All held together by cable ties and Jaffa Cakes

Hey Folks
So as some  of you hopefully didn't notice - the forum moved house last night. Now that it's been up and running for a few hours and hasn't burst into flames……. yet…….. thought it was time for a thread to cover a couple of things.

Firstly - what does it being in a new home mean?

Hopefully not much as far as everyone here is concerned - it's on a host I manage and have access to, in the background that means I can tinker with the site and "fix stuff in the database".

Downsides?

Again hopefully none, but it'll take a few days to get a feel for the impact the site is having on the server and make sure there's enough capacity etc - so please, for now tread gently and don't go jumping on the furniture  :tongue

Why Snag List?

Well whenever a new house is built you do a snag list right? Now admittedly this is a bit more like a restoration project than a new build, but still. 

If you see something that doesn't work, and it used to work, then feel free to call it out in here and I'll take a look as time and commitments allow. If you've got ideas about how this place can be improved (technically that is, i know gagging Barchester would improve things but I'm a tech geek not the bad joke police), feel free to drop them here, I'll be honest this forum software is really out of date, so it's unlikely they'll get implemented but call them out because who knows - maybe one day I'll be really bored and decide to upgrade this place. 

Lastly, just a wee thank you to you all. I appreciate the patience in waiting for stuff to happen, I'm doing this as         a favour to Barchester (okay okay, I'm doing it for beer) and have a full time job and kids, so my time is limited and I often have other things to deal with - that said, it's nice to be involved and I am hoping that we can keep the lights on in this place, if not even replace a few of the blown bulbs as we go, maybe even a dimmer switch or two here and there……okay that might be pushing it.

 Oh and for anyone thinking of posting for a "Make Barchester's jokes better" feature - not happening, I've had to put up with them for 38 Years! He's your problem now!! 

Break 
(Jay)

Breakage is aware that the 15 most recents list on the homepage is not displaying any topics and has it on his list  :thumbs

Connection Not Private
So this one has been true since the old forum, i know a number of folks will have seen it there - you'll be seeing it again as  it's a different server now so it's letting you know again.

The reason for this message is known and is on the list of things to fix - however there's some technical shunting required before that particular Engine can get on the tracks so it may take a few weeks.

:thumbs

We all appreciate what you've done Jay and regarding Barchester and his bad jokes - well, we all have our cross to bear ……

Appreciate the work going on behind the scenes.  But one niggle remains.  

I use Mac (always the latest OS and currently v11.4.0 and iOS 14.6 on the iPhone 11

I still find it is necessary to "return" three times in order to achieve a double-line break rather than twice.  When inserting images I have to place the cursor to the left of the image, which is not always easy, and insert a return to avoid having the image display butted up to the text or image above.  

Using the "Reply" pane I cannot see that this problem will arise until I preview the text using that button.  Using the iPhone or Quick Reply window on the full version I cannot preview at all.  This is being typed in the Quick Reply and will be left as the software posts it.  A post a few moments ago in the Welcome Back thread has two lines without the intended and expected double-spacing.  

This is a mild and long-ongoing frustration which I can overcome by editing the post but which then gives me a lot of edited posts.

By way of illustration this is typed in the full "Reply" pane and should be displayed as two separated paragraphs.  If it shows as two lines without spacing then the problem is still present.  

^^^^^ That didn't even attempt to space the paragraphs.  One sentence follows on from the next despite using the return key twice

It's a Mac, sell it or hit it wi a big Hammer !
Sorry Rick only Joking. It's not just on a Mac, it can happen on other devices as well. The text editor should have been upgraded years ago but we are locked in to an older version of the main software, and I'm not sure anyone really wants to TRY to repair or adapt the old editor ( ??? ) 
  We ARE now looking at options to upgrade what we can but this will be a much more involved process so we may have to put up with the old creaky stuff for a bit. 

Rather than trying to click to the left of the picture ( almost ruddy impossible)  I click at the end of the text ABOVE the picture and hit return two or three times which inserts blank lines between text and picture

I THINK  Martin ? ? once gave us some tips regarding the editor. . Was it hitting the 'End' button ? To get the curser flashing beyond the last Picture  ?  Then I always hit return three or four times before typing anything or adding a new picture.
Yes its best to review before posting as it often doesn't display as you think it should !

Also remember if your doing a long post, compose it OUTSIDE of the forum using your own favorate simple text editor, where you can chop and change, save it and go back etc. Just put *picture 1* etc where you want to place any pictures, then when your ready. . Cut and paste into a new post, add in the relevant pictures, preview and publish
  How many times have you written a diatribe, nipped  off to to a new tab to check a fact and when you come back. . Text box is empty ! 

Not ideal I know  Rick but bear with us we are looking at options going forward  :hmm

Cheers

Matt

I have a similar problem with my Samsung tablet Rick (free with 5 gallons of petrol many years ago).

On all my other windows devices, a double "return" leaves a space then starts a new paragraph.  With this tablet, I have to hit return 3 times otherwise it just starts a new line without leaving a space …….  Fortunately, I usually remember that quirk now so don't have to "edit" every time.

Those who have Macs love them - I don't !!!

P.s. sorry, I ought not to clog up the snags topic with chit-chat.  I'll leave this until tomorrow so Rick can read it then I'll delete it Matt ….  :cool wink

I have made numerous changes to the UltraBB editor over the years, both here and on my own old board.

The problem is that the editor runs with the browser in "design mode" and there is NO agreed standard on how that should work. each browser does its own thing.

Some browsers insert only <br> line breaks to create new lines and paragraphs. Others insert full <p> paragraphs with margins, padding and full CSS.

Every time I get it working nice in one browser, it is wrong in another. Then one or other browser does an update and it is wrong again.

 A trick I suggest is that every time you press the Enter key, hold down the Shift key at the same time. One press should then always start a new line with no space, two presses should always leave a single blank line.

If you have a choice of browser, use Firefox. The Gecko engine in there is the closest to working properly and repeatedly every time. The Chrome and Webkit engines used in other browsers are just a constant pain, and don't stay the same for 5 minutes.

cheers,

Martin.

[user=1984]Martin Wynne[/user] wrote:

 A trick I suggest is that every time you press the Enter key, hold down the Shift key at the same time. One press should then always start a new line with no space, two presses should always leave a single blank line.

This - very much this

I have been doing this so long that I instinctively hold shift whenever i start a new line no matter what Browser/App/Program I'm using - obviously a lot easier when you are at a physical keyboard - which brings me to another point

Given it's age this software was designed for PC's and Keyboards - so it's not going to always play nice with Tablets/Phones etc

Okay, I've put in a very clunky workaround for the "15 most recent" problem - it's not pretty I'm afraid but after many hours looking at it I still can't figure out why it isn't working as intended.
I'm not giving up - but i figured something was better than nothing for now

Take a break bud, it will still be there when you wake up, or the next day, or next week. We can live without it   :)
You done plenty already  :thumbs

Cheers

[user=2080]Barchester[/user] wrote:

Take a break bud, it will still be there when you wake up, or the next day, or next week. We can live without it   :)
You done plenty already  :thumbs

Cheers

I'll second that Matt.   :thumbs


The main thing is, we've moved and we're now safe Breaker - the tweaks are nice but not essential and we're all so grateful for what you've done - all for the price of a can or two of beer !!   Sit down - live up to your name and take a break.  Matt tells me he's sent another case to you so just enjoy that for a while.  :cheers

Hey, you probably already know but your certificate has expired so YMRC is now flagged as unsecure. It will also start to prevent the less experienced users from accessing the forum.

Thanks Chris were aware, we need to do some shuffling of things before we can instigate it, bare with us
Thanks Matt

Not a problem! It just flagged up for me today.  You guys are putting in a lot of hard work keeping the forum going! Thanks.