Frequently Asked Questions

[TheGerkuman]

Badger Soundcloud/Bandcamp into making one that works for forums.

[a mystery]

Oh. Oh well. Also, isn't there something about banned member discussion and joking-about being frowned upon?

[Frogging101]

Oh. Oh well. Also, isn't there something about banned member discussion and joking-about being frowned upon?

 

There is: 

 

1. Talking about banned members. Whenever an SSMB joke involves a banned member, it's degrading and beyond immature. Just recently, people were talking about hacking Silver_hedgie. No. Just fucking no. I don't care if you were joking about that shit. You shouldn't have been making a meme out of him in the first place because to immortalize someone in the form of constant humiliation is already bad enough, but to even talk about interfering with his life is just sick, you fucking children. So no more Silver_hedgie or other banned member jokes, we've had enough.

 

It's worded pretty harshly (I guess that's justified in this case because of the nature of the jokes people were making) but there it is.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Frogging101

[Kiah]

I hope that it is okay that I put this question here in this topic, as I am not sure if many other members are having the same issue. It's in regards to the Personal Messenger (PM) system.  Anyone that has seen my posts here at the SSMB know that they are usually very long, so one can only imagine how lengthy my PMs are. But that being said, unfortunately more times than none the messenger would glitch out on me and I would lose EVERYTHING that I wrote and would have to start all over due to having no type of recovery system or function available.

 

I noticed that when making a post on the forum, there is a "Last auto saved:(with a specific time)" at the bottom left corner of the message board, which has proved to be a "lifesaver" for me at times that I would make a mistake or encounter a glitch that would cause me to lose my writing, but the auto save function made it possible to recover my writing fortunately.

 

My question is that if the "auto save" function is available when making posts, it is possible to have that same "auto save" function with the PM system as well?

 

I hope that it is possible as well as hope that it wouldn't be too much trouble to incorporate that within the PM system. I know I am not the only one having this problem as other members here have told me that they have lost messages due to glitches in the PM system as well. It is just extremely frustrating to write a long message via PM, only to lose it for who knows what reason so I would appreciate if a recovery system was put into place with the PMs like the posts do.

[Lady Soniko]

*Snip*

 

I don't think there is, PM's are private ways of communication and the "auto save" function is basically copying what you wrote to a mini clip board on the board's system, which means the system also has a copy of your confidential message, not that it matters since the next time you post on the boards, your original PM auto save will be erased in favour of a new post auto save.

 

All I can recommend is that you write your reply out in something like Wordpad/Notepad/Microsoft Word before hand and copy and paste it into the PM box, then click the "Remove Format" button just to remove any discrepancies your post might have picked up from the program (i.e. white box around text, foreign font not recognized by the board etc.)

 

I hope that helps! 

[SteffieMusings]

Besides the ones in the archived section, is there a rule how long a topic can be inactive before someone's no longer allowed to post there? I'm making certain since a couple of forums I've seen had a rule that if it's been inactive for more than three months, then it's considered dead.

 

Thank you.

[Nepenthe]

We don't have a time limit on topics really, but the discussion value rules due come into play more than ever. If you're bumping a two year old topic to merely say "that's cool," then we kinda frown upon that, and in more egregious cases will close the topic altogether. If you have a huge update for something, or an interesting way to kick off the conversation again, we'll be more likely to leave it alone. It's basically about the quality of your posts and the topic's as well. Really, some topics died for a reason. xP

[Frogging101]

I don't think there is, PM's are private ways of communication and the "auto save" function is basically copying what you wrote to a mini clip board on the board's system, which means the system also has a copy of your confidential message, not that it matters since the next time you post on the boards, your original PM auto save will be erased in favour of a new post auto save.

Well, your messages are already stored in plaintext in the database, so if there is a reason for it then this is not it. But yeah, I'd also recommend writing out long posts/PMs in a separate program. I've never had a message disappear on me, but I sometimes do it anyway on occasion.

[Tara]

I don't think there is, PM's are private ways of communication and the "auto save" function is basically copying what you wrote to a mini clip board on the board's system, which means the system also has a copy of your confidential message, not that it matters since the next time you post on the boards, your original PM auto save will be erased in favour of a new post auto save.

 

All I can recommend is that you write your reply out in something like Wordpad/Notepad/Microsoft Word before hand and copy and paste it into the PM box, then click the "Remove Format" button just to remove any discrepancies your post might have picked up from the program (i.e. white box around text, foreign font not recognized by the board etc.)

 

I hope that helps! 

 

 

Well, your messages are already stored in plaintext in the database, so if there is a reason for it then this is not it. But yeah, I'd also recommend writing out long posts/PMs in a separate program. I've never had a message disappear on me, but I sometimes do it anyway on occasion.

 

What Frogging said and the fact that admins have can access member PM's in the ACP anyway.  So yeah, I recommend just typing your posts in another Word Processor and then pasting it in.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Akito

[Frogging101]

What Frogging said and the fact that admins have can access member PM's in the ACP anyway.

I'm not sure this is the case, actually. I remember reading somewhere (probably the discussion boards for IP.Board) that there's no admin interface for viewing member PMs. That said, whether there's an interface for accessing them on the forum software is irrelevant because anyone with DB access (Like bmn and/or Dreadknux, probably) can read them directly from the database.

[Tara]

I'm not sure this is the case, actually. I remember reading somewhere (probably the discussion boards for IP.Board) that there's no admin interface for viewing member PMs. That said, whether there's an interface for accessing them on the forum software is irrelevant because anyone with DB access (Like bmn and/or Dreadknux, probably) can read them directly from the database.

On an IP board I administered for, there was a feature where you could directly view PM's. (A glitch in the system made it so that you could only see the first page, though)  That may have just been an addon, but I don't think it was.  But you're right about admins with database access being able to view them anyway.  We made frequent use of that ability as well.

[bmn]

There's no page within the ACP that allows us to read PMs (barring the "read the database directly" option), but there is a feature to log in as a member without knowing their password. If this feature is used - and as far as I know, it's not except for troubleshooting if a member reports an issue that only affects them - you would be able to see signs of that, for example, the "last visit" time at the bottom of each page, or having read topics you know you haven't.

 

In general we won't go snooping into PMs at all - they're called private for a reason. If a PM is reported, then moderators have the ability to add themselves to the conversation to read it in full. They will appear in the list on the left side of that page in that case.

[Tara]

Ah, so the feature I'm thinking of was just an add-on, then.  Nevermind! ^^

 

Either way, its ability to be seen in some way or form pretty much means that having an Auto-draft feature on PM's should be possible.

[Stritix]

The main site has recently been redesigned. Will the board receive the same redesign?

[Iggy]

On some signatures, I see text in cursive. How can you do this? Thanks.

[Frogging101]

Since the redesign, there is no Donate button to be found anywhere on the main site except for this orphaned page. Is this intentional? Does TSS no longer intend to collect donations from its users and visitors?

EDIT: Also, what's with the default avatar? It still can't seem to make up its mind on what it is.

Edited July 24, 2013 by Frogging101

[Mauro Fonseca]

On some signatures, I see text in cursive. How can you do this? Thanks.

Assuming it's not just an image with the text, when you post you have a little option up there, with the bold buttons and the like, to choose a font.

 

This is the closest I found to a cursive font though. Do you have a link to any of the sigs you saw with cursive?

[Tara]

This is the closest I found to a cursive font though.

Lol, that just comes out as Comic Sans for me.  Nothing to close to cursive at all.

 

I think there's only one way it could be cursive, assuming it's not an image with the font in it:

1) They're using special characters.

 

2) A cursive font is one of SSMB's alternative fonts.  Typically, when designing a CSS template, a site will encode a rule that will substitute one font for another if a user doesn't have that particular font installed on his or her computer.

 

Given that she probably can't see the font she's looking for in the drop-down menu, I'm assuming it's the former.  Alternatively, it's possible that the person in question could have inputted their own font into the BB code.  In HTML, the font will display for anyone who has that font installed on their computer, but it will default to either Verdana or Times New Roman for those who don't.  I don't know if the same rule applies to BB code, though, as I've never tried it.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Yeah I know it's Comic Sans, but as I said, it's the closest thing there is available on SSMB's fonts

[Iggy]

Assuming it's not just an image with the text, when you post you have a little option up there, with the bold buttons and the like, to choose a font.

This is the closest I found to a cursive font though. Do you have a link to any of the sigs you saw with cursive?

I'm having trouble finding a signature, but I found a profile that has an About Me with some cursive front. http://board.sonicstadium.org/user/5543-super-spindash/ Edited July 29, 2013 by SheWhoRantsTooMuch

[Lady Soniko]

You mean the Comic Sans font?

 

This Font?

[Iggy]

You mean the Comic Sans font?

This Font?

Yes, that one! Thank you!

EDIT: That's weird. In your post, it was in cursive but when I quote it, it's not...

Edited July 29, 2013 by SheWhoRantsTooMuch

[Tara]

Your browser must be doing something weird.  Can you screenshot it being in "cursive?"

[Iggy]

Your browser must be doing something weird.  Can you screenshot it being in "cursive?"

Do you mean you want me to screenshot what the cursive font looks like, or what happens when I try and do it? The cursive font doesn't work for me.

[Tara]

Do you mean you want me to screenshot what the cursive font looks like, or what happens when I try and do it? The cursive font doesn't work for me.

A screenshot of when you see the post in cursive.  It might help to know if it's something you're browser is doing to make the font cursive or if there's a misunderstanding somewhere.