Ask the Mods questions about the Forums!

[Deddly]

11 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Is there something you want to be asked about but never get asked about and want to share?

I can't think of anything, but that was a good question

[Snark]

20 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Is there something you want to be asked about but never get asked about and want to share?

Yes.  That was the question.  Thanks for finally asking it! 

...seriously, though, I can't think of anything off the top of my head... mostly because if there's ever anything I want to share, I just go ahead and share it rather than waiting for someone to ask me about it.

(As anyone who's waded through one of my walls-of-text is no doubt already aware...)

[4x4cheesecake]

How are you today?

[Vanamonde]

I did well in Eve Online, so I am in a good mood.

Thanks for asking. 

[RealKerbal3x]

What's the difference between the two 'new post' icons? There's a star and a circle, but they seem to signify exactly the same thing.

[Val]

The star means you have posted in that topic, I believe.

[Vanamonde]

11 hours ago, Val said:

The star means you have posted in that topic, I believe.

I believe so, too, because it is a fact. 

[GearsNSuch]

When you hide a user's signature, does it notify them?

Also, how do you report a user's profile or the user themselves?

Edited October 1, 2018 by GearsNSuch

[Deddly]

42 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

When you hide a user's signature, does it notify them?

It shouldn't warn anyone, no. Try on me and I'll let you know for sure. 

42 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

Also, how do you report a user's profile or the user themselves?

You can report any of that person's posts, and a text box comes up where you can explain the reason for the report. Or you can send a PM to one of the moderators and tell them the problem (in which case it's helpful if you tag the user like this @GearsNSuch - they will not get notified, since it's a PM)

Thanks for your help! 

[Geonovast]

Is it possible to search for all of a specific users' posts in a single topic?  Namely myself.  I wanna post something in a thread... but I'm honestly not sure if I'd posted it already... and I don't wanna read the whole thing.

I could just post it, I suppose, but then someone else would be like "You posted that already" and I would be like "Oh, look, I did!  My bad" and then we would both giggle and I would feel silly.

I don't wanna feel silly.

[Deddly]

Yup, you can. Click Search at the top-right, type your name, then from the options, select "This Topic" and you should get a list of all mentions of you in that thread

Edited October 1, 2018 by Deddly
Apparently not

[Snark]

10 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

Is it possible to search for all of a specific users' posts in a single topic?  Namely myself.  I wanna post something in a thread... but I'm honestly not sure if I'd posted it already... and I don't wanna read the whole thing.

I could just post it, I suppose, but then someone else would be like "You posted that already" and I would be like "Oh, look, I did!  My bad" and then we would both giggle and I would feel silly.

I don't wanna feel silly.

Well, it's not an optimal situation, but there's a certain amount of searching that can be done.

4 minutes ago, Deddly said:

Yup, you can. Click Search at the top-right, type your name, then from the options, select "This Topic" and you should get a list of all mentions of you in that thread

^ The problem there is, that will only find places where your name shows up in the post.  It won't find your posts, unless you use your own name in your post, which most people don't.  For example, a search for "Geonovast" in this thread only shows two hits, one of which is by someone else.

If all you want to know is "did I post in this thread at all, ever", then that's an easy question to answer.  Just go to the "list" page and look at the little blue-or-gray symbol that appears next to the topic title.  If it's a circle, you've never posted there.  If it's a star, you have.

If what you want to know is "find me all of my posts", then you can almost do that... sort of... but not perfectly, unless you know a key word to search for.  Here's what you can do:

1. Go to the search box at top right
2. Choose "This Topic" in the drop-down
3. Type a search term in the box
4. When the search results page comes up, it has all hits on that search term for everyone's post.  You just want your own.  So you need to narrow it down.
5. On the search results page, click the "More search options" link.
6. On the "Content Search" page, click "Search by Author".
7. Put your name into the relevant box/
8. Run the search.

Voilà, you now have a search for "all of your posts with <search term> in this thread".

For example, here is a search for all posts by Geonovast in this thread which contain the word "moderator".

The problem, though, is:  what if you don't have a search term?  What if you just want a search for "all posts by Geonovast in this thread"?  That's where it's kinda annoying.  What you'd like is to be able to just leave the "search term" field blank-- except that the darn search form won't let you do that.  It insists on filling something in, there. 

Also:  no, you can't cleverly trick it by putting in one of the common use-them-all-the-time words like "a" or "the" as your search term, because some clever soul somewhere has helpfully disallowed that term and removes it from search terms.  For example, if I search for Geonovast posts in this thread that contain the word "a", it gets zero results, which is obviously wrong.  Ditto "an".  Searching for "the" finds a couple of results, at random as far as I can tell, but is obviously wrong.  How incredibly frustrating.

On the other hand, picking a slightly-less-common-but-still-fairly-frequent term, such as "can", turns up five hits.

So what it boils down to is that no, as far as I can tell there's no simple way to "just show me all my darn posts in this thread".  But if you can think of a search term that will include what you want, then you can find out "did I make any posts with this word in this thread."

[Geonovast]

Well that sucks.    I was afraid you'd say that.  I'm certain the database is capable of doing the search, it's just specifically written to not be able to.  I mean, I can go directly to my profile and see all my posts... so why can't I narrow it down to a topic?

I guess I just need to edit all ~1700 of my posts with a signoff on the bottom like some people do in lieu of a signature.

[adsii1970]

59 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

Well that sucks.    I was afraid you'd say that.  I'm certain the database is capable of doing the search, it's just specifically written to not be able to.  I mean, I can go directly to my profile and see all my posts... so why can't I narrow it down to a topic?

I guess I just need to edit all ~1700 of my posts with a signoff on the bottom like some people do in lieu of a signature.

Just change your signature and be done with it...

 

[Geonovast]

Just now, adsii1970 said:

Just change your signature and be done with it...

 

The search doesn't check sigs, though.  I already tried.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

35 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

The search doesn't check sigs, though.  I already tried.

Changes to your sig are retroactively applied to all of your existing posts if you just want to add something to all of your old posts.

[Geonovast]

2 minutes ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

Changes to your sig are retroactively applied to all of your existing posts if you just want to add something to all of your old posts.

Yes I know... but the search does not search for signatures, so applying a search keyword to my signature would do nothing.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

1 minute ago, Geonovast said:

Yes I know... but the search does not search for signatures, so applying a search keyword to my signature would do nothing.

Ah, I understand what you're trying to do. Sorry for the misunderstanding.  

[Vanamonde]

18 hours ago, GearsNSuch said:

When you hide a user's signature, does it notify them? 

No. 

Quote

Also, how do you report a user's profile or the user themselves? 

A report must come from a post, but you can refer us to a problem in a profile through the note you write with the report.

[Kerbalstar]

Can you see who reported a post?

Also, how are you all doing?

[Kerbalstar]

Why is the "What did you do in KSP today? " thread not stickied? It makes it hard to navigate around the general KSP forum, because that always keeps popping up on the next unread topic button.

[Val]

2 hours ago, kerbalstar said:

Can you see who reported a post?

Yes. Reporting is in essense identical to quoting a post and sending it to a common message box that all moderators get notified about.

What happens after that is also the same as if you quoted a post and mailed it to the moderators. We read your explanation for why you reported the post and then consider if any action should be taken.

Reports have no intrinsic negative effect on either the Reporter or Reportee. It is just a much more convenient interface for the person reporting and for moderators to discuss a post and whether to take action.

Many, if not most, reports are mundane things like "Can you move my topic. I posted in the wrong sub-forum" or "This post belongs in Console support, not PC support".

Edited October 3, 2018 by Val
Grammar

[Deddly]

2 hours ago, kerbalstar said:

Why is the "What did you do in KSP today? " thread not stickied? It makes it hard to navigate around the general KSP forum, because that always keeps popping up on the next unread topic button.

We try to avoid having too many threads pinned because it reduces the amount of space available on the first page for other threads. Stickies are usually reserved for important reminders that everyone needs to know, helpful resources for easy reference, special rules or highlighted Threads of the Month etc. We don't pin a thread just because it is popular or busy. But thanks for the suggestion! 

[RealKerbal3x]

1 minute ago, Deddly said:

We try to avoid having too many threads pinned because it reduces the amount of space available on the first page for other threads. Stickies are usually reserved for important reminders that everyone needs to know, helpful resources for easy reference, special rules or highlighted Threads of the Month etc. We don't pin a thread just because it is popular or busy. But thanks for the suggestion! 

There was a discussion a while back about pinning the WDYDIKSPT thread, but the conclusion was that it's so popular that it's already pinned by the constant posts coming in.

[Kerbalstar]

Thanks for the quick answers @Deddly, @Val!