ILX Update

I have made a bunch of changes to the software for ILX.

Changes

• Some formatting changes, like this bulleted list and the ability to post YouTube embeds (see the formatting instructions for how to do this)
• An admin log
• Changed around the menu options to be in consistent locations throughout the application
• Promoted the use of 'Site New Answers'. Note that you can configure this to show only the boards you want to, and to colour them in from preferences, or from the hyperlink on the header on the Site New Answers (or questions) page
• Configure board-specific shortcuts to add to your menu bar, from preferences
• Completely rewrote the search from the ground up to now use the database functions, but to be indexed separately. This lets me do far more and hopefully still run quickly enough to not bring to site to a grinding halt
• Shouldn't be of interest to most, but the database is now InnoDB and not MyISAM, should remove data integrity issues, e.g. some broken threads, and threads that thought they were unanswered when they were not
• On that note, unanswered threads are shown in bold, like the good old days
• Hierarchical view of boards (the front page can be arranged with folders - idea was so that lots more boards would be possible; whether the mods think it's reasonable or not is up to them)
• Polls can be disabled on a per-board basis
• Changeable display user names - see preferences
• Random threads - displays a list of twenty threads picked at random
• Most read threads - shows you the threads that have been read the most in the past hour
• Board admin functions allow unbans
• Mobile device interface - simple HTML that should work well on a mobile phone
• Invite only boards - someone might have a use for such a thing
• Default stylesheet has changed and has a variety of less colourful variations. The original one is still in there too. If you want something changed, then please make a new stylesheet and send it to me and I'll install it. I improved the installation to not need a site stop/start, so if you send me a stylesheet, I can put it in place immediately
• On that note, lots has changed, and whilst I've tried to keep the stylesheets in line, there may be things missed in some of the non-standard ones, so please bear with me and please send me fixes where you see things that are broken
• When you post a new thread, the search engine looks to see if there are threads with similar titles, and gives you the option of tacking your post on to the end of another thread
• Show who last updated a thread on the new answers pages
• Stop Google indexing on a per-board basis
• Bookmarks are quite different - there's no option to turn display of them on or off, but they only show on the screen if there are new answers on the bookmarked thread
• Subscribe to a board to receive email updates daily (could be useful for smaller boards); you can unsubscribe in preferences
• Improved history view of new answers etc. going back a month
• Remember your password - stores as an encrypted cookie on your computer and should prevent you needing to log in

There have been a lot of changes, so this will probably mean there will be a lot of bugs. In fact, the program code as it is now, is dramatically different from the older one, despite it not looking too different. Because of this, I will likely have to fix things and then restart ILX from time to time over the next few weeks. Why haven't I spent a lot of time testing on the sandbox? One of the difficulties with ILX is that it is such a big website, with many users. Most problems don't show up with fewer users, so the only real test (other than a very boring and complicated bunch of automated tests: if anyone wants to volunteer to do this, please let me know!) is to go live with it and deal with it as it happens, so please let me know if you see bugs.

What I would really appreciate is if we can stick to things that are actually broken, rather than things that you, personally don't like and want changed, as I'm likely to have a lot to do over the coming weeks.

I hope you enjoy it.

Also:

• Support for yellow carding
• Support for banning a user, but just from a specific thread temporarily

Some stylesheet stuff doesn't seem to work very well in IE. Older versions of IE are even worse. If anyone wants to figure it out and send me fixes, I would appreciate it.

Also:

• Bookmarks automatically update themselves to the current post, when you post on a thread you have bookmarked

bump

countdown to screen name "Vagina Products MacGyver"

Thanks again, Keith and Stet!

hi!

Hi!

&

omg

Hmm, Site New Answers doesn't seem to display correctly.... it doesn't show the boards I specified in Prefs, and new ILE posts aren't showing up.

How about some sort of virtual hand that smacks you upside the head every time you forget to convert HTML to BBCode?

THANKING U !

*embeds
*awzom
*lol

HTML works for bold and italic now, btw.

• uh

• 1
• 2
• z

Thanks Keith! (also, stet!)

Haha at all ILX addicts turning up on the lurker list.

Whoa cool Keith.

• L
• O
• L

Cheers...

Rock, did you press "restore defaults" instead of "update my preferences"? I do that myself. I should probably swap the buttons around.

hahaha, name names, stet!

Keith -- no, it was "update prefs."

I is unlurking to say thanks to stet and Keith.

It looks cool, clean, fresh and smelling of roses. Probably not for long, though.

Awesome. Keith, yuo roxorz.

Keith, I think the Hide? is actually Show.

Ah OK... D'oh!

awesome! thanks keith & stet!!!!

Test post from opera mini browser on phone, looks great at first glance!

Sweet. Can't wait to break it.

Hey Stan, you could try the mobile interface and see how that is:

Mobile Interface

admin log!

Hi this is my new display name.

Nice going! It's been a long week.

Haha at all ILX addicts turning up on the lurker list.

― -- (stet), Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:59 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

waht is a "the lurker list" ?

yay!!! thanks Keith & Stet!!!

• awesome! thanks keith & stet!!!!
• Test post from opera mini browser on phone, looks great at first glance!
• Sweet. Can't wait to break it.

Re: Mobile layout:

Fonts are way too large - this Opera Mini browser is meant to emulate a standard browser (converts pages on their proxy and sends them to your phone), so mobile layouts like that don't look good there. Does look like other sites' "iPhone layout" though, so I think it'll look good for people who are on one of those.

Yeah, depends on your phone. If your phone's trying to be a normal browser then yeah it's going to be pointless. I just use the actual site on the iPhone, but for shittier devices, it might help.

waht is a "the lurker list"
is little stats panel for the site; shows recent ppl

• http://i37.tinypic.com/f1mm3n.jpg

:D :D :D :D

<makes pre-emptive post about how Keith and stet are cunts and this isn't how it used to be, then flounces off in hissy fit only to come back in less than a week>

Logging out & deleting the cookie doesn't wipe out which layout I chose? (i.e. logs you off but remembers how you wanted ILX to look in your preferences -> are there two cookies now? or did Firefox remember somehow?)

this looks like ILX XILE to me wtf

Ah yeah, deleting the cookie is the login cookie, not the stylesheet cookie. I guessed no-one would care too much if that were lying around!

No problem at all! :-)

keith how the hell do i change my username it has brought me a lot of pain

bug report:
http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heynm5.jpg
I was sad to find out that my bloody beatles offshoot post didn't have new answers

You can't change your original user name. People need to know who you are. Look in preferences to change the display name, but it'll still show (deeznuts).

testicles

• 1
• 2
• 3

http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heynm5.jpg

• You can't change your original user name. People need to know who you are.

images aren't working for me either

Lorax, it's because all it means by "has new answers" is that there have been new posts since you bookmarked it. If you post on it, or bookmark the most recent message, that box will go away until someone posts something new on that thread. Either that or scrub the bookmark from the bookmarks menu.

You aren't allowed to post images on ILX 2.2 Lorax. Not everyone. Just you.

ok that works

i am now DZL

I found the easter egg!

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3135/gorillabi7.png

lol

• ― DZL (deeznuts),

• mr gay if SD beats FM i will quit ilx ― deeznuts, Monday, July 28, 2008 3:39 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Permalink

(j/k btw, gorilla.bas joek for old people like me)

ban DZL (deeznuts)

This is all very... odd.

um, what is the default stylesheet called? (I suppose I could delete all of my cookies, but then I'd have to retype a couple of passwords and I R lazy)

style.css

old one is: old.css: Original ILX2 Live Stylesheet
new default is: style2.css: Standard Stylesheet

ah, ok!

Where are the stats now?

No, it's just style.css. Style2 is the one with red hyperlinks!

Lib - stats gone. They might come back some day

oh yeh, forgot abot that one.

so just to be clear & not that i have a problem with this but there is no way to change the style so its literally like old-ilx right?

I use keith.css, but maybe want to try something else to get the New & Improved feeling :-)

looks good to me - posting this from iPod!!!

A++++++++ job Keith would login again!!!!

(Not sarcastic, btw.)

bored now. change again pls.

Deeznuts, if you read the message at the top, but the stylesheet is still there. And just what stet said. Pick old.css. As I said though, I haven't tested against that one.

New bookmarklet rules.

DZL that's old.css in preferences, but some things have changed like the menus and boardlist so it won't be precisely the same xps

ok thanks both - yeah old.css looks pretty familiar - sry but there were a lot of words in that first post

• sry but there were a lot of words in that first post

Thanks keith!

6,880 registered users

holy crap. how many of those are actually active? (posted during the last year or so?)

i know this is the sort of thing that couldve been suggested pre-update but w/the original changeable user names the default view hid the permanent (parenthetical) login name and to show it you had to check a box that said something quasi-inscrutable like "show all info" in preferences

this was sweet cause it favored l33t users and made shit sort of bewildering to nubes

i favor implementing something similar

fuckin dope dude

Were there any issues transitioning to MyISAM, Keith?

Er, INNODB

rock on keith

Hard to tell, but within a few weeks or so I should be able to tell, as I clock a last logged in time now, but will have to wait until everyone comes back. xxx-post.

Also, did you have to retool the search system because of the switch to INNODB?

I'm trying an image again uploaded by imageshack.us
http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1107253442007vq2.jpg
now the link
http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1107253442007vq2.jpg

yep doesn't show

Lib - yeah loads. They're completely incompatible. One massive f***off script that took half a day to run.

Search doesn't use the database anymore; it makes use of Lucene.

"this was sweet cause it favored l33t users and made shit sort of bewildering to nubes

i favor implementing something similar"

what is your problem with nubians sir

btw can we get a quote feature implemented anytime soon maybe?

(xxxxxxxxxxxpost) there were 181 members on the temp board Ed set up, although maybe not accurate as perhaps a lot of people were taking last week as a sabbatical from ILX?

I was thinking that'd be the biggest issue. All the DB nerds I know bitch and moan about Lucene not being ACID and shit, but hey, that's not really such a show-stopper for a message board's text search.

hey did someone already mention -- no links to specific boards on SNA?

Wow, how bizarre. I couldn't care less if a read only thing isn't ACID. I mean, if this were a bank, but I know for a fact that banks don't give a f*** about read-only sources being ACID either!

Oh yeah Max, that's just an oversight. I'll sort it over the next few days.

also i love the "new post on" updates for bookmarked threads, but is it possible for those to go away once ive checked the new posts on those threads?

this shit is great tho man, huzzah or whatever british people say

this is weird

It should do that, Max. What browser are you using? It's possible it's fucked on IE (I never use it).

safari...? maybe it has something to do w/ those threads being on curtis's board?

velko - go to preferences ----> change the way the site looks ----> OLD.CSS & it ceases to be weird

No, don't think it should. You hafta click "Bookmark" on the most recent post to make it go away. But that's easier now with Ajax and shit.

Keith, these are the same people who insist that everything must be NORMALIZED all the time without realizing (a) which normal form they mean, or that there's even more than one, or (b) why normalization is useful in the first place. I mean, as long as everything is on NORMAL ACID, life is good, eh?

xposts to Keith/Max

(Bookmark also auto-updates if you post on a thread)

Lib - yeah, this industry is full of tools.

• (Bookmark also auto-updates if you post on a thread)

Google Image Search result on second row for "Thank You, Keith" :

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s103/yourspacecooment/getmy/breastcancer/11.gif

so yeah!

Site map tree structure: planning sub-boards in the future?

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/Pages/sitemap.jsp

FAQ?

yeah i'd quite like my ILE creation credit back thanks

Yeah you can arrange the boards in a hierarchical fashion and make folders. Figured it we wanted lots more borads we'd need to organise them. Dunno if people think lots more broads is a good idea or not.

FAQ bits will go into the "I'm new" link on boards page; sub-boards -- you can now put boards into folders, though none are yet xpost

i like broads if u kno what i mean

Maybe! Good idea, I think. (xxpost)

Keith, did she jot down my image problem?
http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1107253442007vq2.jpg
this type of image link (or file extension) doesn't show (for me at least)

Props and respect to those responsible. This site looks fantastic.

the poll posts that popped up while the site was down are great

Whoa at post similar to old threads warning!

it's the php=?image= thing that does it, I think. If I remember correctly, wikipedia images have links like that too. Imageshack has another link (rightclick image, properties)

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3225/1107253442007vq2.jpg

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3225/1107253442007vq2.jpg

The reason it's not working for Lorax is 'cause he doesn't know what a fucking image is.

Wikipedia: it's just image:blablabla.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Plant_sperm.png

lorax is right though, links with : don't work either, like the wikipedia image I just tried to embed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Plant_sperm.png

(random! I swear!)

This is going to take some getting used to but thanks for doing all this Keith, looks good so far.

duh (listen to your own advice, StanM. rightclick image, properties -> other url)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Plant_sperm.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Plant_sperm.png

Is that screenie from, um, Lorax's computer?

disappearing bookmarks pleases me

(xpost) That reminds me of the time I refused to eat Shredded Wheat because of the diagram on the side of the packet that labelled the parts of of cross section of a grain of wheat, and one part was labelled "endosperm"...

Thanks for:

* Mobile interface (especially "Jump to last message). Works great on iPhone now.

* YouTube

Good stuff...

'ILX System' has been demoted to just 'System' ;_;

Random is back & expanded! But you have to search for it. (Boards -> scroll down -> random threads)

Any way to get that random link back into the menu at the top/bottom? (seem to remember it used to be there a long time ago, not that I ever used it, but some people missed it when it went away)

how many embeds one post?

whao five or more!

'ILX System' has been demoted to just 'System' ;_;

^^^ sock puppet ho

ILX System = banned for meta spamming

simpsons porn is 3rd most read on ILX 2.2.

ye it's always huge on the google referrers that

images?

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:UJGVlXN1WUruOM:http://www.rave180.com/uploaded_images/rave-heaven-784934.jpg
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:UW4hXHAy4THgMM:http://www.robpongi.com/pics/TokyoRave.jpg
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:yXSYfW6oIOAeQM:http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/APFranckPrevel_rave460.jpg

Was it ever actually possible to ban ILX System? I wish I'd tried, now.

3 :(

Wow. Hmmm... okay... interesting!

The internet is going to be renamed the pornternet next year btw.

I've just spent several minutes making it look exactly the way it looked before Keith changed anything ;)

I changed it to the old ILX style too, but I'm kinda missing the lines between posts, they made stuff look more organized. Why did they have to go away?

well well well, a new interface for ilx and a new dawn for the england football team under fabulous fabio

Not that I don't appreciate all the fab new options, thanks for them! And I love that random thread option is back again.

(x-post)

HEART NEW SEARCH FUNCTION!

Also, why is "Site new answers" int the place where "ILE/ILX new answers" used to be? Seems like a weird change.

hmm, we may want to consider "show Youtube embeds" as a user preference similar to "show images" some time in the future

I decided to change stuff. x-post.

But why?

motherfuck a google, new search is awesome

thx keith

http://i36.tinypic.com/2dvjyaq.jpg xpost

Also, why is "Site new answers" int the place where "ILE/ILX new answers" used to be? Seems like a weird change.

New ILX. Old Tuomas.

Keith = parent
Tuomas = 4-year-old

"BECAUSE I SAID SO" is good enough reason.

Because change is good... Let's see how we get on.

bug report

title of this thread came up like this when I opened it

ILX Update#unread#unread#unread#unread#unread#unread

Come on, Rock. Tuomas is probably having a panic attack right now.

Good, he needs to toughen up a little.

the only thing users hate more than the old system is the new system

The code behind this must be amazing, they had to turn on the LHC to get nu-nu-ILX running.

Also, now that the "Formatting help" section is two rows longer, once you've posted something to a thread you actually have to scroll down in order to click "New answers", which wasn't the case before. I know this is a minor problem, but maybe it could be fixed somehow? Like maybe making "Formatting help" section not show if you choose so?

I love that I learned about ILX being back up from Ned's Facebook status.

Weirdly this login works. Are the login names googleable or not? I mean the (D*m Passantino) section

Yea, they will be

Maybe the "New Answers" link could be before the "Formatting help" section? Seems kinda pointless to scroll down to pass it every time you want to click "New answers".

(xx-post)

I love that I learned about ILX being back up from randomly hitting the URL a couple times a day

PAVLOVS DOGS DIE HARD

• SRSLY

Q: how easy would it be to code something like a "share this" button - into this new interface

http://sharethis.com/publisher

Dom, yeah something's up with the other one, and with some others. Am taking a look into it.

did I break it with my hilarious username joek? :-(

I think you broek yourself, yeah! Probably a bunch of others too though. Suspect there will be a bunch of bugs to sort though, as I say upthread. Still think Dom's normal user is screwed though - not sure about that yet.

Although if you're reading, you could try again and I'll see.

It certainly felt that way. Wanted to see how many repeats that field would take and then I got "an error occurred, please try again shortly" when I tried to go back to preferences, or when I tried to submit a new thread. Couldn't see anything after Tuomas' post that ended with (xxpost) - which he posted just before I changed my username, I think. No "Add a Post" section anymore. Also "an error occurred, please try again shortly" when trying to send a message to Keith (with apologies for this (StanM) (StanM) (etc) malarkey

But now it works again! yay!

I'll never change my username again :-(

What it does is trim it to 80 characters (as that's all it can store), but 80 - what (...your original username...) would be.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JHDUbSTzv88&hl=en&fs=1";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JHDUbSTzv88&hl=en&fs=1"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

So do you want me to try that again? (way too many repeats & then submit) ?

Dammit need to read the instructions 1st.

Testing Testing!

Nope, can't see your post.

Think we've got this now?

Should probably ban Deeznuts though, just to be sure.

So from now on, that's your unchangeable username? U = PWND!

OK, so it's letting you in anyway, but not 'working'. I'll look into it, but less crucial.

u rong

XPOST

so what's up with the "these have new answers" threads listed at the top of ILM? one had the last new answer 4 months ago, the other 9 months.

They're bookmarked threads.

ah, thanks.

...

To what do I owe this needless unbanning?

OK, so how do I make those bookmarked thread updates go away? They are taking up much-needed space at the top of New Answers. Do I have to manually un-bookmark them or is there some way I can turn that feature off?

Either delete them all from the bookmarks menu, or update them by bookmarking the most recent message.

OK, well glad the name thing worked Dom, you had a different error, but perhaps is being caught by the same fix.

thanks again, keith.

Wow, this is incredibly fantastic. Been using it for 2.5 minutes and been floored about six times. Keith, you and your xmas elves are fantastic.

also nice to no longer deal with that lefora thumbs up/down system that was thoroughly abused by a handful of juvenile dickheads.

I'm not being taken directly to the most recent answer on a thread after clicking on it. I'm sure I'll learn to live.

'You Have Been Yellow Carded By a Moderator: BECAUSE I WANT TO SEE HOW YELLOW CARDS WORK'

The novelty value of this will take a while to wear off.

maybe ill change my display name to "Zeno in september 2008"

Thanks guys. Pleasant Plains, it's probably because I've stopped and started the server and it's forgotten in between that. That's not changed from the old thing.

Hello. All looks nice, thanks very much for yr hard work.

This is far from urgent so I realise I shouldn't mention it now, but on the offchance, a preference to turn embedded youtube into links (like the "show images" preference) would be handy, as a) it will make ILX look significantly less unworky, and b) youtube embeds make Firefox hog all my CPU. Sorry, thanks!

(also, extra apologies if this is already there. I did look, honest)

Keith:

http://www.poprox.us/ul/1827-550x-Thumbs%20up%20colbert2.jpg

No, it's not there. I'll look into it but might be some time, as I'll need to deal with all the bugs first.

x-post haha stan

I have FlashBlock installed in Firefox. That should mitigate the Youtube embeds on this PC, but my iphone may have a giant sook.

Would anyone like to volunteer to be banned for 5mins just so I can see how it shows up in the admin log?

ooh me

I don't think it'll ban you, what with you being an all-powerful admin and that.

test

Me then!

Hit me, I've gotta go and brush my teeth anyways...

lol (HI DERE) is banned from this thread

'lol (HI DERE) has been banned permanently. because Matt DC doesn't like the cut of his jib'

Looks startlingly great on an iPhone.

ok, this looks fuckin' ace. and all spick and span just in time for term/procrastination starting. rock.

hahaha SUCK IT DAN

Good name! (x-post)

Also Keith, is the Jody Rosen I see in Private Eye and other music magazine the same Jody Beth Rosen that posts to ILX?

Oh shit there's no unban option.

i'll have to see how this looks on my computer at home. but good job, dudes, tahnks

Sorry Dan!

you bastard

^_^

Haha... Thread ban is only temporary.

is there not a stats page anymore?

stats cock chopped off

Good name! (x-post)

i'm rather taken with it :)

and seriously, keith: i know you're a mate and everything but this is fucking top work.

Yes, well done, good show.

Yeah dude, serious kudos.

you could change your name for every post

^^^ i'd like that

reespect bad-man

might get annoying and time consiming

This is like 5000 times easier to navigate on a Blackberry now. Being able to jump right to the last message in a thread = teh awesome.

I'm sticking with this name.

how do you jump to the last post on a thread

Great work Keith. One request, could you put the official ILX time on the thread so it says something like 'New Answers: I Love Everything (at 21:37)'

push the End button on your keyboard? (xpost)

oh did he just mean that it actually loads up on a blackberry?

Billy, cheers, but doing that would probably annoy all non-British people, as it'd be like I Love Everything (at 2137 BST) if you weren't logged in, because it doesn't know where you live.

(Ah. Nevermind what I said) (xpost)

xp pffft, 99.999998% of the internet hardcodes US time zones into everything.

I like the user profile function.

great stuff Keith, good to back. horror of horrors i got so bored i almost started up my blog again. Almost

Keith, yeah I can see that would be a problem. Could it be set as a user preference?

Hehe, yeah we hardcoded UK time into it.. Ho ho. Sorry everyone, but I have to check it against my own clock.

x-post Billy it can be, but that only works if you are logged in

awesome

I am in the wrong hemisphere to shout you blokes a drink.

but like rust, keith never sleeps.

I think that's stet you're referring to.

thanks keith, for not sleeping

Although it might refer to yourself too, I suppose. Congrats to PJEM btw!

thanking u old.css

Congrats to PJEM btw

you'll be coming on ye stagge, i hope!

If he invites me, the dizzy bastard!

Keith and stet, you may be interested to know that the Bookmarks at the top of normal pages are all smashed together in the iphone stylesheet ON IPHONE as well as in Firefox.

back to ILX: i've just gone through and done a very simple colour-coding on boards i read (blue) and boards i'm not really interested in but might read if something worthwhile were happening (grey) and it is AWESOME. functionality i never knew i wanted, but obviously did. now that's service.

xpost: i'm the fucking best man, it's my shout! you're coming :)

Haha nice!

(actually: i am one of two best men. perhaps i'm the second best man. ah well.)

xxxp Oh, and blueski's stylesheet has that same Bookmark bit jammed in the top right corner. I'm not fussed about either problem because I don't use tohse stylesheets.

I made that joke to Dave D when I was Bruce's

Autumn, yeah the reason style is the standard one now, is that it's the only one I've tested again. I made some attempt to vaguely make the others work and I did grab Steve to fix his, which he will soon no doubt.

how do you jump to the last post on a thread

It's a link at the top of each thread if you're using the mobile interface.

Oooh I will make good use of the mobile interface starting on Saturday, when I have unlim internet access on my fancy new phone. Yay ILX at home!

blueski.css will be rewritten in time for the Olympics

i want a fancy phone with internet access :(

is it dumb to buy an iphone with student moneys, y/n

y, but do it anyway

Mine isn't an iphone, it cost as much as one but most of it was discounted by my cell company in return for promising them my unborn children, I mean, a two-year contract. So there's always that option.

Keith, this looks pretty much the dogs bollocks thus far. Top work!

Autumn, yeah the reason style is the standard one now, is that it's the only one I've tested again. I made some attempt to vaguely make the others work and I did grab Steve to fix his, which he will soon no doubt.

― Keith, Thursday, 11 September 2008 07:59 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Ah, no worries.

Cheers - I hope you like Random Threads. I guess when I did it the way I did I figured I might as well return a bunch of them, as it was going to be lightning fast anyway, rather than just one, but could do the one thing easily if people liked that.

x-post

^^^ the gershy feature

• testing bullets

Yay random threads!

new quoting on style.css is great

novelty not yet worn off

let go

wasn't talking to you!

;)

is there a quote feature or not

is there a quote feature or not

― DZL (deeznuts)

the formatting options are the same are they not ?

keith this is a corny thing to ask for but can you change the bookmark link for curtis's borad from "Cb" to "77"?

Not easily, no.

ste the formatting options are the same but why not a direct link to quote a post so we can respond directly to someone in an easy fashion?

Thank you SO MUCH.

so we can change our names again??? YAY

ilx 4.0 should have built in killfile w/a info page where u can see who killfiled you maybe w/a chart showing the duration %of users etc

Two things there Jhosh, yeah I might do the killfile thing into server software, and yeah, I do think of it as ILX4

oh i thought this was 3.0

Well, see 2 was 3.

was 1 greenspun or whatever its called

Yes... Ironically, what the style stylesheet is based on

lol legacy aesthetics xp

http://theinternetisterrible.com/wp-content/things/murder_kfc.jpg

http://theinternetisterrible.com/wp-content/things/2i8x3pd.jpg

thx Keith!

You Make It Happen.

What happened to the double dashes before usernames?

After a period of inactivity, directly opening the Bookmarks page doesn't work. I presume there's no code in that page to perform an auto login.

also well done to Keith & co for giving us all one more fuckin hit

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2000/02/01/trainspotting.jpg

this nu-board is retardo montalban

Dear old.css, I would like the -- back before user names, not just the weird space. Otherwise I am pretty pleased.

Weird space? There's an em dash there.

Not using old.css. (Or, not on Mac Firefox.)

multicolour SNA is everything i dreamed of and more

Casuistry: it does here. What does it say in yr View > Character Encoding menu?

is there anyway to have your style sheet saved? i changed mine back to old skool ilx look everytime i log in. and when I return its back to the default. am i just stupid?

It's been staying on old for me when i log out, maybe its a cookie thing.

See I just logged back in, still old.css

that doesn't sound right. what addresses are you using? They're saved by address, so you can have one style for ilxor.com and another for www.ilxor.com. xp

password reset actually works now! thanks keith

(though I do kind of miss the visual separation of the between-posts lines)

I made a stylesheet! To whom do I send it?

This is probably a stupid question but: I'm on an older PC, Windows 2000 and IE - and I'm worried that the changes might overwhelm my computer.
I should probably set things to not automatically download tons of stuff, right?
Could you lead my stupid ass through the basic stuff?
Change settings, etc.?

Just from an hour I think this new code might further the death sentence of my pc.

Thanks! Alison

THE CHANGES WILL OVERWHELM YOUR COMPUTER

SORRY ALLISON

I AM A COMPUTER BTW

I am now aware of how much I missed Deezie.

Between the constant and the variable, I am sort of wanting advice from the variable.

I think I have to NOT allow a ton of images and imaybe the code lets people embed lots more images.
I'm an idiot and I'm asking for advice.

ahahahahahaha wtf

It's pretty simple. My old and stupid computer slows down with ilx 4.0
All I need to know is how to access the command to stop images - I feel like I have searched for it. It's not worth it to see peoples you tube stuff anymore.

If that's funny, well...

This is fine, fine stuff. Thanks, everyone involved.

Of course I especially like being able to use my stylesheet without greasemonkey weirdness. :)

Alison go into your prefs and untick "show images". That should fix it.

hmm, so I unchecked some of the boards that I never look at in my preferences, but they're still showing up in the Board page, even after I refresh the browser. Has anybody else successfully hidden boards from view on that page?

it only takes them out of site new answers

I think it's the Site New Answers page that can be customized in your preference - the board page is the same for everyone.

Options for Alison, in increasing order of preference:

1. Install Firefox and turn off image loading in the browser.
2. Scrap Windows entirely, install Xubuntu and be blown away by how fast your PC has suddenly become.

Also, the xpost-catcher-thingy no longer seems to work ON IPHONE, unless it's stylesheet-dependent and I've missed something.

I endorse option #2, though Xubuntu is optional. Plain ol' Ubuntu will do nicely. ;)

I like Keith.

in fact, i got so much work done in the last few days my boss was getting concerned.
guess its back to normal slacker mode then.
ta for all the work - looking good so far.

Thanks very much guys. Looks to be A'OK on Safari, Firefox, Chrome, IE, Blackberry and Treo. MDInterface is much appreciated.

Where did stats go to?

Has anyone else logged in on their work computers and found their stylesheet preferences not saved?

Also, how are the two threads at the top of the screen selected, because they don't seem to have changed for a while?

I have nfi why, but ON IPHONE embedded images show as links. Using keith.css, but the same stylesheet shows images on this PC.

If image display is handled by javascript, that explains everything.

Ed - they're every thread that's been updated since you bookmarked them. Clear your bookmarks, or bookmark the last post on each thread. I think there's an option to hide them as well.

You are attempting to post a new thread, entitled: 101 terrible Theo Walcott headlines. The system has identified some other threads, which look a similar to your thread. If you would rather post your text as a response to one of these threads, click one of the links below. If not, click Post as New Thread below to carry on and create a new thread.

Tipping threads RIP.

Keith this looks amazing! Many thanks again to you and Stet for keeping all this going.

Also I had not heard about PJ. Many congrats!

i think it might be a different PJ(e)M -- ie not the ILXor? but that's very nice of you!

Is there anyway that a board moderator can change the board description or can only the big man admins do that? Or haven't I looked hard enough?

Oh, and FANTASTIC FUCKING JOB, GUYS!!

If you see an Edit link on the right hand side of the screen, next to Cape of Good Hope, then you can change it.

If not, what do you want it changed to?

whoa

this is fantastic, I think. All credit to Keith.

Matt, I haven't been able to summon a link up next to it so I think it must be for a Big Man Admin only type of deal.

Anyway, I think "welcome to good burger home of the good burger" is a much more appropriate and accurate description.

i think it might be a different PJ(e)M -- ie not the ILXor? but that's very nice of you!

― large hardon collider (grimly fiendish), Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:16 AM

OooooH! Right, sorry. Congrats all the same!

welcome to good burger home of the good burger

It's not very funny but if you insist.

ok how do you get it looking like it was before, which one of these will work?

kenan_style.css: Kenan's Stylesheet
style-monochrome-no-borders.css: Standard Stylesheet in monochrome, tables with no borders
old.css: Original ILX2 Live Stylesheet
black.css: Black Background Stylesheet
iPhone.css: Stylesheet Designed for use on the iPhone
keith.css: Original ILX2 Stylesheet. Highlights DIVs
style-monochrome.css: Standard Stylesheet in monochrome
style2.css: Standard Stylesheet
test.css: Test Stylesheet. Liable to change.
blueski.css: Blueski's Stylesheet
style.css: Standard Stylesheet
3270.css: IBM 3270 Terminal Emulator

^^^not one word there makes the slightest bit of sense to me. i mean who the fuck knows what a 3270 css is.

suck it and see?

Lex - old.css. The one that says 'Original ILX' next to it.

two of them say original ilx

for some reason the Terminal sheet gets squashed into a single tiny column on my works pc, using IE though.

i assume "highlights divs" means that all of dom's and noodle vague's posts will be on pink background though?

Site New Answers changes - letting us pick the boards, and the colors, makes it totally awesome and useable now.

wow i came here to post exactly that, but someone will tell me that it existed for years won't they

http://theinternetisterrible.com/wp-content/things/38403f86f202f636061dcbc61fb739d20dbb2f89.gif

the only problem now is deciding which yummy colours to choose

Lex's post has led me to self-zing in every post.

3270 is hilarious.
no fucking way am i using it - but damn it provided me with some memory rushes.

3270.css is fantastic!

I think I mentioned this in reference to the Bookmarks page, but here's another:

If you start changing preferences in the 'Boards on Site New Answers' bit, go away for 10 minutes, come back and click 'Update My Preferences', it, um, doesn't. Blank screen.

(These aren't complaints, mind, just bug/feature reports.)

^ I think it's certain pages failing to execute an auto login. Board pages (for example) bounce to a login URL and back, but some don't.

It's not really a bug that; it's a security thing to prevent XSS attacks making changes for you (someone having a laugh). There's a token associated with each update that expires after five minutes.

Also, only some of the pages auto login - the most common ones.

Ah, ta.

If there's somewhere more suitable you want bug (or not-bug) reports, giss a link.

Oh here's fine. I've tried in the past to get them somewhere central, but they tend to become strewn all over the place anyway and mixed up with conversations... Cheers.

keith this is a corny thing to ask for but can you change the bookmark link for curtis's borad from "Cb" to "77"?

― I am a homosexual. I listen to rock music, loud. (max), Wednesday, September 10, 2008 12:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

Not easily, no.

― Keith, Wednesday, September 10, 2008 12:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

if you ever do this, could you change "1p3G" to "1p3"? thanks!!!!

o i bet u have it done automatically w/ the first letter of the words from the board huh

Yes

oh that makes sense

keith-

• i locked a thread
• as an admin i could still see a text box to post in the thread
• when i tried posting in the thread it automatically became unlocked (unless another mod unlocked it)

Hmm. Thanks. I'll look, but there's nothing I wrote to unlock a thread when an admin posts in it; indeed, the admin ought not to be able to post until it's unlocked. Nothing's really changed there.

also when you use permalink, the messageid value in the url is v v weird now.

the post above this one is "17294" when on th eold code it would be "379"

when i try to edit the url by changing that value by a few numbers (something i do a lot when using ilx) it takes me to a completely different thread?

That's because of a change to the way I allocated new message IDs. It had to change because the database changed and didn't support autonumbering in the same way.

Same for thread IDs.

thanks for the xubuntu/firefox advice.
I freely admit that I'm an idiot about computers. So I appreciate everything that you all do for idiots like me!
I will take all of my other questions to the boring computer questions thread.

Sorry, yes missed that - it's a fair point about plugins causing older computers problems. I will do something to change YouTube embeds for links, if you have images disabled at some point soon.

thats a bummer.

i liked being able to look at only the two or three posts before a bookmark or a permalink without having to load a whole thread.

xxp

OK, there may be a call there for a "Show me some context" link or something... But I can't do anything about the IDs now, I'm afraid.

i re-locked that thread and it looks how it should now. no text box. someone else must have unlocked it or something.

Yeah looks like a forgot to put locking/unlocking in the admin log.

I made a stylesheet! To whom do I send it?

If you send the stylesheet to me, then I'll put it up there. Can you send me a one liner description too, please?

(I suppose you'll have to webmail me to get my email address)

I love that I learned about ILX being back up from Ned's Facebook status.

I heard this from several people, believe it or not. A sign.

It does all look great -- hell of a busy workweek so I'll be dipping in and out of here as I can...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7609555.stm

HA. Facebook tries to copy ilx with new facelift and fails by not being able to include old design. Suck on that!

Casuistry: it does here. What does it say in yr View > Character Encoding menu?

Unicode (UTF-8).

Wow, this is just goddamn fantastic.

Just got back and this looks great! Thanks.

I really am loving this new version.
Thanks Keith.

Good grief, Keith. May a thousand virgins shower you with lotus blossoms. This is great.

Can I suggest you alter the CSS applied to the "morepostsmessage" div? It's easy to miss right now. Perhaps a negative margin-left so it protudes into the the left gutter, a border and a background-color?

Whoa:

1. I just bookmarked a message.
2. "updated by $lastposter" = A+ feature

The mobile device interface could do with some navigation links (new answers, new question, login, boards, etc.) on threads and thread list pages otherwise it seems to work nicely.

Hey guys! I'm back! I really need some advice!

I heard about ILX being back up from Neddy's Facebook too!

SUGGEST BAN!??!?

Like we didn't learn our lesson from those thumbs up/down on the temp board, that this isn't going to be totally abused?

I wasn't on the temp board; what happened?

maybe it could be Suggest Band instead, we could give each other musical recommendations.

It's like judo -- the people who click "suggest ban" the most will get banned.

I'm going to totally try this out to see what happens.

Suggest that this user is banned.

What kind of fortune cookie is this?

Maybe Suggest that this user is should be banned. ??

The temp board had a facility whereby any post that got a certain number of thumbs down was automatically hidden. So the predictable gang of jokers thought it would be really funny to use this as a pwning tool or whatever the current LOL zing terminology is.

Sounds like you all had some good times over there on that board.

Make it more Norse by saying "By Odin bind this oaf"

OK, i have suggest-banned keith, to see what will happen.

(answer: i'll probably get banned.)

How many thumbs down before a post was hidden?

xp: ha

I don't know, I never thumbs downed anyone. (though I thumbsed up a few innocent posts to get them back onscreen.)

3 thumbs hid the post. it was irritating. suggest ban works differently though.

suggest banned myself

still here

for now

How does it work? Does it just fire off an email? Because that would be a sure way to irritate the mods.

generate a yellow card if enough people trigger it?

Yesterday on the train, I was thinking that it would be a great idea that if a person got more than a certain number of yellowcards, they would automatically be permabanned. But... that would be tricky as I think mods would be hesitant to yellowcard someone being dickish if they thought that it would mean The End.

not going to get into the specifics here, but there is a table generated that mods can see that shows the number of suggested ban votes. at a certain threshold, a ban is auto-generated (note: that threshold is set fairly high, and can be changed if needed).

oh yeah, and you can't auto ban mods, so don't waste your time.

Can people suggest bans on a user more than once? I'm always wary of ballot box stuffing.

so the bans cock is the new stats cock?

On the one hand, some clarification could be used on the SB's, but on the other hand, it's kinda fun to play this like a card game of Asshole.

Yeah, that worries me too, jel. :-(

Banscock: Dangerous

hey keith when i open this thread: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=64059#unread with images off, it looks like it swallows a couple of the links, but when i open it with images on, its ok... whats up with that

I suspect it's broke, Max. I'll take a look at some point, but a bunch of stuff first. Remind me if I forget.

Can I suggest you alter the CSS applied to the "morepostsmessage" div? It's easy to miss right now. Perhaps a negative margin-left so it protudes into the the left gutter, a border and a background-color?

I can do this, but I did have it more visible 18 months ago and people claimed it was too visible!

ya no rush duder

oh yeah, and you can't auto ban mods, so don't waste your time

aw, wank.

I can do this, but I did have it more visible 18 months ago and people claimed it was too visible!

This people were incorrect. Admittedly, I may have been one of them.

where are the Statistics? how will I know if I'm successfully staying outta the top 20?

keith, any chance of adding a Zuula search box on the search page on ilxor

http://www.zuula.com/help/ZuulaAddin.html
Add a Zuula search box to your website! It is free and easy and will give your users direct access to the best search engines on the Internet.

check: the option:
Horizontal Format with Domain Search

This version with domain search gives your users the option of either searching just your website or searching the whole Web. To add a Zuula search box just like this one to your website, copy and paste the following code into your HTML, and then replace both instances of "PUT_YOUR_DOMAIN_HERE" with your own domain (e.g., "mysite.com").

Zuula is a superb search interface as you can search google, yahoo, live etc directly.

yeuch

stet doesn't like Zuula?

Zuula is also useful as you can copy urls (copy link location) - from the search results - something that you can't do in google - as they have long redirected urls

Can I ask why this "Suggest ban" thing was introduced? I can't remember any previous discussion about it. Seems like it would be quite easy to abuse, if a group of posters decide to harass some unpopular poster. (It's quite easy to create new user accounts, isn't it?) I can't really see what purpose this thing serves.

Also, why does it have to be after every post? If this thing is really considered necessary, couldn't it be just on the user profile? (I really don't think it's necessary though.)

i think the idea is if someone makes a post thats genuinely considered banworthy in someones eyes they click the link to alert the mods to it

probably a stupid idea but who knows

The idea is actually that if a poster is genuinely annoying you, you can click the "Suggest Ban" link. If a sufficiently large enough group of people click the link, you get a temp ban.

sorry in advance, deez ;_;

ok thats bullshit

lol

If a sufficiently large enough group of people click the link, you get a temp ban.

If it's really automatic, wouldn't it be quite easy to abuse this function with a few people creating different user accounts? Also, I think there are some "genuinely annoying" posters that nevertheless don't deserve a ban, like Geir for example. I really don't think banning someone should be made this automatic.

im really glad to have "last updated by" back again

I think there are some "genuinely annoying" posters that nevertheless don't deserve a ban, like Geir for example

hello?

Hello.

geir is kind of a nazi, im not sure that he should be tempban proof

is he a nazi or isnt he deej

I really don't think banning someone should be made this automatic.

It won't be. There are still MODS who can monitor these SUGGEST BANS and decide if there is abuse or not.

who mods the mods

In the meantime, the SUGGEST BAN function could be quite useful in alerting the non-omnicient MODS that someone is being a dick. xpost

but are the mods still human in the nu-ilx? i heard they got tired and wanted robots to take over their duties

geir is kind of a nazi, im not sure that he should be tempban proof

I didn't mean he should banproof regardless of what he does, I just used him as an example of someone who might say things that irritate people, yet arrent necessary banworthy. I thought there were some clear guidelines on what sort of things get people banned. Now it seems anyone can get banned for just being "irritating", which doesn't seem right to me.

I'm thinking about trying out the system now.

It won't be. There are still MODS who can monitor these SUGGEST BANS and decide if there is abuse or not.

But John Justen said upthread that with a certain amount of "suggest bans" the ban will be auto-generated.

there has to be 900 thousand suggest bans for the computer to take over

Tuomas, that is true, but be assured that no-one will get away with abusing the system.

spoken like a true robot

Stupid question from a color-blind ILXor: what color are the threads in Site New Answers in the default setting?

Just black, G00blar.

Are people really for this new "suggest ban" thing then? Shouldn't this sort of a thing - which seems (to me) to be a rather radical change in ILX policy - have been discussed before it was introduced out of the blue?

u are just itching for a suggest ban aernt you

And if it really is here to stay, does it really have to show after every post?

(x-post)

xxxxpost Really? The links are definitely colored.

I'm white, btw.

t-boz, suggest ban isnt really going to change anything

Tuomas, I don't think anyone is sure about it. I'm not.

However, in terms of discussion, having been through this a lot, if you have a good proposal as to how to take an ILX discussion and turn it into a conclusion, I'd really like to hear it!

Sorry G00blar, they're kind of blue (in style.css). The text after the thread title itself and light grey. There are some variations to highlight key bits of information.

Well, at least you could've gotten some general idea whether people are for or against it.

(x-post)

I don't see why that matters - if everyone's against it, I can turn it off in a second.

Anyway, I think that auto-bans will take away the idea that banning has some sort of guidelines behind it. Theoretically you could get banned for any reason whatsoever.

(x-post)

I'm for it. Add that to Tuomas.xls

It may be user error on my part but I tried to register for a new username under a different email address* and it would not work for me.. coughed and spit out an error once I hit submit :(

(*Google paranoia.. my username is a little distinctive and I am a loudmouth who craves anonymity)

I don't see why that matters - if everyone's against it, I can turn it off in a second.

Maybe you could start a separate thread on it, this one doesn't seem to be the best place to discuss it.

I do have to say though, I surf without any CSS and ILX looks great as always, kudos!

hey toumas

http://scoopsnoodle.com/seal/seal26.gif

I mean, even if it would be very hard to abuse, on a more fundamental level the mere idea of autobans seems kinda wrong to me, not something ILX is about.

Finefinemusic, there's a minor problem around registration that I have fixed but not made live yet. You may find that if you try again right now, it should be OK, but there's also a problem with gmail at the moment, so if your address is a gmail one, then you'll have to wait for a bit.

Things ILX is About: A List

serious q how do i get rid of a bookmark? i clicked it once thinking it would be cool & now it wont go away even though there arent any new answers

Click "Bookmarks" and take it from there.

Click "Bookmarks" at the top or bottom of a page, will take you to edit page. (xp)

i need to work on my itchy suggest-ban finger.

tuomas is running scared

Suggest Bang

Suggest "Hi, Welcome to Earth"

I am gmail so I'll wait Keith - thanks for all your hard work :)

As Kate said, the thumbs up/down thing on lefora was exploited by a few tards who targeted her, me (I still don't get why) and maybe one or two others. What's to stop a 77-style ganging-up on some arbitrary user?

I know the votes are monitored etc etc, but the Mod Req board has always worked perfectly well for ban suggestions.

Also, two minutes ago I almost suggested banning Jordan completely by accident because of where the link is.

there should also be "otm" and "lol" options

― update prefs (ice crӕm), Thursday, September 11, 2008 4:35 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not forgetting "zing" and "O_o"

― J4gger Dynamic Pentangle (Just got offed), Thursday, September 11, 2008 4:36 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I like this "suggest ban" bit because it means I don't have to be the only person responsible for whenever Dom or some other incorrigible meta dickhead gets the chop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_responsibility

77-style ganging-up???

lol

tombot you are suggest banned

ganging up in a 77 stylee

I like this "suggest ban" bit because it means I don't have to be the only person responsible for whenever Dom or some other incorrigible meta dickhead gets the chop

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 11 September 2008 22:09 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You can take the embarrassing internet hardman out of the moderation team, but you can't take the moderator out of the embarrassing internet hardman...

77-style ganging-up???

― carne asada, Friday, 12 September 2008 07:10 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, like the 77 olympics or whatever but in ban form.

you are suggest banned

anyone else want to be suggest banned? bring it. im begging you. bring it.

Can we add "sgguest bans" to statistics?

is the line-height (or whatever it's called) rule still fucked for the bookmarks in the CSS for the iPhone stylesheet? it's almost impossible to read them, let alone click on them :)

html tarsier you are suggest banned

statistics are gone,right?

I just realised that the people who want serious bans will still request them in a Mod Req thread, while the Suggest Ban link will only/mostly be used by spanners.

gf: no is fixed, with Keith.

stet you are suggest banned

http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/Robocop-s05.jpg

Can't suggest ban a moderator.

I think having "Suggest Ban" next to EVERY SINGLE POST suggests that you should always be asking yourself whether to ban every single person every single time. It makes the idea of banning way more prominent than it needs to be, or even should be. This is not a board "about" banning, after all, or let's hope it isn't.

http://i36.tinypic.com/2v8okeg.jpg

I just realised that the people who want serious bans will still request them in a Mod Req thread, while the Suggest Ban link will only/mostly be used by spanners.

Looking at the users who've been suggested for ban by the most other users, it would appear there is a strong correlation with mod req topics.

you have been suggest banned.

you aren't helping your chances of getting unbanned when you hit the autoban limit

themoreyouknow.jpg

there is no limit on the autoban we all know that

The limit is 50. You are at 23.

I think having "Suggest Ban" next to EVERY SINGLE POST suggests that you should always be asking yourself whether to ban every single person every single time. It makes the idea of banning way more prominent than it needs to be, or even should be. This is not a board "about" banning, after all, or let's hope it isn't.

― Casuistry, Thursday, September 11, 2008 4:37 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM.

ahahahaha ice cram

btw i do really think itd be awzom to have lol otm zing o_O etc options w/a stats page linking to the most voted posts

i sincerely think that would be a brilliant idea

:-)

ya I beat all yall to proposing that. automatic excelsior. xpost

I think having "Suggest Ban" next to EVERY SINGLE POST suggests that you should always be asking yourself whether to ban every single person every single time. It makes the idea of banning way more prominent than it needs to be, or even should be. This is not a board "about" banning, after all, or let's hope it isn't.

Yes, this is exactly what I meant to say upthread. But am I really the only one who sees a problem with the whole concept of "suggest bans"?

yes. you are the only one. these other people agreeing with you are just setting you up for a fall.

you are suggest banned.

xp you are suggest banned.

anyone else want a suggest ban?

you are not, Tuomas

you are suggest banned.

"Suggest Ban" is prob going to only be used for lolz. You can't GIGO-proof ILX

you...what?

it's like those florida butterfly ballots all over again. i can't tell which one is parmalink or ban or whatever. oh noes!!

I just "bookmarked" your post

OK I put in some code to:

• Highlight the "more posts" link
• Hide you tube embeds when you're hiding images
• Apply the posting limit to YouTube embeds
• Fix a few things around registration, although there are problems with emailing, still

you are suggest banned

tuomas, probably many people agree with you, but the type of person who thinks it's a baffling idea is maybe less likely to be invested in arguing about it. personally i think it's as dumb an idea as allowing secret boards (which was/is fucking stupid obv) but the idea of having a protracted argument about it is even worse, ultimately i don't care that much.

i want to try it out just to see what happens though, but i don't want to be mean to anyone :(

you click suggest ban then it asks you to confirm thats basically it

btw you are suggest banned

Why are thread links being overridden to black only when I'm logged in?

<a style='color: #000000' href='/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=64043#unread'>

cos of yr settings for SNA

It's because it's picking up the default site new answers settings, which are stored in your preferences, so only picked up when you log in.

Just want it to change color when visited.

Guess I need to add a visited style with a colour that's not on the list of things you can pick.

I reset to default, which gives me back the anchor color schemes, but all I had done before was uncheck boards I didn't want to see on SNA. I didn't particularly care to color the links for the remaining boards, however.

Yeah, I think the two are tied, just because it saves your preferences. I think the thing is that the default, if you haven't set one is 'black' and not what the normal colour is when you've not set preferences. I'll sort it out.

It's all good. I still have that Greasemonkey to filter SNA anyways!

Keith, can you put the Bookmark link in the same place as the Suggest Ban and Permalink links, or the other way around. They seem like they should be together. And there needs to be a couple of ems of space between "Suggest Ban" and "Permalink".

its funny you mention that because i accidently suggest banned you. bitch.

They are next to each other in old.css, although oddly "Bookmark" isn't underlined. I should probably offer to poke through old.css but my CSS is rusty.

happy to provide CSS, Keith, but I figure this is trivial. let me know if it would save you any time.

you probably should shouldnt you except whoops you just got suggest banned xp

ok i think i've come round to the suggest bans feature

xp:

DZL (deeznuts), allow me to suggest that you suggest I be banned.

Give him, oh, about three days to think about it.

i like this. nice work, people who worked on this (keith, stet, and ...?)

is anybody with stylesheet writing abilities up to creating an ilx.wh3rd.net/ilx.p3r.net era sheet? i am on old fuddy-duddy, and i like my ilx as antiquarian as possible.

old.css is about as close as it gets. The other things are changes in the menu links etc, which are hard-coded beyond the reach of CSS

Countdown to creation of "I Ban Everything" in 5... 4... 3...

so far so good

thx stet -- for some reason i just read over that one.

oh yeah, and you can't auto ban mods, so don't waste your time.

― PROVED BY BOOZE SCIENCE (John Justen), Thursday, September 11, 2008 6:32 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

is this true for sub-board mods or just site-wides?

can we suggest-ban mods?

suggest-ban is like bi-curious. too coy. just go through with it imo.

^ t bomb

Yeah, I keep mentioning little weirdnesses about old.css but it's totally not priority -- though I am also a fuddy duddy, and the simple-but-clear look of ILX was always a huge selling point for it. Also I kinda find most of the other options fugly. A Zen CSS Garden type project would be nice for the site, but really, it's fine, and I don't mean to take away from the excellent new functionality.

Yeh, my favourite ones have always been the more minimalist ones, though I'm playing about with test.css to try colours etc so I contradict myself.

If anyone wants to have a pop at making a sheet (it's easier to put them up now) and wants a list of all the DIVs and classes etc (there's a fair few, and many are crucial) give me a shout.

Yeah, I think the two are tied, just because it saves your preferences. I think the thing is that the default, if you haven't set one is 'black' and not what the normal colour is when you've not set preferences. I'll sort it out.

― Keith, Thursday, September 11, 2008 3:59 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah this was the only other buggy thing I've seen so far, having SNA go to all black by default once you check some boxes.

this "Suggest Ban" button is unnecessary IMO. Clutters up the pages and is unnecessary in most cases. Most folks who post on modreq asking for a ban know enough to include links.

case in point for "edit post" function there.

I'm using old.css and getting the same issue; the main page looked like it always did, but once I removed a few boards from my personal site new answers, all the text and links on SNA are black. I re-checked the boards to add them back but the font color isn't changing.

thanks for everything guys.

i would love a edit button (even for a limited time) but don't like this "Suggest Ban" feature, not something ILX needs.

yeah, is there really such a high volume of ban requests on the mod request board? Seems unnecessary and kind of depressing too.

The link is pretty small, so I don't mind the Suggest Ban link.

Re: changes to stylesheets

The point with being able to change your stylesheet, is to deal with the fact that people have different aesthetic preferences. If I make changes to existing stylesheets for people then I can pretty much guarantee that some people will love the change and some people will hate the change. What one person thinks looks amazing, another often thinks looks terrible. So with that in mind, can those of you who want changes made to stylesheets please put together those changes in a stylesheet and email them to me and I will put them up there for yourself and anyone else to use. It really doesn't matter if it's a minor change to an existing stylesheet; that way, everyone can get what they want, and if someone else's aesthetic preferences match yours, then they will be able to make use of your stylesheet. Thanks to all of you who have made stylesheets thus far.

Suggest Ban

Suggest ban was an idea of community self-policing that came from some of the recent requests for democratic bans. I'm certainly not sure that it's a good idea, and I'm sure a lot of other people think the same way; however, it does seem to me premature to assume that loads of bad things will happen. The worst that can happen is that someone undeservedly gets banned and then we unban them. If we all wind up agreeing that it's a bad idea, then it's a couple of clicks of a button to remove it (it wasn't turned on to start with). But I do think that we need to come to some concensus as to what's the best way of dealing with this, as clearly there are a group of people that don't think the mods should be making that sort of decision, or are at least unhappy with that.

pls someone make a style sheet with '--' instead of '―'

oh dear god, was this really necessary???? My computer is hating whatever this "upgrade" is and it takes me more than 7 minutes to make a post! I am leaving my most sincere request that things go back to their normal plain text format. The newneest is the ickness!

1

^ Daily Mail excerpt

pls someone make a style sheet with '--' instead of '―'

That's not a CSS issue, but maybe there's a bit of php that automagically replaces all double dashes with em dashes? I remember WordPress stopped doing that when people started bitching up a storm about it.

I'm using old.css and getting the same issue; the main page looked like it always did, but once I removed a few boards from my personal site new answers, all the text and links on SNA are black.

Yeah, I use old.css and it's the same with me too.

Also, in old.css the links for "Suggest ban" and "Permalink" are underlined, but "Boomark" isn't. Not that it really matters much, but it looks a bit odd.

Ah, sorry, I missed the part in "Preferences" where you can change the colours on "Site new answers". This is a cool feature, thanks for it!

wiggy, with the sincerest fairness: there is nothing here that *isn't* plain text, and if your computer's falling over with it, something is seriously wrong with your computer.

Preferences > I want to change the way the site looks > old.css is as close to "old" ILX as you'll get if your problem is fundamentally an aesthetic one.

My computer also changes "--" into "―", I have no idea how to alter that.

Thank you for the hide-youtubes, Keith!

(PS I do love the youtubes, just not at work, and not when my CPU hits the roof because I left a couple of threads with embeds on open. Not your fault, I know -- it annoys me about other sites with embeds on too, but none of those are on my daily web-trail)

(sticks in a double-dash just to see if ILX is autoconverting all of them or if it's just the new attribution style. I've half-finished a work webpage peppered with em-dashes so I've been watching with interest after they didn't show up for Casuistry, wondering if I should rethink my work...)

Wait, you can hide YouTubes?

(Or is that just hide images, which I don't want to do.)

It makes the idea of banning way more prominent than it needs to be, or even should be. This is not a board "about" banning, after all, or let's hope it isn't.

IT'S IN TINY WRITING FFS.

It's democratisation y'all. Remember, the thing you've all been whining about? In any case, after a week or two only the congenital idiots will be abusing suggest ban and seeing who's suggest banning whom will give the mods a bit of a laugh.

Tiny writing = the same font size as everything else on ILX. Also, I think the problem is more with the fact that it follows every single post made on this board. And even if it's only abused by "congenital idiots", does it matter to the people they may get banned? I have nothing against democratisation, but I do thing banning should be based on certain guidelines every one is aware of. With autobanning, people could theoretically get banned for any reason whatsoever, like having the "wrong" opinions on music etc.

The worst that can happen is that someone undeservedly gets banned and then we unban them. If we all wind up agreeing that it's a bad idea, then it's a couple of clicks of a button to remove it.

if people get banned for having tedious, monomaniacal fixations with the tedious minutiae of ILX, i'm all for it.

also, i think people should be banned for using the word "tedious" twice in one post. the second was meant to be "trivial".

Come on Tuomas. You're the king of demanding consultation on things - democratising everything - and here it is, power to the people, and you're annoyed at that too?

Why not see what happens. If unfair bannings start happening the mods will deal with it (as onimo mentions above) and, the great thing is, they'll be able to see who's abusing the system and ban them in return!

Also, my "suggest ban" is in 6-point text or something - different stylesheet maybe?

Sorry for being "tedious" and "trivial" but I am concerned about this feature and its potential misuse.

I've never been one to call for democratisation of the moderation process. Accountability, yes, but democratisation, no.

Because, as Tuomas points out, having unpopular opinions, ideas, obsessions is *not* a cause for banning. (I'm still not entirely sure what the actual criteria for banning are - abusive or offensive behaviour?) I don't want to see banning becone an (un)popularity contest.

This may seem trivial to others, but if you are one of ILX's more unpopular posters, (such as myself) and therefore most at risk of being banned for expressing non-standard opinions, ideas, obsessions etc. then it would seem less trivial.

What part of "The worst that can happen is that someone undeservedly gets banned and then we unban them" are people having trouble with here?

Would you be OK with that if it were you getting banned, Ailsa?

I'm for democratision in general, yes, but I'm also for free discourse. To me, the idea of autoban seems to be against the idea that people can freely raise controversial opinions as long as they don't succumb to personal harrassment, racism, etc. Basically I think any message board should have certain guidelines everyone's are aware of, and no one should be punished for things that aren't against those guidelines. I agree that the chances of people abusing this autoban option are probably small, but at least in theory it means people could be punished for behaviour that isn't against ILX guidelines at all. I would support this "Suggest ban" thing if it would work so that a certain amount of "Suggest ban" clicks inform the mods about a certain poster, and then they can check if this poster's behaviour is actually against ILX guidelines, and make the decision whether to ban or not based on that.

(xx-post)

What part of "The worst that can happen is that someone undeservedly gets banned and then we unban them" are people having trouble with here?

Well, yeah, I'm sure that on a practical level this thing wouldn't cause much trouble, but I think it's also a matter of principle.

http://www.cdt.org/images/nav/header_logo.gif

Yes I would. Because if it was warranted, it would have been brought to the attention of the mods, if it wasn't warranted, then they can reverse it. Would you rather have pile-on threads where people can openly bitch you out?

xpost to Kate

I would support this "Suggest ban" thing if it would work so that a certain amount of "Suggest ban" clicks inform the mods about a certain poster, and then they can check if this poster's behaviour is actually against ILX guidelines, and make the decision whether to ban or not based on that.

Er, is this not how it works? They do have a bancock going to alert them to people getting high numbers of ban suggestions. I'm guessing if people are doing it for lolz then it can be reset or whatever against an individual poster.

I mean, I think it's set high enough that it would take a pretty concerted OMG BAN! moment to trigger it straight away, rather than, say, a lot of people being driven to distraction over a period of time by one extremely irritating but non-specific irritant.

irritating irritant? What?

can we have an "edit post" feature please Keith? :-)

No-one's going to get banned for having a controversial opinion, and if they do, then 50 people have found it actively offensive, which... is what the suggest ban function is there for!

And if the hilarious script kiddies of LBZC decide to abuse the system, well, they'll either get bored or get banned.

Heavens, it's only a temp ban in any case, and it can be reversed. This is real life, things aren't utopian. Name another internet community that has better functionality?

hilarious script kiddies OR LBZC, sorry.

Er, is this not how it works? They do have a bancock going to alert them to people getting high numbers of ban suggestions.

No, it was said upthread that banning will happen automatically once someone gets a certain amount of "Suggest bans".

Also, how long will those "Suggest bans" stay in people's accounts? Are they cleared after a certain period, or do they stay there forever? Because if it's the latter, then in the long run a lot of people might get autobanned.

Because a little while ago, it was all heading towards this environment where a semitroll poster, let's call him Supermang, would state some outrageous flame of an 'opinion' just to get a reaction, get 'banned' for the required offence with reference to a tarrif (kneejerk racism = 2 weeks) or so, STP changes into some other persona, let's call him ClerkKent, carries on in a more normal fashion, until Supermang can come out and fly around again.

Does anybody actually want that?

Need HSK/LBZC venn diagram.

I'M ON IT

No-one's going to get banned for having a controversial opinion, and if they do, then 50 people have found it actively offensive, which... is what the suggest ban function is there for!

So if 50 people find someone's opinion controversial enough, even if it's not a personal or racist insult or anything, do you think he should get banned? If so, why? Also, it's not necessarily just controversial opinions, people can click the "Suggest ban" for whatever reason they want to, like if they don't personally like a certain poster.

Also, how long will those "Suggest bans" stay in people's accounts? Are they cleared after a certain period, or do they stay there forever? Because if it's the latter, then in the long run a lot of people might get autobanned

they WILL stay on your permanent record and they WILL count against you in future job applications.

Because a little while ago, it was all heading towards this environment where a semitroll poster, let's call him Supermang, would state some outrageous flame of an 'opinion' just to get a reaction, get 'banned' for the required offence with reference to a tarrif (kneejerk racism = 2 weeks) or so, STP changes into some other persona, let's call him ClerkKent, carries on in a more normal fashion, until Supermang can come out and fly around again.

And how does autoban change this when compared to regular modding?

look this is clearly just a sensible measure designed to justify the banning of deeznuts

I heard the "Suggest Ban" clickage nearly broke ILX.

Nobody can "suggest ban" someone more than once.

With the exception of deeznuts, who was trolling for it (and got it) yesterday, nobody has yet even reached double figures.

If it fucks up, we can turn it off. We are aware that there are certain posters who some people like to bait, this is of course taken into account.

Tuomas if you really think that 50 ilxors could agree on anything long enough to make a concerted effort to ban someone who isn't being actively offensive you're crazy

Keep in mind that "Suggest Ban" is not in tiny writing for those of us using old.css.

Banning should probably not be democratically determined, just like we don't decide trial cases through democratic selection (a.k.a. the "Give Us Barabbas!" method). Perhaps those who get to decide who gets banned or not could be democratically determined.

What if it's 10 ILXors who have several user accounts? Creating them isn't very hard, is it?

(x-post)

that's a lot of trouble to go through for something that would only last an hour at most

Nobody can "suggest ban" someone more than once.

But what if he is actually banned? Can the same person "suggest ban" him again after the ban is over?

The worst that can happen is that someone undeservedly gets banned and then we unban them. If we all wind up agreeing that it's a bad idea, then it's a couple of clicks of a button to remove it.

I mean gradys only got like four or five I can't think of anyone who has ten

Anyway, I agree that abusing this option won't probably happen much, but I do think it's against previously set ILX modding principles, and I don't think they should be altered in this way.

This makes me almost wish that I was still a Sys Admin so I could automatically generate 50 email addresses, create 50 sock puppets and then I would have random ban power over EVERYONE!

Mwah ha ha ha ha.

But, erm, I'm not a Sys Admin any more, and I haven't reached that degree of boredom or drunkenness in quite some time.

Just kidding, joeks bro etc.

I think you mentioned that.

xpost

Well, yeah, but I haven't still heard anyone explain properly why the principles of modding should be changed in this way.

Who guessed this would become a clusterfuck thread? I didn't.

I mean, the previous debate about modding was mostly about accountability, and I think the return of Admin Log serves that well enough - so I'm thankful for that. But I don't remember anyone actually asking for this sort of "democratic" modding.

moderation request: democratic bans

And if ILX actually has over 6000 registered members, 50 votes to get banned is hardly a democratic decision, is it?