Admin

Some attached files fail to download

2011-11-25T21:50:59-06:00

Andrew Smith has a post (found here) in which he attached 2 files:

1.) eng.grammar
2.) the-country-of-the-blind.xml.zip

The zip file downloads quite well, with no problems at all, but the other file’s link just opens a blank page. I’ve tried several times to download the file in different ways (e.g. same page, new window/tab, “save location as…”) with basically the same result. Just a blank.

I suspect that this is due to a failure in the script to determine the correct mime-type for the file, and so simply dies without any output. If this is the case, perhaps assigning the mime-type “text/plain” may resolve the situation with a minimum of hassle. I realize that there will be times when this approach will give unexpected results, but it’s better by far than having folks get a blank page for their efforts.

I’ve suggested to Andrew that he either zip the file and attach the zip file, or change the extension of the file to .txt and try it again. The second method would be best (renaming the file), as it will possibly help to diagnose the problem.

Inactive bots.

2011-11-12T09:30:08-06:00

I enjoy chatting with all sorts of bots and seeing what innovations others have come up with. However, when I search bots using the picture galley I see a lot of listings saying, “This chatbot is no longer available!”

I understand the significance of maintaining inactive bots for historical purposes, so might there be a way of separating the active from the inactive the way it’s done at some lists where inactive and lost bots are categorized?

Web page preview/submit problem

2011-11-06T05:56:22-06:00

In the last few days, when I attempt to preview or submit a response the web page often does not return. Although the page is successfully updated the web browser never finishes the process and returns to the forum.

browser=Opera

[ u ] tags do not underline, but italicize, instead.

2011-11-01T09:23:37-06:00

While creating a post in one of the threads, I wanted to emphasize some text by underlining it, so I used the [ u ] tags, as I should have. Except in the post, the text was not underlined, but italicized, instead. Please see some example text, below:

BOLD
ITALICS
[s]STRIKETHROUGH[/s]
UNDERLINE

Each word above is enclosed with the proper BBCode tag to create the desired formatting. As you can see, underline is being italicized, and strikethrough is completely missing. I’m sure the latter is intentionally being excluded from implementation, but I’m guessing the incorrect formatting is just a glitch in the script.

Chatbots.org global planning

2011-02-21T11:54:36-06:00

During the past months, I’ve promised a lot on the forums on the future of Chatbots.org. Yes, we have huge plans, but we also have priorities. Here’s our list of priorities:

~~Synonym project~~
~~Link Manager Module~~
~~University listing~~
~~Research tab (=version 2.7)~~
~~Companies sub tab (version 2.8)~~
-Forum upgrades (version 2.9)
-New home page (version 3.0)
-Wiki & Chatbots.org Chatbot
-Entertainment tab
-Chatbots.org events
-Chatbots.org chatbot contests
etc etc

We hope to deliver version 3.0 mid 2011.

In between: animation forum board, speech forum board

~~Synonym project: we’ve identified 126 synonyms of the word ‘chatbot’. This list will be published soon (probably with 2 weeks)~~

Link Manager Module: this module allows us to manage all external links. With more than 8000 members, we have a huge amount of external links we need to manage. We’ll process invalid links, http errors and links to unsafe or bad website. We’ll come up with some smart solutions.

Clicking on Forums tab crashes IE8

2011-09-08T21:59:36-06:00

The last two or three times I’ve clicked on the Forums tab, IE8 has responded with a dialog asking if I want to stop running a script on the page. No matter if I click Yes or No, IE freezes. (I’m posting this from Chrome…)

Update RSS on post in Thread

2011-09-14T02:13:16-06:00

Not a clue how easy this is to implement (I have zero experience with RSS), but I use RSS to keep track of forum activity and read new threads/posts without looking through the forum every hour. However, when a new reply is added to an existing thread, it would be nice to get an update to RSS, so I can see in my client (Thunderbird) that a new reply has been posted.

Merging threads causes a “404” page to be generated

2011-09-01T11:37:57-06:00

Below is a copy of an email I sent to Erwin, that indicates the problem:

Ok, that was simple. I merged the second thread into Merlin’s. It actually went very smoothly. The only problem is (and I can’t seem to “fix” it) is that the second thread’s link now generates a 404 page, rather than redirecting to the proper thread. I’ve CC’d Arthur with this, so that he’s aware, and I’ll post a bug report, as well.

Dave Morton

Geek Cave Creations

http://www.geekcavecreations.com

dmorton at geekcavecreations dot com

This email certified Anthrax free by the C.D.C.

————Original Message————
Subject: integrate threads
From: Erwin van Lun
Date: Thu, September 01, 2011 9:58 am
To: “Dave Morton”
Hi Dave,

Ever merged two threads?

Well, I think these two are excellent candidates:

http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/612/

http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/613/

Do you agree?

Erwin

As you can see, clicking on the second link, above, points to a “page not found” page, rather than re-directing to the correct thread. This is, to me, a core issue, and should probably be given some priority, as it affects the site’s functionality. Just a suggestion, though.

Error message when uploading files

2011-08-18T09:36:50-06:00

In this thread I tried to upload both an HTML file and a text file, and received the following error message:

Error Message:

upload_unable_to_write_file

I was able to upload a zip file successfully, though.

I expect that this is because these two file types aren’t allowed to be uploaded, in which case the bug is that the error message isn’t being generated properly, to inform the user of the restriction in file type. If these files aren’t restricted (in the case of text files I can’t see any reason why they should be treated so), then there’s an error in the upload feature itself.

In the case of restrictions due to file types, it would further help if the user could be notified in advance of what types of files are allowed for uploading.

Code tags don’t work

2011-08-16T16:00:15-06:00

Code tags don’t do what they are supposed to and mangle code.

Could you add or replace them with textarea tags?