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Questions for a new sticky FAQ thread
January 4, 2009 - 8:56am
As promised! It's my first day back from vacation, and it's a new year, and I'm about to fulfill my resolution of creating a FAQ thread that people can refer to in order to figure out how to do stuff.
Since I don't want a FAQ thread to be bogged down by discussion, I'm going to create this thread for people to post questions they have about how to use the new babble software, or to post suggestions for things they think we should include in the FAQ thread.
Then I'm going to create the actual FAQ thread itself, make it "sticky", keep it limited to moderators only, and post instructions there, based on the questions and suggestions we get in this thread.
So, ask/suggest away!
Hyperlinks should be made visible as a courtesy to readers. For example, here are various ways of posting a hyperlink:
1. http://rabble.ca
Comment: Works, but not pretty.
2. Rabble.ca
Comment: Works, but not visibly a hyperlink.
3. Rabble.ca
Comment: Looks more like a hyperlink.
4. Rabble.ca
Comment: If you want to highlight it even more.
5. Rabble.ca
Comment: This is supposed to appear in red, but it doesn't, because the coloured font feature is broken.
6. Rabble.ca
Comment: You can do it using UBB codes.
None of the above was created using the little icons in the Comment box. Here is how it was done. NB: I've inserted spaces after the [ brackets which you will have to remove in order for things to work:
1. http://rabble.ca
2. [ url=http://rabble.ca]Rabble.ca[ /url]3. [ u][ url=http://rabble.ca]Rabble.ca[ /url][ /u]
4. [ u][ b][ url=http://rabble.ca]Rabble.ca[ /url][ /b][ /u]5. Irrelevant.
6. [ url=http://rabble.ca][ color=red]Rabble.ca[ /color][ /url]Here's a mod one Michelle. re: the mysterious prune/graft feature we have. How do you use it without screwing up?
This is a tagline. It has nothing to do with the comments posted above. Just a tagline...really. Please disregard.
P.S. There are numerous links on the internet explaining UBB codes.
Here's just one.
Let me know if you need any more hot tips.
I didn't realize we could change the typeface.
It could get annoying, I suppose.
But what the heck...
Happy New Year, everyone!
Unfortunately Michelle, that is not accurate. That's why I posted instructions above as to how to code underlining and colour. Those icons in the Comment box don't work.
Summary:
The following icons do not work and never have, at least for me:
The following icons do work:
As for
, I don't know - haven't tested it, because I haven't needed to. Perhaps someone else can comment.
In short, your lengthy post in the FAQ thread needs to be revised to clarify underlining and colour (at least), in order to avoid user frustration.
Underlining.
The above word shows as underlined in my Comment box, but neither in the Preview nor the final post.
I've viewed it using both my usual browser (Firefox 3.0.5) and Internet Explorer - and I can't see underlining in either.
When you look at the HTML coding before hitting "Post Comment", it looks correct. But it seems as if the underline code gets stripped off as soon as you hit "Post". I will experiment some more.
Michelle (or anyone), does the first word in this post appear as underlined to you?
If that's the case, then I want moderator's privilegesTOO!!!Scratch that.
Me! I'm a mod!
And I can't do any formatting.
Yeah. In "Your Menu" (upper right of page), click on "My Inbox", then click on the "Compose" tab, then start typing the person's name in the "To" box - wait a second, and all names starting with those letters will appear.
Not to me.
Yes, yet more than a courtesy. It is an extremely basic webpage functionality issue.
The onus should NOT be on the poster to find a way to draw attention to the existence and whereabouts of an otherwise invisible link--and NOT on the reader to waste time dragging their mouse around the page in the quest for the possible existence of a referring link.
I know the mindset of too many webpage design artists who would rather opt for "elegance" or "the clean look" over information sharing--which they sometimes see as an irritating imposition on their creation.
Well, the most "clean" look, of course, is a blank page.
http://www.meted.ucar.edu/resource/soo/graphics/#LINKS
I hate the recent rabble rouser tag too. It's kind of ridiculous. But here's why - this new software apparently doesn't count your POSTS. It counts the number of FIRST posts, so new threads that you post. And I think you become just a plain old rabble-rouser after you've posted 30 or something like that.
It's annoying, but not at the top of our list of priorities to fix right now, considering that we still don't even have visible links.
contrarianna, I totally agree with you re: links. It's ridiculous to have to manually underline them ourselves - especially when everyone except moderators have to actually type in the underline tags in order to do it!
Apparently the new version of the editor is coming soon. I know, I know. I keep saying that. But that's what I'm hearing.
People shouldn't underline links (IMHO). They should colour them red, which is the old and new standard for babble.
Here is an example of a link pointing to "Unionbook", a social networking site for trade unionists.
And here is how it was coded (inserting spaces to make the coding visible):
[ url=http: //www.unionbook.org/][ color=red]Here is an example of a link pointing to "Unionbook", a social networking site for trade unionists.[/ color][/ url]
Test to see if you can use a Link to an Aricle using just the colour html with the babble link feature
Sigh, that is a no, you need the full coding.
So you become a bona fide rabble rouser by proliferating threads; it's a bonus for being annoying.
Cool.
It sort of gives the whole 'rabble-rouser' thing some street cred.
TELL ME ABOUT IT. Sigh. :)
I've asked the tech folks to add a new thing to the list - just making everyone except the moderators "rabble-rousers" and the moderators "Moderator".
What about the mysterious variable line spacing in posts? Sometimes it looks like a half-space between lines, for no discernible reason. You've all noticed this I'm sure - I tested it in both Firefox and IE, same problem.
Here is an example chosen at random.
This really makes the page look amateurish.
Any explanation - or better yet, any cure?
Yes, it's very annoying. Usually it happens when people cut and paste text without using that clipboard icon in the formatting thing.
I have no idea why it does that, but apparently the new editor (which is coming any day now, apparently) will take care of this and other issues.
The cure right now is that if you're cutting and pasting, then use this icon:
BTW how the hell long do I have to be a recent-rabble-rouser???!
ETA: Sorry, never mind... (I read the thread.)