Problems connecting to GT40s.com or Problems Posting

[Randy V]

If you are having troubles connecting or posting, please do some ground work ahead of time before reaching out to Ron or I for help.
1) Are you having troubles with any other websites?
2) Reboot computer - many issues are resolved with a fresh operating system / memory / connection.
3) Open your browser and go into the privacy settings or security settings to Delete all Cache and Cookies - this resolves a good 75% of problems alone.
4) Run a virus / malware scan on your computer - Many times there are malware "bots" running on a machine that slows processing, interrupts threads, causes general havoc.
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Obviously, if you can't connect to us, you can't tell us you're having a problem. Try reaching out to a friend to see if he/she can connect to GT40s.com ....
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I'm on the site at least twice per day and sometimes more. If it is down, I know who to contact and rest assured I will do so immediately.
Thanks for your partnership in helping everything run smoothly here on GT40s.com

 

[Ron Earp]

Good post Randy. The site is very stable and I think we now have an "uptime" exceeding 365 days.

In shorthand, if there is a problem it is probably on the client end.

 

[Doug S.]

Ron and Randy: I am trying to change my current user name (YerDugliness) to my real name (Doug Sainlar), but I can't seem to find the location where I can do that. Where is our Control Panel? I have done a forum search for "Control Panel" but the results didn't help any. I am also concerned that if I change my user name my lifetime supporter status might be changed, and I would not want to lose my current lifetime supporter status just for changing my name.
If you'd like to make the change for me, that's OK, too....just want to be in compliance with our forum procedures. Thanks for whatever help you can provide!
Cheers from Doug!!!!

 

[Randy V]

Ron and Randy: I am trying to change my current user name (YerDugliness) to my real name (Doug Sainlar), but I can't seem to find the location where I can do that. Where is our Control Panel? I have done a forum search for "Control Panel" but the results didn't help any. I am also concerned that if I change my user name my lifetime supporter status might be changed, and I would not want to lose my current lifetime supporter status just for changing my name.
If you'd like to make the change for me, that's OK, too....just want to be in compliance with our forum procedures. Thanks for whatever help you can provide!
Cheers from Doug!!!!

You’re fine. The YerDugliness is the ID that the forum software knows as your logon ID. Just like mine is Big-Foot. These are the logon names we chose and that’s fine as long as the User Name that appears in your messages and threads is a derivative of your true “real” name (we’re both in compliance).. I can check to see if we can change logon ID if you wish.

 

[Doug S.]

You’re fine. The YerDugliness is the ID that the forum software knows as your logon ID. Just like mine is Big-Foot. These are the logon names we chose and that’s fine as long as the User Name that appears in your messages and threads is a derivative of your true “real” name (we’re both in compliance).. I can check to see if we can change logon ID if you wish.

If you're happy, Randy, I'm happy. Thanks for answering so quickly!

 

[Chuck]

I used to be able to cut and past a post and then do the final editing on screen with a brown background until posted. Then the background turned white after being posted. Now the screen is white while drafting a post and no editing is permitted. Can't block the text to change the font size, can't cut and paste, can't do any editing. What is going on here?????

I don't really want to post any more on the Jaguar D Type blog or the GT40 build blog until this is sorted out. The forum went from a breeze to use to something that is about as useable as a 30 year old DOS program.

Am I missing something??

Chuck

 

[Randy V]

@Ron Earp Can you ask Harry to look into the problem that Chuck is having please?

 

[Ron Earp]

Message sent. I'll lock this thread for now until Harry replies and I'll put the info here.

 

[Harry]

Guys, we are looking into this - there were major changes in between Xenforo releases, so this might be causing the issues you are seeing.

Can you please give me a step by step to reproduce the issue? Two things to note:

1. For the brown background, you just need to switch back to the Gold theme from your Preferences (https://www.gt40s.com/account/preferences, pick the Gold style)
2. For the issue you are mentioning, are you sure you are not clicking on "Preview" mode? Preview mode does not allow you to edit, and is toggled on/off by clicking the "Preview" button in the top right corner of the editor.

Thanks.

 

[Chuck]

Here is the scoop. Yes, I have 'gold style' selected and I am not clicking "preview mode"

Lets start with before the cursor is placed on the screen. I am working from a recent post on the D Type blog. Here is what it looks like:

As soon as the cursor is placed on the screen, it turns white before any character is typed:

I type my posts off line using Microsoft Word. Here is an example of what I prepare off line:

Next I block and save the off line text and paste it to the post screen, which has been my practice since I started the GT 40 blog more than a decade ago, and it looks like this after it is pasted:

Note the background is white, not brown, and there is a brown band across the top below the buttons. Also note that the formatting, text size, spacing, etc. has all been changed. So now it is time to fix it. Up until recently, at this point I would block the text and change the text size to 18 point, get rid of extra spaces, and insert the pictures. But the program no longer permits blocking of text and changing of font size.

Now watch what happens when I move my cursor off this screen to another program on the computer. The Brown background returns! As an aside, it also flipped the picture upside down for no apparent reason and I can't get it right side up.

Note in the foregoing pictures a faint brown band at the top of the draft post. If I click on the "preview" icon in the upper right corner that brown edge at the top will disappear and the background is completely white. In Preview mode no changes whatsoever can be made until the Preview mode is toggled off.

Also, if I select a different font I can type original text here just fine, as you can see. The issue is with pasting text from a Word document and alos blocking text for editing purposes: it will not permit blocking and editing. Retyping a lengthy post to fix a formatting issue just isn't worth the time.

Hope this helps explain the problem. Perhaps there is some simple setting I am missing, perhaps there is a work around, but this was not a problem until just recently. Let me know if I can provide any additional information.

Thanks

Chuck

 

[Ryan L]

Interesting. I am loosing the cursor and the ability to edit my post after I use the "inserted media" command/button when putting images in from Flicker.
I have not tried the cut and paste from a word document through so cant confirm if I get the same problems that Chuck speaks of.

Regards Ryan

 

[Harry]

Working on it

Not sure yet what is causing this and whether it is a bug in Xenforo (the cursor issues).

The copy and pasting of Word documents might be more of a problem to fix, I suspect. If you could forward me a sample doc file to [email protected] I can do some additional tests to address this as well.

 

[Chuck]

Harry: E mail sent

Chuck

 

[Chuck]

May have found a work around to the problem. Just successfully posted on the Jag D Type blog.

How did I do it you ask?

The text was cut and pasted from a WORD document as is my practice. It was then posted with the incorrect formatting.

After posting, hit the "EDIT" button. In the edit mode the text can be blocked and font, size, etc. modified. Then saved it and - surprise! - it was in the intended format.

Obviously there is some sort of glitch, since one should be able to edit imported text while the post is being drafted. But this seems to be a workable solution.

 

[Randy V]

That’s good information & news Chuck! I was happy to read of your progress on the Jag (I read all your updates!) and love what you’ve done with the gauges..
Harry - thanks for checking into these issues!

 

[Harry]

Note the background is white, not brown, and there is a brown band across the top below the buttons. Also note that the formatting, text size, spacing, etc. has all been changed. So now it is time to fix it. Up until recently, at this point I would block the text and change the text size to 18 point, get rid of extra spaces, and insert the pictures. But the program no longer permits blocking of text and changing of font size.

Now watch what happens when I move my cursor off this screen to another program on the computer. The Brown background returns! As an aside, it also flipped the picture upside down for no apparent reason and I can't get it right side up.

Chuck - so, this is caused just by the stylesheets used by the forums which causes the text to use a different "background" color when the editor box is in focus. That color is not saved into the post, to be clear, it is purely "cosmetic" while using the editor.

Also, if I select a different font I can type original text here just fine, as you can see. The issue is with pasting text from a Word document and alos blocking text for editing purposes: it will not permit blocking and editing. Retyping a lengthy post to fix a formatting issue just isn't worth the time.

This was also caused by CSS problems in the "Gold" style - the cursor became invisible and it seemed impossible to highlight the text. But actually it was still possible: just, users were not able to see it due to wrong colors setup in the CSS of the website for highlighting the text (the highlight color was the same color as the background color). I fixed that, but in order to see the changes you will probably need to flush all your cache for these forums.

If you are using Firefox, pressing SHIFT while reloading the page should also do the trick.

 

[Chuck]

Good news. When I posted last night I was able to block and edit, so whatever you did worked. Thanks!

 

[Chris Kouba]

Works for me now too. Thanks for chasing this down. It was annoying, but I wasn't going to complain about it.