Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Sciencemadness comment box!

Sciencemadness comment box!

Brain&Force - 23-5-2014 at 16:57

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Complaints? Concerns?

If they're short enough, place them here.

Here's my question: how come polls are disabled on the Chemistry in General subforum? I just noticed that recently.

thesmug - 23-5-2014 at 17:07

Why is the :cool:

smiley disabled in seemingly random threads/subforums?

jock88 - 24-5-2014 at 12:48

Because those threads/subforums are deemed to be serious before hand.

Brain&Force - 27-6-2014 at 13:33

Quote: Originally posted by thesmug

Why is the :cool:

smiley disabled in seemingly random threads/subforums?

Which forums/subforums? I've never noticed this...

Is there a way to quote multiple posts at the same time without just quoting and opening things in different windows, and then pasting them into one window?

Texium - 27-6-2014 at 14:39

Good question. I was wondering that same thing!

Zyklon-A - 28-6-2014 at 15:12

Are there any regular moderators? In the Simad index, it shows the key (Key: Super Administrator - Administrators - Super Moderators - Moderators - All Registered Members)
But I haven't seen any "just mods". All the mods are super mods, so what's the difference?

Texium - 28-6-2014 at 16:18

Also, if you look at the list of all members and sort it by post count, there are a couple of them that have negative posts! How is that possible? It only happened to two that registered near the end of last year. One has -2 posts, and another has -3.

Brain&Force - 16-7-2014 at 17:44

This thread ain't getting answers...

Is there any way to bump a thread when a post gets an edit? Would that even be a useful feature?

arkoma - 16-7-2014 at 17:51

Well, as I just found out the edit feature only lasts a "short" time, then ya canna edit your posts

edit--it would be handy to not have a time limit on the edit feature. The other day day I had to pester Polverone with a u2u to edit away something.

[Edited on 7-17-2014 by arkoma]

Texium - 16-7-2014 at 17:59

Quote: Originally posted by arkoma

Well, as I just found out the edit feature only lasts a "short" time, then ya canna edit your posts

edit--it would be handy to not have a time limit on the edit feature. The other day day I had to pester Polverone with a u2u to edit away something.

[Edited on 7-17-2014 by arkoma]

I agree with you on that. I was thinking the other day that I might want to remove some of my earlier rather useless posts, but that can't be done without being able to edit them.

BromicAcid - 16-7-2014 at 18:27

The edit button used to let you edit posts at any time no matter how long in the past. During one of the great early flame wars however that became a liability so the feature was hobbled to it's current state. Back in those days I would edit posts sometimes >1 year old once I found out new information instead of going back and re-opening the thread.

Brain&Force - 16-7-2014 at 18:40

That would be a MUCH better way to handle things. It would be useful for renaming threads as well when they start getting off topic.

violet sin - 17-7-2014 at 18:10

another thing I would like to see, picture sharing in U2U. even if it was neutered to some really low size limit. I understand it could potentially make for a big increase in stored data here,.. but even being able to share a blurry napkin drawing could help convey ideas better.

TheChemiKid - 17-7-2014 at 18:12

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Brain&Force - 20-7-2014 at 10:35

You can upload to imgur and use the [img] tag, but it would be good to have both attachments via U2U and locked attachments that only certain members can open.

Texium - 13-9-2014 at 19:37

I just noticed that the Radiochemistry subforum says that it contains 9 topics, while it really only has 7. Why is that?

Brain&Force - 14-9-2014 at 22:22

Radiochemistry also has HTML disabled.

Why does nobody answer our questions here?

Texium - 15-9-2014 at 13:47

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

Why does nobody answer our questions here?

Now that's the real quetion, isn't it?

Polverone - 15-9-2014 at 14:19

Bunch o' answers:

<ul>
<li>I don't know anything about smileys being disabled. Please post an example thread where you can't add a smiley.</li>
<li>We have had "regular" moderators in the past, but not recently. A non-super moderator can only moderate in forums they've specifically been assigned to guard. All non-super moderators eventually became super or stopped moderating altogether.</li>
<li>The time limits on editing posts are not going away. You should have time to correct mistakes, but not the ability to erase information that you entered long ago. When there were no time limits we had the occasional disgruntled/frightened member deleting all their posts before quitting the site, which really screws up threads they participated in. Plus, as someone else mentioned, sometimes people would flame other members in contentious threads and then edit their past posts to get rid of the evidence.</li>
<li>There is also currently no support for bumping threads that have received edits, but the short time window for edits somewhat limits the consequences.</li>
<li>The forum was not built to handle attachments in U2U messages, so it's not a feature I can just turn on. I'm not going to code the extra support needed to enable it.</li>
<li>The radiochemistry forum didn't have HTML enabled because HTML is not turned on for new forums by default, and I had not thought to turn it on.</li>
<li>The radiochemistry forum shows more threads than actually exist because it has been spammed and the spam-threads have been automatically deleted. All forum thread counts are slightly inflated due to the low level spam warfare in the background, but you don't notice so much in forums with more real threads. I can run a cleanup operation manually to correct the counts, but it is too slow to run after every spam bot gets eliminated.</li>
</ul>

Brain&Force - 15-9-2014 at 17:53

Quote: Originally posted by Polverone

The forum was not built to handle attachments in U2U messages, so it's not a feature I can just turn on. I'm not going to code the extra support needed to enable it.

Well, you could ask Manifest...

Thanks Polverone!

violet sin - 15-9-2014 at 22:27

thanks polverone, I had been wondering about the attachments thing for a while. deff not the end of the world, of course, just curious if it was available and had been turned off for some reason. I am sure I could manage to learn one of the many other methods of sharing photos.

-Violet Sin-

Texium - 10-11-2014 at 19:15

What's with the title of quantumcorespacealchemyst?

Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 9.10.58 PM.png - 14kB

Polverone - 10-11-2014 at 20:22

He requested that he not have any sort of 'hazard' title, so I gave him a title of meaningless symbols.

diddi - 11-11-2014 at 03:09

can we have avatars? or is that too IT-nerdy for SM

mayko - 1-12-2014 at 19:49

I don't see a consolidated Safety thread - such a thing should be stickied!
If others are busy, I can try to head this up.

j_sum1 - 1-12-2014 at 21:26

Quote: Originally posted by mayko

I don't see a consolidated Safety thread - such a thing should be stickied!
If others are busy, I can try to head this up.

Second that notion.

And one for safe, ethical disposal of chemicals/byproducts.

Brain&Force - 1-12-2014 at 21:49

I think it would be better left for the wiki to handle, as there probably wouldn't be too many posts.

j_sum1 - 1-12-2014 at 22:02

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

I think it would be better left for the wiki to handle, as there probably wouldn't be too many posts.

You're possibly right. But a discussion has benefits too.
I recall in the last month two threads where a discussion was certainly beneficial.

One was,
"Help I have filled the room with Chlorine. What do I do?"
The other
"My eyeses. They burns!"

The thing with both matters (safety and disposal) is that they are matters of ignorance. You don't know you are doing something wrong until you have a problem. If it was simply a case of looking up the safety information we would all do that. The problems happen when there is something that you simply haven't thought of. In that case a living discussion that is prominently located is a better document. Of course there is probably a way to link the discussion and the wiki together for maximum effect.

Brain&Force - 1-12-2014 at 22:39

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force

I think it would be better left for the wiki to handle, as there probably wouldn't be too many posts.

Why not make it a wiki talk page? It's a good way to keep things archived.

[edit] I think this would be more effective if/when we have MediaWiki software installed.

[Edited on 2.12.2014 by Brain&Force]

Molecular Manipulations - 4-3-2015 at 09:47

Why do the superscripts not work? ^{Anyone else notice this?}

gdflp - 4-3-2015 at 09:49

Yeah, they haven't been working for a while. I have no idea why. http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=59072

violet sin - 9-3-2015 at 18:27

something to think about; if a thread is reported for spam, would there be a way to not direct the user BACK to the spam thread automatically? 'cause if you're not fast with the mouse, it gets even more views... just a thought.

Zombie - 9-3-2015 at 18:30

I don't think that matters, as the spam posts are deleted anyway...

violet sin - 9-3-2015 at 18:40

they still get added views, which is what they are after no? online presence and number of hits right? or does the number of views not matter, just the online presence?

Molecular Manipulations - 9-3-2015 at 19:00

Well views count for them, but just regestering an account here puts them higher up on Google's search results. Which is a "win" for them, so unless their accounts are deleted they still get what they want. Even if their posts get deleted before a single person views it.

Texium - 9-3-2015 at 20:07

I have a good idea. How about a new script, similar to the spam one, that when two or more people have reported a post mentioning "troll" or "trolling" in the report, the troll post is automatically changed to Comic Sans MS with a disclaimer attached to the front reading DO NOT FEED THIS TROLL. IT IS ALREADY SATIATED.

Dang, the font should have changed to Comic Sans from where I mentioned it to the end.

I guess a well meaning individual must have disabled that font. I don't blame them.

Brain&Force - 10-3-2015 at 12:02

It's still Comic Sans to me.

Texium - 10-3-2015 at 12:07

Weird, looking at it on another device, it did change the font, but not to Comic Sans.

Is this Comic Sans?

Zombie - 10-3-2015 at 13:41

Yes.

Texium - 10-3-2015 at 19:37

Woah, weird, I just switched to Safari from Firefox, and I can now see the Comic Sans! I wonder why Firefox doesn't support it...

Edit: Never mind, I just went into my Firefox preferences and noticed that I had some weird setting selected preventing websites from using their own fonts. It's working fine now.

[Edited on 3-11-2015 by zts16]

gdflp - 15-3-2015 at 07:52

I just noticed something interesting. On the home page, the square of white around the logo is slightly darker than the white background. The background has a ratio of R255:G255:B255, while the logo has a ratio of R254:G254:B254.

Chemosynthesis - 16-3-2015 at 14:37

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

I recall in the last month two threads where a discussion was certainly beneficial.

One was,
"Help I have filled the room with Chlorine. What do I do?"
The other
"My eyeses. They burns!"

The thing with both matters (safety and disposal) is that they are matters of ignorance. You don't know you are doing something wrong until you have a problem. If it was simply a case of looking up the safety information we would all do that. The problems happen when there is something that you simply haven't thought of. In that case a living discussion that is prominently located is a better document. Of course there is probably a way to link the discussion and the wiki together for maximum effect.

I find that more a matter of poor preparation than something that can be resolved in realtime. That's why safety procedures are established in labs rather than help hotlines. My opinion is that people with questions should probably run their work past someone in advance rather than cause a fire, flood a room with corrosives, or the like, and then expect a bailout after the fact. A little preparation (ventilation, fire extinguisher) and proper technique (slow addition of small amounts of reagents with an unknown reaction to observe heat/gas evolution), and a proper understanding of the reagents' properties (flammability, peroxide formation, etc.) should reduce most problems.

j_sum1 - 16-3-2015 at 22:49

I couldn't agree more chemosynthesis.

As I recall, the discussion at the time was on the relevance of a safety thread. This was my vote in favour of the idea. I am all for research and adequate preparation and caution especially in the first run. But there can still be blind spots. A dedicated place to discuss these matters would be good. I see it working somethng like this:

Quote:

I want to perform zyx reaction using chemA as a substitute for chemB. The equipment I have at hand is three yadayadayada beakers and an autoinvertable thingamabob. I have identified the following risks... and intend to take these precautions.... I have read procedure ABC where there were problems with the doohickey but think these problems can be mitigated against by having an open window.
Can anyone see any issues that I may have overlooked before I proceed?

The suggestion was made that a livewiki might work better for this kind of conversation but I kinda like this format.
I agree that assessing potential issues prior to the fact is infinitely better than navigating a guided panic situation after it goes pear-shaped. However, having a dedicated space to discuss safety issues will also allow for retrospective discussion and learning from any mistakes that do occur.

subsecret - 17-3-2015 at 18:45

It would be neat if the forum had a "like" feature for individual posts, though this might be difficult to incorporate. This way, people could contribute to threads without necessarily typing things out; it would be like a continuous poll.

j_sum1 - 18-3-2015 at 00:39

Actually, the absence of a "like" button is one of the things I really value about the boards I frequent. I think that it is important in a forum like this that brain cells are engaged whenever contribution is made and that substantiable content is valued over opinion.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 18-3-2015 at 10:54

I actually value karma systems in technical forums. Wildly off-base posts usually wind up marked as such. It does tend to stifle debate elsehwere, though.

subsecret - 18-3-2015 at 18:14

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Actually, the absence of a "like" button is one of the things I really value about the boards I frequent. I think that it is important in a forum like this that brain cells are engaged whenever contribution is made and that substantiable content is valued over opinion.

You're right; this way we hear more rather than less.

KesterDraconis - 31-3-2015 at 20:42

I don't know where else to post this, but it seems the most relevant thread (as this is a comment on the forum as a whole).

I love it, and I am thankful for it. I found this forum after a bit of searching, wondering if there was a place where I could ask questions regarding certain chemical processes and really just anything to do with the amateur chemistry I do in my backyard. (I hope to make chemistry my profession one day)

The beauty is, I don't have to even make posts. I can just do a little looking and pretty easily find a thread in which my problems or questions are addressed at some point or another. People have, quite often, gone over many problems at many angles and thus done away with my need to even ask!

To add to this, the discussion here seems civil enough through the many threads and pages I've read so far, and most everything seems to be said in understandable language. Altogether, I am humbled and happy to be able to use this resource!

[Edited on 1-4-2015 by KesterDraconis]

Zombie - 31-3-2015 at 21:55

I love you already KesterDraconis.

Your sentiments are what drove me to join, and the same sentiments keep me here.

It's a great group, and there is sooooooooooo much to learn here.
I hope you enjoy the forum as much as I do.

Nice first post. No doubt!

morganbw - 1-4-2015 at 00:05

Quote: Originally posted by KesterDraconis

The beauty is, I don't have to even make posts. I can just do a little looking and pretty easily find a thread in which my problems or questions are addressed at some point or another. People have, quite often, gone over many problems at many angles and thus done away with my need to even ask!

To add to this, the discussion here seems civil enough through the many threads and pages I've read so far, and most everything seems to be said in understandable language. Altogether, I am humbled and happy to be able to use this resource!

[Edited on 1-4-2015 by KesterDraconis]

Same here

Texium - 17-9-2015 at 14:51

How hard would it be to include a nice prominent link to the Short Questions Thread right on the front page of the forum? I think that would help stem the flow of unnecessary new threads if the newer/less experienced members see it before starting new threads.

j_sum1 - 17-9-2015 at 16:14

I like the idea.

kecskesajt - 20-9-2015 at 06:21

From mobile or tablet,I can't download files.But I can download on PC.Why is that happening?

violet sin - 27-9-2015 at 21:27

right place?

so I have been having trouble on my laptop with posting; after commenting on the thread it says it will forward me to the conversation again as usual, but gets stuck staring at that screen for a WHILE. it never did that before a week ago. no clue if my kid "helped me" by pressing something. so no clue how to find out where to look for the fix. any pointers would be great. thanks guys.

I do use addblocker for pop up controll, and that is about it( disabled on scimad). lappy is dell with windows running firefox browser.

edit test

[Edited on 28-9-2015 by violet sin]

j_sum1 - 27-9-2015 at 21:38

Dunno. Try a different browser for diagnostic.
[edit]
I'm using Chrome, if that helps.

[Edited on 28-9-2015 by j_sum1]

violet sin - 27-9-2015 at 21:45

well, ya, it seems fire fox doesn't want to cooperate but internet explorer will work. just don't care for it. Ill see what add-on's I have integrated recently. thanks j_sum1

mayko - 22-7-2016 at 14:32

* Can some fields be added to the member information table to reflect current social media platforms? Twitter and YouTube have healthy chemistry communities.

* Can this thread be topped?

* When do prepublications get advanced to publication status? The member publications section hasn't been updated in some time, and a lot of mature writing seems to just be languishing in prepub limbo:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/member_publications/index.html

Texium - 22-7-2016 at 15:06

* Can some fields be added to the member information table to reflect current social media platforms? Twitter and YouTube have healthy chemistry communities.

That would be nice. The ones currently available really show the forum's age. I'd never heard of Aim or ICQ before!

* Can this thread be topped?

Sure.

* When do prepublications get advanced to publication status? The member publications section hasn't been updated in some time, and a lot of mature writing seems to just be languishing in prepub limbo:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/member_publications/index.html

I don't know why the publications section has been so quiet lately, but another option is to "publish" a procedure to the Wiki, which can be done by anyone who requests editing access from me.

mayko - 24-7-2016 at 08:41

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

I'd never heard of Aim or ICQ before!

heh, I clearly remember 2002 as a techno-social turning point, when my friends stopped asking for phone numbers as flirtation, and began asking for AIM screen names

Texium - 24-7-2016 at 08:58

Haha, there's some people on here who have misinterpreted the meaning of the Aim field and put things along the lines of "To learn about amateur chemistry" in it

MrHomeScientist - 25-7-2016 at 09:47

You dang kids and your twitters and your facepages! Back in my day we had to crank the phone up and talk to the operator!

(I'm not actually that old. But it is weird that people are around now that don't know what AIM is!)

KesterDraconis - 26-8-2016 at 18:52

I'll say it again, I don't know where to put this, but this place seems somewhat relevant to the message I want to give.

I transferred to a larger university than my local community college recently, its a pretty well ranked university nationally and globally too. Today I walked into my first "official" organic chemistry lab. I'm finally here at "the big university" as it were. I'm not at a tiny little community college and I'm advancing in terms of my chemistry knowledge. However, as I walked in today, I took the time to observe. Around me were people, some had lab coats with tie dye on them, others had new coats from the university store, and many more simply had plain white coats. I carried mine in one hand, a little less white, many stains here and there that would not wash out despite all my efforts. In the lab itself I laid one of my bare hands onto a lab table/bench just after being briefed about safety for acids and proper clean up. My hand started to itch a little, and I knew that at some point someone hadn't followed the very procedures which had just talked about. When I examined my lab glassware kit, I found a few beakers that were chipped badly, and found others with warping around the glass or lip that I had to report and replace. Nobody had cared for that glassware, they had just thrown it around while getting a grade. And then, in regards to grades, I was told by a TA that getting an A would just be impossible in this lab and not to even try/stress about it. It was new, foreign, distasteful, and yet, a challenging excitement.

I yearned for my own lab again. My glassware. My cleanliness. My rules. And then again, I also felt very, very ambitious...and also very ready.

I want to thank you guys here at sciencemadness again. I haven't posted much, I've mostly just read here because this place is such a resource, and that is what I'm mostly thankful for. I've learned and grown here as a result of your guidance and aid. The stains on my lab coat, the knowledge of how to properly clean up, an understanding of a lot of lab safety, and the straight A grades I've made so far. I've made it to where I am today, received these things, and gained my passion for chemistry; in part from your own passion for it. I've delved into the art and science of amateur experimentalism, and in that pursuit done a lot which I know most of my peers have never even come close to touching. Its wonderful, its appreciated, and as I push this new horizon (TA be damned, he just made a dare to me), I'm doing so confidently in part because of the way I feel this forum has helped to prepare me. Thanks again, and when I get the time to unpack my lab during winter break, you can bet I will be back on here ASAP with at least one thing or another. Hopefully, one day, I'll be experienced enough to make some very significant contribution here, and give back a little of what I've been given.

[Edited on 27-8-2016 by KesterDraconis]

Metacelsus - 27-8-2016 at 07:31

University teaching labs, especially lower-level ones, are often full of students who aren't particularly enthusiastic about chemistry. All those pre-meds and pre-pharms that take organic chemistry lab generally don't care much for it. University research labs, in contrast, are usually much better.

I don't know about your TA/professor, but getting an A in organic chemistry lab was pretty easy for me with all the previous experience I had.

myristicinaldehyde - 29-8-2016 at 10:19

When does "Prepublication" get moved to www.sciencemadness.org/member_publications/index.html? Who does it?

11pubs, 180 pre pubs, and it seems the newest one is from 2012...

crystal grower - 3-10-2016 at 06:37

+Can there be added an option to delete/edit your vote in a poll? It would be up to the author of the b whether he include this option to he poll or not.
I am thinking about a poll about element collection where you could write what elements do you have in your collection and the edit button would be very useful in case you extend your collection. (And I think it would be also appreciated in other polls.

[Edited on 3-10-2016 by crystal grower]

Texium - 3-10-2016 at 07:05

Well, you can only select one option in a poll, so a poll about what elements people have wouldn't be very useful. I would recommend just starting a normal thread (or maybe a poll with "how many elements do you have" and several ranges to choose from), and then after several people have responded, generate your own bar graph using Excel or something similar to show how many people have each element. That could be updated occasionally as more people reply to the thread.

crystal grower - 3-10-2016 at 07:11

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

Well, you can only select one option in a poll, so a poll about what elements people have wouldn't be very useful. I would recommend just starting a normal thread (or maybe a poll with "how many elements do you have" and several ranges to choose from), and then after several people have responded, generate your own bar graph using Excel or something similar to show how many people have each element. That could be updated occasionally as more people reply to the thread.

Ah well, I just realized it's only possible to select one option in a poll

.
Ok, so I'll have to try it in a different way.

[Edited on 3-10-2016 by crystal grower]

mayko - 12-5-2018 at 08:00

There's several major threads with more than 40 pages floating around (from Today's Posts alone: Short Questions IV, References & Translations X, and E&M Short Questions). My understanding is that the forum search engine doesn't parse 40+ pages well, which is why these threads have traditionally been split into parts. Maybe it's time to do some chunking?

Texium - 12-5-2018 at 08:02

I was under the impression that this was a misconception, or that it is no longer the case. I could be wrong though. Could anyone verify with empirical evidence that it would be beneficial to split up these large threads?

mayko - 12-5-2018 at 09:48

I might have missed that. A couple of searches seemed to disconfirm the idea; I could return pages from both the start and the end of an 85 page thread, so the most obvious problem doesn't seem to be in place.

DavidJR - 17-7-2018 at 02:45

A forum section for Analytical Chemistry might be nice

CharlieA - 17-7-2018 at 16:09

I second the motion! I suspect that home chemists (especially me)could/should make more use of classical analytical methods to characterize their products. I suppose if I had a mass spectrometer, and UV/visible/IR spectrophotometers, and wasn't an old fossil, I probably wouldn't feel this way.

MJ101 - 17-7-2018 at 16:18

@DavidJR: I'd like to see that too. I think it would be great to see how it is/was done when none
of the fancy diagnostic tools were available.

SnailsAttack - 27-6-2023 at 23:28

this thread hasn’t been added to in 5 years, but I’d like to suggest adding collapsible ‘spoiler’ tabs to reduce clutter in posts where I feel like going on a tangent

j_sum1 - 28-6-2023 at 00:35

The thread was probably a good idea. But the evidence is that it has not been taken up by members. I forgot it existed.

Stickies don't do much. I think most people keep an eye on "today's posts", their own current conversations and then search. I don't think there are many who browse starting from the forums.

Removing a sticky label takes only a second. Happy to do it. But, having resuscitated this thread I will delay for a day or two and see if it comes to life.

SnailsAttack - 28-6-2023 at 03:16

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Stickies don't do much. I think most people keep an eye on "today's posts", their own current conversations and then search. I don't think there are many who browse starting from the forums.

i read the stickies. sometimes. many posts in the stickied threads in the “fundamentals” channels are conjecture with information that’s only occasionally useful (hydrazine thread, permanganate thread, acetaldehyde synthesis thread, etc)

EDIT: looks like texium noticed this about a year ago:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=158467

[Edited on 6/28/2023 by SnailsAttack]

clearly_not_atara - 28-6-2023 at 11:37

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1

Stickies don't do much. I think most people keep an eye on "today's posts", their own current conversations and then search. I don't think there are many who browse starting from the forums.

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to stick to forums at the top of the board and I don't so often venture into "Forum Matters" or "Whimsy", etc.

Quote:

many posts in the stickied threads in the “fundamentals” channels are conjecture

Worse, many posts repeat the same bad idea that was posted three pages ago because the poster didn't read the thread. Acetic anhydride via pyrosulfate or metaphosphate will keep coming up no matter how many times we assure people it doesn't work.

[Edited on 28-6-2023 by clearly_not_atara]

Texium - 28-6-2023 at 13:37

Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara

That's why I want to make the thread summaries and close the old threads to open new, refreshed discussions, but grad school has been sucking the life out of me, so I haven't had the time or energy to take on that project yet.

clearly_not_atara - 28-6-2023 at 17:30

Quote:

grad school has been sucking the life out of me,

Oh, that's quite normal. That's also why all of the professors are various sorts of undead.

Hello again!

Polverone - 11-7-2023 at 12:12

Hi,

I haven't posted here in almost two years.

I'm going to upload a new forum backup soon.

I hadn't dealt with registration email requests in almost a year (!) and there were a lot of requests that were emailed only to me, not woelen.

So the good news is that I wrote a script to help me process requests and I handled a couple hundred registration requests this past weekend.

The bad news, which I discovered today, is:

1) I had a bug in my script, so I have to redo the process for most users who try to log in.

2) My form email included a link to the forum, which caused Yahoo to mark most of the mails as suspicious/non-delivered. And I only found that out today when I looked at my spam folder. (Apparently Yahoo's own delivery error messages go in the spam folder!)

Texium - 11-7-2023 at 13:25

Polverone, great to see you back here! I hope you will take a look at some of the recent discussions in the Moderator’s Lounge.

Worth noting: some people have also contacted me through my blog contact form or Discord and I’ve registered them, so there’s a chance that some of the ones who didn’t contact woelen were already registered by me.

Tsjerk - 11-7-2023 at 13:30

Polverone! Good to see you back!

In case you didn't know; there is an XMB update, 1.9.12, which includes reCaptcha.

[Edited on 11-7-2023 by Tsjerk]

clearly_not_atara - 12-7-2023 at 12:45

Quote: Originally posted by Texium

I think we need a new rule on this forum of NO posting AI generated procedure, unless it’s for the sole purpose of picking it apart and making fun of how stupid it is.

I strongly favor this rule, fwiw.

arkoma - 12-7-2023 at 16:45

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk

Polverone! Good to see you back

Thank Goodness, I can cut back on the Xanax now!

Edit: yeah, no AI unless it's, say in a whimsy sticky, for the purposes of satire.

[Edited on 7-13-2023 by arkoma]

Polverone - 13-7-2023 at 12:26

Hello again (again). I just posted in the moderators lounge about bots (which aren't really bots, just the side effect of a new script I'm running).

Also in my last post I mentioned a new forum backup. You can try it now:

https://sciencemadness.org/archive/SM-offline2-beta.ova

This one is marked "beta" and hasn't replaced the old backup because I'm not sure if it still seamlessly works on someone else's computer.

I bought a Linux laptop in 2013 that I had been using to generate the forum backups ever since that time. But last year the wireless adapter stopped working and I didn't have the house wired for ethernet. That changed this year: I installed wired ethernet and I finally got a new desktop workstation. I was able to pull all my data from the old laptop to the new desktop over the network and then I built a new forum backup on the new desktop.

The problem is that when I run the new virtual appliance on my new machine, it seems to have some trouble with setting up networking seamlessly. I can click through to see the XMB front page but links to individual posts are broken. This is all due to bad network auto-detection inside the VM (which is probably related to the new machine having many network interfaces and me not configuring the VirtualBox bridge networking correctly).

I can supply screen shots and more detailed debugging info later if necessary to help figure out what's going on, but in the mean time you can just try downloading the new beta image and see if it works. Maybe it's only flaky on my setup.

arkoma - 14-7-2023 at 04:49

Hangs on the network setup with me also.

Virtual box 6.1, running on Mint 21.1 w/cinnamon

Tsjerk - 14-7-2023 at 04:55

How is SM running on the server now? Also in VirtualBox?

violet sin - 19-7-2023 at 14:20

Quick question... I just noticed it doesn't ask me http/https question anymore when logging in... As a creature of habit, this seems odd and new.

IIRC the options were : http, https, library and members publications.
Now I just see forum, library, members publications etc

That IS new right, I'm not cracked up by this heat? California been warm lately, focus is low.

Texium - 19-7-2023 at 14:29

Definitely new! Polverone must be doing more tinkering behind the scenes. Not a bad idea to make everyone use https.

Sir_Gawain - 19-7-2023 at 14:41

Why would you ever want to use the unsecure version?

Polverone - 20-7-2023 at 12:54

Yes, I removed the front page link to the old plain-HTTP /talk/ forum. I didn't actually remove anything behind the scenes, since that would break links, but I don't want to promote non-HTTPS any more.

BromicAcid - 20-7-2023 at 17:45

Polverone, you need to update your status, we're up to 21 years of Madness - that's Madness old enough to drink.

solo - 21-7-2023 at 07:55

Polveron, it was good to hear from you, ....its been a long run and still here.....solo

violet sin - 4-12-2023 at 16:09

My U2U to master elf for secret Santa 2023 won't go...

"The system has failed to process your request. If your an administrator, please set DEBUG flag to true in config.php"

j_sum1 - 4-12-2023 at 16:49

Send me an email.
jsum1scimad@gmail.com

violet sin - 4-12-2023 at 20:40

Ok, I sent a msg via standard e-mail.

Is there an issue with the U2U system as a whole or some kind of one off issue for just me this one time? I guess I can try messing arky again and see if THAT goes through or not.

Thanks J,