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.

[JerseyHighlander]

Good Morning John,

Links inside the Browse By Forum Block should open in the same window no matter what the user sets as preference in My Preferences. Right now each time you click it’s spawning a new tab, which is not useful.

That is how it’s been for the last several years.

[lonevoice]

Mega dittos to every single word you typed.

[LomanBill]

In this case, production appears to be the only phase.

[CodeToad]

“Tossing the turd” as I call it.

[Syncro]

Thanks for the comment!

LOL

Thanks for the comment!

[dixiechick2000]

Thank you, John!

I know you don’t use pop-ups, and have no idea why I was getting that sound.
In any case, it seems to be gone today.

I found the “brevity: headers” option.
It was right in front of my face. ;o)

I love all of the changes!
Thank you so much for all of your hard work.

[CharlesWayneCT]

John, thanks for all the hard work. I do have one observation, in case you didn’t make this happen on purpose.

In the past, in the pings section, the numbers (which are hyperlinks) followed the standard color convention of other links, which means they changed color after you had used them as a reference.

That meant that if you went through your pings and looked at responses, you could tell you had seen a response because the “number” in the ping list had a different color than the ones you hadn’t seen.

In the new color scheme, the numbers are black, and stay black after they have been used.

Is there a chance that behavior could be put back to the old “used link” color scheme?

[Danae]

You ROCK dude! Nice job! :) THANK YOU!

[redtetrahedron]

Any chance of an option for threaded comment replies?

[Jo Nuvark]

Amen and Amen!

I knew that prayer was from Quix before I checked the signature.

God bless you Jim as you continue to serve your country.

[Quix]

Thanks for the affirmation of praying in agreement and your kind words.

I think Jim and others need all the prayers of agreement we can muster at this time . . .

Much appreciated.

[firebrand]

Something has happened to the "Brief" option. I hope that is just temporary. I never thought I had ADD before but scrolling through everyone's replies, complete with giant photos, is giving me doubts.

Thanks for your hard work.

Maybe that question is answered later in the thread. Thread has gotten too long to read all.

[firebrand]

OK. Never mind. Found it. Brevity. OK.

[TomGuy]

How much more font changing are you going to do?

Many of the fonts are showing up smaller and smaller. Some are now showing at about 7-point size. That is unreadable on a monitor.

To increase the browser view or Windows to make those more readable makes all the other fonts massively huge.

[HokieMom]

I especially like being able to turn off things like “most popular keywords.” Really unclutters the screen. Thanks for thinking of that feature.

I tried adding this Virginia Tech thread “Advocates of gun control plan lie-in at Virginia Tech” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999087/posts to the Virginia topics list in the same manner as before, however the error message is “unknown: va”.

Will we be able to “add topic” again soon? Thanks for your tireless efforts and for being open to input from users.

[eleni121]

HI - so this means we will soon be able to post on our state boards??

Thanks for all you do.

[GSWarrior]

Thumbs down! It’s a lot more difficut to navigate on FR these days.

[NCjim]

Nice work, John! Here may be one remaining vestige of the time zone glitch. My times are in ET except for the 'updated' phrase below:

Fla. lawmakers OK take-your-guns-to-work law

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 9:07:53 PM · by Redcitizen · 3 replies · 100+ views

Reuters via MSNBC ^ | updated 4:00 p.m. MT, Wed., April. 9, 2008

[MeekOneGOP]

Howdy!

And thanks for all your hard work.

My “Bell” (Pager) doesn’t reset after I click on the “View Posts” link or refresh my “My Comments” page.

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/notify?spoken=no;bell=/media/notify.wav

That is my “Bell” I’m talkin’ about.

Can someone tell me what to do to get it work right again?

Thanks!