Welcome Back!

[Zherog]

Welcome Back!
Well, that was a real bitch. In a nutshell, our host stopped supporting the version of PHP the forum was using. They insist I received an email 30 days prior, but I am quite certain I did not. They then insist that said email must have gone to my spam folder; I am quite certain it did not. (Also, they never could explain why that one email went to spam, but everything else from them - including notifications about replies to my support tickets - worked just fine.)

Bottom line, overall, is that our host basically said "fuck you" when I asked them to re-enable the older PHP version in order to give me time to do the upgrade to the forum software. They were magnanimous enough to give us 30 days free.

We are currently running on a "vanilla" instance of phpbb v3.2.11. I'm going to attempt to upgrade to 3.3.x later this year, probably sometime in the summer, because the version of php behind this board version is considered obsolete; it still has active bug support, particularly for security glitches, but otherwise has no new code. So it's a matter of time until it's shit-canned as well. But first, we need to get stable here. I'll use this post to document changes, as well as to keep track of bugs and other issues. Please do NOT create a new thread - post here.

*** IF YOU HAVE ISSUES LOGGING IN ***

Let's put this one right at the top. You should clear cookies and cache in your browser for the site. As part of the upgrade, details about the site's cookies have changed, and it's possible your login issue is caused by that.

If that doesn't resolve your issue, please reset your password through the "Forgot my Password" link. This will, obviously, send an email to the one associated with your account. Doing so will generate a new password for you, and will also include a link to activate it. Once you've successfully logged in this way, you can go to your User Control Panel and change your password to whatever you like.

Next, please try a different browser. When I was doing the upgrade I couldn't login on Chrome (for example) but could on Firefox.

If that continues to fail, please try logging in via "Incognito" mode in your browser.

• In Chrome, click the "three dots menu" at the top right, then select "New Incognito Window"
• In Firefox, go to Menu at the top right, then choose "New Private Window"
• Other browsers should have similar options. If you can't find it, Google is your friend.

If You can successfully login via an incognito window but not a "normal" window, please post here. I'll update this section as I figure out what details I need to troubleshoot this. But for now, please tell me what browser you're using and what happens when you try.

If you can't login with either a normal window or incognito window, please hang tight for now. I'm tracking down a lot of odds and ends, and this is among them.

Whisper Tag is No More

At least for now. The Whisper tag was a customization on the previous forum, which existing more or less because it was a feature on BB Boy and we wanted to keep continuity. It doesn't seem to be a thing that exists, and I'm not a good enough PHP developer* to tackle it.

* And by "not good enough PHP developer" I really mean I know jack shit about the language. I can read it, because most computer languages work the same basic way. But I'm not about to try and tackle writing something like that... maybe later.

For the time being, I've hidden all the posts that contained whispers. If I'm ever able to restore it, I'll also restore the posts.

The Size Tags

I honestly can't recall how the size tag worked previously. I know way back on BB Boy, we had a range from -2 through 7. I think when we moved to phpbb, we adopted their style, which left the older BB Boy posts "broken" unless somebody went in and manually edited them. Regardless, we are now definitely using the phpbb format. The "default" size (what you get when you don't use a tag) is "100" - as in 100% of the normal font size. Parameters you give to the size tag are intended to be a percentage of the "normal" size. So if you use "size=50" you'll get a font size that's 50% as large as the normal size for the reader's browser. Using "size=150" gives you 50% larger than normal. There are several "built-in" values in the drop-down list:

Code: Select all

Size	Pct
Tiny	50
Small	85
Normal	100
Large	150
Huge	200

But, like I said you can use what you like - though be aware that "200" is the upper limit.

As a little "bonus" here, maybe, I was able to clean up many of the older posts so they should display correctly going forward. (*figners crossed*) (Related to this, if you've ever looked at a thread that was migrated from BB Boy to phpbb, you likely saw a whole bunch of "BR" tags. Those are, I believe, also fixed.)

Custom Tags

We have a few custome tags, and something breaking wouldn't surprise me. I'm not asking anyone to try to break them! But if you see anything funny with these, just post it here.

Center

The center tag aligns text centered on the page.

Code: Select all

[center]This text will be centered![/center]

Will produce:
This text will be centered!
Strikethrough

The strikethrough tag ("S") will put a strikethrough line through the entered text.

Code: Select all

[s]This text will have a line through it.[/s]

Will produce:

This text will have a line through it.


Spoiler

There are, as before, two versions of the spoiler tag - with and without a "label" on the box.

Version 1: Without a label

Code: Select all

[spoiler]Zoinks! Did you know Vader is really Luke's father![/spoiler]

Will produce:

Zoinks! Did you know Vader is really Luke's father!

Version 2: With a label

Code: Select all

[spoiler=Don't click me, man!]Zoinks! Did you know Vader is really Luke's father![/spoiler]

Will produce:

Don't click me, man!

Zoinks! Did you know Vader is really Luke's father!

Other Features

One reason we have no "mods" installed is because just about everything we had to customize in the past is built-in to the software now. Reporting posts was a mod previously; it's built in. The ignore list was a mod previously; it's built in. One thing I still have to figure out is the "Announcement" banner at the top that we had previously. I think that's also built in, but if not I'm sure I can find something.

There are also new features that we didn't have previously. The most prominent of those that stood out to me was the "Save Draft" button when writing a post. It does pretty much what you would think from the name - while writing a post, you can now opt to save a copy of that post and come back to it. You can find your saved drafts by going to your User Control Panel (click the down-arrow next to your name at the top-right), and "Manage Drafts" is the 4th item in the menu on the left. the UCP is also where you handle avatars, signatures, and so forth.

Notifications are also, I believe, a new feature. Previously, you could receive an email for things such as receiving a PM, somebody posting in a topic or forum you follow, and so on. Those options still exist; but now you can also receive a notification on the site directly. Notifications appear up at the top right of the screen, just a little bit to the left of your username. After clicking "Notifications" a box will pop up that shows you any you have. On the top-right of that box is a "Settings" link, which will - you guessed it! - take you to your settings for how to receive notifications.

And last, but certainly not least... search is now built into the forum again, rather than being a bizarre amalgamation of on-site for some and Google for others. So far, search seems to have really good response based on my limited testing. It's possible that over time I'll need to do some tweaking to the settings. But, knock on wood, so far this seems to be rally smooth, quick, and accurate.

• There is currently a 15 second "flood interval" on searches. I can adjust that, up or down, as needed to strike a balance between server load and usefulness.
• There is a minimum of 3 characters when searching for posts by a username with a wildcard. For example, if you search for "Zhe" as the post author, you won't get anything. But if you search for "Zhe*" you'll see all my posts.
• The maximum number of "keywords" is currently set to 10

There are two "native" settings that I cannot change:

• The minimum characters indexed is 3. Any word shorter than that is not indexed, and therefore cannot be searched. So, for example, terms such as "AC" and "DC" won't find any results.
• The maximum characters indexed is 84. Any word long than that (WTaF?!?) will not be indexed. (Yeah, I don't think that'll ever be an issue )

Those two settings I cannot change; they're built into the way the search index is built within the database. Plus, while being able to search for "AC" might be useful, indexing 2 character words means a much larger index with words such as "to," "be," "on," "in," and so on all being indexed every time they're posted. That's the tradeoff.


The "search" box at the top right defaults to searching for posts. If you click the gear symbol on the far right of it, you'll go to the "Advanced Search" page with more options. I think everything in there is self-explanatory, but if something isn't clear just ask.



-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

So there you have it. Welcome back, and I apologize for it taking so long. I'll keep an ongoing "bug tracker" in the next post. I'll also keep a "feature tracker" list, for requests that you think we need. Just understand that those are going to be incredibly low priority for me going forward.

Cheers!
Z

[Zherog]

Current Known Issue List

I'll use this post to keep track of issues, because without a list I'm very likely to lose something. My mind may be a steel trap, but it's a bit rusty on the hinges...

• I will update the site format / appearance in a week or so once we're stable. I forgot to install the package for that while upgrading, and I'd rather wait a week or so at this point.
• I need to make/find "Table" tags, and ideally it uses the same format we had previously (example of previous table tag is here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=57595) Table tags are added; existing posts need to be updated in the database and then re-parsed to correct the way they display.
• The search index is, in fact, not rebuilt like previously thought. Only posts made since go-live are in the index.
• Superscript and subscript tags now exist; old posts need reparsed
• The "phpBB BBCode Demonstration" thread doesn't actually exist. I'll need to dig into the database to make the thread go away from the forum display
• Images didn't convert. An example here: viewtopic.php?t=54524
• Previously, the board had "align=" tags, rather than a tag for center. The same thread that demonstrates the IMG issue shows that tag.
• the old HR tag is missing (for a horizontal rule) tag now exists; old posts need reparsed.
• Some Tome posts seem to be missing. See This Post for an example.

Current "Feature Request" List

• Top of forum "Announcement" section
• Update SSL certs.
• Dark/Night Mode display

[pragma]

Hooray! I'm super excited to see this up and running. Thanks for all the effort Zherog, I'm always surprised at how bad hosts are.

[Kaelik]

First "bug" report, it looks like all the table code doesn't work.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Thanks for taking care of this Zherog and fbmf.

[fbmf]

[The Great Fence Builder Speaks]
Great to be back. Many tips of the hat to Z for his tireless efforts and patience getting us up and running again.
[/TGFBS]

[Zherog]

First "bug" report, it looks like all the table code doesn't work.

Thanks. It's already in the list as a known issue that I missed during conversion.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Am I the only one who was checking back multiple times a day?
I was scared for a while there.

Gotta say, it's a bit weird that everything on the right now.

[Leress]

Nice to be back.

[Josh_Forgot_Password]

Glad we're back.


Okay. My login problems seem to be due to my approaching senility.....

[Prak]

Welcome back, everyone! I look forward to the hilarity of reading an old post whose text formatting is fucked because the codes work different.

Edit: For anyone else who is trying to figure out how to re-ignore people they ignored before The Blip, you click on their username, then "add foe" under the groups drop down. Took me a moment to figure it out, so I figured I'd say how to maybe save others the time.

[Josh_Kablack]

"You cannot add yourself to the foes list."

But I 'm my own worst enemy.

[Prak]

"You cannot add yourself to the foes list."

But I 'm my own worst enemy.

D&D rules, no matter how much you hate yourself, you count as your own ally

Edit: also, as I'm literally feeling the serotonin uptick, it's great to be back with all you mother fuckers

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

OK so you'd never guess who is having difficulty logging in and why.

OK fine it's me, and probably because this account exists.

I had thought I had updated my Phonelobster account to my new email that I can actually use... but maybe I didn't or perhaps the database just decided Neo Phonelobster Prime was the cooler of two options to send the new password email to.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Okay, is it just me or is there a TON of empty space on both sides of the screen? Like half of the website is empty space and it makes reading giant walls of text slightly more cumbersome.

[Stahlseele]

Okay, is it just me or is there a TON of empty space on both sides of the screen? Like half of the website is empty space and it makes reading giant walls of text slightly more cumbersome.

Now imagine looking at this on a 21:9 instead of just 16:9 screen . .

[Zherog]

Gotta say, it's a bit weird that everything on the right now.

Okay, is it just me or is there a TON of empty space on both sides of the screen? Like half of the website is empty space and it makes reading giant walls of text slightly more cumbersome.

Yeah, the formatting is still using the default. I have the format pack that should be the same as what was here before; I just need to find a somewhat convenient time to install it.

Welcome back, everyone! I look forward to the hilarity of reading an old post whose text formatting is fucked because the codes work different.

I actually fixed some of the very old formatting from our days on BB Boy. So for example, when we converted from BB Boy to phpbb, we ended up with a whole bunch of BR tags. Those should be gone. Also, all the SIZE tags should now be uniform and use the scale phpbb expects.

If you do see a fucked up post, please link me to it so I can check and see why. Because if anything, we should actually look a little better now. As mentioned in the second post here, I already know about tables, superscript, and subscript. It would be helpful if I can get a link for those from somebody if/when they come across them. That gives me a post to troubleshoot with, and lets me know what the tags used to be so I can make them match.

Edit: For anyone else who is trying to figure out how to re-ignore people they ignored before The Blip, you click on their username, then "add foe" under the groups drop down. Took me a moment to figure it out, so I figured I'd say how to maybe save others the time.

You can also add multiple people at one time by clicking on your username at the top-right, then selecting User Control Panel. The last tab in the UCP is "Friends and Foes". It defaults to "friends" (and I have no idea what that does), but you can select "Manage Foes" on the left. On that screen you can enter multiple people, with one name per line.

I had thought I had updated my Phonelobster account to my new email that I can actually use... but maybe I didn't or perhaps the database just decided Neo Phonelobster Prime was the cooler of two options to send the new password email to.

I think the system limits it to one account per email address, but I can check if you'd like. If it is limited to one account per email, Either way, we can do some things to recover the "Phonelobster" account, if you'd prefer to use that one.

[JourneymanN00b Spawn]

I am having serious difficulties trying to log into my old account, JourneymanN00b, and have tried everything that was listed on the OP. I used microsoft edge, chrome (in and out of incognito), and have not been able to log in. I have also tried the password recovery option, but my old email address connected to it does not exist anymore. I sent a message to the Board administrator detailing these issues, and would like to have the account recovered. Anyone with the ability to do this is free to email or PM me at either my current account, or the gmail account that I listed in the Board Administrator request that I sent.

[Kaelik]

I dont know if I just missed it before and it was always there, but I feel like you just readded the mark topics button to the new forum in the last couple days.

Thank you

[Zherog]

I am having serious difficulties trying to log into my old account, JourneymanN00b, and have tried everything that was listed on the OP. I used microsoft edge, chrome (in and out of incognito), and have not been able to log in. I have also tried the password recovery option, but my old email address connected to it does not exist anymore. I sent a message to the Board administrator detailing these issues, and would like to have the account recovered. Anyone with the ability to do this is free to email or PM me at either my current account, or the gmail account that I listed in the Board Administrator request that I sent.

I sent you a PM with some options. Let me know how you'd like to proceed.

I dont know if I just missed it before and it was always there, but I feel like you just readded the mark topics button to the new forum in the last couple days.

Thank you

I think it was there, somewhere, but it could be a new feature. Either way, I can't really take credit for "adding" it; all I did was install the new PHPBB3.2 software and then fight with the conversion scripts until they mostly worked. But you're welcome anyway.

[Trill Recovery]

Anyone else have problems searching the site?
If I use any term, any at all, it returns with no posts found.
If I give no terms but an username it does however give me the results for that user

EDIT: And I think I found why. It only searches in posts done in the new system. At least that's the only explanation I can find why a search for "free" returns just 5 results, all of them after April 8th

[Harshax]

Does the tgdmb.com need a sponsor for a root certificate?
eg: full ssl certs, instead of what's now?

[Zherog]

Anyone else have problems searching the site?
If I use any term, any at all, it returns with no posts found.
If I give no terms but an username it does however give me the results for that user

EDIT: And I think I found why. It only searches in posts done in the new system. At least that's the only explanation I can find why a search for "free" returns just 5 results, all of them after April 8th

Search was one of the big things that took so long. Attempting to index it actually borked the database several time, and everything would be inaccessible for about 24 hours. The last attempt to run the indexer didn't bork the DB, so I assumed it worked. Silly me. I'll put it on the bug list to fix. Thanks!

Does the tgdmb.com need a sponsor for a root certificate?
eg: full ssl certs, instead of what's now?

Honestly, I don't have any idea what's there now. I'll put it on the list, because it is something that we should have working correctly. (I'm assuming it worked before the site died, right?)

[JourneymanN00b]

I am having serious difficulties trying to log into my old account, JourneymanN00b, and have tried everything that was listed on the OP. I used microsoft edge, chrome (in and out of incognito), and have not been able to log in. I have also tried the password recovery option, but my old email address connected to it does not exist anymore. I sent a message to the Board administrator detailing these issues, and would like to have the account recovered. Anyone with the ability to do this is free to email or PM me at either my current account, or the gmail account that I listed in the Board Administrator request that I sent.

I sent you a PM with some options. Let me know how you'd like to proceed.

I have managed to get my original account back, and would like to thank you for your assistance!

[Zherog]

I am having serious difficulties trying to log into my old account, JourneymanN00b, and have tried everything that was listed on the OP. I used microsoft edge, chrome (in and out of incognito), and have not been able to log in. I have also tried the password recovery option, but my old email address connected to it does not exist anymore. I sent a message to the Board administrator detailing these issues, and would like to have the account recovered. Anyone with the ability to do this is free to email or PM me at either my current account, or the gmail account that I listed in the Board Administrator request that I sent.

I sent you a PM with some options. Let me know how you'd like to proceed.

I have managed to get my original account back, and would like to thank you for your assistance!

You're welcome. Glad your account is sorted out. I've deleted JourneymanN00b Spawn while retaining the post made, so it's there for reference.