Forum Stuff

Other discussions not related to the Permanent Portfolio

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dualstow
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Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Wed Apr 01, 2020 10:50 am

I thought there was a forum section, but I don't see it.

There's a small forum that I'm on that has a free host. At some point, tapatalk dot com took over and mostly left things alone. A slight change in feel, and it used to try to get us to login differently, but the few of us on there are able to keep doing what we're doing.

This week, the guy who keeps it running got a letter from Tapatalk. "Covid 19, in these trying times..." It seems the long and the short of it is that we have to pay up to migrate, or lose our data. So, I'm busy archiving the site. (Copy and Paste, not archive dot org).

Could that happen here?
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Xan
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Xan » Wed Apr 01, 2020 11:44 am

No, because we don't have a "forum host". The site is hosted on a Linode, which is an unmanaged virtual server provider. I manage the forum on top of that.

That does mean that I'm a single point of failure. It might make sense to establish a Linode account separate from my personal one, and give one or two other trusted forum members the login. Then probably the same for the DNS.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Wed Apr 01, 2020 12:41 pm

Xan wrote:
Wed Apr 01, 2020 11:44 am
That does mean that I'm a single point of failure.
Oh, don't beat yourself up, you're better than that.


O0 Seriously, that's good to hear. I suspected things were ok because of the domain name not being dot blogspot or dot anything else before the com, but never having hosted a site, I'm not sure how these things work.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:37 pm

(general corona thread)
WiseOne wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:26 am
BTW I am SO frustrated that sometimes my posts just disappear into a black hole instead of showing up.

That's weird. It happens when you click the submit button?
You should save your post in a text file before you hit submit, just for the time being until it's sorted out.

I'm on a very small forum -- fewer than 10 people, but we've all been on there for nearly 20 years -- and it recently started going haywire. Like, no Edit buttons. Very frustrating.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Smith1776 » Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:41 pm

We should start our own subreddit and troll the peeps on Wall Street Bets. ^-^
I still find the James Rickards portfolio fascinating.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by CT-Scott » Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:17 pm

Since we're talking about forum stuff here and I guess I'm just now learning that Xan is the one-and-only guy running the show...

A few recommendations:
1) Change that phpBB logo in the top left to match the name of this website/forum.
2) Maybe add a couple new subforums? I probably shouldn't make that suggestion without having specific recommendations, and I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it, but perhaps something like a "Personal Finance (not Investment-related)" subforum?

FWIW, I used to run a couple/few phpBB forums many years ago, so I have some familiarity with the software, though it's been a while.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Tortoise » Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:27 pm

dualstow wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:37 pm
You should save your post in a text file before you hit submit, just for the time being until it's sorted out.
Or, even simpler, just highlight the contents of the text box and select "copy" (or press ctrl-c) before clicking the "submit" button. Then, if it doesn't go through, just try again and paste the text back into the text box. That's been my habit for years.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by vnatale » Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:34 pm

Tortoise wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:27 pm
dualstow wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:37 pm
You should save your post in a text file before you hit submit, just for the time being until it's sorted out.
Or, even simpler, just highlight the contents of the text box and select "copy" (or press ctrl-c) before clicking the "submit" button. Then, if it doesn't go through, just try again and paste the text back into the text box. That's been my habit for years.
If I am in the middle of something quite long and don't want to take any risks of losing it (e.g., computer shutting down) I do what you say except paste it into an email I send to myself, such email still accessible outside of this computer, of course.

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Tortoise » Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:55 pm

vnatale wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:34 pm
If I am in the middle of something quite long and don't want to take any risks of losing it (e.g., computer shutting down) I do what you say except paste it into an email I send to myself, such email still accessible outside of this computer, of course.
<email rejected by server -- vnatale's inbox has reached its 10 TB limit>
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by vnatale » Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:05 pm

Tortoise wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:55 pm
vnatale wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:34 pm
If I am in the middle of something quite long and don't want to take any risks of losing it (e.g., computer shutting down) I do what you say except paste it into an email I send to myself, such email still accessible outside of this computer, of course.
<email rejected by server -- vnatale's inbox has reached its 10 TB limit>
Funny! My office Outlook email is 16GB.

The one I use at home - Eudora - which I continue to use even thought it has not been updated for about 15 years is well over 125 GBs. That because unlike Outlook which is just ONE fat folder Eudora is composed of many Windows type folders. That means you can create all kinds of other folders within Eudora that have nothing to do with Eudora. Therefore I put tons of other self-created files there so I just have do backup the one "mother" Eudora folder to back up everything - Eudora and all it actually uses plus all the non-Eudora files I've stuffed inside of it.

A 5 TB external drive is too small to hold everything I have. I have an 8 TB one. Wonders of wonders it still has 2 TB free!

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:29 pm

Thanks to this forum, we all know all about Vinny's TP usage and TB storage. O0
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by vnatale » Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:32 pm

dualstow wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:29 pm
Thanks to this forum, we all know all about Vinny's TP usage and TB storage. O0
I can thereby appoint you, dualstow, to have engraved on my tombstone: "Though he used a lot of TB he used little TP!"

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:43 pm

vnatale wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:32 pm
dualstow wrote:
Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:29 pm
Thanks to this forum, we all know all about Vinny's TP usage and TB storage. O0
I can thereby appoint you, dualstow, to have engraved on my tombstone: "Though he used a lot of TB he used little TP!"

Vinny
Or if I pass before you, engrave something short and then below it write "Vinny". O0 O0
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:34 am

Xan in the Avatar Thread wrote:
Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:02 pm
Sorry, folks, I didn't make any changes... I think you're noticing that Vinny rescaled his picture to make it smaller.
One thing it seems like you did change, though -- and God bless you for it -- quoting posts with images does not display the actual image again. Not anymore. By default, it seems to just show the image filename, which is a fantastic spacesaver. You get full credit whether you implemented this or not.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Xan » Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:27 pm

dualstow wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:34 am
Xan in the Avatar Thread wrote:
Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:02 pm
Sorry, folks, I didn't make any changes... I think you're noticing that Vinny rescaled his picture to make it smaller.
One thing it seems like you did change, though -- and God bless you for it -- quoting posts with images does not display the actual image again. Not anymore. By default, it seems to just show the image filename, which is a fantastic spacesaver. You get full credit whether you implemented this or not.
hmm, maybe I can take some credit for that. My guess is that linked images still behave the "bad" way you describe, but images which are uploaded into the post itself (which is a feature I did recently turn on) behave the "good" way you describe.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Mark Leavy » Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:46 pm

Xan, one thing I noticed when I tested a tall, skinny avatar.

I made a post with the new avatar and then also put the image inside the post.

Unless I did something wrong, it appears that if you upload an image into a post, publish it and then go back and edit the image out of the post the image still stays after the edit.

At least, I couldn't figure out how to get the image to stop publishing and so I just deleted the post.

Just FYI in case anyone else has the same issue. Not important enough to do anything about.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by vnatale » Sat Apr 18, 2020 2:06 pm

Mark Leavy wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:46 pm
Xan, one thing I noticed when I tested a tall, skinny avatar.

I made a post with the new avatar and then also put the image inside the post.

Unless I did something wrong, it appears that if you upload an image into a post, publish it and then go back and edit the image out of the post the image still stays after the edit.

At least, I couldn't figure out how to get the image to stop publishing and so I just deleted the post.

Just FYI in case anyone else has the same issue. Not important enough to do anything about.
Mark
I just did a test of exactly what you stated with same results.

Inserted image, deleted the image reference within the post but the image remained.

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:27 pm

Mark Leavy wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:46 pm
Unless I did something wrong, it appears that if you upload an image into a post, publish it and then go back and edit the image out of the post the image still stays after the edit.
I haven't had that issue yet. Did you attach it or insert it?
Until recently, I was using the insert inline option. When I do that, if I go into Edit mode I can see the tags for the image attachment and deleting those worked for me.

I'll try a test now for an image that is not inline...

image attached...it displays
editing. no tags in edit mode so switch from Options Tab to Attachments Tab...
Delete button pressed...


Voila. No image.

• So if you put it inline, delete the tags.
• If you just attach it, you need the Delete button in the Attachments tab.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:38 pm

Here are some screenshots of what I'm talking about above.

Attachment tags:
attachment-tags.png
attachment-tags.png (40.35 KiB) Viewed 4988 times
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The system is getting confused here, I admit, and so am I. Whew.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Delete file button:
delete file button.png
delete file button.png (13.29 KiB) Viewed 4988 times
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Mark Leavy » Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:40 pm

dualstow wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:27 pm
• If you just attach it, you need the Delete button in the Attachments tab.
Ah! That's the part I missed. I was just deleting the image name from the text box. All cleared up now.
Thanks!
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by vnatale » Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:44 pm

I now also see.

Thanks, Dualstow!

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by dualstow » Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:52 pm

My pleasure, guys.
Here's the original image restored. I wouldn't want to keep that deleted.
churro-french-toast-ice-cream.png
churro-french-toast-ice-cream.png (213.94 KiB) Viewed 4986 times
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Xan » Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:02 pm

Glad you guys got that figured out.

Some forum news: there was an outage of a few minutes this evening while updating to phpBB 3.2.9, which was successful. (3.3 is out, but 3.2 is still supported, and I haven't gotten around to doing 3.3 yet. Soon, probably.)

Also, Budd is back, and I merged his new account into his old (now unbanned) account, so his recent posts have come from his normal account and that's where you'll now find him.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by Mark Leavy » Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:37 pm

Thank you Xan for maintaining such a delightful salon. And for allowing us to visit.
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Re: Forum Stuff

Post by drumminj » Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:41 am

Xan wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:02 pm
Also, Budd is back, and I merged his new account into his old (now unbanned) account, so his recent posts have come from his normal account and that's where you'll now find him.
I'll try to keep an open mind, but can we possibly keep the complaining limited to a "Budd's Scream Room" thread or some such? It was a shame to see so many individual threads devolve into that across the board before.

Echoing what others have said, thank you again Xan for hosting this forum and giving us a place to congregate!
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