Announcement Re: Editing

[Mindi]

One of the users came up with a good idea for compromise on the editing issue which was to allow only first posts of a thread to be forever edited. This would allow all of these issues stated before to no longer be a problem:

* When the game parameters have been decided on.

* When the map isn't decided in advance.

* When pretenders get submitted.

* When somebody becomes dead or AI.

* When someone subs for a nation.

* When the game's over.

*When a mod or map needs to be edited

*To maintain a faq

Richard worked for hours last night to hard code these changes into vbulletin's software and they are now in place and have been tested. Please let me know if you are a thread starter and still don't see the edit button on your first post.

This still leaves us in a vulnerable position to those who would get mad and delete valuable community content so anyone caught deleting valuable content (such as maps, mods, faqs, etc) to spite the community will be automatically banned.<?xml:nam

[Aezeal]

First I'd like to thank pplz for working hard so we can now edit first posts.


Second I'd like to make request on this topic. For Dominions 3 (only forum where I hang out) it's indeed nice to change posts especialy to update our mod nations to newer versions.
While I was trying to do this I noticed that I could edit the message (which is great) but I'm not allowed to edit the attachment.. which is not so great since that is usually the whole point of mod threads.

If this could also be changed to the same functionality as how it was before it would be great.

[Mindi]

I'll have Richard look into this......attachments are probably handled differently is my first thought and he will have to track that down in the code.

Did it allow you to add another attachment? That would be a possible work around until we can figure it out if it does.

[lch]

I'd like to suggest that if it's possible to achieve this, attachments should be able to always get updated. Attachments shouldn't be much of a concern like the editing rights.

[Aezeal]

When I press the "manage attachments" button it shows this:

The administrator has specified that you can only edit messages for 30 minutes after you have posted. This limit has expired, so you must contact the administrator to make alterations on your message.

So there is no work around yet.

Another request on the same topic:

While you get to edit a "title" when editing the first post this isn't really the thread title but some sort of sub-title only shown in the thread.

It would be nice if the edit title line would let us actually edit the title to reflect for example the version of the mod in the title that is seen on the forum (and let me edit the old title of my mod thread which doesn't cover the content anymore)

PS: compliments on the very fast reactions in this thread and the fast reaction in getting the option to edit first posts again.

[Richard]

When I press the "manage attachments" button it shows this:

The administrator has specified that you can only edit messages for 30 minutes after you have posted. This limit has expired, so you must contact the administrator to make alterations on your message.

So there is no work around yet.

Another request on the same topic:

While you get to edit a "title" when editing the first post this isn't really the thread title but some sort of sub-title only shown in the thread.

It would be nice if the edit title line would let us actually edit the title to reflect for example the version of the mod in the title that is seen on the forum (and let me edit the old title of my mod thread which doesn't cover the content anymore)

PS: compliments on the very fast reactions in this thread and the fast reaction in getting the option to edit first posts again.

Got the attachment thing as far as I can tell by a quick scan that is the only other occurance of the timelimit check code but let me know if you find something else.

As far as the title that is very deeply imbedded into the code of vb and would require a fairly extensive re-write to resolve. So I doubt that's something we can do unless there's a mod out there.

[HoneyBadger]

WOO HOO!!! I have a purpose in life again!!!

Ok, that sounds kinda pathetic, but whatever.

Now for my own request: Is there any way that the first post we're able to edit could be extended to a maximum of 15,000, instead of 10,000 characters? I realize that's a third again as long as other postings, but if they're the only ones we're allowed to edit, in a lot of cases we're going to eventually need that extra space.

Since the alternative is starting atleast two posts, I think it would be a wise tradeoff. I don't mind doing 2 instead of one, but for sake of board-cleanliness, it might be for the best.

Edit: Actually, in all honesty, my longest posted threads are already over the 15,000 character mark (the longest recent one is nearly 18,000), so I'll probably have to start another thread for each, even if the limit is raised. I still think it's probably a good idea to allow the first post extra room, though, and I'd even be willing to truncate the ones I do have, to fit that limit, as long as I had plenty of time and notice to save the ones I want to save.

Sorry for any extra work this might entail. I do very much appreciate what you've done already!

[Mindi]

Nah, that's an easy one. I've raised the global maximum characters per post to 25,000.

[HoneyBadger]

I love you, Mindi! I love you and Richard both-forever and ever!

[Aezeal]

Sorry to be back again, especially since my last problem was changed in a few hours but I have a new problem now:

Dominions 3000 - Galaxy at war - Galactic Ulm - v0.30.zip:
Your file of 4.91 MB bytes exceeds the forum's limit of 97.7 KB for this filetype.

Dominions 3 mods, especially new maps frequently range from 2-5 (sometimes probably higher)

I don't know if there is a specific reason the limit is this small but I at least never heard complaints of to large files being uploaded before. If possible could you maybe increase the limit for zip files about...50-100 x to 5-10 mb? (yes I know sounds a bit much but it's really what the dom 3 community uses and I doubt it will be abused.)

PS I also think the size of image files should be a bit larger to let us show mini's of our maps (which aren't large but probably a bit larger than 19.5 K.)

thanks in advance

[Mindi]

That was the vbulletin defaults. I've changed image files to 50K and zip files to 25MB.

[llamabeast]

Brilliant, this thread has resolved my two greatest remaining worries with the forums. Thanks very much indeed.

[Edi]

Nah, that's an easy one. I've raised the global maximum characters per post to 25,000.
Grr, now she does this, after I had to bust my backside to work within the 10k limit for the Dom3 shortlists and no post was more than 18k characters...

:banghead

[Aezeal]

Llama and Edi: all you had to do was ask :D

[Aezeal]

Pst Mindi:

Dominions 3000 - Galaxy at war - Galactic Ulm - v0.30.zip:
Your file of 4.91 MB bytes exceeds the forum's limit of 244.1 KB for this filetype.

Either someone forgot a few 0's or this forum doesn't like the idea of 25 mb attachments.

[Mindi]

Fixed.

[lch]

Something to add about attachments, you are now required to login in order to download them, it seems. With the old forums you didn't have to. I think the old way of using attachments to link to images doesn't work anymore like before, too, because of this. However, the new forum software might have an alternative for that. Let me try...

6574

Seems to work, somewhat, but still only if you are logged in.

[llamabeast]

Indeed, can't see the picture while logged out.

I think that is a setback. Being as there are many many lurkers, it would be a great pity if they weren't able to download all the excellent mods and maps that have been produced.

[Endoperez]

On the other hand, it doesn't take that much effort to create an account and thank the mod's/map's creator.

[Mindi]

Again, default vb settings. I have since changed it, although I do agree with Endo's sentiments.

[Amhazair]

Well, it looks like you've all been working had to resolve the issues people had here. Thanks a lot for that, it's massively appreciated. (I won't be offering any footbaths/rubs though, I hope you don't mind. ;) )

[Mindi]

While you get to edit a "title" when editing the first post this isn't really the thread title but some sort of sub-title only shown in the thread.

It would be nice if the edit title line would let us actually edit the title to reflect for example the version of the mod in the title that is seen on the forum (and let me edit the old title of my mod thread which doesn't cover the content anymore)

PS: compliments on the very fast reactions in this thread and the fast reaction in getting the option to edit first posts again.

I just tweaked a setting on thread titles, I don't know if it will help allow the editing of thread titles by the first poster, but I'd certainly like a regular user to go to one of their existing threads and try it and report back.

[llamabeast]

I think that's fixed it Mindi. Changing the title of the first post now has the effect of changing the thread title, and I believe everyone can change the title of the first post if its theirs.

[Aezeal]

The attachments work fine now.. the titles aren't changing yet though (no idea which one llama was refering too but I can't change the title yet)

Thanks for the very very fast changes!!

And try my new mod :D

[llamabeast]

You should put it in your signature Aezeal.

I am sad I won't have a chance to try it for a couple of weeks, being as I'm going away very shortly.

[Gandalf Parker]

We did have alot of anonymous readers before. Being able to download without creating an account will be appreciated I am sure (even if we never hear them say it). :)

I know that the many years of uploading large files that were extremely temporary (such as game files to show a bug). We still have the entire Dom2 forum. Being able to overwrite will help. But I also will totally understand any maximum that is set. As in the past, I will offer a chance to create a weblink on my server for any Dominions file which exceeds the limit.