New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 6 Dec 2002 at 06:42 GMT

In the early hours of Saturday morning, I'm planning to install a new version of our messageboard software, together with changes to some of the associated web pages.

The highlights of these changes are as follows -

- Firstly, the new software is unicode compliant. Translated into English, this means that it will be possible to include all flavours of international characters within messages - provided that you have an appropriate font installed to display them and a means to input them in the first place. There will also be a facility to enter messages in "right-to-left" typing mode, in support of Arabic and similar languages. The rationale for these changes is to encourage use of Guyslink, and in particular our international messageboards, by guys whose languages employ non-latin alphabets. Futuristically, we will also be allowing international characters within members' profiles and the chat system, but the present change will only affect our messageboards and private mail facilities.

Secondly, the new software will add a "preview" facility which will enable a formatted version of a new message (with smileys and file attachments) to be displayed to the author before the message is posted. After composing a message, there will be an option to either preview it first, or to post it immediately. In "Set Preferences", it will be possible to indicate whether you want "preview" or " immediate post" to be your normal, default option. Also when posting a message, if an error occurs because no subject line has been entered, it will no longer be necessary to use the "back" button to return to the submission form (presently, using the back button in this way causes the message text to be lost by some web browsers!)

Lastly, the new software includes a handful of minor changes and bug fixes. For example, within a topic, the new software will display smiley icons properly on the message subject lines, rather than displaying the colon/semicolon/whatever character sequence.

While these changes are being installed, all messageboards and private message facilities will be out of action, for about an hour, circa 3am GMT on Saturday. I will be closely monitoring things over the weekend in case there are any teething problems with the new software.

Dave

Re: New Software
® trouble (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 09:42 GMT

it just gets better

Re: New Software
® dancesliketwat (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 09:42 GMT

Righty ho! I look forward to seeing the new look and feel BR!

Re: New Software
® Andy Essex Work (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 11:35 GMT

Someone's been busy.....................

Re: New Software
® random (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 12:01 GMT

Fabulous stuff Dave - you have several free drinks, and possibly a few shags, waiting for you anytime you come over here

Re: New Software
® Iceman (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 14:13 GMT

I miss read the post to start with I thought he said 3pm LOL I'f I'm still awake at 3am I think I'll be to drunk to go on-line

Re: New Software
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 14:45 GMT

A qustion was raised yesterday Dave about your picture galleries, are they operating now?

Re: New Software
® Iceman (in the United Kingdom) 6 Dec 2002 at 22:00 GMT

MalB as already said that they are Frank

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 7 Dec 2002 at 04:15 GMT

Unfortunately, I need to defer this change by 24 hours. So it will now be happening overnight on Saturday.

Re: New Software
® mouse (in the United Kingdom) 7 Dec 2002 at 10:04 GMT

It's now 9:55 and I've not noticed any difference - particularly the Preview option.
Am I supposed to be getting this option - or haven't the changes been implemented yet?

At any rate, keep up the good work, Dave! I'm all for improving this already wonderful site - as long as you don't go too far. I don't wanna come in hear one day and find you've changed the room to The Green Room or something! (although, Ruby was allowable, in the circumstances )

Re: New Software
® emjay (in the United Kingdom) 7 Dec 2002 at 10:13 GMT

This all sounds frightfully complicated. will all this software be compliant with people of limited intelligence such as myself?

Re: New Software
® TTG (in the United Kingdom) 7 Dec 2002 at 15:42 GMT

Mouse, it's now well past three o'clock, and you haven't been reading the whole thread, have you?

Re: New Software
Anonymous 7 Dec 2002 at 17:10 GMT

of course mouse hasn't read the whole thread. that's because, like Sat, he's a cu#t!

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 8 Dec 2002 at 04:40 GMT

The changes have been made! Please let me know if you have any problems.

Re: New Software
h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 08:50 GMT

Not very good, I'm afraid, Dave!

You've set the fonts so my browser isn't using the ones I set, and your point size is too small on the Mac. (although I am using a high screen resolution)

Serif fonts aren't very readable on the blue background anyway - I use Arial mostly.

Re: New Software
® h? (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 08:52 GMT

And I keep having to re-type my ™ as the browser defaults to a ?

Re: New Software
h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 08:55 GMT

Ah! That seems to have sorted that one, but I'd like to control my own fonts, ta!

Re: New Software
h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 08:57 GMT

No it hasn't sorted it, has it? my proper monicker isn't getting ®'d

Re: New Software
® PJ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 09:09 GMT

OOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOO! all looks very nice to me!

Re: New Software
h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 09:40 GMT

And it doesn't seem to be working at all on mouse's PC - he's just getting blank panes under the headers. The front page doesn't look right on there either.

He's in IE6 I'm using IE5.0x on the Mac

Re: New Software
® dancesliketwat (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 09:47 GMT

It looks lovely in Chimera, which is an OSX browser based on the Gecko rendering engine.

Re: New Software
® Blondie (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 12:42 GMT

It's working fine for me using IE6!

Re: New Software
h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 13:15 GMT

Still isn't for mouse - all he gets is the frame headers followed by a blank frame - no topics, nothing.

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 8 Dec 2002 at 13:42 GMT

Wow - I didn't think I'd made so many changes!

I'm in the process of checking, but the fonts shouldn't have changed at all - both before and now, we leave it up to your browser to select the font type and we only change the size and colours. Or at least that is how it should be, unless something has slipped in by mistake.

What has changed is the encoding - the way we send characters to the browser. Instead of using American ASCII encoding, we now use Unicode UTF-8.

On IE and Opera, via the View menu, it is possible to override the encoding to US ASCII and if your browser is set with this override, characters may now be displayed incorrectly. Changing the encoding setting to either "Automatic" (the recommended setting and normal browser default), or to "Unicode UTF-8" should both make all characters appear correctly.

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 8 Dec 2002 at 13:52 GMT

H™ - You should now have your ® back - when you next post a message.

Re: New Software
® Iceman (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 15:07 GMT

well I like what I see so far, well done Dave <<<dave>>>

Re: New Software
® Wanderer through eternity (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 15:09 GMT

no problems here dave

Re: New Software
® Guy (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 15:30 GMT

yeah I quite like it. One thing though, you could make the 'go' button a bit bigger (elongate it maybe?)

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 15:59 GMT

Mine *is* set to UTF-8 by default. There's no ASCII option either, unless it's the same as Western, but it won't accept a change while I'm on line.

The size is still too small, though, even though I have the larger font choice set in prefs. (looks about 9 point unless I use the text zoom in the browser).

Can't check mouse's PC just yet, but last time his browser threw a wobbly when attempting to load Yahoo after trying the BR. (It was ok beforehand)

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 16:11 GMT

And the site is definitely setting the font, even though my browser is set to over-ride it!

Re: New Software
® Val (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 16:11 GMT

Nice job Dave. The preview feature in particular is great.

Re: New Software
® dancesliketwat (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 16:21 GMT

Try mozilla, harpie and see if you have the ssame problem. It's pretty good: http://www.mozilla.org

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 16:24 GMT

Netscape's Mozzila based, but I prefer IE most of the time.

I will try netscape later, but I don't wish to be changing browsers just to log on here!

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 16:52 GMT

Right,Dave - mouse just checked again, and all he gets is the headings in the frames: No topics, and no live hyperlinks. Furthermore, after attemping to load the BR, no other sites will load correctly until the browser's been closed and restarted.

Win '98, IE 6

All options for encoding have been tried.

Re: New Software
harpie (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 17:08 GMT

Netscape doesn't like it either! It won't remember any passwords or prefs, and when I set the prefs (again) and send, it gives an errormessage in the left frame. Encoding makes no difference, but it does at least use my font choices.

This is sent from iCab which does seem to work, mostly, but it's still setting too small a font size.

Re: New Software
® Blondie (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 17:14 GMT

Hmmm. Are you sure it's not just your computer, seeing as everyone else using similar software seems to be ok?

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 17:16 GMT

I use a Mac, Blondie, and OS 9.2.2
mouse is on a PC with, as stated, Win 98 and IE6

There were no problems before this morning, and there are still no problems unless he tries to access the BR.

Re: New Software
® dancesliketwat (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 18:02 GMT

Mozilla tends to be more up-to-date than netscape, since netscape fix there bugs after the mozilla crew have found them. iCab is usually pretty good - it used to be my browser of choice until chimera came along. But you would need OS X for the latter!

Re: New Software
® mouse (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 18:09 GMT

Hi Dave!
Your new site looks pretty OK.
However, I have had to swap to harpie's Mac and am using iCab.
But it will not work for toffee on my PC, for whatever reason. We've tried what you suggested to no avail.
It also seems to 'infect' the browser in trying to load up, and other sites will not work afterwards.
It is odd that it seems to be only me and harpie with any problems - but we are using two different computers - so it can't be the computers, as neither of them have been altered overnight (other than trying your suggestions).
So what the heck is going on?
Answers on a postcard please!
(though an email might be more practical! )

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 18:37 GMT

I have OSX, dlt - but I refuse to buy Photoshop and all my other software over again to use it (that's those that have yet re-written) and I can't see the point of using anything under the Classic environment in OSX - it's far too slow. And I will not pay another £90-odd quid for Jaguar when I have a perfectly good OS9.

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 8 Dec 2002 at 18:47 GMT

ok - here's the setting I have on my version of IE6, so you might like to compare -

On View/Encoding, the "Auto-Select" box is ticked (with that box ticked, it seems to work irrespective of what the other encoding options are selected)

On View/TextSize, I have it set to "Medium"

On Tools/Internet Options/General/Fonts, when I select "Latin based" in the top "Language Selection" box, the web page font is set to "Times New Roman". (I have noticed that everything is also displayed ok if I change this to "Arial", although in that case the displayed text is a little larger).

On Tools/Internet Options/General./Accessibility, NONE of the boxes are checked. But, if I tick the box entitled "Ignore font styles specified on web pages" all is still displayed ok.

h™, If your options match mine, it might be worth you selecting the accessibility option "Ignore font styles specified on web pages". If there is then still a problem, I guess it proves that it's not the web page that is altering the font. However, I've just done a View/Source from the IE menu and scanned thru all of the FONT statements in the displayed HTML - to ensure that they all contain only SIZE and COLOR settings and not FACE settings which would influence font selection. If all else fails, you might like to view the source yourself and scan thru the FONT statements (or search for FACE=), just to make sure the web page that you are receiving isn't somehow different.

Also, can you tell me which display options you use in "Set Preferences", i.e. compact format vs traditional format (so I can make sure I am using the same option), and also whether the problems you describe apply to both the topic index frame and the content, or just the topic content.

Mouse, could you also check the IE options that I mentioned above and let me know which topic format you have set on "Set Preferences".

Dave

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 8 Dec 2002 at 19:20 GMT

Mouse, I've just found this on the microsoft site -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;271583

It's a bit ambiguous about whether or not it applies to IE6 or just 5.5, but you might like to try turning off the "Auto-Select" under View/Encoding, and manually selecting UTF-8 underneath, and see if it makes a difference.

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 20:26 GMT

Right, in the first place, the options available in the Mac version of IE are not the same as in the Windows version. The first thing I did was deselect the option to allow web pages to specify the font. That should over-ride the page and use my default font (Arial). It's normal for Arial to be slightly larger than typewriter fonts such as TNR. However, whatever I do, I'm getting TNR in the frames. (This message box however is showing me Arial)

There is no auto option in the char. sets - default is UTF-8, and Western makes no difference.

View Source only gives me HTML for the front page (the entry page) even when in the BR page.

Settings - 3-frame (no difference in 2)
- top 30 topics
- IRC display
- first unread

The problem is with all 3 frames

Netscape won't accept preferences at all, won't remember passwords and gives an error message when I attempt to set preferences. (N 4.76 - I can't be assed loading 6.x)

iCab works fine.

mouse's settings are the same as mine.

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 20:43 GMT

PS - mouse's browser was set to Western (Windows). No other choices made any difference (including auto)

Re: New Software
® Iceman (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 21:24 GMT

my settings all match Dave and I've had no problems at all on this site or anyother. you sure it's not your and Mouse's computers. I had a problem last week for a week where I could not get into hotmail and then it just fixed itself. also check to see what updates you can get for your IE installs

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 21:36 GMT

Ice - the problem on mine is a compatibility problem with IE5 and Netscape for Mac and the new scripting.

mouse's problem, if that weblink is to be believed, may be a bug in Microshit's registry settings.

Can't check that for now as mouse is creating.

Re: New Software
® dancesliketwat (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 21:40 GMT

The latest releases of Mozilla are far superior to Netscape 4.7x, but it's about 11Mb download. If you have broadband I would do it if I were you. As for OS X, most applications have been rewritten, except for Quark. i shouldn't imagine you would use that very much. I have photoshop elements that runs in classic, which works fine for light image editing on my iMac G3 400. It's all tickety-boo under OSX!

Re: New Software
® Dave (Guyslink) 8 Dec 2002 at 21:51 GMT

I wonder if this might be a font problem. Some fonts are Unicode compliant and others are not. And I notice that, if I select a non-Unicode font, IE overrides it - presumably because it might not otherwise be able to display all characters properly.

The majority of fonts, including Arial, are now Unicode compliant, but some (e,g, fixed fonts like Courier) are not. I'm therefore wondering if you might have an older level of the Arial font installed.

On Windows, there is a utility called "Character Map" in which you can select any font and a dropdown box will tell you which 'character sets' that font contains (and Unicode compliant fonts show a Unicode character set, whilst other fonts do not). But, I'm not sure if the same utility or an equivalent is available on the Mac? (or indeed if the font files are of identical format to the Windows ones)

Anyway, if its any help, the Arial font on my system takes the form of a font file called Arial.ttf which has a creation date 7 Dec 99 and a size of 267k. If you're able to locate your Arial font file and find out its properties, it might be interesting to compare it to this info.

Equally, if you have a facility to display font characteristics, even if your version of Arial is non-Unicode, you might find you have another acceptable font that is Unicode capable.

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 8 Dec 2002 at 22:22 GMT

Font set is that which comes with OS9, so shouldn't be older than mid-2000. I will however have a look later.

No, the Mac doesn't handle fonts in the same way as Windows - in fact some fonts common on Windows aren't compatible and vice versa.

Re: New Software
® Boy Strange (in the United Kingdom) 9 Dec 2002 at 00:11 GMT

What are the funny white squares after the topic titles/names of regular posters?

Re: New Software
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 9 Dec 2002 at 07:00 GMT

Punctuation placemarks that your browser should be hiding. Try the encoding changes as detailed by Dave above.

Re: New Software
منتدى الحوار (in the United Kingdom) 9 Dec 2002 at 19:13 GMT

بالفيديو: رئيس الوزراء البريطاني يجيب على أسئلتكم

Re: New Software
® random (in the United Kingdom) 9 Dec 2002 at 19:51 GMT

Eeek, it's all gone the wrong way round.

HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 15:50 GMT

Dave,

I can't post anything from my home computer, and haven't been able to since you made the changes. My email and password are lost each time I log on. When I get into the site, everything seems OK until I try to make a post and I get a SESSION ID error. I also get this error if I try to update my details and re-enter my passcodes.

I am using IE6 and Windows XP.

HELP!!!!!!!!

Also, ever since I have had XP, I have not been able to get rid of the left-hand frame. It goes away, only to reappear every time I switch windows (to my mailbox, for example).

(Just a suggestion: wouldn't it be better to have a "beta" site for testing rather than introduce these changes live?)

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 16:35 GMT

Sat - the new stuff works just fine for me at home (IE6 and WinXP(home)). I know that doesn't help you but it may help Dave track it down.

Can't say I'd noticed the problem with the LH menu panel either but I'll check when I get home.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® PQ (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 17:22 GMT

Well done Dave - your 'Reduce the Rantings of Retail Rhonda' ploy seems to have hit the mark.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TTG (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 22:32 GMT

(having left enough time to be sure he's gone)

The Prune the Plethora of PQs Pisstaking Postings Ploy looks to have worked too.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 23:20 GMT

Hopefully loading IE6 SP1 will have helped ...

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 12 Dec 2002 at 23:20 GMT

Sat, thanks for your message, although I do not think that your problems (or at least, all of them) could have been created by the recent changes. I only updated the messageboard screen - the rest of the guyslink site was unaffected, so there should be no way that my changes could affect the site logon or the "My Details" section of the site.

I did make a small, separate change, re the menu hide/reveal facility so that might be relevant and I will double check that change. To assist me with this, could you tell me which url you are using to enter the site - i.e. guyslink.com or www.guyslink.com (as this is relevant to the change I made) - and whichever url you are using, you might like to try the other one.

The logon problem and the invalid session id message would seem to imply that your computer is not saving cookies correctly, so it would be worth you checking these settings on IE. I would recommend selecting "Tools" from the menu, then "Internet Options", then the "Privacy" tab, and then pressing the"Edit" button at the bottom of the window. Here, you can enter "guyslink.com" and press the "allow" button - and this will ensure that IE always accepts cookies for this web site.

Please let me know whether or not this resolves the problem.

Dave

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 23:20 GMT

Whooohoooo!!!

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 12 Dec 2002 at 23:24 GMT

Thanks for your time, Dave.

I use http://www.guyslink.com/blue.phtml to get to the site.

It looks like updating the browser and messing with the cookies has helped.

The menu still pops up, and always has done, but I didn't think it worth mentioning at the time. It does get a tad annoying though, so if you can do anything about it, then great.

I think I remember JimS having a related problem a while ago.

Cheers.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (GuysLink) 12 Dec 2002 at 23:28 GMT

I think you may well get better results with the menu if you get rid of the www bit and use http://guyslink.com/blue - it was problems with the www address that my recent change was trying to resolve, although seemingly not with too much success! I will take a look at this again and see what I can do.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave(Guyslink) 13 Dec 2002 at 05:07 GMT

This evening I've done some tests and the problem was due to the use of www.guyslink.com when using IE6. In short, the privacy restrictions in IE6 were causing it to deem www.guyslink.com as a completely different web site to guyslink.com, and consequently it was not passing cookies between the two. Anyway, to resolve this, I have now made some changes which will cause any attempted use of www.guyslink.com to be changed automatically to guyslink.com.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 09:48 GMT

You are a marvel, thanks. And the menu thing is much better in the guyslink.com site.

A Happy Satty.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 17:06 GMT

However! mouse still can't access the BR from his PC, and when he attempts to it bolloxes IE completely and he can't load any other sites. (Win '98, IE6)

We can't find any problem in the registry (as suggested by the links you posted) and it's only been doing this since you changed the BR coding.

Similarly, the font problem hasn't been resolved on my Mac.
The Sign-in page is fine, (encoding set to Western in prefs). As soon as the BR frameset loads, however, it resets the browser to UTF and ignores all attempts to change it. The fonts in the left and main frames are set to TNR and won't obey prefs or manual changes. The font in the right frame remains as Arial *until* I load a topic, and then it goes to TNR (header included).

The nav. frame at the bottom remains in Arial throughout.
(Mac OS 9.2.2, IE 5.1)

iCab handles it fine, apart from showing several 'hidden' characters (as boxes), but that's set up for mouse.

Netscape seems to handle it OK, however. (But all my links are on IE!)

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 17:09 GMT

<Netscape handles it OK>

Well, apart from showing ® as ¬Æ
And it *is* set to UTF!

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 17:20 GMT

And the frames seem to have a will of their own now! Overlapping and the font in the message box just reverted to TNR at about 9 point

Back to IE

Ä

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Jim-S (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 17:23 GMT

in OS/2 I haver no problems with mozilla, netscape 6 or 4.61. However, yesterday using windows ie 6 with latest updates, I had the same problem as Satyricon

I will try it tomorrow to see if it is cured. (I could read messages, just not post any messages)

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Jim-S (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 20:20 GMT

it's working under ie6 here now too

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 13 Dec 2002 at 20:25 GMT

h™, In your "Set Preferences" on the Mac do you have it set use the compact topic format or the larger, original format?

I have an idea about what we can do to resolve mouse's probem and possibly yours as well, but I need to do some research over the weekend. But meanwhile, the above info would be helpful.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 20:33 GMT

We both use three windows and IRC layout.

There's a lot more going awry than just my font problem btw - I just used the link to see who's on line - when I returned to the BR page, the "speech ballons" produced when the mouse is hovered over the icons at the bottom of the screen were unstable (ok before the link was used). They still are, in spite of refreshing the page.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 13 Dec 2002 at 20:40 GMT

Hmm - I've positively only changed the BR topic index, topic display and set preference screens in the last month - apart from the change to the site entry panel for www.guyslink which now gets rid of the www part (described in more detail above). So I'm a bit mystified why you are experiencing problems with other parts of the site. But I'll keep an open mind and see what I can come up with - I do have a plan for something I think will resolve things!

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 13 Dec 2002 at 20:52 GMT

Not problems with other parts, just problems with the BR bit on returning after using the links.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Iceman (in the United Kingdom) 14 Dec 2002 at 11:27 GMT

Dave you've sorted out the problems I was having (the same at Sat) but I did not want to report it as I was conviced that it was my IE6 fucking up and my machine begging to be re-installed. SO thanks <<<Dave>>>

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Jim-S (in the United Kingdom) 14 Dec 2002 at 21:00 GMT

and it probably was iceman! Opera conforms to the internet standards, ie6 being microshit does NOT (Netscape deviates as well but not as much)

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Iceman (in the United Kingdom) 15 Dec 2002 at 13:11 GMT

it doesn't help that I use the shit that is AOL so when I get broadband in the new year I'm going to re-install my machien then to atlease get some of the shit off of it

Re: HELP!!!!!
® mouse (in the United Kingdom) 15 Dec 2002 at 17:00 GMT

Dave - yet another problem I'm afraid.
As harpie has said I'm using iCab, and I have it set to preview my message before posting. This is fine, except for the times I don't want to preview my message before posting. In that case, as I understand it, I should be able to click on the "Next Action" menu and choose to post message without previewing it. However when I try and choose this option, it ignores me and flicks straight back to preview before posting!

Thanks for the idea about web addresses though, I have yet to try this.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® mouse (in the United Kingdom) 15 Dec 2002 at 17:12 GMT

Dave, please ignore me - I've quit iCab and reloaded and it's all OK again.
**embarassed smilie**

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 15 Dec 2002 at 21:33 GMT

Frank has also got problems at the moment and is seeing blank topic screens! So, I will be adding a new "Set Preference" option to allow UTF-8 (i.e. Unicode) to be switched off. With that option selected the web pages will operate as they used to do, (although where international characters occur within messages this new option will cause them not to be displayed properly).
Unfortunately, I am already in the middle of some other changes to improve the way regular names and mailboxes are handled (to make it harder for people to keep losing them!) and I therefore need to combine the introduction of the new option with the mailbox/regular name changes The testing of the mailbox changes is taking a little time, but it's a bit important that they are tested to make sure they are right. So I think it may be two or three days yet before the new software will be ready. But I am working on it as fast as I can.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 15 Dec 2002 at 22:01 GMT

OK Dave -

I assume you made *some* changes testerday, as my set preference for character set isn't now being over-ridden, but my fonts still are.

Also, I noticed today that the links to member's profiles come up as "resource not found"

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 16 Dec 2002 at 03:16 GMT

Hi h™,
I genuinely haven't made any changes at all since the ones that I mentioned above - on the evening of the 12th. Since then, I've been too busy with my test system.
From what I have heard from yourself and also from Frank, I am beginning to think that some web browsers are being sent a little crazy by the UTF8 unicode encoding and that this is resulting in various strange and intermittent spin-off problems. Hopefully when we have the option to switch this encoding off, it will cure these bizarre situations.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® h™ (in the United Kingdom) 16 Dec 2002 at 18:05 GMT

Hope so - it's now over-riding my prefs again. Navigating around the site results in some flaky effects, mostly with the help balloons. No problem if I open each page in a new window, strangely.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® mouse (in the United Kingdom) 17 Dec 2002 at 22:10 GMT

Dave - Frank's problem sounds the exact same as mine.
I get a blank topic window which then procedes to the rest of the site disappearing - and f*ing up any other website I visit subsequently.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Jim-S (in the United Kingdom) 18 Dec 2002 at 12:38 GMT

Dave

I recentl had problems with the private message bits in so far as some regulars would message me and I would not receive these messages (and vice versa as there are a couple of regulars that have not read my messages from a few months ago - or they dislike me )

I traced it to the following:-

1. As I am a guyslink regular, I always have an ®
2. My preferences on this PC did not have my old passcodes inserted (for some reason, my work PC had 3 different passcodes on it)
3. After inserting these passcodes, I was able to read all the messages etc.

Hope this helps you

Re: HELP!!!!!
TisFrank in Lapland (in the United Kingdom) 18 Dec 2002 at 13:40 GMT

As I said in e-mail Dave I get results using Netscape and Opera showing the said topics ok but not my AOL or IE strangely hay ho

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 18 Dec 2002 at 13:47 GMT

One other thing Dave I get at the end of each listing

TisFrank in Lapland‎ 18 Dec at 13:40 GMT

such as this notice the pipe and star at the end of each in white! Is this xmas decoration?

F

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 18 Dec 2002 at 14:40 GMT

Thanks for the info everyone.
Jim - the problem with mailboxes is the one my current changes are geared to address. Presently, regular names are owned by both the passcode of the person who has the name, and if they are a Guyslink member, the name is also owned by their membership number. This means that a Guyslink member will keep their "R", even if they change their passcode, because the name is still seen as belonging to them by virtue of their membership. However, BR mailboxes are owned only by passcode, which means they become inaccessible when anyone uses a different passcode. The changes that I am making with alter all of this. Both names and mailboxes will continue to be owned by passcode for non-members. But, for a Guyslink member, they will be both owned by the membership id. This means that, for members, passcodes will become irrelevent. These changes will also put an end to a current problem of posting a message becoming a progressively slower process, the more messages someone posts. They will also provide the foundation for a future change - to provide a monthly league of most frequent BR message posters - and they should put an end to the annoying random space-insertion problem, which you can see above within the word "provide". Lastly, the mailbox conversion exercise that I will be doing in tandem with the installation of these changes will have the effect that many previously lost PM's will suddenly be recovered into accessible mailboxes.

Frank, I am adding an option which will allow Unicode to be switched off and this should resolve your problem with IE. The pipe and star were first encountered by Tintin using Opera but, whilst I also use Opera, I didn't get them. Then a few days ago, I switched over to a new PC, reinstalled Opera, and started getting the same thing - and I can't find any option in Opera that seems to affect them! Anyway, I know what it is in the web page that causes them and I'm planning to do something about that soon, so that they do not appear.

Going back to the software changes, I've now completed the testing of the mailbox ownership changes, and I just have the encoding option yet to test. I should complete that today and if all goes well, I'm hoping to switch over to the new software overnight tonight.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 18 Dec 2002 at 18:26 GMT

Super Dave would it be possible for us to have an instant Blue Room button on the left which would allow us to go straight into the blue room without all the other page changes.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 21 Dec 2002 at 09:23 GMT

The new software is now installed!

Mouse, Frank (and anyone else who was having IE problems):

On "Set Preferences" there is now an option to switch Unicode encoding off - hopefully with this option selected, your problems will be resolved.

I have also added the monthly league table - which can be displayed by clicking "Forum Contributors" at the bottom of the screen.

Frank: I will see what I can do about your button to go directly to the BR without passing go and without collecting 200 pounds.

Re: HELP!!!!!
Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 11:10 GMT

What about me?

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 21 Dec 2002 at 11:46 GMT

There was a small problem - and about 4 people including yourself were affected.

But it should be fixed now. And after you post another message, your "R" should come back as well as access to your PM mailbox.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 12:26 GMT

Going to come out of Opera and try AOL again

Standby

Also one very small point Dave notice I have dropped the above text by one placing this ensures that the resultant text looks better when displayed.

Could you lower your Message text box by one space?

Just a small point!

Re: HELP!!!!!
Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 12:54 GMT

Like this?

Re: HELP!!!!!
Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 12:57 GMT

Nope. Passcode seems to be there too.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 12:58 GMT

Dave
Have just tried AOL and IE again but same result even when changing preferences ooohh!

So back on Opera

when you preview your text dropped by one space it pops back up again so i have to drop it down again to send it

Re: HELP!!!!!
® MalB (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 13:57 GMT

Yes Dave, do please fix that. The spaces are usually the most interesting and intelligent parts of Frank's posts.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 21 Dec 2002 at 17:29 GMT

Frank:

A couple of things -

First of all, after changing preferences on IE, could you try restarting IE and then see if it is ok? I think that the use of Unicode affects your browser from that point onwards, even for pages that don't use Unicode - so if you didn't reload after changing the preference setting, that might explain why you continued to have the problem.

Secondly, re the spacing before the first line of text - this is because on "Set Preferences" you have compact spacing selected. If you change this to "Use a large text font and generous spacing." then you will see a blank line before the start of each message.

Mabel: I think I have now fixed the problem with your name and hopefully you should now have your "R" back.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 18:54 GMT

Should I?

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 18:55 GMT

woo hoo

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Val (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 19:40 GMT

Dave, while you are in Santa Claus mood, could you try fixing Tonyinbkk's "R"? (See We will allways have Oban' thread.) One of his flatmates (not the divine Sak) cleared all the cookies out of their shared machine and he is really stuck now, unable to message me and others here. He has asked you by mail, but I know you get inundated with the stuff.


Love and economy cheese

(Pinched from Suiii's birthday greeting to mouse - it should become a BR slogan IMHO)

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 21 Dec 2002 at 21:21 GMT

Hi Val, Thanks for the reminder - there are a few emails I need to catch up on over the next day or two! But anyway, I have just emailed Tony with the info he needs to get his "R" back and to regain access to his mailbox.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 21:38 GMT

Hi Dave have now reloaded IE and AOL set preferences to G&T and Cake and it seems to be ok

MANY MANY thanks Dave for all your hard work!

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Lad (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 21:46 GMT

I can't be arsed to read the whole thread, but has anyone else had problems with the yellow 'envelope' continuing to flash, after private messages have been read?

Just noticed this today...

Re: HELP!!!!!
® TisFrank (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 21:58 GMT

Have you gone to messages and gone to update!

Or whatever it says

HELP!!!!!
® Graham (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 21:59 GMT

Yes, I did. Then I scrolled down and discovered an un-opened message from May [the MONTH] that seemingly just appeared. Read it, and problem solved.


For now.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Dave (Guyslink) 21 Dec 2002 at 22:47 GMT

Graham, thanks for your comments above - I think you have just solved the mystery.

Historically, as a result of passcodes changing, a number of PM messages had become inaccessible to people and seemingly vanished from mailboxes.

As part of the software changes that I have just done, it was necessary to rebuild all of the mailboxes. The program I used to do this scanned all of the PM topics and therefore found the lost ones and readded them to the appropriate current mailboxes.

After the point in time that one of these topics was "lost" from one person's mailbox, they may well have been updated by the other person with whom they are associated. So on that basis, these reintroduced topics may be marked as unread.

But, as they are old topics, they will be near the end of the list of PM topics, so it will be necessary to scroll down in order to find them.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Graham (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 22:51 GMT

Yeah, right. Like I understand. As already explaind I'm the original techie-twat. I stumble over things, rather than find them.

Anyway, I'm off for a bacon sandwich.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Tintin (in the United Kingdom) 21 Dec 2002 at 23:14 GMT

Oink!

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 23 Dec 2002 at 02:52 GMT

Well, luckily all my problems are resolved (in the BR, at least!), and my mailboxes have all been restored! Hurrah!

It seems I had about 20 unread messages! So for anybody I didn't reply to ... blame Dave!

Re: HELP!!!!!
¿ Mabel (in the United Kingdom) 23 Dec 2002 at 10:41 GMT

Dave dearest, I seem to be dangling. Logged on as a guest from work. Passcode seems to be properly set.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Satyricon (in the United Kingdom) 23 Dec 2002 at 10:53 GMT

There's a lot of it about at this time of year ... dangling, that is.

Re: HELP!!!!!
® Graham (in the United Kingdom) 24 Dec 2002 at 18:08 GMT

In this weather I think 'shrivelling' is more appropriate.