NASASpaceFlight.com Forum

NSF Landing Page (Site Rules, Overviews Development, Feedback) => NASASpaceflight.com and NSF Forum Site Rules/News => Topic started by: Chris Bergin on 09/08/2013 11:50 pm

Title: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/08/2013 11:50 pm
Thread for your feedback!

Please note, there will be some individual cases where it's not looking perfect in their browser, so when you state any problem you may have, appreciate it's probably just you.

The thread will be dealt with by Jester and Mark over the coming days. I'll do what I can, but I'm useless at such things, so appreciate I probably won't be the one who'll know.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rdale on 09/08/2013 11:51 pm
Tapatalk is showing wrong times. Latest posts indicate 4 hours old. Profile is correct on website with EDT -4 correctly showing times.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/08/2013 11:53 pm
Unread topics are back.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: QuantumG on 09/08/2013 11:53 pm
Awesome, quick work!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Tcommon on 09/08/2013 11:54 pm
Page doesn't resize properly; there is a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom, and the advertisement/'booster site' frame falls off the right side of the page. Same problem on Firefox.v23, Tor, IE.v10 and Chrome.v29.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/08/2013 11:54 pm
Tapatalk is showing wrong times. Latest posts indicate 4 hours old. Profile is correct on website with EDT -4 correctly showing times.

probably due to the server move, I updated the site only 20 minutes ago, might need time to push the update through....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/08/2013 11:55 pm
Page doesn't resize properly; there is a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom, and the advertisement/'booster site' frame falls off the right side of the page. Same problem on Firefox.v23, Tor, IE.v10 and Chrome.v29.

crtl-r refresh your cache, if that doesnt work, whats your screensize ? I hope its not 640x480....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jason Davies on 09/08/2013 11:56 pm
Awesome! Everything looks great and displays perfect on my PC, laptop and Android. Very sexy, and L2 feels very L2 now!

Very fast too! Did you change servers?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 12:02 am
As I said on the Downtime thread:

The headings are all in one row on the forum pages, but the home page and all news pages show the headings Unmanned and Other on a second row.  This persists even if I make the window full screen. I'm using Safari on a Mac.

The forum pages are wider.  I don't know how to describe the width in terms of pixels, but the logo is closer to the headline bar on the home page.

Anyway, that's the only problem I can see, and it's a minor cosmetic flaw which doesn't affect functionality.  Great job, everyone.  The new look is very nice.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 12:03 am
Tapatalk is showing wrong times. Latest posts indicate 4 hours old. Profile is correct on website with EDT -4 correctly showing times.

I just corrected the server time settings, can you take a look at your profile again (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile; (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile;)) and see if the time there is displayed correctly for you ? After that, try again in tapatalk
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 12:03 am


Very fast too! Did you change servers?

This rev included a new server package, but the speed is likely the upgraded database.

(Not that I know about such things ;))
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Tcommon on 09/09/2013 12:03 am
Page doesn't resize properly; there is a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom, and the advertisement/'booster site' frame falls off the right side of the page. Same problem on Firefox.v23, Tor, IE.v10 and Chrome.v29.

crtl-r refresh your cache, if that doesnt work, whats your screensize ? I hope its not 640x480....
ctrl-shift-r refresh didn't help.

Screen resolutions is 1024x768.

Not having this problem with other websites.

<edit>
one of the bars up top says this;  "element {    width: 1080px;"
is that a problem?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 12:04 am
In all three browsers on my macbook (chrome, FF and Safari) I couldn't reproduce it. Will try this when I'm back in the office and can try this on a desktop Mac.

As I said on the Downtime thread:

The headings are all in one row on the forum pages, but the home page and all news pages show the headings Unmanned and Other on a second row.  This persists even if I make the window full screen. I'm using Safari on a Mac.

The forum pages are wider.  I don't know how to describe the width in terms of pixels, but the logo is closer to the headline bar on the home page.

Anyway, that's the only problem I can see, and it's a minor cosmetic flaw which doesn't affect functionality.  Great job, everyone.  The new look is very nice.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 12:05 am
We did change gears recently didn't we ? :)



Very fast too! Did you change servers?


This rev included a new server package, but the speed is likely the upgraded database.

(Not that I know about such things ;))
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: wholmeswa on 09/09/2013 12:08 am
Did a search in Tapatalk. When used the login button I see a popup with "Access Denied. This forum is currently not available, please try again later."

Wayne
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 12:11 am
Was just looking at it :). I'll add some CSS rules to scale back on 1024 screens, will be online tomorrow hopefully.

Page doesn't resize properly; there is a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom, and the advertisement/'booster site' frame falls off the right side of the page. Same problem on Firefox.v23, Tor, IE.v10 and Chrome.v29.

crtl-r refresh your cache, if that doesnt work, whats your screensize ? I hope its not 640x480....
ctrl-shift-r refresh didn't help.

Screen resolutions is 1024x768.

Not having this problem with other websites.

<edit>
one of the bars up top says this;  "element {    width: 1080px;"
is that a problem?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 12:11 am


I just corrected the server time settings, can you take a look at your profile again (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile; (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile;)) and see if the time there is displayed correctly for you ?


It was before, but now it isn't.  It shows 3:09 pm and my actual time is 8:09.  I'm in the -4 time zone, which is set correctly in my profile.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/09/2013 12:11 am
Tapatalk is showing wrong times. Latest posts indicate 4 hours old. Profile is correct on website with EDT -4 correctly showing times.
The latest posts here are offset by five hours for me -- showing 3 pm whereas it's 8 pm local here, just past 'all zeros', 9 September in UTC.  My profile is -4 offset, with that page saying "Current forum time: 09/08/2013 07:10 PM"...which is off by one.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 12:14 am
Server time is :

Sun Sep  8 19:12:27 CDT 2013

(based in Dallas)

Calculated from there, are you still in -4 ? My profile is showing (with auto-detect) a +6 difference from Dallas which is correct.



I just corrected the server time settings, can you take a look at your profile again (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile; (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile;)) and see if the time there is displayed correctly for you ?


It was before, but now it isn't.  It shows 3:09 pm and my actual time is 8:09.  I'm in the -4 time zone, which is set correctly in my profile.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 12:14 am
I corrected the time by:

"Profile"

"Look and Layout"

Then this.....remember, the host is in Texas, so for me it was six hours - and autodetect did it right. Then go to the bottom and hit update or change.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 12:17 am
Server time is :

Sun Sep  8 19:12:27 CDT 2013

(based in Dallas)

Calculated from there, are you still in -4 ? My profile is showing (with auto-detect) a +6 difference from Dallas which is correct.


Oh, OK.  I was going by GMT.  I hit "auto detect" and it shows 1.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: dougkeenan on 09/09/2013 12:19 am
Wow! Looks great!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 12:19 am
What do the colored squares under our names represent?  I assume it has to do with the number of posts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/09/2013 12:22 am
Server time is :

Sun Sep  8 19:12:27 CDT 2013

(based in Dallas)

Calculated from there, are you still in -4 ? My profile is showing (with auto-detect) a +6 difference from Dallas which is correct.


Oh, OK.  I was going by GMT.  I hit "auto detect" and it shows 1.
Autodetect worked for me, too, but calculating the time offset from something other than GMT was confusing.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rdale on 09/09/2013 12:24 am
I'm good now, correct times both in web and Tapatalk.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 12:24 am
What do the colored squares under our names represent?  I assume it has to do with the number of posts.

Yeah, but I reckon I can tweak that. I'll look into it later....not exactly a biggy ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lars_J on 09/09/2013 12:47 am
Perhaps this has been discussed elsewhere, but can we please have minimal mobile HTML (aka "iPhone") version back? Or something equivalent? It was much easier to read on my iphone 5, whereas now I get the full desktop view.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 12:49 am
An iPhone/Mobile view is on the list. The old package we used was outdated and not usable anymore. Stay tuned!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rdale on 09/09/2013 12:57 am

Perhaps this has been discussed elsewhere, but can we please have minimal mobile HTML (aka "iPhone") version back? Or something equivalent? It was much easier to read on my iphone 5, whereas now I get the full desktop view.

The WAP2 button at the bottom?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: savuporo on 09/09/2013 12:59 am
Is it just me or were the default fonts, sizes and colors quite a bit readable with the last skin ? Doesnt SMF provide user-preference skins and templates so i can go into preferences screen and say "read in non christmas tree mode"

Things look much faster now.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 01:14 am
I notice that our comments no longer show our location.  It's always interesting to see where the various commenters are.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 09/09/2013 01:20 am
If savuporo meant "more readable", then I'd agree - the fonts were a bit better in the previous version.  Specifically, the smaller font in quotes and the tiny font for page numbers in the forum index pages are to my (middle-aged) eyes are too small.  (I'm on a 1920x1080 24" screen, FWIW)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 01:28 am
I notice that our comments no longer show our location.  It's always interesting to see where the various commenters are.

That can go on the list!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: wholmeswa on 09/09/2013 01:42 am
I'm good now, correct times both in web and Tapatalk.

I did the auto detect suggestion and that corrected the problem when I access the site via a web browser. However the time is off by two hours in Tapatalk. I have installed on a couple of iDevices, and both show the problem with NSF. Other forums (yes, I do look at one other forum than NSF <g>) do have the correct time zone offset is Tapatalk.

Am I missing another setting?

Wayne
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 01:50 am
If savuporo meant "more readable", then I'd agree - the fonts were a bit better in the previous version.  Specifically, the smaller font in quotes and the tiny font for page numbers in the forum index pages are to my (middle-aged) eyes are too small.  (I'm on a 1920x1080 24" screen, FWIW)


I'm not having trouble with the font.  If anything, it looks a bit larger than the old one.  I have a 1920 x 1200 monitor.  Have you tried changing the font size in your browser?


And having mentioned that, I tried it on the home page and the headings now all show up on the same line, and the right sidebar is back.  It had been displaying underneath the main section.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rdale on 09/09/2013 01:53 am

I'm good now, correct times both in web and Tapatalk.

I did the auto detect suggestion and that corrected the problem when I access the site via a web browser. However the time is off by two hours in Tapatalk. I have installed on a couple of iDevices, and both show the problem with NSF. Other forums (yes, I do look at one other forum than NSF <g>) do have the correct time zone offset is Tapatalk.

Am I missing another setting?

Wayne

Try deleting your account and starting fresh.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/09/2013 01:54 am
Was just looking at it :). I'll add some CSS rules to scale back on 1024 screens, will be online tomorrow hopefully.

My screen size is 1920x1200, but I nearly always use Aerosnap to have my browser on the left side and another application on the right.  Therefore my browser window is 960 pixels wide, which is not generally a problem for most other sites.

The time thing is confusing.  I assumed GMT as well.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/09/2013 01:57 am
I'm trying to see what's different about L2 posts and I don't see it.  L2 looks exactly like the public forums except for the top bar.  Am I missing something?  I expected a different color scheme or something.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 01:59 am
I'm trying to see what's different about L2 posts and I don't see it.  L2 looks exactly like the public forums except for the top bar.  Am I missing something?  I expected a different color scheme or something.


I've noticed that quoted text is yellow instead of blue.  Or more accurately, has a yellow background.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Andy DC on 09/09/2013 02:04 am
I really, really like this! So much cleaner and faster.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Andy DC on 09/09/2013 02:05 am
I'm trying to see what's different about L2 posts and I don't see it.  L2 looks exactly like the public forums except for the top bar.  Am I missing something?  I expected a different color scheme or something.

L2 is obvious when you're in there anyway with the content, but it's very obvious with the color scheme change. I like it, it deserves that special feel because L2 is awesomeness all over.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: edfishel on 09/09/2013 02:06 am
Like others, I also miss knowing the hometown or country of the person who is posting.
Otherwise, my first impression is very positive.  Clean. Colorful.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: wholmeswa on 09/09/2013 02:12 am

Try deleting your account and starting fresh.


Deleted account on two iDevices and added back in via the Search option. Time is still off by 2 hours on Unread and Forums. However I did notice the time stamps in the Notifications item are correct. (Push notifications to the iDevice)

I deleted and reinstalled Tapatalk on one of the devices, and still have the problem. Feels like stale data somewhere. If this does not clear up in the next day or so, I probably go to Tapatalk support and see if they have any ideas.

Wayne
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/09/2013 02:20 am
I'm trying to see what's different about L2 posts and I don't see it.  L2 looks exactly like the public forums except for the top bar.  Am I missing something?  I expected a different color scheme or something.


I've noticed that quoted text is yellow instead of blue.  Or more accurately, has a yellow background.

Okay, I see that.  Without quoted text, they are the same.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: go4mars on 09/09/2013 02:51 am
Who ended up designing your new logo?  Do they have comments on the meaning (for example should I read anything into the 3 red backslashes, the swooping e shape of the rocket contrail, or the colors chosen)? 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 02:52 am
Who ended up designing your new logo?  Do they have comments on the meaning (for example should I read anything into the 3 red backslashes, the swooping e shape of the rocket contrail, or the colors chosen)? 

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/nasaspaceflight-com-completes-site-upgrade/ (http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/nasaspaceflight-com-completes-site-upgrade/)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 09/09/2013 02:59 am
I am just curious if there's a way to add a little bit of spacing to the parent forum link and the parent forum description, example:

"NASASpaceflight.com and NSF Forum Site Rules/News
Section for site development news, new member help, site rules and questions"

With just a little more spacing between the header and subject - or maybe the subject being in just a slightly smaller font?  To me, my eyes get jumbled between the header and subject for the parent forums.  The old forum font was slightly different and was easier to decipher for me, but maybe I'm just used to it!  You guys tell me.  :)


Also, on the "Click HERE to join L2!" - maybe have that in a different color to separate it out, or space it like it was on the old forum, separating that link to entice people to join.   The L2 Master Forum description looks like one long description the way it is, without too much emphasis on the joining L2 portion.


EDIT:  One other thing, noted on the news site (if that applies here) - on the latest news article for the upgrade, the "The Max-Q Sketch" caption seems like a misplaced piece of the article rather than a caption, I remember the old style was right under the caption and smaller than the main article text as to not distract.  Just another observation.  Overall, very pleased with the new site, and things seem to be running smoother from my end!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/09/2013 03:09 am
Who ended up designing your new logo?  Do they have comments on the meaning (for example should I read anything into the 3 red backslashes, the swooping e shape of the rocket contrail, or the colors chosen)? 

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/nasaspaceflight-com-completes-site-upgrade/ (http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/nasaspaceflight-com-completes-site-upgrade/)


When I clicked that link, I got a new window with the headings on two lines again. 


I tried quitting Safari and restarting it.  When I go to the home page, the headings are still on two lines and the right sidebar displays below the main section.  As I said before, I can fix it by enlarging the font size in my browser, but it still seems like it's an issue.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: tigerade on 09/09/2013 03:56 am
The new logo is beautiful.  I like it a lot.  The new website/forum design itself is really nice too, I like how it sort of feels more colorful/lively compared to the old design.  :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Borklund on 09/09/2013 04:01 am
I like the visual update but I think some of the text elements are entirely too small, especially the thread names and page links (« 1 2 3 4  All »). I'm young with perfect vision so I can't imagine forum users around my dad's age would like it any better.

The site booster element leaves an unused bit of property running along most of the forum's length. I would suggest moving the site booster over to the L2 ticker where there's a lot of empty space.

Using Chrome, 1920x1080.

Edit: added picture to illustrate site booster suggestion
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Joffan on 09/09/2013 04:18 am
Will we still be getting a "like" or "thanks" button some time?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 09/09/2013 04:21 am
Just noticed that the default smilies have changed - let's say that I found the new ones funnier than the old set.  ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: JimP on 09/09/2013 04:40 am
I rarely log in to the Forum, mainly because I kept forgetting the password. :-[

I've been used to seeing posts under the old forum being time stamped with GMT, but now see that the default time zone appears to be Central Daylight Time (US), which makes sense if the server is located in Texas.

I'm thinking that unless the user's time offset setting is adjusted for this change, lot's of forum posters are going to get confused.  Unless the default time zone is going to be reset back to GMT.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ehb on 09/09/2013 04:42 am
I think it all looks quite nice. 

One issue though, which may not effect that many people...
and was an issue also with the previous upgrade.

The "active topics" view is gone:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics)

Which I find quite convenient...
I have attached a .png to show you what it looked like before the upgrade.
(Not for the look itself, but for the content)
No rush, but I would appreciate getting this capability back.

Thanks,
-ehb
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: darkenfast on 09/09/2013 04:56 am
I don't know if this is the right place, but I just wanted to send a big "Thank you!" to Chris and all you who help him with this site. I joined shortly after it began (so long ago!), and I recommend it to anyone I know as THE place to go for space-related news. Congrats on the new format!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: RocketmanUS on 09/09/2013 05:00 am
Who ended up designing your new logo?  Do they have comments on the meaning (for example should I read anything into the 3 red backslashes, the swooping e shape of the rocket contrail, or the colors chosen)? 

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/nasaspaceflight-com-completes-site-upgrade/ (http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/nasaspaceflight-com-completes-site-upgrade/)
From that link , on that page it shows the new logo with a black background.
I think it would look better with the black background on the top of the site page rather than the grey background. It would better separate it from the stuff to the right of it. Also space is black , not grey.
Just my suggestion.


For the forum.
Now when clicking reply, at the top of the page it no longer shows the thread and section link ( that part was linkable too ). It was a very nice future to have, go back to the thread or the forum section it was in.

And I just got the warning message that another poster had just posted, so review. This is were the link above the reply box would also come in handy.

Edit: browser using Firefox 23.0.1 on Windows XP service pack 3
Recent Post page:
Were it shows 1.2.3.4.....10   ( used to have the word next after the 10 )?
Minor note.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lars_J on 09/09/2013 05:03 am

Perhaps this has been discussed elsewhere, but can we please have minimal mobile HTML (aka "iPhone") version back? Or something equivalent? It was much easier to read on my iphone 5, whereas now I get the full desktop view.

The WAP2 button at the bottom?

It's not the same, not even close.

An iPhone/Mobile view is on the list. The old package we used was outdated and not usable anymore. Stay tuned!

Thanks! The new version does look very nice and my desktop (chrome), and I look forward to seeing mobile tweaks. :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Borklund on 09/09/2013 05:14 am
See attachment, 2nd post down. Seeing this in every thread, is it supposed to look like that?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Antares on 09/09/2013 05:35 am
I can't wait to put that white on black logo on something on the cafepress store.  It looks pretty sweet.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dappa on 09/09/2013 06:00 am
Tapatalk is showing wrong times. Latest posts indicate 4 hours old. Profile is correct on website with EDT -4 correctly showing times.

I just corrected the server time settings, can you take a look at your profile again (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile; (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile;)) and see if the time there is displayed correctly for you ? After that, try again in tapatalk
Please set it back to GMT, living in a +1/+2 time zone and setting +7 in the settings is very confusing. It'll also show times in proper GMT for those not logged in.

I like the new look by the way.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dappa on 09/09/2013 06:36 am
I also noticed that when you're browsing a section, it's not very clear in which section you are. The section title is almost hidden, compared to the way a topic title is displayed, as shown in the two attachments.

And while I was posting the above, I noticed the following about attaching attachments:
- You always have to expand the attachment section first.
- After the first attachment, you already have to click "(more attachments)" to attach more files. There were 2 lines by default in the old forum, I'd like to see 3 or 4 of them.

In a live thread, these two things will probably hamper one's ability to efficiently post updates with screen shots.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/09/2013 08:33 am
small update:
Location on profile is back per request, for iphone users who don't like the wap2 link at the bottom for better
viewing, I suggest trying tapatalk (as many members have suggested for mobile devices and we finally installed it)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dappa on 09/09/2013 08:44 am
What happened to the acronyms list? I found that, and having known acronyms underlined in the threads, really useful features (especially when I was a bit newer to the forums). Will it stay away forever, or is it planned to return?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: eeergo on 09/09/2013 09:51 am
Can we get back the "Next" button in the Pages links at the bottom and top of the discussion pages? I was used to clicking those as the word is longer than the number, and made for easier clicking without having to be too precise about scrolling.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: HOTTOL on 09/09/2013 09:55 am
About the Public Forums.
Plusses : much faster, better readability.
Minuses :
  - Where are the previous/next buttons for page change ?
  - I'm running XP-IE8. The Public Forum header has a strange looking (see picture) while the NSF Articles' one is OK.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: spectre9 on 09/09/2013 10:22 am
Thanks for the upgrade guys.

Now the wish list.

Upgraded emoticons / smilies  ;D  :o  ::) - They look old and tired for the new look forum.

Like button - Of course

Updated acromnym list (thanks for brining that up Dappa). Many have just been outdated shuttle lingo, lots of new acronyms thrown in the soup all the time.

Pictures embedded into a post - This annoys me slightly. Much easier to illustrate a point when you can integrate pictures into your post. I think for a learning forum such as this one such an upgrade is vital at some point.

Those silly squares below the names look ugly. Not sure what to replace them with, how about shock diamonds?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: woods170 on 09/09/2013 10:49 am
Thanks for the upgrade guys.

Now the wish list.

<snip>

Pictures embedded into a post - This annoys me slightly. Much easier to illustrate a point when you can integrate pictures into your post. I think for a learning forum such as this one such an upgrade is vital at some point.

Embedding pictures in posts was possible in the 'old' forum, but it was actively discouraged from by the moderators. Forum rule is to attach images, not embed them. Possibly, with this new forum, that rule has been implemented technically as wel. (in other words: made technically impossible).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/09/2013 11:13 am
Small updates done:

- quick reply box bigger
- collapsed part of the attachments to a post is now expanded
- added Go Up and Go Down buttons for people who don't like scrolling
- minor tweaks

more coming :)

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 11:15 am
What happened to the acronyms list? I found that, and having known acronyms underlined in the threads, really useful features (especially when I was a bit newer to the forums). Will it stay away forever, or is it planned to return?

That was a really buggy part of the old forum, resulting it in being just a list in the end. Not sure if that's workable to have back on this new forum, to be honest.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: William Graham on 09/09/2013 11:15 am
Would it be possible to slightly increase the font size for preformatted text (the "pre" element - see the Consolidated Launch Schedule thread). It's currently rendering about the same size as quotes, but since it needs a monospaced font it is in Courier, which isn't very easy to read at that size.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jeff Lerner on 09/09/2013 11:42 am
I've noticed something viewing a topic on my iPad in Safari. When I click on a topic I'm taken to the last page of the topic and can see the last post. The Forward page button at the top of the screen is correctly disabled as at that point there is no page to forward to.

However if I click on the Back page button it doesn't work, that is it doesn't take me back to the previous web page. I have to click the Back page button a 2nd time to go back to the previous web page.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: apace on 09/09/2013 11:51 am
Good work, but I miss one or two minor features... first one for the eyes, please align your boxes, so that it will be on one line, looks much more professional. Second, mark the selected menu as active for easier navigation.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: apace on 09/09/2013 11:54 am
Bug on my side? Missing some image with following URL:
http://devforum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/default/images/post/.gif (http://devforum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/default/images/post/.gif)

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/09/2013 12:48 pm
Tapatalk is showing wrong times. Latest posts indicate 4 hours old. Profile is correct on website with EDT -4 correctly showing times.

I just corrected the server time settings, can you take a look at your profile again (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile; (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile;)) and see if the time there is displayed correctly for you ? After that, try again in tapatalk
Please set it back to GMT, living in a +1/+2 time zone and setting +7 in the settings is very confusing. It'll also show times in proper GMT for those not logged in.

Agreed, would be easiest.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: spectre9 on 09/09/2013 01:23 pm
I see new smilies are starting to appear.  :D

 >:( - He looks very grumpy  :P

Thanks.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lurker Steve on 09/09/2013 01:32 pm
Was there a separate Mobile site before ?

When I bring up the forums on my iPhone, I currently see the "normal" pages that would appear on my laptop monitor instead of being formatted for the smaller screen. I think I might miss that "Go to page" button.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Antares on 09/09/2013 01:53 pm
What happened to the acronyms list? I found that, and having known acronyms underlined in the threads, really useful features (especially when I was a bit newer to the forums). Will it stay away forever, or is it planned to return?
That was a really buggy part of the old forum, resulting it in being just a list in the end. Not sure if that's workable to have back on this new forum, to be honest.

I bet there's a Firefox (and other) plug-in for acronym lists in general or a coder could whip one up pretty fast.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: LucR on 09/09/2013 02:17 pm
Can we get back the "Next" button in the Pages links at the bottom and top of the discussion pages? I was used to clicking those as the word is longer than the number, and made for easier clicking without having to be too precise about scrolling.
Second that, much easier to click especially on an iDevice!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/09/2013 02:30 pm
Next button coming back soon.... (doing the programming as we speak)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AJW on 09/09/2013 02:33 pm
When listing a series of pages, the typical UI is a 'Next' button to go to the next page.  This 'Go Up' button is located where a 'Next' should be, and seems to behave like 'Top' to indicate top of page.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AJW on 09/09/2013 02:35 pm
I find that most of the UI has a greater contrast making it easier to read, with the one exception being the tabs on the home page which are difficult to make out.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 02:45 pm
I find that most of the UI has a greater contrast making it easier to read, with the one exception being the tabs on the home page which are difficult to make out.



That's the old homepage. It should look like this (Shift and F5. Or close your browser and start it up again?)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: IanO on 09/09/2013 03:24 pm
Can we get back the "Next" button in the Pages links at the bottom and top of the discussion pages? I was used to clicking those as the word is longer than the number, and made for easier clicking without having to be too precise about scrolling.
+100

Especially since I've started using an iPad Mini to browse the site in bed, the physical size of links is starting to matter more to me.  The other offender is the inline "NEW" icon in threads with new posts since the last visit.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Stan Black on 09/09/2013 03:25 pm
Congratulations on this happening so quickly; and for keeping the existing contents and functions.

One minor, minor quibble… in the reply quotes why is there only a quotation mark at the start and not at the end?

Quote
 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: IanO on 09/09/2013 03:33 pm
I've noticed something viewing a topic on my iPad in Safari. When I click on a topic I'm taken to the last page of the topic and can see the last post. The Forward page button at the top of the screen is correctly disabled as at that point there is no page to forward to.

However if I click on the Back page button it doesn't work, that is it doesn't take me back to the previous web page. I have to click the Back page button a 2nd time to go back to the previous web page.
Ha!  It wasn't just me!

I spent a lot of time isolating this over the weekend. It turns out to be a bug in the Google ad scripts, outside of the control of the NSF developers, which affected both the new and old sites.  It just started happening on the old site about a week ago. The bug causes a security violation exception, which causes a frame not to load, which triggers a bug in some browsers (like Safari and old versions of Chrome) to put an extra copy of the page in the history list. A workaround on Mac OS X is to install the Safari AdBlock extension, but I haven't discovered a workaround for the mobile iOS devices yet.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 09/09/2013 03:35 pm
I also find the new button slightly too small. Otherwise a great success.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: apace on 09/09/2013 03:39 pm
Is there a reason, why the header on the main page and the header on the forum pages are different? It will
be much better if both headers are the same (no space on top, same positions of logo, adverts, etc.)

Second, Save and Preview buttons to write an entry here should be in the same look and feel like the other gui elements of the forum. Now they look strange...

Third, the width of the main page and the forum are not the same.

Next, some small bug in the forum menu (see attachment)

Next, why the L2 Sign Up shows up in the menu if I'm already L2 member?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: JAFO on 09/09/2013 03:42 pm
A couple forums I go to has an option to Like, Thank, Dislike, etc in a post so you don't get a series of +1, etcs. Possible??


BZ on the new workup so far.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 03:47 pm
A couple forums I go to has an option to Like, Thank, Dislike, etc in a post so you don't get a series of +1, etcs. Possible??


BZ on the new workup so far.


Likes were installed on the dev site, but were a problem when live for some reason. That will happen, however. Was a big request before we started this effort, so it will happen.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/09/2013 03:50 pm
its coming, but the current patch messes up the layout of the new forum, so i'm not installing it, it will come back either when SMF release the new version (like is on their list to be include) or when I find a better way to update the patch, current focus is on basic functions, its on my list ;)

A couple forums I go to has an option to Like, Thank, Dislike, etc in a post so you don't get a series of +1, etcs. Possible??


BZ on the new workup so far.


Likes were installed on the dev site, but were a problem when live for some reason. That will happen, however. Was a big request before we started this effort, so it will happen.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/09/2013 04:11 pm
Update: for the next lovers, ITS BACK :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 04:16 pm
Fixed (showing 3 by default now)

I also noticed that when you're browsing a section, it's not very clear in which section you are. The section title is almost hidden, compared to the way a topic title is displayed, as shown in the two attachments.

And while I was posting the above, I noticed the following about attaching attachments:
- You always have to expand the attachment section first.
- After the first attachment, you already have to click "(more attachments)" to attach more files. There were 2 lines by default in the old forum, I'd like to see 3 or 4 of them.

In a live thread, these two things will probably hamper one's ability to efficiently post updates with screen shots.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 04:32 pm
Please note that I changed back the server time to GMT (!) so adjust your local time difference accordingly (see Profile - Look and Layout).

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/09/2013 04:47 pm
Please note that I changed back the server time to GMT (!) so adjust your local time difference accordingly (see Profile - Look and Layout).



Looks to me like you set it to GMT+1.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: aga on 09/09/2013 04:51 pm
yes, i too would say it is gmt+1
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/09/2013 04:58 pm
Now it looks like GMT to me.  Thanks for making the change!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/09/2013 04:58 pm
yes, i too would say it is gmt+1

The ' off by 1 '  syndrome :) .. should be correct now
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Darren_Hensley on 09/09/2013 05:16 pm
I like the look, and function. Nice job

1 suggested improvement,

In the L2 photos section, It might be nice to have a auto-generated thumbnail page to browse the photos visually. I find myself wasting alot of time browsing the threads (i.e. STS-23) or whatever just to discover there are no photos of the item I was seeking, then moving to the next thred and starting again.

The search function has very tight constraints, it might help to loosen them with a chechmark, to include all occurances of the word "WORF", to include Worf, WoRf, woRF, worf and so on, Not that WORF is the issue, just an example.

Or just search Photo files, instead of the "Photo Section"

Or it might help to have folders with the tags of the photos placed in categories

Exteriors
Interiors
Exterior Experiments
Internal Experiments
Racks
Encaps
Standoffs
Vestibule
Hatch
Window
RMS
Solar Array
and so on...

I know this sort of thing is difficult to implement, but there are forum programs out there that do this, Like vBulletin® Version 3.8.6.

Thanks in advance, Darren
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 05:23 pm
That would probably take 1000s of hours to work. The filenames of photos are not always (and rarely) named to description and to tag all those threads with what would be something people very rarely search for would be too time consuming.

Also, vBulletin is the worst forum software I've ever had the displeasure to come across, so I'm glad we stuck with SMF.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 09/09/2013 05:25 pm
BTW - I think the NSF team has done a FANTASTIC job on this transition.   When you have to look under the cushions and behind the couch to find things that need tweaking, you've done it right.

Great job - thanks to all involved for making this all look easy.  (We know it wasn't!)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: LouScheffer on 09/09/2013 06:23 pm
Hi!

On the new site, when I return after an hour or so, I get "Session verification failed", and have to log out and log back in.

This happens whether I ask for 180 minutes, or to stay logged in.

Anyone else having this problem?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: LouScheffer on 09/09/2013 06:37 pm
After further experimenting, I need to log in for each new tab in a browser, or every time I restart the browser (I'm using Chrome).  The old software would remember across these changes....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: TrueBlueWitt on 09/09/2013 06:56 pm
Have been having an issue where it's mysteriously marking all topics as "read".. Nothing showing up in the "Unread Topics" list.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: joncz on 09/09/2013 07:00 pm
You know what I think is the most amazing side-effect of this new site - it's made Jim more verbose.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 09/09/2013 07:06 pm
Noticed a few bugs in the gold L2 ticker box.

• "/" character gets replaced by "V"
• single quote mark gets additional "\" character prefix
• double quote mark gets additional "\" character prefix
• over-run of text outside gold box on long wrapped lines
• on wrapped text, top of 2nd line just visible

Same on news site front page

(sample screen grabs below)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/09/2013 07:07 pm
I also find the new button slightly too small. Otherwise a great success.

Seconded (on both counts).

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: apace on 09/09/2013 07:09 pm
Some remarks.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cro-magnon gramps on 09/09/2013 07:14 pm
GO off line for a few days and your World changes on you!!! ;D
So far, this forum change is the least obtrusive. I can't give you guys enough praise.
I am at a Golden Arches wi-fi, on Blackberry Playbook, and not having had any problems.
Auto Login worked without any need to re-login. Only one thing which may be a function of the new software upgrade, I had stopped getting update notices on my cell e-mail address for threads that I had requested notifications. But that is nothing.
  I hope to be online at home for the weekend, if not I'll be eating a lot of fries to pay for wi-fi...  8)


Keep up the great work,
Cheers

Gramps
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: apace on 09/09/2013 07:17 pm
Perhaps it will be easier to navigate and to see the topic title if the the "Topic:" is removed and the "(Read 505 times)" is without bold aligned to the right of this line. Will make reading of topic title much easier and less overloaded.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: astrobrian on 09/09/2013 07:20 pm
You know what I think is the most amazing side-effect of this new site - it's made Jim more verbose.

Where is the like button when you need it :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/09/2013 07:44 pm
I'm finding the blue text on URLs is a bit "shrinking violet" compared to the surrounding text.

Any chance it could have bold added to it's attributes?

cheers, Martin

PS what you get if you add various attributes:-

http://url
http://url   

[url]http://url[/url]
http://url.com (http://url.com)   

[b]http://url[/b]
http://url.com   

[b][url]http://url[/url][/b]
http://url.com (http://url.com)   

[u][b][url]http://url[/url][/b][/u]
http://url.com (http://url.com)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/09/2013 07:56 pm
The posting page seems to be quite widely spaced vertically, so you'd end up with quite a bit of scrolling once you're getting a bit of text in the preview (and my two monitors are 1200 and 1440 pixels tall).

Separately, I've often thought that the posting page would work better if the preview goes below the text box, not above.

Cheers, Martin

(And a nit: "Seperate each tag by a comma".)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jason1701 on 09/09/2013 08:00 pm
Will there be a like button eventually? I thought it was coming with the upgrade.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dappa on 09/09/2013 08:11 pm
Will there be a like button eventually? I thought it was coming with the upgrade.
It'll come.  :)


Likes were installed on the dev site, but were a problem when live for some reason. That will happen, however. Was a big request before we started this effort, so it will happen.
its coming, but the current patch messes up the layout of the new forum, so i'm not installing it, it will come back either when SMF release the new version (like is on their list to be include) or when I find a better way to update the patch, current focus is on basic functions, its on my list ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 08:14 pm
Really top feedback guys. Really is brilliant help!

Per the L2 headlines, I can manually fix those tonight, so Jester and Mark don't need to add that to the list.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Danny Dot on 09/09/2013 08:26 pm
The font is too small for my android smart phone
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 09:46 pm
Apologies for that error just now. We won't try and install a mod that causes an error like that again and we'll give notice in advance.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Tcommon on 09/09/2013 09:50 pm
Lost one of the settings in "My Messages"-- used to have "Save a copy of each personal message in my sent items by default" enabled. Had to go back into the preferences and re-enable it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/09/2013 09:51 pm
Lost one of the settings in "My Messages"-- used to have "Save a copy of each personal message in my sent items by default" enabled. Had to go back into the preferences and re-enable it.

The old forum was defaulted to "not save". People had to select that option, so that's normal.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Rocket Science on 09/09/2013 10:33 pm
New site is looking good with new colors and very calming to the eye. I won’t mention the font being a bit small, or I guess I just did. :D Funny how in my mind's for the new logo I was thinking the orbiting chevron off the old NASA meatball and was pleased to see it on the new one, some of you must be mind readers. What I see orbiting is the FDL-5 lifting body, works for me!  ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Overflow on 09/09/2013 11:12 pm
Thanks for getting back to me via email, Chris.  :) I can't live without my NSF fix!

I really like the new layout. I remember my main complaints about the site when I first joined was how hard it was to read the posts in the old layout. It looked very cluttered. But this new layout fixed the problem!

Thanks NSF staff!

EDIT: And I know see that all we have to do is put the Youtube URL for it to embedded. Cool!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Cinder on 09/09/2013 11:21 pm
Old esthetics were better.  This one looks like an iphone version.  Big playskool buttons.  Garish MS Paint color distribution.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/09/2013 11:47 pm
The "active topics" view is gone:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics)

Which I find quite convenient...
Me, too -- I used both "modes".  Is that on the to-do list?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/10/2013 12:47 am
Did you tried that link "recently" ?  ;)

Needs more work but basic functionality should be back in there


The "active topics" view is gone:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics)

Which I find quite convenient...
Me, too -- I used both "modes".  Is that on the to-do list?

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/10/2013 01:08 am
Did you tried that link "recently" ?  ;)

Besides in this thread, where is that link found?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 09/10/2013 01:14 am
Seems to be something broken in the following thread:

NASASpaceFlight.com Forum » General Discussion » Advanced Concepts » Orbitec's Vortex Rocket Engine
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30679.0 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30679.0)

From this post onwards all posted & quoted text & sigs are in bold
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30679.msg994665#msg994665 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30679.msg994665#msg994665)

Don't know if it is related to the update though.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/10/2013 01:24 am
"Show a popup when I receive new messages." in the messaging preferences didn't work (Firefox on Windows 7) despite being checked.  It worked fine in the previous forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 09/10/2013 01:37 am
"Show a popup when I receive new messages." in the messaging preferences didn't work (Firefox on Windows 7) despite being checked.  It worked fine in the previous forum.

Okay, unchecked and rechecked, and now it works.

?????
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lars_J on 09/10/2013 01:46 am
I also find the new button slightly too small. Otherwise a great success.

Seconded (on both counts).

Thirded... On a touch device, it is difficult to hit such a small target.

In general web designers need to be more aware that as the number of touch PC/laptops grow, as well as full size tablets - the "full desktop" version of the site needs to be designed with touchable links in mind. I would live for each piece of text that is part of a link to have its font size increased.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Cinder on 09/10/2013 02:16 am
Better solution is one used by e.g. Android: click on too link-dense an area and said area is magnified to better click.  Hopefully this solution won't be exclusive to Android.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: RocketmanUS on 09/10/2013 02:27 am
What happened to the acronyms list? I found that, and having known acronyms underlined in the threads, really useful features (especially when I was a bit newer to the forums). Will it stay away forever, or is it planned to return?

That was a really buggy part of the old forum, resulting it in being just a list in the end. Not sure if that's workable to have back on this new forum, to be honest.
The acronyms list page is gone.
Can we have that page back? ( not the linking from a post or high lighting )
That is just the list from A to Z.
We had to be logged in to see it before.
I think it would be nice for all readers to be able to link to from the menu bar on the top of the page.

2nd-
The Squares were the stars used to be-
Is there a possibility they could be replaced by a character image?
Like the squares ( stars ) as the post number increases towards 500 the character could have some changes made to it.
A type of character for general posters, for moderators, and another for administrators.
If so the color difference should be kept.

The stars were just to preschool and the squares just to bland.
Possible change in the near future?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lars_J on 09/10/2013 04:01 am
I found a new issue with the forums - on an iPad or iPhone, clicking the browser 'back' button always requires TWO clicks. (Other webkit browser too perhaps?) I only see this behavior on this site, so presumably some JavaScript shenanigans is causing it to happen.

Additional info: the extra back click is only required if you let the page finish loading. If you press 'back' before the page has loaded, one click is sufficient. Definitely JavaScript related.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: spectre9 on 09/10/2013 04:25 am
The font is too small.

Barely readable at 150% zoom and when you zoom in enough to be able to read things better you have to horizontal scroll which just isn't gonna work.

Needs to be fixed in my opinion.

I'm on a 24" HD screen and have 20/20 vision so others might be having more difficulty than I am.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 09/10/2013 04:32 am
Are there any other people who have problems with replying to posts and attaching more than one image in each post? It seems that when doing this the reply was not posted and I was lead to the starting-a-new-thread page.  ???
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: RocketmanUS on 09/10/2013 04:47 am
In each thread after the first post below it is the ad cell. It has the same color background as the first post. Hard to tell them apart. Each post after that the background colors change from post to post separating them. And on some of the post that are after the ad cell have the same background color too.

Might be best to have the ad cell with a different background from the post all together.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: spectre9 on 09/10/2013 04:58 am
How about word wrapping?

Being able to change the size of the window without losing the text would be nice.

I guess many forums these days come with a fixed frame.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/10/2013 06:55 am
Better solution is one used by e.g. Android: click on too link-dense an area and said area is magnified to better click.  Hopefully this solution won't be exclusive to Android.

I use the default Android "Browser" on CM10.1, and unfortunately it doesn't do this (though agree it's fantastic on browsers that do implement it).

It's a big deficiency of any mobile browser that doesn't implement this, but mobile themes need to consider this until they do.

On the subject of mobile themes, I'll repeat a comment I've made before - that the basics of the forum would work pretty well as-is by just shifting some screen elements around. Make the text the only element horizontally (no ads to side - put them above / below if must have) and don't fix width of header so browsers can easily rescale text depending on screen size.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/10/2013 07:15 am
Could I please add another couple of requests onto the long term "to do" pile?

I don't come into the forum main page, I watch for notification of new threads via the e-mail announcements.

That works fine most of the time, but every so often it turns out that I'm no longer subscribed to one or more of the Forums. For instance, I only found out about the "A List" forum after the beta changes went live (!!), and I know I've missed a lot of L2 content this way over the years.

Could we have a new setting somewhere in the profile "always subscribe me to all forums" - IE every forum would always have "notify" on without me having to subscribe to them individually.

(Or, alternatively, it would work if we were notified every time there's a new forum OR ONE IS MOVED OR RENAMED OR UN0HIDDEN, and then I can find it and subscribe.)



Also, when a thread is split, if I'm subscribed to the parent I should also be subscribed to the new child thread. (Mods will delete or hide these anyway if they don't want us to have access.)

I know mods are generally pretty good at putting a thread-split notice in the parent, but this would just be automatic.

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/10/2013 07:42 am
On the subject of mobile themes, I'll repeat a comment I've made before - that the basics of the forum would work pretty well as-is by just shifting some screen elements around. Make the text the only element horizontally (no ads to side - put them above / below if must have) and don't fix width of header so browsers can easily rescale text depending on screen size.

One aspect I've just noted - AND AM ABSOLUTELY LOVING, is the profile option "Use sidebar menus instead of dropdown menus when possible", and the little icon in the left frame (if it is shown) to hide that left frame, IE:-

Profile info (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/nsf2/images/admin/change_menu2.png).

And the matching (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/nsf2/images/admin/change_menu.png) when the left frame is hidden.

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ehb on 09/10/2013 10:35 am
Did you tried that link "recently" ?  ;)

Needs more work but basic functionality should be back in there


The "active topics" view is gone:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics)

Which I find quite convenient...
Me, too -- I used both "modes".  Is that on the to-do list?

Thank you, sir!  Very nice... ;D

Besides in this thread, where is that link found?

In a very old version of this forum (2 or 3 gens back?) there once was a named link called "Active topics" along the top in with Home, Help, Unread topics, etc.  This disappeared with a previous forum upgrade.  Perhaps if we ask nicely, we could get it back....  ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ehb on 09/10/2013 10:56 am

Needs more work but basic functionality should be back in there

The "active topics" view is gone:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics)

Which I find quite convenient...

I'm not sure what you mean by "needs more work", perhaps you have already done this work... but as to the "look" of it, I like it in its current state....

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ohlongjohnson on 09/10/2013 12:01 pm
I like the new style! Thanks for the hard work!!!

I've got a problem with my android phone using opera mini and opera mobile in "Offroad Mode". The Problem does not appear, when using opera mobile without "Offroad Mode".
Opera mini and Opera mobile in the "Offroad Mode" use a proxy to access sites. Wikipedia has this to say:

Quote
Opera Mini requests web pages through Opera Software's servers, which process and compress them before sending them to the mobile phone, speeding up transfer by two to three times and dramatically reducing the amount of data transferred, chargeable on many mobile phone data plans. The pre-processing increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

The Golden L2-Ticker-Box on the top right corner seems to be formatted in a way, that all text is somehow in there, but only the top line is shown. Opera Mini (and Mobile in Offroad Mode) displays ALL the text which results in a layer of L2-advertising-text over the area, where the latest subforum-posts are shown.

This did not happen in the old forum version... Perhaps there is an easy fix for that?

I hope I was able to describe the problem properly, if not, feel free to ask what I meant ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 09/10/2013 02:56 pm
Minor niggle:  the font size for preformatted text [pre & /pre tags] is rather small compared with teletype [tt & /tt tags] and the normal font.

This line is in preformatted text

This line is in teletype text

For example it has made William Graham's excellent consolidated launch schedule a tad more difficult to read:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15134.msg1094915#msg1094915 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15134.msg1094915#msg1094915)


EDIT: this might just be an artifact of the Firefox  browser (I'm using latest version 23.0.1) - the two texts look about the same size with Internet Explorer.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/10/2013 03:13 pm
Fine in Chrome too.

Also worth nothing there's now a few posts asking for specific changes, such as the profile boxes. I want this thread to stay on personal technical issues, as there's no way we're going to change design features based on one person's wishes, for fear of then upsetting several thousand. A good suggestion - based on comments thus far - will, however, be discussed.

Speaking of which, we've now going through tens of thousands of visitors since being live, so with only a handful of people having issues per this thread - mainly with mobile devices too - so it's really a case of fine-tuning on the foundation of this new forum, which clearly works very well with the vast majority.

Like the orbiters, you don't change something on the vehicle if it risks causing other problems to previously working hardware :)

However, once the fine-tuning is complete, anyone who is still having major problems (I know of at least one person and I've contacted him) will be personally assisted best we can.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 09/10/2013 05:27 pm
Fine in Chrome too.

Also worth nothing there's now a few posts asking for specific changes, such as the profile boxes. I want this thread to stay on personal technical issues, as there's no way we're going to change design features based on one person's wishes, for fear of then upsetting several thousand. A good suggestion - based on comments thus far - will, however, be discussed.

Speaking of which, we've now going through tens of thousands of visitors since being live, so with only a handful of people having issues per this thread - mainly with mobile devices too - so it's really a case of fine-tuning on the foundation of this new forum, which clearly works very well with the vast majority.

Like the orbiters, you don't change something on the vehicle if it risks causing other problems to previously working hardware :)

However, once the fine-tuning is complete, anyone who is still having major problems (I know of at least one person and I've contacted him) will be personally assisted best we can.

This looks like a great, stable upgrade. I know that's not easy on a major refresh like this.

Great job to all involved.

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: IanO on 09/10/2013 10:59 pm
Minor niggle:  the font size for preformatted text [pre & /pre tags] is rather small compared with teletype [tt & /tt tags] and the normal font.

This line is in preformatted text

This line is in teletype text

For example it has made William Graham's excellent consolidated launch schedule a tad more difficult to read:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15134.msg1094915#msg1094915 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15134.msg1094915#msg1094915)


EDIT: this might just be an artifact of the Firefox  browser (I'm using latest version 23.0.1) - the two texts look about the same size with Internet Explorer.
[ pre ] (Courier 10pt) is also much smaller than [ tt ] (Monaco 12pt) in the Safari browser.  tt looks a lot better!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clongton on 09/10/2013 11:28 pm
Thanks for returning the Unread Topics selection :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 09/11/2013 01:01 am
Can the "Quick Reply" bar be the same color as the "Topic" bar at the top?  i.e., make it yellow/orange in L2 to match the top bar?  It'd give an added touch of consistency (and an added reminder) to L2 pages.

 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 09/11/2013 01:04 am
Are there any other people who have problems with replying to posts and attaching more than one image in each post? It seems that when doing this the reply was not posted and I was lead to the starting-a-new-thread page.  ???

Bumping this - anyone have the same problem?

Apparently someone else is reporting that it is no longer possible to upload files and photos without writing anything:

I've been testing things out and found that a major bug I've had with uploads is now gone with the cleanup.  ;)
Another item of note....you can't upload just photos without text in the box.

Can this be changed? This would affect all future launch/EVA/whatever updates threads......
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/11/2013 01:08 am
Apparently someone else is reporting that it is no longer possible to upload files and photos without writing anything:

I've been testing things out and found that a major bug I've had with uploads is now gone with the cleanup.  ;)
Another item of note....you can't upload just photos without text in the box.

Can this be changed? This would affect all future launch/EVA/whatever updates threads......


I learned tonight in the Soyuz TMA-08M thread that all you have to do is just put a period (.) in the text box, and then attach your photo.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/11/2013 01:45 am
A couple of days ago I mentioned that the headings look right in the forum, but on the home page, the "Unmanned" and "Other" headings are on a second line, and the right sidebar displays underneath the main section.  I'm running Safari on a Mac.


With a little experimentation, I've found that I can fix it on my end in two ways:


A.  When I'm on the home page, I can click the "Zoom In" button at the top, and that makes the home page display properly.  But it only lasts as long as I have the window open.  If I close it and reopen it, it defaults to the two-line display.


B.  In Safari > Preferences > Advanced, my normal setting is "Never use font sizes smaller than 14".  If I change it to 12, the home page displays correctly.  But then the font on the forum pages is smaller than I prefer.


All in all, it's not a big problem, and I can work my way around it.  But there may be a way to tweak the home page width on NSF's end to make it slightly wider, which would make the problem go away.


Edit:  Now I'm wondering why I seem to get two spaces between paragraphs.  I've noticed that in my other comments as well.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lars_J on 09/11/2013 02:49 am
I found a new issue with the forums - on an iPad or iPhone, clicking the browser 'back' button always requires TWO clicks. (Other webkit browser too perhaps?) I only see this behavior on this site, so presumably some JavaScript shenanigans is causing it to happen.

Additional info: the extra back click is only required if you let the page finish loading. If you press 'back' before the page has loaded, one click is sufficient. Definitely JavaScript related.

It looks like this is no longer a problem - thanks!  :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 09/11/2013 03:46 am
Apparently someone else is reporting that it is no longer possible to upload files and photos without writing anything:

I've been testing things out and found that a major bug I've had with uploads is now gone with the cleanup.  ;)
Another item of note....you can't upload just photos without text in the box.

Can this be changed? This would affect all future launch/EVA/whatever updates threads......


I learned tonight in the Soyuz TMA-08M thread that all you have to do is just put a period (.) in the text box, and then attach your photo.

Right, but in a quick moving environment - such as a launch thread - it's hard to have to put a period in first before clicking in rapid succession to upload the photo(s).  It is much easier without having to deal with the hassle of the period.

There was an issue at one time on the old forums when something was changed that the default setting with the period came back, but it was fixed shortly after.  I'm hoping this is the case here.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 09/11/2013 04:00 am
Can the "Quick Reply" bar be the same color as the "Topic" bar at the top?  i.e., make it yellow/orange in L2 to match the top bar?  It'd give an added touch of consistency (and an added reminder) to L2 pages.

 

I've mistakenly posted incorrectly in L2 before and what I found so far on the new L2 format is not enough for me to stop from doing that again.  I think MHeney's suggestion is the best so far.  I would also change the Reply Button to the orange color was well as the Reply Banner in the Reply screen.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Aobrien on 09/11/2013 04:16 am
I think it might be a bit confusing to have the forum home button with the same name right below the home button for the website both being named "home".
Don't have time to skim the thread to see if this was already pointed out. My personal suggestion would be to rename the main home button to "News" or the forum home button to "Forum Home"

-Aaron
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: JBF on 09/11/2013 12:39 pm
The search function seems a lot faster then it used to be.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: IanO on 09/11/2013 04:07 pm
I found a new issue with the forums - on an iPad or iPhone, clicking the browser 'back' button always requires TWO clicks. (Other webkit browser too perhaps?) I only see this behavior on this site, so presumably some JavaScript shenanigans is causing it to happen.

Additional info: the extra back click is only required if you let the page finish loading. If you press 'back' before the page has loaded, one click is sufficient. Definitely JavaScript related.

It looks like this is no longer a problem - thanks!  :)
Confirmed, I no longer see duplicate entries in history as of last night. I guess it wasn't the Google ads problem, because I still see those security exceptions in the error log.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: RocketmanUS on 09/11/2013 05:11 pm
Fine in Chrome too.

Also worth nothing there's now a few posts asking for specific changes, such as the profile boxes. I want this thread to stay on personal technical issues, as there's no way we're going to change design features based on one person's wishes, for fear of then upsetting several thousand. A good suggestion - based on comments thus far - will, however, be discussed.

Speaking of which, we've now going through tens of thousands of visitors since being live, so with only a handful of people having issues per this thread - mainly with mobile devices too - so it's really a case of fine-tuning on the foundation of this new forum, which clearly works very well with the vast majority.

Like the orbiters, you don't change something on the vehicle if it risks causing other problems to previously working hardware :)

However, once the fine-tuning is complete, anyone who is still having major problems (I know of at least one person and I've contacted him) will be personally assisted best we can.
Google Ads
 
Placement
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/23921?hl=en
In the threads the upper or lower post from the Ad placement has the same back ground color.
At least one Ad looked as if it was part of the post. The back ground color should be set to another color other then the post's back ground color.

Also the Ad on the top right of the page on the News site is very close the the L2 ad below the Google Ad almost blends with it. The L2 ad cell should be dropped a little more, evenly spaced between the Google Ad and the menu bar. ( suggest you might want to add in the L2 ad that it is L2 ).

On the Forum site there is no Google Ad in the top right corner. Was that left out or was it meant to be there?

Already posted this part before but was looked over with your post above.

Cookies
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1348695
Haven't seen the third party cookies disclosure?
Not even at the bottom of the page.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: RocketmanUS on 09/11/2013 05:28 pm
PM's

Two sent  a few minutes apart after the new forum was up.
A copy of the replies , one from each of the twp posters PM'ed.
One copy sent to my email I got their response with their reply.
The other poster's reply in my email box was without their text , however it was in my PM in box.

Possibly an issue?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/12/2013 06:34 pm
Some remarks.


alignment issues fixed
 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Stan Black on 09/12/2013 06:41 pm
Why one quotation mark for quotes?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/12/2013 06:43 pm
Why one quotation mark for quotes?

feature ? ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: bioelectromechanic on 09/12/2013 07:48 pm
Big screen issue as shown here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32794.msg1095889#msg1095889
Operating system: ubuntu 13.04
Browser: Chromium
Issue does not replicate on Firefox.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/12/2013 08:00 pm
Big screen issue as shown here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32794.msg1095889#msg1095889
Operating system: ubuntu 13.04
Browser: Chromium
Issue does not replicate on Firefox.

Had that issue on chrome initially (win64), ctrl-r fixed it (cache issue)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/13/2013 12:17 am
Don't know if anyone got a "Bad Gateway" error for the forum for about five minutes just then, I know I did, but the site seemed to sort itself out, which is clever! :)

Apologies all the same. We're on super duper improved servers so - if it was server end - we'll investigate!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: bioelectromechanic on 09/13/2013 11:06 am
Big screen issue as shown here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32794.msg1095889#msg1095889
Operating system: ubuntu 13.04
Browser: Chromium
Issue does not replicate on Firefox.

Had that issue on chrome initially (win64), ctrl-r fixed it (cache issue)

Apparently it was an adblock issue. Turning it off for the site (which it should have been anyway) solved it.

Besides big display issue, the logo and navigation buttons on the main page weren't displaying properly either.
Which is strange since there were no problems on the forum side of the site.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/15/2013 10:23 am
Another small update:

- slight font size bump on several areas of the forum
- some more alignment "errors" fixed

blocks/stars explanation: (we might go back to the stars images from the old forum)

Administrator = 5 red blocks/stars
Moderators = 5 green blocks/stars

Post count based groups:

Group Name:    Stars:       Posts Needed:
Member                             0
Member                             1
Full Member       *              100
Full Member       **            200
Full Member       ***          300
Full Member       ****        400
Senior Member  *****      2000
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/15/2013 04:50 pm
blocks/stars explanation: (we might go back to the stars images from the old forum)


Well, I should hope so.  This is a spaceflight forum after all, so they should definitely be stars.   :D


I made a comment about this a few days ago.  I thought it was on this thread, but it was here:  http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32794.msg1095666#msg1095666


With my scheme, you'd need 10,000 comments to get 5 stars, which would make it a very small and elite group indeed.  (I'd be OK with giving administrators and moderators 5 stars regardless of their number of posts, so that their comments command attention.)


I see that the color scheme has been implemented, with administrators being red and moderators blue.  How about making L2 members green?  That would be another way to help distinguish L2 threads from the public ones.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Specifically-Impulsive on 09/15/2013 05:53 pm
How come I'm suddenly a 'new member'?  I don't post much, but I've been a member since 2007 or so.

This seems to have happened in the last couple of days.  I had a couple of yellow squares on Friday.

Not a big deal, just curious.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Pete on 09/15/2013 06:00 pm
Any reason why I'm now seeing advertisements on the forum even when logged in? Never used to before.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/15/2013 06:01 pm
How come I'm suddenly a 'new member'?  I don't post much, but I've been a member since 2007 or so.

This seems to have happened in the last couple of days.  I had a couple of yellow squares on Friday.


See Jester's comment just above mine.


With my system, you would have two stars and I would have three.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ugordan on 09/15/2013 06:01 pm
Never used to before.

You can NOT see them when logged in?

I always had them, I thought it was a "feature" of the site.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Pete on 09/15/2013 06:06 pm
Never used to before.

You can NOT see them when logged in?

Yes, that's right - I never used to see adverts before today, but now I see the site booster, plus an automatic advertisement post by "NASASpaceFlight.com Forum" after the first post in every thread (edit: Actually after the first post at the top of every page).

I do use Firefox with Adblock Plus, which removes the adverts in the post by "NASASpaceFlight.com Forum", and so I just see the post header, although the post does not contain anything. This never used to happen before today. I believe L2 members are not supposed to see adverts?

Edit: See attachment.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ugordan on 09/15/2013 06:08 pm
Ahh, OK. I thought you might not have been getting the "NASASpaceFlight.com Forum" in the 2nd post. I'm still getting all the stuff I used to before, but I'm not using an ad blocker.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/15/2013 06:29 pm
I also get the empty NASASpaceflight.com Forum post as the second post on every page.  I'm running AdBlock.  I turned it off and I do see an ad there.  I don't remember that with the old system.  On the other hand, my memory is notoriously untrustworthy.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/15/2013 06:32 pm
No change, ads have always been there, if your adblocker plugin isnt blocking them, something might have changed on the plugin side.
Chris keeps the ads at a bare minimum anyway but they do help pay for the site.

EDIT:
Ads after the first post are off on the L2 boards btw.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/15/2013 07:43 pm
Anyone who uses Adblock, who isn't a L2 member, should see one page and one page only, telling them to they are a leeching scumbag, with a picture of me pointing towards an exit sign.....or maybe a .gif of my right boot swinging! ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: R7 on 09/15/2013 08:33 pm
Anyone using Adblock ought to add custom filter to whitelist NSF so that Chris&co gets some revenue to run servers, eh;

@@||nasaspaceflight.com^$document
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jason1701 on 09/16/2013 04:26 am
I like the idea of L2 members having a different name color. It would help distinguish signal from noise in public threads.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: RocketmanUS on 09/16/2013 04:43 am
Anyone who uses Adblock, who isn't a L2 member, should see one page and one page only, telling them to they are a leeching scumbag, with a picture of me pointing towards an exit sign.....or maybe a .gif of my right boot swinging! ;D
      Some people just don't like-
1 )  Having third party cookies placed on their computer.
2 ) Accidently clicking ads they didn't meant to.
3 ) To avoid pop up ads on some of the other sites.

Oh so that is how we will get a better picture of you posted  ::) :).
I do see the smiley face ( grin ) in your post.
Calm down though, I do sometimes actually read the ads  ;D. ( Ads not blocked )
Now if they would just place a more variety of ads.
And see my post at reply #157.

I like the idea of L2 members having a different name color. It would help distinguish signal from noise in public threads.
I would see if the L2 section had a different color for the screen names ( if they aren't already ) so L2 members now what area they are posting in (  public or L2 forum ). It should not be a programming problem to do.

Keep in mind that there are a lot of great non L2 members postings on the public forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Frandolf on 09/16/2013 07:06 am
Another small update:

- slight font size bump on several areas of the forum
- some more alignment "errors" fixed

blocks/stars explanation: (we might go back to the stars images from the old forum)

Administrator = 5 red blocks/stars
Moderators = 5 green blocks/stars

Post count based groups:

Group Name:    Stars:       Posts Needed:
Member                             0
Member                             1
Full Member       *              100
Full Member       **            200
Full Member       ***          300
Full Member       ****        400
Senior Member  *****      2000
Since that I have the strange effect on the unread posts page that the name of the poster is more prominent than the title (see attached jpg)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 09/17/2013 02:42 am
Another small update:

Since that I have the strange effect on the unread posts page that the name of the poster is more prominent than the title (see attached jpg)


I just notice that today myself, been away a few days.  The "ByLine" has a slightly larger font drowning out the First line with the article title.  Now all I see are contributor names standing out making it difficult to find the article.

I also wish that the Number of views/replies is either right of left justified, as it just look messy having it centered.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cosmicvoid on 09/17/2013 06:26 am
I don't know if this is new, but I just noticed it: what is the difference in the topic selection set between the "Unread Topics" item in the forum menu bar, and the "All Unread Topics" button at the bottom of the "Unread Topics" list.  It seems the first is just a few pages, the 2nd is 100's of pages.

I'm guessing the number of posting stars/blocks used to be something like:
1 - a post
2 - 32 posts
3 - 128 posts
4 - 512 posts
5 - 1024 posts
I guess now I'm back to none, and for some reason my membership isn't "full"  :'( .  I feel insulted.  What is the significance of a "full member"?  Is there a partial membership?

I'll +1 on L2 members having a different name color.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: john smith 19 on 09/17/2013 06:43 am
I'm generally OK with the new layout and what I didn't like about the old setup is still here anyway.

But what is up with the search function?

I looked for Jon Goffs new thread on the DARPA XS-1 spaceplane concept on the home page search and got nothing. I had to log in to get it,
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 09/17/2013 06:57 am
What is the significance of a "full member"?  Is there a partial membership?

I'll +1 on L2 members having a different name color.


Yeah, I don't get the "full member" thing.  Maybe just have "member" and "L2 member".


My idea was to give L2 members a different color of squares/stars, but nobody seconded that.  I still think it's a good idea, and it might gently prod people to join L2.  Someone else came up with the idea of having the names be a different color on L2 threads, which would be another way of distinguishing L2 threads from the public ones.  I like that too. 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/17/2013 08:05 am
Some points:

- Some L2 people don't want to be identified as such, so it won't be visible on the profile.

- Guests can't search, get an account, login and search all you want. (as guest, it puts extra load on the server and its too easy to abuse)

- member and full member names are just linked to the amount of posts you make, as you can see in the overview posted before:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1097067#msg1097067 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1097067#msg1097067)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/17/2013 05:22 pm
Couple of problems, both with backwards compatibility:

1. It's seldom appropriate, but there are times where I'll post an 'empty' message -- if a picture is worth a few words, that ought to count (and it used to with the old site).

2. I can attach one file to a message, but not more than one at a time.  Sometimes this is handy and the old site allowed it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/17/2013 06:45 pm
Couple of problems, both with backwards compatibility:

1. It's seldom appropriate, but there are times where I'll post an 'empty' message -- if a picture is worth a few words, that ought to count (and it used to with the old site).

2. I can attach one file to a message, but not more than one at a time.  Sometimes this is handy and the old site allowed it.


1. Use a dot(.) for now, saves you typing ;-) (until I find where to patch the software to allow this)
2. I just did a test with 2 attachment in 1 go, no issue...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 09/17/2013 07:49 pm
- Some L2 people don't want to be identified as such, so it won't be visible on the profile.

Would it be possible to have an option to allow yourself to be identified as L2 members, but it is defaulted as off?  That way, nobody has to know, you only have the option to do it.  That way, for whatever reason, you don't have to show off as L2, but you can show you support the site if you want?

Just thinking of alternatives to help.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/17/2013 11:21 pm
1. Use a dot(.) for now, saves you typing ;-) (until I find where to patch the software to allow this)
2. I just did a test with 2 attachment in 1 go, no issue...
Actually, they may be related -- I was attaching pictures to an 'empty' post and it was taking me to a "start new topic' page.  Which is, well, multiple things, but definitely strange.

I may have time (and content) to test this tomorrow, but not sure.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/18/2013 10:20 am
1. Use a dot(.) for now, saves you typing ;-) (until I find where to patch the software to allow this)
One other thing about this: a single dot can be interpreted as an online moment of silence...given that my snarky text has been moderated to a moment of silence, that'll probably need to be moderated again, especially given the context is Orbital's first Cygnus flight.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/18/2013 10:59 am
1. Use a dot(.) for now, saves you typing ;-) (until I find where to patch the software to allow this)
One other thing about this: a single dot can be interpreted as an online moment of silence...given that my snarky text has been moderated to a moment of silence, that'll probably need to be moderated again, especially given the context is Orbital's first Cygnus flight.


I hear you, just the word image for the time being, I need time to create a patch and find the location in the software to patch, currently we have 2 spacecraft in testing so i'm limited on time, the NSF webmaster can have a look once he is back from holiday, if not, we'll have to wait i'm afraid.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: R7 on 09/18/2013 11:18 am
Would it be possible to have an option to allow yourself to be identified as L2 members, but it is defaulted as off?

Already various places in the forum profile (location, signature etc.) where you can mention L2 membership if you want, no?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: kcrick on 09/18/2013 12:32 pm

I noticed that when listing threads, that it displays who started the thread. Has any thought been given to also give the date the thread was started? While skimming over the threads it's hard to tell if it's a new thread or an older one. You only have the number of replies the thread has as an indication.

Just a thought.

So far, the forum looks pretty good to me and I'm getting used to it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/18/2013 09:36 pm
1. Use a dot(.) for now, saves you typing ;-) (until I find where to patch the software to allow this)
2. I just did a test with 2 attachment in 1 go, no issue...
Actually, they may be related -- I was attaching pictures to an 'empty' post and it was taking me to a "start new topic' page.  Which is, well, multiple things, but definitely strange.

I may have time (and content) to test this tomorrow, but not sure.

Update: nope, still the same problem with text in a new post.  Two attachments with a new, 'non-empty' post redirects me to "Start New Topic"; one attachment behaves as expected.  I can then belatedly edit the new post to add the second attachment.

Edit: I also cannot attach two files when modifying an existing post, I also end up in 'Start New Topic'.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/18/2013 10:46 pm
Sounds unique as no one else has reported that problem.

That's the problem with unique issues - we can't change anything for fear of solving something for one person and creating a problem for thousands of others who were previously issue-free.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 09/19/2013 05:56 am
1. Use a dot(.) for now, saves you typing ;-) (until I find where to patch the software to allow this)
2. I just did a test with 2 attachment in 1 go, no issue...
Actually, they may be related -- I was attaching pictures to an 'empty' post and it was taking me to a "start new topic' page.  Which is, well, multiple things, but definitely strange.

I may have time (and content) to test this tomorrow, but not sure.

Update: nope, still the same problem with text in a new post.  Two attachments with a new, 'non-empty' post redirects me to "Start New Topic"; one attachment behaves as expected.  I can then belatedly edit the new post to add the second attachment.

Edit: I also cannot attach two files when modifying an existing post, I also end up in 'Start New Topic'.

I have the same problem, reported here over a week ago:

Are there any other people who have problems with replying to posts and attaching more than one image in each post? It seems that when doing this the reply was not posted and I was lead to the starting-a-new-thread page.  ???

Doesn't look like a unique situation to me. Maybe it's a Firefox problem?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: thomson on 09/19/2013 08:15 am
Since that I have the strange effect on the unread posts page that the name of the poster is more prominent than the title (see attached jpg)
Definitely +1 on this. When I look at the page of unread posts, the authors are more visible than the topics. When I (hopefully most of us) look at the list of discussions, the more important thing is what matter is discussed, not who started it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/19/2013 10:29 am
Since that I have the strange effect on the unread posts page that the name of the poster is more prominent than the title (see attached jpg)
Definitely +1 on this. When I look at the page of unread posts, the authors are more visible than the topics. When I (hopefully most of us) look at the list of discussions, the more important thing is what matter is discussed, not who started it.

Compromise, bumped down one small step, but not too small or people will complain (as they have done before) about it being too small.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Frandolf on 09/19/2013 11:37 am
It's fine for me now  8)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: apace on 09/19/2013 07:36 pm
Looks like I'm the only one with this problem. Can someone of the webmaster check this please?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/19/2013 07:46 pm
Looks like I'm the only one with this problem. Can someone of the webmaster check this please?


Looks like a cache issue, whats the url you have open when you created that image, so I can check ?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: psloss on 09/19/2013 08:30 pm
Update: nope, still the same problem with text in a new post.  Two attachments with a new, 'non-empty' post redirects me to "Start New Topic"; one attachment behaves as expected.  I can then belatedly edit the new post to add the second attachment.

Edit: I also cannot attach two files when modifying an existing post, I also end up in 'Start New Topic'.
One additional update; I tried uploading a single relatively large file (almost 10 MB) that also takes me to 'Start New Topic'.  As Galactic Penguin SST noted, this is all with Firefox.  (23.0.1)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 09/19/2013 09:55 pm
I can't replicate the problem on Google Chrome 29.0.1547.66 (latest stable version), just FYI.  Sounds like a Firefox issue.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Bugfix on 09/20/2013 08:28 am
Looks like I'm the only one with this problem. Can someone of the webmaster check this please?

The broken images are only "visible" on iOS, but the link is definitely there in the source code for all browsers:
http://devforum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/default/images/post/.gif
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 09/20/2013 10:10 am
Looks like I'm the only one with this problem. Can someone of the webmaster check this please?

The broken images are only "visible" on iOS, but the link is definitely there in the source code for all browsers:
http://devforum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/default/images/post/.gif (http://devforum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/default/images/post/.gif)

I at least fixed the link as thats the old devforum, so it now points to the correct server, however it looks like a bug in SMF as its coming from the default theme, which we don't touch, I'll see if I can trace it to a php variable.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ClaytonBirchenough on 09/24/2013 12:34 am
Just had an anomaly!  :o

I clicked on "Water Dump Temperature" under The Q & A Section and it brought me to the Shuttle Q & A thread. This doesn't normally happen unless I missed something pretty obvious. Normally it should say "Shuttle Q & A Part 5" correct?

Just to let you know...  :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ChrisC on 09/29/2013 07:57 pm
Apologies if this problem has already been noted.  I checked back a couple pages in this thread before posting.

When reading through a thread and an image is encountered, in the past I have seen this behavior:
- clicking on the image loads the full image INLINE and renders it in the browser, replacing the early embedded image
- clicking the FILENAME below the image sends the image to me as a DOWNLOAD, triggering my browser to prompt me for handling instructions (save? open in app? etc.)

Today, when I click on a filename, I get the handling prompt from the browser, but the filename is "index.php" and the browser doesn't know that it's an image file, so doesn't present me with image viewing options.

Typically this is due to the server not passing the filename properly.

I'm running a recent version of Firefox.

EDIT 1: aha, it's only causing this problem on some images, let me see if I can figure out which ...

EDIT 2: yeah, the problem was happening only with the images that Chris B. was uploading (which of course are often the only images in a thread, e.g. live event screenshots).  Probably just something weird with his setup. Here's an example:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32952.msg1102469#msg1102469
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 10/06/2013 08:09 pm
Quote
Allowed file types: doc, docx, gif, kmz, ppt, srt, pptx, jpg, mpg, pdf, ods, odt, odp, ogg, kml, png, txt, zip, mp3, jpeg, wma, wmv, asf, mov, mp4, avi, xls, rm, rm3, flv, mpeg, xlsx
Restrictions: 150 per post, maximum total size 500000KB, maximum individual size 500000KB

I tried to upload a file of 16,250KB via Firefox, which timed out after 60 secs.

Is this a Firefox limit, or something in the forum software?

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 10/07/2013 07:17 am
Quote
Allowed file types: doc, docx, gif, kmz, ppt, srt, pptx, jpg, mpg, pdf, ods, odt, odp, ogg, kml, png, txt, zip, mp3, jpeg, wma, wmv, asf, mov, mp4, avi, xls, rm, rm3, flv, mpeg, xlsx
Restrictions: 150 per post, maximum total size 500000KB, maximum individual size 500000KB

I tried to upload a file of 16,250KB via Firefox, which timed out after 60 secs.

Is this a Firefox limit, or something in the forum software?

cheers, Martin

This is something we are looking at (Mark, this one is for you :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 10/13/2013 01:39 pm
I'm having a problem downloading attachments (not sure if it's just images).

Go to http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33022.msg1106799#msg1106799 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33022.msg1106799#msg1106799).

The attached image has a paper clip icon, plus a link with description "%NSF%_2013-10-08_15-45-37.jpg" that goes to: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=33022.0;attach=546875 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=33022.0;attach=546875).

When I click the link in Firefox 24.0, I get a dialog box with "You have chosen to open: index.php   which is: php file".

It looks like the code fragment for/around that link is:-

<div style="overflow: visible;">
<a href="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=33022.0;attach=546875;image" id="link_546875" onclick="return expandThumb(546875);"><img src="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=33022.0;attach=546876;image" alt="" id="thumb_546875"></a><br>
<a href="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=33022.0;attach=546875"><img src="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/nsf2/images/icons/clip.gif" alt="*" align="middle">&nbsp;%NSF%_2013-10-08_15-45-37.jpg</a>
(75.85 kB, 516x384 - viewed 25 times.)<br>
</div>

NB I'm running NoScript on this PC, but everything except googlesyndication.com is whitelisted.

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ugordan on 10/13/2013 02:00 pm
I'm having the same problem, FF 23.0.1. I wonder if it's got something to do with the "%" in the filename,  I only saw the issue with those attachments so far.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/13/2013 02:34 pm
Yeah, fine in Chrome etc. Just firefox. We'll see what can be done.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/13/2013 03:21 pm
Seen as it's only Firefox, a temp solution is to open the image in another window and save as. You'll need to change the filename as you save it (I did that anyway when I used that route). It saves it in full res, so that works for now.

I suspect the webmaster solution will be to change the extension name to remove the %, so we'll see what can be done with that.

Everything else seems fine.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rcoppola on 10/13/2013 03:34 pm
Can't access forum threads from iPhone running iOS7. Says there are too many re-directs. Main site and articles are fine. No other site forums of this nature do this so I don't think it's on my end.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clongton on 10/19/2013 03:44 pm
On the Unread Topics page, ALL the topics are labeled "New". Why is that?
"New" should only refer to Brand New unread topics, not "all" unread ones.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 10/19/2013 04:16 pm
On the Unread Topics page, ALL the topics are labeled "New". Why is that?
"New" should only refer to Brand New unread topics, not "all" unread ones.

"New" is consistent across the site - "there is an unread post in this thread".

All threads on that page will always meet that definition. What you're suggesting is a "New Topics" page.

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: QuantumG on 10/19/2013 10:49 pm
New means "unread".

My typical reading style:

1. Start with the Unread Topics page*
2. Ctrl-click on ~10 new buttons**
3. Read the 10 open tabs, each of which could be multiple pages.
4. Close the 10 open tabs.
5. Go back to step 2 until all are read.

This can take over an hour some days.

* I find the default ordering backwards, so I sort by last post so the most recently changed thread is last, not first.
** I have a greasemonkey script which makes the new button go away after you click on it)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 10/20/2013 01:41 am
well, I used to read every single post on every single thread up until around 2010. After that, NSF became just too... big? good? awesome?. I just couldn't do it all at the time, and after 2011, I have focused on just the stuff I'm more interested in, with occasional visits to some areas&threads of the forum. Time and other stuff (of which Chris will give stamp-of-approval) were just too time consuming at the time. I seemed to have missed some important events, such as the disappearance of certain forum users, but otherwise, I'm still very satisfied in reading just the selected areas and threads.

I do understand the NEW buttons' problem. They are not new threads but new posts on new OR existing threads. I would like the NEW replaced with NEW POSTS and NEW THREAD, but I don't know if thats possible with the current SMF forum software.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clongton on 10/20/2013 11:59 am
Everything on the Unread Topics list automatically is a New Post. So what's the difference between "New Post" and "Unread Topic"? Before this upgrade, which I like very much, "New" did not appear on the "Unread Topics" list because for the individual reader it was understood to be a "New Post", which the individual reader had not yet read. I would like "New" to refer to "New Topic", if that is possible please.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: QuantumG on 10/20/2013 12:47 pm
The behavior of the new buttons hasn't changed.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: John Flushing on 10/23/2013 12:42 am
I am not upset with anyone, but can someone please tell me how I can obtain a forum signature? I am fairly new here (and I am an astronomy nut) so if I am accidentally doing anything wrong, then I apologize.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rickl on 10/23/2013 12:47 am
I am not upset with anyone, but can someone please tell me how I can obtain a forum signature? I am fairly new here (and I am an astronomy nut) so if I am accidentally doing anything wrong, then I apologize.


Welcome!  Click "Profile" in the second line of headings at the top of the page, and then "Modify Profile" > "Forum Profile".  You can then add personal information and a signature.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ugordan on 10/31/2013 05:46 pm
Is it just me or is the forum clock ahead by some 2 minutes or so?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/31/2013 06:03 pm
Is it just me or is the forum clock ahead by some 2 minutes or so?

HA! I thought it was just my PC! That'll be a yes then!

I'll see if we can find the key so we can wind it up again ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ugordan on 10/31/2013 07:42 pm
I figured that since we're often reporting liftoff times to within a millisecond around here, we might as well do better with forum time :D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 11/01/2013 09:13 am
Mark, if you read this, ntpdate service config ;-)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AJA on 11/04/2013 02:58 pm
Is it just me or is the forum clock ahead by some 2 minutes or so?

HA! I thought it was just my PC! That'll be a yes then!

I'll see if we can find the key so we can wind it up again ;D

The forum time seems to be off by an hour! I checked my time-zone offset, and that's correct, but at the time of posting this - it's 2125 IST, and the Forum time should read 1555 (if it's indeed in UTC) - but it's showing 1455




Also, while I'm at it, merging a second paragraph of a draft post into the preceding paragraph changes the font size of the hitherto second paragraph. This WYSIWYG editor doesn't offer a font size change, although the clear-formatting button works.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/04/2013 03:10 pm
As has been explained a number of times, the forum timeZONE is not off. You have to ensure it's detected per your location in "PROFILE - LOOK AND LAYOUT".

That is why your post shows the right time to me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AJA on 11/04/2013 03:38 pm
Sorry.. I guess I should've gone through the thread.
I did check my look and layout section, but I mistakenly assumed that the offset I was supposed to put in, was just the offset of the local time zone from UTC - since I'd expected the default forum time zone to be UTC. But I now realise that its currently UTC-01:00 (Azores, Cape Verde or Greenland!?)


Is the default time going to jump around with daylight savings? That would mean that those of us in locations that don't observe it would have to change their offsets when it does. <Groan> Not that it's a problem.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/04/2013 05:55 pm
Yeah, I think you have to manually do that when the time changes. I did for the UK change.

It's 10 seconds of your day, twice a year, so not too bad! :)

Now for Mark to sort out that three minutes offset.....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 11/18/2013 03:53 pm
Quick question.  Trying to do live coverage, the first time you click "Browse" to add an attachment, a window opens for you to select.  After that, it won't allow me to open it any other time making it harder to do that.

Google Chrome ver 31.0.1650.57, also happens with the latest FireFox.  Cannot replicate it on IE 10 (meaning it works properly).  Seems like it is a system specific issue rather than a forum issue, but just wanted to confirm.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/18/2013 04:35 pm
No issues here with Chrome and Windows 8.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: KelvinZero on 11/20/2013 07:54 am
I think after you edit a poll you lose certain options?

Im sure I started this poll with people able to change their votes, but I can't see that option anymore. I expect this happened after I added a new option. Ideally I would be able to add new options as they appear and remove the least popular of the old ones, and keep the vote changeable.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32662.0
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 12/02/2013 11:10 am
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DMeader on 12/02/2013 11:29 am
You have widescreen monitor? I don't have that on a 4:3 Dell Ultrasharp.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 12/02/2013 11:39 am
You have widescreen monitor? I don't have that on a 4:3 Dell Ultrasharp.

My screen resolution is 1600x1200
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 12/02/2013 11:45 am
I saved a thread page locally and looked at resulting .html file.
Found this fragment:

<!-- Tapatalk Detect banner body end -->
        <div id="page_wrapper">
                <div id="wrapper" style="width: 1080px">
<header>


Deleted   style="width: 1080px"   thing, saved the file and reloaded the file. The blue left/right margins are now gone.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/02/2013 12:57 pm
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

That's just you. I'm sure someone will find a solution to whatever your browser is doing wrong.

This is what it looks like for everyone else....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 12/02/2013 01:18 pm
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

First, update to 25.0.1, second, ad-blocker ?

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 12/02/2013 01:42 pm
What setting have you got for Profile / Look & layout / Use sidebar menus instead of dropdown menus when possible?

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 12/05/2013 08:10 pm
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

That's just you. I'm sure someone will find a solution to whatever your browser is doing wrong.

This is what it looks like for everyone else....

Still some margin here. Chrome 31.0.1650.57, Mac OS X 10.8.5
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 12/05/2013 08:13 pm
Also, the URL to my Avatar seems to have broken, it was an uploaded Avatar. Also, when I try to upload a new avatar I get:
An Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 12/05/2013 08:37 pm
Also, the URL to my Avatar seems to have broken, it was an uploaded Avatar. Also, when I try to upload a new avatar I get:
An Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.

Trying converting your avatar to .png (or .jpg) save it again and re-upload
there is some strict checking done on the image upload part
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: The Roadie on 12/07/2013 02:54 am
NSF noob here - long time VBulletin user elsewhere. Is this the place to ask about broken links? I was looking for info on the Shuttle hydrogen burnoff system. Found this thread using "hydrogen burnoff" as the search phrase:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=4026.0

Last post links to:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=4012&posts=12&start=1

but that's 404. Nothing else in a search comes up with a dedicated thread on the system, although other threads hint at it.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 12/07/2013 08:17 am
NSF noob here - long time VBulletin user elsewhere. Is this the place to ask about broken links? I was looking for info on the Shuttle hydrogen burnoff system. Found this thread using "hydrogen burnoff" as the search phrase:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=4026.0

Last post links to:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=4012&posts=12&start=1

but that's 404. Nothing else in a search comes up with a dedicated thread on the system, although other threads hint at it.



It's tricky as we did a major version and server upgrade recently and sometimes we bump into this.
link has been fixed.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 12/08/2013 05:13 pm
Also, the URL to my Avatar seems to have broken, it was an uploaded Avatar. Also, when I try to upload a new avatar I get:
An Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.

Trying converting your avatar to .png (or .jpg) save it again and re-upload
there is some strict checking done on the image upload part

Nope. I think its broken. Every attempt I make to upload an Avatar gives the error I gave before. There's also the issue that I had already earlier uploaded an Avatar several months ago that worked and now it shows as a broken link.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: The Roadie on 12/08/2013 05:16 pm
I get the same avater error on my first few attempts. Thought it might require ten posts or something before one was avatar-enabled, but could not find a link to restrictions like that.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clongton on 12/08/2013 07:40 pm
Hi Chris
There is already a small icon that attaches to the thread icon showing whether or not one has posted in that thread. Is it possible to have a similar icon that identifies a thread that has been subscribed to, but not posted in? My thought was that once subscribed that icon would appear in the same spot where the "posted" icon is, and then once someone actually posts, it would be replaced by the current "posted" icon. I often subscribe to a thread but don't post for quite a while. Occasionally I like to lurk for a while. Also it would be a handy identifier when we go in occasionally to clean up outdated subscriptions. I know that I have occasionally noted several outdated threads I had subscribed to but never posted in. It would be a nice touch. Just a thought.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: peter-b on 12/15/2013 03:15 pm
Still having huge issues adding an avatar. Adding by URL (http://gravatar.com/avatar/06f805ee4a6d002229ab6a9730d1b988.jpg) fails silently — SMF claims to update my profile but the avatar setting is always reset to "no avatar", and uploading any file gives a message that "the attachments directory is not writable".
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/15/2013 03:30 pm
Yep, just tried to do it for you and jpeg showed no errors, but didn't appear. Tried jpg version and got "The attachments upload directory is not writable."

So that's something we'll work on solving. Jester is in transit for a while, but we will sort it out.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 12/18/2013 12:14 am
Did a quick check and change, needs work by Mark though, seems to be working for the above issue (as in the uploaded image works now)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: peter-b on 12/18/2013 07:51 am
Thanks folks!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Misha Vargas on 12/30/2013 03:59 pm
For some reason, the posts on page 6 and 7 of this thread (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29484.75) are stretch'd. Here's a picture, just in case it's just me:
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/30/2013 04:03 pm
Some numpty posted a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge URL. Refresh, it'll be ok now :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Misha Vargas on 12/30/2013 04:07 pm
Ah yes, I see it now. It's still on page seven, in a quote.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/30/2013 04:15 pm
Sorted.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/08/2014 03:57 am
Per some rather questionable google adsense adverts that were turning up (very few and far between, but that's still too many) in the second post of every thread page, we've disabled them for the interim. We'll either work on a filter to ensure they are better targeted for our audience, or we will ensure that by creating our own ad space, be it for L2 or space-specific advertisers.

I'd rather us lose out on a bit of cash than to have dodgy adverts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: D_Dom on 01/08/2014 04:14 pm
Chris, dodgy adverts can be entertaining but I appreciate your efforts keeping them off this site. The quality of information available here is absolutely amazing. Keep up the good work.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/08/2014 04:24 pm
Thanks, and I appreciate that, a lot!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: baldusi on 01/10/2014 01:23 pm
Like Schlocks's Mercenary, quality before revenue. This is what makes this site so special.

On an unrelated note, I'm using a mix of Tapatalk, Mobile and Web. I've found that one I watch the latest posting on Tapatalk, I get the thread greyed out. When I get to either the mobile or web version, within the specific Forum View (say Robotic Exploration), the threads are correctly shown as fully read, but, from the Index View, the forum (again, let's say Robotic Exploration) is shown in bold as if it has had new messages since my last visit. I'm assuming Tapatalk feeds back the thread read flag but it feeds it into the database and jumps the forum view flag?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/13/2014 03:25 pm
Thank you to the mystery moderator who fixed my issue.  Much appreciated.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2014 03:51 pm
Thank you to the mystery moderator who fixed my issue.  Much appreciated.

Jester sorted it. I thought you had seen it and I thought it best to delete that thread as it looked negative on the front of site. New people viewing the site would see "Account deactivation" and think "Oh!" ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/13/2014 04:19 pm
Thank you to the mystery moderator who fixed my issue.  Much appreciated.

Jester sorted it. I thought you had seen it and I thought it best to delete that thread as it looked negative on the front of site. New people viewing the site would see "Account deactivation" and think "Oh!" ;D
Understood, my apologies, didnt mean to tarnish to "look" of the forums. Just like the motto of my Province of Ontario that is  stamped onto every license plate/tag. We must "KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL".
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb373/Paul_Schermerhorn/plate.jpg) (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/Paul_Schermerhorn/media/plate.jpg.html)

Again thank you for fixing my issue, I was able to enter my correct email address.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/13/2014 04:30 pm
Is there a section that explains the progression of membership recognition on this site? Member, Full Member etc., as well as the digital light up bar that is present just above the avatars or just below the membership staus indicator(Member, Full Member).

I went through the Simple Machines on line directory and went through it, and even searched some, but saw o mention of it.

I have been going through the site trying to expand my enjoyment of all it has to offer.  I need to educate myself on how best to make use of the sites search function.  Simply enetering a single word gets you many respnses, but not what I'm after. Same goes for simple Googleing, optimizing seach queries can bring more than just the "low hanging fruit".
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 04:56 pm
Is there a section that explains the progression of membership recognition on this site? Member, Full Member etc., as well as the digital light up bar that is present just above the avatars or just below the membership staus indicator(Member, Full Member).


excuse the crappy table:

Name:             Number of bars    number of posts needed:

Member           0    number of posts needed:                 1
Full Member    *    number of posts needed:              100
Full Member    **    number of posts needed:            200
Full Member    ***    number of posts needed:          300
Full Member    ****  number of posts needed:          400
Senior Member    *****  number of posts needed:  2000
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2014 05:05 pm
Is there a section that explains the progression of membership recognition on this site? Member, Full Member etc., as well as the digital light up bar that is present just above the avatars or just below the membership staus indicator(Member, Full Member).


excuse the crappy table:

Name:             Number of bars    number of posts needed:

Member           0    number of posts needed:                 1
Full Member    *    number of posts needed:              100
Full Member    **    number of posts needed:            200
Full Member    ***    number of posts needed:          300
Full Member    ****  number of posts needed:          400
Senior Member    *****  number of posts needed:  2000

We need to change that as it's totally wrong to base it on post count.

I wonder what we can do with it?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 05:09 pm
Is there a section that explains the progression of membership recognition on this site? Member, Full Member etc., as well as the digital light up bar that is present just above the avatars or just below the membership staus indicator(Member, Full Member).


excuse the crappy table:

Name:             Number of bars    number of posts needed:

Member           0    number of posts needed:                 1
Full Member    *    number of posts needed:              100
Full Member    **    number of posts needed:            200
Full Member    ***    number of posts needed:          300
Full Member    ****  number of posts needed:          400
Senior Member    *****  number of posts needed:  2000

We need to change that as it's totally wrong to base it on post count.

I wonder what we can do with it?

PM coming
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Pete on 01/13/2014 05:31 pm
We need to change that as it's totally wrong to base it on post count.

I wonder what we can do with it?

I agree, it should be about quality of posts, not quantity.

I really liked that idea of letting the community vote on the credibility of other members based on quality of posts, although I can easily see how it could be abused by people who are for one thing, "voting down" people against another thing, etc.

One possible way to solve it would be to allow the option to give a "plus" to a member you liked, but remove the option to give a "minus" - that way "voting people down" could not happen, as you can only give a positive vote to a member.

Also, on that subject, when is the "thanks" button coming to posts?

-----
Edit:

Or maybe the aforementioned could be combined, and member stars could be linked to the amount of "thanks" they get?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2014 05:36 pm
Yeah, "Karma" would be abused.

The "likes" button is coming when Mark pulls his finger out. ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: M129K on 01/13/2014 05:53 pm
Yeah, "Karma" would be abused.
Yeah, it would be better not to turn this forum into another reddit.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 05:54 pm
Yeah, "Karma" would be abused.

The "likes" button is coming when Mark pulls his finger out. ;)

As I needed to "play" with the feature to understand its options, i've enabled "karma" (or better, recommendations) currently limited to people having more than 200 posts and you can only give 1 recommendation per day.

if rubbish = delete and we wait for likes button....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Pete on 01/13/2014 06:00 pm
currently limited to people having more than 200 posts and you can only give 1 recommendation per day.

That's a good idea. My only suggestion would be to remove the "Negative" option entirely. As the old saying goes "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".

Note:

I've been doing some testing - I only get the "you can only give one recommendation per day" notice when I try to give two recommendations to the same member. Otherwise I seem to be able to give as many recommendations as I like to as many different members as I like.

Also, does this mean that after 24 hours, I will be able to give a recommendation to a member that I have already recommended? Because that can't be right.

Or maybe it works differently for me because I'm a mod?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 06:10 pm
currently limited to people having more than 200 posts and you can only give 1 recommendation per day.

That's a good idea. My only suggestion would be to remove the "Negative" option entirely. As the old saying goes "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".

Note:

I've been doing some testing - I only get the "you can only give one recommendation per day" notice when I try to give two recommendations to the same member. Otherwise I seem to be able to give as many recommendations as I like to as many different members as I like.

Also, does this mean that after 24 hours, I will be able to give a recommendation to a member that I have already recommended? Because that can't be right.

Or maybe it works differently for me because I'm a mod?



1 recco per user per day

except admins
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 01/13/2014 06:11 pm
Yeah, "Karma" would be abused.

The "likes" button is coming when Mark pulls his finger out. ;)

As I needed to "play" with the feature to understand its options, i've enabled "karma" (or better, recommendations) currently limited to people having more than 200 posts and you can only give 1 recommendation per day.

if rubbish = delete and we wait for likes button....

Where would we see this if it was working?  (Edit: NVM, tis under the user avatar to left)

My unsolicited view.. scrap all the gradations of stars and boxes and the full vs senior titles except maybe for the one that you cross early on (10 posts is enough to see if someone is a troll/spammer, I expect)

The notion of recommending posts is useful but use it to find posts worthy of promoting in external media, rather than rewarding members... the only flags I want to see on members would be "are they a mod" and "do they work in the industry"

Take that for what it's worth.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Pete on 01/13/2014 06:16 pm
1 recco per user per day

except admins

Well I still seem to be able to recommend as many people as I like - I only get a message telling me I cannot do more than one within 24 hours when I try to recommend the same person twice.

Also, I did a quick test on your recommendations - you had 2 recommendations, but when I gave you a negative recommendation, it went straight down to 0 recommendations. Surely it should just go down to 1? Then when I gave you positive again (as I didn't really want to give you a negative, of course ;)) it went straight back up to 2 from 0.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 06:19 pm
ok, lessons learned, no karma and no settings plays as it messed up the forum, my apologies

grrrr, hate stable software which isnt stable....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2014 06:19 pm
Always worth a try, so that's a good move.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Pete on 01/13/2014 06:22 pm
Thanks for trying, Jester. :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 06:25 pm
in the mean time, during my rant, I've had a play with the likes and I THINK i've solved the issue breaking likes.

caveat:

- It only works on this default theme (mobile theme is out, needs work anyway)
- you can only like every 300 seconds (for now, until I get the software bugs worked out)
- you need to have at least 1 like yourself before you can like somebody else.
- the double likes on the bars will go once I clean the software (theme issue)


tweaks coming....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: faramund on 01/13/2014 06:56 pm
Thanks for the work put into the like button, I've just got (yet another?) suggestion. On the front page, under Forum stats, there is a most recent posts section. How about also, a list of the most liked posts over the last week or 24 hours. Maybe it shouldn't be calculated over posts, maybe instead it should be a list of the topics that had the largest number of likes.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 06:59 pm
Thanks for the work put into the like button, I've just got (yet another?) suggestion. On the front page, under Forum stats, there is a most recent posts section. How about also, a list of the most liked posts over the last week or 24 hours. Maybe it shouldn't be calculated over posts, maybe instead it should be a list of the topics that had the largest number of likes.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=stats
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 01/13/2014 07:01 pm
Thanks for the work put into the like button, I've just got (yet another?) suggestion. On the front page, under Forum stats, there is a most recent posts section. How about also, a list of the most liked posts over the last week or 24 hours. Maybe it shouldn't be calculated over posts, maybe instead it should be a list of the topics that had the largest number of likes.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=stats

I see the "top 10 liked users"/"top 10 liked topics" twice, for some reason...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 07:05 pm
Thanks for the work put into the like button, I've just got (yet another?) suggestion. On the front page, under Forum stats, there is a most recent posts section. How about also, a list of the most liked posts over the last week or 24 hours. Maybe it shouldn't be calculated over posts, maybe instead it should be a list of the topics that had the largest number of likes.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=stats

I see the "top 10 liked users"/"top 10 liked topics" twice, for some reason...

Thanks for the work put into the like button, I've just got (yet another?) suggestion. On the front page, under Forum stats, there is a most recent posts section. How about also, a list of the most liked posts over the last week or 24 hours. Maybe it shouldn't be calculated over posts, maybe instead it should be a list of the topics that had the largest number of likes.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=stats

I see the "top 10 liked users"/"top 10 liked topics" twice, for some reason...

yeah I know, like I said, tweaks :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2014 07:09 pm
Thanks for the work put into the like button, I've just got (yet another?) suggestion. On the front page, under Forum stats, there is a most recent posts section. How about also, a list of the most liked posts over the last week or 24 hours. Maybe it shouldn't be calculated over posts, maybe instead it should be a list of the topics that had the largest number of likes.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=stats

That's actually looking pretty cool!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 07:18 pm
right, still some work to do, I think its a good idea that we for the time being we limited "liking" to the first post of a thread and give an overview of the amount of likes in the thread.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/13/2014 07:26 pm
For "likes" feedback, continue here:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33808.0
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 01/13/2014 10:03 pm
We need to change that as it's totally wrong to base it on post count.

I wonder what we can do with it?

I agree, it should be about quality of posts, not quantity.

I really liked that idea of letting the community vote on the credibility of other members based on quality of posts, although I can easily see how it could be abused by people who are for one thing, "voting down" people against another thing, etc.

One possible way to solve it would be to allow the option to give a "plus" to a member you liked, but remove the option to give a "minus" - that way "voting people down" could not happen, as you can only give a positive vote to a member.

Also, on that subject, when is the "thanks" button coming to posts?

-----
Edit:

Or maybe the aforementioned could be combined, and member stars could be linked to the amount of "thanks" they get?

For a negative measure, could count number of times a user appears on other people's "ignore" list.

Could be an useful indicator to someone getting a lot of ignores re their behaviour.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/13/2014 10:32 pm
No, we won't be doing that for obvious reasons.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/20/2014 10:53 am
Is there a section that explains the progression of membership recognition on this site? Member, Full Member etc., as well as the digital light up bar that is present just above the avatars or just below the membership staus indicator(Member, Full Member).


excuse the crappy table:

Name:             Number of bars    number of posts needed:

Member           0    number of posts needed:                 1
Full Member    *    number of posts needed:              100
Full Member    **    number of posts needed:            200
Full Member    ***    number of posts needed:          300
Full Member    ****  number of posts needed:          400
Senior Member    *****  number of posts needed:  2000

We need to change that as it's totally wrong to base it on post count.

I wonder what we can do with it?
Thanks Jester, I was curious. Most forums are simply by post count. Quality of a post is by natire qualitative and open to interpretation.  People who read a post know if its a good post.  No need to "measure" a posts "quality" by any sort of voting system IMO.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: PerW on 01/20/2014 11:00 am
Maybe L2 membership should be one step also?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/20/2014 11:07 am
Maybe L2 membership should be one step also?
I agree, I'm kinda suprised that L2 Memebership is edit: NOT displayed. We are the ones that help to bring this excellent site to the masses. I'm not a rocket scientists, I dont work at NASA, but I have a credit card and support NSF.com.  "L2 Membership has it's privileges".  Perhaps an icon of recognition for the monetary backers of the site.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 01/22/2014 05:59 pm
When I use the "Tags" function (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags)) the list I see is ordered by the number of times a tag has been used.  The previous forum software had them listed alphabetically which made it much easier to find relevant tags.

Is there a way I can change the way the tags are ordered myself, or is this only possible with a forum configuration change?

Thanks.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/22/2014 07:30 pm
When I use the "Tags" function (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags)) the list I see is ordered by the number of times a tag has been used.  The previous forum software had them listed alphabetically which made it much easier to find relevant tags.

Is there a way I can change the way the tags are ordered myself, or is this only possible with a forum configuration change?

Thanks.

its a pretty clunky mod, i'll check but I doubt it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/22/2014 07:30 pm
Forum upgraded to 2.0.7 and updated to (c) 2014
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 01/23/2014 06:02 am
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

First, update to 25.0.1, second, ad-blocker ?

I'm on Firefox 25.0 now, no change.
I don't run any ad-blockers or any other FF plug-ins.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 01/23/2014 08:25 am
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

First, update to 25.0.1, second, ad-blocker ?

I'm on Firefox 25.0 now, no change.
I don't run any ad-blockers or any other FF plug-ins.

strange.
Update to FF 26, make sure you don't enable zoom (mouse wheel scroll action to easy to do..) if still an issue, please make a screenshot and post here.
Thanks
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DJPledger on 01/23/2014 08:43 am
Is there a section that explains the progression of membership recognition on this site? Member, Full Member etc., as well as the digital light up bar that is present just above the avatars or just below the membership staus indicator(Member, Full Member).


excuse the crappy table:

Name:             Number of bars    number of posts needed:

Member           0    number of posts needed:                 1
Full Member    *    number of posts needed:              100
Full Member    **    number of posts needed:            200
Full Member    ***    number of posts needed:          300
Full Member    ****  number of posts needed:          400
Senior Member    *****  number of posts needed:  2000

We need to change that as it's totally wrong to base it on post count.

I wonder what we can do with it?
Thanks Jester, I was curious. Most forums are simply by post count. Quality of a post is by natire qualitative and open to interpretation.  People who read a post know if its a good post.  No need to "measure" a posts "quality" by any sort of voting system IMO.

Members need to be rated on the quality of their posts as well as the the number of posts they have posted. 50% of the rating for post quality and 50% for the number of posts. This would be a fairer system than the current one which only rates on the number of posts a member has posted.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: FutureSpaceTourist on 01/23/2014 08:58 am
Members need to be rated on the quality of their posts as well as the the number of posts they have posted. 50% of the rating for post quality and 50% for the number of posts. This would be a fairer system than the current one which only rates on the number of posts a member has posted.

I guess the new 'Like' mechanism might give a relatively easy way of assessing the extent to which a person's posts are valued. But key to all this is not to take the levels at all seriously, they're not ratings in the sense of an assessment, simply a posts statistic.

I have wondered though about indicating which members are L2 members. I appreciate that for privacy reasons maybe that would have to be opt-in, but it may encourage more people to join L2 if there's another visible reminder of it. Especially if, as I suspect, L2 members tend to make higher quality posts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 02/05/2014 12:57 am
It would be great if additional file types were allowed for upload on the forum (or remove the restriction on file extension entirely). File extension restriction is only an "idiot" check to prevent people uploading .exe files or something anyway.

A main missing video type is .mkv files. Some others might be .mts or .dv files that are common from cameras, also .m4v. For audio there is .m4a and .flac

(Mods, if this should not be its own thread, feel free to move to an appropriate feedback thread.)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/05/2014 02:19 am
It would be great if additional file types were allowed for upload on the forum (or remove the restriction on file extension entirely). File extension restriction is only an "idiot" check to prevent people uploading .exe files or something anyway.

A main missing video type is .mkv files. Some others might be .mts or .dv files that are common from cameras, also .m4v. For audio there is .m4a and .flac

(Mods, if this should not be its own thread, feel free to move to an appropriate feedback thread.)

Best in the feedback thread....

So, previously - if a file extension, such as .mkv - is required to be added to the upload attachment list, it can be requested. That's how we've always done it.

Can you post a high priority list as I can add them for attachment privileges via my admin powers.

And yeah, I think I remember Mark ensuring it wasn't "any" extension, to avoid .exe or something that could be nasty.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: baldusi on 02/05/2014 08:40 pm
And yeah, I think I remember Mark ensuring it wasn't "any" extension, to avoid .exe or something that could be nasty.
Wouldn't be better to do a negative list? Dangerous extensions couldn't be that many.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/05/2014 08:44 pm
No, because I can only add.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 02/11/2014 08:03 pm
And yeah, I think I remember Mark ensuring it wasn't "any" extension, to avoid .exe or something that could be nasty.
Wouldn't be better to do a negative list? Dangerous extensions couldn't be that many.

Also if you're concerned about security, negative lists should never ever ever be used. This is generally drilled into you in any computer security course or lecture.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 02/11/2014 08:07 pm
Can you post a high priority list as I can add them for attachment privileges via my admin powers.


The ones I listed I would consider reasonably "high priority", or more so, they're all relatively equal priority, if not high priority.

.mkv .mts .dv .m4v .m4a .flac .aac
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 02/11/2014 08:14 pm
.mkv added
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 02/11/2014 10:03 pm
I have wondered though about indicating which members are L2 members. I appreciate that for privacy reasons maybe that would have to be opt-in, but it may encourage more people to join L2 if there's another visible reminder of it. Especially if, as I suspect, L2 members tend to make higher quality posts.

We'd like to think we do! Jury is still out in my case though.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Zero-G on 03/13/2014 03:45 pm
I find the "Tags" section unusable since the changes. In the "old days" it was in alphabetical order, which made it easy to find the tag you were looking for. Now it seems to be in order of importance, which makes it very hard to find a specific tag.
Is there any way to change this?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/13/2014 04:19 pm
I find the "Tags" section unusable since the changes. In the "old days" it was in alphabetical order, which made it easy to find the tag you were looking for. Now it seems to be in order of importance, which makes it very hard to find a specific tag.
Is there any way to change this?

Still perfectly usable. Just got to the tag page and control and F and then type in Mars or whatever and it'll find it.

Yeah, I'd prefer it back to how it was, but it was hardly used and everything still works per the above.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Zero-G on 03/13/2014 05:33 pm
I find the "Tags" section unusable since the changes. In the "old days" it was in alphabetical order, which made it easy to find the tag you were looking for. Now it seems to be in order of importance, which makes it very hard to find a specific tag.
Is there any way to change this?

Still perfectly usable. Just got to the tag page and control and F and then type in Mars or whatever and it'll find it.

Yeah, I'd prefer it back to how it was, but it was hardly used and everything still works per the above.
Thanks for this hint!

If you prefered it how it was, then why change it? Software issue?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/13/2014 06:11 pm
I find the "Tags" section unusable since the changes. In the "old days" it was in alphabetical order, which made it easy to find the tag you were looking for. Now it seems to be in order of importance, which makes it very hard to find a specific tag.
Is there any way to change this?

Still perfectly usable. Just got to the tag page and control and F and then type in Mars or whatever and it'll find it.

Yeah, I'd prefer it back to how it was, but it was hardly used and everything still works per the above.
Thanks for this hint!

If you prefered it how it was, then why change it? Software issue?

New software. Didn't even allow tags at first I think, so what we have right now was a good save, as I use it a lot.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 03/14/2014 07:44 pm
Don't know if anybody else is noticing this - but my timestamps have been off by an hour since the U.S. switched to DST.  Right now, my offset from "forum time" is -3, which isn't a value I'd expect.  (Out of curiosity, what is "forum time" based on?)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 03/14/2014 08:22 pm
I thought the forum time was GMT/UTC, however that would put the offset at -4.  Mine is also -3 for EDT and it's fine, however, my times are spot on.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 03/21/2014 03:12 am
The Recent Forum Posts links in the sidebar (which are loaded in an iframe from http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/forum.php (http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/forum.php)) are inside divs that are styled such that it looks as though you can click anywhere on them (i.e. .post:hover {cursor: pointer;}) but you can only click on the post title.

I’ve included the current CSS below, along with a version that I fixed.

(Also, I had to use <pre> instead of [code] because [code] is slightly broken as well…  >.>)



Current CSS:

body {
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   font: 12px Arial, sans-serif;
}

.post {
   background: #f0f0f0;
   -moz-transition-property: all;
   -moz-transition-duration: 0.2s;
   -moz-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
   -webkit-transition-property: all;
   -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s;
   -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
   transition-property: all;
   transition-duration: 0.2s;
   transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
   border: 1px solid #cccccc;
   border-radius: 10px;
   -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
   width: 255px;
   height: 32px;
   padding: 4px 7px 4px 7px;
   overflow: hidden;
}

.post:hover {
   cursor: pointer;
   background: #fff;
}

a {
   color: #373737;
   text-decoration: none;
}

.author {
   width: 280px;
   height: 15px;
   text-align: right;
   font-style: italic;
   color: #373737;
   margin-top: 3px;
   margin-bottom: 10px;
}




Fixed:

body {
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   font: 12px Arial, sans-serif;
}

.post {
   background: #f0f0f0;
   border: 1px solid #cccccc;
   border-radius: 10px;
   -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
   width: 269px;
   height: 40px;
   overflow: hidden;
}

.post a {
   padding: 4px 7px 4px 7px;
   display: block;
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
   -moz-transition-property: all;
   -moz-transition-duration: 0.2s;
   -moz-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
   -webkit-transition-property: all;
   -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s;
   -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
   transition-property: all;
   transition-duration: 0.2s;
   transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
}

.post a:hover {
   background: #fff;
}

a {
   color: #373737;
   text-decoration: none;
}

.author {
   width: 280px;
   height: 15px;
   text-align: right;
   font-style: italic;
   color: #373737;
   margin-top: 3px;
   margin-bottom: 10px;
}
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 03/22/2014 04:43 pm
I thought the forum time was GMT/UTC, however that would put the offset at -4.  Mine is also -3 for EDT and it's fine, however, my times are spot on.

Weird… The server reports its time as GMT, but says it’s 16:43 as I’m writing this – which is an hour behind what it should be. (Also, it doesn’t automatically adjust for DST, which would be much appreciated.)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 03/29/2014 04:30 pm
Looks like the server clock has just skipped one hour since 17:00 UTC using my own time zone offset. What's going on?  :o
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 03/29/2014 05:21 pm
Daylight Saving Time will be in effect in many parts of the world starting the next night, so I would not "fix" anything before that has gone through.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Robert Thompson on 05/09/2014 10:59 pm
I did not easily find anything to do with bookmarking the specific post where you stopped reading a specific thread, using this forum's software. Does that capability exist?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: TrueBlueWitt on 05/09/2014 11:23 pm
Possible to "Like" posts using the mobile version of the forum?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 05/10/2014 06:41 pm
Possible to "Like" posts using the mobile version of the forum?

Desktop version only, I believe.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: StephenB on 05/11/2014 03:00 am
Over the past week or so I am unable to access L2 forums in Tapatalk. Did something change on the site or perhaps in Tapatalk?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 05/11/2014 11:41 am
Over the past week or so I am unable to access L2 forums in Tapatalk. Did something change on the site or perhaps in Tapatalk?

It's working OK for me.

Android v4.5.2 on Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

Are you logged directly into NSF, or are you using a Tapatalk account?

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mikes on 05/11/2014 12:26 pm

Over the past week or so I am unable to access L2 forums in Tapatalk. Did something change on the site or perhaps in Tapatalk?

Tapatalk on iPhone lost all my forums a week or two ago - presumably a buggy update. Resubscribed and it picked up my read history fine from NSF (I log in directly).

Try unsub then subscribe again?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: StephenB on 05/11/2014 09:23 pm
That worked, thanks!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/24/2014 01:48 pm
Some of you may have noticed some cheeky fool had spam hacked an article into the front of site. It was there for no more nine minutes, with the rest of the site unaffected. You had to be on the front page to see it and it wasn't anything offensive. Thanks to everyone who messaged me about it....excellent policing that allowed for a speedy fix.

That fix was its removal, access changed, site CMS scanned - came up clean - and thus all should be good. We'll keep a close eye on it all the same.

Apologies for any surprise from this. First time that's happened.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lourens on 09/24/2014 07:49 pm
Thread title up here ^ above the posting date

I did not easily find anything to do with bookmarking the specific post where you stopped reading a specific thread, using this forum's software. Does that capability exist?

The thread title at the top of each post is a link to that post. At least in Firefox, you can right-click it and choose "Bookmark This Link" to create a bookmark that points to that post. I'd expect other browsers to offer a similar option.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clongton on 09/24/2014 11:46 pm
Works the same in Chrome.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rocketguy101 on 09/25/2014 02:24 am
Is there a "Today's Posts" button anywhere?  I usually come into forum using "Unread Topics" then "Mark All Read" when I am finished.  Sometimes I recall a post I would like to look at again, knowing it was posted earlier in the day.  It would be nice to hit a button to bring them all up.  There is an "Unread Topics" in the top toolbar, and another at the bottom of the topics table.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/30/2014 10:18 am
By the way, Mark did some upgrading this morning. Was supposed to be a few minutes, but lasted a bit longer - so if you noticed the site down, sorry about that......was hoping no one would notice! ;) All complete.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clevelas on 11/16/2014 02:15 pm
I just stared using tapatalk on my iPad. In some ways I like it better than the regular web browser version. Being able to go full screen with images is really nice. But I've had a few times today when I click an image, it loads fine but then closes back to the thread. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, but usually it's immediate. Just a flash long enough to see the loaded image. Has anyone else experienced this?  I assume it's a tapatalk bug, but I've only used it with with NSF so I thought I'd start here.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 11/16/2014 03:33 pm


I just stared using tapatalk on my iPad. In some ways I like it better than the regular web browser version. Being able to go full screen with images is really nice. But I've had a few times today when I click an image, it loads fine but then closes back to the thread. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, but usually it's immediate. Just a flash long enough to see the loaded image. Has anyone else experienced this?  I assume it's a tapatalk bug, but I've only used it with with NSF so I thought I'd start here.

There is a thread dedicated to Tapatalk, though I'm not sure it has an answer to your issue:-

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32811.0

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clevelas on 11/17/2014 05:08 am
Thanks for the link. I'm not having the problem today, so maybe it's just me. I'll repost there if I see it again.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: d3jf on 11/17/2014 04:02 pm
I just stared using tapatalk on my iPad. In some ways I like it better than the regular web browser version. Being able to go full screen with images is really nice. But I've had a few times today when I click an image, it loads fine but then closes back to the thread. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, but usually it's immediate. Just a flash long enough to see the loaded image. Has anyone else experienced this?  I assume it's a tapatalk bug, but I've only used it with with NSF so I thought I'd start here.

I'm having the same problem, but only on my iPhone, my iPad app handles images just fine. It's quite annoying but I don't think NSF developers can do anything about it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 01/11/2015 08:04 pm
The forum has stopped following the profile selection for the number of posts shown per page.  I've always had mine set to 50, and it still is.  It's now showing only 10 posts per page.  Resetting it, logging out and logging in, different machine, nothing changed this.  It changed either today or yesterday some time.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: seanpg71 on 01/11/2015 08:57 pm
The forum has stopped following the profile selection for the number of posts shown per page.  I've always had mine set to 50, and it still is.  It's now showing only 10 posts per page.  Resetting it, logging out and logging in, different machine, nothing changed this.  It changed either today or yesterday some time.

I'm seeing this too.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 01/11/2015 09:00 pm
The forum has stopped following the profile selection for the number of posts shown per page.  I've always had mine set to 50, and it still is.  It's now showing only 10 posts per page.  Resetting it, logging out and logging in, different machine, nothing changed this.  It changed either today or yesterday some time.

I'm seeing this too.

Ditto
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cartman on 01/11/2015 09:14 pm
The forum has stopped following the profile selection for the number of posts shown per page.  I've always had mine set to 50, and it still is.  It's now showing only 10 posts per page.  Resetting it, logging out and logging in, different machine, nothing changed this.  It changed either today or yesterday some time.

I'm seeing this too.

Ditto
+1, tried everything i could think of, cleared cookies etc.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 01/11/2015 09:33 pm
The posts per page issue might me related to some server/software maintenance we had today. We made some adjustments that might had this as a side effect. Please give it a couple of days while we sort this out.

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 01/11/2015 09:37 pm
Thanks, Mark.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rayleighscatter on 01/12/2015 01:39 am
Also getting a problem where the forums aren't showing the correct number of pages in a thread, and when I click on what appears to be the highest page number, it takes me to the second most recent page.

So for instance, this thread on the forum shows there being 17 pages, and when I click on 17 it takes me to page 33, of 34.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 01/12/2015 04:27 am
Yep, having both of the above-mentioned issues, using Silk browser on a Kindle HD.  It seems to be a forum settings issue.  I'm happy to give it a couple of days to clear up.  Please let us know if we have to reset our preferences once the forum itself is fixed, eh?  Thanks!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 01/12/2015 12:31 pm
Setting the page size (number of posts) in your profile should be working again.. Thanks for reporting this!

Mark

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Swoopert on 01/12/2015 12:57 pm
It is indeed! Thanks for the quick fix...trying to catch up on the 1,100 message ASDS thread at 20 messages a page was no fun ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 01/12/2015 01:07 pm
Thanks for the work, Mark!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 01/12/2015 02:46 pm
I don't see number of 'likes' by other people anymore it was fine few hours earlier. 'Like/Unlike' button functions though. May be my permissions to see are revoked. Posting here as 'New like feedback thread' was old ::). If revoked do tell me ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Artyom. on 01/12/2015 03:17 pm
I don't see number of 'likes' by other people anymore it was few hours earlier. 'Like/Unlike' button functions though.
+1  :-\ 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 01/12/2015 05:48 pm
I don't see number of 'likes' by other people anymore it was few hours earlier. 'Like/Unlike' button functions though.
+1  :-\ 

Correct, we were seeing some performance issues lately and we are in the process of solving them. The likes (displayed below each post) are currently disabled for that reason. The like/unlike function continues to work, only the display below each post is not shown right now. Expect them to be back later this week.

Mark

PS They might show up from time to time, while we tweak the software.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 01/12/2015 06:05 pm
Also getting a problem where the forums aren't showing the correct number of pages in a thread, and when I click on what appears to be the highest page number, it takes me to the second most recent page.

So for instance, this thread on the forum shows there being 17 pages, and when I click on 17 it takes me to page 33, of 34.

Is this still the case now ?

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 01/12/2015 06:11 pm
Also getting a problem where the forums aren't showing the correct number of pages in a thread, and when I click on what appears to be the highest page number, it takes me to the second most recent page.

So for instance, this thread on the forum shows there being 17 pages, and when I click on 17 it takes me to page 33, of 34.

Is this still the case now ?

Mark

Yes. Buttons work but can't see 'likes' at bottom of posts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 01/12/2015 06:13 pm


Yes. Buttons work but can't see 'likes' at bottom of posts.

The hidden 'likes' is on purpose (see above). Glad the buttons work again.

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 01/12/2015 06:34 pm
Oops so sorry :) Thanks! OTOH I don't see any issue with page no. I see 18 here and navigate just fine. :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rayleighscatter on 01/14/2015 12:03 am
Also getting a problem where the forums aren't showing the correct number of pages in a thread, and when I click on what appears to be the highest page number, it takes me to the second most recent page.

So for instance, this thread on the forum shows there being 17 pages, and when I click on 17 it takes me to page 33, of 34.

Is this still the case now ?

Mark
Nope, it seems to have cleared up. Thanks!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NovaSilisko on 01/17/2015 12:04 am
Question - is it possible to disable the warning about new replies being posted when you try to post? I appreciate it, but it can get annoying when posting to an active thread, as it will take several attempts sometimes to get a word in.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 01/17/2015 02:07 am
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

First, update to 25.0.1, second, ad-blocker ?

I'm on Firefox 25.0 now, no change.
I don't run any ad-blockers or any other FF plug-ins.

strange.
Update to FF 26, make sure you don't enable zoom (mouse wheel scroll action to easy to do..) if still an issue, please make a screenshot and post here.

I'm on Firefox-35.0 now, no change. See attached screenshot.

On Linux, I can resize a window to be wider than physical screen is.
IOW: I can experiment with making window as narrow or as wide as I want, without having to buy an extra-wide monitor.

The result of this experiment is that the horizontal layout is basically fixed:
If I widen the window, blue left/right margins grow while everything else doesn't change.
If I make window narrower and narrower, blue left/right margins disappear, and then a horizontal scrollbar appears, because the remaining layout doesn't fit in the browser window.

The screenshot shows a case of a very wide window.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: TSomers on 01/17/2015 05:30 am
To turn off the new reply notification, go to "Profile" at the top of the page, then to "Look and Layout" in the left sidebar, check "Don't warn on new replies made while posting.", then save the changes to your profile. 

Definitely makes it much easier to reply in live update threads. 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NovaSilisko on 01/17/2015 09:19 pm
To turn off the new reply notification, go to "Profile" at the top of the page, then to "Look and Layout" in the left sidebar, check "Don't warn on new replies made while posting.", then save the changes to your profile. 

Definitely makes it much easier to reply in live update threads.

Awesome! Thanks. Now I can be useful when live things happen!  ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Shanuson on 01/20/2015 07:28 am
I'd like to suggest something i thought about, I don't know if it was suggested before, not sure how to search for it  ;):

Currently we are using discussion and update threads seperatly so updates are not lost in the discussion and people don't need to read through post after post of discussions to find the updates. However, this leads to people starting discussions in the update thread (work for mods to delete/move posts) or people posting updates into the discussion thread because they think it is not really an update or so. Information is spreaded over more than 1 thread when it does not have to be:

My idea would be something like the "like" button for posts but named "This is an update"(<- needs a better name maybe :D) button for posts of discussion threads (or maybe all threads?) and two viewing versions of the thread. The first shows every post, the 2nd only thus with only a certain minimum number of TIAU hits, which would then be like the update thread. Also, you cant reply in the 2nd version directly but you jump to the same post in the discussion thread, from where you reply (so you see if people already discussed what you wanted to say). The button could be there only for the first day (or even less) of each post (so posts do not reach the threshold over time). And you can set two levels for notifications: 1st for every post, 2nd only when a new posts reachs the TIAU hit threshold.  So people have a day to click the button and it would be kind of self regulating what appears in the "update thread/version".
Of course mods could elevate posts to update status with 1 click so live reports still work too.
But this would concentrate all info and discussion about a certain topic or event into 1 thread which would be nice but makes browsing for updates in large threads easy. (e.g. thinking about the ASDS thread)

Well this was my brainchild for the day.
Shanuson

P.S. starting to like the sound of TIAU in my head  ::) so maybe not so bad a name ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 01/20/2015 09:52 am
Can the 'Simple Search within topic' feature be enabled it would be extremely useful. I checked on SMF

Quote
The simple search field located at the top of the default SMF theme will, when viewing topics, filter search results to just that topic. The same applies to boards as well - when viewing a board the simple search field will filter the search to just results in that particular board.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 01/20/2015 05:23 pm
Can the 'Simple Search within topic' feature be enabled it would be extremely useful. I checked on SMF

Quote
The simple search field located at the top of the default SMF theme will, when viewing topics, filter search results to just that topic. The same applies to boards as well - when viewing a board the simple search field will filter the search to just results in that particular board.



Not wanting to mess too much with the current theme (awaiting new forum version + new templates), How's this ? (see top of page on forum index & topic display pages)

Mark

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ClaytonBirchenough on 01/20/2015 10:28 pm
Not wanting to mess too much with the current theme (awaiting new forum version + new templates), How's this ? (see top of page on forum index & topic display pages)

Mark

Thanks! Will definitely be using this in some of our longer threads haha.  :D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/21/2015 01:03 pm
I just  received a personal email from a new member. This gentleman was asking me about the time formatting of NSF.com.

I live in the Eastern Time zone, which should be GMT/UTC -5 hours, he lives in the Pacific Time zone which should be GMT/UTC -8 hours.  If I select GMT/UTC-5 hours my post timer is 1 hour too earl, if I use auto select for the GMT/UTC-4hours, my post timing is correct.

In order to have my times correctly correlate with GMT/UTC times, the auto-detect function selects -4 hours relative to UTC/GMT.

I was curious as why this was?  Does it have something to do with the North American/European and former Asian daylight savings time usage?

TIA
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 01/21/2015 01:24 pm
Can the 'Simple Search within topic' feature be enabled it would be extremely useful. I checked on SMF

Quote
The simple search field located at the top of the default SMF theme will, when viewing topics, filter search results to just that topic. The same applies to boards as well - when viewing a board the simple search field will filter the search to just results in that particular board.



Not wanting to mess too much with the current theme (awaiting new forum version + new templates), How's this ? (see top of page on forum index & topic display pages)

Mark

That will do just fine :) Thanks! It is a bit invisible but it'll do wonders in preventing threads regurgitating/recycling themselves.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 01/21/2015 01:35 pm


I just  received a personal email from a new member. This gentleman was asking me about the time formatting of NSF.com.

I live in the Eastern Time zone, which should be GMT/UTC -5 hours, he lives in the Pacific Time zone which should be GMT/UTC -8 hours.  If I select GMT/UTC-5 hours my post timer is 1 hour too earl, if I use auto select for the GMT/UTC-4hours, my post timing is correct.

In order to have my times correctly correlate with GMT/UTC times, the auto-detect function selects -4 hours relative to UTC/GMT.

I was curious as why this was?  Does it have something to do with the North American/European and former Asian daylight savings time usage?

TIA

Unfortunately, you have to go into your profile and change this manually every time your locale goes into or out of Summer Time / Daylight Saving Time.

It doesn't take much to do, but I never remember until I see unexpected times.

Cheers, Martin

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 01/21/2015 07:11 pm


I just  received a personal email from a new member. This gentleman was asking me about the time formatting of NSF.com.

I live in the Eastern Time zone, which should be GMT/UTC -5 hours, he lives in the Pacific Time zone which should be GMT/UTC -8 hours.  If I select GMT/UTC-5 hours my post timer is 1 hour too earl, if I use auto select for the GMT/UTC-4hours, my post timing is correct.

In order to have my times correctly correlate with GMT/UTC times, the auto-detect function selects -4 hours relative to UTC/GMT.

I was curious as why this was?  Does it have something to do with the North American/European and former Asian daylight savings time usage?

TIA

Unfortunately, you have to go into your profile and change this manually every time your locale goes into or out of Summer Time / Daylight Saving Time.

It doesn't take much to do, but I never remember until I see unexpected times.

Cheers, Martin

Cheers, Martin
Thanks Martin.

Adjusting "Time Offsets"
1) Click on Profile 
2) Then mouse over to the left of the screen where it says Profile Info, with "Modify Profile" to the right of it. 
3)Click on "Modify Profile".
4)Then mouse down to "Look and Layout" and make your adjustments
5) Be sure to save your adjustments down on the lower right corner of that page.

I live in the Eastern Time Zone  UTC -4 hours during Daylight Savings Time, UTC -5 hours Standard Time:
 

Since we are in January right now, I am experiencing Eastern Standard Time(EST) and should be GMT -5 hours. In March, the clocks go forward by 1 hour resulting in Eastern Daylight Time(EDT) or GMT-4 hours.
When I make a post with the correct GMT-5 hours, the post time shown is one hour earlier.  If I switch my profile Time offset to the incorrect(for this time in January) GMT-4 hours, my post times shown under the "Last Post by Hog in Re" Thread title..." on Today at 12:00am", are correct.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 01/24/2015 12:43 am
Now that the forum's Calendar function is looking active....

I would like GMT times for the NASA TV briefings too. I see the (only some?) launch times are reported in GMT(/UTC) - they should all be reported in GMT too.

Edit: what I meant to say is: agree on a consistent time format and stick to it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: FutureSpaceTourist on 01/25/2015 06:49 am
The likes (displayed below each post) are currently disabled for that reason. The like/unlike function continues to work, only the display below each post is not shown right now. Expect them to be back later this week.

Any more news on this? Thanks
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: sghill on 01/28/2015 02:44 pm
I don't see number of 'likes' by other people anymore it was few hours earlier. 'Like/Unlike' button functions though.
+1  :-\ 

Correct, we were seeing some performance issues lately and we are in the process of solving them. The likes (displayed below each post) are currently disabled for that reason. The like/unlike function continues to work, only the display below each post is not shown right now. Expect them to be back later this week.

Mark

PS They might show up from time to time, while we tweak the software.

Sure would like to get this functionality back! :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 01/28/2015 06:06 pm
Is there a link somewhere to this location, that I've missed?

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies

If not, could we get one?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: llanitedave on 01/31/2015 04:25 am
I don't see number of 'likes' by other people anymore it was few hours earlier. 'Like/Unlike' button functions though.
+1  :-\ 

Correct, we were seeing some performance issues lately and we are in the process of solving them. The likes (displayed below each post) are currently disabled for that reason. The like/unlike function continues to work, only the display below each post is not shown right now. Expect them to be back later this week.

Mark

PS They might show up from time to time, while we tweak the software.

Sure would like to get this functionality back! :)


Sure would.  I'd really like for certain people to know what I like when I like it.  Like, you know?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: deruch on 01/31/2015 05:25 am
I'm a bit embarrassed to have to ask, but I can't find the info anywhere on the site.  What do the little yellow squares under the user names mean?  Specifically, why do some users have more/less than others?  I know moderators have like 5 green ones and Admins have red ones.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: manboy on 01/31/2015 07:23 am
I don't see number of 'likes' by other people anymore it was few hours earlier. 'Like/Unlike' button functions though.
+1  :-\ 

Correct, we were seeing some performance issues lately and we are in the process of solving them. The likes (displayed below each post) are currently disabled for that reason. The like/unlike function continues to work, only the display below each post is not shown right now. Expect them to be back later this week.

Mark

PS They might show up from time to time, while we tweak the software.
Ok cool, I know I was initially against "likes" but they've made it easier to skim through threads for important info.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 01/31/2015 08:12 am


I'm a bit embarrassed to have to ask, but I can't find the info anywhere on the site.  What do the little yellow squares under the user names mean?  Specifically, why do some users have more/less than others?  I know moderators have like 5 green ones and Admins have red ones.

The number of squares relates to number of posts.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/31/2015 12:23 pm
I'm surprised by how much I miss post likes too (obviously they are still being registered, but just not displaying - on purpose). I think Mark wants to test the new server set up, with guests on, during the next SpaceX launch to see how far we can throttle things up, then bring back the like element of the posts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/05/2015 11:20 pm
News site is having some issues. Forum, L2 etc are all fine, and the servers look fine. Likely a problem with Wordpress CMS, but we're aware of it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/06/2015 12:02 am
And it seems fine now, without any action at our end (Mark's asleep), so clearly something temp that fixed itself (which is clever). Anyhoo, we'll get to the bottom of that regardless.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 02/06/2015 03:17 pm
There was a zero-day Wordpress exploit announced yesterday (see http://www.zdnet.com/article/thousands-of-wordpress-sites-hit-by-zero-day-exploit/ (http://www.zdnet.com/article/thousands-of-wordpress-sites-hit-by-zero-day-exploit/) - issues may have been the hostign service responding to / patching the problem.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/06/2015 04:50 pm
There was a zero-day Wordpress exploit announced yesterday (see http://www.zdnet.com/article/thousands-of-wordpress-sites-hit-by-zero-day-exploit/ (http://www.zdnet.com/article/thousands-of-wordpress-sites-hit-by-zero-day-exploit/) - issues may have been the hostign service responding to / patching the problem.


Good find. I don't think we use the Fancybox plugin, but if WP were patching the entire system then that was probably the reason for the short lack of connectivity to the news site and why it came back by itself.

All seems well since, so that's good :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/09/2015 08:20 pm
Hi all,

I just implemented some tweaks to speed up the attachment loading (especially during launch times). Can you please let me know if you encounter anything out of the ordinary (non/faulty images displaying in a thread for example).

Thanks,
Mark

PS I haven't forgotten about the Likes, stay tuned :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: pagheca on 02/11/2015 03:27 pm
I usually access the forum by scrolling the "View the most recent posts on the forum." list. I guess I'm not alone in doing that.

I wonder if it wouldn't be better putting "Forum Stats" (and maybe also "Upcoming Calendar") over the top rather than on the bottom of the forum webpage, so one just open the page and click.

p.s. marginal issue: some of the frames at http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=stats are repeated twice.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/11/2015 06:10 pm
To keep improving the NSF experience I just finished the switch to a new search engine for this forum. Performance should be much better while removing some of the heavier queries on the database. Please let me know if you encounter issues.


I wonder if it wouldn't be better putting "Forum Stats" (and maybe also "Upcoming Calendar") over the top rather than on the bottom of the forum webpage, so one just open the page and click.
 

We might think about that if that's what ' everyone wants'  .. please reply in here if you think this is a good/bad idea.



Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 02/11/2015 07:25 pm
I usually access the forum by scrolling the "View the most recent posts on the forum." list. I guess I'm not alone in doing that.

If you want to do that, why not just go straight to this page instead of the forum homepage:-
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=recent (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=recent)

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: pagheca on 02/11/2015 09:24 pm
We might think about that if that's what ' everyone wants'  .. please reply in here if you think this is a good/bad idea.

Obviously it will never happen. People almost always check this thread when experiencing a problem.

I'll take MP99 suggestion - thx!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: TSomers on 02/11/2015 10:19 pm
That upcoming calendar is very useful and I didn't know about it until pagheca pointed it out.  I think that would be very helpful to have at the top of the page.  However, I don't need to see the stats at the top of the page everyday. 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 02/12/2015 12:06 am
That upcoming calendar is very useful and I didn't know about it until pagheca pointed it out.  I think that would be very helpful to have at the top of the page.  However, I don't need to see the stats at the top of the page everyday.

Same. That upcoming events calender belongs up there but not forum stats. Also the search within topic function has been great! very useful.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 02/12/2015 12:12 am
I usually access the forum by scrolling the "View the most recent posts on the forum." list. I guess I'm not alone in doing that.

If you want to do that, why not just go straight to this page instead of the forum homepage:-
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=recent (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=recent)

cheers, Martin

I think the link I posted above is really useful.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies

It shows you just the threads to which you have contributed that have new replies since you last viewed them.  I'd still like to have a link to that location at the top of the forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ford Mustang on 02/12/2015 03:03 am
I personally like things the way they are, just throwing my two cents out there!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: pagheca on 02/12/2015 08:40 am
I think the link I posted above is really useful.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies

It shows you just the threads to which you have contributed that have new replies since you last viewed them.  I'd still like to have a link to that location at the top of the forum.

Thanks, very nice indeed.

It's a pity IMHO that all these suggestions and hints are in the same hodgepodge. Further suggestion: let people free to create separated thread? My case is typical. I suggested something but unless you access the thread through the "view recent post" list, or wander around, you will never see it.

EDIT: only one additional remark. Do not assume that older post are "above". As many commenters seem not to know there is an option in the profile allowing to put  newer posts first, rather than below.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Carl G on 02/12/2015 01:12 pm
I personally like things the way they are, just throwing my two cents out there!

Agree.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 02/12/2015 04:32 pm
I am getting this error when I try to topic search on DSCVR Attempt 3 live thread.

Quote
Wrong value type sent to the database. Array of integers expected. (message_list)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/12/2015 06:52 pm
I am getting this error when I try to topic search on DSCVR Attempt 3 live thread.

Quote
Wrong value type sent to the database. Array of integers expected. (message_list)

Via the main search page?

In Chrome I get:

"Each word must be at least two characters long." - So perhaps the "3" is throwing it...but if that's what you're doing.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/12/2015 07:08 pm
I am getting this error when I try to topic search on DSCVR Attempt 3 live thread.

Quote
Wrong value type sent to the database. Array of integers expected. (message_list)

Via the main search page?

In Chrome I get:

"Each word must be at least two characters long." - So perhaps the "3" is throwing it...but if that's what you're doing.

No it's when you search trough the search bar on top of a Topic page (the DSCVR attempt 3 thread for example). I can reproduce it, so let me try to fix this :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/12/2015 07:15 pm
I am getting this error when I try to topic search on DSCVR Attempt 3 live thread.

Quote
Wrong value type sent to the database. Array of integers expected. (message_list)

Okay, that happens when you search for something and there are no results. Should be fixed now

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 02/12/2015 07:30 pm
Yep all smooth now Thanks :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/12/2015 08:03 pm
Regarding the 'quick' access to the various lists (recent, unread etc..).. what do you think about this ? Not intrusive and your default view would remain the same

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: topsphere on 02/12/2015 08:07 pm
Are we gonna get liked posts back soon?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/12/2015 08:30 pm
Are we gonna get liked posts back soon?

Jup, I had to scrub the relaunch yesterday because we had a launch event or something  ;)

I expect them to be back this weekend.

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 02/12/2015 11:48 pm
Regarding the 'quick' access to the various lists (recent, unread etc..).. what do you think about this ? Not intrusive and your default view would remain the same

That looks pretty clean to me.  I'd be up for something like that.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 02/12/2015 11:50 pm
That upcoming calendar is very useful and I didn't know about it until pagheca pointed it out.  I think that would be very helpful to have at the top of the page.  However, I don't need to see the stats at the top of the page everyday.

Same. That upcoming events calender belongs up there but not forum stats. Also the search within topic function has been great! very useful.

Well, since the calendar is now getting updated (trying!) I think it's pretty handy and having upcoming events at the bottom means no one probably sees it.  And since the calendar link was unpopulated for so long, maybe people don't know it's even active yet.  So, yes, I'd put that at the top.  I don't have an opinion about forum stats.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/13/2015 12:14 am
That upcoming calendar is very useful and I didn't know about it until pagheca pointed it out.  I think that would be very helpful to have at the top of the page.  However, I don't need to see the stats at the top of the page everyday.

Same. That upcoming events calender belongs up there but not forum stats. Also the search within topic function has been great! very useful.

Well, since the calendar is now getting updated (trying!) I think it's pretty handy and having upcoming events at the bottom means no one probably sees it.  And since the calendar link was unpopulated for so long, maybe people don't know it's even active yet.  So, yes, I'd put that at the top.  I don't have an opinion about forum stats.

I concur we should make the calendar more visible.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/13/2015 04:35 pm
This post makes me very sad, but I have been thinking about it for a while and received a note suggesting it, but I think we have to change the forum menu running order to move the Shuttle sections down the list. They just aren't active enough for them to be where they are, but there's no way I'm merging them into one post Shuttle section.

These orbiters are our foundation. They should forever have their own sections. And we'll be looking to do some redux coverage, do more for anniversaries (like the 10 year STS-114 anniversary) and so on.

But yeah, I'm going to have to move them down the running order.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Alpha Control on 02/13/2015 04:52 pm
This post makes me very sad, but I have been thinking about it for a while and received a note suggesting it, but I think we have to change the forum menu running order to move the Shuttle sections down the list. They just aren't active enough for them to be where they are, but there's no way I'm merging them into one post Shuttle section.

These orbiters are our foundation. They should forever have their own sections. And we'll be looking to do some redux coverage, do more for anniversaries (like the 10 year STS-114 anniversary) and so on.

But yeah, I'm going to have to move them down the running order.

Oh, it seems too soon to demote them from their current spot. :(

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/13/2015 06:09 pm
This post makes me very sad, but I have been thinking about it for a while and received a note suggesting it, but I think we have to change the forum menu running order to move the Shuttle sections down the list. They just aren't active enough for them to be where they are, but there's no way I'm merging them into one post Shuttle section.

These orbiters are our foundation. They should forever have their own sections. And we'll be looking to do some redux coverage, do more for anniversaries (like the 10 year STS-114 anniversary) and so on.

But yeah, I'm going to have to move them down the running order.

Oh, it seems too soon to demote them from their current spot. :(



No one's posted in two of them this year!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: sghill on 02/13/2015 08:08 pm
The "Thumbs Up" are back!!!!

Yay!

Now can we get a two thumbs up option for posts we really really like.....

:)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Robotbeat on 02/13/2015 10:40 pm
The "Thumbs Up" are back!!!!

Yay!

Now can we get a two thumbs up option for posts we really really like.....

:)
Indeed! Thank you, Webmaster!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 02/13/2015 10:46 pm
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

First, update to 25.0.1, second, ad-blocker ?

I'm on Firefox 25.0 now, no change.
I don't run any ad-blockers or any other FF plug-ins.

strange.
Update to FF 26, make sure you don't enable zoom (mouse wheel scroll action to easy to do..) if still an issue, please make a screenshot and post here.

I'm on Firefox-35.0 now, no change. See attached screenshot.

On Linux, I can resize a window to be wider than physical screen is.
IOW: I can experiment with making window as narrow or as wide as I want, without having to buy an extra-wide monitor.

The result of this experiment is that the horizontal layout is basically fixed:
If I widen the window, blue left/right margins grow while everything else doesn't change.
If I make window narrower and narrower, blue left/right margins disappear, and then a horizontal scrollbar appears, because the remaining layout doesn't fit in the browser window.

The screenshot shows a case of a very wide window.

Hey guys, do you have any news on this little problem?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 02/13/2015 10:54 pm
Thread for your feedback!

The layout has HUGE empty left and right margins.
As in: most of the screen width goes unused.

See attached screenshot. This is on Firefox 23.0.1.

First, update to 25.0.1, second, ad-blocker ?

I'm on Firefox 25.0 now, no change.
I don't run any ad-blockers or any other FF plug-ins.

strange.
Update to FF 26, make sure you don't enable zoom (mouse wheel scroll action to easy to do..) if still an issue, please make a screenshot and post here.

I'm on Firefox-35.0 now, no change. See attached screenshot.

On Linux, I can resize a window to be wider than physical screen is.
IOW: I can experiment with making window as narrow or as wide as I want, without having to buy an extra-wide monitor.

The result of this experiment is that the horizontal layout is basically fixed:
If I widen the window, blue left/right margins grow while everything else doesn't change.
If I make window narrower and narrower, blue left/right margins disappear, and then a horizontal scrollbar appears, because the remaining layout doesn't fit in the browser window.

The screenshot shows a case of a very wide window.

Hey guys, do you have any news on this little problem?

Hit control-0 (that's a zero) and see if it goes away.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 02/15/2015 09:10 am
I can manually fix the layout in a page I saved to disk by doing these edits:


(1) remove width style here: replace

<div id="wrapper" style="width: 1080px">

with

<div id="wrapper">


and (2) add "width=100%" to a table: replace

<table><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100%">

with

<table width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100%">
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 02/15/2015 09:11 am
Hey guys, do you have any news on this little problem?

Hit control-0 (that's a zero) and see if it goes away.

I think you are joking. Anyway, tried that, nothing happens.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Stardust9906 on 02/15/2015 10:36 am
That upcoming calendar is very useful and I didn't know about it until pagheca pointed it out.  I think that would be very helpful to have at the top of the page.  However, I don't need to see the stats at the top of the page everyday.

Same. That upcoming events calender belongs up there but not forum stats. Also the search within topic function has been great! very useful.

Well, since the calendar is now getting updated (trying!) I think it's pretty handy and having upcoming events at the bottom means no one probably sees it.  And since the calendar link was unpopulated for so long, maybe people don't know it's even active yet.  So, yes, I'd put that at the top.  I don't have an opinion about forum stats.

I concur we should make the calendar more visible.

Agree with that it isn't visible enough where it is.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cartman on 02/15/2015 12:17 pm
Thanks for bringing back the like function! When I like a post the total number of likes is lost, I only see my own like and one other persons like, and most times that is Chris Bergin! (I guess it prints the user with the lowest userid)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 02/15/2015 12:37 pm
Likes don't appear in Tapatalk so it's not possible to like a post through it?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 02/15/2015 03:32 pm
Hey guys, do you have any news on this little problem?

Hit control-0 (that's a zero) and see if it goes away.

I think you are joking. Anyway, tried that, nothing happens.

I can recreate the displayed image by zooming out.  Control-0 resets the zoom to normal and thus fixes the problem for me.  I was thinking you were having that particular issue.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/16/2015 12:31 am
Apologies for the short outage just then. We're investigating it. Site back to normal now.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 02/18/2015 01:19 pm
The "Thumbs Up" are back!!!!

Yay!

Now can we get a two thumbs up option for posts we really really like.....

:)
Indeed! Thank you, Webmaster!
I was strongly against the "Like" button when first instituted, but have grown to enjoy the added dimension they entail.  I'm glad they are back.

Good work to all involved.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 02/18/2015 04:33 pm
I actually like the re-organization of the forum index page.  Yeah, it is sad to see the STS threads moved down, but it makes sense.  And it also makes tons of sense to have moved the Curiosity forum down and incorporating it into the other unmanned probe forum.  I'm happy to see all of the unmanned spaceflight discussion moved into one area, even if it is still down the list a bit.

Works well for me!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 02/24/2015 10:03 pm
New 'search within topic feature' is giving me only one result of very first occurrence of keyword searched. It used to give multiple results of all occurrences.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 02/24/2015 10:29 pm
New 'search within topic feature' is giving me only one result of very first occurrence of keyword searched. It used to give multiple results of all occurrences.
As a workaround, if you click "print" you get the full text of every page of the thread. Then you can use standard browser search within page.

Make a note of the date / time of any posts and you can quickly find them in the main thread view.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 02/25/2015 12:41 am
I like the calendar. I just noticed it. I'm guessing some hard working volunteers are updating it? Thank you, whoever you are...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/25/2015 09:47 am
I like the calendar. I just noticed it. I'm guessing some hard working volunteers are updating it? Thank you, whoever you are...

We have a plan to replace the L2 ticker with a (looks different) ticket for the calendar to make it far more obvious and useful. The L2 ticker is too long and doesn't really reflect how good L2 is, so that's going.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 02/25/2015 03:46 pm
Just got some bad gateway for 3 minutes.  NSF.com was unavailable to me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/25/2015 04:24 pm
Just got some bad gateway for 3 minutes.  NSF.com was unavailable to me.

Yeah, Mark is working on things, so that was likely him. Sorry about that.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 02/25/2015 04:43 pm
Just got some bad gateway for 3 minutes.  NSF.com was unavailable to me.

Yeah, Mark is working on things, so that was likely him. Sorry about that.
No problems, not complaining-just reporting, NSF.com as a whole, does quite well IMO, esp. considering the amount of traffic she sees.
Good work everyone.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 02/25/2015 06:37 pm
Regarding the 'bad gateway' errors. It seems that we have located the root cause of them and we are currently working on a fix, which should be ready later today.



@Hog: thanks for the kind words!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 03/02/2015 01:47 am
I'm still not 107% happy with the calendar function. Right now, as it is already the 2nd here in Europe, it won't show the SpaceX launch at all in the forum upcoming events box.

And yes, my sleep rhythm is is quite *cked up. :D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 03/02/2015 01:54 am
I'm still not 107% happy with the calendar function. Right now, as it is already the 2nd here in Europe, it won't show the SpaceX launch at all in the forum upcoming events box.

And yes, my sleep rhythm is is quite *cked up. :D

Calendar only has a date, not a time, so it probably thinks the launch already happened for you.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 03/03/2015 10:21 pm
And, hmmm... it's still March 3, right?  Any idea why I just had a 10-minute period when Chrome told me that the forum website was rejected for loading?

Did we back off to a back-up?  I noticed when I pulled up the forum earlier this afternoon that the "My Messages" pull-down menu was suddenly called "Inbox," and now it's back to the former.  Also, after the site became available again, a couple of innocuous posts that I saw just before it went down were no longer there, and I wouldn't have thought they were violating any rules and thus had to be pulled...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 03/03/2015 10:26 pm
I had Bad gateway messages for while about 15 min. ago.  I see we are back up.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/03/2015 10:28 pm
Yep. We fell over for a bit then, all seems fine now.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/03/2015 10:31 pm
And, hmmm... it's still March 3, right?  Any idea why I just had a 10-minute period when Chrome told me that the forum website was rejected for loading?

Did we back off to a back-up?  I noticed when I pulled up the forum earlier this afternoon that the "My Messages" pull-down menu was suddenly called "Inbox," and now it's back to the former.  Also, after the site became available again, a couple of innocuous posts that I saw just before it went down were no longer there, and I wouldn't have thought they were violating any rules and thus had to be pulled...

Thanks. I'll pass that on to Mark.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: obi-wan on 03/07/2015 05:55 am
I was just poking around some of the earliest postings, and evidently this site opened in mid-March 2005? So that means in the next week or two we're coming up on the tenth anniversary of NASASpaceFlight? Congratulations, Chris, on creating and maintaining the best space news site on the Internet! Happy Anniversary!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: QuantumG on 03/07/2015 06:50 am
It's hard to pin down a birth date for "Bergin's new baby".
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: topsphere on 03/07/2015 07:12 am
I think first ever post, which is here http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=1.msg1#msg1, is as good a place as any to mark the birth of NSF  :)

This would indeed suggests 10 years will be coming up on 18th March 2015!

Even if this isn't what Chris considers to be the anniversary point for the website, a massive congratulations is surely in order for "10 years since the first post"!!

Well done to everyone associated with this place, it's my second most visited website - even if I don't post that often!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 03/07/2015 11:48 am
Per the first post by Chris:

"Feel free to register ahead of the site launch next week (Monday 21st onwards)."

Or

The Date Chris registered:

16 March 2005

 
Up to the boss man :)

Edit:
Seems like today is my "birthday" registering on this site....9 years ago, wow time flies !
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/07/2015 01:32 pm
Cheers guys. Yeah, I'm going to work out when we gave birth to the site, but the anniversary is in a few weeks. I'll then write a thread for it. Merged this all into the feedback thread, as I wouldn't want to use that original thread as the anniversary - with a question mark in the title ;)

February 27, 2005 was when we started on a server, but we didn't have a functioning site until March, 2005. Needs to be when the site was interactive. I'm thinking March 16-17 ish.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: obi-wan on 03/09/2015 01:35 am
March 16, 2005 was the 79th anniversary of Robert Goddard and the world's first flight of a liquid-fueled rocket. (Not a bad anniversary to have...)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lee Jay on 03/09/2015 02:06 am
March 29, 2005?

https://web.archive.org/web/20051023164019/http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4

The March 28th Archive scan still referred to a future launch.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050328011326/http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

By the way, there were scans as early as June 2004.

https://web.archive.org/web/20040611215829/http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

The first article seems to be March 17th.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050403190808/http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=2
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/16/2015 08:03 pm
I've decided the anniversary is Wednesday, when we opened to new members joining the forum. I signed up today, 10 years ago, but I remember I was playing with themes and stuff (and not knowing what the heck I was doing) for a day or so. First member wandered in on the 18th.

Heh! We only gained five members in the first week of operations - although I think it was pretty much one section and a couple of threads - and the news site wasn't really a news site at that time, more a template and some Shuttle baselines.

Going to look back tonight and see if I can find where we started out first growth spurt.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: robertross on 03/22/2015 07:25 pm
There seems to be a problem with the forum.

For L2, all members show up as 'protected', even when I'm signed in
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/22/2015 07:25 pm
Don't worry, you were just unlucky to see Mark working some software ideas. All back to normal very shortly.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 03/22/2015 07:28 pm
I already sent a PM to Mark, but yeah -- getting a lot of error pages generated by the forum software itself.  Sometimes when I get to the forum index, the L2 forums are completely absent, sometimes I can see the indeces of threads within a forum but usually just get the error page.

I guess we just need to wait for Mark to finish his tinkering...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: clongton on 03/22/2015 07:29 pm
Don't worry, you were just unlucky to see Mark working some software ideas. All back to normal very shortly.

When Mark starts tweeking things the site invariably gets better. Mark: you may tweek away  :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/22/2015 07:31 pm
All should be normal now. Sorry about that. Next time we'll give a heads up, even it's just five mins.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2015 12:10 pm
You may have noticed we're smashing through the "most online" record right now. That's because of the EM Drive thread getting a lot of social media attention.

Unlike a launch event, this is far less of an issue for us as it's not a bunch of people mashing F5 to see if a stage has landed on a barge. ;) This EM Drive demand is much more spread out, whereas the recent SpaceX launch was a surge.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2015 02:15 pm
Looks like we successfully negotiated that new "most online" peak. :)

(Time stamp is UK time).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space OurSoul on 04/22/2015 06:26 pm
Chris is less than 500 posts away from number 100,000.
(To put that in perspective, a smallish novel is 100,000 _words_.)


So I was thinking about how to respond and show our support. Obviously signing up for L2 is a great way, but I've already done that.

What about a way of reducing the number of posts that Chris has to make in the future? My notion:
Is there any way we can crowd-source a modification for the site that adds a three-way drop-down to the post-a-reply form: "update", "comment" or "party", defaulting to "comment". When one posts, one therefore really has to think about what the content of the post is.
When one reads a thread, once can select a view of just the update posts, or a tree view with updates in the root nodes and subsequent comments collapsed by default.

Such a mod would make the forum easier to read, automatically keep update threads clean (in fact, there wouldn't have to be separate update threads anymore), and thereby reduce a whole bunch of housekeeping that Chris and the moderators have to perform.


Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2015 06:41 pm
No, that idea won't work as it would only complicate things and be near impossible to port into - and really it isn't required (not least because the amount of posts I make - over 10 years remember - isn't really down to a lack of the above suggestion.) So that's not going to happen. ;)

Thanks for the feedback and the appreciation, but the amount of posts milestones don't mean anything. Never really been one of those "1000 POSTS!!! Balloons for all!" types (I know some people are), or else we'll be celebrating Jim's 10,000th one word response milestone ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/24/2015 03:56 pm
Here we go again! About to beat that "most online right now" record from Wednesday....

Close! Got to 7664 and that seemed to be the peak. Servers did fine!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 04/24/2015 06:49 pm
And nothing Space X related launching today either.;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: okan170 on 04/24/2015 07:24 pm
Here we go again! About to beat that "most online right now" record from Wednesday....

Close! Got to 7664 and that seemed to be the peak. Servers did fine!

I can't help but picture this as your twitter avatar: a concerned looking space shuttle typing away at something or other, occasionally nervously looking over its shoulder at a bank of servers that may be letting off some steam.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/24/2015 07:31 pm
Here we go again! About to beat that "most online right now" record from Wednesday....

Close! Got to 7664 and that seemed to be the peak. Servers did fine!

I can't help but picture this as your twitter avatar: a concerned looking space shuttle typing away at something or other, occasionally nervously looking over its shoulder at a bank of servers that may be letting off some steam.

Heh! Close! This is my avatar (from the guy who does the cartoons for Florida Today).

(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/829884026/091004-780610.jpg)

Would love to play with that somehow! ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/18/2015 12:44 pm
Got a feeling we're going to beat that record again today. Site's getting really busy again, clearly as a result of my SLS CDR article on site, because SLS is so massively popular......

...Or perhaps it's not SLS, it's the EM Drive thread ;)

Dealing with it ok for now, but will remove guests if it becomes a problem. It's a good test to see how far we can push it, given there's no live event happening - so the lack of F5 mashing may mean we can cope.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/18/2015 01:07 pm
There's the new peak then! ;D

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 05/18/2015 01:28 pm
Odd to have such a peak with nothing going on live.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/18/2015 01:31 pm
Odd to have such a peak with nothing going on live.

Just takes someone with a ton of followers on twitter to directly link the site.....as an example.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: somepitch on 05/18/2015 05:52 pm
Odd to have such a peak with nothing going on live.

Just takes someone with a ton of followers on twitter to directly link the site.....as an example.

Your article on the Proton failure was linked to from a Gizmodo post - might have contributed!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/18/2015 06:36 pm
Odd to have such a peak with nothing going on live.

Just takes someone with a ton of followers on twitter to directly link the site.....as an example.

Your article on the Proton failure was linked to from a Gizmodo post - might have contributed!

That's cool, but that's the news site. The forum is organic in that the news site drives to the forum and the forum drives to the news site, but the surges tend to be direct to one or the other.

Heh! Listen to me. A few years ago I would be scratching my head about this sort of thing. Now I'm all about optimization, page rank value and all that bollocks ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Helodriver on 05/22/2015 01:37 am
Not that it matters, but the like-o-meter seems to have dropped a couple hundred off my tally over the last couple days, not sure if there is something going on with the forum software, just wanted to give you a heads up.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/22/2015 11:45 am
Not that it matters, but the like-o-meter seems to have dropped a couple hundred off my tally over the last couple days, not sure if there is something going on with the forum software, just wanted to give you a heads up.

Mine seem the same and the top ten seems the same too. Not sure how one member's likes could drop.....just doesn't make any sense.

I suppose a big thread being deleted would do that, if that thread had you liked a few hundred times, but that's not happened (and no big threads in moderation that fit that criteria).

Totally sure about it?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Helodriver on 05/23/2015 05:40 am
I'm pretty certain it happened. My likes per post ratio was about 2.7 now its below 2.5. Something I posted that had likes must have gotten whacked. Whatever.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 05/24/2015 02:57 pm
I'm noticing odd behavior in the "Unread Topics" section.  It seems to be cutting off fairly recently, even if I haven't visited in a while.

Case in point - I just checked in at 10:08am EDT, and it only showed me 3 unread topics, dating back to 10:00 am EDT.
But I haven't done a "full" read of the forum in several day.  (I've been installing floor tile...)  There should have been 5-7 pages of unread topics, not just 3 total topics ..

Now, being a good geek, I have a theory ...

I have 2 "modes" that I access the forum in.  My main ("full" read) method is to select "unread topics", work from
oldest to newest reading what's of interest, and then selecting "mark all messages as read".  I typically do this a couple times per day - but this past week, have NOT had a chance to do this more than once or twice during the week.

The other way I access the board is via links in the "report to moderator" messages.  I'll click on a link to a specific post,
see what's up (almost always someone has already taken care of it), and will sometimes navigate directly to the "Moderator Action Section" to see who's done what.

The past several days, I have only pretty much only looked in via the links in the "Report to Moderator" messages.  (Floor tile is hard work ...)   The two occasions I checked via "unrea dtopics" showed only VERY recent activity.

I'm wondering if my "last forum access" time is being used to determine which topics are to be displayed as unread, rather than whatever mechanism "Mark all messages as read" uses?

Alternate therory - It's a cookie thing.  I use two browsers - Chrome and Firefox - on my Windows box at home.  (I use Firefox on a Gentoo Linux box at the office.

Right now, looking at "Unread Topics"

Chrome:  5 Recent unread topics, dating from 10:23 1m to 10:43 am Sun 24 May
Firefox: 35 recent unread topics over 2 pages, dating from 10:12 pm Sat 23 May 20 10:43 am Sun 24 May

Odd, to say the least.  I'd expect the same list in both browsers? 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/25/2015 01:04 pm
I've never really used the unread topics option, but I just did and got three pages of threads going back over the last 24 hours.

I'll click it again tomorrow, and maybe from the laptop on a different browser and such as I reckon your issue may be something to do with switching between points of entry.

Not really sure, but I'll see how functional it is for me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 05/25/2015 03:14 pm
I just got 6 pages going back 3 days since my last sign in.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 05/25/2015 06:25 pm
It's not a consistent thing.  It happened to me twice this past week; hasn't happened before.  I mentioned it in case someone had made a tweak to the system recently; sometimes there are unexpected changes when that happens.  Absent that, I'll see if I can reproduce and/or characterize the behavior; but if I'm the only one noticing anything (sporadically), it's not a big deal.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cosmicvoid on 05/26/2015 05:00 am
"Moderator Action Section"
"Report to Moderator" messages.

I have never heard of either of these sections. How are they accessed?  I suppose the answer is "become a moderator"  :(.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/29/2015 12:57 pm
Well that was odd! The forum sometimes goes through a 40 second cycle where it goes off on a break and comes back refreshed and happy....no drama as no one really notices it and it's usually 10:30am GMT ish, when the site is quiet.

About 10 mins ago it did it again - as I was posting - and I thought "Ok, wait a minute" but it didn't come back.

News site was fine - as it usually is during the above - but the forum was just "waiting". So went to the control panel with the servers and rebooted. Wouldn't let me so did a power cycle (thanks to Mark's suggestion via his car!) and then rebooted.

And we're back!

Sorry about that! We'll work out what the deal was there.

PS It wasn't a bad gateway error. If you saw that, that was when I was power cycling and rebooting.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gosnold on 06/06/2015 01:19 pm
There is an issue with Youtube integration and Firefox. I cannot see them, they are blocked by Firefox.
If I allow Firefox to show non https content in https pages, they show up.
My version of Firefox is 38.0.5.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 06/06/2015 08:14 pm
There is an issue with Youtube integration and Firefox. I cannot see them, they are blocked by Firefox.
If I allow Firefox to show non https content in https pages, they show up.
My version of Firefox is 38.0.5.

Firefox is actively starting to drop support of html5 features and other stuff when not connected on a secured connection (https://). See:
https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2015/04/30/deprecating-non-secure-http/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2917575/encryption/mozillas-firefox-https-or-bust.html

There are no signs of other browsers going as extreme as Firefox on this point, yet. I'd be surprised if they succeed on getting other vendors to as extreme route.

If you don't like Mozilla's direction, then I'd suggest on showing your opinion to them by switching to another browser.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: QuantumG on 06/06/2015 09:46 pm
If you don't like Mozilla's direction, then I'd suggest on showing your opinion to them by switching to another browser.

That'll cement their direction and give them legitimacy. Unfortunately, the only way to affect the direction of Firefox is to get involved in the bureaucracy.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 06/06/2015 11:35 pm
It is starting to get off-topic for this thread, but Mozilla gets a good amount of money by bundled search providers in Firefox. Those are negotiated beforehand, though. I do believe that they will want to keep up their market share as high as it is, and the current direction they are heading is good for the security of the WWW but not good for their market share.

Lets see how things develop.. meanwhile, if there is an option in the forum software/code to change the embedded youtubing to use https:// it should solve the problem for now - until Mozilla removes another thing for non-https sites.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 06/07/2015 01:57 am
There is an issue with Youtube integration and Firefox. I cannot see them, they are blocked by Firefox.
If I allow Firefox to show non https content in https pages, they show up.
My version of Firefox is 38.0.5.

Firefox is actively starting to drop support of html5 features and other stuff when not connected on a secured connection (https://). See:
https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2015/04/30/deprecating-non-secure-http/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2917575/encryption/mozillas-firefox-https-or-bust.html

There are no signs of other browsers going as extreme as Firefox on this point, yet. I'd be surprised if they succeed on getting other vendors to as extreme route.

If you don't like Mozilla's direction, then I'd suggest on showing your opinion to them by switching to another browser.

This shouldn’t have anything to do with the non-secure HTTP deprecation announcement, which is about future features after a future date.

Embedded YouTube videos on NSF work for me in Firefox 38.0.5 and 40.0a2 (2015-06-06). Have you tried a clean profile (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles)? If that works, try searching for media.*.enabled in about:config and making sure everything is set to the default.

Edit: Wait, I didn’t pay enough attention. If you’re using NSF via https and it tries to embed something via http, then by design Firefox won’t show them unless you toggle that pref. NSF should probably switch to using https for embedded content as mtakala24 mentioned.

Edit 2: Mozilla toggled that pref to on by default in Firefox 23, so if you’re just seeing this issue now I assume it’s because you’ve recently switched to https for NSF (or installed something like HTTPS Everywhere). Switching back will fix the problem for now.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 06/07/2015 09:03 am
This shouldn’t have anything to do with the non-secure HTTP deprecation announcement, which is about future features after a future date.

True, they actually haven't done anything yet, and they haven't set any dates. I thought they had when I saw and glimpsed through the news this past week.

Theregister.co.uk had this to say in their article:
Quote
Mozilla plans to depreciate HTTP by first making "new features... available only to secure websites". Then, at some point it will be "gradually phasing out access to browser features for non-secure websites". A site without HTTPS won't work with HTML5 features in Firefox.

Mozilla's plan, therefore, is to break the web for Firefox and hope that convinces developers to get on board with HTTPS.

which implies that they will gradually be less compatible with non-secure websites, and even removing features.



And, in the end, it is not much better to just use https. The real security comes when certificates are included in the mix. Prevents site impersonation by rogue parties.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 06/08/2015 02:01 am
This shouldn’t have anything to do with the non-secure HTTP deprecation announcement, which is about future features after a future date.

True, they actually haven't done anything yet, and they haven't set any dates. I thought they had when I saw and glimpsed through the news this past week.

Theregister.co.uk had this to say in their article:
Quote
Mozilla plans to depreciate HTTP by first making "new features... available only to secure websites". Then, at some point it will be "gradually phasing out access to browser features for non-secure websites". A site without HTTPS won't work with HTML5 features in Firefox.

Mozilla's plan, therefore, is to break the web for Firefox and hope that convinces developers to get on board with HTTPS.

which implies that they will gradually be less compatible with non-secure websites, and even removing features.



And, in the end, it is not much better to just use https. The real security comes when certificates are included in the mix. Prevents site impersonation by rogue parties.

Certificates will be required. (And removal of existing features would be in the far future, if ever.)

Anyway, we’re veering waaay off topic here.  :P
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jester on 06/08/2015 01:38 pm
changed the YT mod to use https

pending more tests
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/08/2015 01:50 pm
Very cool! And I don't know if it was related, but the site went very slow for about five minutes, so I soft rebooted the servers.


EDIT: OK, something isn't agreeing with the forum on the above, so we've pulled the change. All youtube auto-embedding is off right now, but I'm sure it'll come back as it was previously. Main thing was to stop the forum from going sluggish.

Been fine for the past 15 mins.

EDIT: Embedded youtube is back as it was yesterday.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: OnWithTheShow on 06/20/2015 03:30 pm
Not sure if this is the right spot but you guys just got a nice shout out on the KSC bus tour.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/20/2015 04:03 pm
Not sure if this is the right spot but you guys just got a nice shout out on the KSC bus tour.

Oh that's cool! :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 06/21/2015 03:19 pm
Hey, guys -- I just ran across something odd while making a post.

The text controls above the text entry box in the post page have become unavailable.  Everything looks fine, but clicking on any of the buttons -- for bold or italics, or even to insert an emoji -- acts like you clicked anywhere outside of the text box.  It pulls focus outside of the text box and has no other effect.  So, for example, if I highlight a word and click the italics button, instead of placing the selected text inside the italics on and off tags, all it does is pull focus outside of the text box, removing the highlight of the selected word and removing the cursor display from the text box.  Even without having anything highlighted in the text box -- for example, trying to click on an emoji -- has the same effect, the cursor disappears from the text box, and nothing else occurs.

I don't know if this is an issue with the forum software itself, or with Chrome.  I'm using Chrome version 43.0.2357.124 m, under Windows 7 SP1.  But it's a new thing, in that I was able to use the text controls as late as a couple of days ago.

FYI...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 06/21/2015 03:55 pm
Checking with Internet Explorer 11, same issue, all text control buttons have no effect other than to pull focus out of the text editor box.  So, it seems to be a forum software issue, not a browser issue.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: okan170 on 06/21/2015 04:20 pm
Checking with Internet Explorer 11, same issue, all text control buttons have no effect other than to pull focus out of the text editor box.  So, it seems to be a forum software issue, not a browser issue.

I can confirm that this is happening in Safari as well, both on older v6 and the current v8.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/21/2015 06:37 pm
For me that bar has never worked in Chrome, but works in Firefox. Got to be some browser/software incompatibility that may have sneaked in more so with some upgraded versions of browsers, but we're due to give the forum a go over with the duster, so good notes.

(http://www.chipinmillionaire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Niles-e1324473377721.jpg)

Remember you can add smilies and such manually. [ the code, such as url ] and ; ) (no gap)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: nadreck on 06/21/2015 07:19 pm
For me that bar has never worked in Chrome, but works in Firefox. Got to be some browser/software incompatibility that may have sneaked in more so with some upgraded versions of browsers, but we're due to give the forum a go over with the duster, so good notes.

(http://www.chipinmillionaire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Niles-e1324473377721.jpg)

Remember you can add smilies and such manually. [ the code, such as url ] and ; ) (no gap)

Those always used to work in chrome for me
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Kabloona on 06/21/2015 08:14 pm
Those always worked for me in Chrome on my PC, but stopped working a few days ago. :-/

PS...now these are not working on my iPad with Safari, either.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 06/25/2015 09:00 pm
Noticed in the last hour connect times from selecting a thread from either a search , Forums List or unread list is taking close to 30 seconds to complete. 

Tony De La Rosa

edit (including this post that took 30 sec to post onto this thread).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/25/2015 09:11 pm
Posting fine here. Could be your browser or connection Tony.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 06/25/2015 09:19 pm
Posting fine here. Could be your browser or connection Tony.

I'm fine with other internet sites (especially to sites requiring logons), also fine with using three browsers.  The issue comes selecting threads to read or posting. Issue occurs on all three browsers (IE, Chrome and FF) and on my desktop, laptop and IPad).  After submitting a request I see the connecting message appear on the left bottom of the screen for about 30 seconds and then I'm provided the thread.  I'm installing wireshark to see what else I can identify.  Be back.

Connection Speed Test (IPS Provider to their servers)
Download: 55Mpbs
Upload:  5Mpbs
Latency: 11ms
Jitter: 6ms
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/25/2015 11:55 pm
So that'll be your ISP. We're showing nothing on this side, so it's not the site....and the rule is if we have a problem, there's 10 people saying something within a minute. No one else has reported a problem.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 06/26/2015 12:35 am
So that'll be your ISP. We're showing nothing on this side, so it's not the site....and the rule is if we have a problem, there's 10 people saying something within a minute. No one else has reported a problem.

Chris,

Understand you comment above.  But please have someone your side check the attachment screen print of the network response for a certain element that fails after waiting 21 seconds.  This error is consistent for any thread selected.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 06/26/2015 01:10 am
I fixed (overrode) the issue by following the advice provided in this link:

http://superuser.com/questions/65377/ajax-googleapis-com-stopping-my-firefox

Quote
If you don't need it, black hole it in the hosts file by adding
0.0.0.0 ajax.googleapis.com

Now the threads are showing up with quick response times.  I'll keep this override in effect until I hear otherwise.

Thanks Chris,

Tony De La Rosa
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/26/2015 09:44 am
Thanks for passing that on in case anyone else ever has that issue! Glad it's resolved for you!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lourens on 07/02/2015 07:48 am
I fixed (overrode) the issue by following the advice provided in this link:

http://superuser.com/questions/65377/ajax-googleapis-com-stopping-my-firefox

Quote
If you don't need it, black hole it in the hosts file by adding
0.0.0.0 ajax.googleapis.com

Now the threads are showing up with quick response times.  I'll keep this override in effect until I hear otherwise.
The Local Load (http://www.getlocalload.com/) Firefox extension may also be of use here, it caches ajax.googleapis.com scripts locally. That should get you the speed-up without breaking web sites that require those scripts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: CJ on 07/04/2015 08:15 pm

Banned URLS?

I recently encountered an issue with a url, imgur. The site rewrote it to temp bana. (Temporary ban category a? Temporary banana?) Yet, other variants of it, such as i.imgur, seem to work. (I was trying to link a page containing ASDS photos).

I've done a site search but didn't find an answer, so here's my question; is this just a glitch, which means workarounds are okay, or does the site management prefer no links to imgur pages?

If the latter is the case, what's the management's preferred course of action if a member finds a picture or pictures on imgur that may be helpful to a discussion?

Thanks. 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/04/2015 11:35 pm
HA! That was me! We had a spammer turn up using imgur to post a thread about Chinese shoes or something, returning two days in a row. Was deleted and banned within minutes, but I did a quick censor on his image url to deter (which worked as he never came back) and I forgot to take it off! :)

Censor was to change imgur to "temp ban" in the thing we use to censor swear words.

All good now if you try again!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: CJ on 07/05/2015 12:32 am
HA! That was me! We had a spammer turn up using imgur to post a thread about Chinese shoes or something, returning two days in a row. Was deleted and banned within minutes, but I did a quick censor on his image url to deter (which worked as he never came back) and I forgot to take it off! :)

Censor was to change imgur to "temp ban" in the thing we use to censor swear words.

All good now if you try again!

Thanks Chris! And I'm glad you were able to stop the spammer. (my feelings about spammers are entirely, and vitriolically, profane. :))

BTW, seeing as this is the feedback thread, great job on the Falcon loss article!  :)

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ClaytonBirchenough on 07/07/2015 08:43 pm
I'm running OS X Yosemite version 10.10.2 on my early 2014, 11-inch Macbook Air and am using Safari version 8.0.4.

I am not able to click and select any changes that can be made to text via the icons above the "Reply" text box (not sure if I said that correctly. The icons/smileys above the box I'm typing in right now don't insert or change my text.). I can click on them and see them like normal, but when I click on them, nothing happens. I can insert manually changes to the text (e.g. [.b.] and such). I even get the dropdown to select a different text color, can select a different color, but it has no effect on the actual text color. In addition, I cannot "Insert Quote" from below. I can click on the link(?), but this results in nothing.

I'm not sure if this is specific to me. It's also not a terrible inconvenience, so if no one else is having this problem, I'll live. :)

Thanks!

EDIT: And I'm not sure how I just managed to cross out everything I just typed...

EDIT2: Figured out how I managed to cross out everything I typed lol. Maybe this whole issue is me being an idiot haha.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/07/2015 09:57 pm
I'm running OS X Yosemite version 10.10.2 on my early 2014, 11-inch Macbook Air and am using Safari version 8.0.4.

I am not able to click and select any changes that can be made to text via the icons above the "Reply" text box (not sure if I said that correctly. The icons/smileys above the box I'm typing in right now don't insert or change my text.). I can click on them and see them like normal, but when I click on them, nothing happens. I can insert manually changes to the text (e.g. [.b.] and such). I even get the dropdown to select a different text color, can select a different color, but it has no effect on the actual text color. In addition, I cannot "Insert Quote" from below. I can click on the link(?), but this results in nothing.

I'm not sure if this is specific to me. It's also not a terrible inconvenience, so if no one else is having this problem, I'll live. :)

Thanks!

EDIT: And I'm not sure how I just managed to cross out everything I just typed...

EDIT2: Figured out how I managed to cross out everything I typed lol. Maybe this whole issue is me being an idiot haha.

You mean this?

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147

It's a browser thing. You can manually do it, but the clicking on icons for things like smilies seems to have become outdated on some browsers.

Likely will be fixed the next time we update the forum software.

But yeah, manually enter things, such as bold would be

[ b] [ /b] - not gaps. Thus bold
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ohsin on 07/08/2015 03:22 pm
Can anything be done to fix the quick search bar issue where it returns only first match instead of all matches when used to search within a thread. I am using ctrl+F with 'print' to search threads at the moment as suggested back in thread (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1336789#msg1336789). It kinda works but linking to exact post is troublesome as one has to hunt for nearby quoted posts...

Thanks
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 07/13/2015 08:21 am
I'm running OS X Yosemite version 10.10.2 on my early 2014, 11-inch Macbook Air and am using Safari version 8.0.4.

I am not able to click and select any changes that can be made to text via the icons above the "Reply" text box (not sure if I said that correctly. The icons/smileys above the box I'm typing in right now don't insert or change my text.). I can click on them and see them like normal, but when I click on them, nothing happens. I can insert manually changes to the text (e.g. [.b.] and such). I even get the dropdown to select a different text color, can select a different color, but it has no effect on the actual text color. In addition, I cannot "Insert Quote" from below. I can click on the link(?), but this results in nothing.

I'm not sure if this is specific to me. It's also not a terrible inconvenience, so if no one else is having this problem, I'll live. :)

Thanks!

EDIT: And I'm not sure how I just managed to cross out everything I just typed...

EDIT2: Figured out how I managed to cross out everything I typed lol. Maybe this whole issue is me being an idiot haha.

You mean this?

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147

It's a browser thing. You can manually do it, but the clicking on icons for things like smilies seems to have become outdated on some browsers.

Likely will be fixed the next time we update the forum software.

But yeah, manually enter things, such as bold would be

[ b] [ /b] - not gaps. Thus bold

If clicking the buttons doesn't work, do the keyboard shortcuts, EG control+B to bold?

cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: tea monster on 07/17/2015 04:22 pm
I'm having this problem with Google Chrome on Windows 7. I think someone already reported this, but I'm just confirming it's still ongoing.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 07/31/2015 04:34 pm
Is it just me... but a great deal of last read posts have reverted to sometime in May? Clicking the new -button next to the thread title, I'll get to read posts from May "as new" and then realizing that the new posts are actually on the last pages of the thread.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Eagandale4114 on 07/31/2015 04:48 pm
Does this site have any plans to support the iOS 9 news feature?
https://www.apple.com/news/
https://developer.apple.com/news-publisher/
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 07/31/2015 04:55 pm
Does this site have any plans to support the iOS 9 news feature?
https://www.apple.com/news/
https://developer.apple.com/news-publisher/

sounds like yet another "must reinvent the wheel to go non standard and monetize it" from Apple.

News site already has cross-platform RSS feed.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/31/2015 07:08 pm
Is it just me... but a great deal of last read posts have reverted to sometime in May? Clicking the new -button next to the thread title, I'll get to read posts from May "as new" and then realizing that the new posts are actually on the last pages of the thread.

I do know Mark has been down in the basement with his wrench today. I could hear him banging something (not rude!) ;D

Perhaps that, but I'm probably the only person here who doesn't use that "last read" thing - I like to be surprised ;)

Other point is we're starting the process of looking at the next forum software stuff (behind the scenes, not "OMG, it all looks alien to me now" to keep us all shipshape.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 07/31/2015 07:10 pm

Other point is we're starting the process of looking at the next forum software stuff (behind the scenes, not "OMG, it all looks alien to me now" to keep us all shipshape.

Thats reassuring to hear, as all kinds of security holes are found all the time in all forum softwares and also in WordPress. Good to have an ongoing process instead of waiting for disaster.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dapholine on 08/02/2015 05:11 pm
When using Edge browser on Windows 10, some images don't show (e.g. the 'like' thumb and Chris Bergin's forum-picture). The page source reveals these are .webp images, a format that Edge does not support.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 08/02/2015 05:24 pm
When using Edge browser on Windows 10, some images don't show (e.g. the 'like' thumb and Chris Bergin's forum-picture). The page source reveals these are .webp images, a format that Edge does not support.

One more reason why I am continuing to use Chrome after I upgraded to Windows 10...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: kch on 08/02/2015 05:39 pm
When using Edge browser on Windows 10, some images don't show (e.g. the 'like' thumb and Chris Bergin's forum-picture). The page source reveals these are .webp images, a format that Edge does not support.

Thanks for the heads-up!  Another good reason to stay with 8.1 (or earlier) for now -- as usual, Microsoft needs time to find and walk-back the bugs, mis-features, over-reaches, and just-plain-bad decisions in the new product.  We've got a year for the "free" upgrade, and I'm in no hurry to make a mistake (especially one that can't be undone).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 08/02/2015 06:12 pm

When using Edge browser on Windows 10, some images don't show (e.g. the 'like' thumb and Chris Bergin's forum-picture). The page source reveals these are .webp images, a format that Edge does not support.

One more reason why I am continuing to use Chrome after I upgraded to Windows 10...

Same here. Edge I find is something of a disappointment.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dapholine on 08/03/2015 09:30 am
Not to start a which browser is better debate, but Edge is a quite descent yet unfinished browser. Somehow font-rendering and response is a lot better on my specific configuration than both Chrome (ugly fonts and battery drain) or Firefox (slow and often unresponsive). But on my work PC, Chrome works great, so yeah...

Anyhow, back to the bug at hand: Since only Blink-based browsers (Chrome, Opera (since v15), Android-browser) support WebP, this is a forum-bug: When loading the same page in Firefox or Safari, it serves a .jpg image.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: PerW on 08/05/2015 10:50 am
How dose the, Add To Buddy List function work?
Will I get an email when this "buddy" write a post?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/05/2015 11:09 am
How dose the, Add To Buddy List function work?
Will I get an email when this "buddy" write a post?

No idea. Came with the forum software....never used it myself. Probably will be gone when we move to the new set up.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: nadreck on 08/05/2015 06:18 pm
Likes have disappeared again
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/05/2015 06:22 pm
I'm sure it's Mark, as he's working on site....but hasn't provided a heads up. Checking.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/05/2015 06:22 pm
I'm sure it's Mark, as he's working on site....but hasn't provided a heads up. Checking.

You all notice everything right! :).. Yes I'm working on that, expect it to be back < 30 minutes.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: nadreck on 08/05/2015 06:24 pm
I'm sure it's Mark, as he's working on site....but hasn't provided a heads up. Checking.

You all notice everything right! :).. Yes I'm working on that, expect it to be back < 30 minutes.

Well normally I would just 'like' a response like this, however, given the circumstances I will offer more verbose appreciation!  Thanks for letting us know.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/05/2015 06:24 pm
I'm sure it's Mark, as he's working on site....but hasn't provided a heads up. Checking.

You all notice everything right! :).. Yes I'm working on that, expect it to be back < 30 minutes.



Chaos, utter chaos with the e-mails I got over that! People like likes ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 08/05/2015 06:28 pm
Just a note when reading "the new setup" thing:

Hopefully the new setup is not Xenforo. I've seen a couple of forums go from "OK" to "not good with missing features,  buggy features, no search" and requiring major hardware upgrades, when they've decided to move a large forum to it. Might be a result of having marginal hardware in the first place and poor webmastering knowledge, though.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/05/2015 06:33 pm
Just a note when reading "the new setup" thing:

Hopefully the new setup is not Xenforo. I've seen a couple of forums go from "OK" to "not good with missing features,  buggy features, no search" and requiring major hardware upgrades, when they've decided to move a large forum to it. Might be a result of having marginal hardware in the first place and poor webmastering knowledge, though.

Nope, rest assured, we'll stay were we are and IMPROVE from there, not get worse :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: BrianNH on 08/05/2015 06:57 pm
Ugh.  What's up with the red hearts for "like"?  It feels too much like a Hello Kitty fan forum.  Can we go back to the thumbs up?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/05/2015 07:02 pm
Ugh.  What's up with the red hearts for "like"?  It feels too much like a Hello Kitty fan forum.  Can we go back to the thumbs up?

Like ?

As in.. the thumbs are back, maybe you need to CTRL-F5 once or twice for them to show up.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/05/2015 07:18 pm
I'm sure it's Mark, as he's working on site....but hasn't provided a heads up. Checking.

You all notice everything right! :).. Yes I'm working on that, expect it to be back < 30 minutes.



Chaos, utter chaos with the e-mails I got over that! People like likes ;D

Okay, we are back to 'normal'. A software upgrade accidentally installed a new version of the 'Likes'  functionality onto the production environment. That caused some weird behaviour in the last 45 minutes. Sorry about that ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/05/2015 09:07 pm
I just disabled the display of the likes per post, but the functionality is still active (only the likes are not displayed below every post at this time). This version is causing some unwanted performance hit on the forum. I'm investigating and hopefully fixing this today.

Until then.. keep liking! (the likes are still stored and will be displayed when this issue is fixed)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: nadreck on 08/05/2015 09:17 pm
I just disabled the display of the likes per post, but the functionality is still active (only the likes are not displayed below every post at this time). This version is causing some unwanted performance hit on the forum. I'm investigating and hopefully fixing this today.

Until then.. keep liking! (the likes are still stored and will be displayed when this issue is fixed)

As a note, in the options you turned on and off today you added a category of posts to the "show posts" option on profiles called "likes given" this shows the posts that an individual poster has clicked "like" on. There has long been the option "Liked" to show which of your own posts has garnered "likes" but it never worked it showed the same list as the "message" option.  Oh and it ("likes given") took a good 2 minutes to pull up the first page of the list of posts that Chris Bergin "liked" I kinda imagine that it is a bit of a performance hit there. Since the likes bar disappeared and other new features disappeared I am wondering if you left "likes given" turned on by accident
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/05/2015 09:20 pm

As a note, in the options you turned on and off today you added a category of posts to the "show posts" option on profiles called "likes given" this shows the posts that an individual poster has clicked "like" on. There has long been the option "Liked" to show which of your own posts has garnered "likes" but it never worked it showed the same list as the "message" option.  Oh and it ("likes given") took a good 2 minutes to pull up the first page of the list of posts that Chris Bergin "liked" I kinda imagine that it is a bit of a performance hit there. Since the likes bar disappeared and other new features disappeared I am wondering if you left "likes given" turned on by accident

Hi, thanks for mentioning that but this version of the mod has a lot of options on what to display "where" . The likes & likes given on the profile page are not that big of a performance hit. The main issue was/is on displaying the actual users below each post. I have put a fix in place and will monitor the performance but all should be fine again from now on.

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 08/05/2015 11:04 pm
Kewl.  To be honest, I'd rather see the text editing buttons and the smiley buttons fixed, though.  I mean, while you're upgrading the forum software and all...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 08/06/2015 06:21 am

Ugh.  What's up with the red hearts for "like"?  It feels too much like a Hello Kitty fan forum.  Can we go back to the thumbs up?

Careful now Pluto could take exception to you disrespecting hearts.;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ClaytonBirchenough on 08/06/2015 02:08 pm
Just a heads up, when you click show posts with "liked" and "likes given" on your profile, the "liked" filter doesn't work. And when you select "likes given", the amount of likes the post you liked has the amount of likes shown twice. Not sure if that made sense haha. Anyway, just a heads up, it doesn't really bother me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/06/2015 03:18 pm
Just a heads up, when you click show posts with "liked" and "likes given" on your profile, the "liked" filter doesn't work. And when you select "likes given", the amount of likes the post you liked has the amount of likes shown twice. Not sure if that made sense haha. Anyway, just a heads up, it doesn't really bother me.

You may need to explain that again! :)

One cool thing I've noticed is the new likes show the full list of people who've liked your post. Before it was:

"Bob, Billy and 12 others have liked" or something. You'd have to refresh to see other names in those first two fields. Now the "and 12 others" is clickable and you see the full list. That's nice.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ClaytonBirchenough on 08/06/2015 03:39 pm
Haha ok.

When I go profile > profile info > show posts > liked, I don't get posts of mine that have been liked, I get all my posts. Maybe I'm missing something...?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: nadreck on 08/06/2015 05:24 pm
Haha ok.

When I go profile > profile info > show posts > liked, I don't get posts of mine that have been liked, I get all my posts. Maybe I'm missing something...?

In a PM to me NSF Webmaster indicated he would look into this on the weekend
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: QuantumG on 08/06/2015 10:02 pm
The "Likes Given" is awesome. That's exactly what I was hoping would be possible when the Like feature was added.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ClaytonBirchenough on 08/06/2015 11:10 pm
Haha ok.

When I go profile > profile info > show posts > liked, I don't get posts of mine that have been liked, I get all my posts. Maybe I'm missing something...?

In a PM to me NSF Webmaster indicated he would look into this on the weekend

Alright, thanks!

Again, it doesn't bother me, just though I'd help and point it out.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Eagandale4114 on 08/07/2015 08:37 pm
Just a heads up, when you click show posts with "liked" and "likes given" on your profile, the "liked" filter doesn't work. And when you select "likes given", the amount of likes the post you liked has the amount of likes shown twice. Not sure if that made sense haha. Anyway, just a heads up, it doesn't really bother me.

You may need to explain that again! :)

One cool thing I've noticed is the new likes show the full list of people who've liked your post. Before it was:

"Bob, Billy and 12 others have liked" or something. You'd have to refresh to see other names in those first two fields. Now the "and 12 others" is clickable and you see the full list. That's nice.

So I've found a bug here:

Description: When expanding the list of likes for a post, the background for NSF turns white and remains white after dismissing the popup containing the expanded list.

Screenshots: Ive attached 3 screenshots. The first one right as I load the page. The second one is when I click on a post that has multiple likes. The third is what my screen looks like after dismissing the popup.

Browser/OS: Bug reproduced with 100% accuracy on Safari 8.0.7 and Firefox 39.0.3 for Mac OS X 10.10.4


BUG 2 (Independent of the first one):

Description: The options for a post (the rows above the text box when replying to a person) as shown in screenshot 4, do nothing.

Browser / OS: 100% reproduction rate on Safari 8.0.7 for Mac OS X 10.10.4
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/07/2015 09:44 pm
Bug 2 is mentioned a page or so ago.

Bug 1 - funky. Did it once on my PC (not one of those OS things....had an Apple once, hated it with a passion, nearly threw it out of the window. Booo Steve Jobs!! ;D) but refreshing sorted it out. I assume it goes away for you if you refresh.

Ironically I kinda like that border...but yeah, that's not intentional - and Mark hasn't finished playing with the likes yet.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/17/2015 07:16 pm

Bug 1 - funky. Did it once on my PC (not one of those OS things....had an Apple once, hated it with a passion, nearly threw it out of the window. Booo Steve Jobs!! ;D) but refreshing sorted it out. I assume it goes away for you if you refresh.

Ironically I kinda like that border...but yeah, that's not intentional - and Mark hasn't finished playing with the likes yet.

Just a heads up: I'm fixing the Likes display and some other things as we speak. The ' Likes ' might show up a bit weird in the next 10 minutes. Please refresh your page if that's the case.

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 08/17/2015 07:36 pm
I borrowed the screen shot

None of these work in Chrome for me anymore since my browser auto updated itself to Version 44.0.2403.155 (64-bit) on Mac OSX Version 10.10.4 (Build 14E46) (64bit)

You can click on the buttons but they no longer work in my posts

EDIT: Currently Installing the 10.10.5 update which fixes some related issues. Ill reply what happens.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 08/17/2015 08:04 pm
I borrowed the screen shot

None of these work in Chrome for me anymore since my browser auto updated itself to Version 44.0.2403.155 (64-bit) on Mac OSX Version 10.10.4 (Build 14E46) (64bit)

You can click on the buttons but they no longer work in my posts

EDIT: Currently Installing the 10.10.5 update which fixes some related issues. Ill post what happens.

Already noted here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/17/2015 08:07 pm
Looks like Mark fixed the internet on the likes ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/17/2015 08:18 pm
Looks like Mark fixed the internet on the likes ;D

Yes, if you notice something off, please let me know. Now looking into the malfuctioning button bar in the post editor...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/17/2015 08:22 pm
If I was being petty, the profiles show:

Liked: 47 (0.180 per post)
Liked: 47 (0.180 per post)

I'm guessing the second one should be "Likes Given"
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/17/2015 08:26 pm
If I was being petty, the profiles show:

Liked: 47 (0.180 per post)
Liked: 47 (0.180 per post)

I'm guessing the second one should be "Likes Given"

Fixed :)..
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/17/2015 08:27 pm
I borrowed the screen shot

None of these work in Chrome for me anymore since my browser auto updated itself to Version 44.0.2403.155 (64-bit) on Mac OSX Version 10.10.4 (Build 14E46) (64bit)

You can click on the buttons but they no longer work in my posts

EDIT: Currently Installing the 10.10.5 update which fixes some related issues. Ill post what happens.

Already noted here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147


The buttons are working for me again, can you also test this ? Please CTRL-F5 the post edit page to clear the browser cache.

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 08/17/2015 08:44 pm
I borrowed the screen shot

None of these work in Chrome for me anymore since my browser auto updated itself to Version 44.0.2403.155 (64-bit) on Mac OSX Version 10.10.4 (Build 14E46) (64bit)

You can click on the buttons but they no longer work in my posts

EDIT: Currently Installing the 10.10.5 update which fixes some related issues. Ill post what happens.

Already noted here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147


The buttons are working for me again, can you also test this ? Please CTRL-F5 the post edit page to clear the browser cache.

Mark
That fixed it for now. ;)

UPDATE: Also works as of now in 10.10.5 (Build 14F27)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 08/17/2015 11:49 pm
I borrowed the screen shot

None of these work in Chrome for me anymore since my browser auto updated itself to Version 44.0.2403.155 (64-bit) on Mac OSX Version 10.10.4 (Build 14E46) (64bit)

You can click on the buttons but they no longer work in my posts

EDIT: Currently Installing the 10.10.5 update which fixes some related issues. Ill post what happens.

Already noted here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147


The buttons are working for me again, can you also test this ? Please CTRL-F5 the post edit page to clear the browser cache.

Mark

Works for me too, Great!!, Thanks Webmaster.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Coastal Ron on 08/18/2015 01:14 am
Just a heads up: I'm fixing the Likes display and some other things as we speak. The ' Likes ' might show up a bit weird in the next 10 minutes. Please refresh your page if that's the case.

I LOVE (and was checking formatting buttons too - they work again) this feature, and I've been wanting it for a long time so that I could see if I was giving as much as I was getting.  I'm close, but still under, so I have set a personal goal to get my Liked & Likes as close as possible.

Now I'm a relatively newer member, and I've only been actively posting since February 2014 (after Space Politics shut down), so I don't have as many posts as some others.  But comparing Liked & Likes doesn't matter for how long you've been a member, so it is interesting to see how many "Likes" others have given compared to what they have got.  Not making any judgements, just thinking it's interesting data to see, so thanks for adding it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 08/18/2015 01:14 am
I borrowed the screen shot

None of these work in Chrome for me anymore since my browser auto updated itself to Version 44.0.2403.155 (64-bit) on Mac OSX Version 10.10.4 (Build 14E46) (64bit)
I
You can click on the buttons but they no longer work in my posts

EDIT: Currently Installing the 10.10.5 update which fixes some related issues. Ill post what happens.

Already noted here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1392147#msg1392147


The buttons are working for me again, can you also test this ? Please CTRL-F5 the post edit page to clear the browser cache.

Mark

Works for me too, Great!!, Thanks Webmaster.

I like this very much!   :D

Thanks, Mark!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: sghill on 08/18/2015 04:11 pm
I'm not sure I like the "Likes Given" feature.  People don't need to know how many posts I like.

On a related note, I'd love to see it replaced with a "Quoted" feature showing the number of times a user has been quoted (just track when the "quote" button is pushed on a post.  This will establish authoritativeness for users.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/18/2015 05:02 pm

On a related note, I'd love to see it replaced with a "Quoted" feature showing the number of times a user has been quoted (just track when the "quote" button is pushed on a post.  This will establish authoritativeness for users.


Forum posts are not news articles where you only quote relevant comments for the purpose of reporting. You quote someone on a forum to respond to them. You may think it's the most stupid thing ever said on the internet and you want to respond to correct it, but by quoting it you've just added to their authoritativeness! You may think it's the best thing ever written by someone, but you may only like the post or respond without quoting - but by doing that you've not added to their authoritativeness. In fact, you'd be encouraging the worse thing on forums, people quoting massive posts and responding with only a "Right on!" That's what "likes" mitigate ;D

In short, not going to happen! :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 08/18/2015 05:31 pm
There are times times, though, when I'd like to "like with a smiley" so I can indicate I liked a post because it was amusing or entertaining, rather than a straight "like" which simply states I agree with the post.  I'd also like a "dislike" button for posts I strongly disagree with, but I can understand why we probably don't want to go there...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: nadreck on 08/18/2015 05:41 pm
I'm not sure I like the "Likes Given" feature.  People don't need to know how many posts I like.


I do enjoy this feature, I have no issue with people seeing what I liked, they could in theory have seen it when I liked it. However since I don't remember everything, nor do I read every post, I enjoy the ability to delve into the personality of a poster and find out what they liked and disliked.

Does anyone want to guess who the first person was who I checked the likes given tab of when I realized it existed? Just curiosity, which is of course why I read a lot of what I read (here and everywhere else).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/18/2015 06:01 pm
There are times times, though, when I'd like to "like with a smiley" so I can indicate I liked a post because it was amusing or entertaining, rather than a straight "like" which simply states I agree with the post.  I'd also like a "dislike" button for posts I strongly disagree with, but I can understand why we probably don't want to go there...

There's probably a limit on the amount of things we can do per that. Mark (and Jester) have had to reprogram the add on as it was a big strain on the database with tracking all the likes and such. Things I don't know about, but can appreciate it as the forum goes through so much activity each second - such as each person entering the site then goes and does things like loads images on forum threads and info and such and it's all tracked and downloaded, provided and so on....fascinating, especially when the site is busy. Adding more tasks for the software to track could be a problem when the site gets busy.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mfck on 08/18/2015 06:16 pm
Sorry if this has already been asked...

Why don't we have a "Like" button in Tapatalk?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: PerW on 08/18/2015 06:45 pm
Sorry if this has already been asked...

Why don't we have a "Like" button in Tapatalk?
There is one in the Taptalk I use?
Maybe try to update?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mfck on 08/18/2015 08:48 pm
Sorry if this has already been asked...

Why don't we have a "Like" button in Tapatalk?
There is one in the Taptalk I use?
Maybe try to update?
5.1.1 b526 - latest to my knowledge

Edit: OK, now that you mention it, I found mine
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Helodriver on 08/19/2015 04:35 am
With all the fixing of the "likes" function it seems "likes" are only listed once now on the profile page rather than twice as has recently been happening. That's good, but missing is the cool likes per post ratio number (which I found more useful than posts per day listed immediately above it).

I suppose I can always calculate the number manually with some simple math, but I'm too lazy to do that. ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 08/19/2015 08:25 am
That's good, but missing is the cool likes per post ratio number (which I found more useful than posts per day listed immediately above it).

Check again :)

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/19/2015 10:05 am
That's good, but missing is the cool likes per post ratio number (which I found more useful than posts per day listed immediately above it).



Which is utterly pointless when some people have been posting here for ten years, but likes have only been enabled for the last year.

Mark seems to like it, so I'll bow to his judgement ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 08/20/2015 11:15 pm


Sorry if this has already been asked...

Why don't we have a "Like" button in Tapatalk?
There is one in the Taptalk I use?
Maybe try to update?
5.1.1 b526 - latest to my knowledge

Edit: OK, now that you mention it, I found mine

I believe this is a new feature - and suspect it is TT themselves keeping their own private count, which will not reflect in stats on the site.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Semmel on 08/26/2015 10:55 am
I just want to say thank you Mark for your work and making this site better still! I notices that the "Like" stuff got fixed a few days ago and I like the way it is now. I just came here to say Thx! :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 09/05/2015 11:23 pm
That's good, but missing is the cool likes per post ratio number (which I found more useful than posts per day listed immediately above it).



Which is utterly pointless when some people have been posting here for ten years, but likes have only been enabled for the last year.

Mark seems to like it, so I'll bow to his judgement ;D

It’d be a lot more useful if the ratio only counted posts since the date the feature was implemented. Not sure about likes on old posts from prior to that date, though…
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DatUser14 on 09/13/2015 10:12 pm
What happened to the public videos section?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/13/2015 10:43 pm
What happened to the public videos section?
This?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=22.0
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 09/16/2015 09:33 pm
Not too many videoes being posted in there, much of the public awesome stuff has been buried in launch/mission threads via youtube or other links. And sadly quite a few have since been removed from youtube.

Makes me think of a way/need/criteria to archive stuff *from* youtube...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Rocket Science on 09/17/2015 04:06 pm
For the last few days the "recent forum posts" buttons on the "home page" have not been working for me. Running Windows 10 and I tried Firefox, Chrome and IE with no luck...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 09/30/2015 02:52 pm
Okay, this is a weird one, and I'm not absolutely convinced it's not a Chrome error.  But lately, when I have been moving from a thread index to a post, I have been receiving an intermittent occurrence of the following Chrome message pop-up:

The page at https://live-ssl.cdn.spongecell.com says:

something else other than 200 was returned

This pop-up only has an OK button.  Once you click OK, the requested navigation completes and you go to the correct page for the post you selected.

I have a suspicion that the live-ssl.cdn.spongecell URL noted has something to do with the sideboard adverts on the site.  If I had to guess, Chrome is seeing a response from one of these ads that isn't correct based on the cookie or on the html coding of either the main page or the ad frame.

However, I always have some concerns when my browser pops up such error messages.  My main worry is that one of the ad providers may have been compromised and the browser is seeing something that could indicate malware attempting to load itself along with an ad.

So, I figured since I was seeing a URL related to the issue, I would post it just in case Mark could look at it and say, "Well, spongecell, that's XYZ advertisers!  Let me shoot them off an e-mail and ask them if they've been having issues with their ad servers" or something like that... :)

For the record, I am running Windows 10 Home edition (64-bit), with all Windows updates to-date, and Chrome version 45.0.2454.101 m.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/30/2015 04:43 pm
We have a google ad at the bottom of the page, but we have no pop ups on the site. Google ads are different for everyone (usually based on location and such). Thanks for the info as Mark can block any google ad, so I assume that's all he needs to do with that spongecell.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 09/30/2015 04:47 pm
Okay, this is a weird one, and I'm not absolutely convinced it's not a Chrome error.  But lately, when I have been moving from a thread index to a post, I have been receiving an intermittent occurrence of the following Chrome message pop-up:

The page at https://live-ssl.cdn.spongecell.com says:

something else other than 200 was returned

This pop-up only has an OK button.  Once you click OK, the requested navigation completes and you go to the correct page for the post you selected.

I have a suspicion that the live-ssl.cdn.spongecell URL noted has something to do with the sideboard adverts on the site.  If I had to guess, Chrome is seeing a response from one of these ads that isn't correct based on the cookie or on the html coding of either the main page or the ad frame.

However, I always have some concerns when my browser pops up such error messages.  My main worry is that one of the ad providers may have been compromised and the browser is seeing something that could indicate malware attempting to load itself along with an ad.

So, I figured since I was seeing a URL related to the issue, I would post it just in case Mark could look at it and say, "Well, spongecell, that's XYZ advertisers!  Let me shoot them off an e-mail and ask them if they've been having issues with their ad servers" or something like that... :)

For the record, I am running Windows 10 Home edition (64-bit), with all Windows updates to-date, and Chrome version 45.0.2454.101 m.
Somewhat related: Due to decline Google's ad revenue from too many people using Ad Block, the next versions of Chrome will rollout unblockable/unskippable ads for those with ad block software installed.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/30/2015 05:03 pm
It should be down to the site to balance ads versus content. I've been on a lot of sites where it's literally impossible.....pop up ads, video ads (noisy ones, that autoplay), video ads in the middle of articles, totally unrelated. Surveys (pointless ones) before you can read the text. Heck even borders that are ads that "follow you" as you scroll.

And there's a massive trend to embed those fake stories that are ads, you know the "Other things that will interest you" fake articles like "You wouldn't believe what she said next" and "10 top cheerleaders" which are ads FULL of ads and all manner of crap.

It's getting really silly. We'll never allow that here - and I get at least 10 e-mails a day from these companies that want to embed all manner of crap into this site (for a lot of money too - especially for a heavy hit site like this one). And they all use the tactic of sending the e-mail five times, with a "in case you missed this" and then "can you please respond!" Amazing!  :o

Wankers, the lot of them! ;D

I think we're pretty good here. We have the right hand side and it's all space stuff. We have the bottom google placement, but that's really it and it's not in your face.

L2 pays the bills.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: savuporo on 09/30/2015 05:33 pm
And there's a massive trend to embed those fake stories that are ads, you know the "Other things that will interest you" fake articles like "You wouldn't believe what she said next" and "10 top cheerleaders" which are ads FULL of ads and all manner of crap.
This tweet will change your life ( for about 10 seconds )

https://twitter.com/andyschatz/status/616648104113238016

;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 09/30/2015 05:42 pm
After I posted this I got curious and did a look-up on the spongecell domain listed above.  There are a number of sibling domains, but they are all registered through go-daddy.  There is a website that gives stats for all kinds of domains, and it says that the specific domain I'm seeing doesn't have reported malware activity, but that some of the sibling domains do.

Also, when I copy the URL for the Google ad at the bottom of the page, I get a domain named https://secure-ds.serving-sys.com.  Not the spongecell domain.  It's looking like something in one of the cookies from one of the ads (or maybe even in the main NSF cookie) is doing some kind of redirect or call to this spongecell domain, and expects a response of 200.  It doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong, this might just be an internet domain tool that verifies I'm logged into the site, or something.  It's just an odd error.

There certainly aren't any pop-up ads happening on the site -- this pop-up that I am seeing is an error message pop-up from Chrome itself.  I've never thought the ad content here to be obtrusive or interfering.

So -- still something of a mystery.  And again, I put it out here to see if anyone else is seeing this, and/or if it might be useful info to our Webmaster.  I still don't discount the possibility that it is some kind of an issue with my particular Chrome installation, or even how Chrome and my Norton Security Suite are interacting.  And on top of all that, Windows 10 is still not as stable as Windows 7 was at the time I made the transition, I find.  So, it could be a number of factors causing this.

It's not stopping me from navigating the site, I just have to click through an occasional, intermittent occurrence of a non-transparent error message.  I'm only feeling the discomfort inherent in clicking through an error message that doesn't tell me what is wrong, why, or even what operation is encountering the error.

:)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 09/30/2015 05:55 pm
And, getting ever closer (Google is your friend), I looked up CDN (which appears in the spongecell URL), thinking it sounded like some kind of networking system.  I found this in good ol' Wikipedia:

Quote
A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a large distributed system of proxy servers deployed in multiple data centers across the Internet. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. CDNs serve a large fraction of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.

Content providers such as media companies and e-commerce vendors pay CDN operators to deliver their content to their audience of end-users. In turn, a CDN pays ISPs, carriers, and network operators for hosting its servers in their data centers. Besides better performance and availability, CDNs also offload the traffic served directly from the content provider's origin infrastructure, resulting in possible cost savings for the content provider. In addition, CDNs provide the content provider a degree of protection from DoS attacks by using their large distributed server infrastructure to absorb the attack traffic. While most early CDNs served content using dedicated servers owned and operated by the CDN, there is a recent trend to use a hybrid model that uses P2P technology. In the hybrid model, content is served using both dedicated servers and other peer-user-owned computers as applicable.

So, looks like its some kind of invalid response from a CDN server that is actually providing some or all of the content of a given page at the time I choose to navigate.  Might be something Mark may want to pass along to our hosting ISP.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 09/30/2015 06:52 pm

It should be down to the site to balance ads versus content. I've been on a lot of sites where it's literally impossible.....pop up ads, video ads (noisy ones, that autoplay), video ads in the middle of articles, totally unrelated. Surveys (pointless ones) before you can read the text. Heck even borders that are ads that "follow you" as you scroll.

And there's a massive trend to embed those fake stories that are ads, you know the "Other things that will interest you" fake articles like "You wouldn't believe what she said next" and "10 top cheerleaders" which are ads FULL of ads and all manner of crap.

It's getting really silly. We'll never allow that here - and I get at least 10 e-mails a day from these companies that want to embed all manner of crap into this site (for a lot of money too - especially for a heavy hit site like this one). And they all use the tactic of sending the e-mail five times, with a "in case you missed this" and then "can you please respond!" Amazing!  :o

Wankers, the lot of them! ;D

I think we're pretty good here. We have the right hand side and it's all space stuff. We have the bottom google placement, but that's really it and it's not in your face.

L2 pays the bills.

I even get those embedded ads that look stories on Tapatalk with certain forums, obviously this forum isn't one of the offenders.:D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Todd Martin on 09/30/2015 06:57 pm
My biggest wish-list item for NSF would be a longer "Recent Forum Posts" header on the front page.  If 10 most recent posts were listed, I wouldn't miss as much I think.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 10/03/2015 05:09 pm
I'm seeing a difference in behavior on "unread posts" between Firefox and Chrome.  I've attached a screenshot to show what's happening.  In Crhrome (to the left), I'm seeing exactly 2 unread posts.  Meanwhile, Firefox is showing that I have 4 pages of unread posts - which is correct.

My access this morning went like this:  From Firefox, I looked at my e-mail, notices a number of "reported posts" clicked on the links, and also opened a new tab to look a the "Live: Reports to Moderators" article to see if anything needed action.  When I was done, I (still in Firefox) navigated to NSF's "Unread Topics" forum tab, and got the expected four pages (dating back to yesterday morning, when I last visited) of unread topics.

I then opened Google Chrome, navigated to the same "Unread topics" tab - and showed only two articles available, dating back to the time I last read ANY article (over in Firefox) - i.e, the last 5 minutes or so.

FWIW, I'm on a desktop running Windows 10 at home.  My previous session (yesterday morning) had been from Firefox on a Linux (Gentoo) system at work ...

As a software guy, this just strikes me as odd ...

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cosmicvoid on 10/18/2015 05:08 am
Today I was reading this thread:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38636.0
and after a page or two I noticed I wasn't offered "Quote" or "Like" buttons. I reopened the first page of the thread, and "Like" and "Quote" were present. Strange.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/18/2015 01:36 pm
Today I was reading this thread:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38636.0
and after a page or two I noticed I wasn't offered "Quote" or "Like" buttons. I reopened the first page of the thread, and "Like" and "Quote" were present. Strange.


Did you log out (as in your login time expired) during reading? Guests can't like or quote, which would explain it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cosmicvoid on 10/19/2015 07:45 am
Did you log out (as in your login time expired) during reading?

I virtually never log out. Can't remember when I last logged in.

Is there an inactivity timout? I commonly take breaks while reading threads, and come back in an hour or two. But I don't pay attention to the Like/Quote except for the rare times I wan't to use them.


Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Mark McCombs on 10/28/2015 08:58 pm
Request:

Is it possible to format board so when one clicks the "mark read" button, the user is returned to the section header one level up?

Thank you.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 11/07/2015 03:07 am
Hmmm... about 15 minutes ago, I started seeing slow response in forum navigation.  Then I got an error that SFM, I think it said it was, could not connect to the database.  Then the site wouldn't load at all for about a minute, and now it's loading but I'm still getting intermittently slow navigation, on the order of five to fifteen seconds of waiting for a navigation link to actually connect to the requested page.

At the same time, other websites were loading fine, and even a speed test ran fine, with very fast speeds and little jitter.

FYI...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/07/2015 10:51 am
Hmmm... about 15 minutes ago, I started seeing slow response in forum navigation.  Then I got an error that SFM, I think it said it was, could not connect to the database.  Then the site wouldn't load at all for about a minute, and now it's loading but I'm still getting intermittently slow navigation, on the order of five to fifteen seconds of waiting for a navigation link to actually connect to the requested page.

At the same time, other websites were loading fine, and even a speed test ran fine, with very fast speeds and little jitter.

FYI...

Looks like the site had a three minute-long hissy fit at about 3am GMT, but then sorted itself out. Not sure why it wouldn't be immediately back to normal for you after the hissy fit.

We do need to start the next revamp of everything soon, so all you programmers and web wizards please be on standby to chip in when we crowdsource a team from this site's membership.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: HVM on 11/19/2015 11:14 pm
Is the RSS feed down? (My FF's RSS bookmark doesn't load)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/20/2015 04:31 pm
Is the RSS feed down? (My FF's RSS bookmark doesn't load)

We'll check, but a good call would be to follow me on Twitter @nasaspaceflight.com - as that acts like a RSS feed in that I tweet the second I put an article on, with a link.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/20/2015 11:35 pm
Is the RSS feed down? (My FF's RSS bookmark doesn't load)

I think I've fixed it! ;D

I did the error checker for RSS and it found a line in my Cygnus article that had bad formatting (because I copied a line from a PDF I guess). Removed it and wrote it word for word and it seems good now! :)

Let me know!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: HVM on 11/21/2015 09:03 am
Fixed, thx.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/28/2015 02:25 pm
That minute of downtime just then was just us updating the SSL certificate. :) (In case you happened to be on site at the time).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 11/29/2015 08:40 am

That minute of downtime just then was just us updating the SSL certificate. :) (In case you happened to be on site at the time).

It threw me off the site in Tapatalk.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: spacedem on 12/04/2015 08:36 pm
Not sure if this has been brought up yet, but the forums are looking pretty janky in Microsoft's new browser.  See attached for an example.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/04/2015 09:11 pm
Not sure if this has been brought up yet, but the forums are looking pretty janky in Microsoft's new browser.  See attached for an example.



It has. Edge is a joke of a browser. I can't use it with most sites.

Best to use a better browser.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 12/04/2015 10:06 pm

Not sure if this has been brought up yet, but the forums are looking pretty janky in Microsoft's new browser.  See attached for an example.



It has. Edge is a joke of a browser. I can't use it with most sites.

Best to use a better browser.

I mostly don't really have any issues with it compared to how it was when Windows 10 was first properly released.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: bilboleo1 on 12/22/2015 03:55 pm
Chris,

Ever had any talk about creating a non-L2 subscription service? Something like my local NPR stations, where I can give a $10 donation (via text) or a sustaining $5/month membership. Idea is a bit more economical than an L2 membership while still supporting the site (call it an L1 membership?). I'm not involved in the industry, just very interested and appreciative of the NSF coverage. Don't think I could handle losing myself in the L2 library and archives (nor would my better half appreciate it), so supporting the site in a smaller way, without the L2 benefit, would still be acceptable.  And with 2 kids in college, disposable income is often nothing more than a pipe dream.
cheers
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Martin FL on 12/22/2015 05:02 pm
It's a fair point you make as L2 is massive. I've been here 10 years. I went to a lifetime L2 member seven years ago (great move on my part!) in I'm kept busy by the new stuff, but STILL finding more things. The other day I found a presentation on how they wash out the SRB segments, a massive car wash, with great photos and graphics and I thought I had read all the SRB bibles in L2. Random example, but cool! Astonishing how big L2 is.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 12/22/2015 05:34 pm
You could just get L2 for a month every now and then. There is no mandate to read L2 to support, although I understand the difficulties in handling oneself.... :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/22/2015 10:26 pm
Chris,

Ever had any talk about creating a non-L2 subscription service? Something like my local NPR stations, where I can give a $10 donation (via text) or a sustaining $5/month membership. Idea is a bit more economical than an L2 membership while still supporting the site (call it an L1 membership?). I'm not involved in the industry, just very interested and appreciative of the NSF coverage. Don't think I could handle losing myself in the L2 library and archives (nor would my better half appreciate it), so supporting the site in a smaller way, without the L2 benefit, would still be acceptable.  And with 2 kids in college, disposable income is often nothing more than a pipe dream.
cheers

The payment page for L2 actually has a blank total box, where people enter the amount to denote their term (say if someone wanted a two month subscription, they'd enter $19.99), so random donations of any amount could be sent. Let's say a billionaire is a fan of the site, he could technically send $100K (HINT, HINT MR. GATES! ;D) However, I'm not a fan of that idea of donations for no L2, as I really do believe that people who support the site get something out of that support. That's why the support is structured into a subscription model.

While we're incredibly proud of L2, no one asks you a pop quiz at the end of the day to test you were in L2 that day, I should add! :)

I do really appreciate the kind words and the reason you're asking about the above, however!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cosmicvoid on 12/26/2015 05:03 am
I am already a L2 lifetime member, but I enjoy the site a lot and, from time to time, I think about making additional contributions. I'm not aware that there is any method to do that, and I don't want to confuse my situation by 'joining L2' again to make a payment. So the "L1" idea may be useful.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: FutureSpaceTourist on 12/26/2015 05:57 am
I am already a L2 lifetime member, but I enjoy the site a lot and, from time to time, I think about making additional contributions.

Absolutely me too. Partly of course it's guilt about how good value the lifetime membership is!

But I imagine that if Chris sees new funds from a lifetime member he would understand what it's for?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/26/2015 01:40 pm
I am already a L2 lifetime member, but I enjoy the site a lot and, from time to time, I think about making additional contributions. I'm not aware that there is any method to do that, and I don't want to confuse my situation by 'joining L2' again to make a payment. So the "L1" idea may be useful.


As FST notes, it wouldn't confuse anything, but you've already done more than enough. However, if anyone wanted to, I get the notification each time and would know what its intention was. Also, you could add "donation" to the "note" in the payment form, or e-mail/PM me if you wanted to be doubly sure.

[email protected] is our paypal address that we use for L2, ads, and even the payments out such as the servers. Keeps everything ringfenced and how L2 directly pays for this site's running.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dante80 on 12/29/2015 08:10 am
The last months I have been having problems viewing embedded youtube videos in posts.

The area where the video box should be showing is empty, but the space for it is taken.

Here is an example below of a post with a youtube video (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36513.msg1351291#msg1351291), as I see it in FF.

Adblock and Noscript are disabled on Firefox.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 12/29/2015 08:54 am
The last months I have been having problems viewing embedded youtube videos in posts.

This is because you are using secured connection (https://) to browse the site and the youtube content is embedded with http:// (not secured).

There are browser settings affecting this; usually loading insecure content on to a secure site is not allowed with default settings, with a good reason.

I think the Forum admins tweaked the code some time ago, maybe something needs tinkering again.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/29/2015 09:53 am
Wouldn't want to tinker if it's just one person. Works fine for me and no one else has noted an issue with embedded Youtube. Hopefully the above post will solve Dante's problem.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: vapour_nudge on 12/29/2015 10:01 am
We've had similar issues with some of our sites as we need to block SSL3 terminations for regulatory compliance and now only allow TLS. It is always good to check your browser settings for this especially if you have an older browser and especially with IE. If you're running IE and having problems with some secure sites not being displayed, try the following settings:

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 12/29/2015 11:03 am
Wouldn't want to tinker if it's just one person. Works fine for me and no one else has noted an issue with embedded Youtube. Hopefully the above post will solve Dante's problem.

I got the same result on Opera, Chrome and Firefox.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 12/29/2015 02:00 pm
I have the same problem in Opera beta 35 with extensions disabled, and Firefox 43.0.3 with a clean profile.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 12/29/2015 09:30 pm
May have raised this before Chris. If so feel free to delete.

The Ignore List is a great way to raise the site's signal-to-noise ratio to suit one's personal taste. However, it has a limit of 54 entries. The workaround is to prune names that haven't posted for a few months but, as of today, all mine have posted within the last week (so that's no longer an option).

Is there an easy way for your sysadmin to make the list larger?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/29/2015 09:57 pm
May have raised this before Chris. If so feel free to delete.

The Ignore List is a great way to raise the site's signal-to-noise ratio to suit one's personal taste. However, it has a limit of 54 entries. The workaround is to prune names that haven't posted for a few months but, as of today, all mine have posted within the last week (so that's no longer an option).

Is there an easy way for your sysadmin to make the list larger?

Heh! I don't have anyone on ignore....but I guess I can't. Didn't even know we had such a thing!

Had a look in admin and the only option is:

"Enable buddy/ignore lists"

No setting for the amount, but that is likely a Mark level thing. Something for his to-do list.

54 people on ignore? :o Hope I'm not one of them otherwise this was a waste of time! ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 12/29/2015 10:07 pm

May have raised this before Chris. If so feel free to delete.

The Ignore List is a great way to raise the site's signal-to-noise ratio to suit one's personal taste. However, it has a limit of 54 entries. The workaround is to prune names that haven't posted for a few months but, as of today, all mine have posted within the last week (so that's no longer an option).

Is there an easy way for your sysadmin to make the list larger?

Heh! I don't have anyone on ignore....but I guess I can't. Didn't even know we had such a thing!

Had a look in admin and the only option is:

"Enable buddy/ignore lists"

No setting for the amount, but that is likely a Mark level thing. Something for his to-do list.

54 people on ignore? :o Hope I'm not one of them otherwise this was a waste of time! ;D

Not surprised you don't know about as it's a feature that's often disabled on forums by the admins.

Kind of surprised in some ways that the forum software still includes the feature myself.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 12/30/2015 01:14 pm
54 people on ignore? :o Hope I'm not one of them otherwise this was a waste of time! ;D

Undoubtedly a symptom of spending waaaay too much time on the site. And being a grumpy old git.

But NSF does have over 30,000 registered members. Not sure how many are active but would guess 54 is a vanishingly small percentage.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/30/2015 01:29 pm
Yeah, didn't know we had it, but won't be disabling it as clearly it's of use to at least Arb and probably others. We'll look into seeing why it has a limit and if that can be improved.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cosmicvoid on 12/31/2015 04:23 am
Regarding the topic of embedded video clips in the forums, they pretty much seem to be all Flash encoded. Since Flash has become such a pariah (security risk), and has such frequent patch updates, I have disabled it because I'm tired of doing updates. It would be really cool if videos could be submitted in another format, or have a way for the site to reformat Flash submittals. Is this even feasable?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 12/31/2015 04:41 am
First: I just want to say I like how likes are now. I really appreciate seeing how many likes I've given (and like some others, I would like to give out approximately as many as I receive, just because... when the feature first appeared I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was already approximately equal)....

Second: I want to ask other mods if they've come up with a good plan for handling losing one's place due to mod action. If I am several pages behind on a popular thread, and there's a mod report, if I go look at it, that resets the pointer of where I am in the thread. Meaning I might miss the latest Jim-bon-mot or whatever :)

All I've come up with is to use a different browser for mod action (I have three, FF, Opera and a not quite legit copy of Chrome, native, and three more if I open up a windows VM)... is that what everyone else does? or just not care about where they are in a thread?

Third: There's a few people I'd LIKE to ignore but as a mod, I cannot ignore anyone. :) Even though I'm a grumpy old git.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/31/2015 12:18 pm
Regarding the topic of embedded video clips in the forums, they pretty much seem to be all Flash encoded. Since Flash has become such a pariah (security risk), and has such frequent patch updates, I have disabled it because I'm tired of doing updates. It would be really cool if videos could be submitted in another format, or have a way for the site to reformat Flash submittals. Is this even feasable?


Certainly something to look into. Which we will.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/31/2015 12:59 pm
First: I just want to say I like how likes are now. I really appreciate seeing how many likes I've given (and like some others, I would like to give out approximately as many as I receive, just because... when the feature first appeared I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was already approximately equal)....

Second: I want to ask other mods if they've come up with a good plan for handling losing one's place due to mod action. If I am several pages behind on a popular thread, and there's a mod report, if I go look at it, that resets the pointer of where I am in the thread. Meaning I might miss the latest Jim-bon-mot or whatever :)

All I've come up with is to use a different browser for mod action (I have three, FF, Opera and a not quite legit copy of Chrome, native, and three more if I open up a windows VM)... is that what everyone else does? or just not care about where they are in a thread?

Third: There's a few people I'd LIKE to ignore but as a mod, I cannot ignore anyone. :) Even though I'm a grumpy old git.

I think the only way is what some other forums do. Everyone has their own username (like right now), but all the mods use one login account called "MODERATOR" that deals with all the moderation. However, having seen that in action, it does look like some robotic monster running loose moderating the place without a face. Not sure if I'm a fan of that.

Personal touch is always better, even if it results in someone getting banned from swearing and questioning people's sexuality (yep, that has happened) before finding a warm welcome for that sort of thing on Reddit, allowing him to claim I'm "worse than Hitler" for removing his "excellent comments" (yep, that also happened). ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: fgonella on 01/04/2016 06:38 pm
Just a suggestion regarding launch threads titles.
Currently, they get renamed to LIVE a couple of days before the attempt. If the launch is scrubbed the thread is renamed SCRUB, if it fails FAILED. Successful launches just remain LIVE forever.
Could they be renamed SUCCESS after confirmation of correct orbital insertion?
It would be useful to see it at a glance, even before opening the thread. (E.g. I wasn't able to follow the live update, when I log in I immediately learn that everything was all right.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 01/04/2016 09:23 pm
Just a suggestion regarding launch threads titles.
Currently, they get renamed to LIVE a couple of days before the attempt. If the launch is scrubbed the thread is renamed SCRUB, if it fails FAILED. Successful launches just remain LIVE forever.
Could they be renamed SUCCESS after confirmation of correct orbital insertion?
It would be useful to see it at a glance, even before opening the thread. (E.g. I wasn't able to follow the live update, when I log in I immediately learn that everything was all right.

Hmmm! That's not a bad idea!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: miscme on 01/06/2016 03:01 am
Is it possible to fix the bug where users can not open a topic when viewing the 'Recent Posts' list in SMF4Mobile view?

NSF 'Recent Posts' as viewed via Mobile (posts can not be clicked)
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?thememode=mobile&action=recent

SMF4Mobile 2.0 'Recent Posts' (posts can be clicked)
http://smf-media.com/community/index.php?thememode=mobile&action=recent

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dante80 on 01/06/2016 10:31 am
Have you thought about changing the forum software from the SMF platform? If yes, which platform do you see most applicable for the upgrade?

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: SkipMorrow on 01/06/2016 10:47 am
Just a suggestion regarding launch threads titles.
Currently, they get renamed to LIVE a couple of days before the attempt. If the launch is scrubbed the thread is renamed SCRUB, if it fails FAILED. Successful launches just remain LIVE forever.
Could they be renamed SUCCESS after confirmation of correct orbital insertion?
It would be useful to see it at a glance, even before opening the thread. (E.g. I wasn't able to follow the live update, when I log in I immediately learn that everything was all right.

Hmmm! That's not a bad idea!

Or maybe take it a step further and have a separate dashboard with upcoming and recent launches. It could either be a stand-alone page, or a small table that is visible on all pages in the forum, similar to how the header is there. It could be something as simple as a small 6-10 row table with just a few columns such as event name, launch time, and status. Or it could be a full page with all of the juicy details, with status icons and links back to other threads in the forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 01/11/2016 01:20 pm
Just a suggestion regarding launch threads titles.
Currently, they get renamed to LIVE a couple of days before the attempt. If the launch is scrubbed the thread is renamed SCRUB, if it fails FAILED. Successful launches just remain LIVE forever.
Could they be renamed SUCCESS after confirmation of correct orbital insertion?
It would be useful to see it at a glance, even before opening the thread. (E.g. I wasn't able to follow the live update, when I log in I immediately learn that everything was all right.

Hmmm! That's not a bad idea!

Topic text has a maximum length, which brings on its own limitations. For example, one cannot add "&Cubesats" into the current Formosat-5 launch discussion thread, which I just renamed to be in line with other recent threads.

Maybe, just maybe, suitable tags could be presented with the topic listing with an SMF addon?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Rocket Science on 01/16/2016 07:50 am
I didn't see the "like" button in the Dream Chaser Discussion thread. Cranky new born baby? ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: inonepiece on 03/05/2016 03:10 pm
Good job keeping things running under load, despite the hiccup recently with SES-9.

Still, perhaps now is the time to consider not investing in new servers, but instead investing in the capability to scale rapidly and by a large factor in times of peak demand via a provider such as Amazon AWS?

Your demand is spiky, and the timing of the peaks is also very predictable, so you should be in an ideal spot to take advantage of "cloud" hosting.  We use AWS at work to auto-scale our ecommerce site (when demand peaks, more resources are automatically provisioned), as of course do many other companies, but full auto-scaling may not be needed for NSF due to the predictable timing.  If it is necessary/desirable I don't imagine it would be unfeasible to keep much of your current setup and use AWS just to keep things running during launches.  At least in theory that should be cheaper than trying to meet peak demand with a fixed set of servers.

Because of my respect for NSF, I'd argue that there's also a missed opportunity that "cloud" hosting could meet: the ability to (affordably!) not kick out non-logged in users when things go crazy.  I do fear inaccurate and misleading information will be spread about risks like microbes coming back to Earth from Mars, runaway orbital space debris, or nuclear reactors getting launched for Mars, so especially at times of peak demand, I'd love the general public coming to NSF for its information about space exploration as much as possible, and a little less to the Daily Mail or Fox News.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/05/2016 05:29 pm
Great and timely post as this weekend I'll be setting up a thread for people within our community who are professionals with web stuff to brainstorm such ideas as noted above, through to implementation....along with other site improvements. That's the bonus side of a large community, we have a lot of people who actually care for the site who are specialists in a lot of fields. It's the biggest reason for how we got to being a 10 year old site, no question.

Cloud scaling is absolutely on the agenda, because as you note the current set up is capable for 99 percent of the time, even SpaceX launches, but when something happens like SpaceX not knowing the fate of a returning stage, everyone hits the site to see if guys here know anything - and that was the massive spike yesterday. Even without the spike we were very, very busy, but coping. The spike was also added to by Wired (1.8 million followers) tweeting us, sending a second surge with the regular surge. Also, some sites like SFN were down for about an hour apparently, whereas we were four minutes.....meaning SFN regulars were hitting us too.

I watch the activity via the embedded google analytics page I have access to and last night was amazing to see how the spike grew. It was like the supermarket doors opening on Black Friday! ;D

From the little I know (Mark deals with it and will be the final say on the brainstorming) it's not just bandwidth but disk processing etc. If cloud scaling could allow for that, then we'd do it.

Also worth linking this post - as it explains we want to keep this format for several reasons, as much as it's not an optimum design for massive events...but that could be potentially improved:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39348.msg1499878#msg1499878
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Proponent on 03/08/2016 02:32 pm
I get this message a lot when attempting searches.  Am I doing something wrong?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/08/2016 04:12 pm
I get this message a lot when attempting searches.  Am I doing something wrong?

Works for me but Mark has been working on improving it and I'll pass it on to him.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rayleighscatter on 03/10/2016 08:23 pm
Any images posted in the last couple days all show zero views to me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/10/2016 09:10 pm
Any images posted in the last couple days all show zero views to me.

Yeah, not sure what's happened there, but it's not a functional issue. I'll pass it on to Mark.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 03/18/2016 02:38 pm
Hmm... as of this morning, various functions, like clicking "Like" on a post or clicking the "Mark Read" button in a forum, automatically returns me to the main Forums page.

That's sort of disruptive, to get tossed back to the main Forum page just because you clicked "Like" on a post.  I can find my way back to the thread, but it's an annoyance that I can't imagine is intended behavior.

I guess I don't mind it as much after clicking "Mark Read" in a forum, since I intend to go back to the forums list -- but in that case, I'd rather be in the section I was in, and not at the top where I have to scroll back down.  Not as much of an annoyance, but still not the way the forum software has always worked.

FYI, I'm on Windows 10 using Chrome.  If Mark wants my detailed specs, like version numbers, etc., I'm happy to give them to him upon request.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/18/2016 04:47 pm
Hmmm, yeah - just noticed that myself. Have informed Mark.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cartman on 03/18/2016 05:55 pm
Many attached images for the past few months have a "image.jpeg" filename. This makes it pretty annoying for people like me who like to collect images from launches. I think it is probable that the forum software is renaming them, as this was very uncommon until recently.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/18/2016 06:52 pm
Many attached images for the past few months have a "image.jpeg" filename. This makes it pretty annoying for people like me who like to collect images from launches. I think it is probable that the forum software is renaming them, as this was very uncommon until recently.

I'll have a look when I cover the Soyuz launch tonight. I do know there's been some work on the URLs, and we're looking to solve a couple of bugs via that. Anyway, filename of images should be as selected by the uploader, so let's see how that works on the Soyuz launch with several people uploading.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/18/2016 07:19 pm
Hmm... as of this morning, various functions, like clicking "Like" on a post or clicking the "Mark Read" button in a forum, automatically returns me to the main Forums page.

That's sort of disruptive, to get tossed back to the main Forum page just because you clicked "Like" on a post.  I can find my way back to the thread, but it's an annoyance that I can't imagine is intended behavior.


It appears Mark has now fixed this. Can you confirm from your end?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 03/18/2016 08:03 pm
It bugged on me too, but as I was now able to like your post, it seems to be fixed.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 03/18/2016 11:32 pm
Hmm... as of this morning, various functions, like clicking "Like" on a post or clicking the "Mark Read" button in a forum, automatically returns me to the main Forums page.

That's sort of disruptive, to get tossed back to the main Forum page just because you clicked "Like" on a post.  I can find my way back to the thread, but it's an annoyance that I can't imagine is intended behavior.


It appears Mark has now fixed this. Can you confirm from your end?

Yep!  "Like" is working as normal now.

Thanks, Chris!  Thanks, Mark!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cartman on 03/20/2016 10:41 am
here is a new post where the attachment is named image.jpg
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33778.msg1505894#msg1505894

Many attached images for the past few months have a "image.jpeg" filename. This makes it pretty annoying for people like me who like to collect images from launches. I think it is probable that the forum software is renaming them, as this was very uncommon until recently.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/20/2016 12:44 pm
Ok, so that's not a site issue. That's to do with a member who only used the filename "image" in their photo uploads, which is probably because the source has used that filename. The forum software has nothing to do with the filename of the uploaded attachment.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cartman on 03/20/2016 02:14 pm
Yes you are probably right. I searched for the posts that have the same filename and they belong to one member of the site.

Ok, so that's not a site issue. That's to do with a member who only used the filename "image" in their photo uploads, which is probably because the source has used that filename. The forum software has nothing to do with the filename of the uploaded attachment.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: FutureSpaceTourist on 03/20/2016 02:39 pm
It's an iOS 'feature' that if you save an image from a web page, tweet etc and then upload it to a site then it gets uploaded with the filename "image.jpeg". There is no opportunity, that I know of, in iOS to specify a filename. Happens on some of my posts when I'm using my iPad.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Stan Black on 04/01/2016 12:13 pm
I am not able to edit some posts; cannot find the ‘modify’ button? Did try searching so sorry if I missed a previous explanation. Has the option to edit posts been removed?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/01/2016 12:16 pm
Try it again now ;) (It was a setting for all).

You may need to refresh.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Stan Black on 04/01/2016 12:23 pm
Try it again now ;) (It was a setting for all).

You may need to refresh.

Thank you!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: sanman on 04/19/2016 07:40 am
Hi, are there any kind of Tools & Tips threads where people share their calculation spreadsheets and whatever? I tried looking around, but didn't see anything.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: sanman on 04/20/2016 11:16 pm
Hi NSF site people, I had a question in relation to embedding spreadsheets inside forum posts.

Here's something I came across in regards to embedding Googledocs spreadsheets:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=250782


Quote
Google Docs is a free service by Google. Google Docs are a professional collection of "Office" applications like a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation Designer, and Drawing tool. Google Docs is a serious alternative to the very expensive Microsoft Office. Documents are stored online, can be shared among users, and in the case of this BB Code they can be embedded in other web pages.

There are several BB Codes in this collection, Google Doc (Document), Google Spreadsheet and Google Presentation. Google Drawings can be embedded using the standard [img] tags but I will give an example here anyway.

When working on any Google Document in the top right of the window will be a "Share" button with drop-down arrow. Click on this arrow and choose "Publish to Web" or "Publish / Embed" and you will be given code to link to and/or embed the document. You will be given a URL such as:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1bhtK-AhiXqfWK5bGJcULvEO3zMahcFgnJEsT1YvYsuc

What you need is the document ID which is the long string of characters after "id=" or "key=" and before the ampersand (&) if present, in this case your id is:
1bhtK-AhiXqfWK5bGJcULvEO3zMahcFgnJEsT1YvYsuc

In all cases you put the ID between the appropriate tag for the type of document.

Google Document (Word Processor Document)
[gd]1bhtK-AhiXqfWK5bGJcULvEO3zMahcFgnJEsT1YvYsuc[/gd]

Google Spreadsheet
[gs]0AmOHO6Cm8vvAdFR2b0dMMnVwMUE0MlpXYnowWnowWWc[/gs]

Google Presentation
[gp]dcjktv94_1fcpptwqc[/gp]

So I'm wondering if this functionality might be possible for NSF, if not now then in the future?
It might be useful to be able to embed spreadsheets for reference, without storing them locally.

Just a thought.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 04/21/2016 06:25 pm
I saved a thread page locally and looked at resulting .html file.
Found this fragment:

<!-- Tapatalk Detect banner body end -->
        <div id="page_wrapper">
                <div id="wrapper" style="width: 1080px">
<header>


Deleted   style="width: 1080px"   thing, saved the file and reloaded the file. The blue left/right margins are now gone.

Is there any chance you guys can take a look into this? Why forum artificially limits the width of its pages?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: sanman on 04/22/2016 07:04 am
Regarding the mobile version of this site, whenever I click on a thread to look at it, then it always brings me to the first page of the thread. However, when I browse the regular version of the site from my PC, then when I click on a thread it brings me to the last page, which is the behavior I like. Is there any way to get the mobile site to behave similarly, to save on clicks?

Sorry, it's a minor thing - I just thought I'd mention it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: watermod on 04/22/2016 02:44 pm
I saved a thread page locally and looked at resulting .html file.
Found this fragment:

<!-- Tapatalk Detect banner body end -->
        <div id="page_wrapper">
                <div id="wrapper" style="width: 1080px">
<header>


Deleted   style="width: 1080px"   thing, saved the file and reloaded the file. The blue left/right margins are now gone.

Is there any chance you guys can take a look into this? Why forum artificially limits the width of its pages?
https://goo.gl/photos/sdnQgGWjWj7R3oTy6 (https://goo.gl/photos/sdnQgGWjWj7R3oTy6)   on linux same display as gospace
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2016 02:48 pm
This is how it looks to me....to show it's actually normal (gospacex's isnt really, but his monitor looks like a square but check out the second post)

First - border is normal.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2016 02:49 pm
Google Chrome to 110 percent - less border.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2016 02:50 pm
To 125 percent. Witchcraft! There's no border.

So it's browser settings, not the site. Gospacex, can you do anything with that?

control and + to decrease border.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 04/22/2016 06:20 pm
This is how it looks to me....to show it's actually normal (gospacex's isnt really, but his monitor looks like a square but check out the second post)

First - border is normal.

Your image also shows the border (the dark blue field on both sides). You also have it, it's not my machine or browser.

What purpose that border is serving? Taking up screen space?
Well, one might say, what's the deal? The messages are still visible, so?

Let me show you a screenshot of "SpaceX Manifest Updates and Discussion Thread 3" thread, which has post with a wide table.

What do we see here? The blue border on the left is still happily eating 20% of screen width, while the table doesn't fit. Nice...

Quote
To 125 percent. Witchcraft! There's no border.

Yep. Works for me too. Border is gone. But the width of the message boxes is the same when measured in characters, just everything (characters and boxes) are now bigger. And the thread with the table still doesn't fit, it is just bigger now.


Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/22/2016 08:09 pm
You've got me a bit stumped as it's all super duper in Chrome (Windows 10, but was on the others) and it stretches the text in tandem. Only a problem when you go to a silly small size....but that's the opposite of what you want.

Have you tried playing with text size after altering the "zoom" to remove a border for you?

And yes, the border is designed, so we are talking about cheating for your preference.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 04/27/2016 07:15 pm
Well, if you want to keep the border, it means nothing will change, I can as well just live with it. :(
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 04/28/2016 05:49 pm
I know this has been complained about before, but not for a while.  Search doesn't work for squat.

The Search function needs to start supporting Boolean functions, or at least support searching for a specific search string.  As it is, if I want to find posts about Apollo 16, for example (which is what I was trying to do), all you get is every instance of the word Apollo plus every non-related instance of the numbers 1 and 6.

It's not a problem unique to this forum, but it makes the search function completely useless. Which gets frustrating -- you literally might as well just go back ten years and start plowing through everything anyone has ever posted if you want to find anything.  And when some people get snippy and say "That's already been discussed, go look it up" you just want to take your computer and apply energetically to that guy's head...

Isn't there even a way to make things typed in quotes exact search strings, and return only results which exactly match that string?  It's not as hard as coding Boolean functions, I wouldn't think, and would actually make the forums searchable.

Sorry if I'm sounding short, I found out about five hours ago that I get to have another very unplanned surgery in the next hour or so, and I imagine that's not giving me a lot of patience for trying to use a search function that's broken while I wait here in the ER to be rolled up to face the scalpels.  Sort of puts a fine edge on the frustration...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: HammerD on 04/28/2016 06:03 pm
Since maybe about 1.5 months the site does not load properly on the Blackberry Z30 web browser.  For several years it was totally fine, the website loaded perfect, then all of a sudden it stopped working.  Images don't load, the page layout is all wrong.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 04/28/2016 06:44 pm
I just tested this and Doug's right, the search function is pants, if you put in "apollo 16" (in quotes)  it shows you every post that mentions 2016 in the body (or every different topic that has 16 in it if you restrict to subject lines)... this despite the example showing using quotes.

What about just suggesting that folks use Google to search? Except for L2, it's all publicly searchable... I suspect actually fixing search would be something that the forum software developer folks have to do, it's not like there's a configuration switch in the forum software that you choose between "naff", "middling ok" and "awesome" search behavior that Chris or our fine admins can change.

(or if there is I'm in the wrong line of work)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Retired Downrange on 04/28/2016 07:03 pm
The syntax for Google search of the forums is as follows

"apollo 16" site:forum.nasaspaceflight.com
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/28/2016 07:52 pm
Hmm, no idea about that, HammerD. I'll have to defer that to clever folk.

Nice tip on the google search. I think Search became overwhelmed by the size of the forum. I do, however, find the search bar in the top of individual sections pretty good. The main search in the top bar of the forum menu seems to just act like "OMG, I have to search through ALL of those posts?" ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: IanO on 04/29/2016 04:49 pm
There is missing information in the "Upcoming Calendar" section in the "Info Center" section at the bottom of the Forum home page.  Each event lists the launch window in UTC, but omits the launch date!

Also, the multiple events are all in one paragraph, but a list would be better, or a paragraph for each event.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: kch on 04/29/2016 05:11 pm
I just tested this and Doug's right, the search function is pants, if you put in "apollo 16" (in quotes)  it shows you every post that mentions 2016 in the body (or every different topic that has 16 in it if you restrict to subject lines)... this despite the example showing using quotes.

"Pants"?  ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 04/29/2016 05:15 pm
I just tested this and Doug's right, the search function is pants, if you put in "apollo 16" (in quotes)  it shows you every post that mentions 2016 in the body (or every different topic that has 16 in it if you restrict to subject lines)... this despite the example showing using quotes.

"Pants"?  ;)

Quote
UK slang - not ​useful or of ​bad ​quality: This ​music is pants.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pants

Chris is from the UK and I snuck some UK slang in there to see if he'd comment. Either he didn't notice or chose not to :) ... it's definitely not something you hear people in the US say much unless they are anglophiles (raises hand) or from the UK.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 04/29/2016 09:57 pm
Well, if you want to keep the border, it means nothing will change, I can as well just live with it. :(

The width is limited to 1080 pixels to make it easier for your eyes to track between lines. Of course, optimum line length is defined in degrees or minutes of arc rather than centimeters – much less pixels. So, depending on the resolution and size of your monitor, and even how far you sit from it, the ideal length in pixels varies. If your viewing scenario really warrants it, you can download the Stylish (https://userstyles.org/) extension and save this as a userstyle:


@-moz-document domain("forum.nasaspaceflight.com") {
#wrapper {width: auto !important;}
}


There’s also the about:config preference layout.css.devPixelsPerPx. You can either set it to your physical dpi divided by 96, or get fancy and calculate the value you’d need in order for each pixel to make up 0.0213° of your vision given however far away you typically sit – the measurement of a “reference pixel” (https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-values/#absolute-lengths) in CSS3. Either way, you might want to round it to a whole number for the best results.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 05/05/2016 04:44 am
I just tested this and Doug's right, the search function is pants, if you put in "apollo 16" (in quotes)  it shows you every post that mentions 2016 in the body (or every different topic that has 16 in it if you restrict to subject lines)... this despite the example showing using quotes.

"Pants"?  ;)

Quote
UK slang - not ​useful or of ​bad ​quality: This ​music is pants.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pants

Chris is from the UK and I snuck some UK slang in there to see if he'd comment. Either he didn't notice or chose not to :) ... it's definitely not something you hear people in the US say much unless they are anglophiles (raises hand) or from the UK.

I learn so much from this forum... :D

And, BTW, my re-appearance after five days away fairly obviously shows that the emergency surgery I referenced in my post went as well as such things can go.  I'm back home, on pain meds, and off work for the next month or so.  Which is, I guess, a warning... ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/06/2016 02:39 pm
Thanks for living, Doug, it's much appreciated!

meanwhile, this post came up in another thread
Per the JCSAT-14 webcast, the testing for CRS-8 S1 is still "39A or McGregor" - so nothing finalized yet.

(t=790, 13:10 in video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bMeDj76ig&t=790 (https://goo.gl/SGdSAj)

Q to mods: how do I add a link to youtube in a forum post - with correct time stamp? every time I add a youtube URL, it actually embeds the video but without the timestamp

We probably should ask the tech boffins for help on this to see if they can figure out what isn't working, being able to go directly to a spot is really helpful...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gospacex on 05/06/2016 04:43 pm
Well, if you want to keep the border, it means nothing will change, I can as well just live with it. :(

The width is limited to 1080 pixels to make it easier for your eyes to track between lines. Of course, optimum line length is defined in degrees or minutes of arc rather than centimeters – much less pixels.

It would make more sense to assume that the user of the monitor did choose the monitor with width that suits his reading habits/abilities.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/07/2016 12:40 am
Well, if you want to keep the border, it means nothing will change, I can as well just live with it. :(

The width is limited to 1080 pixels to make it easier for your eyes to track between lines. Of course, optimum line length is defined in degrees or minutes of arc rather than centimeters – much less pixels.

It would make more sense to assume that the user of the monitor did choose the monitor with width that suits his reading habits/abilities.

But people choose widescreen monitors for watching videos/playing games, and rotating your display back and forth between landscape and portrait orientations when switching content type isn’t exactly commonplace with monitors (or laptops!) like it is on smartphones and tablets.

I’m curious – what size is your monitor? (The actual viewable diagonal size, not the size including the bezel that manufacturers sometimes cite.)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 05/08/2016 10:19 am
Well, if you want to keep the border, it means nothing will change, I can as well just live with it. :(

The width is limited to 1080 pixels to make it easier for your eyes to track between lines. Of course, optimum line length is defined in degrees or minutes of arc rather than centimeters – much less pixels.

It would make more sense to assume that the user of the monitor did choose the monitor with width that suits his reading habits/abilities.

But people choose widescreen monitors for watching videos/playing games, and rotating your display back and forth between landscape and portrait orientations when switching content type isn’t exactly commonplace with monitors (or laptops!) like it is on smartphones and tablets.

I’m curious – what size is your monitor? (The actual viewable diagonal size, not the size including the bezel that manufacturers sometimes cite.)
Related...

Being a grumpy-old-gitTM with tired-old-eyes I run applications full-screen and zoomed-in; always. In the case of NSF on a 1366x768 laptop (MS Windows 7, Google Chrome) my preferred zoom is 150%. Unfortunately that invariably means that a character or two are cut off by the right border (see red circle in Figure 1 below); so every new page requires a small movement of the horizontal scroll bar. Te-di-ous.

My first thought was that it's an accident, perhaps caused by the leftmost border being overlooked in the sizing calculation (see red oval in Figure 1 below). However, going up a zoom level disabuses that notion as now much more text is beyond the right border. This most definitely breaks the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

My personal preference is for a more "responsive web" approach whereby, at a sufficiently large zoom, all boarders are dispensed with and all text appears in a single, borderless window; adverts be dammed. Having said that, in NSF the left border holds important information so would need to be retained; but it is horribly wide at these zoom levels. Perhaps there are ways to shrink it; user name seems to be the driver so smaller font and move the online/offline indicator to another line - small changes that would have a significant impact.

Edit: Add Figure 1
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 05/08/2016 11:25 am
But people choose widescreen monitors for watching videos/playing games, and rotating your display back and forth between landscape and portrait orientations when switching content type isn’t exactly commonplace with monitors (or laptops!) like it is on smartphones and tablets.
Well that's certainly one reason people choose large monitors. Another is to be able to enlarge text because tired-old-eyes (per previous post). It's one of those things that can be very hard to grock unless one suffers from it or lives with someone who does.

As an example, my screen for lean-back-feet-up desk-top use is a 28" 1920x1080 ViewSonic (contrast the hunch-over 1366x768 laptop mentioned in the previous post). I zoom this to 125%. Works for me and eliminates the blue borders.

The width is limited to 1080 pixels to make it easier for your eyes to track between lines. Of course, optimum line length is defined in degrees or minutes of arc rather than centimeters – much less pixels.
It would make more sense to assume that the user of the monitor did choose the monitor with width that suits his reading habits/abilities.
I'm with GoSpaceX on this one.

It's the one place where the W3C standards just seem weird.

There may well be an optimum line length but given all the variables involved (physical screen size and resolution, window height and width selected by the user, distance of users eyes from the screen; this one in particular being unknowable to software) it's kind of academic. And not the web designers problem.

Best you can do IMHO (and I've been out of the business for a few years so may be out of date) is to ensure that the content box width is all visible in the window; hence no horizontal scrolling necessary.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/08/2016 12:21 pm
So in an ideal world the forum should be Customizable. My concern is changing things based on the preference of a few people impacting everyone else who may like the current regime.....but personal customization would solve that.

I *think* some of that can be done via "Profile" "Modify Profile" "Look and Layout" - although I'm not sure if that's because of my admin level (have a look if you're reading this).

For everyone else, don't know if it can be done, but that's what I'll add to the wish list for NSF Forum MkII (which I've always said will look, feel and work the same as what we're all used to here - hate it when sites completely change to a new format)...but where members can set their own settings via the "themes" and such, and even remove the adverts if they are a L2 member (was always a wish on my part to offer that option although we keep the ads really on the low down here.)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 05/08/2016 03:43 pm
For information, here's Modify Profile as it appears to regular users. Doesn't seem like there's anything germane to this discussion.

NSF is still far and away the best forum. Ever.

Niggles be damned.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 05/08/2016 04:00 pm
Which reminds me...

Made enquiries at the SMF Forum re enlarging the Ignore List (per an earlier conversation here).

User Arantor says at http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=545630.0 (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=545630.0):
Quote
It requires changing the members table to widen the column that if I remember correctly is called pm_ignore_list but this has ramifications for performance which is why it isn't done in core SMF.

My son (who is also in the business) posits that "has ramifications for performance" is often the get-out-of-jail-free of choice when not wanting to do something :) But it might equally well be true (I have no reason whatsoever to doubt Arantor). Be interesting to hear the NSF techies take.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Eagandale4114 on 05/11/2016 05:28 am
So in an ideal world the forum should be Customizable. My concern is changing things based on the preference of a few people impacting everyone else who may like the current regime.....but personal customization would solve that.

I *think* some of that can be done via "Profile" "Modify Profile" "Look and Layout" - although I'm not sure if that's because of my admin level (have a look if you're reading this).

For everyone else, don't know if it can be done, but that's what I'll add to the wish list for NSF Forum MkII (which I've always said will look, feel and work the same as what we're all used to here - hate it when sites completely change to a new format)...but where members can set their own settings via the "themes" and such, and even remove the adverts if they are a L2 member (was always a wish on my part to offer that option although we keep the ads really on the low down here.)

For V2 one way to solve the borders is to implement something similar to what www.macrumors.com does. If you scroll to the bottom, it shows 4 different layouts. Fluid HD scales pretty well on that site. (Im running a 17" 1900x1200 display for reference). For those who want something like what we currently have, their fixed version works. The site also implements responsive site design. Go to a forum subsection and resize it and watch the layout of the threads to see what I'm talking about. Something like that would be real cool.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Sesquipedalian on 05/12/2016 05:01 pm
I've written before about the problems with the Like system, but here is one of the clearest examples yet.

Compare Eagandale4114's post here (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40165.msg1526968#msg1526968) with TheTraveller's post here (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40165.msg1527063#msg1527063), seven posts later.  Both convey the same information.  (In fact, the intervening six posts are all part of a conversation thread that Eagandale4114 started.)

Yet, despite posting first and providing a link, Eagandale4114 received 0 likes (excluding mine just now, 11 days later) while TheTraveller received 4.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 05/17/2016 05:05 pm
Hmm... noticing an odd behavior in forum navigation.  Unfortunately, it's intermittent, which makes it difficult for me to test against variables.

What I'm seeing is that, on occasion, when I navigate to an index page at any level (be it the main forum index, a sub-index of index pages, or an index page listing the actual discussion threads), the page loads and then immediately drops me down to the very bottom of the page.

For example, if I were inside the SpaceX Missions index page and clicked on the "NASASpaceFlight.com Forum" link near the top or the bottom of the index list, instead of navigating to the main forum page and showing me to the top of the page (which is the L2 content), it suddenly jumps me down to the very bottom of the main forum index page, at the bottom of the "Users Online" list of active members currently logged in to the site.

It's not a killer, it's just annoying to have to scroll back up to the top of the page.  And it only happens occasionally, so I can't identify any triggering events or situations.  It's acting exactly like some of the navigation links have a tag like "#bottom" or something appended to them, forcing this navigation error.  But again, I'm not seeing the html coding anywhere and, since it's intermittent, I can't see if it only happens after you post, or only if you don't post, or what.

Also, I've only been using Chrome version 50.0.2661.102 m, and so I can't tell you if it's happening also in any other browsers.  And I don't use Tapatalk, so I don't have any info as to whether or not a similar glitch might be happening through that interface.

I started seeing this behavior about three or four weeks ago -- I'm pretty sure it was before my emergency surgery and the beginning of my recovery period, here, and the surgery was three weeks ago this Thursday.  It stopped happening for about a two-week period (i.e., I don't recall seeing it since I got home from the hospital two weeks ago), and I just noticed it happening again this morning.

Just wanted to let y'all know...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rosbif73 on 05/25/2016 06:11 am
This is an UPDATEs thread. Not a DISCUSSION thread. Plenty of posts here belong on the DISCUSSION thread.
Perhaps you don't understand how to do this.
Hit QUOTE on the post you'd like to respond.
Type in your answer just like you'd normally do. Don't hit the Post button.
The copy everything into the clipboard. Close the page without a Post.
Go into the DISCUSSION thread, hit REPLY, and paste the whole thing and post it there.
Voilla, your reply is now on the DISCUSSION thread.
Only post here if you have relevant information.
Even a QUESTION about an UPDATE, really belongs on the DISCUSSION thread.
If your question prompts the UPDATE post to be improved, then the mods/original poster can come on the UPDATE thread and improve it.

(Sorry if this has been suggested and/or answered before...)
Is there any way that the site software can be customised to add a "Reply to discussion thread" button in updates threads?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/25/2016 01:57 pm
OxCartMark and I were talking about the update/discussion dichotomy. This is from him, posted here with his permission. (the link goes to PMs so that might not work very well unless you are me...)

I think it's a great idea but I wonder whether it's even possible...

Regarding the below (and the general tendency to discuss in an update thread)...  I have an idea that could reduce the tendency for this to happen.  If its technically possible, which is a big if.  In threads flagged (is there a flag?) as an update thread when someone quotes and is ready to post there should be two buttons a) "Post to Update Thread" and b) Post to Discussion Thread".  Or perhaps one post button which then brings up a pop-up window which says "Do you really want to post this in an update thread or should it go into the discussion thread"


This is an UPDATEs thread. Not a DISCUSSION thread. Plenty of posts here belong on the DISCUSSION thread.
Perhaps you don't understand how to do this.
Hit QUOTE on the post you'd like to respond.
Type in your answer just like you'd normally do. Don't hit the Post button.
The copy everything into the clipboard. Close the page without a Post.
Go into the DISCUSSION thread, hit REPLY, and paste the whole thing and post it there.
Voilla, your reply is now on the DISCUSSION thread.
Only post here if you have relevant information.
Even a QUESTION about an UPDATE, really belongs on the DISCUSSION thread.
If your question prompts the UPDATE post to be improved, then the mods/original poster can come on the UPDATE thread and improve it.


What he said.

I just split off a bunch of stuff. If it didn't have "congratulations" in it, looked like a question or a discussion, and didn't have a link to an external site or an image, it got moved to the discussion thread http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33778
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Sesquipedalian on 05/25/2016 04:43 pm
Yes, it would be possible.  But you'd have to create additional buttons (reply to discussion, quote to discussion), write code to determine whether the post is part of an update thread (which could be as simple as examining the subject for the word "update"), and write code to reroute the new post to the discussion thread.  Medium difficulty and a nontrivial amount of PHP coding.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 05/25/2016 06:13 pm
Yes, it would be possible.  But you'd have to create additional buttons (reply to discussion, quote to discussion), write code to determine whether the post is part of an update thread (which could be as simple as examining the subject for the word "update"), and write code to reroute the new post to the discussion thread.  Medium difficulty and a nontrivial amount of PHP coding.

And also maintain those code changes when the forum software gets updated. Plugin is a way to go, but still a bit of a kludge.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 05/25/2016 07:05 pm
Could someone check do a  "Search"  please.  I notice that whatever I type in doesn't return any results.  Thanks,  Tony D.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/25/2016 07:07 pm
what were you searching for?

Can you find it with Google? (restricting to site:forum.nasaspaceflight.com) That's often a good check...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 05/25/2016 07:09 pm
what were you searching for?

Can you find it with Google? (restricting to site:forum.nasaspaceflight.com) That's often a good check...

I'm trying to see if the Search function is working.  I tried searching for some of previous COTS posts and or Scott Kelly post and could not get any results.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/25/2016 08:13 pm
It appears the forum software is already most of the way to being able to handle quoting update threads in discussion threads. If you copy a quote link and swap the topic parameter for a different thread number, it works fine. As a quick-and-dirty solution, all that’s needed is a bit of JS to generate a button. It could even be implemented as a userscript for testing, although it would have to use a hard-coded list of update-discussion thread pairs. Obviously a permanent solution would rely on a meta tag in the update thread.

For example, this thread is http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.0. The quote button on macpacheco’s last post in the JCSAT-14 update thread links to http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1538748;topic=39843.300;last_msg=1538757. Combine those to get http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1538748;topic=32793.0 and it will quote that post from the update thread here in the feedback thread.

Edit: Yep, works.
Edit 2: Changed post subject to avoid possible confusion.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/25/2016 08:30 pm
what were you searching for?

Can you find it with Google? (restricting to site:forum.nasaspaceflight.com) That's often a good check...

I'm trying to see if the Search function is working.  I tried searching for some of previous COTS posts and or Scott Kelly post and could not get any results.

me either. It was "working"[1] a few weeks ago when I said it was "pants" and now it's not returning anything at all.. there ARE posts with Scott Kelly in them..

https://www.google.com/search?q=Scott+Kelly+site%3Aforum.nasaspaceflight.com

There is a server upgrade coming later today, perhaps asking after that happens, as I expect the server admin folk are busy on that just at the moment??



1 - returned every single post that had Scott or Kelly in them
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/25/2016 08:48 pm
Search has always been a bit "pants" to be fair. I find it does the job in the section heads, but the main search in the forum top bar is "pants".

Server backbone - that's in work.
Then it'll be functionality - next.
Then it'll be appearance - after.

We'll be crowdsourcing the talent in the community when we get to that point (server backbone already has Mark and some talent working on it).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/25/2016 08:50 pm
well.... right now it's not working at all. The searches I tried a few weeks ago that returned many things now return nothing. Try it...  go to
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=search
put in "apollo 16"

when I posted this post  http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1525370#msg1525370

I got pages and pages and pages of returns. Now, not one thing.  Something changed.

NOTE: I'm not like demanding you fix it or anything!!!! just clarifying.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/25/2016 08:53 pm
Yeah, you're right. Will let Mark know.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 05/25/2016 09:58 pm
Yeah, you're right. Will let Mark know.

I'll fix this after/during the maintenance period.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 05/25/2016 10:58 pm
well.... right now it's not working at all. The searches I tried a few weeks ago that returned many things now return nothing. Try it...  go to
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=search
put in "apollo 16"




Fixed
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 05/26/2016 03:28 am
well.... right now it's not working at all. The searches I tried a few weeks ago that returned many things now return nothing. Try it...  go to
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=search
put in "apollo 16"




Fixed

Thanks everyone, at least I feel vindicated of not know how to do a search.. ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/26/2016 03:48 am
well.... right now it's not working at all. The searches I tried a few weeks ago that returned many things now return nothing. Try it...  go to
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=search
put in "apollo 16"
Fixed
Thanks everyone, at least I feel vindicated of not know how to do a search.. ;)
Actually we faked the whole thing just to make you feel better...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/26/2016 03:55 pm
It appears the forum software is already most of the way to being able to handle quoting update threads in discussion threads. If you copy a quote link and swap the topic parameter for a different thread number, it works fine. As a quick-and-dirty solution, all that’s needed is a bit of JS to generate a button. It could even be implemented as a userscript for testing, although it would have to use a hard-coded list of update-discussion thread pairs. Obviously a permanent solution would rely on a meta tag in the update thread.

For example, this thread is http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.0 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.0). The quote button on macpacheco’s last post in the JCSAT-14 update thread links to http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1538748;topic=39843.300;last_msg=1538757 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1538748;topic=39843.300;last_msg=1538757). Combine those to get http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1538748;topic=32793.0 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=post;quote=1538748;topic=32793.0) and it will quote that post from the update thread here in the feedback thread.

Edit: Yep, works.

And, here’s that quick-and-dirty userscript:


// ==UserScript==
// @name         NSF Quote in Discussion Thread Button (Alpha)
// @namespace    http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=profile;u=20610
// @version      0.1
// @description  Creates a button on NASASpaceFlight.com forum posts that allows easy quoting of update threads in discussion threads.
// @author       WulfTheSaxon
// @match        http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?*
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

function createQIDTButtons()
{
    var discussionThread = "33778.0";
    var buttonGroups = document.querySelectorAll(".quickbuttons");
    var quoteButtons = document.querySelectorAll(".quote_button");
    var quoteLinks = document.querySelectorAll(".quote_button a");
    for (var i = 0; i < buttonGroups.length; i++) {
        var qidtButtons = quoteButtons[i].cloneNode(true);
        qidtButtons.className = qidtButtons.className + " qidt_button";
        qidtButtons.childNodes[0].innerHTML = "Quote in Discussion Thread";
        buttonGroups[i].insertBefore(qidtButtons, buttonGroups[i].lastChild);
        buttonGroups[i].querySelector(".qidt_button a").href = quoteLinks[i].href.replace(/topic=\d.*/i,"topic="+discussionThread);
    }
}

document.ready(createQIDTButtons());



Attached is a self-contained testcase for the meta tag behavior. Alternatives that would require no code changes(!) could include putting the discussion thread number at the end of the update thread name, or (ab)using the thread tag system.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/26/2016 07:34 pm
Hope I didn't mess that up with the edit as we can't have that previous post title. It would confuse people.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/26/2016 08:50 pm
Hope I didn't mess that up with the edit as we can't have that previous post title. It would confuse people.

Hmm… That’s how SMF works when you hand it a link asking it to quote one thread in another. Would that be a problem for a production implementation? ISTM it’d actually make more sense that way, since the post would in fact be regarding the other thread. (Obviously my test post didn’t have anything to do with the JCSAT thread, so point taken there.)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mrbliss on 05/26/2016 09:58 pm

NSF is still far and away the best forum. Ever.


There was a better forum once upon a turn of the millennium, where users could switch views between threaded discussion mode and chronological list mode. And read and post via email, web or NNTP. And compartmentalized dorkdom was celebrated, and ...

Never mind, that's off topic.  And it's all over now, anyway.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Sesquipedalian on 05/26/2016 10:20 pm
It could even be implemented as a userscript for testing, although it would have to use a hard-coded list of update-discussion thread pairs. Obviously a permanent solution would rely on a meta tag in the update thread.

I wouldn't rely on a meta tag, as this requires both threads to be tagged and matched -- too tedious to do on a regular basis.  Instead, I would search the thread title for the word "update", then do a query to see if another thread existed with the same title but "discussion" in place of "update".  But this would need to be done server-side.


There was a better forum once upon a turn of the millennium, where users could switch views between threaded discussion mode and chronological list mode. And read and post via email, web or NNTP. And compartmentalized dorkdom was celebrated, and ...

Would this other forum have been frequented by a certain global moderator?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/26/2016 11:53 pm
It could even be implemented as a userscript for testing, although it would have to use a hard-coded list of update-discussion thread pairs. Obviously a permanent solution would rely on a meta tag in the update thread.

I wouldn't rely on a meta tag, as this requires both threads to be tagged and matched -- too tedious to do on a regular basis.  Instead, I would search the thread title for the word "update", then do a query to see if another thread existed with the same title but "discussion" in place of "update".  But this would need to be done server-side.

Certainly the more powerful solution – I’m just brainstorming whether it’s possible to kludge together some sort of client-side implementation.

Of course, you could search for an identically-named discussion thread client-side as well, but you’d either end up loading the forum index with every update thread pageview (I can feel the server’s pain!) or trying to keep an up-to-date list of thread-pairs in a cookie (more kludge than even I’m willing to undertake).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/27/2016 02:21 am

NSF is still far and away the best forum. Ever.


There was a better forum once upon a turn of the millennium, where users could switch views between threaded discussion mode and chronological list mode. And read and post via email, web or NNTP. And compartmentalized dorkdom was celebrated, and ...

Never mind, that's off topic.  And it's all over now, anyway.
No it isn't. It's just resting.

Would this other forum have been frequented by a certain global moderator?
Rumor has it he was even a moderator there once, before the entire moderation scheme came crashing down in an epic implosion that is educational to review to this day, with lessons on how gentle of a touch works, as well as how much backing the site owner needs to give mods... among other things.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/27/2016 02:26 am
Of course, you could search for an identically-named discussion thread client-side as well, but you’d either end up loading the forum index with every update thread pageview (I can feel the server’s pain!) or trying to keep an up-to-date list of thread-pairs in a cookie (more kludge than even I’m willing to undertake).
Put the hard coded list of pairs in a special  single post thread that only mods can edit but which is globally readable, then you don't have to load the index, just that post, and maybe that post isn't too much to load in a cookie.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/27/2016 02:06 pm
Of course, you could search for an identically-named discussion thread client-side as well, but you’d either end up loading the forum index with every update thread pageview (I can feel the server’s pain!) or trying to keep an up-to-date list of thread-pairs in a cookie (more kludge than even I’m willing to undertake).
Put the hard coded list of pairs in a special  single post thread that only mods can edit but which is globally readable, then you don't have to load the index, just that post, and maybe that post isn't too much to load in a cookie.

I don’t think that would be much gentler on the server than checking the forum index (and it’d be extra work for the mods).

The trouble with any solution that ever involves loading another page is that there’s some degree of extra server load. You can try to minimize that by storing the thread pairs in a cookie and only checking the other page if there’s no corresponding value in the cookie already – but then what happens if a thread title ends in “ -  UPDATES” but for some reason there isn’t a corresponding “ - DISCUSSION” thread? It would load the index with every view of the updates thread, doubling the server load. So then you’d need to add more code to, say, not check again within a time period that starts at 60 seconds and doubles with each attempt.

It all gets very complicated if you go down the scraping/cookie rabbit hole, and at that point writing an SMF mod would definitely be the easier solution (it’s the better solution either way, just not as easy).  :P
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AJA on 05/28/2016 06:10 pm
Is the advanced search not working for anyone else?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 05/28/2016 09:28 pm
Is the advanced search not working for anyone else?

I get “An Error Has Occurred! Unable to access the search daemon”.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 05/31/2016 09:32 pm
Is the advanced search not working for anyone else?

I get “An Error Has Occurred! Unable to access the search daemon”.

Is that still the case for anyone ? working alright from what I can see
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rcoppola on 05/31/2016 09:40 pm
Is the advanced search not working for anyone else?

I get “An Error Has Occurred! Unable to access the search daemon”.

Is that still the case for anyone ? working alright from what I can see
Working quite well. Nice Job.

OS 10.11.5 Safari 9.1.1
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 06/01/2016 10:25 pm
Okay, that was weird.  For about one minute, between 5:22 and 5:23 pm CDT, I could display the main forum index page but every time I selected a sub-forum to look at, like Historical or Advanced, I got an HTTP 500 error.  The connection problem wizard couldn't identify the problem, the error said that the website server could not handle the request.

It was a very short glitch.  Y'all making tweaks to the site?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 06/06/2016 11:09 pm
What happened that set the new post marker on this thread to this post? http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40127.msg1525044#msg1525044

Not sure where the new posts begin and the old posts end. I've seen this bug crop up a lot on these forums.

Also occurred here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40127.msg1527522#msg1527522

Some change that got made in the last few days reset those posts to the posts I linked into those topics instead of the actual new posts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 06/06/2016 11:17 pm
Remember guys. Don't embed pictures. Always attach them. Saves the thread getting messed up when quoted and the potential they may be wider than the width of the page.
Given that admonitions such as this pop up quite frequently, is it possible to turn-off/disable the ability to embed?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 06/07/2016 01:46 pm
You want some feedback?  Well, here's some feedback, this site is still great.  Keep up the good work everyone!!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Sesquipedalian on 06/07/2016 05:53 pm
What happened that set the new post marker on this thread to this post? http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40127.msg1525044#msg1525044

Not sure where the new posts begin and the old posts end. I've seen this bug crop up a lot on these forums.

Also occurred here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40127.msg1527522#msg1527522

Some change that got made in the last few days reset those posts to the posts I linked into those topics instead of the actual new posts.

I've seen this happen myself, several times.  I think it happens when a thread is moderated (posts split or deleted) or an upstream post is edited.  Would be nice to have it fixed.


Remember guys. Don't embed pictures. Always attach them. Saves the thread getting messed up when quoted and the potential they may be wider than the width of the page.
Given that admonitions such as this pop up quite frequently, is it possible to turn-off/disable the ability to embed?

Yes, this is a simple matter of turning off the relevant bbcode tag(s).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 06/09/2016 09:05 am
Remember guys. Don't embed pictures. Always attach them. Saves the thread getting messed up when quoted and the potential they may be wider than the width of the page.
Given that admonitions such as this pop up quite frequently, is it possible to turn-off/disable the ability to embed?

Yes, this is a simple matter of turning off the relevant bbcode tag(s).

I wish the forums supported Markdown which is much more pleasant to use rather than archaic 20 year old bbcode tags (invented 18 years ago). The idea that you should have to close your tags is kind of silly.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 06/09/2016 04:14 pm
Remember guys. Don't embed pictures. Always attach them. Saves the thread getting messed up when quoted and the potential they may be wider than the width of the page.
Given that admonitions such as this pop up quite frequently, is it possible to turn-off/disable the ability to embed?

Yes, this is a simple matter of turning off the relevant bbcode tag(s).

I wish the forums supported Markdown which is much more pleasant to use rather than archaic 20 year old bbcode tags (invented 18 years ago). The idea that you should have to close your tags is kind of silly.

Eww, pls no.

BTW: Could we get the HTML strong element enabled? It’s essentially identical to b, but without muddying the boundary of semantics and style (em, the clearer version of i, is already enabled).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/09/2016 04:19 pm
All good stuff. It's for Mark to work these suggestions, but it's a good place to post them, so don't think we're ignoring, all gets read and worked :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: First Mate Rummey on 06/10/2016 05:37 pm
Hi, I want to suggest to use https for the forum, and eventually the main site. Free certificates are available by LetsEncrypt.
Thanks!  :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 06/10/2016 06:54 pm
Hi, I want to suggest to use https for the forum, and eventually the main site. Free certificates are available by LetsEncrypt.
Thanks!  :)

Both these seem to work for me:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php) (browser reports some images are not secure in individual threads)

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/) (browser reports some unsecured content on main page)

And both sites are verified by Let's Encrypt
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/10/2016 06:56 pm
Yep! Mark sorted that all out this year.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: First Mate Rummey on 06/10/2016 07:02 pm
Thanks, i wasn't aware it was enabled!
(You may eventually want to add an http -> https redirect on the web server and eventually enable HSTS, so that https is the default for everyone, if server load is not an issue).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: winkhomewinkhome on 06/12/2016 04:48 am
under the heading of either additions and or improvements.

Would it be possible to a an NSF date/clock of each forum page so the reader has a better relative reference as to when a most was made and when it was then being read.

Thank you -
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: pericynthion on 07/03/2016 05:44 pm
Speaking of HTTPS, looks like the certificate expired today and needs to be renewed :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/03/2016 05:48 pm
Speaking of HTTPS, looks like the certificate expired today and needs to be renewed :)

Thanks. I'll ping Mark.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: freda on 07/03/2016 06:16 pm
A thought.. as one of the primary "magnets" that draw people into the NSF Forums, the block on the opening page that displays the 5 most recent Forum posts might could be expanded to a larger number; something like 10?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: AnalogMan on 07/07/2016 02:02 pm
A regular suggestion regarding acronyms, but I thought I'd give it another airing:


don't we have an acronyms list where if you scrolled over say PMA it would translate it into layman's terms?? or did that list die in a fiery death in one of the Forum updates without anyone noticing???

old one, but attached.

I wish the website can implement the acronym list as a mouse-over tool-tip for the Forum. in other words, moving your mouse over an acronym would pop up the full name briefly. This would increase the IQ of NSF members by at least 30 :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 07/08/2016 03:46 am
A regular suggestion regarding acronyms, but I thought I'd give it another airing:

I wish the website can implement the acronym list as a mouse-over tool-tip for the Forum. in other words, moving your mouse over an acronym would pop up the full name briefly. This would increase the IQ of NSF members by at least 30 :)

I would personally benefit a LOT from this but there needs to be an investigation of whether this puts too much load on the servers... if you had to choose between this, and servers going dark during high traffic periods... which would you choose? I know which I would.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: miscme on 07/08/2016 06:43 am
Depends on how the feature is implemented, it can be done by adding only a small amount of code (javascript) that the server would send to the client (smaller than one of the banner ads and would be cached after 1st visit).

The visitor's web browser would do the extra work which involves downloading a dictionary list of NSF acronyms and displaying expanded text when the mouse hovers over a matched acronym.

Some Sub-Redit's are using this site for their acronym dictionaries http://www.decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: TinkerLaspeyrs on 07/08/2016 09:18 am
I have been reading this site for a while and I think I'm getting a handle on this acronym thing.
ISTM and AFAIK IIRC and this is only IMHO the use of TLAs, FLAs etc is SOP and TB
H AIUI a bit like the SH WRT Txting on mobiles FWIW TBH. You pick it up eventually and the pattern recognition part of your brain adds it to your vocabulary. A bit like recognising the meaning of a word without sounding it out like a preschool kid. You just get to know what it means without even expanding the MLA out to individual words. Acronym Finder is your friend. But you will still find there is sometimes context needed. eg TVC is Trapped Vortex Combustion if it relates to the violence going on in the combustion chamber, and Thrust Vector Control if you talking about steering your stick.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 07/12/2016 01:21 pm
Another improve-signal-to-noise-ratio-via-personal-preference idea for consideration:

Add a "Hide" button alongside each thread on each Section page so one can avoid seeing even the title of threads that are of no interest.

Personally I'd be glad for them to be gone forever but that's clearly not generally acceptable so there'd have to be a "Hidden Threads List" under each users "Profile" from which they can restore any threads they wish (somewhat similar to how the "Ignore List" works; but with no size limit!).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 07/12/2016 02:23 pm
I would probably use such a "Hide" function, but to be honest, there are any number of occasions when I happen to glance at a thread or even a whole forum that I would normally not be interested in, and suddenly find a topic or a statement that I find interesting, or have a comment about.  And with "topic wander," sometimes you can find an excellent discussion of, say, helpful Mars pressure suit characteristics in a thread that's supposed to be about Martian agriculture, or somesuch.

As it is, using the "Mark Read" function takes very little time, and lets me make a positive decision as to which threads I want to skip.  Were I to simply mark the entire "Advanced Concepts" forum to be hidden, for example, I might miss a discussion that I would otherwise find interesting.

So, I guess I'm of two minds about this.  It could be a useful tool, but it could also let people apply such a set of blinders that you get arguments based out of unintended ignorance -- and I suppose my concern is just that we have enough arguments made from ignorance here, why encourage even more?  ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Jeff Lerner on 07/12/2016 06:17 pm
I'd like to add my vote for a "Hide" function....no offence to the posters and contributors to the EM Drive Decelpments  Thread but I'd really like a way to stop that thread from showing up ALL THE TIME, in my Recent Forum Posts section of the NSF main page...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 07/18/2016 02:20 am
It occurred to me, while posting about the lack of a link to the technical broadcast direct from SpaceX's website as opposed to via YouTube, that people are always placing embedded YouTube player windows into their posts that reference the webcasts.

If someone plays a YouTube streaming event via an embedded window, does that go through the forum's servers?  Could that be one reason why things like these launch events are so hard on the servers?

I only ask because I've noted before that when I try to open, say, the technical webcast link for a Falcon launch via the embedded stream window, it usually fails badly right during liftoff and the first stages of flight, whereas when I have been able to watch the webcast directly through the SpaceX site, I've not noticed those difficulties.  It occurred to me that the embedded stream window might be streaming via the forum's servers, and when our servers become stressed, all of the embedded streaming windows tend to go into endless buffering.

Just wondering if this kind of thing might be happening...?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mheney on 07/18/2016 02:36 am
I was actually having trouble NOT embedding the video - I couldn't figure out a tag to say "treat this as text, not a youtube URL.  www dot youtube dot com still embedded the video (even without the https://); I had to trm it to youtube dot com to get the text only to display.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 07/18/2016 02:50 am
I was actually having trouble NOT embedding the video - I couldn't figure out a tag to say "treat this as text, not a youtube URL.  www dot youtube dot com still embedded the video (even without the https://); I had to trm it to youtube dot com to get the text only to display.

I wondered if that wasn't the way of it, in terms of how YouTube embeds itself into forum posts and such.  Another example of an "Oh, you didn't want to provide a link, you wanted to embed a window, there, fixed that for you" type of mentality of some of the software developers out there.

Still, I do wonder if embedding through another website's pages does force the streaming traffic through that site's servers.  I guess it's more curiosity than anything else.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/18/2016 03:03 am


If someone plays a YouTube streaming event via an embedded window, does that go through the forum's servers?  Could that be one reason why things like these launch events are so hard on the servers?



No, as we're not "serving" the content.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: the_other_Doug on 07/18/2016 03:07 am


If someone plays a YouTube streaming event via an embedded window, does that go through the forum's servers?  Could that be one reason why things like these launch events are so hard on the servers?



No, as we're not "serving" the content.

Thanks!  I didn't know how much of the content that appeared on the web page came directly through the servers you guys use, and how much gets delivered in some nifty way via a direct outside link in.

Now I know... :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 07/18/2016 04:26 am
I was actually having trouble NOT embedding the video - I couldn't figure out a tag to say "treat this as text, not a youtube URL.  www dot youtube dot com still embedded the video (even without the https://); I had to trm it to youtube dot com to get the text only to display.

If you don’t want it to be a link at all, the tag you’re looking for is [nobbc]. Otherwise, here’s what I wrote to Rik ISS-fan a couple months ago:

Is there a trick to make a non video youtube link?)

You just have to leave out the www in the url tag. Might break at some point if the video embed mod becomes a bit less naïve, but it works for now.

Live example: https://youtube.com/watch?v=r7LqbxsNiyc (https://youtube.com/watch?v=r7LqbxsNiyc)





If someone plays a YouTube streaming event via an embedded window, does that go through the forum's servers?  Could that be one reason why things like these launch events are so hard on the servers?



No, as we're not "serving" the content.

Thanks!  I didn't know how much of the content that appeared on the web page came directly through the servers you guys use, and how much gets delivered in some nifty way via a direct outside link in.

Now I know... :)

You can see a handy visualization of resources being loaded in realtime by using your browser’s developer tools. In most browsers, you can get to it by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J and then clicking the Network tab.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: catdlr on 07/18/2016 04:28 am
I've been using the following method, just add ?t=001 to the end of the tag.  example

https://youtu.be/FCCyVCvN2bo?t=001
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 07/19/2016 03:50 pm
Is there anywhere simple instructions for embedding YouTube video in a post. A quick Google turns up nothing.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 07/19/2016 04:06 pm
Pasting the URL should be enough. Forum automatically embeds it.

testing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdA51vi0Y_0
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 07/20/2016 05:34 pm
Pasting the URL should be enough. Forum automatically embeds it.
Yep, that works; thanks.

How about with a time code eg
https://youtu.be/VnbiVw_1FNs?t=2m7s
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 07/20/2016 05:42 pm
Ah, there's a bug. The forum is changing the URL by inserting "watch?v=. It should be
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 07/20/2016 06:20 pm
youtu.be is a shorthand version. I think youtube changes that into full youtube.com style url when following any link with that type. I think the forum software/plugin just enabled the embedding for the full version..
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: CyndyC on 07/28/2016 11:56 pm
What is the current status of the intent Chris B mentioned some months ago to convert the board into automatically updating threads, more particularly desirable for live launch & docking threads? Is there anything members can do to hasten the development of that feature, such as contribute beyond normal L2 subscription fees?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/29/2016 12:54 am
What is the current status of the intent Chris B mentioned some months ago to convert the board into automatically updating threads, more particularly desirable for live launch & docking threads? Is there anything members can do to hasten the development of that feature, such as contribute beyond normal L2 subscription fees?

Can you quote where I said that, because we're keeping this format. Perhaps you misread what I said....will need to see the post.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: CyndyC on 07/29/2016 02:40 pm
What is the current status of the intent Chris B mentioned some months ago to convert the board into automatically updating threads, more particularly desirable for live launch & docking threads? Is there anything members can do to hasten the development of that feature, such as contribute beyond normal L2 subscription fees?

Can you quote where I said that, because we're keeping this format. Perhaps you misread what I said....will need to see the post.

If you don't remember saying it, then that's probably because you didn't. I did some searching anyway, but when I tried the keywords "live updates" in quotes, the redundant meaning became obvious. I must have read the meaning in question into an incidence of the phrase "live updates", which of course are already everywhere on NSF.

I wasn't asking about a change to the format other than that, thinking automatic updating might require no more than some kind of plug-in behind the scenes, but it has been about 20 years since I last did any programming other than HTML.

In my search, I did come across something more enlightening. I had somehow forgotten something you said in response to some questions I had when I joined:

                                           ***this massive worldwide forum started with only five people***
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/29/2016 02:46 pm
What is the current status of the intent Chris B mentioned some months ago to convert the board into automatically updating threads, more particularly desirable for live launch & docking threads? Is there anything members can do to hasten the development of that feature, such as contribute beyond normal L2 subscription fees?

Can you quote where I said that, because we're keeping this format. Perhaps you misread what I said....will need to see the post.

If you don't remember saying it, then that's probably because you didn't. I did some searching anyway, but when I tried the keywords "live updates" in quotes, the redundant meaning became obvious. I must have read the meaning in question into an incidence of the phrase "live updates", which of course are already everywhere on NSF.

I wasn't asking about a change to the format other than that, thinking automatic updating might require no more than some kind of plug-in behind the scenes, but it has been about 20 years since I last did any programming other than HTML.

In my search, I did come across something more enlightening. I had somehow forgotten something you said in response to some questions I had when I joined:

                                           ***this massive worldwide forum started with only five people***

Copy all! Yeah, the first week we had just a room full of people here. I can't remember when we got our first surge, but we started with covering Return To Flight STS-114 and it was only going to be Shuttle stuff. We had a big break with the PAL ramp photos after Discovery's launch which showed we already had some good Shuttle workers helping us and no one seemed to have that, apart from the since-defunct SDC forum that had a version of Jim on SDC (telling everyone they are wrong ;D) and a google mail group that died due to no spam control.

Wasn't long after that we started covering other rockets, Sea Launch and someone called Elon Musk and his plans, were the first two big ones we covered, outside of the Agencies. Not sure what became of Elon. We'll have to check ;D

Anyhoo, yeah, we really want to freshen the place up, but massive changes never work. Will be improvements, but this is our core and what we're known for. We'll work on it and find a happy medium to update us, but not lose our identity (News Site. Discussion Forum).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Nomadd on 08/03/2016 04:56 am
 I know this is a misuse of this thread, but where could I ask someone a question about my profiles?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/03/2016 10:56 am
I know this is a misuse of this thread, but where could I ask someone a question about my profiles?


Here or start a thread on it in this section? :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Nomadd on 08/04/2016 01:55 am
 I was just wondering if there was enough wizardry in here to merge my two profiles. For some reason I can't remember, I was posting as Nomadd22 for a while in 08/09.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/04/2016 11:12 am
I was just wondering if there was enough wizardry in here to merge my two profiles. For some reason I can't remember, I was posting as Nomadd22 for a while in 08/09.


Oooh, seems not. :( We can merge threads, but not accounts. We can only rename accounts.

So if someone doesn't like their username anymore, we can rename it (which renames the username on all posts and messages sent  previously), but if they create a second username and use that, we can't combine to two accounts.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: MP99 on 08/04/2016 07:39 pm
I was just wondering if there was enough wizardry in here to merge my two profiles. For some reason I can't remember, I was posting as Nomadd22 for a while in 08/09.


Oooh, seems not. :( We can merge threads, but not accounts. We can only rename accounts.

So if someone doesn't like their username anymore, we can rename it (which renames the username on all posts and messages sent  previously), but if they create a second username and use that, we can't combine to two accounts.
ISTR this applies to everything except replies where the user is quoted, which remain showing the old user name.

This was quite some time ago, so may have been fixed now.

Cheers, Martin
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Nomadd on 08/06/2016 05:13 am
 Well, since this is a feedback thread, even though this is completely unrelated to new formats, I thought it might be a place for a 2 cent, 3 Guinness post.
 I hadn't been frequenting the "The Mars settlement / Martian homesteading narrative 2" thread until just before it got limboed for turning into a CNN comments section. But, there were some things in there I thought to be annoyingly thought provoking, and hope that it hasn't been permanently removed from the continuum.
 I much appreciate the unappreciated job (That made more sense when it was in my brain) of running this place and am in awe of the job the mods do in keeping the quality up. I wish I had some suggestions as to how to keep it that way without losing things which shouldn't be lost, but I'm just a Texan in a Mexican/Irish bar, bothering the boss.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: A_M_Swallow on 08/11/2016 07:45 pm
I killed the banner advert from 'Qurbani'. It repeatedly dragged the viewing area down. I am happy to watch an advert but not when I am reading something else.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/11/2016 09:26 pm
I killed the banner advert from 'Qurbani'. It repeatedly dragged the viewing area down. I am happy to watch an advert but not when I am reading something else.

Yeah, that bottom google ad is random to everyone, but any annoying ones can be killed by hitting the X in the right hand side and it'll never show again.

We'll be looking to sort that ad space out via the NSF2017 effort.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: First Mate Rummey on 08/19/2016 04:51 pm
Two forum issues on mobile Chrome:
YouTube videos are too large, also can't see the full screen button, because it's outside the screen; they should be resized to current screen horizontal size.
On polls I cannot vote and can only see one of the results.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/21/2016 12:38 pm
Let me try that on my iPotato with Chrome...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANv5UfZsvZQ

Polls - will check. People are voting in polls, so it may be your browser again? I'll do some random voting on different browsers to see.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/21/2016 12:40 pm
Hmmm, video worked really well on my iPhone 6 and Chrome. Not using that awful tapatalk are you? I always use "full site" when on NSF on my phone.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: First Mate Rummey on 08/21/2016 05:39 pm
I am using Chrome on Android, no Tapatalk.
I tried forcing the desktop layout, it still use the mobile version, but videos are now much smaller! So it's a workaround at least.
Thanks for the reply :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Nomadd on 08/21/2016 06:18 pm
Hmmm, video worked really well on my iPhone 6 and Chrome. Not using that awful tapatalk are you? I always use "full site" when on NSF on my phone.
Glad to hear it. I was afraid you were pushing Taptalk from all those banners that keep appearing.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/22/2016 12:01 pm
Hmmm, video worked really well on my iPhone 6 and Chrome. Not using that awful tapatalk are you? I always use "full site" when on NSF on my phone.
Glad to hear it. I was afraid you were pushing Taptalk from all those banners that keep appearing.

What banners?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 08/22/2016 05:44 pm
Upon first browsing the site with a mobile device, the tapatalk plugin puts a banner to hint that the forum supports tapatalk. The banner can then be hidden.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 08/22/2016 05:46 pm
Upon first browsing the site with a mobile device, the tapatalk plugin puts a banner to hint that the forum supports tapatalk. The banner can then be hidden.

Well that sucks. Tapatalk seem to really love themselves (with that added signature on the bottom of posts).

I say we look at a better mobile solution (as suggested in the NSF 2017 section) :)

Me: Full site on iPotato. I'm old skool ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Rocket Science on 09/18/2016 07:27 pm
I can't seem to load the home page and tried different browsers...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/18/2016 07:49 pm
We're on it. Standby.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/18/2016 07:57 pm
Let me know if that's fixed now! :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hobbes-22 on 09/18/2016 08:06 pm
Loads OK for me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Orbiter on 09/18/2016 08:08 pm
A-OK here.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Rocket Science on 09/18/2016 08:31 pm
A-OK! Thanks :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WBailey on 10/06/2016 03:46 pm
Starting today (10/6/2016) I've been redirected from NSF to advertisement pages, not a pop up but entirely changing pages. I don't think it is adware on my end as it has only happened on NSF, not any other page. Probably a banner ad or something, just happened to me again at 11:44 EST.

First I get redirected to dnshost.me, then engine.spotscenered.info, then an advertisement. Most recent final page was www.reimageplus.com
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/06/2016 04:00 pm
That is *usually* your browser on a redirect issue like that. Happened to me once last year and it was the browser.

The big trick is if something goes wrong was the site, hundreds of people would be noting it. I'll ask Mark if such an issue is reported by other people.

Remember, it may "seem" like it's only happening on this site, but the issue may be only activated by this type of PHP style site, or something like that. I'd try a different browser, as one trick or have a quick scan clean, etc.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WBailey on 10/06/2016 04:02 pm
That is *usually* your browser on a redirect issue like that. Happened to me once last year and it was the browser.

The big trick is if something goes wrong was the site, hundreds of people would be noting it. I'll ask Mark if such an issue is reported by other people.

Remember, it may "seem" like it's only happening on this site, but the issue may be only activated by this type of PHP style site, or something like that. I'd try a different browser, as one trick or have a quick scan clean, etc.

I'm running wireshark now on a round robin file, I'll let you know if I get a packet capture of it happening again.

Edit: Hope you don't mind me viewing NSF even more than usual trying to see it again  :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/06/2016 04:29 pm


Edit: Hope you don't mind me viewing NSF even more than usual trying to see it again  :)

Fire away sir. Fire away! ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WBailey on 10/07/2016 02:20 pm
I succeeded at getting a packet capture today, but I forgot to set it up so I could decrypt TLS, and it looks like some of the interesting parts were encrypted. Since it has happened 3 times over 2 days I'm confident I'll get it again. I'll send you the capture I did get after I redact all the extraneous info in it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: SWGlassPit on 10/20/2016 02:32 pm
In the last few days, the AdChoices banner at the bottom of the page has been exceedingly aggressive about trying to load active media (videos with sound), which I have blocked with a browser script because I work in an office where computers randomly blasting sound is unacceptable.  This also frequently causes my mobile chrome browser to crash.  (Also seeing ads for Ukrainian mail order brides in that space as well  :o )

Is there any way these can be toned down, or are you completely at the mercy of whatever the ad provider wants to put on there?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/20/2016 07:45 pm
In the last few days, the AdChoices banner at the bottom of the page has been exceedingly aggressive about trying to load active media (videos with sound), which I have blocked with a browser script because I work in an office where computers randomly blasting sound is unacceptable.  This also frequently causes my mobile chrome browser to crash.  (Also seeing ads for Ukrainian mail order brides in that space as well  :o )

Is there any way these can be toned down, or are you completely at the mercy of whatever the ad provider wants to put on there?

Well the bottom line is we want rid of those ads anyway. They are rather random, localized and set "for you" - such as if I was browsing for a new portable harddrive, it's likely that ad will be PC World or something later in the day. Anyway, we would rather use that area for static or specific ads like Amazon space books, etc.

For the meantime, you should be able to stop any non-static ads, as they will have an X in the top right corner to stop them ever displaying for you again.

It should be very rare, but the one time I saw a rather annoying ad, that's what I did. But yeah, the idea is for something better in that placement.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/28/2016 08:16 pm
Apologies if you found the site sluggish over the last 10 mins. Noticed it as I was uploading something and the site seemed like it was walking in deep mud. Site was still up and people entering, but noticed a bit of a surge on the stats when the site sorted itself out, so I think it wasn't just me struggling.

Probably some handover at the host in Texas, but it automatically notices service issues and likely "turned it off and on again" ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 11/11/2016 03:06 pm
When I receive notification emails on android (7.0) the hyper links to the forum post are not clickable. When I receive the same email on thunderbird on the desktop they are clickable.

Has anybody else noticed this problem?
Any fixes?

BTW I use the default email client on android.

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/27/2016 11:35 pm
We're aware of a "too many redirects" error on one news site article. No idea why it's just that one, but Mark will fix it. Nothing else is affected.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 11/28/2016 12:25 am
The problem I'm talking about is the hyperlink to the forum is text instead of clickable
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/28/2016 01:06 am
The problem I'm talking about is the hyperlink to the forum is text instead of clickable

Sorry, I was speaking about something completely different. Per your question, that's not actually the site. That's your e-mail client. The site is sending the links out correctly/there's nothing we can change at this end (at least not without potentially impacting on the 101 other clients).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/28/2016 01:07 pm
We're aware of a "too many redirects" error on one news site article. No idea why it's just that one, but Mark will fix it. Nothing else is affected.

Was a stupid cache error on that one article. Mark's given it a slap and all is well with the world ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DaveS on 11/28/2016 01:53 pm
Could the news be updated to recognize the really old style news article URLs like this one http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=4918 from the STS-116 pad flow updates thread? Currently they generate "nothing found" pages so it would be great if they would redirect to the actual article.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/28/2016 01:54 pm
Yeah, I'd love that, Dave. It's on our list for when we go to the next version. It's the problem of a 11+ year old site and several versions of CMS, but a redirect would solve some of that. Some of the older articles have broken images, however. Anyway, yeah.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/29/2016 12:07 am
Seems Wordpress CMS did a big update over the weekend, which caused the above issue. There is an intermittent display issue with the front of site page, just the front page, which we're aware of and will resolve.

Articles display fine, forum etc is on a different system, and unaffected. So just a visual issue with one page and we'll go through every element with Mark. Just noting in case people notice it and don't think we're aware.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/29/2016 10:32 am
We're just working on this all - and other things - now, so ignore any issues with the news site for the next minutes. Will note when all is complete. Everything else is on a different system (such as the forum, L2 and so on, so wasn't - and won't be - any impact to that).

---

And all back to normal.

--

Well as far as most people will tell. You internet experts who visit here noticed a few more i's and t's that need sorting out. Mark is on those and will all done by today. Site functions fine is the main take home of this current status :)

---

And that's fixed now too (confirmed externally).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/29/2016 05:10 pm
More work ongoing. Don't be freaked if the front page looks a bit odd. Mark is doing things. :)

--

Was only for a few mins, but the upshot is the latest article went on fine, so that looks all good. Will give it 24 hours and another article to be sure.

---

And the next article also went on without issue, so we're all good now :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DaveS on 12/09/2016 07:11 pm
I've found a rather subtle quirk with the forum and it involves the time stamps of older posts. It seems like they're off by around 20 minutes or so. This post in the STS-116 Launch/FD1 updates thread demonstrates it nicely: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=5634.msg91187#msg91187

Originally it was time stamped at hh:30:30 but now it is time stamped at hh:50:30. So something has knocked the time stamping of old posts out of whack.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ChrisC on 02/17/2017 01:11 am
I searched this forum for "kill file" and "killfile" and a couple combinations of "block user" before posting ... Is there a way for me to block a single user, so I don't see his posts?  I'd like to not see the posts from a user whose posts are particularly annoying and vacant chatter.

I vaguely remember this being discussed here before by Number One, but the above search didn't find it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ugordan on 02/17/2017 08:13 am
Go to your user profile -> Modify Profile tab -> Buddies/Ignore list

You will still see that the person made a post, but it will be collapsed/hidden to you, although you can still expand it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ChrisC on 02/17/2017 01:21 pm
Thank you, done!

I imagine that I will still see a "new" icon in the thread listing if the ignored user posts into it, and I understand that that's probably unavoidable.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 02/17/2017 01:23 pm
Thank you, done!

I imagine that I will still see a "new" icon in the thread listing if the ignored user posts into it, and I understand that that's probably unavoidable.

Depends how many times I post, I guess! ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 03/05/2017 05:18 pm
A relative uses TalkTalk as their ISP. Whenever I visit, connection to NSF is ifffy; occasionally it connects, frequently it does not (see screen grab below). It's been like this for years. Most frustrating. Ideas anyone?

Edit: Typo
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/06/2017 12:38 pm
That's down to the ISP - and talktalk are rubbish - not us. We've had no outages in months.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: tappa on 03/10/2017 06:32 am
Hi, when I try to access NSF from my phone I get the following message "Sorry tappa, you are banned from using this forum. This is a Spam Account. This Ban is not set to expire"

Can the Admins please help? I have been a member for many years & am usually a lurker & occasionally post a few articles etc. So not sure why I'm getting this message.

Please help!

Added Later:
Member since 2007.
Am posting this message from my laptop. 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 03/10/2017 07:28 am
A relative uses TalkTalk as their ISP. Whenever I visit, connection to NSF is ifffy; occasionally it connects, frequently it does not (see screen grab below). It's been like this for years. Most frustrating. Ideas anyone?

Edit: Typo

I use them and haven't had anything like that in a while. It can be down to whole bunch of factors outside of your ISP's control including how far you are from your local telephone exchange.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/10/2017 11:35 am
Hi, when I try to access NSF from my phone I get the following message "Sorry tappa, you are banned from using this forum. This is a Spam Account. This Ban is not set to expire"

Can the Admins please help? I have been a member for many years & am usually a lurker & occasionally post a few articles etc. So not sure why I'm getting this message.

Please help!

Added Later:
Member since 2007.
Am posting this message from my laptop. 


Hey!

 So this obviously isn't you banned (not least because you wouldn't be able to post this), but you've managed to cross over into an IP address that was banned (a spammer). So it'll either never be a problem again as you move off that IP address or you need to tell me what IP address it is if it comes up again so that I can remove that banned IP address from the list.

But you're not banned.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: tappa on 03/10/2017 03:28 pm
Hi, when I try to access NSF from my phone I get the following message "Sorry tappa, you are banned from using this forum. This is a Spam Account. This Ban is not set to expire"

Can the Admins please help? I have been a member for many years & am usually a lurker & occasionally post a few articles etc. So not sure why I'm getting this message.

Please help!

Added Later:
Member since 2007.
Am posting this message from my laptop. 


Hey!

 So this obviously isn't you banned (not least because you wouldn't be able to post this), but you've managed to cross over into an IP address that was banned (a spammer). So it'll either never be a problem again as you move off that IP address or you need to tell me what IP address it is if it comes up again so that I can remove that banned IP address from the list.

But you're not banned.

Thanks Chris, that's a relief!! I did realize it must be some weird bug, else I would not have been able to post via my laptop.

Not sure if it is an IP problem, for the following reason.

My laptop & phone are both connected to the same WiFi network at home & office. While my phone occasionally moves to Data network. At both home & office I'm able to connect via my laptop but get this message when I connect from my phone (nexus 5, chrome browser). I checked on both phone & laptop the IP is the same 49.206.114.15.

I suspect if it could be due to cookies on my phone. I will update once I figure out how to clear cookies for NSF site on my phone browser.


Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/10/2017 05:46 pm
49.206.114.15 isn't a banned IP address and what you managed to post the above post via!

You also recently logged in on a different IP address (also not banned). Also via "track user" in admin, I see a bunch of IP addresses (over 30 different ones) you've used in your history.

Baffling. You're clearly ok on the above IP you cited and another most recent one used, but that's a legit ban message. Your username isn't banned, your registered e-mail isn't banned and that IP address isn't banned!

I can only think you somehow got jumped into a different IP address that was banned. If it happens again, e-mail me at [email protected] and I'll hit your profile to see the latest IP address used and see if that's on the ban list and remove it from the list.

PS The ban list is only about 150 IP addresses, which is a ban we put on when a spammer hits us (stops them re-registering and hitting us again).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 03/10/2017 09:38 pm
A relative uses TalkTalk as their ISP. Whenever I visit, connection to NSF is ifffy; occasionally it connects, frequently it does not (see screen grab below). It's been like this for years. Most frustrating. Ideas anyone?

Edit: Typo
I use them and haven't had anything like that in a while. It can be down to whole bunch of factors outside your ISP's control including how far you are from your local telephone exchange.
They are very far from the exchange; that'll be it most likely. Thanks.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Arb on 04/15/2017 12:19 am
A relative uses TalkTalk as their ISP. Whenever I visit, connection to NSF is ifffy; occasionally it connects, frequently it does not (see screen grab below above). It's been like this for years. Most frustrating. Ideas anyone?

Edit: Typo
I use them and haven't had anything like that in a while. It can be down to whole bunch of factors outside your ISP's control including how far you are from your local telephone exchange.
They are very far from the exchange; that'll be it most likely. Thanks.

That's down to the ISP - and talktalk are rubbish - not us. We've had no outages in months.

Am back with the relative and back to the problem. Not trying to lay blame Chris, just understand what's going on so as to fix it if possible. Thing is, I've used around twenty different sites today and while they can be slow (looking at you Twitter) they all work otherwise as normal. NSF alone gives that timeout message, very frequently. So there must be something different about NSF. Question is what. It may well be related to talktalk and being far from the exchange but still, why only NSF. Is there something unusual about your server configuration? A question for your technical support team perhaps.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: SWGlassPit on 05/15/2017 02:52 pm
Looks like there's an ad script that is misbehaving and blowing up my browser navigation list (see nsfbug, attached).  It keeps attempting to reload an ad, which the browser is interpreting as a new navigation, utterly flummoxing the back button.

The attached file nsfbug2 is a screenshot of the firefox developer panel's network tab during this time.  The same ad keeps getting requested over and over.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/15/2017 03:45 pm
No other reports suggest it could be a rouge google ad, which is why it's not impacting more than possibly you or a few others, but "one" is one too many, so let me hit the siren and see if Mark will slide down the firehouse poll! :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Space Ghost 1962 on 05/15/2017 03:56 pm
FWIW, adtech Javascript sometimes is never QA'd before release. Look at the browser's console for any Javascript errors.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 05/15/2017 04:28 pm
I am using ublock origin addon with FF and it seems to get rid of a lot of these errors...
I was getting a firefox update message everytime I went to wunderground and the ad blocker stopped this.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: SWGlassPit on 05/15/2017 05:54 pm
I am using ublock origin addon with FF and it seems to get rid of a lot of these errors...
I was getting a firefox update message everytime I went to wunderground and the ad blocker stopped this.
Some of us are on company-owned computers for which we are only allowed to install a very limited selection of software -- ad blocking extensions are not included among that list.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ChrisC on 05/18/2017 01:13 pm
I just came here to report the same problem.  I didn't know it was due to ad reloads, just knew that the back button had broken.  This started happening about 2-3 weeks ago, and only with NSF.  Although, I do spend a lot of time with NSF :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: intrepidpursuit on 05/20/2017 12:42 pm
The mobile version of the form suddenly stopped working for me this morning. I was on a page in the mobile site and clicked another thread and it loaded in desktop. Now everything is loading in desktop. I tried new tabs and fresh links and NSF is loading desktop and other sites are still loading mobile. I'm on a Pixel XL with Chrome.

Thanks.

EDIT: And its working again. Weird.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: virnin on 05/26/2017 08:18 pm
I didn't find a thread for broken ads, apologize of my search-fu was insufficient

Any page that has this advertisement at the bottom shows a continuous reload in FireFox.  It's the only Ad that seems to trigger this:

http://amzn.to/2hQQNeA

I have NOT clicked the Ad to check for anything more harmful since I'm currently on a work computer (and I hate being unemployed).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: SWGlassPit on 05/26/2017 09:51 pm
That decodes to https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&node=12034490011&linkCode=sl2&tag=ystochen20-20&linkId=8dc8e665ae821d0e36429f5ab56590d3
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/26/2017 10:37 pm
Yes, we really need to get replace of those google ads at the bottom as the occasional annoying ad gets through. It is harmless and Amazon and only some people will see it, but noted and I'll get Mark to remove it seen as I flagged an issue with an ad a while ago. My patience is pretty much gone.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 05/27/2017 07:15 am


I have been having a problem for weeks now with the site constantly reloading and disabling the back button. Initially it seemed to be associated with an ad at the bottom. Something about gadgets one click away. I could reload until some other add loaded instead and it would work. but as soon as that add reappeared the back button stopped working again.

That ad eventually went away but the problem is still there and happens almost every time I load a NSF page. I have had problems before and they were usually google ads at the bottom. But now I'm mostly not getting google ads and the problem has been going for weeks.

Using Firefox.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dante80 on 05/27/2017 07:57 am
A question.

Articles posted on the main site frequently have illustrations/renders from the L2 community (btw Nathan, you are a god!).

Said pictures are posted in the article in non hyperlinked thumbnail form, pitifully resized. I understand why this happens, since having the thumbnails provides a valuable incentive for the reader to join L2, if only to get access to the full renders.

We also "advertise" said assets, both in the articles themselves and on the site sidebar. An example for the former.

Quote
(Images: NASA, SpaceX, and L2 artist Nathan Koga – The full gallery of Nathan’s (SpaceX Dragon to MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*))

Now, a suggestion. It would be very cool if an L2 member could click on a thumbnail in the article and get to the full size image (the image itself, or the L2 post containing it). I know that we already have access to it, but the way the forum works makes us go on a hunt for them, when we see them on articles. At least, I know I do.

There are a couple of ways to make that happen. The most obvious would be to link the site CMS to the forum more so that you can log in with your forum account when you are there. That would need the most amount of coding though, I don't think it would be worth it.

Another approach would be the following. When you are on the forum and you do not have L2 access, you can view the L2 subforums but cannot access them. When you try, you get to this splash page.

(https://i.imgur.com/VxbHw8m.png)

If we changed the forum redirect to the subscription page (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/) for guests and non L2 members, then we would be able to provide hyperlinks for article images too. This way, we would get two benefits.

1. Be able to reach the image in L2 easily by just clicking on the thumbnail. When you make the article, just link to the post where the image is attached.

2. Provide another incentive for guests joining L2. The disclaimer at the end of the article is one, but getting a redirect when clicking on the thumbnail would provide a more immediate stimuli for getting the access. In most internet sites, all image thumbnails provided in an article are hyperlinked to their full size counterparts. It is natural for someone that reads an article to click on a cool image he sees, and then to see it in its full glory. Thus, this change would in my opinion considerably raise the number of hits on the subscription page (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/), and also provide a more immediate incentive for the guest to make the leap and subscribe.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dante80 on 05/27/2017 08:10 am
And another suggestion. When you edit a post, the forum software adds a notification for that at the bottom of the post. Example:

Quote
« Last Edit: Today at 10:59:00 by Dante80 »

Most Internet forums have this functionality, and it is for a good cause. Due to the discussion format, it is valuable to know when posts are edited by the Author.

Some forum software suites provide a text space when you edit a post, where you can specify the reason for doing it (for example typos, or additions, etc). I don't remember if that functionality is embedded or SMF 2.0, or if a forum hack is needed for it. When the function works, the end result is something like this:

Quote
« Last Edit: Today at 10:59:00 by Dante80 - Reason: Typos galore»

If we cannot get that though, I would suggest a more modest modification. Most internet forums give a small time period for the user to edit his post before the "last edit" notification is embedded at the end. This is to allow for post-post (sic!) typo modifications, that do not alter the context at hand. For that reason, most forums also disallow circumventing the "last edit" notification, if someone has already posted below you at the thread.

Setting the delay to 1-2m before the notification has to be added would be handy for some posters, that tend to write something and re-read it after submitting for typos and legibility. I think that NSF has that function.

Hope that helps, cheers..
 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/27/2017 09:06 am


I have been having a problem for weeks now with the site constantly reloading and disabling the back button. Initially it seemed to be associated with an ad at the bottom. Something about gadgets one click away. I could reload until some other add loaded instead and it would work. but as soon as that add reappeared the back button stopped working again.

That ad eventually went away but the problem is still there and happens almost every time I load a NSF page. I have had problems before and they were usually google ads at the bottom. But now I'm mostly not getting google ads and the problem has been going for weeks.

Using Firefox.

Yes, this one seems to be one of them.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/27/2017 09:33 am
The bottom ad space, which was hosting that troublesome ad, has been disabled while Mark works to ensure the space returns with google ads that don't cause issues. Note, the bottom space is the only space on the site right now where the ad is organic (catered). The rest are set ads, such as Novatech etc.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/27/2017 09:47 am
A question.

Articles posted on the main site frequently have illustrations/renders from the L2 community (btw Nathan, you are a god!).

Said pictures are posted in the article in non hyperlinked thumbnail form, pitifully resized. I understand why this happens, since having the thumbnails provides a valuable incentive for the reader to join L2, if only to get access to the full renders.

We also "advertise" said assets, both in the articles themselves and on the site sidebar. An example for the former.

Quote
(Images: NASA, SpaceX, and L2 artist Nathan Koga – The full gallery of Nathan’s (SpaceX Dragon to MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*))

Now, a suggestion. It would be very cool if an L2 member could click on a thumbnail in the article and get to the full size image (the image itself, or the L2 post containing it). I know that we already have access to it, but the way the forum works makes us go on a hunt for them, when we see them on articles. At least, I know I do.

There are a couple of ways to make that happen. The most obvious would be to link the site CMS to the forum more so that you can log in with your forum account when you are there. That would need the most amount of coding though, I don't think it would be worth it.

Another approach would be the following. When you are on the forum and you do not have L2 access, you can view the L2 subforums but cannot access them. When you try, you get to this splash page.

(https://i.imgur.com/VxbHw8m.png)

If we changed the forum redirect to the subscription page (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/) for guests and non L2 members, then we would be able to provide hyperlinks for article images too. This way, we would get two benefits.

1. Be able to reach the image in L2 easily by just clicking on the thumbnail. When you make the article, just link to the post where the image is attached.

2. Provide another incentive for guests joining L2. The disclaimer at the end of the article is one, but getting a redirect when clicking on the thumbnail would provide a more immediate stimuli for getting the access. In most internet sites, all image thumbnails provided in an article are hyperlinked to their full size counterparts. It is natural for someone that reads an article to click on a cool image he sees, and then to see it in its full glory. Thus, this change would in my opinion considerably raise the number of hits on the subscription page (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/), and also provide a more immediate incentive for the guest to make the leap and subscribe.

Right, so the site format on the news site (Wordpress CMS) - such as text width, images in the article and so on will all be revamped with the new site design. So that answers some already :)

The "error" a non L2 member gets when hitting a L2 link has to change. Totally right. Adding that to the new site design list. Great call. Needs to be a "this is what you could get and how to get it and why this is also a form of supporting the site you're clearing enjoying) :)

The side note - especially for people reading your post and thinking about this is "clicking thumbnail to enlarge" is a massive pain in the backside. It takes up to an hour to get from a draft (text) article to what you see on site. (Enter text, edit, format, add links (manually), finding and adding images (manually). To them have to have alternative sizes, clickable and with URLs. It'd almost be a full time job and this isn't anyone's full time job....and all for the sake of being a honey pot to social media who love to "rehost" images. Part solution is to watermark images, but that's even more work.

Not being lazy, I'm all for putting the hours in, but what if we had breaking news etc. However, per YOUR specific points: :)



1) I like the idea of this. Maybe for the new design site, but it could be implemented in the current format. Perhaps we'll try that as an experiment with the Static Fire article as that's already to go and I can spend some time before it goes on today setting that up with what are two L2 images in the article! Will report back ;)

2) Totally onboard with that. On the list and will be set up. Heck, we could look to change the "message" to simply sending people through to the L2 landing forum section for the interim! But ultimately yes, needs to be as you describe, a proper message. Leave that with us.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/27/2017 09:52 am
And another suggestion. When you edit a post, the forum software adds a notification for that at the bottom of the post. Example:

Quote
« Last Edit: Today at 10:59:00 by Dante80 »

Most Internet forums have this functionality, and it is for a good cause. Due to the discussion format, it is valuable to know when posts are edited by the Author.

Some forum software suites provide a text space when you edit a post, where you can specify the reason for doing it (for example typos, or additions, etc). I don't remember if that functionality is embedded or SMF 2.0, or if a forum hack is needed for it. When the function works, the end result is something like this:

Quote
« Last Edit: Today at 10:59:00 by Dante80 - Reason: Typos galore»

If we cannot get that though, I would suggest a more modest modification. Most internet forums give a small time period for the user to edit his post before the "last edit" notification is embedded at the end. This is to allow for post-post (sic!) typo modifications, that do not alter the context at hand. For that reason, most forums also disallow circumventing the "last edit" notification, if someone has already posted below you at the thread.

Setting the delay to 1-2m before the notification has to be added would be handy for some posters, that tend to write something and re-read it after submitting for typos and legibility. I think that NSF has that function.

Hope that helps, cheers..
 

All good points again. While I'll look at the admin options and see if it can be done right off the bat.....if not:

I think when we're adding the cowbell ahead of the revamp design launch, we'll have a section for such suggestions so they are good to go in the beta test version of the new site before it's launched as the live site. Your posts would be spot on for that.

PS The new site will be *this site* but with a better appearance and functionality. I don't want anyone worrying about "big changes". Everyone hates big changes to sites they are familiar with.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dante80 on 05/27/2017 10:25 am
Many thanks for the prompt reply. Regarding this:

Quote
To them have to have alternative sizes, clickable and with URLs. It'd almost be a full time job and this isn't anyone's full time job....and all for the sake of being a honey pot to social media who love to "rehost" images. Part solution is to watermark images, but that's even more work.

An idea to bypass hotlinking or rehosting would be to link the thumbnail to the L2 post containing the image. NSF uses the attachment route for said content, so by linking to the walled post itself would not uncover the image.

For an example. Take this article.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/05/nasa-em-1-uncrewed-costs-main-reason/ (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/05/nasa-em-1-uncrewed-costs-main-reason/)

It contains this thumbnail image:

(https://i.imgur.com/GMmzxL3.png)

Which corresponds to this post with the massive 4944x2532 original:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38476.msg1566738#msg1566738 (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38476.msg1566738#msg1566738)

If you hyperlink the thumbnail like this:

(https://i.imgur.com/GMmzxL3.png) (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38476.msg1566738#msg1566738)

Then, if I have L2 access I get straight to the post with the attachment, giving me the option to download from there. If I don't have it..the site should redirect either here (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/), or to a new splash page promoting L2 access.

It is impossible for someone to steal the attachment that way (unless he leaks L2 of course).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/27/2017 11:48 am
Yep. That linkage would be the route, as hard linking to the image would open full size regardless of browser and linking to the post it's attached to allows for the context of the thread, the post and the image.

I see the option in the CMS (attached), so we'll try it.

(The next step - per the site revamp) will be to go width on image, allowing for

Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text

Photo.
Caption.

Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text

Photo.
Caption.

Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text

Allows for better size images and captions that don't interfere with the article text.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 05/27/2017 03:52 pm
I'm not so keen on limiting edits. There are times when we mods ask people to go back and edit posts. We can do it but it's more work for us.  The suggestion of edit remarks/summary is good (and I do it when I edit other people's posts, by hand, unless I deliberately don't want to draw attention to the fact that I changed a swear word, etc, why embarass the member) and it's one that Wikipedia uses to good effect.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gongora on 05/27/2017 04:11 pm
I'm not so keen on limiting edits. There are times when we mods ask people to go back and edit posts. We can do it but it's more work for us.  The suggestion of edit remarks/summary is good (and I do it when I edit other people's posts, by hand, unless I deliberately don't want to draw attention to the fact that I changed a swear word, etc, why embarass the member) and it's one that Wikipedia uses to good effect.

I don't think he meant limit the edits.  He seemed to be asking for a small grace period before it starts marking it as being edited.  For example, you post it, fix a typo 2 minutes later, it doesn't show as being edited.  Not sure it makes much difference (although I have that happen on my posts all the time.)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Dante80 on 05/27/2017 04:23 pm
Yes, I was talking about a grace period of sorts. If you do pay attention to my posts for example, all of them have the edit notification below. English is not my native language, and I have acquired the bad habit of immediately re-reading a post I made so as to add something, fix a typo or change the syntax of a failed sentence (grammar and syntax in Greek is a bit different than in English, sometimes making my posts seem robotic or simply illegible).

Having a small grace period or a way to specify why I edited a post would be very cool..C:
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 05/27/2017 05:53 pm
Yes, I was talking about a grace period of sorts. If you do pay attention to my posts for example, all of them have the edit notification below. English is not my native language, and I have acquired the bad habit of immediately re-reading a post I made so as to add something, fix a typo or change the syntax of a failed sentence (grammar and syntax in Greek is a bit different than in English, sometimes making my posts seem robotic or simply illegible).

Having a small grace period or a way to specify why I edited a post would be very cool..C:
OK, the 1-2 grace period makes total sense. There are many times where I have hit the SUBMIT button, only to make a change 10 seconds later, thus having that ugly stain of making an edit for simple typos etc on my post.
 
At first I thought you were recommending a 1-2 window total for allowing edits at all.  There are forums out there that are setup this way and I furiously dislike it.

Great work Chris and the NSF.com gang as a whole.  If you want SpaceFlight info and updates, it's one stop shopping on these forums.  All your efforts ARE noticed.  A big THANK YOU to you all!!   Cheers!
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 05/27/2017 06:02 pm
The bottom ad space, which was hosting that troublesome ad, has been disabled while Mark works to ensure the space returns with google ads that don't cause issues. Note, the bottom space is the only space on the site right now where the ad is organic (catered). The rest are set ads, such as Novatech etc.

The space isn't totally disabled because I'm occasionally getting an ad. The thing is when I get an ad now the site works perfectly. Now it is when I don't get an ad that the back button is disabled and the page seems to try to refresh itself every 5 seconds or so. It is like an ad is trying to load and failing but tries again five seconds later.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/27/2017 06:08 pm
Thanks. Mark wanted to see if he had solved it, and it seems better in Chrome, but I hit firefox and that fool in a VR headset is still there ;) Passed it on to Mark.

Apologies to anyone struggling with this. It really does seem to be that one ad.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 05/27/2017 08:31 pm
Thanks. Mark wanted to see if he had solved it, and it seems better in Chrome, but I hit firefox and that fool in a VR headset is still there ;) Passed it on to Mark.

Apologies to anyone struggling with this. It really does seem to be that one ad.


Seems to be working now. At least after mousing around  for 10 minutes I have failed to have a disabled back button. And a good ad is opening at the bottom so looks good. Thank the head bit pusher for me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/30/2017 08:31 am
IBM, host of the servers, is babbling on in a series of overnight technical messages about a router firmware upgrade that may result in up to three minutes of downtime. First e-mails say no downtime to public network, then the next said no downtime on the private network. So it'll either be no downtime that you'll notice, or a three minute window. So if we do go down for a few minutes you know what it was about. ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/30/2017 10:02 am
Another anti-climax. Seven e-mails and then this:

/ Event Updates /
- As of Tuesday 30-May-2017 09:59 UTC
This maintenance has now concluded.

;D

Didn't impact on the site's availability, so it was probably a typo about "public" access and it was the private access (as in site admin stuff) that was the three mintues. Anyhoo, all is well.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/30/2017 05:35 pm
Per the cookie message you will be seeing on the page. Just something all sites are doing. Started about a year ago with sites and I've seen it over that time on every site I've visited. We didn't put it on, SMF - the company behind the software - will have. Nothing to worry about. We've been using cookies since Day 1, so just click OK and you won't see it again on the device you're using.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: SWGlassPit on 05/30/2017 06:37 pm
Thanks. Mark wanted to see if he had solved it, and it seems better in Chrome, but I hit firefox and that fool in a VR headset is still there ;) Passed it on to Mark.

Apologies to anyone struggling with this. It really does seem to be that one ad.


Seems to be working now. At least after mousing around  for 10 minutes I have failed to have a disabled back button. And a good ad is opening at the bottom so looks good. Thank the head bit pusher for me.

I'm still getting it on my end.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Flying Beaver on 05/30/2017 07:00 pm
Got this after opening the site up this morning. Just wondering what's changed, if anything.

It's no problem but I just hadn't seen it before
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 05/30/2017 07:00 pm
It was two posts ago.

Per the cookie message you will be seeing on the page. Just something all sites are doing. Started about a year ago with sites and I've seen it over that time on every site I've visited. We didn't put it on, SMF - the company behind the software - will have. Nothing to worry about. We've been using cookies since Day 1, so just click OK and you won't see it again on the device you're using.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ChrisC on 05/30/2017 07:48 pm
Per the cookie message you will be seeing on the page. Just something all sites are doing. Started about a year ago with sites and I've seen it over that time on every site I've visited. We didn't put it on, SMF - the company behind the software - will have. Nothing to worry about. We've been using cookies since Day 1, so just click OK and you won't see it again on the device you're using.

Cookies from NSF are fine, but third party cookies?  Is that related to the advertising?

EDIT: the message links to this:  https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/cookie-policy/

Quote
Cookie Policy:  This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications like Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers

Anyway, I have my cookie mgmt addin set to allow NSF and block everything else :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mtakala24 on 05/30/2017 08:52 pm
That banner asking for user's consent for tracking cookies is actually legal requirement for websites hosted in European Union, but as NSF is hosted elsewhere, I think its not required.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 05/31/2017 07:34 am
That banner asking for user's consent for tracking cookies is actually legal requirement for websites hosted in European Union, but as NSF is hosted elsewhere, I think its not required.
I don't believe it matters where it is hosted but rather if the person viewing it is within the EU or not.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Ronpur50 on 05/31/2017 08:37 pm
That banner asking for user's consent for tracking cookies is actually legal requirement for websites hosted in European Union, but as NSF is hosted elsewhere, I think its not required.
I don't believe it matters where it is hosted but rather if the person viewing it is within the EU or not.

It shows up in the US as well.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Star One on 05/31/2017 09:43 pm
That banner asking for user's consent for tracking cookies is actually legal requirement for websites hosted in European Union, but as NSF is hosted elsewhere, I think its not required.
I don't believe it matters where it is hosted but rather if the person viewing it is within the EU or not.

It shows up in the US as well.

That's weird.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: mlindner on 06/27/2017 05:59 am
If I try and modify the date ranges from "0 to 9999" it gives me the error "Unable to access the search daemon"
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/27/2017 12:56 pm
If I try and modify the date ranges from "0 to 9999" it gives me the error "Unable to access the search daemon"

The search has been a problem (bare functionality) since the forum simply got too big for it to handle, I believe. The site revamp should hopefully include the latest SMP search thingy-ma-gigs.....OK, I got a bit lost there, but you know what I mean ;) We know it's not brilliant, we want to improve it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ELinder on 07/18/2017 02:41 pm
It would sure be nice if we could click on the images in the front page articles for enlarged versions. A lot of times it is some sort of illustration wherein the print is so small it is impossible to read it. For example see the Pioneer 10 article with the Pioneer and Voyager trajectories. If not feasible, how about a version of the article with larger illustrations also posted here in the forums?

Erich
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/18/2017 03:25 pm
That should be coming for the new site.....as in a new presentation of new news articles for a start, but clickable images. I can imagine some L2 photos in articles will have to have an element of restriction due to way social media lifts them and then rehosts them as their own, but yeah - it'll be soooo much better with the new site. Have never been a big fan of the small side images.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ELinder on 07/18/2017 03:45 pm
Great, looking forward to it!

Erich
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lar on 07/18/2017 10:32 pm
It'd be nifty if the software could auto-watermark the enlargements in a way that doesn't mess with what the images show but which is hard to remove and makes it obvious when images are lifted without proper credit...
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Lars-J on 07/21/2017 07:46 pm
Image water marking is a tricky subject. There are two reasons to do it...
1) prevent image theft and
2) marketing yourself.

Doing it for reason #1 is IMO a losing battle... Because when trying to make the watermark difficult to remove, the more intrusive your watermark is, the worse your site and images look.

On the other hand, maybe you should just do it for reason #2. A large but nice "NSF" logo down in either corner will drive traffic to the site. Will some steal and crop the image? Sure... But that's life. You have to weigh the positives (more traffic) to the negatives.

Besides... I'm not an L2 member, but I assume there are a heck of a lot more images than the ones that are highlighted in the article. You are only exposing those specific images to the risk of 'theft', not all of them. And as a reader, I would much prefer to see *fewer but larger* images instead of *many that are small*.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Robotbeat on 07/23/2017 09:01 pm
Likes are disabled for some parts of the forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 07/23/2017 09:08 pm
Likes are disabled for some parts of the forum.
Now broken for the entire forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/23/2017 09:10 pm
Nothing to do with "the server". Mark was working on something else and must have disabled them by mistake. Have let him know.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/23/2017 09:19 pm
And Mark should have fixed that :) (Looks good to me)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Basto on 07/25/2017 04:20 pm
Not sure if this has been mentioned or requested before. I use the mobile version of the site about 90% of the time and it would be really great if you could view likes and like posts without having to switch to the full site.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 07/25/2017 04:22 pm
Not sure if this has been mentioned or requested before. I use the mobile version of the site about 90% of the time and it would be really great if you could view likes and like posts without having to switch to the full site.

Booo! #DesktopsView4Ever. ;)

I'm sure that'll be on the list for the revamped site. The mobile version looks incredibly mobile (see new site thread).

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42036.0
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Michel Van on 09/06/2017 07:50 am
Since several Days i try to post YouTube videos on this Forum

Normally they are embedded as Window in the post
now if post a You tube video here, it show as Text Link to YouTube

I use Mac with current MacOS and Safari 10.1.2
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/06/2017 11:49 am
Working fine on the test!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glEvogjdEVY

Check the link isn't some wacky mobile version, is probably your first step.

Can you post a link as an example so we can see if it's some sort of URL that isn't triggering the auto-display?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gongora on 09/06/2017 02:00 pm
I noticed this happened on a link I copied the other day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqrQap86OJQ&feature=youtu.be

If I strip off the "&feature=youtu.be" it works fine.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/06/2017 02:03 pm
That'll be it then! :)

Solution will be to kill that end part when posting links. Doesn't really serve anything anyway!

So....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqrQap86OJQ&feature=youtu.be <---BOOOO!

Remove the end of the link from the & - much success!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqrQap86OJQ
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Michel Van on 09/06/2017 04:23 pm
Thanks
It Work now but i had to delete part left in link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=284&v=0byHigSlJgs
to
https://youtu.be/0byHigSlJgs

or you right click on Video and "copy Video link"
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/07/2017 10:51 am
An update note, that a minor but annoying SSL amber warning is gone from the forum. It was seen on some forum threads where long time members had posted and their avatars - added to the forum several versions ago - weren't generating the HTTPS that the internet has a fit over. Mark's fixed it :)

So every thread will be like this now.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 09/07/2017 06:03 pm
Since several Days i try to post YouTube videos on this Forum

Normally they are embedded as Window in the post
now if post a You tube video here, it show as Text Link to YouTube

I use Mac with current MacOS and Safari 10.1.2
Dont use the YouTube provided video embedding links as the forum auto embeds the standard video URL (permalink). Embedded links always display text link. If it is a standard permalink and doesn't show the video then typically something is amiss with the the URL itself.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 09/07/2017 06:26 pm
An update note, that a minor but annoying SSL amber warning is gone from the forum. It was seen on some forum threads where long time members had posted and their avatars - added to the forum several versions ago - weren't generating the HTTPS that the internet has a fit over. Mark's fixed it :)

So every thread will be like this now.
Not for me on Chrome Version 61.0.3163.79 (Official Build) (64-bit) on Mac OS Sierra v10.12.6 (16G29) as of 14:09 US EDT. If I click the Circled i Chrome tells me that the connection to the site is not secure.

Quote
Your connection to this site is not secure

You should not enter any sensitive information on this site (for example, passwords or credit cards), because it could be stolen by attackers.

It remains that way with my bookmark for the site because I'm not being automatically redirected to the https version. This is the case with my browsers Safari, Opera, Firefox, Samsung et cetera.
Upon some research:
The user would have to manually enter https and then change the bookmark URL. The other issue is a google search at least right now for me doesn't link you the https version of NSF and the forums. The user might have clear my cache and history if it doesnt resolve itself because it defaults back to the old http address.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: NSF Webmaster on 09/07/2017 09:43 pm

The user would have to manually enter https and then change the bookmark URL. The other issue is a google search at least right now for me doesn't link you the https version of NSF and the forums. The user might have clear my cache and history if it doesnt resolve itself because it defaults back to the old http address.

A visit to https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793 should stay secure now, but you are correct in that there is no auto-ssl redirect as of this moment (on the forum). That's something still being worked on but is on the todo list!

Mark
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 09/08/2017 02:29 am

The user would have to manually enter https and then change the bookmark URL. The other issue is a google search at least right now for me doesn't link you the https version of NSF and the forums. The user might have clear my cache and history if it doesnt resolve itself because it defaults back to the old http address.

A visit to https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793 should stay secure now, but you are correct in that there is no auto-ssl redirect as of this moment (on the forum). That's something still being worked on but is on the todo list!

Mark

In the meantime, there’s always the HTTPS Everywhere (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere) extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera (does anybody still use Opera?).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 09/08/2017 03:00 pm

The user would have to manually enter https and then change the bookmark URL. The other issue is a google search at least right now for me doesn't link you the https version of NSF and the forums. The user might have clear my cache and history if it doesnt resolve itself because it defaults back to the old http address.

A visit to https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793 should stay secure now, but you are correct in that there is no auto-ssl redirect as of this moment (on the forum). That's something still being worked on but is on the todo list!

Mark

In the meantime, there’s always the HTTPS Everywhere (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere) extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera (does anybody still use Opera?).
Yes, people still use Opera.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Shanuson on 09/14/2017 11:43 am
Chris n'th time hint to not ask questions in an update thread but please 
1. quote,
2. copy,
3. open fitting discussion thread
4. open new reply and insert it there

gave me an idea:
Add a "quote in associated (discussion) thread" button to update threads (or any thread where an other thread would be associated to). This should automate the steps above with one simple click. So less questions in update threads, less work for admins to move posts around and less work for users would already did that. :D And only a bit work for the guy implementing it ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: WulfTheSaxon on 09/14/2017 02:03 pm
Chris n'th time hint to not ask questions in an update thread but please 
1. quote,
2. copy,
3. open fitting discussion thread
4. open new reply and insert it there

gave me an idea:
Add a "quote in associated (discussion) thread" button to update threads (or any thread where an other thread would be associated to). This should automate the steps above with one simple click. So less questions in update threads, less work for admins to move posts around and less work for users would already did that. :D And only a bit work for the guy implementing it ;D

Yeah, that was around posts 670 (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793.msg1539015#msg1539015) to 693 in this thread.  :P
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Shanuson on 09/20/2017 06:44 am
It seems the discussion lead to: doable but some work and not high in priority. Well maybe more people asking for something like it will help with the priority part ;D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ChrisC on 09/26/2017 09:05 pm
I have been having a problem for weeks now with the site constantly reloading and disabling the back button. Initially it seemed to be associated with an ad at the bottom. Something about gadgets one click away. I could reload until some other add loaded instead and it would work. but as soon as that add reappeared the back button stopped working again.

That ad eventually went away but the problem is still there and happens almost every time I load a NSF page. I have had problems before and they were usually google ads at the bottom. But now I'm mostly not getting google ads and the problem has been going for weeks.

Using Firefox.

I think this problem is back.  Been having the problem for a day or two.

Woe be unto the user who leaves an NSF page up for more than a few minutes ....
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/27/2017 02:52 pm
IF it is a rogue ad, at the bottom, which is adsense, and thus localized and such (meaning it's rare any two people get the same advert) then it will either go away or (as much as it's almost disgraceful for me to say) use adblock (heck, you're L2, so absolutely no problem there!)

We have just tidied up the right side of the forum with the ads, removing some old things that we just needed to get rid of. And then there's the new forum to work on after we've got the new news site online.

PS Advertising opportunities are available :D
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 09/27/2017 03:40 pm
I use ublock origin with firefox and it definitely helps wunderground. Haven't noticed any difference with nasaspaceflight.
The browser consumes less cpu on just about all sites.(with ublock)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 09/29/2017 07:07 pm
I have been having a problem for weeks now with the site constantly reloading and disabling the back button. Initially it seemed to be associated with an ad at the bottom. Something about gadgets one click away. I could reload until some other add loaded instead and it would work. but as soon as that add reappeared the back button stopped working again.

That ad eventually went away but the problem is still there and happens almost every time I load a NSF page. I have had problems before and they were usually google ads at the bottom. But now I'm mostly not getting google ads and the problem has been going for weeks.

Using Firefox.

I think this problem is back.  Been having the problem for a day or two.

Woe be unto the user who leaves an NSF page up for more than a few minutes ....

Yes I'm having the problem as well. It does not appear to be a rouge ad at the bottom but who knows? It kinda makes the site impossible to navigate. Hope they fix it soon.

Firefox user.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 09/29/2017 07:44 pm


I'm gonna guess that it is the Novatech ad on the side that is doing it. It keeps reloading itself as a way of displaying different text. Kinda clumsy way of doing it isn't it?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 09/29/2017 07:46 pm
I wonder if it's your browser that's got an error as that's a simple gif. Try a different browser.

Or ad block.

But the site's fine.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 09/30/2017 11:25 am
I wonder if it's your browser that's got an error as that's a simple gif. Try a different browser.

Or ad block.

But the site's fine.

I was wrong about the side ad. It is the bottom ad that is the problem. When a bottom ad successfully loads the site works as expected. But when no ad loads at the bottom the site constantly reloads and the back button is disabled. Maybe because it can't find find the ad and constantly tries to reload it.

That is on Firefox. The same process occurs on Edge but while flaky it usually works. The site is still constantly reloading trying to find the lost ad. This is the exact same problem as before except that before it loaded a broken part of the ad so you could see what was causing the problem. Now no ad loads giving no clue that the process broke.

Firefox flashes what is trying to load if you can read fast enough. I have been trying to check that but currently a Georgia Power ad keeps loading successfully so the site is working correctly. I don't know how it decides what ad to load. If it is random then I don't know why it loaded Georgia power 20 times in a row. And clearly it must be keyed to geography since it knows I'm in Georgia. 
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: ppnl on 09/30/2017 01:09 pm
Site working correctly for hours now so I guess its fixed again. If this problem reoccurs only once every four months this will be one of the most bug free major sites I visit.  Its getting crazy out there. I was on one science site that loaded three identical autoplay car ads that repeated every five seconds and grabbed control of the scroll bar so that you couldn't even scroll off of it. With no way to turn it off. I think it was a Lexus commercial.

So you are doing good.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Cinder on 09/30/2017 05:39 pm
For 2 or 3 days now NSF forums look like this to me, only on Chrome.  Does this look like an obvious symptom of a specific problem?  It's only NSF forums and only with Chrome.  Sometimes webpages will load this way, but display normally once refreshed.

Additionally Chrome says the NSF security certificate expired 6 days ago, and refuses to load the main homepage (still available by clicking advanced and then something like 'proceed anyway'). 

No issues on mobile version of Chrome.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Carl G on 10/01/2017 03:21 am
For 2 or 3 days now NSF forums look like this to me, only on Chrome.  D

No issues on mobile version of Chrome.

It's you.

Your "i" in a circle shows you're not loading the correct site. Your loading the http site. Obviously you're entering via an old bookmarked thread. While it should still load and that screenshot is a bad load from your end, try clicking here: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ and then "forum" on the top bar to correct your bad entrance into the forum.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Cinder on 10/01/2017 05:20 am
Obviously you're entering via an old bookmarked thread.
" forum.nasaspaceflight.com " Entered manually as I've been doing for a couple years now.

The link leads to the same issue. 
Quote
Your connection is not private

Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.nasaspaceflight.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID

This server could not prove that it is www.nasaspaceflight.com; its security certificate expired 6 days ago. This may be caused by a misconfiguration or an attacker intercepting your connection. Your computer's clock is currently set to Sunday, October 1, 2017. Does that look right? If not, you should correct your system's clock and then refresh this page.

Proceed to www.nasaspaceflight.com (unsafe)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/01/2017 08:37 pm
It'll be your browser. It's not going to the right site. If you try a different browser you will find it's fine. HTTPS is up to date (not that your browser is accepting HTTPS, so that's the problem.

Chrome up to date as that's what I'm on right now. No issues.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: cppetrie on 10/01/2017 10:04 pm
Sounds like a cache issue. Suggest forcing a full refresh. Ctrl or Cmd refresh will probably fix it.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Cinder on 10/01/2017 10:37 pm
That was my thinking too.  Tried all of those above and nothing changed.  Long story short I got all the way down (2h of trying different things later) to moving HDD's around, and for whatever reason, that fixed it.
Go figure. 

Thanks anyway :)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 10/01/2017 10:39 pm
That was my thinking too.  Tried all of those above and nothing changed.  Long story short I got all the way down (2h of trying different things later) to moving HDD's around, and for whatever reason, that fixed it.
Go figure. 

Thanks anyway :)

Weird! :D But hey, so long as you're good, then that's good. :)

Rule I've found is even if I think all is OK, if something wacky happens to the site, I get about 3482573282312 e-mails and 43523527423 messages saying "CHRIS!!!" within minutes (OK, not that many). One or two people and it's always local to them.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: russianhalo117 on 10/02/2017 12:36 am
That was my thinking too.  Tried all of those above and nothing changed.  Long story short I got all the way down (2h of trying different things later) to moving HDD's around, and for whatever reason, that fixed it.
Go figure. 

Thanks anyway :)
type https:// before forum.nasaspaceflight.com as well as www.nasaspaceflight.com since your browsers default go to prefix is http:// (which is a chrome, firefox, and opera bug that has not been resolved yet because it has to do with old code in the Chromium Project itself for all three mentioned browsers which will be replaced in the future).

The only way to get rid of the old code bug is to manually update your bookmarks to remove http:// and replace it with https:// (NOTE: even after updating your bookmarks if you type forum.nasaspaceflight.com or www. nasaspaceflight.com your browser by default will place the old and unsecure http:// prefix in front of the link). NSF per discussions with the NSF Webmaster in a thread and via PM does not yet have a auto redirect feature implemented yet to prevent this. The text only view that you had is very likely some of the recently implemented protection features from Chrome.


The user would have to manually enter https and then change the bookmark URL. The other issue is a google search at least right now for me doesn't link you the https version of NSF and the forums. The user might have clear my cache and history if it doesnt resolve itself because it defaults back to the old http address.

A visit to https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32793 should stay secure now, but you are correct in that there is no auto-ssl redirect as of this moment (on the forum). That's something still being worked on but is on the todo list!

Mark

In the meantime, there’s always the HTTPS Everywhere (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere) extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera (does anybody still use Opera?).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: hkultala on 10/25/2017 03:54 pm
The smiley image autoreplacer is messing up mathematic equations. Could it be turned off?

(173*8)/(1185+10)=1.15g
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gongora on 10/25/2017 04:09 pm
The smiley image autoreplacer is messing up mathematic equations. Could it be turned off?

(173*8)/(1185+10)=1.15g

You can turn it off for individual posts when you create/edit them, there is a checkbox for it ("Don't use smileys.")
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 10/25/2017 04:10 pm
Thanks. It was my post.  :'(
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 11/01/2017 01:26 pm
Anybody not getting email notifications from threads that you requested notification on?
Just stopped working last night for me.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/01/2017 11:57 pm
Anybody not getting email notifications from threads that you requested notification on?
Just stopped working last night for me.


Working for me, so the forum is doing what it should be. Is your e-mail client thinking they are spam and just not sending them your way (most spam is deleted and doesn't even go into spam folder these days).
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/08/2017 12:18 pm
Hi, hope this is the right place to ask.

I haven't had any emails about comments to threads since the end of October. Nothing in my spamtrap, other emails coming through fine, just nothing from nsf forums.

Is there something I can do to turn them back on? Notify is still set on relevant threads.

Thanks
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/08/2017 04:53 pm
Hi, hope this is the right place to ask.

I haven't had any emails about comments to threads since the end of October. Nothing in my spamtrap, other emails coming through fine, just nothing from nsf forums.

Is there something I can do to turn them back on? Notify is still set on relevant threads.

Thanks


Yes, a handful of people have found this issue. I've noticed on each occasion, people are using an e-mail with a very specific domain, like a personal website or such. That'll be it, the DNS and your e-mail domain not seeing each other. Have passed it on to Mark to see if it's something we can force or if people need to change their registered e-mail to something less "[email protected]" ;)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/09/2017 07:51 am
Thanks, I'll check my DNS to see if it's something I can change, but I haven't done anything with DNS for years. Or maybe your email sender is doing some extra checks now and getting a failure?

BTW, finding where this message had moved to took a while, but I got there. :-)
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/09/2017 12:27 pm
I've checked everything I can regards MX records and my ISPs main servers, and it all looks good and test mails are getting through from various places. I've turned off spf checking to see if that helps.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/09/2017 12:30 pm
Anybody not getting email notifications from threads that you requested notification on?
Just stopped working last night for me.

Stopped for me too with last email at 2017-10-31 03:22 GMT (but I could have read/deleted some.)

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/09/2017 03:03 pm
Is it possible to get any logging from the email sender to see what error is being given?
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 11/09/2017 03:40 pm
I also did all of the above to find the problem. I looked thru by email server logs(rollernet.us) and could see no contact from nasaspaceflight.com.
My email address domain in question was bobsbits.net

I did do some digging (literally dig) and found this:
Quote
bob@USPONRDAVIS1/c/src903$ dig @cody.ns.cloudflare.com gmail.com

; <<>> DiG 9.9.3-P2 <<>> @cody.ns.cloudflare.com gmail.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: REFUSED, id: 42161
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gmail.com.                     IN      A

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 173.245.59.107#53(173.245.59.107)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 09 11:33:15 EST 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 38

So gmail does work (as an email address) but from my end nasaspaceflight.com doesn't allow the answer.
When done with googles nameservers:

Quote
bob@USPONRDAVIS1/c/src903$ dig @8.8.8.8 gmail.com

; <<>> DiG 9.9.3-P2 <<>> @8.8.8.8 gmail.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 50589
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gmail.com.                     IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gmail.com.              45      IN      A       172.217.11.5

;; Query time: 15 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 09 11:35:00 EST 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 54

I do get the answer section.
The only thing I can see is the
Quote
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

which may indicate the problem of the nameserver being incorrectly configured.
Name servers are arranged in a hierarchy to reduce load so when one server doesn't know the answer it goes to the next one up the hierarchy.
So recursive means go up the hierarchy( I think?)


Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/09/2017 03:57 pm
I don't understand the digs you're doing given they don't cover the problem email address.

I've used dig and https://mxtoolbox.com/ and can't see anything wrong with my domain's MX records.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 11/09/2017 04:06 pm
I get the same results with my gmail.com address as my bobsbits.net.
So the dig's I am doing don't really help isolate the problem.
I was only trying to illustrate what might be the problem by the only warning that dig gives back.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/09/2017 04:37 pm
My dig with domain redacted. All looks good.

$ dig @8.8.8.8 xxxxxxx.co.uk

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> @8.8.8.8 xxxxxx.co.uk
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 50284
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;xxxxxxx.co.uk.         IN   A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
xxxxxxx.co.uk.      1799   IN   SOA   ns1.interdns.co.uk. admin.interdns.co.uk. 1199987926 900 600 86400 3600

;; Query time: 41 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 09 17:35:37 GMT 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 97
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: rsdavis9 on 11/09/2017 07:47 pm
Now how about when you do the same dig against the nasaspaceflight.com namservers.
just do
whois nasaspaceflight.com
which gives you their nameservers.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/10/2017 11:02 am
Ah, with you now.

Yes, I get the same issue as you regards recursion and the authority section is missing.

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.4-Ubuntu <<>> @CODY.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM xxxxxxx.co.uk
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: REFUSED, id: 2353
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;xxxxxxx.co.uk.                 IN      A

;; Query time: 23 msec
;; SERVER: 173.245.59.107#53(173.245.59.107)
;; WHEN: Fri Nov 10 11:59:03 GMT 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 42
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: gadgetmind on 11/10/2017 11:08 am
I'm checking whether this is expected behaviour but suspect it is.

What we'd like to know is what DNS server nsf uses for outgoing mail, and what errors might be occurring.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: topsphere on 11/16/2017 09:44 am
Is there a way to create a poll in this forum in which a user can select multiple options, rather than just one? If not, is this an easy thing to do?

Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DatUser14 on 11/21/2017 05:54 pm
Getting 502's and 504's when i go to the front page, a few refreshes lets the page load. Not if I go direct to the forums.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 11/21/2017 05:58 pm
Seems OK for me. Could have been a temp outage on wordpress, but let me know if it's cleared or not.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: DatUser14 on 11/21/2017 06:00 pm
Seems OK for me. Could have been a temp outage on wordpress, but let me know if it's cleared or not.
good now thanks
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: punder on 11/21/2017 06:02 pm
Something simple: it would be nice to have a button at the bottom of each page that returns the user straight to the NSF home page.

Thanks,
Patrick
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Johnnyhinbos on 11/21/2017 06:17 pm
You perhaps might consider renaming the site away from NASASpaceFlight. I know that it's connected to the "brand" of the site and to a certain credibility, however it doesn't reflect the diversity of the subjects covered, not the people who participate.

To be honest, with the caliber of content that this site generates, both in the forums and in the articles, the re-association to a new name would be rapid and a carefully thought name would be more indicative of what this site is.

InternationalSpaceFlight is available - in the very least you should grab that domain before it's gone and think about it...

Plus ISF is better than NSF. I think most people immdiately think of the National Science Foundation when they see those initials.
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Hog on 12/20/2017 06:23 pm
Good day everyone.  I was wondering if there was a way in which I could search the forums for actual thread titles.
For instance, I am attempting to determine if there is a thread based solely on RS-25 engines.  There are many threads about RS-25s as related to recent and future testing, the engine as related to SLS etc etc.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
While I'm here, I just wanted to thank Chris and all the guys/gals responsible for the newer implementation of previously inactive forum features.  I'm not 100% sure when I noticed that these features that have been visible ever since I have been a member here at NASASpaceFlight.com.  Hazarding a guess, I'd say that these functions  were probably activated within the last 6 months or so.

The main feature I am referring to is when I click on"
"PROFILE" then "SHOW POSTS"(at the left side of the page) then "LIKED" or "LIKES GIVEN"

In doing so I am shown a directory of all posts in which others have liked MY post or all the posts that I have LIKED.

This allows me to more quickly find threads/posts which I have enjoyed thus have given a "LIKE".  It just another layer of usability to the forums and another reason for me to use the "LIKE" function.

Again thanks everyone for all your hard work, the fruit of your labour is the fact that NASASpaceflight.com remains THE go to site for all things spaceflight.

Happy holidays everyone!!

Paul
Title: Re: New NSF Feedback Thread
Post by: Chris Bergin on 12/22/2017 11:18 am
Will start a new feedback thread for the forum, but concentrating on the news site, here's the thread for that:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=44494.0