Admin (FAQs, rules, queries etc.) — WHU606

Howdy Stranger.

Giant_Hammer — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:56:03 +0000

Does anyone know why the site is asking me to sign in or register 3 or 4 times a day. It never used to happen and the keep me signed in box is ticked. Thank you.

Site Maintenance and future development

MrsGrey — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 22:44:15 +0000

There are a few 'behind the scenes' technical things that still need sorting out. Specifically, how we can move posts from one thread to another and a few issues with the process when new members try to join the site. It's not really something that affects existing members on a day to day basis. Those should be sorted in the next few weeks. Our IT expert will be doing the final phase of those works (started a while back but various life stuff slowed things up). However, if there are other issues you think should be addressed, add them here and we'll see what's feasible. In the longer term, views on where the site is going and if it is, actually, going anywhere 😂 will be canvassed. That will be for later in the season, but have a think. There might need to be some things done differently. :-)

Further Planned Site Maintenance. Thursday 17 February.

MrsGrey — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 09:46:40 +0000

UPDATE, 14 Feb. The site will have to go offline for a while on Thursday morning. Probably 9-10am, maybe a little longer. Get your Wordle in early! Be aware that, if you are checking back, it might look live - but that could be a temporary thing and it could disappear again in the blink of an eye. I'd advise you not to try posting anything until I sound the all clear.

I can't log in! (What to do if you can't...) Includes new applicants trying to join.

grey_til_I_dye — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 09:12:05 +0000

Existing member: Because this is a new server, your login isn't stored until you sign in for the first time. If you can't remember your password, you can use the password reset option by clicking 'Forgot' when you try to sign in. New Members: If you are trying to jion and are getting stuck at the 'Verify your email' stage, use the email address below to contact a site administrator. If you have any problems with this, email whu***@gmail.com where the *** is the three numbers we use in the site name.

And We're Back

MrsGrey — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 20:59:20 +0000

Sorry about the down time. Not sure what happened, but thanks to all (you know who you are) who tried to find a solution. It wasn't deliberate, that's for sure But we need to think about how we handle technical crises in future, because in this instance - lacking any expertise myself - I had to get outside help from an expert.

WHU 606 - a decade

Yeoldhammer — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 19:06:16 +0000

10 years of this wonderful site being up (though my 10 years hits in March officially) ! . :) =) Username Yeoldhammer Joined March 2011 Visits 25,912

Emoticons are back

grey_til_I_dye — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 09:11:49 +0000

courtesy of the ever helpful RJ (obvs...)

site getting there slowly.

grey_til_I_dye — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 09:17:23 +0000

there are stilll a few glitches, and I have still to set up the emoticons.

Theme settings.

grey_til_I_dye — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:37:00 +0000

I've changed the current theme style until I get time to sort it out properly. Eventually things will look like they used to...

Apologies for the down time

grey_til_I_dye — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 14:03:36 +0000

massive server disasterYou should be able to use the site normally now

Massive shout of thanks toR_J - a Vanilla guru who gave his time to get us up and running.

Site software updated - please let me know if you spot a glitch

grey_til_I_dye — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 14:28:53 +0000

I've upgraded the site software. I think it is all working as expected, but if it isn't, let me know here.

Change to how smileys work

grey_til_I_dye — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 16:28:10 +0000

I finally worked out how to use our smileys with the integrated button on the new toolbar. That works just as it ever did - click a smiley to insert it into the post. The short cut, however is slightly different. In place of ;nameofsmiley it is now :nameofsmiley: You should find that if you type : you will see a popup suggestion box with some smileys in it. Typing a letter after the : will show some of the smileys starting with that letter. I haven't included all the old smileys in the drop down box, but they are nearly all available via the shortcut method. So, :hippo: results in :hippo: If you have smileys you would like included, either in the drop-down menu, or just in the shortcut one. let me know. I'll post a link to the names of smileys not in the drop-down box in a while. It does mean that smileys previously posted won't display properly. I'm working on sorting that.

Site unavailable - hopefully OK now.

grey_til_I_dye — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 14:13:28 +0000

Seems our host, DigitalOcean had a major issue, which led to sites being unavailable. They seem to have fixed it now. For once, it wasn't me being a numpty.

UPDATED SITE - problems/questions/observations

grey_til_I_dye — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 08:45:51 +0000

If you are reading this, you are on the new site.

Site will be down - Saturday 12:30 UK for around 15 minutes for backup

grey_til_I_dye — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 11:42:54 +0000

I need to take a backup of the site as it is now, and that means I have to power down the server. It should only take about 15 minutes...

Changeover to new site - PLEASE READ

grey_til_I_dye — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:29:49 +0000

BACKGROUND - not crucial you read this I've made all the updates on a separate server (for testing purposes and so the site wasn't offline for about three weeks while I worked out what the deuce was going on...) I had thought to just copy and paste that image onto our current server, but that seems not to be as straightforward as I thought. WHAT WILL HAPPEN - this bit is useful but not crucial Every website has a unique IP address. Currently, our webserver is at 178.62.91.12 Type that into a web browser, and you'd find yourself at Barspetsa, the first site I made, which shares the webserver with our forum. The new address will be 159.89.17.180 - if you type that in, you will go directly to our new testing forum. At the changeover point, I will change the DNS records for whu606.com to point to the new address. DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours to reach all name servers. Once the change has been made, I will put up a redirect page here, asking visitors to go to 159.89.17.180 Even if the change to whu606.com hasn't reached the DNS server your ISP happens to use, typing that number directly will go to the forum. KEY POINT - this is the bit you need to understand After the change has been made, you can type 159.89.17.180 into your web browser to get to the forum, even if whu606.com gives you an error, or brings you here.

Plucky testers needed!

grey_til_I_dye — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:36:31 +0000

I think ( ;pray ) that the new site setup is ready to test. Please visit This site and try to do as many of the typical things as you would do on this forum - start threads, make comments, react etc. The site has a copy of this database from a few days ago. Any posts on there will NOT be posted on here, so you can hold back on the heartbreaking posts of staggering genius, or they'll be lost to posterity when we switch. There's a thread on there for comments if you find any issues. It would really help if you let me know in general terms what device you use if you find a problem (just PC/Mac - Android/iPhone -Android tablet/iPad is fine - don't need versions.)

CHANGE OF DATE - Site update - site will be down for some of Saturday 23rd March

grey_til_I_dye — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 13:01:01 +0000

I need to upgrade both the server software for our web server, and the Vanilla software (the forum bit.) In a perfect world, this would all get sorted in around an hour, but, you know... I'll be working on it from around 10.00 am UK time. It might be worth taking a note of this address: https://twitter.com/whu606forum which is where I can post any updates while the site is down.

Upgrading Vanilla (the software that runs this thing), and necessary changes

grey_til_I_dye — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 16:59:41 +0000

I've been putting this off, but we really need to make the step up to the next version of Vanilla we're on 2.3 the latest is 2.8) The biggest impact for us is that the drop-down menu for our smileys will no longer work ( ;weep ) although using the text shortcut will ( ;wahoo ) What I can do is add a crib sheet to the menus to the right, so that we can see which text shortcuts match which smileys. The new version comes with its own set of emojis (which is to say, smileys...) so what might make sense would be to prioritise our animated smileys at the top of the list. We can also use this to get rid of some of the smileys that are not really used. So, what would help is if people could post on here the smileys you feel you use most often, so we could work out which should be at the top of the list.

Moderation in all things... (please read when you have a mo.)

grey_til_I_dye — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 12:28:17 +0000

Just want to clarify some issues to do with moderation. The site has few, but clear rules about behaviour, and thankfully, for the most part, users accept this, and self-moderate. The essence of the site's ethos can be summed up in the terms of service:

I declare that I am more or less a grown up, and am able to play nicely with a variety of different types of people.
I agree that I won't deliberately set out to upset anyone, and that if I do, it would be reasonable to offer an apology.
I understand that this forum has a strict no swearing policy (including masked or disguised swearing), which includes even mild words that the pope probably wouldn't be offended by.
I understand that this forum is made up of people from a wide mix of cultures/attitudes/beliefs, and will not post anything that might be seen to be offensive (e.g. racist/sexist/homophobic stuff.)

Some rules have developed as corollaries of these: i.e not making personal comments, not using doh, or made me laugh to indicate disagreement with a post. We have 6 moderators (if I've counted right), any of whom might be the ones to moderate a post if it is necessary. In practice MrsGrey and myself tend to do most of what moderation is needed, as we have more free time, and so are around more. Posts are moderated on the basis of whether they are perceived to break the site rules, NOT on whether they have, or might actually, offend anyone (and certainly NOT on the basis of who is doing the posting. Unlike the old BBC 606, and many other forums, this forum is moderated actively rather than reactively which is to say, if a moderator thinks something breaks site rules, it goes, rather than waiting for someone to flag a post. Sometimes, a moderation depends on a judgement call. Where practical, in those circumstances, we try to get a consensus from those mods around at the time. In most cases, where a post is moderated, we try to make sure a PM is sent to explain the reasoning. If the modded thinks the modee has got it wrong, they are then able to politely explain. The point of the rules (which have evolved by consensus of users) is to try to ensure that this is, as far as possible, a kind and respectful place for users to come and have their say. If you think a post breaks site rules, or is inappropriate, you can use the flag option to bring it to the attention of the mods. So, please, first, try to abide by the site rules (even where you may think they are burdensome) and second, if you do get moderated, please, don't take it personally, and don't think it gives you the right to have a pop at whoever moderated you.

Using the 'MADE ME LAUGH' click button. (was For information: A couple of modding issues.)

MrsGrey — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 09:10:27 +0000

A polite reminder from the moderators (alderz, expat, grey, lukerz, suz, wombat and me). As you (hopefully) know, responding to someone's post with a ;lol smiley and no further comment is treated the same as if you said their post was laughable or ridiculous. It will be modded. (Unless the original post is very clearly a joke or otherwise meant to be humorous, perhaps indicated with a ;whistle or some other smiley to show the poster's intentions). The problem that has been cropping up is that people can now use the new response buttons to - in effect - do the same thing by clicking the 'made me laugh' button. This is treated the same as if you just post a ;lol . From a modding point of view, though, these are easy to miss and difficult to fix. So can we ask you to be aware of it, please, and not to do it. Thank you very much. PS - also please note that the phrase 'do one' is treated as masked swearing, so can you use 'get lost' or some other toned-down phrase please.

Testing a new toolbar

grey_til_I_dye — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 12:01:51 +0000

Testing etc. etc.

If the page looks a bit odd, just press Ctrl + F5 a couple of times

grey_til_I_dye — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 08:35:45 +0000

As it says in the title. I'm having a bit of a fiddle, so there may be the odd hiccup.

Site upgraded - mobile should now work as before (update 17:30 UK 20-2)

grey_til_I_dye — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 10:07:31 +0000

NEWER I think I've sorted the categories issue. You may need to clear your cache again, but after that, the mobile version fo the site should be back to how it was before. NEWER NEW I've updated some files. For mobile users, the cog edit wheel function should now work. The Hamburger menu now works, but the categories aren't showing. I'll work on that later. Can some mobile users confirm it works for them? NEW I've updated the forum to the latest Vanilla software, and the latest php engine. It should all run as before, but if you find something no longer works, or isn't working in the same way as before, please let me know on here. Ta

New reactions plugin

grey_til_I_dye — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 13:01:02 +0000

We're trialing a new reactions plugin. The clickable buttons now appear at the bottom of a post. You can click Agree or CMU, but not both. Clicks are no longer anonymous; a small icon will appear at the bottom of the post to show who has clicked what. Hovering the mouse over the icon will show a tooltip giving the name of the user (if you don't recognise the avatar. Previous agrees/cmu's will no longer show. My main concern is to make sure that it doesn't slow the site down (I don't think it should) so please let me know if you think there are any issues regarding that.