Suggested Fixes for New Forum

[pakalolo]

Posts should be able to be edited more than once. Price drops should not be considered bumps and a one bump limit is rather ridiculous.

You can edit your posts as often as you like within the six hour limit. The time limit is there because when there was unlimited editing, some posters altered history or deleted posts making some threads incomprehensible.

The rule about bumps and price drops is there because of past abuse. Anyone can ask a moderator for an exception. Calling it ridiculous is inflammatory and borders on breaking the rule about challenging staff decisions in the forum.

 

[max]

a one bump limit is rather ridiculous.

Considering how often rules are broken in Classified, and how much trouble and time consumption this 'member service' is to staff, any complaints at all on Classified rules are ridiculous. If you can find a better 'free' place to sell this stuff, be my guest.

 

[StickyShisha2]

is there a way to have new/trial members unable to post hotlinks?

 

[Hippie Dickie]

New Thought ...

i keep seeing the mod note about not posting back to back posts, to use the edit function instead.

Why not just have the forum software automagically append the new post to the previous post, say if it is done within 60 minutes or so.

Otherwise, it probably should be considered a new and distinct post.

But, really, what is the downside of back-to-back posts anyway?

 

[CentiZen]

I'm not sure how much configuration XenForo allows... I don't know if that would be possible to just write a quick PHP script or if you would have to edit the actual handler code for a new post.

It's not so much that there is a direct downside to back to back posts, but if it was allowed people could do it often to try to drive up their post counts. I've seen alot of other forums where it becomes a clusterfuck of double posts and people have like 4000 posts in just a few months. Again, not so much of a problem here directly since we don't display post counts, but it might carry over in the behaviour of those who come from forums that do.

As well, I wanted to post this in your thread concerning the twitter widget connection but it has been locked so I'll add it here. That only happens because there is a twitter button on the bottom of each page; and it connects to facebook and google plus as well on each new page. I've not noticed any detrumental effects on the page from that specific element loading slowly, but if you have then you can just add an entry to your DNS pointing the address for that site to 0.0.0.0 and it will breeze past it.

 

[momofthegoons]

The other downside to back to back posts, besides the post count issue, is the fact that many members post as if they are texting then. They use a post for each thought. Personally, I find it annoying to have to read through 4 - 5 one sentence posts to get the complete picture of what someone is trying to say.

 

[pakalolo]

I'm not sure how much configuration XenForo allows... I don't know if that would be possible to just write a quick PHP script or if you would have to edit the actual handler code for a new post.

It's not so much that there is a direct downside to back to back posts, but if it was allowed people could do it often to try to drive up their post counts. I've seen alot of other forums where it becomes a clusterfuck of double posts and people have like 4000 posts in just a few months. Again, not so much of a problem here directly since we don't display post counts, but it might carry over in the behaviour of those who come from forums that do.

As well, I wanted to post this in your thread concerning the twitter widget connection but it has been locked so I'll add it here. That only happens because there is a twitter button on the bottom of each page; and it connects to facebook and google plus as well on each new page. I've not noticed any detrumental effects on the page from that specific element loading slowly, but if you have then you can just add an entry to your DNS pointing the address for that site to 0.0.0.0 and it will breeze past it.

Not to nitpick but most people don't have authority to mess with their DNS. He could modify his hosts file, which anyone with admin rights can do.

Having said that, I see no Twitter crap between pages.

 

[CentiZen]

Now that I think about it I'd be inclined to agree with you. I wasn't entirely familiar with the way hosts works in windows. The DNS is pretty easy to screw up.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

i use IE9 -- it's in the backpage chain, so clicking "back" doesn't go back.

Thanks CentiZen, i'll look into DNS entry

 

[vtac]

If Xenforo adds an "auto-merge back-to-back posts" feature into core it may be something we consider implementing.

As for the current rule, it's written as follows: "When possible, please avoid making back-to-back posts in a thread. Use the Edit feature located at the bottom of your posts."

As motg explained above, it's part of the "General Forum Etiquette" rules and is in place to encourage a higher quality of posting and to discourage people from making 5 posts in a row when quoting. Manually using the quote tags isn't that difficult. If someone makes a back-to-back post days apart while providing new and relevant information - such as in your Bud Toaster thread - that's a completely different scenario which I don't think anyone has a problem with.

 

[pakalolo]

It's not so much that there is a direct downside to back to back posts, but if it was allowed people could do it often to try to drive up their post counts. I've seen alot of other forums where it becomes a clusterfuck of double posts and people have like 4000 posts in just a few months. Again, not so much of a problem here directly since we don't display post counts, but it might carry over in the behaviour of those who come from forums that do.

Post counts matter here to some people because we have a rule that you must have at least 50 posts before you can open a thread in Classifieds.

Also, there are trophies.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

ah so. things i never considered. thanks for the info.

 

[panasonic]

An intrathread search might be helpful for this. You can put it in the FAQ, just tell people to go to Google and type in <search terms> site:http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/<thread-title>/

Is there any easy way to follow intraforum links from the old software? Or are they all broken?

Any word on fixing the intraforum links from the last software package?

 

[pakalolo]

Any word on fixing the intraforum links from the last software package?

The word is that you report broken links and they will be fixed.

 

[ru_frothi]

The word is that you report broken links and they will be fixed.

Wish it were that simple. I've been going through Wikipedia by hand and still have dozens of links left to fix.

Single instance links might be fixed but I have had to fix all vp entries by hand.

 

[pakalolo]

Wish it were that simple. I've been going through Wikipedia by hand and still have dozens of links left to fix.

Single instance links might be fixed but I have had to fix all vp entries by hand.

Did I say it was simple? That is how the reported links get fixed too, just ask vtac. If an automated URL correction method existed, I'm sure he'd be all over it.

 

[ru_frothi]

Did I say it was simple? That is how the reported links get fixed too, just ask vtac. If an automated URL correction method existed, I'm sure he'd be all over it.

I asked VTAC and his answer was for me to do it. He setup an old copy of FC where I can use the Old URL's and searching to peice it back together. He is willing to do 1 or 2 but not fix an entire wiki entry. Thats reasonable and solves some portion of problem but not the wiki issue.

That leaves the process of fixing many dozens of links in the various articles I authored. I've done about 2/3's of the work and it took a while over several weeks.

 

[pakalolo]

I was referring to links in the forum, not Vaporpedia. That was the context of the original question. I wouldn't have expected vtac to fix up Vaporpedia. I didn't know you were engaged in such a project. If I had I would have helped.

 

[vtac]

I asked VTAC and his answer was for me to do it. He setup an old copy of FC where I can use the Old URL's and searching to peice it back together. He is willing to do 1 or 2 but not fix an entire wiki entry. Thats reasonable and solves some portion of problem but not the wiki issue.

That leaves the process of fixing many dozens of links in the various articles I authored. I've done about 2/3's of the work and it took a while over several weeks.

Your efforts are very much appreciated.

For the record, though, I put up a copy of the old site at your request and never asked you to do anything. I said that the links would have to be updated when you asked what it would take to fix them, because that was and is the case.

The issue of broken links was discussed at length after the software switch. It still sucks, but nothing has changed since then.

 

[ru_frothi]

I was referring to links in the forum, not Vaporpedia. That was the context of the original question. I wouldn't have expected vtac to fix up Vaporpedia. I didn't know you were engaged in such a project. If I had I would have helped.

I'm confused. There are thousands of broken links in the forum. easily an order of magnitude more than VP. If I mail VTAC a list of thousands of broken links in the forum they can be fixed?

Absolutely looking for help fixing the VP URL's. I fixed the omicron and Persei articles which are very long like MFLB and still have the Solo to go. if anyone wants to help fix the solo entry than that would be awesome. I will warn, its a multistage process that takes 3-5 minutes per link to fix.

 

[pakalolo]

I'm confused. There are thousands of broken links in the forum. easily an order of magnitude more than VP. If I mail VTAC a list of thousands of broken links in the forum they can be fixed?

Absolutely looking for help fixing the VP URL's. I fixed the omicron and Persei articles which are very long like MFLB and still have the Solo to go. if anyone wants to help fix the solo entry than that would be awesome. I will warn, its a multistage process that takes 3-5 minutes per link to fix.

I don't think vtac envisioned thousands of reported broken links, nor do I think that's happened. I'm pretty sure he's managed to deal with the reports thus far.

I can help you fix the Solo links, just tell me where the old database is so I can reconcile them. Aren't you concerned that there are so many external links? That's not how a Wiki is supposed to work.

 

[ru_frothi]

I don't think vtac envisioned thousands of reported broken links, nor do I think that's happened. I'm pretty sure he's managed to deal with the reports thus far.

I can help you fix the Solo links, just tell me where the old database is so I can reconcile them. Aren't you concerned that there are so many external links? That's not how a Wiki is supposed to work.

took this to PM

I appreciate your feedback

 

[t-dub]

Still having server issues FWIW . . . they have changed however. Instead of just stalling, I now have many files that just serve slowly and screw up how the page presents. Anyways if you delete the interference/noise from the equation it seems we have traded one problem for another? Maybe we just aren't being served the BW we need? I dunno . . Would have posted this in the appropriate thread but it was closed already . . .

 

[ru_frothi]

Still having server issues FWIW . . . they have changed however. Instead of just stalling, I now have many files that just serve slowly and screw up how the page presents. Anyways if you delete the interference/noise from the equation it seems we have traded one problem for another? Maybe we just aren't being served the BW we need? I dunno . . Would have posted this in the appropriate thread but it was closed already . . .

I have seen random congestion periods lately as well. Partially rendered pages and stalls but it works well most of the time here.

 

[OKcomputer]

not sure if I should make a new thread or post it here so i'll err on the side of consolidation. How about adding a "What's Hot" section to the homepage? Seems like it'd be nice to see the most discussed topics of the last few hours / day / week, maybe even month for people who don't visit the forum super regularly but still want to quickly catch up on what's new. Could be calculated based on replies or views. I know there's already What's New, but i want What's Popular