• Spring 2024 meetup in Calgary - tentative date Saturday, April 20/2024. Other regions are also discussing meet ups. If you want one in your area get going on organizing it! discussion
  • We are having email/registration problems again. Diagnosis is underway. New users sorry if you are having trouble getting registered. We are exploring different options to get registered. Contact the forum via another member or on facebook if you're stuck. Update -> we think it is fixed. Let us know if not.
  • Spring meet up in Ontario, April 6/2024. NEW LOCATION See Post #31 Discussion NEW LOCATION

Forum Change Log

Alexander

Ultra Member
Administrator
These are some really exciting form changes. All of them look like good ideas to me. Keep up the good work.
 

Richard

Brand New Member
I find the colors on the forum hard on my eyes is there a chance of an option for the user to change the colors they see? I have the option of doing so on other forums.
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Ok, So here's the deal.

I've found how to enable different user select-able themes. I've installed some free colour styles / themes for you to pick from, but each requires a boatload of programming / updates to get 100%. As such, they all currently show default branding, and lots of default links that do not do anything, etc.

For the helping your eyes not hurt, they should be perfect, but I'll need to roll out updates to each theme over the coming weeks before they will be 100% functional. (Consider it a beta test for now while I work in the coming weeks)

To update which theme you use, at the very bottom of this page it says "Default Style" on the left, click that, and pick a new theme. To change back after, the link moves, and will be called the theme name. For example if you turn on the "Iodine" theme, then look at the footer area for the word "iodine" to change the theme again.


I'll be sure to spend a little bit of time each day working on the below themes, but it may take me awhile. It's an exponentially large task, as all of the customization I've done to the default needs to be re-done on the new themes. While I don't mind working on the forum, I would much rather be turning steel in the shop, so don't plan on doing it all at once!


Having said that, ask and ye shall receive! Check them out and let me know your thoughts!

JW
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I changed it (cool!). Now I'm on Nickel I think? But I don't see the part in the footer anymore where you say it allows me to choose again. If its still WIP no problem, I can live with my choice.
 

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Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
There should be a link that says "iodine" right st the bottom somewhere.

I'll confirm when at my desktop next. :)


Sent from my iPhone.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Attaching a larger screen grab of everything I see on my side from response text box, south to bottom of screen
 

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Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
"Nickel" bottom right. :)

You must have grabbed the nickel theme, not iodine.


Sent from my iPhone.
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Aha! Its here if anyone is as blind as me.
 

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Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
Sounds like a lot of trouble and something that could easily break when you need to upgrade. Maybe just do one extra theme Josh.
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Good thought @Janger .

I need to put some thought into it, and some more research. There may be a better solution to the colour issue..

Will update in a bit.

JW
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Maybe I'm missing something obvious again, but I thought there used to be a button on the top of screen somewhere that said 'New Posts'. I've switched to Nickel for change of scenery. Today I confirmed that new posts were made (indirectly by looking at my Alerts). But I no longer see the button.
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Each theme handles alerts differently, and currently none of the themes are actually modified to my liking except the default! May be best to use the default for now....


JW
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Been getting a lot of spammers lately, so reworked spam detection to be more strict. Also added some new filters and rules that should prevent actual human spammers from bugging us.

No Links can be posted until you have a least 3 posts in your history.
Cannot update Bio and occupation until 3 posts (This is kinda cruddy and hand binding for new users, but it's a source of spam that is hard to detect otherwise)
--> Created notices for these users to know why they cannot post links etc.

Added a whole lot of "spam keywords" that, if used more than twice in a short period, gets the user flagged for a spam review. (Things like "Viagra" "Prada" "Pharmacy" etc.)

Updated the CAPTCHA for guest users to Google's new "click here to prove you're not a robot" thing.

Added a new spam service "Akismet" to the site in addition to the other three I already have running. (Man, those spammers are good at getting around these filters)
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Really tightening spam user registration settings.
Mods: This may catch actual users in the moderation queue, but time will tell for sure. Check for "registration country" in the moderation queue, anything other then CA (canada) is a big red flag.
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
I realized that some users were getting stuck in the registration process due the usernames that have been used for spam in the past on other forums, but were clearly just general overlap. For example "James" "Steven" were usernames used for spam on other forums, but clearly these are just coincidence more than anything.

Updated how spam users are detected to stop this behaviour in future. (Sorry for the delay @James )
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
Spent some time rebuilding the premium only forum section. Can you guys pop in there and help me test?
 

Jwest7788

Joshua West
Administrator
I've found how to enable different user select-able themes. I've installed some free colour styles / themes for you to pick from, but each requires a boatload of programming / updates to get 100%. As such, they all currently show default branding, and lots of default links that do not do anything, etc.

For the helping your eyes not hurt, they should be perfect, but I'll need to roll out updates to each theme over the coming weeks before they will be 100% functional. (Consider it a beta test for now while I work in the coming weeks)

To update which theme you use, at the very bottom of this page it says "Default Style" on the left, click that, and pick a new theme. To change back after, the link moves, and will be called the theme name. For example if you turn on the "Iodine" theme, then look at the footer area for the word "iodine" to change the theme again.


The more I think about the alternate styles / themes, the more I think I am going to leave them as unsupported options (default setup). Hope no one minds, but I'll keep these on the backburner for now. If there is major demand later, will revisit them.
 
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