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Weird forum posting issue


JorgeA

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Jaclaz makes a good point because the forum software has undergone some radical changes over time.

I cannot remember the IPB version numbers but the last big update simply FUBAR'd some of the most basic in-post formatting options, particularly with color using canned "other styles" like CODE and CODEBOX.

There is a thread here somewhere where I painstakingly re-created the MBR sector bytes and their purposes all color-coded from another great site by The Starman. And suddenly after the software "update" it was completely FUBAR in every sense of the word. I remember just bailing on technical posts for a while after that because it was such a Microsoft-like change for the sake-of-change kinda thing. This was a case of breaking backward compatibility by tweaking the CSS translation for no good reason.

After going through that disaster I can easily chalk this type of bug up to another IPB screwup.

Having said that, IPB is the only forum software I am aware of that lends itself to this type of forum with technical details and editing, embedding and other options. The only alternative is to use in-line images everywhere which is a big step back.

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To continue adopting a different approach (a more aggressive one ;)) I find a lot of similarities between the guys at IPB and the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation:

http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation

in several (mostly unneeded/absurd) updates they changed the parsing engine and a lot of other settings, and effectively botched for good the (evidently less carefully managed than MSFN) reboot.pro board.

Here on MSFN there were some issues, see the link in my signature:

http://jaclaz.altervista.org/Projects/Convert_address.htm

but at least previous contents of the board was kept.

On both 911CD and boot-land a few years ago all links were botched, later on reboot.pro we had the same issues than here about thread post offsets, but also:

JFYI:

If you just read the last thread and the corresponding reply on the IPB (not a bug):

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/bugs.html/_/ip-board/post-offset-disabled-on-new-version-r37167

you can have a good estimate of the probabilities they will ever fix the issue you are having. (0.00%) (sorry :()

Thanks jaclaz, you've given me a bit of reading to do, and I appreciate it! Although I have to admit that the situation doesn't look very hopeful right now.

Sadly, it makes sense that the folks who produce forum software would be tinkering with it. Maybe (like Windows 8) this is yet another case of "fixing it 'til it's broken." :}

--JorgeA

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Jaclaz makes a good point because the forum software has undergone some radical changes over time.

I cannot remember the IPB version numbers but the last big update simply FUBAR'd some of the most basic in-post formatting options, particularly with color using canned "other styles" like CODE and CODEBOX.

There is a thread here somewhere where I painstakingly re-created the MBR sector bytes and their purposes all color-coded from another great site by The Starman. And suddenly after the software "update" it was completely FUBAR in every sense of the word. I remember just bailing on technical posts for a while after that because it was such a Microsoft-like change for the sake-of-change kinda thing. This was a case of breaking backward compatibility by tweaking the CSS translation for no good reason.

After going through that disaster I can easily chalk this type of bug up to another IPB screwup.

Having said that, IPB is the only forum software I am aware of that lends itself to this type of forum with technical details and editing, embedding and other options. The only alternative is to use in-line images everywhere which is a big step back.

Unbelievable. Or, worse: believable. :angry:

Given that MSFN works fine with IE8 (at least in the Vista machine), maybe downgrading the factory-installed IE9 to IE8 is another possibility. :D

--JorgeA

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Nice detective work, Charlotte, even if we haven't pinpointed the problem yet.

Assuming that it turns ouf to be a PITA bug, as you put it, then I could either:

  1. Switch to a new browser for all my work in the Windows 7 PC, or (I just thought of this)
  2. I could change to a secondary e-mail address for MSFN and set up Windows Mail in Vista to receive forum notifications there, while my business e-mail arrives to my main address in Outlook on the Windows 7 PC. (Good thing that Vista still came with Windows Mail.) I can access either PC by swiveling my desk chair. Then I would do my MSFN reading and posting from the Vista machine.

Neither of these approaches is ideal, but barring the discovery of a technical fix they may be the best available options.

You'll most likely end up joining this party here! ...

yLP1w.jpg

... ( I had posted a screenshot of my Quicklaunch with multiple browsers and lo and behold a bunch of others quickly followed suit. :yes: ) It kinda demonstrates how folks adapt to the quirks of modern technology, mostly out of necessity from the craziness and lack of respect for compatibility seen in all the "Big Computer" corporations. Having multiple browsers available is the only way to successfully get through the day because they all have their own agendas and apparently none of them give a darn about standards.

Anyway, the point is that there is no need "to switch". Take them all for what they are worth ( not much I guess ) and use the right tool for the right job ( literally, install them all ). This leads to some other secondary quirks, for example you can successfully import bookmarks and other settings between them even if it is not immediately obvious. My favorite example is when you install Firefox and it offers you mutually exclusive checkboxes ( boolean "OR" ) for importing from MSIE or CHROME ( but not Both or any others! ) So to do it again importing from the other browser you need to open "all bookmarks" ( I think it's called ) and then look for yet another option to "import". That is bad enough but other browsers have even less helpful facility than Firefox.

But installing multiple browsers and using them is do-able and frankly unavoidable. Eventually you will settle upon what works best for you. I prefer Opera in general because the settings are tucked away in discrete files and tweaking can be done outside the running browser and porting is way simple and upgrading means editing/copying a few files rather than registry punch-ins ( at least currently, who knows what is going to happen down the road ).

FWIW, I can live comfortably with just Opera and the occasional use of Firefox, reserving MSIE for Windows Updates in the rare case of when I even go there ( Opera handles all ad hoc Microsoft downloads including those requiring genuine check ). I have moved away from Chrome because of the lack of customization, it strikes me as borderline MetroTard these days. :yes:

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Personally I use Opera 99% :thumbup , SRWARE IRON (a bettered Google Chrome, actually better ;)) 0.9% and IE (6) only on a few sites that really-really need it 0.1%.

... ( I had posted a screenshot of my Quicklaunch with multiple browsers and lo and behold a bunch of others quickly followed suit. :yes: )

In case someone has some spare 5 bucks without a use for them :w00t: , this seems nice:

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/group-and-organize-program-icons-in-windows-7-taskbar-with-bins/

Taskbar1.jpg

jaclaz

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Given that MSFN works fine with IE8 (at least in the Vista machine), maybe downgrading the factory-installed IE9 to IE8 is another possibility. :D

Sure. I was thinking along that line since I read your post where you say there is IE9 in the Add/Remove Software list. My take would be: create a full backup (yes, I mean a dumber-than-a-doorknob full-disk bit-by-bit image, but I'd settle for such an image from just the partition containing Win 7). Then remove IE9, and let's see how the restored IE8 behaves.

As for other browsers, my recommendation is for PaleMoon (with PlainOldFavorites, RefControl and the User Agent Changer add-ons). PlainOldFavorites allows one to really share the Favorites folder between IE and FF/PaleMoon, and makes using both really easy. My sole issue with Opera is there isn't something like it for Opera.

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As yet another instance of how IPB has FOOBAR'd various forums you can read this thread. In my limited experience, it seems that the IPB folks will eventually address some of the reported bugs, (more likely if you have a paid support plan), but ONLY if you prove the bug exists multiple times with examples including screenshots and videos, and then ONLY if they can reproduce it themselves, and then ONLY if they can't figure out a way to blame the behavior on the browser you are using and then ONLY if if doesn't interfere with the vision they have of the way they think the board software should operate. No, no. No bitterness at all on my part. :)

I've used SRWare Iron as my almost exclusive browser for several years now, though I also have Opera, Firefox, Waterfox, SpeedyFox, Pale Moon, Maxthon, Chrome, Safari, IE(32-bit), and IE(64-bit) all installed to check compatibility and narrow down problems to a browser issue or otherwise. I've also used Netscape, K-Meleon, Flock, and others in the past but they are no longer updated. In addition to the built-in tools in the browsers to import settings from other browsers there are also many 3rd-party tools available to share settings, Xmarks and LastPass are two that I couldn't live without. Most of the still-updated browsers have addons or extensions available to help equalize the various browser's capabilities. Of course most of those browsers have also adopted the best features from each other, such as tabs, so with a little bit of work you can make almost any of the browsers work for you.

Cheers and Regards

Edited by bphlpt
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Given that MSFN works fine with IE8 (at least in the Vista machine), maybe downgrading the factory-installed IE9 to IE8 is another possibility. :D

Sure. I was thinking along that line since I read your post where you say there is IE9 in the Add/Remove Software list. My take would be: create a full backup (yes, I mean a dumber-than-a-doorknob full-disk bit-by-bit image, but I'd settle for such an image from just the partition containing Win 7). Then remove IE9, and let's see how the restored IE8 behaves.

As for other browsers, my recommendation is for PaleMoon (with PlainOldFavorites, RefControl and the User Agent Changer add-ons). PlainOldFavorites allows one to really share the Favorites folder between IE and FF/PaleMoon, and makes using both really easy. My sole issue with Opera is there isn't something like it for Opera.

Extremely sensible advice, dencorso -- thanks a bunch.

The Win7 PC has a solid-state drive for the operating system. Supposing that in the end I decide to downgrade to IE8 instead of adopting one of the alternative browsers -- is there anything special or different to keep in mind when doing a full backup of an SSD, or not really?

--JorgeA

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While we're talking about Opera ... news I posted here.

I'm not happy this morning! :realmad:

That's good, as I am also not happy and it would have been unfair to be alone in unhappyness ;).

This poll (I would say preliminary results):

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1679432

seems like confirming our thoughts.

But I doubt that you (we) can stop the mindless from mindlessly go towards what they mindlessly think is the future. :(

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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As yet another instance of how IPB has FOOBAR'd various forums you can read this thread. In my limited experience, it seems that the IPB folks will eventually address some of the reported bugs, (more likely if you have a paid support plan), but ONLY if you prove the bug exists multiple times with examples including screenshots and videos, and then ONLY if they can reproduce it themselves, and then ONLY if they can't figure out a way to blame the behavior on the browser you are using and then ONLY if if doesn't interfere with the vision they have of the way they think the board software should operate. No, no. No bitterness at all on my part. :)

I just finished reading through that thread. Sounds like my issue is trivial compared to the f-ups you and others have experienced! :wacko:

Especially "liked" the catch-22 aspect of your trying to report the problem in a new forum, where your first post won't be shown until it's approved by a moderator, yet the forum isn't read or monitored by administrators or moderators. :wacko:

--JorgeA

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While we're talking about Opera ... news I posted here.

I'm not happy this morning! :realmad:

That's good, as I am also not happy and it would have been unfair to be alone in unhappyness ;).

This poll (I would say preliminary results):

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1679432

seems like confirming our thoughts.

But I doubt that you (we) can stop the mindless from mindlessly go towards what they mindlessly think is the future. :(

jaclaz

Too bad, it looks like Opera will never even make it to my list of candidates for a new browser.

This really looks like a computing trend now, to remove UI customization options and adopt a hard "take it or leave it" attitude. :angry:

--JorgeA

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In case someone has some spare 5 bucks without a use for them :w00t: , this seems nice:

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/group-and-organize-program-icons-in-windows-7-taskbar-with-bins/

Taskbar1.jpg

How about that, I actually found myself mousing over the "broken fence" icon in the Taskbar (the one that's two to the right of the Start Button) to see what it was... :blushing:

--JorgeA

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Well, it is an icon on the taskbar representing a "broken fence". :w00t:

Ceci n'est pas une pipe. :ph34r:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images

MagrittePipe.jpg

:angel

:lol:

jaclaz

Funny :lol: , but what I was curious about was what software the "broken fence" icon represents. You know, in the same way that the "folder" icon next to it represents Windows Explorer.

Somehow, I doubt that it's really nothing more than a "broken fence" icon with no other function than to look like a broken fence...

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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