Bugs and Suggestions for Metabunk.org

"hyperfocal", a word mentioned in an early lehto thread, is also worryingly sparse - do we have data loss?
The posts are still there, but I'm getting errors rebuilding the search cache. Working on it.

Fixed! (rebuilt the caches from the command line)

2024-07-10_08-12-54.jpg
 
Last edited:
I've munged together something to fix them for now.
External quotes no longer survive mark&reply (but they do survive the reply button).

Try it on this (select some text above and below to make the popup pop up):

xxxxxxx
Article:
"I don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or win this race than me," Mr Biden said, blaming his poor performance last week on exhaustion and a "bad cold".

xxxxxx
External Quote:
What is odd about the analysis? No one denies explosions happen during fires. The real argument would be evidence of detonations powerful enough to cut steel.
[/QUOTE]
xxxxxc
 
@Mick West , a "reply" to a previous post, although it posts properly in my comment box, shoots me all the way up to the top of the page, so I have to scroll all the way down to find the box again to add my comments. I also seem to have lost the use of all the edit functions (Bold, italic, link, photos, etc.) which appear as icons in the usual place in very light type but are non-functional. The only one that still works is the bold arrow-in-box symbol for a quote. I'm doing this on an iPad.
Thanks.
 
I also seem to have lost the use of all the edit functions (Bold, italic, link, photos, etc.) which appear as icons in the usual place in very light type but are non-functional. The only one that still works is the bold arrow-in-box symbol for a quote. I'm doing this on an iPad.
Thanks.
Does this bring them back?
Screenshot_20240709-201749_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
Just to pass along data -- a search for "orb" shows no results (!) nor does "UFO" find any threads (!!) Mick, JMart, and JMartJr found plenty of results, as did "Bigfoot" and "ghost." "Best Orb" finds nothing, "best" by itself is not allowed as the search term is too long, too short or too common. "Smoking Gun" finds the thread title of the butterfly/orb thread, but "orb" searching just thread titles still does not find anything.

Not grousing, just letting you know what I am seeing in case it is A Clue! or otherwise useful.
 
Just to pass along data -- a search for "orb" shows no results (!) nor does "UFO" find any threads (!!) Mick, JMart, and JMartJr found plenty of results, as did "Bigfoot" and "ghost." "Best Orb" finds nothing, "best" by itself is not allowed as the search term is too long, too short or too common. "Smoking Gun" finds the thread title of the butterfly/orb thread, but "orb" searching just thread titles still does not find anything.
I finally got the Enhanced Search (with Elasticsearch) running again, and it seems like that's all fixed.

In the same vein, a "titles only" search for LIZ used to work iirc, now it doesn't.
as is that

There's a known issue with Xenforo and rebuilding the search cache from the web interface, which should be fixed in the next release (hopefully in a few days). I'm not sure if it's an issue, as I just rebuilt it from the command line, and it should get updated with new posts individually.
 
Chitchat topics are listed on "What's new" and "New posts", while Open Discussion topics are not; these do show on "Latest activity".
Is it possible to list Open Discussion topics on "What's new" and "New posts"?
 
I wish there was some way of extracting the most useful and/or pertinent information from threads ( for example the Turkey UFO thread ) that may go on for hundreds of posts. I know posts can be marked with an 'Information' tag, though clearly not everyone uses that and its not clear if there's any means of displaying just those posts.
 
I wish there was some way of extracting the most useful and/or pertinent information from threads ( for example the Turkey UFO thread ) that may go on for hundreds of posts. I know posts can be marked with an 'Information' tag, though clearly not everyone uses that and its not clear if there's any means of displaying just those posts.
Maybe we could train an LLM on Metabunk...
 
A comment about the "link" tag: it doesn't work any more for me on the iPad, but that's OK, since a simple "paste" will do the job for me and leave a workable link. Does it work the same on other devices?
 
Maybe we could train an LLM on Metabunk...
I think something like that will happen eventually. What you can do now is export a thread, and then import it into ChatGPT, and ask it questions. For example:

External Quote:

Here is a detailed summary of key points and notable contributions from the Metabunk discussion thread about Luis Elizondo's book "Imminent":

  1. GIMBAL Video Analysis:
    • Mendel: Criticizes the "vacuum bubble" theory, explaining it's physically impossible and discusses air resistance and roll rates.
    • FatPhil: Agrees with the critique, adding that maintaining a vacuum would require absurd energy levels.
  2. Skepticism of Elizondo's Claims:
    • Jarlrmai: Suggests Elizondo might be mixing up videos or intentionally creating confusion.
    • NorCal Dave: Questions the credibility of Elizondo's sources and narrative, pointing out reliance on second-hand information.
  3. Historical Context and Related Projects:
    • Tezcatlipoca: Discusses Elizondo's involvement with the Stargate program and inconsistencies in his career timeline.
    • Jimmyslippin: Investigates Elizondo's references to incidents involving Soviet-era jets and psychic operations.
  4. Writing Style and Reception:
    • Ravi: Criticizes the writing style as hard to read and unlikely to purchase the book.
    • RobertBillyBob: Suggests a public demonstration of Elizondo's remote viewing abilities for credibility.
  5. General Criticism and Debate:
    • Ann K: Highlights how narratives by Elizondo and others are aimed at maintaining their public image and dismissing skepticism.
    • Scaramanga: Mocks the recurring theme of "imminent" disclosure in UFO discussions over decades.
For the complete discussion and additional details, you can refer to the full thread here.
 
A comment about the "link" tag: it doesn't work any more for me on the iPad, but that's OK, since a simple "paste" will do the job for me and leave a workable link. Does it work the same on other devices?
Do you mean the link button?
2024-07-27_11-40-42.jpg

Or something else?
 
I think something like that will happen eventually. What you can do now is export a thread, and then import it into ChatGPT, and ask it questions. For example:

External Quote:

Here is a detailed summary of key points and notable contributions from the Metabunk discussion thread about Luis Elizondo's book "Imminent":

  1. GIMBAL Video Analysis:
    • Mendel: Criticizes the "vacuum bubble" theory, explaining it's physically impossible and discusses air resistance and roll rates.
    • FatPhil: Agrees with the critique, adding that maintaining a vacuum would require absurd energy levels.
  2. Skepticism of Elizondo's Claims:
    • Jarlrmai: Suggests Elizondo might be mixing up videos or intentionally creating confusion.
    • NorCal Dave: Questions the credibility of Elizondo's sources and narrative, pointing out reliance on second-hand information.
  3. Historical Context and Related Projects:
    • Tezcatlipoca: Discusses Elizondo's involvement with the Stargate program and inconsistencies in his career timeline.
    • Jimmyslippin: Investigates Elizondo's references to incidents involving Soviet-era jets and psychic operations.
  4. Writing Style and Reception:
    • Ravi: Criticizes the writing style as hard to read and unlikely to purchase the book.
    • RobertBillyBob: Suggests a public demonstration of Elizondo's remote viewing abilities for credibility.
  5. General Criticism and Debate:
    • Ann K: Highlights how narratives by Elizondo and others are aimed at maintaining their public image and dismissing skepticism.
    • Scaramanga: Mocks the recurring theme of "imminent" disclosure in UFO discussions over decades.
For the complete discussion and additional details, you can refer to the full thread here.

That's pretty neat! Maybe when someone has time they can explain exactly how to "export" a whole thread and where to for us less computer savvy dullards. I suppose you then prompt ChatGPT to summarize it for you. Or one could ask Ghat for a more advanced search using terms. Something to play with for sure.
 
I'd like to point out that feeding my content to online LLMs may breach the copyright to my posts. I'm not happy about that at all, and I do not consent to it.
 
I wish there was some way of extracting the most useful and/or pertinent information from threads ( for example the Turkey UFO thread ) that may go on for hundreds of posts. I know posts can be marked with an 'Information' tag, though clearly not everyone uses that and its not clear if there's any means of displaying just those posts.
I've suggested a while ago that we could stand up a companion wiki. I've thought about it now and then and think I could write a fairly good concept for one.
I'm bringing this up because the wiki page for an incident would collect the relevant information in structured form.
 
I'd like to point out that feeding my content to online LLMs may breach the copyright to my posts. I'm not happy about that at all, and I do not consent to it.
You knowingly consented to them being broadcast on a medium with theoretically unbounded distribution. All the AIs exist within that non-existent boundary, you can't stop them having access to it.
 
Was anybody else getting a 522 HTTP error code trying to visit the website today? I was worried a werewolf from Skinwalker Ranch finally got Mick
 
Was anybody else getting a 522 HTTP error code trying to visit the website today? I was worried a werewolf from Skinwalker Ranch finally got Mick
Xenforo issued an update that fixed a lot of the bugs with last update. Of course, I installed it and it broke everything. Took a while to restore from backup.
 
I appear to be the only one having a spot of bovver downloading the video embedded here:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/bl...d-with-witnesses-2021-italy.13577/post-320180
Code:
phil@dovespaz:~$ wget https://www.metabunk.org/data/video/69/69825-52a0656d31ce2fa566b598e1744eeb06.mp4
--2024-07-31 23:17:35--  https://www.metabunk.org/data/video/69/69825-52a0656d31ce2fa566b598e1744eeb06.mp4
Resolving www.metabunk.org (www.metabunk.org)... 2606:4700:20::ac43:4861, 2606:4700:20::681a:a62, 2606:4700:20::681a:b62, ...
Connecting to www.metabunk.org (www.metabunk.org)|2606:4700:20::ac43:4861|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 403 Forbidden
2024-07-31 23:17:35 ERROR 403: Forbidden.
I'm not sure if I've downloaded any MB-hosted videos since the upgrade, so it could the related to that. wget always worked in the past.
 
I'm not sure if I've downloaded any MB-hosted videos since the upgrade, so it could the related to that. wget always worked in the past.
I'm not sure, but I suspect it might now need a session, or possibly it's being blocked by Cloudflare.

You should be able to open it in Chrome and save it, even without Javascript.
 
I'm not sure, but I suspect it might now need a session, or possibly it's being blocked by Cloudflare.

You should be able to open it in Chrome and save it, even without Javascript.
Sniffing the error response using curl, it looks like it's both. My uMatrix filtering is cranky, but can be persuaded to let me download it from within the browser. (Apparently it falls under "other" rather than "media", because reasons.) Ta!
 
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