be replaced.

You can grab this new version at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing.

Important: Previous versions will be deactivated one at a time and will no longer work.

Beside of this, there have been countless changes here on this website, too many to remember.

The entire project's scripting contains 3715 lines of code using the most compact indentation style. A total of 381 man hours of work includes mesh and texture creations, testing, releasing and discussions with users. The latest version of the ranking system is regularly installed at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing. So, any duel played there helps me improve the system.

Please, send me your thoughts, also about how you would like the upcoming implementation of team play.

More to come!

From today until the 31st of August, my hosting company is updating the operating system of their web hosting servers. I don't expect any problems for the En Garde Ranking System, but it is theoretically possible.

Update 2023-09-01: Updates completed without any issues.

Update 2023-09-04: The website was down for a short while. The hosting company is running more updates this month.

For the last 6 hours there seems to be severe problems connecting this domain, so I keep getting error messages from within SL, mostly from the Rankings Boards. The hosting company has already made it official on their status page. I think it will be fixed soon...

If there are any duels taking place that are not being properly recorded by the Ranking Tracker, I will add the results later somehow.

Update:  The issue is officially fixed.

Today I released a new version of the ranking tracker with the additional displays. Again 21 changes were made, mainly minor ones, optimisations and fixes. Main difference for owners and users might be, that the RO En Garde Ranking Tracker is now also compatible with Beware Hax's En Garde piste, newly released yesterday. The RO En Garde Rankings Board got updated as well, so you have to replace it on your land. The RO En Garde Names Display is unchanged - you don't have to replace it.

You can grab this new version at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing.

Beside of this, there have been several changes here on this website (read previous posts), most of them in the background, so not of interest for the average user.

Please, send me your thoughts, also about how you would like the upcoming implementation of team play.

More to come!

Another new feature on this website: The table columns in the En Garde section can be sorted (except the tournament one). Just click on the table headers. Maybe this little feature is of use for those managing fencing groups.

Btw, in previous months many changes came to the SL En Garde Ranking System, most of them improvements under the hood, a duellist wont notice. The scripting of the entire project has 2359 lines of code (by using the most compact indentation style), and 242 man hours were recorded (including the mesh and texture creations, testing, releasing and discussions with users). The latest development version of the ranking system is always installed at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing. So, any duel played there, helps me improving the system.

More to come! Any ideas? Then send me an IM in-world.

Many thanks to everyone using the system and giving me feedbacks!

Here is a new feature, you might welcome: When you hover a duellist's name on the SL En Garde Rankings page, the upcoming tooltip prompts a new line with a hint, about how this duellist could improve his/her/its ranking. Either playing more duels generally, trying to win more duels or playing against more opponents.

Today I released a new version of the RO En Garde Ranking Tracker. 21 changes were made, mainly minor ones, optimisations and fixes.

Main difference for owners and users might be, that the floating text can be toggled now by the owner, and it is off by default (it had been on on previous releases for debugging reasons only, so duellists could inform me as soon they discovered an oddity).

Another difference will be, that the piste coordinates send to this website will consider now an offset of 2.5 meters, so incoming visitors will not end-up on the piste, which might disturb during running duels.

The RO En Garde Rankings Board and the RO En Garde Names Display are unchanged - you don't have to replace them.

Beside of this, there have been several changes here on the website, but all of them in the background, so not of interest for the common user. Please, send me your thoughts, also about how you would like the upcoming implementation of team play. More to come!

You can grab this new version at Caledon Oxbridge Fencing.

About 10 hours back, one of the En Garde Ranking Trackers out there sent me an error message, about a failed database access. My other websites were also misbheaving. So, not caused by the En Garde system. I instantly informed the web hosting company. While I have been sleeping, I received four more error messages via email. They sent me an email later, that there is a greater problem right now, and they are working on it.

So far I see, all duels have been properly written into database. Let me know, if you observe any hiccups.

Note: Event got rescheduled!

Feel free to join this virtual seminar on Chat Control - an attempt of the EU government and beyond to forbid/circumvent/crack encrypted communication and implement automatically scanning of user data, e.g. emails and messenger chats.

Date: 30th November 2021

Time: 10am SLT (8pm CET, 7pm GMT, 11am PST, 2pm EST)

Place: COU Red Quixote Memorial Hall in Caledon Oxbridge Village

Presenters: John Doe and ZenMondo Wormser

Full Panel participants will be published prior to event.

With panel discussion and extensive Q & A.

Summary:

"We believe that the citizens, from young to old, have a fundamental human right to privacy and self-determination. During the past few months, we have lost more rights, than since World War 2. This is why you really should participate. To gain the knowledge, know what are your rights and learn how to defend them! Join us!
 

Why should you participate? Unsuspected citizens are having their private conversations, images, messages and emails scanned under EU’s ChatControl legislation.  

Many of you don’t even know what ChatControl legislation is and its follow up, ChatControl2. They don’t make to news headlines or pinned tweets and posts in EU Commission ‘s social media handles.
 

Without knowledge what is happening to your rights in the shadows, everyhting you took it as granted can be stolen away from you."

Additional Resources:

Original announcement @hacker-ethic.flynnos.org

Why chat control is so dangerous @netzpolitik.org

Chat Control - The End of the Privacy of Digital Correspondence

If you wish more privacy regarding the rankings system, it is possible now, but not required, to hide your name from the website and also from in-world displays. To do so, go to En Garde > Your Profile and follow the instructions.