34 replies to this topic

[TerryS]

A new member of this forum, but very experienced with other forums, I need help on how to copy a site address to these threads.

 

Normally on other forums I would put the cursor over what I wanted to copy, then right click on "Copy", then go to the thread I wanted to put it into and right click "Paste". This doesn't seem to work here.

 

NOT talking about photos, just site addresses.

 

Refer "F1 Season 2016 - Qualifying" thread post #55.

 

I wrote to forum Administrator advising what I normally do and he replied "That is how I would do it. I would recommend that you ask in the forum for help, one of your fellow members has probably had the same issue and would be able to help"

 

I did that and got one reply from Tim Murray per post # 56, who suggested a way but it seems very complicated and I don't fully understand. 

 

I think that thread might have been a bit obscure for asking for help on this. Hence I have started this thread. Please help.

[SophieB]

Hello,

 

Are you using internet explorer as your browser? if so, hit the little light switch type button in the list of icons above your reply box and then try it again. It's the first icon in the top row, far left. I have a feeling it's the same bug that affects quoting people, as outlines here: 

 

I don't work for Autosport but like a lot of other posters, I want people to be able to participate fully so we help if we can.

[Allan Lupton]

Hello,

 

Are you using internet explorer as your browser? if so, hit the little light switch type button in the list of icons above your reply box and then try it again. It's the first icon in the top row, far left. I have a feeling it's the same bug that affects quoting people, as outlines here: 

 

I don't work for Autosport but like a lot of other posters, I want people to be able to participate fully so we help if we can.

That "light switch" reveals a large collection of silly little pictures in the heading, and just under the "size" box is one that shows "link" when you hover the mouse arrow over it. Click on that and a box appears for you to paste the URL into and "OK" will add it to the post you are writing as a link.

 

ETA I'm in Firefox, but I expect IE behaves similarly

Edited by Allan Lupton, 22 March 2016 - 08:51.

[Ray Bell]

Once you click on the 'light switch' it remains ready...

You can readily tell if the reply is going to accept quotes, links etc by the typeface, I think it might be called 'Lettera', but it's just like old typewriters used.

It's the same with all browsers.

[Tim Murray]

ETA I'm in Firefox, but I expect IE behaves similarly

Ah, but this is the whole point - it doesn't. The problems manifested themselves after the software change in 2013, and vary depending on which version of Windows and which browser one uses. After the software change my old computer, which ran Vista and (I think) IE9, was very little affected. The only thing I lost was the emoticons, and so I learned how to create them from scratch. When that computer died last year I switched to another which ran Windows 7 and IE11. This lost me the ability to insert links, quotes, photos etc unless (as SophieB suggested) I toggle the 'lightswitch' icon at the very top left of the reply box, which changes the format from WYSIWYG to a more basic format. Doing this enables me to insert things into the reply box, but I still have to write the format for quotes etc into the reply box manually.

On the plus side, I did get the emoticons back!

Now I've learned these tricks I can do everything I want in the forums, but it takes time and concentration, and really shouldn't be necessary. A lot of new forum contributors like TerryS find themselves unable to do things here that cause them no problems on other forums, and in many cases they just give up and leave. The people who could fix these problems obviously don't care.

Not long after the software change the very helpful SophieB started a thread in the Website Feedback forum which gives full details, including screenshots, of how to get around some of the problems:

Using IE and having problems with quoting and posting links/pics? Suggested workarounds

Edited by Tim Murray, 22 March 2016 - 09:54.

[f1steveuk]

I just highlight the needed text/web address etc press control c, then put the cursor where I want the link/text, and press control v, always works regardless of software, os, browser etc etc

Edited by f1steveuk, 22 March 2016 - 14:38.

[D-Type]

To quote Kayemod's signature:

 

"A complex system that does not work, is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine, the current TNF forum illustrates this only too well."

 

You do feel that Autosport's IT experts have forgotten the purpose of a forum and the functionality required, don't you?

 

(Windows 7 and Google Chrome)

[Vitesse2]

Before we go too far down this road, I'd just like to point out that - and I know not all of you are using it - Internet Explorer has, for most of the past few years, been the least W3C web standard compliant browser. Something which works perfectly in Firefox, Chrome and Opera, which between them have a much larger share of the browser market than Microsoft's IE and Edge, may not necessarily work as expected in IE.

 

If you do a search of the Feedback forum for 'Explorer' with Grayson as author, you'll find the following:

Of course, if a few more people could convince their IT managers to upgrade their computers so that we didn't have to support the very old versions of Internet Explorer, we'd be even happier... (Feb 2013)

I know that when Internet Explorer 10 came out, the site didn't work on IE 10 on mobile until we made some fairly large changes. (Dec 2013)

We know that there are some fairly major problems with Internet Explorer compatibility. I'm hoping that we can schedule in some time for our developers to fix this in the coming weeks, but so far it doesn't seem like there's going to be an easy fix. (Feb 2014)

If we could wean people off IE, we would have done so a very long time ago... You wouldn't believe the amount of trouble that Internet Explorer has caused us over the past few years! (Mar 2016)

 

[opplock]

I had no problems until about a year ago when my Vista based system suffered a terminal hard disc failure. I am now using Windows 10 and am unable to use the "quote" functions as well as copy, paste etc. The number of people using W10 must be increasing so I am surprised that no technical solution has been found. I am used to being prevented from using software/websites due to using obsolete operating system or hardware but suffering from using up to date equipment is a new concept.   

[f1steveuk]

I'm on Windows 10, and the method I stated works fine

[Vitesse2]

I had no problems until about a year ago when my Vista based system suffered a terminal hard disc failure. I am now using Windows 10 and am unable to use the "quote" functions as well as copy, paste etc. The number of people using W10 must be increasing so I am surprised that no technical solution has been found. I am used to being prevented from using software/websites due to using obsolete operating system or hardware but suffering from using up to date equipment is a new concept.   

The operating system is - unless you are using XP or older, which means you are stuck with older browser versions as well - pretty much immaterial. It's your choice of browser which may make the difference.

 

FWIW I normally use Firefox on W10, although this post is actually being made from a W7 machine on Chrome.

[Ray Bell]

What I can't figure out is why people keep coming back, after presumably having read about clicking on that top left button, and saying their computer, their browser or their whatever doesn't work...

You only have to click it the once and it's fixed!

[Hamish Robson]

Welcome to the bafflingly nonconformist world of the Autosport Forums. Flying in the face of EVERY OTHER BOARD ON THE PLANET since 2014

[Alan Cox]

Thanks to SophieB's advice, I have now managed to restore the copy/paste and quote facility which I have been missing for some time and which I always used to take for granted. What an unbelievable rigmarole it is, however. One reason I spend relatively little time on here nowadays - I forget which century we are in; is it, by chance; the 21st?

[arttidesco]

Reading the above I can only appreciate how lucky I am to have followed my own advice and bought a mac, I might have a rubbish car but I have a truly remarkable trouble free piece of kit for staying in touch electronically

[Peter Morley]

I'm running Windows 10 and IE11 (or whatever the latest version is), I've had this problem since the software update (e.g. for the best part of 3 years).

 

My solution was to install Firefox which I only use for this forum, that allows me to cut & paste, quote etc. e.g. use all the functions correctly.

I can then use my preferred browser for everything else.

[kayemod]

I'm using Windows 10 and Firefox, never had any problem posting links. I tried IE years ago, and didn't like it much, my IT guy recommended Firefox or Google Chrome, I tried Firefox, liked it, and have been using it ever since. My foolproof method involves clicking and highlighting the entire link in the top of screen box, click copy, then paste into a TNF post, works every single time, never failed. I don't doubt that there are faster and possibly more sophisticated ways of doing it, but for the few occasions I want to do this, it's fine with me. I've been back to IE a few times, but it seems so slow and clumsy in comparison with Firefox. I imagine that every browser has plus and minus points, but I'm sticking with what I've got, and no link-posting problems.

[TerryS]

Thanks for all the help in the above posts. After much experimenting I believe I have got on top of it.

Firstly I must confess I use Windows 7 Home Premium and Internet Explorer.

My process is a combination I things I learnt from the above. I will set out my steps:

Highlight the needed site address and press control C.

Open the post that going to copy to. Press Quote.

Hit the light switch icon at the very top left of reply box.

Put the cursor where required after Quote.

Then press control V.

My proof was in the "F1 Season 2016-Qualifying" thread post # 101 where I got it to show the correct link.

Again thanks for the assistance.

[Bloggsworth]

Yes to all the above but.... This is the only forum I have this problem with. I post on several forums, one at least written by a single individual, and all allow me to cut and paste, post pictures etc, so it is clearly not an Internet Explorer problem.

[Tim Murray]

Agreed absolutely. In the New AUTOSPORT forums thread, which was started in the Website Feedback forum to discuss the 2013 software change, it was suggested that IP Board (the current software supplier for these forums) had come up with a solution for the Internet Explorer incompatibility which worked on other forums:
 

IP Board is adamant that Autosport's incompatibility with Windows is easily fixed with a, they say, simple patch. Kaspersky, which is exactly the same board as this, except they offer a far more eye pleasing skin, have used the patch and I understand it is fully compatible and functional with all IE's. I can certainly vouch for IE9. Is there some reason as to why Autosport are reluctant to implement this supposedly simple repair? It has, after all been non-functional for 18 months with very little comment from yourselves.

However, as with so many other constructive comments, this suggestion was met with a deafening silence from the Autosport technical team, so there is no way of knowing whether the suggested patch might have resolved our ongoing problems.

[Michael Ferner]

You guys think you have problems!

I've had it repeatedly happen to me that after typing a post "old-fashioned" (no cut-and-paste, smilies or anything else that only works on odd days between new moon and sunset), I hit "Post" and... nothing happens. I hit the light switch, still nothing. Repeat between ten and sixthousandthreehundredninetyfive times, no reaction. Then I hit "More Reply Options", and I can start all over again, with a blank box Not a computer problem, I can assure you, it's definitely the forum software. Windows 10 and MS Edge on my side of the fence. Autosport sure knows how to make friends...

[Ray Bell]

Aha!

You forgot to copy and paste to the 'more reply options' page!

[Lee Nicolle]

As a technophobe I just do not understand the lack of compatability between IE Firefox, Google Chrome etc. They all do different things and piss me off.Not just here but the whole damned internet. though this site is NOT user friendly.

All thye computer geeks recomend Firefox, it is slow, basic and useless. I used IE for a long time but they kept changing versions and became a bloody disaster.

I am using Chrome which is better and faster and more reliable but still has bugs!

I have given up on some sites because they are never compatible to me. Ebay is one, they are generally hopeless and a year out of date. NBC for Jay Lenos Garage also. Though it comes through with You Tube fine. Though finding the old episodes is a lottery. NBC it seems have just lost them.

All internet companies as well as site programmers should be locked in a room until they come up with something that is compatible with each other.

As a user it should not be up to me to understand their incompatible cock ups. As I said, a technophobe, I muddle along better than many but it is the reason many my age [early 60s] will just not play at all. I have only been doing it a dozen years or so and if I started now the machine would probably be chucked out the door with frustration.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 24 March 2016 - 22:07.

[Michael Ferner]

Aha!

You forgot to copy and paste to the 'more reply options' page!

 

Tried that, of course, but wouldn't work. 'Cept for hitting the "More Reply Options" button, everything was frozen.

 

And I can only echo what Lee has said (well, written): IT appears to be the only business in the world where the customer is not only always wrong, but doesn't matter at all. Well, IT and the illegal drug business. We're all junkies.

[Allan Lupton]

And I can only echo what Lee has said (well, written): IT appears to be the only business in the world where the customer is not only always wrong, but doesn't matter at all.

and if a member of the IT staff shows signs of helping the customer, make sure he moves on before he succeeds. (name of one such who was here can be supplied).

[Charlieman]

As a technophobe I just do not understand the lack of compatability between IE Firefox, Google Chrome etc. They all do different things and piss me off.Not just here but the whole damned internet. though this site is NOT user friendly.

...

All internet companies as well as site programmers should be locked in a room until they come up with something that is compatible with each other.

...

As a user it should not be up to me to understand their incompatible cock ups. 

I don't think you are a technophobe, Lee. 20 years ago, people put little banners on their web sites suggesting "Best viewed with Browser X" -- effectively telling readers how to use the world wide web. Those little banners were bad signs for the future. 

 

There's a quote often attributed to Andrew Tannenbaum, a computer scientist: "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from." Designers of web browsers have ceased to create their own standards; but they pick features from existing and forthcoming internet (W3C) standards to implement; and web site designers then pick which browser features to support. Consequently some web site features may be broken or missing on some browsers, but essential usability is present.

 

I believe that the sys admins of this forum have forgotten one of the simple rules: deliver something that works on default web browsers. Windows shipped with Internet Explorer for donkeys' years, so responsible web designers ensure that essential features (e.g. copy and paste) work correctly with IE (one version or another). Support for Internet Explorer requires extra work and testing; just like new jazzy features for the latest browser.

---

Chatting with a friend who works in the mobile phone business, I suggested a few features (not gimmicks) that were missing. I swore not to use a mobile phone daily (that was in 2001) until those features existed OR Ian Duncan Smith became UK Prime Minister. So it will be a while before I use a mobile phone for anything other than essential work or emergency.

 

Mobile phones were created by engineers, then mucked about by marketing people. The world wide web was created by engineers and scientists, then mucked about by marketing people.

[chdphd]

Speaking as a web developer...

 

Edited by chdphd, 25 March 2016 - 19:21.

[Charlieman]

Speaking as a web developer...

I'm not. I helped put a load of web browsers onto student computers in 1993. It wasn't a bad result -- in changing the world terms -- was it?

[Doug Nye]

I have just read through this thread - carefully.  I have emerged absolutely none the wiser...    

 

Perhaps it's a generational matter?

 

DCN

[GMACKIE]

I copy that...but I've run out of paste...

[Charlieman]

I have just read through this thread - carefully.  I have emerged absolutely none the wiser...    

Your ability to chug on demonstrates that the Web is not broken. 

 

One must presume that perseverance delivers results.

[Vitesse2]

Your ability to chug on demonstrates that the Web is not broken. 

 

One must presume that perseverance delivers results.

Doug uses a Mac ... his problem is posting pictures!

[terry mcgrath]

 A real shame that the simplest thing in the world to copy and poste becomes a thread in itself.

The loss of entire pages of photos in itself is a real shame.

One of the best sources of motoring history really becomes useless.

Hopefully someone will take notice and sort it out!

[Tim Murray]

It is indeed very frustrating that the technical team are now obviously never going to do anything to resolve these copy/paste problems. The forum search engine also suffered as a result of the 2013 software change. As well as being extremely non-user-friendly, it bizarrely refuses to display search results in chronological order, and regularly cannot find info one knows is in there.

However, to be fair, the loss of so many of the old photos is mainly due to them being arbitrarily deleted by the external image-hosting sites where they were stored, and is not the fault of these forums. Imageshack is a major culprit in this respect

[Allan Lupton]

However, to be fair, the loss of so many of the old photos is mainly due to them being arbitrarily deleted by the external image-hosting sites where they were stored, and is not the fault of these forums. Imageshack is a major culprit in this respect

There are other reasons for the loss of photos which are inevitable and common with remote hosting:

When a user gets fed-up with Imageshack and moves to another site, either he has to go through every post he ever made here that included a photo and change the URL or we lose the photo.

When a user gives up through age/infirmity/death and his remote site membership lapses.

 

Mind you, on another site where they do host our photos, there was a problem with loss of links between posts and data within the site so nothing is immune.

Edited by Allan Lupton, 27 March 2016 - 08:12.