I seem to get notifications around 2 days later lately.
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I seem to get notifications around 2 days later lately.
i don't use email notifications for PMs but i was sent a PM last week that took almost 24 hours from the time it was sent to the time it arrived in my inbox.
Weird :confused:
How do you see the top 10 posters and all that? I accessed it once before but now can't remember how I did it! (You got me curious now, Marrers :p)
I'd like to know that too Spud. (It was on the Quick Links list for a while which is when I became paranoid about it. :rolleyes:)
Perhaps it took a wrong turn and was:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/im...34/n172705.jpg
.... but finally found its way :D
^ you see, people, no need for paranoia now, you can all start posting away again!
Sometimes I get emails like the one I got today:
We can't send any kind of activation codes or emails to other addresses than the one you have registered with. If we did, we would risk allowing others to get access to your account. If you have registered with a wrong email address, just re-register!Quote:
I would be grateful if you could send the activatio e-mail to the above e-mail address. I realise that I made a mistake in the e-mail. Thanks
I'm sure that their used to be a way of 'blocking' a user, so that you don't have to see their posts, but I can't find it. I suppose it could have been on another forum. Can it be done here?
Simples! You click on 'User Control Panel' scroll down, on the left is 'Edit Ignore List' :)
Cheers dude!
I'm a member of another forum based on vBulitin that is not public, :satisfied: my posts are completly private and hidden.. is all of what I write on here visible to a search engine like google? :no_expression: :no_expression: :no_expression:
certain sections are readable by members only, some are visible to the public.
I got a question (which don't need to be posted here) recently about moderation status etc. from a member.
Please look at the FAQ:
Also:Quote:
Don't post questions to mods or admins in regular threads
There simply aren't enough resources/capacity to discuss why some people are on moderated posts. In another recent case, a new member posted a link to an extreme animal rights organization, Animal Rights Militia. Another user reported this, with a reference to our FAQ/board rules, which says (in red print):Quote:
We reserve the right to delete/moderate accounts and posts - for any reason - without further explanation.
Still, the new member who was promoting this group asked (in an email) "I do agree to the rules and never broke any, and least not that I know of, and I re-read the rules.".Quote:
Do not post anything that might be interpreted as support/justification for (or being involved in) breaking laws for any reason, or links to sites that contain such material.
This is the perfect thing to do if you want to make sure your account should be deactivated and not reactivated again.
The other user I mentioned recently posted that s/he were annoyed with some people, wrote that s/he would have liked to "smash their faces into the ground a few times", asked if the members here would think that punching them be sufficient punishment/not enough punishment (etc).
We are not going into the dead end policy we did a few years ago, when we spent a lot of time on trying to make the few members who didn't understand our rules understand them, repeatedly discussed details behind our moderation etc in PMs and public threads etc.
This is a 'self-administrating' forum; nobody are paid to run it, and admins/mods totally reserve the right to moderate the best we can without having to explain every detail with people who claim that they follow our rules but clearly don't.
And - in case any of you are still in doubt... this is not a place to discuss using violence against others or promoting extreme/brutal animal rights groups.
And certain sections are only available if you (as a member) subscribe to so called "User Groups"...
Whatever happened to the little arrow that is overlaid on the envelopes to show which threads you have subscribed to (or posted in)? Threads I post in are still automatically subscribed to, but the arrow doesn't show up.
I use the New Default style, but there also isn't an arrow in Kelissa, either.
Can it be resurrected, as I found it useful. :smile:
Hi Pob,
I disabled some features that could have a negative effect on the server performance when we had the database error messages not too long ago, but I have re-enabled some stuff now; eg. access to the Member Forum and User Groups for all registered users and "Check Thread Subscription".
Other extra features we had are still disabled ("Similar thread check", "Tag Cloud" and "Prevent Newbies from Posting to Wrong Forum").
Please let me know if the function are are missing is back now.
There's a tick now on the right. There used to be a curly arrow on the mail icon on the left. Perhaps that meant you'd posted in the thread.
The tick is fine, though :)
Confused... wasn't the curly arrow for threads that had been moved? Anyway, it seems that something has changed, because apparently, I don't have any special icons for threads I have subscribed to at all.
I just checked in another vbulletin forum and there is a little hooked arrow over the letter/mail icon on the left that starts pointing down right and then turns to down left.
When you hover the mouse over it it says "You have x posts in this thread, last _day _month _year"
At the bottom of the page (on both forums) it shows you what the different mail icons mean eg, new posts, no new posts, thread is closed, etc. On the other forum the arrowed icon is listed with the text "You have posted in this thread." That's not on here, so it looks like it is disabled somewhere.
Yeah, that's got it :)
Is it possible to separate the first two items on the Quicklinks menu?
I tend to prefer using "Today's Posts" rather than "New Posts" to read the forums. Too often I end up clicking "Mark All Forums Read" is a nuisance as it doesn't ask for confirmation.
It's only a small thing, but it would be helpful. :)
There's no such option in the software, and while that kind of user interface certainly is possible by altering the code directly, it's beyond my capacities...
I got a question via email today from someone who wrote that the forum "used to let me post but now it won't!! whats going on?".
Answer: In this - and some similar - cases, the (usually new) member has written a post about using animal products. In this case it was a post explaining why the poster "eat honey and will continue to eat honey." This is a forum for vegans, and unfortunately for some people, there won't be any discussions between vegans and people who defend using eggs, honey, milk, leather etc.
Please just use the search engine (and in this case, search for threads with 'honey' in the title) if you want to know why vegans don't use honey!
So anybody else not receiving topic reply notifications?
I think we had one or two persons with the same problem - she created a new account and then everything worked fine. Let's see if this improves with version 4 of the forum software, due within less than a month.
If you want, I can have a look at your account and disable all subscriptions - then you can reactivate them for only the threads you are interested in. Just send me a PM if you want me to do this...
Here's a question from another user...
The reason we have "We reserve the right to delete/moderate accounts and posts - for any reason - without further explanation." in our board rules is due to capacity limits. While I'd really like to meet and chat with all our 10,000 members, there's simply not enough resources/time to explain our moderation policy in detail to those who want it. The board rules should explain why we have the moderation policy we have.Quote:
could you stop this stupid bs and either give me back ability to PM/make threads to explain to me why I'm not allowed to? Surely you're not that childish to just take it away without reason.
Admins on all relatively large boards get angry mails from various people for a number of reasons. For instance, many non-approved members are annoyed because they can post here even if they aren't vegans, and want a discussion about this. In such and similar cases all we can do is to hope that they either have read or will read our board rules, which explains who this board is meant for.
In the future, boards like this will hopefully be run by people who has it as their (paid) job, and therefore can spend all the time they ideally should spend on discussing various issues with members whenever needed. Currently, the situation is very far from that ideal solution.
Not only are admins expected to respond to spend time on every vegan or non-vegan who wants a discussion about or board rules, but we are also expected to pay various bills from our own pocket whenever we need support, to pay for server rental, or take time off our real work to deal with urgent situations. That's why we have the donation system, but even that only covers (some of the) real expenses, not 'support' time expected by users who don't agree in our straight-forwards rules, or haven't even been bothered with reading them, let alone the time needed just to keep the site up and running.
Earlier this week, a member, who have asked me to deactivate her account had someone ask me why she couldn't post (!). Another member asked why she couldn't post (s/he declared that she wasn't a vegan, and this is a site for vegans, so...). Then there are of course regular questions about quirks with certain accounts etc, removing spam almost daily, approving new members (manually, to avoid spam). We also work on updating the forum, meaning lots of hours involved in looking at solutions, trying out early versions/making backups and much more. Version 4 will be much better in many ways, but sometimes it's good to wait with installing new versions, which is what we have been looking at. Then there's the communication with the server guys regarding certain database error messages we seem to get occasionally, especially around 1.30 AM-1.30 AM GMT, and also problems with the so called 'shell access' we need to create extra backups needed. Then we have paid for some design/support to people who haven't done the job, which needs to be followed up... and more, including nice posts from people who registered as non-vegans but who now are vegans
So when someone asks me to stop the 'stupid bullshit' - I simply have to ignore it. I don't remember why that account was on (temp.?) moderated posts anymore, but my interest in diving into investigating this is reduced to a minimum level when people communicate the way that poster did. I simple don't have time to discuss whether I'm so "childish" that I take away people's posting abilities without reason. Of course we don't - but not all accounts are having full access from day 1, for various reasons.
Accusing someone for 'stupid bullshit' is a pretty good example of the kind of communication we're not interested in on this board. Like it or not - our rules about this board being reserved for 'friendly communication' (or at least - we don't want 'unfriendly' communication!) also apply to communication with the moderators! :)
What's happened to the post count? It feels weird without it...:umm:
It's still in your profile. You probably feel weird without it because you are used to it. There was a period we didn't have post counts in the message user info area at all, and nobody seemed to miss it... :-)
Some more comments/questions that we have received lately...
"I want to arrange a meet-up with someone, but my Private Message function isn't enabled."
Just post in the forums. (We may actually change our policy re. PMs, in that new users won't have PM abilities for a little while.)
"I've heard from that people have offered to help you mod and admin in the past, and you've never accepted."
We have had several moderators for many years. We may have had one or two cases were someone has offered moderator help, which we haven't used, simply because we haven't been needing (more) moderators then.
Re. moderation: Ideally, a forum like this shouldn't need any moderation at all. If people disagree in our board rules and how the site is run, it's actually much better if they use another forum, because whether we've had 3 or 30 people involved in running the site, it's many ways to spend the energy better than (sometimes rather rude) people who don't agree in our policy. If someone with a normal account has been put on delayed/moderated posts, we actually expect that they will understand why if they look at the board rules. If they don't, that decreases the chance they'll be happy with this site, and definitely decrease the chances that they'll get unmoderated PM and posting abilities back. If you think what we do is "stupid bullshit", you shouldn't use this board in the first place, and you won't get full access to the site.
"I'm on moderated posts, but perhaps I would donate money to the site if I weren't." (This was from the poster who talked about stupid bullshit, 'childish' etc. earlier).
Donating isn't linked to PM access or moderated/unmoderated posts, and we actually encourage people *not* to donate unless they have a feeling that this is a forum which already is run in a way they're happy with...
"I don't know how to contact the admin/mods."
Just use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page...
These question may pop up soon, so I'll respond right away:
"Why does the forum have fewer members and posts today than a few days ago?"
The server guys initially said that we had so large database that this would slow down the forum, and at some point said that we needed another, more expensive solution with such a large database (of members, threads and posts).
After that, we removed members who had never posted and hadn't been online for more than a year, and removed a number of old or outdated threads. This means that if someone searches the forum, it will be a smaller amount of data for the server to go through which improves the performance.
"When will you update to vBulletin 4.0?"
Most likely, within a couple of weeks. The current 4.0 version is more CPU intensive than the version we use, so we'll wait until some bugs have been fixed and the software puts less strain on the server.
"Why the label 'ex-admin'"?
Because this is a site for people who don't need to be administrated. :-)
I don't like the idea of "administrating" anyone, so due to how internet democracy works - instead of trying to change the policy of a forum or admin you're not happy with, use a forum that suits you better. This makes sense, because part of that 'Internet democracy' means that people are free to start any forum they like with the profile they want. Even with 100 moderators, it wouldn't make sense to discuss everything we do with everybody who wants to.
This is a forum for discussing vegan related topics and meet and chat with other vegans, not for discussing the forum as such - but constructive critique is always welcome.
We do have a lot of traffic, and relatively low amount of financial support, so we won't increase the forum use (and expenses) to accommodate wishes from people who would like this forum to be something which it is not intended to be. It is clearly intended for those who are capable of *not* communicate in an unfriendly way.
What happened to the visitor message section and the recent visitors section?
Hi,
We started a poll about how many people who wanted to keep various features not long ago. We had another thread earlier about these features as well, and as a result of the feedback from these two threads, these two features have now been disabled.
Ah well, I'll miss them. But I'll get over it :)
Good! :)Quote:
But I'll get over it :)
Here's another question I just got:
Welcome!Quote:
I can't post anywhere but in this section, and I can't edit my group memberships! I'm so confused! I really want to be successful in going vegan, but I really need the support of others who have been there and I can't post anywhere!!!
We used to have an area for discussions with non-vegans, but that section has been changed to a section where new and potential vegans can ask questions (only).
Please check this subforum: New newbie questions
Most likely, your questions already have been answered either here...
Vegan FAQ
...or here:
Other/old newbie threads
I'm getting the database error when I try to get into my private messages and user profile. I can get around the rest of the forum okay though. But, ah, I'll be going through withdrawal soon if I can't get to my PM's :p;)