Questions about the New Forum Software

[AW Admin]

Please post questions here. I'll answer them as I can.

Check the FAQs first.

FAQ: Cheat Sheet for Members Familiar with the vBulletin version of AW

FAQ: About Your Absolute Write XenForo Profile

Please be patient. I'm working as fast as I can, but I'm fully occupied with a job and family obligations.

 

[cmhbob]

A suggestion as the admin and mods get things under control: if you're doing a long post in the next few weeks (since things may be turned off with little warning), write the post in Notepad or Word or whatever, then copy and paste into the forums. Less chance that you'll lose an epic post that way.

 

[AW Admin]

That's a super suggestion cmhbob.

I'm not sure pasting from Word will work because of the issues with pasting MS Word formatted text.

I would suggest a text file, Word Pad, TextEdit on Mac, and probably the best option, email addressed to you.

That said, XenForo has so far done really well at Saving posts. Cross your fingers!

If I can post a notice that I'm going to shut off the forum, I absolutely will.

 

[JohnLine]

First of all. Thank you so much! I'm very excited to see Absolute Write up and running again. I'm sure there will be little issues here and there, and I'm sure they won't matter in the long run.

Now, when it comes to pasting from Word, there's only one way to find out. Let’s try pasting something:

Here we go with italics and bold and bold italics.

This is a heading​

And this is a newline with “normal spacing.”

There should be a line between this and the last line/paragraph (Most software doesn’t get this right)

And now I’ve switched to “No spacing.”



And there should be a line between this and the last line.



Let’s try times new Roman font size 11. And now font size 8. And now font size 18.



Okay now let’s try a bullet list:

One

Two

Three

And finally colored text: red, green, blue.

So, interesting results. One, it likes normal spacing, rather than no spacing. Which is quite odd, but I like it. Two, it picks up on headings. Three, it doesn't pick up on fonts, font sizes, bullets, or colored text.

The biggest issue I can see (with pasting from Word) is posting LBLs in share your work, since those are usually color coded. I'm sure there's a way to make this all work. I'll go off and experiment (in a less visible thread.)

 

[AW Admin]

The developer states that formatting doesn't carry over correctly from MS Word, and that the issues are platform and version specific.

When you look at the edit bar, the vertical ellipses / three dots in a vertical row indicate more options are available.

Notice that there's a remove formatting Eraser, a Toggle BB code option, an inline code option, and a Spoiler warning tag.

The Drafts option will attempt to save text; it can cause problems because it can take a while to clear from the server's cache. I would not rely on it.

I'll keep adding to the FAQs, but notice that a lot of options and tools are conditional or are hidden until triggered.

 

[gtanders]

Here's a question for the mods. Is there any chance of making the SYW boards password-protected again? It seems unwise for aspiring writers to post work there without that protection. I know many agents say that posting a story on a blog counts as "publishing" (which I get, since it's accessible to anyone with an internet connection), and it seems the unprotected SYW board would fall under the same category.

Anyway, I know you guys have a lot on your hands, just wanted to raise the question. Cheers!

 

[cmhbob]

Here's a question for the mods. Is there any chance of making the SYW boards password-protected again? It seems unwise for aspiring writers to post work there without that protection. I know many agents say that posting a story on a blog counts as "publishing" (which I get, since it's accessible to anyone with an internet connection), and it seems the unprotected SYW board would fall under the same category.

I'm not a mod, but AW Admin addressed this: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/in...-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-forum.348698/

 

[AW Admin]

Here's a question for the mods. Is there any chance of making the SYW boards password-protected again? It seems unwise for aspiring writers to post work there without that protection. I know many agents say that posting a story on a blog counts as "publishing" (which I get, since it's accessible to anyone with an internet connection), and it seems the unprotected SYW board would fall under the same category.

Anyway, I know you guys have a lot on your hands, just wanted to raise the question. Cheers!

The password didn't provide any more protection than we currently have. Most of SYW is't visible if you aren't registered and logged in.

SYW isn't indexed by search engines.

Dealing with password problems fell mostly to me, and it was a giant PITA. I'd guess I had to answer PMs and posts about the passwords about thirty times a week. Maybe more.

Members can delete their threads in SYW or ask a mod or me to delete them once they've served their purpose.

 

[be frank]

I know this is a minor issue, and it's probably only something that bothers me personally (and it likely isn't even possible with this new system), but I've realised what I miss the most is the short previews of what people have written in their replies (in 'What's New' etc). Without any hint as to what's in the posts, I'm finding I'm less likely to idly click on threads out of curiosity to read more.

Is there any potential to get those little snippets back or is this a pipe dream?

eta: Ah, it looks like they might be visible in "latest activity" still. (Though that's a bit cluttered with everyone's likes etc too. Can't win 'em all!) Okay then! Ignore me!

 

[AW Admin]

I know this is a minor issue, and it's probably only something that bothers me personally (and it likely isn't even possible with this new system), but I've realised what I miss the most is the short previews of what people have written in their replies (in 'What's New' etc). Without any hint as to what's in the posts, I'm finding I'm less likely to idly click on threads out of curiosity to read more.

Is there any potential to get those little snippets back or is this a pipe dream?

I'll take a look. It might be a while, but I'll try.

 

[be frank]

I'll take a look. It might be a while, but I'll try.

Aaah, I appreciate it! (And of course there's no rush. In the grand scheme, this barely registers!)

 

[Chris P]

Do we no longer have the ability to reply to multiple posts in one reply? I thought I'd seen people do it in the new format (and of course can't find an example right now) and I didn't see it in the new FAQ.

 

[be frank]

Do we no longer have the ability to reply to multiple posts in one reply? I thought I'd seen people do it in the new format (and of course can't find an example right now) and I didn't see it in the new FAQ.

Not a mod, but if you just hit "reply" on every post you want to quote, it adds them automatically.

 

[Chris P]

Do we no longer have the ability to reply to multiple posts in one reply? I thought I'd seen people do it in the new format (and of course can't find an example right now) and I didn't see it in the new FAQ.

Not a mod, but if you just hit "reply" on every post you want to quote, it adds them automatically.

Well lookit that! I figured there had to be an easy way, and there was. Thanks!

Oh, I really like the feature of knowing when someone has quoted you, and also the ability to turn off the "Read only: Unread" in the New Posts. It saves me from having to keep a tab open while I let a reply incubate before I post it.

 

[PastyAlien]

Here's a question for the mods. Is there any chance of making the SYW boards password-protected again? It seems unwise for aspiring writers to post work there without that protection. I know many agents say that posting a story on a blog counts as "publishing" (which I get, since it's accessible to anyone with an internet connection), and it seems the unprotected SYW board would fall under the same category.

Anyway, I know you guys have a lot on your hands, just wanted to raise the question. Cheers!

Hey George, I had the same concern when I saw that the SYW boards were no longer password protected, because I thought that meant they were open to the public (non-members). But they're not. I checked it out when I wasn't logged in, and all I saw was "Private," and when I clicked on SYW, no threads came up. So it's like the old forum, where you have to be a member to see SYW. I'm pretty sure that means anything posted there is considered unpublished, but correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[MaeZe]

A suggestion as the admin and mods get things under control: if you're doing a long post in the next few weeks (since things may be turned off with little warning), write the post in Notepad or Word or whatever, then copy and paste into the forums. Less chance that you'll lose an epic post that way.

I just hit copy (paste) before posting in case it doesn't go through and then paste it to text/edit if the post is a failure to be able to post it again later. I also copy it as I go if I've posted anything particularly long and save that to text/edit if I need to use the copy for something else like pasting a link.

 

[MaeZe]

Oh hooray, I found 'preview'.

And I found the huge smilies option!

 

[PastyAlien]

I'm having some trouble posting. I was doing a crit in QLH and I kept getting this error every time I tried to preview or post:

Oops! We ran into some problems. Please try again later. More error details may be in the browser console.

So I copied my crit, discarded the draft, cleared my cache, signed out, and closed my browser. After I re-opened my browser and logged in again, I was able to paste my crit and post. But it lost all the coloured text (my in-line comments were in red). So I tried to edit my post, but I got that same error.

Here is the post: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/in...tasy-new-version-post-55.347341/post-10676187

And here's the error entry in my browser console: 20:37:09.816 XHRPOSThttps://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php?posts/10676187/edit[HTTP/3 403 Forbidden 168ms]

I hate to bother you with this, because I know you're very busy, but I'm stumped. Thanks in advance for your help!

ETA: I'm getting the same error when I try to preview/post this message now! I'll clear everything and try again.

 

[AW Admin]

That looks like a permissions error, and I can fix it. Just not tonight. Thank you very much for letting me know though.

ETA: Please let me know what OS (windows? Mac? Something else, what version, and what Web browser and version you're using, thanks.

 

[PastyAlien]

That looks like a permissions error, and I can fix it. Just not tonight. Thank you very much for letting me know though.

ETA: Please let me know what OS (windows? Mac? Something else, what version, and what Web browser and version you're using, thanks.

My OS is Linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and the error occurred in two different browsers: Firefox version 88.0 and Chromium version 90.0.4430.72.

Thanks for looking into this!

ETA: My OS is pretty ancient so maybe that's the issue--and incentive for me to upgrade, especially since it's recently reached end-of-life support.

 

[anaemic_mind]

I realise aesthetics are best left until the technical side of things are all ironed out... but I wondered if the theme could be tweaked a little? My increasingly old eyes are having trouble distinguishing between threads I've read and those I haven't. The main board list has those helpful blue 'new' signs in blue along with the arrow to the left of the board name. But the thread lists within each board are harder to judge only having a slightly bolder text.

The 'Alerts' list is similiarly hard to check. Posts I haven't read are virtually impossible to spot at a glance as they only have a slightly different background. Yes, there's a little blue dot that's coloured in, but that only shows when you hover over it.

 

[be frank]

I'm having some trouble posting. I was doing a crit in QLH and I kept getting this error every time I tried to preview or post:

Oops! We ran into some problems. Please try again later. More error details may be in the browser console.

FWIW, I hit this same error message when trying to edit a post in QLH (and yes, the typo that stubbornly remains has been driving me bonkers for a whole day now!).

I'm on Windows 10 (Version 20H2, OS build 19042.1052) and Firefox 89.0 (64-bit).

 

[AW Admin]

I realise aesthetics are best left until the technical side of things are all ironed out... but I wondered if the theme could be tweaked a little? My increasingly old eyes are having trouble distinguishing between threads I've read and those I haven't. The main board list has those helpful blue 'new' signs in blue along with the arrow to the left of the board name. But the thread lists within each board are harder to judge only having a slightly bolder text.

The 'Alerts' list is similiarly hard to check. Posts I haven't read are virtually impossible to spot at a glance as they only have a slightly different background. Yes, there's a little blue dot that's coloured in, but that only shows when you hover over it.

I will install more themes. Tweaking them is a possibility but has other issues.

In the meantime if you click What's new on the top of the forum, it will list posts that are new to you.

 

[AW Admin]

FWIW, I hit this same error message when trying to edit a post in QLH (and yes, the typo that stubbornly remains has been driving me bonkers for a whole day now!).

I'm on Windows 10 (Version 20H2, OS build 19042.1052) and Firefox 89.0 (64-bit).

I don't think this is limited to you; I'll keep looking at it.

 

[litdawg]

I just came across a post that mentioned a 10k character limit. The poster split their story over three posts. That's going to be a pain to critique. I'm interested in learning if the character limit is imposed by the software or if it can be adjusted. I like the idea of hard limits on post sizes--can't tell you how annoyed I'd get by 8k word posts by newbies--but this post was overall under 4k words, I think. Long, but crittable. Anyhow, this is a low-level concern, to be addressed in some future iteration of the boards.