Pointless ?

[studiot]

I have just started a new thread.

When choosing the thread name the computer offered the name of the previous thread I started in an automatic drop down box.

 

What a pointless waste of computing power and resources.

It could even encourage those who have been prohibited by a moderator from raising a subject again to break the rules an start another thread on the banned topic.

 

I can't tell if this is part of the new site software or a W10  'Helpful' update.

 

I also get a drop down list of every email address that has ever been used whenever I login to SF on this PC.

What a security risk, not just to say that none of the entries on the list is helpful as my username is not an email.

Edited April 25, 2023 by studiot

[Genady]

I don't think it is new. I also think that it is pointless.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I suspect neither of these is done by the forum software, but by your web browser's form autofill features. Browsers keep track of the form fields they have filled out in the past and "helpfully" show a drop-down with the previous values you've used when you see a similar form again.

For example, here's Firefox's documentation on it: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-whether-firefox-automatically-fills-forms

[studiot]

12 hours ago, Cap'n Refsmmat said:

I suspect neither of these is done by the forum software, but by your web browser's form autofill features. Browsers keep track of the form fields they have filled out in the past and "helpfully" show a drop-down with the previous values you've used when you see a similar form again.

For example, here's Firefox's documentation on it: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-whether-firefox-automatically-fills-forms

Thank you for the reply.

 

The browser I was using was \m/soft Edge.

This has been 'told' to many time to count, not to remember any usernames or passwords etc that seems to be reset to the default every time this browser gets forcibly updated, which seems to be about every other day.

 

I can tell you some good news, however.

Edge seems otherwise to be presenting much better view of SF these days, without all the interfering popups blocking views of the meat.

[StringJunky]

Brave browser is much more controllable to ones wishes. It's Chrome without the spying and general sneaky stuff.. SFN works fine.

Edited April 26, 2023 by StringJunky

[Sensei]

On 4/25/2023 at 12:43 PM, studiot said:

When choosing the thread name the computer offered the name of the previous thread I started in an automatic drop down box.

This is a very useful feature called "autocomplete" or "autofill".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocomplete

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofill

It is used all day long in cell phones when typing text, the app suggests a list of words from the dictionary, so you just need to type the first few letters and then the rest is given by the algorithm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocorrection

On 4/25/2023 at 12:43 PM, studiot said:

What a pointless waste of computing power and resources.

Professional autocomplete is implemented on a separate thread (possibly another CPU core). Querying the dictionary of millions+ db words every time a key is pressed takes some time (milliseconds or so). Doing this on the main UI thread would cause an unpleasant user experience.

On 4/25/2023 at 12:43 PM, studiot said:

It could even encourage those who have been prohibited by a moderator from raising a subject again to break the rules an start another thread on the banned topic.

In HTML code autocomplete feature of form fields can be disabled:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Securing_your_site/Turning_off_form_autocompletion

Entire form:

<form method="post" action="/form" autocomplete="off">
  …
</form>

or just some field:

<form method="post" action="/form">
  …
  <div>
    <label for="cc">Credit card:</label>
    <input type="text" id="cc" name="cc" autocomplete="off" />
  </div>
</form>

(Credit card data, passwords, etc. should not be stored in databases on the local computer)

On 4/25/2023 at 12:43 PM, studiot said:

I can't tell if this is part of the new site software or a W10  'Helpful' update.

This is a function of the web browser.

If you use Firefox:

https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+where+are+autofill+stored

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/automatically-fill-your-address-web-forms

On 4/25/2023 at 12:43 PM, studiot said:

What a security risk, not just to say that none of the entries on the list is helpful as my username is not an email.

You can log in to SFN by entering the username and email address used during registration.

 

HTML source code of SFN:

<input type="text" placeholder="Display Name" name="auth" autocomplete="username">

Description of the autocomplete attribute:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Attributes/autocomplete

 

On 4/25/2023 at 12:43 PM, studiot said:

What a security risk,

Someone would have to break into your house to use it.. steal the computer.. Or gain remote access to your computer.... In that case, they could just install a key-logger and get that data while you enter it manually anyway.

 

On 4/25/2023 at 1:19 PM, Genady said:

I don't think it is new. I also think that it is pointless.

This is a great feature. "Billions" of years of people's live time saved..

 

20 hours ago, Cap'n Refsmmat said:

I suspect neither of these is done by the forum software,

The forum software can tell your web browser not to automatically fill in the form data.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Sensei

[Genady]

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

On 4/25/2023 at 7:19 AM, Genady said:

I don't think it is new. I also think that it is pointless.

This is a great feature. "Billions" of years of people's live time saved..

Just to clarify, I didn't mean that the general feature of autocomplete is pointless. I use it often myself. I was only talking about it being pointless when a new thread title is entered as described in the OP.

[StringJunky]

I never see it. It's a cookie or cache thing, which needs clearing on exit in your browser.