FAQ for those who migrated from the vBulletin version of LFGSS

A small amount of patience goes a long way at this point.

Do it now
Do it all now
NOW NOW NOW!!!!

Why has my background gone dark grey? Not complaining, I quite like it...

+1 to holding off on major changes, peeps need to chill, yo!

#doublepost

Following...filter by forum type...Bookmark. Done

Sorry if I'm being thick but I can't work out how to filter the following page!

You'll have to think about what would happen if we have to have a black logo again with the new dark background.

You'll have to think about what would happen if we have to have a black logo again with the new dark background.

Already thought about.

White outline?

Opera mini/mobile/android keeps flashing up that this site could be unsafe, is that just rad internet skids?

Opera mini/mobile/android keeps flashing up that this site could be unsafe, is that just rad internet skids?

Unsure.

Are you accessing via https:// ?

The site is safe... but perhaps something is confusing it. Bear in mind that Opera attempts to do a man-in-the-middle attack to "optimise" the performance.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/252832/?offset=275#comment11751588 is this page.

https://www.lfgss.com/ I have bookmarked.

When/if it comes up again I will look for the more detail bit.

Or it could be hidden normally, then appear in the same post when you click the "in reply to ... " bit, so no annoying redirecting.

This is a great idea. I know that any such AJAX work is pending, so perhaps this is on the way.

FWIW, I am finding the kacj if quotes conceptually annoying but it hasn't really affected any understanding of a thread for me yet. I either remember the conversation well enough to understand or use context or just not give a shit. Seems to work fine so far.

Sorry if I'm being thick but I can't work out how to filter the following page!

You needed to type special things into the search box, type:forum, I think.

+Velocio +blueprints what would I type into the search box to get a list of fora that I follow?

I know this isn't necessarily the place for requests, but I don't want to sign up for Github for a minor issue - @Velocio @blueprints can you make it so that outbound links in posts open in a new tab as a rule?

(And is it possible - probably more difficult - to not use URL masking for outbound links? For the sake of argument, if I were at work and I wanted to follow a link, I'd like to be able to eyeball it to guess if it were SFW...)

I can't get to the conversations link on an ipad.

But on my desktop computer it is on the right hand side of the homepage.

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+1 for outbound links in a new tab. Makes so much more sense to have links take you away to a new tab and preserve the main session in the forum.

And now I can! It is not consistent

And now I can! It is not consistent

It is very consistent. We're not here enabling and disabling chunks of the web page based on whether it will wind you up.

Far more likely: You're on a 3g or WiFi network and temporarily lost connectivity. That stuff is at the end of the page, and so it got chopped off.

Maybe something like that?

The links are being rendered on the home page.

+1 for outbound links in a new tab. Makes so much more sense to have links take you away to a new tab and preserve the main session in the forum.

It's much more sense to keep it in the same tab - not a new tab/window - as then it doesn't break the back button

But that's the point, surely? I don't want to use the back button to take me back to the forum. Half the time when I click on an external link I then browse around wherever that link takes me. By the time I've finished, the back button is often a useless way of navigating back to the forum, whereas being able to close a tab and move straight back to where I left off in the forum is much more useful.

+1

+1 for outbound links in a new tab.

Ha, I've had exactly the same discussion about the system being developed at work. The consensus we reached is: if you want to open a new tab then hold down ctrl when you click. Job done.

If I want to open a link in a new tab I do - I can do it by cmd click - it's my choice. I want to have that choice, not have a website make that choice for me.

I know this isn't necessarily the place for requests, but I don't want to sign up for Github for a minor issue - @Velocio @blueprints can you make it so that outbound links in posts open in a new tab as a rule?

This is not possible.

The best we've got is this: http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-hyperlinks/#the-target-new

But the browser support is zero: http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css3_pr_target-new.asp

It simply is not possible to open outbound links in a new tab from the HTML side of things... it's either a browser preference or a user decision.

The only thing we could do is "force every outbound link into a new window". But that has major implications for desktop use and we will not consider that at all.

Instead it's a user choice... if you're on desktop, use CTRL, APPLE, middle-click, etc... so that it opens in a new tab. If you're on mobile, tell your browser what to do or hold the link for a moment before you do it.

(And is it possible - probably more difficult - to not use URL masking for outbound links? For the sake of argument, if I were at work and I wanted to follow a link, I'd like to be able to eyeball it to guess if it were SFW...)

You can hover over the link and it will tell you the destination.

The link re-writing is there as a core part of Microcosms' business model and isn't going to go away.

The benefits:

1. We can put in affiliate links and they will be immune to adblock, etc
   
2. We can detect which links are being clicked and set up relationships with those destinations to support the site
   
3. We can analyse the links and perform media embedding (i.e. YouTube)
   
4. We can catch malware and instead of manually updating every comment on every site that may have been tricked to link to malware, we can intercept the links and tell you about it before you visit them
   
5. We can detect and escape attempts to perform XSS that might steal control of your account or do other weird things
   
6. We determine which links no longer work by keeping a database of the redirects, and attempt to fix them (i.e. if we understand it's a link to a product, replace it with a link to another place that does the product).
   
7. We can actually use redirects to increase mobile link performance by following the link and updating it with the real end destination (i.e. if it's already link shortened, t.co which points to a bit.ly which points to a goo.gl, and then eventually reaches example.com... we can just make it reach example.com meaning fewer requests for the mobile client).
   
8. We can hide the messy protocol part which most people found unreadable.
   
   

Link re-writing is staying. It works for Facebook, Twitter, Google Search... it works full stop.

Yes it's new here, but the benefits for security, content enhancements (embedding), the business model that will make Microcosm viable, etc... it all massively outweighs the cons.

+1 this is also how I browse.

FWIW the current "proper" way of thinking is that people are supposed to be able to decide whether to open external links in another window or not, and websites aren't supposed to enforce that choice on people. I don't agree with it but it's considered good practice industry-wide at the present time.

Boo to good practice. Boo I say.