Thoughts on forum changes

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otseng
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Thoughts on forum changes

Post #1

Post by otseng »

Here's a PM exchange I've had with Zzyzx that I want to share. I think many on the forum might also be interested...
otseng wrote:
Zzyzx wrote: Have you received indication that members and moderators dislike the new format? I am trying to withhold judgment, but am leaning negative after a week of use. It is not a matter of resistance to change (which typically troubles me very little).
No, nobody has complained to me yet, but I can understand the sentiment. I've spent years customizing the former forum to what I wanted and now I have to start all over. I don't think anyone is more frustrated and disappointed than me that we're losing a lot of the former functionality.

The problem is the forum software and the OS is obsolete. It's been running on the same software for over 16 years, which in itself is pretty amazing. But, now I'm not able to run the latest software. I was using an older version of PHP and the latest version of PHP doesn't support the old forum.

There's pretty much no choice but to upgrade. By the end of the year, the old OS (CentOS 6) won't be supported anyways. Over the next several years, I'll be modifying the forum, but it will take patience as I do this. And just when I get it to how I would like it, I'll probably have to start all over again.

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #61

Post by Miles »

.

And how about an indent feature?

I find that indenting images, scripture, and quoted material from outside sources (with multiple lines as a block) to be very helpful in setting them apart from my regular blather. And it breaks up that ugly "wall of text" we are sometimes left posting.

.

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #62

Post by otseng »

Difflugia wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:55 pm If you find yourself with some spare time, I'd appreciate the addition of superscript and subscript to BBCODE.
Addedsuperscriptsubscript

Code: Select all

Added[sup]superscript[/sup][sub]subscript[/sub]

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otseng
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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #63

Post by otseng »

Miles wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:23 pm .

And how about an indent feature?

I find that indenting images, scripture, and quoted material from outside sources (with multiple lines as a block) to be very helpful in setting them apart from my regular blather. And it breaks up that ugly "wall of text" we are sometimes left posting.

.
This
has
been
added.

Code: Select all

This
[indent]
has
[indent]
been
[indent]
added.
[/indent]
[/indent]
[/indent]

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #64

Post by Miles »

Image
THANKS

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Difflugia
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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #65

Post by Difflugia »

I don't know if this is something that concerns you, but a relatively common SEO tactic is to create multiple accounts on a forum, each of which makes a few innocuous posts in neglected threads (often a "good post" or "me too" kind of thing). After a few weeks or so, the poster goes back and modifies the posts to insert spam links to some website or other.

As a suggestion, you might want to limit the amount of time that a post can be edited to something like a few days or a week.

If it's not something you consider worth spending time on, I won't bring it up again. :)

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otseng
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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #66

Post by otseng »

[Replying to Difflugia in post #65]

Continue to report them and I'll delete the posts. If the poster continues, I'll ban them.

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #67

Post by tam »

Peace to you!

Love that you put the OP at the top of each page again.


Now the only thing left that I miss is being able to go to your own last post in a thread. Its not a big deal. I just really liked that feature for really long threads.


Thanks for all your work in keeping this place up.

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #68

Post by otseng »

tam wrote: Thu Nov 19, 2020 2:12 am Now the only thing left that I miss is being able to go to your own last post in a thread. Its not a big deal. I just really liked that feature for really long threads.
Added. Click on the "right arrow in the circle" icon at the top to the right of the search box.

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #69

Post by tam »

[Replying to otseng in post #69]

Awesome, thank you (and peace to you)!!

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Re: Thoughts on forum changes

Post #70

Post by brunumb »

I'm not sure how others feel about the OP being repeated at the top of each page but I find it somewhat confusing and disorienting. Like all changes I'm sure that time will help settle us into it. That said, if it has to be there, is there some way to highlight the OP to differentiate it from the regular posts?
Thank you.
George Orwell:: “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
Gender ideology is anti-science, anti truth.

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