Announcement - HTML issue

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Announcement - HTML issue

Because of security issues, we are no longer allowing members to access HTML for posting.

This will not affect the vast majority of you. Only a handful of OL members ever used this feature (myself included).

Here's what this looks like. When you post, there used to be a feature called "Source" at the top left of the posting field (beside the formatting icons). This will no longer appear. Or if it does appear, it will no longer work.

Why did we disable this feature?

One of our more enthusiastic HTML posters screwed up and blocked an entire thread. Even with administrative privileges, I could not delete the offending post. So I submitted a support ticket and and technical support resolved it. But I also got back a request--not one, but two--from two different IPB people to turn this feature off due to security reasons.

Back in the early days, OL was almost taken out by a hacker. It was a mess reconstituting everything and, even then, we lost a few days of posts. The only reason Kat and I went with IPB was their reputation for security. Sure enough, over the years we have not had one security glitch. So when they talk about security, I listen. They've earned it.

They feel very strongly about removing HTML as a feature so I am going with their advice.

Sorry for any inconvenience. If anyone has any difficulty using normal software features for embeds and the like, please post in this thread or contact me. We'll try to find the correct way to do it, a workaround, or, in the worse case scenario, I will submit a support ticket.

Like I said, this does not affect the vast majority. So the order of the day is to carry on as normal.

OL is suddenly safer.

 

Michael

 

[Jonathan]

20 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Announcement - HTML issue

Because of security issues, we are no longer allowing members to access HTML for posting.

 

I've used it occasionally, usually only when I've tried to post an image or vid or other external piece that didn't automatically show up when copied and pasted. I don't know that it's a big deal not having it, since such placement/paste glitches can also be handled by clicking a post's edit button. Kind of like unplugging and restarting a machine is the universal fix that works 99% of the time, the edit button generally seems to reload everything and set it up right.

Whatevs.

J

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is a workaround I found for embedding tweets. I explained it in a recent post, but since that post is buried in a thread, I am providing the explanation within the post below (with the new system in bold). 

3 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

btw - Since I followed the security guidelines of IPB and HTML posting is no longer accessible to users, that means, for now, embedding tweets is no longer possible. I can do it, but nobody else can. And that to me is unfair in discussions.

So the way I did it above is available to all. That is the way I will do it from now on until a different solution for all is found. If you want to embed a tweet, I suggest you use this system (name the person making the tweet, provide a link to the tweet, then paste the text of the tweet, including the time and date, as a quote).

If you want to see an example of what this looks like, see the entire post here.

I didn't embed the whole post here because quoting within a quote is now complicated.

Michael