Minor Updates

[Pete Eeles]

Just in case anyone is wondering what's going on with UKB - I've made some minor mods as follows:

1. UKB is mentioned in this month's BBC Wildlife magazine - specifically with regard to the Sites listing! And so (and probably about time), the Sites has become a main menu - with some existing pages linked off it (which you possibly never knew existed!).

2. I've fixed EVERY broken link - and added some new links - in particular, to Wolfgang Wagner's superb www.pyrgus.de site - the links are now hanging off (pretty much) every species page.

3. I had some links for various products - Apps, Books and DVDs. Given that the list is never-ending (and grows frequently) I've decided that we should only retain links to those items that have been reviewed, where we link through to the Dispar website.

As ever, this is YOUR website - so any feedback is most welcome. I make things up as I go along, but all input is gratefully received

Cheers,

- Pete

[CJB]

Dear Pete,

As ever, the site goes from strength to strength and the latest addition of 'the sites' is very useful.

The only observation I have is that when you click on a specific zone, it doesn't show the sites on the periphery. i.e. If I look at area 'SU' particularly at Swindon/Cirencester it will only show the sites round Swindon, but not around Cirencester. Likewise if I click on area 'ST' it shows the sites local to Cirencester, but not around Swindon. Perhaps it is possible to simply show all the sites, regardless of the zone that has been clicked on.

I hope that makes sense!

Flutter on!

CJB

[dilettante]

any feedback is most welcome. I make things up as I go along, but all input is gratefully received

Since you ask here's one thing that bugs me: The menus at the top are really hard to navigate on mobile (touch-based) devices. They work well when you can hover a mouse pointer over them, but with touch you have to 'click' on them to see the submenu, and that usually ends up selecting the first item in the submenu or something. It's probably browser dependent.

[David M]

I don't know if recent changes have affected users' control panels, but I can no longer view certain members' 'most active topics' (including my own).

[Pete Eeles]

I don't know if recent changes have affected users' control panels ...

No, they haven't.

I can no longer view certain members' 'most active topics' (including my own).

I've taken a look and this seems to be working for me. Do you get an error message?

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

Nope. No error message, Pete, and it seems to be restricted to certain people's profiles.

Just as an example, when I click on yours, mine or Guy's user name, I cannot see 'most active forum' nor 'most active topic', however, if I click on Susie's, Wurzel's or Jack Harrison's, I can.

It's most bizarre.

[Pete Eeles]

I didn't know you could see the active topics and forums of other users. And I can only see these things when I'm at the "root" of the board here:

index.php

Where are you finding these links (where do they appear)?

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

If you click on any member's user name, (normally) four sets of statistics are returned:

Total posts - search users posts

Total images - search users images

Most active forum

Most active topic

Until a few days ago, I got all four when doing this, yet now, for certain people, I only get the first two.

[bugboy]

Hi,

I just clicked on all the profiles listed as examples by David with exactly the same results

[Pete Eeles]

Got it (and can reproduce it!). Will look into it and get back to you; thx.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Right - it looks like there is a "rule" which is commented as follows in the code:

// Do not display user activity for users having more than 5000 posts...

I assume this is in place because of the processing time it would take to calculate the various activities. This explains the anomaly. I could remove this restriction, but will need to figure out what impact (if any) it would have on the board first.

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

That makes perfect sense, Pete! Thanks for investigating.

Strange how there's a limit on the latter two given that the one with the most 'returns', i.e. all user's posts, remains available.

I'm not bothered about the absence of these two options; it was more a case of bewilderment at why the site wasn't behaving consistently.

[Pete Eeles]

any feedback is most welcome. I make things up as I go along, but all input is gratefully received

Since you ask here's one thing that bugs me: The menus at the top are really hard to navigate on mobile (touch-based) devices. They work well when you can hover a mouse pointer over them, but with touch you have to 'click' on them to see the submenu, and that usually ends up selecting the first item in the submenu or something. It's probably browser dependent.

Thanks - I have the same problem - but "zoom in" to make sure I hit the correct menu etc. The proper "fix" for this is to create a UKB app for SmartPhones, tablets (e.g. iPad), etc. Unfortunately, I don't have time (at the moment) for that and, to be honest, a proper app would make use of all of the nifty features you'd expect - such as the GPS module that would allow you to immediately see sites in the area, and even the site you're at! If any benefactor can provide me with enough money to retire, then I promise I'll make this happen

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

The only observation I have is that when you click on a specific zone, it doesn't show the sites on the periphery. i.e. If I look at area 'SU' particularly at Swindon/Cirencester it will only show the sites round Swindon, but not around Cirencester. Likewise if I click on area 'ST' it shows the sites local to Cirencester, but not around Swindon. Perhaps it is possible to simply show all the sites, regardless of the zone that has been clicked on.

I hope that makes sense!

It does. Still mulling over this one - ideally, the page would "load" new sites as you scroll but this is quite difficult (if not impossible) to implement with the Google API. If we need to "preload" the sites then the entire British Isles means that the page takes an age to load, so perhaps just populating the surrounding grid squares is sufficient. What do you think?

Cheers,

- Pete