Author Topic: I need to learn this BBS  (Read 2433 times)

Walter Mitty

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I need to learn this BBS
« on: June 05, 2011, 04:56:38 am »
I'm having trouble using this BBS.  I need to RTFM.  But where is it?

The two biggest problems I'm having are with message size and hyperlinks. 

When I've typed a certain amount, the dialogue box goes crazy, and I have to cut my post short.  Is this intentional, or am I doing something wrong?

When I click the hyperlink button,  I get the "URL" and "end URL" commands, and I can put a URL between them.  But I don't know how to create a URL with a label on it, one that would show instead of the URL.  In other forums, I've taken to using labels in my hyperlinks.  How does this BBS do it?

I D Shukhov

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2011, 07:17:47 am »
I haven't seen the first problem.   AFAIK, you can't use a label for a URL as you say.  It's a slight annoyance, like not having threaded view.

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Origisaurus

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2011, 07:33:39 am »
To the best of my knowledge, there is no manual.  Users are expected to "intuit" functionality.   ;D

There are a few non-intuitive "features".  You can experiment, preview and delete, which I think is a fairly quick way of learning the features.

The hyperlink mystery solved: Type label, highlight it, then click on hyperlink icon.

HTH
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The Gorn

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2011, 09:34:42 am »
Walter Mitty, Google for something called "bbcode". That is the informally adopted standard that most BBSs use for embedding accents and effects in posts, and that is what SMF uses.

To answer your specific question, this will do what you want (a link, labeled):

Code: [Select]
[url=http://this-is-the-link.com]This is the label[/url]
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Origisaurus

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2011, 12:40:47 pm »
To answer your specific question, this will do what you want (a link, labeled):

Code: [Select]
[url=http://this-is-the-link.com]This is the label[/url]

Yes, The Gorn has shown the code-ly solution.

I showed the "intuitive" hack-ly one.

"You pays your money and you takes your choice."  From vaudeville, I think.
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The Gorn

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2011, 01:30:58 pm »
You didn't grok Mitty's question. Mitty asked how to create a link like this one to Google.

The "hyperlink" button (the little world with a page in front of it in the left bottom row of function buttons above the text area) only inserts the [ url ] [ / url ] part. You still have to move the cursor over once you have bracketed the label you want with "url" and then insert the URL itself.

The two biggest problems I'm having are with message size and hyperlinks. 

When I've typed a certain amount, the dialogue box goes crazy, and I have to cut my post short.  Is this intentional, or am I doing something wrong?

That isn't normal and I have not seen this. Messages can be as large as you like. I don't even know if there is a limit. I'm guessing that you have some non standard setup with your web browser, like a particular "safe surfing" tool perhaps that does real time virus or malware checking. IE: perhaps you are using Norton or MacAfee with some web browsing real time tool?

I personally use Firefox plus a bunch of extensions. I see some delays and stalls when typing a message, but only occasionally. You might try using a different browser. If you're using Explorer, try Firefox instead.
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The Gorn

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Online Manual To This Forum Software
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2011, 01:33:26 pm »
The software that this forum is based upon is called "Simple Machines Forum" or SMF. The version and release is always visible at the bottom of every page.

Here is a Wiki with some end user instructions: http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Category:As_a_regular_user

This explains some things like bbcode.

The main site that hosts SMF is this one: http://www.simplemachines.org/

One thing about the culture of internet online services, particularly free services and tools, if you had not surmised it: usually it is easier to experiment than to read a "manual". Plus having cursory familiarity with some of the common tools.

IE, knowing that the markup is called "bbcode", and is used on other boards, is usually all you need. The same markup we are talking about here works on many, many other non SMF forums.

Almost all of the editing toolbar buttons directly above the text entry area insert some kind of bbcode. While Origisaur is saying that he is giving you non-codely information, usually you have to be familiar with the codely stuff a little to use it fully.

I *think* bbcode was used on Yuku/Ezboard.
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Origisaurus

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2011, 05:16:02 pm »
You didn't grok Mitty's question. Mitty asked how to create a link like this one to Google.

The "hyperlink" button (the little world with a page in front of it in the left bottom row of function buttons above the text area) only inserts the [ url ] [ / url ] part. You still have to move the cursor over once you have bracketed the label you want with "url" and then insert the URL itself.


Umm, I think I did, my solution producing results identical to yours, but by a different route.

And you're probably correct, I first hacked my solution on Yucky.

Quote
While Origisaur is saying that he is giving you non-codely information, usually you have to be familiar with the codely stuff a little to use it fully.

Yes, no and maybe.

It certainly helps a systems code or device driver author to understand the underlying technology of magnetic dipoles, hysteresis curves, square sine waves, Fourier transforms, physical writes, bit strings, etc., to understand the function of his systems code.  A bean-counter writing a payroll program needs none of that, only to grok the notion of a relational table.

(I once took over the marketing analysis (RAMIS II) code of a guy (health problems) who had no IT background.  Some of his solutions were elegant and not at all obvious, even to a relational guru like me.  Of course, it was all obvious, once I grokked it.)

For most of us, the hackly, WYSIWYG understanding is what works best.

= = =

For the innocent bystander:

The Gorn and I go back a few years, and while mutually respectful, we occasionally get into a whizzin' match about not much at all.  We've read the same book, but not always on the same page.  Please humor us.   :)
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Walter Mitty

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2011, 04:45:37 am »
Yes, no and maybe.

I somewhat completely agree with this. 

What I like about the hack-ly solution is that I can easily remember how to do it.  What I like about the code-ly solution is that is pins down for me what's really going on. 

This all reminds me of how I used to do things in about 1969:  code in FORTRAN, debug in assembler. 
(The PDP-10 debugger, DDT, didn't know any FORTRAN, but showed you your code as if it were assembler).  I'm amazed that I could get anything done at all with such limited tools and limited knowledge base.




Walter Mitty

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Re: I need to learn this BBS
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2011, 04:59:55 am »
"There is no manual" reminds me of ITS, The Incompatible Timesharing System  (qv).

(Thanks for teaching me how to make a hyperlink with a label, guys.  I'm trending towards the universal label "qv".  Suitably cryptic)

ITS got its name as sort of a hackronym off of CTSS the Compatible Timesharing system.  The newer "normal"  OS on campus was Multics.  Multics was a kind of "conquer the world" project.  Renegades against this maxmalist approach coined the term "unix" for its antithesis.



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