2. BLOCKQUOTE: Bad Idea--For the articles--I, and many others, do not need anyone's help formatting articles, thankyouverymuch. If you want Typographically Correct paragraph widths and margins, use the HTML template I devised. It is simply three nested tables, and looks the same in every browser from Netscape Navigator 3 to Internet Explorer 6. For the replies--BLOCKQUOTE is for BLOCKQUOTING, not for formatting/page layout. Until everyone is using a browser that supports at least CSS1 _100%_ to the specification, TABLES should and must be used for formatting and page layout.First, tables worked just fine for me until the auto-blockquote started, so don't take this as a knock against tables per se. There HAS to be a better way to prevent spoofed threads from looking too close to the real thing. The problem for us Netscape 4.7x users are certain tables nested inside of blockquotes. I can't quite figure out exactly the trigger that prevents the </blockquote> tag from working (probably improperly-crafted tables), but it's happened on several nested-table threads.John: Tables were my first choice. Very large images or strings of text stretch the width of the table beyond the right edge of the screen. I originally had the whole thread in one table, but the first large image or long URL destroyed the right margin. I then put each reply in a table to localize the screw-up, but it was still a screw-up. I discovered that BLOCKQUOTE does the right thing with the margin, it allows an image outside of it's right margin but contains what it can.
Prohibition of STYLE: Very Bad Idea--An article's content should be preserved as much as possible when it is posted here. Preserving style was as simple as cutting and pasting from the original site's style sheet and changing all the CLASS elements to STYLE. Now this is impossible.Until John cranks up a style filter (IMHO, it should now be top priority), I can't offer any sympathy. I've seen too many threads broken by the use of absolute positioning to be sympathetic to those pleas. While some of these threads may be retrievable in certain browsers, the replies between the one that broke the thread and the one that fixed it are gone to all except those willing to go through the source code.John: I prohibit style because I haven't yet written a style filter to block the positioning bomb. I also want to filter style because I don't know when in the future some browser will stuff executable code in style sheets. My focus is to disallow executable code. (JavaScript etc.)
4. Personal style sheets: Very Very Bad Idea--if people want to view this site with their own style sheets, they can use their browsers to do this. Example under IE 5: Tools > Options > General > Accessibility > "Format documents using my style sheet"I cannot more strongly disagree, at least under current circumstances. I am currently using a customized style sheet that comes quite close to bringing the forum back to what it looked like before all the blockquoting began (true, it's Netscape 4.x-optimized, but it can be modified to work as well on IE and Netscape 6). I don't have the option of using a personal style sheet in Netscape 4.77 (and no, I am NOT going to switch to IE to get it, and I don't care if Nutscape 6.x has it; I have serious issues with both of those browsers). Morever, there's a pair of problems with this, especially with regard to the current blockquote situation (at least in IE 6) - it locks all non-CSS pages into a set style, and it doesn't work on the blockquotes.John: Didn't realize browsers could choose their own style sheets. Hrm.
I cannot more strongly disagree, at least under current circumstances. I am currently using a customized style sheet that comes quite close to bringing the forum back to what it looked like before all the blockquoting began (true, it's Netscape 4.x-optimized, but it can be modified to work as well on IE and Netscape 6).I thought I'd post a link to my FR page at GeoCities where I have placed a screen capture of your reply to JohnRob with the a custom style sheet I'm using. It's not perfect yet but I thought people might enjoy seeing the sorts of things we're going to be able to do now. I also posted my style sheet for anyone who's looking for ideas. Notice that my three wallpapers are stored on my hard drive so there is no delay for the wallpapers to load.