Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I've been informed that the admins were considering removing the hot-topic feature completely, so setting it very high (like 100k) is an easy way to accomplish that. I'm fairly sure it's intentional.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Note: Not that it's high priority but Ratings do seem a bit odd, maybe ? I have been a 4 for quite a while, I was a 2 when I logged on today and by the time I finished my first post, I was a 1 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif My dominion is weak !

- Kel

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

The riddle's solution is a simple one: The original Ratings did not survive the forum transition. So all Ratings are new and fresh, and I think we have a joker going around rating everyone 1 star. (At least that's my explanation.:D)

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

To whomever changed the font size (Richard?), making it smaller, I have but one thing to say: THANK YOU !!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Yes, a heartfelt thank you from me, too.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

i really like being able to see who posted the Last post on a thread, especially for sticky threads.

overall, i like the new look alot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

BTW, in case folks hadn't noticed: contrary to the notice that was originally on the forum (and has since been removed/rewritten), you do NOT need to log off and log in again to get notification of PMs. A simple refresh (just like before the forum upgrade) is sufficient. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Once again, a heartfelt thanks to the good folks at Shrapnel for all their hard work in providing this upgrade, and for their ongoing task of ironing out all the kinks in the new code.

Cheers!

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I love the fact that people can post attachments now -- this is also great!

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Here's a question about something that seems to be more difficult in the new Version: searching.
It seems that the search results are printed listing each and every *post* which contains the terms required in the field. Thus my seach in the subject only for "magic duel" was spammed to kingdom come, and even "duel" alone was pages and pages. Is there a way to ask for a search in which it lists only one "hit" per *thread* (instead of: per post)?
thank you

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Yes, the font is now 2mm high :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( An no wonder, look at this EVIL stylesheet:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>BODY,P,TABLE,TD,TR {
font-size: 11px;
font-family: sans-serif, arial, verdana;
color: 000000;
}</pre><hr />
Ouch! Never, ever, under any condition, specify font sizes in px. It is the only totally surefire way of making the pages unreadable for somebody. Could you please kill that line? Or replace it with font-size: small; or something like that.

Thank you.

Alternatively, could we use some of the other stylesheets in the directory (threads//stylesheets)? I notice you can set this from the preferences, only the choice is non-existent. I don't care if something breaks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Aaargh ... I miss almost 2 days of forum ... I was thinking it was out ... the problem is that the new forum use an 81 port and it was closed by a firewall! ... now I'm back again

Liga

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Thanks for restoring the "newest first" functionality... seems like the upgrade is indeed going to be a HUGE improvment!

Rabe the Relieved

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Actually, specifying font sizes in px is the best way to do it, because it guarantees that the fonts will be the same size in all browsers accross all platforms. pt is a very arbitrary measurement that varies from OS to OS and even browser to browser. You can still increase the text size in the View menu, however.

Richard has stated that there is a possibility he will use this new forum capability to allow a range of font sizes to be selected from. He just has to make some extra style sheets. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I really appreciate what's been done with the forums. Previously, they were not intuitive to use. Personally, I'd suggest fonts being bigger. Too big may look a little silly on small screens, but too small is illegible on large. I run 1280*1024 and the fonts are very small, and I'm not old and blind either.

Also, I am a relatively experienced programmer with php, especially in bulletin board / forum conditions. I would be happy to help, ben@isbd.biz is me.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Oh man, that is so wrong, as pixel-size is different from screen to screen(!). The font is unreadable for me; as I said about 2mm high. I've studied HTML rendering to some depth, even contributed to Mozilla in a small way, so I do now a little.

Let me summarize each font-sizing specification method, and the individual pro/cons.

• px. The font is chosen to be as close to the specified height in pixels as possible. Most browsers forces a minimum size on fonts, though, so it is no guarantee. The advantage is that you can mix images and fonts in a (semi)-predictable way; the disadvantage is that the font will be unreadable for some people and/or too large for other people.
• pt, mm, in, etc. In theory the font is chosen some the font height is the length specified. However, at the very least this requires the DPI-setting to be correct. This is usually true for linuxboxes, but in general this setting is wrong (usually 72DPI; for comparison mine is about 112.) From this is can be calculated that 11px~2.5mm for my monitor; and 3.9mm for a 72 DPI monitor. Even if these problems are ignored, this is almost never the best option, as it doesn't take into account such aspects as the user's eyesight, distance to the monitor, personal preference and so on.
• em, ex, xx% Relative to the parent (element's) font. Used right, this works well, but requires skilled stylesheet author to use correctly --- e.g. the main text should be exactly the size specified as normal from the browser's (or system's) settings. Another con is that the user has to configure his preferred size correctly.
• small, normal, +1, -1 etc Absolute sizes with reference point to the user's preferences. Usually the best option by far. The con is that the user has to configure his preferred size correctly, but the style sheet author only needs to know that the main text should be set with font-size: normal.

And yes, I can zoom in on the text, and do, but it is wildly annoying thing to do every time I visit the forums. Why not just do it correctly? It can't be that difficult to replace "font-size: 11px" with "font-size: normal". Or at least make a style-sheet which is not broken in this regard.

Sorry for being so brash. We all have sensitive spots; this is one of mine http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Hm, anyone have any suggestions on how to search better under the new software? Please?
Also, can it be that the polls have been removed? I can't find mine -- but then again, I think the search function isn't working as it should. Any help or suggestions appreciated, thanks!

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Is there a way to see Private Messages that I've written? The old board presented PM conversations as threads, so it was easy to review what I'd written and which part of my replies were being responded to. Now I can see a long list of received PMs, and the ones I've replied to are marked as such, but I can't see a way to review the actual replies.

There is a heading for a list of PMs I've sent, but that list is empty.

What am I missing?

Mark

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I believe when you PM you have to click the option at the bottom of the page that says "I want to keep a copy of my message".

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

The new forum seems to be prone to brief, temporary outages. I've had it happen a couple of times today, where the web page is generated with a message saying it cannot connect to the MySQL server. Sorry for not having the exact message available, but of course I cannot post to the forum when the problem is occuring http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

The first part of error message is here, but I would guess that the server logs shows them clearly:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10055) in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 35
SQL ERROR: Wed, Aug 11 2004 13:11:47 -0500 Database error only visible to forum administrators
</pre><hr />
Well, it's Windows, what did you expect? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10055) in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 35
SQL ERROR: Wed, Aug 11 2004 17:34:13 -0500 Database error only visible to forum administrators

Warning: mysql_select_db(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 45

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 107
SQL ERROR: Wed, Aug 11 2004 17:34:13 -0500 Database error only visible to forum administrators

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 133

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 107
SQL ERROR: Wed, Aug 11 2004 17:34:13 -0500 Database error only visible to forum administrators

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 133

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 107
SQL ERROR: Wed, Aug 11 2004 17:34:13 -0500 Database error only visible to forum administrators

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php on line 133

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\mysql.inc.php:35 ) in C:\apache2\Apache2\htdocs\threads\ubbt.inc.php on line 270


This is the full error I got, it happened when I tried posting a message.
Do with it what you will...

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I'd say searching has taken a step backward under the new forum software. It's really *bad* that all the Posts for a given thread that fit the search show up in your results - IMO, this cripples the search functionality for this forum. At the most, this should exist as an option, that is turned off by default.

Also, it would be very nice to have the search options be saveable (I've seen this in other forums). How many people actually use the default of searching Messages &lt;= 1 week old?! Also, maybe it's just me, but I usually search on subject only, and if we can't get saveable options, it'd be nice (from my point of view) to have that made default.

I've also found that it no longer defaults to the DOM2 forum when I go into search (although I know it did a few days ago). I'm not sure if there's been a server side change that's made this happen, or if I've changed my behavior in some subtle way.

Finally, would it be possible to make a few Dom2 sub-forums? The bug thread needs this badly, and there are a couple of other stickies that deserve to be a subforums, as well (namely AARs and Modding).

If anyone is looking for an example, my second favorite game shop (after Illwinter/Shrapnel, of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ), Paradox, has done an outstanding job on their forum setup, check out:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...splay.php?f=79

Also, Esben is dead on in his comments about setting fonts - I would appreciate it if the fix he suggests is implemented.

Hope this didn't come off as a rant - I'm really finding this forum very useful all in all, but I am frustrated by the current state of search functionality.

- Thufir

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

yeah, mysql is currently blowing chunks. almost half the time i load a page i get a results like what agrajag just posted.

Problem accessing new forums
 

Hi,

A friend is having problems accessing the forum since the new forum software was installed. Here is what he wrote. Can someone help?

Thanks,
John

----------------------------------------
I tried to access the forum with 3 different PCs, which were in no way
related to each other (one at work, one at home, one at a friends
house). I
can access the board as long as I don't try to login. After I login
however
I get a "The document contains no data" error and a blank window. From
this
moment on, every time I try to load the page, I get this message, even
if I
restart the pc.
As said above, this happened three times with different PCs. What do I
do
wrong?

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I have to agree that searching is a little clunkier now than before.

1) I prefer to search for "all" words vs. "any" words so I have to specify a search as for instance "+immortal +affliction" to find Posts pertaining to immortal healing. Which is OK, but if you don't know to do it, you will turn up hundreds of unrelated Posts.

2) I usually flip the search to "less than 1 year" instead of "less than 1 week." This requires a minimum of clicking, but still didn't have to be done before.

I've never had it automatically search the DOM2 forum since the new software was installed. I would like it to. But the old software, while it *usually* searched in the DOM2 forum, sometimes defaulted to search all forums. I've never used any forums other than DOM2 on this server, though.

Re: Problem accessing new forums
 

Yeah, I ran into this, it's in this thread somewhere. You have to turn of the "Expand Threads" (or was it threaded mode?) in your profile, and it will work again.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Thanks for seconding there.

I believe the "search" functionality is the single most important functional aspect of a forum like this. I say this not to want to rant or criticize unneedingly (since the folks here are doing a GREAT job!), but because it is important, especially for "newbies". How many times have we written something to the effect like "use the search function to search for XYZ, your questions will be answered very well there!" -- this is no longer a real option. I have still been unsuccessful in finding particular threads which I *know* are out there, imagine how this must be for someone who doesnt know they are there.
Sorry for the criticism, otherwise a GREAT job here, I just wish that the search functionality could be optimized (or simply reverted to the old forum type, that worked well).

Re: Problem accessing new forums
 

Thanks, you are my saviour http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Do one of the admins have a rough guesstimate as to when support for embedded HTML/UBBCODE in Posts will be fixed? Reason I ask is that (at some point) I need to edit all the now-invalid links in my AAR thread and I cannot do that until it's fixed else I'll corrupt each post I edit. I understand Richard et. al. have been real busy thus far fixing the more important DB-related and font issues. I'm just curious (and bumping the issue so it's not overlooked). Thanks.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

Previously, you could either reply to an individual post in a thread, or simply post a reply to the thread - this seems to no longer be the case.

(Edit : As you can see, this post said, "Re: Arryn" even though it had nothing to do with Arryn's post, simply that I was clicking 'Reply' on a post of hers because there isn't a global reply.)

Also, quoting someone used to say who you were quoting; now there's a separate line/block that says "Quote:" but not who is being quoted, which is rather a waste of space. Is there a way to have that information included, rather than wasting another line to say it yourself?

Finally - there used to be icons for sending email or for sending a private message to someone, and now the icon for email seems to be for forwarding that post to someone via email.

Is there a trick to sending private Messages now, or not implemented yet?

Gracias.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

You can still send PMs. Just click on the person's name, and at the bottom of the screen that comes up you'll see an option to send new private message.

Re: The New Forum Software!
 

I thought I'd recap some of the issues that remain outstanding after the forum upgrade:

• When replying to Posts, having the person's name to whom you're replying to listed after the word "quote" in the quote block. {fixed}
• An option to automatically have all quoted text shown in boldface (as it was before the upgrade). {fixed, sorta ("whosit said" is now bolded)}
• The ability to post to a thread without using the "reply" button, which is another (convenient) old feature that has not carried over. Oftentimes you may wish to inject a comment or add info that is not directly in response to a particular person's post (or perhaps in response to more than one post or to the thread in general).
• <font color="red">In new Posts, or when editing old Posts</font>, embedded HTML code does not work.
• The ability to seperately thread PMs without also having to thread the main forum (so that PMs work they same way they used to prior to the upgrade).
• The ability for Users to select the font size they wish to display forum Posts in. (I happen to like the current tiny type, which allows me to see more text onscreen, but other folk have monitors or eyeballs with poor resolution.) {fixed, but buggy: selecting "Shrapnel Small" fails to display boldface text like this}
• Have the forum SEARCH feature work the way it used to (which was very good). The current search system is all but useless.

If I've omitted any other issues, feel free to speak up.