[07-MAR-2016] Current status of BLF upgrade process

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 3:43am

Hi George,

About the “Mark read” button, I’m almost positive that it was never able to mark just a single category as read. It was all or nothing.

The “edited” stamp was removed because it was getting changed as a result of the new email notification system. I think I might have worked around it now, and I re-enabled the “edited” stamp. But please let me know if you see posts marked as “edited” by a user that didn’t start the thread.

keengeorge · March 5, 2016, 3:57am

G'Day SB,

FYI, I used the the "Mark read" button in the previous BLF incarnation ever since I joined (April'2014), & I assure you it Only marked a "single category"/subforum as read. VERY Useful!!

Re the a thread's OP "edited" stamp, I shall keep an eye on the threads, & report any issue(s) I notice.

Best Regards,

George

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 3:58am

Thanks George, I appreciate it.

Bort · March 5, 2016, 6:18am

Can we fix the signature looking like part of the post problem, i forget how it was done before but now signatures don’t have a clear psychological separation from posts (was it just more spaces before?)

ToyKeeper · March 5, 2016, 9:49am

FWIW, this is relatively simple with a few lines of CSS. Here’s what I’m using:

/* signature at the end of each post */
div.clear {
    /* display: none; */ /* in case you want no signatures at all */
    margin: 6px 0 0 0 !important;
    padding: 0 !important;
    font-size: 80%;  /* make the text smaller by default */
    border-top: 1px solid #555 !important;
}
div.clear div:not([class]) {  /* get rid of '--' divider at top of signature */
    display: none;
}

The result, for me, looks like this:

1dash1 · March 5, 2016, 10:23am

SB:

Reference: Bluzie’s Beamshot Collection

May I nominate this website for the Related Sites links (located in the far left column): über 1.000 Beamshots mit Lampenbildern | Taschenlampen Forum

or

Add the following as a sticky in the LED Flashlights - General Info category: Bluzie's Fantastic Beamshot Collection at TLF

or both.

Also, what do you think of adding TLF (TaschenLampen Forum) to the Related Sites links? I come across them quite often when doing google searches for various flashlights: http://www.taschenlampen-forum.de/

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 6:40pm

ToyKeeper:

Bort:

Can we fix the signature looking like part of the post problem, i forget how it was done before but now signatures don’t have a clear psychological separation from posts (was it just more spaces before?)

FWIW, this is relatively simple with a few lines of CSS. Here’s what I’m using:
/* signature at the end of each post */
div.clear {
    /* display: none; */ /* in case you want no signatures at all */
    margin: 6px 0 0 0 !important;
    padding: 0 !important;
    font-size: 80%;  /* make the text smaller by default */
    border-top: 1px solid #555 !important;
}
div.clear div:not([class]) {  /* get rid of '--' divider at top of signature */
    display: none;
}

Thanks very much ToyKeeper! Looks great. I just implemented this style. Now, is there any way to convince Bort to remove the huge blank vertical space at the end of his signature?

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 6:43pm

Done, great idea.

1dash1 · March 5, 2016, 7:00pm

Thanks, SB!

Bort · March 5, 2016, 8:48pm

subtlety of course

I kinda wondered if that 255 character problem was going to resolved on your end, bringing back what was there before.
I’ve also considered if there had not been software upgrade i would have stuck with what i had, yet i have other ideas
Way too much contemplation for a signature, probably.

BTW could we add 2 or 3 spaces before the new signature separation line

Edit, i just noticed we no longer have re-input the password to change signatures, very happy, we can now test changes much more quickly

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 7:27pm

How’s it look now?

Bort · March 5, 2016, 7:35pm

cool, thanks

keengeorge · March 5, 2016, 7:47pm

keengeorge:

sb56637:

keengeorge:

G'Day SB,

Any chance of having back the <Mark Read> button in the top right of each subforum?

Thank you Very Much,

George

Hey there George, we tried that briefly, but it mislead some users into thinking that it would only mark that forum category as read, when in reality it marks the whole thing as read.

Greetings & Salutations SB,

Did you have that cold one?. Was it a beer, &/or wine, &/or coffee, &/or root beer, &/or whatever else you fancy?

Yes, AFAIK I was the one that first reported the ?problem. And then you shifted it to only the forum's "root" page.

But in the past you had a <Mark Read> button at the top right of each subforum which ONLY marked as read the current sub-forum (& Not its own sub-forums Nor ANY other sub-forums).

May be the new button could be called something like <Mark All Topics Read> Or <Mark this Forum Read> Or?

Right now, once I have read the threads/posts I find interesting, I have to:

1). Go to bottom of page

2). Click on "Forum Tools" menu

3). Select "Mark All Topics Read"

Instead of just clicking a <Mark All Topics Read> button at the webpage's top right, as was able to do in BLF's previous incarnation.

Thank you Very Much for all your Greatly Appreciated work,

Best Regards,

George

G'Day SB,

I have just noticed that the "Forum Tools" menu at the bottom of each sub-forum page has gone missing.

So now I can't do what I highlighted above to mark a subforum's threads as read (after reading the rest).

Please bring it back, &/or give us the <Mark All Topics Read> button back, Please Please Please

Best Regards,

George

Edit:

And now it IS baaaack.

SB's Magic IS POWERFUL.

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 8:43pm

I managed to kludge together this functionality for individual forum categories. I put the button on the right side when it’s a single forum category, and on the left side for the /forum overview page so they can be easily distinguished at a glance.

keengeorge · March 5, 2016, 8:48pm

SB's magic is indeed MOST Powerful.

SB, thank you very Very VERY Much for bringing back the <Mark Read> Button & its functionality. GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Best Regards,

George

hank · March 5, 2016, 8:50pm

In honor of seeing “666 posts, 0 new”
this question

What would it cost to stop running the Google ads for this garbage flashlight?

sb56637 · March 5, 2016, 8:51pm

Thanks for letting me know, it’s blocked now. And just a small disclaimer: I don’t control which ads Google does serve up, I can only block specific URLs so they don’t get served. And plus the ads are highly variable from one user to another based on a million factors, so I have no idea what sort of Google ads other users are receiving.

hank · March 5, 2016, 9:03pm

and thank you. Always.

Halo · March 5, 2016, 10:30pm

The the line delineating signatures is appearing as a fine dotted line. Can that be avoided? :-/
I have to say it’s bothering my eyes, by a surprising amount. :-(( I keep unintentionally trying to focus it clearer but the dots are really just too small to be clear on my screen.

ToyKeeper · March 5, 2016, 10:47pm

BTW, the “!important” keywords in the CSS I posted are probably not needed if the CSS comes directly from BLF. It’s often needed in external theme overrides, but not usually in the original CSS.

The part about removing the “—” div is probably not needed either, if you can make the site simply not send that part to begin with. I don’t know how hard it is to change the html output though. IIRC BLF used to use a <div class=“signature”>, but now it uses <div class=“clear”><div>—</div> at the beginning of the signature. It’s harder to match without potential side effects.

However, the new version of BLF seems to have better markup for a variety of other things. It used to be that half the divs were called “block” of some sort. So I had to use totally opaque matching rules like “div#block-block-1.block.block-block”.