# I cannot see information about forum members



## Dmitry_86

Dear friends!

I would like to hear your opinion and advice about the following problem. Usually in the forum in each thread there is a line over the body of each message left by a member. In the left part we can see a person's login (nickname) and their avatar. For example, your login is "Loob" and your avatar is a cute doll. In the right part there is some information about us: the city and country we come from, our age, the nember of posts already written, etc. For some reason this additional information placed in the right part diappeared today when I had just logged in. I saw it yesterday, but today I do not. What might have happened? I see no such information about others, either. What do you recommend I do? Is it the problem on my computer or something is wrong with the page settings?

Thanks!


----------



## Sowka

Hello Dmitry 

That's interesting. I see everything... I'm going to log off and on again, and then I'll tell you the truth again.

* * * 
The situation is the same: I can see the information given on the right-hand side of the screen. Amazing... Just checked with the Internet Explorer. It works as well as the FireFox.


----------



## jann

Hello Dimitry, 

I'm not having any trouble seeing the line with names, avatars and member information at the top of your post.  This makes me suspect that the problem is not a general one. The forums were upgraded today.  I suppose it is possible that this is related.

Please log out of the forums, clear the cache in your web browser, and delete your WordReference forum cookies.  Then close your browser and restart it. Log back into the forums and see if this has solved the problem...


----------



## Dmitry_86

Sowka said:


> Hello Dmitry
> 
> That's interesting. I see everything... I'm going to log off and on again, and then I'll tell you the truth again.
> 
> * * *
> The situation is the same: I can see the information given on the right-hand side of the screen. Amazing...



Thanks! I tried reloading the page, but it does help. But the way, my friend chelsea2010 from Ukraine has the same problem. He has just emailed me and said he could not see anything either. Something is wrong in the forum ...


----------



## Dmitry_86

jann said:


> Hello Dimitry,
> 
> I'm not having any trouble seeing the line with names, avatars and member information at the top of your post.  This makes me suspect that the problem is not a general one. The forums were upgraded today.  I suppose it is possible that this is related.
> 
> Please log out of the forums, clear the cache in your web browser, and delete your WordReference forum cookies.  Then close your browser and restart it. Log back into the forums and see if this has solved the problem...



Hello! What is "cache"? How should I clear it? I am using the Internet Explorer browser, which is usually very reliable and only rarely does it fail. Second, what are "cookies"? What exactly should I delete? Please explain in detail, because though I have heard all these words many times, I do not know exactly what they mean and what they are needed for?

Best


----------



## Dmitry_86

Great! I have done it! The problem is solved! I can see everything again! Great!


----------



## jann

EDIT:  oops, I see I type too slowly!  Glad you got the problem solved. 

Instructions for clearing your cache: here.

To delete all cookies (not just WR) in Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > "Delete" button in the "Browsing History" section > "Delete cookies" button  

To delete forum cookies in FireFox: Tools > Options > Privacy Category > Show cookies button > type _wordreference_ in the search at the top > using the Shift and Contro (CTRL) keys on your keyboard, highlight all cookies related to wordreference.com or forum.wordreference.com > click the "remove cookies" button


----------



## Dmitry_86

Thanks a lot, jann! Fortunately no longer needed!


----------



## Loob

Dmitry_86 said:


> Great! I have done it! The problem is solved! I can see everything again! Great!


What did you do, Dmitry?  Just in case it helps others.


----------



## Dmitry_86

Loob said:


> What did you do, Dmitry?  Just in case it helps others.



Actually nothing! I just closed the browser, as recommended by jann, and without clearing the cache or deleting any cookies I just started the browser again. By the way I forgot to say that aside from the Internet Explorer I also use the Mozilla Firefox. Thanks God, they both show the information required.

Best


----------



## Parla

jann said:


> Please log out of the forums, clear the cache in your web browser, and delete your WordReference forum cookies.  Then close your browser and restart it. Log back into the forums and see if this has solved the problem...



Jann, I'm having exactly the same problem Dmitry had. It started yesterday, *not* today following the work on the forums (so no connection there).  I'm using Firefox, and I did what you advised Dmitry to do: logged out, cleared the cache, killed the WordRef cookies, closed the browser, opened it again, came back to WordRef, logged back in, and--no change, problem still there: 

In the band at the top of each message, username appears at the left, and where native language, location, and number of messages posted used to appear at the right--blank space.

Weird, no? What further advice do you have?


----------



## Parla

Postscript to my last message: I tried shutting the computer down entirely, then coming back. No help!

I really think there must be some sort of forum problem, if more than one of us have experienced this in the past 24 hours. 

Any other ideas? Anybody?


----------



## Forero

I have tracked down the problem to this—

Before the upgrade: <div class="smallfont">

After the upgrade: <div class="smallfont" style="max-width:300px; overflow:hidden">

Do we need to get new browsers? I am using Firefox on Windows 98: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12".


----------



## Loob

Forero said:


> I have tracked down the problem to this—
> 
> Before the upgrade: <div class="smallfont">
> 
> After the upgrade: <div class="smallfont" style="max-width:300px; overflow:hidden">


Forero, that looks like the change Mike made on Friday: click.


----------



## Parla

Forero said:


> I have tracked down the problem to this—
> 
> Before the upgrade: <div class="smallfont">
> 
> After the upgrade: <div class="smallfont" style="max-width:300px; overflow:hidden">
> 
> Do we need to get new browsers? I am using Firefox on Windows 98: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12".



You mean YOU have the problem, TOO?

I  don't understand most of what you've said here, but I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Win98SE.

But see the message about something Mike did on Friday!


----------



## Parla

Loob said:


> Forero, that looks like the change Mike made on Friday: click.



Only three of us have mentioned this, but I'm betting a great number of forum members have been affected!

Please, can it be changed back? I think this is a disservice, albeit unintended, to foreign forum members. (And frustrating to the rest of us.)

Not knowing people's native languages and locations is  really a major interference with giving intelligent replies to queries from ESL people. Knowing respondents' locations also enables us AmE and BrE speakers to note many differences between us, as well as regional variations in both areas, thus explaining things--from spelling and punctuation to differing usages--that would otherwise prove horribly confusing.

BTW: The change noted in the linked message was made about 4 p.m. Friday. Yep, that's about the time the information disappeared!


----------



## Forero

Parla said:


> You mean YOU have the problem, TOO?
> 
> I  don't understand most of what you've said here, but I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Win98SE.
> 
> But see the message about something Mike did on Friday!


Yes, the problem is not with your computer, or cache, or cookies, ...

People had been complaining about having to scroll right because of information that did not fit, and the culprit was long descriptions for "Native language" and "Location". The solution was to hide the part that would not fit, but unfortunately on our computers "hidden" seems to go a little too far. 

I am not going to start downloading any "fixes" until I get more information.


----------



## doinel

I'm at a loss!
I have the same problem and it's terribly annoying because computer science is not my strong point at all  actually  I don't understand what all of you suggested I should do and computer jargon petrifies me especially in English. I've been using Firefox for some time now which looked easier for me as it took care of all the typos and now I have the same problem. I have tried Safari and it works fine, but I don't want to use Safari again until I change my  aging Mac.
Thank you for your help,
doinel


----------



## Parla

Forero said:


> Yes, the problem is not with your computer, or cache, or cookies.
> 
> People had been complaining about having to scroll right because of information that did not fit, and the culprit was long descriptions for "Native language" and "Location". The solution was to hide the part that would not fit, but unfortunately on our computers "hidden" seems to go a little too far.



OMG! That is a classic example of what we call, in English, "throwing the baby out with the bath water."  

Yes, I had noticed that in a couple of instances people had entered needlessly lengthy (and unnecessary) descriptions of their native tongues. I have never scrolled to the right to follow them. 

Apparently the attempt to correct a *very* *minor* problem, occurring in only a tiny handful of cases, has now created a *major *problem for many forum members. And the solution to the original problem was simply to privately message those individuals and ask them to revise their language descriptions--easy, quick, no inconvenience to anyone else.

This was an unfortunate misjudgment, with an unforeseen result, which I'm sure can be corrected. I certainly hope that our access to the essential information will be restored promptly.


----------



## jann

Relax, relax! 

Mike is good at fixing things.  He tweaks and customizes our forums all the time to improve the functionality compared to the "standard" version of vBulletin.  It does seem that this issue (info on the right side of the post not visible) was caused by his most recent tweak (correcting posts that were too wide for the screen). I have contacted him and he is aware that there is a problem... but it's the weekend.  I'm sure he'll get it fixed soon.


----------



## Dmitry_86

Parla said:


> Apparently the attempt to correct a *very* *minor* problem, occurring in only a tiny handful of cases, has now created a *major *problem for many forum members. And the solution to the original problem was simply to privately message those individuals and ask them to revise their language descriptions--easy, quick, no inconvenience to anyone else.



Great words!


----------



## jann

Parla said:
			
		

> And the solution to the original problem was simply to privately message  those individuals and ask them to revise their language  descriptions--easy, quick, no inconvenience to anyone else.


The solution you suggest is not as easy as it first sounds, not the least because we do not (to my knowledge) have any systematic way to identify members who have written excessively long descriptions.  Some of these members may be no longer active on the forums.  Even if we could sift through existing members and request that those with long descriptions revise their profile, and even if every single one of those members logged on in the next few days to see the request and comply, this would not prevent other people from lengthening their descriptions at some point in the future, nor would it prevent newly registered members from writing long descriptions.  

A universal technical solution is obviously desirable.  Unfortunately, it seems that version 1.0 of that solution has a bug.  Mysteriously, this bug only seems to affect a few people -- the rest of us are able to see information in the top right corner of posts without any problem.  In an attempt to fix a post width problem that affected a small percentage of threads (though it affected all users who viewed those threads on small/normal sized screens), we have created a problem that affects a small number of users in all threads they view.  I don't think it's fair to call this an unfortunate misjudgment or to say that we fixed a minor issue and created a major one.

I am truly sorry if you've been inconvenienced these last few days.  I understand how frustrating it is when the forums aren't functioning properly.   Please just relax and be patient.  I have no doubt that Mike will get  it all resolved, but surely he is entitled to weekends too.  

best,
Jann
French forums moderator


----------



## mkellogg

I just tested it on five major web browsers and it looks fine in all of them. I don't doubt what you say, but most _modern_ browsers have no trouble with it.

I'll take a look at it on Monday.  In the meantime, I recommend that the few of you with problems upgrade your browsers to the latest version.  Not only do I think it will solve this problem, but it will also make your computer more secure.  (Old browsers have numerous security holes, that allow malicious websites to steal your passwords, etc.)

Anyway, I would appreciate it if somebody could attach a screenshot of the problem to this thread.


----------



## Dmitry_86

jann said:


> The solution you suggest is not as easy as it first sounds, not the least because we do not (to my knowledge) have any systematic way to identify members who have written excessively long descriptions.  Some of these members may be no longer active on the forums.  Even if we could sift through existing members and request that those with long descriptions revise their profile, and even if every single one of those members logged on in the next few days to see the request and comply, this would not prevent other people from lengthening their descriptions at some point in the future, nor would it prevent newly registered members from writing long descriptions.
> 
> A universal technical solution is obviously desirable.  Unfortunately, it seems that version 1.0 of that solution has a bug.  Mysteriously, this bug only seems to affect a few people -- the rest of us are able to see information in the top right corner of posts without any problem.  In an attempt to fix a post width problem that affected a small percentage of threads (though it affected all users who viewed those threads on small/normal sized screens), we have created a problem that affects a small number of users.
> 
> I am sorry if you've been inconvenienced these last few days.  Please just relax and be patient.  I have no doubt that Mike will get  it all resolved, but surely he is entitled to weekends too.
> 
> best,
> Jann
> French forums moderator



Dear jann!

I still think the suggestion about doing all this revision privately was absolutely correct. I know that it might be difficult at first sight, but I am sure it is possible to arrange it so that everyone who has their information too lengthy will shorten it shortly after your request. First of all, I do not see any serious problems even if there are rather long personal descriptions of their location, country, city, etc. I agree that they might occupy too much room in the band above messages, but this does not irritate me at all. I presume most other members will agree. Of course, too long phrases need shortening, but there is no use rushing to do all this and therefore it is easy to email these people ask they do what moderators want them to do. Every forum must a have a record containing names of members registered in it. I would be surprised to know that our forum does not have such. Such a detailed record would allow moderators to automatically send a private message to EVERYONE REGISTERED in the forum like I have seen it working on the Internet many times. You will not have to find out a person's email and then write them with a request to change their profile. The system will do everything instead. In this case people whose profiles satisfy the requirements will receive this message too, but they will just ignore it because there will be no need for them to modify anything. Second, there is another easy way to deal with this problem. We can create a temporary thread in the English Only forum asking everyone to revise their personal information. We could place this thread below "Read this before you post ..." and lock it to prevent anyone from adding new messages there. people will notice this thread when they have entered the forum and follow the regulations. Some time will pass and probably we will delete this thread very soon.

Frankly speaking, I do not remember many people having long phrases in their profile, though I have regularly been attending this forum for 3 years already. Right now I can remember only several examples, which confirms the impression of mine that the problem is hardly so urgent that such updates should be used.

Best


----------



## Dmitry_86

mkellogg said:


> I just tested it on five major web browsers and it looks fine in all of them. I don't doubt what you say, but most _modern_ browsers have no trouble with it.
> 
> I'll take a look at it on Monday.  In the meantime, I recommend that the few of you with problems upgrade your browsers to the latest version.  Not only do I think it will solve this problem, but it will also make your computer more secure.  (Old browsers have numerous security holes, that allow malicious websites to steal your passwords, etc.)
> 
> Anyway, I would appreciate it if somebody could attach a screenshot of the problem to this thread.



Hello! It does not have to do with the browsers and heir versions. When I had just encountered the problem, I started loading the page via the most recent version of Internet Explorer and then Mozilla Firefox, and neither showed the information in the right part. Only then did I decide to reboot my computer and enter the web-site again and it miraculously worked. I do not know what exactly helped in this situation, but I am sure those were not browsers.

Best


----------



## Forero

I don't even see the post counts.


----------



## Dmitry_86

Forero said:


> I don't even see the post counts.


 
Forero, that is the same that I saw when I had just entered the forum two days ago. No information at all in the right part part of the upper band. Then after several manipulations I managed to get what I wanted, but the problem still needs dealing with. Yesterday evening after rebooting my computer I encountered the information loss again - for the second time in the last three days. I immeadiately closed the browser and then opened it again on the same web-page and that worked! However, the problem still exists and it would be a good idea if a person responsible for these problems helped cope with them because otherwise it would be difficult to work in our forum.

All the best


----------



## mkellogg

I just updated the code.  Is it any better?

Mike


----------



## doinel

Thank you so very much!
It works. Really I didn't know what to do even if some foreros really tried to help me with patient information in PM's.


----------



## Dmitry_86

mkellogg said:


> I just updated the code.  Is it any better?
> 
> Mike



Sorry, but it is terrible!!! Why cannot I see the city I am from? I can see only "S" instead of Saint-Peterburg. Do you think it is acceptable??? The same about my language!!! No language "R"!!! The language is Russian!!!


----------



## Parla

Dmitry_86 said:


> I do not see any serious problems even if there are rather long personal descriptions of their location, country, city, etc. I agree that they might occupy too much room in the band above messages, but this does not irritate me at all....



I agree. If someone has chosen to state a native language and then go on to describe a local dialect: I don't really care, and I don't bother scrolling to read it; it's not going to affect either my understanding of the question or my reply. 



> Frankly speaking, I do not remember many people having long phrases in their profile . . . Right now I can remember only several examples . . .



That has been my experience, as well.


----------



## Dmitry_86

mkellogg said:


> I just updated the code.  Is it any better?
> 
> Mike



Please try to make profiles clear and understandable. Unfortunately first letters of words do not carry any information. What you have done now is unacceptable and I think most forum members will agree.


----------



## doinel

Dear Dmitry_86,
It is not unacceptable, nor terrible. It's much better and will be certainly improved.
doinel 
I do agree that some info is helpful to understand the threads.


----------



## Parla

Forero said:


> I don't even see the post counts.




Right. That's because the post counts used to appear just beneath the other information (language, location, etc.), and all type has disappeared from the right-hand side of the panel above the message area.

The screen shot Forero has posted with the above message agrees with the appearance of my  screen. The panel is there, the member's username is at left, and the right is now blank.

I want to add, on the question of how many people may be affected by this problem, that the number may far exceed that reflected by the messages here. Speaking for myself: I wasn't even aware that this forum existed until another member alerted me to it as a result of seeing a passing reference to the problem in my message in the English forum (a member's native tongue was relevant, and I mentioned that I could no longer see it). Many members may be affected but may be unaware of how and where to raise the issue.


----------



## Dmitry_86

doinel said:


> Dear Dmitry_86,
> It is not unacceptable, nor terrible. It's much better and will be certainly improved.
> doinel
> I do agree that some info is helpful to understand the threads.



If it is improved in the near future, that is OK, of course. But I am not sure now about the quality of these improvements. What will they be directed at. I wonder? By the way, doinel, after looking at your profile I learnt that you are from "Southern" and your language is "Fr".  Is is true? I think it is not. You must be from "Southern France" and speaking "French". Such facts cannot and should not be hidden. When we want to shorten words we should not leave uninformative pieces of them, which make even more confused than in the case of their total absence!!!


----------



## mkellogg

Dmitry_86 said:


> Sorry, but it is terrible!!! Why cannot I see the city I am from? I can see only "S" instead of Saint-Peterburg. Do you think it is acceptable??? The same about my language!!! No language "R"!!! The language is Russian!!!


It looks fine to me.

Dmitry (and all of you), if you want my help, I suggest a different tactic: be nice, ask politely, and maybe include a screenshot of what you see.


----------



## Dmitry_86

mkellogg said:


> It looks fine to me.
> 
> Dmitry (and all of you), if you want my help, I suggest a different tactic: be nice, ask politely, and maybe include a screenshot of what you see.



Sorry, if I asked impolitely, of course, I did not intend to  However, I still cannot understand what we have been trying to improve for several days already . Everything worked fine and there were some problems with personal preferences, but they are everywhere where people gather together to do something. For example, I do not like it when there are unclear avatars, but hardly anyone will agree to remove them and add what they are told instead. 

Anyway, I would like to say again that I did not intend to be abrupt. Sometimes I write things too emotionally, but this is a trait of my character.

Please tell me how I can download a screenshot. I have never done it before.

Best


----------



## chelsea2010

After looking through this prolonged discussion I decided to say I also have problems. I don't see the name of my country. Nor do I see what language I speak. Something needs to be done to improve all this. 

Chelsea


----------



## JamesM

It is difficult to correct it if the problem cannot be duplicated by those who want to help. I see no problem at all. chelsea2010, your location says "Kiev, Ukraine" and your native language says "Ukranian" (should there be another "i" in that word?) 

Can you tell us what screen resolution your monitor is set to? Mine is set to 1280 by 1024 pixels.


----------



## Parla

Mike, thank you for taking holiday time (I'm assuming you're in the US) to try to solve this problem that's been frustrating so many of us.

I've just been back to the English forum and surveyed several message threads.

It's definitely somewhat better now, but there's still difficulty, in many cases, with both "*Location*" and "*Native language*."

*Location: *In instances in which there is a single word, or two very short ones, full information is now there. But in a number of other cases, there is only partial information. One member's location, for example, says "Sonoma"--with something following, but it's unclear what. Being an American, I suspect it's "Cal" or "CA," but someone from another country may not know that. In my own case, I had given "New York City," but "City" is missing. 

*Native language:  *Here the problem remains much more serious, since hardly anything is visible beyond one or two letters--and language is, after all, what we're about!  

Various languages appear, for example, as "Fr" or "Ru" or "H" or "Ch" (which sometimes is cut off and appears as "Cl"). One can, of course, make guesses, but that's not a substitute for information.

For those of us whose native tongue is English, the situation is even worse. All that's visible  is "En"--and in many cases where the "n" has been cut off, it appears as "Er". Most of us English-speakers have also helpfully specified "Am" (or "US"), or "BR" (or "UK"), as the case may be, since that information can be crucial in many cases (my own description was "English - US"). All of that vital information has vanished completely.

Apologies if some of us have become a bit hysterical about this. You are knowledgeable about technical matters. Many of _us_ are _not, _and before we said anything to you or anyone else, we assumed that our computers were malfunctioning or that we ourselves had done something wrong or stupid. This of course led to lengthy fooling around and trying to "fix" things, with increasing frustration, before mentioning it to anyone else.  

Again, thanks for being on it, and hope you can restore the remaining data.


----------



## Loob

JamesM said:


> Can you tell us what screen resolution your monitor is set to? Mine is set to 1280 by 1024 pixels.


Just in case it helps in forming an overall picture, mine is set to 800 by 600 and I can see all the personal information (in normal-width posts).


----------



## Dmitry_86

Loob said:


> Just in case it helps in forming an overall picture, mine is set to 800 by 600 and I can see all the personal information (in normal-width posts).



I think the ability to see the information being discussed does not depend on the monitor resolution. Mine is set to 1280 by 1024. Before that I tried 800 by 600 and nothing changed as a result. The problem is different.

Best


----------



## JamesM

Dmitry,

Can you provide a screenshot that shows the problem?  That's always helpful.  If you want, PM me and I'll explain how I do it, which may not be the fastest way but it works.

James


----------



## Dmitry_86

JamesM said:


> Dmitry,
> 
> Can you provide a screenshot that shows the problem?  That's always helpful.  If you want, PM me and I'll explain how I do it, which may not be the fastest way but it works.
> 
> James



Thanks a lot, James and other people trying to help! Though it is midnight in St.Petersburg now, I have invited one of my friends, who is an excellent programmer, and we are now trying to determine if it something wrong with my browser or forum settings prevent me from seeing what I have always seen. When we finish, I will write what conclusion we have come to. Probably there will be no need overload all of you with these problems. If not, I will upload the screenshot.

All the best


----------



## panjandrum

Nothing looks odd to me.

There has been no problem in Firefox, but I thought I'd look elsewhere.
IE is fine.
Chrome is fine.

Windows 7.

Very odd.


----------



## Parla

chelsea2010 said:


> After looking through this prolonged discussion I decided to say I also have problems. I don't see the name of my country. Nor do I see what language I speak. Something needs to be done to improve all this.
> 
> Chelsea



Hm. I can see that you are from "Ukra" and that you speak "Uk". 

And I just answered a question from someone who speaks "Ar."


----------



## Dmitry_86

Our messages confirm that the problem has not yet been solved. Unfortunately.


----------



## Parla

JamesM said:


> Dmitry,
> 
> Can you provide a screenshot that shows the problem?  That's always helpful.  If you want, PM me and I'll explain how I do it, which may not be the fastest way but it works.
> 
> James



Forero already posted a screen shot accurately depicting the original problem, and I've described the situation now. For those of us who originally had the problem, there was no information at the right (join date, location, etc.). The cut-off at the right is *now* immediately to the right of the join date, so any text to the right of that is absent. I can see that you're from California. Your language, however is not English but "En."


----------



## Forero

I have found that if I change this "100%" to "50%" I can see the 300px:

<td width="*100*%">&nbsp;</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">

<div class="smallfont">
<div>Join Date: Sep 2010</div>
<div style="overflow: hidden; max-width: 300px;">Location: New York City</div>
<div style="overflow: hidden; max-width: 300px;">Native language: English - US</div>

Otherwise I only get 115px.


----------



## jann

In case anyone who doesn't know how decides they want to upload a screen shot:  directions here.

PS. And did those of you who are having this problem check, as Mike suggested, that you are running a recent version of your web browser... and update if necessary?  "Recent" would be IE7 or IE8, or a Firefox version later than ~3.0.


----------



## Parla

Forero said:


> I have found that if I change this "100%" to "50%" I can see the 300px:
> 
> <td width="*100*%">&nbsp;</td>
> <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">
> 
> <div class="smallfont">
> <div>Join Date: Sep 2010</div>
> <div style="overflow: hidden; max-width: 300px;">Location: New York City</div>
> <div style="overflow: hidden; max-width: 300px;">Native language: English - US</div>
> 
> Otherwise I only get 115px.



Forero, I have no idea what you are talking about (where do you see "100%"?), but your new screen shot which accompanies the above text shows exactly what I now see also.


----------



## swift

Hello Mike,

While searching for examples of problematic threads , I found this post of rafajuntoalmar's. His native language is "Castellano (tanto argentino como peninsular)" but as you can see its description stops at 'p'. I'm using Windows 7, Firefox 3.6.10, IE 8.0.7600.


----------



## JamesM

Parla said:


> Forero, I have no idea what you are talking about (where do you see "100%"?), but your new screen shot which accompanies the above text shows exactly what I now see also.


 
Have you tried upgrading yet, Parla? Your recent post said you were on "Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Win98SE." 

To upgrade, open your browser, go to Help on the top pulldown menu (the very top of the screen) and select "Check For Updates".

It would be very helpful to know if an upgrade solved the problem. In any case, it's good to be on at least a recent version of the browser to avoid problems on other sites as well. Firefox's site only goes back to 3.0 at this point so it's worth upgrading.

Could you try it and tell us if it solves your display problem?

p.s.  I forgot to mention that's it free to upgrade your browser.


----------



## Parla

JamesM said:


> Have you tried upgrading yet, Parla? Your recent post said you were on Firefox 2.0.0.20
> 
> [ . . . ]
> 
> It would be very helpful to know if an upgrade solved the problem. In any case, it's good to be on at least a recent version of the browser to avoid problems on other sites as well. . . .



James, I _have_ no problems on other sites. And I had no problem _here_ prior to the change made on Friday afternoon.

Even if that were not so: I don't think that would help. Please see the post by "Swift" preceding yours in the thread. Swift reports a problem and is using Firefox 3.6.10. 

To me, BTW, Swift appears to live somewhere known as "Entre ciel," and his or her native language is simply "S". I'm guessing that the member speaks Spanish and lives somewhere between heaven and something else--but who knows? 

I do hope that Mike will forgive our prior fussing and fuming and return the missing text!


----------



## Forero

Parla said:


> Forero, I have no idea what you are talking about (where do you see "100%"?), but your new screen shot which accompanies the above text shows exactly what I now see also.


What I mean to say is that the problem may still be with the way the webpage is coded rather than with our browsers. All browsers I have ever seen have problems with different things, so I hesitate to upgrade my browser in any way that I cannot reverse later. I know, for example, that IE 7.0.5730.13 has several "issues" that my old browser does not have with the WYSIWYG formatting I use when typing my posts.

The "100%" is part of the instructions being sent to our browsers, not something we can change on our end(s). I don't know, but I suspect the "100%" in context means that the full width of the browser window is to fall between the information on the left and what we want to see on the right, which does not make sense. Changing or removing the "100%" might fix our problem.

Swift is reporting the desired behavior, not a problem. His browser apparently ignores the "100%" and correctly handles the "300px". My browser tries to handle the "100%", which makes the "300px" act as if it said something less than 300.

Please don't panic, anyone. A solution will come.


----------



## JamesM

Parla said:


> James, I _have_ no problems on other sites. And I had no problem _here_ prior to the change made on Friday afternoon.


 
Just for more information, more than one thing happened over the weekend.  There was a minor change but there was also an update to Revision  3.8.6 PL 1 of our board software - vBulletin.  I know you were thinking that some minor tweak for long names caused the problem but that's not immediately apparent.  It's not a simply "remove the minor tweak" issue at this point.



> I do hope that Mike will forgive our prior fussing and fuming and return the missing text!


 
I know that from your point of view this is simple and obvious.  What makes it not so simple and not so obvious is what you yourself pointed out: different people running the same release version of browser are getting different results.  For many people there is no missing text to restore.  For many others there _is_ missing text.  That complicates the problem.

Please be patient.  I'm sure Mike is working on it right now.


----------



## swift

Oh! Did I say before that I can see the full description of Rafa's native language (as well as merquiades's) using my Blackberry browser?


----------



## Forero

JamesM said:


> Just for more information, more than one thing happened over the weekend.  There was a minor change but there was also an update to Revision  3.8.6 PL 1 of our board software - vBulletin.  I know you were thinking that some minor tweak for long names caused the problem but that's not immediately apparent.  It's not a simply "remove the minor tweak" issue at this point.


Actually it _is_ apparent that the problems we are talking about are due to the change to cut off long names, not to the board software upgrade.

I have even tracked it down to what seems to be a conflict between html parameters ("100%"/300px).





> I know that from your point of view this is simple and obvious.  What makes it not so simple and not so obvious is what you yourself pointed out: different people running the same release version of browser are getting different results.  For many people there is no missing text to restore.  For many others there _is_ missing text.  That complicates the problem.
> 
> Please be patient.  I'm sure Mike is working on it right now.


Part of what takes time when fixing a problem is the research and testing needed to be reasonably sure a fix to one thing does not break something else— on any browser.


----------



## Parla

I have just realized that by clicking on the underscored name of a forum member posting a message, you can access fully whatever personal information the member has recorded, including location and native language.  

That will answer the question for those of us who still have a problem. It's a  slight inconvenience, but only _very_ slight--one click, and another to return to the current page. 

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it earlier in this thread!


----------



## JamesM

Forero said:


> Actually it _is_ apparent that the problems we are talking about are due to the change to cut off long names, not to the board software upgrade.



I understand what you're saying, but that doesn't explain how you see the problem running IE8 and I don't see the problem, also running IE8.   If the problem were an HTML coding problem the (mis)behavior should be consistent, particularly on the same release of the same browser.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.


----------



## Loob

Parla said:


> I have just realized that by clicking on the underscored name of a forum member posting a message, you can access fully whatever personal information the member has recorded, including location and native language.
> 
> That will answer the question for those of us who still have a problem. It's a slight inconvenience, but only _very_ slight--one click, and another to return to the current page.
> 
> I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it earlier in this thread!


Sorry, Parla, I did think of mentioning it, but I thought you'd probably tell me (1) you already knew and (2) it was no substitute anyway.  Next time I won't make assumptions.


----------



## Forero

JamesM said:


> I understand what you're saying, but that doesn't explain how you see the problem running IE8 and I don't see the problem, also running IE8. If the problem were an HTML coding problem the (mis)behavior should be consistent, particularly on the same release of the same browser.
> 
> I guess we'll have to wait and see.


Save the page and reload from where it is saved, and the appearance of the part in question remains the same offline, so the change to the part in question is in the html.

The effects of "100%" and "300px" depend on window size and font choice, both of which can vary between computers with the same release of the same browser.


----------



## JamesM

I think we're saying the same thing in different ways. If the variation is in font choice and window size, then the effect is coming from the HTML in conjunction with the personal choices on each computer, not merely from the code itself.

I'll drop out now. I don't think I'm helping.


----------



## swift

I was about to say the same thing, James. We'll get nowhere if we keep harping on the same ideas.

Let's wait and see.


----------



## mkellogg

I really don't know what to do.  I added the style attribute to these two lines to keep overly long Native languages from "breaking" the formatting of the page.


> <div style="overflow: hidden; max-width: 300px;">Location: New York City</div>
> <div style="overflow: hidden; max-width: 300px;">Native language: English - US</div>



This seems to work well with modern browsers.  Swift's screenshot shows how these lines are now cut off if too long.  (This is the intended effect!)

If I leave it like it is, the formatting works for 99% of us.
If I change it back, the formatting will be "broken" again by "long languages".

I still would like to see a screenshot of the problem, but nobody can seem to produce one.  (Pressing the "Print Screen" key and pasting into MS Paint works for me.)


----------



## mkellogg

Right, Already-Seen.  You are not being affected. You are seeing it as it is intended.  Long native languages are cut off (instead of breaking the formatting as they were doing before).  The problem is for people who are seeing nothing more than "Ru" for the native language.


----------



## KaRiNe_Fr

Hi,



mkellogg said:


> [...]
> I still would like to see a screenshot of the problem, but nobody can seem to produce one.  (Pressing the "Print Screen" key and pasting into MS Paint works for me.)


Forero has attached this screenshot 




 in post #49.

P.S. : as for me, there is no issue: I still can see the entire profile info (except now if it is longer than 300px).


----------



## mkellogg

Thank you Karine!  I've made a small change that I think will help.  Now the box of information will be at least 200px wide.


----------



## Parla

mkellogg said:


> Thank you Karine!  I've made a small change that I think will help.  Now the box of information will be at least 200px wide.



What I see now is that the type in that section starts a little farther to the left than it did earlier, so that all of the information now appears with, in some cases, room to spare.

What you've done now is as much a mystery to me as what you did last Friday, but whatever it is, it worked. My faith in the wonderfulness of this website has been fully restored.

Again, apologies for the earlier surly grumbling.

Thank you!


----------



## doinel

Thank you so much,
I'm so happy I won't have to buy a new computer!


----------

