# Some features I would like to see.. **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 25, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889 "2003-07-25T15:23:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/22 "2003-07-27T12:36:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kputt \* > \*\*That is just too much work. \*\* How difficult is it to highlight a few lines of text and press “delete”? That’s what I just did. And what everyone else does. You’ll get used to the code and then it’ll become second nature to you. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/23 "2003-07-27T13:43:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*Not entirely true. I’ve had double (even triple) posts just from the original “Submit,” without doing anything else and without a timeout. I guess that makes me (and scores of others) unintelligent and impatient by default, huh? :rolleyes: \*\* I guess one is unintelligent if they believe they are - and your moniker seems to imply personal issues of lack of self-worth. However, that’s not what I said at all, so you can stop mischaracterizing my post any time now… :rolleyes: -\>Right back at you. Posting intelligently and being intelligent are not the same things. I’ve posted unintelligently many times before - I’m not saying people doing it are “unintelligent”. Many, if not nearly all of the times there are double posts and double threads it is because of people hitting “submit” again, and you well know that. They admit to doing it in numerous “Argh! Mods, can you delete these extra posts I made?” posts. I admit to doing it. The “multiple posts from a single submit” thing doesn’t seem to be repeatable, but it does happen. It’s odd that with my combined 20,000+ posts on the vB boards I go to it’s never once happened to me, nor with more than 100,000 posts on my own Board running the same software as here has it happened either. So some people may be having proxy caching issues, the SDMB may be having some sort of caching issue, or else it’s really odd browser behaviour. Oh, are we finished now, NCB? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/24 "2003-07-27T17:55:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Aren’t spoiler boxes a hack? > > I’m using the beta version of vbulletin 3 at another board. The mods are going to love the new version; it makes tracking users much easier. Some changes require hacks; some do not. As I understand it, custom tags, which translate some string into a sequence of HTML codes, are fairly easy to implement. I imagine that there’s a screen in the vB admin control panel showing such custom tags and their code equivalents. There are also things like the quick-reply box, which are a bit of a larger modifications, but still don’t require changes to the source code. I _think_ that that one mostly involved modification of the page template, the same file they had to modify to put in the Straight Dope logo and copyright information. I can’t give any clear-cut criterion for saying whether a given change would require a “hack”, other than saying that anything we have here isn’t one. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/25 "2003-07-27T18:05:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **I imagine that there’s a screen in the vB admin control panel showing such custom tags and their code equivalents.** Correct. You can also add smileys and other things from those pages. > [@](#): > > There are also things like the quick-reply box, which are a bit of a larger modifications, but still don’t require changes to the source code. I _think_ that that one mostly involved modification of the page template, the same file they had to modify to put in the Straight Dope logo and copyright information. Correct again. > [@](#): > > I can’t give any clear-cut criterion for saying whether a given change would require a “hack”, other than saying that anything we have here isn’t one. In fairness…modifying the templates is changing the source code. From a technical standpoint, the main difference between the template changes and the .php file changes is simply that some of the source code of vBulletin (the templates) is stored in the database, which means it can be remotely edited/modified. Whereas the .php files require direct server access to modify. So, in effect, _all_ template changes are changes to the source code, and when this Board is upgraded to the next version or sub-version of vBulletin, all of those custom template modifications (such as the quick reply box) will have to be checked and resolved to make sure that they are in-line with the latest code. On the UnaBoard when this happens, I copy the modified template to notepad, “Revert” that particular template to be in line with the latest code, and then copy that to notepad, and use Windiff to see the changes between the two versions. Then, if there are no changes other than what I’ve made, I copy my modified one back in. If there are changes, then sometimes I have to go line-by-line reading the source code and re-add them in in the proper places. Praying I don’t break anything or cause other issues. It’s a time-consuming process, and rife with room for mistakes. So even the template changes, while easy, are things that require extra work in the future. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/26 "2003-07-27T21:50:10Z")
Proxy caching issues may explain what I’ve personally seen and done, **Anthracite** , no need to get snippy or snotty. I apologise for misreading the tone of your previous post (also if I misread the tone of your reply to my reply 🙂 ). I’m cool with you if you’re cool with me. At times I’ve seen people advise that if the submit seems to hang up, that one should cancel the action. Is this good, accurate advice? How long into the cycle does it take for the information to actually be sent? (I’m not trying to be snippy “right back at you,” I really want to know) On a related issue, what causes missing posts? **Zenster** seems to be having a rash of these lately, and I’ve had it happen to me (though not recently). Is it a vB phenomenon, or is it browser issues? I’m not trying to be obtuse, I really am curious. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/27 "2003-07-27T22:43:26Z")
okay… right [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3761964#post3761964) It hung up in “Submit” I did nothing, deciding on a little experiment. I did not click on the back button, I didn’t stop it, I didn’t touch anything else on my computer, I just let it cycle… And I got 3!! 🙂 ftr, accessed via AOL using my own IE 6 on a PII with a v90 modem (yeah, I know, I know… upgrade!) ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/28 "2003-07-27T23:25:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > **At times I’ve seen people advise that if the submit seems to hang up, that one should cancel the action. Is this good, accurate advice? How long into the cycle does it take for the information to actually be sent? (I’m not trying to be snippy “right back at you,” I really want to know)** Unfortunately, it’s likely no one can really find the answer to this question, as I imagine it is going to be a function of the server load at the time, the database access issues at the time, bandwidth at the time, etc. So I have no wisdom to impart (which is nothing new for me). I typically let the thread go until it times out, then re-preview, see if my post is there, if not resubmit, and if so, call it day. However…this is time consuming, and it’s highly understandable that people get impatient. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/29 "2003-07-29T10:36:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anthracite \* > \*\*You can also add smileys and other things from those pages. > \*\* \*Ooh ooh ohh … \*please can we have the [barf](http://www.boomspeed.com/judamar/barf.gif) smiley? Pretty please? Julie 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889/30 "2003-07-29T16:56:13Z")
I can assure you we will **never** have amimated gifs for smilies on this site. Also, if you wish to see the ruckus about adding smilies, simply search ATMB for threads on “smilies.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-features-i-would-like-to-see/190889.md?page=1)