Computer Hope
Other => Other => Topic started by: Computer Hope Admin on September 25, 2010, 01:32:42 AM
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We’ve successfully upgraded to SMF 2.0, as you have probably noticed. Below is some brief information about this update. As I hope everyone realizes, this is a big update and there are lots of changes and things I’ve probably missed out in the below long explanation.
NEW 2.0 FEATURES YOU MAY ENJOY
- You can select boards that you wish to ignore, e.g. games.
- Warning system (mods only). Mods can warn users and enough warnings silence people, remove rights, and other advanced features.
- In forum profile field customization (no longer requires mod). This is also bad as explained below in the con section.
- Birthday wishes can now be sent out to e-mails automatically.
- A lot more PM features, including labels and rules.
- Polls can be made to allow guests to vote.
- New tweaks to the interface, including sizable text boxes, as well as movable windows. *Look for the double-arrows in your profile to move the profile window back to like it was in the earlier version of SMF.
- Additional spam and post quality control.
- Post moderation, if we wanted we could have sections section (e.g. FAQ) section that posts will not show until approved.
Cons:
- Because the forum has its own customizable fields we no longer need to mod to add this field. Unfortunately this causes all users to have to re-enter their OS and other custom settings unless they're registering as a new user. In addition I'll have to be re-doing all the F@H, WP, SBCC, and chat icons. This is a big con in my eyes, but with this being a feature of SMF now I feel it's best that we do this now since all future SMF updates will more than likely include this feature.
Added mods:
I've added the topic-solved mod onto the forums. This will allow users to click the solved button and have the message show a check mark to those issues that has been solved. I felt this mod has been requested for some time and was only fitting that it be added at this time.
I'm glad this is the only mod I added since I had some major issues with getting this converted over, since it was done with a different database. :-\
Some additional changes:
I’ve also made a lot of changes to the users profile shown in the left hand side of the topics. I’ve done away with the images and wrote a section that takes the percentage of how many posts have been made and creates a status bar. Also underneath this status bar I’ve made a smaller bar that shows of the progress of the current level you’re at. I’ve you’ve reached the max this bar goes away and will only display mastermind.
If you’ve had 50+ people who’ve thanked you I’ve also added a text link saying “Accepted helper”, I’ve figured those of you who’ve been helping that have been thanked a lot should have it known more clearly.
I’ve revamped the system specs link, to what I believe is a much more improved version. This version is much more customizable tooltip and will remain shown until the mouse moves over or clicks the close link. The looks, color, images, etc. of this can be greatly changed, but I feel that it’s a good first start. I had to do a lot of work to get it to appear correctly on the forum, with how SMF brings the database data to the forum, so spent most of my time dealing with this. This also should help with the load time of the pages, since it’s only opening one JavaScript file instead of four.
Each of these above changes were done in the last day since I’ve had some time to play around with since all my other changes couldn’t happen until I’ve converted the forum over to a live version. So although I’m fairly happy with them, these are things that can also be tweaked accordingly to the community’s desires.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I think (hope) that this update is well received. Overall I think there are a lot of really great additions and I’m sure there is plenty that I’m not even aware of yet. Feel free to make your own comments, requests, threats, etc. about the update and we can create a new todo thread for me for me to handle once the dust clears.
I’m also still in the process of updating everything now that it’s live. So bare with me for those of you who’re logging in early in the morning.
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Well done for doing this. :)
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Color scheme still needs a little work (as seen here http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=unread) and the Quick Reply box has lost its Code Toolbar, but so far so good.
Kudos, Nathan, for finally upgrading ;)
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Great job Nathan - thanks for the hard work!
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One thing I've noticed is that if I click on "show all my posts" I'm taken to my profile page.
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Thanks for the replies.
Color scheme still needs a little work (as seen here http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=unread) and the Quick Reply box has lost its Code Toolbar, but so far so good.
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Thanks, the color scheme has been updated. I've got the quick reply in the back of my mind, that takes a bit of work to implement so it's on the back burner for a bit.
One thing I've noticed is that if I click on "show all my posts" I'm taken to my profile page.
Thanks, should be working properly now. They've changed the URL structure.
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Looking good ;)
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brilliant changes , the topic solved button is a great add-on and also the new profile i'm still finding more
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I don't know if this is because of the changes with SMF 2.0, or something else. When I tried to vote on the poll from the main page this month I got this:
"Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again."
However, when I vote in the thread itself and not from the main page, it works fine. I never had this issue before now.
Other than that, I think the forums are quite nice. It's a subtle change, not a drastic one, and overall functionality of the forums remains the same and I think that's excellent.
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Nice work Nathan...
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I don't know if this is because of the changes with SMF 2.0, or something else. When I tried to vote on the poll from the main page this month I got this:
"Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again."
However, when I vote in the thread itself and not from the main page, it works fine. I never had this issue before now.
Thanks on comments and this does appear to be a 2.0 issue. I'm looking into it.
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I forgot to mention I did NOT log out and back in again before voting in the thread itself, as the error suggested I should. I just went straight to the poll thread and voted. Not that it matters I guess, but just wanted to throw that in there.
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Nathan
Thanks on comments and this does appear to be a 2.0 issue. I'm looking into it.
As you can see in this post, it's difficult to recognize quoted text as being different from original text in a post except for the fact that it is indented. Can it be highlighted or differentiated in some other manner?
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Is it not showing that for you? Not quite sure what you mean. Quoted text seems to look like it always does, in a light blueish-grey box.
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I see it in IE but not in Firefox
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I see it in IE but not in Firefox
Chrome, Opera, IE, and Firefox all show it for me.
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Not for me in Firefox
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Quotes are showing up normally for me in both Firefox 3.6.10 and 4.0b6.
Also, I noticed that I have icons for SBCC and chat in my profile, but not in my posts. (I should not have either icon.)
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The slight change in look bothers me a little. Not so much because of my aversion to change, but because it is somewhat subtle and it makes me feel like something is off or misplaced. But overall, everything seems to be working just fine. The only visual thing I'm not fond of is the expanding text field because it doesn't display properly for me. I also have slight concerns about the new Accepted Helper feature, simply because it might give the impression that someone is more knowledgeable than they actually are (after all, you can be thanked for any reason). Perhaps the minimum requirement should be increased a little? Just a thought.
EDIT: I don't know if this is just me or not, but I just realized that I can't easily navigate away from the Post Reply/Start New Topic page. For instance, if I make a post and then hit Back, it will take me back to reply/post page as expected. However, once there, pressing Back again just reloads the same page, which then causes the Forward button to be disabled. The only way to leave the page via browser navigation is to bring up the Recent Pages list. Seems to only happen on IE (go figure).
EDIT 2: I also just noticed that the Mark Solved doesn't appear to be working. Clicking on it results in an error. Also, through use of my ghost account, I realized that the button is displayed for all members on all posts. So, if someone creates a new post, someone else can wander in and see the Mark Solved button. Is it meant to be like that?
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I also have slight concerns about the new Accepted Helper feature, simply because it might give the impression that someone is more knowledgeable than they actually are (after all, you can be thanked for any reason). Perhaps the minimum requirement should be increased a little? Just a thought.
Hmmm... hadn't thought about that, but now that you mention it I have to agree.
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For the accepted helper, a ranking system could be used. Someone like patio who has a gazillion thanks should have a better rank than someone with 50 thanks.
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That's what it looks like for me.
Notice the quote and forum title placeholder.
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EDIT: I don't know if this is just me or not, but I just realized that I can't easily navigate away from the Post Reply/Start New Topic page. For instance, if I make a post and then hit Back, it will take me back to reply/post page as expected. However, once there, pressing Back again just reloads the same page, which then causes the Forward button to be disabled. The only way to leave the page via browser navigation is to bring up the Recent Pages list. Seems to only happen on IE (go figure).
Hmm...scratch that. It seems to be working just fine now.
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That's what it looks like for me.
Notice the quote and forum title placeholder.
"Invalid image". Forum also says it's 0 bytes.
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Test picture upload
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Screenshot
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Hmm, intersting. I've got Chrome 6.0.472.63, Firefox 3.6.9, Opera 10.60, and Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18943. Every one of them is displaying the exact same way (as it should?). I opened this exact same page in all of them and it looked right.
I also noticed my avatar is missing from your screenshot for some reason. Related? Are you seeing any other avatars?
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Nope. Not in Firefox or Safari either.
Anyone else have the same problem?
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As you can see in this post, it's difficult to recognize quoted text as being different from original text in a post except for the fact that it is indented. Can it be highlighted or differentiated in some other manner?
I'm betting this is due to the fact that you were on early and don't have an up-to-date CSS file. The original CSS file when first loaded onto the server didn't have the proper CSS for the blockquote (which is what holds the quote). Try refreshing the browser so that the computer can get the latest CSS for the theme.
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Also, I noticed that I have icons for SBCC and chat in my profile, but not in my posts. (I should not have either icon.)
This is an issue with the profile.php file included with 2.0 I've notified SMF about the issue since I was unable to find a way to re-write it myself. Not that familiar with how they're querying the SQL database files through the profile. Hope to have it fixed. But the profile for anyone will have all icons, even if not checked.
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The only visual thing I'm not fond of is the expanding text field because it doesn't display properly for me. I also have slight concerns about the new Accepted Helper feature, simply because it might give the impression that someone is more knowledgeable than they actually are (after all, you can be thanked for any reason). Perhaps the minimum requirement should be increased a little? Just a thought.
EDIT: I don't know if this is just me or not, but I just realized that I can't easily navigate away from the Post Reply/Start New Topic page. For instance, if I make a post and then hit Back, it will take me back to reply/post page as expected. However, once there, pressing Back again just reloads the same page, which then causes the Forward button to be disabled. The only way to leave the page via browser navigation is to bring up the Recent Pages list. Seems to only happen on IE (go figure).
EDIT 2: I also just noticed that the Mark Solved doesn't appear to be working. Clicking on it results in an error. Also, through use of my ghost account, I realized that the button is displayed for all members on all posts. So, if someone creates a new post, someone else can wander in and see the Mark Solved button. Is it meant to be like that?
Understand the concerns with the visual changes, which is why I changed very little and changed *A TON* to make it look like how it was before, that was most of my work this past week. Unfortunately I also just found out that SMF is dropping the YABB theme in RC4, so be prepared for A LOT of changes when we move over to the SMF theme. But for now lets not worry about that. ;)
As far as the "Accepted Helper" feature giving the wrong impression. I could understand how this may be perceieved. I spent probably at most 30 minutes adding this feature, just to see if something like this would be possible. It was easily added and can be easily changed since I wrote it. Just thought 50 would be a good starting point, if the community decides on a different value it can be changed.
The marked as solved still needs tweaking. Right now it's showing to all users (excluding guests) because I'm not sure the syntax of the code to match the topic starter with currently logged in on the message body. You'd think it'd be easy since I'd think you could just do similiar code to the "topic starter" code, but for some reason with it's placement it doesn't seem to work. So still working on resolving this. However, the only people that can mark as solved are the topic starters and I believe Admins. This was an added mod, that only installed with the default theme. So I have to write in the code for the YaBB theme.
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I think accepted helper should be earned through moderator approval, not simply thanks.
Judging just by the chance that someone does or does not click the thank link isn't an accurate judge of whether or not one should be listed as an accepted helper. I think it may also lead to abuse of the system in order to reach the required votes, be it 50 or 150.
Having that label makes one look like they are endorsed by CH as someone that people can trust, which may not always be the case. The moderators here know more or less which of us have some idea of what we're doing and that we give accurate advice and make honest, reliable contributions to CH and have a good rapport overall with the community.
Funny, as I was writing this I was looking for an example of a regular with few votes. Turns out to be me. I only have 45 votes, therefore I don't have that label. Does this mean what I say can't be trusted? Am I not an "Accepted Helper"? In my 3 years here, have I ever given negligently harmful advice? Does the fact that I haven't been thanked by a certain number of people mean that my help is not acceptable or was not effective or helpful in some way? Are Patio, Allan, Carbon, and BC, and Chris out to get me? Do I have to ignore all of you and announce it publicly in my signature? No, of course not... well, maybe Patio... who in the shadows when I sleep.
Really though, I think that kind of a label should be left to the judgement of the moderators, not necessarily the number of thanks one might have.
(Sorry, it kind of sounds like a rant, but it wasn't meant to be. Just wanted to make a point.) ;D
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Really though, I think that kind of a label should be left to the judgement of the moderators, not necessarily the number of thanks one might have.
I have to say that makes more sense to me as well.
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I think accepted helper should be earned through moderator approval, not simply thanks.
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Quaxo, should never have to feel that you're ranting. I want this to be a community driven forum, so value all comments and never treat any comment as a rant. I can see where you're coming from on your views, my only concern with having a moderator / approved system is that it is just another task for someone to have to do. I thought by having this community driven that it would be easier for me to maintain. I could easily create a custom profile section, like the F@H icon that can be enabled by simply checking a box, but would require someone to check it. Also I think if we were to do a system like this we'd need some type of test or checklist the user would have to complete before being added. But I think it's definitely something we can hash out.
Like I mentioned earlier, I spent very little time doing this addition, so my feelings wouldn't be hurt if it disappeared. But we could also customize it more to how the CH community wants it.
p.s. I gave you a thanks. ;)
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I gave it some more thought on my way home from the shop today.
Perhaps it's just the wording "Accepted Helper". Maybe something a little less official sounding, so it doesn't sound like CH is necessarily endorsing their advice, but still acknowledges the time people put into offering free assistance here. Perhaps "Community Contributor" or something like that. That way it shows appreciation to those who contribute substantially to CH.
As a way of preventing abuse of the voting system, if it's possible, it might be considered to count both their thanks and their post count, something like 50 thanks and 1000 posts. I think the majority of regular contributors here would fall into that category. Someone would have to spam heavily to get that many posts quickly and their activity would most likely be picked up.
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Well i thanked Quaxo as well for an excellent point....so he only needs 3 more.... ;D
C'mon Folks....
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I'm really torn when it comes to this. I like the idea of moderator approval, but there are a few issues with that. The act of checking a box isn't a big deal, but I could see there being a lot of accusations of favoritism (or perhaps more than just accusations...?). There are a lot of people who help on a regular basis but likely wouldn't fit the criteria because their knowledge is either borderline or they simply don't have the best attitude. Such a person would likely get upset. I could also see us getting tons of requests to become an Accepted Helper, much like we do for current "positions of power".
Of course, as I stated, basing it on postcount is problematic as well. We've banned several members who had over 1000 posts and 100 thanks. Some people are able to just barely glide by for a while.
It seems to me that there isn't a really good way of doing this. Whatever method is used, there will be drawbacks. The only thing I can think of (aside from scrapping the idea altogether) is to set it up as a ranking system. That way, someone would have to work their way up to Accepted Helper, Trusted Helper, Sponsored Helper, or whatever (the highest rank would need approval). But then, do we really need two ranking systems?
I'm basically on the fence here and just throwing out thoughts/ideas.
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I like the idea, because at least it points out the difference between people like Patio and your average <insert annoyance's name here>. And Chris is right, we have had people over the 1000 post mark who have had to be asked nicely to leave (a.k.a. banned) because of inappropriate behavior.
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On my other site giving members a "trusted" title (we call it either Forum Adviser or Senior Forum Adviser) is strictly a staff decision. Moderators recommend those members they feel have been the most helpful and I approve the request and change the member's title. I dislike calling someone a trusted adviser based solely on either the number of posts or, at CH, the number of "thanks". Let's remember that we already know of one or more members who have multiple accounts and use those accounts to thank themselves.
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Let's remember that we already know of one or more members who have multiple accounts and use those accounts to thank themselves.
Exactly my point. ;)
"Thank me. Thank me very much. Oh, I'm very welcome, don't even mention it."
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Need 2 more Thanx for Quaxo...... ;)
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Heh yeah afraid that it could turn into something like that, with people asking to be thanked so they can get the title.
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Actually i was serious....he deserves it as he's a most qualified contributor...
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Well, I got my title, so I don't care anymore. Drop the issue...
Haha I'm kidding. It really wasn't about me, but thanks for the thanks. I was just using myself as an example because it was the first name I came across.
Like I said, I think it's a good idea to point out people who are really a part of the community here, who take their time to help others and get no reward other than knowing they helped. I just don't want to see that system abused which will completely devalue the meaning of "Accepted Helper" or any other term.
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One other thing separate to above,
The two "progress bars" underneath the username...the second one needs to have a
before it because for someone with a wide screen (i.e. me), they are both beside each other rather than one being under the other.
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One other thing separate to above,
The two "progress bars" underneath the username...the second one needs to have a
before it because for someone with a wide screen (i.e. me), they are both beside each other rather than one being under the other.
Interesting. All I have anymore is widescreens and I haven't had that. What's your resolution?
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The two "progress bars" underneath the username...the second one needs to have a
before it because for someone with a wide screen (i.e. me), they are both beside each other rather than one being under the other.
Indeed it does. I have a widescreen as well but obviously low resolution since it wasn't happening to me during testing. Will look into fixing it.
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Interesting. All I have anymore is widescreens and I haven't had that. What's your resolution?
1920x1080
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I'm betting this is due to the fact that you were on early and don't have an up-to-date CSS file. The original CSS file when first loaded onto the server didn't have the proper CSS for the blockquote (which is what holds the quote). Try refreshing the browser so that the computer can get the latest CSS for the theme.
Right you are. Refreshing didn't work, but a restart did. Thanks.
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Indeed it does. I have a widescreen as well but obviously low resolution since it wasn't happening to me during testing. Will look into fixing it.
Monitor 1920 x 1080; desktop set to same resolution, Firefox 3.6.10
(1) Browser maximised
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/Chope-progbar.jpg)
(2) Browser not maximised (about 800 x 900)
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/Chope-progbar2.jpg)
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i agree somewhat with quaxo and chris , people have been here before who gave bad advice repeatedly in topics all over the forum and in the end they new nothing all they did was copy and paste they answers.
all i do is give basic advice in the virus forum and if i know the answer in any other topic i will answer and i think accepted helper is ok but there should be 3 or 4 levels
but the likes of evilfantasy , superdave , cbmatt and dragonmaster they have their malware expert title as others do to make them different from helpers
just looking around topics , i think malware expert should be in bold and should have a star to set it out , and the likes of broni should have a windows expert title to set him apart as a few others in other expert fields , just a thought
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Heh yeah afraid that it could turn into something like that, with people asking to be thanked so they can get the title.
Many people don't even need a special title for this. On other forums I've visited that use the reputation mod, they constantly ask people to "+rep" them, although it serves no actual purpose. It's just like achievements and trophies in video games...people will do just about anything to get some meaningless numbers displayed next to their name.
Also, one thing that hadn't occurred to me...let's keep in mind that we've had several members reach well over a few hundred posts (and even quite a few thanks) without ever actually helping. There are some people who hang out around here solely to get help with their computers, and...well, sometimes they need a lot of help. Heh.
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Also, one thing that hadn't occurred to me...let's keep in mind that we've had several members reach well over a few hundred posts (and even quite a few thanks) without ever actually helping. There are some people who hang out around here solely to get help with their computers, and...well, sometimes they need a lot of help. Heh.
This is why I suggest the human factor. It is inevitable that if it is controlled solely by statistics, people will try to cheat the system, no matter how many time you tell them to stop doing it.
I used to moderate on a very large Chinese forum for sharing... eh... files. Different files were worth different points, and your points were equal to the number of posts you had made over time. Anyway, to make a long story short, it got to the point where people were posting whatever just to get their post count up. Meaningless gibberish posts, "thank you" posts, a post with nothing but a "...", whatever it took. Mass messages were sent out and warnings were put on all threads that the moderators were instructed to start warning or banning people for doing this. Didn't make a difference. I have since resigned from my moderator position there, but stop in to say "hi" to everyone once in a while. They've stopped putting values on files, but the damage is done and people are still making senseless posts because they don't realize they get nothing by doing it anymore.
The most difficult part of the human factor is getting it set up, as there will be a lot of regulars who deserve it. But once it's done, how often will moderators really be adding more people? Once a week? Two weeks? I can't imagine it'd be very often, but if in passing they see someone who deserves it, then fair enough, tick their box.
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Sorry for posting again, but it's too late to edit my last post.
The wording on this seems a bit redundant:
"No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics."
This is what is displayed under "Replies to your topics" when there are none. Perhaps the wording would sound better like:
"No unread replies since your last visit found. Click here to view all unread topics."
I dunno, maybe I'm just being picky.
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The most difficult part of the human factor is getting it set up, as there will be a lot of regulars who deserve it. But once it's done, how often will moderators really be adding more people? Once a week? Two weeks? I can't imagine it'd be very often, but if in passing they see someone who deserves it, then fair enough, tick their box.
That is a good point. Although the transition would be difficult at first, I'm sure it would eventually become a lot simpler. We go through a lot of changes here and we're always trying to improve everything as much as possible, so it is certainly at least worth a shot.
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That is a good point. Although the transition would be difficult at first, I'm sure it would eventually become a lot simpler. We go through a lot of changes here and we're always trying to improve everything as much as possible, so it is certainly at least worth a shot.
I've done it on two different forums and believe me, it just isn't that big of a deal. On one, I "promoted" those who deserved the new title(s) as soon as the new program went into effect. After that, it's been two or three a year at most. On a more active forum (one MUCH more active than CH) we did the same thing initially, and then once a year mods AND those with the "trusted helper" title are asked to recommend members who should get the new title and those with the most "mentions" or "votes" are chosen. It really isn't a big deal.
I believe here at CH there would probably be 8 or 10 members at most who would get the nod first time around and then we could either do it on an as needed basis or once every 6 or 12 months on a more formal schedule. Either way, it really would not involve much work for any of us - and what little time we would need to spend on it would really be appreciated by the members.
I do agree, however, that adding "trusted helper" just on the basis of any number of posts or "thanks" is probably not the best way to do it.
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The two "progress bars" underneath the username...the second one needs to have a br before it because for someone with a wide screen (i.e. me), they are both beside each other rather than one being under the other.
This has been fixed. Was not as simple as just adding a br tag. Was an issue with CSS. May need to refresh (F5) for fix to be visible.
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just looking around topics , i think malware expert should be in bold
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Agreed. This is a custom title, so all custom titles will now be bold.
Many people don't even need a special title for this. On other forums I've visited that use the reputation mod, they constantly ask people to "+rep" them, although it serves no actual purpose. It's just like achievements and trophies in video games...people will do just about anything to get some meaningless numbers displayed next to their name.
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I did think about some type of rep system as apposed to showing post counts / thanked. But like you mentioned, a lot of people like the counts / trophies, so they remained and got updated. As far as a rep system, I thought about it for Computer Hope but felt it could be bias for all of those who don't care about any of these types of values and often request to have their post count decreased.
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The wording on this seems a bit redundant:
"No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics."
This is what is displayed under "Replies to your topics" when there are none. Perhaps the wording would sound better like:
"No unread replies since your last visit found. Click here to view all unread topics."
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Sounds good. Changed.
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Finally, I'm really enjoying all the thoughts about the "Accepted helper" since I think it's still being discussed and thought about I haven't really done any changing. But I am looking for possible solutions to this issue, since it seems to be one of the bigger issues at this time.
I do however have one concern, which has not been brought up. Whenever doing a system that elects users into it, there is the potential of hurt feelings or anger for users who feel they should be in it but are not accepted. If we were to go this route, I believe there is going to need to be some type of checklist for qualifications.
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I do however have one concern, which has not been brought up. Whenever doing a system that elects users into it, there is the potential of hurt feelings or anger for users who feel they should be in it but are not accepted. If we were to go this route, I believe there is going to need to be some type of checklist for qualifications.
I understand your concern but I really believe it's possible to "overthink" this :). I've seen (and done) this on two other boards and never had one problem. Not one. I think people know how much they actually help vs. participate in the community.
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Also, I noticed that I have icons for SBCC and chat in my profile, but not in my posts. (I should not have either icon.)
Spent the last hour debugging the code and was able to fix this, you should only see the icons that you've enabled now.
Sent in fix to SMF. Find myself finally getting better with PHP code. ;D
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quote by CH admin
I do however have one concern, which has not been brought up. Whenever doing a system that elects users into it, there is the potential of hurt feelings or anger for users who feel they should be in it but are not accepted. If we were to go this route, I believe there is going to need to be some type of checklist for qualifications.
i agree , it takes very little to get some peoples backs up ::)
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you should only see the icons that you've enabled now.
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Yes, it is working now. Thanks.
One other question.
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NEW 2.0 FEATURES YOU MAY ENJOY
- You can select boards that you wish to ignore, e.g. games.
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Would this prevent posts in boards that I have ignored from showing up in the "All unread posts" list? How can I ignore a board?
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Would this prevent posts in boards that I have ignored from showing up in the "All unread posts" list? How can I ignore a board?
Yes it would. However, since making that first post I've realized that this is a mod I'm going to have to install. I'll likely be doing it tonight with other mods.
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I've updated the left bar again, in preparation for some other upcoming features. This update includes the below.
- Post count was moved from the main section into a new hover box that will appear when you move over your rank as shown in the below attachment. As can be seen in the picture, it will also display the percentages in the progress if you're not a Mastermind. If you're a Mastermind it will show how many posts over 15,000 you are. The post count will also be 'commified' (if that's a word) e.g. 15,000 instead of 15000.
- Removed the Approved helper link for now. If you have 50+ thanks it will now just show a simple medal. I plan on continuing to revise this, just ran into a lot of issues with trying to get the groups to work the way I wanted to.
I've also fixed the solved button so if currently set to solved it'll display an "unsolved" button that can be used to unsolve the topic.
[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]
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If I recall correctly this is something requested by Evilfantasy quite a while back that's been on the todo list. I've finally got around to adding the feature that will show the first post of any thread when listing each of the posted messages. This will allow you to quickly understand what the post is about simply by hovering the mouse over the link. Below is an attached picture example of this new feature.
As you'll also notice while testing this feature, everything in the post is capable of being displayed, e.g. formatted text and even pictures. ;D
[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]
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If I recall correctly this is something requested by Evilfantasy quite a while back that's been on the todo list. I've finally got around to adding the feature that will show the first post of any thread when listing each of the posted messages. This will allow you to quickly understand what the post is about simply by hovering the mouse over the link. Below is an attached picture example of this new feature.
As you'll also notice while testing this feature, everything in the post is capable of being displayed, e.g. formatted text and even pictures. ;D
Awesome work!
Another thing, it looks like there is no longer a limit on the height/size of signatures, as I noticed several signatures that are way longer then they should/used to be (mostly due to images).
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Awesome work!
Another thing, it looks like there is no longer a limit on the height/size of signatures, as I noticed several signatures that are way longer then they should/used to be (mostly due to images).
Hmm it's possible I'll look into it. I know the avatars are not getting re-sized, because I simply just removed the JavaScript that does it for the time being because it was once again causing IE errors. ::)
Update: Was a CSS setting. Has been fixed.
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Would this prevent posts in boards that I have ignored from showing up in the "All unread posts" list? How can I ignore a board?
I stand corrected. While looking for the signature setting, I did find an Ignore boards option that was not checked. Checking this enabled this feature. So you can now Ignore boards, e.g. Forum games section, so they're not shown on the new post feature. To do this open your profile, hover over the modify profile option, and click Ignore board options. This will open up a window displaying every board you have access to, check each box you don't want to see new posts on (e.g. Forum games). Enjoy. ;D
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Excellent! Now if I can only find a way to ignore Computer Hope altogether.
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Well, as long as you're staying up nights can I ask for one other minor mod to be added at the very end of your to do list? When I click on the "POSTS" button at the top (to see all new posts), on the screen that comes up the "Mark As Read" button only appears on the bottom of the screen (it used to be on top). If it isn't too much of a hassle, can that button appear on top as well? Again, obviously not a big deal - just something I've gotten used to. Thanks :)
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Egads....
Hover boxes everywhere...
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Egads....
Hover boxes everywhere...
That was my reaction as well. While previewing a thread is a nice addition, I don't like it popping up whenever you go over any thread's topic. Perhaps a pop-up over the solved/unsolved icon.
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I'm with quaxo. The tooltip is very cool, but it feels a little invasive. I'm used to hovering for a few seconds in order to see a preview. If not done as quaxo suggested, I'm assuming there should be a way to set a delay (2 or 3 seconds, maybe). When it pops up immediately like that, it can be a bit confusing as I run my mouse over the various links on a page.
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Glad it wasn't just me...
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[...]
So you can now Ignore boards, e.g. Forum games section, so they're not shown on the new post feature.
[...]
I really like this feature; thank you.
I have a suggestion for the unread posts list. Could you add a button next to the "Last Post" button that goes to the first new post in the topic?
I'm with quaxo. The tooltip is very cool, but it feels a little invasive. I'm used to hovering for a few seconds in order to see a preview. If not done as quaxo suggested, I'm assuming there should be a way to set a delay (2 or 3 seconds, maybe). When it pops up immediately like that, it can be a bit confusing as I run my mouse over the various links on a page.
I agree.
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I'm assuming there should be a way to set a delay (2 or 3 seconds, maybe)
That's a fantastic idea as well.
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I'd like to see the post count back please. When a new member posts there is no count at all and there's no way to see what the count is without going hunting for it (hovering does not work). For example: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110741.new.html#new (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110741.new.html#new)
Additionally, I think people requesting help might want to know if the responder is someone who has been here a while or is new to the forums (I would). And in most cases they won't know they can see the number of posts by "hovering".
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I see it in IE but not in Firefox
Yesterday quoted text was just indented; now it's back how it was before.
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I really wish the monospaced font in the "code" boxes wasn't so tiny. In Firefox 3.6.10, IE 8.0.7600.16385, Opera 10.62, Chrome 6.0.472.63 and Chromium 7.0.537.0.
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/Code-example.jpg)
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If I recall correctly this is something requested by Evilfantasy quite a while back that's been on the todo list. I've finally got around to adding the feature that will show the first post of any thread when listing each of the posted messages. This will allow you to quickly understand what the post is about simply by hovering the mouse over the link. Below is an attached picture example of this new feature.
As you'll also notice while testing this feature, everything in the post is capable of being displayed, e.g. formatted text and even pictures. ;D
i think the dropdown in posts is great it will save the experts a lot of time opening up a topic
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from http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110748.0.html
I'm getting this message when I try to enter computer specs in my Profile:
" The following errors occurred when trying to save your profile:
* The following BBC is not allowed within your signature: abbr, acronym, anchor, bdo, black, blue, center, color, email, flash, font, ftp, glow, green, html, hr, img, iurl, left, li, list, ltr, me, move, nobbc, php, pre, red, right, rtl, s, shadow, size, sub, sup, table, td, time, tr, tt, url, white."
It doesn't make sense. img and url are not allowed? No more images in the signature area? I was using img before the recent forum upgrading and it's still there (in my Profile). But now, when I try to save a change, I get the above error message.
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Thanks. I'm not able to save any changes to my Profile.
BTW, what happened to marking thread as solved?
It's no longer available, i.e. http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110461.15.html
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BTW, what happened to marking thread as solved?
It's no longer available, i.e. http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110461.15.html
It is only visible for the topic starter.
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It is only visible for the topic starter.
I marked one as solved a couple days ago & I wasn't the topic starter, but probably a contributor.
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It is only visible for the topic starter.
No I think it's now visible to Accepted Helpers as well as the Original Poster. I see "mark solved" on this thread, for example, but I'm certainly not the Original Poster.
It's going to take a bit for Nathan to decide on the nest scheme to use for the various features, so there might be some confusion "where did x button go? it was here before" etc in the meantime.
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No I think it's now visible to Accepted Helpers as well as the Original Poster. I see "mark solved" on this thread, for example, but I'm certainly not the Original Poster.
It's going to take a bit for Nathan to decide on the nest scheme to use for the various features, so there might be some confusion "where did x button go? it was here before" etc in the meantime.
I'm clearly confused.
This is the one I marked as Solved: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110646.15.html
Edit: It's now gone, what happened?
The green checkmark shows on the summary page: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/board,12.0.html
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I'd like to see the post count back please. When a new member posts there is no count at all and there's no way to see what the count is without going hunting for it (hovering does not work). For example: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110741.new.html#new (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,110741.new.html#new)
Additionally, I think people requesting help might want to know if the responder is someone who has been here a while or is new to the forums (I would). And in most cases they won't know they can see the number of posts by "hovering".
I actually had no idea it was removed. Personally, I like not having it visible, largely because I think people focus on it way too much. Some newcomers probably do care about postcounts, but the Thanks are proudly displayed and really, I think that says a lot more about a poster than their amount of activity. I'd like to think other people will feel the same way (of course, I have no idea what some of these people are thinking).
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I actually had no idea it was removed. Personally, I like not having it visible, largely because I think people focus on it way too much. Some newcomers probably do care about postcounts, but the Thanks are proudly displayed and really, I think that says a lot more about a poster than their amount of activity. I'd like to think other people will feel the same way (of course, I have no idea what some of these people are thinking).
Maybe it could be made a profile option? To show postcounts, or show Postbar? (Postbar is what I'm calling the current alternative... No idea if it has an "official" name)
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Not sure, but I would like to revise my previous statement. While I don't approve of (or understand) the way people focus on postcounts, I do like knowing when a member is new. I've already caught myself trying to welcome members who have actually been here a while. I guess I'm not enough of a people person to recognize members who are regularly active. Heh.
EDIT: Nevermind, it would seem that new members do not have post/progress bars. So, the above concern is invalid.
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When I click on the "POSTS" button at the top (to see all new posts), on the screen that comes up the "Mark As Read" button only appears on the bottom of the screen (it used to be on top). If it isn't too much of a hassle, can that button appear on top as well?
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Since it's not too critical and just an appearance issue lets see how you and others feel in about a week. If continues to be something that bugs you I'll see what I can do.
That was my reaction as well. While previewing a thread is a nice addition, I don't like it popping up whenever you go over any thread's topic. Perhaps a pop-up over the solved/unsolved icon.
Seems like everyone is agreement about the message hovers, so I've spent some time getting these moved, these will now appear over the solved/unsolved (message) icons.
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If not done as quaxo suggested, I'm assuming there should be a way to set a delay (2 or 3 seconds, maybe). When it pops up immediately like that, it can be a bit confusing as I run my mouse over the various links on a page.
I thought about adding a delay, but figured if there is a 2 or 3 second delay most people would find it easier to just open the post, I'd assume.
I have a suggestion for the unread posts list. Could you add a button next to the "Last Post" button that goes to the first new post in the topic?
Since the main link in the listing goes to the first post I think it would be redundant. But if more in the community wants it, I could do it.
I'd like to see the post count back please. When a new member posts there is no count at all and there's no way to see what the count is without going hunting for it (hovering does not work). Additionally, I think people requesting help might want to know if the responder is someone who has been here a while or is new to the forums (I would). And in most cases they won't know they can see the number of posts by "hovering".
First, I'll agree that it was a bug with the new users not showing any post counts or a bar. I'd forgotten that the bars were only being displayed if the post count was greater than five. I've changed this, so they show for everyone.
I'm still tweaking this section, as I'm sure you're aware so bare with me for a few days. I moved the posts into the hover as an experiment to see what the overall community thought and to clean up the message profile box. The total posts on a board always seem to be an issue and with people and I was going to see if maybe moving it into a section that is hidden but could still be seen if wanted may resolve some of the issues.
As far as people thinking or believing that the advice may be better for someone with a higher post count or who has been around for a while, I don't believe that would be the case overall. I'd imagine the thanked count would be more of an indication and the quality of the post.
However, as always this is a work in progress so it can easily be moved back in the future.
I really wish the monospaced font in the "code" boxes wasn't so tiny. In Firefox 3.6.10, IE 8.0.7600.16385, Opera 10.62, Chrome 6.0.472.63 and Chromium 7.0.537.0.
Agreed. Removed the x-small, statement in the CSS. You'll need to refresh the browser to see the new changes.
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I thought about adding a delay, but figured if there is a 2 or 3 second delay most people would find it easier to just open the post, I'd assume.
I don't know about it being easier. Maybe just as easy, but not necessarily easier. I get your point, though, and I think it depends on the person. For me, the tooltip loads a lot faster than a forum page does, so even with the delay, it would be quicker than clicking on the link, waiting for it to load, going back, and waiting for the previous page to load again. There is also less clicking, of course. But I'm just speaking for myself here. I've noticed that my tastes/preferences are different from most people and no matter how much sense something makes to me, people often disagree. I'd be interested in seeing a few people weigh in on this one.
bare with me for a few days
You guys gettin' nekkid?
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the link on the main forum page for members has been removed i think it was about the users online section
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Add Mark as Solved "checkmark" to key on bottom as shown in attached:
[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]
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the link on the main forum page for members has been removed i think it was about the users on line section
Users on line never stopped working for me. Do you mean something else?
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yes , there was the word ( members ) which was a link to the list of members in CH
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yes , there was the word ( members ) which was a link to the list of members in CH
Under Forum Stats, click on number after: Total Members
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Under Forum Stats, click on number after: Total Members
ok i THINK thats new , but the members button click it and you got the index for the members
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Since the main link in the listing goes to the first post I think it would be redundant.
I was thinking of a link to the first unread post, not the first post. It is particularly useful for longer topics.
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I don't know if this is because of the changes with SMF 2.0, or something else. When I tried to vote on the poll from the main page this month I got this:
"Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again."
I was finally able to find some type of solution for this issue, although it still need some customization. Using the SMF SSI and taking the home page to a dynamic SSI page I was able to render the polls outside the forums or the results for that poll if you've participated in it. With SMF 2.0 allowing guest votes this should hopefully return the polls back to how they were several years ago when we were getting a lot more votes each month because anyone could participate in the poll.
I'm also happy that something has finally made me take the static home page to a dynamic page and look forward to redesigning the home page again in the near future. However, now going to focus on all the monthly updates, since it is already the end of the month. :-\
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I started reading that and though, hey, that sounds familiar....
I take it from Carbon's edit of it something more was removed...
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Advertisement. Think nothing of it.
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I have a suggestion for the unread posts list. Could you add a button next to the "Last Post" button that goes to the first new post in the topic?
Never mind. I just realized that a UserStyle I wrote for the Firefox extension, Stylish, had stopped working and was hiding the "New" button next to the titles. Somehow it was only hiding the buttons in the unread posts list and not the rest of the forum.
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Why have we lost the tt (monospaced) font style, and the font colour and size options?
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Why have we lost the tt (monospaced) font style, and the font colour and size options?
I noticed that too. However, it can still be done manually with size= and color=. ;D
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I noticed that too. However, it can still be done manually with size= and color=. ;D
But not the monospaced I think?
It's ignored
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But not the monospaced I think?
It's ignored
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/tt-ignored-quote.jpg)
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Still a button for making things glow though.
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Still a button for making things glow though.
That should keep the 8 year olds happy.
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When I start a topic on the computer news board, I can lock/unlock it. The last two topics that I've posted there, since the upgrade, are like that.
Also, the sticky topics used to be a slightly lighter shade of blue than the other topics when you were looking at a board. It made it easier for me to see the first topic on the board. Would that be hard to change back?
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Also, the sticky topics used to be a slightly lighter shade of blue than the other topics when you were looking at a board. It made it easier for me to see the first topic on the board. Would that be hard to change back?
You know, I've noticed something's been off for days, yet I couldn't put my finger on it. That's it.
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Why have we lost the tt (monospaced) font style, and the font colour and size options?
Like many of the BBC tags, this was another that I didn't think many if anyone used. However, since it's been mentioned like the color and glow I've added TT back.
When I start a topic on the computer news board, I can lock/unlock it. The last two topics that I've posted there, since the upgrade, are like that.
Also, the sticky topics used to be a slightly lighter shade of blue than the other topics when you were looking at a board. It made it easier for me to see the first topic on the board. Would that be hard to change back?
I'll look into fixing both of these issues.
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Hey Nathan, I've noticed a number of BB codes have been disabled in signatures:
The following BBC is not allowed within your signature: abbr, acronym, anchor, bdo, black, blue, center, color, email, flash, font, glow, green, html, hr, left, li, list, ltr, me, move, nobbc, php, pre, red, right, rtl, s, shadow, size, sub, sup, table, td, time, tr, tt, white.
While most of it I understand, like email and size, but why has alignment (left, center, right) been disallowed?
Personally, I like my signature, which it was until I changed my profile picture and this message popped up. If I hadn't changed my picture, it would have left it alone.
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I have noticed that a few links in the header need to be updated.
Under "Help":
The "Staff" link is broken.
Under "Profile":
The "Settings" link should be "http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=account"
The "Notifications" link should be "http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=notification"
The "Statistics" link should be "http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=statistics"
Under "Posts":
The "All unread posts" link should be "http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=unread;all"
Also, in Firefox when I am not logged in to the forum, I get a horizontal scroll-bar.
When I disabled the "border-left" entry in the following code, the scroll-bar went away.
#infobar a, #infobar a:link, #infobar a:visited, #infobar a:active {
display: block;
color: #000;
width: 100%;
background: #ffffe1 url(warning.gif) no-repeat center left;
border-bottom: .2em outset;
border-left: .2em outset;
text-decoration: none;
cursor:default
}
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Where ya been ? ?
;D
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Keep up the good work Nathan :)
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Just letting everyone know I'll be working on these updates. I've been spending the first of this month primarily focused on converting the home page to a dynamic page, RSS feeds, twitter page, and new page content. Plan on bouncing back to the forums now.
Still need to do the sticky post color changes and will look into the issues you pointed out Kip.
Thanks
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In PM's, it seems the "TO" entry is no longer predictive and thus will not auto-complete --- you must know the exact name of the person to whom you are sending it.
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In PM's, it seems the "TO" entry is no longer predictive and thus will not auto-complete --- you must know the exact name of the person to whom you are sending it.
I'm not having a problem with that.
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I'm not having a problem with that.
Just off-hand without looking into it I believe that there is an issue with compatibility between Firefox and IE with this feature.
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Ahhh. Okay, I'm using Firefox these days.
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i have just got a e-mail from ch saying that a member called " knot " had posted when i went to it there was no new post this is the link , harry
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=112485.new;topicseen#new
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I'm not able to check, but I'm guessing his post was probably deleted, either by himself or one of my fellow moderators.
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I'm not able to check, but I'm guessing his post was probably deleted, either by himself or one of my fellow moderators.
ok chris , i tried to find the members list to see if he was there but the members link has gone
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Been away (from this forum) for a while. Come back to find "child boards". Please define "child boards"? :-[
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Any forum UNDER a main forum (for example, WINDOWS is the main forum and Windows 7 is a child or sub forum
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We're havin babies...Nuff said.