I must be new here, but...



  •  Seriously, what is wrong with these forums?  I've been working in a mixed C#/Common Lisp shop for a while, and this is just worse than even our homegrown ticketing system someone wrote in ASP.Net in a drunken evening.  Is there a bug tracker I can submit problems with the site to, or perhaps submit my assistance for porting the forums to something...  functional?  I've been working on writing a forums package using Clack and Caveman for Lisp; would that be useful to anyone?



  • @drurowin said:

    Seriously, what is wrong with these forums?

    "Community Server blows goats" seems to be the consensus explanation.



  • @drurowin said:

     Seriously, what is wrong with these forums?
     

    I don't know. What is wrong?

    It ignores Chrome for the fancy post editor, and tags with spaces are suddenly broken. What else?



  • @flabdablet said:

    @drurowin said:
    Seriously, what is wrong with these forums?

    "Community Server blows goats" seems to be the consensus explanation.

     

    Well, fellating members of Caprinae aside, is there a place to report issues with the software?  I'm using Firefox on a UNIX-like OS, and the text editor interprets one backspace as multiple backspaces.

     



  • In reply to dhromed: The text editor is horribly broken on Firefox 19.0 on a UNIX-like platform (Solaris 11).  It deletes multiple characters when I press backspace once, pressing return results in an indeterminate number of line endings, and it appears that each page view contains several hundred KB of unicode garbage.



  • @drurowin said:

    It deletes multiple characters when I press backspace once, pressing return results in an indeterminate number of line endings, and it appears that each page view contains several hundred KB of unicode garbage.
     

    That's normal.

    Multidelete is probably a botched fix for erroneously adding a faux space in the first place, I can't repro your return bug, and the unicode blob is the subforum's tags. All of them.

    NEXT QUESTION.



  • @dhromed said:

    [...] the unicode blob is the subforum's tags. All of them.

    NEXT QUESTION.

     

    What in the actual...  No.  Are people actually tagging their posts with random Unicode characters?  I think I need a drink and a lie-down after hearing this.

     Also, if I start to type a swear word in the "Tags" box, it automatically completes and leaves me with a word that ends in "ckcking".  Is that an expected behaviour too?

     



  • Why, yes people are indeed making a mockery out of the tagging system.

    Another thing that is wrong is the blatant html fragment injections in the signatures. Ever seen signature guy? That's how.



  •  Is the OP looking for TheDailyHowFuckingWonderful rather than TheDailyWTF?

    The forum is using an older version of Community Server for two reasons. One being that the more recent versions are commercial, and another being that it's hilariously broken and thus fits in with the theme of the site itself.

    Also I find the premise that you are using solaris and expect things, particular web pages, to work properly a bit confusing.



  •  @henke37 said:

    Why, yes people are indeed making a mockery out of the tagging system.

    Another thing that is wrong is the blatant html fragment injections in the signatures. Ever seen signature guy? That's how.

    Wow...  Just...  I'm honestly at a loss for words about how broken this forum software is.  What's worse is I've been reading about Community Server, and apparently it used to be a commercial product.  This is just...

     

    Imagine if the Internet had a short bus.

     

    The people who created Community Server would be the ones the short bus DIDN'T pick up, because they were SO "special" that they had to be homeschooled because the janitor got tired of cleaning sticky Down syndrome spit off the inside of the bus windows.



  •  @BC_Programmer said:

     Is the OP looking for TheDailyHowFuckingWonderful rather than TheDailyWTF?

    The forum is using an older version of Community Server for two reasons. One being that the more recent versions are commercial, and another being that it's hilariously broken and thus fits in with the theme of the site itself.

    Also I find the premise that you are using solaris and expect things, particular web pages, to work properly a bit confusing.

    I come to the site to read about and learn from deficiencies in software, not experience them firsthand, however I'm finding it rather amusing how broken the site is.

    In regards to my choice of OS; isn't Firefox Firefox regardless of the underlying platform?  I may be missing something here, but I'm not aware of any problems in Solaris that would make the Gecko rendering engine perform any worse on Solaris as it would on Win32, Linux, or BSD.

     



  • @drurowin said:

    In regards to my choice of OS; isn't Firefox Firefox regardless of the underlying platform? 
     

    There should be no special problems from that situation. All are fucked equally.

    Well, Chrome users a little more.



  • @drurowin said:

    What in the actual...  No.  Are people actually tagging their posts with random Unicode characters?  I think I need a drink and a lie-down after hearing this.
     

    You must be new here.



  • @dhromed said:

    @drurowin said:

    In regards to my choice of OS; isn't Firefox Firefox regardless of the underlying platform? 
     

    There should be no special problems from that situation. All are fucked equally.

    Well, Chrome users a little more.

     

     I believe the saying around here would be "Fuck Chrome with a purple dildo".

    I can't remember who it is with the dildo fetish though.

     



  • @dhromed said:

    @drurowin said:

    What in the actual...  No.  Are people actually tagging their posts with random Unicode characters?  I think I need a drink and a lie-down after hearing this.
     

    You must be new here.

     

    Care to join me in a belt of Scotch?  It's all that's helping me understand this place right now.

     



  • @drurowin said:

    I come to the site to read about and learn from deficiencies in software, not experience them firsthand, however I'm finding it rather amusing how broken the site is.

    Only the forum uses Community Server. The main page is using something else, I'm not sure what, might be custom, but most likely not CS.

    I may be missing something here, but I'm not aware of any problems in Solaris that would make the Gecko rendering engine perform any worse on Solaris as it would on Win32, Linux, or BSD.
     

    Well you're missing the fact that many of your alleged issues are not reproducible by others, and it's likely the only difference is the underlying OS. Firefox/Gecko has/have OS-specific bugs and issues just as any other cross-platform application does.

     Naturally, though, the real WTF is still Community Server, and always has been. Evidently the more recent versions of CS resolve pretty much all the concerns that people have with the version used here, which isn't surprising given it's something like a decade old now or something.

    Actually what you noted is pretty tame compared to the fact that you can literally take over a forum page with XSS and Javascript injection directly in a post. 

     



  • @drurowin said:

    I'm not aware of any problems in Solaris that would make the Gecko rendering engine perform any worse on Solaris as it would on Win32, Linux, or BSD

    As someone who works in the browser industry, I can say for definite that a huge amount of a browser depends on the platform, no matter how much a browser likes to claim to be cross platform. Even common things like font rendering are entirely dependent on the system's font renderer and available fonts. Keyboard handling is also usually done by the browser in platform-specific code (ie. implemented differently for each platform). Then let's not forget that the designMode implementation probably has numerous hacks to replicate platform behaviour (should middle click pasting work, etc.) - and designMode is a hideous pile of hacks in all browsers anyway.

    That's not excusing Community Server, of course. Community Server is responsible for a lot of the WTFs like the double backspace thing, the insistence on linking to fragment IDs. It is the users who are responsible for dumping unicode in the tags though. Stop worrying and learn to love the WTF.



  • @TarquinWJ said:

    @drurowin said:
    I'm not aware of any problems in Solaris that would make the Gecko rendering engine perform any worse on Solaris as it would on Win32, Linux, or BSD

    As someone who works in the browser industry, I can say for definite that a *huge* amount of a browser depends on the platform, no matter how much a browser likes to claim to be cross platform. Even common things like font rendering are entirely dependent on the system's font renderer and available fonts. Keyboard handling is also usually done in platform-specific code. Then let's not forget that the designMode implementation probably has numerous hacks to replicate platform behaviour (should middle click pasting work, etc.) - and designMode is a hideous pile of hacks in all browsers anyway.

    That's not excusing Community Server, of course. Community Server is responsible for a lot of the WTFs like the double backspace thing, the insistence on linking to fragment IDs. It is the users who are responsible for dumping unicode in the tags though. Stop worrying and learn to love the WTF.

     

    Hence the Scotch.  I'm about halfway through a coffee mug of it, and it's making the shakes go away.

     



  • @BC_Programmer said:

    @drurowin said:

    I come to the site to read about and learn from deficiencies in software, not experience them firsthand, however I'm finding it rather amusing how broken the site is.

    Only the forum uses Community Server. The main page is using something else, I'm not sure what, might be custom, but most likely not CS.

    I may be missing something here, but I'm not aware of any problems in Solaris that would make the Gecko rendering engine perform any worse on Solaris as it would on Win32, Linux, or BSD.
     

    Well you're missing the fact that many of your alleged issues are not reproducible by others, and it's likely the only difference is the underlying OS. Firefox/Gecko has/have OS-specific bugs and issues just as any other cross-platform application does.

     Naturally, though, the real WTF is still Community Server, and always has been. Evidently the more recent versions of CS resolve pretty much all the concerns that people have with the version used here, which isn't surprising given it's something like a decade old now or something.

    Actually what you noted is pretty tame compared to the fact that you can literally take over a forum page with XSS and Javascript injection directly in a post. 

     

     

    I'll have to play with that later, if innocent fun isn't verboten.

     



  • @drurowin said:

    I can't remember who it is with the dildo fetish though.
     

    *waves*



  • @drurowin said:

    I'll have to play with that later, if innocent fun isn't verboten.
     

    Outright breaking the forum is where I draw the line, so please don't.



  • @dhromed said:

    @drurowin said:

    I can't remember who it is with the dildo fetish though.
     

    *waves*

     

    OK, then what's Mobius Winters' thing then?

     



  • @drurowin said:

    OK, then what's Mobius Winters' thing then?
     

    Narratives in noir.

     

    Morbs, this is your cue.



  •  @dhromed said:

    @drurowin said:

    I'll have to play with that later, if innocent fun isn't verboten.
     

    Outright breaking the forum is where I draw the line, so please don't.

    Duly noted.  I'll keep it respectful if I do.

     



  • Wait, are you telling me that js in posts still isn't blocked?

    <script type="text/javascript">console.log("Nope, it isn't")</script> <style> /* Because I think <style> tags are stripped away */ .just-testing-if-you-dont-mind { color: brown; } </style>

    I tried using CSS the other day and couldn't

    Well, the preview is a mess. But I'm going to post this anyway just to check and delete it later.



  • So, the real WTF is coming onto TheDailyWTF, and expecting not to find WTFs daily?



  • @eViLegion said:

    So, the real WTF is coming onto TheDailyWTF, and expecting not to find WTFs daily?
     

    I didn't expect the forum itself to be one of the WTFs.  Now I know better.  Mea culpa.



  • WTFs within WTFs round here... eventually we'll get a recursive one, and the universe will end.



  • I think Alex should start thinking about moving this forum to Discuss... or maybe he hates Atwood, lot of people do.



  • @drurowin said:

    @eViLegion said:

    So, the real WTF is coming onto TheDailyWTF, and expecting not to find WTFs daily?
     

    I didn't expect the forum itself to be one of the WTFs.  Now I know better.  Mea culpa.


    Welcome, drurowin!

    I must say, you're coming to terms with things very quickly. I guess the Scotch is helping?



  • @dhromed said:

    It ignores Chrome for the fancy post editor, and tags with spaces are suddenly broken. What else?

    Opera is ignored as well. Square brackets are lost when it tries to interpret them as BBCode. Tags are not unescaped in the tag editor, making them double-escaped when you submit them.



  • @drurowin said:

    Hence the Scotch.  I'm about halfway through a coffee mug of it, and it's making the shakes go away.

    You're new here, but you're already fitting right in!



  • @BC_Programmer said:

    The forum is using an older version of Community Server for two reasons. One being that the more recent versions are commercial, and another being that it's hilariously broken and thus fits in with the theme of the site itself.
     

    Is that really a reason why it's used or just the assumption (or should that be "buttumption"?) since it would make sense.  Because if the site is seriousy using a POS software because "Lol its broken like the code we showcase" then that's the Real WTF.

     



  • @drurowin said:

    Hence the Scotch.  I'm about halfway through a coffee mug of it, and it's making the shakes go away.
    Yeah, you'll do just fine.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @ubersoldat said:

    I think Alex should start thinking about moving this forum to Discuss... or maybe he hates Atwood, lot of people do.

    Just in case you weren't making a tasteless joke...

    No. No he should not consider a piece of "forum" software that is written entirely in javascript, is hosted on questionable 3rd party servers, and whose only purpose in life is to hoover up as much personal and tracking information as possible.

     Disquss is an evil piece of shit. I love posting on forums, but even for me, it's a deal breaker. 



  • @ubersoldat said:

    I think Alex should start thinking about moving this forum to Discuss... or maybe he hates Atwood, lot of people do.

    I'd rather have several KBs of useless tags on every pageload than several KB of bloated javascript on every click.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Lorne Kates said:

    @ubersoldat said:
    I think Alex should start thinking about moving this forum to Discuss... or maybe he hates Atwood, lot of people do.

    Disquss is an evil piece of shit. I love posting on forums, but even for me, it's a deal breaker.

    I don't mind Disqus, but I think ubersoldat meant Discourse.

    There's a thread around somewhere (couldn't find it immediately, and I gave up) where replacing CS was discussed, and all of the reasons why it was a bad idea.



  •  @ubersoldat said:

    I think Alex should start thinking about moving this forum to Discuss... or maybe he hates Atwood, lot of people do.

    Disqus and Discourse are two separate products.  The latter is by Jeff Atwood.

    And installing it would require Ruby.



  • @boomzilla said:

    I don't mind Disqus, but I think ubersoldat meant Discourse.

    There's a thread around somewhere (couldn't find it immediately, and I gave up) where replacing CS was discussed, and all of the reasons why it was a bad idea.

    It's like Reddit and Twitter had a ugly mutant baby.

    The fact that the web site seems to be unsure whether it's a open source or commercial application is telling enough. (No top-level download, documentation, or installation links, but "fork on Github" button? A "Buy It" button that doesn't actually let you buy it?)



  •  A lot is broken on the web. The actual amount varies with your javascript source blacklist. I also find that things work a bit better if your browser declares you to be a Windows machine, no matter what you actually browse on.

     Ah well... Everyone makes mistakes.  But something that I find hard to forgive is putting the email notification checkbox anywhere else than right next to the "Post" button..

     

    Edit:

    Typos.



  • @boomzilla said:

    I don't mind Disqus, but I think ubersoldat meant Discourse.
     

    Funnily, Lorne's comments may apply just as much to Discourse.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @boomzilla said:

    There's a thread around somewhere (couldn't find it immediately, and I gave up) where replacing CS was discussed, and all of the reasons why it was a bad idea.
    Last discussed here - that one?



  • The only thing I want in these forums is animated avatars.

    Damn thing converts everything that's not gif or jpg to jpg, so not even APNG gets through.



  • @spamcourt said:

    The only thing I want in these forums is animated avatars.

    Damn thing converts everything that's not gif or jpg to jpg, so not even APNG gets through.


    Could you put the image in your signature, then position it over your avatar?



  • @drurowin said:

     Seriously, what is wrong with these forums?  I've been working in a mixed C#/Common Lisp shop for a while, and this is just worse than even our homegrown ticketing system someone wrote in ASP.Net in a drunken evening.  Is there a bug tracker I can submit problems with the site to, or perhaps submit my assistance for porting the forums to something...  functional?  I've been working on writing a forums package using Clack and Caveman for Lisp; would that be useful to anyone?

    You are not knowing HTML, stupid lion?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @PJH said:

    @boomzilla said:
    There's a thread around somewhere (couldn't find it immediately, and I gave up) where replacing CS was discussed, and all of the reasons why it was a bad idea.
    Last discussed here - that one?

    I was thinking of the thread you were recalling. Ah, from 2009: CommunityServer... RIP!



  • @drurowin said:

    @dhromed said:
    (...)

    I can't remember who it is with the dildo fetish though.


    @drurowin said:
    @dhromed said:
    (...)

    Care to join me in a belt of Scotch?  It's all that's helping me understand this place right now.


    Careful there.



  • @drurowin said:

    I've been working on writing a forums package using Clack and Caveman for Lisp; would that be useful to anyone?

    I think I can safely say no. No it would not.



  • @Buttembly Coder said:

    Could you put the image in your signature, then position it over your avatar?

    Yesss



  • @boomzilla said:

    Ah, from 2009: CommunityServer... RIP!
     

    @belgariontheking said:

    Maybe you could take another product and force-feed a forum into it.  I'd love to see bugzilla twisted into forum software.  "My operating system?  I don't see how that's relevant to my post, so I'll say Opera" 

    I vote for that. I've always had a fascination for abusing systems to do things they're designed for. I especially like the Wikipedia philosophy: just throw a flat editable page, and let people write bots to format everything for you.

    Heck, we could just use something like Your World Of Text.


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