Forum file tree question...

[captaincranky]

Why does every step in the forum index file tree take you all the way back to the overall forum?

There is is no intermediate point. You go from individual thread, back to the full forum index.

I believe that,"once upon a time" , you could back out a single step from a thread to it's parent category. (IE, from a thread about the VLC media player, to the sub forum, "software".

Is it supposed to be, "all or nothing"?

Um, is there anything that can be, or anybody willing to do something about the new emoticons? IMO (if that means anything), these are pretty incoherent. Plus, I dearly miss the "rolleyes" and "suspicious" jobbies. The ever popular, "facepalm" would be great too.

I know that with the old VBulletin software, there is a full range of interesting custom possibilities.

 

[Per Hansson]

If you click "Site Feedback and Suggestions" in the view in this thread you do get taken back one step.
But I see your point, when clicking "Editorial and Site Feedback" you get taken to the same point as clicking on "Forum"
The only difference is that the former scrolls you down to "Editorial and Site Feedback" (However since there is not enough free space the view is probably just scrolled down a bit so still showing most forums categories anyway.)

 

[captaincranky]

Sorry, but it's still not "right". (Whatever "right" means). If you're looking at a thread in "Hardware", then clicking "Hardware" in the file tree, should take you to a list of current threads in that category. Under the current protocol, clicking anything in the file path, damned near takes you back to the Firefox start page. (OK, that's maybe a bit of an exaggeration).

So, the file path works as listed on the way into an individual thread, and doesn't on the way out. Is that an aberration, or the grand scheme of things?

That notwithstanding, the emoticons are still almost undecipherable.

 

[Per Hansson]

Well it does, it takes you to the former address below, not the latter
The former scrolls the view down and centers it over the "hardware" section.
I'm not disagreeing with you though, I'm sure Julio will take a look at it when he has the time

https://www.techspot.com/community/#hardware.3
https://www.techspot.com/community/

P.S. If you click on the link "Other Hardware" you do get taken to that forum section...
Or as I said previously in this section if you click on "Site Feedback and Suggestions" you do get taken back one step to the thread view... (The thing is that there does not actually exist 3 steps, because technically "Editorial and Site Feedback" exists only in the root of the forums)

 

[Julio Franco]

With this forum software or vBulletin there are only two alternatives:
1) What we currently have --> back to index + scroll
2) A useless page listing only some of the forums/sub-forums, but none of the threads.

We chose the former.

I see what CC wants, perhaps we will get closer to that when we reorganize the forum later this year replacing some subforums for prefixes, so what you'll essentially get is a single "hardware" forum with the ability to filter out categories at your will.

 

[captaincranky]

"Wants" is almost too strong a term. I come as a supplicant saying, "wouldn't it be cool if you were looking at a thread in say, "Mobile Computing", and when you clicked back to that sub-forum, "Mobile Computing", what you would see, is a list of currently active threads of that sub-forum. This makes sense as different members have different interests and different areas of expertise.

That said, I'd likely be one of the first people to campaign with a platform of, "quit complaining, it's only one extra click".

VBulletin does indeed provide that function, so the question mutates to this, (as per Julio's post), "what, if anything, would we have to give up to enable that functionality"? Or perhaps, "is it more trouble than it would be worth", since I freely admit, I have no idea how to go about it...... <Now can you honestly tell me, that's as good as "confused" could be made to look?

 

[cliffordcooley]

If you click "Site Feedback and Suggestions" in the view in this thread you do get taken back one step.
But I see your point, when clicking "Editorial and Site Feedback" you get taken to the same point as clicking on "Forum"
The only difference is that the former scrolls you down to "Editorial and Site Feedback" (However since there is not enough free space the view is probably just scrolled down a bit so still showing most forums categories anyway.)

"Editorial and Site Feedback" is a category location within the main forum page. I would guess "Site Feedback and Suggestions" is only one sub-level from the main page.

 

[Julio Franco]

I don't get it... if you are on a "software" thread, you can easily step up one level... http://d.pr/I/HHiT

That will take you to the latest threads in that subforum, same as always.

 

[Per Hansson]

Well I guess we could just drop the "Editorial and Site Feedback" from the view to not cause confusion, would that be doable Julio?
In effect there would just be this left in the view: Home > Forums > Site Feedback and Suggestions

 

[captaincranky]

I don't get it... if you are on a "software" thread, you can easily step up one level... http://d.pr/I/HHiT

That will take you to the latest threads in that subforum, same as always.

Yes, it does. In my own defense, I was declared insane here quite a while ago, let's run with that.

Although, I would almost swear it wasn't, (or hasn't), been working like that. Maybe I was doing it wrong....maybe Firefox was crashed, perhaps I was under the influence of any one of a number controlled substances. The possibilities are endless. In any event I'm (truly) sorry for the bother.

I suppose it could have been a cache error in my browser? (pure wild guess / speculation)

Well I guess we could just drop the "Editorial and Site Feedback" from the view to not cause confusion, would that be doable Julio?
In effect there would just be this left in the view: Home > Forums > Site Feedback and Suggestions

Never mind, we don't have to change anything.

However, the emoticons still suck....(the contrast level seems woefully low). But here again, no need to pay me any mind.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yes, it does. In my own defense, I was declared insane here quite a while ago, let's run with that.

I'm jealous, I haven't been declared yet but I'm working on it.

On the emoticons, I agree with captain. A few more would be nice. As it is there are so few, its hardly worth using them.

 

[Julio Franco]

captaincranky, unrelated question, when you posted that last message quoting me, did you edit the post at least once (or multiple times)? I'm trying to troubleshoot the bug with multiple alerts. Got 5 alerts for that post alone. Thanks.

 

[captaincranky]

I did indeed edit that post several times after submitting it.

The "post posting" editing appears that it likely suspect that is causing the multiple alerts.

Which begets the question, "is the issue time dependent"? You have to wonder if I edited a post I made today, sometime tomorrow, would it still trigger an additional alert?

The emoticons still suck!

I edited this 4 times after the initial post, how many alerts have you received?

 

[Julio Franco]

Only one but you didn't quote me.

 

[captaincranky]

Only one but you didn't quote me.

There, I "liked you", and quoted you.

What happens if you still only get one notification? Does that mean the software is afraid of you, or my PHD in "forensic incompetence", is finally starting to pay off....?

Edit.....

Otra vez....

And one more for good measure.....

 

[Julio Franco]

For my own future reference... 5 quote alerts + 1 like alert. Thanks CC.

 

[captaincranky]

I just thought I'd post this as an update on my original , "complaint".

Yesterday I lost the whole right column, (Current topics, user leader board, online now, etc.).

I had it in IE, but not in Firefox. Later, I lost it in IE as well!

So, I closed the browsers, ran CCleaner, rebooted, and voila, everything returned!

So, I just thought I'd drop you a line to let you know the problems I was having, were most likely related to browser cache issues. My bad, as the children say.

In my own defense, I wasn't hallucinating, it seemed very real at the time! But then again, so did the entire1970's....

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

The developers are working to make the site more tablet friendly. When it's scaled down to a certain width, elements of the page are removed -- namely things along the right side. If it happens again, either zoom out or widen the page to see the right column again.

 

[captaincranky]

OK Matthew here's the thing. Once I lose the right side info bar, it comes back if it "feels like it", without rhyme or reason. I tried zooming out until the view was a 1/3rd of the screen, no joy.

With that said, I'm getting pages with and without the side bar.

My monitor is in portrait orientation, so the resolution is 1920 vertical, and 1080 horizontal!

Don't know if that matters or not. Don't know if they're working on it ATM.

Right now, it's toggling back and forth between side bar, (in whole forum page), and no side bar, (in this thread page). Zooming out is having no effect..!

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

There is no side bar on this page.

 

[captaincranky]

OK fine. But, now there's no side bar on the forum page either, no matter how far you back (zoom) out.

I'm going to kill Firefox, clean the browser cache, and see what happens.

So, clean out the cache, I have a sidebar.

Then there was the "server is redirecting in a way that will never complete" error, when I tried to log in in this forum.

(I have FF set to private browsing, so it logs me out when I close it).

(Maybe I'm a nut, but I was right about the hit counter being broke, and I was "scoffed at" then).

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Ha, nobody is scoffing at you here. You make it sound like I slammed my fist on the table and insisted the site is working fine when that isn't the case at all. For all I know, it's totally busted on your end. I'm trying to help figure out if that's the case with the limited information I have -- I'm not involved in the development side of things. Based on my (very) rough measurement, the side bar pops in when the site is about 1060-1080 pixels wide, give or take. Assuming you're zoomed at 100% and viewing the site with your browser occupying the full horizontal space of your display in portrait, it should be fine. If that isn't the case, you'll have to wait on Julio or one of the developers to chime in .

 

[Julio Franco]

Captain, if you want us to help troubleshooting you need to give us more precise information and give us the chance to narrow things down. Give us one URL and screenshot of what you see.

 

[captaincranky]

Ha, nobody is scoffing at you here. You make it sound like I slammed my fist on the table and insisted the site is working fine when that isn't the case at all. For all I know, it's totally busted on your end.

No, that's just how you elected to understand and react to it. Which is why we could do with my old standard :rolleyes, or better yet, a

You pointed out that this forum doesn't have a side bar. And so it doesn't. Nor does the sub forum, "site feedback and suggestions". (The thread index). When I go back to either, "editorial and site feedback", or "forums" at this very minute, I get the full forum listing, with the sidebar. However, off and on, I have gone back to either header, and been missing the side bar. When the side bar is missing, I can find no combination of clicks, new tabs, or zoom, that will restore it.

I still think it's an issue with the browser caches. That's the reason I mentioned under this topic. Before I couldn't back up one level, but went from thread to full forum in a single click. I "complained", then it seemed to stop, and I felt foolish. But in both cases, I've closed the browser and cleaned the cache, problem solved. I am clueless if the two issues are even related, but somehow they seem like they could be.

The only reason I used the phrasing I did, was because when the hit counter wasn't working, the input from the rest of the crew turned into a bunch of BS and name calling, as to whether or not they knew how to log in as "guest", while ignoring or trivializing the issue.

I thought the hit counter was important. After all that's how the site gets paid, isn't it?

Captain, if you want us to help troubleshooting you need to give us more precise information and give us the chance to narrow things down. Give us one URL and screenshot of what you see.

This has gotten to the point where I seem crazy, even to me.

On my end, I have more trouble with the latest versions of Firefox (17.0) in this computer, (Windows 7 32 bit 2 GB RAM), than I do running FF 3.61 under XP, (SP2 1.5GB RAM). With 3.6, I can open literally hundreds of tabs. With FF 17.0, maybe 60 or so, before it comes to a grinding crashing halt.

I'm also running a vertical monitor on this (Win 7) machine, so that curtails the horizontal resolution to 1080. It does seem to me if the site were to cut off the right side info bar on low res panels, about 1080 might be the tipping point.

So, this rig is a bit eccentric, and maybe once in a while it clashes with the site's protocols.

 

[Julio Franco]

There's a sidebar on the main site. There's also a sidebar on the forum homepage and on certain pages (the majority don't have any), for example the members page and the general discussion forum. All other forums and threads do not have a sidebar. You are not crazy, at least not that type of crazy .