Announcements Alien Soup Kitchen Update - February, 2018

Kevin

Code Monkey
Staff member
As you may have noticed, AlienSoup.com has gone through a few changes! The changes are the result of software updates requiring the updates of our theme and add-ons.

Some of the new items & revamped items include...
  • Emojis! Instead of being limited to just the pre-defined smilies you can now use the emojis on your mobile devices and, if your OS supports it (like current Windows & Mac OSes), your desktop. 😉
  • The Members page has been revamped to be more oriented towards Members stats.
  • New media embedding options like Tweets, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and many others.
  • What "What's New" page has been updated to easily access all parts of the site.
  • Better mobile support! Besides being tweaked for smaller mobile devices, like phones, there is now also a 'sticky' menu that always appears at the top of the screen so you no longer need to scroll up & down to get to the menu.
  • New 'Jump' to buttons in the lower-right so you can quickly go to the top or bottom of page while scrolling.
  • Improved YouTube 'Lazy Load' so that users on mobile devices or slower connections don't get bogged down when viewing a thread with lots of YouTube videos.
  • New 'Likes' system! Similar to Facebook "Reactions", the Likes system allows you to choose how to express your pleasure, anger, or dislike for what somebody has posted. You can now also like items item the Media and Resource sections as well.
  • Many (many!) changes behind-the-scenes.
We'll be continuing to tweak the site colors, fonts, and features available so stay tuned!
 
Okay, one thing I've noticed is that every page refresh defaults to chat at the bottom?

I really don't have issue with it defaulting to chat but does chat HAVE to be at the bottom, requiring a scroll to the top to see the forums? It makes me feel like I'm looking at the page in reverse?
 
Okay, one thing I've noticed is that every page refresh defaults to chat at the bottom?

I really don't have issue with it defaulting to chat but does chat HAVE to be at the bottom, requiring a scroll to the top to see the forums? It makes me feel like I'm looking at the page in reverse?
Tom, at first I didn't see what you mean but when I switched from Chrome to FF and IE I understand now.

Yeah, that's pretty annoying. I'm taking a look into it. :(
 
Tom, at first I didn't see what you mean but when I switched from Chrome to FF and IE I understand now.

Yeah, that's pretty annoying. I'm taking a look into it. :(
... until I hear back from the developer I've disabled the Chat box from the bottom of the home page. It's still available of course at https://aliensoup.com/chat but in the interim it was too annoying on the home page.
 
You had me going there for a minute thinking "Dang it, did I miss updating a group permission?!". 😀
Okay...let me explain my ineptitude :smug:
Looking at this-
Wehp7fT.jpg

I thought "oh! Someone gave a Like...wait, how in the H did they do that?" :facepalm:

So I clicked it
And voila
0VbUhy2.jpg


New question
How do you save a post as draft?
 
New question
How do you save a post as draft?
The good news is that it automatically saves as a draft after 60 seconds and it'll be saved in the database for a few days.

The bad news is that it looks like the XenForo guys, for whatever reason, have decided that the 'disc' icon shouldn't be displayed at smaller screen resolutions. 769px width, to be precise, and below doesn't show the icon for 'Save Draft' & 'Delete Draft'. It's odd because it looks like the rest of the icons still show, just the Draft icon gets hidden. I'll take a look into it to see why. :thinking:
 
have decided that the 'disc' icon shouldn't be displayed at smaller screen resolutions.
I have a disc in tools...when I tapped it my post turned pink
kfpzhQ8.jpg

...but there is no language telling me what the disc is for, lol. Is it for Save Draft?

*That's great though! Draft saved automatically!
 
I have a disc in tools...when I tapped it my post turned pink
That icon, at the far right, is actually a cog. The purpose of that one is to switch the editor between GUI mode versus tag mode. To explain that further... normally when in the editor if you want to make something bold you simply highlight the text, click the "B" icon in the editor toolbar, and you're done. When your're in tag mode though the editor toolbar is disabled and in order to make something bold you need to manually write out the tags like [b]This is Bold[/b]. When it turned colors it's a visual indicator that you're switching edit modes.

The icon for Save/Delete draft is actually 3.5" floppy disc. 💾
 
This may or may not be importat but I noticed the lifesaver hoverover nolonger tooltips "Helpful" it says "Undefined". I know it means helpful but others may not? I didn't check the other named tooltips.
Not sure if its really important.
Just giving you feedback

Edit: Yeah I checked, there are about 4 or 5 that are now listed as undefined. Some of them are negative ratings.
 
I have a suggestion/concern involving chat.
Yesterday, I added a pic (img) using the editor feature.
The pic was small but it posted at its url size.
I haven't tried posting any other pic yet.
I do know that posting a pic in the thread, automatically resizes the pic.
Does the chat also resize large pics?
If not, pics in chat could distort the chat view.

I probably should have tested it before I made this comment but it just occurred to me.
 
I thought "oh! Someone gave a Like...wait, how in the H did they do that?" :facepalm:
I changed the appearance a little bit to make it more clearer... the "Like" button is now on the bottom-right with "Quote" & "Reply" button while the actual ratings are on the bottom-left.
This may or may not be importat but I noticed the lifesaver hoverover nolonger tooltips "Helpful" it says "Undefined". I know it means helpful but others may not? I didn't check the other named tooltips.
Fixed, thanks. Looks like the importer from the old ratings system didn't pick up all of the descriptions.
Does the chat also resize large pics?
Good question. I think the old version of Chat would display a smaller image that could be enlarged by clicking on it. I'll take a look.
 
I realized this week that the email templates weren't looking too good so they've been updated.

If you receive any emails and if you notice anything funky with how they look please let me know.
 
I only read the titles of the emails.
Don't really need to open them, the fact that the email is there is enough to know to come to the site.
 
Its hard to download funny clips from you tube, videos and images don't work. Some music clips might work, but I liked the older one it was less regulated and easier to use, the rest of the graphix are ok.....
 
Its hard to download funny clips from you tube, videos and images don't work. Some music clips might work, but I liked the older one it was less regulated and easier to use, the rest of the graphix are ok.....
You need to clarify... what exactly are you trying to do? There has never been a "download" function for videos and the YouTube stuff works the same way as it did before (it actually works better than it did before the upgrade). I don't know what you mean by 'less regulated'.
 
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