Forum customisation !!!

[Pierre]

OK, here I go again... perhaps I did not read enough but I really did not find this info.

How can I see the beginning of a thread under the thread title... as in the old forum?

Seing only title is kinda hard to decide if I want to read it.

[Bitmaster]

Yes, I too subscribe to his opinion. The ability to see the first sentences of a thread seemed very helpful in deciding to read it or not...

And of course, the smily face: :mad:

[Rick Densing]

Another forum that I frequent uses the VB software. You can hover over the subject in the thread view and it will bring up a tooltip box with the first sentence or two.

[Allen Nelson]

I guess this is the thread to start on complaints about the new forum.

I miss the Table Of Contents, and the indentation that the old forum had. Some of the conversations got pretty convoluted, with multiple conversations going on simultaneously. With this format (with a reply only at the top and bottom, it looks like it's going to be single-treaded, instead of multi-threaded. The TOC had the replyer's name, too, which also added to the enjoyment ("Oh-oh, Terry's replied to Peter's comment")

I'm also not crazy about watching one smiley bonking another all the time I write this post. I'll have to look through the options to see if that smiley window can be ditched. I can disable smileys from vB code (which is certainly an improvement, It was a pain to type N7:10, and having some stupid smiley appear in the post.

Well, time to play some more....

©¿©¬

[gbradley]

I like the flags.
But I have to go here.
http://www.flags.net/indexa.htm
to see where they are from.

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by gbradley
I like the flags.
But I have to go here.
http://www.flags.net/indexa.htm
to see where they are from.

Just move your cursor on top of the flag to see the country.
Phil

[Dave Williams]

I'd like to know how george got to be a senior member. Age thing, no offense george. Now I see the smiley boinking thing, might have to hit my monitor with a hammer here in a minute. The 2 having beer look ok though. I suppose we'll all be used to this pretty quick.

[Dave Williams]

Just noticed I'm a junior member with one post, I've been demoted. I must have done something wrong logging in, oh well, the price of progress.

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by Dave Williams
Just noticed I'm a junior member with one post, I've been demoted. I must have done something wrong logging in, oh well, the price of progress.
Hi Dave,
Right now it's set for member = 30-99 posts
senior member = 100+ posts
under 30 posts is junior member.

I just revised your post count to include posts from old board, as I did for his. Post again and the title will change to 'member'.

I'll soon change the title names to something 'better'.
Thx,
Phil

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by Allen Nelson
snip...
I'm also not crazy about watching one smiley bonking another all the time I write this post. I'll have to look through the options to see if that smiley window can be ditched. I can disable smileys from vB code (which is certainly an improvement, It was a pain to type N7:10, and having some stupid smiley appear in the post.



Hi,

Good point. Flashing smilies are gone from the window.
FYI-
If you still wish to disable the smilies(and code buttons) from showing:
click on profile>edit options>Use vBCode quick links on your message input screens?(choose no).

You can still use code (like ladder, etc) by manually entering the codes like on the old board.

Thx,
Phil

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by Bitmaster
Yes, I too subscribe to his opinion. The ability to see the first sentences of a thread seemed very helpful in deciding to read it or not...

Good point. On the existing home page
http://www.plcs.net
you can see the latest topics and the first few sentences. (for the old board) I just modified the cgi so that it will work with this board. (I'll change it soon as a few more posts show up here)

Anyway, I'll take that modified code and tweak this board a bit more so that the feature can return to the threads.


And of course, the smily face: :mad:

See my previous reply above to disable the smilies box.
Thx,
Phil

[Pierre]

This is going to be fun...

[93lt1]

My post count has not been updated yet!?!?!?!

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by 93lt1
My post count has not been updated yet!?!?!?!

Done.
Phil

[93lt1]

Thank You!!

[gbradley]

I see that the flag does show the country.
This works well in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.1.
This doesn't work with Netscape 6.2.1.
Do you think I haven't installed Netscape correctly?

[Rick Densing]

From what I have read, a lot of bulletin board systems are having trouble with Netscape.

[gbradley]

I don't have personal agenda against Microsoft, I just have gotten used to the look and feel of Netscape.
Now I wonder what else I've been missing?

[Jay Anthony]

I have had PLCs.net Q&A Forum as my home page for six months. I do tech support during the day and check for new posts at least every 15 minutes. Now when there are no new posts to report, the back button of the browser goes in a circle trying to look for new posts.

Suggestion:

I understand that you have included a "jump to forum" combo box underneath the report of no new posts. Could this be set to roll to whatever forum brought you to this page for a one click back button. If not could you make a hot spot that would do the same thing?smas

[Tom Jenkins]

George, I'm using Netscape 4.7 and I get the country name by going over the flags. (Cool feature Phil - I like it.)

[gbradley]

I downloaded the most recent version of Netscape Navigator that I could find..6.2.2.
The name of the country still doesn't show up.
Excuse my ignorance, but is that a Java applet that makes that happen? It works great in Internet explorer.
utoh

[Rick Densing]

It is an old HTML tag called alt. The pictures can have an alternate word to replace a picture for a text only browser or to display while the picture is loading. IE displays the alt text in a tooltip format. Maybe you need to change as setting in netscape to display alternate text.

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by gbradley
I downloaded the most recent version of Netscape Navigator that I could find..6.2.2.
The name of the country still doesn't show up.
Excuse my ignorance, but is that a Java applet that makes that happen? It works great in Internet explorer.
utoh

Hi,
I beta tested in IE5 and Netscape 4.07
I figured older is better as that's where problems usually appear.
Most visitors to the site (~87% use IE and the remaining use Netscape, Opera, etc) use IE (remember the browser wars
:) )
You can find all Netscape versions here:
http://www.netscape.com/download/archive.html
(anybody remember using version 2? Very cool... at the time)

Can you see the alt's on the buttons at the top of the forum? (i.e. profile, register, etc)
I tried to make sure the forum worked 100% in Netscape as the rest of the site should. Let me know if you find any other incompatibilities and I'll tackle them 1 by 1.
Enjoy,
Phil

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by Jay Anthony
I have had PLCs.net Q&A Forum as my home page for six months. I do tech support during the day and check for new posts at least every 15 minutes. Now when there are no new posts to report, the back button of the browser goes in a circle trying to look for new posts.

snip...


Excellent, glad to have you aboard.
Sorry, but I can't find the same problem. Let me know what page you're at when you experience that so I can simulate it.
Off the top of my head, try the browser refresh button from the main forum page to see if there are new posts. Probably I misunderstood your situation though. utoh
Then I'll tackle your second suggestion if need be.
Thx,
Phil

[gbradley]

<Can you see the alt's on the buttons at the top of the forum? (i.e. profile, register, etc) ?>
No the alts don't show on that either.
I'm at home with Windows ME, and the NEtscape doesn't show ALT's while IE does.
Maybe I should go over to the dark side? :-)

[Jay Anthony]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Jay Anthony
I have had PLCs.net Q&A Forum as my home page for six months. I do tech support during the day and check for new posts at least every 15 minutes. Now when there are no new posts to report, the back button of the browser goes in a circle trying to look for new posts.

snip...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Excellent, glad to have you aboard.
Sorry, but I can't find the same problem. Let me know what page you're at when you experience that so I can simulate it.
Off the top of my head, try the browser refresh button from the main forum page to see if there are new posts. Probably I misunderstood your situation though.
Then I'll tackle your second suggestion if need be.
Thx,
Phil

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK...
IE6, WinMe, Cookies Enabled...
1. Read all new posts.
2. Mark all forums read.
3. Takes you back to http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/index.php?s=
4. Wait a minute.
5. View new posts (knowing there are none)
6. Takes you to Sorry your search....http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/search.php?s=&action=showresults&getnew=true&searchid=83
7. Use the IE6 back button.
8. Takes you to http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/search.php?s=&action=getnew
9. Immediately takes you to Sorry your search....http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/search.php?s=&action=showresults&getnew=true&searchid=83
10. And so forth ....

IkonBoard does the same thing. Maybe just the nature of the beast.

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by Jay Anthony
quote:
OK...
IE6, WinMe, Cookies Enabled...
1. Read all new posts.
2. Mark all forums read.
3. Takes you back to http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/index.php?s=
4. Wait a minute.
5. View new posts (knowing there are none)
6. Takes you to Sorry your search....http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/search.php?s=&action=showresults&getnew=true&searchid=83
7. Use the IE6 back button.
8. Takes you to http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/search.php?s=&action=getnew
9. Immediately takes you to Sorry your search....http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/search.php?s=&action=showresults&getnew=true&searchid=83
10. And so forth ....

IkonBoard does the same thing. Maybe just the nature of the beast.
OK. Now I know what you mean.
It does that because the search 'stuff' is hardcoded into the url. It's not like a cgi (or whatever lang)post where you'd have to repost the form data.
Hit the browser back button twice(quickly) and you'll avoid the loop.
Not much I can do for that as that would be a major effort.Sorry! :(
Phil

[Jay Anthony]

Duh.....
For an old man of 50, I gues I'm not fast enough on the double click.
It works with a doubleclick on the back button.
Try it on the old forum. It only takes one. Now that I know, I won't bug you.
BTW, my post count is still low.
Well, so are some of my other counts.....embar

[Phil Melore]

Originally posted by Jay Anthony
snip...
BTW, my post count is still low.
Well, so are some of my other counts.....embar
Sorry. embar Fixed now.
Phil
PS- No such thing as bugging me...