Some random questions and test reports

[Densha]

First, I want to say I really like some features. The attachment system is very convenient as is the elaborate notification system and other profile features.

I don't know what features will be changed in the following days, so take this with a grain of salt.

While features such as social network integration may come in handy for some people I would like to be able to turn it off somehow for myself. Honestly I find the "HOT" icon not really useful, maybe even more important, I don't understand how it works.

I also have some questions about writing posts, I noticed that you can't use the Wysiwyg interface with the BBCode like in the previous forum software. I just found it very convenient that it was possible. Maybe there are some features not working with BBCode but I would think that they would automatically be turned off or something. In the same area, is it possible to paste as plain text without using the button everytime?

I also noticed that when you click on the emoticon button you will be showed some random ones instead of the most used ones like in the previous software.

 

As last, so far I found the forum software to be a bit slower now, it seems to be more heavy on the CPU because of the many features.

[Martijn Meerts]

First, I want to say I really like some features. The attachment system is very convenient as is the elaborate notification system and other profile features.

I don't know what features will be changed in the following days, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

While features such as social network integration may come in handy for some people I would like to be able to turn it off somehow for myself. Honestly I find the "HOT" icon not really useful, maybe even more important, I don't understand how it works.

 

I also have some questions about writing posts, I noticed that you can't use the Wysiwyg interface with the BBCode like in the previous forum software. I just found it very convenient that it was possible. Maybe there are some features not working with BBCode but I would think that they would automatically be turned off or something. In the same area, is it possible to paste as plain text without using the button everytime?

I also noticed that when you click on the emoticon button you will be showed some random ones instead of the most used ones like in the previous software.

 

As last, so far I found the forum software to be a bit slower now, it seems to be more heavy on the CPU because of the many features.

 

There are a couple of things that would warrant some custom profile fields, so I can look at adding a toggle for the display of the social features, which would mean by default they're visible, but you can toggle them off in your settings.

 

The 'HOT' icon is a quick indicator of when a thread has 25+ (I think) replies.

 

The new WYSIWYG editor uses standard HTML tags for things like bold and italic etc, but does have the option to add BBCode. The advantage of using standard HTML tags is that it requires less processing on the server (BBCodes would need to be converted to HTML tags), the disadvantage is that a lot of people are used to BBCode. I'll look into it a bit more though.

 

In the WYSIWYG there's a little icon (top row, right most icon in my case) which is a settings icon, there's an option there to always paste in plain text.

 

Emoticons look like they need some manual work to get the most used (or at least, most standard ones) listed in the emoticon bar/at the top of the 'show all' popup. I'll get that fixed soon-ish.

 

The forum is a bit slower at the moment, which is because almost none of the content is cached right now. Every time someone visits a post that isn't cached, the system will cache it. The next time that post is viewed it should be a lot quicker. Currently, 2070 out of 76912 posts are cached, so it'll take a while to cache them all :)

[Densha]

Good to know that you're working on these things.

I can't figure out how to use HTML though, and I do know how basic HTML works. When I use the tags it simply doesn't work: http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/6887-test-posts-only/?do=findComment&comment=76919

 

I also forgot to ask what's up with the "Advanced Member" and the triple black dots in the profile info next to the posts.

[KenS]

While features such as social network integration may come in handy for some people I would like to be able to turn it off somehow for myself. Honestly I find the "HOT" icon not really useful, maybe even more important, I don't understand how it works.

 

Count me as a "second the motion" on that.  I'm sure social stuff is important to many, and I don't mind it being a default. But it's just clutter for me, and an option to turn any and all "share this" or similar kinds of things off and hide them would be nice.

[cteno4]

The poor word share is really becoming a dirty word. First it was the business speak alternative to tell you and now everything in the world has a social media share! Ugh.

 

I'm another vote for ditching the social media stuff

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Good to know that you're working on these things.

I can't figure out how to use HTML though, and I do know how basic HTML works. When I use the tags it simply doesn't work: http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/6887-test-posts-only/?do=findComment&comment=76919

 

I also forgot to ask what's up with the "Advanced Member" and the triple black dots in the profile info next to the posts.

 

What I mean, is if you use the bold, italic, underline etc. buttons it'll add html code rather than bbcode. Using html directly is turned off by default.

 

The advanced member is just a title (advanced member means having posted a certain amount of posts for example) and the dots are pretty much the same. We don't really need either, it's just something I forgot to remove. The thing with the new forum is that the templates are divided into MANY files, which has many advantages. The big disadvantage is of course that it takes a while to figure out which file I need to edit. It'll get easier the more changes we make though :)

 

 

As for the social stuff, maybe it's better to turn it off by default and add the option to turn it on, seems not many people like it ;)  (to be honest, I don't like it much either, and hardly ever use it ;))

[KenS]

The advanced member is just a title (advanced member means having posted a certain amount of posts for example) ...

 

If I were Mudkip, I think I'd make a really dirty joke here about the meaning, but since I'm not, I'll refrain. :)

 

I'm not a fan of ranking posters in general, and certainly not on post count which as we've seen just leads to problems. On the other hand, showing someone as "New" versus "Experienced", perhaps based on calendar may have the benefit of making people aware that someone hasn't yet had time to learn the forum etiquette. I'm fine with just turning it off though.

 

I do note that about half our registered users just lurk, so we may have lots of experienced viewers with post counts of zero. Or maybe just a lot of "registered once and left" users.  In any case, post count has nothing to do with familiarity.

 

Note that we do have a type of ranking in the "donor" mark; but that's an either/or and anyone can donate to get one if they so desire.

[Densha]

What I mean, is if you use the bold, italic, underline etc. buttons it'll add html code rather than bbcode. Using html directly is turned off by default.

Lol. It was a bit confusing. I prefer writing posts in code, it's what I'm used to on the internet. I prefer the simpleness of BBCode but I have no problems with simple HTML either.

 

I'm fine with just turning it off though.

Agreed completely.

 

 

Btw, when you edit a post, will it be shown too like before? That was really handy because you knew whether someone changes a post.

 

2nd btw, I noticed that topics that were marked as "Read" before are now marked as "Unread" even though no posts were made in the meantime.

 

And I forgot to mention that links to old forum topics aren't working, but I assume you're working on that?

[Martijn Meerts]

The 'post edited' thing will be added soon-ish, right now there's a checkbox with which you can show a post was edited or not, but by default it's turned off.

 

Not sure what's causing previously read posts to appear unread all of a sudden. I haven't come across the issue myself. I did have a few old unread posts right after converting, but those were probably posts I hadn't read on the old forum software. What I did, is use the 'Mark Community Read' link all the way in the bottom to mark everything read, and things seem to work.

 

Also, a post might've been edited and marked as unread again, which is hard to say now considering there's no way to tell a post is edited (I'll go and found the switch to turn that on ;))

 

(Testing the post edited feature) - Seems to work ;)

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2013 by Martijn Meerts
Just testing ...

[Martijn Meerts]

And I forgot to mention that links to old forum topics aren't working, but I assume you're working on that?

 

That's supposed to be working, although I've only been able to test on a local install. Can you paste a couple of links?

[Densha]

Some topics that were in my history.

 

"What did you order or the post deliver?" topic:

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php?topic=1220.0

(redirected to front page)

 

You own storage yard modules:

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,3687.new.html#new

(error message)

 

When attaching post numbers or other variables to the url I get an error message.

I noticed that the topic numbers changed.

[Martijn Meerts]

I'll give it a test run. The topic ID's have all changed, but there's a conversion table in the database which links old to new. Might be there's an issue there.

 

[Densha]

After using the forum for a while, I have noticed a few things that make the usability just a bit less good.

Like with the previous forum software I'm still not able to quote multiple messages unless I click on the quote button two times and copy the quotes to my reply. I noticed the "MultiQuote" button but I don't understand how that should work at all.

 

I noticed that when you visit a profile page of someone who hasn't logged in since the conversion, you won't be able to look at his/hers posts and topics using the tabs at the left. I assume that's one of those cache problems you were talking about, but it should be cached when I visit the page, am I right? I know I can still find them using "Find content" so it's not a terrible problem, but it's just one of those minor things.

 

When you make a post you will be redirected to the top of the topic, is it possible to make it so that it redirects to your just posted post?

 

A minor thing: While the "advanced member" and such titles are gone now there's still the New Member/Member/Admin "ranking". The "new member" title seems to be related to the post count too and as discussed before some people don't find it useful as do I. I only find "admin" useful, but that's just me.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Densha

[Martijn Meerts]

After using the forum for a while, I have noticed a few things that make the usability just a bit less good.

Like with the previous forum software I'm still not able to quote multiple messages unless I click on the quote button two times and copy the quotes to my reply. I noticed the "MultiQuote" button but I don't understand how that should work at all.

 

I noticed that when you visit a profile page of someone who hasn't logged in since the conversion, you won't be able to look at his/hers posts and topics using the tabs at the left. I assume that's one of those cache problems you were talking about, but it should be cached when I visit the page, am I right? I know I can still find them using "Find content" so it's not a terrible problem, but it's just one of those minor things.

 

When you make a post you will be redirected to the top of the topic, is it possible to make it so that it redirects to your just posted post?

 

A minor thing: While the "advanced member" and such titles are gone now there's still the New Member/Member/Admin "ranking". The "new member" title seems to be related to the post count too and as discussed before some people don't find it useful as do I. I only find "admin" useful, but that's just me.

 

Multiquote had a bug which I just fixed, so now you should be able to click the multiquote button on every post you want to quote, and than hit the reply button which pops up in a little box in the bottom right corner of the page.

 

The rankings are based on registered time. When a new member registers, they'll be 'new member', once they've been registered for 7 days they'll become 'member' even if they don't post. It's just a way to prevent spambots to create an account and add spam links to their signature. ('new members' can't add a signature)

 

The other points will go on the ever increasing todo list :)

[Martijn Meerts]

With regards to the old links not working, seems I uploaded the wrong index script. I'll have to check if I can find the correct one once I get home :)

[Densha]

I'll just post it here:

What I did notice, is that there are problems with Japanese characters and urls, I guess the forum software converts them from Japanese coding to ASCII rather than keeping it in Unicode when you select editing in BBCode.

[Martijn Meerts]

The 2 test links you posted are redirected to the correct page now (minus the fact that they're not going to the newest post), so hopefully the rest should work as well :)

[Densha]

The first link indeed redirects me to the new topic, but the second link redirects me to the new topic and immediately redirects me to an error page afterwards...

Edited January 7, 2013 by Densha

[Martijn Meerts]

Looks like the problem is the #new at the end.

 

When Firefox redirects the page, it keeps the #new in place, even if the URL is completely different. The redirects are set to be permanent, which is why Firefox is keeping the #new. I could fix it by making the redirect temporary, but that's not a great option. I could also fix it by using some javascript to get rid of it, but that's an even worse option ;)

 

In Safari it works just fine, haven't tested in Explorer yet...

 

 

Edit: I adjusted the javascript for now to ignore #new in a URL, but it's not a great option considering the javascript in question is a core file, and will get overwritten with every update ...

 

Edit 2: I fixed it in a different way now (or at least, hope I fixed it) which doesn't involve changing core files ;)

Edited January 8, 2013 by Martijn Meerts

[Densha]

My main browser is Firefox. Now I get indeed redirected to the correct topic, it ends with a "#new". With Google Chrome there's still a "#" after the url but I don't know if it affects anything because I haven't tested it before.

[Martijn Meerts]

Gotta love it when all browsers have a different way of handling things, basically forcing you to use javascript to actually get it to work consistently across all of them... Especially fun for those who have javascript turned off  ...

 

Other than looking weird, the hash marks in the URLs shouldn't matter much.

[Densha]

So a simple hash tag shouldn't matter but accompanied with "new" it does?

 

I've done some stuff with CSS a while ago and that's also a hell because sometimes even widths for example are interpreted differently. And that's only the design!

[Martijn Meerts]

The problem is that IPB uses hashtags for certain things, so it expects correct hashtags.. #new isn't a correct hashtag, and # by itself doesn't really count as a hashtag at all. Basically what I had to do was add in a check to see if a #new hashtag exists, and if it does, don't do all the regular processing IPB normally does for a hashtag. Fairly easy fix in the end, it just took a while to figure out how hashtags are handled is browser specific.

 

CSS is the worst part of webdevelopment really. What I usually do is get some basics (there's a couple of sites offering 2-3 css files which reset all sorts of browser defaults and have various fixes etc.), then build a base site on top of that which works in all browsers, and then usually add some css that only gets loaded when the browser used isn't Internet Explorer, or at least an Internet Explorer known to work with the features I want to add. That additional css is usually only to add things like for example text shadows, which in older IE versions makes the fonts look like hell :)

[Densha]

I only did the design of one page, but some HTML5 functions I used weren't supported by IE at all at that time. I don't know if it's now and I don't really care because it's not really important stuff. If people want to see they should just get rid of IE. ;)

[Martijn Meerts]

The problem with that is that Internet Explorer is still the most used browser, and will stay like that for quite a while most likely. And to be honest, it's not a bad browser, it's just that it doesn't get updated often enough to have all the new features.