EatYerGreens
10-10-2005, 18:48
I hope this is the correct forum section for this.
I went into the Repository earlier today and got frustrated by a number of technical problems, particularly on old posts (2002/2003).
From browsing one or two threads in here, I gather that the forum maintainance didn't go as smoothly as planned and work is still ongoing. One of Tosa's posts said "HTML code stripped from old posts". I will bear that in mind but just wanted to alert you to things gone wrong as a result of this.
In no particular order:-
1) Just as it looks like an interesting nugget of info is about to be explained, the poster decides to save themselves some typing and sticks in a link to an earlier thread, a website or a downloadable file, giving the background detail. These links no longer work, leaving the reader in the dark and the continuation of the discussion less easy to follow. Hovering over the link shows a URL like "forums.totalwar.org/etc" but clicking it takes you to a website called "TELEFRAGGED", with some message about "404 error". I've seen this Telefragged site a few too many times lately but most of that was the day the forum was down, being worked on.
2) One particular post (one of the Guides) takes you step-by-step through editing a campaign startpos file and is full of "Find this text [code extract] and change it to this [repeat extract with changes shown]". If the author originally alternated between plain and bold type to help distinguish one from another, that has gone. It is now quite hard to spot where the "find this" bit ends and the "replace with this" starts - especially without linefeeds to space the paragraps apart. One piece of text runs straight into another.. The only remaining clue is an orphan "{/list}" tag where the first piece stopped.
3) In the same post, something has replaced all the strings of "=====" in the original MTW file extracts with strings of "*********" - these form 'frames' around lines of commentary. It's not obvious whether the author added these for their own emphasis of certain parts or if the forum software substuted characters. The poster does say "substitute my comment lines for the ones in the original as mine are clearer" and I thought it was to do with that, at first but then both versions of each text segment have the asterisks.
4) To get the low-down on certain aspects of modding, you have to pick your way through threads which start in 2002 and work your way through all the stages of discovery that they made. It's fascinating reading but, for anyone who wants to start modding TODAY, it is hugely time consuming to pick through so much material to find what they want.
4) In spite of all that I read, I still don't have the answer I came looking for. Asking about how to get started in the section where posting is allowed, generally gets the response "Read the guides section". In the guides section, you might see things you want to question but you can't post replies to the threads. How does one quote text across from one forum section into another? Can you create a customised quote button that can be clicked on while in a non-posting sub-forum but re-directs your reply to become a new thread in a different sub-forum?
I went into the Repository earlier today and got frustrated by a number of technical problems, particularly on old posts (2002/2003).
From browsing one or two threads in here, I gather that the forum maintainance didn't go as smoothly as planned and work is still ongoing. One of Tosa's posts said "HTML code stripped from old posts". I will bear that in mind but just wanted to alert you to things gone wrong as a result of this.
In no particular order:-
1) Just as it looks like an interesting nugget of info is about to be explained, the poster decides to save themselves some typing and sticks in a link to an earlier thread, a website or a downloadable file, giving the background detail. These links no longer work, leaving the reader in the dark and the continuation of the discussion less easy to follow. Hovering over the link shows a URL like "forums.totalwar.org/etc" but clicking it takes you to a website called "TELEFRAGGED", with some message about "404 error". I've seen this Telefragged site a few too many times lately but most of that was the day the forum was down, being worked on.
2) One particular post (one of the Guides) takes you step-by-step through editing a campaign startpos file and is full of "Find this text [code extract] and change it to this [repeat extract with changes shown]". If the author originally alternated between plain and bold type to help distinguish one from another, that has gone. It is now quite hard to spot where the "find this" bit ends and the "replace with this" starts - especially without linefeeds to space the paragraps apart. One piece of text runs straight into another.. The only remaining clue is an orphan "{/list}" tag where the first piece stopped.
3) In the same post, something has replaced all the strings of "=====" in the original MTW file extracts with strings of "*********" - these form 'frames' around lines of commentary. It's not obvious whether the author added these for their own emphasis of certain parts or if the forum software substuted characters. The poster does say "substitute my comment lines for the ones in the original as mine are clearer" and I thought it was to do with that, at first but then both versions of each text segment have the asterisks.
4) To get the low-down on certain aspects of modding, you have to pick your way through threads which start in 2002 and work your way through all the stages of discovery that they made. It's fascinating reading but, for anyone who wants to start modding TODAY, it is hugely time consuming to pick through so much material to find what they want.
4) In spite of all that I read, I still don't have the answer I came looking for. Asking about how to get started in the section where posting is allowed, generally gets the response "Read the guides section". In the guides section, you might see things you want to question but you can't post replies to the threads. How does one quote text across from one forum section into another? Can you create a customised quote button that can be clicked on while in a non-posting sub-forum but re-directs your reply to become a new thread in a different sub-forum?