Grand Maester Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Neowin should have a separate subforum under Site & Forum Issues for suggestions, similar to the way they have a set of subforums for bugs. That way the devs wouldn't have to sort through all the threads in Site & Forum Issues to find out what people would like changed. It would also be a good way to encourage the devs to respond to suggestions, particularly in cases where the suggested improvement isn't possible, so people at least know that someone who actually has the authority to make those decisions actually saw it. I've got quite a few suggestions, most of them quite simple and that I don't think would take a whole lot of time to implement; but I kinda feel like the devs rarely even see stuff here so, it's like, why bother? For example: Display the notification method menu after clicking submit when tracking threads: When you check the box next to a post you are writing prior to submitting it that says "enable tracking" it automatically sets it to the deferred e-mail method. This means if you don't want that, you then have to go to your control panel and change it. By the time you do that it's just as easy to submit the post and then go up to the top of the thread page and select the track topic option under the options button which provides you a menu that allows you to choose which option you want at the time you subscribe. Display search terms at the top of each page of search results: On most search engines, when you enter search terms, they show up at the top of each page of results, but on neowin that doesn't happen. I never realized how helpful that was until I tried searching neowin and had difficulty because I constantly had to hit the back button to see what words I'd used in my last search before I could refine my search. Create an option to mark all posts as unread: I accidentally marked all posts as read once and couldn't undo it. Why can you mark all posts as read but not the other way around? Make the forum headings in topic subscription lists hyperlinks: You wouldn't think it would be a big deal, but I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to go to the forum itself rather than the particular thread referenced in my topic subscription list. These are pretty straightforward, and I think they and other suggestiong like them would have a much better chance of actually getting done (or at least responded to as to why they won't be implemented), if they were in a separate forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadgeek9 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Maybe that's what bug tracker is for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Maester Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 Maybe that's what bug tracker is for? No, my understanding at least, is that the bug tracker is for reporting errors in the site functionality not for proposing changes to it. For example I posted there about how my recent attachment list on the opening screen of my control panel extends below the allotted area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Create an option to mark all posts as unread: I accidentally marked all posts as read once and couldn't undo it. Why can you mark all posts as read but not the other way around? Because you can't go back in time. What's the difference if they're all read or all unread? They're all in the same state. Display search terms at the top of each page of search results: On most search engines, when you enter search terms, they show up at the top of each page of results, but on neowin that doesn't happen. I never realized how helpful that was until I tried searching neowin and had difficulty because I constantly had to hit the back button to see what words I'd used in my last search before I could refine my search. Neowin is NOT a search engine. Most forums do not show you your search words at the top. If you insist on them, use the Google search of Neowin. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=se...G=Google+Search Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Maester Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 Because you can't go back in time. What's the difference if they're all read or all unread? They're all in the same state.Neowin is NOT a search engine. Most forums do not show you your search words at the top. If you insist on them, use the Google search of Neowin. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=se...G=Google+Search As to your first comment: by that logic, there's no reason to have the option to mark them all as read either. At the very least Neowin should be consistent, either allow it both ways or don't allow either. As to your second comment: I never said Neowin was a search engine, but I figure if it's going to offer the capability than it might as well do it right. I am only a member of a few (three or four) forums and this is the only one I spend a great degree of time on, so I wouldn't know how other forums handle searching. That said, I find error in the argument that just because they don't do it, Neowin shouldn't do it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinetix63 Veteran Posted December 8, 2008 Veteran Share Posted December 8, 2008 As to your first comment: by that logic, there's no reason to have the option to mark them all as read either. At the very least Neowin should be consistent, either allow it both ways or don't allow either.As to your second comment: I never said Neowin was a search engine, but I figure if it's going to offer the capability than it might as well do it right. I am only a member of a few (three or four) forums and this is the only one I spend a great degree of time on, so I wouldn't know how other forums handle searching. That said, I find error in the argument that just because they don't do it, Neowin shouldn't do it either. Again, a lot of this is down to the software we use - IPB, rather than anything to do with us. We do have a lot of mods installed on the forums at the moment, but we don't really want to be installing any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 As to your first comment: by that logic, there's no reason to have the option to mark them all as read either. At the very least Neowin should be consistent, either allow it both ways or don't allow either. Um, no. If you want a clean slate from any given moment so that you know what's new since you marked them, you can. Your suggestion is to make all posts return to an unread state, giving you no help whatsoever in your post-reading timeline. That's why I said it makes no difference if they're all read or unread, for your purposes. For the purposes of this board, the way it is now is enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Maester Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 (edited) Um, no. If you want a clean slate from any given moment so that you know what's new since you marked them, you can. Your suggestion is to make all posts return to an unread state, giving you no help whatsoever in your post-reading timeline. That's why I said it makes no difference if they're all read or unread, for your purposes. For the purposes of this board, the way it is now is enough. Point taken, although I still don't see how it could hurt. Again, a lot of this is down to the software we use - IPB, rather than anything to do with us. We do have a lot of mods installed on the forums at the moment, but we don't really want to be installing any more. Wow I didn't realize just how little could be changed without resorting to mods. So does IPB allow for any kind of customization without mods? Just out of curiosity could anybody give me examples of current features on Neowin that aren't standard on IPB? Edited December 8, 2008 by Grand Maester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wannes Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Do you reply via quick reply? Well if you click the button you'll find the quick reply field immediately below your post instead of a few 10 pixels below the buttons. This to increase the overall looks of the forum. Another one are the staff colours showing up in every post, forum or whatever to clearly show you the usergroup of the member without having to read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinetix63 Veteran Posted December 10, 2008 Veteran Share Posted December 10, 2008 Another one is the changed icon when you reply to a PM - that's not standard in IPB either. We have a very large number of hacks installed. IPB is a solid base, otherwise we wouldn't use it - but we can't keep installing hack after hack after hack in order to offer functionality that isn't going to offer major benefits to our members. This is one of the reasons we have to take the board offline when we upgrade - because it takes our devs a good couple of hours to re-install all of the hacks that an upgrade has broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Point taken, although I still don't see how it could hurt. I don't see how it would help anyone either. All read makes sense. All unread makes no sense at all, since you've now put the posts in identical states. Read or unread, what's the difference at that point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+shift. MVC Posted December 11, 2008 MVC Share Posted December 11, 2008 Grand Maester you joined in 2003, why the sudden influx of suggestions (5 years later) :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLegg Developer Posted December 11, 2008 Developer Share Posted December 11, 2008 Another one is the changed icon when you reply to a PM - that's not standard in IPB either. We have a very large number of hacks installed. IPB is a solid base, otherwise we wouldn't use it - but we can't keep installing hack after hack after hack in order to offer functionality that isn't going to offer major benefits to our members. This is one of the reasons we have to take the board offline when we upgrade - because it takes our devs a good couple of hours to re-install all of the hacks that an upgrade has broken. Actually Paul, since we started using SVN we've been able to integrate all the mods offline before committing the IPB update into our repo, and be 100% sure that we haven't missed one (which used to be a constant issue in the past), updates can now be deployed to the live servers in a fraction of a second. Looking at the SVN information, we have over 100 individual modifications in place to the vanilla IPB code Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Maester Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 Grand Maester you joined in 2003, why the sudden influx of suggestions (5 years later) :p I only used it sporadically until just a couple of months ago, so I only recently even noticed many of the more advanced features. Until recently I only came here when I had a question on something (thanks my fellow neowinians for helping me solve a number of problems I never would have otherwise - you're the best! :cool: ). For example I rarely even looked at the control panel until a few months ago, when I had a question I'd just post it and then bookmark the the thread and come back later I never even new about subscriptions and a lot of the other stuff didn't really need to be asked before because I was never around anyway. Actually Paul, since we started using SVN we've been able to integrate all the mods offline before committing the IPB update into our repo, and be 100% sure that we haven't missed one (which used to be a constant issue in the past), updates can now be deployed to the live servers in a fraction of a second.Looking at the SVN information, we have over 100 individual modifications in place to the vanilla IPB code Wow!!! That's a lot of mods, I had no idea. I see now why you guys are so reluctant to add any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Maester Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 (edited) Display search terms at the top of each page of search results: On most search engines, when you enter search terms, they show up at the top of each page of results, but on neowin that doesn't happen. I never realized how helpful that was until I tried searching neowin and had difficulty because I constantly had to hit the back button to see what words I'd used in my last search before I could refine my search. Make the forum headings in topic subscription lists hyperlinks: You wouldn't think it would be a big deal, but I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to go to the forum itself rather than the particular thread referenced in my topic subscription list. I recently learned via the IPB forum that these have already been incorporated into the upcoming IPB 3. Edited December 19, 2008 by Grand Maester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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