Page Width

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Is there a way that the mods can adjust the width of a page? I've noticed that sometimes a person will post a picture, and cause the whole page to go so wide that I have to scroll back and forth to read it.

Seems also to happen when people post screenshots (often of their desktop)-or have a very long link (couple times I've inadvertently caused that myself !). Really is annoying & hard to read when it gets this way-puts me off commenting on particular threads, for this reason alone.

I do go in and edit such posts. They are against the rules (they disrupt the page layout).

Where a long link is posted I have put "url" tags around it to make it tolerable.

Where a wide image is posted, I've just broken the "img" tags, so the link can be still used.

The silly bit is that most image sites supply "thumbnail" versions of the image, automatically. Using url and img tags with the image and its thumbnail is ideal.

There are exceptions made... i.e. where a thread is purely intended for images, such as a "post image of your desktop" thread.

I also warn people who break the rules.

However... I don't read EVERY message posted. If you run across an offending post, don't hesitate to report it.

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Finally.... it will depend a little on "severity of offence". There is a "What size image can I post?" entry in the FAQ, which suggests that 640 wide is a reasonable rule-of-thumb. On measuring a typical text-only thread, I note that when my browser drops below about 800 pixels wide, it puts on a scroll bar. At this point, the text area is about 400 pixels wide. Ho hum.

Hmm. To accommodate a 640 wide image, without scroll bars, it looks as if my browser needs to be just OVER 1024 wide, which is a tad annoying, maybe. With the browser at 1024 wide, it will need scroll bars when an image is over 630 wide.

Sorry to waffle. The upshot is that I will probably only bother about cases where the page is fairly severely disrupted and it is one with predominantly text posts on it.

As someone who has accidentally caused such things to happen (when posting link that's frightfully long), does that mean I'd get in trouble ? It's not like I intended to have it appear that way (disruptively hard-to-read). And I wouldn't know I'd done so until the comment was already posted (it would look fine when 'previewing' comment). What should I do in those instances ? Have no inkling-ought I pm you, personally, and say I need a screen format "rescue" or something ?

Here's thread (first page is all spread out across screen).
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt66252.html
"General: Same Sex environments advantageous to AS ?"
Am guessing that second page of thread is okay/normal, since link is in first post of page one.
Please don't blame someone if they didn't mean to make this problem happen, I've nothing against the person who wrote post/started thread. "Reporting" someone sounds so serious & heavy, when in this case it's really not like that-merely a technological misfortune.

OK. Problem fixed. "Warning" sent, but it really was just to tell the poster that they should wrap up long links inside tags... E.g.

Instead of:

http://www.somewhere.invalid/with/a/long/link/say.html

Use:

Which shows as: Click here

(I like adding in the bold tags, just to make the link show up a bit more.)

The FAQ shows how to do this sort of thing, under "What else does this "BBCode" do?". However, I think I could improve on that FAQ entry...

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And... I don't regard any of this as a "serious" infringement of the rules. I don't think I've come across people intentionally messing up the page layout more than the odd couple of times, and even those were just somewhat misplaced attempts at "humour".

I think just once, a troll did something along these lines, in the moments before they were banned.

I didn't really know that code thing, couldn't figure it out.

On the Insomniac Games forums the problem is solved automatically in that the image is resized to a certain size if it's too large, however you can still right-click and click "View Image" and get the full-sized version. This was infinitely handy when I was doing a thread comparing their first game on PS3 and their last game on PS2 to compare the graphics, with screenshots that were quite oversized.

Anyway, I myself don't really have this problem since my monitor is in WIIIIIDSCREEEEEN. Left side! *WOOOOOAAAAAW!! !* Right side! *WOOOOOAAAAAW!! !*

Still disturbs me because I was merely trying to have a readable page, don't want someone to get in trouble because I "reported" a thread created by someone. Unsettling...
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Just worries me, I never got a warning for the time or two I commented & it messed up format of the page. And I don't want a warning-I'd obsess & ruminate over it & feel so embarrassed. Not to mention confused (afraid to ever post a link again) because my brain doesn't understand anything about "urls" or shortcuts, am very limited in capacity to comprehend "computerese". What do I do, "report" myself when I've screwed up by posting something that turns out to appear this way on the screen ?
Sorry-am serious, not sarcastic.

That sounds perfect!

If you think that what you've finished up with on a page is going to make it difficult to read, why not "report" yourself?

In the case you brought up, I edited the link to make the page easy to read and PMed the author. She was only too happy to have it corrected, as she had tried to do it herself, but had got into a mess with it and given up. Also, I gather that her browser didn't have a problem with the page layout, so she wasn't aware of the problem. She also asked about another thing ("What is an IP Address?"), which I hope I managed to answer.

Finally, as a result of the conversation, I made some slight changes to the FAQ (this is a link to it), in the 'What else does this "BBCode" do?' entry. Hopefully it now makes it clearer what the "URL tags" can look like.

My problem is that I (usually) know too much! When I explain things, I will often miss out something terribly important (and basic), because I think it's obvious.

Thank you, Lau, for sorting that out and lots of info about it for the future.

Thank you aswell, Belfast. I didn't even know that the link had deformed the page. I hate that aswell. It almost always puts me off replying to threads too, so I m glad you reported it.

I hope not too many people were put off replying to it as a result. I wonder how many people it went all streeeeeeeetched on? !

Asking for help as soon as I've noticed (hopefully) circumvents someone else bringing it to attention of the fixer & I won't "earn" the much-feared warning ? Okay.

Hadn't realized-it's good to hear that the end result (post-repair) didn't engender bad feeling.

Never even thought of that-only use my own computer, so I didn't know that & don't know how things might appear differently on certain models. Huh.

I can understand that-only for me it's NOT in area of machines/math/nuts 'n'bolts (whether 3-dimensional or virtual). Thanks for not shaking your fist & wagging your finger-it's awful anticipating that my ignorance will get met with anger-so I especially appreciate lack of derision in your reply.

Glad that you aren't mad at me. Too bad one can't add to thread title "New version: 'better page dimensions'-which actually fit on the screen !" or some such notice of repair.