MathGuy2

I don't know if this would work, but could you attach a file but not have it show up until a moderator checks it? This would not only prevent OB hosting, but also give you an opportunity to monitor PM [i]images[/i] without the message. And out of curiosity, why can't PMs be moderated? It is, after all, a private board, so shouldn't the owners of the board have that right? If it were some government or somehow un"owned" board, maybe there should be privacy concerns, but if spammers can be told to make their own boards surely PMmers who value the P can make their own boards - or use e-mail, an older system that probably works better. (No, don't interpret this as a defense for the spammers - I'm not being sarcastic or ironic or whatever.)

I'm guessing you have two approaches here: bringing up your grades or attempting leniency on the grounding. For the former, I could reccomend a few things. My science class is a notes class where we rarely use the book - but if it is read carefully, it will help one to understand the topic further. Math - for me, learning the methods doesn't help at all; I need to work out the methods myself and understand it intuitively, whereupon I can use them effectively. If for either of these classes you're memorizing and cramming factoids and not understanding principles, you will not be able to remember the information for long periods of time. If you're "having a test over 2 FULL CHAPTERS!!!" you [i]can't[/i] memorize/cram and do it effectively. Re. band and chorus, they shouldn't/can't penalize you for lack of talent (not saying you do lack it but if you were to); the grades should be on effort and dedication. Just look like you're working hard, and make an effort to do well; this will probably help your grades. "who cares" in band and chorus affects your grades more directly than actual performance. If you want leniency, show that you are trying hard to bring up the grades, so that you will have worked your hardest. Explain to your dad that it is more important that you try your hardest than to pass the tests, which may be incredibly easy or hard. These are all just my opinions, though...other people may have better ideas, but I think these should be effective.

Can I make a suggestion about the spoiler tag? I looked at the HTML source and found the code is . The size=2 part of the font tag would override size settings used outside of the spoiler tag. Also, to be nit-picky, the table needs a row tag (). What about just using ? That would also prevent forced line breaks like [spoiler]this[/spoiler] in the case of an inline spoiler (e.g., In the part where [b]they kill him[/b] did you notice that... the bolded text could be a spoiler.) EDIT: What I meant by that last sentence is that people could be discussing, e.g., a generalization about something in an anime, and use specific evidence from an unaired (yet) episode - it would be useful for those who haven't seen the episode to see the point being made but NOT the plot of the episode. EDIT 2: The spoiler tag's fixed now. It was a span tag that allows inline spoilers like [spoiler]this[/spoiler]. Only one bit of a problem: the code size=1 spoiler size=3 shows up weird: [size=1][spoiler][size=3]Hello! How are you?[/size][/spoiler][/size] So size tags should be outside the spoiler, or if you must put another spoiler within the size tag (within the spoiler). [size=1](This incorporates my post I had below.)[/size] I also thought of a good use of strikeout: if a user put something like a link that a moderator didn't like, the moderator could unlink and strikeout the link to show it was removed. Maybe?

You also asked how to become a member. Member, among other things including Newbie, Junior Member, Otaku, etc., are based on number of posts - someone who is at one of the higher levels should be able to tell you. EDIT: There's a thread "Ranks" in this forum.

Adventure Forum has HTML enabled? (goes and checks) Hey, it does...weird...why? And would that setting override the recent disabling of HTML in signatures? And what other weird things are happening that I did not know about?

[quote][i]From the OB Rules[/i] List of Unacceptable Behaviors/Actions (spam) · Swearing: OtakuBoards uses a censor in our software to protect against most inappropriate language. However, it is not acceptable to use special characters in order to bypass the censor. Swearing and offensive words, in any format, are considered spam at our site. .... [/quote] Are housemates exempted from this rule?

The center tag works in posts, like [center] so. Enabling a vB tag enables it in the vB engine, not the signature engine. [/center] Except like all vB tags, you have to close it for it to work. Like so: [url=www.google.com]Google Search Engine

AltaVista's [url=babelfish.altavista.com]BabelFish[/url] translator doesn't do Latin translations. Their technology comes from a company called SYSTRAN that has a slightly more advanced translator called [url=www.systranbox.com]SYSTRANBox[/url], but still does not have Latin.

[quote] Just go into your profile and turn 'em on. [/quote] Profile? That would imply the OB profile. Cookies are somewhere in browser preferences (Edit|Preferences or Tools|Internet Options). Hey, can OB have a feature at signup to check cookies? Conceptually, like: browser.cookie.write("Test"); if browser.cookie"Test" then alert("You need to enable your cookies").

The picture field doesn't automatically display the pic or link to it. Neither can you force it (from my experience/experiments) to link to the picture or display it using vB [img or url] or HTML code. The picture field gives the text of the picture URL, without a link. Similarly, the instant messenger accounts give the text of the ScreenName, not a link to IM the person. I suggest that a tech staffer add the appropriate links into the View Profile so clicking on a ScreenName will IM the person, and clicking and/or looking at the Picture will show it. (Preferably clicking, pictures could be too big.)

I wonder about the whole concept of a Newbie Lounge in the first place. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that only one of two possibilities could result from an introduction thread: "Hi, I'm new, I like Pokemon and DBZ" or a full, well-done introduction thread that details who they are. I would be accepting of the second type of thread, but it seems (to me) that most are the first. There is not much personal you can say in reply to the first. Therefore, I think we should have a chat room - maybe theOtaku's IRC chat on another #channel, but with members->members, mods->chanops, and participants limited, for members to talk very informally and introduce themselves. Also, myOtakuboards sounds cool - maybe it can be integrated with the game forum (and maybe the chat with that also). But what should be implemented now? In my opinion, I'd say you should activate the option to moderate all posts, and get one/a few mods in there. Also put a sticky saying "If you post an introduction, make it at least x size, and if you are replying to it, make your reply meaningful and coherent." That would clean up the NL. If it seems to succeed with the new rules, I'd say keep it. A test lounge becoming a spamfest? Not if there were restrictions to make posts max-reply at 10 and stay alive for only a week. Wait, I got a better idea - people can PM themselves.

Reload normally works (or refresh, if one doesn't work your browser has a menu option for the other) to re-access the page and not be logged in. I have a feature-not-a-bug with a browser (IE for XP) that causes the computer to store different cookies for [url]www.otakuboards.com[/url] and otakuboards.com (without the www). The gizmo big thing links to the latter, the buttons on it to the former. I have problems with it, but adding/deleting the www could get you a different set of cookies. The backspace one? If the | text cursor (not mouse pointer) is visible and blinking inside the reply field, then backspace will delete one letter. If you have clicked outside ot the box, or tabbed outside it, backspace will send you back a page. PS - Netscape/Mozilla doesn't recognize the backspace.

Mystic, packet switching...I'd have to look at that. But unless someone's using NAT (Network Address Translation, masks a whole network into one IP for cheaper connections and security, often used in home networks), the packet has to have the IP address of the sender to simply send back a reply for the packet. (The alternative would be to give a random, say 64-bit identifier, and have every router carrying the packet mark the identifier and the sending router, and then delete the IP for security, but then if a router went down... I'm sure the IP people already thought of that first.) I'm not sure if the MAC address is even sent much, but the idea was to add into the web server to track the MAC address. Also (I admit I've never heard of this packet switching) in case it might ban the router, we can track EVERYONE's MAC - like we already track [size=1]IP: [url]Logged[/url][/size] addresses. Then if a rogue user's apparent MAC is that of the router, we can try other methods. James, are you implying that the OB probably has only one member per ISP on average? Blocking a partial IP would block a whole ISP - or at least one arm of it. Mnemolth, I know nothing about Star Trek.

I agree with your (all of you) suggestions about the need to eliminate training newbies in spam, but the need to allow more experienced users to post meaningless conversations. I also like the MyOB suggestion. So...I don't know how well this would work, but this is my idea: My Otakuboards - UserCP front page, and locked rule-topics; see below Otaku Lounge - same, but with following subforums: - My Picture - same - Political/Debate Forum - rather than putting these directly in Otaku Lounge - Test/Spam Forum - place for testing posts and styles and having meaningless converations; users would be asked to delete their threads when they're done, if it's a test for something; posts don't count Help Forum - ask for HTML, etc. help, computer problems. General PROBLEMS with or QUESTIONS about OB (how do I do a signature? etc.) as opposed to suggestions, would go there, not in this forum. This could go in the Art and Design superforum. The My Otakuboards would include a feathue like subscribed threads, but that allows you to put more (threads and forums) and not get email notification; a PM box/buddy list; and a set of locked rule-threads. These could also include nice writeups of answers in the Help Forum. The URL my.otakuboards.com would redirect to this page. If you're really ambitious, you could add news and POP3 email checking, like My Yahoo!...maybe that's too ambitious. Or maybe it could just have a digest of TheOtaku's news, and maybe a link to the chatroom with your username already signed in. New users would be redirected, upon signup, to My OtakuBoards. They would be given links to threads randomly picked (from anywhere but spamforum) so they could see how OB works. Hey...each individual Anime/Gaming forum could have it's own introduction stickythread/subforum, so rather than saying "Hi i'm new i like Yugioh" they could post more detailed introductions in the Yugioh forum. Also, their rules would have examples of good threads (introduction and others) and bad threads (What's your AIMSN? DO you like Pepsi?). okay...I write too much when I see a keyboard... EDIT: this is obvious, but I sign the petition. I haven't visited the Newbie Lounge much, but I haven't liked what I've seen.

lol [size=3]SPOILER[/size] Apparently, that's the answer. But on some phones, Q=7 (PQRS) and Z=9 (WXYZ), and on others 1 is labeled QZ. That's probably why everyone got a busy signal; there is no 888/232-7849 or 888/232-1841. I think Sara's "No Life" description is pretty accurate... (don't get offended, I'm just joking)

I tried [IMG], it didn't work. I tried , the HTML, it didn't work. Apparently it's a text field like the xIM fields. (AIM, MSNIM, ICQ) Which brings me to a suggestion - in addition to either making the picture link or display, could you make the xIMs link to the IM program? Like AIM would be USERNAME. EDIT: Here's how you use the pictue field - put in an ASCII smiley like :-) or ^_^.

That reminds me...last year, I got on my Computer Science teacher's computer when she wasn't there, and started this program (VNC, comes free with Dells) that allows someone else to see the screen and control the keyboard and mouse. Then sometime later, I logged onto her computer, and started moving the mouse in circles. She got really worried until I told her a few seconds later. I've also (using some tricks that I know) gotten past our school's Internet filter - nothing bad, just games for when the teacher says "You can play games now." Anyway, what's the point of this thread? I've heard that people who do bad things do it to gain respect.

Mystic's Knight, my Internet accounts (all three of them I've used over the past few years) don't correlate the DNS with the computer. If my IP was, say, 169.254.123.321, then my IP would be something like comp321.net123.lafayette.louisiana.ISP.com. A better solution would be to block MAC addresses (like 00-30-BD-62-FF-03), which effectively blocks a physical computer. (But that'd take a significant bit (no pun intended) of low-level TCP programming work on the web server.) If you ban all the IPs of a spammer, eventually someone with the spammer's same ISP would get the IP or DNS of the spammer. Or maybe they use a ban cookie so that you can't reregister with the same browser on same computer (unless you clear your cookies), or something like that.

(no offense intended, but) James, can't you make any changes yourself? It seems everything has to be done via Shift.

I found one problem - if you say something, and then find a file/picture to add to your point, editing the post won't let you attach new. I would think double posting would be your only solution if no one was responding. There are probably some problems caused by force-disabling double postings; we can let the humans do this.

Neither does it take a rocket scientist to insult the newbie. As you so eloquently pointed out, he (she?) has been here only 10 posts (as of now)...and he happened to post it the day of his registration. Why is everyone taking out their angers on newly-registered members trying to get a feel for this place and applying what they have used in other message boards here?

::looks aroud for spell checker:: Automaticly parse URLs - no Emale notificaton - no Disable smilys in this pots - no Show signachoor - no Yes, I spelld incorrecly on purpus. If teh spel-cheker can't cach these mispelings then there obviusly isn't a spel-cheker - at leest that I can see... It wold be a goood idea, tho. Mabe yusers can have a custom speling dictonary like Microsft Word's, wich woud avoid problems in RPGs and spars. If posibel make it automattic, or change the "Sumbit" button to "Spelchek" and make the submet a small link. The spellchecker would be useful for typos and misspellings, the annoying (to me) pseudoword "prolly", and catching l33t-ers (or users who abrvt thr posts lk ths). Hmm...maybe "preview" invokes the spell-checker? Nope, it doesn't. (Off-topic: spell checker [i]n.[/i] Harry Potter's teacher.)

That does not sum up Mathguy's concerns. I am not complaining about the power of the moderators. I believe that they are doing their job, and without some administration, we would not have a message board of this quality. All I am simply stating is the irony of the closed thread whose last post says "We don't need these threads taking up space." I can understand the reason of a closed thread if there is some conversation, but frankly a thread like the following does not need to be saved: ----- What's your favorite color? ----- Threads like these are not allowed. ----- It's useless to keep that, in my opinion. The thread should be deleted, not just closed. I am NOT stating that the thread should be kept open. And if the reason for keeping them open is to show people what NOT to post, then write that in a sticky thread called "Rules" that detail types of threads not to post. To borrow that "shame-punishment" example, a written code of laws is much more useful than a set of imprisoned people saying "Don't do X because you'll be arrested."

My theory: if you click "Log Out", then it sends a signal to both OtakuBoards and your computer - OB for notification, your computer for cookie clearing. If you close Explorer, neither of those happen. I'm guessing the "users logged on" list at the bottom is based on users active - that is, viewed a thread or posted or did something - within the past few minutes. Final Flash, there is a way users can see all threads - go to another computer, where they've never logged in! Or else PM another user.

Just make a thread here. Everything but Otaku Arena is hidden to the housemates (if I am not mistaken - I think it's all Otaku Arena to allow them to RPG). Do you really think they'd let them watch the vote in progress? Actually, all the housemates need to do is log out - but that's prohibited by the rules (and explicitly stated by Final Flash in one post).