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Messages - xrunner
151
Archived fixes / Minor suggestion to some modify profile labels
« on May 8th, 2013, 01:16 AM »
In the profile area/modify profile, the listing has two labels exactly the same -
 
Forum Profile
Look and Layout
Skin Selector
Notifications
Notifications
Personal Messaging
Contacts & Ignore List

Suggest adding extra descriptions to the two notification labels such as -

Notifications Topics/Boards
Notifications Likes/Mentions

or something like that ...

Very minor but might be helpful. :)
152
Bug reports / Re: Infraction bugs
« on May 7th, 2013, 09:12 PM »
I currently have a member at my forum on post moderation. Sometimes we put certain types of members on either post moderation or we restrict them to an "Isolation Tank" which by permissions is the only board they can see when logged in, rather them ban them, even though a ban would be justified. I won't go into the psychology here, but certain of our "customers" would consider a ban as a Gold medal to brag about to people at other forums. I don't want to give them that Gold medal, so we just let them burn out on post moderation or fight it out until they get bored in the Isolation Tank. It's sortof like a question of sending a convict to life in prison or to death row. Sometimes life locked up is a worse punishment. :)
153
Off-topic / Re: Interesting feedback
« on May 7th, 2013, 02:39 AM »
Quote from Arantor on May 7th, 2013, 02:32 AM
... while we didn't set out a test plan, we sort of hoped they would at least be methodical about it, trying out different things, but there was surprisingly little of that :( In fact, only a fraction of the beta testers actually responded at all in terms of feedback :(
Sounds like it was just a novelty experience they desired?

I do see you got the color/url bb code thing fixed :)

Yay team.
154
Off-topic / Re: Interesting feedback
« on May 7th, 2013, 02:24 AM »
I worked in an electronics testing lab for many years. When there was a unit to test, there would be a test plan, and the plan would be carried out and the results reported. I don't know how rigorous you want forum software tested, but I'd think at least (if I was doing it) I'd get an Admin and a user to test certain things, like for example if the Admin did certain actions to a user such as a ban, a warning, or whatever else you guys have designed in, I'd report whether it worked or not after consultation with the test user's experience of the action from their point of view.
155
Off-topic / Re: Interesting feedback
« on May 7th, 2013, 01:57 AM »
Well I don't have an install but I've looked around a lot here, and I don't think you need to do a lot more to look different. From what I've been researching you are adding enough new useful features so that it will be very appealing to any SMF forum owner who can see the advantages to the new features.

Of course it needs a lot more work (not that I know this objectively but because it's called Alpha for a good reason). Whoever is testing it doesn't need to state that explicitly, but contribute their findings to the software engineers working on it so they can improve it.
156
Off-topic / Re: A Forum About Nothing
« on May 7th, 2013, 01:47 AM »
Quote from Arantor on May 7th, 2013, 01:38 AM
Interesting idea.

But what would you do with it, exactly? Make it a general forum?
I'm not sure yet. I really have thought about it though, it just came up again because the member made that thread. You may or may not know about the Seinfeld show, but it was a very successful comedy show called the show about nothing. You know how strange and unpredictable certain things can catch on on the internets. Who knows what might happen?

Maybe it just has one board called "The Board About Nothing". I think it would be fun to try it and see what happens. I don't mind paying the small registration fee for the name, I'm just not sure if it's added to my already paid for hosting. Do you know how they handle adding domain names like that? Surely I don't have to pay for another hosting charge for it but I haven't asked.
157
Off-topic / A Forum About Nothing
« on May 7th, 2013, 01:33 AM »
At my forum several threads have been going off-topic. A member recently started a thread called "This thread has no topic"

"I am confident that, having no topic whatsoever, this thread will stay on-topic for the entirety of its life ..."

I thought that was funny, so I chimed in that I once thought about starting a forum about nothing. If you remember the Seinfeld comedy show, it was called a show about nothing. I checked the availability of this domain name -

theforumaboutnothing.com

and it's available.

I wonder if it would have any success? It wouldn't cost much to try.

Here's the welcome message:

Welcome new members! This domain is about nothing and this forum is about nothing. There is no subject, no target audience, no ads, no specific content here. This is a forum about nothing in particular, and we hope you enjoy contributing nothing in particular here at the forum about nothing. Have a nice day and we here at the forum about nothing hope that nothing happens to you today!
158
Off-topic / Re: Meaning of usernames
« on May 7th, 2013, 12:14 AM »
I don't think I've ever told anyone where my name came from, but here it is -

Toyota Xrunner

159
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 6th, 2013, 01:24 AM »
Cool shit man, cool shit! :yobrother:
160
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 6th, 2013, 12:53 AM »
Quote from Arantor on May 6th, 2013, 12:46 AM
8 times in 12 years for actual software change is a big deal, suggests that not enough thought or research was put in, in the first place.
Yea, I'm not sure what site he's referring to.
Quote
SMF -> Wedge is not such a big jump, though. It's much like the jump from Windows 98 to Windows XP, you can drive it readily enough without any guidance but once you get under the hood, there are all kinds of awesome extras in there.
I'm sure they'll like it. After the initial grumbling and such anyway. But it's not going to be dumped in their lap in any case. They'll have plenty of time to play with it on a test forum when the time comes. :)
161
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 6th, 2013, 12:41 AM »
Quote from Arantor on May 6th, 2013, 12:29 AM
People don't like change.
No they sure don't. I posted a topic about me possibly changing forum software in our Back Office and this is an exact quote from a member -

"I hate change (try going through it 8+ times at one website for 12 years, it's also about to get another upgrade) but that actually looks nice, in a way."

Going back to the OP -
Quote from Wanchope on May 4th, 2013, 12:59 AM
This is very annoying or better put frustrating. Having a competitor who have been there for about 10 years. Membership running to over 1 million, post running to over 12 million. You are new, very few inactive members. Most posts are made by you. In such case, how do you survive? Suggestions are needed.
Thanks.
There's already a heavy hitter Nigerian forum. There's also another one (NBF) that you say is failing woefully. Is there really room for yet another Nigerian forum, given the existing players in the field? :wow:
162
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 6th, 2013, 12:26 AM »
Quote from Wanchope on May 5th, 2013, 08:02 PM
This guy (nigeriabestforum.com) did what you suggested but he is failing woefully after years of trial.
@Wanchope

You said "he is failing woefully after years of trial."

His forum has -

501,328 Posts in 204,428 Topics by 354,621 Members

Now, I am fully aware that those numbers don't mean there is all quality content there, but why do you say it's failing woefully? :hmm:
163
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 5th, 2013, 07:33 PM »
Quote from Arantor on May 5th, 2013, 07:23 PM
That, and the fact that Wedge's system allows the admin to define a message shown to the user when such moderation happens ;)

Ultimately it's yet more reasons to dislike Nairaland :lol:
When wanchope mentioned competing with another forum with a lot of traffic, I figured it was some fairly high quality place, albeit with a power-mad Admin. But that place? I don't see how it would be too hard to compete with at all. It's just a jack of all trades master of none forum. I'd think the inhabitants would be chomping at the bit to get the hell out of there - if just to avoid the awful looks.

Hell, just figure out a decent domain name for a Nigerian forum and start filling it up with the same topics LOL. The Nigerian flag is green/white/little yellow - get a pretty theme for your forum - it'll look 1000 times better right off. People are bound to find it after a while and start moving over to the land of sanity. :lol:
164
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 5th, 2013, 07:15 PM »
Quote from Arantor on May 5th, 2013, 07:04 PM
Wedge has some of what is described here, the ability to moderate or prevent posts even being made if they contain certain words. But you can't issue warnings or bans because of it for precisely the 'stepping on a land mine' issue mentioned.
Yea as long as it's like that you can at least PM an Admin and find out what's up. But geez - it's not good hospitality to ban somebody for a typing error or unknown rule!

I looked at the registration process there. First off - they want your email address to be verified - no TOS nor nuthing is shown to you. Just please type in your email address for us. :hmm:

Of course I didn't use my own at that place, I made one up and used mailinator to get the confirmation link. Then you still get no TOS. Where are the terms? Where are the rules? Oh I know, the rules are whatever the Admin says they are from second to second ... :lol:

165
Off-topic / Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« on May 5th, 2013, 07:01 PM »
Quote from Wanchope on May 5th, 2013, 06:55 PM
Quote
I do see a lot of posts that have been hidden
Yes, he actually wrote an anti spam bot that bans members who posts some certain keywords, the spam bot will ban and also hide the post. The moderator will now see the post for final decisions, a semi automatic moderation a sort of.
This guy would fit right in with Stalin if he were still alive. Are these keyword-bombs known to everyone? Geez, if you type the wrong thing by accident you're history, like stepping on a land mine. >:(