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Posts
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Other than poor search (which is fixed and being implemented on the live site this week or next, watch the preview here), slow page response after posting (you should have noticed significant improvements here since July 26), and inability to edit the first post within a 5-minute window (this has been changed to 60 minutes over the weekend as a test run so we can see how it affects performance):
What new features (stuff that doesn’t exist today) do you want to see in the BPL forums?
The post editing window is terrible. You should be able to move to a full-screen editing environment instead of this weird little expandable box. So much screen real estate is wasted with the navigation/info bar over on the right. While editing all that stuff can go away. Allow videos to be embedded- both youtube and vimeo. Allow the video window to be resized. Why are pictures basically restricted to about 800 pixels wide? Larger images should be allowed with dynamic resizing. Quoting someone else is very cludgy. I’ll probably think of more…
Thanks for the longer edit window.
Since I have been using WordPress on my blog for 8 years, the editing window is familiar and easy to use, although not as full-featured as my version of WordPress.
I am used to resizing my pictures to a width of 800 pixels, because they load much faster on my blog. I edit my pictures (RAW format) in LightRoom and when I export them to a fold on my computer, it automatically resizes to 800 pixels on the longest side. I would imagine larger pictures on BPL would slow things down.
One thing I like about my version of WordPress is I can upload a large batch of pictures at once to my site and then insert them into wherever I want in a post, which is much easier than having to go to a folder location on my computer every time I want to insert another picture. This functionality is probably too difficult to implement on forum software.
I do like the ability to upload pictures to BPL because it is so simple. Often, when pictures are linked in a post to a picture hosting site, if that site goes out of business or changes their business model (think of the old WebShots or PhotoBucket) the pictures are no longer visible in the post.
Other than that, there really isn’t anything I can think of to enhance the site. If we can make it stable and have a bit longer to edit a post, which is already in the works, I’ll be satisfied.
Oh, and please don’t add “like” buttons or anything similar.
I’m brainstorming here, and not sure if this would be better, but say I’ve last looked at a thread when it had 18 posts, and now it has 21. Could it come up with posts #19, 20 and 21 in full, but the previously viewed 18 collapsed or represented by a single line each, clickable to expand? Gmail manages to do that.
On my end, there would be less scrolling through multiple screens to get to the new stuff and fewer 0s and 1s would be flitting through the interpipes, taking up bandwidth (admittedly not much for text).
This would be most helpful for something like one of Manfred’s trip reports with 37 paragraphs and 36 photographs of some epic, multi-week family trip. I’d see there were new posts in the thread, but the first post (and maybe the fifth, if he’d added more photos in response to a question or request) would take so long to load AND although I could initially scroll to the new posts, they’d keep getting bumped off my screen as each new photo would load and expand the length of the first post.
How about the option of more info in one’s profile? Other hobbies, style of UL trips (fast packing / day hikes / thru hikes / section hikes, etc), other outdoor pursuits, day job, whatever people wanted to disclose. Link to one’s lighterpack.com gear list as is done on Reddit? I find the photos on BPL help build a sense of community and whatever people are willing to disclose would help as well.
The ability to see all posts of a thread on one page. For example, the X-Mid thread is so long, finding useful information on it is impossible without going through each page individually. I’d like to be able to just ctrl-f for “wind” or “stake”.
Well . . . for those who don’t visit Chaff . . .
The Carbon Flame War thread is pretty long at 228 pages. That would be a lot of scrolling, unless the most recent posts where at the top of the page. In longer threads, I just click on the last page, because I have usually already read earlier ones.
On the other hand, I can see value in all the individual posts on one page.
I think the 25 posts per page is about right and should continue because agreed, I don’t want scores (or hundreds) of posts at once. I do the same thing on multipage threads that I’ve been following – I jump to the last page.
I was suggesting that WITHIN a 25-post page, those that I can viewed before could be collapsed for greater convenience and reduced bandwidth. Not a big deal in most instances, but very handy for long, photo-rich trip reports.
Yes, not as a default. But instead of viewing “page 7” or whatever, a “View All” button would be helpful.
Why not just make it a toggle choice for the user? Let the user decide if they want 25, 50, or 100 posts per page. I’ve seen other places do that, each individual can have it their way, within certain limits.
Would be interesting to try “newest posts at top” and see how usable that is, perhaps with a button up high to take you to Post #1 quickly, or even reverse the sort to oldest first.
“All on one page” button would really help me find stuff, as @johnnyh88 suggested. Too many times I’ve paged through long threads looking for something I vaguely recalled. The “Show All” button is pretty handy other sites, and I know what I’m getting into on really long threads.
Turn threads over X years old into static web pages, not database performance nightmares. Requires some thinking about presentation.
I’ve struggled with the BPL visual editor on too many occasions. Sometimes I clearly format and see a certain layout while editing, then the published version comes out all wonky. On a few occasions I’ve dropped into the BPL text editor to clean up bad messes. Not sure where the problem lies, but something more consistent, perhaps with fewer features, would be great.
Making deep thread links more obvious might help some people. I’ve figured out by trial-and-error that the greyed out #NNNNNNN link is useful, but maybe a hint somewhere or an explanatory rollover would help others.
Video tutorials on how to compose and post to BPL would help. A Basics tutorial for real beginners, and an Advanced tutorial for nerds like me that use state-of-the-art features like bold, italics, lists, and block quotes.
+1 on embedding YouTube and Vimeo videos more reliably. Sometimes a simple link embeds, sometimes it’s just another link. Embedded videos means people don’t leave BPL, which is probably A Good Thing. Consider embedding Tweets, Instagrams, and similar social media posts, too. But it’s OK with me if Facebook doesn’t make the cut.
An option for smart quotes would be really nice. I often compose posts in a text editor (BBEdit), just so I can “educate quotes” and paste into BPL. Remembering which obscure three-keypress combo produces left or right double or single quotes is tough after years of Microsoft Word doing that automagically.
And I’ve given up on copy/paste from MS Word to BPL posts. Almost every time something undesirable happens. At least on my Mac.
Page top forum titles in Upper and Lower Case instead of SHOUT CASE would be nice.
When BPL switched forum software several years ago, I really missed Titles on followup posts. Helps to see which threads have drifted to a new topic. And many of my old followup posts don’t make much sense now that the post titles are gone.
Lots of unnecessary white space in most forum threads, at least on a desktop computer. Some is good, but scrolling past too much gets old. There’s too much between longer posts, and an awful lot between shorter posts because of avatars and descriptions. Maybe avatars/descriptions could be tightened up or moved somewhere that doesn’t require so much scrolling.
If someone clicks the “Report” button for a post, require a confirmation “… are you sure?” Seems like too often those buttons get clicked by accident. If there is a confirmation now (I’ve never clicked that button), maybe it needs to be tougher to click “Yes,” like moving the Yes button far away.
Add the time zone to dates/times on forum posts (MST/MDT). Would help reduce confusion.
Make “Scroll to bottom to post.” a button or link that would take you to the bottom to start posting.
Thanks for taking suggestions!
— Rex
Default link pastes to “open in new tab/window.” It’s too much trouble to select that now, especially if I just paste the link as text:
https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/brainstorming-for-the-new-website-forums/#post-3668913
— Rex
One other thing in the editor — can we have standard keystroke format shortcuts such as CTRL-B, CTRL-I, CTRL-U, etc.
Nick – Maybe a Windows/Mac thing, because CMD-B, CMD-I, and <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>CMD-U</span>
all(mostly) do the right thing on my Mac.— Rex
Sometimes, but not always. <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Underline never works</span><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>.</span> They keystrokes always looks good via the Visual tab, until you hit the submit button.
Some of the formatting hasn’t worked in ages. As for copy and paste with all the formatting showing up, paste into TEXT instead of VISUAL and you’ll be able to see, generally, the weird formatting stuff that’s going to happen.
“Default link pastes to “open in new tab/window.” It’s too much trouble to select that now, especially if I just paste the link as text:”
I understand what you’re saying and don’t disagree, but it’s not an issue for me, really, since I’m so used to right-clicking on a link, which brings up a dialog box where I can choose open in new tab or window or other choices. Been doing it so long it’s second habit, quick and easy.
I should add that I’ve also taken to composing most of my posts in TEXT instead of VISUAL because the checkbox for forcing a new tab is right there.
Drop the self generated affiliate links in our posts. If I want to give an endorsement, link, whatever, I’ll include it myself. Thanks
Delete less, discuss more, learn.
I have two requests:
- As mentioned in Doug’s thread, include the date the thread started after the name of the user who started the thread
- For trip reports, regardless of the length of the report, always have comments begin on page 2. That would save a bunch of scrolling on the longer reports.
“Some of the formatting hasn’t worked in ages.”
I take it back, as far as what’s offered in the formatting ribbon. Once again I mistook UL for underline, but, of course, it’s not. Oh well, getting old sucks.
It sure would be nice to have a ‘preview’ button and not just ‘submit’. I understand that the ‘visual’ tab is supposed to give you a preview, but it’s amazing how often someone posts something and it turns out to be a bunch of tag garbage. Giving the post a dry run at rendering could prevent some of that.
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