NSF thread for Questions not addressed elsewhere in this Section

[Chris Bergin]

We're happy to announce we now have our own Instagram account for NSF.

https://www.instagram.com/nasaspaceflight_ig/

We've wanted one for a while, but the setup and grind of bringing it up to speed with our other social media platforms delayed matters until a member of our community (and now a member of our team) Liam (@Space_Facts_NSF) offered to run it and has kindly converted his account to allow management and a "ball already rolling" approach. So he is now the stream moderator and the admin of the official NSF Instagram.

This account will be our official account. It'll benefit from quality NSF content and "cool stuff" while NSF will benefit from being properly linked back for the viewer of the IG account to gain additional content resources.

Please support this IG account as one of the things you can help for free, by way of following and interacting (knowledgable community in post comments help new space fans, etc).

[leovinus]

Good luck! Per other notes in recent threads, could you set it up that it copies back content to the Forum as well? For posterity and non Instagram users and to minimize fragmentation?

[DBMandrake]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I couldn't find somewhere better and maybe it will help others...(moderators please move this post if it should be somewhere else)

I use many different forums using various different forum software on a daily basis but I find it particularly difficult to keep track of threads on this forum / forum software, so much so that I'm writing this post.

I mainly hang out in the Starship related threads and because they're so active and there are so many of them I don't particularly want to use email notifications, so for a long time I wasn't.

With most forums I prefer to periodically go to the forum when I have time to read and see what threads I'm interested in (and subscribed to) have new posts, and click a link to be taken to the most recent post in that particular thread which I haven't seen before. Easy.

However unlike virtual every other forum software I've used, the options here seem really limited, especially for such a busy site. There doesn't seem to be a way to subscribe to threads without also receiving email notifications. (The "notify" option, which is not the same as subscriptions on other forums)

So if I don't subscribe for email alerts using notify I can't keep track of which threads have new posts without manually checking them all. It gets worse though - again, unlike every other forum I use, it seems that the forum itself doesn't keep track of my last read post in a thread - it seems to be tracked browser side.

So if I read the forum on my phone, then on a PC at home, then on a PC at work none of these browsers are aware of what the last post in a thread I've truly read on another device actually is. So I end up starting to read "new" posts in a thread only to think "hang on a minute this seems familiar" before I realise that the forum has picked me up at the posts I was last reading two days ago on this particular browser.

Then I have to manually trawl my way through the rest of the thread trying to find the point where there are genuinely new messages to continue at. Sometimes it just seems to completely loose track of where I am in a thread and I have to find it again manually.

I enabled Notify on a couple of the threads I follow so I do at least get an email alert when there are some new posts, however the link in the post does not actually contain a reference to the new post but rather uses a #new tag, for example

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=52701.new;topicseen#new

And depending on which device I click that link on I end up at a different post - for example if I click the link on a PC that hasn't most recently read that thread then I will end up on a very old post that is well before where I'm really up to on a different PC. So the link takes me to a different post depending on what browser I use and sometimes just takes me right to the end even though I know I haven't read everything.

So keeping track of the threads I'm interested in across multiple browsers is a bit of a nightmare to be honest, and far more difficult than any other forum software. In my opinion this forum software seems to lack:

1) Proper thread subscription and non-email notification of new posts visible in the main web UI
2) Tracking of last read posts for each thread per user account rather than per browser session.

Quite frustrating because there's so much good stuff to read on here but it's a lot of work trying to keep track of whether there are new posts in threads of interest (partially solved by Notify but not very well) and keep track of where I'm up to in a 60+ page thread when the forum loses track of my true last read post. (Which happens frequently since it seems to be stored client side and I read this site from more than one device - I usually end up having to manually scan the thread to figure out where I was up to)

Is there anything I can do or is this just a limitation of this forum software? 

[Crispy]

I agree, "My subscribed threads" is the bookmark for all the forums I use except this one, where it does not exist

SMF is not great forum software unfortunately. There are free and paid-for alternatives with better features, but it would be a hell of a job making the switch, given the size of the forums and all the content stored in L2.

[ehb]

Not perfect, but I find this entry to the forum useful: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics
If signed in, it does seem to keep track of "New" when connecting from different devices.

[scdavis]

As long as I'm signed in, the forum does seem to keep track across different browsers and PCs of my latest read. I haven't seen that problem except where I wasn't signed in.

But I agree heartily about wanting to have the ability to "subscribe" to threads I want to view. I want a view like "Unread Topics" but filtered just to the ones I've subscribed to. This is honestly why I find that Tapatalk is the only way to make my workflow clean. It provides exactly this ability. People here seem to dislike Tapatalk and even talk negatively about those who use it -- but I haven't found a way to use the site itself (mobile or otherwise) to do the equivalent.

Could a long time heavy-user of the forum pipe in with your workflow? How do you get around this limitation where there is no web view to see new activity on the threads I'm actually interested to watch daily?

[gongora]

The server does keep track of your last read posts, but that can get messed up when moderation actions are done on the thread, such as deleting discussion from the Starship update threads, which happens a lot.

[xor]

There doesn't seem to be a way to subscribe to threads without also receiving email notifications.

There actually is a way to do what you mention-

I use Notify, but uncheck all the options and make sure to change this setting:

For topics and boards I've requested notification on, notify me of: Nothing at all

Use the Profile - Notifications page as a landing page. Page or scroll down until you get to the last New thread, then read threads upwards until you get to the newest (I like to read in order).

Then I check the Recent Unread Topics when I'm done to see if there's anything new worth diving into or adding to the notification list.

Multiple browsers seem to work as long as I'm logged in. At least for me, just refresh and it's synced.

I want a view like "Unread Topics" but filtered just to the ones I've subscribed to.

Yep, the above basically turns the Profile - Notifications page into exactly that because it's sorted by recency.

I used to only lurk without an account for a long time, but I couldn't keep track of threads in any reasonable manner.

The above is the only way I've found I can possibly drink from the firehose that is NSF, HTH.

[DBMandrake]

The server does keep track of your last read posts, but that can get messed up when moderation actions are done on the thread, such as deleting discussion from the Starship update threads, which happens a lot.

Tracking doesn't work even remotely reliably for me I'm afraid.

I just clicked on a notification email on my phone for a post made today and the link just took me to the first page of a thread with over 40 pages which I was up to date on a few days ago, so it probably should have taken me to post somewhere around page 38.

An email for another thread did take me to a specific post in the thread but it was a post I had already read days ago.

Likewise I logged into the forum from my laptop this morning, clicked the "new" tag in the Texas Prototype thread hoping to see new posts but was taken to a post that was made over a week ago, when I was last reading this thread yesterday on another device and was up to date at that point. Most likely the post it took me to was the last post I read in that thread from this laptop.

Last read post tracking simply doesn't work properly on this forum. Occasionally it works, usually if I stick to the same browser and don't close it however the vast majority of time it doesn't work especially if I am jumping between different devices. I just have to constantly try to find my place again and it's like juggling five 1000 page novels simultaneously where the bookmarks keeps randomly falling out or teleporting to a different section. 

[DBMandrake]

As long as I'm signed in, the forum does seem to keep track across different browsers and PCs of my latest read. I haven't seen that problem except where I wasn't signed in.

I'm permanently signed in on all the browsers/devices I read the forum from. That isn't it. I still constantly end up with the forum randomly losing my last read post status for threads, usually when I'm jumping between devices.

[DBMandrake]

There doesn't seem to be a way to subscribe to threads without also receiving email notifications.

There actually is a way to do what you mention-

I use Notify, but uncheck all the options and make sure to change this setting:

For topics and boards I've requested notification on, notify me of: Nothing at all

Use the Profile - Notifications page as a landing page. Page or scroll down until you get to the last New thread, then read threads upwards until you get to the newest (I like to read in order).

Then I check the Recent Unread Topics when I'm done to see if there's anything new worth diving into or adding to the notification list.

Multiple browsers seem to work as long as I'm logged in. At least for me, just refresh and it's synced.

Thanks - I'll give that a try. That solves the constant email notifications (I get far too many email alerts from other sites already) and yet gives a page I can look at to see a summary of threads I have set to notify. A poor mans subscription page and better than nothing I guess.

However even when I have used the "NEW" links next to threads in the normal thread index my last message read status still seems to get lost, either reverting to the start of the thread or jumping back to some point in the past, so I'll see if that still happens.

I want a view like "Unread Topics" but filtered just to the ones I've subscribed to.

Yep, the above basically turns the Profile - Notifications page into exactly that because it's sorted by recency.

I used to only lurk without an account for a long time, but I couldn't keep track of threads in any reasonable manner.

The above is the only way I've found I can possibly drink from the firehose that is NSF, HTH.

Yes, there is just so much going on here that without proper subscription tools, last post tracking and notifications it's so hard to keep track. After losing my place for the umpteenth time in a long busy thread I give up in disgust for a while and then come back a few days later for another attempt, which is a shame.

[DBMandrake]

Can anyone comment on the "MARK UNREAD" button at the bottom of pages and what it does? Does anyone use it?


It seems like an unusual feature to mark a thread as unread and I notice in the URL there is the string "?action=markasread". Obviously Mark Unread and Mark as Read are two different things!


This brings up an interesting point - if I am reading part way down page 35 of 40 and then close my browser, is the forum software considering the last post on page 35 my last read post to continue from next time?

[freda]

Not perfect, but I find this entry to the forum useful: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=activetopics
If signed in, it does seem to keep track of "New" when connecting from different devices.

Yes.  Rather than having to squeeze through the narrow "5-topic window into Forums" that is presented on the NSF home page, a commonly-provided view such as this would greatly help promote the valuable asset which is the NSF-forum.

[scdavis]

There actually is a way to do what you mention-

I use Notify, but uncheck all the options and make sure to change this setting:

For topics and boards I've requested notification on, notify me of: Nothing at all

Use the Profile - Notifications page as a landing page. Page or scroll down until you get to the last New thread, then read threads upwards until you get to the newest (I like to read in order).
...

That works great! Thanks xor! I've been on here lurking for a long time, eventually started posting some... but I never figured this out. Now I can see updates on the threads I'm interested in, and threads with new posts have the New icon that goes right to unread posts. Sweet.

I feel like this could be mentioned somewhere for newbies, definitely helpful.

[xor]

This brings up an interesting point - if I am reading part way down page 35 of 40 and then close my browser, is the forum software considering the last post on page 35 my last read post to continue from next time?

It appears to mark up to the latest post shown at the time the page load as read, so if there are multiple new pages but you haven't reached later pages, it will still show as new and the New link will take you to the next page.

I tested this to be sure:

+ Go to an index page and find a popular/old link that has likely multiple new pages (in my case, Profile - Notifications).
+ Open from the "New" link in a separate tab.
+ Reload the index page, verify the "New" link still exists, but you can mouse over to see it has been updated.
+ Open from the "New" link in a separate tab again
+ Verify you see the next thread page

The forum appears to use persisted server-side  timestamps per-user per-thread, with the messages that the "New" links point to generated at index page load and translated into fixed message targets.

The index page needs to be reloaded/regenerated for the "New" tags to update to point at newer messages. If I had a suggestion, it is to reload the index page often. I tend to do it after I've read every four threads or so, even have it bound to a special hotkey (Ctrl+/) so I don't have to reach across the keyboard. 

One interesting behavior is when a existing post is changed, that also shows up as "New" and it will throw you backwards in the thread for some deja-vu (I glance at the last modified date at the bottom of the post when this happens). These look a little strange in the index page (such as Profile - Notifications) because it shows the time of the last post, not the last update, so the New tags show up in the list among older threads. Perfectionists tend to stand out, you know who you are  (*cough* we).

Can anyone comment on the "MARK UNREAD" button at the bottom of pages and what it does? Does anyone use it?

You can also play around and verify this in longer threads if you "Mark Unread" on it, which appears to set that thread timestamp to its starting point no matter what thread page you're on.

I occasionally see those "New" links take me places I don't expect, but most of the time it's a modified post. Other people have complained and theorized that there may be some leakage from the link following it, but I've never been able to verify that. I'm not sure if/how that could be the case, but I may be less affected since I read the "New" backwards from oldest to newest (total guess).

Also, re: sync I tend to switch between two desktop browsers. It works with mobile too, but I haven't used that anywhere near as much.

That works great! Thanks xor! I've been on here lurking for a long time, eventually started posting some... but I never figured this out. Now I can see updates on the threads I'm interested in, and threads with new posts have the New icon that goes right to unread posts. Sweet.

I feel like this could be mentioned somewhere for newbies, definitely helpful.

My pleasure! Pass it on, it doesn't appear this forum software will get a facelift any time soon.

I'm not too proud to admit that I had so many NSF tabs open it would eventually crash my Chrome browser with gigs of memory usage and various reload schemes. 

This was before I signed up for an account and let the forum do the work. Now I'm down to two pages (Profile - Notifications and Recent Unread Tops) and it's a much much faster scan.

I eschew most social media, but a message to anonymous lurkers--it's worth signing up! Who knows, you might even post one day?! Judging by the guests->users ratio on the bottom of the main page, there are a lot of people doing it the hard way (missing out?) like I was.

[Hog]

What's everyone;s take on the amount of Starlink content on this site?
IMO basic discussions about an internet provider, prices,  are off topic as related to spaceflight.  The launches, missions, satellites and certain other topics are germane to the bestest freakin' spaceflight site in the world.

What say you?
Keep up the great work admin/mods/masters.

Shields up!

[gongora]

It a huge multi-billion dollar project from what seems to be by far the most popular company among our user community.  The discussions will be staying.  I try not to let the number of threads get too far out of hand.

[whitelancer64]

If they can get Starlink functional enough as an ISP and with enough coverage to support tens to hundreds of millions of customers around the world in the next couple years, they should easily be able to fund any Mars colony ambitions they have with it. The relevance of Starlink is in that greater context.

That said, once you have a ginormous rocket and a pile of money larger than some small nations, there's still a lot of other stuff you need to have to be able to go to Mars. The gigantic pile of money helps. There's a huge number of things that need to be bought, developed, improved, and invested in, in order to keep an arbitrary number of people alive on Mars (like life support systems, water reclamation systems, not to mention the habitats themselves, the Mars-suits, cars and trucks, power generation and storage, everything needed for industrial scale ISRU on Mars, etc.). Yes, almost all of that technology exists, but much of it has to be made better to improve functionality to suit human beings working on Mars, and especially functionality over years and decades.

[ulm_atms]

Considering Starlink is basically supposed to pay for Mars and um.....spaceflight by a company...I'm good with it.

[DreamyPickle]

Satellite projects are very much on topic for a spaceflight forum.

[gongora]

I would agree "I hate my ISP" and speed test posts aren't really necessary.

[Lar]

I think what Hog was getting at was that there is a chance to diverge away into minutiae relating to things like customer service, or "why doesn't my terminal work after I dropped it" etc.   I feel that is a legitimate concern. 

That said... We've done fairly well at keeping generic Tesla discussions tamped down.   I think we'll do OK here too.... But do feel free to call us on it

(via report to mod!)

[Eagandale4114]

Any chance Starlink can get its own subsection in the SpaceX area?

[Nomadd]

 I can see Starlink. The Boring company being in the Starship section has always been a little strange.

[Lar]

Any chance Starlink can get its own subsection in the SpaceX area?

I think if Starlink had enough threads to get its own section, that NSF would be weighted too much toward Starlink. That's just my personal view. We bat these things around all the time, so who knows.

[ulm_atms]

Any chance Starlink can get its own subsection in the SpaceX area?

I can see a topic called "Satellite constellations" in the General Discussion category personally.  There is more then just Starlink out there.  You got the few ISPs(Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper, Telesat), Imaging(Planet, Dove, Maxar), GPS(GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou), and others out there that could all go well under that umbrella.

Here is basically a huge list of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_constellation

[M.E.T.]

Feels like a bit of a (futile) backlash against SpaceX recently.

10 years ago SpaceX did not justify any more forum space than say Rocketlab or Virgin does now.

But the S-curve is now starting to hit its stride and this is evident in the progressive need for more and more SpaceX sub categories.

Spoiler alert - This trend is not going to slow down, it is in fact going to accelerate even more.

Starlink will be integral to a lot of what SpaceX does, and will dominate any hypothetical “Satellite constellation” category in the same way SpaceX dominates the launch vehicle forum.

There is no getting away from it, unless one tries to artificially treat all launch and satellite providers as equal, irrespective of volume, cadence, operational footprint and market size.

[ELinder]

Is it possible to constrain a search to look only within a specific thread?

Erich

[AnalogMan]

Is it possible to constrain a search to look only within a specific thread?

Erich

Yes, use the quick search box at the top of the thread you are interested in.

[ELinder]

Thanks, didn't realize that search field was the thread only search.

[leovinus]

Or the "advanced" section in search and click "in title" Or via google something like
site:nasaspaceflight.com intitle:<your thread> <terms>

[chopsticks]

^^ As the title suggests, I'm wondering if there would be a way to mitigate non-update posts in update threads. I know this has been discussed before, and it's a constant problem where members will comment in an update thread. This leads to rebukes and rebuttals (often from the same people) and friction all around. I'm posting this here since it mainly happens in the Starship threads, but maybe it would be better suited here: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=50.0

A few ideas have been proposed: only a handful of pre-authorized members have permission to post in these threads (Nomadd, Bocachicagal, etc.), however, can we rely on only a few people to post updates when others may see something interesting but don't have permission to post? I think it would be nice to give anybody the opportunity to share an update.

Question is: could an extra step before posting be implemented? For example, when typing up a post and someone has posted before me, I get an alert that says someone has already posted, and to check that I really want to post my message. In an update thread, could we have an alert like this that makes the poster double check whether their post is really an update?

Example: I type a message in the SN11 update thread, and when hitting post, I get a red box that asks "Is this really an update?". Or, you could have to check a box that says "Are you posting an update?" before clicking "post". From a web design perspective it doesn't seem to hard to implement, but I don't know.

What do you all think, including those in charge? Hopefully I've explained myself well enough.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Example: I type a message in the SN11 update thread, and when hitting post, I get a red box that asks "Is this really an update?". Or, you could have to check a box that says "Are you posting an update?" before clicking "post"

These are good suggestions, though it might take some back-end coding so that when a new thread is created, there is a way to designate it as an Update Thread rather than discussion thread. That could be mitigated by a forum rule that only Moderators can create formal Update threads.

[Eer]

Example: I type a message in the SN11 update thread, and when hitting post, I get a red box that asks "Is this really an update?". Or, you could have to check a box that says "Are you posting an update?" before clicking "post"

These are good suggestions, though it might take some back-end coding so that when a new thread is created, there is a way to designate it as an Update Thread rather than discussion thread. That could be mitigated by a forum rule that only Moderators can create formal Update threads.

Another variation is to (a) have update threads flagged that way on the back end, (b) permit only designated users to post to specific update threads (basically, an access control list), as well as (c) a check mark (similar to the "notify moderators" checkbox) on the non-update thread that allows a user not authorized to post to the update thread to PROPOSE the post be placed in the update thread upon review by some authorized person or moderator.

The ACL, if it doesn't already exist in the forum software, would be the biggest job to add.  But it's a common enough thing it might just need to be turned on and tested to see the performance impact it causes.  Just trying to brainstorm ideas using mostly available mechanisms.

[Mandella]

I really like the idea of an alert box asking if this is really an update or not, with a link perhaps to take you to the associated discussion thread -- although that last may be impractical.

I know that I've inadvertently posted in an update thread while replying to others posting in the update thread, and a simple reminder would have probably stopped the whole business before it got rolling.

Of course, woe be to anyone who ignores the warning and posts anyway...

[leovinus]

I really like the idea of an alert box asking if this is really an update or not, with a link perhaps to take you to the associated discussion thread -- although that last may be impractical.

I know that I've inadvertently posted in an update thread while replying to others posting in the update thread, and a simple reminder would have probably stopped the whole business before it got rolling.

Of course, woe be to anyone who ignores the warning and posts anyway...

Sensable suggestion for backend change and reminder, and discussed previously, e.g., at Re: Current NSF Forum Feedback Thread 2

[CJ]

My suggestion is to make update threads consistently look like update threads. There's currently a mix of "updates" in all caps for some threads, others only the first letter capitalized. IMHO, this adds to confusion (And thus some of the problematic posts). So, my suggestion is to have "UPDATES" in all caps for all updates-only threads.

[Asteroza]

Any chance Starlink can get its own subsection in the SpaceX area?

I can see a topic called "Satellite constellations" in the General Discussion category personally.  There is more then just Starlink out there.  You got the few ISPs(Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper, Telesat), Imaging(Planet, Dove, Maxar), GPS(GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou), and others out there that could all go well under that umbrella.

Here is basically a huge list of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_constellation

I had lazily asked for a megaconstellation section in the past and was told it wasn't quite time yet. Perhaps with OneWeb and Starlink in active deployment, it's time to a have a either a constellation or "on-orbit" section (which would cover megaconstellations, constellations, commercial stations, maybe the occasional single sats?)

[Hog]

If it really bother you that much, Report to Mod always works.

[chopsticks]

If it really bother you that much, Report to Mod always works.

It's not a personal issue for me, but I know it bothers a lot of other users here and there is often arguing in the discussion thread afterwards, not fun! It seems like a simple warning or checkbox prior to a post in an update thread could prevent some of this friction and make a forum a happier place. That's all. I was trying think of a pragmatic solution that wouldn't require a whole pile of customization, coding, and work, and it dawned on me the other day that that extra step you have to do when posting after someone has already replied could be a simple and effective way of eliminating this issue.

I don't know how hard or easy this would be to implement in the backend, but since this sort of functionality already exists, I wondered how hard it would be to modify it a bit to always force the extra step when posting in an update thread. Someone in the know with this software and code would have to chime in with info on this.

[gongora]

I doubt Starlink gets moved out of the SpaceX section.  The Commecial Spaceflight section has grown to the point where a launch/spacecraft split might be in order.

[StevenOBrien]

If there is some sort of warning added before posting, maybe also putting something like "Please make sure the update you're posting hasn't already been posted previously by someone else" would be useful too.

[Asteroza]

I doubt Starlink gets moved out of the SpaceX section.  The Commercial Spaceflight section has grown to the point where a launch/spacecraft split might be in order.

What about moving Starlink into a distinct subsection of the Spacex grouping then?

[the_other_Doug]

A reminder/warning would be useful.  I know that, in my case, if I'm following a launch and I notice something I want to comment on, I'm usually keeping the updates thread open.  It's natural to just hit REPLY and make my comment.  I'm not intending on diluting the update thread, I'm just eager to share my observation.

It would save me time, in these cases, if the reminder that I'm about to post in an update thread came as the post form was loaded, before I start typing, not when I try to save my post.  Otherwise, it becomes more challenging to think through copying the text I just typed and pasting it into a comment in the correct discussion thread.  And, of course, if I'm gonna post my observation, I ought to see if it's been made already in the discussion thread, and if I should add my own take on it, respond to existing comments rather than typing up a "Hey, did y'all see that?" post when it's the 17th post on the event, that kind of thing...

That's my $0.02, anyway.  FWIW.

[wjbarnett]

Also, let's remember, that during launches or EVAs or test events, or other breaking news, the update threads are getting lots of time critical posts from the people providing coverage (TY all!). So don't do anything that makes their jobs harder or slows them down.

[su27k]

I just have two well written comments deleted without warning, I can only guess that the reason they were deleted is because I'm posting something related to SpaceX in a non-SpaceX thread. If that is the case, please make sure:
1. This forum rule is communicated to everyone
2. Actually enforce this rule in a unbiased manner, for example this comment is a SpaceX related comment (basically defending someone's (unfair) criticism regarding SpaceX) in a OneWeb thread, yet this comment is not deleted, but my reply to it is deleted. You can't just allow criticism against SpaceX in a non-SpaceX thread while at the same time deleting any attempt to refute the criticism, that's censorship.

[deadman1204]

Hey, couple questions about NSF and images.

1. This site has some amazing photographers who contribute both to stories, and simply posting additional images in the forums. The photos with a NSF tag - are these purchased or donated?
    a. I'm curious if I should consider trying to support the photographers if they are simply dedicated fans and community supporters

2. What sort of licensing does NSF use for its photos?
    a. I'm thinking about commercial use, but generally curious about use options. Like taking a photo on the site for personal use.


Thanks

[jebbo]

This is probably a bit premature, but now the Tianhe module has launched, has cre and they are doing construction EVAs, should the International Space Station top level section become "Space Stations" with ISS and Tiangong as sub-sections?

If not now, then perhaps once it has a permanent crew post-Shenzhou 15?

--- Tony

[rocketmaniac000]

This is probably a bit premature, but now the Tianhe module has launched, has cre and they are doing construction EVAs, should the International Space Station top level section become "Space Stations" with ISS and Tiangong as sub-sections?

If not now, then perhaps once it has a permanent crew post-Shenzhou 15?

--- Tony

I do think the proper moment would be after having the permanent crew. Doing it before that could be a little bit risky.

[rocketmaniac000]

Hey, couple questions about NSF and images.

1. This site has some amazing photographers who contribute both to stories, and simply posting additional images in the forums. The photos with a NSF tag - are these purchased or donated?
    a. I'm curious if I should consider trying to support the photographers if they are simply dedicated fans and community supporters

2. What sort of licensing does NSF use for its photos?
    a. I'm thinking about commercial use, but generally curious about use options. Like taking a photo on the site for personal use.


Thanks

About the first question, I think that the photos are actually donated.

[Hamish.Student]

Hi all,

These concerns have been voiced over in the Starship Prototype thread and were (rightfully) removed, I apologise to the mods for my off-topicness in this. 
 
Twitter has recently begun bringing in changes (via A/B testing so it only affects some users at any one time) that greatly reduce the ability of the public to use their website, without logging in. These changes include, but are not limited too: Blocking the viewing of photos in tweets, Blocking the ability to scroll public profiles, as well as just general crapiness on their servers such as pages not loading or pages loading slowly. 
 
Additionally there is a segment of the user base here who cannot access twitter at all, be it through internet filtering by Govt or Employers.

Then there's the issue of the twitter embeds in the updates thread slowly things down to a crawl until they spring into existence. I don't have data caps, but some people do! 
 
Now, I'm not sure what the best solution would be. I previously mentioned banning twitter, that's probably too much. Maybe a switch to control the embeds? Maybe if we could rehost the images here, which would also preserve them for posterity. Twitter may not be around forever. This would help with the twitter.com issues, as well as bandwidth and filtering. 
 
This is becoming more of an issue now with the changes Twitter are implementing, and the fact that for some reason it seems that the majority of updates are just twitter links these days, other than Mary's posts. It didn't use to be this way even 6 months to a year ago.     
 
Id like to hear everyone's thoughts on this. 
 
Thankyou

[raivo45]

There are some answers to this topic in this this thread: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36636.0

[ugordan]

I've been running into the blocked access without being logged in constantly and it's really annoying. I already have to wait ages for the forum page to load up all the twitter embeds on that particular forum page and then I can't even access the original tweet if I want to look at original high res images etc.

[Star One]

There are some answers to this topic in this this thread: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36636.0

These are very recent changes on Twitter’s end of things. I don’t see them noted in that thread?

[Hamish.Student]

There are some answers to this topic in this this thread: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36636.0

These are very recent changes on Twitter’s end of things. I don’t see them noted in that thread?

 
 
The last post there was on: 11/29/2018; That thread is so outdated as to not be relevant now. 
Especially given the recent issues.

[capoman]

Definitely an issue, and I'm also one that gets blocked from Twitter on certain computers. Elon is an example of someone who will likely not join the forum to put in posts. I really don't know that there is a good solution to this. In Elon's case, he can be quoted, but sometimes he does post interesting photos of Boca Chica and such, that are very useful.

[Mark S]

Someone posted a question in one of the update/photo threads this weekend why he couldn't see any pictures. I gave a quick reply that they were Twitter links and would fill in asynchronously. Both posts got deleted, but hopefully the OP saw the reply before that happened.

Some people really don't understand why this happens, and I think the slow photo backfill and/or non-visibility reflects poorly on NSF. It also makes the page jump around while you are trying to read or look closely at something in the thread.

Thanks.

[Orbiter]

Screenshots of tweets & embedding them seems the best route to go, IMHO.

[Hamish.Student]

Screenshots of tweets & embedding them seems the best route to go, IMHO.

 
 
I'd tend to agree, however then we lose the high res version. But I guess we've lost that anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[JCopernicus]

FWIW,  I've noticed that clearing your cache/cookies for the twitter site will reset the annoying pop ups.

[ugordan]

FWIW,  I've noticed that clearing your cache/cookies for the twitter site will reset the annoying pop ups.

Only for a while, though.

[joek]

FWIW... With the exception of very few sites (NSF and twitter *not* included), I operate in incognito or private mode the vast majority of the time, and rarely have incognito browser instance open for more than a few hours at a time. Have never had the problems others seem to have viewing these twitter's. May be inconvenient for some depending on your habits, but works for me as that is my standard MO.

[joek]

...
Some people really don't understand why this happens, and I think the slow photo backfill and/or non-visibility reflects poorly on NSF. It also makes the page jump around while you are trying to read or look closely at something in the thread.

Happens on many sites and can be annoying... especially when you click on something only to discover it moved during the page update and I end up going somewhere I didn't want. Would you prefer synchronous loads and wait until all of them complete before displaying page? Think most would say no. How does this "reflect poorly on NSF"?

[OTV Booster]

NSF is NSF and Twitter is Twitter. One a labor of love and one sees its users as its product. Can you guess which is which?


What Twitter has done is a universal improvement. Following a linked tweet from my phone now limits me to three replies and the opening tweet of related threads. When was the last time you saw anything past the third reply that went beyond vapid? Twitter has improved its overall signal to noise ratio from .0175% to .189%. If they keep it up they will climb to the S/N of a loud fart in a bar.


IF you have a Twitter account, and IF you are interested, Elon Tweets COPIED here would be appreciated, but not crucial. Maybe write a weekly compilation. The rest of it? Blahh! We've enough people posting here directly that we don't miss much, except Nomadd.


Ban Twitter imbeds? Not worth the effort. Quote Twitter Inbeds? That's your decision. The more you inbed the lower the quality of this site. The update thread has gotten so noisy it's getting to be not worth the effort to read. Any twitter crap stuck in there usually shows up in the discussion thread again and again and again and again.


Maybe a compromise. A second update thread for Twitter only. In 10 years its content will have evaporated and Twitter can take it's true place in the historical record.

[alugobi]

The update thread has gotten so noisy it's getting to be not worth the effort to read.

Agreed.  It's turned into a twitter aggregator.

I wait for the nightly video and look at that.  Also, at the end of her day, Mary puts up her stills to complement the video. 

Most of the rest of it, meh. 

Any twitter crap stuck in there usually shows up in the discussion thread again and again and again and again.

Yeah, that.  Crossposting is also lowering the quality.

[joek]

..
Maybe a compromise. A second update thread for Twitter only. In 10 years its content will have evaporated and Twitter can take it's true place in the historical record.

We kinda-sorta have (had?) that with the  Starship Epoch Ecosystem Tweet History - UPDATES,. But I don't pay much attention to it; just go directly to the appropriate threads.

Life in the Internet age. If information posted on site X is subject to restrictions and potentially ephemeral, that's their business and not much NSF can do about it.  If some folks want to record those tweets for posterity, more power to them.

That said, the complaints about Twitter access by NSF users is simply whining IMO. (E.g., I have no problem, what is yours?) If NSF users want to record those tweet's for posterity, again more power to them; there are several options.

[joek]

Agreed.  It's turned into a twitter aggregator.
...
Yeah, that.  Crossposting is also lowering the quality.

Agree; seeing the same post in multiple threads and replication of twitter posts is annoying. Then again, would generally prefer over- rather than under-communication. Load is on the consumer-reader to sift through, but reduces load on NSF mods-whoever to consolidate-curate.

That said, as guests on this forum (and my go-to site) , think we need to be considerate of our hosts and what we ask of them.

[Mark S]

...
Some people really don't understand why this happens, and I think the slow photo backfill and/or non-visibility reflects poorly on NSF. It also makes the page jump around while you are trying to read or look closely at something in the thread.

Happens on many sites and can be annoying... especially when you click on something only to discover it moved during the page update and I end up going somewhere I didn't want. Would you prefer synchronous loads and wait until all of them complete before displaying page? Think most would say no. How does this "reflect poorly on NSF"?

By "reflects poorly", I mean it makes NSF not look so great when the pages are slow to display and the page jumps around under your mouse. One solution would be for the forum content server to generate HTML with the size of the tweet that will be fetched by the javascript and include it in the img tag. I'm no HTML or javascript slinger, but I know you can specify the size of an image so the browser can size the page before all the content is retrieved. That would stop the jumping around and the user would see the blanks to be filled in, and maybe not sit there wondering what's going on.

[D_Dom]

It is the internet folks. Personally I choose to ignore anything twitter related. If some nonsense is going on that attracts my attention as a moderator on this site my habit is wholesale deletions, admittedly I am not very active as a moderator so it isn't much of a problem. Spending more time on a small screen these days I fat finger trigger twitter links more often than I like, that is totally operator error and I wouldn't think of imposing my preferred solution on the community as a whole. That would not be excellent.

[Chris Bergin]

It should be a simple straight forward thing to get the original twitter poster to agree to allow the pics on nasaspaceflight.com.

That is a non-starter and we're not going to be hosting other people's content. Embedding is the only allowed way so this thread is somewhat of a non-starter. I'm sure Mark will look at the loading side of things. But that's a website side thing, not a "twitter issues" thread thing. Also, this is an issue for a handful of people, so - like spacecraft - making changes could cause a problem for everyone else.

[holmstar]

Would it be possible to create a combined starship/superheavy update thread (ie, if the updates for a specific test or test article or whatever get split into another thread, the combined thread / view would have the updates from all update threads? 

I've had more than one occasion when I've been following the main update thread and see posts about an upcoming test, and then no test updates after that.  But like a week later see in the news that a test did occur as scheduled and then have to go dig through the threads to find the "test updates" thread for that test.  Looking at the documentation for the current forum software it seems this might not be possible, but figured I would ask.

Alternatively, could the updates threads be grouped into a sub-forum?, such as: Forums »SpaceX Vehicles and Missions »SpaceX Super Heavy/Starship (BFR/BFS) - Earth to Deep Space » Updates » Thread name

That would make them a lot easier to follow / find new ones when they get created.


Secondly, and this is mostly a quibble and I could just set him to ignore I suppose, but the rendering videos provided by Owe, while certainly cool and certainly a lot of effort goes into them, aren't really updates and I don't think they belong there.  They are his educated speculation on what will be the case, not what is actually definitive reality. 

[Herb Schaltegger]

Is there a way to block a user's In Box from receiving private messages from specific forum members? Or better yet, block that user's posts from being visible to me, them from contacting me, etc? If not, is this a feature that could be added to or enabled with the forum software?

Life's too short to deal with berating PM's from what is probably a sock puppet account for a now-banned former member ...

[Lar]

Yes.

Via the web interface, select profile, then modify then buddy/ignore list and add whoever it is...

[DHartley]

Hi-  I used my email address as my user name years ago when I joined the forum.  I haven't posted anything yet, but I would like to change that username to something more generic.  I've gone to the manage profile section of the Profile area, but changing the user name doesn't seem to be an option.  Nothing happens when you try to edit text there.
Am I missing something here?

[wjbarnett]

Best course of action is to PM Chris Bergin, using the forum messaging feature. He's not reading every thread.

[Eer]

I'll put this here, rather than the Videos section, as it's a suggestion, not an update ...

I found the posts saying when the weekly NSF Live program would be streamed helpful back when they were being provided (in Feb 2022, for example).

I don't know where else to look to see if today's stream is on, has been cancelled because of some other covered event or another, or is rescheduled.  Maybe I'm just not finding it.

So - suggestion - say WEN you plan to do them.  Thanks.

[russianhalo117]

I'll put this here, rather than the Videos section, as it's a suggestion, not an update ...

I found the posts saying when the weekly NSF Live program would be streamed helpful back when they were being provided (in Feb 2022, for example).

I don't know where else to look to see if today's stream is on, has been cancelled because of some other covered event or another, or is rescheduled.  Maybe I'm just not finding it.

So - suggestion - say WEN you plan to do them.  Thanks.

[ChrisC]

Just check the NSF Youtube channel.  They typically do them on Sundays starting at 3pm ET (used to be Saturdays) but sometimes skip if they had too many other live events in the last day or two.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSUu1lih2RifWkKtDOJdsBA

[danneely]

Until some point earlier this week there was a thread in the SpaceX Facilities and Fleets section that had been using public records to keep track of SpaceX's buying up property in and around Boca Chica.  The last time I was here the discussion had gotten somewhat heated, and I was half expecting it to get locked and restarted.  But when I came back this morning it appears to have been deleted instead.

[russianhalo117]

Until some point earlier this week there was a thread in the SpaceX Facilities and Fleets section that had been using public records to keep track of SpaceX's buying up property in and around Boca Chica.  The last time I was here the discussion had gotten somewhat heated, and I was half expecting it to get locked and restarted.  But when I came back this morning it appears to have been deleted instead.

It was probably moved into moderator purgatory for a while or permanently.

[Hamish.Student]

Can we have the thread back yet?

[Robotbeat]

Can we have the thread back yet?

Yeah, Even if the recent stuff is nuked and it’s locked, it’s be nice to have it back for reference.

[AC in NC]

Can we have the thread back yet?

Yeah, Even if the recent stuff is nuked and it’s locked, it’s be nice to have it back for reference.

Back with a serious prune.  We need to refrain from religious debates about the effect of SpaceX on the locals and such no-value digressions.

Gratitude to the staff for bring us back to the straight and narrow.

[Hamish.Student]

The forums are currently running SMF 2.0.15, released November 2017! 
Are there any plans to upgrade to a more recent version to take advantage of the bug fixes, security patches, and new features? 
 

[NSF Webmaster]

While we are still on 2.0.15 (based on version number) we backport security fixes (and some other features) on our (now) custom version. As 2.1 is in a stable state for a while now we are working towards migration to 2.1.

[JAFO]

Can someone double check this? If you type fan boy as all one word the forum software corrects it to amazing people.

How about fangirl? Nope. Whatever the glitch is, it's sexist. 

amazing people   amazing people   amazing people



Or maybe it's my computer?

[Hog]

That's no glitch, done deliberate, just like the removal of the memberlist.

[Chris Bergin]

Hehe. Took a while for someone to spot that

One way to deal with trolls. 

[JAFO]

*giggity*




<<<<<———————————

[Orbiter]

I tried to put into my bio "Saturn V f a nboy" and it auto corrected to "Saturn V awesome people"... now I know why!

[Nomadd]

How about fangirl? Nope. Whatever the glitch is, it's sexist. 

It should correct to Sally Rand.

[libra]

fan-boi
fan-bois
fan-boys

Honey, I screwed the autocorrect (and political correctness, that huge PITA)

[Nomadd]

 You can't talk about the PayPal founders either because "PayPal mahfeeya" isn't allowed.

[freddo411]

Please autocorrect “tapatalk” to NULL

[AnalogMan]

Fanboi
Fanbois
Fanboys
Paypal Mafia

Meh!

[libra]

You can't talk about the PayPal founders either because "PayPal mahfeeya" isn't allowed.

Also applies to Boyd and the LWF supporters that led to the F-16, as "fighter m a f i a " "fighter (sorry, need to stop here for a second and just say that I have to use stupid words to get my point across. I know that means I must have a weak argument, but that's why I use bad words)." 

[Jim]

You're welcome ;-)

[JAFO]

SLS (sorry, need to stop here for a second and just say that I have to use stupid words to get my point across. I know that means I must have a weak argument, but that's why I use bad words) M a f i a.


HMMMM……..   I think we have a new party thread. Find the Seven words you can’t say on NASA spaceflight forum.com.   

[Bob Shaw]

Banfoy
Cosa Nostra
Hem!

[soyuzu]

Literally 1984 /s

   
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⠤⠤⣄⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣾⣟⠳⢦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠒⣲⡄ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⡇⡇⡱⠲⢤⣀⠀⠀⠀⢸⠀⠀⠀1984⠀⣠⠴⠊⢹⠁ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⢻⠓⠀⠉⣥⣀⣠⠞⠀⠀⠀⢸⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡴⠋⠀⠀⠀⢸⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⡾⣄⠀⠀⢳⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⢠⡄⢀⡴⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡞⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣠⢎⡉⢦⡀⠀⠀⡸⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡼⣣⠧⡼⠀2022⠀⢠⠇⠀ ⠀⢀⡔⠁⠀⠙⠢⢭⣢⡚⢣⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣇⠁⢸⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⠀⠀ ⠀⡞⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢫⡉⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⢮⠈⡦⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⠀⠀ ⢀⠇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⢦⡀⣀⡴⠃⠀⡷⡇⢀⡴⠋⠉⠉⠙⠓⠒⠃⠀⠀ ⢸⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠁⠀⠀⡼⠀⣷⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⡞⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡰⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⢧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠣⣀⠀⠀⡰⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

[Spike W]

I have been following it for quite a while and it seems to have vanished. Any reason why and will to come back?

[catdlr]

I have been following it for quite a while and it seems to have vanished. Any reason why and will to come back?

It's located in
Forums »International Space Flight (ESA, Russia, China and others) »Suborbital Missions »Copenhagen Suborbitals Updates and Testing

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=25338.0

[Spike W]

Thank you!

[Jim]

Fanatical young males

[laszlo]

[joncz]

My Unread threads was just inundated with FutureSpaceTourist creating a topic for each and every NSF Live video.  If I click Notify in that section, I'm just asked if I want to turn notifications on.

[acrewdog]

Hi, I don't want to be off topic but I'm getting concerned that the Head Engineer at SpaceX is getting drawn down into a quagmire of his own creation at Twitter.
Is there a place that this topic is on-topic?  If he loses 44 billion dollars (and his mind) it may have real consequences for the company that we know and love.  Or, is this topic too incendiary for this site?

[M.E.T.]

I know one place where it would not be considered too incendiary to discuss - Twitter.

[Chris Bergin]

Every time it's brought up, it gets political - which we try and avoid here.

[eric_astro]

Problem reading home (or "flash") page article titles:

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/      "thumb" image links leading to

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/12/artemis-i-srb-review/    and

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/core-stage-sls-update/

are not readable.

[Perchlorate]

Disclaimers:  I'm not smart about forums and topics, and I only spend about 1% of my waking hours on this forum, so I may be raising an issue/idea which has been discussed and dismissed long ago.  Nevertheless:

1.  How often does someone forget and make a "Discussion" comment in an "Updates" thread?  Then we have the inevitable trim and scolding...unpleasant for all, and somewhat bandwidth-sucking.

2.  If I see something in an Updates thread upon which I wish to comment, I've got to copy the post I want to quote, then figure out which is the appropriate discussion thread, then go there and post my whimsical comment, etc.  A little awkward, especially for the less-prolific user.

3.  What if each Updates thread had an automatically-generated Discussion thread, and the titles were identical except for "Updates" vs. "Discussion"?

4.  And, when I choose to Reply, what if there was a dialog which allowed me to choose whether it was really another Update, or just Discussion?  And, if Discussion, it automatically quoted the post to which I'm Replying, but over into the related Discussion thread?

I don't even know how feasible this is, technically.  But it seemed to me to have some merit.  So, here goes...

< Presses Post, awaits Crapstorm >

[Hog]

Seems to have been corrected.

[ppnl]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.

Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

[catdlr]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.

Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

They've been around for awhile.  Many pretend to be live coverage of a launch or a live speech given by Elon, etc.  And yea, it to seel bit coin.

[Star One]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.

Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

They've been around for awhile.  Many pretend to be live coverage of a launch or a live speech given by Elon, etc.  And yea, it to seel bit coin.

I’ve noticed them appearing in my feed every so often. If you mark them not interested often enough they tend to go away.

[AmigaClone]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.

Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

When a scammy SpaceX or related channel pops up on my feed I normally report it as a scam. On more than one occasion, I have even been able to mention on the report created that the video used in the scam was stolen from a particular content creator.

[Nomadd]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.
Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

 Only humanity who wants money they didn't earn.
 I have little sympathy for victims of get rich schemes. How many people do you meet that even understand money as a medium of exchange for goods and services any more?

[stormhelm]

Just report and ignore..

[meekGee]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.
Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

 Only humanity who wants money they didn't earn.
 I have little sympathy for victims of get rich schemes. How many people do you meet that even understand money as a medium of exchange for goods and services any more?

If it says SpaceX but it's pushing Bitcoin then it's obviously fake.

The real SpaceX channel only pushes Dogecoin!

[jasonjulius1122]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins.

Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

Yes, you are correct even I saw that there are several YT channels that are fake using SpaceX's name and it was fake and he was doing scams to the people.

[Eer]

Hi -

The forum top banner includes a link "Unread Topics" with URL "...?action=unread;start=0".

At the bottom of the listing page is a link "All Unread Topics" with URL "...?action=unread;all;start=0"

The bottom of the page link does, indeed, show more topics.

What is the unspoken "not all" filter criteria?  Is is per-user recorded "topics you've read" or something else?

[catdlr]

Hi -

The forum top banner includes a link "Unread Topics" with URL "...?action=unread;start=0".

At the bottom of the listing page is a link "All Unread Topics" with URL "...?action=unread;all;start=0"

The bottom of the page link does, indeed, show more topics.

What is the unspoken "not all" filter criteria?  Is is per-user recorded "topics you've read" or something else?

Ere,

I've always wonder about that myself.  But I do know that if I start reading topics during one visit to the site and then later return (or logoff and logon), the list is different.  Here is a message I get when this situation occurs and no topics are shown (when I know there are):

(condition: the unread topics page is empty)
"No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics."

I also get that condition when I clear cache between visits.  So cookies may be involved.

Tony

[gongora]

Unread topics cuts off the list at some time point (I haven't quite figured out what it is, seems to vary based on what device I used to visit the site).  All Unread just continues the list past that cutoff.  The content shown is the same.

[catdlr]

Unread topics cuts off the list at some time point (I haven't quite figured out what it is, seems to vary based on what device I used to visit the site).  All Unread just continues the list past that cutoff.  The content shown is the same.

It's interesting to note that I have also encountered a similar issue at the detail topic level, where only a few entries are displayed. However, when I click on the "All Unread" button, a few more entries appear. This happens to me quite frequently. Sometimes, when I am aware that there are more topics to review and I leave the NSF (close the browser tab), upon my return a few hours later, those topics are missing. I then get a new set of posts that have occurred since that time, and I have to hit the "Read All" button to get those topics to reappear. To avoid missing posts, I keep the NSF tab open all day long, so I receive all the topics as they appear.

Many times I miss posts, and only when a topic gets a new post is when I can get back and find not only the new post but others above that I know I haven't yet read. This is frustrating, especially in the evening when I take some time to read a post, and there is nothing there and I know that the forum is more active than that.

[woods170]

For the first time in a long time I was scrolling thru the L2 Space Flight Historical section when I noticed something odd: 10 years worth of threads and posts in this section seem to be missing from the section listing.

See the screenshots below. Page 4 of the listing ends with a thread which had its last post in 2019. Page 5 starts with a thread which had its last post in 2009. A whopping 10 year gap!

When I took a closer look, I noticed that a lot of threads are missing from the L2 Space Flight Historical listing. One notable example is the one by EdKyle about the Extra Extended Long Tank Delta missions.

But, if one uses the Search function, that particular thread (and lots of others that are missing from the listing) can be found.
So, this seems to be an issue with the listing of the L2 Space Flight Historical section and not so much threads actually missing.

@ChrisB: what happened to the listing? Something went wrong when the L2 photos section was merged into the L2 historical section?

[gongora]

If the time stamps on the unread posts are cut off before the last time I looked at the forum, I just hit the All Unread button.  I think it tends to assume I've read the entire forum if I pull it up on my phone, but that doesn't usually happen on the desktop browser.

[litton4]

The default view seems to be just a couple of days, while the "All unread" does exactly what it says.
Sometimes I get 3 pages from the latter if I haven't viewed the section in a while.

[Hobbes-22]

Unread topics is only the topics that have changed since the last time you loaded the Unread topics page. All unread topics is all of the topics you haven't seen the latest message in.

[Eer]

Unread topics is only the topics that have changed since the last time you loaded the Unread topics page. All unread topics is all of the topics you haven't seen the latest message in.

This looks to be pretty correct. Here is text from the Smart Machines Forum 2.0 online documentation:

SMF has several options for users to view unread posts. Unread posts are topics and replies that have not been viewed by the user. The most common way to view unread posts is through the links in the forum header near the top of a forum page.

    Show unread replies since last visit – Selecting this option displays a list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit. The user has the ability to select to view all unread topics, which will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit.

So, it appears that the "normal" Unread Topics provides the "list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit."  And the "All Unread" option at the bottom of the page "will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit".

Perhaps, mystery resolved.

[mn]

Unread topics is only the topics that have changed since the last time you loaded the Unread topics page. All unread topics is all of the topics you haven't seen the latest message in.

This looks to be pretty correct. Here is text from the Smart Machines Forum 2.0 online documentation:

SMF has several options for users to view unread posts. Unread posts are topics and replies that have not been viewed by the user. The most common way to view unread posts is through the links in the forum header near the top of a forum page.

    Show unread replies since last visit – Selecting this option displays a list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit. The user has the ability to select to view all unread topics, which will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit.

So, it appears that the "normal" Unread Topics provides the "list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit."  And the "All Unread" option at the bottom of the page "will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit".

Perhaps, mystery resolved.

It can't be as simple as that, if this were true we would get an empty 'unread topics' page on reload. (which does happen to me occasionally, no idea why. But by this definition it should happen every time).

And while we are on this subject. When looking at the unread messages page, there's a link to the 'all unread messages', but when there are no unread topics we just get a message that there are no unread topics, but no link to the 'all unread topics'.

[litton4]

Unread topics is only the topics that have changed since the last time you loaded the Unread topics page. All unread topics is all of the topics you haven't seen the latest message in.

This looks to be pretty correct. Here is text from the Smart Machines Forum 2.0 online documentation:

SMF has several options for users to view unread posts. Unread posts are topics and replies that have not been viewed by the user. The most common way to view unread posts is through the links in the forum header near the top of a forum page.

    Show unread replies since last visit – Selecting this option displays a list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit. The user has the ability to select to view all unread topics, which will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit.

So, it appears that the "normal" Unread Topics provides the "list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit."  And the "All Unread" option at the bottom of the page "will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit".

Perhaps, mystery resolved.

It can't be as simple as that, if this were true we would get an empty 'unread topics' page on reload. (which does happen to me occasionally, no idea why. But by this definition it should happen every time).

And while we are on this subject. When looking at the unread messages page, there's a link to the 'all unread messages', but when there are no unread topics we just get a message that there are no unread topics, but no link to the 'all unread topics'.

Yes there is, it's a hotlink in the text, rather then a button. "Click here to try all unread topics" or soemthing like that

[mn]

Unread topics is only the topics that have changed since the last time you loaded the Unread topics page. All unread topics is all of the topics you haven't seen the latest message in.

This looks to be pretty correct. Here is text from the Smart Machines Forum 2.0 online documentation:

SMF has several options for users to view unread posts. Unread posts are topics and replies that have not been viewed by the user. The most common way to view unread posts is through the links in the forum header near the top of a forum page.

    Show unread replies since last visit – Selecting this option displays a list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit. The user has the ability to select to view all unread topics, which will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit.

So, it appears that the "normal" Unread Topics provides the "list of the topics which have had new posts made in them since the user's last visit."  And the "All Unread" option at the bottom of the page "will display any topic with unread posts, regardless of their last visit".

Perhaps, mystery resolved.

It can't be as simple as that, if this were true we would get an empty 'unread topics' page on reload. (which does happen to me occasionally, no idea why. But by this definition it should happen every time).

And while we are on this subject. When looking at the unread messages page, there's a link to the 'all unread messages', but when there are no unread topics we just get a message that there are no unread topics, but no link to the 'all unread topics'.

Yes there is, it's a hotlink in the text, rather then a button. "Click here to try all unread topics" or soemthing like that

So I got that page again yesterday and I see that the extra text to read all unread only shows on the deskptop but not on the 'mobile friendly' version of the site. (I did not try the mobile theme, I am referring to the regular full theme which is sort of mobile friendly)

[JohnSuar]

Anyone notice the fake scammy spacex channels on youtube? Some of them even have the spacex channel name. I thought I was watching the real launch coverage for several minuets. Then it flashed a qr code to buy bit coins. It is important to be vigilant and careful, especially when it comes to financial transactions and personal information. I agree with you about Bitcoin - many scams are related to scamcurrencies. You can also click on the link and scammers will take over your online wallet - this is also dangerous. I know a trusted resource, everyone trustly recommends it, namely trustly casino, and I started studying it. For now I’m just reading about it and looking at reviews. What can I say - it is important to be aware and careful.

Bit coins are a pox on humanity.

Yes, you are correct even I saw that there are several YT channels that are fake using SpaceX's name and it was fake and he was doing scams to the people.

I have also come across similar fake channels on YouTube and it is really offensive. Unfortunately, in the online world there will always be those who seek to deceive and manipulate. This is inevitable, they make money from it.

[russianhalo117]

Here is the updated SMF development roadmap:

Announcing the start of SMF 3.0 development

[deltaV]

Which forum section does planetary defense belong in, i.e. asteroids and comets that may impact Earth and missions to predict or prevent such impacts? (Planetary defense shouldn't be confused with the similarly named topic of planetary protection, which is unrelated.) Planetary defense includes NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), missions such as NEO Surveyor, and asteroid 2024 YR4. The goal of planetary defense is protecting lives and assets, not acquiring knowledge, so planetary defense is engineering, not science. None of the sections seem to fit, so maybe "general discussion"? Should we create a dedicated Planetary Defense section?

I ask because there's a thread in the "Missions To The Near Earth Asteroids (HSF)" section on asteroid 2024 YR4 (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=62382.0) which presumably belongs elsewhere since asteroid redirect missions are almost certainly going to be uncrewed.

[AndrewM]

Which forum section does planetary defense belong in, i.e. asteroids and comets that may impact Earth and missions to predict or prevent such impacts? (Planetary defense shouldn't be confused with the similarly named topic of planetary protection, which is unrelated.) Planetary defense includes NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), missions such as NEO Surveyor, and asteroid 2024 YR4. The goal of planetary defense is protecting lives and assets, not acquiring knowledge, so planetary defense is engineering, not science. None of the sections seem to fit, so maybe "general discussion"? Should we create a dedicated Planetary Defense section?

I ask because there's a thread in the "Missions To The Near Earth Asteroids (HSF)" section on asteroid 2024 YR4 (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=62382.0) which presumably belongs elsewhere since asteroid redirect missions are almost certainly going to be uncrewed.

There is a NEO Surveyor thread in science: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=49105.75.

I think the rest could go in general though at this time.

[deltaV]

The "L2 Small and Medium Launch" section of the forum includes ~4 threads about launchers that (in their most capable configuration) exceed the standard 20 tonne to LEO boundary between "medium" and "heavy" launch. (I'm not mentioning specifics to avoid leaking L2 info.) This inconsistent categorization is likely to confuse people. None of the other L2 sections seem appropriate for those threads so the right fix appears to be modifying the section description to make those threads on topic. For example rename "L2 Small and Medium Launch" to "L2 Other United States launch" or to "L2 Miscellaneous United States launch".

Also "L2 International Launch" should be renamed "L2 non-United States launch" since that section includes many threads about launchers that are by a single country and hence aren't really international.

[Oumuamua]

Is there any way to delete your forum account? I could not find it.

Nothing personal against anyone here, or the site itself.
It's just that I don't enjoy following spaceflight anymore because of the agenda the major players are pushing.

[catdlr]

Is there any way to delete your forum account? I could not find it.

Nothing personal against anyone here, or the site itself.
It's just that I don't enjoy following spaceflight anymore because of the agenda the major players are pushing.

If you delete your account, your previous posts will either disappear from the threads, or there will be broken posts.

[Chris Bergin]

Is there any way to delete your forum account? I could not find it.

Nothing personal against anyone here, or the site itself.
It's just that I don't enjoy following spaceflight anymore because of the agenda the major players are pushing.

Very old forum software in play. One thing I can do is rename your account to something totally away from what you had, change the e-mail to the same thing, and that renams all your posts (without breaking threads).

So like

User: 342431
e-mail [email protected] (or something).

That clears you and of course as far as future, you won't have access to that as it resets your password and you won't see what it resets to so it acts the same way.

Just PM me if that works.

[Oumuamua]

Very old forum software in play. One thing I can do is rename your account to something totally away from what you had, change the e-mail to the same thing, and that renams all your posts (without breaking threads).

Thanks Chris, I think I can live with just leaving my account inactive.

I've changed my profile to indicate I'm no longer around, that should be enough. 

[avrorafrix]

Totally fair—sometimes it’s just easier to step back and let things be, especially with older forum setups where options are a bit limited.  That said, I’ve noticed the scam crowd operates a bit differently—really engaged, passionate, and switched on, which makes it a great space for more targeted discussions or marketing. If that’s ever your thing down the line, mjac.io taps into that niche pretty well.