Glest Board Changes

[Gabbe]

Testing what symbols the forums can handle in spoiler:

[spoiler]Symbols
Best

☮ ✈ ♋ 웃 유 ☠ ☯ ♥ ✌ ✖ ☢ ☣ ☤ ⚜ ☸

♨ ❖ ❤ ❥ ❦ ❧ ♡ ✗ ✘ ⊗ ♒ Ω ♦ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♢ ♤ ♡ ♧ ✦ ✧ ♔ ♕ ♚ ♛ ★ ☆ ✮ ✯ ☄ ☾ ☽ ☼ ☀ ☁ ☂ ☃
☻ ☺ ۩
♪ ♫ ♬ ✄ ✂ ✆ ✉
∞ ♂ ♀ ☿ ▲ ▼ △ ▽ ◆ ◇ ◕ ◔ ʊ ϟ ღ 回 ₪ ✓ ✔ ✕ ☥ ☦ ☧ ☨ ☩ ☪ ☫ ☬ ☭ ™ © ® ¿¡ №⇨ ❝❞ ∃ ⊥ ∀ Ξ ∞ Σ Π
⌥ ⌘ 文 ⑂
ஜ ๏ ⚓ ⎈
Smileys

☹ ☺ ☻ ت ヅ ツ ッ シ Ü ϡ ﭢ
Also, take a look at my Text Emoticons and Smileys collection.

Copyright, registered trademark

™ ℠ © ® ℗
Money - Currency symbols

$ ₣ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ฿ ₠ ₡ ₢ ₣ ₤ ₥ ₦ ₧ ₨ ₩ ₫ ₪ €
＄ ￠ ﹩ ￡ ￥ ￦
Blackboard bold (Double-struck) letters

ℂ ℍ ℕ ℙ ℚ ℝ ℤ
Antique letter characters

ℬ ℰ ℯ ℱ ℊ ℋ ℎ ℐ ℒ ℓ ℳ ℴ ℘ ℛ
ℭ ℮ ℌ ℑ ℜ ℨ
ℵ
Triangles

▲◣◢ ◥▼△▽ ⊿◤◥ △ ▴ ▵ ▶ ▷ ▸ ▹ ► ▻ ▼ ▽ ▾ ▿ ◀ ◁ ◂ ◃ ◄ ◅
Maths, Numbers
Half, third, parts

⅟½⅓¾⅔⅕⅖⅗⅘⅙⅚⅛⅜⅝⅞
Comparison signs

≂ ≃ ≄ ≅ ≆ ≇ ≈ ≉ ≊ ≋ ≌ ≍ ≎ ≏ ≐ ≑ ≒ ≓ ≔ ≕ ≖ ≗ ≘ ≙ ≚ ≛ ≜ ≝ ≞ ≟ ≠ ≡ ≢ ≣ ≤ ≥ ≦ ≧ ≨ ≩ ⊰ ⊱ ⋛ ⋚
Integrals

∫ ∬ ∭ ∮ ∯ ∰ ∱ ∲ ∳
Index / power numbers and letters

⁰ ² ⁱ ⁲ ⁳ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ⁺ ⁻ ⁼ ⁽ ⁾ ⁿ ₀ ₁ ₂ ₃ ₄ ₅ ₆ ₇ ₈ ₉ ₊ ₋ ₌ ₍ ₎ ₏
ᵀᴴᴱ'ᴼᴿᴵᴳᴵᴻᴬᴸ
ᴬ ᴭ ᴮ ᴯ ᴰ ᴱ ᴲ ᴳ ᴴ ᴵ ᴶ ᴷ ᴸ ᴹ ᴺ ᴻ ᴼ ᴽ ᴾ ᴿ ᵀ ᵁ ᵂ ᵃ ᵄ ᵅ ᵆ ᵇ ᵈ ᵉ ᵊ ᵋ ᵌ ᵍ ᵎ ᵏ ᵐ ᵑ ᵒ ᵓ ᵔ ᵕ ᵖ ᵗ ᵘ ᵙ ᵚ ᵛ ᵜ ᵝ ᵞ ᵟ ᵠ ᵡ ᶛ ᶜ ᶝ ᶞ ᶟ ᶠ ᶡ ᶢ ᶣ ᶤ ᶥ ᶦ ᶧ ᶨ ᶩ ᶪ ᶫ ᶬ ᶭ ᶮ ᶯ ᶰ ᶱ ᶲ ᶳ ᶴ ᶵ ᶶ ᶷ ᶸ ᶹ ᶺ ᶻ ᶼ ᶽ ᶾ ᶿ
ₐ ₑ ₒ ₓ ₔ ᵢ ᵣ ᵤ ᵥ
Roman numerals

Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ Ⅳ Ⅴ Ⅵ Ⅶ Ⅷ Ⅸ Ⅹ Ⅺ Ⅻ Ⅼ Ⅽ Ⅾ Ⅿ ⅰ ⅱ ⅲ ⅳ ⅴ ⅵ ⅶ ⅷ
ⅸ ⅹ ⅺ ⅻ ⅼ ⅽ ⅾ ⅿ
Circled (bubble)
Numbers

➀➁➂➃➄➅➆➇➈ ➉
➊➋➌➍➎➏➐➑➒➓
Alphabet letters

ⒶⒷⒸⒹⒺⒻ ⒼⒽ ⒾⒿⓀ ⓁⓂⓃ ⓄⓅⓆ ⓇⓈⓉ ⓊⓋⓌⓍⓎⓏ
ⓐⓑⓒⓓⓔⓕⓖⓗ ⓘⓙⓚⓛⓜⓝ ⓞⓟⓠⓡⓢⓣ ⓤⓥⓦⓧⓨⓩ
Foreign characters
Some Arabic thing, and Sanskrit.

ಐ ಓ ಔ ಕ ಖ ಗ ಘ ಙ ಝ ಞ ಲ ಶ ಹ ೀ ಾ ಿ ಧಿ ೈ ೋ ೌ ೬ ೂ ೄ ભ મ ય ર લ ળ વ શ ષ સ હ ઼ ઽ ા િ ી ુ ૂ ૃ ૄ ૅ ે ૈ ૉ ો ૌ ્ড ঢ ণ ত থ দ ধ ন প ফ ব ভ ম য র ল শ ষ স ঁ ং ঃ অ আ ই ঈ উ ঊ ঋ ঌ এ ঐ ও ঔ ক খ গহ
Chinese/Asian signs

㌹ - ㍭ - 頹 - 衙 - 浳 - 浤 - 搰 - 煤 - 洳 - 橱 - 橱 - 煪 - ㍱ - 煱 - 둻 - 睤 - 楤 - ぱ - - 椹 - ぱ - ㍵ - 畱 - 煵 - 田 - つ - 煵 - 엌 - 嫠 - 쯦 - 案 - 迎 - 是 - 從 - 事 - 網 - 頁 - 設 - 計 - 簡 - 大
Chess

♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟
♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙
Cards

♦ ♠ ♥ ♣
♢ ♤ ♡ ♧
Hands

☚ ☛ ☜ ☝ ☞ ☟ ✌
Cross

☩ ☨ ☦ ✙ ✚ ✛ ✜ ✝ ✞ ✠
Snow/Star

❂ ⋆ ✢ ✣ ✤ ✥ ✦ ✧ ✩ ✪ ✫ ✬ ✭ ✮ ✯ ✰ ★ ✱ ✲ ✳ ✴ ✵ ✶ ✷ ✸ ✹ ✺ ✻ ✼ ❄ ❅ ❆ ❇ ❈ ❉ ❊ ❋ ╰☆╮ ✡ ❂ -'๑'- ⎈
Flower

✽ ✾ ✿ ❀ ❁ ❃ ❋
Music

♪ ♫ ♩ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯

[ultifd]

...

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2839
How about this? "KeyCAPTCHA" I've tried it before on different forums, and it's nice and not like other CAPTCHAS...
(BTW: Full List: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;type=19)
Or Project Honey Mod
Something like that.

[Omega]

And another theme update to version 3.5, this time fixing a bug where the preview window had the incorrect margin's set, ensuring that [tt] tags came up as courier new, a few optimizations, and some general fixes. Again, the cache must be bypassed before you'll see the changes.

Notice:
As I previously mentioned, the avatar settings are incorrect, for legacy support. The correct way, we should be rejecting avatars above the max size limit (now 100x100px). As it is, we force all users to download the images, no matter how large they are, and let their browser resize it. This means they must download the entire image, even if it's a 1MB 1000x1000 image, and then the user's browser must resize it, which is actually a very intensive task amongst the things that browsers must do. In all honesty, I never realized that avatars were resized until this the board was upgraded, defaulting with more secure settings (reject everything over the size limit, but nothing could be done about existing images).

This makes it a security risk and an inconvenience. Personally, I consider HTML resizing evil and never use it, things like the wiki resize images and store them, but the Glest team has already stated they do not want to store avatars and attachments on their server and have had size issues with that in the past (it was enabled for a short period of time, if anyone remembers).

Thus, the bottom line is that we will be, as previously stated, reverting to the proper method of rejecting too large images and those with such images will have them forcibly removed and I will personally pick a random image from our available avatars. Thank you to those who already changed them, the James Bond image suits you anyway, Coldfusionstorm.

EDIT: Another bug I noticed with the resizing is that if a picture is smaller, it will enlarge the image unnecessarily, using up system resources and causing a blurred image. The revert to proper settings occurs tomorrow.

In other news, I am pondering if we should change how the [tt] tag works here. Instead of just making it monotype, we'll apply some further styles like the wiki has, which was inspired by how Stack Overflow has their one line code formatted (that is, all text between the ` symbols). An example on the wiki can be seen here. Basically, we add some margins (spacing) to the sides and give it a slightly lighter grey so that the start and end of code can be seen. The only usage of the [tt] tag on the board is pretty much for one line code, or things like file paths. This change is already in place on the wiki, and unless there is opposition (the reason I posted here), I will add it in here as well. The major benefit is how much easier it makes code to read, since it ensure it will be impossible to mistake nearby text as part of the code. It certainly works well on stack overflow.

Finally, Ultifd, I'm taking a look at the keyCAPTCHA and will try to get it implemented here. I can't say it's perfect though, as parts don't have any snap-to-grid method, and when I first used it, I wasn't sure about whether or not I did the puzzle right, especially since it didn't confirm until I submitted the form. Suppose it beats nothing, though. Rather than go overboard on multiple mods, we'll see how well keyCAPTCHA does before we move to Project Honey.

[this-is-a-test-account]

Allrighty, it seems to be working. keyCAPTCHA is live! You must perform the captcha on registration, on your first post, and on any PMs if under 5 post count. As well, the PM new users function seems to be working, all new users will recieve a private message pointing them towards the forum rules and telling them how they can get help.'

Also, the little kitten puzzle I just put together is adorable.

[Omega]

Notice:
As I previously mentioned, the avatar settings are incorrect, for legacy support. The correct way, we should be rejecting avatars above the max size limit (now 100x100px). As it is, we force all users to download the images, no matter how large they are, and let their browser resize it. This means they must download the entire image, even if it's a 1MB 1000x1000 image, and then the user's browser must resize it, which is actually a very intensive task amongst the things that browsers must do. In all honesty, I never realized that avatars were resized until this the board was upgraded, defaulting with more secure settings (reject everything over the size limit, but nothing could be done about existing images).

This makes it a security risk and an inconvenience. Personally, I consider HTML resizing evil and never use it, things like the wiki resize images and store them, but the Glest team has already stated they do not want to store avatars and attachments on their server and have had size issues with that in the past (it was enabled for a short period of time, if anyone remembers).

Thus, the bottom line is that we will be, as previously stated, reverting to the proper method of rejecting too large images and those with such images will have them forcibly removed and I will personally pick a random image from our available avatars. Thank you to those who already changed them, the James Bond image suits you anyway, Coldfusionstorm.

EDIT: Another bug I noticed with the resizing is that if a picture is smaller, it will enlarge the image unnecessarily, using up system resources and causing a blurred image. The revert to proper settings occurs tomorrow.

Done. Some of you have new avatars.

[ElimiNator]

Something is wrong with the pics.

[Omega]

Yes, as I mentioned, the limit is now 100x100, and larger than that will now be rejected instead of HTML resized. However, I have to manually remove the violating ones. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Non-complying images will be replaced with a default of my choosing, which includes yours, being 129x130 and tigers, being 720x500 (especially nasty though, since it's an animated GIF too with a total of 1,062.83 KB in filesize. That means you just downloaded 1MB of data for a flipping avatar. This is the reason you now have rad new 64x64 avatars.

[Zoythrus]

well, so much for my TF2 Sentry gif.....

i guess that AT-AT's are cool too....

(Omega, if you dont mind me asking, why'd you choose an AT-AT for me? not that it's a bad thing, im a Star Wars fan)

[Omega]

well, so much for my TF2 Sentry gif.....

i guess that AT-AT's are cool too....

(Omega, if you dont mind me asking, why'd you choose an AT-AT for me? not that it's a bad thing, im a Star Wars fan)

Sorry Zoy, you can change to whatever you wish by the way, my defaults are just to remove the too-large images. As for the AT-AT, I initially had in mind to choose a female Final Fantasy character as I did for most of the others, but I ran out of images that met my quality standards and realized there was no Tifa images. :P

[ElimiNator]

GameBoys pic it still huge...

[Omega]

Allright, the code formatting change has taken place. One line code snippets can be surrounded with [tt] to clearly distinguish them from the rest of the text in the post.

Example:
<anim-progress-bound value="true" />

In a paragraph, it looks like this: <anim-progress-bound value="true" />. Noting the padding on the side to space it a bit further from text. It's really meant for use in line like this. If it's a new line, it's generally best to use [code] tags.

Note that you should not use it for spanning multiple lines, use the previously mentioned [code] tag for that. If it shouldn't be formatted as code but you need it to be a monospaced font, you can replicate the old look with [font=courier new].

And of course, you'll have to bypass the cache to see the change.

[Gabbe]

Durr Omega, its still spam poopin the boards..

[Omega]

I noticed. Too late at night now though, I'll take a look at Project Honey tomorrow.

[ultifd]

Yep. It seems the only way to ensure that they don't get through is from an IP based way...

[Omega]

Alrighty, the link for that Project Honeypot doesn't stop spammers, it only registers them in the Honeypot database. The HttpBL mod uses the Honeypot database to stop spammers, but I sadly cannot get it to work because half way through, I realized that even though I could upload the honeypot file to the board's server, there was the same problems as before with permissions, where it simply wouldn't let me run it.

However, I found an alternative, StopForumSpam which also uses a database of emails and usernames. It's installed and armed, we'll see how it goes. If this fails, I again would like to propose what I proposed a few months back: requiring the first post of new users to be verified by a moderator. This is a very crucial feature of SMF 2.0 and loads of improvements were made to it. This is also one of the few ways to stop spam completely (no spammer is going to make a useful and helpful post first, if they do, mission accomplished, as per xkcd).

[spoiler=Mild language][/spoiler]

[ultifd]

You call that mild?

Anyways, if that fails I think we should only use that solution after we go thorugh/try all 3 pages of those addons.  :thumbup:

[ElimiNator]

Pizza still has big pic.
Darth_Sidion  still has huge pic.

[Zoythrus]

do you think that we will eventually get to the point where no one can join the forums due to extremely restrictive measures? we cant become the TSA of forums. so, Omega, where is the line? we may have to accept that spam will always be in our future....

[Omega]

do you think that we will eventually get to the point where no one can join the forums due to extremely restrictive measures? we cant become the TSA of forums. so, Omega, where is the line? we may have to accept that spam will always be in our future....

It's not excessive. Many forums bigger than ours use such a thing and are more successful and spam free. Perhaps at least a trial period?

[John.d.h]

I think having to verify the first post is reasonable, so long as the moderators and admins don't all drop dead... in which case I think we have bigger problems to worry about. ;)

[ElimiNator]

Pizza still has big pic.
Darth_Sidion  still has huge pic.

I thought you made a max size...

[Omega]

Pizza still has big pic.
Darth_Sidion  still has huge pic.

I thought you made a max size...

The max size only goes into aspect when you choose the image. Images that were chosen before the max size was properly enforced were not affected, and must be manually removed. This is a limitation (not a bug) of the SMF software.

I think having to verify the first post is reasonable, so long as the moderators and admins don't all drop dead... in which case I think we have bigger problems to worry about. ;)

According to the Statistics Center, there's an average of 6.29 registrations per day, and that's for all time, which I suspect is actually smaller now that there's an improved anti-spam puzzle and the StopForumSpam database mod. If I had to take a guess, you'll end up managing an average of 4-5 registrations per day, and based on other statistics available only to administrators, the majority of these users won't even post once (about 90% of "spam" accounts created never post at all). So all in all, maybe a few posts per day, of which about 75% are going to be spam. With 3 active global moderators and 2 active administrators, I'm sure that we won't collapse from the weight. Of course, since it is more work for the moderators, the change will need unanimous agreement to take place.

[Zoythrus]

well, if you need some help with all of that, i'd gladly give my time and services.

[ultifd]

I realized that even though I could upload the honeypot file to the board's server, there was the same problems as before with permissions, where it simply wouldn't let me run it.

Well, could we just try to deal with that? PM Martino or something? Jose? If we could do that, I think there would be no problems...Almost every spam link I've seen here is at honeypot already.

[Omega]

I realized that even though I could upload the honeypot file to the board's server, there was the same problems as before with permissions, where it simply wouldn't let me run it.

Well, could we just try to deal with that? PM Martino or something? Jose? If we could do that, I think there would be no problems...Almost every spam link I've seen here is at honeypot already.

Well, we can email Jose if we need to, but shall we take a look at how well StopForumSpam will go, I suppose? The main issue is not wanting to be too dependent on the Glest Team, since they have moved on to other projects.