www.gps-users-forum.co.za - Wishlist

[fugglefeet]

And for those that were wondering, here is the first post (albeit post number 3):-

http://www.gps-users-forum.co.za/around-the-campfire/welcome-t3.html#p3

And that (almost) 2457 posts later.

Darryl

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

We now have our own little speed test utility attached to our forum. Here you can see at what speed you can download and upload to the forum. Here is the link for the curious minded:-

Speed Test

Hope this is informative and enjoy

Darryl

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

A new icon has found its way onto the forum and is found alongside its neighbour. Here is a pic of the icons:-

new icon.png

The new icon is in the middle of the two existing ones. The icon indicates that the forum meets with the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) CSS3 standards. A brief explanation may help to clarify. CSS3 is the abbreviation for Cascading Style Sheets Version 3. What cascading style sheets (CSS) do, is standardise the layout of a forum/website throughout all of its pages/topics/forums/posts. So the forum's CSS has been checked against the W3C's template and found to be error free. Which means the layout of the forum should appear the same when viewed with any browser.

Hope this helps.
Darryl

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

A feature that was part of the forum has been removed, namely Last 5 on index. This featured the last five posts, highest 5 posters and the last 5 new members that have registered. The reason for removing the MOD stems from a security hole that can be exploited by a bot that is denied access to the forum. This is what the bad bot would get to see of the forum after the removal of the MOD:-

AhrefsBot_View.png

Darryl

[Jan Horn]

Losing some features are a small price to pay to ensure that the security of the forum is not compromised.

[fugglefeet]

After some loooooong investigation, it was necessary to put back a firm favourite to protect the forum from scraping bots and unwanteds. So the ZB Block and StopForumSpam duo are back with a vengeance.

ZB Block and SFS.png

And for the more curious minded, the logs are viewable from here. Click on the dated file and it will open in the browser. Scrolling up and down will display a list of the culprits caught on a daily basis by the software. This and a few settings on the server caused a few glitches that didn't permit file uploading to the forum and required a bit of a rethink to get things working again. But I am happy to report all is back to normal and the forum can now function at stopping unwanted spambots, while allowing us to discuss our GPS experiences.

Apologies to Frans for the glitches while he was trying to get new RHD uploaded to the forum and got locked out.

Darryl

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

Recent developments have necessitated that all the hard work regarding the RHD be restricted to members only. This now requires members to log in to be able to download the RHD. If members are using download accelerator programs to perform this task, the member would have to include their forum username and password in the download accelerator program for it to authenticate to the forum before beginning the download process. Since there are a variety of such programs, not all of their authentication methods can be discussed here. The ability of the program to authenticate to the forum is the onus of the end user.

Further developments regarding the uploading and downloading of the RHD are being investigated and refined for ease of use. The server hosting the forum provides shared hosting to other websites simultaneously. This has resulted in the simultaneous access of the resources at the same time, to cause the forum software to more often than not, display HTTP 500 Internal Server Error messages. A discussion regarding this problem has been had and the possibility of the forum software being migrated to a server run from home is being reviewed. During all of these development, the forum members will be kept informed of events by means of dialogue on the forum.

Darryl

[Jan Horn]

Members must also take note that the new download forum will be hidden until you are logged on

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

The base forum software has been updated and it's now using phpBB version: 3.0.13-PL1. The update went smoothly without any hitches. We ask all members to have a look through the forum and inform us of any problems encountered that may have been caused by the update. The forum also now has its own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/gps.users.forum. I am still looking at a method to post the latest post from the forum onto the Facebook page.

Darryl

Update:- Using twitterfeed, when a new topic is created on the forum, the new topic is automatically shared on the Facebook page and this takes place at 30 minute intervals. Subsequent posts to the initial post in a topic aren't updated to the Facebook page. Clicking on the links on the Facebook page redirects to the forum website.

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

In an attempt to make it easier to see the new posts a lot quicker on the forum, the forum software has been colourised to display unread forums/topics/posts in a complementary hue. This will be evident as soon as a registered member logs into the forum and browses the main forum page. The unread forums will highlight taking the member to the relevant unread subforums, topics and posts.

Hope this helps with navigation around the forum.

Darryl