New Forum - Tips, Tricks & FAQ

[Grant]

The welcome thread is getting quite long and hard to follow and I'm answering quite a few questions multiple times so instead, I'm going to post all the common questions and any tips/tricks etc.. in this one thread which will be locked to keep it manageable - I hope this helps people get used to the new forum and discover some of the new features and benefits

 

[Grant]

Where have all the pictures and attachments in posts gone?

This is a significant upgrade so every single (almost 3 million!) post must be be rebuilt to fit the new forum. While this rebuilding is in progress some old posts will not display their images or attachments. The rebuild is currently about 2/3 through so should be finished within the next day. We didn't want to leave SGL offline any longer than was necessary so are leaving those tasks to complete in the background.

Why are the spaces so big?

The editor now defaults to starting a new paragraph when you press enter. Once you get used to this, it is easier because in most cases, that's what you want to do when you move down a line. If you do want to go to the next line, press 'Shift' and 'Enter' instead.

[Grant]

If you are struggling with the text size of the main theme or, the white on black text then there is another theme you can try by changing in the bottom left of your screen. 

SGL Simple - v1 - This is a black on white theme with a larger font size

SGL Desktop - v1 - This is useful if you are on a mobile site, but want to force the full desktop theme rather than the cut-down mobile theme.

[Grant]

I'm getting too many notifications!

This is all controlled in your notification settings, you can access these through the notifications popup or go directly here: https://stargazerslounge.com/notifications/options/

There are two sections so scroll down the page to see what notifications are set to email and simply untick the ones you don't want.

The default for new users is only for PM's to get emailed to you, everything else is a forum notification only - it's possible some of these settings changed during the upgrade because of changes to to the way the notification system now works so it's best everybody takes a look at their settings and choose the options that suit them.

[Grant]

I'm getting notifications about topics I am not following?

It isn't possible to receive notifications for things you aren't following but, anybody you were friends with on the previous forum you now follow in the new forum so it's most likely it's one of these that are posting which is why you are getting notified. You can check this in your followed items: https://stargazerslounge.com/followed/.

[Grant]

Why is my post count wrong?

It isn't  Your posts are still all there (go to your profile and find content, this will show all your posts). Your post count is less because we don't count non-astro areas of the forum towards post counts.

During the upgrade, post counts were counted from scratch - in the old forum, the post count was a continuous thing so if posts got deleted your post count didn't always go down and, we only stopped counting non-astro areas of the forum in post counts year or so ago, so before that point those posts counted - during the upgrade and the recount, they didn't.

TL:DR - your posts are all still there but your post count is now correct and accurate and doesn't include non-astro area posts.

[Grant]

How do I turn off browser notifications?

Browser notifications have to be disabled in your browser, so depending what browser you are using will depend where you need to go.

In Chrome, if you click on the little green padlock in the address bar when in SGL, under there is the notification setting and you can change your preference from 'Allowed By You' to 'Always Block on this Site'.

In Firefox, go to Tools - Options - Content, then notifications and click on choose, you can add or remove and then click save.

In Opera:

• Go to Opera > Preferences (Mac)/ Settings (Windows)
• Go to the Websites tab and scroll to the Notifications section
• Click on the Manage Exceptions..... button to see the sites whose notification permissions you've already Allowed or Denied
• When you see Stargazers Lounge in that list, click the “X” next to Allow to remove it from the list.
• Click “Done.”

For browser notifications to be enabled there would've been a popup which you would've needed to have said yes to - browser notifications cannot get turned on automatically because they are a client side function built into your browser. Alternatively, your browser may be configured to automatically allow all browser notifications. Prior to the upgrade SGL did not support this feature but does now which is why it's not sending you browser notifications.

[Grant]

How do I turn off the sound every time I receive a notifications?

In your notification settings (https://stargazerslounge.com/notifications/options/) there is a tick box on the bottom left to turn off/on sounds when you receive a notification.