Just testing after upgrade. Please ignore.
Quote from: KenB on October 16, 2017, 11:23:17 pm
Just testing after upgrade. Please ignore.
Well, whatever upgrade you did......it ain't working.
What exactly is not working?
The spam is gone. That's good. Last month we all had to turn off out smiley faces because a spammer planted some kind of bug. No big deal, my smiley faces stopped working years ago. Is that what the upgrade is all about?
My profile picture stopped working last year but I think that has something to do with photobucket.
The preview button is no longer marked, once again no big deal once you figure out where it is.
I'm just glad there is a forum where some of us old curmudgeons can get together and rant about our latest whacked out customer.
PS: I just noticed when I quote someone it is not highlighted.
Quote from: KenB on October 21, 2017, 12:18:31 am
What exactly is not working?
Well it's working now. But at the time that I made that comment, we had over a dozen spam posts.
Just so that you know: Ken retired 2 years ago. I'm not Ken, I'm just using his admin log-on. My name is Inger, and I am from Norway.
This forum is new to me, and I was not the one who upgraded it. If I find out where that report-span button has gone, I will of course put it back, but I don't know all the ins and outs of this forum software yet.
I spent most of the morning hunting for spam, and I'll keep an eye on it, so that I may nip it in the bud when the next lot comes in. As I said to one of you who messaged me, we seem to be having a 'Russian invasion', up to 20 new registrations every day. I can't just block anything ending in .ru, because there might be some serious ones among the spammers.
Hello Inger -
Thanks for introducing yourself. We all appreciate this forum and your work here. I have seen spam destroy forums i.e. Fine Woodworking so please know we are loyal but look for immediate solutions before we see the site get overtaken.
What's your background ? Trades person and Computer science ?
Regards,
SA
I'm not an upholsterer. I started working with Ken 4 years ago to make his website adaptable to all sort of screen sizes. Then Ken sold his business, and I kept on working for the new owner. We have just gone live with a new version of the site and web shop, you may have seen it. There are still some things that are not working properly, among them some page links. That is what I'm working on now, to get it corrected.
Eventually, when I get better known with the forum software, I'll create my own log-in. But this SMF software has a lousy user forum, so I never get answers to my questions. If someone here has a good grasp of the SMF forum software, then please come forward, send me a message. ;) I could actually do with someone who could help.
Inger
Hi Inger. Thank you for keeping this board going as well as you have. I've been having my morning coffee on here most every morning since Feb. '04. I've learned a lot, made some very good friends and hopefully have been able to help some here and there. Loosing this board or having it compromised would be very sad indeed.
I do however have a problem with you're being in Norway---Now I can't whine about our Canadian winters. LOL. Hopefully we get more snow than you and I can whine about that from my little "smoking tent" on the back deck.
Whine as much as you like! ;) At the time being we are flooded with rain. Should have sent some of it to California, by the looks of it.
Not to act like a typical paranoid American, but how do we know "Inger" is who he says he is and not a Russian bot? Just asking.
If you are who you say you are, Inger, thank you for your work. I too have enjoyed and benefited from this forum for many years.
You mentioned a new version of the web site. It that this that I am on? Or is there a new link to the new one?
Thank you again for your work, (If you are indeed Inger.)
gene
If you doubt that I am what I say, please contact the site owner. Not through this forum, though, that will just end up in my inbox, but go to the index page of this site, http://www.upholster.com and find a contact link.
I would rather not post an email address here out of fear of getting spammed (!), but if you trust your fellow forum member Baileyuph, he can confirm that I'm the webmaster here, as I have been mailing with him regarding those awful images that appeared some time ago instead of smileys and some avatars. He also knows that I'm not a 'he'.
Besides, a Russian bot - or any bot - would not be able to post relevant answers to your question/comments.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain named Gene. Sometimes our sarcasm does not translate well to the internet and even more to Norwegian. I feel confident you are who you say you are.
Several years ago Ken informed us he found a buyer for this forum. But to my knowledge he never told us if the deal went through. And we kept getting posts from him once in a while. It was confusing. Thanks for clearing that up.
I think the biggest struggle this forum has encountered over the last 7 or 8 years is the loss in active membership. There was a time when new posts would fill a whole page. Lately we may go 2 or 3 days without any new posts.
If you would like suggestions how to solve this problem consider asking the members.
Once again thank you for your hard work.
Ed :)
Inger is now responsible for supporting this site. She demonstrated a high skill level in fixing spam that
had become a major problem on my log-in.
Inger studied the problem, got me back on site, I am grateful to her service. She will prove over and
over to be an asset.
Thank you again Inger.
Doyle
So, I have made my own admin account here, which I will be using from now on.
I have to ask you one thing: If you discover a discussion started by a spammer, please don't post anything in the same discussion. Removing it is more involved then, and besides, anything you post will then disappear along with the thread itself.
And BTW, thanks for verifying my existence, Baileyuph. ;)
"Besides, a Russian bot - or any bot - would not be able to post relevant answers to your question/comments."
I could say that bots are getting pretty sophisticated these days. But I won't. :-)
I literally learned about Poe's Law this evening.
Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers or viewers as a sincere expression of the parodied views.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
Inger: I do apologize for any trouble I caused by not making it clear that I was joking. Maybe the "paranoid American" comment was a bit too real. :-)
We had a spammer a few years ago and so many people replied to it with such funny comments that Ken posted a note saying that he was having too much fun reading it to delete it immediately.
I will certainly not reply to any more spammers.
And again, on a serious note, thank you for your help. I just got my first smart phone this year so I certainly do not have the tech savvy to be of any help to you. If I did, I would certainly volunteer.
No problem, Gene. It was no trouble for me at all. I could of course also have posted a link to this forum: https://www.coffeecup.com/forums/ where I have 'resided' for the last 11+ years and have submitted the odd post now and then. It was actually there that Ken found me 4 years ago. Here is the start of our acquaintance ;) http://www.coffeecup.com/forums/website-design-and-development/backgrounds/?post_id=221353&page=1
Inger:
Have you ever heard of the forum software Invision Power Board ?
Mojo
No, I haven't. Maybe I'll take a look, but I'm not the one calling the shots here regarding this forum. I only do what the site owner tells me.
I may perhaps change the colour scheme here, so that it fits in with the newly launched site itself. We'll see what the 'boss' says. ;)
I wonder if this forum switches software will past posts transfer to new software.
I think one of the problems this forum has retaining new active members is the difficulty to post pictures. This forum was created before Facebook became popular. Back then we had 30 or 40 active members. One by one they joined groups on Facebook, a site that is much easier to use. This Forum uses outside storage for photo use. Photobucket has always been a hassle to use and lately it is so unbearably aggravating most members refuse to use it. This is sad because photos are a big part of the discussion on this forum.
I'm wondering if this program Mojo speaks of is more user friendly and maybe adds some neat Facebook options like a thumbs up if you like a comment someone has made. Or sub comments when responding directly to a posters comment so not to lose the idea behind the main topic.
The more active this forum becomes the more clicks your "boss" gets on his website. We all know that is the main reason he is the sponsor here. And the more money he makes the more money you make.
It seems like this forums software is outdated and that may be one reason you are having a hard time learning it. That's not a put down to you Inger, just an observation.
If you can explain how these ideas can benefit him he may be more open to receive them.
I agree with Kody 110 % - photobucket has become a brute to use -
SA
I have enabled something called 'Karma', see left, below your name. I tried some, and a '+1' appeared.
I have also tried uploading an image, but that doesn't seem to work. Have to look into that...
I have searched for a way to publish images. In the settings it says 'path not found'.
Then I tried uploading an image to a server and with plain html to show it - no way.
Tried bulletin board code - nada.
Tried php - zilch.
I understand your frustration over not being able to post images. I'll see if I can find a way.
I could be wrong but it was always my understanding that Ken's server didn't have enough memory to handle all the data that thousands of images would take.
If you can program with HTML and write code you are far more advanced than I am. I am an amateur when it comes to this stuff. I'm a point, drag and click guy.
If you can figure out a way to upload images without using an offsite source you will advance this forum light years ahead of where we are now.
Btw I hit the applaud button under your "karma" but I'm not sure if anything happened.
Okay I get it now. I just applauded and smited Steve and he got 1 point for each. Sorry for the smite Steve I'm not sure if I can erase it now.
Okay I just applauded Steve again and his smite went away.
My Karma is positive.
Invision Power Board is a high end forum software used by many different companies. The NFL, MBA, NBA, Madonna and other recording artists, NASA the list goes on and on. It is an amazing piece of software and very powerful. It is extremely secure.
Just wondered if you had heard of it before Inger. My son is the CEO of Invision and owns the company.
www.invisioncommunity.com/
Mojo
I have no idea how different web sites post photos but what I find great are these estate sale sites. Any average home owner with very little computer knowledge can post 50 photos easily.. On the weekends I can look at items for sale before driving the the home. What kind of program gives them that ability ?
SA
(https://forum.upholster.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Feikweb.com%2Fstuff%2Fautumn-evening2.jpg&hash=a4a1c127cd515c979c2d5e6d7f4da8a4)
So, finally I got an image to display here.
What I did was uploading it to my own server, and then linked to it using BB code.
It is not possible to upload images to the upholstery server, the reason might be what codydog says. I have given up investigating into it after spending hours on it last night.
If you are not familiar with the method I used to make the image display, I could try to explain it to you. I haven't yet checked if images on Facebook, Instagram etc will work. I may try.
Not sure what a BB code is. But it looks good that you got an image to upload. Certainly being able to post images from IG would be great for me, as I am always seeing things that I would like to share or ask questions about.
Off topic: do you see aurora borealis where you are in Norway?
To post an image, you need to have some place to upload it to the web. For those of you who have a private or company website, that shouldn't be a problem. What I do is creating a dedicated folder, at the time being I have one called 'stuff', and then I uploaded the image of the full moon to that. to display it, you need the path to it, mine is http://eikweb.com/stuff/autumn-evening2.jpg. To make it show here in this forum, you need to place the BB code bits [ img ] in front of the path, and [ / img ] after the path. Mind you, you need to remove all the spaces! I just put them in so that the code itself displays, otherwise you wouldn't have seen it.
I did test with an image from Face book, but that didn't work. I think you need some place to upload to where all identifying path comes before the actual file name, not after, like Face book, Drop box etc..
And yes, we sometimes see the aurora borealis, or northern light, but where I live, in the south, it is not as impressive as further north.
I had surprisingly good luck last night posting some photobucket shots I have to Ian's post about leather. I had less pop ups and problems than usual and I copied the line above Thumb nail ,and pasted it directly into the body of my post. It behaved like we used to do with the "Copy thumb nail--insert photo---paste" drill that we used to use.
Works up here. Somebody want to try down in the States or overseas?
Thanks again for the ongoing hard work Inger
Against my better judgment I gave photobucket one last try. And Darren was right about less popups. But that was the only good thing. I uploaded this image. Once again photobucket kept asking for my password. After three trys I was able to get to the upload button. The first time I tried it sent me to a page asking me to upgrade my account. No thank you. I finally get my immage uploaded and now trying to figure out where it went. Dark screen appears, not black but like wearing sunglasses. Wait, wait, wait, upgrade? No thank you.
So I'm scrolling through my album looking for the image, I hit next. Now I'm on a page from Houzz advertising Edgless Eco Lounge Chair. Yes I'm a member of Houzz but how does Photobucket know that?
I finally find my image and copy the data. My computer is now running very slow.
I come back to the forum To post my image and hear voices in the background. Odd?. I shrink my page and find video advertising on my home page. Delete.
So the whole process only took 10 minutes. Yay!
Here is the project I'v been working on the last two weeks. It'll be done tomarrow. Yay! More photos coming up but not from photobucket.
(https://forum.upholster.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1179.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx386%2FEdwinNorthuis%2Fth_DSCN2205.jpg&hash=fb9f8500c38097eecf472bf7f851b6ff) (http://s1179.photobucket.com/user/EdwinNorthuis/media/DSCN2205.jpg.html)
I tried a pic from a Flickr account that I have. That didn't work. I guess it is what I said above, that the picture file name has to come last in the path. At Photobucket the file name does come last, as Kodydog found out above. I have never used Photobucket, but it sounds like a hassle to use.
I think if you pay for a photobucket upgrade the hassle goes away. I refuse to pay for a service I already can't stand to use.
Is the photo you posted one you took? Very nice picture. Is that in Norway?
One thing to consider when trying to figure this whole image thing out, We often get amateurs asking about technical aspects of upholstery. These amateurs are prime candidates for the wares your boss is trying to sell. Almost every time they ask a question we ask for a picture to help clarify the problem. These pictures need the ability to be enlarged so we can get a good look at the problem. I noticed your image cannot be enlarged. The thing is often these amateurs give up because there is no easy way to post a picture. Its much easier for them to go to one of the groups on Facebook.
This may be why Photobucket was first used way back when this forum was started. Photobucket gives me a thumbnail image to post on the forum. If someone wants to see a larger picture they click on the thumbnail and it brings them to my Photobucket account and a larger picture. Back in the day this may have been good idea. It saved the server a ton of memory. And when I joined this group Photobucket was much easier to use.
I currently use Google Photos. A simple program to use but they only give me a link with no thumbnail photo.
Thought you might enjoy this midcentury scan design sofa,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qvR0hOmADqEmnyOq2
X2 about the Google photo. But most people won't go to that length.
And, sweeet mid century sofa, kody.
I thought that we had hijacked the topic 'Hurricane Irma' long enough, so I split the topic and gave it a new name. I also made it sticky, so that it is easier to find, just in case you want it.
Good call
Inger can you and any others please help explain what im doing incorrectly;
When i try using the lower page area login i get an error has occured. This happens using my phone if that matters, i can either use the far right spot/button for the enter key or even trying to use the one on my ph keyboard, same resulting error. I certainly can use the other login so wanted to post the question.
Thank you
Floyd
That seems to have got me into trouble. I tried the same as you did, and all of a sudden I was back on the browser index page. I'm not sure if it has to do with the forum or with my computer, need to do some research and testing. The problem I see on a phone screen is, that the buttons and fields have no name/text, so that I actually don't know what I'm clicking on. Have to speak to the guy who upgraded this forum.
Stick to what you know is working, and if I find a way to solve the problem, I'll post it here.
You may have noticed that posts from the last couple of days are not here any more. That is because our web host had to restore a backup from before Nov 1st. Sorry about that.
Testing smileys :) :( ;) :o :D 8)
I was asked to enable smileys...
There seems to be no way to display the smileys so that they can be selected by clicking on them. I've gone through the whole configuration and not found any such option. The ones above here have been typed. In order to see how they are typed, click on 'Quote', then you can see the actual characters.
Bummer!
Typing a smiley is the closest some the the uphosterers on this forum ever come to actually smiling. :) :( ;) :o :D 8)
gene
Hi, I need tome help:
After having nuked a spammer who had 4 posts here, I'm looking at Sonamwsingh and Capper12 and am a bit in doubt whether you would classify them as spammers or not. They have both posted in 'The business of Upholstery' (Capper you will see, the other guy is in the thread about furniture has changed or something.) They put up a link, but have actually nothing important to say. Should they stay or... ? I will rely on you who are in the uph business here ;)
In the past, we've had spammers that would start off with a generic post just to get established, and then bombard us with spam.
I thought the same thing when I read those new posts.
I would guess someone who has a legitimate web site and posts a link in a place where it might sell product isn't a spammer. New folks tread slowly with posts here -
I would watch them for a while - I didn't think they have done anything to be booted off.
The site owner would have viable input but maybe an assistant posted this for visibility in their company ?
SA