Feature request : Mark thread as read from the thread's own page, not just the digest.
I'm enjoying TJE more now that I've found out about the condensed digest page. Now I just open that, and then open the threads I'm interested in, in child windows. Consequently I want to be able to sign off a single thread as read with one click, but at the moment I can only do that from the digest page, not the expanded thread itself. Any chance this could go on the wishes pile?
Replying here. The "mark as read" is showing up in a different place on the first post in a thread compared to when it is not the first post:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7213/6872243136_f86ede5173.jpg
Yes it does. Sometimes. I've got a screen where it is dropped on the first post of the first thread, but not on the first (or any) post of the next thread).
I'm going to wear my confused face for a while (some may note that it looks a lot like my regular face, & they'd be right).
Aha, it only occurs in messages posted with the WYSIWYG editor that contain multiple paragraphs.
LP, was this in your original CSS or is it mine?:
div.SmallThreads p:first-child,div.SmallThreads p:last-child
{
margin:0;
}
If the former what did you put it in for? If the latter what did I put it in for?
Little Paul - - Parent #
I have literally no idea whatsoever.
That answer goes for all three questions.
Certainly. I've now added a 'Mark thread as read' link at the start of each thread. I wonder why I didn't do that from the start?
How about not letting the "mark as read" disappear completely when I click it? Instead, it might turn into a light grey, unobtrusive but sometimes useful "mark as unread".
Hmm.
Hmm again.
My first thoughts are that because of the way we are set up it would have the potential to be exceptionally slow depending on which message you marked as unread. Although I said that about the mark as read system too & managed to come up with something that works fast enough. I'll have a play later in the week when I have some time.
Ok, let's try this for a bit. Both clicking the link & double clicking a message panel toggles the (un)?read status.
Although if you're the sort of person that might go back to the dawn of the Edge & mark the first message as unread, don't come crying to me to say that the site runs slowly!
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Well, that was marvellous service given the very reasonable rates I'm paying to get The Edge! Cheers.
BTW, what's the bug that truncates the title to "Feature request :" instead of the whole first line? Is the colon interpreted as a break of some sort? Nah, it's probably a feature ...
We're all about value for money here at the Edge.
Wasn't really a bug, the auto titler was just set to grab everything up to the first .?!:; or new line character. I've now whipped out the : & ; is that better? Yes, that is better.
Oh go on then, I'll join in with the requests! To me, all this 'mark as read' stuff is clunky. I use the index style view, so I think a thread should be marked as read if I view that thread's page, not when I remember to click it!
Splendid! I like that a lot more. I've only just realised how much it was bugging me. Thanks!
Hey what about us poor non-index-viewing people?
At the moment we have to read everything and then scroll all the way back to the top to do "mark all read", so I think putting a "mark all read" link at the bottom would be quite enough to keep me happy.
Also I note that the message I am replying to here appears so far below where I am typing that it's off the screen, would it be possible to put it where I can see it so I can remember what I'm on about?
Finally, I'd like a pony, preferably a white one.
There's your link.
Here's a pony:
https://www.jugglingedge.com/userfiles/Orinoco/whitepony.jpg
As for the message you are replying to where/how would you like it to appear? I have it in the current set up because I believe that after clicking reply the first thing you want to do is compose your reply, not read the message again.
I've put the parent message below so that it can be accessed as a reminder for people like me who start talking then forget what they were saying.
Thank you ever so much for my link and my pony!
I believe that after clicking reply the first thing you want to do is compose your reply, not read the message again.
Clearly you have an attention span longer than mine! The first thing I do after clicking reply is see this big text box and wonder what I'm doing here, who I'm talking to and whether it is still Thursday? Then I scroll down, read the original message and try to keep my response in my head while I scroll back up again to the text box. Sometimes it takes two trips. And I'm sober!
I guess if I was shooting for a 100% perfect solution, the text box would be javascripted inline in the original page, so I can scroll about and get the full context. That would be less dislocating. Otherwise, above the reply would be good (but with the page scrolled to the reply), or below where I can actually see it on the same page would still work.
Anyway if you bump into me in the bar at BJC I will buy you a beer :-)
Some more suggestions from someone who CBA to type them out himself...
In general there could be better use made of the space "above the fold" so it's easier to see what's going on at a glance.
E.g. on the front page, above the fold there is an inch of space devoted to a lack of notices, a heading that's not really adding anything, and a big list of people I've recently stood on the feet of, or something. The main menu is taking up a lot of this vertical space too. But most of the things on the main menu are straight up duplicates of stuff further down the page.
Below the fold are some much more exciting and relevant things like upcoming conventions (although not their hash tags for me to click on) and recent [big|small]talk posts.
In general everything on that front page takes up loads of vertical space because it's all really narrow. You could have two columns and get much more above the fold without getting even close to "clutter".
Also a post search facility would be handy, and if posts had dates on them that would make it more clear that the site is current and not stale.
All of these ideas are aimed largely at making the place more comprehensible to new folks who come along, arrive at the front page and will decide whether to stay or go in the next 5 seconds!
ok.
here i can be arsed to reply
drop the menu.
rename small/big talk
remove neverthrivings.
on the home page anything i have to scroll down to will be ignored
find/hire/borrow someone with graphics skills
threads/posts needs dates on. if i am about to reply to anything i want to know if its a week a day or a year old.
Home page needs a search box. if i want to know what luke said, or if anyone has asked about 633 then i want to search for it
there are currently about to be a few hundred/more people looking in here from ijdb looking for a replacement. if you want to be that then be that for a great reason, not simply because this is the only replacement at the mo.
new users will give a site less than 30 seconds before they walk away and never come back. make that initial 30 seconds one where they find what they are looking for.
more
on the home page there's a small red box with a number in it. (one) next to emilyw.
then i click on if i get a whole thread.
should it not go to the most recient post by Emilyw? after all thats what the number is highlighting.
At the bottom of the index page is a link that says customise this page, where you can rearrange/show hide whatever you like & set up a 2 column layout which I think covers most of your issues.
The top menu is how most people get around the site. If you want to drop it you can use the following in a custom style sheet.
#usercontrols
{
display:none;
}
All posts do have the date & time on them.
Search will be coming when we've got a bit more to search through.
I have asked a few people for help to redesign some nice awards images but no takers so far, but other than that I don't want a graphics based site.
& on average new users give this site 4m 22s!
I really like the free-form feel of the site. It took me more than 30 seconds to figure out USENET. I don't really want to get into a conversation with someone who doesn't have the time. I even like figuring out how new things work, they don't have to be like everything else.
One small gripe, it's hard to hit the little number that indicates unread messages on my touch screen, I think an & nb sp before would do it.
And perhaps people could consider making their improved CSS sheets available for others to sample, ala Colin
by "graphics" mini means more "UX", which I don't think you can ignore just because everything's configurable (a bit of a copout I think?) or because you don't want the kind of users who don't want to deal with suboptimal usability (which verges on the elitist).
And I don't know what you're looking at but the posts I see definitely don't have the date or time on them, they just say "whenever"!
Ah! You've got the Bungay timezone selected. Try setting it to Europe/London.
As for user experience, David has already alluded to as & when people pretty up the site with their own CSS I will ask them if they would be willing to share then I can offer it as an option. I am no artist but I will give it a go at some point (however, not my priority at the moment as things are going wrong all over the place! Thanks to all who are reporting errors - keep 'em coming).
So how about it people? Please style away, & share your work.
OH
that was what the bungay timezone thing was about?
It was just the only place in the UK anywhere near the top of the list, I'd forgotten I even chose it :-)
and I'd like to say that when I'm talking UX I'm specifically _excluding_ graphical prettiness and "artist stuff", and only talking about usability as it comes through from the bones of the site, not some kind of shiny stuff you paint on later. I'm personally quite happy with a complete lack of pretty stuff - I think it can really get in the way of the content. But the usability of the content itself is key to adoption, IMO. Some of the decisions you've made so far have put you head and shoulders above PHBB and whatever else, I get the impression that usability from the ground up is actually really important to you, as opposed to graphics which it seems neither of us care much about!
Little Paul - - Parent #
The Bungay timezone comes up as default when you create a new account.
While I really like the festival timezone idea, perhaps you should only offer geographical timezones during account creation - and possibly only allow festival timezones to be set during the event? (Possibly even only prompting those who are marked as attending the festival to pick that timezone?)
please to not hire anyone with "graphics skills". Or leave me a way to access the site as lean as it is now (or even leaner...)
I think I've got a working javascripty inline composition thing in my mockups somewhere. I'll revisit it after the BJC.
Another small feature request (that's not worth a new thread):
On a Profile page, can we have a "See all users" link please?
Don't worry about that, threads are very cheap here.
I wasn't overly sure where to stick the link, will there do?
Well, at first glance, I missed it (I think it almost looks like part of the user profile there?), so how about above or next to the user name?
(And thanks!)
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
An addendum to my original request : Can you put another 'mark thread as read' link at the foot of the page please? The reason being that that's where I usually am when I decide I've seen the whole thread.
Also, beer'n'hookers would be nice.
Extra linky added to the bottom, & the mark thread as read httprequest gubbins now works in a less hamfisted manner.
& here's a pony:
https://www.jugglingedge.com/userfiles/Orinoco/whitepony.jpg
Did that introduce the "older threads" link at the top of the index view of ST?
It doesn't look quite right.
I reckon that there just needs to be an older at the bottom and a newer at the top. page 2 has both at the top, both at the bottom (page 1 is older only).Then page one would be:
ST
threads
older
and subsequent pages would be:
ST
newer
threads
older