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Topic: The forum is back online (Read 8318 times) previous topic - next topic

The forum is back online

The conversion of the forum over to the new format is now complete. For tips on how to best use the forum, take a few moments to review the help section contained in the forum index (the help link in the navigation bar will take you there). From there, you will learn how to:

- setup a cookie file so that the forum will remember your name and e-mail address

- embed hot links to other forum messages and replies

- embed hot links to other web site pages

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #1
Wow! Windows all over the place! I guess it'll behave more consistently across more platforms, though.
I like the cookie feature that remembers name and e-mail address for replies (as you can see, I now _can_ be bothered to type my whole name!)
We now just need the cookies to remember which messages we've read, and a way of uploading attachment, and we'll have a complete news system. Having said that, I still like the "offlineness" of the newsgroup.

Andrew

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #2
Congrats on a job well done. You'll be please to know that NoteWorthy is now one of only three entries in my jealously guarded cookies.txt. (I set my browser to accept all cookies, but set the file attributes to r/o under normal conditions.)

The only improvement I could suggest is auto-wrap when entering replies into the text box. Or is that a function of my browser?

Andrew - good for you for being the first to discover the online status. I admire your loyalty and perserverance.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #3
In my experience, Internet Explorer word wraps, Netscape does not.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #4
You are right for Netscape: lines don't wrap, and we have
a scrollbar instead. Would it be possible to parameter the
number of columns (default 60), for instance the same way
we parameter our Name and E-mail in a cookie file ?
Of course, I ask this question to Eric...

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #5
Thanks for the feedback. As of now, message text will wrap for users of both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer (to the extent that it is possible, they now should work the same).

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #6
Due to the repeated presence of multiple, duplicate forum submissions, we have now also added a detection mechanism designed to prevent this in the future. From now on, make sure you open a new submission form before posting a new message or reply to the forum. If you try to re-use the same form for multiple submissions, the subsequent attempts (after the first) will be disallowed.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #7
This is a very nice feature. Thank you very much !

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #8
(test of the new feature)

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #9
Olivier: I hope your test was successful...

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #10
Actually it was not successful, but it was not a good test. The window disappeared so quickly that I couldn't click twice. Then I clicked on "back", I got my message again, suppressed the old text and replaced it by a new one.
Maybe then your mechanism is smart enough for knowing that the messages are different.

Besides, about the suppression of the horizontal scrollbar in the edition window, it is ok. Thank you again.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #11
Actually it was not successful, but it was not a good test. The window disappeared so quickly that I couldn't click twice. Then I clicked on "back", I got my message again, suppressed the old text and replaced it by a new one.
Maybe then your mechanism is smart enough for knowing that the messages are different.

Besides, about the suppression of the horizontal scrollbar in the edition window, it is ok. Thank you again.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #12
The last test WAS a correct test: I clicked twice, and my message appeared twice...

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #13
We tell browsers and other caching servers not to cache the form responses, which is why often times going "Back" will give a new form. We do not stop you from typing or pasting the same message in more than once, we simply disallow two forms with the same uniqueness ID.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #14
The fact that you don't cache forum responses - or the forum index -
creates a slight inconvenience. When my list of items is longer than
the page, I have to scroll down to read the earliest ones. When I bit
BACK to return to the index, I expect to be where I was, But I'm not
where I was, because the forum index is regenerated and I have to
scroll down from the top again.

WIth the old forum I used to leave my mouse cursor where it was on
the forum index, use the hot key to go back, and then just click on
the mouse again to read the next post (the lines would scroll up one
at a time). Maybe they all fit on one page then.

If you're using cookies, maybe you can come up with a better mechanism
for remembering which replies I read than just relying on the history file.
The 'recent activity' option is great, but when I select a reply I like to
read the whole thread at once. So I'd like all the other "recent reply"
entries for that thread to be marked as "visited" when I go back. Instead, I have to select each reply for a given thread and go back, just to get my
browser to mark it visited. This is a pain.

- seb

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #15
The FORMS are the only pages that cannot be cached. The behaviour regarding when links are marked as "read" is browser dependent. Forum messages and the forum contents can, and are, cached by both major browsers. The actual instances where pages need to be reloaded are dependent on:

1 - When the file was last changed (the contents change often)

2 - The cache settings in your browser

3 - Whether your ISP has cached the page (although forum messages and contents files have a header that attempts to avoid this)

We have no plans to implement cookie tracking of read messages.

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #16
Browsing the forum:

The best way I have found is to open up your browser, and open the message you want to read into a NEW window. Then drag messages from your forum window into the other browser window to open and read. Then the location of where you are in the forum window remains constant. (providing that all other conditions remain in equilibrium)

Actually, I just want version 2.0 of Noteworthy Composer.

*smile*

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #17
Hey !

I just tried that ! It's a good method.

Thanks 'J'

Yeah I want version 2.0 as well . Do you know something I don't ?

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #18
About getting back to where you were when changed of page :
In Netscape, Use Alt+Left Arrow (Explorer does it too now) and then space to scroll down screen by screen. It ain't hard to remember if you have 3 or 4 times to hit space.
MoreOver the last links you have folower are not the same color (if properly set up)...

Abount NWC next version : what about 1.60 ?
(If I told you what I expect to be in 2.0, you wouldn't beleive it... So step by step, please :-)

MAD

 

Re: The forum is back online

Reply #19
Sorry. Forgot one proposal (to Support) :
When clicking on a link could it be possible to create a new page as it's done when adding a new reply ?
But we need to know of this takes mmory/time on 486 CPUs ... Don't smile, they are stimm numerous. (I'm in ;-))