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Functionality for new forum

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, April 22, 2021 12:57 PM

Overmod
Much of the format coding is not HTML tags but BBcode (from the quaintly archaic 'bulletin boards' on the Internet of yore).

Indeed, but they chiefly differ in the type of brackets ([] vs <>).  If you understand one, you'll usually understand the other.

It does remain to be seen how long such functionality remains.

In my experience, if there's a useful function (at least to me) it will soon be eliminated, or at least buried where it's impossible to find it.

A primer on the forum code would be great for those who are regulars.

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:00 PM

Overmod
I say bring back the OP engine.  

In all fairness, it was a huge file, so it wasn't hard to invoke feelings of guilt. Whistling

Plus, it was a "boosted" image, so it would never fly in the intellectual property rights-obsessed climate we have here today.Devil

This signature, OTOH, every pixel is the fruit of mine own hand, so I feel it to be defensible, for better or for worse,...from the I.P. gremlins

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:02 PM

Convicted One
An interesting thing about animated gifs over the internet, they actually only run once  (download) per session when you first view them, ....and thereafter they run from your own machine.

That is correct, but note that all the sigs in all the posts change dynamically, without having to refresh or reload the page, when someone edits or changes their sig in preferences.  I just scrolled down to check the four little monitors with Xs and they are gone between refreshes...

The dancing ads behave the same way, I think, with the added fillip that at least some of them stop after a few cycles.  The concern is that each time the page reloads you get a new crop, and I'm not sure I like the idea that lots of dancing images are being buffered in local storage just to speed page display...

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:06 PM

A static image would get stuffed  onto your machine the same way.

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:19 PM

Murphy Siding
Now that you mention it, your signature that I see is a horizontal blue rectangle with 4 icons that look like compute monitors with X's in them. Simple, yet elegant.

There should be 5 X's there, the sky is an image also. 

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:20 PM

And it should be remembered that most animgifs, even those that are image-based, are comparatively small as files.

For a while, I was using a variant of Jeff Lisowski's sig from RyPN, made of all the joke images of various wacky GG1 variants and permutations from Sam Berliner III's site (with the manic repeat rate edited down to where epileptics could more safely view it).  In editing code for that file I was struck by how small it actually was.

It would be nice to presume that the dancing-ad code has been properly written for minimum bandwidth.  It has been a while since the last malformed ad code locked my browser... Laugh

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:55 PM

What I'd like to see added is a feature that exists in other forums I visit.

On those forums, in the list of threads, one has the option to go directly to the first post that has appears since one's last visit to that thread.

This forum lets you skip only to the last post in the thread, as do my other forums. But that functionality is not nearly as handy as what I desribed above.

Still in training.


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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 22, 2021 3:25 PM

LithoniaOperator
On those forums, in the list of threads, one has the option to go directly to the first post that has appears since one's last visit to that thread.

Delphi Forums are pretty good with that functionalty.

 

SHOW DISCUSSIONS:

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L.O.,  I give you my vote for the best suggestion, so far!!

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, April 22, 2021 3:51 PM

Come to think of it, now that it's doubled my post with that inane doubling of 'submit new post' when you think you're editing -- fix that crap, please.

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, April 22, 2021 3:53 PM

LithoniaOperator
On those forums, in the list of threads, one has the option to go directly to the first post that has appears since one's last visit to that thread.

RyPN does this, and it is one of their most useful features.

The problem with Kalmbach is that they would have to 'interlock' it with the last-post-first display order option -- which they already imperfectly know how to support.

I would NOT however want to replace a general preference to see last-posts-first.  If they could track 'threads responded to' and display only THOSE from the first 'unread' post, it would be better... 

On the other hand if they can't fix the preference so I can choose to view the order either way, let's just go to 'first unread post' as an option the way RyPN allows.

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Thursday, April 22, 2021 4:15 PM

- Be able to PM from phone.

- To actually get New Post notifications for threads I've posted in, as I've chosen in Settings. ( I used get them, then they quit coming.

- As my other forums do, continually auto-save content in the Reply box. When you're making a post, if it suddenly disappears, when you return to the box, you have the option to "Restore Auto-Saved Content."

- When you choose a moniker and an avatar, have the ability to preview how it will be presented on the forum pages before committing. OR, have the ability to change one's moniker, just as one can change the avatar. OR, let member know the max # of characters that can display on one line. Preferably, do all of the above!

Still in training.


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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 22, 2021 11:03 PM

LithoniaOperator
When you choose a moniker and an avatar, have the ability to preview how it will be presented on the forum pages before committing. OR, have the ability to change one's moniker, just as one can change the avatar. OR, let member know the max # of characters that can display on one line. Preferably, do all of the above!

 

When I first saw this post, I thought you had lost your cool blue avatar. But now I see that you have multiple accounts, this one and the one with way more posts, a better formatted moniker, and a 2019 begin date.  Kinda eerie coming so soon in the wake of the recent membername scandal we all just observed.   Is this  recent swap related to the account access problem you've been expeeriencing?

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Friday, April 23, 2021 10:45 AM

Convicted One

 

 
LithoniaOperator
When you choose a moniker and an avatar, have the ability to preview how it will be presented on the forum pages before committing. OR, have the ability to change one's moniker, just as one can change the avatar. OR, let member know the max # of characters that can display on one line. Preferably, do all of the above!

 

 

When I first saw this post, I thought you had lost your cool blue avatar. But now I see that you have multiple accounts, this one and the one with way more posts, a better formatted moniker, and a 2019 begin date.  Kinda eerie coming so soon in the wake of the recent membername scandal we all just observed.   Is this  recent swap related to the account access problem you've been expeeriencing?

 

It's complicated ...

I created this problem, sadly. When I first joined, I named myself LithoniaOperator (no space between the words). When I saw my first post, I realized that my moniker wouldn't fit on one line, and instead I got LithoniaOper and the dot dot dot. I was bummed. That account was/is connected to my then and current gmail email address.

 

So I went to Yahoo and created a new email address, solely for the purpose of a work-around. I created a new account with that address and the two-word "Lithonia Operator," and put up the blue avatar. And that worked out; the words are on two lines. But I had to have that second email address.

 

Then along came the new Kalmbach websites, and I had the same issues most of you did, with logging in and out, no access or limited access to NewsWire, etc. So I emailed customer service, and a very cordial woman named Kat looked into that stuff. And she noticed that I had two accounts, and asked if I wanted them combined under my (primary) gmail address. I jumped at the chance and said Yes.

 

However, I didn't realize (but probably should have) that once the Yahoo address was discarded, that did NOT mean that my forum identity under the gmail address would now have the two-word Lithonia Operator and the blue avatar. So then I was back to the orginal LithoniaOper... account. I tried using the blue avatar there, but got a malfunction notice. So then I gave the avatar a different name and tried that. No dice.

 

So, I explained my sins to Kat, but she said she didn't have the power to make the good name and avatar go with the gmail address. But she'd be forwarding my request to Kalmbach's HQ (Kat is apparently part of an independent company Kalmbach contracts with), and she was optimistic they will straighten it out.

 

And right now it seems that the correct two-word moniker IS attached to the two-word moniker. (But we'll see how this looks after it's posted.) But I cannot get any avatar to upload.

 

Stay tuned ...

 

Still in training.


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Posted by zugmann on Friday, April 23, 2021 10:51 AM

Lithonia Operator
Stay tuned ...

Your other acocunt (with the blue avatar) is now showing as MMLdelete ( I guess that's fancy words for "deleted"?).  Looks like that one may be gone for good.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Friday, April 23, 2021 10:54 AM

Yahoo!! I have my two-word moniker back, associated with the gmail address.

However, I can't get any avatar to upload. ??? I get this messsage every time:

Sorry, there was a problem with your last request!

Either the site is offline or an unhandled error occurred. We apologize and have logged the error. Please try your request again or if you know who your site administrator is let them know too.

*    *    *

Back to me, LO, talking. Does anyone have any ideas? CO, on my end here, you have the same stick-figure temporary avatar that I do. Is that what you are seeing on your end also? Have you tried to put up an avatar lately?

The beat goes on.

Still in training.


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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Friday, April 23, 2021 10:59 AM

Convicted One
Kinda eerie coming so soon in the wake of the recent membername scandal we all just observed.

CO, which "scandal" do you refer to. The one with "Northwest" and the plagiarsm? Or did I miss something?

Still in training.


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Posted by Overmod on Friday, April 23, 2021 11:24 AM

Lithonia Operator
 
Convicted One
Kinda eerie coming so soon in the wake of the recent membername scandal we all just observed.

I believe concerning the origin of the name of a certain river vs. a certain shop with that name, in Pennsylvania.
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Posted by Convicted One on Friday, April 23, 2021 11:56 AM

Overmod stated:  "I believe concerning the origin of the name of a certain river vs a certain shop...."

 

 It's times like this I feel as though you know me better than anyone else here. Wink

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Posted by Convicted One on Friday, April 23, 2021 12:00 PM

Lithonia Operator
Back to me, LO, talking. Does anyone have any ideas? CO, on my end here, you have the same stick-figure temporary avatar that I do. Is that what you are seeing on your end also? Have you tried to put up an avatar lately?

Just yesterday I tried to update my avatar for the first time in years, and am suffering the same dysfunction as you are. Hopefully this is just  a temporary set back and not a sign of things to come?

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Posted by Convicted One on Friday, April 23, 2021 12:14 PM

Back to the  original thread title, I just hope that the next iteration of change for the website is not like a lot of times I remember change  being implemented at work, where the "progress" was carefully crafted to eliminate the things we considered to be perks.

aka: everything that is not mandatory is now prohibited..... 

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, April 23, 2021 1:36 PM

It has been screwed up for 18 years and I suspect it will be screwed up for at least 18 more.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, April 26, 2021 9:08 AM

Not, I think, mentioned so far here but recently a topic on the MR forums: e-mail notification of posts to threads of interest, and e-mail notification of PMs.  (BTW something I do not care for in RyPN's notifications is the little pop-up that tells you a new PM has arrived; it gets out of sync sometimes and keeps nagging you that you have a new message when you don't... Smile)

Forum titles, threads, and the PM indicator should all change color when read -- the convention retained on the Trains forum of highlighting in red being sorely missed over on MR.  We may have to decide whether 'jump to last unread post' is more important than 'threads with unread posts display in red' (or user-selectable highlight color or whatever) if it is too hard for them to code both without conflicts.

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Monday, April 26, 2021 9:31 AM

Overmod

Not, I think, mentioned so far here but recently a topic on the MR forums: e-mail notification of posts to threads of interest, and e-mail notification of PMs.  (BTW something I do not care for in RyPN's notifications is the little pop-up that tells you a new PM has arrived; it gets out of sync sometimes and keeps nagging you that you have a new message when you don't... Smile)

Forum titles, threads, and the PM indicator should all change color when read -- the convention retained on the Trains forum of highlighting in red being sorely missed over on MR.  We may have to decide whether 'jump to last unread post' is more important than 'threads with unread posts display in red' (or user-selectable highlight color or whatever) if it is too hard for them to code both without conflicts.

 

To see top notch forum software at work, check out mytractorforum.com and you can read all about my tractor in the GRAVELY section.

Sheldon

    

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