Re: Hi there - is my free Nabble forum going to have advertising on it?

Posted by Deanna Freedom on May 25, 2015; 7:05pm
URL: https://support.nabble.com/Hi-there-is-my-free-Nabble-forum-going-to-have-advertising-on-it-tp7594848p7594867.html

GregChapman wrote

Deanna Freedom wrote

Normally when you're on the web, hitting refresh refreshes the page.

There seems to be some confusion about what to expect here.

When you refresh a page it fetches a new version from the server. If that page happens to include a link to some other server, then it calls for that link as well - exactly as you would expect and exactly the link that appears in the original page. It happens everywhere on the web - you'll see it happen with embedded Google Maps, embedded YouTube videos, embedded anything.

Of course, if you've been zooming the map or watching a second video with a link after the first has played and you refresh the "outer" page then the original links in that "outer" page are refreshed too, to show what was originally shown on that page.

However, unlike Google Maps, YouTube and the rest, Nabble offers a "Refresh" link on every page. so if you want to refresh the forum, you click the forum's "Refresh " link! Simple!

No there's no confusion about what to expect and I understand why it happens. I hadn't used an embedded forum before and didn't think about the problem until it happened. I don't like it. It undermines the often stated benefit of having a forum embedded "seamlessly into your website" so that it seems just a part of it. It doesn't. However, the "Refresh" link is a reasonable workaround. You have to remember to use it, and you have to scroll to the top to use it. And you can't therefore just quickly hit Refresh to see if someone's replied or your wifi's died - whatever.

the same problem would occur if you navigate away from the thread you're on and then go Back.

I don't understand what you mean by "the same problem"?

If you mean you want to jump back to the page that is specified as the one that is embedded on the site's main page, well then you would use the browser's refresh facility, and not the forum's "Refresh" link.

Similarly to refreshing, if you go forward, follow a link, and then go back using the browser's Back function, you will return to the index of the embedded forum or whatever is its default page. For example, I often click links in forums without a modifier because most forums open links in a new tab. If I found I'd left the conversation inadvertently and tried to go back, I'd not be in the conversation anymore, let alone at the correct scroll position, but at the index again. I'd have lost my place and have to drill down to find it again. If you're on p15 of a deeply nested discussion, this would be inconvenient. That's what I was thinking. I don't know whether Nabble opens links in the same tab or not, BTW - just thinking of possible issues. I'll click on the one I've posted in a mo and find out! ...although this forum navigates ok I think.

Be very careful with your terminology. "Newsgroups" (aka "Usenet")  uses NNTP protocol and that does not relate at all to email any more than email does to the web. Mail Lists and newsgroups are significantly different technologies. Nabble does not provide a gateway to newsgroups.

Yeah, it was late.

Replying last time, which I did in the browser, I wanted to put that bit in bold, and there isn't a bold button.

Yes there is. It's a very traditional "B" button over the message composition box. Select the text to be emboldened and click the "B" button! Couldn't be simpler!

Yikes, it must have been very late!   Apologies, Nabble, my bad.

I view the HTML option as for those using the "Blog" and "News" applications only. However, I do use the feature for the locked posts I create my FAQ sections of my forum.

Actually, replying now I've just realised how this is somewhat like writing a piece of HTML text, since it inserts HTML code for smileys and formatting, etc.  I've just thought how important reply composition is for newbies. I can't remember seeing too many WISIWIG ones, and they're often BBCode with square brackets. They're a constant source of misquoting and other mistakes...actually probably a good argument for replying in your email if it chops a quote with CRs. Hmmm, maybe Nabble's not that mad after all.

For your audience and market I'd tell them to ignore it.

I think what I'm doing now - editing this without deliberately making it HTML Format - would be hard for them. It's pretty hard for me. But it's probably not that much worse than most. I'm trying to remember if Proboards have a wisiwig editor.

The topic sections and topics all seem to be mixed up on Nabble, which is confusing.

I can only assume you have not found the appropriate application or have unpinned sub-forums that have been created, have become confused by switching away from "Classic" view, and "Main Page". I do not recognise  as the norm, what you describe.

I navigated to a number of examples of Nabble forums and they were almost all like that. I did try to get my head round pinning forums, and then tried the feature out. I'm still confused by what my forum did, but would probably get it with more sub-forums and longer use. I would probably not post topics in the top level - that's the way I like a forum organised -if you have sub-forums, make the index page just a list of them (or at least just a few admin-type announcement posts). Since I've had absolutely no issue like that with the other embedded forum I've tried, nor with the Proboards forum I ran for years, I can only think it's something weird about how Nabble organises items.

I've found another embeddable forum host which, for about the same money (less, in fact) for the ad free version, does a much better job on the things that are important to me. It might be bad form to mention them by name on a rival's help forum.

I'd say mention the name. Nabble will then know what users consider their rivals are and have a chance to improve their offering (and I've have a chance to look at the alternative too!).

Good points. It's Website Toolbox (WT). To me it looks superior in several ways. The WT embedded forum was very nicely formatted on my tiny smartphone. The Nabble one was unreadable without pinching and scrolling about. Maybe something else fixable with NAML code. OTOH, there isn't a Refresh link, so they haven't put that workaround in. I've noticed something interesting about the navigation. If you jump straight to a sub-forum or topic from an email notification or whatever, you can browse from there and the address bar shows the non-embedded version of the forum, so it refreshes correctly. But the breadcrumb links at the top start with your main site's page title, like "Site Forum >> News >> Announcement of Something". As soon as you go to the main site link, the browser address shows that address, and any further navigation through the forum doesn't change that, so you lose the normal Refresh. This is potentially another source of confusion, sometimes working one way, sometimes another. I'm really starting to wonder if "the same look and feel" is really worth the downside of embedding.