Forum Pages Too WIDE?

[TorturedSoul]

I have only noticed this one since I returned after a recent short hiatus and discovered that the forum software had been upgraded. The forum appears to be wider than my display. Now, I'll admit that I have rather poor vision, so I routinely "zoom" the pages (by pressing CTRL + once or even sometimes twice). But I have been doing this for quite a while, and have only experienced the "screen is too wide" issue since the most recent upgrade. As mentioned, I was gone for a bit, from some time in November until (IIRC) some time in January. Therefore, the change could have occurred at any point during that time, I suppose.

I can set Firefox to not "zoom" images (View / Zoom / Zoom text only), but this very much an imperfect solution for me. This keeps the pictures at a smaller size, and sometimes I like to be able to see them, too, lol. It also seems to occasionally screw up my "placement." By that, I mean that I'll click on the thing to take me to the first new - to me - post in a given thread and, if I've enabled this option in Firefox, I often end up at a point some posts previous in a thread if it is heavy with images. And, even when I use it, it doesn't always confine things to completely within the horizontal boundaries of my display.

Before, I could hit CTRL + once or twice and it would zoom everything in WITHOUT causing it to extend past my screen width. And that's without enabling the "zoom text only" option, just a straight-up zooming of everything.

This one ranks high on my personal annoyance list, lol. Not enough to go post somewhere else, of course (I cannot really think of anything that would be THAT annoying ). But it does annoy me.

If this is only happening to ME, then I guess I'll just continue trying to deal with it.

 

[Teddy Edwards]

This does not appear to have changed.

Personally, I can still go to +125% before it gets too wide. Other Mods can go to 150%. It also depends on the resolution.

A major update of all the forum software is coming soon, so any occasional glitches like this should be eliminated. We'll probably have different ones to resolve.

 

[TorturedSoul]

This does not appear to have changed.

Personally, I can still go to +125% before it gets too wide. Other Mods can go to 150%. It also depends on the resolution.

My screen resolution is 1366*768 or thereabouts. At 110%, I still have a small background showing to either side. At 120%, I'm side-scrolling back and forth to see everything.

Would be easier if the little corner of these message entry boxes that we can grab with our mouse cursor to adjust the box could be used to do so horizontally, in addition to the vertical adjustment that they currently allow.

One option I have, if I wish to be able to see what I'm typing without zooming my screen too large to fit, is to start using this size text in all my posts. It really doesn't annoy me greatly to use a larger font like this. I just rarely do so. I don't know why I don't, actually. Unless it's the fact that I occasionally post forum messages that contain... I don't know... 20,000 or more characters? Which, when combined with a larger font size such as this could cause some folks to think that my messages are too lengthy, lol. Although those in the audience who are the next thing to legally blind would probably appreciate it if I used this size for all my posts. IDK.

Unfortunately, this only helps when I'm creating a post, not when I'm trying to read someone else's.

It may well be a combination of my web browser, version of same, its current configuration, et cetera and have nothing to do with the forum. The only other forums that I have been spending any real time on these past two or three years are a small private forum running vBulletin (that has gone on semi-permanent hiatus) and the community support forum for the desktop environment that I use. The latter is still in operation, but it is practically a pure-text environment.

I will assume, unless and until this thread gets posts from other people experiencing the issue, that it is probably on my end. I will also probably go back to the default font size and continue to hope that I see the underlining that denotes spelling mistakes (more and more, it seems, my fingers - or, perhaps, my brain - get ahead of themselves, causing some of my words to appear the way they would (if typed correctly) appear to someone who has dyslexia).

I do not wish to become known in the "back room" as the forum's most annoying member, lol.

I could just buy a lottery ticket, win, and go get a pair of eyeglasses. Huh. I used the Edit button to enter this, and I thought I saw my other issue occur - the screen scrolled down to the Quick Reply box, and sat there for ~two seconds. But then I was taken to the edit box, so that is working.

 

[Dwight Monk]

Get a really big TV and use it as a Monitor .....but I can't/shouldn't laugh man, as I'm not much behind you on not being able to see....as I can hit Ctrl+ twice before it does that have to scroll back and forth as page too big. Sucks getting older but back in the day I didn't expect to live till I was 25 even, and I've gone and more than doubled that already so I didn't really think ahead enough to do some sort of "damage control"

 

[TorturedSoul]

Get a really big TV and use it as a Monitor

I've actually got one. Well, it's definitely not "really big," but relative to my 15.3" laptop screen, it is. But its location, coupled with the fact that if I so much as bump my laptop I end up spending quite a while trying to convince its power cord to make sufficient contact with the magic gizmo inside that powers the laptop (tripped over the cord one day and must have cracked the port inside, and the laptop battery has apparently been completely pooched for some time), makes this solution somewhat problematic. Then there's the fact that the laptop only has something called a DVI(?) port instead of HDMI, meaning I'd have to find a way to budget not only some kind of cable to get video from it to the television, I suppose I'd have to also add some kind of audio cable setup... something or other. Not that I require audio capability to use this forum, of course, but if I found myself able to view the laptop via the television, I'd probably also find myself wishing to be able to play some of the many documentaries / et cetera directly instead of having to copy a few at a time onto my little USB flash drive.

But I have thought about it a time or two. I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo years back that probably still works (and that I probably still have... somewhere), so I could - in theory, and totally ignoring the cost factor - envision a setup where all I had to do would be to power up the laptop and then I could basically ignore it, using the wireless mouse & keyboard and the HDTV.

but I can't/shouldn't laugh man

Why not? If some facet of my existence causes someone to laugh, I've at least managed to contribute that much, lol.

I'm not much behind you on not being able to see.

Sympathies and condolences. I'm too old to learn braille - and too grouchy for someone to volunteer to come read novels to me.

Blind as a bat, deaf as a post, multiple dysfunctions throughout my body, liberally sprinkled with pain throughout, questionable mental competency at times(?)... Sure is a good thing I have such a sunny disposition to make up for it, huh?

...as I can hit Ctrl+ twice before it does that have to scroll back and forth as page too big.

I do that more or less automatically whenever I visit a website for the first time these days. If I still possessed a young man's brain (no, NOT in the Jeffrey Dahmer sense of the term :rolleyes3 ) , I'd figure out a way to make that my default settin

Sucks getting older

I used to think so - but, no. No, it doesn't. I mean, just think of the alternative. THAT would suck far more, methinks.

but back in the day I didn't expect to live till I was 25 even

I sort of figured I'd make it to 40 if some jealous husband didn't come home early and end up having a decent aim.

I've gone and more than doubled that already

Congratulations.

I didn't really think ahead enough to do some sort of "damage control"

Yeah. I... <SIGH>. Yeah. Aside from that whole "sins of a misspent youth" thing, I distinctly remember hearing, "Yeah, you can laugh now - but you won't be laughing when all the injuries catch up with you. You'll be lucky if you can still walk by the time you get to be my age!" And then there were all the (low-paying, of course) jobs I've had in industries where the quickest way to NOT get more work/hours was to complain about the smells, fumes, splashes, sprays, and general chemical mayhem - so, instead of complaining, I became "that guy." Got me plenty of hours, at least. Which means I've got lots of experience in a field that would most likely leave me on oxygen - if not flat on my back - if I tried to do now, and not much else to put on a job application other than some crappy convenience store job from years back. But, hey, the upside of that is that I generally have lots of time to spend on the forum, lol.

WANTS CIGARETTE NOW!!!

 

[Dwight Monk]

Yeah. I... <SIGH>. Yeah. Aside from that whole "sins of a misspent youth" thing, I distinctly remember hearing, "Yeah, you can laugh now - but you won't be laughing when all the injuries catch up with you. You'll be lucky if you can still walk by the time you get to be my age!" And then there were all the (low-paying, of course) jobs I've had in industries where the quickest way to NOT get more work/hours was to complain about the smells, fumes, splashes, sprays, and general chemical mayhem - so, instead of complaining, I became "that guy." Got me plenty of hours, at least. Which means I've got lots of experience in a field that would most likely leave me on oxygen - if not flat on my back - if I tried to do now, and not much else to put on a job application other than some crappy convenience store job from years back. But, hey, the upside of that is that I generally have lots of time to spend on the forum, lol.

Yep we used to laugh at the Old Boy Millwrights when they would say "you don't want to Bull Moose that gearmotor into place, do it with the forklift" as we would be "nah it takes too flipping long to do it that way"....but they were right and now I"m living with it, but in all actuality they probably heard the same things and gave same response as I think they only knew that from experience of doing it the "incorrect way"

 

[TorturedSoul]

I just accepted the update to Firefox version 58.0.2, which is the newest version that is easily available to me. It still allows the forum to become too wide when I do a "double zoom" to 120%. While I was doing the update, though, I started thinking about cookies. Forums and other websites store information on their users/visitors computers. I wonder if the user's physical screen resolution is one of the things that gets stored? If so, maybe those of us who like to enlarge things would be able to edit this datum? Except that I wouldn't know where to begin looking or how to decipher such information. Plus, if our cookies are where our subscribed threads list - and the pointers to the most recent posts we've read in those threads - happened to be stored, lol, then my cookie for this forum would likely be many thousands of characters long.

Speaking of web browsers, there are several (more than five, at least) available to me as a linux user. I could try some of the others to see if they fit my... visual needs better when visiting the forum. I have just gotten into the habit of using Firefox (or one of its derivatives) more or less exclusively, out of hopes that the Firefox developer team would be reasonably prompt with security updates to their code.

I think I still have Lynx - the oldest web browser still in general use and active development, as it began in 1992 - installed. It can be useful for the security conscious, because it is a text-only browser (doesn't support graphics) and, therefore, there is zero worry that it might access/load those (often more or less invisible) "web bug/beacon" things that are often used to track people, single-pixel graphic elements and such. The only issue I'd have with using it for this forum is, well, that I like "bud porn" as much as the next person .

 

[TorturedSoul]

I just installed the Midori web browser from my distro's (one of the countless linux OS) file repositories. Then I viewed a thread here. Too small to easily read. Zoom, zoom, lol. Everything looked fine! Then, upon noticing that the version I had was older than the most recent release, I added the developer's official PPA to my sources list and did a quick system update (which pulled in the newest Midori). I then ran Midori again. Text too small, of course. Zoom, Zoom...

...and it made the virtual screen to wide to fit on my physical one. Yeah... I'm thinking this issue is mostly just on my end. A Gtk2 vs. Gtk3 issue, perhaps? (Linux users would understand what I mean, and possibly how the developers of GTK have, as their apparent life's goal, the intent to break everything that they can with each new version they release .)

I'm still waiting to see if other forum users chime in with reports, but you can probably consider this issue closed due to the likelihood that it's not your problem.

 

[Nightmask]

I have only noticed this one since I returned after a recent short hiatus and discovered that the forum software had been upgraded. The forum appears to be wider than my display. Now, I'll admit that I have rather poor vision, so I routinely "zoom" the pages (by pressing CTRL + once or even sometimes twice). But I have been doing this for quite a while, and have only experienced the "screen is too wide" issue since the most recent upgrade. As mentioned, I was gone for a bit, from some time in November until (IIRC) some time in January. Therefore, the change could have occurred at any point during that time, I suppose.

Before, I could hit CTRL + once or twice and it would zoom everything in WITHOUT causing it to extend past my screen width. And that's without enabling the "zoom text only" option, just a straight-up zooming of everything.

I got the same problem right after that big update around New Years aswell. I zoom in too to make the text bigger so it's easier to read but after that patch I couldn't read a whole post without having to move the scroll bar to the side. I'm using a PC and Mozilla Firefox and have two monitors, main one at 1920x1080 and the other at 1280x1024. I frequently move the browser to the smaller monitor and the forum just doesn't fit on the page like it used to, whereas before I could have the browser on the smaller monitor and zoom the text and I could read it fine. It's not a huge problem but it is annoying having to resize the browser, window or full screen the browser, change the zoom, etc when before there wasn't a problem. It seems like the forums were changed from dynamic sizing where it'd change itself to suit the presentation area to a fixed size where the forums were hardcoded to present at an exact width.