New forum software - questions, comments and bug reports

[Rik]

As the subject says, this thread is for the discussion of the new SMF2 forum. Please let us know if you encounter any problems, have any questions or would like to make a comment.

Note that there's a sticky here:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,26600.0.html

covering the new WYSIWYG quick reply box.

[zappaDPJ]

A quick update: The upgrade is now more or less complete but it did prove to be somewhat problematical. There are still a few outstanding issues to be addressed later today but these should not have any major effect on how the forum functions.

Welcome back

[Gary]

First impression...it looks really cluttered when you view say 'Broadband news and discussion' it looks to me anyway to be messy cluttered and the colours don't help with its a sea of text lacking definition, but like all things it takes time to get used to I guess. The Orange and blue really clash as colours as well. Also instead of stars now you have huge boxes, something else that on first look seems ugly. Also it seems harder to now scan the posts because of the layout    I dont seem to be able to copy and paste from another post right now either...I'm sure I will get used to it in the end but I did prefer the original layout, and the fact some browsers cannot use this new (cant copy and paste the name of it) is a bit of a pain.

[Rik]

Cluttered in what way, Gary? The cut/paste WYSIWYG can be turned off in your profile. You shouldn't be seeing much orange, what were you thinking of in particular?

As to the rest, we have no option but to upgrade, if we stayed with SMF1 we'd have security problems.

[Gary]

that was odd tried to reply did a spell check and all of what I had written vanished! 

[Gary]

I appreciate the hard work and I know you have to stay on top of things it just seems with the icons on the left and the overal colour sceme for me at this moment I find it hard to concentrate on, I need to turn this what ever its called off as I cant even use FF spell check as I type hang on.

[Rik]

that was odd tried to reply did a spell check and all of what I had written vanished! 

Same for me.

[Rik]

I appreciate the hard work and I know you have to stay on top of things it just seems with the icons on the left and the overal colour sceme for me at this moment I find it hard to concentrate on, I need to turn this what ever its called off as I cant even use FF spell check as I type hang on.

Can you post a screen shot of the colour scheme you're seeing?

[zappaDPJ]

Just a quick note before I disappear. I will be looking at any issues reported here later on today. I can't promise to fix everything especially if it's subjective but I will at least give an answer to anything raised.

[Gary]

with that (whatever its called off) I can use spell check again Phew  as I was saying its just adjustment but before there was better contrast now the colours for me at least make it harder to read the boards. its like looking at the small ads of a newspaper if that makes sense? Well done for doing such a massive upgrade though. It just has issues and Yellow Orange and blue really don't go well when they are so bold, but that's just me. and the redish pink warning about replies is a bit loud its just new, in a few days it will blend in I hope, not sure I want pop ups about karma either, to me that's an extra and not something thats a feature that needs to be enhanced. Its a nice side line appreciation thing but not major in your face feature.

The 'new' in Orange is a bit yucky as Orange and blue if used in large amounts can cause a strobe effect but as I said anything new takes time to get used to, Rik. The main thing is we are secure and that's good

[Rik]

So can you give me a screen shot, Gary, I want to check you're on the right theme.

[Gary]

So can you give me a screen shot, Gary, I want to check you're on the right theme.

Will in a few, Rik. Need to take pills etc have carer here.

[Rik]

OK. I may be sleeping by then, though.

[pctech]

Good look, looks like the crawlers have arrived too as Google and the Chinese search engine Baidu are listed as being around.

[Lance]

They've always been around, Mitch, but the new software actually names them.

[pctech]

I suspected so but was just flagging up in case it was something the admins had thought they'd turned off.

[Lance]

Thanks

[Simon]

with that (whatever its called off) I can use spell check again Phew  as I was saying its just adjustment but before there was better contrast now the colours for me at least make it harder to read the boards. its like looking at the small ads of a newspaper if that makes sense? Well done for doing such a massive upgrade though. It just has issues and Yellow Orange and blue really don't go well when they are so bold, but that's just me. and the redish pink warning about replies is a bit loud its just new, in a few days it will blend in I hope, not sure I want pop ups about karma either, to me that's an extra and not something thats a feature that needs to be enhanced. Its a nice side line appreciation thing but not major in your face feature.

The 'new' in Orange is a bit yucky as Orange and blue if used in large amounts can cause a strobe effect but as I said anything new takes time to get used to, Rik. The main thing is we are secure and that's good

I know the orange 'new' stands out a bit, Gary, but I guess it's supposed to. 

The Karma popup is a new feature, because some time ago, people wanted to know who had given them a Karma, and what it was for.  Now, if you click OK after seeing the popup, it will take you to your Karma log, so you can see who's given you Karma.  This can be turned off in your Profile, if you don't like it, and there may be other new features that are switched 'on' by default (otherwise, you may not have known they were there), but can be disabled in user profiles.

I'm not sure what you mean about it looking 'cluttered'.  The layout is very similar to the old board - in fact, we have tried to make it as familiar looking as possible, hence the same overall theme, but with a facelift.  We can tweak bits here and there, but, with no disrespect, we can't tailor it to every individual's tastes. 

Like everything, it will take a little bit of getting used to.  We have been testing the new software for a few weeks now, and we believe it to be an improvement on the old board, although, there are inevitably some differences in behaviour.  As Rik said, the upgrade was essential, for security purposes. 

[.Griff.]

The Karma popup is a new feature, because some time ago, people wanted to know who had given them a Karma, and what it was for.  Now, if you click OK after seeing the popup, it will take you to your Karma log, so you can see who's given you Karma.  This can be turned off in your Profile, if you don't like it, and there may be other new features that are switched 'on' by default (otherwise, you may not have known they were there), but can be disabled in user profiles.

Is this a feature currently only available to admin as I can't find any such popup and/or any details about who's left Karma anywhere at all?

One bug I've noticed is that the Firefox Dictionary add-on doesn't work on this forum for some reason.

[Lance]

Within your profile you have the notification options, where it gives the ability to have the pop-up, a pm, or no notification.

I've just checked your profile and you should get a pop-up.

[Ray]

I think the popup only appears when your Karma changes.

[Lance]

Which it recently has 

[.Griff.]

Cheers Lance.

Indeed I did get a pop-up but Firefox blocked it and instead of allowing it I cancelled it by mistake.

At least I know what Simon was referring to now.

Rik any idea why Firefox Dictionary isn't working?

[Lance]

Is the dictionary an add-on? I can't see where to enable it on my FF5.

[Simon]

Is this a feature currently only available to admin as I can't find any such popup and/or any details about who's left Karma anywhere at all?

I should have read to the end of the thread - you've just got another one! 

One bug I've noticed is that the Firefox Dictionary add-on doesn't work on this forum for some reason.

That's odd - the SeaMonkey one does, and I thought they were the same.  I'll check in Firefox.

[Simon]

Griff, I'm on Firefox 5, now, with the British English Dictionary 1.19.1 installed, and it seems to be picking up spelling errors.  What are you finding isn't working?

[.Griff.]

It does pick up the errors Simon but if you right click on them it doesn't come up with the usual corrections and/or allow you to select the correct spelling.

Idnetters SMF2 forum -



My SMF2 forum -



Notice how I spell the word router incorrectly on both forum and it's identified by the red line underneath but on Idnetters when you right click the dictionary menu with suggestions doesn't appear.

[Lance]

I'm getting the standard menu rather than the spell check menu too. I've just updated to FF6 and installed the british english dictionary.

[Simon]

Oh, I see.  Yes, I've just checked mine again, and it doesn't offer any suggestions, but it does if you switch off WYSIWYG with the toggle  >>> 

That said, it works fine with or without WYSIWYG on SeaMonkey. 

[Simon]

You can set WYSIWYG to off by default by choosing 'Non-WYSIWYG (with buttons and smilies)' from Profile > Look and Layout.

Sorry about this - the mod does seem quite buggy, but SMF have now adopted it themselves, so hopefully it will be updated soon.

[.Griff.]

Weird. At least it's easy enough to toggle the WYSIWYG view and get it working again. I can live with that 

[Lance]

Odd - If I format the text bold then it works. Looking at the SMF forum, we are not alone in having this random issue.

I'll carry on looking to see if there is a fix other than to not use the wysiwyg editor.

[Simon]

Thanks Lance.  I've posted on the SMF forums, so will keep an eye out for any responses.

[Simon]

Weird. At least it's easy enough to toggle the WYSIWYG view and get it working again. I can live with that 

Yes, it's a pain, though, and it's annoying that it doesn't work properly.  Unfortunately, I think the developer has lost interest, now he's handed it over to SMF, and they could take months, if not years, to update it. 

[Rik]

So you'll all just have to learn to spell. Unless you need WYSIWYG, my own recommendation would be to turn it off in your profiles until the bugs are fixed.

[john]

This seems different, or at least I don't remember it happening before, but if I click an a new (to me) thread and there's more than a screenful of posts it doesn't display the first ones but goes to ones at the bottom of the page. Similarly if after reading the last post on a page and click to go to the next page it again shows the last posts on the page rather than the ones at the top. It's not a big issue, just a little annoying having to scroll up to be able to view the posts in order. Maybe there's some setting to change this but I've not been able to find it.

[Rik]

I haven't spotted that, John, we'll keep an eye out.Could you check that in your profile, Look & Layout, you haven't got the 'show most recent posts at top' box checked?

[Simon]

I haven't noticed it either.  Where are you clicking to get to the new posts, John?

[john]

Thanks Rik, maybe it's a 'feature' 

[Rik]

Just had a look at your profile, John, it's definitely not got that box checked. Try clearing your cache and the forum 904 cookie, then logging out and back in again. See if that resolves things.

[john]

I haven't noticed it either.  Where are you clicking to get to the new posts, John?

I click on 'Show unread posts since last visit' and click either on the thread title which takes me to the first page or select from a page number, whichever page I choose it automatically goes to the bottom of the page. This may be considered useful if you always want to view the most recent posts but if it's a page you haven't seen before then it's usually necessary to see the posts in order.

If there is more than one page then after reading the last post and clicking the next page number it doesn't show me the next post in sequence but goes straight to the bottom of the next page selected and I need to scroll up to see the posts in the correct order.

As I said it's not really a big issue and maybe it's just my settings if nobody else has reported this.

[Rik]

Try not clicking on 'show unread', but manually select a thread, John. Does it work then?

[john]

Try not clicking on 'show unread', but manually select a thread, John. Does it work then?

Thanks Rik, that seems to have fixed it   

It also seems to be working as before when finding posts by using the 'show unread posts' option too.

(I also tried logging out and clearing the cache first but this didn't make any difference)

[Rik]

Cookie confusion, John, they are simple beasts.

[Simon]

I click on 'Show unread posts since last visit' and click either on the thread title which takes me to the first page or select from a page number, whichever page I choose it automatically goes to the bottom of the page. This may be considered useful if you always want to view the most recent posts but if it's a page you haven't seen before then it's usually necessary to see the posts in order.

If there is more than one page then after reading the last post and clicking the next page number it doesn't show me the next post in sequence but goes straight to the bottom of the next page selected and I need to scroll up to see the posts in the correct order.

As I said it's not really a big issue and maybe it's just my settings if nobody else has reported this.

If you're on the Unread Posts page, clicking the button will take you to the first unread post since your last visit.

[john]

Thanks Simon, I personally prefer it when useful options etc are highlighted in a colour such as orange/red. It makes it stand out, easier to find and makes the page look a bit more interesting.

[Simon]

Yes, but that should solve your question too, John. 

[john]

Sorry Simon, yes it does, the rest of my post was just meant to be a favourable comment 

[Simon]

Thanks.   

[Gary]

The FF dictionary only worked for me when I turned off WYSIWYG (so did copy and paste) as to colours no matter what its meant to be its yucky but I'll get used to that. I am sure it will be fine in a few days  but the new look seems does seem less clear to me when I read it, that's maybe just my eyesight or the way I perceive things not much I can do about that 

[Gary]

Wow this whole section was not there for me when I first loaded this...weird or its me having a very bad day which is possible

[Rik]

You might think that, Gary, but we couldn't possibly comment.

[Simon]

Sorry, not with you, Gary.

[Gary]

Still really dislike the colours *sigh* the orange appears to be hovering off the page, its my eyesight I imagine, I get ophthalmic migraines and orange and blue always jars me, I cant look at a dress that has orange and blue on it in a certain hue Justina has as I get the same effect 

[Gary]

Sorry, not with you, Gary.

When I posted I was replying to griffs bit about FF dictionary not working when I had finished all these extra posts were here that explained what I just said. I think its me sorry just not up with things today so I may have seen the new posts thing or not I cant tell. 

[Rik]

Still really dislike the colours *sigh* the orange appears to be hovering off the page, its my eyesight I imagine, I get ophthalmic migraines and orange and blue always jars me, I cant look at a dress that has orange and blue on it in a certain hue Justina has as I get the same effect 

Sorry, Gary, but we're not in a position to be able to offer fine-tuning on an individual basis. Have you tried adjusting the monitor?

[Gary]

Sorry, Gary, but we're not in a position to be able to offer fine-tuning on an individual basis. Have you tried adjusting the monitor?

Its just me, maybe the forum is brighter as the iMac is LED backlit, but I have had this issue for years, I had an album cover that did the same  I'm sure ill mellow into it. No worries it does look good its just the orange and blue bit, maybe ill wear shades.

[pctech]

Sorry to ask and I reckon the answer will be no because I didn't see it when I tinkered with SMF a bit but is it possible to do something about the two tone colouring on the threads as the darker blue ones are hard to read when your eyes are tired after staring at screens with grey and blue backgrounds all day like I have.

The old was easier on the eye.

[Lona]

I don't see much difference.  A forum is a forum as far as I'm concerned. As long as I can post and read posts I don't care about colours or dictionaries I never even knew there was a spell check on the old forum.  If I was unsure I just googled the word.

Good work lads and it's security that matters at the end of the day not all the fancy trimmings.

[Simon]

As long as I can post and read posts I don't care about colours or dictionerys.

That's a bit of luck!   

Good work lads and it's security that matters at the end of the day not all the fancy trimmings.

[Lona]

That's a bit of luck!   

OK, Simon, so I can't spell.

[Gary]

I don't see much difference.  A forum is a forum as far as I'm concerned. As long as I can post and read posts I don't care about colours or dictionaries I never even knew there was a spell check on the old forum.  If I was unsure I just googled the word.

Good work lads and it's security that matters at the end of the day not all the fancy trimmings.

You say that now 

[JohnH]

Who are Yahoo!, Google, Baidu (4) that always appear to be browsing the boards ever since the new one was launched? 

[zappaDPJ]

They are web crawlers (spiders) indexing the forum for search engines such as Google. They were always there doing the same thing but the forum upgrade allows them to be named and visible.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler

[JohnH]

Yes, I'm familiar with spiders, but do they really need to be visible? I can't see what useful purpose it serves. 

[Simon]

Well, I guess if there were none, it would tell us that we aren't being seen by search engines.  At least this confirms that we are. 

[.Griff.]

Simon if you go to - Administration Center > Search Engines > Settings you can select "Show Spider Names - Admin Only" which still retains the function but doesn't show the spiders for general forum users.

(Only posting this in case you didn't know that option existed)

[Simon]

I hadn't spotted it, Griff, so thanks. 

[JohnH]

That's better. 

[Glenn]

They're still watching you though, John 

[Glenn]

You can just view Members only, by using the filter on the right of the 'Online' page

[Simon]

Does it 'stick' for next time, Glenn?

[Glenn]

I've just logged out and back in, and the selected view hasn't changed.

[JohnH]

You can just view Members only, by using the filter on the right of the 'Online' page

I was referring to the 'Users online' section at the bottom of the home page, which is different from the 'Online' page.
The former section seems to be okay now, so maybe Simon followed what Griff suggested.

[Simon]

Didn't realise that, John.

[Tacitus]

Anyone else use 1-PassWord, Keepass or similar?

I use the former and with the new system it will only access the login at top right and refuses to fill-in the login page no matter what I do.  The result is that I cannot stay logged in, but have to re-login virtually every time I return to the forum.  I've tried deleting/re-enabling the 1-PW login in the hope that it will pick up the new one, but sadly that doesn't solve it. 

What I think happens - my knowledge of HTML is not that good - is that 1-PW looks at the web page for the code appropriate to the login field and it can only find that for the login at top right.  The only way to rectify it is probably to alter the code for the main login page.

It's irritating, at least for me,  but probably not a major problem.

[Steve]

Sorry Tac never used it,however I've just downloaded 1-Password created a login for Idnetters. Installed the 1P safari browser extension. Logged out of Idnetters. Clicked on the browser task bar tab for IP and then clicked login and it worked. It is using the top right login, why probably me being mutton do you need to use the main login page?


Trouble with this software is I'll forget all my passwords in time,it does make life somewhat easier.

[Rik]

Can't you just use the cookie, Tac?

[Ray]

I get the same problem using Roboform, Tac, but I've found that if I fill in the top login and tick the box to stay logged in on the lower login box, I do in fact stay logged in.

[Simon]

If you allow the cookie to be saved, and not deleted at the end of each browser session, and you login from the Login button, ticking the box to always stay logged in, you shouldn't have to log in each time. 

[Tacitus]

......why probably me being mutton do you need to use the main login page?

Because using the top right login won't let me stay logged in....

Trouble with this software is I'll forget all my passwords in time,it does make life somewhat easier.

It is very useful and allows you to use long and complex passwords.  For fora, it probably doesn't matter, but for Bank or store accounts maybe it does 

Can't you just use the cookie, Tac?

The cookie is enabled on this machine but it still won't stay logged in.  Perhaps it's a problem with just this machine.

If you allow the cookie to be saved, and not deleted at the end of each browser session, and you login from the Login button, ticking the box to always stay logged in, you shouldn't have to log in each time. 

OK thanks Steve I'll give that a try.

Note:  Fora. Forums?  Despite the handle, I've long since forgotten my schoolboy Latin

[Rik]

Does the browser clear cookies on shutdown, Tac?

[Steve]

I think I've manage to replicate the same login issue Tac and can't solve it either.

[Rik]

Is any external app cleaning out temp folders etc?

[Tacitus]

Does the browser clear cookies on shutdown, Tac?

Yes, but it's set to not delete 'Netters.  Don't think anything is clearing temporary caches etc - at least not until logoff/shutdown

[Rik]

Right, send me your machine and I will attempt to get to the bottom of it.

[Tacitus]

I think I've manage to replicate the same login issue Tac and can't solve it either.

Might be worth having a word with the Devs at Agile.  Actually it would be interesting to see if the same problem exists with the Windows version of 1-PW.

[Tacitus]

Right, send me your machine and I will attempt to get to the bottom of it.

It's a Mac......

[Rik]

I didn't say I was going to fix it.