New NARGS Forum - Issues, Question, Suggestions

My bookmarked forum opening

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 8:29pm

My bookmarked forum opening page is the "New & Updated Topics".

I go directly to what I have not read by clicking the "View new" in the replies column, or by clicking the topic title if it is a brand new topic. This works just like the old forum.

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I do have a scrolling complaint, too. With the old forum, I was able to see all the topic titles on the monitor all at once.

I could click on all the new replies without scrolling. Now on the new forum, each topic takes up so much room that I have to scroll down just to get to all the topics with new replies.

Even better, making a

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 9:01pm

Even better, making a bookmark to the "New and Updated Topics" page, good suggestion Rick.

Regarding scrolling, I don't share the same level of concern; here's a side-by-side space comparison looking at the General Forum on NARGS (left) and SRGC (right), seeing a few more topics listed on the SRGC site because it is more compact displaying text; I don't feel is cause for concern.

Wow, Mark. You can see from

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 9:42pm

Mark,when I look at the general board topics, that is what I see, too. But that's not the "New and Updated topics" page. Everything is spread out there, as I showed above.

But it is a minor item in the big picture.

Middleton (not verified)

Would someone correct and add

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 11:51am

Would someone correct and add an ‘up to date’ entry to the first topic “Announcements from Moderators and Administrators” in relation to this new forum’s functions, please!

Also, why does copying text from the new forum format to an excel doc or word doc take a lot more time than the old forum did?

Could you put post instead of save when replying?

Hello Sharon, responses in

Thu, 08/29/2013 - 8:09pm

Hello Sharon, responses in blue color text, I have numbered your demands and questions.

1. Would someone correct and add an ‘up to date’ entry to the first topic “Announcements from Moderators and Administrators” in relation to this new forum’s functions, please!

All former "Announcements from Moderators and Administrators" that pertain to the old forum have been moved to archive, new announcements and FAQ documents forthcoming as time allows.

2. Also, why does copying text from the new forum format to an excel doc or word doc take a lot more time than the old forum did?

Need much more definitive information to address this. Are you copying purely just text, or text and photos, what versions of Word and Excel are you using, what operating system are you using, how much longer are you talking about... 2 seconds, 6 seconds, 12 seconds? So I tested copying and pasting posts from new NARGS Forum vs. SRGC (SRGC uses the Simple Machines Forum SMF software, same as the previous NARGS Forum), testing from two different computers and operating systems, and my results are that copying-&-pasting from new NARGS.ORG & SRGC Forum are about the same. But we're talking about a second or two here or there, one way or the other, splitting hairs. In my testing, copying & pasting a post (that include a couple image files) from forumists who cross-post to both NARGS and SRGC, the results are essentially equal, a message with about 2 photo images takes on average 3-4 seconds from both sources, a message with just text 1-2 seconds. Is this really an issue?

3. Could you put post instead of save when replying?

Are you asking, when editing a forum message, can the button at the bottom say "Post" versus the current nomenclature of "Save"? I suppose it can anything, it's a matter of semantics. Hitting "Save" at the end of an edit window is very common, as is "Post", it's a toss of the coin, on NARGS Forum the term is "Save".

Middleton (not verified)

Mark, as to the answer to #2,

Fri, 08/30/2013 - 10:40am

Mark, as to the answer to #2, I use old 2007 Word and Excel programs when needed and have no formal training on how to use. We are connected to what we've been told is a "turned down' fast internet connection (the last available on this rural road on ancient telephone wiring). The operating system is IE and I connect to internet via wireless.

I tested again last evening the copy and paste issue and admit it is probably is our connection speed even though the copy and paste from SRGC was quick, 3 seconds, and from NARGS took 15 seconds. Both were two sentences, your typing in blue on white and theirs randomly picked out in black on blue. I use copy and paste mostly for genus and species when I see something new to try. Not to worry I bet this old laptop will get to know this new site better as time goes along. Smile!

The more explanations given whether in difficult or easy computer speak will help us non experts to acclimatize eventually.

#3. Looking today I see a “Post Reply” button. Confessing to being confused by the “Save” button at the end of Image Attachments when I was posting only text . I’ll eventually ‘get it’.

Thanks!

Thanks Sharon, the additional

Fri, 08/30/2013 - 12:56pm

Thank you Sharon, the additional information really helps.

Word and Excel 2007 isn't that old. The times reported for copy-&-paste were done on my older Windows XP desktop computer, using Word 2000, now that's old. When I try copy-&-paste from my Lenovo laptop (Windows 7) into Word 2010, from both NARGS and SRGC, pasting is instantaneous, even with 4-5 images selected.

Aha, I think I discovered a problem, it's with pasting into newer versions of Excel. Taking a 4-5 paragraph message, in either SRGC or new NARGS Forum, and paste it into old Excel 2000, it comes in instantly. Repeat, and select "Paste Special" (to get a chance to paste as regular "Text" instead of "HTML formatted text"), and likewise it comes in instantly.

Now, let's move to Excel 2010 (I don't have access to 2007). From SRGC, pasting a 4-5 paragraph message takes 10 seconds (HTML text with formatting). If I choose "Paste Special" and paste as Text, it comes in instantly. From NARGS, pasting a 4-5 paragraph message (HTML text with formatting) takes 40 seconds! Repeat and select Paste Special (choose Text option) it comes in instantly.

Try using the "Paste Special" option and choose regular text, to see if that helps. Another trick to remove HTML formatting, is to have Windows NOTEPAD open (assuming you're on Windows), paste into Notepad; it instantly strips text formatting and comes in as simple text, then highlight the text in Notepad and copy-&-paste into your Word or Excel documents, it'll come in instantly. I use this technique when getting weird results copying-&-pasting from web pages.

Amongst us Moderators, we too discussed whether the button at the bottom of the "Post New Reply" page (when you're writing a new post), should say "Post" instead of "Save" at the bottom. A few forumists posted messages that were not finished, thinking they were saving the draft. We'll add this suggested change to the list.

The "Post Reply" button located at the bottom of each topic page, will reply to the very first message of the topic, and show that first message for reference. This is not self evident.

Thank you again for taking the time to offer your input.

[Moderator - edited several times, color highlighting not working for multiple paragraphs, you might get several email notifications if you're subscribed to this topic]

Middleton (not verified)

Paste special is the trick to

Fri, 08/30/2013 - 1:58pm

Paste special is the trick to faster copy and paste issue from the new NARGS site. Wow! Have added Notepad to my start up choices. Thanks again Mark.

I have been trying to find

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 6:24am

I have been trying to find out what I've been doing wrong as far as adding links to my posts. In the "Plants I Should Be Growing" thread, I tried adding a few links to my post about Hebe benthamii by copying the url of the flickriver page (Ctrl c) and pasting it into my reply using "ctrl v" but it doesn't work. What should I be doing?

Gordon, when you use "ctrl v"

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 6:43am

Gordon, when you use "ctrl v" within the text window, does anything show up, in other words, is Ctrl-v even working for you? If you open up a normal text editor, like Windows Notepad, after copying a link with Ctrl-c, then move to to the Notepad window, does Ctrl-v paste in the text?

Back to your NARGS Forum posts, before hitting Ctrl-v to past in your link, did you click your cursor into the text window where you want the link to appear?

I just copied and pasted a link to one of your posts in the "Plants I Should Be Growing" topic, the link is below, and in your message where you discuss Stenanthium occidentale, I added a link to a flickriver image, just as a test, all worked okay for me. Give it another go.

https://www.nargs.org/comment/24755#comment-24755

Hi Mark,

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 9:58am

Hi Mark,

I tried using ctrl c and ctrl v to copy and paste a link into my latest comment on Stenanthium occidentale in Plants I should be growing and nothing happened. I selected the url address in the original pnwflowers page, clicked ctrl c, and then returned to my forum reply and placed the cursor where I wanted the link to appear before clicking ctrl v. Nothing happened. I then opened Windows Notepad to see if ctrl c had even picked up the url I planned to add. When I clicked ctrl v, the address appeared.

I ended up simply manually typing in the complete link for it to show up in my last post about Stenanthium.

Hi Gordon.

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 11:00am

Hi Gordon.

One more check. When you are about to press Ctl-V in the text editor on the web page, if you were instead to go to Edit > Paste, is 'Paste' grayed out or is it active?

Daniel,

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 1:17pm

Daniel,

All three "Paste" buttons are active. I just tried using the edit button to add to a post of mine in "Plants I should be growing" where I mention Hebe benthamii. After hitting ctrl c to copy the url, placing my cursor where I want the link to appear , then choosing any of the paste buttons, I get a message from Internet explorer asking if I want to allow this site to access my clipboard. I clicked on "allow" but there was still no link pasted into the post. Is this happening because of security settings in IE?

This sounds very much like a

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 2:25pm

This sounds very much like a browser issue. IE has fallen behind Firefox and Chrome in several ways. To confirm this is a browser issue, try a different version of IE, if you have it installed on another computer, or Try Firefox or Chrome or a Mac. I work on a Mac most of the time, but when I am working on a PC I'm afraid I never use IE any more because of its idiosyncrasies.

Daniel

I checked it out by using

Mon, 12/09/2013 - 4:52am

I checked it out by using Chrome, instead of IE. Figure now that the issue is with IE, since I was able to use ctrl c and ctrl v in Chrome without any glitches. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

externmed (not verified)

I was delighted that the

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 12:25pm

I was delighted that the Bulletin was up on the site. Wanted to find Norman Deno on sandbeds, but daunted to think about browsing every issue. Google to the rescue, though. Appears that Google has come here and gone through the Bulletins, so it may be possible to find NARGS articles referred back to this site from a Google search. Does seem to refer to issue, not page, but not much of a problem

Charles Swanson -- MA USA

externmed (not verified)

Did we loose the option of

Thu, 12/19/2013 - 9:19am

Did we loose the option of placing a personal webpage address on our NARGS profile?

Figured out I can use the signature line, though.

externmed wrote:

Thu, 12/19/2013 - 5:30pm

[quote=externmed]Did we loose the option of placing a personal webpage address on our NARGS profile?[/quote]

Yes. It is one of the minor things we "gave up" in favor of certain needed changes.

As you found, the signature block is quite versatile.

Why is page 58 and page 59

Sat, 12/21/2013 - 6:49pm

Why is page 58 and page 59 exactly the same?

(What do you see on your garden walks? 2013)

I see what you mean Rick,

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 8:13am

I see what you mean Rick, obviously some drupal error or corruption there, the whole page of 10 posts is repeated, the only thing changed is the post#.

Daniel, any way to fix this before people start adding new responses to the "What do you see on your garden walks? 2013" topic?

It was clearly a paging issue

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 8:26am

It was clearly a paging issue, perhaps overlapping page counts. I replied to the topic and deleted my reply. That seemed to straighten it out, oddly enough.

Glad you were able to fix

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 8:38am

Glad you were able to fix that so quickly :-)

Lori S. (not verified)

Would it be possible to have

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 9:15am

Would it be possible to have the threads on posting images on a sidebar or in a prominent "How To" section to make them more visible? Right now, they are in the "Announcements from Moderators and Administrators" forum, where newcomers to the site are unlikely to look.

A comment I hear about this site is that people don't see how to navigate around it. Once the basic functionality of the site has reached the desired levels (and I'm guessing it's pretty close now? - many thanks to those responsible), perhaps making the site more user-friendly in ways like the suggestion above could be added to the "To Do" list?

Also, assuming the main forum site is reaching a desired level of functioning, or once it does, are there any plans to look at the plant photo site (Plants/All Rock Garden Plants)? A lot of info that was provided along with the photos (e.g. contributor names, provenance, comments) seems to have gotten lost - could it be restored? This is an excellent resource and once a few wrinkles get ironed out with it, I'd like to start using and contributing to it again and also encourage others to add their photos and info.

Lori S. (not verified)

In the seedex order page, has

Tue, 12/24/2013 - 10:42am

In the seedex order page, has the "Save" function worked for you? It doesn't seem to be working for me. (Fortunately, I realized that and also did a screen capture of my choices to reload.)

Edit: I think it worked today when I tried it though.

When I tried it, was adding

Wed, 12/25/2013 - 2:51pm

When I tried it, was adding some items to my selection, got distracted with other things and left the window open. When I went to save the selection, it saved, but wiped out all but two line items, one of those two being an empty field. There might be a time-out threshold of some duration, I don't know. Tried deleting the two items one by one, was finally able to reset it so that I could start from scratch. Haven't tried again yet.

Claire Cockcroft

I just read an email from Ger

Thu, 12/26/2013 - 10:19am

I just read an email from Ger van den Beuken about the spam filter. Here's the message from him:

Your submission has triggered the spam filter and will not be accepted. If you feel this is in error, please report that you are blocked.

It looks like COHAN also ran into this problem. Is the spam filter new, or has it been tweaked to be extra sensitive?

This is a question, I don't

Thu, 12/26/2013 - 10:29am

This is a question, I don't know how the spam filter plugin works in much detail. Thanks Claire for adding the information. We will need to hear from Daniel, I don't know if anything has been tweaked in terms of the spam filter. If one does get prevented from posting because of a "false positive", typically one gets a "Captchas" screen with which to validate what one is posting is not spam.

Daniel, any suggestions?

Lori S. (not verified)

Not meaning to divert Daniel

Sat, 12/28/2013 - 8:56am

Not meaning to divert Daniel's attention from the previously-mentioned issue, but here is another another... When messages are sent to me via the "Contact form", they are not recorded in my Messages area on the NARGS site; instead, they are only viewable in the e-mail program on my computer (a desktop Mac and an iPad).

I rather doubt that this could be how it's intended to work, as there is no way to directly reply to the original message (in the usual e-mail manner, where the original message is shown beneath the reply), since the original message is completely disconnected from the subsequent reply back in the NARGS Messages area.

Anyone else see this happening? (I know Mark and Rick don't from a previous discussion about this.)

Hi Steve,

Fri, 01/24/2014 - 9:08am

Hi Steve,

I’m not sure exactly what you tried, but this is exactly how I replace my missing photos. My browser is Firefox, so it might be slightly different if you use something different.

1. Go to the post in question.

2. Click "edit" below the post.

3. In the text editing box (titled: Body(Edit summary)), there are "picture icons" where the original photos were. Right click on one, then click "Edit link" or "image properties".

4. The URL box shown contains the original name of the photo file that you had uploaded from your computer. Click or double click in the box to get the cursor there. Move the cursor to the right until you recognize the file name. (for my original files, the space between words is replaced by computer code. You may find similar anomalies.)

5. Now that you know which photo was used, close the box to return to the edit page.

6. Under “Embedded Images”, add a new file. Click on “Browse” and upload the photo from your computer.

7. Go back to the text editing box and delete the picture icon. Leave the cursor where you want the newly uploaded photo to be.

8. Scroll down to your embedded image and click “insert”. Momentarily, the photo will appear in the text editing box, right where the cursor was left.

deesen (not verified)

On Friday evening from 1900

Fri, 04/25/2014 - 11:39am

On Friday evening from 1900 hours (UK Summer Time) until I gave up at 1940 I tried to upload pictures to accompany a post. I checked my own Wirelss Broadband speed which gave me a download speed of 11.01Mb/s and an upload speed of 1.36Mb/s. This is really not the first time the site has either taken an age to upload once having connected to it or has failed to upload pictures. Is anyone else having problems?

For best results, images of

Fri, 04/25/2014 - 12:40pm

For best results, images of not more than 2 or 3 Mb should be used. What size of images are you attempting to upload?

Lori S. (not verified)

Daniel, neither Rick or I

Fri, 04/25/2014 - 6:42pm

Daniel, neither Rick or I could post photos to this site last night and I've tried it just now again and still can't.

Exceeding the photo size is not the problem.

Photos can be uploaded but "Insert" doesn't work.

deesen (not verified)

The thread I gave up on was

Sat, 04/26/2014 - 1:18am

The thread I gave up on was the Lewisia 2014 thread and the picture that refused to upload was 59.3Kb the others I was intending to post were 48.3Kb and 61.2Kb

I see from looking at the Lewisia thread today that inspite of my giving up on it the first of my pictures eventually loaded.

OK. I see the problem with

Sat, 04/26/2014 - 7:14am

OK. I see the problem with "Insert" as well. We will look into it and get back to you.

Fixed. Sorry for the trouble.

Sat, 04/26/2014 - 7:54am

Fixed. Sorry for the trouble.

Lori S. (not verified)

Thanks for fixing it, Daniel.

Sat, 04/26/2014 - 8:42am

Thanks for fixing it, Daniel.

Lori S. (not verified)

Hi,

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 8:15pm

Hi,

Here's another oddity... photos and text in the text box are posting across the address area at the bottom of the message window:

#10

#52

#50

Could you take a look at it, please, Daniel?

Thank you.

Claire Cockcroft

This morning my browser said

Thu, 06/12/2014 - 9:50am

This morning my browser said the NARGS site was "untrusted". It mentioned that the certificate may have expired. Was that a hiccup in my browser or is there a problem with site security?

deesen (not verified)

Google Chrome told me the

Thu, 06/12/2014 - 11:46am

Google Chrome told me the same thing today and I also note that where a Web Address is shown that the https element is now scribed through with a red line. There would seem to be a serious point here that needs to be answered very quickly for us all to be sure we are working in a safe environment.

You sure are an adventurous

Thu, 06/12/2014 - 7:32pm

You sure are an adventurous bunch!

I opted not to open this site when Firefox warned that "If you usually connect to this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn't continue."

Anyway, the problem has since been corrected.

deesen (not verified)

Rick, fortune favours the

Fri, 06/13/2014 - 1:24am

Rick, fortune favours the brave! Thanks for the reassurance.

Lori S. (not verified)

Another baffling oversight is

Fri, 10/03/2014 - 7:13pm

Another baffling oversight is the "Contact" box that appears at top of each page on this site.

When you click on "Contact", it says "This Contact form will send an email to the specified recipient(s)" and below that, you are supposed to fill out your own identification info and your message. There is, however, no facility for choosing the recipient of your message.

Lori S. (not verified)

Lori S. wrote:

Tue, 10/14/2014 - 6:23pm

[quote=Lori S.]

Another baffling oversight is the "Contact" box that appears at top of each page on this site.

[/quote]

This particular shortcoming has now been fixed by Daniel, at the behest of Ben Burr. Thank you for responding to my request, Ben, and thank you for enacting the solution, Daniel!

Now, when one clicks on "Contact" at the top of any page in the forum, there are instructions to show how this feature is intended to be used... that is, to contact Site Administrators - see screenshot below (click on it to enlarge; red box added for emphasis):

deesen (not verified)

Thanks for your help Rick.

Wed, 10/15/2014 - 1:40am

Thanks for your help Rick. Since I'm only a Forum member I suppose I shouldn't have a view on how NARGS chooses to priotirise but I do know that this Forum used to work very well and easily and now it don't and this doesn't reflect well on NARG's public face.