The UHE would be better if(your input needed)

Heya everyone,

I had this fantastic list of things I needed to add or alter to the UHE on my work computer but an impressive storm last night ensured that I'll not be working with that list any time soon. I'll soon be finishing up the classifieds system, so will be moving on to other parts of the site, so I'm going to miss it.

I thought this time, I would ask for your input directly. The old list was made through your collective help, you just didn't know it. When someone complained about the lack of something or if something was confusing, it went on the list. Now, I'd like you to take a bit of your time to post your ideas about what would make the site better.

I'm looking for anything, big or small. The old list had large things(like downloads, weblinks and classifieds systems) to small(let a user input their bike(s) into their profile, show users online on the front page, allow user to set the number of posts seen on the latest post block on the front). If you think it would be nice to have at the site, I would really appreciate you taking the time to tell me in this thread. I'll rebuild my list with the information.

As the topic progresses, I'll add the suggestions to the top so anyone that might like to help doesn't have to read the whole topic to ensure that their suggestion isn't a duplicate.

I thank anyone ahead of time that takes the time to share their thoughts. I greatly appreciate it and although I know the progress at the moment is slow, I would like to say that the stuff you all have mentioned in past threads has not fallen on deaf ears. I intended to continue adding the features as time permits.

THE LIST(sorted by popularity)

1) Front page latest posts: Show latest post date/time, allow more posts
2) More clear differentiation of colors between posts when reading a thread
3) Member map(better integration)
4) Show online users on the front page
5) Downloads (restore original content)
6) Weblinks (restore original content)

thanks,
json

JW said:

- show the publishing date on the Unread section in Home
- delete the SAVE button (or move it) to prevent you saving your post instead of posting it.
( happens 50% of the times in my case i hate that button...)


thnx!

Click to expand...

I have to agree that it's a very poor order. It's almost as if the forum creators were so proud of the new feature, they put it at the front, history, logic and intuitiveness be damned. Instead of adding this to the list, I went ahead and made a change I hope works out for you. I didn't think it would be prudent to remove site features because of poor button location(I can see in the admin stats that some members are using the feature), so I moved the draft button to the end, separated it from the others, removed it's bolding and changed the button text from an ambiguous "Save" to "Save draft". I think this will resolve your issue, but please let me know if it does not.

thanks,
json

In regards to the photo issue and for clarification: As has already been mentioned, this isn't an oversight by the developers. Since the beginning of community forums, people have posted unedited pics with widths of up to and exceeding 3000 pixels(I've edited more than I could count in the past). To keep people from having to scroll a mile and a half to the right, the developers instead dealt with it via the fixed width container. Page design for sites with dynamic content has always been a challenge. You try to design a style that someone else can't mess up . Not only do large pictures cause grief for those with smaller resolutions and make the page look like complete crap, it also wreaks havoc on the server's system resources. Large images shown to every person reading the thread, whether they want to see the large image or not is a lot tougher on a server than displaying thumbnails and full size to only those that have an interest in it. The exploit of posting huge images in scripts on a site has been in existence a very long time.

There are of course times when you need to convey increased detail in pictures posted on the forum. That's the perfect time to use a linked thumbnail which allows the user to click and see the full size.

I'm not posting this to nullify your thoughts on the matter, but wanted to make sure everyone understood the "why" of it.

thanks,
json

Ron, I'll work on the button, but until I've got it done, I wanted to let you know that the next lottery number will include 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 or a combination thereof. I feel slightly guilty, giving you such an edge, but we're tight and I know you'll share when you make it big.

I've gone ahead and made some of your suggested changes in the gallery, taff. Now, you will see all albums at the front of someone's gallery, then pictures. The pictures will now be sorted from newest to oldest. Also, to separate an album from a picture, you'll see "scrapbook corners" on any albums, making it easy to distinguish between the two. I'm currently trying to find a way to implement a better pagination system on the pages(the links to other album pages).

The front page latest post block is already in the list at the top of this thread. I should be finishing it soon.

thanks,
json

For gallery navigation, in place of the "1,2,3...12,13,14...33,34,35", you will now find a dropdown selection box both above and below the album list, which will allow you to choose any page in the gallery.

Alright, I'll need input on whether the front page fits the bill for the requests on the latest posts block. Here's the changes.

I've added the time of the post, for those that wanted to see it. To fit the extra data, I had to move the post block down below the donations block instead of beside it.

You'll now see a link above the threads which allow you to choose 20, 30 or 40 threads on in the block. If you choose one while logged in, your preference will be saved and the page refreshed to show the new amount of threads you want to see. You can change how many you see any time you'd like. The value is stored and any time you visit the front page, your preference will be remembered.

If you click the link while anonymous, the page will refresh to the desired amount of threads shown, but visiting the index page later will result in the default 20 threads being shown again.

I've got to say, your lists must be much shorter than my now-dead list was. I think we have a grand total of four unique suggestions. I guess it's up to me to design the pink fuzzy dice.

Someone had mentioned a while ago that the lack of "users online" on the front page caused the site lose some of it's community feel, so I wrote one tonight and you can see it below your user's block on the front page. I didn't bother to code the anonymous/hidden/members totals into it, because I didn't think anyone would care how many hidden and anonymous users are online at any given time. Just let me know if this isn't the case and you do in fact care.

thanks,
json