Forum features wishlist
There have been already some suggestions for features yet missing or not fully implemented. I think it a good idea to make a thread where these are listed in concentrated form.
By now we have:
- Formatting: There are not that many styles necessary. Two are sufficient: Quote and normal text. Everything else can be managed by individual formatting through the buttons already present (e.g. lists, links, bold, italic etc.). The style function must be as usable as paragraph formatting in a word processor (e.g. only the paragraph that is marked is assigned the style - and nothing else).
- Email notification: Getting a message whenever a thread you have started or "subscribed to" has received new postings.
- First unread posting/Last posting: A column showing the date and user of the last posting in a category is already present. Good would be a link with "go to first unread posting" or "go to last posting". It would be good to have this already in the highest level of the forum. having a note showing which to which thread this belongs would be good as well (e.g. "Last post by <User> on mm-dd-yyyy at <hrs>" and all this note - or part thereof - as a clickable link). The "last posting" would be good for the highest forum level, while the "go to first unread psoting" would be appropriate for the second level, where you see all the threads in a specific category (e.g. "Technical stuff").
- Mark all postings as read: A button or link with which you can mark all postings (within a category or forum-wide) as read.
- New unread postings: An icon in the first column indicating whether there are new unread postings or not in a category. Basically this is something to make the forum prettier and more appealing aesthetically but it has functionality as well. Using a grahic or icon in two versions: For instance in the "full" version indicates new posts present, while in the "light" version indicates no new postings.
Please add any other functionality you miss by now, so that our tech crew knows what should be done first (or which is really needed most by the users).
Best
Thomas
Already started the thread and now the first answer by myself as well...
I just note that in the first post I used the "bullet list" and the bullets showed in the "edit" box, but after saving, the bullets disappeared.
> Previously Thomas Morwinsky wrote:
> Already started the thread and now the first answer by myself as well...
> I just note that in the first post I used the "bullet list" and the bullets showed in the "edit" box, but after saving, the bullets disappeared.
Odd, definitely sounds like a bug in either the CSS or the Javascript or a setting. I'll see what I can find.
I just changed the them from "Sunburst" to "Classic", and it appears to have improved a number of issues (see the quoting thread). I'm testing now to see if the bullets issue is also fixed.
- Testing 1
- Testing 2
- Testing 3
That's a test...
Previously Hawke wrote:
I just changed the them from "Sunburst" to "Classic", and it appears to have improved a number of issues (see the quoting thread). I'm testing now to see if the bullets issue is also fixed.
- Testing 1
- Testing 2
- Testing 3
That's a test...
Hmmm, strange. It created the right html for bullet list <li></li> tags, but then when saved, it doesn't show up. Even stranger it DOES show up in the quoted text. Not sure if this is a different CSS (style sheet) issue, or maybe an html tags security setting. Checking into that next...
Previously Hawke wrote:
Previously Hawke wrote:
I just changed the them from "Sunburst" to "Classic", and it appears to have improved a number of issues (see the quoting thread). I'm testing now to see if the bullets issue is also fixed.
- Testing 1
- Testing 2
- Testing 3
That's a test...
Hmmm, strange. It created the right html for bullet list <li></li> tags, but then when saved, it doesn't show up. Even stranger it DOES show up in the quoted text. Not sure if this is a different CSS (style sheet) issue, or maybe an html tags security setting. Checking into that next...
Even stranger, though I can see the bullets when I am in the editor, they still don't show up once this is submitted.
Another point is the forum appearance. IMO it would be good to have the columns in the listings (e.g. above the thread level) with fixed width. It is most obvious in the highest level. There the column width seems to vary according to the length of the text in the columns. The two columns to the right (conversations & most recent comment) can be of relative small width (e.g. that a long name like mine just fits into one line).
The 'most recent comment' should always be in the same format (e.g. 'yyyy-dd-mm') and not a thing like 'Thursday'). Having always a date and time (regardless of the time when the comment was submitted) helps the standardization.
Another point might not be important at all, though I include it as a encouragement for discussion. In a forum you normally use nicknames and not your real one. Here it seems that's always the real name that is shown for postings. Perhaps an option where you can choose between between your real and nickname for postings might be an idea.
Best
Thomas
Hi guys,
another request for the wish list, although a bit late: could you perhaps make our email adresses invisible in e.g. the forum posts etc.? Personally I hate having my adress floating around too many places. It adds to the spam flow...
Cheers,
Johannes
Johannes, I agree totally with you about it showing the email address, that is definitely bad. I am looking into it right now.
Previously Hawke wrote:
Johannes, I agree totally with you about it showing the email address, that is definitely bad. I am looking into it right now.
On my system, on a click on the user, you are transported to a web form for email. But if you hover above the user link (author of the posting), you are shown the whole path, ending in the user's email address.
Might be an idea to fix that too.
Cheers
Thomas
