Bug fixes and other changes to TSF

[Robert602]

Ferret has recently granted me full access to the innards of TSF, and I'm working with him to implement small fixes and improvements to the site.

I'll keep a list of the things we've been meddling with here temporarily. If anyone experiences any new problems that they think might be related, or if you disagree with my definition of 'improvement', please post.

There's still quite a bit on my list of things to look at so I'm not asking for reports of old problems here just yet. The one exception - are people still experiencing random logouts? If so I'll make that a priority.


24/9/07 - Chat page completely rewritten (old (http://www.thesnookerforum.com/chat.php.old), new (http://www.thesnookerforum.com/chat.php)). Let me know if anything on there doesn't work as it should. (Except the chat itself, that's still waiting for a new domain)
The top menu (with the coloured buttons) has been reworked. Both edges should now line up correctly on all browsers (tested FF2 and IE6). Update 24/9/07: Changed the shade of pink (!).
PM popup notifications should now redirect to the PM section of your user CP rather than giving an error page. (Still to do: redirect directly to the new PM). Update 24/9/07: Completely fixed (also added strikethrough text, quote this post to see how).
Removed the 'thread icon' and 'number of views' columns from the recent threads list on the home page. This is intended to give a bit more room for the thread titles. It can be restored easily though if many people found the old info particularly useful. Update 24/9/07: Modified to display views within replies column. Update 25/9/07 shortened date format eg from 'September 23rd, 2007' to 'Sep 23rd', again this is to create more room.

[samasnookerfan]

I'm not that bothered about the icon, but I like seeing how many people have viewed the threads.

[dannyd0g]

but I like seeing how many people have viewed the threads.

I second that one.

Any news on whats happening with Rep feature ? Is it a suspension or total ban ? :eek:

[MrRottweiler]

I agree. Its useful to see the thread view/reponse ratio for varoius reasons.

[ferret]

Any news on whats happening with Rep feature ? Is it a suspension or total ban ? :eek:

I am waiting on some information from Curtis!! which will allow me to install a new reputation feature for the site.

The new reputation feature is loads better, should have it installed by the end of next week along with the shout box.

[RaNeN]

Things seem to be getting better! I'm loving it!

[Semih_Sayginer]

thread icon going makes little difference.

number of views can be good, but in general you get a similar ratio of posts to views on most forums on the net, as a general rule. will miss it at first if it stays away, but wont "realise" after a week or so....

not experienced logouts for about a month, and it used to happen a couple of times a day..

and cheers for the updates

:)

[Robert602]

Just to clarify, the view counts in the main forum (eg here (http://www.thesnookerforum.com/the-snooker-lounge-34/)) won't be going anywhere. If you're particularly interested in seeing thread views you can always go that way round.

I do think the removal of the views column helps to make the threads list feel less claustrophobic and reduces scrolling, but the change is for no other reason than that. As it's a purely aesthetic thing I'm inclined to leave it up to popular opinion. A fair compromise might be to display view count directly underneath reply count?

Here are the options, let me know what you think:
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/rob/viewcolumn.png

[samasnookerfan]

Number 3 for me Robert.
It's fine if we can view the number of visits a thread has had, in the particular forum the thread was posted.

[Semih_Sayginer]

option 3

........

[elvaago]

Option 3 looks the best.

Thanks for the efforts, mate. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

[dannyd0g]

I go along with 3 too.

[PaulTheSoave]

I dont mind it. So I am happy for 3 as well, if the majority wants it. Just dont re-introduce any repping nonsense! Its fine as it is now. No one seems to miss it anyway! If you like or dislike, just post it or PM the person. :p ;) :D :mad:

[RaNeN]

3rd is the best!

[Robert602]

Thanks for the feedback. Number 3 it is.

(Rep is a discussion for another thread and another day I think)

I've only had one report of continuing logout problems so far. As far as I'm aware nobody's made any changes to fix this yet so I'd be surprised (albeit pleasantly) if no one else was having issues.

[snookersfun]

nice new view! Great work.
Love the Stats button:D (Gallery button slightly strawberry coloured, is it?;))

[PaulTheSoave]

Let me be positive for once. ;) Thumbs up!

[Monique]

Thanks Robert. :D Really improves "usability".

[Robert602]

nice new view! Great work.
Love the Stats button:D (Gallery button slightly strawberry coloured, is it?;))
I have set of snooker balls on my desk (who doesn't? :cool:), but pink was still a tricky one. It used to be (http://www.thesnookerforum.com/tsf/images/gallery.gif) purple!

What about this one - Better? Too much? Not enough?

[Nina]

The Gallery button looks more the colour of a piglet rather than strawberry to me! :D I prefer the one in the attachment - but any pink rather than purple is just fine really, let's not get fussy!
The replies and views column looks good too. :)

I had a sudden logout problem a couple of days ago, but that is a very rare phenomenon to me on the whole.

[snookersfun]

I have set of snooker balls on my desk (who doesn't? :cool:), but pink was still a tricky one. It used to be (http://www.thesnookerforum.com/tsf/images/gallery.gif) purple!

What about this one - Better? Too much? Not enough?

hope we are not keeping you from more important stuff now. ;)
Yes the attached one is nice!:D (actually both are better than the purple)

[MrRottweiler]

'piglet' LMAO. I like it! :D

I think it looks like the colour of a strawberry blomongue.

[The Statman]

I was thinking that I had had fewer logouts, but then I have just had two in ten minutes!

[Robert602]

Ok ok, I've put the attached one up. If anyone wants to have a go at improving it they're welcome to do so.

I'm going to move on to this logout problem, I was talking to ferret last night and we think we know roughly what's causing it but it'll take a bit of work to pinpoint.

[PaulTheSoave]

I have not experienced any unexpected logouts for the last couple of months.

[Maija]

I'm getting the "all posts marked as read" problem again, as we had a few months back. I log in and there are plenty of posts marked as unread, click one of them and wham! everything is marked as read.

[ariososi]

A lot of random logouts here as well (for several weeks).
And could we have a LOL-/LMAO-/ROFL-icon please? If it's not too much trouble... :)

[MrRottweiler]

Would it be possible to have a text only version of the site that removes all the banners/frames/avatars etc?

[April madness]

how about old BBC FiveLive board icons :) Though I guess there would be some copyright issues. But those smilies were nice!

[ferret]

Would it be possible to have a text only version of the site that removes all the banners/frames/avatars etc?

There is a TXT only version of the site just goto www.TheSnookerForum.com/archive/index.php

(Side Note: if anybody would like to request new icons or smileys then this is not the place, please start a new thread requesting this and try to keep things on topic)

[Robert602]

Apologies, i thought this might come under the 'other changes' and improvements refered to by Robert at the top of the thread.
To be fair this thread is intended for feedback/bug reports relating to the changes we've been working on (ie - the ones in that list in my first post). Other suggestions are of course welcome in another thread, but unless they're quite quick to implement you might have to wait a while for us to deal with current problems first. (FYI, at the moment I'm looking into logouts, bugs in forum organisation and display, and 'thread moved' notices failing to redirect properly)

[Robert602]

Ok, I think the logout issue may now be resolved. If anyone has any further problems with this please do let me know.

(Technical bit, the opinion of anyone with expertise here is welcome)
TSF sets 3 cookies to store screen resolution information (don't ask me why since TSF is fixed width, but anyway...). The cookie path was previously left unset, fine on stock vB but with the SEO URLs we have here browsers were setting 3 new cookies for every different forum section visited - potentially amounting to dozens.

Since most browsers have a relatively low maximum limit on the number of cookies per domain (often 50 but sometimes 20) my theory is that TSF was overrunning that limit. This would result in unpredictable (and browser dependent) behaviour - possibly including tracking and session cookies being pushed out and thus a forced logout.

So I've put in the obvious fix of manually setting the cookie path to root. That'll stop TSF creating more than about 10 at once, well within browser limits. Fingers crossed it'll be the end of problems.

[April madness]

Robert, I have a problem on this computer, that I can log on the forum only when I check "keep me logged in" option, when I don't check it, it simply returns to the page that says that I am not logged in...