The new site has been active for about a month now so I wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions for improvements. There is the site feedback thread, but that is new, and some folks might not care enough to create a new thread, so I figured a new thread in here would be a good place to get feedback.

A few items that I am already working on or are on the horizon:

• I really dislike the post editor, the software I am using (ckeditor) is good for basic tasks, but it's too opionated and bloated to customize easily. I've found a few possible replacements that I will be evaluating over the next few weeks. The main thing I'd like to improve on is the image posting functionality, allowing you to post directly from your computer as well as posting from links.
• I am working on a notice/announcement feature that will display announcements at the top of every page if the need arises.
• I am planning on updating polls so that it will be easier to do tournament-style polling. You can currently select single choice or multiple choice. I will add an additional option for tournaments, that will pair options together, and only one per pair can be selected (preventing dlazz from selecting every option in the poll).
• I will update reps/negs soon so that you can add a message (required for negs) that can be viewed by the user you are leaving it for.
• Eventually I will add the ability to tag users in a post so they will get a notification that they were mentioned (dependent on the first item in this list). I also want to send notifications if your post is quoted by someone.

That is all I can think of now. Please let me know if you have any suggestions not on this list.

1. permaban spock

2. Option to hide posts from certain users

3. Hide posts under a certain thumbs down threshold

4. permaban spock

posted by MontyBrunswick

1. permaban spock

2. Option to hide posts from certain users

3. Hide posts under a certain thumbs down threshold

4. permaban spock

Good suggestions. This also reminds me that I still need to fix timestamps as you were the one that brought that to my attention. Please respond to this post with what time you see in the top gray bar of my post. Yours, for me, says "4 minutes ago..." which is correct.

Posts are still two hours in the future

Also I'm not sure if the "thread is unread after replying to it" was ever fixed, but I noticed this thread was unread (bold) after I replied

posted by MontyBrunswick

Posts are still two hours in the future

Also I'm not sure if the "thread is unread after replying to it" was ever fixed, but I noticed this thread was unread (bold) after I replied

It works almost always, but if someone edits a post in the thread it will bold it again.

Minor

- Option + click to open a thread into a new tab and you don't leave your current page.

- Open links in a new window

Darker font. 

Thx for your efforts.

posted by QuakerOats

Darker font. 

 

 

 

Thx for your efforts.

I agree

More hot chicks

I know you've been messing with it on the moderator forum, but ability for pictures from phone library/screenshots.

posted by Laley23

I know you've been messing with it on the moderator forum, but ability for pictures from phone library/screenshots.

This is contingent on the new editor that I touched on in the first bullet point. The current one sucks.

posted by QuakerOats

Darker font. 

Thx for your efforts.

This is easy, and I kinda agree with you. I'll darken it up a few shades closer to black.

posted by MontyBrunswick

 

2. Option to hide posts from certain users

There's nobody left that i need this for, but I absolutely had to block isadore. I could not resist replying to him and feeding the troll. Once he was blocked I was left wondering why everyone else still replied. (But had i continued to read his crap i probably would have continued to respond) 

posted by QuakerOats

Darker font. 

Thx for your efforts.

Done.

posted by MontyBrunswick

1. permaban spock

2. Option to hide posts from certain users

3. Hide posts under a certain thumbs down threshold

4. permaban spock

Dude WTF?

Crap, permaban didn't work.

I just fixed the sporadic issue where clicking Latest Post would take you to a page with no posts on it.

So am I the only who's noticed a pretty frequent "blank page" of threads?  I click on the last page, and often there are either no posts there, or sometimes it might take me to the first page of the thread. 

Very annoying!  Fix it or make this a .gov website  :)

ironically enough, I hit multiquote button on the previous two posts to mock gut for complaining about the issue you just got done saying you fixed and the "quote 2 posts" button got buried underneath the footer...so there's another bug. 

posted by MontyBrunswick

ironically enough, I hit multiquote button on the previous two posts to mock gut for complaining about the issue you just got done saying you fixed and the "quote 2 posts" button got buried underneath the footer...so there's another bug. 

Screw that noise, I was talking about clicking on the last page, not the "latest post" button  :)

posted by MontyBrunswick

ironically enough, I hit multiquote button on the previous two posts to mock gut for complaining about the issue you just got done saying you fixed and the "quote 2 posts" button got buried underneath the footer...so there's another bug. 

 

Ahh. Scroll up a little to fix that for now, I'll push a fix the next time I work on a bigger update. 

I would like to have my gif avatar back.

overall the new build is pretty dope, especially since its largely from scratch. just curious what, if any cost savings making this switch provided for you. 

posted by j_crazy

I would like to have my gif avatar back.

 

overall the new build is pretty dope, especially since its largely from scratch. just curious what, if any cost savings making this switch provided for you. 

The new software is a little more efficient, so it's on a smaller server, but that's not much of a difference. The main reason for the update was improving my development skills with a framework that I've poked around in for a few years but never really built anything substantial with, and to allow for easier updates going forward. I hadn't made a security update to the old site in years as it was a giant pain in the ass. This new software is more secure. I'm more likely to put in the time and effort to keep this place going now that I actually enjoy working on it and making updates.

posted by justincredible

Done.

Thx

posted by ernest_t_bass

Minor

- Option + click to open a thread into a new tab and you don't leave your current page.

- Open links in a new window

Anything on these?  The second one keeps users on your site and not lost in the shuffle.

posted by ernest_t_bass

Anything on these?  The second one keeps users on your site and not lost in the shuffle.

Yeah, I was playing around with that last night but the way that posts are loaded on the page it wasn't as easy as it should be. I'll keep at it, I'm sure I can figure something out soon enough. The first one is lower priority, but I'll throw a few minutes at it and hopefully figure it out quickly. I'll keep you posted on progress.

Actually, I think I know why option + click isn't working. I might be able to have that fixed in the next few days. The current functionality is that you can basically click anywhere on the thread list item (not just the title) and that is screwing with the default behavior. The update, I think, would require me to remove that functionality and you would have to click on the link (or buttons) to open the thread. Not really a big deal, IMO, so I am fine changing that behavior.