DGrin is Now on Vanilla Forums

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  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins

    Bumping this post. This software is basically useless helping someone or asking for help unless we can tell where we have posted to see the replies. The old Dgrin had an indicator on every thread posted in.

    http://dgrin.com/discussion/comment/2051096/#Comment_2051096
    One problem, there is no indicator what threads I've posted in on any category page. Only if I started the thread, now that you enabled that. That means I probably will never see a reply.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • grandmaRgrandmaR Registered Users Posts: 2,216 Major grins

    I have the threads that I'm interested in seeing the replies in bookmarked. Once I figured out how to do that, I could see when there were replies

    “"..an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K. Chesterton”
  • JAGJAG Super Moderators Posts: 9,088 moderator

    @grandmaR said:
    Yes I can now get to the first unread post in a thread I am following. I didn't know why I couldn't do it at first so I am glad to know why. I also discovered the bit about marking everything read and having to refresh to see that they had been so marked.

    Which of the little icons at the top of the post allows me to put a photo in a post. If I click on the next to last one on the right, it asks me to browse or drag. Can I get photos off my own computer and post them that way? The one all the way on the right has a place for an image URL, but I can't figure out how to make it work. The one on the other side just puts the URL of the photo.

    I thought I had to have them hosted someplace. If I do have them uploaded to the internet, how do I post those pictures?

    If you directly upload an image from your computer, it will be held in the post directly and not go to a gallery (at least I have not found any 'albums' or 'galleries' attached with vanilla). If you use a hosting site for your images, then the direct image url should work. Just copy and paste in appropriate spot. If you have a smugmug account, click on the images share icon (under the image itself) and choose an image size you want to post. Then you can either copy the photo url, or click the html tab and copy that. The html tag can be pasted directly in the reply or post editor without using the little picture icon. It will automatically show the image when you post.

  • Hikin' MikeHikin' Mike Registered Users Posts: 5,467 Major grins
    edited December 10, 2016

    @Allen said:
    Bumping this post. This software is basically useless helping someone or asking for help unless we can tell where we have posted to see the replies. The old Dgrin had an indicator on every thread posted in.

    http://dgrin.com/discussion/comment/2051096/#Comment_2051096
    One problem, there is no indicator what threads I've posted in on any category page. Only if I started the thread, now that you enabled that. That means I probably will never see a reply.

    I AGREE (AGAIN). THIS IS USELESS BECAUSE I'M NOT GOING TO BOOKMARK EACH POST WHERE I'VE HELPED. THE ONLY TIME I GET A NOTIFICATION IS IF THE PERSON QUOTED IN THE REPLY.

  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,963 moderator

    @Allen said:
    Bumping this post. This software is basically useless helping someone or asking for help unless we can tell where we have posted to see the replies. The old Dgrin had an indicator on every thread posted in.

    http://dgrin.com/discussion/comment/2051096/#Comment_2051096
    One problem, there is no indicator what threads I've posted in on any category page. Only if I started the thread, now that you enabled that. That means I probably will never see a reply.

    @Allen and others: At the top of the screen, there is a little notifications button, and at the top of the dropdown it opens is Notifications Preferences. In the General group you should see an option to "Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in." I'm not using it myself at the moment, but I think this will do what you want. I've found the email option more irritating than helpful, since it doesn't contain the actual post text and you get one for every damn post, not just the first unread one. The popup is a little better, though it can also be annoying depending on what you're doing at the time. But the main value is that a notification will be in that dropdown whenever you want to look at it. Personally, I'm mainly relying on bookmarking the threads I'm interested in, as it's easy to do (and undo) from the main discussions index page. Bookmarked threads also put a notification in the dropdown.

    HTH.

  • Hikin' MikeHikin' Mike Registered Users Posts: 5,467 Major grins

    @Richard said:

    @Allen and others: At the top of the screen, there is a little notifications button, and at the top of the dropdown it opens is Notifications Preferences. In the General group you should see an option to "Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in." I'm not using it myself at the moment, but I think this will do what you want. I've found the email option more irritating than helpful, since it doesn't contain the actual post text and you get one for every damn post, not just the first unread one. The popup is a little better, though it can also be annoying depending on what you're doing at the time. But the main value is that a notification will be in that dropdown whenever you want to look at it. Personally, I'm mainly relying on bookmarking the threads I'm interested in, as it's easy to do (and undo) from the main discussions index page. Bookmarked threads also put a notification in the dropdown.

    HTH.

    I didn't know about the notification settings. Thanks Richard!

  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,963 moderator
    edited December 10, 2016

    Muting a forum is another way of controlling things. It's powerful but you should think carefully before using it.

    You can mute a forum by clicking the little gear icon in the forum's entry on the Categories page. It will prevent all posts in that forum--new and old--from appearing on the Discussions index page. The result is that the discussions page is easier to scan. For example, if you're like me, you'll probably never, ever read stuff about the SmugMug API, so why let posts about it appear in your discussions list? You can still navigate to a muted forum via the Categories page and view and post there. You can also unmute whenever you like using the same gear icon on the Category view.

    The one gotcha that I see is that there is no indication on the Category page that a forum has been muted. If you post in a muted forum or start a discussion there, you will not see any responses in Discussions, though you can still navigate to the discussion on the categories page. So you might be in for a surprise if you forget that you have muted. The good news is that unmuting restores full visibility in discussions, and no lasting harm is done.

  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins

    I need indications not notifications. I need to scan a forum and read the post titles. I do not want to have open every post listed in the notifications to find a specific post.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,963 moderator

    I think what you want is an indication that new posts are pending where appropriate in the categories display. Is that right? Not sure Vanilla can do that, but we can check. In the meantime, you could check the individual forums you're following. The titles are there and there are new post indicators. Even if you turn off all notifications, that should work.

  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins

    @Richard said:
    I think what you want is an indication that new posts are pending where appropriate in the categories display. Is that right? Not sure Vanilla can do that, but we can check. In the meantime, you could check the individual forums you're following. The titles are there and there are new post indicators. Even if you turn off all notifications, that should work.

    I repeat.
    "I need indications not notifications. I need to scan a forum and read the post titles. I do not want to have open every post listed in the notifications to find a specific post."
    There is no clue or indication I have posted in any thread without opening the thread and looking at every post. An Indicator that I have a post in the thread.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,963 moderator

    The closest thing I can think of would be to set your notifications to discussions you have started and discussions you have participated in. And nothing else. The only problem with that is that there will be a separate notification for each post after you have posted, which clutters the list unnecessarily, IMO. But that's the best I can offer for now.

  • grandmaRgrandmaR Registered Users Posts: 2,216 Major grins
    edited December 10, 2016
    “"..an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K. Chesterton”
  • JtringJtring Registered Users Posts: 675 Major grins
    edited December 12, 2016

    Having done a fair amount of "real" posting (on SmugMug, not Dgrin, issues), I'm seeing several thing that seem missing about writing messages compared to the old forum:

    No way to indent a section of text. The cheatsheet at github that Ben mentioned earlier suggests in-line html sometimes works in Markdown, but nothing as complicated as an in-line style command seems to do anything. Indents can make a discussion easier to read and can visually display relationships between blocks of text. Is there some way to restore this functionality, either via the edit bar or by pointing me to an in-line code?

    Unordered lists don't display well. Here is a five-element list. I typed in all five, selected them, and then used the editing bar to apply "unordered list" formatting. You can see what comes out. The first two are dim while the latter ones are bright. Odd spacing. What posted live is not exactly the same as what showed on the preview. (I edited this message after posting to match what actually came up. The preview had no bullets and different spacing.)

    • List item 1
    • List item 2
    • List item 3
    • List item 4
    • List item 5

    No way to underline. Seems odd to have a strikethrough without an underline. Yes, I do note none of the Markdown references suggest this capability. Still, seems a step backwards.

    Various forum and thread flags. Might as well toss in a "me too", although others have made the concerns clear. Forum- and thread- level "read/unread" flags and thread-level "I posted here" flags would be real helpful. Notifications are fine if there are only a few of them, but once I get more than 7 or 8 stacked up, coming from different sources, I find the whole boiling hard to deal with.

    Jim Ringland . . . . . jtringl.smugmug.com
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins

    @Richard said:
    The closest thing I can think of would be to set your notifications to discussions you have started and discussions you have participated in. And nothing else. The only problem with that is that there will be a separate notification for each post after you have posted, which clutters the list unnecessarily, IMO. But that's the best I can offer for now.

    I have now muted all categories but the ones under Support. "Recent Discussions" now only show non-muted category new posts. The new post indicators still show on all category pages so they are not lost.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • JAGJAG Super Moderators Posts: 9,088 moderator
    edited December 11, 2016

    What host are you using for your images? This image below is one posted from photobucket. Basically the url you have showing in your post doesn't look like a direct image url. It would looks something like this: http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp179/JAGCreations/JAG Creations/JMM6007web.jpg
    After the http://, should be the host name ofwhere the photo is located. Then usually the page number or other photo reference or user name, then ending with the file name of the image with a .jpeg after. To find direct links, most host agencies have a share button with different options for sharing, 1 of which should be a 'get link' or something of that source. That is where you will find a direct link. I hope this helps.

  • grandmaRgrandmaR Registered Users Posts: 2,216 Major grins
    edited December 11, 2016

    The link above got broken and the .jpg end of it was broken off - it was in a post but I couldn't find it when I went to edit to connect it back up. I will try again. - if I click on this URL it takes me to the picture on the internet. But I want to put it in the post directly.
    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/X8_Mmw67le8O-mR9024-jo0xzs1HdntG-hJz5l2NOOumPxx59ejgBxxnPLdympKrWV0lDzBI6Ta11Bo=w595-h389

    This picture is in Google photos, and this is the URL that I get when I copy the picture location. And it is what I get when I ask to share in email. It is a photo but it just does not have .jpeg after the URL. If I try to use the little square icon and put the url in the bottom of it I can't get it to post it.

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9sn9yaZAdpTyg84KJleIdMjhb5CAKv7qyEfyaPN9Z-fdbZKqswu82S1ZpK-rRMol4nYPTIHLDQA4Mwg=w4519-h2542-no
    I have also discovered that when I browse and get photos from my computer, I have to wait while they load. I almost missed the little tiny line at the top of the window which showed that they were loading. I don't know for sure how to make photos smaller so they post more quickly without resizing them which I don't want to do. This is one from my computer which was little so it didn't take long

    (Both these photos are of me when I was 14-16)

    “"..an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K. Chesterton”
  • JAGJAG Super Moderators Posts: 9,088 moderator

    https://goo.gl/photos/wu81s7HnETUzkfzs9

    Ok, I did a search on Google photos. Apparently they have 3 photos of mine that I must have uploaded to google + years ago. Google Photos are not supported here on this Vanilla platform because of the way Google has set up their links. You should try and find a more compatible host for photos. You could get a basic subscription to smugmug, or you might try photobucket, which is free but loaded down with ads and pop ups.

  • dragandjordjevicdragandjordjevic Registered Users Posts: 188 Major grins

    I just don't like this... me not like it :/
    Quotes should have bit more visible borders . Avatars look tiny and posts are wide all over the screen. It does allow bigger res photos in posts but I don't see why.
    Then these like buttons at the bottom... the whole forum is gray and the first thing that bumps into my eyes are colorful emoticons at the bottom of each post. A discrete like button would be fine if someone needs one.
    Then I don't like avatars showing who started the thread and who replied last. Too distracting.

    I guess it will take me quite a while to get used to all this, since the previous platform was perfect imo.

  • FergusonFerguson Registered Users Posts: 1,345 Major grins

    @dragandjordjevic said:
    I just don't like this... me not like it :/
    Quotes should have bit more visible borders . Avatars look tiny and posts are wide all over the screen. It does allow bigger res photos in posts but I don't see why.

    I guess it is subjective but "wide all over the screen" let's you use the real estate your screen has rather than scrolling so much down. I appreciate that they changed it; I blame Wordpress and Bootstrap for the historical approach of limiting everything, and making it a "thing" that is normal.

    The quick solution now that it is wide to to narrow the browser window. This allows people who prefer more narrow to have it any width they want, while permitting people who prefer it wide to have wide. Having it only use the very center of the browser window did not give both options.

    I guess it will take me quite a while to get used to all this, since the previous platform was perfect imo.

    In the same sense a 30 year old easy chair, where it and your body have mutually conformed, is perfect?

    It is an interesting question though - was there a specific motivation for change? Security, whatever? Some killer issue, as opposed to "we just wanted to make it better and think this is"?

  • grandmaRgrandmaR Registered Users Posts: 2,216 Major grins
    edited December 11, 2016

    I have thousands of photos on what was Picasa Web Albums. I didn't want to use smugmug because I had to pay for it, and Picasa was free. I did it originally so that I could put photos here and other websites which didn't allow me to just post photos from my computer. I also have photos on shutterfly which were originally on a site which was called Seattle Filmworks. Up until 2007, I was uploading all my photos to Filmworks for storage. Filmworks went out of business and moved all their photos to shutterfly. But shutterfly is very hard to use because I can't easily rearrange the photos and also the links to those photos tend to expire. This is a link to a shutterfly photo (an old black and white print of my mother with her two grandfathers - probably taken about 1925)

    https://im1.shutterfly.com/ng/services/mediarender/THISLIFE/003095322987/media/41705883566/medium/1481468939917/enhance

    As you can see shutterfly uses the same kind of system as Google

    So I went to Picasa. Picasa was taken over by Google. When it was Picasa, they were stored as jpeg but apparently Google has changed things. I do not want to move them all.

    I guess I will just have to get the files from my computer.

    “"..an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K. Chesterton”
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,963 moderator
    edited December 11, 2016

    The Discussions page is looking much, much better now. I'd still prefer to see the forum in a column of its own, like it used to be. It looks like there's room without making things too crowded, and it would make the thread titles stand out more. The titles could be in bold, while the forum in normal font. Even if we don't go that route, I'd suggest that we make the title bold/brighter, not the forum.

  • dragandjordjevicdragandjordjevic Registered Users Posts: 188 Major grins

    @Ferguson said:

    I guess it will take me quite a while to get used to all this, since the previous platform was perfect imo.

    In the same sense a 30 year old easy chair, where it and your body have mutually conformed, is perfect?

    It is an interesting question though - was there a specific motivation for change? Security, whatever? Some killer issue, as opposed to "we just wanted to make it better and think this is"?

    It's just a personal feeling. Visually and functionally I preferred the previous platform, worked just fine for me. I'll get used to it I guess... :|

  • FergusonFerguson Registered Users Posts: 1,345 Major grins

    @dragandjordjevic said:

    @Ferguson said:

    I guess it will take me quite a while to get used to all this, since the previous platform was perfect imo.

    In the same sense a 30 year old easy chair, where it and your body have mutually conformed, is perfect?

    It is an interesting question though - was there a specific motivation for change? Security, whatever? Some killer issue, as opposed to "we just wanted to make it better and think this is"?

    It's just a personal feeling. Visually and functionally I preferred the previous platform, worked just fine for me. I'll get used to it I guess... :|

    Incidentally I'm not knocking that. I have one (actually a sofa) in my office, and my wife and I have some rather... heated arguments about getting rid of it. To her it's uncomfortable and old and raggy; to me it is just perfect.

  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins

    I find absolutely nothing that's an improvement over the old forum. It's like everything was down graded.
    But that's just my personal opinion. I think it will hit the fan when posts are not answered as there is no way
    to see where you've posted without a lot of trouble.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • JtringJtring Registered Users Posts: 675 Major grins

    @Jtring said:
    Having done a fair amount of "real" posting (on SmugMug, not Dgrin, issues), I'm seeing several thing that seem missing about writing messages compared to the old forum:

    No way to underline. Seems odd to have a strikethrough without an underline.

    Duh. Just figured out how to underline. To underline, just use the HTML u tag. This line looked like this in the editing box:

    Duh. Just <u>figured out how to underline</u>. To underline, just use the HTML u tag. This line looked like this in the editing box:

    Still haven't figured out how to indent yet.

    Jim Ringland . . . . . jtringl.smugmug.com
  • grandmaRgrandmaR Registered Users Posts: 2,216 Major grins

    Back when I was taking shorthand and typing (in the dark ages when there were actual typewriters) :D we were taught that there were two ways to format (they were mostly talking about letters). One way was to indent the start of each paragraph, and one way was to skip a line between paragraphs and not indent. Since indenting is so dependent on the platform that I am using, which I am too lazy to figure out for each place, I long ago stopped indenting and just use the block paragraph style with a line between paragraphs and no indent.

    “"..an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K. Chesterton”
  • gazoogazoo Registered Users Posts: 17 Big grins

    It would be absolutely groovy if you could go to the home page and, without clicking on anything else, tell if there have been new posts in a/any form. You know - like it was before.

    Hitting the "discussions" button at the top and seeing all the threads from all forms intertwined is ridiculous.

  • AceCo55AceCo55 Registered Users Posts: 950 Major grins
    edited December 12, 2016

    Issue 1:
    I was just testing something with no intention of posting.
    Now I cant find a way to back out of a "draft" message.
    I can Preview / Save Draft / Post Comment

    I don't want to do any of those - I want to cancel

    Issue 2:
    I thought it used to be possible to get some idea of what a thread was about by hovering my mouse over the thread title.
    A popup box would show the first few lines of the text? (unless I'm mistaken which happens more and more!)
    Very useful as I didn't have to see what the thread was about by guessing from the title or having to open up the thread.

    Is it possible to see a preview of the thread now and if so, how can I turn on that feature?

    My opinion does not necessarily make it true. What you do with my opinion is entirely up to you.
    www.acecootephotography.com
  • Hikin' MikeHikin' Mike Registered Users Posts: 5,467 Major grins
    edited December 12, 2016

    @AceCo55 said:
    I was just testing something with no intention of posting.
    Now I cant find a way to back out of a "draft" message.
    I can Preview / Save Draft / Post Comment

    I don't want to do any of those - I want to cancel

    I did the same thing a few days ago. Don't have an answer.

    Does deleting it "go away" after time?

  • sarasphotossarasphotos Registered Users Posts: 3,863 Major grins
    edited December 12, 2016

    @gazoo said:
    It would be absolutely groovy if you could go to the home page and, without clicking on anything else, tell if there have been new posts in a/any form. You know - like it was before.

    Hitting the "discussions" button at the top and seeing all the threads from all forms intertwined is ridiculous.

    I completely agree with this one. Too many extra clicks now. As they say, "three clicks and you're out..." And as Alan (and many others) said it's really, really difficult to see what you've read/not read. What I miss is the distinction between "new posts since your last visit" and "not new but still unread". The bolded text in the vBulletin version made it very easy to distinguish between read and unread. Maybe it's useful for others but I personally do not need to know exactly how many posts are new since I last visited a thread.

    And (caution, RANT alert!) when, oh when will we be rid of the "Started by" and "Most recent" avatars on the Discussions page? They suck up valuable vertical space and cause no end of visual distraction. If they must be present, could they at least be made smaller?

    Is there anywhere to see total number of views now that it's been taken out of the Discussions forum?

    @AceCo55 said:
    I thought it used to be possible to get some idea of what a thread was about by hovering my mouse over the thread title.
    A popup box would show the first few lines of the text? (unless I'm mistaken which happens more and more!)
    Very useful as I didn't have to see what the thread was about by guessing from the title or having to open up the thread.

    I'm missing this feature as well.

    Is there any chance that the "Recent Activity" and "Best of..." pages will ever be used for something useful? For example perhaps one could go directly to the category "Support". It just seems so senseless not to have a usable menu at the top of the page.

    Lastly in spite of the visual things I can't stand about the new software, I would like to say a big word of thanks to the DGrin team for the hours and hours of hard work and the rapid response to our many requests. It's easy for us to complain but I know that the organization and execution of this project was a mammoth amount of work!

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