Suggestions for Improvement

[Raiko Horikawa]

it's redundant because of the ban log and also you can't actually set a temporary rank afaik, we'd have to remove it manually

 

[game guy]

Make a shy guy smiley

 

[DragonFreak]

There is one. You can use get by typing ":Shy:", except with a lowercase "s"

Also, in the post reply, there is a section called "additional smilies", and you can find it there too.

 

[User4042]

 

[DragonFreak]

What did you do wrong?
Works perfectly well for me.

 

[game guy]

i got it i overlooked it sorry

 

[Lakituthequick]

What did you do wrong?
Works perfectly well for me.

There is a checkbox named "Don't use smileys." under the post form, which disables smiley's when checked.

 

[fantanoice]

Can we can a Preview option for Signature edits? It's pretty annoying to have to Save before you can look at it, especially if you screw it up. :P

that's not possible i'm afraid

It's possible on NationStates forums.

...on a side note, do not go to those forums unless you are very, very brave.

I meant it's not possible with SMF

I think this Mod might achieve it . Even if it doesn't, it surely can't be that hard to render a frame with some BBCode in it.

 

[DragonFreak]

i got it i overlooked it sorry

No problem!

What did you do wrong?
Works perfectly well for me.

There is a checkbox named "Don't use smileys." under the post form, which disables smiley's when checked.

Oh yeah, I always forget that feature.

 

[User4042]

Have it say "Read 1 time" instead of "Read 1 times" when you create a topic

EDIT: And 1 Reply instead of 1 Replies

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Think we can unsticky the Super Mario 3D World thread? The game has been released for a while, and it hasn't been posted on for nearly a month.

 

[fantanoice]

Do the things posted in here actually get reviewed? It seems people debate it for, like, a page and then just gets forgotten without a resolution.

 

[Kyoko Sakura]

flash tags

 

[Aiko Heiwa]

Can we can a Preview option for Signature edits? It's pretty annoying to have to Save before you can look at it, especially if you screw it up. :P

that's not possible i'm afraid

It's possible on NationStates forums.

...on a side note, do not go to those forums unless you are very, very brave.

Don't need to be brave to visit the NS forums.

*leaves thread*

 

[Lakituthequick]

Do the things posted in here actually get reviewed? It seems people debate it for, like, a page and then just gets forgotten without a resolution.

I kinda pointed that out earlier too, and that thing got the exact same fate of being discussed then never brought up again.

flash tags

We have those. Porple disabled them.

 

[Driftmaster130]

Do the things posted in here actually get reviewed? It seems people debate it for, like, a page and then just gets forgotten without a resolution.

How about updating the title to list ongoing debates?

 

[Kyoko Sakura]

flash tags

We have those. Porple disabled them.

then my suggestion is to enable them and ban people who abuse them

 

[User4042]

there's a very rare chance of security risks according to the options question mark thing

 

[Iggy Koopa Jr]

Query: Three people are marked tempbanned, but their rank is unchanged. is this an error?

 

[Raiko Horikawa]

nah, we generally don't feel the need to add the rank unless it's permanent. differs from mod to mod though, so sometimes tempbanned people do get it.

as for the reason we don't get back on some stuff, generally in some cases it's simply stuff the mods can't answer (often stuff dealing with the forum software itself), sometimes it's not really important enough to reply (for example unstickying threads), and sometimes we just forget about it entirely, sorry.

 

[Lakituthequick]

Forum software related stuff might be resolved with help from Steve though. He is literally able to change stuff at coding level if must (at least, if he knows what he's doing).

 

[porplemontage]

This is a suggestions thread, not my to-do list. If I really like an idea I'll do it, but the status quo is highly favored.

 

[fantanoice]

as for the reason we don't get back on some stuff, generally in some cases it's simply stuff the mods can't answer (often stuff dealing with the forum software itself)

I can understand that but if that's the case then where are the Administrators?

This is a suggestions thread, not my to-do list.

Considering a number of the suggestions here are raised because people have experienced some sort of issue then it should probably be higher on your priority list. I can't speak for everyone but when I make a suggestion it's usually because I've encountered some kind of problem and already know of a potential solution to it. To be ignored outright by the staff is pretty rude because you have not acknowledging that there is an issue to begin with and also ignoring the potential to deliver a better service to the people here. I figure that even if you don't know how to answer, at least respond with that instead of leaving everyone in the dark.

In addition to this, very few things get resolved because there's too much noise in this thread. There's too many people trying to fight for attention and all the stuff just piles on top of the other stuff, so nothing gets passed the 'talking about it' stage. What they really need is a thread dedicated to them so that the discussion can have direction and be free of noise so that it can progress from being raised, to discussed, to resolved, rather than raised, piled on, debated, piled on, unresponded, piled on, forgotten, piled on.

 

[Anton]

I really don't think every single suggestion should be given its own thread because in no time we'll be flooding this board with terrible ideas, which will still flood out the potentially good ideas. In addition, what pressing issues are you having right now that haven't been addressed in some form already? I've only done a quick check of the last bunch of pages to make sure I wasn't talking straight out of my ass so I easily could've overlooked something but it looks like all of the actual things that needed to be addressed were addressed by mods. I don't think mods are ignoring things, if they're ignoring at all, to be rude, but rather because some things are simply not big enough to create a drawn out debate about and are better to be addressed only if there's a solution or answer available for response instead of "iunno".

If you've got a legit serious problem with the forum, perhaps the Help board or directly PMing a mod or Porple would be better solutions. If you're wanting things like "Can we get a like system????" to be re-addressed by the mods 3, 4, 5 times, then perhaps your criticism should be re-evaluated.

Edit: Well maybe I guess ideas that are steamrolling along with discussion could maybe be moved into individual topics, like how that new rule suggestion edo had went along, but only for things like that that have already proven to be an active discussion.

 

[fantanoice]

In addition, what pressing issues are you having right now that haven't been addressed in some form already?

I guess I should have clarified that these issues are mostly inconveniences and not stuff of utmost importance (high priority stuff should go through the proper channels of course).

If you've got a legit serious problem with the forum, perhaps the Help board or directly PMing a mod or Porple would be better solutions. If you're wanting things like "Can we get a like system????" to be re-addressed by the mods 3, 4, 5 times, then perhaps your criticism should be re-evaluated.

Like I said before, they're mostly low priority issues, but still issues.

Having said that, if people are requesting the same thing 3, 4, 5 times then shouldn't that give the indication that it's something people want? :s

I've only done a quick check of the last bunch of pages to make sure I wasn't talking straight out of my ass so I easily could've overlooked something but it looks like all of the actual things that needed to be addressed were addressed by mods.

I know the stuff I've suggested are not immediate issues (hence why they're suggestions not bug reports) but they're certainly things that would be nice to have and would provide a better service (at least to me because I can't speak for other people).

I don't think mods are ignoring things, if they're ignoring at all, to be rude, but rather because some things are simply not big enough to create a drawn out debate about and are better to be addressed only if there's a solution or answer available for response instead of "iunno".

Just because they don't intend to be rude doesn't mean that they are not. My impression is that if the staff don't acknowledge the stuff in here then you've basically just wasted the time of the person who wanted to improve the site. In addition to that, if you don't respond to something raised - everything, mind you - then the person who raised it doesn't know if you:
- Rejected the request outright without a reason (which is quite rude because you're just dismissing the person and their efforts without indicating why)
- Acknowledged it but didn't know how to respond, which doesn't help at all because then anything you're not sure about can't be clarified
- Didn't see it, which should speak for itself

I'm not saying every suggestion is going to be useful but you really should be providing feedback regardless because otherwise you're just being ambiguous, and that's really not a good thing to give off when people are experiencing issues (of whatever severity) or trying to help you provide a better service.

I guess the point in a nutshell is to not leave people hanging. If a suggestion sucks, say why it sucks, even if it's the 10th time you've had to say it (maybe link to past posts related to it as well to support you). If a suggestion sounds kinda reasonable but you're not sure, say you're not sure because then somebody can help you.

I mean, I didn't spend my time requesting a signature preview just for kicks...

I really don't think every single suggestion should be given its own thread because in no time we'll be flooding this board with terrible ideas, which will still flood out the potentially good ideas.

I'd personally recommend a dedicated Feedback section instead because that separates it from the other website discussion, and with something like that, you can also just move the closed / resolved threads to an archive so that they don't get in the way of the other stuff. Seems relatively clean and simple to me.

Pros for this system:
- The topics have direction, as they're dedicated to one thing
- It doesn't need to compete with everyone else talking
- You can lock / move trivial stuff so it doesn't distract from the good stuff
- If people search for a particular suggestion that's been closed before, they can find the thread, see the discussion, see why it was closed and go on their merry way (far better than trying to read through 100+ pages)
- Separates it from the regular website discussion so all the suggestions / issues / etc don't get in the way of those.

Edit: Well maybe I guess ideas that are steamrolling along with discussion could maybe be moved into individual topics, like how that new rule suggestion edo had went along, but only for things like that that have already proven to be an active discussion.

Possibly, though a dedicated Feedback section will be a lot cleaner imo as crucial information will still get lost in a thread like this regardless.


Tl;dr - My suggestions for improvement are to improve the Suggestions for Improvement.