Website comments

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@ Everyone

I was wondering if anyone uses the “Favourite” function?

I’m kinda thinking of removing it in the new version of the site, as I think it’s a function that works for sites with thousands of topics but not for one like this.

However, if there are people who use it I’ll leave it.

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

@craig – I myself don’t mind if you bin the ‘Favourite’ function…

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@craig

There’s a “Favourite” function?

Oh yes, now I see it. Hold on…it is spelt in the American manner, as “Favorite”.

On the basis of spelling alone, I favour discarding it.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig

Joining the chorus of ‘Never used the Favourite function in my life, Doctor.’

 

[Whisht @whisht]

Hi @craig – nor me.

I’m guessing it’s not used by any other system (eg wordpress or google) to infer any ranking or importance in indexing or searching..?

And even if it were, are we really that bothered with being even more ‘findable’?

[Craig @craig Emperor]

Cheers all.

It’s just a way of collecting posts you like in one place. They’re then accessible via your Profile page.

On a tech forum with thousands of forum topics, for example, it can be quite useful to favourite/save a particularly good answer to a problem you come across regularly, but here it’s less useful, especially as there’s an improved Forum search now – see Forums page (it will be in the header in the new version).

I’m glad I’m not alone in never using it. I’m trying to reduce unneccesary clutter in the new iteration and make it look and work great on all mobile devices.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@craig et al

Completely forgot there was a favourite button! Think that answers your question.

Btw – my email notifications now come from The DEV Who Forum… have we developed an alterego?!

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@scaryb

That’s weird, that’s my development site where I’m working on a new version of the site. Could you PM me one of the emails please?

Many thanks.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@bluesqueakpip I’ve discovered the ‘span’ problem is down to Chrome (and some Mac browsers). It doesn’t happen with Firefox for example.

I’m close to a fix. I’ve managed to find a fix that works on the comment box in the blog section (although is not implemented here just yet). Now I just need to find how to apply it in the forum section too (which is basically a separate program).

So I’m getting there. But for now either use a different browser or check your post in the text tab first before posting.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig – okay. I’ll keep an eye out for mysteriously appearing ‘span’.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig – bit of a problem with the blog comments on Crazy Captions 27 – it mysteriously reverted on posting to ‘the one I made earlier’.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@bluesqueakpip

I’ve deleted it. And I’ll look into it. But I think I’m close to solving the Chrome issues. Hopefully is just due to that.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig – my post #17505 – still going all wibbly-wobbly when copying and pasting from another post.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@bluesqueakpip Thanks. I’ve fixed it. Were you using Chrome?

I’ve tried a few fixes but without success yet, but I will get there. Promise.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig – yes, still using Chrome. Thanks for fixing it.

[Anonymous @]

@craig – I just got the ‘span’ junk.

{span id=”yui_3_7_2_1_1380638789008_1838″ style=”font-family: ‘Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #333333;”}

(substitute circonflexes for curly braces)

I copied some text from an email from the BBC into a reply in Visual mode.  Note: this doesn’t happen when the same text is copied into Text mode.  Btw, I deleted the extra gubbins before saving my post in Doctor Who News (2).

I’m using Firefox v22.0.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@Shazzbot Cheers, I’ve got a few more things to try that might fix that. Will try them tonight.

[Anonymous @]

@wolfweed (and @craig) –

I’ve now edited your On The Sofa comment 3 times, because each time the Rory-ponytail picture appears, but then I log out and it disappears again. I’ve left it as a URL.

Craig, sorry to be a pain (and let me know if I can help research this if necessary), but is it possible that two image links aren’t allowed in a single forum topic reply?

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@Shazzbot and @wolfweed

You can have as many pictures as you want. It’s just that with that site it seeems it is impossible to hotlink an image as the link takes you to the webpage, not the image.

The link you posted Shazzbot is a jpeg, but it takes you to the webpage because of the way the site is set up.

They obviously want links rather than us just stealing their bandwidth. Imagine! 😀

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@craig @Shazzbot

I get the “span” thing occasionally, but usually only if I cut and paste from a Word doc. I just delete it

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@Shazzbot @bluesqueakpip @scaryb

Well, I tried many possible fixes last night for the pasting issue and none of them worked. Then I woke up this morning with a moment of inspiration, and the solution was incredibly simple.

I think the pasting problem is now fixed. Phew!

Let me know if you find that it isn’t.

[Anonymous @]

@craig – Test of span junk:

Unfortunately you have not been successful in your application to purchase tickets to the Doctor Who 50th Celebration. If any of the balloted event tickets are not claimed within the allocated timeframe a second ballot will open. We will notify you by email. Please ensure you keep an eye on your emails for further news.

Interesting … I did the same copy and paste as yesterday (i.e., from the BBC email into Visual mode).  I can see in Text mode that the Span stuff still surrounds only the first paragraph of copied text.

P.S. Craig, as with Dev, the Activity view differs from the view within the topic.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

1. “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” (2011)
2. “Asylum of the Daleks” (2012)
3. “The Angels Take Manhattan” (2012)
4. “The Snowmen” (2012)
5. “The Bells of Saint John” (2013)
6. <span style=”font-size: 13px;”>“The Name of the Doctor” (2013)</span>

 

Testing for span junk with a list copied from a Word document

[Edit] Interesting. I edited the last line (the listing format hadn’t copied over) and we get the span junk surrounding ‘The Name of the Doctor”. That’s the only bit of the copied material that I changed.

Using Chrome version 29.0.1547.76 m, Word document in docx format, edited in Visual mode rather than Text mode.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@Shazzbot @bluesqueakpip

Ah yes, forgot to test from emails and Word. It seems to be fine from webpages, such as other people’s posts here.

I think I know how to fix for Word and emails too – hopefully not another long night tonight ahead 😕

@Shazzbot can you try posting the exact same as a blog coment on the DEV Forum please – it’s set up slightly differently and may have the fix already applied.

[Anonymous @]

@craig – sure, will do.

Note also the difference in Bluesqueakpip’s post on this topic, and in the Activity view …

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@Shazzbot yeah, I told you why that happens. Forums are BBPress, Activity is Buddypress. It applies extra filters when creating the Activity stream.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@craig

This is just a test post, copying and pasting from Word

©

Edit : Yay! Very impressed, it works 😀 (Feel free to delete this, you clever boy!!)

 

 

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@scaryb Thanks but it wasn’t quite there yet.

@Shazzbot @bluesqueakpip Can you try your posts again with the same copying and pasting? I’ve applied another couple of parameters to my fix.

[Anonymous @]

Test of email text copied into Visual mode of a forum reply topic for ‘span’ issues on Live site:

Unfortunately you have not been successful in your application to purchase tickets to the Doctor Who 50th Celebration.

If any of the balloted event tickets are not claimed within the allocated timeframe a second ballot will open. We will notify you by email. Please ensure you keep an eye on your emails for further news.

 

— wow @craig, absolutely clean.  Nothing in Text mode either.  Well done, you.  😀

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

19. “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” (2011)
20. “Asylum of the Daleks” (2012)
21. “The Angels Take Manhattan” (2012)
22. “The Snowmen” (2012)
23. “The Bells of Saint John” (2013)

“The Name of the Doctor” (2013)

Same text, copied with original formatting this time. Also fiddled about with the last line as before.

[Edit: Perfect. It didn’t replace the numbering, and there was no span rubbish inserted when I edited the final line. By George, I think you’ve got it!]

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

Urgh. That’s what I get for Copy pasting from word.

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb – before I delete all that formatting junk, can you please advise which version of Word you’re using, and which browser (and which version of the browser)? Also, did you paste the Word data into the Visual view of the editing box? Thanks.

[janetteB @janetteb]

I’m using word03 and Firefox. Yes I posted into the visual window. I don’t normally cut and past in but was tired and needed the aid of spell checker. I am also having a few keyboard issues after it consumed a glass of white the other night.

Thanks for coming to the rescue @Shazzbot.

 

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb – thanks for the info, I’ll pass it along to @craig.  In the meantime, go ahead and create your posts in Word; just click on the ‘Text’ tab of the edit box before pasting in your work.

Craig – if you’re interested, I saved the deleted Word formatting junk.  As per the comment above, the problem was pasting from Word (using Firefox) into the Visual tab of a topic reply edit box.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

Yes. I’ve done a bit of redesigning. The old design, basically the default template with a few changes, was a bit old fashioned and didn’t work too well on mobile.

The new version of Buddypress enables a lot more control over the site theme, so I thought I’d take advantage of that fact and clean things up a bit. I’m a bit of a minimalist at heart.

It took me a while (which is why I’ve been quieter than usual) so I hope you like it.

It’s still a work in progress so if you see something that doesn’t seem quite right, let me know here or via PM.

[Anonymous @]

@craig – beauteous.  🙂  Very clean and minimalist.  Have responded elsewhere with niggles.  But they are just niggles, and glad to see so much of your hard work yield such great results.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

Ooh, snazzy new design @craig 🙂

(And thanks for posting the above – I was blaming my computer for being glitchy!)

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@craig

“ooh you’ve redecorated…”

It does look very clean, my Lord.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@Shazzbot and @scaryb Thanks.

@phaseshift I’m glad you didn’t finish that quote! I wasn’t keen on Key Master, and wanted something Doctor related for Mods as well. At first I plumped for Master and Doctor, but Doctor didn’t look right under your pic, so Time Lord and Lord President it is, unless you have a better idea?

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@craig

No – it looks smashing (hence not finihing the quote). Startled me because I logged in and everything changed. I thought I’d pressed a button, or something 😉

“Lord President” is cool, but a Dalek motif could also be quite funny. “Emperor” would go with your avatar quite well.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@craig @phaseshift @Shazzbot

Looks great on phone btw, definitely much bettter.

I’m amused by @phaseshift‘s suggestion of being run by Daleks eg Emperor and special weapons daleks 😉

But there’s plenty to chose from http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Dalek_hierarchy

 

(And I approve of the added copyright line at the end (did I suggest that, or was I just thinking about it?))

 

 

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@phaseshift Ooh I like Emperor. Think I’ll go with that.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig – any way of making the page background less – blindingly white? Or it might be the font – I’m not sure. But whatever it is, I’m reeling back from all the screen glare.

Off now anyway, back later, so no hurry.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@scaryb Re the new copyright line, I don’t know if you suggested it or not, but it’s been in my mind and something which I’ve been meaning to add for a while.

@bluesqueakpip It’s no whiter than the white background was before. But there is a bit more white than before because of the removal of the grey sides. I’ll have a think. And look into different fonts.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@bluesqueakpip Have reduced the contrast of the text. Hopefully is a bit better.

It’s a bit difficult, cos it looked fine on my screen, but I know everyone’s is different.

[chickenelly @chickenelly]

Back after a short hiatus.  I’ve been checking in and keeping up to date, but not had time to do stuff like logon.  Mind you as there is no movement on the 50th anniversary programmes other than that tiny ident *shakes fist at BBC*.

Oooh a lovely new redesign @craig.  At first I thought my computer or eyes had gone a bit wonky – although I do agree with @bluesqueakpip there is rather a lot of white, perhaps a slightly bigger font for those of us eyebally challenged? – but other than that quibble the new site is rather impressive.

[Anonymous @]

@craig – a simple note – the extra avatars displayed in ‘Recently Active Members’ really seem to add pizzazz and ‘oomph’ – and energy – to the Forum.  Good call to increase that block.

[Anonymous @]

@craig. Like the new look. Very elegant. I can understand why some might think it looks too bright. Personally, I really like it. (Just use the PUWS defence*)

 

*Planned Use of White Space

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@jimthefish Cheers Jim, much appreciated. Am hoping to do more improvements soon.

It really is down to PUWS – if it’s not needed, bin it.

@chickenelly The font is actually bigger than it was before. I did have it even bigger in an earlier incarnation as I’m a bit eyeball challenged myself but was worried it might be too much. I’d actually like to go a bit bigger, but maybe next time – will sneak it in with little increments.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig – contrast is much better, thanks. Not quite so ‘arrgh! The glare! And now I’m being mugged by a rogue paragraph!’ 🙂

Yes, it is the removal of the grey sides; I’m not good at coping with lots and lots of white. The British Dyslexia Association advice is: “Avoid white backgrounds for paper, computer and visual aids. White can appear too dazzling.”

The larger font is fine; now the contrast has been toned down I really like it.

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