In vBulletin, reply blocks are only 33 char's wide (vs 52)

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 2:24 pm

In 2 different forums, I've noticed the reply blocks are only 33 characters wide vs the 52 in IE6.

I'm not sure where to begin looking (and this forum seems fine).

Here, you will see IE6's reply block (as well as the block immediately above that) - normal sized.

Here is firebird's condensed version. (for both blocks)

What do I need to do to remedy this? Thanks.

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 4:26 pm

No thoughts on this?

jrobbio · Post by **jrobbio** » August 4th, 2003, 4:28 pm

Yeah I had noticed this, but I just presumed that it was a different stylesheet that was being run.

Rob

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 4:36 pm

Is there a way to force it?

Cause honestly, 33 is far too small. Especially since my forums use 100% width, so typing in approximately 15% of the actual space is pretty annoying.

I did manage to see that in this particular event, it was listed as a 40 column block ( for FB ). And I can't even view the source using IE.

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 5:58 pm

Dang.

Other than the slow start up (7 seconds on an XP2200+ w/512MB w/120GB 8MB Cache is pretty slow); this is really irking me. I love the customizability of this thing (which probably contributes to it's slowness), but this REALLY teensy weensy reply field is bad.

Firebird is cool, but if doesn't at least give me what IE had (minimally, in terms of sites/pages being displayed) then I don't see how it's for me (but I'm REALLY trying to like it -- using it even now).

Bowser · Post by **Bowser** » August 4th, 2003, 6:01 pm

I noticed that too when I netscape 6.2. On one forum, with a skin, the reply box was this big:
|---------------|

Oh, and get the quick reply hack. It's VERY usful.

Bowser · Post by **Bowser** » August 4th, 2003, 6:03 pm

jwoodall wrote:Dang.

Other than the slow start up (7 seconds on an XP2200+ w/512MB w/120GB 8MB Cache is pretty slow); this is really irking me. I love the customizability of this thing (which probably contributes to it's slowness), but this REALLY teensy weensy reply field is bad.

Firebird is cool, but if doesn't at least give me what IE had (minimally, in terms of sites/pages being displayed) then I don't see how it's for me (but I'm REALLY trying to like it -- using it even now).

Don't force yourself to use it if you don't want to, there are many browsers that use IE's engine and has some of Mozilla's features, such as avant browser and myie2.

Post by **James** » August 4th, 2003, 6:04 pm

I have noticed this smaller box in the post reply section in vBulletin forums too but for me it usually has a horizontal scroll bar that is already there or shows up when you use say a long url in one line. This is annoying as you can't see everthing at once as IE would show full size box when FB often show some 2/3 at a time or so.

I believe I have seen this with vB 2.2.8, 2.2.9, and various vB3.0.0 beta versions of forums. oop's forgot vB ver 2.3.0

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 6:16 pm

Oh, don't get me wrong -- I think Firebird is really cool. I REALLY want to use it... but, at the expense of my forums (one of which I'm an admin at) - I'm not so sure. Currenly my board is using 2.3.0

Yeah, I want to do that quick reply hack, but I'm not really sure how (I don't know php very well at all).

I just took a quick look at avant, and it just doesnt seem to appeal to me (I love the pinball style w/firebird).

skyisgrey · Post by **skyisgrey** » August 4th, 2003, 6:44 pm

vBulletin does this because back in the day Mozilla (Netscape) made textarea boxes wider than they were supposed to be. But now the new Mozilla browsers size them fine, so vB's correction screws them up.

It's not a rendering problem with Mozilla at all.

To prove that I'm correct, just save the reply page in IE, then open up the file you saved in Firebird. It will show up correctly.

To fix it, just go into your vB admin control panel and make sure that the values are the same for Mozilla and IE under Styles -> Modify -> Default -> [fonts/colors/etc..]

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 6:49 pm

w00!

Thanks!

skyisgrey · Post by **skyisgrey** » August 4th, 2003, 6:53 pm

No problem. I just hope you have no troubles with the control panel.

vBulletin isn't the most user-friendly message board to customize..

jwoodall · Post by **jwoodall** » August 4th, 2003, 7:17 pm

Nah, seemed fine to me. I don't spend a lot of time there.