First off, I want to apologize to the people who commented in the last blog entry on this, because nothing they have requested has gotten done. Unfortunately other people who did not comment on that blog entry got involved...and they had deadlines. Still, I am questioning the wisdom of taking everyone's input if I'm just going to do whatever. In any event, my bad for setting up false expectations.

But here's what's up. I haven't forgotten you all, at least.

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1. Categorical Greg Answer Reference [iN PROGRESS] - Basically, what it says it is: categorizing all of the Greg Answers in the Compendium for easy reference.

Importance: Megaboatloads, especially with Bionicle 2015 immanent. !!!

Progress so far: At the moment, there's two sides to this coin: the code to reorganize the dialogue so the questions are with the answers, and the actual database categorization mechanism.

The code to reorganize the dialogue has been an uphill battle since the beginning. All of the dialogues have been fully run though my code to give the computer the correct "handles" - basically telling the computer that this is question 1 in post 7, and giving that the same identity as answer 1 in post 7. 9 times out of 10, the programs just read the numbers in and count up the posts and click through. But with documents that big, it isn't good enough.

Unfortunately, that leaves me with 4773 "questions" with no answers...or answers which the computer didn't get the question. Fortunately, I have a program that tells me - accurately - which answers and questions were orphaned. This happens because Greg sometimes answers multiple questions with one answer, or the questions or answers aren't numbered, or Greg just didn't answer a question, or something else happened.

The Official Greg Discussion has over 22, 000 of these "errors" because some people record the Greg answer after the question. (Normally I would thank these people, but I'm putting a square peg in a round hole...eh). "Inherents", as I call them, create another set of errors that I have to fix.

Worst case scenario, I have to fix this by hand. That's right, all 26,773 blocks. Hopefully there is a programmatic solution.

After that, I have to write the code to merge the questions and answer blocks. This I already know how to do.

On the other half, the categorization mechanism is ironically probably the easiest thing to code. I just delimit the questions and answers, search each one for the categories, kick it in the right database category, print the database out as HTML, and copy it to here, and we're done.

The problem is, I don't have the code to do that. Okay, that's not strictly true - I have all the code right in front of me, but it is not yet behind my eyeballs. I have to learn it. In theory I could skip the database and strictly use a JavaScript solution, but it would be 200x more complicated and probably take the same amount of time as learning the simple one and just coding that.

In addition, the database solution holds out a promise of something that could possibly be better than just categorizing the old stuff.

This doesn't mean I'm tabling this project until December or anything of the sort. I'm basically spending what time I have learning PHP and cranking...I'm already a chapter ahead of the unmotivated December people. I have 4 more chapters left, and 2 of them look quick.

At this point I think what I just said sounds way worse than it actually is. (I'm insane though. ) But at least you all know why things are taking so long.

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2. A list of Bionicle Media sources, in order by year, on a color-coded timeline grid, with the events that distinguish them. [COMPLETED] - This one shouldn't have taken very long, but I haven't read the comics, and reading them in order to place the events in the grid is tedious. Reading the Bionicle comics is something I need to do period, but comics are not my thing, much, so I keep putting it off.

Importance: Moderate. Rapidly becoming more important though, as I see more and more media questions, and with new members coming...

Progress so far: Finished 2001 and 2002, and most of the other years except for the comics. (Really hasn't changed much.)

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3. Comedies: [iN PROGRESS]The Promised Comedy is still in the works. Its preliminary title: Late to the Party: A Comedically Epic Bionicle Adventure or just Late to the Party. For some reason, I keep having trouble getting around to this, and the squeeze-the-high-quality-writing-out-of-fishers formula takes forever IMO.

Progress so far: I've actually cleared most of the knots out of this...I just need to write it.

Importance: At this point, importance level is actually classified. I don't view it as higher priority than the reference yet, but their release might be closer together than previously implied.

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4. HF RPG reboot:[TENTATIVE PATCH UP DRAFT COMPLETED; RELEASE DEFERRED] People definitely want this - we've had two polls that prove it. The problem is, I don't have the best story ideas, which would be essential if I was going to run it myself. Perhaps a bit more open version, akin to the original, might work, but the HF story is mission-oriented, so IMO that RPG needs an involved GM.

Importance: I'm not sure, given that HF is ending. What I'm going to do is take a blog entry to gauge interest and get ideas from everyone, and go from there. I also think that I'm going to need a little research.

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Unless something really strange happens, expect to see 1 or 2 first. Lack of #1 is costing me more and more time every day, not just in working on it but in browsing the forums. #2 has the potential to be like #1, especially if we get a lot of new members. It also, being brutally honest, will take less time to finish, and the temptation to do the easiest thing on my list just to get that feeling of finishing something is always there.

I'm not making time projections. I have loads of homework, and BZP's activity is taking more and more of my time. Although my PHP class homework overlaps #1, I still don't have infinite time. Bleh.

Comments, ideas, suggestions, complaints, and whatever else is welcome. Go!