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General discussion

Help the Help Forums

Dec 19, 2004 7:06PM PST

Using smiley faces in chat forums, such as SE is acceptable, but definitely hurting in the Help type Forums here.

We've run into a small problem with the coding in the Help Forums......when I (or anybody else) types in C: or D: type information referencing drive letters when we are trying to help people, we deliberately have to put spaces or something in between what we type in order to stop the forum from showing smiley faces instead of what we've typed since the software is replacing it automatically. This throws off the directions completely when we have to then add another sentence telling them to remove the spaces. When you are talking about a long string of dos command switches, this can get to be a PITA when we are dealing with newbies who are already confused and it throws our directions right out the window as getting too complicated. How can I override the smiley crap?

So far, I've been able to figure it out and manually make changes, but nearly everything I reply to in the Help Forums has a text or doc file on my harddrive that I can quickly copy and paste as the reply for a fix to a problem. This is getting to be a hassle when I have to proofread every document I use in order to make the changes when drive letters are involved......and almost everything I reply refers to drive letters for the fix.

Is there some way that the smiley faces can be eliminated from the Help Forums and only left in the Feedback or Speakeasy types? Fortunately, the Preview Message page shows up the smiley faces immediately so I can tell what has to be changed/adjusted to by editing before the final post, but we shouldn't have to do this in a Computer Help Forums site.

TONI

Discussion is locked

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Which ones?
Dec 19, 2004 10:36PM PST

I'll note the old D colon one. Here it is...

:D

or Grin if you don't insert something to escape the smiley's wrath.

Bob

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testing
Dec 20, 2004 1:19AM PST

if you are typing a string for a path and it includes any part of anything with a D: or some other smiley letter instead, you get smileys all over the darn place........and I'll be damned if I can make it happen again now. I was going crazy the other day editing a post to get rid of the smileys all through it. I'll have to look at the link I have here somewhere that shows the html stuff they allow here and copy paste the ones that give me headaches all the time....

TONI

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I never thought about that before but
Dec 20, 2004 1:53AM PST
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Roddy, at least one other error in that path as well. [NT]
Dec 20, 2004 2:18AM PST
Sad
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(NT) (NT) Thanks Glenn, Marianna will see your post.
Dec 20, 2004 2:40AM PST
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Here are the problem children smiley faces
Dec 20, 2004 5:23AM PST

Happy Happy or Happy = : ) or : - )

Grin Grin = : D

Silly Silly = : p

Shocked Shocked = : O


If we type a sentence that has any of those combinations included such as a virus name (roddy32 mentioned that in Feedback under my thread) then we end up with the smiley face icon instead of what we've typed. And there are many instances where we have to remember to put spaces in between the drive letter instructions to avoid it when many dos commands have to run together with no spaces.

I sent this info to Lee today via email

TONI

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Hey Toni:))
Dec 20, 2004 5:39AM PST

Better send Lee that email againHappy Cause I got it instead, unless you did a bc or somethingHappy
Glenda

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I sent you a copy
Dec 20, 2004 5:44AM PST

because I figured you were the one I knew used those damned smileys all the time and would know the link to where I could view them. LOL

Lee sent it quickly though so I just emailed him (without a cc to you this time) and posted here, too.

Unbelievable to me that they can let us do crappy assed smileys (even without wanting to) but can't let us do normal html because of a hole in the software.

TONI

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hehehe
Dec 20, 2004 5:52AM PST

I just received you're emailHappy I figure the smiley's are better than LOL! So far no one has ragged on me about them! That is after I finally figured out how to use smileys!! I can't ever remember the devil oneSad I like that one tooHappy
Glenda

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Quick fix would be to remove the emoticons
Dec 20, 2004 6:29AM PST

How often does this problem occur to justisfy its removal?

Let me know.
Thanks!
-Lee

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Most of that answer
Dec 20, 2004 6:36AM PST

would depend on how often somebody in W95/98/ME forums actually need DOS commands to fix a problem, Lee.......but it's also affecting the Virus/Security forum due to new virus names being so strange now.

I'm not suggesting that you remove them...I'm wondering if there is something that can be added to our profiles that would allow people to turn it off as an option, like we have with the email me option. That way we could, as members, control whether we want that feature available to us.

TONI

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The time that it
Dec 20, 2004 7:01AM PST

happened in V&S today happened to be when the poster typed the wrong thing in the path he was trying to follow, It is not a common occurence in there., at least as far as I know but I haven't really been watching for it until today either.

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The fix
Jan 8, 2005 12:12AM PST

Since you are using BB coding for these forums you need to include the "code" command too. That is the typical way around the problems described. Placing that command [code] in front of the section where smileys are not desired and closing with [/code] allows everything to become text based only. That allows both smileys for those who want them, and ability to turn them off for those who don't.

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testing
Jan 8, 2005 4:03AM PST

DHappy = D : ) vs [code]D:)[/code]

D: = D : vs [code]D:[/code]

TONI

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which shows that
Jan 8, 2005 4:07AM PST

if I have a drive letter such as D listed/typed at the end of a sentence that would have paranthesis, I would have to put a space after the : in order to then type the ) to avoid the happy face even with the 'code' suggestion or make sure I never use a ) at all that close to a drive letter and a colon mark. LOL

And.....using the brackets lets the 'code' to show up since it appears that cnet isn't changing it to the < > marks like it does with the rest of the html coding.

Or am I dumb as dirt and just don't GET it.......???

TONI

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I was saying that Lee must...
Jan 8, 2005 4:55AM PST

...enable the capability to use that particular Universal Bulletin Board tag. There are quite a few more available for use that have not been enabled on this particular software. If you run a google on UBB and code you can check some of the other tags available out, however they must be enabled first or they won't work.

Try this link for some pages on it.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=UBB+code+tags&btnG=Google+Search

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Ok...thanks....and
Jan 8, 2005 5:54AM PST

I really am dumb as dirt and didn't get it....I thought I was supposed to be able to do the command you gave and have it work. duhhhhhh

I've been working on my website pages too long trying to get them ready to put on the server I'm building so I can host my own site....getting goofy here.

TONI