How to set up a poll

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Cork
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How to set up a poll

Post by Cork »

I've never set up a poll, and I could use some instructions, please.

For instance, what are poll "options"?

TIA
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Denny
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Post by Denny »

each option is one of the selections in the poll
Cork
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Post by Cork »

Thanks, Denny.

BTW, I've been looking around for phpBB instructions, and meanwhile, I learned a couple of interesting things.

For instance, apparently the C&F board operates on phpBB2, yet phpBB2 now has a replacement known as phpBB3, and support for the now "legacy" phpBB2 will cease on 01 Feb 2009, so no more security patches for phpBB2 after that date.

Also, of the new phpBB3, apparently a number of changes have been made, especially in regard to administrative options, and it appears that HTML will no longer be allowed in board member posts.

So, while I intend to do some phpBB2 homework, it seems to make better sense to get up on the details of the upcoming phpBB3. Besides, it seems that phpBB2 has had quite a run, of several years, so an investment of homework into phpBB3 should be good for quite some while into the future.

Life goes on.

:-)
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I.D.10-t
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Post by I.D.10-t »

You can also add polls to old threads if you are the author, and I believe that you can change the poll if no one has voted yet. Just click on edit in your first post and add a poll question and options.
"Be not deceived by the sweet words of proverbial philosophy. Sugar of lead is a poison."
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Denny
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Post by Denny »

Cork wrote:For instance, apparently the C&F board operates on phpBB2, yet phpBB2 now has a replacement known as phpBB3, and support for the now "legacy" phpBB2 will cease on 01 Feb 2009, so no more security patches for phpBB2 after that date.
yep...and C&F is kept fairly vanilla (there has been little modification to the base package) which should make the upgrade easier. I wouldn't expect C&F to upgrade any sooner than they have to however. There's the devil ya know and there's all of the issues that haven't been found , let alone patched, in any new release.
Cork wrote:it appears that HTML will no longer be allowed in board member posts.
I'd think that would be an admin setting rather than a global disallowed?
Cork wrote:Life goes on.
good thing that!

There has been some discussion on other boards regarding the upgrade.
There are some heavily modified boards. Fitting the modifications to the new release will be, as usual, fraught with terror.
There are threads on the phpBB forum about some of the more popular hacks.
I suppose that you've found the forum.... :D
Cork
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Post by Cork »

I.D.10-t wrote:You can also add polls to old threads if you are the author, and I believe that you can change the poll if no one has voted yet. Just click on edit in your first post and add a poll question and options.
Thanks, I.D.10-t. You might be surprised at what I don't know about computers in general.

I've been using them, as a "user", for many years, and I've learned to program in a few languages, but that simply falls way short of many other issues.

That said, it's about time for me to spend some time down here, in the C&F basement, thank you.

;-)
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Post by Cork »

@ Denny

Well, it seems that phpBB runs on two languages, PHP and mySQL. Moreover, although phpBB2 apparently could run, at least to a limited degree, on the newer PHP 5, it seems that phpBB2 is better configured to run on PHP 4 , but, apparently support for PHP 4 is scheduled to end early this coming August (2008). So, although there may be some current options in regard to bringing legacy features of phpBB2 forward into phpBB3, such as HTML in individual posts, given that support for the parent, PHP 4 language could cease in the next few months, and given that phpBB support for phpBB2 could cease by early next year, it seems that the practical future of any phpBB2 features could be limited to the next several months or so.

It's good that the C&F board has been kept fairly vanilla, but it seems apparent that phpBB3 could be the future C&F format.

That said, and considering my own ignorance of such things, perhaps this forum, down here in the C&F basement, could help to serve as training wheels, to help update any C&F posters in regard to the apparent future state of the C&F board art. That is, apparently phpBB has numerous tutorials and support for board administrators, but seems fairly light at supporting end users.

Yeah, life goes on!
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Denny
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Post by Denny »

Cork wrote:Well, it seems that phpBB runs on two languages, PHP and mySQL.
oh, dear....you are clueless!!!
Cork wrote:it seems apparent that phpBB3 could be the future C&F format.
I'm sure the rich will consider it when it begins to look like upgrading would be less work than supporting the existing one.
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Post by Cork »

Denny wrote:
Cork wrote:Well, it seems that phpBB runs on two languages, PHP and mySQL.
oh, dear....you are clueless!!!...
Yeah, I admit to being relatively clueless in regard to computers in general.

And, that's after many years at working with same!

Go figure.

;-)
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Post by Denny »

ma was a programmer....
tubes, cards, assembler
Cork
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Post by Cork »

Denny wrote:ma was a programmer....
tubes, cards, assembler
Tubes = valves (long since replaced by transistors)

Cards = punch cards (defunct as of circa mid-seventies)

Assembler = assembly language (whoa, that goes way back, although binary form currently remains as the norm, at least for now.)

Wow, perhaps we could both be approaching dinosaur status.

;-)
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Post by Denny »

Cork wrote:Wow, perhaps we could both be approaching dinosaur status.
Approaching!
Good news!
thought I was already!

Ma took a secretary job in 1959 (my little sister hit 1st grade) at a research institute on the Antioch campus. Found the key punch with the scientist keying a fortran program with two fingers....and became a key punch operator in her spare time. A couple of weeks later while keying an other fortran program she got up, took the notes and went to find the scientist....explained to him that the equation was wrong and became a programmer.

We moved. She found an other job, they taught her assembly.

I remember the first tape drives and the first disk drives... The company ended up writing the first Army inventory program as a side project, for cash flow, while they were working on their real project.
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Post by Cork »

That's an interesting story, about your Ma. And, I can see that you got a front row view of computing.

Fortran is one of the languages I programmed in, but I haven't done anything with it in twenty years or so.
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Post by Denny »

they still taught Fortran in the 1970s....

I haven't seen it since then.
Cork
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Post by Cork »

Well, yeah, I learned Fortran (a great number crunching language) quite some while ago, and I'm also among the last of high school students to use a slide rule, and a book of trig tables. Go figure. :-D

However, Fortran remained popular for many years, especially among engineers and scientists, and AFAIK continued to be taught into the early nineties, at least in some schools, er, institutes. Who knows, but there may even be some Fortran holdouts today. For instance, it's one thing to say that there are x number of popular computer languages, but, on actually comparing them to each other, a lot of them tend to be similar to each other, more as a newer language could simply be a modified version of an older language. Moreover, those who are not necessarily computer scientists, as those who simply use computers to get their work done, might have better things to do than to keep up on the latest language developments, and so they simply say screw it, and continue with whatever works for them.

Then again, consider the era when Fortran was developed, a time long before the many CAD programs of today, for instance, a time when every calculation had to be done or programmed in sequence, and virtually by hand, unlike today when all one often need do is simply plug in the variables, push the button, and poof, instant results. In that sense, it's no wonder that Fortran could appear to be a relic, BUT, even today there could be limits as to what CAD could do, such that engineers could have no option but to return to fundamentals, to be sure that everything is accounted for, and that's where an antique such as Fortran could help to save the day.
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