Mini-questions and mini-answers about this forum

[Korn]

My email notification of posts seems to be going very slow. I'm getting told about posts that were posted the day before............I don't know if it's just a problem with my email service or not! Is anyone else finding this? :undecided:

Oops, I missed that message. Still having those problems?

[Cricket24]

http://www.veganforum.com/forums/
That's where I get the message about permissions.

[Korn]

That should be a temp. problem, because since you haven't specified anything more than a folder (and not a real php or html file), the server tries to take you to the index file of a new section that isn't open yet, and which therefor only I have access to.

Does this make sense at all? If not, just try eg. http://www.veganforum.com instead. or just veganforum.com.

Or, in eg. Safari, all you need to type is veganforum, and you will come to http://www.veganforum.com/forums/forum.php (I guess this may work in other browsers as well).

[Risker]

Would it be possible to allow the use of a smaller text size for posting long lists etc?

[Korn]

I'm sorry that I haven responded to this question earlier, Risker! It appears that the text size options can't be enabled/disabled for lists only, so we'll keep the current solution, at least for now.

Another question I've received is: why is the forum always a little slower, for a period, before noon (European time)?
Answer: This is because automatic backups are being made daily around this time - without closing the forum.

[harpy]

Is there any easy way to list any recent unanswered posts (so that we can make sure people do get an answer), please, Korn?

[Korn]

Unfortunately not. But here's an idea: if you go inside a subforum, and click on the word Replies (in Replies/Views) twice, the threads will be sorted, ascending, after how many replies they have received. If there are any threads which haven't been responded to at all, they should now appear at the top of the list.

Thanks for bringing this up!

[Back-Space]

That's a great idea idea though. Or is there someway of keeping the most recent threads on a page, without them disappearing after being read? It's kind of a challenge to get back to a thread if no one else has posted in it since you have. Like a "Most active threads" section or something like that.

[Korn]

You can use Today's Posts instead of New Posts?

Other than that, you need to go to the forum itself and look for a thread list there.

Alternatively, bookmark all important threads, the search engine, and whatever else you may want easy access to in your browsers Bookmarks Bar (folder).

[Back-Space]

Oh, I never even knew about that :p Thanks. I can't seem to use the search all that well. I'll type something in and it will find the complete opposite of what I'm looking for :p

[Korn]

Look closely on the search various options you have there... and it will start to make more sense.

[Risker]

I find searching a lot simpler if you click the 'Search Single Content Type' tab at the top.

[Korn]

Yes - if the search type is set to "Posts".
But the whole thing needs to be redone - it's rather counterintuitive and much more complex than the old search feature.

[twinkle]

I've only read the first page so hope this isn't a repeat, but is there any way to hide threads?

There are some that keep cropping up that I am not interested in replying to because they've already been exhaustively covered in my opinion, so I'd rather not see them any more, is there an option to hide them or will I just have to suck it up?

[Korn]

Sorry, the software doesn't have such an option, unless these threads are in a subforum which belongs to a so called "permission group". Then you can leave that group, if you have joined it, to avoid the thread popping up.

[vava]

Any chance of some more cute smileys - don't know how smileys work - do you have to buy them?

Fab ones here www.minimins.com

[Back-Space]

You can add your own. I do that once in a while just by copying the URL of the smilie and putting it in [ I M G ] brackets.

http://freeemoticonsandsmileys.com/animated%20emoticons/Smile%20Animated%20Emoticons/happy%20dance.gif << I love this one :p
http://freeemoticonsandsmileys.com/animated%20emoticons/Smile%20Animated%20Emoticons/tease.gif

[vava]

http://l.static.mmscdn.com/smilies/15nov08/17729.gif

Heh! Thanks for that.

[Back-Space]

http://l.static.mmscdn.com/smilies/15nov08/17729.gif

Heh! Thanks for that.

Lol, I like it :p

[Korn]

1)

Someone ( a new member) just asked if we moderate all posts here.
We don't, except in the Vegan FAQ section, where posts are moderated always (except for long time members with a high post count).

The question came from one who probably haven't read our board rules, because he managed to post 4-5 posts before his account was approved, all (but one) about promoting another site - in various threads. We've had similar situations before, and the only thing that seems to work with people who seem to register to promote another forum or site is to have them on moderated posts - otherwise, they'll just keep 'spamming' our threads with comments that "happen to" be about that other site (which they sometimes own, moderate or admin).



2)
Here's an excerpt from what another person wrote in "About yourself" recently:

"First of all I just want to say this registration process is awful..."

...and...

"What exactly is this nonsense under the option title??
What is the first word in this sentence?"


There are lots of 'robots' computers who constantly try to register on forums only to post spam etc. To ensure a registration doesn't come from a robot, we now have this question saying "What is the first word in this sentence?". The answer is of course "What", but a robot don't understand this... :)

We also have this Captcha/Re-Captcha thing (typing in random characters from an image file) to prevent bots, but this solution has been hacked not long ago, and therefore isn't working as it should at the moment.

I have manually approved thousands of accounts over the last years - it takes time, but means that we have a forum that's relatively spam (and omni!) free.

This user has now told me that I should tell him exactly how to respond to the registration procedure "without any childish games or riddles" or else I will be investigated and reported for "discrimination against foreign and dyslexic vegans, alienating, monopolising and branding veganism in your own personal opinions."

The only short and honest response I can offer to such an approach may appear brutal, but here it is: someone who come up with threats, talk about alienating, monopolizing, childishness, awful, silly games, 'branding' and more even before he is a member here unfortunately represents a typical example of the kind of communication we don't want at this site. I have no idea who he is or what his opinions are about anything, and of course this has nothing to do with opinions. Sometimes I see 10-15 new registrations when I log in, and I can't respond to all of those who aren't approved personally. That's too bad, actually, but that's how it is.

Some other sites worth trying:
http://www.veganrepresent.com
http://www.vegtalk.org/
http://veganclub.org/forums/
http://www.vegfamily.com/forums/
http://www.vegfamily.com/forums/
http://goveganforum.yuku.com/
http://rawveganforum.com/

[vava]

Once again Korn you have been amazingly patient - if it was my site they would be given a two word answer.

[Korn]

Thanks, Vava.

Another one which came in today:


I understand [...] that some of my posts have fallen foul of section 9 of your rules (which contains errors, BTW).

Will I be informed of this, and what my offending posts said, so that I may correct them?

Sorry, but when someone logs in and mainly posts messages promoting a product/site/other forum - repeatedly, in many threads, we don't discuss thee messages/cases on an individual basis. Plus, it should be clear from our rules that we don't want people to spam various threads with repeated promotion of... anything. We just delete such posts, especially in cases like yours, where there already have been people promoting the same stuff you want to promote (several times, in multiple threads, including a dedicated thread), and where your intention here clearly is to promote something, whatever the thread you post in.

In general, it doesn't help If such a member fail to see that s/he has broken our board rules - or need help to understand that this has happened.

Pardon my English about spelling errors - I'll have look at the FAQ soon. Thanks for the tip.

[cobweb]

Korn please don't let nastiness get you down.

[Korn]

I'll do my best. :)

Here are a couple of legitimate questions from today:

"Hi, I have a couple of issues I'm hoping you can sort out :)

Firstly whenever I sign in, it says 'thank you for logging in...' but then loads up a page that says I need to register.

Secondly I've received a few PMs that say my post has been removed and I don't really understand why."

Last question first: we remove old/outdated posts regularly, especially from these forums which have an announcement about posts regularly being removed. Don't worry. :) I have turned off the automatic message about deleted etc. posts from a couple of subforums lately.

Re. the login issue: One other person who have mentioned this, and we haven't been able to sort out why it happens, If other have the same problem, please let us know!

[vava]

OMG! - how does this stuff not drive you to distraction? Makes me mad - and I don't even have to deal with it! grrrr