Site Changes (BOWIE)

[ed_ferrari]

Never mind. I guess you have to have at least 1 person membermarked for the extra search categories to show up. Please nuke thie and the previous message.

[ed_ferrari]

Is the ability to search posts pre-2005 broken? I don't see any option to input years when using the advanced search...

[ergo sum]

Could I have a button on the private message reply screen to Submit and Return to Thread?

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

It's to reset the new message count to zero for that specific board or member. Works like the "Clear" links at the top of the new message columns, but while "Clear" resets *all* of your favorites to zero, reset works on only that specific board or person.

[TonyMcFadden]

resets the count for that member/board mark to '0'

[hk2]

When I view my "favorites" page, there is a new column to the right of "remove" called "reset".

What's that all about?

[The Original dpb5!]

Thanks Bob,

I guess I was wrong!

Nice feature!

[ergo sum]

Hey Bob.

When I do a universal search say for the word 'idiosyncratic' the word is highlighted in blue. If I do the same search on a specific board this is not the case. This may be a bit idiosyncratic but I think it would be helpful if this blue highlight were also available for a board search.

[ergo sum]

I don't understand how this works. If I click on your profile the default seems to "investor's hub"

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Advanced Search now allows you to leave the search words field blank.

This is really handy for things like finding all the posts someone wrote on a particular board no matter what text was in the posts.

[The Original dpb5!]

Is it just me, or does anyone else agree that it appears that BobZ has forgotten all about this board at this point?

[The Original dpb5!]

LOL chewy...what a snitch! HAHAHA!

[Churak]

Matt's messing with your code.

[Carolyn]

Phew! Just checking.

[Dallas Boy50]

That is AWESOME, BOB!!!!!!! Way to go!!!!!!!! .....
YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!

THANK YOU!!!

[Rager]

Well done on the quotes page...!

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

iHub now has a Quotes page!

To use it, type a ticker in the Search box at the top or bottom of any screen, select "Quote/Chart" from the dropdown, hit the "Go" button, and you get a detailed quote and can select different options like Level II, News, Charts (including a nice java chart), Options chains, Filings, and Historical Prices.

Cool stuff!

This is available only to Premium members.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

That'll still be a while. My main focus is still SI, but I'm putting in the quotes features on iHub today mainly because I'm heading out of town tomorrow morning and there's not really anything with SI that I can start/finish today, but a few things with iHub.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

We've added a Commentary section to the homepage. IMO, the article we're carrying there right now (it'll be changed weekly) is one of those where you probably shouldn't be drinking a beverage while reading it.

A 160x600 or 120x600 ad is displayed with the commentary, regardless of whether you're a Premium member. We're paying for that particular article and need help offsetting the cost.

We're also going to use Commentary as a separate revenue stream. More details will be available later, but aside from very rare instances, we'll be charging Commentary providers on both sites. It'll be part of a "Commentary Provider" package we'll see where, for a price, a Commentary writer will be able to post commentary linkable from the home page, we'll keep an accessible archive of their previous articles, their articles will be displayed with their own ads, and we'll include some banner, box, or text-link ad inventory as part of the package.

Any interested writers should PM me directly and I'll get them the rate sheets and what the package offers.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

iHub now has quotes!

Specifically, the homepage now carries a market snapshot (DJIA is missing because of exhorbitant fees for their data) and any stock-specific board now can display a delated quote and chart right below the iBox. Of course, this can be toggled on and off on a per-user basis.

If your board is specific to a stock, make sure it's located in either the "Nasdaq and Listed", "OTCBB" or "Canadian Stocks" categories and has a valid ticker.

The homepage market snapshot is visible to everyone, whether free, Premium, or not logged in.

To view the quotes associated with boards, you have to be logged in and you have to be a Premium member.

The best part is yet to come.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Can't believe it's been so long since I've posted here.

About a week or so ago, I implemented a new "Filing" feature on iHub, available only to Premium Members.

The Filing feature is a way for you to create message folders on the site and manage the contents of them.

On the "MailBox" screen, just to the right of your name, is a link that says "Manage/Open Folders". Clicking this will take you to the Folder Management screen, where you can create new folders and view or manage the contents of them. Clicking the name of an existing folder will re-display the same screen, but with the contents of that folder displayed.

Also at the far right of each message in your MailBox is a link that says "File". If you click that link, the system will prompt you to click the name of the folder to which to move the message. After you've done so, the message is moved to that folder and you're taken back to your MailBox.

A Folder doesn't care whether a message is private or public. It'll store them all the same.

This morning, I added a number of new features to Filing. They are:

1. A "Return to MailBox" link for filed messages. Clicking this will remove the message from the current folder and put it back in the MailBox.

2. A "Delete" link for each folder. Pretty self-explanatory. It's only functional on empty folders, though. If you want to delete a folder that has messages in it, first return its messages to your MailBox.

3. The ability to rename existing folders.

I consider the Filing system about 50% done now. I won't be making anymore changes to it for a while, though, as I need to get back to SI programming. New interfaces don't write themselves.

[Mattu]

Filtering and Cookies Information:

Cookie Changes: #msg-1655268

Filters: Please check your filters here, to make sure you have everything set properly. You may be blocking people from posting to you.

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/filters.asp

Filtering Changes: We'll make things simpler, but for now, if you block someone by way of "PM Block" or "Prevent Messages From This Poster" (in their profile), they can not send you any type of message -- public or private. Nor can you send messages to them. More Info: #msg-1656032

Questions? Let us know on #board-504

MB

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Thanks for pointing that out. I haven't heard an outcry yet, but perhaps because people are better-educated about cookies and know that these kinds of cookies are not as evil as some might think. I'm just storing the userID on the user's computer instead of the webserver so that it won't matter which webserver they're on once all the code is converted and we're running multiple web-servers.

[Mattu]

For IE/Netscape permission/terminology purposes a "memory" cookie is most frequently referred to as a session cookie. Gets wiped after you close your browser.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

If you block someone from sending you messages, the block now applies to public messages.

The checking is a little more in-depth for public messages.

With private messages, the system only checks to see if the intended recipient has blocked the intended author.

With public messages, the system checks both the author's and recipient's filter list. If either has the other blocked, it won't allow the public message to be posted.

This means that if I have Matt blocked from sending me messages, he can't send them to me and I also can't send them to him.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Effective immediately, iHub is storing a cookie in memory on your machine to keep track of your account number. This is in addition to the cookies that are kept if you check the "Check this box to remember your Username/Password" box on the login page.

This cookie is different in that it resides only in memory, not on your hard drive. When you close your browser, the cookie is erased.

The simple explanation of why we're doing this is to make it possible to add webservers in the (near) future without having to also add an expensive load-balancer.

The more technical explanation is that your account info is stored in session variables right now. In a simple "round-robin" load-balancing scenario (which is what we'll use), session variables are a bad thing. They're only known to the webserver you're currently on. When you go to another page on the site and your request is served by a different webserver (which will be the case 50% of the time in a 2-server setup), the different webserver doesn't have your session variables, so it has no idea who you are and therefore treats you like you're not logged in to the site at all.

Some of you may remember the problems we had before when we added a second webserver. The problems were caused by the fact that one webserver has no idea what session variables the other webserver had stored for you.

A memory cookie is one way around this. Hidden form fields is another. Memory cookies are much easier, though. A memory cookie is available to every page of the site without every page having to have code added to pass a hidden form field to the next page.

The reason I'm doing this right now is that I'm adding a new feature to the site that'll be "sessionless" and I will eventually make all pages sessionless so that they can be handled correctly by multiple webservers.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

When a moderator is viewing a deleted message in the board management screen, the name of the person who deleted the message is now displayed.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Fixed the bug in PM Searching that was causing the "Previous 50" link to take you out of PM Search and into Public Message search.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

When you search public messages and click on a message that's returned by the results list, your search terms are now highlighted in that message in the same color you chose for displaying typos in the Preview screen.

Edit: The search term is also capitalized in the message. Anything to make it easier for color-blind people like me.

Edit 2: The search term is also bolded.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Switched the order of "Next 50" and "Previous 50" on board.asp to make it consistent with the rest of the site.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Ages since I've posted to this board!

Message reading done in Batch mode ("Next 50", etc) is now being accounted for properly when determining the number of messages read per day on a board and its score for inclusion on the homepage.

[Mattu]

Feature of the Day Board #board-16

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Reminder to everyone. Matt and I are the only people allowed to post on this board. I have Matt's approval to impose such a rule on this one.

My previous message wouldn't have been written in the first place except that I didn't notice that the person I was replying to had replied on this board. And I'm a bit more perturbed that they used this board as a way to get in a slam on another poster.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

So now when I go to my mail box I won't see the messages from someone I have on ignore and he can't respond to my posts.

We're talking about two different kinds of filtering here:

1. The kind that hides someone from your view.
2. The kind that prevents them from writing to you.

If you go to http://www.investorshub.com/boards/filters.asp you'll see how it's broken out into two categories.

If you've got someone filtered so that you can't see their posts, that won't stop them from posting to you.

The PM-filtering has been expanded so that if you use it, now they can't post to you privately or publicly. And you can't post to them.

Also if I have in on ignore I can't sent messages to him?

Correct, if you use that second variety of filtering.

Is this feature for lifetime members only?

No. It's a free feature and I don't anticipate making it a premium feature.

This really sounds great and be should used by everyone who is annoyed by ONCE.

Well, it was he who indirectly is responsible for my moving this item up on the priority list (after seeing his posts elsewhere), but I should add that his conduct on another site will have no bearing on how he's treated here from an administrative perspective. But it did give me a bit more empathy for the user perspective, so I decided to go ahead and get to work on this. Especially since it's been presented many times as a remaining problem.

That said, I DO NOT recommend wholesale use of this feature on ANYONE. The whole Filtering thing has always bugged me because it DOES get mis-used. Like the guy who PM'd me some time back saying that he has brought hundreds of lurkers to iHub (a fabrication) and instructs them all to filter out Once. If he's eventually proven right in his warnings, I don't doubt that the few people the PM'er really did bring with him will be looking for blood because he told them to ignore Once.

Instructing others to ignore someone is very dangerous territory, IMO. Everyone should make that decision for themselves, with a clear understanding of the dangers involved (like being able to filter out semi's because they annoy you on the road, then stepping out in front of one you couldn't see). I very strongly disapprove of anyone using Filtering of any kind as anything but a personal tool. Whether it be public or private recommendations to Filter someone or public comments that someone has done so.

Even if annoying, the contrary point of view is very deserving of close attention, in any endeavor. Neither you nor I should be recommending specific use of the Filtering feature, although I support Matt's occasional recommendations of using it when dealing with people who just can't behave themselves when they see specific posts.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Filtering Limitations Implemented

Premium members are now limited to 200 Filters and Free members are limited to 5. I also ran a routine this morning to pare down any filter lists that exceeded these limits. It took us from having 9483 filters to having 4899 and the difference in webserver loading, though small, is noticeable. This is a function of individual filter-list size more than it is the total number of filters on the system.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Major addition to Filtering: Message-Blocking

What used to be just Private Message (PM) blocking now applies to public messages, with a twist.

If you go to a person's profile, you'll see a link there for blocking messages to you from them. If you hit that link, or hit the "Block Messages" link when reading a private message from them, they will no longer be able to send you messages, privately or publicly.

The twist is that if you do this, you also can't write to them.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Minor new feature and a minor bug fix:

Subscribers now have a link at the top of the screen, where ads appear for non-subscribers, that shows the current status of Filtering. Clicking the link will toggle the status and return you to the same screen.

Where this will be handiest is in your MailBox which is one of the few remaining places it's possible to see a message from a Filtered person. If it's a public message to you. With Filtering turned on, if you click the message, it'll mark the message as read and take you to the next one. If you decide, by looking at the subject line, that you'd like to read the message, toggle the top-of-screen link to "Filtering Off", and you should be able to read the message.

The bug fix pertains to the batch-reading mode.

I've been doing a lot of modification to how message queries work, especially with regard to filtering them. In doing so, I'd caused a bug in which the "Next 10" (or whatever number) link would be active even if the current batch contained the last message on the board. That's fixed.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Bug Fixes: Surveys and Message-Filtering

1. The main Surveys menu wasn't working correctly with older versions of Netscape. Fixed. Thanks to STINVESTOR for showing me this one.

2. If you hit the new messages link for a board now, and the first new message is from someone on your filter list, their message will be skipped. Hopefully, if the first several messages are from Filtered people, they'll all be skipped, but I wasn't able to test this. If ALL new messages for that board are from Filtered people, the system will take you to the Board screen instead. Thanks to the many people who've pointed out this bug to me for a while.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

I just put a new version of board.asp (the routine that lets you browse a board) into production.

This version should be much faster and overall speed of the website should go up noticeably. This version causes about 50% less web-server loading than the previous version, which should be noticeable since this is the 3rd most frequently used routine on the site.

It should also handle filtering more "correctly". With the previous version, if you hit a Next 50 or Previous 50 link, the number of messages you'd see would be 50 minus the number that were filtered out. Now it should return 50 regardless.

A minor addition is on the left side, right above "Go to post #", a filtering status message to show you whether you're viewing the board unfiltered, filtered by author, or filtered by author and recipient.

As always, PM me or post to me on #board-504 if you find any bugs, as this was a pretty major change to an important routine.

And there is still a lot of work remaining to make it even more efficient.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Some changes were just put into production that deal with message-filtering.

1. The filters are now stored differently in the database. Rather than a long "filter string" containing all of the filters, there's a separate table with one record for each filter.

2. Much of the work of filtering out unwanted posts, especially when reading in batch mode, has been moved to the database server, which should make life easier for the webserver.

3. The above change plus some other changes to the way filtering is handled in batch mode should result in speedier batch-mode screens and will likely result in the whole site being a little bit faster because of less loading on the webserver.

4. When reading in Batch mode, you'll get 10, 20, 50, or 100 messages now, no matter how many messages are skipped because they're filtered.

On April 28th (Monday), I'll be doing the following:

1. Removing all but the first 200 filters for premium members. 200 filters will now be the limit.

2. Removing all but the first 15 filters for free members. 15 filters will become the limit for free members.

3. Implementing a "sleep for filters" routine for free members. How this will work is that as a free member's number of filters goes up, so will the amount of time the system "sleeps" or pauses before outputting screens. This gives the webserver a bit of a break. There will be no extra pauses introduced for the first 5 filters, but for each filter beyond 5, the system will pause *on each screen* for 1/10th of a second. So, if you have 7 filters, that'll result in a 0.2 second pause on each screen and if you have 10, that'll result in a half-second pause per screen.

Pauses of less than half a second will likely not even be noticed, even on broadband. But they'll give the webserver some breathing room in return for making available a feature that has not only always been considered "value-added" (and therefore charged for), but also does impose a load on the system.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Filtering is now disabled for free members. This change is permanent. Filtering is a Premium feature.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Major Change: Subscription Pricing, Lifetime Membership, and "Filter" feature.

This is in 4 parts:

1. Effective 4/1/03, Filtering will no longer be a free feature. Today is an unusually busy day on the site and the servers are showing the heavy burden, but when I temporarily (for about 5 minutes) disabled Filtering, the burden let up a LOT. So, it'll be available only to Subscribers effective 4/1.

2. Partly because I'm making Filtering unavailable for free soon, we're offering Lifetime Subscriptions again, but only until the end of April. Lifetime Subscriptions are available effective immediately, at a price of $169.95. If you are currently a Monthly, Semi-Annual, or Annual subscriber, the cost of your current subscription will be deducted from the cost of a Lifetime membership, but only until the end of March. For example, if you're currently an Annual subscriber, you can purchase a Lifetime Subscription for $100 ($169.95 minus the $69.95 cost of your current subscription).

3. Effective 4/1/03, Subscription rates will be raised to $8.95 for Monthly, $49.95 for Semi-Annual, and $89.95 for Annual. Lifetime Subscriptions will remain at $169.95 before they become unavailable on 5/1.

4. Effective immediately and while quantities last or until the end of April, we will include a free iHub Taglines t-shirt with all new Annual or Lifetime subscriptions (or upgrades to Lifetime). When we have received confirmation of your subscription, we will contact you for size and shipping information for your free t-shirt.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Minor Change: Happy Hour

I've added 2 Happy Hours, from 5:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern on Saturdays and Sundays.

This is a temporary change and I want to see how it goes.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Bug Fix: Filtering Substring Bug

I *think* I've got this one squashed finally.

The bug was that if you had someone filtered, the effect was that anyone whose account number was part of the account number of a filtered person would also be filtered.

For example, if you filtered poster 12345, the system was also filtering poster 123, 234, 345, 12, 23, etc.
This should no longer be the case.

Let me know via PM if you're finding differently.

[Mattu]

Minor Change: Password Reminders

Ahhhh! The true code monkey has risen again while the Boss is in Vegas.

Because of the volume of requests I get with people that know their e-mail but don't know their alias, I added another option to the password reminder page.

You can now put in your Alias or your e-mail you registered with to get the reminder. Either will work.

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/get_pword.asp

MB

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Surveys Change: #msg-763527

Also, "Research Links" on the Favorites page is now "Favorite Links" and the layout is more like Favorite Boards and Favorite People.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

I think this qualifies as a Major New Feature:

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/browse_store.asp

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

New Feature: Order Form for MDC and Tagline winner T-Shirts

#msg-736536

I should have an online store up and running for the remaining t-shirts in a few weeks.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Minor Changes: Subscription screen

1. Added verbage stating that payments need to be made in $US.

2. Made it possible to mail in payments for monthly subscriptions.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Minor Change: Handling of signatures

My previous one should've said "New Feature". Oh well.

Two changes. First, the change I made yesterday actually works now. I forgot to put a key part of it into production until this morning.

Also, I've implemented the same change in batch message-reading.

If you go to Tools then My Settings and change the last item ("Show Signatures in Messages")to "No", you won't see signatures in any public messages written after about an hour prior to this post.