New eLF Feature (make that Features)

[CowbellGuy]

It's a browser bug. I never see that with IE, but it happens occasionally with Mozilla/Netscape 6+ (on Macs anyway).

[crodger1]

Also shows up that way with the browser Opera.

[Beeeej]

...and on IE 5.1.4 for Mac.

Beeeej

[tml5]

Yeah, it happens periodically on IE 5.5 with win2k, but I suspect it'll clear right up if/when I ever get around to updating to IE6.  I'd go Mozilla but there are other irritating bugs, like the lack of back/forward buttons at random times (I haven't figured out the pattern, but sometimes they just don't appear - and no, it's not from opening a new browser window).

[CowbellGuy]

I've never seen it happen on IE 5 for Mac. Odd

[Chris Moberg \'79]

Age,
A conferencing system popular on many of the sites I belong to is vBulletin (by Jelsoft).  Come to think of it, UHSCO uses it too.  From what I understand, it allows for quite a bit of customization and is pretty cheap.  In particular, it has the flat view go to NEW.  You can go to NEW From the thread head in collapsed view, or from within the exploded flat view.

Chris

[jeh25]

Chris,

I believe that Age protyped a version of eLF using vBulletin and decided that phorum was a better choice.

[Chris Moberg \'79]

Ah, I was not aware of that.  As often plagues a software selection, there is know clear cut superior product in all regards.

Even with a good tool, a site can be screwed up.  So kudos to Age for doing a bang up good job.

Chris

[cmoberg]

One of the things I like about vBulletin is the ease with which you can make edits to your posts.  Like I need to do right now.  I double posted the BU ticket info.  Two threads running, with identical root content.  ARGH

I a quick look I could not find the tool to remove the second thread.

Chris

[cquinn]

Also occurs on IE6 with WinNT and Win2k.

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]I a quick look I could not find the tool to remove the second thread.[/Q]
I don't think eLF has a tool to remove posts, only to edit them, assuming you're logged in. You could then edit it down to nothing, but it would still remain as a blank post. I think only Age can entirely remove a post, which I remember from an infamous situation last season.

-Fred

[cmoberg]

That is the conclusion that I came to. I have asked Age to remove the second post.  

This situation brings to mind an area for functional improvement. Starting a thread with a name that exactly matches an existing thread should raise a red flag.  

Chris

[CowbellGuy]

The reason you can't delete a post is because (unlike vB) a topic is truly threaded, and if there are replies to a message or sub-thread, they would be orphaned if the parent message were deleted.

[cmoberg]

Understood.  But in the case where there are no children, it seems reasonable to allow the author to delete the thread (single root node).  But the better answer is to not allow the double post in the first place.

[CowbellGuy]

For what it's worth, it's supposed to check for that. Might not apply to new threads though.