Online Community - Comments, Improvements and Feedback

Yes drives me potty. It is sort of random but been getting increasingly worse lately to the point of it being off putting. It’s definitely different on the laptop but as you know I use my phone a lot. I can be logged in and it still won’t let me post so I have to repeatedly log out and log back in. Sometimes it’s when I go from one post to another, sometimes replying to one, ( on the phone I get emails telling me of responses and go into answer online) but then locks me out, or going from pms to forum or forum to main website... which is really very off putting because sometimes I want to check what info is available on the main site to direct people but it just gets too complicated! Busy day. Time for zebedee. 

It's so random, I've wanted to comment on this before but I can't spot a pattern so it's hard to know what to say. At least it's not just me. Maybe you could reinvent this wheel with your compter geek cohort? Lol. x

It is crazy Spotty...

I'm often looking on my phone and it doesn't log me out like that, it's a bit random but It keeps me logged in all evening or whatever usually. I'm on a Samsung S7 Edge / Android.  On my PC or laptop it sometimes stays logged in overnight while they're asleep.

Every time I get a sign in screen link from a post when I didn't realise I wasn't signed in, it goes straight to an Error 404 screen and it's really awkward to find what you were trying to reply to. That applies to phone or PC.

Can see why that would drive you bonkers Misfit.

The logging out drives me mad too. I was typing a rather long PM reply to someone a while ago,it took me a very long time as I type with one finger,suddenly the page vanished and when it came back all my hard work was gone! It really threw me as I had put a fair bit of thought into it.

also the whole PM thing just slows up and starts freezing up,

I still appreciate the mods and admin who try to keep this free resource running.

Oh yes we’d all just love that back wouldn’t we ( naughty sarcastic tone).. ! A few more things should go in the same direction but good that it’s gone. 

Could stillness need tweaking....

Thought you might be on here requesting that the leaderboard gets reinstated! Lol 

Thank you for explaining. That will help remind me to be more tolerant. Still a nuisance all the same but better to have the security  Thanks Ellie. 

With my geek head on...the automatic time out/log off is for security...just the same as when I access my online bank account...also helps to regulate the traffic on here....but the settings could be adjusted so time out is less frequent.

Hello Mods. I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the continual need to log out and login again repeatedly every time I use the forum on my iPhone . It happens when I move from thread to thread, or between the forum and private messages or if my WiFi connection changes. Could something PLEASE be done about this infuriating issue. Thank you. 

I really wish there was a very straight forward way to make the background a different colour or decrease the contrast somehow, I find reading this site very hard on my eyes.  Other sites that have greyer backgrounds are much more comfortable for me to look at.

Please be assured that the following statements are made for the benefit of all, and for the detriment of none.

WebPM said:

It's not meant to be like that. It's meant to be like giving people who need them their own wheelchairs, when previously they had to ask for one at each place they went to, and what worked in one place didn't work somewhere else!

Previously the website was metaphorically 'wheelchair-access' friendly, i.e. colour screen options or "ramps" at source. It mattered not one way or another then about any other websites in respect of services here. Neither did it involve having to take any further 'steps' to comfortably use this site, which some people have not been able to do ~ practically, or comfortably.

WebPM said:

However, that's plainly not how it is for caretwo.

The difficulty here is that as above stated, some people have been unable to take the necessary 'steps' to do as you suggest, being that their are no compatible 'colour-screen' apps for their browser systems. This is what caretwo and I were discussing above, and after having passed on your helpful advice for me regarding the getting of the app that was compatible with my system ~ he found that it was not compatible with his, to which I replied that that was unfortunate.

WebPM said:

May I ask anyone who wants to comment whether this site's design is a particular issue, even compared to say the main NAS site or other sites that you use? It's that comparison between sites that would be useful.

The problem here again is that like the compatibility issues with the 'colour-screen' browser apps; people with autism are not being facilitated for as was inclusively the case before, being that those who can use more than one website are able to participate ~ whilst people who are only able to use this one website are excluded from this suggested activity.

I find that I am very much in agreement with caretwo on this issue:

I believe that sites associated with such organisations as NAS should be setting good examples for others to follow.

If the forum worked with Firefox's reader mode then some of us would not have a problem with the inability to select background colours etc., however, we should be considering all users regardless of their browser.

And [/quote] at the end of it.

Hi firemonkey,

Do you mean you want to quote an outside source using the quotation formatting that's used when you quote other posters?

Like this?

If so you can do this manually by entering [quote] at the beginning of the text

The basic steps are:

1. copy the text you wish to quote
2. paste the text into your forum reply

To make it obvious the text is a quote, it should either be enclosed by quotation marks (double or single, your choice) or be formatted in italics. To format the pasted text in italics highlight all the pasted text then select Format, Italic from the options at the bottom of the forum reply box.

Please note: depending on the source copied, you may find that the pasted text contains its own formatting (e.g. bold, large font).

If the formatting is, for example, simply bold then it can be removed by highlighting all the pasted text and selecting Format, Bold from the options at the bottom of the forum reply box.

The other way to remove the formatting is to paste the text as unformatted into another application (e.g. a Thunderbird message, Notepad) and then copy that text and paste it into your forum reply.

Copy and paste? Or screen shot and select image? Someone more techy than me and Lonewarrior might help

Hello fire monkey,there aren't many online at this time in the morning 02:00am.not sure you will get many replies? If I knew I would be only to glad to share my knowledge. I am still struggling just finding recent threads inserted or embedded into older replies.I wish you luck,I have to be up for work at 06:30am, just popped in before finishing my shift on here! I just keep an eye out for the others, Take care.

How do I quote text from an outside source like a blog/article?

I know how to quote another poster but can see no  way to quote text from an outside source like an article.

WebPM, unless I have misunderstood your reply, it seems to me that you are trying to put the onus on users to find out whether colour changes work with the site (and for every site they visit if they change the colours in their browsers).

Functionality that existed in the old forum has been removed. I am not asking for every possible colour but simply a return to what we had (or something very similar).

I note that Network Autism still allows the users to choose from a small range of colours.

The government blog you refer to states:
The Website Content Accessibility Guidelines specify that users must be able to select foreground and background colours. It is therefore important to generally make sure a website is as flexible and adjustable as possible. One step to achieving that is to always style background and foreground together.

I believe that sites associated with such organisations as NAS should be setting good examples for others to follow.

If the forum worked with Firefox's reader mode then some of us would not have a problem with the inability to select background colours etc., however, we should be considering all users regardless of their browser.

Regarding your comment:
It's that comparison between sites that would be useful
the obvious question is useful to whom? Certainly not me and people like me. Such a comparison is irrelevant to me. It seems like you are trying to justify the lack of background colour selection etc. by comparing the forum to other sites which perform badly in that regard; whereas you should be comparing the forum to sites which perform well in that regard or be setting the standard with the forum.

If I have misunderstood your reply, please accept my apologies.