Forum Enhancements

[Skul]

Okay, a few things to ask you guys.

1) Does anyone actually use the Quick Reply feature? Should I disable it or keep it?

2) We can have a chatbox on the forum. I can activate it if you want so you can have live discussions with each other.

3) Finally, do you want to be able to add an optional description of your topic titles? For example, this topic's title could look something like:

Forum Enhancements
I've got three questions for you all

Just in case you want a snappy title, but would like to give people an idea of what the topic is about.

Let me know.

[Agent 47]

I kind of sit on the fence with these three issues. I really don't have any strong feelings either way about them, so don't put too much weight on my opinions here. But you're looking for some feedback, so I'll give it a go.

(1): I haven't been using the Quick Reply feature. No particular reason. Maybe because it's smaller and "Quick" that I have been assuming that it's somehow "less than" the "normal" posting area. But I really haven't studied it. I'm only using it for the first time tonight.

(2): Personally, about the Chatbox, I think - WHY?!!! Posting in a forum like this has many more posting features available - pictures, videos, avatars, signatures. But if other people want to use it then that's fine with me.

Incidentally though, some of those Chatboxes are one of the things that no longer work for me since Mozilla remotely disabled something on my computer. I think it was something to do with Java. Thank you very much, Mozilla!

But if you did enable a Chatbox, could it go down the bottom of the page? It's just that for people reading websites on very small devices like phones, scrolling down though miles and miles of "stuff" at the TOP of webpages, to get to the actual website content, can be a real pain. Precious seconds lost through unnecessary scrolling is the bane of 21st century living!

(3): Those extra Topic Description lines, they're OPTIONAL, right? They could be handy, but sometimes just a couple of words is all it takes. One concern I would have about this particular enhancement though, is the forum getting more cluttered. I'm thinking long term here. I mean, extra lines all over the place. And it's not something that could be easily reversed if ever you wanted to. I'd say at least don't rush into this one. Are there any examples around of how it would look? I'm not sure that I've seen any before.


But anyway, like I said, I'm pretty much sitting on the fence with these things. I could take them or leave them. That's just my two cents worth.

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

I think the quick reply feature is pretty convenient, I'm using it right now. I think it should stay, but it's no big deal to me if you decide to remove it. A chatbox would be very good for casual conversations on here, while keeping most of the discussions in the forum. However, it would only be effective if people were using it often. It defeats the purpose of the chatbox if most messages get a response days later. So it's definitely something that would be great if we got more active members, but at the moment, I don't see much reason to be strongly for or against putting up a chatbox. Agent 47 pretty much summed up what I think about the third question.

[Agent 47]

Perhaps a way to move forward cautiously regarding the extra topic description lines, would be to conduct an experiment.

Let's say, for now leave it as it is, until page one of the Main/I Hate Sports section fills up with topics as it would naturally WITHOUT the extra topic description lines enabled.

Then when page two of the Main/I Hate Sports section starts up, enable the extra topic description lines, and let that page fill up naturally WITH the extra topic description lines enabled.

Then when page two is full, there will be a realistic comparison of the two styles available. Page one the old way - without; and page two the new way - with. And then at that point, an informed decision can be made about which is the preferred way to go, starting from page three onwards.

[Skul]

The topic descriptions would be just like the descriptions for each board, only for threads and adding a description would be completely optional. I couldn't find any forums using descriptions, including ones I used to go to as they are either gone or changed to a different forum style.

As for the chatbox, well that would go to the bottom of the forum. I don't see any reason to put it at the top, although there is an option for me to do that. Just thought some people might like live interaction between each other from time to time.

[Agent 47]

Hey, don't let my disinterest in a Chatbox get in the way of trying one out. Go for it!

[Skul]

I'm really kind of waiting to see what the other members think, too, if they have anything to say.

[Earl]

Sorry I'm so late responding.  I've been preoccupied again.

I agree, more or less, with Agent 47 and HugeFan.

I have never used the Quick Reply feature.  I don't know how it differs from the way regular posting is done.  I have no problem with retaining this feature, especially since one member has indicated that he uses it.

I've never used a chatbox before, but it might be interesting.  I'll have to ask one of my daughters how a chatbox works.  So, I'd say go ahead and activate a chatbox.  Even if it ends up being hardly used, it still won't be an inconvenience.

The optinal description of topic titles sounds like an interesting idea, but Agent 47 has made a good point about a possible "cluttering" effect.  As he said, we could experiment a little to see how it works out.

Sounds to me like I haven't made much of a contribution, but at least you've finally heard from me.  I don't have any suggestions of my own to offer.  Whatever Skul decides will be fine with me.  

[Agent 47]

OK. I've been trying some experiments. All has been going well, except now I have arrived at an impasse.

Since HTML was enabled on here, I wondered if JavaScript could be run in a post as well. But it turns out that any JS < s c r i p t > < / s c r i p t > tags posted on here get automatically deleted.

So, is it possible to enable JavaScript in posts on here, like HTML was?

[Skul]

Sorry, I don't think there is. I looked on the forum of the site hosting our forum, but as far as I can see, there's no way to do it. There is talk of Javascript by members in a couple of threads, but I have no idea if they're talking about enabling it. In any case, there's no "Enable Javascript" option available for the forum, so if it can be done, it'll probably have to be done in a complicated, roundabout way.

[ThinWhiteDuke]

1) I like the quick reply. Saves time and it's simple to use.

2) Chatbox seems like a nice idea, but I don't think we'd be on at the same time.

3) I think it's alright. I guess I would sometimes use it.

[Agent 47]

there's no "Enable Javascript" option available for the forum

Damn. That would have been ideal.

But thanks for looking into it, and thanks for the information, Skul.

[Sponsored content]