Welcome back

[Solent Richard]

I'm all for progress and was only alerted to this change when reading another minor UK cruise forum.

Like all progress, and particularly with an organisation as large as Cruise Critic, it needs to bed in.

 

 

And WOW, look how easy it is to upload photographs. Now that is progress. 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Solent Richard

[Underwatr]

2 hours ago, Solent Richard said:

And WOW, look how easy it is to upload photographs. Now that is progress. 

You think that's easy - try a YouTube video!

 

[boblerm]

1 hour ago, Underwatr said:

You think that's easy - try a YouTube video!

 

Would you be so kind as to explain how to embed a YouTube video?  I used to know how to do this, but can't seem to find the button that used to be there.

Thanks,

Bob

[Underwatr]

34 minutes ago, boblerm said:

Would you be so kind as to explain how to embed a YouTube video?

Trivial - just use the "share" link on the YouTube video and you'll see a URL (it will be a shortcode starting with youtu.be/ and then some random characters) and simply paste that URL it into the text field. The new board software automatically recognizes it as a YouTube video.

I'm thinking it's just as easy to insert an image - just paste the image URL. Here's the URL for a small image on Cunard.com

It took a minute, but there's the image.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Underwatr

[boblerm]

29 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

Trivial - just use the "share" link on the YouTube video and you'll see a URL (it will be a shortcode starting with youtu.be/ and then some random characters) and simply paste that URL it into the text field. The new board software automatically recognizes it as a YouTube video.

I'm thinking it's just as easy to insert an image - just paste the image URL. Here's the URL for a small image on Cunard.com

It took a minute, but there's the image.

That was easy. Thanks! 

[kohl57]

My only complaint with this new format is that there appears to be no way to click on the LAST message posted to a topic as there was with the former system. 

[Underwatr]

2 hours ago, kohl57 said:

My only complaint with this new format is that there appears to be no way to click on the LAST message posted to a topic as there was with the former system. 

In the topic list on the right side of each topic/thread you'll see the name of the last person to post and the date/time (or something like "xx minutes ago") that they posted. Click on the time and it takes you to the last post.

Edit: this is on a tablet (or desktop), on a phone browser this doesn't seem to work. On a phone browser the time shown is the time of the FIRST post, not the last post.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Underwatr

[bluemarble]

21 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

In the topic list on the right side of each topic/thread you'll see the name of the last person to post and the date/time (or something like "xx minutes ago") that they posted. Click on the time and it takes you to the last post.

Edit: this is on a tablet (or desktop), on a phone browser this doesn't seem to work. On a phone browser the time shown is the time of the FIRST post, not the last post.

 

I'm finding what you are suggesting works in my phone browser as well. Thanks for the tip. Just to make sure we are talking about the same "time", here is a screen shot from my phone. The time that I have circled in red under the avatar is a link to the last post in the thread. It does initally take me to the first post in the thread, but then after a pause of about two seconds, it takes me to the last post in the thread. That's the behavior I'm seeing on my android phone using Chrome anyway.

[Underwatr]

3 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

The time that I have circled in red under the avatar is a link to the last post in the thread.

I didn't see that one before. Now I do and it works (maybe they're fixing things on the fly, or maybe i just need to be more observant!).

[Host Hattie]

There are still changes being made so it might not be you !

[Lanky Lad]

I will take some getting used to.  I don't like not having the box to go from the Cunard forum to the Roll Calls.

[bluemarble]

19 hours ago, bluemarble said:

I don't know if images like this count toward the account upload limit even if they were not specifically uploaded to Cruise Critic, but rather automatically uploaded by Cruise Critic behind the scenes so to speak.

 

I've found the "My Attachments" section within my user profile and I think I am able to come to some tentative conclusions about what gets counted against your attachment limit.

Anything you previously uploaded using the attachment feature under the old board format counts against the limit. Those are files stored in "boards.cruisecritic.com/applications/core/interface/file/".

Files you have attached under the new board format using the "Drag files here to attach, or choose files ..." functionality when composing a post count against the limit. Those are files stored in "content.invisioncic.com/".

Images from an external URL that end up being stored behind the scenes for you in "boards.cruisecritic.com/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/" do not appear to count against the limit.

And continuing my previous discussion about "static" versus "dynamic" images, here is what I have found out so far.

When I copy an image's URL into a post, that gets turned into a "static" image stored using the Cruise Critic "imageproxy" functionality as I've mentioned previously.

However, when I retrieve an image (such as one of the Cunard webcam images) within a browser and then copy/paste that image from the browser in to a post, that seems to create a "dynamic" image within the post. That is, it apparently creates a reference to the image on the third-party website rather than making a static copy of the image. And that looks like good news for getting the "Cunard Webcams" sticky working again. I have a test in progress and will know more tomorrow.

[Ray66]

On 10/17/2018 at 7:54 PM, Lanky Lad said:

I will take some getting used to.  I don't like not having the box to go from the Cunard forum to the Roll Calls.

 

Yes, the box had links to other forums as well I seem to remember.

 

Talking of Roll Calls, I'm amazed that they still haven't deleted the old messages from years ago which appear underneath the links to the three ships.  Someone has yesterday added to that list of old messages instead of posting in the section for the QE.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forum/366-cunard-roll-calls/

[Host Hattie]

4 minutes ago, Ray66 said:

 

Yes, the box had links to other forums as well I seem to remember.

 

Talking of Roll Calls, I'm amazed that they still haven't deleted the old messages from years ago which appear underneath the links to the three ships.  Someone has yesterday added to that list of old messages instead of posting in the section for the QE.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forum/366-cunard-roll-calls/

Thanks, I've moved the new one, if anyone spots any more let me know via the report button/flag.

There is still tidying up going on, once the dust settles a bit I'll find out what's happening with the old threads.

[bluemarble]

I see they "moved the cheese" yesterday with regard to line spacing within new posts. When the new board format was introduced on Tuesday, the enter key automatically produced a blank line between paragraphs (double spacing). If you wanted single spacing between paragraphs, then typing shift-enter (on a desktop) would accomplish that.

 

Now, I see the enter key no longer automatically produces a blank line within a post. Things have gone back to single spacing. Ultimately, that's probably a good thing going forward. It gives people on all platforms more control of the line spacing within their posts.

 

But this does mean posts like the new "Cunard Webcams" sticky I created yesterday are now all run together with no spacing  between paragraphs, making them harder to read in my view.

 

Host Hattie, would it be possible for you to edit the new "Cunard Webcams" sticky to add a blank line before each of these lines, to restore its readability back to the way it was when I created it yesterday?

"Queen Mary 2"

"Queen Victoria"

"Queen Elizabeth"

"For reference, here are direct links to the webcam images themselves."

"Please note, as with previous versions of this page, ..."

 

Alternatively, I could create a new version of the sticky for you to put into place if that would be easier.

 

Or thirdly, I suppose we could just leave the sticky the way it is and live with all the paragraphs being run together. Maybe others aren't really finding it to be a readability issue with no spacing between paragraphs.

 

What are your thoughts? Thanks for your consideration. I know you have a lot on your plate and this is pretty much "small potatoes" in the grand scheme of the other things going on with this new board upgrade.

[Host Hattie]

Is that better ? I think I've added the blank lines.

[bluemarble]

Yes, that's SO much better to my eyes anyway. Thank you so very much for taking the time to make those adjustments to the sticky!

Edited October 19, 2018 by bluemarble

[Host Hattie]

My pleasure

[kayakbob]

I can't find a way to "search within this forum".  Am I missing something?

[bluemarble]

10 minutes ago, kayakbob said:

I can't find a way to "search within this forum".  Am I missing something?

 

When you are in one of the community forums and you click on the "Search" field in the upper right, you should see a drop-down list like this where one of the options is to search in "This Forum" (as I have selected in this example).

 

 

Please note that search indexing is still in progress, so you may not find too much beyond recent posts in your search results.

[bluemarble]

Big caveat on my reply above about searching in "This Forum". That functionality I explained is from the "desktop" forum format. I can't find similar functionality in the "phone" forum format.

[bluemarble]

13 hours ago, bluemarble said:

Big caveat on my reply above about searching in "This Forum". That functionality I explained is from the "desktop" forum format. I can't find similar functionality in the "phone" forum format.

 

I'm getting a little further trying to figure out how to search within a specific forum using the "phone" interface, but I'm not there yet. Clicking on the magnifying glass icon to start a search sends you to a general search screen where you can do a "Content Search" of the site. This screen is also available on the "desktop" interface when you are doing a general search.

 

One of the search criteria is Content Type "Topics" where it looks like you are supposed to be able to select a specific community forum to search. But I can't figure out how to select "Cunard Line" from here since the selection for 'Cruise Lines "A - O"' is greyed out. Looks like only the top level community categories are listed and you can't drill down to select any lower level forums.

 

 

Close, but no cigar, unless someone else can figure out how to get this to work to confine the search to a specific cruise line forum.

[Underwatr]

33 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

But I can't figure out how to select "Cunard Line" from here since the selection for 'Cruise Lines "A - O"' is greyed out.

Click the little triangle to the left to expand the menu to show the subordinate entries. I think River Cruising is in black because you can choose that specifically as a topic area.

[bluemarble]

2 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

Click the little triangle to the left to expand the menu to show the subordinate entries. I think River Cruising is in black because you can choose that specifically as a topic area.

 

Ah! That's the trick. Thanks so much!

 

Incidentally, for whatever reason the "River Cruising" topic is black without being selected, along with "Community Contests", and "Australia and New Zealand Cruisers". Those topics can be selected without having to drill down further.

[Host Hattie]

Maybe because those sections are stand alone rather than headings.

Thanks for all the help