The Webmaster Forums - TWF Feedback and Announcements

New policy on quality of post content

Megan — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 03:31:06 +0000

After much deliberation we have decided to implement a new policy on post quality. Over the past few years this forum has been overwhelmed with poor quality, incoherent, repetitive content. Because these posts don't fit the definition of "spam", we have allowed them to remain. However, the overall quality of content on this site has steadily declined, and in order to improve the situation we have been forced to take more drastic measures.

From this point forward, low quality posts will be removed from the forums.

For new topics this means:

Questions that could be easily answered with a search (e.g. "What is CSS"?)
Posts that invite repetitive, meaningless responses (e.g. Which is better On-Site or Off-site Optimization?)
Content that has been posted on more than 2 other forums
Vague or too-general posts (e.g. "I need help with HTML".)
Posts that otherwise don't invite actual discussion

For responses this means posts that are:

Incoherent (doesn't make sense)
Repetitive (the same or very similar to other posts in the thread)
Copied from other sources
Don't directly respond to the original question and/or ongoing discussion
Posted to very old threads without significantly adding to the discussion.

In general we are looking for posts that are genuine and contribute positively to the forum atmosphere. If we get the impression you are posting solely for personal gain (e.g. signature links), your posts are more likely to be removed. If you have any questions about this please post here or contact me by PM.

If you believe your posts have been removed unfairly, please contact me by PM and I will review the situation personally.

This policy is retro-active. Old posts may be removed according to this policy.

Megan
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How we built this forum using Drupal

Megan — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:12:14 +0000

We often get questions about our Drupal set up and how we built this forum. I thought I would post a sticky to make this information easier to find. Here are some topics with more information.

Modules used
Theming
Various other questions
Why we switched from vBulletin

Look for comments from JeevesBond, our lead developer.

Megan
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Additional signature changes

Megan — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:07:47 +0000

We have just installed a new modification that restricts signature display on the forums. We have set it so that very short posts will not include a signature at all. There are several reasons why we are doing this. Firstly, it will enhance readability in the forums as signatures will not be getting in the way when posts are very short. Secondly, it will hinder people who post a lot of short (usually not very useful) responses with the sole intent of displaying their signature links.

This will be put into effect shortly (as soon as JeevesBond sets it up!).

Any signature links manually added to short posts will be removed by moderators. If this becomes a continual problem either in general or by particular members additional actions will be taken.

As always, we hope to make this a useful and friendly place for you to hang out. We hope that reducing signature spam will make this an even better place for webmasters. We do want to find a balance between rewarding regular members for valuable participation while preventing others from spamming our forums.

Megan
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New Enforced post limits/minute

Megan — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 13:49:48 +0000

I have just installed a module that limits the number of posts per user over a given time frame. This is only intended to stop spammers flooding the forums with automated posts. The limit is set to 1 posts within 3 minutes for regular users.

This will not apply to any users with higher membership levels. Please let me know if you encounter any problems posting. We just want to make sure this isn't having any unintended consequences.

Megan
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Alert Plugin Needed

Showison — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 10:06:45 +0000

Hi Admins,

I am not sure why you guys didn't implement alert plugin yet for this forum. Many forums admins have already activated alert plugin for their forums. That's a great plugin which will let all the members know who actually replied their posts. In that way a member who made a post would be notified through that plugin that there is a new comment/reply on his/her post and S/He could check that comment/reply and participate again in the discussion if required. That's what members want right? To see people are actually interacting with their posts. That's why I believe alert plugin is 100% mandatory for any forums.

So please guys implement that feature in this wonderful forum.

Thanks

After how many post i can see my signature ?

Johnvereen — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 17:43:26 +0000

After how many post i can see my signature ?

Please help regarding Singapore universities!

KrishnaCon — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 08:14:34 +0000

I want to know if NTU Singapore accepts GRE scores?

I have a CGPA of 8.7

My major problem is funding so I don't think I have a chance in US without major funding!!
Therefore considering Singapore too!!

Please help me! I'm really confused!!

User information in comments

Kaztur — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:21:22 +0000

Hi from newbie!

How have You placed information in user comments, like posts count, registration date? Is this user_stats module (I came from it). Please learn me!

I'm trying set views block in comments but cann't configure contextual filter to show user info in comments.

NEW: Restricted posting permissions on SEO & Marketing + General Chat forums

Megan — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 16:49:18 +0000

To support our new policy on post quality, we have set some posting restrictions on the Marketing, SEO, and Online Business and General Chat forums. Only members who have been registered for more than 7 days and have more than 15 posts may post in these forums. In addition, these forums are visible only to logged-in users.

We have found that these forums have received more poor quality posts than other areas. Restricting them to established members only will help to reduce the amount of low quality content that moderators have to deal with.

SEO and Marketing related posts posted in other areas will be removed.

We do not, and have not, intended this to be an "SEO Forum". If that's what you're looking for, there are many other forums out there that would be pleased to have you.

Megan
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Search just hangs and never gives a result.

triplemaya — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 10:05:46 +0000

running under Debian linux

Tried it on firefox and opera and chrome

Is 'Services and Special Offers' restricted for special members?

Host.co.in — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:52:19 +0000

I can not open a new thread at 'Services and Special Offers' as there is no option in drop down list to select that category, so, Is 'Services and Special Offers' restricted for special members?

Thanks & Regards.

Host.co.in - Web Hosting India | Reseller Hosting India | Dedicated Server India

How to ...

aditd — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:01:26 +0000

Post a new topic in the marketplace. Do you need to pay something or there is a number of posts you need, or there is some rights that the admin gives to your user ( why and how )?
Let me know,
Thank you.

More downtime

JeevesBond — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:12:38 +0000

Sorry we've been down again off-and-on over the last few days. Our hosts messed up again.

They're saying that the last round of upgrades, that caused the problem, will make things more stable. Luckily none of the server VM's were destroyed this time!

a Padded Cell our articles site!

Edit limits enabled

Megan — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:04:47 +0000

I've just installed a module to set time limits on edits for both forum topics and comments. It is set so that you can only edit a post within 3 days. After that editing will not be allowed.

We have had some problems in the past with people going back and adding spammy links to old posts. This will prevent them from being able to do that.

If there is some legitimate reason why you need to be able to edit a post after more than three days, please post a comment and a moderator will make the edit for you.

Megan
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We're back (after a really long downtime)

JeevesBond — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:14:32 +0000

Sorry I don't have time, right now, to explain everything that happened over the last ten days or so, but our host ran into some trouble with their SAN, the file system on our nginx/PHP VPS was permanently hosed and I had to rebuild it from scratch.

To compound the problem, I couldn't start rebuilding the VPS for around 4 days because: we were away (why do these things always happen on the day you're leaving to go somewhere?); I couldn't even delete the VPS with the corrupted file system because the host had disabled all those options while they fixed their problems.

I've asked them for some kind of compensation, since forcing your client's VPS to be offline for four days is daft (though I get the impression we were the only ones to have all our data corrupted, most people just had a couple of hours downtime here-and-there).

a Padded Cell our articles site!

Moving servers

JeevesBond — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:14:31 +0000

We're currently moving servers (which is why you may have seen a 'site under maintenance' message). Webmaster Forums has been moved over successfully, but do reply with any bugs you come across.

If anyone cares, we're now on VPS.net, since we didn't really need the power (all the time) or cost of a dedicated server. We're using multiple VPS's, however, currently this consists of: 1 MySQL server, 1 nginx+php-fpm server, 1 Memcache server.

What I'm liking about VPS.net is that creating VPS's is free, it's the resources put into them that costs. So we're creating a setup that can easily be added to with database slaves, more memcache servers, web heads etc.

Also, we're now using Aegir

a Padded Cell our articles site!

my signature

herry — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:39:42 +0000

i am facing some problem regarding my signature it is not displaying over here i don't know what is the reason behind it but its not good

why links are not allowed over here???

herry — Thu, 12 May 2011 06:52:49 +0000

why links are not allowed over here while i have seen many links in post signatures???? its a market place mean to say that we can market anything over here it could be our site or any product so then in this forum again we don't have a permission to put links????

healing bracelets
Watch movies

SIgnature problem

aditd — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 21:42:22 +0000

I notice that I can edit a signature for my account. Did that but it does not appear on my post.
Notice that said something in the rules ... that if the post is to short ( no mention what short means ) the signature will not appear.
Any help with this problem?

Revision to rel=nofollow policy

Megan — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:19:37 +0000

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that we recently made a change to how links inside posts are treated in the forums. As of yesterday, links inside posts for members who have less than 25 posts will have the rel=nofollow attribute applied. Once you reach the limit of 25 posts, the rel=nofollow will be removed.

This was necessary because of the number of members who would post promotional links inside their posts, to get around the nofollowed signatures. You have probably noticed the "links removed" message in a lot of posts.

If people are found to be abusing this policy (e.g. posting junk to get to the 25 post limit) we will be able to move them to a special users group where the nofollow would continue to be applied to links. So don't try it!

Have a nice day!

Megan
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Better late than never (Happy Holidays)

Megan — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:59:42 +0000

I finally got around to putting up the holiday decorations! Only a week to go until the big day, but it's better than nothing.

I hope you enjoy!

Nice work

dejan — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:27:58 +0000

how to get one of this drupal forums

Connect with us on Facebook!

Megan — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:59:06 +0000

We are pleased announce that A Padded Cell and The Webmaster Forums now have a Facebook page! We will update you with new A Padded Cell articles and interesting Forum discussions (minus the SEO crap!). Updates will probably be posted no more than 2-3 times per week unless something particularly special is happening. This is a great way to keep up with the forum, particularly if you don't visit regularly.

Use the following link or the block in the right sidebar to "like" us:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Padded-Cell/115951385124483

(Once we have at least 25 fans we'll be able to get a custom domain)

Megan
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Market Place posts will now be removed after 60 days

Megan — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:02:30 +0000

The title says it all! Any posts in the Market Place area will now be automatically unpublished after 60 days. This will help to keep these areas clean and useful to members. We have had many incidents of users responding to old offers that are probably no longer valid.

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions about this policy.

Megan
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Redesigned user profiles

Megan — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:54:31 +0000

Hi everyone,

I have just released some significant changes to user profiles. In case you didn't notice, a few weeks ago the info sections at the top were rearranged so they actually make sense. New today is a tabbed block showing a user's topics and replies. You can use this new view to see what others have been posting and to keep track of your own posts.

I would also like to remind you that user profiles are visible to logged in users only. This means that any information you enter in your profile will not be visible to outside users (including search engines).

Let me know if you find any problems, or if there's anything that would make user profiles more useful to you!

Megan
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why signature not show

cacadong — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:38:53 +0000

I have make my signature and save it.
Why it not show. thanks in advance.

Post Removed

shaunno2009 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:52:31 +0000

Comment Removed

Change to policy on copyrighted content

Megan — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:00:03 +0000

We have made a small change to our policy on copyrighted content. We are now considering any content that has been posted on a large number of other forums (e.g. 8 or more) to be copyrighted and therefore not allowed. Even if the same member posted all of these posts, it is clear that they will not be returning to follow any discussion. This is spam.

Information on our copyrighted content policy can be found in the Rules under the heading Copyrighted Content.

Megan
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Signatures

indy11 — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 20:33:52 +0000

can i put Signatures in my post.

A question for webmasters of this site

usmanz — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:59:13 +0000

Hi,

I have joined this community after finding out this was built using Drupal CMS.
I really love the forum on this site.
I tried creating a forum on my Drupal site but was disappointed by it so I started thinking about integrating a SMF Forum inside Drupal.

I need to know from the webmasters of this site what modules they have used to create the forums on this site, this is the best forum design and layout I have come across on the internet.
I am looking for a positive response.

The Webmaster Forums - TWF Feedback and Announcements

New policy on quality of post content

How we built this forum using Drupal

Additional signature changes

**New** Enforced post limits/minute

Alert Plugin Needed

After how many post i can see my signature ?

Please help regarding Singapore universities!

User information in comments

NEW: Restricted posting permissions on SEO & Marketing + General Chat forums

Search just hangs and never gives a result.

Is 'Services and Special Offers' restricted for special members?

How to ...

More downtime

Edit limits enabled

We're back (after a really long downtime)

Moving servers

my signature

why links are not allowed over here???

SIgnature problem

Revision to rel=nofollow policy

Better late than never (Happy Holidays)

Nice work

Connect with us on Facebook!

Market Place posts will now be removed after 60 days

Redesigned user profiles

why signature not show

Post Removed

Change to policy on copyrighted content

Signatures

A question for webmasters of this site

New Enforced post limits/minute