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[Sticky] The New Forum

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Though the above showed straight away 🤷‍♂️


 
Posted : 09/03/2025 2:47 pm
 PJay
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Now here's an odd one.

I've just posted a topic to the Bike Forum. It's shown straight away at the top of the Latest page along with a link saying it's in the Bike Forum, but if I go to the Bike Forum proper, it's not there.


 
Posted : 09/03/2025 3:01 pm
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^ same as mine.

Though I can see my latest posts on the

Anything Better Than A Sonder Camino?

provided I am not logged in!


 
Posted : 09/03/2025 3:05 pm
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Still having issues with the fixed forum width being too wide for my low-tech monitor.  This is the right-hand side of the messaging window.

image.png


 
Posted : 09/03/2025 9:15 pm
 PJay
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We seem to have a delay of a number of hours again, for some posts to show.


 
Posted : 09/03/2025 10:56 pm
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Posted by: frogstomp

For me, the topic list pages appear quite quickly but are non-responsive for a few more seconds after (page still shows as loading) as if it's waiting for a third-party component to finish loading (Edge, signed-in). Doesn't appear to affect the topic pages themselves.

I did a bit of digging on this and it appears that calls to external GetSquirrel.co functions may be causing the issue - blocking for 10-12s.

 


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 8:41 am
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After a period where things seemed to be quite slick, we are back to new posts being notified on the thread summary, but not actually appearing for some considerable time.

It does make having any kind of virtual conversation on an active thread almost impossible. I wonder where we are in terms of any kind of resolution?


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 12:31 pm
 Drac
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I have asked STWHQ to give the server a kick, first time in a couple of weeks that I’ve seen delays. Should be back up to date now. 


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 12:35 pm
 MSP
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emails whenever someone posts on a subscribed thread is getting annoying, for me it means I am unsubscribing from threads now, so it isn't driving additional traffic to the site if that was the intention.


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 12:54 pm
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This may be a local/browser (Chrome) issue and not STW, but it only happens with STW so I'll mention it just in case:

 

I am in the habit of clicking something or refreshing the page and then switching to a different tab or window while it loads, then coming back to read in a minute or 2.

If I do this with STW, I get a blank white page and have to refresh in order to see anything.

Haven't tested thoroughly so I'm not sure if it happens every time, or if it's only when minimised rather than simply in a different tab etc, but thought it might be worth mentioning. Might only be on the forum list rather than individual threads. Sorry if the vagueness makes this info somewhat useless 😊


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 1:20 pm
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@ossify Chrome on android? I get that as well but not just on this site. Can affect any site.


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 1:25 pm
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Chrome on Windows PC here.


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 1:31 pm
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I like the new post count display on each thread.


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 5:19 pm
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Slow….slow..slow today, and the numerical thread response counter is weird looking.

 

 


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 5:19 pm
Watty reacted
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I'd be interested in the usage stats for the new forum vs old in terms of # of visits, # of posts, changes in who is posting.

I have certainly reduced my visits to the forum cos frustration, and reduced my # of posts. I wonder how many others have changed their behavior. Anecdotally I don't seem to see the same regular names on the forum that I would expect to be posting.


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 5:27 pm
 a11y
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No no no - that revised post/replies count logo thingy. Please no. Preferred it when it simply said "Replies: 23" rather than the circular symbol thing, which also appears to take up more space when viewing threads listed on a mobile (iphone/safari).


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 5:34 pm
flyingpotatoes, Watty, fruitbat and 1 people reacted
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The swear filter is a bit overzealous.

Sal****er

 

 


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 6:04 pm
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Yet again the chat forum looks like nothing is being posted but if you look at Latest there is still a glimer of life.

I don't understand why this has been made so difficult but a sadly the resemblance with the MV Stena Immaculate is evident.


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 7:37 pm
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Posted by: blokeuptheroad

Nothing to do with the new forum as AFAIK it's always been this way, but it's always bugged me a little. What does "posts" in user profile mean? Why does it think I haven't made any?  I know if I look under "forums" it displays what I think of as "posts" I've made, but in that case what does STW mean by "posts"?  I'm confused. Though tbf it doesn't take much!

if you look at the profile page for one of the STW staff - you'll see that under 'posts' are the various articles they've written for the site, as distinct from their activity on the forum. 


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 7:55 pm
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Mentioned above about usage, I’ve certainly been reviewing STW a lot less. Might be teething troubles but it’s just so cluttered, and I can put my finger on any one thing.   I’ve signed up to eMTB forum to get some review advice and that just seems so very much simpler. 

And also having the problem of the entire page being wider than my iPad screen estate. 


 
Posted : 10/03/2025 8:59 pm
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Minor thing but as a hopeless social media dopamine addict I'm missing the wee coloured symbol showing likes/reactions. At the moment all you can see is the very small text saying who has reacted?


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 7:01 am
phil5556 reacted
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Posted by: 13thfloormonk

Minor thing but as a hopeless social media dopamine addict I'm missing the wee coloured symbol showing likes/reactions. At the moment all you can see is the very small text saying who has reacted?

 

also it doesn’t update and show that I’ve liked something. I’ve just liked the above post, but it doesn’t show any difference for me. Maybe it does for other people or maybe there’s a delay?

 


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 9:27 am
oldnpastit reacted
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Posted by: blokeuptheroad

After a period where things seemed to be quite slick, we are back to new posts being notified on the thread summary, but not actually appearing for some considerable time.

It does make having any kind of virtual conversation on an active thread almost impossible. I wonder where we are in terms of any kind of resolution?

This is stopping me coming here much at the moment. The layout changes / visual stuff isn’t really an issue, you get used to that pretty quickly. But posts not appearing are a deal breaker for users.


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 9:32 am
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If you sort the forum by 'Latest', the sub-head at the top then reads:

'Topics with their latest replies in reversed order'

Maybe I'm just incorrigibly dense, but I can't work out what this means. I mean logically you're trying to say that topics are arranged so that topics are displayed with the ones most recently updated first? 

Could it not just say something like 'Topics in order of most recent post' 

I know it's not exactly a major issue, but it's giving me a head-ache trying to work out what 'latest replies in reversed order' actually means. If the order were reversed, wouldn't the most recent ones actually be at the bottom?

I'm sure I'm missing something really obvious, like my own spiralling cognitive decline... ?


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 9:48 am
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Might be teething troubles but it’s just so cluttered, and I can put my finger on any one thing.

Yes, agree. There's a lot of wasted space.

For example, the number of posts is now circled in black, as though that is now the most important thing.

But if the page was less cluttered in the first place, you wouldn't need this.


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 11:13 am
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If the order were reversed, wouldn't the most recent ones actually be at the bottom?

I saw that 'Topics with their latest replies in reversed order'  maybe there's a couple of commas missing? 

'Topics, with their latest replies, in reversed order' or 'Topics in reversed order, with their latest replies'' ? 

Chronological order would mean the oldest first, but that's been reversed. Pretty normal in forum-world - what else would you expect to see!? so why it needs stating on the page, whonose!

[edit] oh yeah, cos the Topics are in reverse order (newest to oldest), but the replies within are in chronological order! If you were new to the internet, maybe that would confuse you for about 5 seconds! 😆 


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 11:29 am
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Post count has a very 90s era windows vibe with the "3d" effect. The fact they're all differently sized, and unnecessarily attention-grabbing, completes the Geocities look 🙂


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 11:32 am
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That's a neater solution!...  👍

 

Screenshot 2025-03-11 at 12.10.24.png


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 1:11 pm
nicko74, ratherbeintobago, verses and 1 people reacted
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Posted by: desperatebicycle

f the order were reversed, wouldn't the most recent ones actually be at the bottom?

I saw that 'Topics with their latest replies in reversed order'  maybe there's a couple of commas missing? 

'Topics, with their latest replies, in reversed order' or 'Topics in reversed order, with their latest replies'' ? 

Chronological order would mean the oldest first, but that's been reversed. Pretty normal in forum-world - what else would you expect to see!? so why it needs stating on the page, whonose!

I think it's probably superfluous tbh. I mean how else would you organise it? 😕 

 


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 1:15 pm
 a11y
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Agree - that's a big improvement for displaying the post count. Thanks!


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 1:16 pm
nicko74 and Cougar reacted
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Art Loop GIF by Laurène Boglio

 
Posted : 11/03/2025 2:45 pm
 Mark
Posts: 4492
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Let the gifs begin....


Happy Pop Tv GIF by Schitt

Over there ---> Bottom right of the edit window


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 2:47 pm
 Drac
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Happy Little Girl GIF by Demic

 
Posted : 11/03/2025 3:10 pm
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Its Been A Long Time Waiting GIF

 
Posted : 11/03/2025 3:12 pm
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Great but how about making posts appear when you post them and links to Flickr work.

You know like they used to do.

17 minutes and counting so far for a post on the midweek ride picture thread.


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 3:23 pm
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Oh My God Wow GIF

 
Posted : 11/03/2025 3:41 pm
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Luck Yes GIF by Ricola USA

 
Posted : 11/03/2025 3:49 pm
 Mark
Posts: 4492
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Posted by: singlespeedstu

Great but how about making posts appear when you post them and links to Flickr work.

 

Was expecting that. 

We CAN chew gum and walk. By that I mean it's not an either or thing. Stuff like these small enhancments can happen while at the same time we work on a fix for update issue. Another enhancement is on the way shortly. Don't confuse that for us not working on other stuff.

Flickr - there's nothing we can do (or more accurately there's nothing we are going to do). That's a Flickr thing. As I said before - This forum will embed any image from any other website so long as what you embed is an actual image. ie what you copy and paste ends with .jpg or.gif or the like. You CAN get that link from Flickr but they don't make it easy for you. Making Flickr links work is not on our list of priorities. 


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 3:53 pm
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@Mark

It seems a fair question to me. It's just a little frustrating when stuff that used to work doesn't and it's making me and a few other folks not bother coming on here as much.

You keep saying its a Flickr problem but sometimes it works for a while and you also posted up a list of sites that would embed pictures.

On that list was Flickr.

Can you explain why it's a Flickr problem* when the two points above seem to suggest it's not?

 

* in terms that someone who's spent a life with tools in hand not behind a keyboard might understand please?


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:10 pm
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Is jump to first unread supposed to work like a magic 8 ball? It's rather random; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and whether I've posted in the thread or not doesn't seem to effect the outcome.


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:21 pm
 Mark
Posts: 4492
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I just explained the problem. Flickr gives you code to paste in order to embed an image. What the forum needs is an actual link to an image. The code you get from Flickr is not a direct link to the image file on their server but a bit of code that runs in a browser that then tries to get the image. 

For example - from your Flickr page here.. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/54343582474/in/dateposted/

When you clcik the share arrow you are offered a link that looks like this

'https://flic.kr/p/2qNa4Lw'

That is NOT a link to an image. It's a link to a small program that then tries to make the image appear where you have pasted the link.

The actual image file is this one..

-//live.staticflickr.com/65535/54343582474_5d64a93798_k.jpg

I've removed the 'https:' part so you can see the url.

Notice it ends with the actual filename of the image. It ends in .jpg

When you paste this url (which is the address of the actual image on the Flickr servers) it does this...

Flickr make it really hard to get the actual image file from your account. They want everyone to share only their own little snippets of code. This is how they protect images from being copied (Right click > Save as). But it makes it flippin awkward for the rest of the internet to make things work nicely. Flickr could fix this by simply letting you choose to copy the actual path to the file. This is why I say it's a Flickr thing and not an us thing.


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:24 pm
scotroutes reacted
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Flickr is a site for photographers to upload their photographs.  It has never been a site for people to host random snapshots to be hotlinked into other sites.  They offer various links but it's always been awkward IME because they want to embed code to direct you back to their site.

If that's what you want to do then it's the wrong tool for the job.  a) there are many, many other hosting sites such as imgur or imgbb or postimage which do exactly that, and b) as a full member you can simply paste images directly into the editor.


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:37 pm
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I just still can't get over the general layout, low contrast colour choice, font selection, weird font sizes, bright colours in all the wrong areas and cluttered nature of the forum. It's just so annoying to interact with. How has this gone so wrong when any other forum I use all generally look the same (which is good) and are a pleasure to use. 


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:39 pm
oldnpastit reacted
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I've just tested, drag & drop works too.  How simple does it need to be?  

 

WhatsApp Image 2024-04-21 at 18.09.24_8434386f.jpg


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:41 pm
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[img] [/img]

 

Did this work from my Flickr account using “copy” bbcode and removing the [url] sections of the bbcode ?

edit : it did but I’ll try again to remove the img letters

 

ok, seems to work fine for my Flickr images, final pic

 

 

 


 
Posted : 11/03/2025 4:45 pm
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