Installed Latest Upgrade to this Forum Software

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Well, I couldn't just leave well enough alone-- I had to go and upgrade the forum software to the latest version, v1.7.

Here are some of the cool new features in this upgrade:

- Custom User Profile Fields

This is probably the most requested feature in this release: You can now create custom fields that can appear in user profiles, on the registration page, and even next to posts. Each field can also be made required and/or private.

- Online Status in Topics:

Whether a user is online or not is now displayed in topics, another much requested feature.

- Auto Resize of Avatars & Attachments:

If your PHP installation has GD2 enabled (many PHP installations have), WowBB can now automatically resize all avatars & attachments.

- PM Preview & Spell Check:

You can now preview and spell check your private messages before sending them. This has been requested by quite a few people too.

- RSS Feeds:

You can use your favorite RSS reader or FireFox's Live Bookmarks feature to see the recent, popular and selected topics on your board.

- Performance Improvements:

All attachments are now cached to significantly lower bandwidth usage and download times. In addition, WowBB's topic/forum caching algorithm is now smarter.

More details on the release notes here: http://www.wowbb.com/forums/forum1/6428.html

So far, it seems to be working. if you come across any bugs, lemme know. And if you have any suggestions for custom fields to add to the user profiles, lemme know that, too. Enjoy!

[Mad Mac]

Got some oddities going on here since the update, but only when I use Firefox (I'm on version 1.5.0.4.) - everything seems to work OK on MSIE.

1) If I hit "Reply", I can't write anything (no cursor) - works OK if I select "Quote"

2) Following buttons are missing with both "Reply" and "Quote": Insert Link, Shadow Text, Glow Text, Blur Text, Cut, Copy, Paste, Spell Check. Also, can't right-click to paste anything in.

3) This always happened (even before the update) with Mozilla and Firefox - if I select the "Insert Link" or "Insert Image" buttons, I get the or text. In MSIE, I get a popup window to insert the link into, and in the case of links, I can do the "CLICK HERE" thing (make text a hyperlink) in blue. Never been able to do that in Mozilla or Firefox.

 

 

 

[Mad Mac]

[align=left]UPDATE - I can get the cursor to come up in "Reply" if I select one of the alignment buttons.

[/align][align=left]Also, come to think of it, how come I can post in this forum?

[/align]

[Mad Mac]

[align=left]Further update (I can't edit in here):

Selecting the "Insert Image" button now brings up a pop-up like MSIE. Also noticed that if I insert a pic , I can resize it, but when I preview or post, is still comes up "original" size (I thought I could resize one of the humongous $ear$ exploded views, but it wasn't to be).

[/align]

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

[user=13]Mad Mac[/user] wrote:

Got some oddities going on here since the update, but only when I use Firefox (I'm on version 1.5.0.4.) - everything seems to work OK on MSIE.

1) If I hit "Reply", I can't write anything (no cursor) - works OK if I select "Quote"

2) Following buttons are missing with both "Reply" and "Quote": Insert Link, Shadow Text, Glow Text, Blur Text, Cut, Copy, Paste, Spell Check. Also, can't right-click to paste anything in.

3) This always happened (even before the update) with Mozilla and Firefox - if I select the "Insert Link" or "Insert Image" buttons, I get the or text. In MSIE, I get a popup window to insert the link into, and in the case of links, I can do the "CLICK HERE" thing (make text a hyperlink) in blue. Never been able to do that in Mozilla or Firefox.

I'll raise these issues with the WowBB folks. I think there's an easy fix for most of this. Standby...

[Mad Mac]

[align=left]I'm standing by x2.....

[/align]

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Just an update, Mad One. I have a support ticket in on this and they're working on it. Hang in there!

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Still no updates on this one. I'll keep nagging 'em!

[Mad Mac]

Any progress on this, O leader?

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

No progress, the support for this forum software is really starting to flake out. I'm getting to the point that I'm considering switching to a whole new forum software, even if it means starting over and making this forum read and search only. What do you think about that?

[Pegi]

:poison::shock::knifehead::whipit::birdeye::fingerwag:....that would be my no vote.

[Mad Mac]

Any progress on the issues?

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

I posted this issue and the other problem with junk in the private messages almost a month ago with a couple of bumps and nothing, zero, zip, nada. The lack of support is the big reason I was considering changing forum software packages. But that idea didn't go over so well with the the users here. And, to be fair, this forum software does have a nice mix of features not found in other forum software. And setting up a whole new forum... :brrr:

I'll keep at 'em. Maybe they'll get so sick of hearing from me that they'll bodge out a fix just to shut me up! :grr:

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Well, here's a reply on the Firefox editing issue:

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. It is normal to have missing buttons when using FireFox. This is due to the technical differences between the two browsers. You can use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste respectively.

He didn't address the no-cursor problem. Is this still an issue?

[Mad Mac]

[user=1]Samurai Appliance Repair Man[/user] wrote:

Well, here's a reply on the Firefox editing issue:

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. It is normal to have missing buttons when using FireFox. This is due to the technical differences between the two browsers. You can use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste respectively.

He didn't address the no-cursor problem. Is this still an issue?

And here's my replies:

1) It is normal to have missing buttons when using FireFox.

BS. Pure and simple. It is only "normal" because the lazy, barely employable bastards can't be bothered getting up off their spotty arses and writing the script correctly. These functions work correctly on many other bulletin boards viewed with Firefox.

2) You can use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste respectively.

IIRC, even that doesn't work. I'll check that tonight from home.

Cursor issue - it comes up if I select one of the alignment buttons (see my reply of July 25th at 13:14). No cursor until and unless I do that.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

<sign> I feel your pain, mah brutha. I am but a poor, mentally under-endowed appliance negro; alas, if I could change it, I would.

Is it encumbering or merely annoying? I'm using Safari and there's absolutely no support for it, either-- it's straight text-based editing, at least you get a little WYSIWYG support. :jason:

[Mad Mac]

It's workable. The Control-V and Control-C do work. No means of doing a hyperlink like IE.

What gets me seriously POd is the non-answer given after a month. None of us here would give that kind of answer to a customer...it's like telling someone that the Extra Rinse doesn't work because they get their electricity from Edison rather than PG&E.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

[user=13]Mad Mac[/user] wrote:

What gets me seriously POd is the non-answer given after a month.

That's what I'm tawkin' about,yo! And the garbage in the PMs makes me PO'd, too. I would love to be able to convert this forum's database to another software package but, right now, there's not much support for WowBB conversions out there-- either too new or not enough users to generate the groundswell of demand that would justify the time and effort to write a convertor. But this could change at any time. Keep hope alive and we shall throw off the white man's shackles! : bandanna:

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

UPDATE: The main developer for this forum software (nice guy, BTW, just stretched thin... like all of us!) gave me an updated module for the PMs that cleans up the html garbage that was appearing. I've installed it on this forum: one problem down!

I'll keep after him about the Firefox bugs.

[grizzly]

Bump.

Thought I'd bump this one for other newbies like me. I have been trying to figure out how to insert hyper linked text (other than pasting in the URL itslef and letting it get linked automatically) so I did a search for "hyperlink" and found this thread. Turns out, my problem was only the fact that I'm a Firefox user and didn't realize that the additional buttons even existed since I'd never logged in under IE. So I logged in using IE, and sure enough, a new button appears enabling linked text.

Soooo, here is my suggested Firefox workaround: 1. close Firefox, 2. open IE, 3. enjoy this forum in all its glory.

[Keinokuorma]

Similar problems with FF2.

Also, this may be an FF issue and not specific to the forum, but I can't write to the message window before the whole page has loaded. After that, in the same session things work right away... but if I close FF and notice I have to do a tiny edit... I may need to wait a full minute or so for the page to load before I can do anything.

Unfortunately, currently I can't use IE for anything. Some junkware has mauled it so that if I allow IE any network access, it will instantly load a plethora of ads and popups... and none of the spyware fighting programs seem to be able to tackle it. Also I have no time or interest to completely reinstall an otherwise functional system. So far I'll stick with these little drawbacks.

But, FF needs some work to be done - there clearly are issues that originate from FF and nothing else.

[Ty2010]

It could be a FF issue but I personally doubt it. Most "compatability" issues of pages working in IE and not other browsers is due to pages making system calls, containing VB code, java used for operations that are outside the officially allowed "sandbox" or using any number of other procedures/operations/languages/security bypasses....ok, I'll stop now