nordmann, I think I found it. Since I have "stabilized" the plank that rolls out from the computer chest, the "mouse" don't balance anymore, when I lean with my arm on the plank. And I suppose that the mouse while "trembling" during sending the signal, gives the effect of sending several signals at the same time? or sending a broad beam with several commands at the same time instead of the normal narrow beam? In any case since I did what I mentioned I have no difficulties anymore...

PR

Good to hear the plank has been fixed. I've forwarded your advice to Microsoft, Apple, and a few other IT-Tech concerns, just in case other people have been struggling with the same technical issues.

Just as a matter of interest, the other day when I first posted the thread about 'witches marks' I had to go through several minutes identifying pictures of busses, bicycles, fire hydants, traffic lights, etc, to prove I wasn't a robot before it would post. It's the first time I've had to do that on this site, except that when I editted the same post I had to do it all again. I haven't encountered it with any subsequent posts in other threads. My original posting was quite long so took a while to compose, with several pictures and a link to a regular (tourist/museum) site, but otherwise there was nothing particularly unusual about it. So why the extra checks I wonder? Still, I learned the French for 'fire hydrant'.

ReCaptcha kicks in on Forumotion forums if their spam filter reckons something in the post could be spammy - though for the life of me I can't see what might have triggered it for that post. It could be simply the number of images, but then all the quizzes we've done would have triggered it too, I'd reckon, and they never have.

The other trigger can be certain words associated with spam - but again I don't see anything too weird in the text.

MM, when I change in the Preview, every some seconds the window to introduce something I have put in favourites and then some seconds later introduce another one, and then every some seconds copying a picture that I have in one of the said favourites, then the "Res" site seems many times to turn tilt (they translate in the dictionary:hit the roof, go up the wall).

Also, although nordmann says that one can't find the real stuff on google, when I insist up to the sixth page to a searching term, and then immediately start another combination, sometimes with words between "" and in that process changing windows every few seconds, if I see that the entry is crap (nonsense, in the paperback Collins stays also "taboo"?: faeces. I looked in the abbreviations, but no "taboo" mentioned).

Then many times google sends a message, where I have to prove with a "v" that I am not a robot...and I have to restart the computer, because even after proving to be not a robot, google works extremely slowly...punishing me to have taken to many bites in a short time?

I have still to learn those computer lessons for dummies...

PR

Today and tomorrow there will possibly be a few interruptions (site not available) as I implement IP blocks to stop certain methods of accessing the website, especially those being employed to generate multiple PMs addressed to the administrator. This is being done in conjunction with Forumotion who will automatically detect any such accesses in real-time and impose a denial of access on their sources, something which is anticipated to be a bit time consuming as the sources utilise quite an array of IP addresses supplied by botnets for the purpose. The information will be forwarded to global blacklist services so we have to be careful not to confuse genuine access with bot-originated access.

Apologies in advance if this leads to problems when accessing the site.

For the record, the number of abusive posts has now exceeded 500 and rising, with about 3,000 apparently having been blocked on the way by the service provider's own security. All of them have a "Brexit theme" - so it is obvious that this site has been identified by someone who (let's be generous) is pro-Brexit, to put it mildly. It is also a party (or parties) who have availed themselves of "abuse for hire" facilities kindly extended by some of our less pleasant brethren on this planet, one variety of which is automatically generated multiple generic "messages", using various combinations of phrases and references, sent by fake users/guests to message boards. This kind of assault is normally associated with blog-sites and YouTube commentary fields, etc, but unfortunately it works just as well with sites like this that provide a method to allow anonymous guests to send messages to appointed administrators.

So, while I'm actually flattered to have been identified by these robots as a "gay, liberal, anti-Brexit individual (substitute any profane euphemism for "individual" here), who - to my credit at my age - is not afraid to pursue the boundaries of permissible sexual congress, even with pets", I fear that I am only receiving this, as administrator, on behalf of all our regular users too. Apologies if you don't recognise yourself in the description above, however having been that character for over a week now in these robots' eyes, I can only say that I have grown more comfortable with the identity as the abuse has proliferated, and by now heartily recommend it to all of you. It's never too late in life ....

Such abuse is shocking, nordmann.  It's not as if anything we say here is going to have an effect one way or the other on whether Brexit goes through or not.  The internet is like any tool - it can be good and it can be bad.  I am glad you are staying reasonably cheerful.

As a homosexual/bisexual/transvestite liberal (I assume I alternate these subtly disparate personas - doing all together would cost me a fortune in makeup repairs) with fond leanings towards the EU (in a good way) and towards my cat (in a very weird way), and whose previous rather heterosexual lascivious designs on my mother has resulted in me being the illegitimate offspring of (presumably) myself, I see no reason to be depressed at all. And when one throws in the added qualities from some northern correspondent(s) that I am pursuing this feline/maternal sexual rampage while waving a tricolour, pretending to an Irish version of "Timothy" as my main identity, and who is bound for summary execution by those who place their "Britishness" ahead of their own sanity (such a large group these days that unless they use their proper UVF/UDA codenames on the occasion I might well mistake my executioners for hedge-fund managers in balaclavas), then I can absolutely guarantee that I will be giggling right to the end.

Anyway - no worries. I reckon the site might well be closed for an hour this afternoon. We have a database clean-up (in every sense) that has to be done as soon as possible so we can properly identify the new stuff coming in today.

Wrong thread - sorry.

Hi folks - over the last 12 hours Forumotion have experienced several drops in service that left their hosted websites (including ours) unfortunately unavailable for considerable periods.

If you're reading this you've obviously got back into the site. However we now have a situation we had before whereby we must wait for all global DNS referral services to "catch up" with the newly configured access to IP addresses used within Forumotion's scope. In other words, if over the next two days or so you find you are directed to a Forumotion home page or everything "hangs" when opening the first page of this site, then a deletion of your browser cache may help - it at least forces a new DNS request the next time you click on "Res Historica".

A deletion of your PC's own local DNS cache is an even better way of ensuring this, but such is not an operation you should embark on unless you know what you're doing.

If you don't do anything the situation will resolve itself over time in any case - it's a good time of the year to be taking "gardening leave" anyway!

nordmann, I don't know what happened with the WWII liberation thread...can you edit two of the three, please...I think as I after each correction tab on "preview" ( a hundred times or more) that the mouse sends sometime to the "send" tab too...will be cautious in the future...and Temperance said that you could edit your message...perhaps only a certain time?...

Kind regards from Paul.

Done.

nordmann, thank you so much.
I think to know now what happened. There seems to be a flood control overhere. And perhaps as I am so busy with my corrections in the preview, each time activating again the preview, this floodcontrol is activated? 
And at the end I pushed the tab send, and then I had a message: floodcontrol is activated, you have to wait for at least 10 seconds to try again. 
I waited ten seconds and then pushed again on the send tab, and again the same message of the floodcontrol. Thinking it was not got through I waited again 10 seconds and pushed again and so a third time.
What I had to have done, was copying my message to be not lost in case...and veryfying after the first "send" if the message appeared in the thread and if not, could always reinsert my copied message afterwards...
In any case, thank you again nordmann for the quick reaction.

Kind regards from Paul.

nordmann, can you guess what happened to my two messages on the "religion" board?
A lot of "work" lost after the end of my "ten hours working day"...
https://reshistorica.forumotion.com/t874p900-religions-the-benefits

Kind regards, Paul.

Sorry to hear that you lost your post, Paul, but I suspect it is entirely down to your own internet connection rather than ResHis. 

And as has been advised before, if you feel it's important, then you should always either copy the post immediately before sending (perhaps by highlighting the text and then with control-c copying it to the temporary clipboard), or just initially writing the text in a separate file (using Wordpad or Word etc), before copying into the text box on this site. Seriously, would you ever just type and send a tax-return; a carefully composed love letter; a detailed devis/quote for work; or a business letter of complaint - without first taking a copy before sending? If it's not that important to you then by all means don't bother taking a copy before pressing 'send' (and note that 'sending' is entirely dependent on the vagaries of your own internet connection, not that of the receiver). But then in that case, if you haven't bothered to make any record to cover the eventuality that it might not work perfectly the first time you press 'send', then you really cannot complain if your message gets irretrievably lost.

MM, thank you for your empathy.

And yes, now cooled off, I realized that it had occasionally something to do with my internet connection..it was just bad luck that it happened this very moment...
As now, I am on the Res Historica as "Post a reply", but I am still linked to the Res...to have to be disconnected I have to go to my documents to copy and past this...and when I write something new do it again...as I now do..
yes and it works, but it is a bit..."bewerkelijk" (laborious? cumbersome?)...
But I will do it for the more "essential" messages...

And MM, thanks again for your sympathy and helping hand.

Kind regards from Paul.

MM, I had just ago again the same incident as on 30 July with my new thread. I received a message that the site couldn't be reached and one had to try a bit later...lucky that I had copied my message before, otherwise it was lost (in Dutch "boodschap" is a she. As in Dutch, French and German and I suppose also in Russian the question returns always: is it female or male? The neutral "het" is the most easy. It is even difficult for the natives. But my first thought was right, even as a native in Dutch...I was right..it was a she...I checked it).

Kind regards, Paul.

nordmann,

it seems the search engine works only with topics and posts, but no words. And my statistics go only to one year ago. I tried all the fora for subjects, where my topic about the pointed arch versus roman arch, the reintroduction of the brick in the 12th century, ogives, vaults, could be located...I think I made the study as usual disgressing from a topic, but I even found  no related topic or post...

Kind regards from Paul.

Yes, the Forumotion search facility is pretty crap. It's a database search so really only reads headings when looking for matches (a table search, not a record search).

However Google is your friend here. It searches known HTML content so will find any stuff that was ever displayed on any page (and even stuff that wasn't, such as metadata) -

Go to Google's main search page and paste your search term along with the website name into the search box. (for example if you want to find "roman arch" then type - roman arch "https reshistorica forumotion com")

This then gives you a result from any page previously trawled by Google (all of them since the site began) in which "Roman" or "Arch" was displayed, starting with the best match available (both words in that sequence).

You can also go to Google's main page, enter www.reshistorica.forumotion.com in the main search box, and then don't hit "enter" but go straight to "Settings" and "Advanced Search". There you'll find a whole plethora of refine options available, including a search for specific terms, a search for partial matches, a search for a match that excludes another term, and so on.

Thank you very much nordmann. It all worked as you said. It is the same method, as for reading my old messages from the ex-BBC history messageboard, which is sadly now disappeared.

Kind regards from Paul and thanks again for your valuable help.

nordmann,

I have yesterday posted after midnight a message on the Tumbleweed to LiR starting with the question how it now was with her house. And seemingly I received an answer this morning at 10 and so on AM from her. But nothing appears on that forum in the "14" part???

Kind regards, Paul.

Check the "moggy thread". It might have had feline content.

nordmann wrote:

Check the "moggy thread". It might have had feline content.

Sorry nordmann, to not have checked it myself this afternoon and while I was believing that I made the message in the Tumbleweed suite...  ...I have but to blame myself and sorry for the trouble I caused to you to do the research.

Kind regards from Paul.

I was going to start a Miscellaneous or General thread but I can't see the button to do so.  That COULD be a problem to do with this laptop not being terribly powerful I suppose.  I clicked on a forum button and received an invitation to start a completely different forum (site) on forumotion.

Deleted as problem is solved.

Yes thanks, Nielsen.  I've edited my previous post to say the matter has now been resolved.

What matter?

At one time I couldn't see the button for starting another thread - Nielsen answered the question so the post is redundant - I did edit it to say the matter had been solved - if anything similar happens (i.e. I have a query which is then solved) maybe I will delete the original post.

nordmann or was it Vizzer, as there seems to be no "free" shortener anymore as in the time from "google", I remember that one of you proposed to me an easy manner to shorten a long URL as from google books. One could in fact make for instance "look here" instead of the long URL.
If I recall it well it had something to do with putting it within [] or something like that?

Kind regards to both, Paul.

As stated before use the button provided (the one that looks like a chain's link to the left of the YouTube button in the top row of the message box). This gives you two fields to fill out - the one on the bottom can contain the entire URL you wish to link to, the field over that can contain some descriptive text decided by you. Once entered then only the descriptive text will appear in the actual message posted and will act as a link to the URL you chose.

Note that individual search results you may have acquired within a Google Books entry may not work anyway as a dynamic link afterwards. These do not always incorporate the search criteria you used (for example if you scroll away from the result once you found it) and therefore your link, even if it works, may only send people to the first page of the book anyway.

nordmann, un grand merci for your explanation. (again ). And if it doesn't work as you said, I can always give the google entrance to come to the specific google book...

Kind regards, from Paul.

Fellow Res Historians, just a heads-up that I received a phishing email purporting to be from HMRC to the effect I was due a tax refund.  I should be so lucky.  The email came from Soandsosomething@hotmail.com (obviously that wasn't the name used).  As phishing emails go it wasn't a very professional or convincing one.  I've moved it out of my inbox but haven't deleted it so I can forward it to HMRC phishing team.  I'm sure you'd all see through it but I thought I'd mention the scam; forewarned is forearmed.

The board is VERY quiet at present.  I keep saying I'll have a break (or at least curtail my time on) from the internet.  Maybe this will be a suitable time to do so.  But I've had a message from Norton saying some people are using worries regarding the coronavirus to try and push scams.  I had a phone call the other day - prerecorded voice - a variation on the scam that BT was going to cut off my supply!!!!

I suppose it was inevitable but apparently there are coronavirus scams doing the rounds.  As scams go that's pretty base but I shouldn't be surprised.  I think most visitors to this board would be sensible enough to be aware but I'll post the link to a story about one such scam in case any of you have friends or relations who are very trusting  https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/10861743/coronavirus-warning-email-scam-wuhan-hack

I've received a blackmail scam.  If it was true I'd have been living a more colourful life than I actually am.  Some years ago one of my emails was hacked.  I changed my password after that. Anyway this person said unless I bought x amount of Bitcoin and sent it to.such and such a place they would send a copy of a video of me doing naughty things to 9 of my contacts randomly.  Of course there is no porno video and I looked on the Bitcoin website and several people were reporting the same scam. It would be funny - I'm over 70 after all - if there wasn't the malice behind it.

I've found out that the 'sextortion' scam is quite well known.  It was new to me. What was disconcerting was when I was looking for information online about the scam was that I found out that something invisible cslled a beacon can be embedded in an email that will give details of an IP address if you open the email. A VPN address or something called I think Thunderbird can help prevent a beacon working I read.  I don't have any confidential files on my computer currently but it's worrying. The virus protection on the laptop is sound - I'm not really au fait with that on the mobile phone

Most of the more egregious scams are debunked on snopes. The (beware of people at the door giving away masks that knock you out so that they can rob you) has come up repeadedly on facepalm lately.

I tried to post on "technical adjusments " and it said continuously "warning in red: dangerous site". A warning directing me to my Norton safetynet...

nordmann, I saw that this afternoon "forumotion" was closed for a new lay out. I see now that it is again open including our forum. Just that I can't post on "technical adjustments"...

Kind regards, Paul.

This isn't a problem which prevents me using the website but I get a message that I have 3 unread private messages and I have checked and I am up to date with such messages.

It sounds like a cache problem. I would recommend you delete your browser history and refresh the site's page to see if it persists.

Phishing again - someone sent me a mail, allegedly from one of the major Scandinavian banks, saying there was/is something wrong with my account.

As in my original post in this thread, something raised my suspiscion, I do hereby post the mail adress used by the sender <gt; (removed)

I have no means of discovering whether this is a 'normal' mail or a hacked one or something else, but I do have the use of Block - 'Shift' - 'Delete'

I've removed the address you posted, sir. Don't want people accidentally doing the confirm callback dupe the address is designed to encourage.

Thank you Nordmann, that was a point I'd overlooked.
It also came to me that by publishing the adress I might be comitting a felony, which might harm the entire site.

Not a felony. Just a stupidity, which is totally acceptable here 

(I'm going to be called unkind again, amn't I?) 

Well, in my case I think it a probability that my middle name ought to be "Stupid" - as I've so often proved here.

I had a scam (I think) email from France supposedly from a gentleman who lives over there who has kindly joined the U3A Zoom meetings a couple of times.  It was one of those I'm going into hospital so can you get me some Transcash and I'll owe you but pay you back.  Looking at it closely it's a different email slightly to that used by the gentleman but I've emailed him at his correct email to let him know what is going on.  He's married and has adult children so I think his family would be able to help him out if he really was short of money.   I know the chances are against anyone here receiving a fake email asking for money via Transcash but I thought I'd just let you know the con trick is doing the rounds.

PaulRyckier wrote:

I tried to post on "technical adjusments " and it said continuously "warning in red: dangerous site". A warning directing me to my Norton safetynet...

nordmann, I saw that this afternoon "forumotion" was closed for a new lay out. I see now that it is again open including our forum. Just that I can't post on "technical adjustments"...

Kind regards, Paul.

nordmann, I just tried to connect with the last message from Vizzer on the "Arts": Historical YouTubes...As in this former message:
"and it said continuously "warning in red: dangerous site". A warning directing me to my Norton safetynet..."
Not only on the message of Vizzer, but on the whole "Arts" forum.
When I tried on "technicual adjustments" it did the same as in my former message.

In such a way that I can't reach and "the Arts" and the "technical "anymore.

Have you or the other contributors the same difficulty?

Kind regards, Paul.

No problems or warnings for me, Paul.

Paul, my web advisor simply gives the following message for all Res Hist pages - 'We tested this page and blocked content that comes from potentially dangerous or suspicious sites. Allow this content only if you're sure it comes from safe sites' and then gives the option to 'View all blocked content' which I never take. Apart from that, and as with Meles, I've never had any problems as such.

MM and Vizzer,

I have everytime this all in red with white letters:

"Schadelijke site ge blokkeerd
U probeert toegang te krijgen tot:
discovernative.com...
Deze webpagina is een bekende schadelijke webpagina. Het is uiterst raadzaam deze pagina NIET te 
bezoeken"
(in Dutch because they have located me in Dutch speaking Belgium)

Can it be because I am still working with Windows 7 (Windows has several times pushed me to go to Windows 10)

The knowledgeable daughter of the neighbour had said when I one day would change to Windows 10, it was better to use Chrome instead of Explorer. Thus I changed to Chrome...

Found now:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/using-chrome-on-windows-7-google-just-gave-you-another-six-months-of-support/
Norton security wanted already several times to subscribe to an extension for Chrome, what I negated, as I negate every advertisement...

I will next week speak with my "specialist" from Bruges to ask what to do with my difficulties on Res Historia...
As I am still on Explorer too...although I find Chrome easier to use...

Kind regards to both from Paul.

I cannot see any suspect links within the stuff that people have posted on that page, but it could be true that one or more of the adsense advertisements generated by Forumotion are themselves dodgy. These change according to each person based on location, cookies, etc, so I cannot know exactly if this is the case.

However I strongly recommend you use an ad-blocker anyway. They are free to use and install and improve your browsing experience no end anyway.

These are the two I am currently using in Chrome myself. I recommend you install them immediately and then see if things have improved:

AdBlock Plus

AdBlock

They are two versions of the same program but use slightly different whitelists so work best when bot are used, I have found.