Account Still Pending & BBcode

Hi everyone,

 

I have 2 queries:

 

1. I joined photo.net 2 days ago and I uploaded the minimum 5 photos to my portfolio on the same day. I now see my account is still pending. Consequently just a long number appears under my avatar instead of my screen name.

 

Is there anything else I need to do before my account gets an "approved" status or am I just being impatient?

 

2. I come from a website development background and so I like to use bbcode, where it is allowed, to customise my posts a little more. I have just posted one of my landscape images in the Landscapes thread. I initially tried to use bbcode using the bbcode editor that is offered but when I click the preview button I see the html/bbcode in the preview window instead of the post with the CSS styling included in the bbcode being applied.

 

On other websites where bbcode is offered I either need to use square brackets, [ ], or normal HTML brackets, < >, in the bboced editor and it works fine. Whether I use square or normal HTML brackets in the bbcode editor here, in the preview window I see the bbcode/html code without any of the formatting/styling being applied.

 

What do I need to do here to get bbcode to work in my posts?

 

Thank you for your help,

 

David Harley

1. Maybe the photos that you uploaded were then selected as "private" - I am not sure but doing this may be the reason, based upon previous new user experiences. In any case give it a few days. You can make contributions, obviously. In the meantime I will investigate further.

 

***

 

2. I don't understand the question.

this is a screen shot of me writing in bbcode . . .

and it works fine using the square bracketed codes that I typed in.

 

 

***

 

 

now this is a screen shot of the 'preview' page

 

In each situation, you have to select then BB Code editor to use it in the EDITING BOX

 

WW

Edited September 16, 2019 by William Michael

Thank you for your reply William.

 

I should have included a screenshot in my OP.

 

To use BBcode, I do the following:

 

1. Click the bbcode icon to go into the post editor's bbcode mode.

2. I click "More Options" button which then brings up a "Preview" button in the post editor's bbcode mode

3. I type some bbcode in the yellow text box which is the bbcode editor.

4. I click the "Preview" button and the Preview window appears above the bbcode text box.

 

As you can see in my screenshot below, the Preview box simply displays the bbcode I entered in the bbcode text box, not the output from the bbcode.

 

In my bbcode I am simply sizing the image (image url is inside bbcode img tag) to what I like and applying a thin black border and drop shadow to the image to make it "pop" out of the page. I am using standard CSS styling in the bbcode to apply resizing, border and drop shadow.

 

I would expect the Preview box to display the image at the url specified in the bbcode with the border and drop shadow styling applied, but it doesn't.

 

I created this bbcode template (a plain text file) and use it successfully on other web sites that support bbcode.

 

Edited September 16, 2019 by William Michael

The bbcode in my previous post produces a post output similar to the screenshot below, but without the View Enlargement link.

 

I use the bbcode on the other forum web site and it works fine. Maybe bbcode on photo.net is much more restrictive in terms of what coding/styling options it allows than on some other sites.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2019 by William Michael

Ah! Thanks, now I understand your question.

 

I am reasonably certain that this assumption is almost correct: "Maybe bbcode on photo.net is much more restrictive in terms of what coding/styling options it allows"

 

However I need more information. I have interrogated your post in the Landscape Forum. Are you saying that you attempted to use the lines of BBCode to produce the "shadow box" effect and the result was that no image would post?

 

If "yes" is the answer to the above, then yes, I am almost certain that PN does not accept 'more complicated' BB Code.

 

For my own education, I have been attempting to make flashing text; shadow boxes and the like in the Test Posting Forum, and none of the more complex BB Codes result in a post, they simply appear as the lines of code.

 

Pretty sure we've nailed that one?

 

I am sure you can cope, I have found Melbournians reasonably relaxed, even considering the weather.

 

Re the other matter, I will have another squiz at your Home Page, in a couple of days.

 

WW

Edited September 16, 2019 by William Michael

Thank you for looking into this William. Much appreciated.

 

When I attempted to use bbcode to post my image in the Landscape forum I didn't actually click the "Submit post" or equivalent button when I saw that the Preview box was displaying the bbcode and not the output from the bbcode. Being new to this forum I didn't want to risk posting actual bbcode and then not being able to delete the post. I just assumed that since the post was displaying incorrectly in the Preview box then it won't display correctly if actually published in the thread.

 

But I have done some more experimenting since my previous post and yes, it appears bbcode on PN is more restrictive than what I have seen on other web sites.

 

In bbcode mode I typed just

 

[img=https://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18558273-orig.jpg]

 

and the image displayed correctly in the Preview box.

 

When I added some CSS styling to the img element, the Preview box then displayed just the bbcode and not the actual image. So it looks like I can't add custom styling to images in posts.

 

And yes, I will be able to cope :)

 

Styling posts is a "nice to have" but not a "must have". Styling images would also allow me to place images side by side very easily for sitautions where I might have "before" and "after" images to compare.

 

Anyway, it's all good.

 

The only outstanding issue I have now is that my account is still pending. The constant reminder notice when I log in and not seeing my screen name under my avatar is becoming a little irritating.

 

Thanks again for looking into this and for your help.

 

David

. . .Styling images would also allow me to place images side by side very easily for situations where I might have "before" and "after" images to compare.

 

For this requirement, one solution is to a make a composite one image from the two (or more) single images. A simple tool is Picasa. There are others programs.

 

 

WW

. . . The constant reminder notice when I log in and not seeing my screen name under my avatar is becoming a little irritating.

 

Understood. I do not have the traits to do more than I am doing: it would take several paragraphs to explain the backstory, rest assured that I too have frustrations. I am pretty sure it will get fixed though.

 

WW

For this requirement, one solution is to a make a composite one image from the two (or more) single images. A simple tool is Picasa. There are others programs.

 

Thank you for the advice William.

 

I use Photoshop Elements for my post processing. It's just that with PSE it would take me several minutes to create the composite whereas adding a couple of lines of CCS styling in the bbcode to display 2 images side by side would take me about a minute at the most.

 

For web display, using bbcode is normally much quicker to style/format a display than creating composites/montages in an image editing application, at least for me.

Understood. I do not have the traits to do more than I am doing: it would take several paragraphs to explain the backstory, rest assured that I too have frustrations. I am pretty sure it will get fixed though.

 

WW

 

No problem :)

 

I'm sure it will be fixed in the fullness of time.

Well, it's been 10 days since I joined PN (joined 12 Sep 2019) and my account still has a status of "Pending" when I go try to add some photos to my portfolio.

 

Although I can still contribute posts and post images within them.

 

I'm sure the admin's and mod's are very busy looking after a very large web site like this one, but waiting at least 10 days for someone to spend no more than a minute, maximum, to "flick a switch" on my account from Pending to Active does not give me much motivation or incentive to stay here. I have deleted the minimum 5 photos I was asked to upload before my account can be "approved" since there is no point in having them here while my account remains "Pending".

Understood.

 

For clarity, although when a new member joins the site, the site states that a Moderator will "approve" the application, that is not how it happens.

 

AFAIK, no Moderator, or those who are designated "Administrator" has the traits that can approve new members. The approval appears to be automatic, but it also appears to have hitches sometimes. In these situations it is referred to Technical Assistance, as has happend in your case. Sorry if the functionality (or the lack of functionality) was not clearly explained.

 

William

Understood.

 

For clarity, although when a new member joins the site, the site states that a Moderator will "approve" the application, that is not how it happens.

 

AFAIK, no Moderator, or those who are designated "Administrator" has the traits that can approve new members. The approval appears to be automatic, but it also appears to have hitches sometimes. In these situations it is referred to Technical Assistance, as has happend in your case. Sorry if the functionality (or the lack of functionality) was not clearly explained.

 

William

 

It was explained very clearly but from what you say above, it appears there is a huge inconsistency between what you say and reality, at least according to the screenshot below.

 

You can see on the screenshot that it clearly states:

 

Account Approval by moderator is pending until at least five photos have been uploaded.

Your public profile and photography will be kept private until then. This step allows our moderators the ability to approve people here for the right reasons!

 

Once approved, (hopefully within a 24 hour window) your photos will be made public and you will have full access to our community.

 

So clearly, a moderator needs to approve new accounts so I don't understand why you said - "AFAIK, no Moderator, or those who are designated "Administrator" has the traits that can approve new members. The approval appears to be automatic, but it also appears to have hitches sometimes."

 

The screenshot also shows that approval should occur hopefully within 24 hours. Even allowing a little leeway, I think most new members would think 10 days is way outside of any reasonable leeway.

 

 

It was explained very clearly but from what you say above, it appears there is a huge inconsistency between what you say and reality, at least according to the screenshot below.

 

Actually no, there is not an inconsistency between what I say (wrote) and what is the reality: what I wrote was to inform you of what is the reality/

 

Yes correct, the web-site says that a Moderator will approve new memberships. I believe this to be a standard template text of the websites installation

 

Yes I firmly believe that I am correct in the following points of fact:

1. > Moderators do not have traits to approve new members

2. > The process as I understand should happen automatically

3. > There are sometimes hitches, usually the upset member posts here in Site Help, when read a Moderator, often it has been Sandy, sends a PM to Technical Assistance to sort it out.

 

Sandy (upon my request) did point three several days ago.

 

My apology to you was because I did not outline these details earlier, I have, on many occasions previously outlined the limitations of Moderator's User Traits, I have been very busy over the past several days and did not go into detail here, which I understand could be frustrating for you, not knowing the ins and outs and assuming that I had more traits than I do. Mine as with all Moderators is a non paid volunteer position: I need to work on my own company to pay my Bills, hence when I am required by my Company to perform, Photo.net takes a lower order of my attention.

 

William

We'll just have to agree to disagree on the inconsistency.

 

I come from a website development and database administration environment.

 

Inconsistencies, as I see them, are not acceptable on the websites I have built over the years. At the very least they are misleading to new members and/or potential customers.

 

But I have a vested interests in those websites. Here I do not. If the owner(s) of this website are happy with the inconsistencies I described earlier then that is fine. It is up to them.

 

Anyway it's not a big deal, I can still contribute posts and images within them. Not being able to create a portfolio is not a major drawback.

 

People will make up their own minds about what is said on the web page and what you say is reality, as shown above, is actually an inconsistency or not.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on the inconsistency.

 

Perhaps I did not articulate precisely: I have no disagreement with the fact that there is "inconsistency". I was attempting to explain that inconsistency and present what are exactly the facts.

 

***

 

In any case I am glad that you have chosen to continue to contribute. I think that it will get fixed, I just have no idea when and no direct control over fixing it.

 

William

The reality could be that the information on the web page is the actual reality and that a moderator needs to approve each new account after 5 images have been uploaded. I have deleted the 5 images I uploaded for the reasons I posted earlier.

 

Unfortunately I can't verify what the actual reality is in this situation, but it doesn't matter anymore as I will now not be creating a portfolio here.

 

If the information on the web page is correct then my account won't be approved because I don't have 5 images uploaded as required.

 

Thank you for looking into this.

 

when a new member joins the site, the site states that a Moderator will "approve" the application, that is not how it happens ..........

 

.. The approval appears to be automatic.

 

Several applications appear to be made by people advertising wares of different sorts, others by promoters of porn etc., I would imagine that a human needs to intervene at some point

This is not an isolated problem, David 1961. Getting a new account approved by Photonet is more difficult than buying a gun. Judging from the activity on PN lately, we seem to be leaking members at an increasing rate. Number of views and comments continue to decline but ownership seems to do everything possible to discourage new membership. It's a hell of a situation and yet very few members exhibit any concern at all. I think the owners are just going to let this site die from neglect.

Thanks Jack. That is the conclusion I am coming to as well judging by some of the other comments I have read on this website and from other feedback I have received. And it's also the reason I am not pushing for it anymore.

Several applications appear to be made by people advertising wares of different sorts, others by promoters of porn etc., I would imagine that a human needs to intervene at some point

 

On this point -

 

AFAIK many are nuked, automatically, before those new members get to post anything. Moderators can and do intervene, when that filter system fails and the new member posts spam and the like.

 

William

William, this is not what David and I are talking about. We're talking about legitimate prospective members whose new accounts are kept in limbo for an inordinate length of time. Like David, many of these new members simply grow tired of waiting for approval and just give up.

Jack, Yes I know, understand and appreciate that is not what you and David are discussing.

My response was specifically addressing John Peri's comment.

 

William