Not really a problem but an idea.

[Gumboots]

Had thought about dodgey characters in old posts. Not Stoker. I mean stuff like this: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=1142#p10351

But for some reason shapes didn’t match the pictures.

IIRC this stuff is caused by utf-8 characters not being properly handled at some point. If the forum was running ISO language files at some stage then the db would save UTF-8 characters as a string of crud.

You have a word censor in admin, right? So I'm thinking it should be possible to use this to clean up old posts. If you throw "’" into the censor and have it give an output of a single apostrophe, that would fix the quoted bug. If any other UTF-8-to-crud strings are hanging around in old posts, the same trick should fix them too.

[Hawk]

With phpBB software, any changes made as you suggested only apply to posts from that point on. They aren't retroactive.

[Gumboots]

Pity. Oh well, you could always break out the SQL queries.

[Hawk]

I think we can live with it like it is.

[Gumboots]

Might as well use this same topic. Something I've always wondered about if why the ticker at the top of the page shows a cursor for a link but doesn't show any url in the status bar. It leads one to expect that the text in the ticker will be clickable, and will take you to the content indicated in the ticker.

Apparently the only reason the anchor overlaps the ticker is because of a css or js glitch (can't be bothered figuring out which at the moment). Turns out the anchor is for a skip link, which is only there for people who can't use a mouse and has nothing to do with the ticker.

Code: Select all

<div class="ticker"><script type="text/javascript" src="../../../cs/js/ticker.js"></script></div>
				<p class="skiplink"><a href="#start_here">Skip to content</a></p>

Suggestions, if you can be bothered when you're working on the site sometime:

a/ pull the skip link out and chuck it away, since it seems to be dead anyway, or
b/ get it working (should work, since it's just an anchor linked to another, already existing anchor) in which case
c/ it'd be better out of the ticker area anyway, since the best place for skip links is straight after the body tag.

[Hawk]

That skiplink has nothing to do with the ticker. That's part of the forum script. not sure what it does, but it doesn't have any bearing on the ticker itself.
I'm really not sure what you're getting at.

Something I've always wondered about if why the ticker at the top of the page shows a cursor for a link but doesn't show any url in the status bar. It leads one to expect that the text in the ticker will be clickable, and will take you to the content indicated in the ticker.

What cursor are you talking about? I've tried to add links to that text in the ticker but it doesn't work. It will only show the code for a link, but not convert it into a live link.

[Hawk]

This is from the stylesheets for the forum software.

From the bidi.css:

Code: Select all

.rtl .skiplink {
	/* invisible skip link, used for accessibility  */
	position: relative;
	width: 1px;
	height: 1px;
	overflow: hidden;
	display: block;
	left: 0;
}

From the links.css:

Code: Select all

links.css
/* invisible skip link, used for accessibility  */
.skiplink {
	position: absolute;
	left: -999px;
	width: 990px;
}

I'm guessing it's there for a reason, although I don't know for sure what that reason is.

[Gumboots]

I know it's nothing to do with the ticker.

They're usually known as skipnav links. They're for people who can't use a mouse (blind or otherwise disabled) and enable those people to skip past all the navigation links and other crud so they can get straight to the main content. If you have to navigate by tabbing through every link on the page, skipnav links can be very handy. The thing is that the best place for them is straight after the body tag, so you can skip all the crud without having to go through any crud first. I have no idea why phpBB would have stuck it there.

Arguably nobody who is blind or cannot use a mouse will be playing RT3 anyway, so having a skipnav link is probably not necessary for this site.

What cursor are you talking about? I've tried to add links to that text in the ticker but it doesn't work. It will only show the code for a link, but not convert it into a live link.

If I put my cursor over the ticker, it switches to showing the type of cursor that indicates a link (because there's an anchor there). This is because the skipnav anchor overlaps the div for the ticker.

ETA: And that's pretty dumb CSS for a skipnav anyway.

[Hawk]

I see what you're saying now. I hovered my mouse over the ticker and saw the mouse turn into a link cursor.

I'll try moving that line to right under the body tag. It might have been there originally but after my edits it just got moved down.

---

Edit 1: Well, I moved it and it didn't make any difference. The ticker still shows a link cursor when you hover your mouse over it.
I guess just don't hover your mouse over it.
As I mentioned, I can't put links in the ticker anyway.

[Hawk]

I removed that skiplink line completely. We'll see what happens, but the mouse cursor still changes into a link cursor when you hover over the ticker, so I guess that line wasn't it.

[Gumboots]

Ugh. I hate Dynamic Drive scripts.

[Hawk]

They just host that script. It was written by someone else whose website is now defunct.

Code: Select all

/*
Typing Scroller
Submitted by bengaliboy00@hotmail.com (hp: http://www.angelfire.com/nt/bengaliboy/)
With modifications by Dynamicdrive.com
For full source code, usage terms, and 100s more scripts, visit http://dynamicdrive.com
*/

Although it does look like Dynamic Drive did some sort of modification on it. Since we can't access the original, I guess we'll never know what they did.

[Hawk]

Here's the full script, for whatever it's worth.

Code: Select all

<!--

/*
Typing Scroller
Submitted by bengaliboy00@hotmail.com (hp: http://www.angelfire.com/nt/bengaliboy/)
With modifications by Dynamicdrive.com
For full source code, usage terms, and 100s more scripts, visit http://dynamicdrive.com
*/

//Secify scroller contents
var line=new Array()
line[1]="        Donations are gladly accepted and Greatly appreciated!        "
line[2]="Update - Jan. 20, 2014 - New Files Added!"
line[3]="Big Boy Re-Skin - by Tomix - Added: 1/20/14"
line[4]="A1 Berkshire Update - by Gumboots - Added: 1/15/14"
line[5]="WP&P Rollingstock Update - by Gumboots - Added: 1/13/14"
line[6]="New RT3 Logos - by tmtfx - Added: 1/10/14"


//Specify font size for scoller
var ts_fontsize="12px"

//--Don't edit below this line

var longestmessage=1
for (i=2;i<line.length;i++){
if (line[i].length>line[longestmessage].length)
longestmessage=i
}

//Auto set scroller width
var tscroller_width=line[longestmessage].length

lines=line.length-1 //--Number of lines

//if IE 4+ or NS6
if (document.all||document.getElementById){
document.write('<form name="bannerform">')
document.write('<input type="text" name="banner" size="'+tscroller_width+'"')
//colors black-#000000 green-#008000 blue-#0000FF red-#FF0000
document.write('  style="background-color: '+document.bgColor+'; color:#0000FF; font-family: verdana; font-size: '+ts_fontsize+'; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; border: medium none" onfocus="blur()">')
document.write('</form>')
}

temp=""
nextchar=-1;
nextline=1;
cursor="\\"
function animate(){
if (temp==line[nextline] & temp.length==line[nextline].length & nextline!=lines){
nextline++;
nextchar=-1;
document.bannerform.banner.value=temp;
temp="";
setTimeout("nextstep()",4000)}
else if (nextline==lines & temp==line[nextline] & temp.length==line[nextline].length){
nextline=1;
nextchar=-1;
document.bannerform.banner.value=temp;
temp="";
setTimeout("nextstep()",4000)}
else{
nextstep()}}

function nextstep(){

if (cursor=="\\"){
cursor="|"}
else if (cursor=="|"){
cursor="/"}
else if (cursor=="/"){
cursor="-"}
else if (cursor=="-"){
cursor="\\"}


nextchar++;
temp+=line[nextline].charAt(nextchar);
document.bannerform.banner.value=temp+cursor
setTimeout("animate()",35)}

//if IE 4+ or NS6
if (document.all||document.getElementById)
window.onload=animate
// -->

[Gumboots]

Yeah I've seen the js already. Figured out what the problem is. They've marked it up as an input, so naturally the browser expects some functionality there and gives a cursor to match.

Code: Select all

document.write('<input type="text" name="banner" size="'+tscroller_width+'"')

This implies that somebody intended it to be able to link to something else, but it seems to be borked. I love how DD always say "don't edit our js or we'll bite you" and inevitably their js is something you'd want to edit.

It'd be possible to change it to not use a form and input, but I haven't checked their terms of use for a while and can't remember if they'd be threatening to freak about that.

[Hawk]

From their Terms of Use - http://www.dynamicdrive.com/notice.htm

You may modify our scripts to customize them based on your needs.

[Gumboots]

Modify it with an axe and napalm. Best way to modify DD stuff.

[Hawk]

I wouldn't have any idea how to modify it. Do you?

[Gumboots]

Would have to brush up on my js again. TBH it's probably not worth it. There are heaps of ticker scripts on the web already, so if you were inclined to do anything about it just replacing it with something else is probably easiest.

[Hawk]

I looked at quite a few when I found this one. The others I found didn't do what i wanted, but if I get some spare time I'll look around and see what I can find.

[Gumboots]

Yeah it's not a high priority. Most of the ones around these days seem to be jQuery-based, which is not surprising. jQuery is good stuff if used in sensible moderation. You can call the library from the Google CDN, which means most people on the web will probably have it cached already.