If someone has to change me from a recent rabble rouser can I have something more like "out standing in his field" Old joke, but still.
And holy tiny type Batman. I know I am officially an old fart now, but wow it is freaking my eyes out with all the white and the tiny, itsy bitsy font.
I don't know. The font comes up quite nicely on my computer. You can always use zoom, or upsize the text on your browser. I actually like it. Sans serif. Nice.
However, I digress. I still think that this is the babocalypse and portends only ill tidings. The Four Moderators of Ban approach neigh on this dreary hour and so on and so forth...
Wow, now I know what the Christian right is all up on. Maybe during the 80s they had something similar to a rabble rearrangement.
I think things look great! Clearly there are some bugs to be worked out but they seem like all minor things.
Yay! The migration happened and the site is live! That was probably a huge task. I image the speed will get better, probably while they're still working some other bugs out they've got caching turned off (caching speeds up page serving).
I don't know. The font comes up quite nicely on my computer. You can always use zoom, or upsize the text on your browser. I actually like it. Sans serif. Nice.
However, I digress. I still think that this is the babocalypse and portends only ill tidings. The Four Moderators of Ban approach neigh on this dreary hour and so on and so forth...
Wow, now I know what the Christian right is all up on. Maybe during the 80s they had something similar to a rabble rearrangement.
Thanks I didn't realize you can change the font. I found it under Page and now I can see well enough I don't feel quite so old. Not quite.
What do you mean you found it under "page"?
On my I explore browser there are 5 icons up near the top of the right hand side of the page. One says tools, the other says page. Under page is the phrase text size. In that you can choose various sizes. I went with large and it seems to work. Now I haven't tried any other sites yet, so it might make them annoying.
I guess there are bound to be glitches for a few weeks. Just to amend
my 'brightness' comment: opening the site on my older laptop (which I
was using up until last week) things look OK. The whiteness isn't as
overwhelming and I don't even mind the smaller font. But I guess if you
have to change the text zoom to read here, maybe it makes everything a little
too big. Still, I think the alternating background, or maybe just
having a light grey backdrop for all threads would make it easier on
the eyes. Will send my suggestions when feedback link is working.
Yup, I have a text zoom app for Firefox, too. You can link it with your mouse! I find it quite useful.
Re page width - need substantial left and right margins.
I think things look great!
Test.
The quote box took a bit long to come up. Maybe it's my computer, a bit slow due to a PDF, I need to re-boot.
Is this bold? Yep.
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/canada/article/138328
"Cancelling corporate tax breaks and creating jobs are among a series of priorities NDP leader Jack Layton has laid out for the Harper government as requirements for the Conservatives to get his party's support."
I was clicking on insert/edit link. It doesn't. 
But the image works.
WAAAY too much white. I feel like Marlon brando is going to appear as a hologram any second. What was wrong with lots of red? It's, like, radical and stuff. More red, I say.
And slow? Holy Jesus! I almost lost my mind trying to post something. I assume that will improve or I can't imagine many people taking the trouble to post here. Lord knows I won't.
Underneath the Post new comment box is a line "More information about formatting options." Clicking that takes me to a "tips" page -- which contains no tips. 
And slow? Holy Jesus! I almost lost my mind trying to post something. I assume that will improve or I can't imagine many people taking the trouble to post here. Lord knows I won't.
It's kinda slow for me, too. Every other web page loads lickity split except for rabble/babble pages. They can fix that, we can be sure. Someone needs to assign a few more ports to server interfaces or something. Perhaps another server even. I don't know. Those guys have the babble world in their hands. Powermongers anyway. It certainly looks good from where I am, especially when I'm not growing old waiting for babble pages to load Oh look, a good sci-fi on viddy, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" 
What do you mean you found it under "page"?
Remind, I'm using Firefox, and you can just go CTRL-(plus sign) or CTRL-(minus sign) to increase or decrease the font size. Maybe it works in Explorer too.
Trouble is, this whole thing is so poorly designed (sorry folks) that it screws up the alignment of all kinds of stuff when you change the font size.
Also, I quite hate clicking on a thread topic and it takes you to the [b]FIRST[/b] page of the thread, instead of the [b]MOST RECENT[/b]. And then, when you hit "End" to get to the bottom of the page, you have to scroll up a few screens, past credits and thank-yous and god knows what else, to read the most recent post and find the reply box-let.
This is not ready for prime time, unfortunately.
If someone has to change me from a recent rabble rouser can I have something more like "out standing in his field" Old joke, but still.
And holy tiny type Batman. I know I am officially an old fart now, but wow it is freaking my eyes out with all the white and the tiny, itsy bitsy font.
Is that an outstanding corn field, I mean outstanding organic corn field?
Well, I have high speed internet connection but it took forever to load pages. also, if one does cut and paste from elsewhere, the font behind it comes out on the page - sorry BA, I'm trying to figure out how NOT to make that happen. A post I did, I just said forget, people can figure it out.
The screen locked up and the load button just kept spinning - I shut her down! It was the only way to save me from wishing "for the good old days " of yesterday. 
I think I will start a self-help group for "frustrated babblers" not at babble cause it would take too long to reply. 
I know the site is having growing pains but woe is me. Under edit button there appears no way to delete your whole post and that would be good.
Are techies reading this - I sure hope so.
wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I want old babble back, unless all this stuff is going to be fixed. Cause it just won't be worth it.
And I agree with unionist if we are going to have a paging system that starts after the 90th post, then it should take us to the last page not the first and when you are waiting 5 mins, no exaggeration, for each page to load on dial up it sucks. And also the stuff on the bottom is a nusance do we have to have all the sponsors and sustainers on each and every page? Are they paying more for the extra band width or something?
I am using firefox so I can see the font, I can zoom and see with it, but it won't maximize to largest font with my exployer browser, I had thought BA meant something different than what I had tried.
Moreover, where are the user profiles?
And why can't ya put snippets taken from an arrticle in quote boxes?
How do you PM someone? Or add contacts etc etc?
I thinnk this site is not an improvent, other than the first page of rabble.
Am I the only one to check for W3C markup validation? http://validator.w3.org/ This site has so many scripting errors as to be junk. I hope nobody is getting paid for this. Sorry to upset anyone but good code is important.
Am I the only one to check for W3C markup validation? http://validator.w3.org/ This site has so many scripting errors as to be junk. I hope nobody is getting paid for this. Sorry to upset anyone but good code is important.
According to the markup validation service: CBC viewers forum, freedominion.ca, and enmasse.ca are html abominations as well. So we're lucky to be alive even. And I'm okay. Thank goodness I was wearing a helmet.
Also, I quite hate clicking on a thread topic and it takes you to the
[b]FIRST[/b] page of the thread, instead of the [b]MOST RECENT[/b]. And
then, when you hit "End" to get to the bottom of the page, you have to
scroll up a few screens, past credits and thank-yous and god knows what
else, to read the most recent post and find the reply box-let.
Yes, from the several threads on Babble
redesign over the last couple of years, I was under the impression that
it was almost unanimous that no one wanted paginated threads -
including Michelle. That that was one of the unique features of Babble
that made it work the way it did as a forum. I hope that's still
correct and still possible?
I agree, 1 page killed at 100 posts is more than enough for a clear and productive discussion or flame fest to run its course. This was one of the best features of the old Rabble.
Also it is sluggish, I find. Is that because I am using IE as opposed to Firefox?
Also, we probably do not need to have quotes within quotes. Can this feature be made optional. What with all the HTML code being hidden in the Rich Text, the whole thing becomes a pain to edit, if you are just trying to get the key quote out of a long post.
Babblers are a verbose bunch, and having whole post containing long quote within long quote, will be a drag I think.
It looks good, and its got the potential to be great but some simplification is probably going to make it read easier, and load faster.
Cheers!
Everything looks great to me. From converting other legacy sites to Drupal myself i see that all the things that are left are easy fixes that can be done at the end. The biggest thing is getting the data in and launching. It looks to me like most of the stuff made it over. At this point there's no going back--which makes things a bit easier for the developers because there's no longer the need to keep track of 2 different versions of the site.
I have no connection to rabble or any of the people doing it so clearly i don't know what's still coming...but don't sweat stuff like the user profile. Drupal has much more features and capabilities to do stuff like that than ultimatebb ever would've...i'm guessing they'll probably add the ability to add pictures to the profile and such (since pictures can be attached to posts already it's not like they have to replicate much).
I don't see my private messages but really i don't mind, this doesn't matter to me too much--and i suspect that they could be plopped in later anyway.
As far as the html validating and stuff, those are all things that can be fixed easily at the end, without having to mess around with the database...html is generated through template files so files can just be overwritten.
And something like pagination, disabling it or changing the number of posts per page, those are just settings to click. They'd be pretty quick to change, but probably a) the developers have a lot more complicated problems to fix right now and b) probably there's been no decision about the pagination because it's actually a pretty minute detail. I'm not saying that pagination doesn't matter--just that it's one of those things that gets left until the end.
These kinds of migrations are pretty complicated and it looks to me like everything has been done pretty well. I imagine some people are quite sleep deprived here so i'm certainly appreciative of the work put in. I think it's a bit insensitive to trash their work.
I'd say the easiest quick fix to make that would make a big difference is to get the white and grey background zebra striping like the old site had.
It's natural for people to be resistant to change. Just relax, everything will be better soon.
I'm getting pretty snappy page loading while logged out and using Firefox - about one or two seconds faster. Login though and it's back to a crawl.
I was clicking on insert/edit link. It doesn't.
The hyperlink function has moved into the twentieth century. Type the text you want to lead to a link, highlight it with the cursor, and then click the link icon (the chainlink). You'll get a small pop up where you can paste in the address.
And then, when you hit "End" to get to the bottom of the page, you have
to scroll up a few screens, past credits and thank-yous and god knows
what else, to read the most recent post and find the reply box-let.
This also should be fixed. The stuff at the bottom can easily be put along the margins instead of a grab bag at the end. For navigation ease, the reply box should be the last thing on the page.
But other than that and a few other glitches, it feels very clean and looks very nice. Well done all!
What do you mean you found it under "page"?Remind, I'm using Firefox, and you can just go CTRL-(plus sign) or CTRL-(minus sign) to increase or decrease the font size. Maybe it works in Explorer too.
Trouble is, this whole thing is so poorly designed (sorry folks) that it screws up the alignment of all kinds of stuff when you change the font size.
Also, I quite hate clicking on a thread topic and it takes you to the [b]FIRST[/b] page of the thread, instead of the [b]MOST RECENT[/b]. And then, when you hit "End" to get to the bottom of the page, you have to scroll up a few screens, past credits and thank-yous and god knows what else, to read the most recent post and find the reply box-let.
This is not ready for prime time, unfortunately.
I just discovered that at the top of page 1 is a little thing that says the number of new posts, presumably since I last visited. Clicking on that takes you to the first new post. However, if I want to quote part of a post, then comment, quote another part and them comment that seems undoable.
I like the site and know it must be one hell of a big job, but some real tweaking still needs to take place.
One serious problem is that Babble was always well referenced on google; I bet google sent us lots of new readers. But now, a google link to an old babble thread doesn't go to the thread any more, but just takes a reader to the new babble home page. How are we supposed to find the babble thread that google tried to send us to?
Let alone the fact that, for non-babblers, all these google links are now useless.
One complaint - I found the old "recent topics" (or whatever it was called) feature useful because it also showed a snippet of recent posts rather than the current "Active topics" features which only shows the topics posted to.
To those who are concerned about their screen names - you can apparently change your screen name by clicking on the "My Account" link at the very top right-hand corner of your screen.
This I didn't know...not sure how crazy I am about everyone being able to change their usernames any time they wish, but for now it's handy since anyone who is unhappy with their usernames can change them now.
Just keep in mind that only one person can have each username. On the old babble, it was the login that had to be unique, not the screen name, so more than one person might have had your username. So if someone else already had your screen name on babble, you'll have to pick another one, unfortunately.
Wilf, that's a big problem, I agree, about the old babble links. It's an unfortunate and unintended side effect of this changeover, and there isn't much we can do about it.
The hyperlink function has moved into the twentieth century. Type the
text you want to lead to a link, highlight it with the cursor, and then click the link icon (the chainlink). You'll get a small pop up where you can paste in the address.
Ahem. Which the URL button did, in just as many steps, on the old Babble. :) Just sayin'.
Oh frig, I HATE PAGES! Okay, that has to be fixed.
To those who are concerned about their screen names - you can
apparently change your screen name by clicking on the "My Account" link
at the very top right-hand corner of your screen.This I didn't know...not sure how crazy I am about everyone being able
to change their usernames any time they wish, but for now it's handy
since anyone who is unhappy with their usernames can change them now.
This could lead to some serious shenanigans. Not saying that's necessarily bad :)
Yes, great if the pagination can be fixed.
Umm, this has been mentioned before, but how does one go about sending a PM to someone? Also, when you click on a person's handle it says it goes to their profile....but I seem to just get a list of threads they've recently posted on.....also, I miss the embed object button, as I have yet to figure out how to embed a video in the HTML window (just wanted to test it)....I've tried but it just seems to screw up the formatting... Anyone know how to do this yet?
suggestion, the pages are useful. Would it be possible to continue the moderation as if 100 posts is ample, but still allow the board to split it into 2 pages? 50 posts a page?
The reason I don't like pages is because there's no way for people to navigate to the most recent page. This is a pain considering that each page seems to take something like 10 seconds to load on high speed internet, and the "next page" link is at the bottom of the page (which means you do have to wait for it to completely load before being able to go to the next page).
That's a good question about sending private messages. I don't know! I'll have to figure that out and get back to you. Someone sent me a private message, but I don't know how he did it!
If anyone's figured it out, feel free to answer Mojoroad1!
Well somebody seems to be working on the pagination right now as this thread is now loading all on one (long) page.
woohoo!
and re: pm's. It's under 'My inbox' in the little 'Your
Menu' menu on the right side. I just sent you one, Mojo. Actually, that
looks like a pretty neat function.
Well Goddam finally! I have been having nothing but problems with my account, so I created this one to use for now.
Obviously this place is buggier'n hell, but I understand things are being fixed as fast as they can.
I think I'll be using that emoticom a lot.
The hyperlink function has moved into the twentieth century. Type the
text you want to lead to a link, highlight it with the cursor, and then click the link icon (the chainlink). You'll get a small pop up where you can paste in the address.
Sweet - thanks buddy.
You know, I was just looking at my join date, and I am sure I joined before that but had remained dormat as a lurker for years. Where do I go to change that?
At least I don't look like a recent rabble rouser - take that you newbies!
Hey, I'm member # 88!!
According to the markup validation service: CBC viewers forum, freedominion.ca, and enmasse.ca are html abominations as well.
You're right, there is a lot of bad code out there. That doesn't justify writing more of it. Let's put it this way: if the culprit was an electrician or plumber, I wouldn't let him/her near my house. This kind of work would never pass inspection.
Doing it right may be more difficult, but it is much easier to maintain over the long haul. As the saying goes, "pay me now or pay me later."
For all the trouble, phpBB-3 is free for download. It works and is code compliant out of the box. There's nothing wrong with going your own way, but do it right.
BTW, this claims to be using XHTML 1.0 Strict. So far, it's a false claim.
Just trying to test this signature thingy I came across
I'm right so don't disagree
Ehck, that's boring
Re: google.
Don't the google bots have to go and find the new links for the old pages before it can find them?
The search engines will adjust over time. The old threads at their new urls will be indexed and eventually those are what will be returned by searches. Meanwhile, there's the google cache.
It's the links created by people that will go dark. For example, any link back to babble from blog posts I've done is now obsolete. The same thing happened when the [i]Toronto Star[/i] revamped its website last year. (Was it last year?) It broke large bunches of links.
Hey, I'm closing a long thread for the first time here. Isn't that exciting? Feel free to continue in a new one. :)
