Installing Free Republic Update Tonight

[John Robinson]

Will be installing an update tonight that fixes a number of issues. The version that will be installed is currently available on the beta site.

Changes

• Fixed the time-warping "More" links.
• Fixed time zone issues, using JavaScript to ask your browser to format the time stamp. If you don't have JavaScript enabled, you'll see the default Pacific time.
• Reverted behavior of "New comments to you" indicator.
• Updated HTML on index pages (Latest Posts, etc.) We're moving away from font tags, etc., in favor of using style sheets. Big change here is an increased font size of text in article summaries (increased to the "normal size" font)
• Added memory of last tab ("Articles", "Activity", "Comments") visited on index pages. Additionally, each tab remembers it's brevity setting. "Headers" brevity is the same as "Brief", "Text" brevity is the same as "Full". Name changed to hopefully clarify exactly what this does.
• Moved RSS link to bottom of page.
• Moved and renamed "Sidebar Placement" to bottom of page, it is now labeled "Add to My Page", hopefully that is as self-descriptive as "Sidebar Placement" was.
• Other minor tweaks

One last feature I am working to return is the slave windows preference. Will have that working before the new software is installed.

Update: Windows Preference Working

Reimplemented the open-in-new-window preference. It uses different code now. If you use this feature, please let me know if any links are not (or should not be) opening in new windows.

[SoothingDave]

Reimplemented the open-in-new-window preference. It uses different code now. If you use this feature, please let me know if any links are not (or should not be) opening in new windows.

John, I usually work with all articles opening in a slave window. This is working fine from the ping list now.

But if you select a new forum in the "Browse by Forum" box on the right hand side, it opens the selected forum in the slave window, when it should open up in the main window.

Thanks!

[maggief]

Where is the brief comments tab?

[jellybean]

Reimplemented the open-in-new-window preference. It uses different code now. If you use this feature, please let me know if any links are not (or should not be) opening in new windows.

I'm trying out the beta now, John. I have my preferences set to open in a slave window. In the old version when I click on a thread it will open in a new tab on Opera. Each subsequent thread opens in the same tab. In the beta version a new tab opens for each thread. Do I need to reset my preferences or is this how it's supposed to work? I can live with it this way, but prefer the old way.

Thanks for all your hard work!

[Let's Roll]

I was looking for brief comments also.

[Quix]

Safari quit working. Won’t load page. Redownloaded. Still won’t. Don’t know why.

[tsmith130]

Great work John. I don't envy you your job.

I noticed on the current version, the view count has disappeared again. I'm apologize if this has already been addressed in this thread but it was there yesterday and it isn't today.

[Quix]

LOL. Have been about double arm’s length from my monitor for years. The new Laz-Y-Boy is worth it, though.

[Quix]

I usually set IE7 font to comic sans MS for easier reading at double arm’s length in my Laz-Y-Boy.

[sam_paine]

Making it look up to date is nice... but what about functionality?

For example, REPLY and PRIVATE REPLY exist.

But what about REPLY TO ALL, or REPLY TO ALL DOWNTHREAD?

That is, when someone posts to me and 4 other people, I want to reply to all those same people.

To do that, I have to open “REPLY” in another window, go back, cut-n-paste the to: list, delete my name, and then post.

Or, if 5 people downthread have responded to one post, I’d like to be able to auto-include those people in my most without have to sift through the “REPLIES” list and cut-n-paste each entry.

Like it or not, “sub-threads” already exist within threads. It’d be nice to be able to converse within a thread that way more easily.

Fine and dandy, but if the cosmetic changes are meant to make FR more usable, then actual usability improvements would be nice!

[avg_freeper]

They probably just all died before the image finished loading.

[tsmith130]

My Post #126I noticed on the current version, the view count has disappeared again. I'm apologize if this has already been addressed in this thread but it was there yesterday and it isn't today.

Ok, now it's back. I swear it wasn't there earlier.

[IM2MAD]

Exactly. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. I don’t like it at all now and it’s hard to read.

I concur. I liked it much better when the title of the post was on the top line.

---

It was better for a while. Now it’s goofy again with the title of the thread at the bottom. Much better with title on top and poster and date indented. IMHO

[LomanBill]

“Beta” versions are normally only released to a limited audience for testing and feedback.

The deployment model you are inflicting upon us is commonly referred to as “throwing it over the wall”.

[hoosierboy]

will there ever be a freerepublic mobile version???

[NY.SS-Bar9]

Also, “teasers” showing up even though option is set to “no”.

[potlatch]

[Will this also fix my inability to post pictures?]

inability

I may be wrong but though you meant that as a joke, right?

[brityank]

Which browser are you using: IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, ...?

My PC WinXP is dead, after I did a ZASS update, so I'm running on Ubuntu Linux's Live CD and using Konqueror Browser:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.5; Linux; X11; i686; en_US) KHTML/3.5.8 (like Gecko)

Just went in and looked -- no place to set the background. Seems I'll have to learn about those CSS stylesheets; aauuugggghhh !! More fun.     ;^)
So far I like what John's done -- makes it look crisper and clean. Quite a difference from the old Whitewater layout.

[brityank]

Well, I did find I can’t use my BlackBerry Browser through Verizon’s 7100e Phone to write anything — Java incompatibility. Reads and searches OK though.

[Miss Didi]

Is there a way to change the new font? It’s really hurting my eyes. I liked the old FR...(whining tone) ;)

[Miss Didi]

Me again, John...I find the front page really hard on the eyes. The font for the paragraph summary is HUGE compared to the title...and then reply and view numbers are really small. Is there any way to put this back to how it was...seriously, is anyone else getting a headache reading the font?