Guys,
I'm not 100% sure who to direct this stuff at, so I'm posting here.
There are a number of problems with the forum software. Many of these are just me griping and should therefore be ignored, but I'm going to list a bunch of things I think aren't ideal about the way the forums work. This is supposed to be constructive, but probably isn't.
1) Last Reply times
I'm looking at the the front forums page and it's been telling me all morning that the last update to the Actual Play forum was from Scott 1 hour and 22 minutes ago. Yes, I've re-loaded, no, it's not a cached version of the page, it's just stuck at 1 hour 22 mins even though Scott's comment was last night. All the other forums are stuck too.
(this seems to have un-stuck itself, I think because Malcolm's just put a new post in Game Design)
2) Text Width
All the posts are squashed up into the middle of the page. I'd prefer the text to run most of the width of the page, I can set the width in my browser.
3) Tags
This forum has no built in editor and uses non-standard tags. Like STRONG instead of B. Which is not only different from every other forum I use, but is also six times as many characters. Very user unfriendly, I find it awkward and I spent 4 years as a web designer. I think this might be a real barrier to people coming to the site.
4) Login problems
I come to the site and sometimes I need to log in before I can post. So I hit the Login button and type my userID and password and it accepts them, but either sends me to a "Page Not Found message" or to my use profile. All the other forums I use regularly take me back to the last page I was on when I log in. Again, not very user friendly.
5) Long Threads
Threads which go on to 2 pages do not offer the option to jump straight to the last page. At the moment, you have to click the link, then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the first page, then you can click again to go to the next page. Granted that threads don't generally run past the first page, but still.
6) Quoting posts.
There's no quote function. Combined with the lack of support for standard tags, it all makes having a discourse on this forum harder than on a lot of other forums.
Hi Rich, yeah there are a
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 12:31.
Hi Rich,
yeah there are a few issues. I don't mind a gripe or two, and have been keeping track of 'em ready for making a few changes.
Part of the issue is that the site was put up quickly and I've been leaving off making major changes 'til I upgrade to the new version of Drupal.
(I actually did a trial run of this while everybody was at Spodley, but it turns out some key things we use, like events, are still buggy, so I reverted back).
I plan on revamping the template when I have time between real work. That'll fix some of your issues like width and such.
1 and 4 are something I'll look at. I've not noticed them, and they may be related to the provision I put in place to cope with the CE site overloading the database. It might not be cached on your browser, but on the server.
6, I'm definitely aware of it. I've tried some of the plugins to handle it, but they tend to cause issues. I'll have another crack and finding a decent one.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
I second everything Rich
Submitted by Graham W on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 12:31.
I second everything Rich said. Especially the reply times, which are genuinely bizarre: I logged on, first thing this morning, and it told me that something I'd posted last night was two hours ago.
Editing also bugs the hell out of me. The way you can't edit the first post in a thread, even though that's the most important one. And you can edit your last post in the thread: but only for a while, after which your editing rights expire.
Personally, I'd use Vanilla, which is stupendously easy to administrate. But that's just me.
Graham
I've the fixed first post
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 12:37.
I've the fixed first post editing. You should be able to change 'em now.
Edit: I've also turned off the cache. See if that affects the post times from your view.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
So...at the risk of being a
Submitted by Graham W on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 16:47.
So...at the risk of being a pain in the arse...no chance of using Vanilla, then?
It's really good.
Graham
Matt
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 19:19.
OK, if you put [quote=Matt]Testing[/quote] you can quote messages. Like this
I've also added the BBCode
Submitted by Matt on Tue, 22/05/2007 - 14:54.
I've also added the BBCode plugin. I'm not entirely happy with the code it produces, but it'll do for now.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
Also appears that the "Last
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Tue, 22/05/2007 - 15:08.
Oops, I've gone and buggered up Rich's post somehow ... - Andrew
By the way, quotes don't
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Mon, 28/05/2007 - 18:43.
Andy,
Submitted by Matt on Tue, 29/05/2007 - 09:08.
you could always use the blockquote element, that's what it's for. The quote thing is an addon, with a little button. (If you're an admin make sure you use the filtered HTML input setting or it won't work).
By the way, quotes don't work how you (and the instructions) say they should, ie using square brackets.