Please read -- Forum Update

Phil Melore

Administrator
Join Date
Mar 2002
Location
NY state
Posts
608
Hi Folks,

Over the past weeks I've continued to make minor programming updates to the forum. This latest is thanks to your many requests when the forum first opened.

As many of you requested, I just added the first 100 characters of a post to the forum "table of contents" page. (like old forum) Sorry it took so long to do... but it wasn't as easy as it looks.:eek:

Now onto the real point of this post:
I am unable to do a good beta test since it has to be live to test. It seems to work fine but please let me know if any problem. Post here or email me- [email protected] if you see any problem so I can investigate.
I tested it in Netscape 4.07 and IE 5.5 on a windoze machine at 1280 horizontal resolution. Seems ok at 800 horizontal rsolution as well.

More updates coming... please comment if any suggestions/ideas as that's how things improve around here :)

Enjoy,
Phil
 
Much nicer having the beginning of each topic shown... Thanks!

One thing I would like to see would be the ability for the clickable tags to know the current cursor position in the editor... IOW, let's say you write a message, then decide to italicize a word, add a smilie, etc... The tag always gets added at the end of the editor, NOT at the current cursor position... :(

I'm used to manually entering my own tags, but this would be nice! Even better, if you could hightlight a word and click "I" (italicize), have it automatically add the tags to either end of the word!

Another minor annoyance... When you click "Get More" Smilies, the pop-up window isn't very big.... This should be an easy one to fix.

beerchug

Thanks Phil,

-Eric
 
Eric Nelson said:
Another minor annoyance... When you click "Get More" Smilies, the pop-up window isn't very big.... This should be an easy one to fix.

"Get more smilies" popup window enlarged. Thanks for pointing it out!

Regarding your other point... good idea. That is annoying. Now how to fix it, hmmmmmmmm. Let me think about that one.

Enjoy,
Phil
 
Hey Phil...

One quick (and probably stupid once I know) question...

What's the function of the
vb_bullet.gif
icon at the beginning of the "where you are" menu?

Is it any different than just clicking the highest level menu (PLCS.net - Interactive Q & A)?

Just wonderin'... :)

-Eric
 
Readable

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the simplicity of the site it is one of the few that I have been able to use.

Cindy

PS how do I get that nice little smiley face on my message?
 
Hi Folks,

One thing I would like to see would be the ability for the clickable tags to know the current cursor position in the editor... IOW, let's say you write a message, then decide to italicize a word, add a smilie, etc... The tag always gets added at the end of the editor, NOT at the current cursor position...
Great idea! It's been programmed as you suggested. :) But sorry the modifed method only works for IE... not Netscape :( It's a javascript limitation. I couldn't think of a workaround. Sorry! Netscape users will continue to use the old method and notice no change.

Even better, if you could hightlight a word and click "I" (italicize), have it automatically add the tags to either end of the word!
That's exactly how you can do it now. But sorry the modifed method only works for IE... not Netscape :( It's a javascript limitation. I couldn't think of a workaround. Sorry! Netscape users will continue to use the old method and notice no change.

What's the function of the icon at the beginning of the "where you are" menu?
The icon picture is just a picture to match the layout of the site. Clicking it just reloads the current page.

how do I get that nice little smiley face on my message?
Just click on the smilie you want to insert in your message. They are in the box to the left of where you type your message.
 
Last edited:
Phil:

Could you get rid of the POST NEW TOPIC button within the thread? It's almost bit me a few times (caught myself when I scrolled down to remember what someone had said, only to find nothing there), and it's gotten others.

I just don't see any reason to start a new topic in the middle of a thread, do you (or anyone else)?
 
Could you get rid of the POST NEW TOPIC button within the thread?
Hmmm. Another good idea. It's done now.

Since there have been a few thousand forum visitors since the TOC mod and no bug reports, I'll assume it works well. So, I'll unstick this thread in a day or two. But first, anymore suggestions/ideas/concerns?

FYI:
A "refer this forum to a friend" script is coming to drive more traffic to the forum. There is such a script setup throughout the rest of the site that gets good use. It just has to be integrated here.

Another potential script is a 'scratchpad' to save half written posts. The reason is, I know it's happened to me... I start to post a reply and then something comes up and I can't finish typing the reply. So, half a reply gets deleted and I come back later and retype my reply. The scratchpad will be kind of a place to store half written posts until you come back and finish typing the post.

Also, all the posts from the old forum will be linked from the main category TOC. I just have to lock them all and archive them so nothing new gets added there. Otherwise, they'll be two forums and mass confusion... again.

Just some ideas in process... ;)
Enjoy,
Phil
 
Phil Melore said:
A "refer this forum to a friend" script is coming to drive more traffic to the forum.
AKA "drive more STUDENTS to the forum" utoh (Only kidding!) :D

First off, thanks a LOT for the "cursor position" thingy change... Works GREAT! :cool: One minor thing is the damned space added after the closing tag. I understand why it's there, but it doesn't work well when modifying...

Add my vote to the scratchpad idea... I've lost a few posts that way myself :nodi:

One thing on my "wish list" here would be a choice as to when the "new post" list gets cleared. For instance... I stop in quick to see if there are new messages and find something like "There have been 10 threads and 57 posts since your last visit!". I don't have time to read them right now, but leaving the site resets it back to zero. Yes, I can still see which messages I haven't read, but it's not in a nice concise list like my initial visit. I'd rather use something like the "Mark all forums read" to reset this. I realize that some people would rather not, so perhaps you could make this a choice in the profile?

This would definitely require a vote from the group, but it might be nice to have a multiple forums, rather than lumping everything into one. This wouldn't affect anything, since posts in all forums appear in the "new posts" list. It would just "organize" things a little more. Seperate forums for Software Related, Hardware Related, Communications Issues, etc... The group will have plenty of other ideas for names (maybe "Tangents" would be useful?) :D

Overall, I think "Ya Done Good, Phil"! You have made this a very enjoyable place to visit! :cool:

Many thanks,

-Eric

P.S. Maybe a few more (or different) smilies? Things like this "Bit Shift Left" might be really handy here!... :p
smiliee.gif

Though it's only 6 bits (and not a true BSL)...
 
One thing that you might consider is changing your header at the top of the screen. It is busy on the left hand side with nothing at all on the right. The "Online tutorial" link and your "Get The Book" link could be bigger and get more attention if they were split apart and/or moved to the right hand side.

Maybe this could help the students find this info more easily.:)

This is a great site Phil. I get a lot of useful info here. Keep up the good work.
 
Love the scratchpad idea. Can you get a freeware spell checker and include it in the scratch pad? I love seeing all the foreign contributors here, but sometimes deciphering the message is a bit much, and even on my own posts I sometimes embarrass myself when I get in a hurry and forget to cut and paste to my word processor for a spell check.
 

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