Recent Changes @ FreeRepublic

[John Robinson]

A few changes have been made to the forum over the past couple days.

• All replies, and for consistency all articles, are now wrapped in HTML <BLOCKQUOTE>s. This indents the text on both left and right margins. It should no longer be possible to convincingly spoof replies.

• An HTML filter has been installed into the forum software. The primary job of this filter is to remove unsafe HTML constructs. As a side-effect and benefit, it closes open tags. No more HTML shotguns.

• Due to the above mentioned filter, the STYLE attribute has been disabled. Though it has many legit uses, it was used to position text and images at the top of a thread, or in other unsavory places. The STYLE attribute will make a comeback once a style filter is written.

• Since the STYLE attribute was disabled, the use of <SPAN STYLE="background-color: xxxx"> to highlight portions of text was also disabled. To compensate, the <EM> tag has be enhanced for highlighting purposes. At a later time the HTML sequence used to highlight text may change.

• <BLOCKQUOTE> has been enhanced for it's intended purpose: quoting blocks of text. Unfortunately, <BLOCKQUOTE> is often used to indent text without implying a quote, and therefore at a later time the HTML sequence used to quote text may change.

• A quick-and-dirty program now exists allowing you to customize the appearance of Free Republic articles. To use a custom style sheet, use your favorite style sheet editor (or plain text editor) to create a style sheet, save the file to your hard drive, and then follow this link to upload your style sheet to Free Republic.

  This is a technological preview and is geared for a technical audience. At a later date a kinder gentler interface will be created.

A sample customized style sheet:

BODY
{
    BACKGROUND-COLOR: ivory
}
EM
{
    FONT-STYLE: normal;
    BACKGROUND-COLOR: #eeee00
}
BLOCKQUOTE
{
    FONT-FAMILY: "Bookman Old Style"
}
BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE
{
    BORDER-TOP: black thin solid;
    PADDING-BOTTOM: 1%;
    PADDING-TOP: 1%;
    BORDER-BOTTOM: black thin solid;
    FONT-STYLE: italic
}

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

OH! Is that why sometimes I'd see a quote (italicized) that was not to be found anywhere else on the page? That always through me for a loop! I couldn't understand why the person was arguing with a point that was never made! Do I understand now? :-)

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

Oh, brother! I just reread your post and I can tell them I'm still confused. I guess it sounds like you're saying people have been able to fake complete replies from others. I didn't realize people were doing that! Do you have any examples for me?

[6ppc]

Sigh! I'm going to miss the chaos! What will I do for amusement now?

[John Robinson]

Later I will have an option to recognize and format paragraphs. As for virtual tags, that's an idea I have considered.

[Plummz]

People were drawing up fake replies complete with time codes and reply numbers and Find in Forum links? Really? I missed that.

[ELS]

bump for reference

[John Robinson]

... attempt to push these changes to see if/where they have weaknesses?

Trash this thread. Do your worst.

Trash this thread #2

[DouglasKC]

Wow! Cool stuff...I'm just getting into style sheets myself. It will be good practice to be able to configure our own...thanks!

[JulieRNR21]

Looks like all our FUN has been 'disabled'......oh well....we have our memories!

[anguish]

I tried various work-arounds to no avail. Negative margins are not valid

Are you sure? At the moment I'm limited to a Unix version of Netscape Communicator 4.76, but this work-around for zero-indentation of the left margin (for those opposed to that) works for me:

<style>
blockquote.spoofkill { margin-left: -40; }
</style>

<blockquote class="spoofkill">This is a blockquote.</blockquote>

... that is if that was what you were looking for. Making classes would provide for more customization options anyway.

[anguish]

Dunno if people actually were doing that (I have no examples), but it should have been *possible*. Everything but the reply numbers could be faked - checking such a spoof you'd see that something was wrong ( 41,42,43,42,43,44...), but unless you suspect something is wrong I don't think that's something you'd do.

[John Robinson]

Uhg. You are correct, negative margins are permitted. I guess I screwed up my margin-left.

Yes, all this stuff should have classes. I will probably end up putting the highlight and quoting in classes, I hadn't realized how many people, or rather existing articles, used those tags.

[John Robinson]

Thanks. I played around with this s'more, and found that I didn't need negative margins at all!

BLOCKQUOTE
{
    margin-left: 0px;
    margin-right: 0px;
}

Now the blockquotes are completely undone!

Harry-- would you like me to install this fix for you? I can pretty much reset the forum to the way it was before my changes.

[Colt .45]

Cool ... just so long as I can still fly my flag!

[unsycophant]

No coffee link. Eeeek.

[Iscool]

Questions?

Uhhh, yeah...Could you repeat that please???

[tet68]

Bump and Thanks.

[anguish]

That (0px), does not work here though (NC 4.76, Unix). Seems like my browser doesn't respond to a negative right margin either. Maybe the idea of world communism wasn't all wrong - strict conformity for man and browser alike! ;)

[Mama_Bear]

Check out reply #2.

See, I told ya'. We are going to have to learn CSS. :-(