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
}

[uvular]

John;

I clicked on 'Topics', went to Political Humor/Cartoons, to see if a particular article had been posted yet. There were many topics listed there, but none for Political Humor/Cartoons. Checked a few other Topics, and topics were mixed up there, too.

Is this a new problem, or is it just me?

[Mr_Magoo]

John,

For the record, I am using Netscape 4.76 on a winblows98 box.

[John Robinson]

I am unsure if the front-end (squid) allows resumes. I know the web server, Apache, does, but squid is the middleman.

[John Robinson]

Animated GIFs have not been affected.

[John Robinson]

Haven't had any ill-effects to speak of in the months I've had this filter laying around. Which is why this public test was initiated.

Odd, what character are you using to cause ? instead of < and >?

[John Robinson]

Looks like your copy inserted it's own line breaks. The filter didn't do that.

[Cultural Jihad]

[ Reply | Private Reply | To or can we still Monkey Around? | Top | Last ]

Okay, how'd you do that? LOL!

[xm177e2]

Click here and post something ;)

[LantzALot]

Well, I'm as illiterate as he!!, but I've bookmarked it. Later, when I screw something up, I'll be able to find this to try to decipher what's different.

[classygreeneyedblonde]

LOL....Well your alot of help.......lol.:):):)

[xm177e2]

You can also put pictures in there and really mess things up...

[StoneColdGOP]

:( Sorry! I'm trying!

I am still waiting for FR to give us back the ability to add backgrounds and sound to our profile pages, but instead they gave us this!

Blech....

[Siegfried]

How come entire threads are being displayed in italics now?

Check out "Civilization Envy" for an example.

I'm using Netscape 4.71 (and NO, I'm not going to change)

[demkicker]

BUSH UNDERCOVER

[xm177e2]

Just a test...

[xm177e2]

Another test....

[xm177e2]

It looks fine on my IE, but on my Netscape it is all italics for what people are saying, but not for the "[reply][private reply]etc." part between posts.

[WIMom]

LOL! One you have travelled, frequently I assume? Now, how do you expect me to solve that problem when you have left out vital information? Oh, the anguish of it all.

[Cultural Jihad]

Hmmmm. "...getreply=Reply&key=3bb44ce476dc&up=It's%a%secret!!&to=xm177e2..."

[Cultural Jihad]

Hmmm.