Vbulletin Questions

[Firefoot]

I'm a guest too. In the movies forum I am "Marco", which was my login name before. Just a theory: is it because on this software you log in with your regular name and not something separate?

Something else I just noticed: at the bottom of the "Add Reply" page it shows all the posts and after that it says something like "This thread has more than 40 posts. Click here to see the rest" or something like that. But the link doesn't work - I can't see the rest.

EDIT: Never mind, I realized you have to click "here", not just any part of the sentence.

[Lyta_Underhill]

Lyta - are you sure you haven't stepped into the twilight zone for a couple of minutes there?

Actually, I saw them again this morning on the search for current threads list, but this afternoon they are gone. Hmmmm....there was The Bell Jar and The Neverending Story and some others in an earlier search a couple days earlier that I can't remember, but it seems the CSM has mopped it up now!

Cheers!
Lyta

[Tinuviel of Denton]

I'm posting this for Osse, whose account seems to have been lost during the move. He says to tell you that the email that the account was registered under is no longer able to be used, so I'm wondering if that could be why he can't log in anymore? Please do help.

[The Barrow-Wight]

Osse's account is still there and can be reach with the old PUBLIC NAME (Osse) and PASSWORD. Have Osse e-mail barrowwight@barrowdowns.com if the account still won't work.

[Finwe]

Just a question, why have post counts been fluctuating a bit? Is it because of the Movies forum?

[Legolas]

Yeah, and that some of the posts moved over under the old forum's login name as opposed to the publicly displayed name.

[the phantom]

My sig was supposed to be in red. Instead it just says [COLOR=red] at the beginning and [/COLOR] at the end. What's up?

[Finwe]

The thing is... my login name and my publicly displayed name are the same.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

phantom, Mister Underhill wrote:

both colors and sizes have been disabled for now

on this thread.

[the phantom]

Thanks for the link. I guess my warning will have to be in green.

[Legolas]

Yeah, and that some of the posts moved over under the old forum's login name as opposed to the publicly displayed name.

Finwe - note that I said 'Yeah, and that...' so if your public and login name are the same, the fluctuation is simply because of the movies.

[Orominuialwen]

I'm glad we have The Movies back! My only regret at the moment is the loss of the evil smiley. What's this new one supposed to be?---> Also, is the logout button only on the main page? I can't find it on any of the others. This new forum is much faster. I have a fairly slow internet connection, and sometimes it could take three minutes for a thread to load. I like most of the stuff on this new forum except for the fact that I lost about 1/4 my posts, but that can be remedied in time - it was only around 50 or so anyway.

Edit: My lost posts are back! So I really don't have anything at all to complain about now. I just have to find the time to resize my avatar.

[Evisse the Blue]

I have a question: why can't you attach files in a private message?

[Alkanoonion]

You can post your own evil smiley from an external source

feel free to use some from here

[The Barrow-Wight]

why can't you attach files in a private message? [/B]

We're not a file transfer service. Use e-mail.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I'm surprised that some of you didn't consider the possibility that the absence of the old Movies posts might affect your counts. After all, if a post isn't on the system then it can't be counted.

The new smiley is obviously a man in a red hat and sunglasses smoking a cigarette. I'm tentatively assuming that it's Dirk Gently, although it would appear from its hover tag that it's me. So either the new smiley represents a belief in the completely holistic approach to private investigation or extreme coolness. Take your pick.

[Mister Underhill]

Also, is the logout button only on the main page?

I'm pretty sure the sometime-soon-to-be-released version of vBulletin will have more logout buttons. Are people really this busy logging in and out? Anway, I guess you'll be able to logout to your heart's content after we upgrade.

[HerenIstarion]

one vote for coolness

[Theron Bugtussle]

RE:

Is that a yellow feather in his cap? Is that peach fuzz on his chinny-chin-chin?

If so, then I think he's the Yellow-feathered, Red hat-wearing, dope-smokin' Gen-Y'er!

To which I say, "Cool, Daddy-O!"

[Carlas]

So either the new smiley represents a belief in the completely holistic approach to private investigation or extreme coolness. Take your pick.

Extreme coolness of course!

[The Barrow-Wight]

Let's keep this topic to questions about the forum please.

Thanks

[Child of the 7th Age]

Is there a reason I get this notice whenever I try to rate a thread? I have tried in several different forums.

The action you have attempted could not be performed as your session appears to be invalid. Click the below link to attempt this action again with a new session.

Am I doing something wrong? When I click the link, I get the same notice.

[Carlas]

Sorry about that BW, this posts on topic this time. I swear!

After I post and I'm being sent back to the thread, a link comes up that says:

Click here if you do not want to wait any longer (or if your browser does not automatically forward you)

I have clicked on this a few times, because my computer can be very slow, but nothing really happens. What is this button supposed to do?

[The Barrow-Wight]

I've not experienced problems rating a thread (though this is actually the only thread I only rate - just now to test it). Anyone else had errors while rating threads?

I assum the link 'if you don't want to wait' is supposed to get you back on topic faster, but I don't notice that it does anything special either. Sorry. I guess we'll just have to wait.

I have been struggling to get back home ever since the change, but have been feeling like the Flying Dutchman (only I'm a girl). Anyway--this is a test. I have to see if I've actually figured out how to do this or not. I've emailed the webmaster, admin, BW, you name it--I've emailed it. I've had to figure it out on my own, and I now have to see if the elliptical, eternal recurring, Groundhog Day type madness is over or . . . [shudders] not.

Thank you for your patience.

Okay. I see myself. This is good. If I see myself again tomorrow, that's even better. It will mean that I got in.

I now see what people are talking about when they say their posts are missing. I see that I'm down from something like 60 to the one I just posted above. Most of them were in Books, too.
That's okay. If I can still get back home tomorrow night, it will be okay. But I'm gonna haunt someone real hard if I gotta slog my canoe through cyber jungles again.

The underlying message here is, it is good feedback to know that people care this much about their place of rest!

And, Alkanoon (sp?)--thanks for the smilies! I don't know how to work them to get them on here, but they were fun to look at!

D'oh! I know why it shows only 1 post so far from me and that I joined this month--it's because I had to register under a slightly different name! Now I remember the question I emailed before tonight--how do I get my old name and original register/join date back? That is something I care about . . .

[Firefoot]

I have noticed that sometimes if I am away long enough, long enough for the screensaver to come on, that it logs me out for no good reason. I'm not sure why, but I will come back from answering the phone or something and realize that I am no longer logged in when I was actively posting and everything just ten minutes before. Is this something that is supposed to happen or is it just me? Also sometimes I go to post and write my reply and then hit "submit" and it says I didn't select a forum. Sometimes I can hit the "back" button and my post is still there, so I can put it in a Microsoft Word document and go back into the thread and just copy/paste, but other times my reply is gone. I know that isn't supposed to happen. Has anyone else been having these problems?

[The Barrow-Wight]

Go to your USER CP and EDIT OPTIONS and make sure the two 'cookies' options are set as yes. This might get rid of your problems.

[Theron Bugtussle]

I pressed the search function button at the top of the forum. I filled in a simple word and also filled in my user name in the search by user, and selected the forum I wanted to search. It could not find anything, even though I was looking at a thread where I had posted and I included the cut and paste of the word.

I thought maybe it doesn't search by my publicly displayed name but by my login name. So I made all the search parameters the same except that. No success.

So I did a search for that single word without a Search by User specified. (As if, maybe it is an either/or search.) Again no success.
Edit: I tried this specific search again (keyword* without user name) and it does find some threads, so perhaps I made a mistake on this one.

Likewise, I used keywords like "word AND otherword" (as it states for Advanced Search options) in every combination with both user names--still to no avail. Is it just me?

[Theron Bugtussle]

I think I have the same or similar problem as Firefoot.

Originally posted by Firefoot
I have noticed that sometimes if I am away long enough....that it logs me out for no good reason. ...Also sometimes I go to post and write my reply and then hit "submit"...[experiences the problem]...Has anyone else been having these problems?

Except for me it has nothing to do with my computer screensaver coming on, I don't have that enabled. I will usually be replying, and if I sit on the Post Reply screen for maybe 5 minutes it will time out. So when I post (hit submit) it says I am not currently logged in. (I said 5 minutes but I don't know, it could be longer, I am not sure what the magic number is.)

Also, here is a little different symptom than Firefoot. I can always get back to the Post Reply screen and I copy the text. Then go log in again, find the right thread, select Add Reply, and paste the saved text...AND SUBMIT BEFORE IT TIMES OUT AGAIN!

For debugging purposes, here is my Edit Options cookies section (with selected options bolded):

Edit Options - Theron Bugtussle
Login, Cookies & Privacy

Invisible Mode?
Selecting yes allows you to surf the forums without appearing in the 'Logged In Users' list. yes no

Automatically login when you return to the site? (uses cookies) yes no
-- I selected 'no' on this, because I may share this computer with others and I want them to have their own logon if they want to use this forum. I do not mind logging in manually every time. That works the same as the old bulletin board.

Browse board with cookies?
Clicking yes will use cookies to keep your id for this session. Clicking no will send it through the links. (Selecting no may cause problems when sharing links with people behind the same proxy as you) yes no
--I would think this would use the cookies to keep my id for this session, so I would remain logged in until I manually log out. That is how I used to use the old bulletin board, though I think there was no option for automatic login.

HAHAHA! I just hit Preview Reply on this, and it had timed out. It was probably more than 5 minutes. But I was able to foil the "Timeout Forcing Log Out" goblin and recapture the text and paste here and I will submit hopefully, and....*whew!*

Oh, as further debugging information, here is the timeout message I get:

vBulletin Message
You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You are not logged in. Fill in the form at the bottom of this page and try again.

You do not have permission to access the page that you were trying to. Are you trying to edit someone else's post or trying to access administrative features? Check that you are allowed to perform this action in the Forum Rules.

If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

I have decided, after careful deliberation of about 4 seconds, that I am going to have a tantrum due to unrelieved frustration.

HowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowHOW do I get my original name back and my posts? I'm not newly deceased! I've been dead for over a year now and darned proud of it!

BW--someone, anyone, tell me if it is possible, and, if so, how to get my name and posts back.

And, [smiles sheepishly and circles toe on floor] I am so very glad to have gotten right in tonight! I saw my name (even though it's not my real one) and everything!

And when I get an answer to my question I will immediately hie my fanny to the time-out corner for tantrumming dead folk.

Thank you in advance!

[The Barrow-Wight]

Dininizlajjhdienahein, after not having seen a single e-mail from you but having sent you several, I must assume that you are broken. Check your e-mail and use the password provided, or stick with your new account and talk about Middle-earth.

You're welcome.

[Mister Underhill]

Searching – The search index does not log common words (such as “a”, “and”, “the”, etc.) for obvious reasons. Try a less common search word. Also note that the “Search By User Name” has two option buttons: “Match exact name” and “Match partial name”. I have used the AND, OR, and NOT operators successfully, so they’re definitely working if used properly.

Session problems – Try setting the “Automatically login...” setting to “yes” anyway and manually logging out when you’re done. If that doesn’t work, I’d guess that it has something to do with your browser and its security/privacy settings. I have not experienced this problem. Are you using an offbeat browser of some sort?

[dragoneyes]

Is there any reason that the picture next to The Shire is a flaming eye as opposed to a green/brown circular... thing? Does The Shire need scouring again?

[Firefoot]

I set both the cookies options to yes and....It worked! I just tested it and after almost a half an hour I am still logged in. It isn't automatically logging me in like it says it should, but I don't mind because I probably prefer manually logging in. It's working like I want it to work. I don't think it would have been my browser anyway - I'm using Internet Explorer on an almost new computer.

[Theron Bugtussle]

Originally posted by Mister Underhill
Session problems – Try setting the “Automatically login...” setting to “yes” anyway and manually logging out when you’re done. If that doesn’t work, I’d guess that it has something to do with your browser and its security/privacy settings. I have not experienced this problem. Are you using an offbeat browser of some sort?

Okay, I did this. I tested that I can still manually log out, which suits me fine. And I seem to no longer have any timing out issues, as tested on this lengthy (and time consuming) reply. Thanks, Mr. U.

Oh, and as for my browser:

Microsoft Internet Explorer
Version: 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633

Running on MS Windows XP Professional version 5.1 (build 2600 blah, blah...)

Originally posted by Mister Underhill
Searching – The search index does not log common words (such as “a”, “and”, “the”, etc.) for obvious reasons. Try a less common search word. Also note that the “Search By User Name” has two option buttons: “Match exact name” and “Match partial name”. I have used the AND, OR, and NOT operators successfully, so they’re definitely working if used properly.

Yes, I understood the fruitlessness of using small words and articles. Is there some prescribed list of words that are indexed? (You refer to a search index.)

My searching problem persists. Perhaps I am using it improperly, but I am used to using many different internet search functions.

Here is a chart of search results I just performed to try to find the example post I made in the movie forum ROTK Minor Change Wishlist . (You can find my post by opening the first page of the thread and then Edit - Find on this page - "Theron".) The entire text of my post there follows:

Originally posted by Theron Bugtussle

Shakespeare is all sword fights (battles) in Jackson's view.

Agreed: More Tolkien text (in dialog and story line), less PJ improvements.

Monumentalness should be a word for what I know you are describing!

Perhaps you can try these same searches to see if you get different results.

Note: All these searches were done specifying only "The Movies" forum and "Search entire post":

[FONT=courier new][list=1][*]Search...................Search by......Exact/Partial....Find/
Keyword...................User ID..........User ID.......Fail
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[*]Tolkien..................Theron Bugtussle..Exact.........Fail[*]Tolkien..................Theron*...........Partial .......Fail[*]Tolkien..................Theron............Partial .......Fail[*]Tolkien..................BDhobbit..........Exact.. .......Fail[*]Tolkien AND Shakespeare..n/a...............n/a...........Fail[*]Shakespeare..............n/a...............n/a...........Fail[*]Tolkien..................n/a...............n/a..........~Find~[/list=1][/FONT] ~Find~ = Search found 11 threads, none of them was the example thread I was seeking.

[Mister Underhill]

Aha. Movies. I bet I know what's wrong. We probably haven't re-indexed since bringing the Movies posts in. I'll check on that and see what we can do.

Searching should work normally in all other fora.

[The Barrow-Wight]

Actually, we did re-index, but we'll re-re-index just to make sure it's right.

[Evisse the Blue]

Someone mentioned that among the many new features there is also a spelling checker. Where?

[The Barrow-Wight]

I mentioned spell checking - incorrectly. Apparently that is supposed to be a feature of the next version of vBulletin, which we will be updating to when it comes out.