TechSoup Town Hall

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

donc — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:32:07 GMT

Don't want to keep on about this point... but hopefully the production team isn't searching too hard for a technical fix to a comparitively simple layout problem... The main issue is the amount of unused/wasted border space on the forums. A little ride on the [ wayback machine ] shows how our forums looked back in the dark ages (2001) - Maybe not as pretty, but a lot more user friendly than today!

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

MeganKeane — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:19:32 GMT

Hi Jesse--

This is at the top of our priority list of Known Issues to fix. I'm looking at the fix that our production team has been working on and will be able to give you an idea after that when this will be in place.

Best,

Megan

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

Jesse — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:40:15 GMT

The formatting issue (no text wrap, and the browser needing to occupy a large window to see the text) is getting worse.

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

MeganKeane — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:17:39 GMT

Thanks for letting us know about your product wishes. I'll let our business development director know--we always like hearing what software nonprofits are looking for. If you have further suggestions, you can add them here to our suggestions conversation.

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

HolyCrossCatholic — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:41:24 GMT

I see above that someone has already responded to your question about font size but again it is in your my account section. you can set many preferences there. You should go and customize it anyway.

We would also like Quick Books for non-profit organizations.

Also content filtering software with url lists by category that would be installed in a Proxy server.

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

MeganKeane — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:48:59 GMT

Jesse:

AND there are no mouse-over balloons to explain what the formatting buttons are

Jesse, you can allow mouse-overs to appear by clicking on the "Site Options" tag in your user profile and checking "Enable mouse-over pop-up"

Jesse:

Now, doing this reply with a quotation from you, I seem to be in WYSIWYG mode (since the other formatting buttons seem to be active, but there is still the source code for 'quote.' And, AFAICT, there is no 'Preview' mode any more. AND there are no mouse-over balloons to explain what the formatting buttons are, and I don't want to risk my hard work on this message by experimenting.

Jesse, the old forums had a preview button at the bottom of the editing screen. This is now at the top of your editing screen. Click on the "Preview" tab and you'll be able to preview what your post will look like before you post.

Jesse:

Additional thoughts, after initial posting of this message:

AND, I notice, after posting this message, one needs to use the horizontal scroll bar to read it. This can be fixed by enlarging the browser's display, but why? There are already very wide margins around the text box here, and nothing on the web page that requires that space: when the browser window is resized, all graphic elements adjust. Why not make message text fit the message window, or make the message window wide enough within the ample space?

This is a known issue with the out-of-the-box functionality of the forums platform. In the interim, we've added a horizontal scroll bar to help navigate, or as you mention, enlarging the browser display solves the problem for the time being.

Jesse:

AND, what are those extra windows now, the'Edit Notes' and 'Current Edit Notes' windows, that appear below the 'Tags' window and the 'Email me replies to this post.' window?

Jesse, these notes windows allow you to give a reason for any edits to your post if you make. Edit notes shows previously made notes about edits; Current edit notes are any edit notes you add on a subsequent edit.

Best,

Megan

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

Jesse — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:31:12 GMT

jalvies:

WYSIWYG: The Source button allows a user to view the HTML source of the message body to allow for HTML editing of the post. When you are in Source view the formatting buttons are disabled....

I figured that out. My posting was a detailed description of the process of discovering it. The point is that the default mode (for me, at that first time) was 'Source' and the only active button was 'Source' which was misleading, because:

(1) I had no clue that I was in 'Source' mode and the button was actually 'Un-Source' (or 'WYSIWYG'). It is disorienting to go looking for source code and get a change in formatting, with no source code. Then toggling back one gets source code that one never asked for, and the formatting is messed up from what one intended and created.

and

(2) the concept of 'Source,' though not hard to understand when defined, was not defined in this context. Since the button did not give me source code, I thought that 'Source' must mean something else. I had to toggle back and forth a time or two more to really get it.

Now, doing this reply with a quotation from you, I seem to be in WYSIWYG mode (since the other formatting buttons seem to be active, but there is still the source code for 'quote.' And, AFAICT, there is no 'Preview' mode any more. AND there are no mouse-over balloons to explain what the formatting buttons are, and I don't want to risk my hard work on this message by experimenting.

Additional thoughts, after initial posting of this message:

AND, I notice, after posting this message, one needs to use the horizontal scroll bar to read it. This can be fixed by enlarging the browser's display, but why? There are already very wide margins around the text box here, and nothing on the web page that requires that space: when the browser window is resized, all graphic elements adjust. Why not make message text fit the message window, or make the message window wide enough within the ample space?

AND, what are those extra windows now, the'Edit Notes' and 'Current Edit Notes' windows, that appear below the 'Tags' window and the 'Email me replies to this post.' window?

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

jalvies — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:39:27 GMT

Hi John,

Sorry about that misunderstanding. I agree with you on the font size. I put in a request with our developers to see about having it increased.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks,

James

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

jkenyon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:23:50 GMT

James,

I saw that in the earlier post and understand.

My point is that most people don't know to take those 3 steps and it would be better to have the standard/default size larger.

I know it is not always possible but it certainly would make it more user friendly.

Thanks,

John

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

jalvies — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:15:40 GMT

Hi John,

A user may adjust the font size in their My Account section when logged into the forums.

After loggin in to the forums, click on the My Account link near the top-right side of the page.
Then click on the Site Options tab
Next to Font Size is a drop-down of the various font sizes you may choose from.

Thanks,

James

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

jkenyon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:04:39 GMT

Hi James,

If possible I think it would be better to increase the default font size on here as the current setting is extremely small and hard to read - think how difficult it will be for anyone with a vision impairement!

Looks good, keep up the good work!

John

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

Susan_Tenby — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:48:21 GMT

Yes, you can tag older posts, not just new ones.

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

jalvies — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:33:09 GMT

Hi Richard,

We have notified the development team about this issue and are working quickly to resolve it.

I'll post back once we implement a fix.

Thanks,

James

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

bigbuddy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:31:33 GMT

Not sure if I am missing something but if I elect to email me repies to this post I get all the thread posts pouring in -

each email has " To unsubscribe, go here and disable your email subscription for this thread."

on the bottom but "here" does not provide any path that I can see to disable the subscription

Richard

Re: 'Tis the Season for a New Forums Platform

jalvies — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:02:57 GMT

Hi Jesse,

Page Load times: Page may load slowly at peak times until traffic settles over the coming weeks.

Tagging: When you create a new post or edit your old post you may enter tags, separated by commas, in the Tags field at the bottom of the Compose tab. Tagging a post is a way of adding a non-HTML keyword to a post for human readability and categorizing.

WYSIWYG: The Source button allows a user to view the HTML source of the message body to allow for HTML editing of the post. When you are in Source view the formatting buttons are disabled. If you're not in Source view and are still not able to use the formatting buttons would you mind supplying me with your browser make/version and OS? This will help me troubleshoot compatibility issues you may be having with the editor.

Thanks,

James