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
}

[John Robinson]

Eeeek! Maybe you've had too much coffee. :-)

[John Robinson]

Oh the anguish!

[RikaStrom]

As long as your not is not signed by Maxwell, you are ok! :-)

John, is this why I have to do font colors after every < p >?

[Mr. Bungle]

Excellent work, John!

[Phil V.]

What are style sheets?

WebReview.com's Style Sheet Reference Guide

---

Style sheets are the construct of the intellectual elite to create an effete distinction between the uppercases and the working bourgeoisie.

Sustainable HTML must be implemented!

Posters of the world unite! Equal HTML for all!

Long live <P> !

[pointsal]

lot's good stuff here

[Dog Gone]

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

I never did that, especially to Nita Nupress. No, siree.

[Illbay]

What is a "reply spoof"?

[ST.LOUIE1]

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

BUMMER!!!!

I'm still waiting for 'music' and bg's to return to our homepage.

Oh, and 'colored borders'.

I've found John to be an honorable man, and he did promise a return of those items so ..........maybe as a Christmas present? : )

[ST.LOUIE1]

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

Okay, okay, you were right. Smart aleck!

So what are we waiting for?

Did you keep those CSS sites?

Work to do. LOL

[George W. Bush]

Does your web server support resuming HTTP web page downloads? I was considering writing a custom toolbar for IE 5 & 6 to use at FR. Some of the huge threads could really benefit from resumable Refreshes. It can be a little discouraging to reload 300K of a web page at 56K just because someone said "Bump".

[WIMom]

This is scary. I understand this thread. aaaarrrrgggghhhh!

[Hank Rearden]

Are animated GIFs also turned off? Just seems like they are at the moment. Thanks for all the useful fixes, John.

[anniegetyourgun]

Better anguish than animus.

[anguish]

What is a "reply spoof"?

See #99 and #112.

[maxwell]

.30! Baby! It's me, yer lil' webgeekster!

[boris]

John:?P? I don't mean to be one of the complainers, but I seem to be in their company.?P? FR, already plagued with strange behavior, such as tag brackets being converted into question marks, now seems even more unstable (to me). I am not a big tag user; usually only italics, underline and bold. However, I have begun seeing a lot of new threads in which every typographic entity such as a quotation mark, a colon, etc., has been converted into a question mark.?P? Personally, I favor the changes you've outlined...but I wish the side-effects had been worked on BEFORE you implimented them!?P? --Boris

[.30Carbine]

Rika! maxwell, like the dear man that he is, has agreed to sign my note for me. Am I in the clear now? Hmmm? Still luv me?

[rw4site]

A great little spell checker for the reply and posting boxes can be downloaded from Spell Checker for Edit Boxes

Be sure to download one or more of their dictionaries and follow instructions carefully for installation. You might post a link to it on the 'Reply' page.

It has worked for me using Win 95 thru Win 98SE with browsers from Netscape 2.50 and IE 3.0 to Netscape 4.72 (where I stopped with Netscape) and IE 6.0.2. It has also worked in some of my email programs.