Bugs and Suggestions for Metabunk.org

There's a subforum called "Elections" whose description is "investigating and debunking disinformation regarding the 2020 US elections.

Screen Shot 2022-10-27 at 18.43.10.png

Is that description a bit out of date now? Could it be expanded to other US elections or elections in general? Or maybe even politics?
Changed to "Investigating and debunking disinformation regarding elections."

Thanks.
 
Is that description a bit out of date now? Could it be expanded to other US elections or elections in general? Or maybe even politics?
I'm presuming there'll be the same level of noise this year as 2 years back, so the forum will continue to be needed, and removing the year reference certainly makes sense. Additionally, with elections of some type or other every 2 years, and campaining going on for so long, very little in US politics isn't to do with the aftermath of or build-up for an election, so it's hard to separate the two.
 
There are already fourteen pages here. Perhaps it would work better for a discussion of individual items if we started a new thread per election cycle.
 
I think the Posting Guidelines should not be hidden under an info tab.
(although they should maybe also be rewritten since they seem a bit obsolete as of late.)
 
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using the visual editor

screenshot while editing:
SmartSelect_20221102-170705_Samsung Internet.jpg
it looks ok in the preview pane, too
saved it like this and the formatting is gone, and does not show up in source view either
 
Not sure when it last worked. Might have been a year or more since I last tried to use it.
 
On my phone, I only get page navigation on the bottom of the posting list. I use the Firefox browser and I'm not sure if that's a bug or the intended design, but would sure like the page navigation "widget" at the top, as well, especially since there's the "go to top" button which would have great synergy.Screenshot_20230729-215229-255.png

Screenshot_20230729-215158-995.png
 
On my phone, I only get page navigation on the bottom of the posting list. I use the Firefox browser and I'm not sure if that's a bug or the intended design
Android, Samsung Internet browser:
SmartSelect_20230729-205332_Samsung Internet.jpgvertical

SmartSelect_20230729-205239_Samsung Internet.jpghorizontal

Looks fine to me.
 
Whether or not the pre-release discussion had value, this seems to me a valid concern. Could Mods address it, perhaps by at elast inserting the image at the top of the thread,
I sometimes see complaints that people are off-topic, then have to go back to the top to see what the actual topic is. I'd suggested pinning the thread title up by the header (so it doesn't move while commenters scroll below) as a constant reminder.
@Landru
@Mick West

One of my artist friends told us he always titled a sketch FIRST, so he had a reminder of what there was about a scene that drew him to sketch it. That way he wasn't distracted by other elements that didn't support the main idea. I am frequently distracted myself, but it's hard not to respond to other people who may have strayed off the subject.
 
I sometimes see complaints that people are off-topic, then have to go back to the top to see what the actual topic is. I'd suggested pinning the thread title up by the header (so it doesn't move while commenters scroll below) as a constant reminder.
@Landru
@Mick West

One of my artist friends told us he always titled a sketch FIRST, so he had a reminder of what there was about a scene that drew him to sketch it. That way he wasn't distracted by other elements that didn't support the main idea. I am frequently distracted myself, but it's hard not to respond to other people who may have strayed off the subject.
I don't have the ability to do this and I'm not sure ot could be done on this platform.
 
I sometimes see complaints that people are off-topic, then have to go back to the top to see what the actual topic is. I'd suggested pinning the thread title up by the header (so it doesn't move while commenters scroll below) as a constant reminder.
@Landru
@Mick West

One of my artist friends told us he always titled a sketch FIRST, so he had a reminder of what there was about a scene that drew him to sketch it. That way he wasn't distracted by other elements that didn't support the main idea. I am frequently distracted myself, but it's hard not to respond to other people who may have strayed off the subject.

This thread has:
Code:
<title>Bugs and Suggestions for Metabunk.org | Page 14 | Metabunk</title>
in the HTML, and so my window manager (or "OS" in normie-speak) titles this window "Bugs and Suggestions for Metabunk.org | Page 14 | Metabunk". Consequently, it's constantly visible, not being part of the body of the page that can be scrolled.

(Technically, I've had to lie, but you really don't want to know about my window manager and its weird equivalents to the above behaviour. However, I can see thread titles at all times.)
 
My Imgur image links haven't been working for a couple of weeks. I always used to enclose the image URL with an "img"/"/img" tags in square brackets, and it always used to work. Something changed a few weeks ago. Now all I get is broken image link icons.

I don't mind writing the tags manually that's not a problem, my disabling of JS is my own choice so my own burden, so if there's a new syntax I should use, please let me know.

Of course, if you guys can see my images, but I can't, then I'll probably not bother changing behaviour, the majority's needs are served.
 
My Imgur image links haven't been working for a couple of weeks. I always used to enclose the image URL with an "img"/"/img" tags in square brackets, and it always used to work. Something changed a few weeks ago. Now all I get is broken image link icons.

I don't mind writing the tags manually that's not a problem, my disabling of JS is my own choice so my own burden, so if there's a new syntax I should use, please let me know.

Of course, if you guys can see my images, but I can't, then I'll probably not bother changing behaviour, the majority's needs are served.
This seems to be Imgur disabling direct embedding. If you put the URL in without any IMG tags then it will just work for people with Javascript


Source: https://i.imgur.com/o05vCIz.jpeg


I'd strongly recommend you enable Javascript. There's no reason not too, and it adds very useful functionality to a lot of sites.
 
I have a not-so-recent base-level iPad and have to be careful not to load the homepage on it. Takes forever and sometimes crashes the browser. I assume due to all the javascript and iframes and embeds.

Have to remember to instead navigate to the “what’s new“ page.

Its not the biggest problem in the world so probably not worth the effort but maybe something can be done to alleviate the memory burden of the homepage? Possibly prevent the various embeds from appearing on the pinned article previews?

Either way, thanks for considering and also thanks for hosting the discussions here
 
I may have said this before, but I think it still applies: Metabunk contains a lot of useful tools (mainly created by Mick), but they are not well signposted on the site. For example, if you know that the 'Zipby' tool exists, you can find it with a search of the site, but if you don't know, you will stay in blissful ignorance. As to 'Sitrec', a simple search for that name produces over 10 pages of results, and finding the best links for the tool itself would be a challenge. The sections on 'Info' and 'How To' on the home page banner don't seem to help on this point. The Forum on 'Practical Debunking' has some relevant entries, but first you need to know that the Forum exists, and then to work your way through it.

As a very basic guide, I suggest that the 'banner' might include an entry for 'Tools', with links to the most relevant items. Off the cuff, I think these should include the 'earth curve calculator', the atmospheric refraction simulator, Zipby, the 'gas and gravity' simulator, and Sitrec (including the 'Gimbal' simulator if that is not a separate tool). There may be others which I have forgotten.
 
As a very basic guide, I suggest that the 'banner' might include an entry for 'Tools', with links to the most relevant items. Off the cuff, I think these should include the 'earth curve calculator', the atmospheric refraction simulator, Zipby, the 'gas and gravity' simulator, and Sitrec (including the 'Gimbal' simulator if that is not a separate tool). There may be others which I have forgotten.
Pinned post on the relevant forum is better. I believe many people ignore the navbar.
 
SmartSelect_20231017-181845_Samsung Internet.jpg
My navbar is already full.
And that's in landscape.
what's new and members could be eliminated . the what's new is under home anyway. and current visitors shows in any thread.

although i do think the Tools subforum should just be literal code tools, vs charts on bias etc.
 
@Mick West do you think we should have a specific thread for bugs in sitrec ? The PVS-14 thread has numerous post regarding it its own sitch, and posts regarding Night Sky issues/bugs and patches are in there too.

Bug in Night Sky: Satellite Names aren't rendering correctly in both globe and view windows, (this is on a Win 10 PC using Edge browser)

1697613631872.png
 
Pinned post on the relevant forum is better. I believe many people ignore the navbar
By all means have posts pinned on relevant threads or fora. But some of the tools are potentially relevant to a wide range of topics. Sitrec in particular could have many applications. And even the curve calculator and refraction simulator, which were primarily aimed at 'flat earth' topics, could be relevant to others. For example, if you are considering the possibility that an alleged UFO is actually something on the ground, these tools could help you decide whether it would be visible from a given viewpoint. So I still think a more general pointer to 'investigation tools' could be useful, perhaps especially to new (and old) users who don't know their way around the various fora.
 
I may have said this before, but I think it still applies: Metabunk contains a lot of useful tools (mainly created by Mick), but they are not well signposted on the site. For example, if you know that the 'Zipby' tool exists, you can find it with a search of the site, but if you don't know, you will stay in blissful ignorance. As to 'Sitrec', a simple search for that name produces over 10 pages of results, and finding the best links for the tool itself would be a challenge. The sections on 'Info' and 'How To' on the home page banner don't seem to help on this point. The Forum on 'Practical Debunking' has some relevant entries, but first you need to know that the Forum exists, and then to work your way through it.

As a very basic guide, I suggest that the 'banner' might include an entry for 'Tools', with links to the most relevant items. Off the cuff, I think these should include the 'earth curve calculator', the atmospheric refraction simulator, Zipby, the 'gas and gravity' simulator, and Sitrec (including the 'Gimbal' simulator if that is not a separate tool). There may be others which I have forgotten.
I've added a pinned post in the tools forum
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/metabunk-tools-list-and-links.13220/

I'd forgotten I wrote some of them!
 
@Mick West -- May be more trouble than it is worth, but it would be nice if, when a post gets a reply, there was notice of the fact at the post getting replied to and a pointer to the reply. At present the reply points back to the post being replied to, but if you are reading them in order, especially in a long thread, it would be handy to be able to follow a sequence of posts and replies from the "old" end, if that makes sense, making it easy to sequentially read a conversation within a thread.
 
@Mick West -- May be more trouble than it is worth, but it would be nice if, when a post gets a reply, there was notice of the fact at the post getting replied to and a pointer to the reply. At present the reply points back to the post being replied to, but if you are reading them in order, especially in a long thread, it would be handy to be able to follow a sequence of posts and replies from the "old" end, if that makes sense, making it easy to sequentially read a conversation within a thread.
I've wondered if the number of the post to which a reply is made could be appended.
 
@Mick West -- May be more trouble than it is worth, but it would be nice if, when a post gets a reply, there was notice of the fact at the post getting replied to and a pointer to the reply. At present the reply points back to the post being replied to, but if you are reading them in order, especially in a long thread, it would be handy to be able to follow a sequence of posts and replies from the "old" end, if that makes sense, making it easy to sequentially read a conversation within a thread.
Most of the modification I make are just installing plugins, there is one for nested comments. But I'm not sure it will be to everyone's taste. Let's see if this works.....
 
The Site runs on Xenforo. If people see an add-on that looks useful, feel free to suggest it. I just tried "[OzzModz] Post Comments 2.0.2 Patch Level 2" but it seemed to do nothing.
 
@Mick West do you think we should have a specific thread for bugs in sitrec ? The PVS-14 thread has numerous post regarding it its own sitch, and posts regarding Night Sky issues/bugs and patches are in there too.

Bug in Night Sky: Satellite Names aren't rendering correctly in both globe and view windows, (this is on a Win 10 PC using Edge browser)

1697613631872.png
Fixed.
 
This thread is b0rked: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mark-taylor-conspiricy.1179/page-5

In the "what's new" and "new posts" lists, it shows in bold as if it has new content, yet it doesn't. I even forced myself to read every page of it, so that the forum software could be given every clue that there was nothing unread about it. Yikes, now I need some brainbleach.

In addition, scrolling to the latest 2 posts, I notice that the final (but "deleted") post pre-dates the penultimate one by 8 years.
 
This thread is b0rked: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mark-taylor-conspiricy.1179/page-5

In the "what's new" and "new posts" lists, it shows in bold as if it has new content, yet it doesn't. I even forced myself to read every page of it, so that the forum software could be given every clue that there was nothing unread about it. Yikes, now I need some brainbleach.

In addition, scrolling to the latest 2 posts, I notice that the final (but "deleted") post pre-dates the penultimate one by 8 years.
the new post was listed before the older one. I added a post, then the new post was listed ofter the deleted post (and before!), but after reloading the thread, it seems fine now.
probably a legacy bug.
 
This thread is b0rked: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mark-taylor-conspiricy.1179/page-5

In the "what's new" and "new posts" lists, it shows in bold as if it has new content, yet it doesn't. I even forced myself to read every page of it, so that the forum software could be given every clue that there was nothing unread about it. Yikes, now I need some brainbleach.

In addition, scrolling to the latest 2 posts, I notice that the final (but "deleted") post pre-dates the penultimate one by 8 years.
Same here, although I tried several times. I didn't know the thread existed, but it appears to have survived for years without anyone correcting the spelling of "Conspiracy". :)
 
Same here, although I tried several times. I didn't know the thread existed, but it appears to have survived for years without anyone correcting the spelling of "Conspiracy". :)
Is it fixed for you now? Or still broken?
 
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