Posts by Raven

Quote from rafix73

From what you are saying, it sounds like they wanted the cake and eat it too, which I believe made those volunteers such as yourself feel like their work wasn't worth the hassle.
I am aware that WoltLab is still a relatively small company, and I can understand if they didn't want to hire professional translators because of the price. I think that for the time being, translating wbb into several languages would be trying to put too many eggs in one basket. The current English translation is acceptable, but not great considering that it still shows odd/awkward wording here and there. I do believe that Burning Board should focus on providing an excellent English translation to begin with, which is what makes a product reach broader audiences nowadays -- for instance, the potentially lucrative American market that I believe WoltLab is trying to win.

It is my personal opinion that for the moment trying to include volunteer-based translations in various languages would be dispersive, since as I mentioned above, the focus should primarily be on improving the current English pack. I know for a fact that several potential customers across the ocean (and who speak English either as both first or second language) are often put off by the odd and unconventional wording the current English translation displays.

Translations in other languages could come later on, and possibly tasked to professional translators.

It was a wonderful experience for me to work with Woltlab as a company and the other volunteers. I would do it again. Since it was on a volunteer basis there was no hassle for me, and like I said I quite enjoyed the experience & opportunity. They treated us with great respect. I also know they appreciated our efforts. I have no hesitation in saying that Woltlab is a great company, and I hope I didn't give a different impression to anyone with my previous post. I guess I see both sides of the spectrum (business & consumer). The German community is something else, and I hope one day the English one will be more similar. It's such a great software & system!

Quote from Sami Jalal

%100 True. WoltLab must take a decision to support translators here in the forum in order to have a perfect translation. Of course if you want to be World wide community and not for Germany or some countries.

Woltlab used to have a small team of volunteer translators years ago - I used to be one of them. This was back when wBB2 was being developed, and they've since moved on. Personally, I think that the discussion about translations between the team members was invaluable in creating solid translations. It also provided a lot more natural translation when the people doing the translations were native speakers. A lot of the (English) translations that I've seen don't flow well, and at times seem awkward/unnatural. I think this could be improved. Since I imagine it would be costly to employ translators, especially in the multitude of languages that the software has potential for use in, volunteers seems like a good option from my view.

I do recall, in the past, that when some customers found that volunteers were used for translations they were less than pleased. They were using the software for business purposes, and they wanted to receive a professionally developed product. It was almost as if they felt that volunteer translators degraded the work, or provided a lesser quality product. I disagree, but to each their own. Woltlab has to give their customers what they desire in order to be profitable, so it may take a lot of convincing if they are to even consider going back in that direction.

I still haven't solved this, but I think there's perhaps a problem. I copied and pasted into an editor to count characters & the limit isn't exceeded. When I look at the source tab of making a new post or reply (instead of the editor tab) there appears to be a ton of additional formatting codes. They are placed really oddly, sometimes in the middle of words, so I'm not sure how that's happening. I am having issues removing all the formatting save manually as well. Tips appreciated?

Those look great! Simple & effective.

Is there a way to increase the character limit in a post over 10,000? I'm writing some articles, and running into problems posting them as they exceed the maximum amount of characters.

Ended up figuring this one out on my own after some playing around. In the ACP go to System --> Maintenance --> Update Counters --> USERS. I kept trying to update threads and posts, but it doesn't work. Updating the counter for users did the trick.

When I originally created a few forums I didn't want posts to count for users post count. Since then I've changed my mind, and set it to count posts in that forum. Unfortunately, after changing that option user post counts are not accurate. They need to be updated to count all of the posts that were made before. It's basically only counting new posts made after I changed the setting. Is there a way to update this in the ACP?

So, rafix73 and I ended up doing a pile of troubleshooting to see if this error could be resolved. In the end here's what we tried:

• Manually reinstalling apache, php, and mysql
• Downgrading php
• Using a 32-bit version of php
• Removing Skype
• Disabling UAC on Windows
• Automated reinstalling apache, php, and mysql
• Checking the disk for errors
• Checking the memory for issues
• Removing all temporary files
• Disabling anti-virus & firewall
• Redownloading the wBB3 files
• Installing older versions of wBB3 and wBB2

After absolutely nothing seemed to make any difference I gave up on using Windows. The solution was to setup a local lamp-server on Ubuntu Desktop 14.04 LTS. The only issues I had with installing that was was forgetting to CHMOD, and that was easily resolved. So the issue isn't with wBB it's something to do with Windows.

I always used JaguarPC for my websites, and those I designed for clients back in the day. They are still around, and will be my choice of host, with a multitude of hosting packages available. I successfully ran numerous wBB there in the past. They are a US based host with top-notch support & reliability if you ask me.

And here's from the php error log below - forgot to post that. These errors, save the line 34, are all new errors. I never had them with the manual server installations. I think some may be the results of me exploring XAMPP.

Quote

[31-Jul-2015 23:49:57 Europe/Berlin] PHP Warning: file_get_contents(lang.tmp): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\xampp\index.php on line 2

[31-Jul-2015 23:50:29 Europe/Berlin] PHP Warning: mysql_connect(): No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

in C:\xampp\htdocs\xampp\cds.php on line 78

[31-Jul-2015 23:53:47 Europe/Berlin] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'df025bd4be7b10dac7a82eae3e0396' (T_STRING), expecting ')' in C:\xampp\tmp\05e159a8_1003_stepSelectSetupLanguage.php on line 34

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Here is the apache error log below.

Quote

[Fri Jul 31 15:49:52.722981 2015] [ssl:warn] [pid 7224:tid 248] AH01909: www.example.com:443:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:52.832181 2015] [ssl:warn] [pid 7224:tid 248] AH01909: www.example.com:443:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:52.847781 2015] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 7224:tid 248] AH00455: Apache/2.4.12 (Win32) OpenSSL/1.0.1l PHP/5.6.8 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:52.847781 2015] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 7224:tid 248] AH00456: Apache Lounge VC11 Server built: Jan 28 2015 16:48:40
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:52.847781 2015] [core:notice] [pid 7224:tid 248] AH00094: Command line: 'c:\\xampp\\apache\\bin\\httpd.exe -d C:/xampp/apache'
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:52.863381 2015] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 7224:tid 248] AH00418: Parent: Created child process 7648
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:53.206582 2015] [ssl:warn] [pid 7648:tid 260] AH01909: www.example.com:443:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:53.315782 2015] [ssl:warn] [pid 7648:tid 260] AH01909: www.example.com:443:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Fri Jul 31 15:49:53.331382 2015] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 7648:tid 260] AH00354: Child: Starting 150 worker threads.
[Fri Jul 31 15:52:05.177214 2015] [cgi:error] [pid 7648:tid 1636] (OS 2)The system cannot find the file specified. : [client 127.0.0.1:49336] couldn't create child process: 720002: cgi.cgi
[Fri Jul 31 15:52:05.177214 2015] [cgi:error] [pid 7648:tid 1636] (OS 2)The system cannot find the file specified. : [client 127.0.0.1:49336] AH01223: couldn't spawn child process: C:/xampp/cgi-bin/cgi.cgi

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Here is the mysql error log below.

Quote

2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
2015-07-31 15:50:38 2134 InnoDB: Warning: Using innodb_additional_mem_pool_size is DEPRECATED. This option may be removed in future releases, together with the option innodb_use_sys_malloc and with the InnoDB's internal memory allocator.
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Using atomics to ref count buffer pool pages
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use Windows interlocked functions
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Memory barrier is not used
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Not using CPU crc32 instructions
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 16.0M
2015-07-31 15:50:38 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Highest supported file format is Barracuda.
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] InnoDB: 128 rollback segment(s) are active.
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] InnoDB: Waiting for purge to start
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] InnoDB: 5.6.24 started; log sequence number 1665234
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] Server hostname (bind-address): '*'; port: 3306
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] IPv6 is available.
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] - '::' resolves to '::';
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] Server socket created on IP: '::'.
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events
2015-07-31 15:50:39 8496 [Note] c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe: ready for connections.
Version: '5.6.24' socket: '' port: 3306 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

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Will update with results of your suggestions as I manage to complete them. Just thought I'd post this in case someone sees something.

OK completely uninstalled everything I did, and restarted the system. Downloaded XAMPP win32-5.6.8-0-VC11, ran the installer to the default location, started apache & mysql with no errors... but I'm still getting this error when I run the wBB installer!

Quote

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'df025bd4be7b10dac7a82eae3e0396' (T_STRING), expecting ')' in C:\xampp\tmp\05e159a8_1003_stepSelectSetupLanguage.php on line 34

I'm not sure if that makes me feel better, or worse. Despite not being the current version, I'm sure this did work for many people before. What gives! I didn't adjust anything for fear I'd goof it up somehow.

Quote from rafix73

I agree that some time ago such programs had issues, but today they have become rather intuitive and easy to configure. The most common problems you actually see today are related to users not being able to start Apache or MySQL, usually because they share common ports (80, 443) with apps like Skype. If that's the case, the trick is simple, instead of fumbling with Xampp config files and change ports (which perse isn't really harder than editing the file and type another number), simply close those apps before starting Xampp and all goes well.

Concerning Xampp version, I used the one having PHP 5.6. Only the 32bit version of Xampp is available for Windows, but it works without problems in a 64bit system. For instance, today I installed Xampp on Windows 8.1 64bit and ran a wbb 3.1.8 test install in it, which went without hiccups. Xampp should work well on Windows 10, too.

Really, you shouldn't encounter any major issues, and using Xampp will simplify things and allow you to test all you like in safe environment. If you have any problems with Xampp, I'm happy to help you out along the way, but I'm sure you won't have many.

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Well thank you so much for all of your replies, and helping me hash through this so far! I'll give the php 5.6 version a go next time I get a chance from the link you posted. Could be a few days, I have two children under two years old right now & a birthday party this weekend, but I'll let you know how it goes! I've forgotten how much I miss doing this stuff! I'm excited to get something up again even if I just end up designing locally.

Quote from Andrea Berg

Thats not possible. May I ask, why should the full article and comments be simultaneously posted in the forum? It makes no sense to me, sorry.

Having them integrated would appeal to both audiences who want to regularly discuss in depth & casually leave a simplistic comment, instead of one or the other. Also, having the option to display comments in a linked forum thread (instead of directly on the blog) would offer a less cluttered article in my view. I think it would also encourage regular discussion versus those casual comments. This setup would mean I could have the blog public - drawing in people with the article topics & indexed on search engines, and the forums private - for continued discussion.

The idea that I'm thinking about setting up is basically a natural mothering website. So I'd write about let's say my experience with nursing. People could find my articles in a search engine and read them. If they wanted more information then they could participate in the forums. This would allow them to discuss, for example, a challenge they are having with nursing in their family. I don't want those experiences to be public or indexed by search engines as they are personal. Often mothers like to post photos of their families too, but again don't like to do that when they find out everything is indexed on Google. The forum controls would allow private settings, so that I could provide that private environment for support, sharing, and discussion. Unfortunately, I don't think I can get people into the forums for discussion in the first place without something to draw them in - like the blog. But I don't want the discussions on the blog... I want them on the forum. That's why I was thinking about the blog integrating with wBB.

Yes, that does help! It looks like wBB and blog run completely independently, and it's only the navigation that's linked. So if I post a blog article it doesn't create a post in the forum anywhere. Is that correct? Could it be setup to do that, so a blog post and it's comments would be duplicated in a specific forum?

I am wondering if there is a place that I could see live examples, or even screenshots, of the blog alone & run with wBB? Also wondering if it is possible to integrated the blog with wBB3?

Thank you in advance.

I think I will wait for a while, because there's always that mass explosion of "OOPS" after Microsoft releases a new OS. Plus, if I wait then that will enable me to purchase it at a discounted price for being a student if I end up with the time to enroll in more classes.

Saw someone was spending a lot of time with Photoshop. Any experience with Lightroom by chance?

Quote from rafix73

Ah, considering we were talking about a local installation, I automatically assumed you did -- my bad. Both Xampp or Wamp simplify the bundled installation of Apache, MySQL, and PHP in your system, and make life easier when you want to test wbb locally.
You should give it a try, just make sure application that use ports 80 and 443, such as Skype aren't running when you launch the webserver.

I just installed Xampp on Windows 7 Ultimate, and I had no troubles, error, or hiccups installing wbb 3.1.8 in it. Why make our life harder when some tools can make it easier? Give it a shot

You used to read nothing but problems about using packages like that before. I did a quick read before deciding to go manual this time, and read nothing but complications & people having to go in and do manual configurations anyhow. Which version did you use? The one with php 5.5 or 5.6? I'm at the point where I'm considering it now.

Also, it looks like the page you linked is 32bit and I'm on a 64bit OS. If you were running all 32bit installations I might try that manually before resorting to a third party software.

Quote from rafix73

Thinking of it, I believe that cache settings isn't the problem here, since you are using a local installation, and the root cause could actually be related with file permissions.

If you installed Xampp under C:\... then UAC (User Account Control) could be in the way -- try disabling it in control panel, and see if you keep experiencing those errors during wbb installation.

Windows doesn't allow to change and fine tune file permissions the same way as Linux does, (it's more like all or nothing) and installing Xampp under C:\ (which the system considers Windows 'root') might actually trigger PHP errors related to permissions. First off, you want to check PHP-log shows warnings or errors concerning file permissions. If that's the case, you will have to find out under what user name Apache is running (via Administrative Tools, Services), and then add read/write permissions for that user in the appropriate folder.

I didn't install anything with a third party program like Xamp. Apache is located at c:/apache24 and php is located at c:/php as I recall this being the best physical setup previously. My php error log shows only the error that I've reported here after accessing the install script. Otherwise, there are no errors when starting up the server and php. Apache is running as a service using the local system account. I am logging into the computer on an administrator account. Here's some pictures if that helps explain more...? The Apache files (httpd-2.4.16-win64-VC11) were from Apache Lounge, as per php.net recommended on the Windows php download page.

Quote from Aslan

It's hard for me to explain our legal system, but I'll try....
Let's assume you have a really busy site and let us assume someone post something on it that no one reports and you're unaware of it. Because it is physically impossible to read every single post in every single thread at all times. Even if you do catch it, you may not have caught it soon enough (assuming you were sleeping at 3am, but someone's lawyer was wide awake).

If they sue you and you're not incorporated, they can basically take everything you have from you. But if they sue you and your incorporated, they can take only from the corporate entity.

That is a very simplified (be it almost inaccurate) explanation, but close enough.

I agree, that compromise is important. And that is what I'd like to see happen. For this rule to apply only to corporations that sell or buy products or services. I fully support companies such as eBay or Amazon being fully open. But for people who incorporate only for their own protection and allow freedom of speech... There should be an exception.

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Thank you for taking the time to explain. I can understand your perspective better after reading that. I would certainly agree, you can't read everything all the time in a user content generated website. Your compromise sounds like a great idea. What do you think about non-profit organizations like a charity? Surely, it would still be important to release information in such a case, but that would also fall outside of the "buying and selling" definition of a business.

Quote from GTB

If you have both languages installed then there's no option to disable one of them. By that I mean, I can't keep German language installed and only offer English on the board (don't see any option to disable German language) while keeping it still installed. So in a way you're left either having to make use of it, or remove the language completely.
But if you remove it completely there is no getting it back proper... bar doing a fresh clean install. So would actually like to see WBB add the option to keep a language like German installed but have a global disable language option for using. If you only have one language installed you end up then with a few obsolete multilingualism features that cannot be used then,so would prefer to keep the languages installed for the sake of that in-case you ever do make use of them in the future.

But that begs for a global language disable switch site wide added.

Oh yes that makes sense. What version of wBB are you running? I've been MIA for... years... so I'm having to learn everything again it seems!