Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
Using a screenshot of the default preset, I took measurements of individual squares and found them to be 50x54 or 50x55. I then edited the source code to see what could be causing this difference. I removed the images from one rank, and after I did that, the squares in that rank were 50x50. The images and the table cells were both set to a height and width of 50. I looked at the CSS code but found nothing to account for the difference. I tried setting the margin and padding of IMG to 0px, but it didn't help. I removed the header code from the source code, but it didn't help. I removed common.css from the source code, but it didn't make a difference. Removing global.css from the source code didn't help either. Finally, I removed the DOCTYPE, and that made the square sizes 50x50.
Since the DOCTYPE is there so that the menus work right in Internet Explorer, I moved the DOCTYPE within an IE conditional. This fixed the problem in Firefox, but it didn't fix it in Internet Explorer.
The DOCTYPE used was
I had copied this one from another page on this site. I did some research on DOCTYPE options and switched to this DOCTYPE:
This one fixed the problem and still let the menus work right in Internet Explorer.I finally took a look, and, yes, the height seems to be about a quarter greater than the width. I am using Firefox.
David Howe wrote on Sun, May 6, 2012 12:34 PM UTC:I believe he's saying that the height of the squares is greater than the width.
So far, I don't even have a clear idea of what you're saying the problem is. Your screenshot didn't look abnormal, and you haven't supplied any more screenshots of Game Courier. How about providing two screenshots for the sake of comparison, one that has the problem you're describing and one that doesn't, both of the same game.
No, no settings have been changed. I created a simple html table and it is quadratic in Chrome, so something must have changed on the Chess Variant site. However, if nobody else can reproduce this problem, then nothing can be done about it. Here is the simple table board that looks quadratic in Chrome (but it doesn't show in IE on account of the empty cells) : http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/chess/blueboard.htm /Mats
Have you accidentally changed your screen resolution?
screen. I am the only one who has this problem?
Revised Chess
/Mats
Your screenshot looks fine. I don't see what the problem is.
Fergus, here is a Chrome screenshot: http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/scrensh.htm I have used this version of Chrome and this operating system a long time now. I haven't changed hardware. This problem didn't exist before. /Mats
I haven't noticed any decline in comments posted to this site, but I have noticed an increase in Game Courier activity. Overall, I'm making this site easier to use. But since cookies are essential to the game ratings system I have planned, I would rather get users used to accepting cookies than try to work around them. Where cookies are needed I am putting in messages to inform users of their need.
Mats, I have looked at the page you gave as an example in both IE8 and the latest version of Chrome under Windows XP Home, and I don't see the problem you describe in either browser. I have also seen no problem in Safari, Opera, or Firefox. I also checked Chromium under Linux and found no problem. Can you provide a screenshot of what you're seeing?
Fergus, I use Win XP Pro, and latest version of Chrome, and IE 8.0. The boards are clearly oblong and the squares, too. However, now I tried an old version of Opera, version 7.5. In this browser the squares are still quadratic. /Mats
Charles, That's quite a load of rubbish. Stop being so paranoid and start accepting cookies. This is not the 1990's. In this day and age, it is common for the major sites to use cookies to recognize visitors, and you can hardly make much use of the internet anymore without accepting cookies. I have explained in another post what you can do in Internet Explorer to accept cookies for this site without accepting cookies for untrusted sites.
Mats, The effect you're talking about may be local to you. I'm not seeing it. What browser and and operating system are you using?
But all Table generated presets are now oblong.
/Mats
"The policy of rejecting all cookies is what is backwards. You don't have to make rejection of cookies an all-or-nothing matter. You can put sites you trust on a whitelist while continuing to reject cookies from other sites by default. All the cookies used by this site are perfectly safe and harmless and contain no confidential information. All the confidential information is contained in a session, which exists on the server, not the client. Also, the cookies used by this site cannot be read by other sites. The cookies are simply used to identify you across multiple pages, so that you don't have to keep signing in for everything, and, EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, so that I can eventually offer greater functionality that depends on the ability to recognize you. This is all leading toward the goal of a site-wide game rating system, and it will not work without the ability to use cookies to recognize you. So just put this site in a whitelist for accepting cookies."
It still looks like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The great thing about this site has been that it has been open to anyone interested in Chess variants at any level - playing other people's, developing new ones, suggesting tweaks, building sets and boards, or just studying variant history. You seem to be out to turn it into a site for an exclusive clique. Some of the most interesting comments that I have had on my own pages have been from first-time visitors to the site. You have explained about the cookies to me, but a lot of people could come to the site, try and post a comment, get an impassable (to them) sign-in page, and not hang around for an explanation. I am not asking to get rid of the sign-in system, merely to retain alongside it the tried-and-tested system that has been easy to use for at least a decade by newcomer and stalwart alike.
Chess boards generated with Table aren't quadratic anymore! They are oblong!
Be more specific about what you are referring to. Whenever you report a problem with a page, give me an URL for a page with that problem.
Chess boards generated with Table aren't quadratic anymore! They are oblong! /Mats
Courier appear oblong now? The squares aren't quadratic anymore, neither in
Chroome or in IE: Seirawan Chess.
/Mats
OK. The email address has been successfully registered and now appears on the Personal Information page. Thank you very much for everything.
The change email script works now. I was changing a variable name and hadn't done a thorough job of it.
I would rather make sure the script is working right than do its work for it. So I will delete my email address and see if the script needs changing.
I'm now able to register my email address at the change email page but, since there is no "before address", when I click on the Confirm button it appears the message:
The code failed to decrypt to the email address you wanted to change to. If you sent multiple email change requests, only the latest one will work. Please be sure that you followed the link from your very latest request to change your email.
string(32) "ߦ� �rCDO;uҪ/I��3o > 1�� f�:z;�"
string(24) "cetina.carlosr@gmail.com"
Therefore the address has not been duly registered and still does not appear in my Person Information page. I wonder if you or David Howe could make that record directly without my intervention.
The good news is that at least we can already play our Episcopal Chess game!
I've now modified how the Related Pages submenu works in Game Courier. The rules page is given a clearly identified entry in the first submenu, and it is followed by a link to the specific preset in use. This allows entries to show up for pages for which a group has not been specified.
The rules and the preset description are normally two separate pages, though some people write them as one. When they are separate pages, they must belong to the same group to both show up in the Related Pages submenu. You should look for them in the Related Pages>Primary submenu. They will be labeled by the page names, not as Rules or Preset.
Internet Explorer 8 provides two different ways to accept this site's cookies without accepting all cookies, and it provides one additional way to accept this site's session cookie without accepting it's other cookie. In Tools>Internet Options>Privacy>Advanced, you can check "Always allow session cookies." This will not allow your browser to accept the cvpuser cookie, but that one is not nearly as important as the session cookie. There are two other ways to accept all our cookies. In Tools>Internet Options>Privacy>Advanced again, select Prompt for "First-party Cookies," then when prompted tell it to always accept cookies from this site. Or just go to Tools>Internet Options>Privacy>Sites and enter "http://www.chessvariants.org/" for "Address of website" and click Allow.
I still have problems finding a link back to the preset description, that is the "Rules". /Mats
M Winther, I have now programmed the header to use the URL provided for the rules to determine the ItemID used for the Related Pages submenu. The rules to the game will be found there, along with a link to the preset page and other related pages.
Charles, The policy of rejecting all cookies is what is backwards. You don't have to make rejection of cookies an all-or-nothing matter. You can put sites you trust on a whitelist while continuing to reject cookies from other sites by default. All the cookies used by this site are perfectly safe and harmless and contain no confidential information. All the confidential information is contained in a session, which exists on the server, not the client. Also, the cookies used by this site cannot be read by other sites. The cookies are simply used to identify you across multiple pages, so that you don't have to keep signing in for everything, and, EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, so that I can eventually offer greater functionality that depends on the ability to recognize you. This is all leading toward the goal of a site-wide game rating system, and it will not work without the ability to use cookies to recognize you. So just put this site in a whitelist for accepting cookies.
I still can't find the "Rules" button for the preset, although it looks nice with this drop-down menu. The "Rules" button should take you back to the description of the preset. It is very useful. /Mats
That suits me fine, as I said I have no problem putting in my ID and password over and over again. It's what I'm used to, and it would be just as acceptable to still be able to do that with comments about a page.
"Make sure you can accept cookies from this site."
The ability to block cookies has been around for over a decade and over that time increasing number ofg internet users, have adopted a policy of rejecting all cookies. It is a backward step to remove a syatem not requiring cookies, and while I can see the advantages to your offering an alternative system for people who are still afccepting them it sghoukd be just that - an alternative along the more widely functioning existing system. I would suggest displaying the "sign in" page only when a user selects it directly, and otherwise assuming that they are still using the tried and tested system of entering details for each comment being added - or edited, something else that I cannot do with any of my existing comments or messages. There are bound to be other contributors in my situation; there are certainly others who have not posted comments recently.
I would appreciate the views of CVP editors generally on this matter.
Game Courier is now working with Internet Explorer. There was a bit of JavaScript that wasn't working in Internet Explorer. So I did some browser detection in PHP and replaced the offending JavaScript with VBScript in Internet Explorer. I also rewrote the code to show the message with an alert (JavaScript) or a message box (VBScript) instead of writing it to the screen. It's a message that shows up only on your first move of a game.
I have fixed the rendering of boards with CSS, so that I can use the DOCTYPE that lets the menus work right in Internet Explorer. I just had to specify the the units used for the width and height of the container DIV. But this hasn't solved the problem of some content not showing up with Internet Explorer. I may experiment with a copy of the source code and see if something works. In the meantime, there are better browsers than Internet Explorer, and links to some will appear in Game Courier is you're using Internet Explorer.
Carlos, I have fixed the menus on the pages you listed by adding a DOCTYPE to some and by changing it for some. But the problem you describe with Game Courier is still persisting. I looked at the source code, and it is all there. The problem is that Internet Explorer is not showing all of it. So far it is a mystery as to what is happening. Also, I had to switch Game Courier back to the old DOCTYPE, because the newer DOCTYPE messes up how it displays boards in CSS. Until I can resolve these problems with Internet Explorer 8, I recommend that you use Firefox or Chrome. Both are better than Internet Explorer, and if you're using Windows XP, both are more up-to-date than IE8, which is simply the latest version of IE you can use with XP but not actually the latest version of IE.
I'm using regularly Internet Explorer version 8.
Larry and Carlos, What browser are each of you using, and what version of that browser?
Don't know if this has been pointed out, or whether this is a good spot to do so, but ... I've noticed that the drop-down menu appears and stays on several pages, without having run the mouse over the Chess Variants logo. In fact, it does so at the Comments page. This also blocks the view on many other pages, making it difficult to read some. Probably just a simply initialization error in HTML. I could go look for it, but I'm getting old and find I don't really have time for the small stuff. ;)
In the three cases mentioned the pages are incomplete. It appears only the board to the left side; above side the “play.chessvariants.org†logo joined to the banner promoting Game Courier; below the board the “Click here to view, print or download the image shown above†link; that’s all. There are no buttons nor boxes nor nothing else. I suspect this is relationed with the fact that I have none registered email address since when I launch an Open or Personal Invitation the pages are similarly incomplete and at the bottom say: “Although you are a registered member of chessvariants.org, you have not provided us with an email address for you. You cannot use this script to play games by email until we have an email address on record for you.†Now then, the other problem I have is that on the "http://www.chessvariants.org/login/change_email.php" page, appears deployed “the chessvariants.org†menu covering the box in which one have to write the new address. That "phenomenon" also occur in many other pages of this website such as - http://www.chessvariants.org/onthese.html - http://www.chessvariants.org/index/whatsnew.php - http://www.chessvariants.org/alphabet.html - http://www.chessvariants.org/help.html - http://www.chessvariants.org/onthese/award.html - http://www.chessvariants.org/rindex.html - http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?sortbydate=1 And in all and each of the GC's logs when I do click on them either as visitor or as user. I do not think this is because the computer I use since I access the internet from various cyber cafes. What do you think?
I have fixed a bug in the login function that would stop new sessions from being created. I replaced "session_destroy(); session_start();" with "$_SESSION = array()". This clears the contents of the session without trying to start a new one, which may be undoable once content appears on the webpage, because it may involve changing the value of a cookie.
Those links have been moved to the menus in the header. Most are in the left menu in its Game Courier submenu, and "Your Games" can be found by hovering over your name in the upper right corner when you are signed in.
The header in Game Courier is gone (where you could click on 'Rules', etc. /Mats
There is a new procedure for changing your email address. To change your email address, click the Change Email link at the bottom of the page. This will send an email message to you, which you must respond to to verify your new email address.
I can preview moves in all the games you linked to. Are you unable to move with the mouse? Or are you even unable to enter a move by writing its notation? When you try to make a move, what happens?
fergus-cvgameroom-2012-116-101
mgawalangmagawa-cvgameroom-2012-113-540
mgawalangmagawa-cvgameroom-2012-113-580
Regarding the "Person Information page" issue, you are right: I wrote the URL wrong. But I have another problem that I will explain tomorrow.
Since subject threads are limited to registered members, you aren't given the three login options when posting to them, and it still functions like it used to before. Here is the difference in what is happening. When you post to a subject thread, it consults the login function directly to determine whether you can post. This function will check that you have entered the correct password for your userid, and it will create a session for you. But whether or not that session stays around will not affect whether you get to post your comment to a subject thread. But when you try to comment on a page, you are given three options, and since some of these options require verification with an external site, you are required to login before you post. If you sign in as a member, it does not use the login function but instead brings you to login/cvplogin.php, where it creates a session for you. To check whether you can post your comment, the session it has created must be active. If you are blocking cookies, it may be unable to tell which session is yours, because it uses a cookie to identify your session. Make sure you can accept cookies from this site. If you are accepting cookies from this site, and it is still not working, let me know, and I will see if something else might be the problem.
"Since you signed in to post this message, it's not that your every attempt to sign in is failing. The problem was with the page for commenting on items, and it is now fixed."
I noticed this sentence only as I was posting my last message to this thread, and you appear to have misunderstood what I was reporting. The problem that I have been having is not being able to get past the page that says "You must sign in before you can post a comment. You have three options for signing in." when I click to post a comment on a variant or article. None of the options work for me. I do not get this page when I try posting to a thread, and so can post successfuly. I do still get it when I try posting a comment on a page - and still cannot get past it (I tried and failed again just bedore posting this). When I try my registered ID and password I just get asked to sign in all over again. When I try signing in anonymously I get "The reCAPTCHA wasn't entered correctly. Go back and try it again.(reCAPTCHA said: incorrect-captcha-sol)" I do not have a problem with entering my ID and password every time I comment, but I have a big problem with not being able to reply directly to specific comments.
Your PersonID is CarlosCetina, not sissa. The latter is your UserID. You will find the correct link to your Person Information page, which uses your PersonID, to the left of the message you left, linked to your name. Game Courier wants your UserID, which is sissa. When I posed as you to Game Courier, I could move in each of the games you listed. Since I don't have your password, I could not verify and send moves, but I could make moves and preview them. In a test game between fergus and duniho, I tried to move as duniho, and I'm being told that I must be signed in to move even though the previous screen tells me I am signed in as duniho. [EDIT: I got it to work before fixing anything. So I'm not sure what the problem was there.] What is the specific nature of your problem? Can you preview but not send a move? Or are you unable to even preview a move? Note that the URLs you gave do not include your UserID. These URLs are just for viewing the game and will not let you move from them. Your UserID needs to be included in the link before you can move. You will find this link under your name when you enter your UserID on the Logs page.
1) mgawalangmagawa-cvgameroom-2012-113-540
2)mgawalangmagawa-cvgameroom-2012-113-580
because the pages are incomplete.
Fergus: could you please fix it?
By other part, in my Person Information page I cannot edit my email address (cetina.carlosr@gmail.com) because there is a sort of lock.
David Howe: could you please fix it?
Thanks in advance for both!
Removing the HTML comments in the HEAD and pre-HTML parts of the page has fixed the Ecumenical Chess page. The Korean Chess page was having the same problem for a different reason. Adding the same DOCTYPE as Ecumenical Chess uses fixed that page. To avoid this problem on other pages, the page should have a DOCTYPE, and HTML comments should be avoided before the HTML declaration and/or within the HEAD declaration.
I opened up that page in Internet Explorer. I'm using version 8 on Windows XP. What version and OS are you using? Curiously, the header doesn't look right, and the menu doesn't work right on that page when opened in Internet Explorer. But it works fine in Firefox, and the header and menu are fine on other pages viewed with Internet Explorer. The same problem exists for some of your other pages, though not for all of them. This rules out the lengthy size of the Related Pages>Same Inventor submenu. I did not fix it by moving or removing the JavaScript on this page. The same DOCTYPE is used for a page that does work. So it's not that. Removing the page content between the header and footer doesn't help. So it's not that. This problem is not limited to your pages, and it is not universal. So far, I have not identified any common denominator, and I have not been able to fix it.
"Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/ecumenical-chess.html Operation aborted"When I click OK I then just get the standard "This page cannot be displayed".
Does this help?
Charles, Since you signed in to post this message, it's not that your every attempt to sign in is failing. The problem was with the page for commenting on items, and it is now fixed.
Joe Joyce wrote on Sat, Apr 21, 2012 07:20 AM UTC:Hello, Fergus. I have become an unperson. I suspect some will applaud this. :) http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displayperson.php?personid=joejoyce
This message also serves as a test as to whether I can post to a thread, as I am currently unable to post comments on game/piece pages. This is because any attempt that I make to sign in fails. Any chance of bringing back the previous system, at least as an option?
Today I had the header include indexingfuncs.php for a function in it, and this is causing a problem for pages that already include the same file. All that has to be done to fix it is to change the include to include_once. So if you find any pages that are not showing up, let me know here, and I will go fix it.
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