Forum upgraded

The total lack of consultation is appalling.
 
@Proud to be erratic, @silentsquirrel. The auto locking of dormant threads was initiated to try and stop what was becoming a spam nuisance. The spammer (most likely a bot rather than an individual) would seek out a dormant thread with some key word in the title and then put up a innocuous post. They (it) would return at a later date and then edit their post to insert their spam.

Dealing with this is not easy. I am afraid i promoted the idea that, like many other forums, it might be sensible to auto lock threads after a period to control it. Three months seemed a reasonable period to leave a thread before it was considered dormant, but I am sure Admin will take into account your comments when they review how effective this strategy has been.
 
I am all in favour of discouraging spam - you moderators do such a good job that we are presumably often totally unaware of when removal happens.

Two scenarios worry me.

Sometimes people have a rare type/complication and it may be helpful for them and /or us if they add to an old thread rather than have to start a new post.

Sometimes people who have made great improvements come back to their original thread to update us, often after 6 months or a year. These updates may be very inspiring to new members (or to lurkers). I think the effect would be much less on a new post.

Perhaps the length of time before a lock is applied could be reconsidered?

My point about the colours stands. Until my spell of very limited vision with untreated cataracts I had no idea how much difference the contrast between font colour/background colour can make.
 
Thank you @Docb for the explanation regarding the auto lock decision. What a shame that DUK couldn't consult or explain in the 1st place. I have noticed spam creeping in from time to time and while this is momentarily a nuisance such posts do get removed pretty quickly. My 2 email providers seem to do a good job at filtering out spam without locking my emails after 3 months; perhaps there is a different method that could be followed?

Do you happen to know the reason for the colour changes. Having invisible or unreadable links certainly confuses me; I hope that spambots are similarly confused by having unreadable links.

I've just seen @silentsquirrel's excellent response.
 
silentsquirrel said:
The last few days all links have become invisible, I presume this is the update. I use Dark Mode, and the blue on dark grey is now illegible. I can see there is a link, but not read the wording. I won't be clicking links before I know what they are. I tried reverting to Default Mode or High Contrast, but Dark Mode is the only one that is comfortable to use for any length of time.
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Thanks for this feedback. I'll share it with our technical architect to look into for us.
 
Happy to review the time period in which threads auto-close, currently set at 3 months. The first option is that we can extend the time period, but the risk is spam, like @Docb has explained.

Another option is for anyone who wants to post on their own thread (that has auto-closed) can ask moderators to override the unlock so they can post again rather than start a new thread.
 
On behalf of the moderators, thanks for the compliment @silentsquirrel! Dealing with the blatant spam is quite straightforward but the spammers are getting more subtle in their antics and are becoming a bit more of a challenge. One of the great things about this forum is how "clean" it is, and the mods will endeavour to keep it so.
 
Anna DUK said:
Another option is for anyone who wants to post on their own thread (that has auto-closed) can ask moderators to override the unlock so they can post again rather than start a new thread.
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In theory this would work, but both cases I outlined would often/usually be new or occasional posters, so would probably not be known to them. Difficult to make people aware of this without another potentially annoying banner. Remember many posters on here may not post on other social media/forums regularly, or at all, so would not be aware of things that regular users of such would be aware of as options.
 
I must be being thick but I have not noticed any change in colour of the forum.
 
grovesy said:
I must be being thick but I have not noticed any change in colour of the forum.
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I think if you use the "normal" Default Mode you might not notice the difference. With impaired sight I find the Dark Mode much more comfortable.
To (possibly) quote our late Monarch, perceptions may vary!

Not thick at all!
 
Just trying out dark mode now.
My discord is permanently set to dark mode, I just prefer it that way.
Looking at this screen now I will probably keep dark mode on the forum as well. It's just more restful on the eyes without all that white background 😎
 
This is an example of the current colour scheme which I'd guess dark mode users may have difficulty with.

1722790160499.png

Hmm, I'm also seeing some of the text in my signature is unreadable in dark mode (the bit that shows when 'read more' is clicked). So thats another thing, I don't know how well text displayed in each mode before, but I found the darker purple is not really readable in dark mode, switch to dark mode and try reading this bit - it does not show up well.
Ok, edited my profile, it should work in default or dark.

I'd suggest an admin or mod switches to dark mode to use the forum for maybe a week to spot any and all potential issues.
 
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Links in dark mode used to be updated to a custom colour. We can look into tweaking the colour that’s used for links (as long as people haven’t overridden in the text editor. Thanks for flagging!
 
I’ve updated the link colour in dark mode to a brighter blue from the forum colour palette. This will affect any link where the default colour hasn’t been overwritten in the link code.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
I’ve updated the link colour in dark mode to a brighter blue from the forum colour palette. This will affect any link where the default colour hasn’t been overwritten in the link code.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you! That makes such a difference.

It doesn't affect me, but the helpline number has disappeared?
 
silentsquirrel said:
It doesn't affect me, but the helpline number has disappeared?
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Good spot! I’ll check whether that was an intentional edit, or whether the forum update overwrote a customised file
 
I've lost count of the number of upgrades the forum has had since inception, but it has always amused and intrigued me that the 'Competitions' section has never been either reinvigorated or removed 😱 🙂 I think the last competition was for the forum's 5th birthday - 11 years ago! 😱 🙂
 
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