Since stage 3 is advancing now, it would probably be a good idea to list the various places the existing ‘experience’ could be POSITIVELY improved. This might then serve as both a guide and a component of test checklists as the new forum is “architected” and coded.
I’ll start with a couple. Presumption is that all the sites will use common templates and the weird differences in site behavior will disappear as a result.
Repair access to setting personal information (including setting avatars if those are retained; is the ‘gravatar’ system still alive?). This includes ability from mobile devices. (The existing code that receives uploaded images and resizes/changes resolution worked well every time I used it and could probably be kept as a module or pattern if the new architecture permits…)
Repair access to the PM system, including ability from mobile devices.
Resolve the conflict between Firefox v.61+ and the security issues blanking access to text entry in PMs when using Firefox or the browsers built on the Mozilla engines.
Stop whatever it is that frequently reloads the site and blanks text entry on phones. Sometimes this happens several times an hour.
Get rid of any ‘attack’ pop up ads that spontaneously open and cover the minimal text-entry window. And if there is a way to enable resizing the text box on a phone… please document it.
Speaking of documentation – each site has its own weird tools and formatting conventions. It would be nice to consolidate them all as options in the toolbars and menus with some online pages or help system that tells how to run them.
Resolve the issue with the ‘insert image’ tool now that inline hotlinking has become a ‘power user’ evil theft of intellectual property and bandwidth. Since there is evidently code that blanks display of some of these images, indicate to someone trying to paste s
A wroking spell check would be nice. Especially in considering that the spell check on private messages wroks fine, it should be pretty simple to implement on the forums.
I could be wrong, but my personal suspicion is that spellchecking is turned off over bandwidth issues. So, if that is correct, then I’d like more bandwidth, too.
It’s a back-end engine issue, so the bandwidth involved in sending the ‘correction’ indication is minor.
The problem I read about Kalmbach having, years ago when they were still ‘banking’ on mobile devices taking over this kind of ‘connectivity’, was that most people using phones and tablets already have typing and spelling correction turned on for text entry, and that might clash with active spellcheck in the forum text-entry window. I think I’d design it like a Word-style checker (that flags potential misspellings via coded color underlines or changed font face, and allows you to click or mouse-over for suggested replacements or Soundex entries) without making its own edits; a back-end tool that reviews and fixes ‘all the problems at once’ was also a Microshaft option and would involve little bandwidth to provide (as a toolbar option). Ideally this would keep all its ‘revisions’ highlighted for quick review and editing of wrong suggestions immediately before posting.
This is like the only forum I visit, out of many, that does not have spellcheck. And I’m fairly confident those other sites have a fair share of mobile users. “Auto correct” I can do without. Most of my spelling errors are typos or transposed characters, so just a red squiggly line would be fine with me. Something to flag the error.
LOL, there is one forum where I participate, that if I was going to respond to your post, Murphy’s post, and Overmod’s post with distinct and separate replies…even if each reply included quoted text from each of you…all three of my replies would be appended together into one post, so long as no other poster posted in between.
And when questioned about the confusion this causes, the host replies “We consider this a feature, not a bug”…
Of course it’s not hard to figure out which users are being served by that “feature”. The users who chronically have “screen size” issues, of course.
Personally, I’d like to eliminate animated images in Sig lines. Some are cute the first time viewed, but then become a distraction/annoyance seeing them in dozens of posts in dozens of threads thereafter. I am on a satellite internet connection and have a limited number of bytes I can download before my transfer rate drops to useless. At least give me the ability to select not to have them sent to me.
Sorry, I know some like them (especially those that use them) but they are troublesome to some of us (ME in particular!).
Laser-focus on this point. As I recall, one of the global options in Settings once was whether or not to ‘display signatures in threads’. If it is not there, I concur it should be.
… although there are times I wish I could see the whitewater-rafting cat again, or the little people having trouble crossing the chasm…
Either fix the quote-system syntax or provide clear online directions for how to use and edit BBcode to get rid of gibberish and wasted space.
I can’t see any reason why mandatory space between paragraphs, which is ‘on’ by default and not to my knowledge easily overridden by controls (or common-sense editing ‘source code’) needs to be active when using the ‘quote’ facility. Neither why nested syntax is used in some of the text the quote feature pasted, syntax that is neither respected nor parsed right when subsequently edited. Neither why emoticon rendering is screwed up – at the very least, if IT can’t figure out recursive parsing in page display, at least edit the gibberish text or the silly placeholders out before quoting!
HEY!! I thought that Overmod clearly stated that this thread was for POSITIVE suggestions??
Let’s not turn this into a “criticize what others have suggested” thread. [(-D]
I’d like a “filter out grumpy old men who think it’s their prerogative to control how everyone else uses their internet” filter too. But I’m trying to work within the confines of what the OP set forth.
And then I cannot see any images that are embedded in the posting… so I get to read,
“Here is a photo of the UFO I took yesterday… isn’t it interesting!?”
BUT NO PHOTO SHOWS because they stored it in imgur dot com and my system will not access them.
Not only that, but my avatar and many of the button images and other parts of this web page become only placeholders. Thanks! Nothing like using the atomic cannon to swat at a bee!
Incidentally, on modern iOS at least, the feedback for the italic and boldface buttons is fouled up, making it uncertain whether the changes actually toggle when selected. This is supposed to be a clear and modal change between engaged (displayed as button darkened and ‘depressed’ with a drop-shadow effect) and normal. Since at least iOS 11 this has had a kind of indeterminate state that requires repeated button pushing to resolve.
Incidentally, for mobile devices with pop-up keyboards at least, the most commonly-used toolbair functions should be on the ‘bottom row’, the opposite of common-sense desktop semantic design. I have to carefully scroll down to get the line and character formatting, whereas I seldom use search or make bulleted or autonumbered lists in postings (and they display and edit wonkily if I do…)