Forum Update

Darandio said:

Just bringing the following into relevance as I didn't see a reply when it was first posted, things were hectic at the time with the changeover......



It still won't allow me to change the occupation. Is this an issue for all or just me?

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It is fine for me - I ended up at https://www.railforums.co.uk/account/personal-details via my profile page. Just updated mine

Crossover said:

It is fine for me - I ended up at https://www.railforums.co.uk/account/personal-details via my profile page. Just updated mine

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Hmm strange, if I try to edit the occupation i get the following error when saving.


Thanks for checking though.

Darandio said:

Hmm strange, if I try to edit the occupation i get the following error when saving.

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It says local station is a required field, but you've left it empty.

So it does, thanks!

That wasn't there/required on the old software, thats why i've missed it.

It was definitely there, but it may have been on a different page

One here for the aficionados of the Quizzes and Games forum who use the search facility on the threads on there. On the new system, do the search results go back to those which were included on the old system or do the search results only go as far as when the new system started.

The Settlement Association quiz is one such thread.

Paul Sidorczuk said:

One here for the aficionados of the Quizzes and Games forum who use the search facility on the threads on there. On the new system, do the search results go back to those which were included on the old system or do the search results only go as far as when the new system started.

The Settlement Association quiz is one such thread.

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I have just tried it with the Closed Stations Quiz and it appears to find any post in the thread no matter how old - tested with "Dewsbury" and "Ordsall Lane"

Darandio said:

So it does, thanks!

That wasn't there/required on the old software, thats why i've missed it.

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Crossover said:

It was definitely there, but it may have been on a different page

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You are right that it was there and mandatory on the old forum too - it was however only added about 3 years ago or so, so accounts that were created before that time would never have been required to fill in the field before unless they edited their details.

I was just looking at my personal details and noticed the vast amount of space devoted (wasted?) to entries for mileage competition entries from 2012 onwards. Perhaps, in slower time, these entries should be moved to a dedicated page of their own and historic entries prior to 2017 shown as a simple list as otherwise the space required will balloon endlessly?

Blindtraveler said:

It's actually now not even giving me an error message it just will not load the forum at all

Assume we are so advanced these days that support for prehistoric Legacy browsers is simply not there anymore

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(The following is a generic observation, and may not apply fully to this forum.)

Many websites are now employing encryption (https) by default, in response to the wishes and security concerns of both users and software developers. A number of different encryption algorithms may be used, depending on which algorithms are supported by the browser and the server: this is negociated when you connect to a website.

In recent years some older algorithms (many in use for decades) have been shown to be insecure. There may be a weakness in how the algorithm works, or modern computers may be so much faster that they can break an algorithm by brute force in a much shorter time than envisaged when the algorithm was designed.

Because of this, many web servers are now saying they won't support these older, insecure algorithms. (Google was one of the first big names to do so, if I recall correctly.) If the web server also allows insecure connections (http without the 's') then you can choose to connect insecurely instead. But if a web server is configured to redirect you from the http site to the https site automatically, you don't have this option.

Another example is my phone's built in browser, which no longer receives manufacturer software updates. Many of the security certificates (issued to web servers) have expired, and it can't get any updated certificates. This means my phone won't open a number of websites that use recently issued certificates. (I can open another browser which has its own updated certificates, but it's not my first choice of browser.)

I recently rebuilt an old PC (for access to some legacy hardware) and installed windows 98 on it.When trying to use Internet Explorer 4 to download drivers (and an updated web browser), I was surprised at the sheer number of websites that would not allow me to connect, all because the browser didn't know any of the recent encryption algorithms.

This is of course a bit of a bind for people who have to use an older browser for software compatibility. (I guess you may have screen reading software that insists on a particular browser version.) Still, if you are able to update the version of Internet Explorer on your Windows 7 machine, you should get a sufficiently recent browser that can still talk with the more security-minded websites. Windows 7 is still used in many corporate environments, for example.

If you want some help in looking in to this, and checking what algorithms your browser is set up to use, feel free to drop me a PM.

I don't seem to have any editing facilities (e.g. bold, smiley, etc) any more. I can only reply with plain text, it seems. Where is the editing facility box please?

I tried to put a couple of photos on a thread yesterday from my phone while I was out; it seems this new forum doesn't resize them for you, it just refuses to upload and says too big? Any way round this, or is the only option to resize them first?

HowardGWR said:

I don't seem to have any editing facilities (e.g. bold, smiley, etc) any more. I can only reply with plain text, it seems. Where is the editing facility box please?

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On your preferences page ( https://www.railforums.co.uk/account/preferences ), is the box ticked next to "Use the rich text editor to create and edit messages"?

BlueFox said:

On your preferences page ( https://www.railforums.co.uk/account/ ), is the box ticked next to "Use the rich text editor to create and edit messages"?

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No it wasn't, many thanks.

Domh245 said:

Something that has gone missing (or perhaps I just can't see it) is the box that lets you know who else is viewing a thread. There were many occasions where I'd go to type out a response, only to see that someone else more qualified than me to speak on that topic was also viewing the thread, and then hold back on responding. If this has gone, is there any intention to bring it back?

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I too was interested in the point that you raised, though with me, it appertains to the members viewing threads on the Quizzes and Games forum.

Can a technical member of the forum staff give their views on the points raised.

dcsprior said:

• The icon for "go to first unread" is the smallest thing on each line. Can it be made larger? Or ideally can the default behaviour when clicking on a thread title be to go to the first unread message?

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matt said:

That is the default behaviour.

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dcsprior said:

D'oh, so it is. I could've sworn it wasn't the last time I tried, but I'm probably losing it!

Would still be interested to know if there's a ballpark ETA for tapatalk support (even if it's a long time, I'd rather know roughly when it's likely to be)

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Maybe I'm not going mad, today clicking on the thread title isn't taking me to the first unread message in the thread but to the first message on page 1.

dcsprior said:

Maybe I'm not going mad, today clicking on the thread title isn't taking me to the first unread message in the thread but to the first message on page 1.

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If you have unread messages clicking on the thread title from inside a forum or subforum takes you to the oldest unread message. If you have no unread messages then it will take you to the first post. From the homepage clicking on a thread title will take you to the newest post (but this will be changed following a request).

Mojo said:

If you have unread messages clicking on the thread title from inside a forum or subforum takes you to the oldest unread message. If you have no unread messages then it will take you to the first post. From the homepage clicking on a thread title will take you to the newest post (but this will be changed following a request).

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From the Unread Watched Threads page (where everything will have unread messages) behaviour is inconsistent. Sometimes (e.g. when I clicked on this thread just now) I get the first unread message, other times the very start of the thread - so to be guaranteed to be taken to the first unread message I have to use the very small icon to the left of the thread title.

dcsprior said:

From the Unread Watched Threads page (where everything will have unread messages) behaviour is inconsistent. Sometimes (e.g. when I clicked on this thread just now) I get the first unread message, other times the very start of the thread - so to be guaranteed to be taken to the first unread message I have to use the very small icon to the left of the thread title.

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Do you have a screenshot of this, as looking at the code I cannot see how this is possible - the links both go to the same place which is the thread url with /unread/ after it.

Mojo said:

Do you have a screenshot of this, as looking at the code I cannot see how this is possible - the links both go to the same place which is the thread url with /unread/ after it.

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Next time it happens I'll take a screenshot. If it helps you identify anything in logs/etc I saw it ~90 mins ago with https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/caledonian-sleeper-mk5-discussion.140485/ from Chrome on Android.

Actually although that thread had posts that were new to me, they weren't new since the forum upgrade - could it be that? If so, that'd also explain why in the early days after the upgrade I thought that clicking on the thread title was taking me to the first page.

Not to sure if this is exactly the same problem as reported above, but I have found the first time I read a thread since the excellent upgrades, clicking on the title takes me to the first page of the thread and pressing "Go to First Unread" takes me to an entry from the 09 September (or 1st after).
From the next time you go into the thread it works like a dream taking you to the first unread post (and very quickly!)

Any chance you guys can have a look at SSC, as that feels prehistoric now!!!!!

Chrisyd said:

Not to sure if this is exactly the same problem as reported above, but I have found the first time I read a thread since the excellent upgrades, clicking on the title takes me to the first page of the thread and pressing "Go to First Unread" takes me to an entry from the 09 September (or 1st after).
From the next time you go into the thread it works like a dream taking you to the first unread post (and very quickly!)

Any chance you guys can have a look at SSC, as that feels prehistoric now!!!!!

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The data migration didn't migrate the posts which a member had read, I don't believe, and the unread "window" is now appears to be about a month (used to be a couple of weeks on vB). Thus there are a lot of "New" posts which aren't new. With the upgrade having happened a couple of weeks ago now, within the next couple of weeks this problem will be eradicated

What was the reason behind the decision to remove the choice of "stock avatar" images that were part of the options available in the previous vBulletin website, as a number of forum members actually took advantage of those choices when their original avatar was first used.

I really miss the particular Eurostar one from those images that I chose, that some seemed to associate with me on this website

I can't figure out how to PM a member, can anyone advise? Thanks!

Paul Sidorczuk said:

I too was interested in the point that you raised, though with me, it appertains to the members viewing threads on the Quizzes and Games forum.

Can a technical member of the forum staff give their views on the points raised.

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This is not a feature of the current forum software, however a suitable addon has been identified which will be installed soon.

Paul Sidorczuk said:

What was the reason behind the decision to remove the choice of "stock avatar" images that were part of the options available in the previous vBulletin website, as a number of forum members actually took advantage of those choices when their original avatar was first used.

I really miss the particular Eurostar one from those images that I chose, that some seemed to associate with me on this website

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Unfortunately an Avatar gallery is not a feature of this forum software. However, if someone wants one of the old Avatars then I can supply it. The Eurostar one is attached, Paul, and I have set it as your Avatar for you.

I'm also tempted to set up a thread for people that don't have Avatars, that perhaps if there's something you're after then some of our other members can supply it for you

RPOMan said:

I can't figure out how to PM a member, can anyone advise? Thanks!

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Plenty of ways, from within a thread you can click on their username or Avatar and select 'Start a conversation,' from the menu bar at the top you can click on your Avatar and scroll to 'Conversations,' or on full screen click on 'Inbox.'

Mojo said:

This is not a feature of the current forum software, however a suitable addon has been identified which will be installed soon.


Unfortunately an Avatar gallery is not a feature of this forum software. However, if someone wants one of the old Avatars then I can supply it. The Eurostar one is attached, Paul, and I have set it as your Avatar for you.

I'm also tempted to set up a thread for people that don't have Avatars, that perhaps if there's something you're after then some of our other members can supply it for you


Plenty of ways, from within a thread you can click on their username or Avatar and select 'Start a conversation,' from the menu bar at the top you can click on your Avatar and scroll to 'Conversations,' or on full screen click on 'Inbox.'

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Thank you! It worked!

Mojo said:

However, if someone wants one of the old Avatars then I can supply it. The Eurostar one is attached, Paul, and I have set it as your Avatar for you.

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I am most grateful for your assistance and it is good to see my old avatar back once again.

It makes sense in a way to get rid of the Avatar gallery, as there were a few users which used the Eurostar picture (similar a few which used the 222 picture) so sometimes it could get confusing if you misread the username.

Although I miss the picture of the HST at the top bar rather than the Voyager

Kite159 said:

It makes sense in a way to get rid of the Avatar gallery, as there were a few users which used the Eurostar picture (similar a few which used the 222 picture) so sometimes it could get confusing if you misread the username.

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I doubt if my username could be confused with that of any other user.

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet (I had a search and didn't see it) but minimum post length on replies doesn't seem to be being enforced - see post #540 in this thread.