Forum Upgrade (Still WIP) - Bug Report / Request / FAQ Thread!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

2 hours ago, Harriet said:

I like the look of the new forums--thank you, mods. The like button is now a big grey circle for me, though, as is the sad option. When I hover on the other like options, they, too, become large grey circles.

What device and browser are you using? They look the same to me. 

[Harriet]

17 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

What device and browser are you using? They look the same to me. 

 

Ah. was using mac/safari, just switched to firefox and they are normal now.

[spezzy]

On 11/29/2020 at 5:48 PM, Jean said:

Hi! First, thank you for the work you are putting in this forum and for your availability through this thread.

 

Second, I've noticed the presence of the "share" button on top of topics allowing to share it on social networks. While I am "pretty" open here (let's be honest, I'm utterly spreading my real life around), this is not something I'd want shared on, let's say Facebook. I don't think the people I talk about would find me here (though I'd deal with it if they did), the same goes not for more regular social networks.

 

Is it possible to either remove this button entirely, or give to the topic creator the option to disable it on their own topics?

 

On 11/29/2020 at 8:31 PM, fleaball said:

On desktop for me there are 3 dots on the upper right corner of a post, if you click it the options are report and share.

 

On 11/29/2020 at 9:57 PM, Scaly Freak said:

 

Confirmed. Chrome on windows laptop, and I can share any personal post to any social media platform I have an account to.

 

Can this be turned off, please? 

 

Seconding what Jean said, a lot of us are very open with very personal struggles in our challenge threads. If I can't be sure that my posts won't go on Twitter or Reddit, then I will have to stop doing that. And if I can't be open about my personal struggles here, then a lot of the reason for being an active member is gone.

 

On 11/30/2020 at 9:41 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I agree it should be turned off. FWIW it was there in the old version of the software, it just looked different. There is really nothing to stop someone from copy and pasting a URL and sharing that on social media.

 

On 11/30/2020 at 10:16 AM, Scaly Freak said:

True, and that someone doesn't need to be a member here either, since the forums are public. That said, I would prefer not to make it easier for someone to share, or to constantly remind them that they can. Human nature and all that.  

 

23 hours ago, Jean said:

^This. Having the button showing up can give ideas one would not have had otherwise. Also, this tells me about my attention to details: I needed the forum to change to notice something that had been in front of my nose the whole time!

 

Thanks for your understanding, I hope it's not too hard to setup.

 

23 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I would also like for that feature to be removed if possible. I post under my real name, so if someone googled me it might come up anyway, but I do share a lot (for me) with our little community and I would rather it not be spread around.

 

If it's not possible though, it wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me. Anyone could copy/paste text or links wherever they wanted from the previous forum design, but if it ever happened I wasn't aware of it. The share option is buried in a menu too, so it wouldn't be suggesting itself to people with every post.

 

 

I've removed the share buttons for social sites, though if you click share it will still give the direct link to the post. I'm not sure if I can remove the "share" option completely or not, but I'll look into that.

 

I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable posting here, or like they can't post personal struggles - that's a part of why we have these forums, and I know that feeling comfortable here and posting about my struggles is something that's been a huge part of my personal journey as well. 

 

That being said, I think there are a few things to remember here:

• Anything we put on the internet is likely able to be found by someone at some point - and that is the truth of how things are nowadays, regardless of what site and the security set up of that site. Even if we had it set up so that only members could see, anyone could sign up to be a member, come in, and screenshot something.
• Of course, we have strict rules here, and if we found out that someone is taking posts from the forums, sharing them, and using them for any sort of negativity, they would be banned quickly - but there's nothing preventing anyone to do this (this is the same for any site on the internet).
• The forums do come up in search engine searches
• If you want to be as hidden as possible, I'd recommend using a display name unique to these forums. You can change your display name at any point - this is how you do it:

 

 

 

[spezzy]

23 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

 

 

I would really appreciate a fix on those emails though, or I will have to completely change how I interact with the site.

I have a support request in with the forum software to fix something that should allow me to look at the emails - so this is WIP!

[Scaly Freak]

6 minutes ago, spezzy said:

That being said, I think there are a few things to remember here:

• Anything we put on the internet is likely able to be found by someone at some point - and that is the truth of how things are nowadays, regardless of what site and the security set up of that site. Even if we had it set up so that only members could see, anyone could sign up to be a member, come in, and screenshot something.
• Of course, we have strict rules here, and if we found out that someone is taking posts from the forums, sharing them, and using them for any sort of negativity, they would be banned quickly - but there's nothing preventing anyone to do this (this is the same for any site on the internet).
• The forums do come up in search engine searches

 

Yes, I agree with all of this. These forums are not private and never have been.

 

That said, thank you very much for making the changes you did.  

[Jean]

1 hour ago, spezzy said:

I've removed the share buttons for social sites, though if you click share it will still give the direct link to the post.

Thanks a lot for this. The share option giving the direct link to the post is OK with me: that's how I used to link to specific posts of mine from one topic to another. After all, that's mostly the same as copying and pasting the content of the url bar, which, as Tank points out, we can do anytime anyway. My request was about avoiding temptations, which your actions did marvellously. Thanks!

[spezzy]

On 11/26/2020 at 12:54 PM, juliebarkley said:

Is there any way to have the email notifications for new posts display full text again instead of only the first hundred or so characters? It would be an adjustment to the RSS settings most likely. If so, I would be most grateful.

 

 

On 11/27/2020 at 5:51 PM, sarakingdom said:

. Second, the post notification email that goes out now has just a short teaser instead of the full post, which, for me, defeats the purpose of receiving the mail notifications, if I have to go to the site in order to see if I want to go to the site and reply.

 

I believe this has been fixed, let me know if it has not! 

[juliebarkley]

13 minutes ago, spezzy said:

I believe this has been fixed, let me know if it has not! 

I believe so; thanks so much!

[fleaball]

idk if this is a big deal or not but I don’t think I’m supposed to have this option?

[Tobbe]

4 hours ago, fleaball said:

idk if this is a big deal or not but I don’t think I’m supposed to have this option?

 

I noticed the same thing (Win10, Chrome)

[Renate]

We had the option to hide posts before, too

 

I think It's a "moderator" option in the sense that you are modding your own thread/post, just like when you edit. The actual mods can still see your edits and hidden posts. 

[Jean]

On 12/4/2020 at 7:55 AM, fleaball said:

idk if this is a big deal or not but I don’t think I’m supposed to have this option?

I thought it was there to allow us to post but hide our drafts, so that we can keep them even when we take time to do other things without jeopardizing our computer/phone?

 

I say that but I've never used it, maybe I should do it more, I can't count the number of almost fully drawn posts I've lost to time because I thought an open browser would protect them against the assaults of time before being posted. xD

[Ai-seimei]

Not sure if this is the right spot for it, but...

 

Would it be possible to have a few pinned posts in the Nutrition Section (I'm thinking pinned posts titled Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks) to post recipes under? It would make it easier and more useful when looking for recipe ideas.  Then you wouldn't have to scroll through all the posts looking for ones that might have the type of recipes you're looking for.

[Scaly Freak]

Question: Is it possible to make the label for the second challenge link below our avatar a bit more flexible?

 

I like being able to link to my current challenge, and I would love to also be able to link to the PvP I plan to participate in throughout 2021. I am well aware that I can put the URL to my PvP challenge in that field, but having a link labelled "Battle Log" go to "Reading Challenge 2021" is confusing, and it also upsets my sense of symmetry. Could "Current PvP" be added as an option?

[Lady Sparkle]

I recently tried to join the forums, and after setting up my account, got a message saying, "Awaiting Validation. Your account needs to be approved before you can use the site as a registered member.
An email will be sent to [your email] when this is done." Is this a normal thing? How does one get validated? I was so looking forward to participating in the March-April spring challenge as my very first challenge, but now the forums don't seem to want to let me. *Sad kitty face*

 

In short, I want to come play with the cool kids -- what do I need to DOOOOOO?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

19 minutes ago, Lady Sparkle said:

I recently tried to join the forums, and after setting up my account, got a message saying, "Awaiting Validation. Your account needs to be approved before you can use the site as a registered member.
An email will be sent to [your email] when this is done." Is this a normal thing? How does one get validated? I was so looking forward to participating in the March-April spring challenge as my very first challenge, but now the forums don't seem to want to let me. *Sad kitty face*

 

In short, I want to come play with the cool kids -- what do I need to DOOOOOO?

The fact that you can make this post means you have an active account. Your account does not appear to need validation.

[Cataleya]

Sorry if there's not a great place to post this but is there a mobile app? I tried reinstalling Tapatalk but it wouldn't connect, I saw a post that said we were trying to get into the Invision app, so I downloaded that, and it won't connect either.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

59 minutes ago, Cataleya said:

Sorry if there's not a great place to post this but is there a mobile app? I tried reinstalling Tapatalk but it wouldn't connect, I saw a post that said we were trying to get into the Invision app, so I downloaded that, and it won't connect either.

Not yet. Tapatalk and Invision got mad at each other a couple years ago. Invision still is beta testing their app last I heard.