Webmaster Forum

Prevent accidental navigation away from posting form

Bigwebmaster — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:07:54 -0700

In the past I have losts posts I have written by acciently hitting the back button or by hitting the backspace key on the keyboard when the actual textbox was not selected. Hitting the backspace key is the same as pressing the back button on the browser.

What should happen now is a javascript confirmation box will popup asking you if you really intended to leave the posting page. It allows you to hit cancel so that you do not lose anything you have written.

Please let me know your opinions on this or if you notice any bugs. I have tested with both IE and FF and they work correctly there.

This should work with both the new topic pages, and quick reply. The navigation check will only activate once you have selected the actual textbox where you would write your post / new thread in.]]>

Topic Replies: 2

Attachments Opened Up

joebert — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:08:44 -0700

Under the message box and save/preview/submit buttons you should see an "Additional Posting Preferences" area.
Within that area you should see a "Upload Attachment" link.

When you click that link, you should see an upload form. Within that form you should see a list of extensions which are allowed. If you hold your mouse over an extension type you should see the maximum filesize allowed for that type.

Untitled.jpg

The current filesize limits are fairly generous considering what Ive seen on other forums. Lets not ruin it by uploading a fullsized 2MB image when a lower resolution 150KB image would get the point across just the same out of laziness.

If for some reason you cant see the attachment form, be sure to let someone with a red name know. ]]>

Topic Replies: 0

New Signature and Link Restrictions

Bigwebmaster — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:55:15 -0700

Topic Replies: 20

Automatic Bans for "Deceptive Hidden Text"

joebert — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:47:58 -0700

Here are 3 good reasons why trying to use hidden text in a post or signature here is a bad idea.

1) Ozzu has two contrasting templates, a light theme and a dark theme. What stays hidden in one sticks out like a sore thumb in the other. Ozzu has multiple members, including moderators, using both themes.

2) Some people browse Ozzu with an addition to their "user.js" which looks for any text in posts or signatures that use the same or nearly the same color as the background, and makes it stick out like a sore thumb. Heres a screenshot of what I see when I look at a post with hidden text.

hidden-text.jpg

This isnt a simple "if the text is the same color as the background" check either. The script calculates color differences and contrast ratios to catch anything that might simply be hard to see. Anyone is welcome to ask for a copy of the script.

3) You will be banned permenantly without warning for doing it, requiring you to contact Bigwebmaster with a really good explanation if you dont believe you deserved the ban. New accounts which have obviously been made for the purpose of doing it will simply be deleted.

Obviously, not all hard to see text is meant to be deceptive. Whether action is taken will depend on a variety of factors, its not going to mean "if your text is hard to see youre banned". In some cases you might get a PM from a moderator asking you to use a different color, or the moderator may just change it themselves if your time to edit the post has expired.

The basic rule of thumb to remember here is, if your intention is to deceive someone, youre probably going to end up banned. ]]>

Topic Replies: 1

Ozzu Update - August, 2009

Bigwebmaster — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:38:23 -0700

phpbb 3.0.5

Now current with latest phpBB. Numerous improvements in the core phpbb functionality and many bugs should be fixed which will affect the way ozzu behaves.

Added Fast Post Redirect

After posting the page that confirms your post was successful redirects immediately. In the future this will be replaced with a user configurable option to completely remove the confirmation page, as well as set your own time limits on how long the confirmation pages should be shown for if you wish to keep them.

Choose Displayed Forums

Brand new feature where you can now choose what types of topics and forums you want to see. This will affect topics that show up on the forum list page, unread topics pages, search pages, etc. If you decide to hide a forum you will no longer see that forum or any topics that reside in that forum. This can be useful if are only interested in a few areas on ozzu. Some forums may not be allowed to be hidden, and at this time headlines are not affected. You can find this new feature in the User Control Panel under Board Preferences.

manage_displayed_forums.png

New Contact Form

Improved the previous contact form. This new contact form has less bugs and has a slightly improved look. It also has a new anti-spam section as well as the usual CAPTCHA image to prevent abuse.

In-line Login on Session Expiration

In the past if a session expired and you were in the middle of a post it was possible to lose all of the hard work once you hit submit. If your session expires this will allow you to immediately log back in and resume where you left off with your post without losing any data. This will make things less frustrating for some.

P3P Compact Policy

Implemented this on ozzu so that cookies will be accepted for members who have more strict privacy settings on their browser. In the past without having this it could cause conflicts and problems for some users trying to login to ozzu.

Code Syntax Highlighter

Drastic improves to the syntax highlighting system. Completely new system with extensive testing to help ensure it works correctly. This modification probably has had the most time invested in it. Members can now also highlight lines of code. For example if you are writing php and you want to highlight line 5, and 8 through 12 you could use

[code=php highlight=5,8-12]Bunch of code here with multiple lines[/code]

or

[php highlight=5,8-12]Bunch of code here with multiple lines[/php]

Also supports about 140 different syntaxes which you can see here:

[syntaxes][/syntaxes]
code_syntax_highlighting.png

Favorite Links

Brand new feature which allows members to place their favorite links on the top right menu of ozzu. Links can be internal to other pages of ozzu, or external to wherever you want. Includes presets to some common popular ozzu areas. Can fully manage this area moving links up and down, editing, or deleting. You can find this new feature in the User Control Panel under Board Preferences. You can also access it quickly by clicking on the plus sign next to favorite links on the menu.

favorite_links.png

RSS Feeds

While the RSS feeds are the same, internally there is a HUGE improvement on how they are created. Much less server resources are now used to create the feeds which should help reduce ozzus load and keep the server fast.

Memberlist Improvements

Bug in the previous version of ozzu created about 50 SQL queries when viewing any pages on the memberlist.php script. Now fixed and uses a normal amount of queries again. Can help decrease load on ozzu.

AntiSpam techniques

More features installed to help stop spammers from joining ozzu. This helps to keep workload down for moderators and to improve the quality of ozzu. One of the additions here includes an Anti-Bot question on the registration page that a user must answer correctly. Other additions here I will not mention.

anti_spam.png

PM Statistics to prevent PM spam

Supermods now have access to PM Stats to get an idea if a user is sending out a great deal of PMs in a short period. Can be used to help identify users who are abusing the PM system. PMs cannot be read to preserve user privacy.

Log Ozzu Connections

When a user tries to login the action is now logged with the problem. This can be used to help diagnose why members may not be logging in. Also can be used to detect abuse.

Minimum Font Size

Prevents member from using fonts smaller than a certain size to help prevent spammers from hiding links.

New Signature Restrictions

Improved to help automate proper signatures. Enforces proper signature sizes, number of links, number of lines, number of characters, etc.

Auto Groups

Users can now be placed in groups automatically based on how many posts a user has, number of warnings, or how long they have been a member. This will be used for deterring spam by making so that signatures or links cannot be used until a certain time period and post limit has been met.

Improved SEO

automatically 301s duplicate links to the proper address. For example post links will 301 redirect to the correct topic link using the #anchor to auto scroll to where the post starts. For example post4053.html or sutra4053.html will 301 redirect to announcements-rules/ozzu-rules-and-regulations-t697.html#p4053. This prevents duplicate content existing on ozzu.
member profile pages are now accessible to search engines. Previous bug prevented bots from viewing
strict checking of topic urls. If they do not match precisely it will redirect to the proper url. For example announcements-rules/ozzu-rules-t697.html would redirect to http://phpbb305.ozzu.com/announcements- ... -t697.html since that is the proper url for that topic id.

Improved Moderator Info on Pages

Reported posts and unapproved posts will now show up very clearly in the header for moderators to help get a prompt response. If you see a thread that looks like spam or is questionable you should click on the report post button so that a moderator can remove the content as soon as possible. In the past moderators were only able to tell that a post was reported by coming across it accidently or if they rememberd to check inside the moderator control panel. This should ensure that moderators are aware of spammy/questionable posts very quickly.

warning_button.png

Internal/External Links

Links will now be classified correctly and different colors shown for external and internal links within posts. There were some bugs in the previous version of ozzu that could cause wrong colors to be shown.

Soft Delete

When moderators delete posts they are now soft deleted versus hard deleted. In the past when a moderator deleted a post or topic they were completely gone forever, sometimes accidently. With this soft delete feature topics and posts can be undeleted as long as it is done within 30 days, and the posts/topics will return to their original position. Most of you will not realize this, but this is a huge improvement over our previous system and will help streamline the efforts made by moderators to keep this a great place to learn and interact with others.

phpBB Error Logging

In the past when a user saw an error the administration was only aware of the problem if it was reported. Now all phpBB errors are automatically recorded in a log so that we can continue to improve the experience for everyone.

Summary

In summary this update was a combination of improvements made to the core phpbb3 system as well as numerous custom modifications added. Much work and time has been spent on this over the last few months and I am very happy that it is finally available for everyone to use. With new features there always exists the chance for new bugs to popup that were never tested for. If you find any bugs or problems feel free to PM and I will do what I can to fix it.]]>

Topic Replies: 9

Monthly Tutorial Competition Prizes

joebert — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:44:29 -0700

duct-taped.jpg

As further incentive for him to keep up with this stuff, I took his wallet while we were taping him up and told him Im going to start giving stuff away as long as hes up there.

Bigwebmaster mentioned something about monthly competitions for the Tutorial Writers Group (open group BTW, anyone can apply to join) before this all happened, so thats probably a good place to start considering its where Ill likely get into the least trouble for giving his stuff away.

If Ozzu started doing a monthly competition for Tutorial Writers what kind of prizes should there be ?

I heard someone blurt out $50 cash, another suggestion was Ozzu gear such as T-shirts and coffee mugs.
Someone mentioned a selection of Gift Certificates from various online retailers, I was quite partial to ThinkGeek GCs myself so I could fulfill my dream of opening a whole six-pack at once with hands full of Ring Things, then I remembered Im supposed to be giving this stuff to other people. I can think of one person who would love to get their hands on A Titanium Spork.

In any event, we need a sizable pool of things to pick from here people. ]]>

Topic Replies: 16

Looking for members to help Ozzu

Bigwebmaster — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:01:59 -0700

There are many different members we are looking for to help with all sorts of tasks on ozzu. We are trying to only assign one task per member so that nothing is overwhelming, and that you can still use Ozzu like your normally do. If you see something on the list below and would like to help out please respond to this thread and we may contact you to join this special team. Please tell us why you think you would be a good fit for the task. If you have other ideas in which you could help Ozzu that is not on the list please feel free to offer your suggestion in this thread on what you could do. Here is a starting list of what we need members to help us with:

Ozzu Greeters - Main responsiblity is to respond to topics in the Introduce Yourself forum. They would make new members feel welcome, ask them questions about who they are and what they do, help them out with using the ozzu interface, etc.
Competition Creators - Main responsibility is to be in charge of running more competitions (ones we dont have already)
Website Reviewers - Main responsibility is to be extremely responsive to website reviews giving good feeback and making members feel that our website review area is one of the best on the Internet.
Tutorial Writers - Main responsibility is to create as many new tutorials as possible for one of our designated tutorial sections. If you have a great deal of experience with a certain section and would like to help out, this might be perfect for you.
Headliners Group - Main responsibility is to start at least one new important topic every day relevant to webmasters, programmers, web designers, etc. They could be topics about something in the news, latest technology, best practices, etc. Members in this group would be able to put their topics on the headline list on the main page of ozzu.
Special Teams Manager(s) - Main responsibility is to make sure everyone who is part of the special teams is continuing to participate in the tasks they are designated to. They should encourage and lead special team members, come up with ideas on how they can improve or make things better, etc. Finally managers should remove members no longer actively participating after attempts to try and resolve the situation first.

Again this is just a starting list, we are open to more ideas if you have them. Please respond to this thread if you would like to be placed on this new team, or if you have ideas of a unique way on how you can help the Ozzu community!]]>

Topic Replies: 150

New Ozzu Server

Bigwebmaster — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:31:12 -0700

If you notice any problems please let me know. See this thread for the original topic:

announcements-rules/new-ozzu-server-t92131.html]]>

Topic Replies: 3

New Ozzu Server

Bigwebmaster — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:38:48 -0700

This server will have a faster processor, twice as much ram (from 2GB to 4GB), and slightly more hard drive space (using SAS too). Also it will come with RHEL5 vs RHEL4 that we are currently using.

Its not that Ozzu really needs it, but should help make things even better.]]>

Topic Replies: 7

Automatic Bans for "Cookie Stuffing"

joebert — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:26:22 -0700

Cookie Stuffing is when someone includes an image or any other type of multimedia in a post that doesnt point to an actual image or media, but instead points to an affiliate link.
The reason it points to an affiliate link is the image or media when rendered in the browser will attempt to fetch an image or media from the affiliate link but instead of getting an image or media back, the browser is getting affiliate cookies and data that is otherwise useless to the browser as far as that image or media is concerned.

Anyone who looks at a post with this image/media placed in it will be considered a "referral" for the person who made the post, at the place the affiliate link points to. Even though the person who is looking at the post is never actually going to the affiliate page.

Cookie Stuffers rely on browsers either rendering nothing at all when they discover theres actually no image or media at the address, or that people viewing the post will simply ignore the normal "Missing Image" icon that some browsers display when theres no valid image or media at the specified address.
In some browsers this "Missing Image" icon tends to be a Red X, in other browsers it may just be a small square with the word "Image" in it.

Its important that everyone is aware there are no security concerns for anyone browsing Ozzu because of Cookie Stuffing. Privacy concerns for it are no different than they are for viewing any other image or media in a post.
The people affected by Cookie Stuffing are Companies who compensate affiliates for referrals and Affiliates who send genuine referrals to companies.

Now with what Cookie Stuffing is and who it effects out of the way, I can get to the point.

Anyone caught Cookie Stuffing at Ozzu will have their affiliate link reported to the company the affiliate link points to so that the company can investigate the affiliate on their own.
There is no excuse for Cookie Stuffing, therefore those caught doing it at Ozzu will be banned without warning. As with any ban You can contact any Administrator or Super Moderator to appeal the ban, but chances are your excuse isnt going to be considered valid.

If you see a suspicious image in a post, feel free to copy the address/affiliate-link the image points to, then report that post by clicking the red exclamation mark in the top-right corner of that post right by where the quote post button is. Include the address/affiliate-link in your report.]]>

Topic Replies: 2