# Welcome to ControlBooth 5.0



## dvsDave (Nov 15, 2019)

This is the launch of the next gen ControlBooth.com. In technical terms, we upgraded from Xenforo 1.5 to 2.1, but it's a massive upgrade!

We have the ability to do new things, like type emojis. Just type a colon, then type a description, like taco, and you'll get a popup with available emoji.  If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited to _finally _have the taco emoji available on CB.

The new site is much better and faster with smartphones. 

Attachments and adding pictures is now drag and drop.


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## dvsDave (Nov 15, 2019)

We also now have native Push Notifications for desktop browsers and Android devices. Sorry, iOS folks, Apple doesn't want to play nice with the open standards for push notifications right now. I am working on getting something like OneSignal up and running for iOS users.


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## Jay Ashworth (Nov 15, 2019)

It's pretty pushy about wanting you to accept push notifications. *Nothing* has push to my desktop browsers.

I've been perfectly happy about reply notices coming in by email on my phone, to date...


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> It's pretty pushy about wanting you to accept push notifications. *Nothing* has push to my desktop browsers.
> 
> I've been perfectly happy about reply notices coming in by email on my phone, to date...



Did you have to click block more than once? Let me know. I'll look into it. It's a new feature for me too.


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## Jay Ashworth (Nov 16, 2019)

It asked if I wanted push, and when I said no, it said "are you sure? It's really really handy" or something akin in tone to that.  
Plus it had a problem with z-stacking and opacity in the second message, making it hard to see the 

"Yes -- Later -- Nosirree"

option choices.


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## ship (Nov 16, 2019)

Push? Z-stacking?? I'm only 51 but feel 5.1 is... foreign or too new for me in specializing in pre-1979 technology.


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## Michael K (Nov 16, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> It asked if I wanted push, and when I said no, it said "are you sure? It's really really handy" or something akin in tone to that.
> Plus it had a problem with z-stacking and opacity in the second message, making it hard to see the
> 
> "Yes -- Later -- Nosirree"
> ...


I have the same issue on mobile (Android), the second box is an annoyingly translucent yellow, with yellow-orange option text.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Nov 16, 2019)

I use to be able to read to bottom of thread and then jump to unread with one click. Now two. What am I missing?


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## rphilip (Nov 16, 2019)

Am I missing some visual indication that a forum or thread has unread post?

What used to be bold vs normal text and the little box at the right end of the subject line.


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

Good Morning, all! I will working on CB to address these issues pretty much all day! So, I'm making it a party. I've got a Zoom meeting going, so join me and hang out for a while. Zoom meetings are free and you don't have to sign up for anything, just click the link, download the tiny bit of software if you've never done a zoom meeting before and poof! you are in!

https://cbl.ink/VideoChat


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> It asked if I wanted push, and when I said no, it said "are you sure? It's really really handy" or something akin in tone to that.
> Plus it had a problem with z-stacking and opacity in the second message, making it hard to see the
> 
> "Yes -- Later -- Nosirree"
> ...



How's this for revised language? I also think I got the color issue fixed on the 2nd popup.


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

rphilip said:


> Am I missing some visual indication that a forum or thread has unread post?
> 
> What used to be bold vs normal text and the little box at the right end of the subject line.



Got the main forum list fixed, working on the thread view. Having trouble finding the code that controls that


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

dvsDave said:


> Got the main forum list fixed, working on the thread view. Having trouble finding the code that controls that



Got it! Spend the last hour tracking down what was overriding the bolding of the unread threads. At some point, I set the site links to be the correct color, but I must have set the font-weight as normal. Because it was set at the top level, the override to make it bold wasn't high enough in the DOM to override the primary setting. As soon as I removed the font-weight option from the sitewide links, that fixed it.


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I use to be able to read to bottom of thread and then jump to unread with one click. Now two. What am I missing?



The update to the site basically wiped out your read/unread history, as far as new posts goes. It kept the basic read/ unread threads history but lost the "read up to X post" history. From here out, once you read a thread, and _then_ there are new posts, clicking the thread title will bring you straight to the first unread post.


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## Jay Ashworth (Nov 16, 2019)

ship said:


> Push? Z-stacking?? I'm only 51 but feel 5.1 is... foreign or too new for me in specializing in pre-1979 technology.



"The message soliciting permission for browser-push notifications" 

and

"The stacking of one non-opaque dialog atop another, so it's hard to tell which one you're supposed to be interacting with".


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## Jay Ashworth (Nov 16, 2019)

I note that there's a persistent bottom of screen toaster message now saying

"ControlBooth would like your permission to enable push notifications."

Even though I'd said Never Ask Again, the first time.

I'll let you know if it returns.


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## Jay Ashworth (Nov 16, 2019)

RFE: In anything but a completely dark booth, it's a bit difficult to discern the framework of the thread pages; would you entertain moving the brightness level of the non-page-background elements up a notch?


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> I note that there's a persistent bottom of screen toaster message now saying
> "ControlBooth would like your permission to enable push notifications."
> Even though I'd said Never Ask Again, the first time.
> I'll let you know if it returns.



Check your permissions here: https://www.controlbooth.com/account/preferences About 3/4 of the way down, there is a section for push notifications. It should show Blocked. If it does show blocked, then let me know if you see it again. I personally can't stand it when sites are pushy about push notifications, I only have them enabled for a few places (seriously, don't need my local peruvian place sending me push notifications, that will just end in a lot of chicken  )


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## What Rigger? (Nov 16, 2019)

dvsDave said:


> This is the launch of the next gen ControlBooth.com. In technical terms, we upgraded from Xenforo 1.5 to 2.1, but it's a massive upgrade!
> 
> We have the ability to do new things, like type emojis. Just type a colon, then type a description, like taco, and you'll get a popup with available emoji.  If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited to _finally _have the taco emoji available on CB.
> 
> ...


New version is banger on my 5 year old iPad, and is fabulous on desktop (not while) at work. Totally not.


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## Jay Ashworth (Nov 16, 2019)

@dvsDave:


Secondarily, the process to insert that image as an upload is a bit weird, too; Chrome/Mac


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> RFE: In anything but a completely dark booth, it's a bit difficult to discern the framework of the thread pages; would you entertain moving the brightness level of the non-page-background elements up a notch?



Working on that. After we went like, I started checking the site on other devices. My primary monitor has pretty clear separation, but it's a pretty nice 24" Dell. I'm looking at increasing the contrast between background elements more or putting in brighter borders.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Nov 16, 2019)

dvsDave said:


> The update to the site basically wiped out your read/unread history, as far as new posts goes. It kept the basic read/ unread threads history but lost the "read up to X post" history. From here out, once you read a thread, and _then_ there are new posts, clicking the thread title will bring you straight to the first unread post.


Different. It's the "new posts" link that gets me to all the threads with posts I haven't read. Use to be at top of every thread.


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> @dvsDave:View attachment 18723
> 
> 
> Secondarily, the process to insert that image as an upload is a bit weird, too; Chrome/Mac



Okay, if you are on Chrome, you can permanently block them by going to the padlock icon on the address bar, clicking it and then choose Block. 




As far as how you inserted the image, what method did you use? Copy and paste, drag and drop, the Insert Image button on the toolbar, or the Attach files button?


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## dvsDave (Nov 16, 2019)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> Different. It's the "new posts" link that gets me to all the threads with posts I haven't read. Use to be at top of every thread.



It still is at the top, no matter how much you scroll. When you are all the way at the top, the secondary menu is visible, when you scroll down, it compacts itself into the main navigation. But unlike the old site, the main navigation menu is "sticky" to the top of the screen. 



There's also a shortcut button at the top right of the main homepage



And you can do it on mobile from the "hamburger" menu at the top left.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Nov 16, 2019)

dvsDave said:


> It still is at the top, no matter how much you scroll. When you are all the way at the top, the secondary menu is visible, when you scroll down, it compacts itself into the main navigation. But unlike the old site, the main navigation menu is "sticky" to the top of the screen.
> View attachment 18725
> 
> 
> ...


I swear it didn't use to be under forums - just at top of every thread. On click rather than 2.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Nov 17, 2019)

Ok - so finally had time between flights to take out laptop and its fine there - "new posts" upper right top of thread.

BUT on phone and tablet both, it's not displayed at top of thread and I swear it use to be. Click on the 3 horizontal bars ("hamburger"?) and scroll once and it's there, but nowhere as easy as it was. I'd much rather have the "new posts" at top of thread than the envelope, bell, or lightning bolt.


And of course the "believe it or not" banner just about fills my phone screen displacing all but a thread or two but I assume it will go away after a while.

Still exploring other differences. Lo0ok good otherwise. And maybe if I was a little more app literate I could customize my views, but not going to happen and too old to have another teenager in the house to do it for me.


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## rphilip (Nov 17, 2019)

dvsDave said:


> Got it! Spend the last hour tracking down what was overriding the bolding of the unread threads. At some point, I set the site links to be the correct color, but I must have set the font-weight as normal. Because it was set at the top level, the override to make it bold wasn't high enough in the DOM to override the primary setting. As soon as I removed the font-weight option from the sitewide links, that fixed it.




It’s working, thanks. 

However at least on mobile I wish the bold was even bolder. It’s not a easy to tell the difference as the old font. Ok desktop the difference appears more pronounced 

Philip


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## dvsDave (Nov 17, 2019)

rphilip said:


> It’s working, thanks.
> 
> However at least on mobile I wish the bold was even bolder. It’s not a easy to tell the difference as the old font. Ok desktop the difference appears more pronounced
> 
> Philip



I'm working on a a way to set the font weight even higher on mobile view only. It's too bold on the desktop if I go to the next font weight up.


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## jonliles (Nov 17, 2019)

@dvsDave , it looks great! Thanks for all that you do to keep this alive.


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## dvsDave (Nov 18, 2019)

I've updated the theme colors to try to provide better separation between the message and make the menu easier to see and use. Let me know what you think!


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## dvsDave (Nov 18, 2019)

Speaking of themes, there have been many requests over the years for a nice light version of the site. If you down at the bottom left of the screen, you'll see a toggle switch. Go ahead and click that and check it out. (watch your eyes, it's a big adjustment!)


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## Amiers (Nov 19, 2019)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> Ok - so finally had time between flights to take out laptop and its fine there - "new posts" upper right top of thread.
> 
> BUT on phone and tablet both, it's not displayed at top of thread and I swear it use to be. Click on the 3 horizontal bars ("hamburger"?) and scroll once and it's there, but nowhere as easy as it was. I'd much rather have the "new posts" at top of thread than the envelope, bell, or lightning bolt.
> 
> ...


@dvsDave Bill is correct there used to be a floating Nav with new post words as well as the lighting bolt.

a screen shot from May.


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## dvsDave (Nov 19, 2019)

Amiers said:


> @dvsDave Bill is correct there used to be a floating Nav with new post words as well as the lighting bolt.View attachment 18757
> 
> a screen shot from May.



You were using the CB pro theme, which was never the default theme. But, I am working on a fix to make the current lightning bolt default to New Posts instead of Latest Posts. The templating logic is very different in this version than it was in the old version. Much easier to maintain, but harder to wrap my head around.


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## Amiers (Nov 19, 2019)

I always forget I use the old ball theme.

I’m surprised there isn’t an importer of pervious themes and that it’s a complete overhaul. Talking about a kick in the pants.


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## dvsDave (Nov 19, 2019)

Amiers said:


> I always forget I use the old ball theme.
> 
> I’m surprised there isn’t an importer of pervious themes and that it’s a complete overhaul. Talking about a kick in the pants.



The whole templating system is completely different, but they did make an attempt to interpret the colors scheme when you upgrade. The results weren't... pretty.


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## ElGusto (Nov 20, 2019)

Looks amazing, gang!


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## eadler (Nov 20, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> It asked if I wanted push, and when I said no, it said "are you sure? It's really really handy" or something akin in tone to that.
> Plus it had a problem with z-stacking and opacity in the second message, making it hard to see the
> 
> "Yes -- Later -- Nosirree"
> ...


It also was quite yellow-on-yellow-on-yellow here, very hard to read without selecting the text.


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## Jay Ashworth (Dec 1, 2019)

I've just learned, @dvsDave, that the new code will allow you to type more than one space before a new sentence, but will not *display them*. They're there, you have to backspace over all of them to get rid of them, but it declines to display them. UPDATE: No, it's *any* collection of multiple spaces.

Discarding the "display what I damn tell you", and "two spaces after a period is not only just fine, it's recommended for legibility" arguments... this also impacts the functionality of ASCII art drawings, which are occasionally useful in forum environs like this.

Oh, and also the "don't store them but not display them, that's evil" argument.

Is there a global system toggle for "compress multiple spaces"? Can you -- and would you -- turn it off?


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## dvsDave (Dec 1, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> I've just learned, @dvsDave, that the new code will allow you to type more than one space before a new sentence, but will not *display them*. They're there, you have to backspace over all of them to get rid of them, but it declines to display them. UPDATE: No, it's *any* collection of multiple spaces.
> 
> Discarding the "display what I damn tell you", and "two spaces after a period is not only just fine, it's recommended for legibility" arguments... this also impacts the functionality of ASCII art drawings, which are occasionally useful in forum environs like this.
> 
> ...



Ummm... Huh... That's a new one. I hadn't realized that was a thing! I'll look into it.


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## dvsDave (Dec 1, 2019)

Jay Ashworth said:


> Discarding the "display what I damn tell you", and "two spaces after a period is not only just fine, it's recommended for legibility" arguments... this also impacts the functionality of ASCII art drawings, which are occasionally useful in forum environs like this.



So, I checked on the forums for the XenForo software and there does not appear to be a way to turn this off. I thought there might be a way to do it with an inline code block, but that doesn't work. I'll be bringing this up as a suggestion with the devs.


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## RonHebbard (Dec 2, 2019)

dvsDave said:


> So, I checked on the forums for the XenForo software and there does not appear to be a way to turn this off. I thought there might be a way to do it with an inline code block, but that doesn't work. I'll be bringing this up as a suggestion with the devs.


Being a Geezer, 'way back in grade school, an English Grammar teacher hammered into my skull: 
One space after commas (,) & semi colons (.
Two spaces after periods (.) & colons ) exclamation marks (!) and interrogation (?) marks.
Periods and two spaces after abbreviations. 
Apostrophes in place of missing letters in contractions. 

When proofing my posts I was certain I'd entered two spaces after periods ending sentences yet once posting, only one space would appear. 
Being a responsible sort'a guy; I'd edit, note two spaces, add one more, save changes and DANG! Still only one space. 
In my younger days this would've bothered me; now a days it's just more water of this old duck's back. 
Toodleoo! 
Ron Hebbard


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## Jay Ashworth (Dec 2, 2019)

Please do thanks.


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## Jay Ashworth (Dec 2, 2019)

RonHebbard said:


> Two spaces after periods (.) & colons ) exc;a,ation marks (!) and interrogation (?) marks.
> Periods and two spaces after abbreviations.



Well, the rule "changed" to 1 space after in typeset variable-pitch material, but I've done this for 30 years, and I find that the extra space is still helpful to readability. In fixed pitch material (including typewriting), it's still a necessity.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Dec 2, 2019)

I suggest one sentence replies rather than an attempt at the next Great American Novel.


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## dvsDave (Dec 2, 2019)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I suggest one sentence replies rather than an attempt at the next Great American Novel.


But... that's not the ControlBooth Way...


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## Jay Ashworth (Dec 2, 2019)

I was going to go for the serious reply, pulling out a bunch of links to 8 and 12 graf replies that taught people a whole lot, but I just let you take it, Dave.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 10, 2020)

Needs a "New Posts" (which I think is actually unread by that user) button at the bottom of all threads.


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## Jay Ashworth (Jan 10, 2020)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> Needs a "New Posts" (which I think is actually unread by that user) button at the bottom of all threads.


It's been my experience that if new comments come in on a thread while you're looking at it, the engine drops in a pointer, letting you know that; presumably 5.0 does this too.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 11, 2020)

Jay Ashworth said:


> It's been my experience that if new comments come in on a thread while you're looking at it, the engine drops in a pointer, letting you know that; presumably 5.0 does this too.


New posts to all CB, not the thread I'm in.


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## Jay Ashworth (Jan 12, 2020)

The 'New Posts' button's on the eyebrow bar, first in line; is it not pinned to the screen for you?


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 12, 2020)

It is on laptop at top of thread, but not on tablet or phone. But my point was it would be convenient to have that link at the bottom. I post, and then want to go to next unread thread without scrolling and without having to open the "hamburger"


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## dvsDave (Jan 12, 2020)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> It is on laptop at top of thread, but not on tablet or phone. But my point was it would be convenient to have that link at the bottom. I post, and then want to go to next unread thread without scrolling and without having to open the "hamburger"


There's a shortcut icon.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 12, 2020)

Well I see it but it doesn't do same as new posts. I went to another to thread, read new posts, and hit the lightening bolt, and the thread I just finished reading was still there. I'm sure I read last post on last page.


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## Jay Ashworth (Jan 12, 2020)

Oh. Mobile web.

Assume people will interpret UI reports in the context of the desktop/Web UI unless you specify.

@dvsDave: is that what the lightning bolt is *supposed* to do?

Also: wasn't there a native app that was supposed to get reheated after the migration? Any movement on that yet?


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## DrewE (Jan 13, 2020)

The "new posts" links to https://www.controlbooth.com/whats-new/posts/ while the lightning bolt links to https://www.controlbooth.com/whats-new/ (without the "posts/" bit). Were they intended to go to the same place?

And I guess I wouldn't immediately think of "lightning bolt" as meaning "see what has changed," though I will admit I know full well from personal experience developing software and user interfaces that finding icons that have something resembling innate meaning for highly conceptual ideas is not exactly easy. That is to say, in more direct terms, I don't have a clue as to what simple pictogram would more readily convey newness or changedness.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 13, 2020)

I find that the button I use most is the "new posts" that goes to a list of posts I have not read or not marked as read. Laptop, tablet, phone. Simple. I feel certain it appeared at top of a thread in previous mobile without having to open the hamburger.


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