Reported.
In the olden days, Dopers sometimes posted CODE using, of all things, the CODE tag. Now it’s avoided due to SultanThemes. View, for example, the code Linux uses to create a new cpu accounting group. View it both with Sultanthemes turned off and with it turned on.
/* create a new cpu accounting group */
static struct cgroup_subsys_state *
cpuacct_css_alloc(struct cgroup_subsys_state *parent_css)
{
struct cpuacct *ca;
if (!parent_css)
return &root_cpuacct.css;
ca = kzalloc(sizeof(*ca), GFP_KERNEL);
if (!ca)
goto out;
ca->cpuusage = alloc_percpu(u64);
if (!ca->cpuusage)
goto out_free_ca;
ca->cpustat = alloc_percpu(struct kernel_cpustat);
if (!ca->cpustat)
goto out_free_cpuusage;
return &ca->css;
out_free_cpuusage:
free_percpu(ca->cpuusage);
out_free_ca:
kfree(ca);
out:
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
}
See a difference? The code tags are also extremely convenient for tables and other kinds of text unrelated to computer code.
What I find annoying is that BigT has generously published the exact changes required for SultanThemes to support CODE. Assuming the Sultan guru charges $600 per hour, and can copy BigT’s work in 3 minutes, the charge would be $30. I offer to send $15 for this fix. Anyone willing to put up the other $15?
I prefer Sultanstheme over Straightdope theme, so please don’t get rid of it. Straightdope theme looks like shit on my Samsung Galaxy S9 android phone.
A theme is the style and look of a webpage. For example, IIRC at one time there were theme options for the SDMB that included different colors for the blue bars and such. What is important is that a theme isn’t supposed to affect content, only the appearance and presentation.
At some point previously the powers that be recognized the need to have a “mobile friendly” webpage to maintain good rankings in google. I don’t know what process wad used or who selected it, but likely it was Ed. Anyway, Sultanstheme is a prepackaged theme for vB message boards. Whoever did it (Jerry, the old Chicago Reader IT guy? ) was able to configure the theme to provide a look and feel similar to the old layout.
The idea was that the board would look essentially the same but work better on small screen devices. Part of the way it works is being “responsive”, that is the content displayed on the screen is prioritized, and when the screen is smaller, lower priority fields are not shown.
So of you go to the forum list on a desktop or laptop, you see several columns of information besides the thread name. It includes last poster and a link to the end of the thread. However, on a phone screen there is much less real estate to keep the content large enough to be legible without having to resize the screen and do a lot of left/right scrolling. So in a responsive theme, some of this columns won’t be displayed, especially if the phone is held portrait (i.e. vertical).
This likely contributes to other visual issues on other screens, with formatting buttons and emoticons not visible.
The problem with Sultanstheme is that it is buggy. There are some glaring bugs, like the code tag not working correctly, and spoiler boxes not working in quotes. Plus many of us don’t like the responsive elements.
I had no idea you could do this. But as a previous poster mentioned, I barely notice a difference.
Also annoying are pointless differences between SD v3.7.3 and SultanBugs.
For example, I see the Locations of Members but not of Guests. This can be confusing — sometimes a poster assumes you know what his Location reads, so assumes you know what"my state" means.
With SultanBugs, the Locations of guests ARE displayed as well as the Locations of Members. What is the purpose of this distinction? (You even read arguments: “But you can see my Location!” No. I didn’t select the SultanBugs options.)
Many decades ago I used to be a computer programmer! I know I could fix these idiosyncrasies, often in seconds rather than minutes. Yet on and on and on we go, with silly little bugs and inconsistencies.
I’m like the OP in that I log in only when posting. However, I never encounter the OP’s issue. Many moons ago I switched to Straight Dope v3.7.3 and I’ve never had to switch back.
Looks to me like a cookie issue. I use Firefox on a Windows 10 desktop at work. I just deleted the cookies for boards.straightdope.com, relaunched Firefox and got Sultantheme. Switched back using the drop down menu. Did not login to the boards. Killed the browser and restarted it. Still have SD3.7.3 and a fresh batch of cookies.
I know, I know, anecdotes are not data, but that’s one data point.
No. See the comment in the passage you quoted, about Techno-peasant cred?
I would have to understand what you’re saying in order to see a difference… 
Thanks for trying, though. 
Since I haven’t noticed any difference in the Board performance, I’ll just let someone else have my thousand suns. 
To see a difference you’d have to view the CODE box BOTH with and without Sultan.
Can you see my Location?
Location: the Land of Smiles
I think that confirms you’re running Sultan. The Code box looked like garbage text run-on, right?
Click the menu way down in the bottom left (or wherever it is on a Phone) and switch to Straight Dope v3.7.3. Now the CODE box should contain orderly formatted txt (Never mind what the text means.)
It used to be very convenient to post certain kinds of text within a CODE box. We can’t do it anymore — To all the “Sultan users” it will just look like the poster who used the CODE box is an idiot.
Isn’t not showing the location of guests a bug with the Straight Dope theme? Rather than with the sultan theme, that is? I can’t imagine why not seeing a subset of users’ locations would be beneficial.
I like sultan theme better, FWIW, though it certainly may just be familiarity at this point. The code block problem is lame, though.
No, that was the entire point of having “sultantheme” in the first place.
The intentions were good. The execution … not so much.
The need was there. When the algorithm changed (Google’s subtle hint to sites not in compliance) we went from being fairly visible on the internets to being no searchable presence at all.
When changes were made, the site was reindexed and following that we were again more of a searchable presence. That’s not a coincidence.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
I actually prefer the Sultantheme theme on my phone but I have had to switch to the other theme because the Sultantheme buttons no longer have any text as of some point this week.
The issue is formatting. HTML by default does not preserve formatting like spacing. See here, I inserted 10 spaces between the last sentence and this one. HTML concatenates spacing. Also, the default font is not a consistent width font - the letters don’t take the same width, like i and m. This often helps readability, but sometimes knowing your spacing is crucial.
The CODE tag is supposed to preserve formatting and use a monocharacter font. What that does is allow people to make indents and align columns, so one can present a table of data and have the columns align and spacing preserve.
However, that feature is busted in Sultantheme. Instead, it concatenates spacing like HTML. Our makes computer code and tables created in CODE tags to display as a wall of text, making the tags useless. That also breaks many old posts that use the CODE tags.
Another break is SPOILER tags don’t hide text in quotes. The spoiler content is displayed automatically.
Actually, I think that was implemented under Ed as a privilege for payed members to show their location. Why that would be a useful privilege is not understood. Being able to see everyone’s location would be more useful.
Are you talking about the quote buttons at the bottom of each post? For me they haven’t had text in a long time.
I prefer standard theme on my computer, but on my phone Sultantheme works a bit better. The standard theme’s font size and object construction (e.g. size of buttons and menus) makes it difficult to read on my phone screen, especially when held portrait, which is more comfortable. I have to zoom in to make the print clear to me, but the column width does not adjust, so I am forced to scroll left and right constantly. That is massively annoying.
Sultantheme is “responsive”, which means it adjusts to the device. So column width is actively adjusted based on screen orientation, zoom level, etc. These are some of the features that make it mobile-friendly.
But it also means that not all available data is displayed. In fact, it selects content to not display based on the same screen viewing constraints. I do not know how it prioritizes that content.
That was it. I never thought much of it until someone here asked if it could be changed. They suggested it would make a lot more sense if members could see everyone’s location and post count and guests couldn’t (or had to go into that person’s profile to see it).
I agree it would make more sense that way. I have no idea if that’s even a vB has something like that built in.