Forum software update Oct 12, 2003 phpBB 1.4.4 -> 2.0.6

[Jani Soderhall]

Sure colour matters. Take a look at www.middle-age-shred.com and you'll see a similar forum with 'life'.
However each person has a different view on colour.

I agree, each person has a different view on colour. We needed an update. This is an often used style. There are 100's of the available that we could implement. One day I might propose a few to you, but for each new style added, the programming has to be done twice, unless we want to have the standard stuff that they propose. So it takes time to implement.

1) I'd like this box to be at the bottom of a 'page' so that I can scroll through the posts i'm replying to. There is no need to change fonts (except make it a tad larger)

2) I see no need for the boxes above or below this area. They can all be put on a posting guidlines page.

Most of you may not have discovered it yet, but when you post a reply you have all the previous posts just below. Just scroll and review the previous posts. I think that pretty much solves it.

2) I see no need for the boxes above or below this area. They can all be put on a posting guidlines page.

Not sure I fully understand. Most of the boxes above the post are editing features to help you format your post. They act when you click on them, so moving them away from the post/edit/reply screen means you can't use them and have to remember the syntax like in the old forum.

The checkboxes below the text box when editing a post are maybe less important, but I didn't consider that space so important and some of those checkboxes have some value.

One last thing, the MOST popular area for topics is always going to be 'random'. that needs to be the first lot of post to appear. otherwise the most important/relavant/and intersting stuff is given the same importance as the 'GRS Outer Mongolia' forum, updated once a year.

Yes, and No. Random is not supposed to the forum for "Important posts" while other areas are "less important". It's more of a place for left-overs that can't be immediately sorted into their subforums, or posts for which there is no suitable subforum. By putting it at the top of the forum list I have given it more importance than it had. I hope you appreciate that. However in searches, posts since last visit, etc I will let it mix and mingle with the other posts in the order they currently show up.

Some of the posts in the Random forum is (and will be) moved to their appropriate forums when one of the admins have some time to do it.
Like this thread for example. It should be in the Site admin forum. I originally put it in the random forum to make sure nobody would miss the warning that the forum would be closed down temporarily.

[Wes Eastridge]

The "Edit" feature was helpful and I personally feel that it should be available again.

It's there. I never took it away.

I didn’t know that. I guess the Edit feature is only available to people that have logged-in. It would be faster, for people that normally don’t “Log-In”, to just click the Gif rather than having them Log-In and reload the topic page. It will also keep down the number of false “views” of the topic.

While I am on the subject of preventing a false number of views, let me mention that it also happens when, after posting something to a multi-page topic, the user doesn’t quickly click the link to return to the forum page. In this case, the first page of the topic automatically loads again even though the user might not have any need to read that page again. This is also the case if the user clicks the “Go to your message” link.

[Jani Soderhall]

While I am on the subject of preventing a false number of views, let me mention that it also happens when, after posting something to a multi-page topic, the user doesn’t quickly click the link to return to the forum page. In this case, the first page of the topic automatically loads again even though the user might not have any need to read that page again. This is also the case if the user clicks the “Go to your message” link.

Well, the solution to this that I had in mind was to remove the "confirmation page" after your edit. I want to return directly to the post. That allows the user to see that the post came in correctly, that URLs and images display correctly. AND they might also discover that somebody else posted at the same time.

Personally I don't really worry about false page views. If there is one false page view for every message that you write, that won't create a whole lot of false page views. More important that the page view is the number of visitors per day. The number of pages they visit is interesting too, but it is mostly dependent upon how many new topics there are.

/Jani

[Michael Stride]

Oooo you are right Jani, the previous post come underneath the rply box. That makes sense as the latest post is the first you see. Great.

What I meant about the formattting boxes is that there isnt really a need for them. A new visitor is unlikely to use them and and experianced user will either remember the coding or be happy to look it up under guidlines. In my opinion...

Cut out the clutter and you make more room for the important stuff. I applaud your efforts at stremling the forum, but be BRUTAL...clean out all the extraneous buttons. What on earth is "disable bbcode"? and why would you want to decide each time whether to leave a signature? In fact why have signatures?....be BRUTAL!!!!!!

[Vlad Popov]

[img]

[Wesley Tucker]

Jani,

While you're working, here's a question: is there any particular reason y'all made the decision to go back to 25 posts per page?

The 50 posts per page worked a lot better. Sure, it took a little longer to load a page, but it meant less reloading and better topic management (meaning I could read through a goodly portion of the topic before having to load a new page and losing my train of thought!)

Again, that's just me, but I do remember a few folks commenting on the improvement when the switch was made previously from 25 to 50.

Keep up the good work.

[Jani Soderhall]

Jani,
While you're working, here's a question: is there any particular reason y'all made the decision to go back to 25 posts per page?

It's back to 50 again. No real thought behind my previous choice...

[Jani Soderhall]

Did some minor layout changes today too.

Changed the style of the second part of the header (presenting the topic, page navigator, post buttons etc) to be more compact and waste lost precious space at the top.

Changed the style of the footer to be more compact. Removed not really useful information about "Page 1 of 1". If there are several pages a page navigator will show up anyway. Made the header and footer similare in layout.

Placed stylesheet and formatting information in a separate style sheet file. This should speed up loading of each page as the style sheet is not downloaded each time.

Tried to get rid of the confirmation page, didn't manage. Those who knows something about phpBB recommends against it. I still want to get rid of it but I'll wait.

Deleted the checkboxes "Disable BBcode" and "Disable smilies". There seems to be no need to let the user choose. Saved two lines. When we know what good "Disable HTML in this post" maybe I can remove that one too.

[Wesley Tucker]

Jani,

I just wanted to to let you know that I don't know what you did, but you did something! All of a sudden this morning my photo-display problem has disappeared. All photos in all topics are perfectly spaced in the window with no overlap and no crashing into text lines.

Also, in my "Various courses" topic there are now many return lines adding a lot of space to the reply above the artwork (just like you saw earlier this week.) At some point this weekend I'll go back and edit out the mess.

Again, whatever you did, whether on purpose or by accident, worked for me! If Trahan reads this, I'd like ot know if he's experienced a similar inocculation?

[Jani Soderhall]

All of a sudden this morning my photo-display problem has disappeared.

I guess the only important change in this respect today was the different (and better) use of the stylesheets (ie in a separate file and not in the html itself). That probably made the difference.

I just realized why there is a "Disable HTML in this post" checkbox when posting. It must be when you want to publish a piece of HTML to show to someone, then you can use the button to make sure that the code is not executed but displayed when the users view the post.

[Wes Eastridge]

Arrrgggg! This non-ability of html posting is quite a problem for me right now. I am trying to make a link to an exceptionally long URL (a map at YahooMaps.com) but it doesn't work on this version of the sebsite. I could probably paste the URL as part of the message, but that would extend all the messages in the topic page to the point that viewers would get sick of the amount of horizontal scrolling required in order to read any of them.

[Jani Soderhall]

WesE,

I would expect you to be able to use the URL=..... tag to set a long URL, then after the square bracket ] and before the finish /URL tag you just add a short text saying "click for map" or something. Give it a try, even if it doesn't work so that we can try alternative ways of fixing it.

Test (url takes 4 lines in the post message window):

Click here for a map of Trocadero

[Glenn S]

Wes E.,
I am having a bit of trouble with the no use of html too. But maybe for the site it is better. Just click "quote" in Jani's post to see how he did his link.

Hey Jani or anyone, the FAQ page has a very imcomplete discription of this BBCode. Could you post a more detailed discription and useage?

If something like THIS was in the FAQ I think it would be helpful to users, even those that don't understand html.

[Jani Soderhall]

The FAQ page has a very imcomplete discription of this BBCode. Could you post a more detailed discription and useage?

If you are using English as your default language you will now find a link to instructions on BBcode directly from the FAQ. A link to this very informative page was already available from the posting page, but I hadn't been there either, so apparently it was't very visible.

I'll revise the FAQ's one day, as the standard text is very general, making it less informative. But the problem with doing so is that these edits are only made in one language. Ok, I speak a couple of languages, but far from all of those available at this forum.

To go directly to the BBcode information, follow this link:

faq.php?mode=bbcode

[Vlad Popov]

Jani and Adam,

is it possible to center text or pictures like with the old BB version?

[Wes Eastridge]

I believe it's Too Bad For WesE and Vlad.

I usually post URL links in an html way that causes a new browser window to open when the viewer clicks the link. That way, the viewer can follow my message and the linked reference simultaneously. BB-Code is supposed to do that without any special coding, but it doesn’t seem to do it here. <b>I miss the good ol’ days SlalomSkateboarder.com 1.0</b> (HEY that code right there actually worked!)

[Vlad Popov]

I believe it's Too Bad For WesE and Vlad.

I usually post URL links in an html way that causes a new browser window to open when the viewer clicks the link. That way, the viewer can follow my message and the linked reference simultaneously. BB-Code is supposed to do that without any special coding, but it doesn’t seem to do it here.

Wes,
"old" and "new" links open in a new window.
Right clicking and choosing “open link in new window” is easy and painless otherwise.

I’m OK with not being able to center pics and text. But I want to know if it’s possible to do at all or not using the new format.

<center>Let see if this works</center> No, it doesn't.

[Glenn S]

Using the latest IE with Windows XP.
Anyone else getting multiple page errors like this as of late during every forum browsing session:

Refreshing the page a couple of times gets the page to load eventually though.

[Wes Eastridge]

I get something similar with Mac OS9 and non-M$ browsers, but it has been happening since before the update. I'm guessing it has something to do with how many people are trying to access the website at one time.

[Brady Mitchell]

Is it possible to increase the font size larger in the Subject portion of a post rather than smaller as it is (I left this post`s subject blank as it looks better than with it)

Or maybe just do away with it all together (subject field)?

[Brady Mitchell]

Like this?

[Jani Soderhall]

Anyone else getting multiple page errors during every forum browsing session?

Glenn,

I suffered this during most of last week, not before and not since (from several . I think this was due to problems with our provider. I asked them to confirm it but I have had no reply. As the problem seems to be gone - good.

I don't think it is relation to the number of users accessing the site. Their servers and our forum should be capable of handling many, many more users than we currently have.

[Jani Soderhall]

Is it possible to increase the font size larger in the Subject portion of a post?
Or maybe just do away with it all together (subject field)?

Brady,

I haven't yet figured out the real benefit of having the subject field repeated for each reply. It used to be that you could only set or change it on the initial post (the one which gets shown as the Topic in the list of Topics in a forum). But now you can set a new title for every post.

Maybe the idea is that you should be able to adapt the subject if you reply to many individual questions all within the same thread, to kind of separate them.

I think the repeated subject is probably of most use when searching for posts and having an appropriate subject line might help you identify if you found the right posts. (Notice that you can have search results displayed as posts rather than as topics).

I would be tempted to drop out the display of the subject like you suggest if we find there is no use for it. That would make the view cleaner.

I could also increase the size of it to give it more importance.

[Jani Soderhall]

Is it possible to center text or pictures like with the old BB version?

Vlad,

The strange thing is that most, probably all, of the posts where center and other html tags were used, still work, however if you try to do the same thing as a new post it doesn't work.

I haven't yet figured why, how. I hope we can find a solution to it. I thought it was great when people used a bit of html in their posts.

Jani

[Wes Eastridge]

The anti-spam measure (adding spaces and changing the “@” to “[AT]” and the “.” to “[DOT]”) that I took with my email address, before the website re-format, has been nullified. It would be nice to be able to have that again, as I now seem to be getting 2x as much spam since before the website re-format. Any measures that I can do would help. What are members supposed to do if they get a new email address that they want to use here? I don’t see a way to change it now.

[Jani Soderhall]

WesE,

I agree we need to look into a couple of anti-spam techniques, but the problem is that the new database doesn't seem to accept "incorrect" email addresses.

Email addresses you give as a user are not displayed in clear at any time (as far as I understand) or? Mostly they are available behind buttons which I think is the way they figured they could use to prevent spammers to get hold of them.

Please point out where I need to do updates and I'll try to figure out how to do it.

One of the places where I had some doubts was the contest calendar where I posted other peoples email addresses. I felt a bit guilty of that, but decided to go ahead anyway as most of them are very public in that they are being used over and over in various places. I could have applied the AT DOT style there, but then the system would not recognize them as email addresses, only as normal text. Which is better?

/Jani

[Wes Eastridge]

OK, Jani, you are right about the address being hidden behind a button. I see the purpose of that now. Good idea in implementing that, whoever it was.

There is still an issue of not being able to change one’s email address though. I am considering retiring my current email address and I’d like the change to be effected on my membership here.

Regarding the contest calendar, I say normal text is the best, until a link can be made using anti-spam wording. (FYI - spaces need to be included in your anti-spam wording so that people know immediately that they need to change the address. The method that the webmaster of the “other site" uses often causes problems because the message sender doesn’t notice the “DOT” instead of a period when they try to email someone by clicking on their email link. If there were spaces in there, there is a better chance that people would immediately notice that the address has been altered)

[Jani Soderhall]

There is still an issue of not being able to change one’s email address though. I am considering retiring my current email address and I’d like the change to be effected on my membership here.

Did you try changing it in your profile? That should work fine. But you need to provide a valid email address there.

I also changed the email addresses in the contest calendar. I don't like the new look much, especially since the browser doesn't distinguish them as email addresses and thus highlightening them. Now it just looks like plain text.

I don't know if there is a way to win the war on spam. I hope one day that big servers will automatically filter them out as they are sent over the net. It seems that no matter what you do, you'll get them. Even Lillis' kids gets them and their addresses have never been posted on any website.

But it's true that I get many more spam mails since I have my Jani@SlalomSkateboarder DOT com address. Why do they think that slalomers need all those blue pills they advertize?

/Jani

[Wes Eastridge]

Jani,
The requirements for an email address are quite strict. I finally got some results though, thanks. Before, it seemed like it wouldn't accept anything other than the address that I initially registered with.

You might want to re-check that it is an actual button, rather than a link, that launches the email process. Until that is verified, I’ll do what I have to do.

[Mickey Williams]

WesE,

Email addresses you give as a user are not displayed in clear at any time (as far as I understand) or? Mostly they are available behind buttons which I think is the way they figured they could use to prevent spammers to get hold of them.

On the memberlist/profile page there is what appears to be a button, but it's a really an IMG child element of a mailto anchor (with the email address in the clear). Can you munge that somehow? I'd hate for my profile address to get hammered by spam, as that's my contact point for all of my new business oportunities with ex-Nigerian oil ministers and the like.

[John Gilmour]

We used to be able to search all the posts made by a particular member- is this still possible?

[Wes Eastridge]

We used to be able to search all the posts made by a particular member- is this still possible?

If you can’t do it from the search page, try the link for this specific function on the person’s profile.

[Slappy Maxwell]

Jani,
The requirements for an email address are quite strict. I finally got some results though, thanks. Before, it seemed like it wouldn't accept anything other than the address that I initially registered with.

You might want to re-check that it is an actual button, rather than a link, that launches the email process. Until that is verified, I’ll do what I have to do.

Wes, you realize that we have a private messages function here that works essentially like email. There's an inbox, outbox, and saved area. So there really isn't a reason to post your email.
When you log in, it tells you at the top if you have messages. I just changed the settings so I get a pop up window when there are messages.

[John Gilmour]

Thanks Wes, btw congrats on your series win!

[Sam Gordon]

Adam and Jani,

When I log in, all the instructions appear to be translated into Ikea furniture titles. Is there a way around this blight of good design?

Forgive me if I've posted multiple times, I'm now going for the 'Nahled' button...

...I trust that means 'Review.' Let's try 'Odelslat' for a final submission...

[Jani Soderhall]

Sam,

Did you choose Swedish language in your profile, or is it Norwegian?

<Edited 10 minutes later>
... I took the time to check out your profile and it turns out that you choose Czech language. A lot of IKEA furniture is made in Czech Republic, so you were partly right. It should be OK now.

/Jani

[Sam Gordon]

Aaahhhh, that's better, thanks Jani. I've just read my missive back and found it a trifle flippant. Thank you for rising above it, humouring and sorting me out. I can see for miles now!