Foggy's Progress - a record of improvements to the forum

[Foggy]

I think the answer is to add a link to Unread Posts. People are using Active Topics a lot.

But, lemme upgrade the forum first.

[sugar magnolia]

I think the answer is to add a link to Unread Posts. People are using Active Topics a lot.

But, lemme upgrade the forum first.

Thank you.

[Foggy]

Oh crap, my beer didn't make it through the wormhole AGAIN.

Anyway, I got us upgraded. Apparently there was a release of version 3.3.6 while I was on my way up to my dad's or something, and they immediately detected a MAJOR FLAW that hadn't surfaced during testing, so they had to do emergency 3.3.7.

So lemme know if you find problems. No, your beer is not a problem. MY beer is a problem, and I don't even drink beer any more.

[Foggy]

Yeah, the Active Topics links at top and bottom of the page are gone, and I need WAY MORE COVFEFE before I start messing with the code on the new version. Full backups of everything first, while it's still burning coal.

And today is a bizzy day, I'll work on it as I find the time.

[Foggy]

Found a flaw already, missing files in the American English language pack, you'll just have to suffer with British English until later, I'm doing a massive backup of all my websites. But that's now top of the priority list.

Edit: FIXED.

[bill_g]

Not quite. Using Prosilver within a message, Active Topics appears in the Quick links drop down, but it is not a button in the top bar next to Donate. You do see it as part of the directory tributary, but not as a top bar button. Take your time. The salt mines are calling me.

[RTH10260]

King George III approves this change

Edit: King George III disapproves this change

[Reality Check]

Not quite. Using Prosilver within a message, Active Topics appears in the Quick links drop down, but it is not a button in the top bar next to Donate. You do see it as part of the directory tributary, but not as a top bar button. Take your time. The salt mines are calling me.

I think Foggy meant he fixed the language pack, not Active Topics.

[bill_g]

Not quite. Using Prosilver within a message, Active Topics appears in the Quick links drop down, but it is not a button in the top bar next to Donate. You do see it as part of the directory tributary, but not as a top bar button. Take your time. The salt mines are calling me.

I think Foggy meant he fixed the language pack, not Active Topics.

Copy that.

[Foggy]

!	Message from: Foggy
	Yeah, fixing the Active Topics links is a question of coding in PHP and HTML, and I will not do it until I can sit down and concentrate, which I cannot do on a Monday morning or afternoon. You'll just have to click a few extra times until I get to it.

[Reality Check]

I am usually at the bottom of the page when I finish catching up so I click on Board Index. That takes me to the top and I click on Quick Links then Active Tops. 3 clicks vs. 1. I don't see how I can survive the pain.

[Foggy]

!

Message from: Foggy

HOKAY, I now have Prosilver and Prosilver Special Edition fixed as far as Active Topics links at top and bottom of every page. Also, by special request of Sugar Magnolia, I have added links to Unread Posts at the top and bottom of every page. They're right next to each other, and they both serve basically the same function, telling you where to find posts by other people that you haven't seen yet. Try them both, see which one you like. I worry about clutter, but we'll cross that bridge further on down the road. The next step is to change board styles, one by one, and see if the links are there on each different board style. If not, I have a little work to do, if so, it's already done. Not going to announce each board style as I check/fix them, just hold on and your board style will be DEAD LAST HAHAHAHAHA!

[Foggy]

That wasn't so painful, but if I try to do it without total concentration it's really easy to mess up the code.

One time I couldn't figure out what the hell I had done wrong, and when in desperation I turned to tech support, it turned out that in one spot I used a curly brace } instead of a square bracket ] which is the same key on your keyboard, just press Shift. And it broke the whole website, that one little coding error. Code is like dialing phone numbers or entering email addresses, it's ultimately unforgiving of tiny errors.

And then the Terminator movies start, and nobody wants that. My motto is, never let the machines win.

[RTH10260]

Off Topic

flashback into the early days of my career, where I worked by then with the systems group at a datacenter. It was a Saturday morning, and application programmers were compiling their Cobol coded stuff. And tested and tested and it errored with the regular printed pile of post-mortem dump (in octal). Once in a while I also too analyzed the memory dump and concluded with them that a certain functionality had failed to execute. The day went on and in the afternoon the operating shift began to suggest they would like to have their weekend and Sunday off. I get called in once again and study the octal mystery dump, still resulting in the finding that functionality X had not run. So I take a view at the source code, and stare at the region where X is invocated. Cannot see anything and recommend they repeat the run (cause sometimes miracles happen). Not this time, so it's up to me once again to put up my blank stare on printed paper. Until I whipe my hand over smuge to remove it, but the dirt decides to remain. Turns out that smuge was an '*' comment asterisk in column 7 of standard Cobol coding, turning the intended invocation of function X into a comment. Small stuff sometimes has mighty side effects. No forests were harmed that day, but paper recycling received a big donation of memory dumps.

[sugar magnolia]

I realize the direct 'unread posts' link is a small thing, but I am loving it! Thank you.

[Foggy]

OMG, I was able to do something to help Sugar M. feel a tiny bit better. Today is a good day.

[Danraft]

I realize the direct 'unread posts' link is a small thing, but I am loving it! Thank you.

Me too also

[keith]

I realize the direct 'unread posts' link is a small thing, but I am loving it! Thank you.

Me too also

Please edumacate me.

What is the difference between 'unread posts' and 'new posts'?

[MN-Skeptic]

Just comparing and it looks like -

Active topics are all the latest posts.

New posts are just a single page of Active topics

Unread posts are active posts with the ones you've read removed from the list

[AndyinPA]

Just comparing and it looks like -

Active topics are all the latest posts.

New posts are just a single page of Active topics

Unread posts are active posts with the ones you've read removed from the list

New posts will go as many pages as there are new posts, but other than that, spot on. When I want to know how many unread posts there are, I go to the Unread Posts link under Quick Links to get an idea. I'm having problems with my computer, so can't reboot to get the link, which isn't showing, but I'm looking forward to having it.

[keith]

More specifically... it looks to me like...

'Active posts' appears to be ALL threads from the beginning of FB2.0 sorted by thread with most recent activity first. There may a cutoff time period threshold that defines 'active' instead of all time.

'New posts' appear to be threads with posts that have been made since your last browser session

'Unread posts' would then appear to be 'new posts' with the threads you've visited removed.

So when you first fire up your browser to go to FB, new posts and unread posts would be the same.

After visiting a few threads, refreshing 'new posts' and 'unread posts' would have different results.

[Lansdowne]

More specifically... it looks to me like...

'Active posts' appears to be ALL threads from the beginning of FB2.0 sorted by thread with most recent activity first. There may a cutoff time period threshold that defines 'active' instead of all time.

'New posts' appear to be threads with posts that have been made since your last browser session

'Unread posts' would then appear to be 'new posts' with the threads you've visited removed.

So when you first fire up your browser to go to FB, new posts and unread posts would be the same.

After visiting a few threads, refreshing 'new posts' and 'unread posts' would have different results.

Unless it has changed, this isn't it. Unread Topics relates to the User not the browser.
If you browse Fogbow not-logged-in, Unread Topics is not available (it doesn't know who you are, so doesn't know what you have read).
And as far as I know if you read a Topic on one browser, then log in on another, the topic will not appear (as it isn't Unread by you!). So it is the server that remembers when every user last read every Topic - and until a new reply has been made that you haven't seen, that Topic won't appear in your list.

[Foggy]

Yeah, but remember you are trapped in a world you never made, and beware and be wary, in fact you can be very wary, Jerry, for shirley you are in the Theater of the Absurd.

FORUM EXAMPLE, it develops that if'n you click Unread Posts (not Topics) there's a link to "Mark all read," meaning the posts would all be marked (in the database, of course) as you having read them, but since nobody is watching, you just escaped without reading them!

They are not Unread Posts ANY MORE, they are Read Posts that you haven't read.

I have to go sit down now.

[Foggy]

Oh yeah, and for future iterations of the forum you might want to try having a small physical port installed on the side of your neck, USB-C of course. Brief surgical procedure (I didn't say minor, I said brief), nothing to worry about. Supposedly you can plug in and be on the forum eight hours a day while you sleep, and then go about your normal routine.

Theater of the Absurd, groovy.

This will solve the problem with people getting logged out.

Permanently.

[bill_g]

Damn it! Someone told me I was supposed to put it in the dongle. I put it in the dangle, and it's never worked right.

Live and learn.