new thread
So my question is, do you like the new way better, or do you prefer the old way?
I'd also like to comment on some alternatives. Feel free to suggest others.
If you want to bookmark a page to visit the next time you arrive, you can always select your browser's back button to go back to the previous message and bookmark it. This will get you almost the same functionality as you had before if you bookmarked the first nonexistent message and you navigate using the Next link. I could add code to add links to the previous message and the message that was being called so you could bookmark based upon these links.
Or, I could use cookies to keep track of your last viewed message. I've stayed away from cookies so far under the premise that simpler was better and I'd also prefer not to fill up people's cookie folder if I don't have to.
the old way- the default '404 error' message had the same title regardless of the url & my computer would prompt me to ok replacing the last bookmark of the same title. my alternative now is to save the last viable message and manually delete the previous file from my 'favorites' (different titles). what might work as a compromise is to have the title bars of all the messages be the same.
would it be possible to implement a preview post page so i can proof what i have written before releasing it into the wild?
Uh, I know the URL is different than the previous one, but it should remain the same. Or maybe I misunderstood you.
my computer appears to compare what is in the title bar of the web page and prompts me if the same title exists in the root directory under favorites. in a posted message, the title bar (colored bar at very top of browser window) reads the same as the subject of the message. each succesive highest numbered message will therefore have a different title and my browser won't replace the previous bookmark with the next (unless of course they both have exactly the same subject). the old system offered me the same thing: 'file not found'... my computer automatically overwrote the old file when i saved the new bookmark.
... to me saving the 404 error file as a favorite is that it became the next posted message... which i could view without uploading the entire board first.
[qiote]:"Would it be possible to implement a preview post page so i can proof what i have written before releasing it into the wild?"
...Now there's a thought.
I know it has nothing to do with this poll but
...once you 'Submit Follow Up' it's carved in stone...
......including 'mistakes' if there are any.
..This can also happen if you mistype your member name.
Yeah, an edit feature would be cool.
Except for an immediate "edit before posting" (of little use since you can proof your posts on your screen anyway), an edit feature would require the system know "it's you". Now we're talking log-ins. Since a majority on here prefer anonymity, and many appreciate the ease of joining in without jumping through any hoops, that would bring about a major change to the culture here. We'd also see a lot less posting, because some people just won't bother if they have to log in.
Another option is letting guys who post include a password to enable later editing, but guys will forget their passwords and then pester the webmaster.
All that wouldn't work to perfection anyway, because if others post in reply to your thread, your old text may be in their replies. Also, if the system allows you to revise your text, you could revise it and then make someone's reply seem foolish - replying to something that does not say what he's responding to. We're probably best off, therefore, to hope Victor leaves things the way they are.
[quote]"would bring about a major change to the culture here. We'd also see a lot less posting, because some people just won't bother if they have to log in.
We're probably best off, therefore, to hope Victor leaves things the way they are." ~Bill
....Thanks. Never considered all of that.
The 'culture' around here is nice and it would be
a shame to lose that.
.
Yeah, those are good points. I was all about an edit feature, too, until I read what you have to say about it. Makes a lot of sense. Best off without an edit feature, then. We'll just have to be more careful in posting and come to grips with the fact that we can't write perfect replies all the time. =P
You make some very good points.
I think that j.s. was talking about an immediate edit before posting.
I like reading this board alot, everyone is very friendly, informative and supportive, but I find it's not as usable as most others.
Here's an example of the kind of board I think can server the community much better.
In what ways does that design serve the community better? I find I don't like several things about it:
* It overrides my browser default font. While the font there is not as small as some design for, it is too small for comfortable reading on my computer. I do have a very large display (22 inch screen set at 2048 by 1536, which comes in handy for the graphics that I do a lot), but it makes for tiny print when webmasters force a font that looks good to them when they have their system set up to use small fonts.
* It uses cookies to keep track of things. My cookie jar is full, thank you very much. I have cookies disabled except for when I really need them enabled. If not, my cookie jar would be tens of megabytes in size. Perhaps just a pet peeve of mine, but it is a serious consideration for me. I see now (I had to turn on cookies to get into Admin options) that there is a non-cookie mode.
* While the graphics are small and efficient, I prefer text only for a forum.
* The board is written with Javascript. This means the visitor must have javascript enabled. Probably most people these days have javascript enabled, but as viruses proliferate, I'm seeing increased recommendations to turn javascript off except where needed.
* All the features require a certain amount of overhead. Keeping the board simple allows bandwidth problems not to be as much of an issue. I wonder how much impact all the extra overhead would have on bandwidth. This may not be an issue at all, but I'd be surprised. OTOH, smart choice in configuration would make a big difference here.
* Bad word filtering seems to be limited to replacing a bad word with an alternative.
* Username filtering seems to be restricted to a simple list.
Good things about it:
* Lots of features, most of which are customizable. I see now that font size/face, etc. are configurable, but there does not seem to be an option of no setting (my preference). The parenthetical remarks of point size that corresponds to font number is guaranteed not to be accurate for some browsers.
The above, of course, is just my personal preference.
By the way, when using a dummy email address, always confirm that it is not actually a legitimate email address first. Unfortunately, the one you used for the Webmaster user was a real email address.
I am sensitive to this because I received email relating to threads about creating viruses and hacking. Why did I receive such emails? Because one of the hackers posting to the newsgroup signed his posts using turn-right@the-light.com. Clever address. However, since I own the domain the-light.com, all mail sent to that domain goes to me unless I've set up countermeasures. In this instance, I have set up countermeasures (simple ones), but it took some time and ingenuity to track down the hacker (who was trying to cover his tracks) to serve him with a cease and desist notice and to expunge his posts from google.com.
All valid points. :)
I have discovered that the font face will default to browser default simply by leaving the text box blank! Thought I'd give it a go and it worked.
Unfortuately there is no simple way to choose blank for the font size. Directly editing the settings table in the database would probably fix that one though. :-) I'll have a look.
Yeh fixed that by putting blank entries in the database.
I harbor no ill-will toward Teknohippy (other than a mild revulsion at the spelling of "hippie" with a "y" -grin- ), because I know his heart is in the right place. But I have serious reservations about that particular system, and concur with much of what Victor said:
The most irritating font thing about the program is it is set up by its creators to REVERSE the well-established convention that unvisited links are blue and visited ones are purple. Yuck! Maybe this can be altered by the site owner, but anyone who'd ship a product like that earns little respect from me. It reveals its creator is arrogant and disrespectful of others. Ditto for his attempt to reinvent the wheel with his in-square-brackets pseudo-HTML.
I'd concur. I run three boards with the same software as this hyperboard, and I whacked it down so it has half the text this one does, even. It screams.
And I would NEVER visit a web board with Javascript on. Who knows what text might be embedded in a post by a user, or what might happen if I visit a link posted there. I like to relax, and feel free to click on the links users put there without worrying about popup snowstorms or other Javascript obnoxia.
Yep. This board, on the other hand, serves up nothing but plain HTML text, when people are reading. At least 95% of your visitors upon any given mouseclick are reading, not posting. Probably more like 98%. One nice thing about plain HTML text, besides its efficiency, is it displays everything in one's default font. If you're vision-impaired and you've set your font really big, this web board will display everything really big. The big text won't slam into any decorative slop around the edges because there isn't any.
Users don't want to look at extraneous slop at a web board, they just want to read. The images I want in my head when I read one of you guys' posts is what YOU are talking about. There's a REASON when you buy books they don't put images all around the edges of the pages - reading is an act of submersion into the images in the mind of the author. A prime example of a site that provides constant visual distraction from what I am trying to read is Yahoo Groups. There is no comparison to the user experience one gets there, to the pleasant one gotten here.
Which is stupid, since everyone knows what word was to be there.
If the word was offensive when written, the substitution also will be. Most users take their behavior clues from the behavior of others, because that's what humans do in real life. They will read right over the dingbats and sense that nasty behavior is okay there if you leave them. Thus, you still have to go in and remove the nasty posts.
If you can't route an entire ISP for human review, you have no serious control. If your software trashes posts rather than letting you see them first, perfectly good posts from some users will be trashed. That's a real downer for a user because he has always spent some time and thought into writing his post. You don't want your software abusing your friends that way, and most of your users are your friends.
I'll add that users absorb a "sense of place" about a web board, just as they do about their favorite grocery store. When they come back, they are frustrated if someone has rearranged all the merchandise.
But the absolute worst thing about that software is it runs on MICROSOFT not UNIX. Pardon me while I vomit. I wouldn't foul my web server with any files that end in ".asp".
Now there's some imagery for you. :-)
And it didn't take much bandwidth....
Bill
Web boards I run:
Then try being a little more polite, to me your post has come across as rather rude and aggresive not to mention quite hurtful.
(other than a mild revulsion at the spelling of "hippie" with a "y" -grin- ), because I know his heart is in the right place. But I have serious reservations about that particular system, and concur with much of what Victor said:
Damn, I'm truly sorry. I was trying to say I can still love you while disliking software you happen to like. :-) The right words to express that just didn't come to me I guess.
Teknohippy,
I just want to be clear about one thing that I guess I left out. Feel free to develop your own community. I am confident there are many people who prefer the type of environment you demonstrated. You will no doubt have a significant following of you set one up. But I will leave this board here for those who prefer this environment.
Victor