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
}

[Inspector Harry Callahan]

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.

Nah, don't sweat it bud. I'm starting to get the hang of the new look. 'preciate the offer tho.

Callahan

[steveegg]

My problems have stemmed from embedded tables. Seems Netscape doesn't quite like embedded tables inside of a blockquote, though for some reason, the article Siegfried cited formats properly in my slightly-customized Netscape 4.77 (some detail below).

I have come up with a CSS sheet that does eliminate the italics from the blockquotes, and does (with the limitation listed above, and an unresolvable problem with the right margin) restore proper margins to FReeper non-blockquoted and 2 levels of FReeper blockquoted text. It does work in Netscape 4.77, but it does not work in IE 6. It may or may not work in Netscape 6.x (IMHO, that loads too slow to be of use outside of multi-voting online polls). If you're interested in the CSS code; it follows:

steveegg's homemade blockquote "Fix" for Netscape 4.x users (IE users can use this, just use the numbers in parentheses, and I offer no guarantees to Netscape 6.x users)

BLOCKQUOTE
{
margin-left: -40;
}
BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE
{
margin-left: -5;
}
BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE
{
margin-left: 25;
}

[xm177e2]

When you click the "reply" button, that is the URL it normally sends you to. Edit that URL, and hit enter. Then go on posting like you normally would =)

[John Robinson]

Thanks. I'd love to have Web Phone access. Way down the road, though.

[steveegg]

Seems I hit "Send" before I threw in the IE numbers. Because Netscape 4.x and IE handle margins differently, if those of you with IE tried my Netscape 4.x "quick-fix", you would lose part of every post. Conversely, if those of you with Netscape 4.x try the following, it won't do squat.

BLOCKQUOTE
{
margin-left: 0px;
}
BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE
{
margin-left: 35px;
}
BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE
{
margin-left: 70px;
}

[John Robinson]

Without the blockquotes, somebody could fake a whole thread by cut and pasting the HTML for the To: header and the Posted by, etc. See dead's example (very very long thread.)

BTW, I nuked the blue line people were getting by default. If you want it back, I can install it for you. (per user customizations really rock.)

My threads are currently showing with an Ivory background, and the blockquotes have black lines above and below the text.

[John Robinson]

Good idea. I think I'll rearrange that posting form and drop a small list of important HTML at the bottom.

[clikker]

Great work, Mr. Robinson! Thanks for all your hard work and dedication! I love it!

Whatever happened to that nice blue line that you put on all blockquotes, though? I really liked it, and was looking forward to using it. Is there a way to put it back?

[dixie sass]

I need to go back to school...

[Askel5]

(per user customizations really rock.)

YOU really rock, sir.

If it's something you have to do ... forget it. If not, I'll figure it out (once I've finished catching up on this thread).

Thanks again, John. You're the best.

[John Robinson]

Got it. I meant to fix this earlier.

BASE HREF is now filtered. However, if you fill in the source url of the article, the posting program will insert that as a BASE HREF before the article text.

[John Robinson]

Garbled, in what way?

The indents are here to stay. They actually look a lot better in the new forum -- hopefully that will be coming next month sometime.

[John Robinson]

This is a prerequisite of the new forum software. I want to use style sheets to cut down the Kb size of the thread. The goal of the next generation of forum is to be more bandwidth friendly.

[KLT]

No wonder the marquee didn't work....I have no problem with the set up John....You did a great job! Eventually, will we be HTML free and be able to simply copy and paste?

Patriotic FreeGuards From The NYC Suburbs,

Karen (KLT)

[John Robinson]

It's really no problem at all. I gave it all back to you.

Here's what I stored in your style sheet, feel free to customize it.

EM
{
background-color: #FFFF00;
font-style: normal 
}
BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE 
{ 
font-style: italic; 
border-left: thin solid blue; 
padding-left: 1% 
}

[John Robinson]

Eventually you will have the ability to post without needing to know HTML. (HTML will still be available to those wanting to use it.)

[boris]

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

I used the " < " and " > " symbols, like always, in Netscape.

I used to see these occasionally; with the new changes they are everywhere...(!)

--Boris

[John Robinson]

What version of Netscape? For which OS? What (human) language?

It seems to be working for you now?

When I ran Netscape (English version) under Linux, I would see ? instead of curly quotes. I figured the Unix versions of Netscape didn't have a character for the curly quote, so replaced it with a ?.

I wonder if your problem is somehow related.

[StoneColdGOP]

Ah.