Suggestions for Forum Improvement
"Quick Reply" feature please
It's a feature of many boards to have a "Quick Reply" which appears at the bottom of each page of a thread, and allows the user to post an instant response without having to go through the "Post Reply" screens; it usually allows BBcode and smileys to be used but relies on the user to know what s/he is doing with them (no buttons or icons).
Although not a standard phpBB feature there do seem to be many user-
created addons to provide this functionality.
For those on slow connections, waiting for the "Post Reply" page to reload can be a bit of a pain, so adding this can be more than just a "convenience" but a real boon.
I hope this isn't a duplicate suggestion (I searched but could not find any prior reference to it)
paul
Although not a standard phpBB feature there do seem to be many user-
created addons to provide this functionality.
For those on slow connections, waiting for the "Post Reply" page to reload can be a bit of a pain, so adding this can be more than just a "convenience" but a real boon.
I hope this isn't a duplicate suggestion (I searched but could not find any prior reference to it)
paul
- Pizzasgood
- Posts: 6183
- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
- Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
They are pretty nice. You just start typing right there at the bottom of the page, and hit submit.
Those are nice things to have.Now I have a home
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
Hm, yours is the second mention I've seen today of problems uploading an attachment. What have you tried to attach? I have only uploaded images, but haven't had any problem doing that.
At the top of the attachment section is a link: Allowed Extensions and Sizes. I see that it says maximum upload size: 0 bytes. I'll have to look into it.
At the top of the attachment section is a link: Allowed Extensions and Sizes. I see that it says maximum upload size: 0 bytes. I'll have to look into it.
It isn't helpful to complain in a general way without supplying links to the specific posts you are complaining about.. Moderators remove on sight all posts that are obvious commercial solicitations but the forum is large and busy and they can't read every new post; it may be a while before an offensive post is removed.NathanO wrote:Can we do anyting about the people selling things on the forum?
The biggest problem is that the forum 'owner' and Barry may become liable for some one getting the short end of the stick if some item they buy because of a posting is not what it is supposed to be.
Please, if you post to the forum or send a PM regarding a questionable post, include a link to the offending post. Thanks.
- Pizzasgood
- Posts: 6183
- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
- Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
Only Flash and John can ban and delete. The rest of us just move the threads to a hidden area until one of them can attend to matters. As for me, I don't have moderator permissions in Truly Off Topic so I can't do those ones.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
Thanks, guys. Providing links makes it painless.
As for banning, it's been tried. Spammers register in the forum and then do their business one time like a dog leaving a pile in your yard while you aren't watching. Banning doesn't do any good because they never use the same name or IP address twice. Eternal vigilance is the price of a spam-free forum.
As for banning, it's been tried. Spammers register in the forum and then do their business one time like a dog leaving a pile in your yard while you aren't watching. Banning doesn't do any good because they never use the same name or IP address twice. Eternal vigilance is the price of a spam-free forum.
- Pizzasgood
- Posts: 6183
- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
- Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
I ran an experiment on my own forum once, to see how often I got a repeat IP. It happened about twice over several months and pages of spam.
What was much more obvious and potent were the patterns in their email addresses. Most of it came from mail.ru, web.de, and cashette.com. That was almost a year ago though, so the currents of spam may have shifted.
What was much more obvious and potent were the patterns in their email addresses. Most of it came from mail.ru, web.de, and cashette.com. That was almost a year ago though, so the currents of spam may have shifted.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
Normally this forum appears very spam free, but yesterday we just seemed to get bombed or something. I want all the mods to know that we (at least I, but I assume I speak for others) greatly appreciate the effort you put forth to keep the forum peaceful and spam free.
Be brave that God may help thee, speak the truth even if it leads to death, and safeguard the helpless. - A knight's oath
Can we have some script that automatically removes any post containing the words "Nokia", "sale", and "new". That should kill some of the spam (and this post, not that it matters).
Another possibility, although slightly annoying for new members, is to not allow new accounts to post their own thread until they have made at least one post post to an established thread. This would stop most bots dead in their tracks.
Another possibility, although slightly annoying for new members, is to not allow new accounts to post their own thread until they have made at least one post post to an established thread. This would stop most bots dead in their tracks.
Be brave that God may help thee, speak the truth even if it leads to death, and safeguard the helpless. - A knight's oath
I tried something like that back when the forum was getting spammed with drug ads. I caused the forum to change various drug names to "poisonous crap." Though the results were sometimes hilarious, it had the unintended result of messing up some legitimate posts. Since John Murga upgraded the forum the problem is much reduced. So far it hasn't been too bad for the moderators to keep up with.SirDuncan wrote:Can we have some script that automatically removes any post containing the words "Nokia", "sale", and "new". That should kill some of the spam (and this post, not that it matters).
That would probably stop bots but it seems to me that it would be such a high hurdle that it would discourage many newcomers. Puppy wants to be friendly.Another possibility, although slightly annoying for new members, is to not allow new accounts to post their own thread until they have made at least one post post to an established thread. This would stop most bots dead in their tracks.
If the mods would simply click "View posts since last visit" after logging in (like a lot of we civilians do), they'd realize how easy it is to spot the SPAM and deal with it then-and-there.
[size=84][i]hangout:[/i] ##b0rked on irc.freenode.net
[i]diversion:[/i] [url]http://alienjeff.net[/url] - visit The Fringe
[i]quote:[/i] "The foundation of authority is based upon the consent of the people." - Thomas Hooker[/size]
[i]diversion:[/i] [url]http://alienjeff.net[/url] - visit The Fringe
[i]quote:[/i] "The foundation of authority is based upon the consent of the people." - Thomas Hooker[/size]
- Pizzasgood
- Posts: 6183
- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
- Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
That's pretty much what I do. But I like to do things on a section by section basis (it helps keep it all organized in my head) so I just middle-click every section that has new posts in it, then go through and middle-click any thread I'm interested in reading, or any that need to be dealt with (dealing with them immediately). Then I start reading. When I finish a thread, I either hit ctrl-w to close it and cycle over, or hit ctrl-tab to cycle and preserve the tab (in case I don't want to wait for it to finish submitting; I can come back and proof read when I finish the next tab with ctrl-shift-tab). I've easily had 50+ tabs up at once using this method.... Thus why I configure Firefox to not have the X on each tab and to make the minimum tab with as small as possible (slightly bigger than the icon or so).
When I finish, a good chunk of time will have passed, so I go back and this time use the "view posts since your last visit" link to catch any that popped up while I was reading/typing. Sometimes I do that three or more times, if I've been gone a while and have to read lots of posts.
When I finish, a good chunk of time will have passed, so I go back and this time use the "view posts since your last visit" link to catch any that popped up while I was reading/typing. Sometimes I do that three or more times, if I've been gone a while and have to read lots of posts.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
that's what i do.alienjeff wrote:If the mods would simply click "View posts since last visit" after logging in (like a lot of we civilians do)...
are you assuming the mods have the means to deal with it? i saw some SPAM earlier but it's gone now. did they deal with it? if they did, they must have had the means to.alienjeff wrote:...they'd realize how easy it is to spot the SPAM and deal with it then-and-there.
Besides, perhaps I am just too confused to use the forum-searching function....
But I am not very successful in finding threads which subjects reflect my searching words, whether I am using AND connections or not.
It seems that only some words somewhere within the post are being gathered during the searching process; this makes finding useful hints in the forum extremely difficult.
I think that the searching algorhytms need some polishing...
perixx
But I am not very successful in finding threads which subjects reflect my searching words, whether I am using AND connections or not.
It seems that only some words somewhere within the post are being gathered during the searching process; this makes finding useful hints in the forum extremely difficult.
I think that the searching algorhytms need some polishing...
perixx