Some Help Needed: Site Beta

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Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Hi all! As I've mentioned before I've been working on a new site for planewalker, something to get the bugs out of this site set and get us into something with a little more options nad power under the hood. Most importantly to me at least, the new site would give me more time to work on more important things like building our community and managing our project list!

But I'm now at that stage where I need to get some feedback. If you could take a moment to swing by the beta site at: /_drupal/ and play around I would greatly appreciate it. This is NOT the final style or appearance of the site, and there are a number of buggy elements as it is only a partial load of data from our main site. There's little need to tell me that the forum section doesn't match the style of the rest of it (I can see it)..

So, let me list for you what I would like feedback on at this moment:

1) Does the reorganization of our sections look and feel about right? I've tried to divide it along the line of fluff vs. crunch to make it easy to go for the bits you want.

2) Does article creation seem to work well for you? Is it too clunky or complicated?

3) How about the encyclopedia - is that also too clunky to work with? Wiki style freelinking, aka title+here should work in the encyclopedia - does it?

If I could get feedback on those three core elements it would be great. I plan to wipe the data out before a full install of the site, so don't worry about putting up test material.

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

I would really prefer for the Planewalker forums, when navigated to, to be displayed on the whole screen (like they are now) rather than being encased within the layout of the main page.

(Otherwise, website layout looks OK so far.)

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Own feedback (and notes so I don't forget):

1) Management staff should get a side box listing newly submitted material for approval.

2) Each user should also get a box listing the material they have in the queue so nothing becomes hard to find.

3) And large images in Artist's Alley need to be cut to size to fit in page.

4) Also make sure user avatars transfer

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Will the new version of the website also include stuff like "There are currently X players online" and so on?

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

'Zimrazim' wrote:
I would really prefer for the Planewalker forums, when navigated to, to be displayed on the whole screen (like they are now) rather than being encased within the layout of the main page.

(Otherwise, website layout looks OK so far.)

Hm, good point. How about I rip out the sidebar boxes in that area at the least to give you back one column? They're giving data you'd already know about in the forums after all. I may be able to move critical parts of the navigation out to someplace else in the page as well to get that second one back to you...

HeavenShallBurn's picture
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Joined: 2008-04-09
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

1.) Reorganization looks good. Neat, split up into easily found and complimentary subcategories. Navigates intuitively.

2.)Haven't tried article creation yet or the Encyclopedia those will be next.

3.) I agree with the above poster that the forums are better as a full screen rather than contained in the main page. Might be different on a larger or widescreen monitor. But on the size I'm running now It gets compressed a bit much squeezing it into the main page.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

'Zimrazim' wrote:
Will the new version of the website also include stuff like "There are currently X players online" and so on?

It can, yes.

There's lots of benefits here to moving to the Drupal platform. (And we *are* moving to it - I just can't keep maintaining the current code and fulfill my duties as a moderator and participant on site.) We just need to make sure it feels comfortable once we settle in.

Since Drupal is an open source system - we have a Lot more available features. To give you an idea of the power of this system - there are major media outlets that are using Drupal now. www.miami.com for example.

The features I've already turned on for when we move include:

Buddy lists, Blogs, Friends Pages, File upload, and the ability to have multiple Wiki's on different subjects going on the site at the same time. Plus RSS feeds and I think I saw a Twitter feed system available as well. And then there's the upgraded search system...

Also for management purposes - articles will automagically appear in the right sections, on the front page, and in any RSS feeds making article management a snap.

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

'Clueless' wrote:
Hm, good point. How about I rip out the sidebar boxes in that area at the least to give you back one column? They're giving data you'd already know about in the forums after all. I may be able to move critical parts of the navigation out to someplace else in the page as well to get that second one back to you...

I'm not sure which parts of the website have the most visits, but I mostly want to get to the forums easily, then stay there. Also, to get the most current information on, say, Rrakkma, I don't go to the Rrakkma page on the main site -- I go to the Rrakkma forum. (Self-promotion, I know, since I post a lot there.)

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

I would honestly like to change that over time - to have the forum and the site section complement each other and build on each other. I'd love to have PDFs and other features available in one that aren't there in the other. And I know that right now it is very easy to ignore the Rrakkma section. There's just nothing going on there, and no one pulling forum work into that section for PDFs or articles.

I was considering adding a set of 'useful links' for sub forums to notify those who are mostly forum users of new material in those locations. Those would probably be placed someone at the top or bottom of the page of the forum display as a convenience.

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

'Clueless' wrote:
And I know that right now it is very easy to ignore the Rrakkma section. There's just nothing going on there, and no one pulling forum work into that section for PDFs or articles.

You know, I might talk with Azure about that. Laughing out loud

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Hm... yeah I've totally got to get this update done so I can hop back into the stream of work on the forums don't I? Smiling I've been *wanting* to do a Gith release for a long long time.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Some more notes to add for myself:
1. Reduce the number of about keywords - we have WAY too many to be even remotely reasonable
2. Speak to Christopher re: Factions section being submittable to all (Answer: It's a go, we'll have a faction section)
3. Check on file uploads as nodes
4. Taxonomy access control (see #1) to automagically assign a submission to an editor and give correct permissions for content bits.
5. Menus / Sections are taxonomy. Period. (see #4)
6. Wiki css - links not showing clearly - they should
7. Wiki links - need more clearly named link for making a new wiki page
8. Automate Wiki 'starts with' tagging if possible?
9. Make sure edit button is also clearly labeled in wiki
10. Remove the extra teaser, comment windows for the wiki form interface (ditto any other wierd unnessecaries)
11. No scrolling down to get to the menu - move encyclopedia menu to center column, with CSS to make it column stackables for easy access
12. Alternatively, place a search bar instead of menu navigation
13. Check on bug in wiki edit where unless you own the page you can't edit it

Agamemnon's picture
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Joined: 2004-11-17
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

I like the format and set up of the Planar Encyclopedia. I'll have to revisit the site when I have more time to explore the other items available for review.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Thanks Smiling It looks like I've got a good base so far at least, so I'm going to do a wipe and reinstall in the next few days based on feedback then ask for another round of it. Smiling

Eldan's picture
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Joined: 2006-12-04
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Pro:
-Nice, clean layout.
-Cool, glowing Logo
-I never quite liked that greenish background colour

Contra:
To me, the site looks a little... empty. Sterile. I really miss the changing pictures in the upper right corner, and the changing planewalker Banner in the forums. They gave a great feel of Planescapyness.

ripvanwormer's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2004-10-05
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

Where would all the "Portals" material - planar sites and realms and so forth - be kept? I'm not seeing an obvious place.

The lay-out is clean, and I like the new logo and the blog format for new material.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

It's not terribly obvious but one of the menu options is Planar Portals. I may need to bring that into a more blatant position in the final version. The great part with the way Drupal handles it is that articles will now automagically drop into the right section and the right portal location without outside intervention to keep them in order. Eye-wink

I think I have enough feedback at this point to get started on the next round of revisions. I'm glad so far it's on track Smiling And thank you for mentioning the rotating images Eldan - I wasn't sure how gimicky those felt to folks so wasn't sure if I should include th em or not in the next version. Eye-wink

ripvanwormer's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2004-10-05
Some Help Needed: Site Beta

'Clueless' wrote:
It's not terribly obvious but one of the menu options is Planar Portals.

Uh, which one? I'm still not seeing it.

It's Kytos' Hooks, by the way, rather than Kyto's Hooks.

Lugotl's picture
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Joined: 2008-03-05
Planescape Beta

Looks OK to me. I like things hierarchical, but flat. I would go no deeper than two levels below the first. The navigation menu on the left should function like folders. Click on a heading and it opens up to the next level. The menu should persist on the left.

Iavas's picture
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factotums
Joined: 2006-07-12
Well, now that the new

Well, now that the new version of the site is up, I finally come up with a critique. I'm sorry if this is too late to be of any use.

It could just be me, but the forum and encyclopedia buttons on the top right of the main page are too small and hard to find. I mean, I knew that there was a forum and it still took me a few minutes to find the link to it. It doesn't bode well for new arrivals. Again, it could just be me not seeing the obvious, but I thought I'd through that out there just in case.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Noted- I'll probably make

Noted- I'll probably make that larger with a CSS tweak shortly here.

As a side note - it also seems like we're having problems with image URLs so I'm going to see what I can do about that.

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
When I attempt to make a

When I attempt to make a forum post (a new thread, not an addition to an existing one)...

The body text is overlapped by the site column on the right (the one that says New Forum Posts, etc.), and I can't see what I'm typing!  (This is true in both IE 6 and Mozilla 2.)

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
Another one... Right now,

Another one...

Right now, PW.com seems to think I'm logged in twice (according to the Online users indicator).  This could be because, with Session #1 open in Browser #1 (Mozilla), I opened another session in a different browser (IE), logged in there, then closed the IE browser window without logging out properly.

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
re: Logging in - thats

re: Logging in - thats actually normal and caused exactly as you think it is. It's just tracking how many cookies it's given out in your name that are still good for logging in. All should continue to function as normal.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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re: A new thread - what

re: A new thread - what resolution screen are you at?

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
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1024x768.

1024x768.

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
And are you on full screen

And are you on full screen mode or using a partial window?

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
I started with a maximized

I started with a maximized window, but not Full Screen mode.

I just tried resizing the window, then tried full screen mode, but the same thing happens -- the body text is overlapped by the site column on the right.

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
If I use the "quote" button

If I use the "quote" button (for one of your posts on this thread, for example), enter some text into the text area, then press "preview," I get a bunch of error messages.  (Want me to copy/paste them?)

It looks like attempting to add a comment to the thread, using the quote button, does not automatically inherit the subject line of the thread.  (It might be good to have some kind of iterating default subject line here, when someone is adding to an existing thread, if a subject line is required.)

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Hm, ok - I believe you're

Hm, ok - I believe you're seeing this but I can't replicate it on my end here. So we'll file this one under 'huh?!' and I'll keep looking into it. My first guess is that you're seeing an overlap due to the floating sidebar CSS. Usually this is caused by there not being enough space in the middle part of a page left to hold the content there after the space for the left and right are taken up. Hence - the spill over.

But I've switched to the same resolution you have and it's still not happening for me. So I'm going to keep looking. In the meantime though there is an overlap the form fields themselves should still be accessible to you, it's usually mostly a visual effect.

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
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Is there some way I can send

Is there some way I can send you a screenshot?  (By email maybe?)

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Jurgen's picture
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Joined: 2008-06-03
I am having similar problems

I am having similar problems to Zimrazim. Also borders seem to bee overlaping each other and obscuring text such as right now the window in which I am typing is partially obscured by the "Recent Blog Posts window. Also when I edit posts I am sent back to the first page of the thread. Also after I clicked reply I was able to post  but when the box for text came up I got this

 

  • warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/content/p/l/a/planew2/html/modules/node/node.module on line 521.
  • warning: implode() [function.implode]: Invalid arguments passed in /home/content/p/l/a/planew2/html/modules/node/node.module on line 525.
  • user warning: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1 query: SELECT n.nid, n.vid, n.type, n.status, n.created, n.changed, n.comment, n.promote, n.sticky, r.timestamp AS revision_timestamp, r.title, r.body, r.teaser, r.log, r.format, u.uid, u.name, u.picture, u.data FROM _drupal_node n INNER JOIN _drupal_users u ON u.uid = n.uid INNER JOIN _drupal_node_revisions r ON r.vid = n.vid WHERE in /home/content/p/l/a/planew2/html/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 172.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Hm - I've been seeing that

Hm - I've been seeing that warning come up a few times too. It doesn't seem to actually cause harm to the post though, the form still works. So I'll be tracking it down.

Screenshots can go to: [REDACTED] - please send them along so I can confirm that it is what I think it is. Also include what resolution you're on, and browser and browser version you're working with. (IE6 and IE7 handle things very diffrerently). That should give me a good base of information to start finding out what's going on.

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
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In the "New Forum Posts"

In the "New Forum Posts" section on the main website (far right), it lists the first poster to a recently updated thread, not the most recent poster to a recently updated thread.

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
The forum system is not

The forum system is not displaying the results of dice rolls made prior to the codebase change.

 

Edit:  I can't get dice to work at all, actually.

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
OK, I'm trying to post to

OK, I'm trying to post to BoGr. The formatting (line breaks, font text size, text color, etc.) look fine in the edit screen, but the formatting gets eaten in the actual post. >.<

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
After making a post in a

After making a post in a multi-page thread, the user is returned to the first page in the thread.  The user should be returned to the last page in the thread.

 

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Zimrazim's picture
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Factol
Joined: 2007-01-14
The "disable rich-text" link

The "disable rich-text" link never changes.  Is there an "enable rich-text" option somewhere?

__________________

BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Hm.

Zimrazim wrote:

The forum system is not displaying the results of dice rolls made prior to the codebase change.

Edit: I can't get dice to work at all, actually.

They weren't converted over - but now they aren't even working?? (*tries a test*)

 

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Huh - ok - the doce rolls

Huh - ok - the doce rolls didn't come through. Thats a huge bug, that *was* working before.

Iavas's picture
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factotums
Joined: 2006-07-12
I'm on maximized window of

I'm on maximized window of the latest version of IE with a resolution of 1920x1200. When I view this particular thread (not sure about other threads), each post after the first couple begins further to the left and everything becomes progressively more misaligned with the central white stripe of the background and thus hard to read. Also, the quick reply window is so far left that it is almost completely off the screen.

 

When I clicked reply, I got the following error message:

  • warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/content/p/l/a/planew2/html/modules/node/node.module on line 521.
  • warning: implode() [function.implode]: Invalid arguments passed in /home/content/p/l/a/planew2/html/modules/node/node.module on line 525.
  • user warning: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1 query: SELECT n.nid, n.vid, n.type, n.status, n.created, n.changed, n.comment, n.promote, n.sticky, r.timestamp AS revision_timestamp, r.title, r.body, r.teaser, r.log, r.format, u.uid, u.name, u.picture, u.data FROM _drupal_node n INNER JOIN _drupal_users u ON u.uid = n.uid INNER JOIN _drupal_node_revisions r ON r.vid = n.vid WHERE in /home/content/p/l/a/planew2/html/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 172.
  • Clueless's picture
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    Webmonkey
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    re: disable link

    Zimrazim wrote:

    The "disable rich-text" link never changes. Is there an "enable rich-text" option somewhere?

     

    Your user profile options should include a section on enabling the rich text. I'm already working on finding out why the link isn't working, it hasn't since tinyMCE was installed.

    Clueless's picture
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    Webmonkey
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    mmph.

    Iavas wrote:

    I'm on maximized window of the latest version of IE with a resolution of 1920x1200. When I view this particular thread (not sure about other threads), each post after the first couple begins further to the left and everything becomes progressively more misaligned with the central white stripe of the background and thus hard to read.

    Sounds like there's an unclosed div or table in the thread posts, or in someones sig on that thread. Link please?

    Zimrazim's picture
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    Factol
    Joined: 2007-01-14
    OK, I went into my profile

    OK, I went into my profile and made sure rich-text is set to enabled.

    Still can't get font colors to work, though.

    __________________

    BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
    1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
    2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
    3) ?????
    4) Profit!

    Clueless's picture
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    Webmonkey
    Joined: 2008-06-30
    red blue green <-- looks

    red blue green <-- looks like the rich editor color tags work in the text editor but get filtered out... hm.

    I think I know where to fix that.

    I'll also see what's up with the BBCode ones

    Clueless's picture
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    Webmonkey
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    Ah HA! There we go. Had to

    Ah HA! There we go. Had to turn off the overly strict HTML filter to get the colors and sizes back. You should see it all working now.

     

    Iavas's picture
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    factotums
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    Sorry, link to what? The

    Sorry, link to what? The thread where the misalignment's happening? If so, it is this one, the one I'm posting in.

    *Link to a picture (1920x1200 resolution) of the problem*

     

    Also, when I clicked on reply of your red blue green post, Clueless, I could see the appropriate colors in the preview of the post I was replying to, whereas I could not see them in the actual thread. Hope that helps somewhat.

    Zimrazim's picture
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    Factol
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    yay

    Clueless wrote:

    Ah HA! There we go. Had to turn off the overly strict HTML filter to get the colors and sizes back. You should see it all working now.

     

    Yay! Mind flayer mauve is back!

    __________________

    BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
    1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
    2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
    3) ?????
    4) Profit!

    Zimrazim's picture
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    Factol
    Joined: 2007-01-14
    General:  I'm seeing the

    General:  I'm seeing the "Internal server error" page much more often.  Prior to changing the codebase, I very rarely got this page.

    __________________

    BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
    1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
    2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
    3) ?????
    4) Profit!

    Clueless's picture
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    Webmonkey
    Joined: 2008-06-30
    Iavas: What's Crazy Browser?

    Iavas: What's Crazy Browser?

    Iavas's picture
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    factotums
    Joined: 2006-07-12
    It's a free browser

    It's a free browser that works off of IE (to the point where it doesn't work if IE isn't working), so for all intents and purposes it is IE. Just to make sure it isn't a fluke of the browser, I did check the same page with regular old IE and it gave me the same results.

    Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.