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Forum Functions & Functionality: Technical Problems & Known Issues

So when I type a 'colon' : and a 'close brackets' ) to produce a regular 'smiley' thusly :) this is producing the 'smiley' from a stored version within this site and not from a general 'emoji store' elsewhere on t'internet then?
Correct.

'a colon and a closed bracket' is a shortcut that the board has been told to translate into a request for the smiley that is located at the URL we gave it.

if you could be bothered to learn the ones you use regularly, you need never open the smiley menu.

Many, as you can see, are words with a colon before and after them:


Screenshot 2021-05-11 at 11.28.12 PM.jpg
 
Correct.

'a colon and a closed bracket' is a shortcut that the board has been told to translate into a request for the smiley that is located at the URL we gave it.

if you could be bothered to learn the ones you use regularly, you need never open the smiley menu.

Many, as you can see, are words with a colon before and after them:


View attachment 39160
Is there any possibility that these verbal shortcuts could be listed in their entirety, and stickied in a dedicated thread for ease of reference? Personally, I'd find that useful, but if I'm in a minority of one and/or it's more of an undertaking than I realise, I could live without.
 
So when I type a 'colon' : and a 'close brackets' ) to produce a regular 'smiley' thusly :) this is producing the 'smiley' from a stored version within this site and not from a general 'emoji store' elsewhere on t'internet then?
As Yith pointed out, the use of old school text analogues for smilies (as in your example) provides a direct call to a particular emoticon without having to select anything from the whole set (and having to download the entire set to see what's available).

These text analogues or aliases are listed among the names of certain basic smilies. Using "colon-close parenthesis" is just as much a direct invocation of an icon by name as "colon-rofl-colon" (the name embedded inline when you select the animated ROFL emoticon).

None of the currently listed emoticons are stored in or called from any external repository. They're all "here" - either as built-in smilies or as attachments.
 
Is there any possibility that these verbal shortcuts could be listed in their entirety, and stickied in a dedicated thread for ease of reference? Personally, I'd find that useful, but if I'm in a minority of one and/or it's more of an undertaking than I realise, I could live without.

Yes, not immediately, but yes.
 
They're all "here" - either as built-in smilies or as attachments.
Thanks for that both of you.
That makes me think then that the issues that some people have with seeing them (the 'timing out') is a compound issue being created at 'both ends', wherein the site server here is possibly a bit slow/limited in 'sending out' the emoji in the first place, and some people have an equally slow/limited receipt of same at their end.
I'm guessing that the embedding of an image with a similar look is different then because the image will be stored 'off site'.
Maybe that might work better?
thoughtful.png
 
I'm guessing that the embedding of an image with a similar look is different then because the image will be stored 'off site'.
Maybe that might work better?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here ...

If you're referring to embedding a third-party / third-site link to an emoticon of your choice, then yes - you can do that. Whether or not it shows up in your post depends on your having posted a valid / accessible location for the image *and* the additional time necessary for either our server or your browser to execute a separate call to retrieve that remote-hosted image and incorporate it within the post display.

If you're asking whether it would improve anything for us to store the emoticons elsewhere, the short answer is "No." That would add additional processing steps / burdens for calling the remote-stored emoticons, receiving them, and presenting them on screen with the rest of whatever-it-is you are viewing. In other words it would increase rather than decrease the chances of something timing out.
 
I understand what you mean here
Yes you do, and you have answered my rather poorly worded enquiry extremely well, thank you.
Being a bit limited in my computing literacy some of the terminology is a bit beyond me, but I can see exactly what you mean.
The 'thoughtful' smiley pic I posted under my post #936 (above) does show on my screen, but I've just realised I have no way of knowing if it appears on everyone elses screen, lol.
 
Yes - it appeared in your post. I just didn't include it when quoting you within my reply.
 
Yes you do, and you have answered my rather poorly worded enquiry extremely well, thank you.
Being a bit limited in my computing literacy some of the terminology is a bit beyond me, but I can see exactly what you mean.
The 'thoughtful' smiley pic I posted under my post #936 (above) does show on my screen, but I've just realised I have no way of knowing if it appears on everyone elses screen, lol.

It does appear, but you haven't changed the scenario.

Once you uploaded it, it was/is stored (on-site) in the very same repository of attachments as the smileys that some people are having problems with.
 
And just to be clear, I am still consistently missing the same emojis, regardless of network, browser, or device:
headbang
clap
omg
thought
dunno
evillaugh
doh
roll
bs

I wonder if it has something to do with location. I think most affected parties are in North America.
I am in England and still having this issue.
 
At the risk of getting the mods angry by beating this particular dead or dying horse*, I offer my two cents (or whatever the equivalent is in your country.)

I find it difficult to believe the "omg" gif :omg: , for example, is considerably more complex, or is more likely to cause a timeout than any of these:

:slapd: or :hyper: or :ghunt: or :rofl: .

(If anyone out there can download these images, including "omg", and determine the file size of each, perhaps you can confirm.)

Yet "omg", along with a very specific list of images, is consistently not loading for a number of users, after clearing cache, using other networks and browsers, etc. I therefore respectfully suggest the issue is more complex than just timeouts, and has something to do with these specific images.

*Not my intent, of course, and I mean no disrespect or criticism - I'm just trying to pin down the problem. This is, after all, a very minor issue, but an irritating one nonetheless.
 
When I write a reply, the button to check what you have written has disappeared for me.

I only have a post reply button.
 
When I write a reply, the button to check what you have written has disappeared for me.

I only have a post reply button.
The new edition of the forum software does not have a separate "Preview" button alongside the "Post reply" button.

Instead, there is a "Preview" link in the upper right corner of the post entry panel.

Click on the Preview link and it will toggle the text entry panel to show you what you entered as it will appear once it's posted to the forum.

If you need to edit it some more, click again on the Preview link (upper right corner) to toggle the view back to edit mode.

You can click the Post reply button to submit the new post in both Edit and Preview modes.
 
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I've noticed today (and yesterday) that when I see, f'r instance, 9 alerts highlighted on the top bar if I click on it, it shows not only the 9 new alerts from the last time I logged in but all said notifications.
Is this usual?
Before, it'd only show the latest alerts.
 
I've noticed today (and yesterday) that when I see, f'r instance, 9 alerts highlighted on the top bar if I click on it, it shows not only the 9 new alerts from the last time I logged in but all said notifications.
Is this usual?
Before, it'd only show the latest alerts.

Click the bell and choose 'preferences' from the bottom of the drop-down menu. Check that the box labeled 'Restore Dismissed Notices' is un-ticked.

And then log out and back in again.
 
Click the bell and choose 'preferences' from the bottom of the drop-down menu. Check that the box labeled 'Restore Dismissed Notices' is un-ticked.

And then log out and back in again.
Interestingly, that doesn't work for me.
 
Click the bell and choose 'preferences' from the bottom of the drop-down menu. Check that the box labeled 'Restore Dismissed Notices' is un-ticked.

And then log out and back in again.
There's no such box in the list of preferences..
 
There's no such box in the list of preferences..
It's the final option in the top section of the Preferences accessed via the link at the bottom of your Alerts listing (drop-down from the Alerts / bell icon).
 
It's the final option in the top section of the Preferences accessed via the link at the bottom of your Alerts listing (drop-down from the Alerts / bell icon).
Not for me - the last option on the top section is Privacy Options..
 
????? ... I'm unable to find any settings or setup specifications that should prevent you from seeing the "Restore Dismissed Notices" option.
 
D'oh! ... :doh: :roll: :headbang:

As it turns out, Yith and I were mistaken about the relevance of the "Restore dismissed notices" feature to the issue of how many alerts are displayed. We were focused on answering a question about alerts, but derailed because ...

Notices and alerts are two different things. A notice is a message that is broadcast and / or posted for all to see. An alert is a notification posted to a specific user to cue him / her that a specific alert condition has been triggered.

The only notices you (regular members) have seen recently consist of the notice posted about the server / platform outage and upgrades performed earlier this month. If you had proactively / manually dismissed this most recent notice your Preference panel would have been updated to offer you the option of restoring the dismissed notice. If you had never dismissed this or any other recent public notice you'd never see the restore option.

The alert issue raised by Stormkhan is apparently the new motif for alert presentation (noted and discussed earlier in this thread). There is no longer separate background-coded sections for new versus old alerts in your personal alert listing. Instead, each alert entry includes a dot icon that is coded to indicate whether you've seen the given alert before. The dot is invisible until you hover over the given alert entry.

Sorry for the confusion ...
 
So in simple terms for people like me.......bell has number in red.......red number = new alerts.....click bell........new alerts appear.......those with a solid dot when you hover over them have new posts on that topic.
 
So in simple terms for people like me.......bell has number in red.......red number = new alerts.....click bell........new alerts appear.......those with a solid dot when you hover over them have new posts on that topic.
That's correct - up until the very last bit.

The solid (filled-in; dark) dot means the alert itself is news to you. It's the text in the alert entry that tells you what's happened to generate an alert.

You'll get an alert based on the selections you've made in your Preferences concerning the types of actions or changes you've chosen to trigger an alert.

There is no alert generated just because someone's added a new post to any thread or topic in general.

If you've:

- chosen to watch a given thread (or forum)
and
- chosen to receive alerts for new posts to your watched thread(s) / forum(s)

... alerts should be generated and accrete to your alert listing.

Posting to a thread is not the only action for which you can set an alert. See the options in your Preferences.
 
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