A while ago we could reserve a Name for a future letterbox we would want to plant

Go to your logbook. Under Action select Plants. Under Box Type select Traditional. Click on the down arrow for a list. The last one is Reserved.

I hope the one you saved is still there.

Thank you, Mud. Er...Kathleen? My CRS is kicking in once again, hope the name is right. Can't remember s--t. oops--anyway, thanks for the info.

I was bored and thought it might be fun to read board posts of days gone by. But clicking on the numbers (20) at the bottom page, I was only able to go back to Nov 6, 2017. I even tried manually inserting a higher number in the url bar to no avail.

Is there an archive of forum posts somewhere that’s easy to access (excepting the Wayback machine)?

DZ

I couldn't get into older post on a local board until I searched all the boards by keywords...then I could see really really old post from all the boards, but I'm not sure if that's how its supposed to work.

No, I believe I had two reserved. But nothing shows now. Guess they get erased after a while. :(
Thanks for the info!

But clicking on the numbers (20) at the bottom page, I was only able to go back to Nov 6, 2017.

I'm not actually sure which page you're referring to, but I suspect you're looking at a list of "recent" messages rather than "all" messages. It's an important distinction! =)

When you're reading a board, though, if you click the "First" button, it takes you to the first message of the board.

If you want to poke around messages older than a year but not necessarily the very first messages on a board, however, I'd recommend the search boards option. You can specify the year you'd like to search from 2004 to the present. (Message boards began in 2004.) You could explore specific themes across all years as well.

It's also possible to look at the AQ Stats page which shows how many messages were posted each month since the feature was introduced. If you click on one of the months, it'll take you to the messages starting from that month.

-- Ryan

I believe I had two reserved. But nothing shows now. Guess they get erased after a while. :(

Reserved boxes never get deleted. Maybe you just mis-remembered listing them after so much time, though? It wouldn't be the first time someone thought they listed a box but then it turned out they didn't! Or started listing a box but forgot to click "save" at the end.

-- Ryan

It wouldn't be the first time someone thought they listed a box but then it turned out they didn't! Or started listing a box but forgot to click "save" at the end.

This is why I always go and do a search for my new listings to be sure they are showing up in the right location, etc.

Ah, ok I see now. Thanks Ryan, helpful as always. Appreciated! 😄

I just made a postcard for a ring exchange. I set it up as an “Other” type box but now I can’t add it to the tracker. I should have made it an LTC. I was about to delete it when I realized that I’d lose my AQ number which is already written on the cards. Is it too late to change it to an LTC, and if not, how do I do that?

You get one of the admins to fix it. AQ-mail Green Tortuga and ask if he will fix it for you.

I've gone ahead and changed it.

Happy trails!

-- Ryan

I’m wondering if it’s possible to turn on or enable spoiler tags on this site?

I stumbled across a cool artist I thought would be fun to share with the LTCer in a forum post but as I scrolled through her work, I noticed there were a couple of paintings/drawings that showed hints of boobies (albeit cartoony and manga-ish). Nothing that should offend but it would have been nice to spoiler it thus adhering to the *”2 click rule” if I decided to put a google search link to her stuff.

Also I notice that several posters like to discuss movies and TV shows. Spoiler tags would allow one to discuss the show in a general way but also have some plot elements hidden so as not to spoil it for those yet to see it.

Just a suggestion.

That's an interesting idea.... I'd never heard of a spoiler tag before. How do you imagine it would look? I googled for information about spoiler tags and see a couple of different ways it might work, but how have you seen it used in the past?

-- Ryan

They are used on several other message boards I visit occasionally. I believe they are used like this:

[spoiler] [/spoiler]

See post 22 in this thread for an example:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=843800

Goodreads is one site that uses spoiler tags. On Goodreads people post reviews of books they've read, so any spoilers in their reviews can be placed between spoiler tags.

Spoiler tags on Goodreads

So I've been playing around with simple ways to make this work, and I have a working version... more-or-less. You might have to click the "refresh" button on your browser to see it work if your browser is using a cached version of the CSS.

-- Ryan

Let’s see if it works.

Testing 1, 2, 3.

ETA: Hmm, not sure I got it. I used both brackets,
</spoiler> and
[/spoiler].

What am I not doing right?

What am I not doing right?

Try clicking that 'refresh' button on your browser. I updated the CSS code, but if your browser is using the old version, you won't see anything.

Eventually your browser will pick up the new version, but I set up AQ so it only checks new versions of CSS page about once per week. A manual refresh should get the job done, though.

-- Ryan

PS. Your spoiler alert worked for me! =)

So as a test one could show Ryan's alter ego to see if the spoiler aspect hides the info for those who don't want to know.
https://goo.gl/images/577at4 .

Hmm...I am not seeing a second click option to the link. Failed test?

Hmm...I am not seeing a second click option to the link. Failed test?

Well... yes and no. Just hovering a mouse cursor over the spoiler is enough to get it to show. Since things like smartphones don't have a mouse, you can tap it (or with a keyboard, move the focus to it) and it'll show. But it only takes a single click to activate a link.

The failure there was that the link wasn't actually hidden in the first place because of the cascading nature of CSS and it wasn't a scenario I had thought of. That should be fixed now, but you might have to do a "refresh" to force the CSS to update to the new version.

But it still only takes one click to activate a link.

-- Ryan

I should also point out.... The spoiler tag is something that's embedded into the wiki/html markups, so it actually works anywhere you can type in wiki/html markup. Including AQ mail and clues....

Just sayin'.... ;o)

Although there are caveats about how well it works in certain situations. Printed material, for instance, nothing gets hidden, so if you use it in a clue, the spoiler doesn't get hidden in the printed version of it. If someone has AQ mail forwarded to a real email address, the spoiler won't be hidden in the email. It'll only work when the markup is viewed directly on AQ.

-- Ryan

Wow! Very cool. Thanks Ryan.
Also I can see that it will open up some very interesting possibilities for clues. Hmm...

So as a test one could show Ryan's alter ego to see if the spoiler aspect hides the info for those who don't want to know.

Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I was thinking about. Well done, oh and now I see why Ryan’s favorite color is purple.

I've tried several times to log an unlisted traditional attempt today and each time, it records it as a find. At first, I thought I didn't check the box for attempt, but I removed the find and tried two more times to log it...no luck. The unlisted box is called Surfing in USA. It is currently showing up as a traditional find.

This is unrelated and persnickety, but I'm also curious why AQ sometimes changes the capitalization of an unlisted box. I try to be very precise and list boxes exactly as they are presented to me. I noticed twice today when logging unlisted stuff that AQ changed the capitalization. This Surfing in USA box is one example. It is listed on LBNA just as I typed it and this is how I tried to list it. AQ changed it to Surfing In USA (with a capital I). I know that's not a huge deal, but sometimes caps are used or not used for emphasis and I'd like to be able to preserve that in the box title.

I've tried several times to log an unlisted traditional attempt today and each time, it records it as a find.

Sorry about that. Bug in the code, but it should be fixed now!

I'm also curious why AQ sometimes changes the capitalization of an unlisted box.

That would be because someone already recorded an unlisted find with that name and your find is attached to it. The database isn't very good at recognizing when the capitalization is different.

The easiest way around that that is to make sure you are the first person who record a certain box name. Maybe using the name of the location of where the box was located or who planted it.

If it's in the list box matching unlisted boxes--that's how it's going to show no matter how you change the capitalization. It has to be a completely new entry in the database for your capitalization to stick.

-- Ryan

Thanks for fixing the bug! I appreciate it.

As for the capitalization, that makes sense, but I really did think I was the first to log this particular box. I'll keep your suggestions in mind going forward! Thanks!

I really did think I was the first to log this particular box.

Hmm.... I took a look at the code, and you might be right. It looks like I mis-remembered how the code works where AQ automatically capitalizes the first letter of each word.

The rest of what I wrote is true--however it's stored in the database is how everyone else will see it show up in their logbook. That might actually be why I decided to have it automatically capitalize the first letter of each word. A lot of people don't type with capital letters which drives some people crazy, and if I didn't auto-capitalize them, it would likely cause a lot of annoyance for people who would prefer titles use capitalization. (You're actually the first person to ever complain about one of the words not being capitalized!)

Maybe I can make the code detect if the person used some capitalization and only capitalize the first letter of each word if they didn't use any at all? If they used it on some words but not others, that would assume that they deliberately chose not to capitalize certain words and it should be left alone. Hmm.....

-- Ryan

Okay.... I take back some of what I said in my last post. I was digging into the code more and this is what happens.... =)

When you click the "Create New Entry" to add new unlisted box, it'll automatically capitalize everything on the next page where you fill in and/or confirm the existing details.

At that point, you can change the capitalization to exactly how you want it and it'll stick. (But again, only if someone else hasn't already recorded the find on the unlisted box--otherwise, it uses what the first person recorded.)

So you can change how the capitalization is saved.... but only on that final confirmation page will it stick--and only if you were the first person to record the find.

-- Ryan