October 24, 2007 12:21 AM

Hi aphex,

Yes, there are some problems with Safari (there was on the old site as well), mostly with the editing control, but there may be a few outstanding things that need to be corrected. I'll check in with the squad and see how soon they can get to it. In the meantime, Firefox will give you the best experience here if you're on a Mac.

I'm running a tad slow as well at the moment. Part of the reason could be some of the indexing (takes hours) and database stuff going on behind the scenes. Tomorrow afternoon should be a better indicator of speed. I'll keep my eyes open on this one...

Thanks for posting the things you've seen, and please continue to share any other oddities you may encounter. 

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

October 25, 2007 9:59 AM

Hey guys. I'd be happy to comment on some things here.

bancado: Then I used the browser's drop-down on the back button go go back to the Recent Forums Page.  Every single item on the Recent Forums Page was marked as new as were about 75% of the items on the second page.  I bounced around to a few other discussions and all of the NEW indications are still on that first page.

I'm not 100% sure I know how the new indicator works yet either, but it looks to me like it's not quite right. I'll have dkaz take a look, and if it is working right, explain what it means and how it works.

Brandon: No reply with quote to orgignal post.

This is known, but I can't guarantee it's not by design. Does it make sense to quote the first post in a thread? To me, the first post sets the context of the discussion. Plus, when it's the only comment, does it make sense for the first poster in the new thread to quote the only other comment?  

Brandon: Also reply with quote, the quote looses all the formating of the original post. See above quote from first reply in this thread.

Correct, that does appear to be an issue. I think they may already know about it, but if not I'll add it to the roadmap to fix.

Brandon: No notice if someone changes or edits their original post or reply.

By design. Would you want to be notified that someone edited a post, only to find out they changed the spelling of thier to their? Should we reconsider this?

bancado: I'm starting to miss the "member since" on individual posts.  I'd like to know if I'm responding to a newbie or an old pro.  Maybe it would fit next to Member under the avatar.

I've actually fielded a few e-mails today about this. I know they were trying to clean up the amount of clutter in discussions (now if you hold your mouse over someone's avatar you get options and info), but losing the join date does seem like a bit of an oversight. I'll bring it up to our designer and see if he can work it back in somewhere on the next build.

All excellent feedback guys, please keep it coming! 

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

October 26, 2007 10:21 AM

aphex said: I disagree with Matt's recent post on two points. 1. I think it would be nice to at least have the option to quote the OP. Although it sets the discussion, if a thread gets long, its nice to see someone quote the OP almost as a reference back to the topic again. I don't see why leaving it out is considering to be a good thing - More options = better software. It also gives the person replying the opportunity to quote the OP, bold the important parts, and talk specifically to those points. Its very useful and should be reinstated. 2. In turn I also think knowing if a post is edited is important and useful. I think you are being a bit too shortsighted in thinking people only edit posts for spelling mistakes. Having posted over 31,000 posts over at Anandtech (yea, i know... its sad...) i've seen people editing posts for MANY reasons (content, to make others look like fools, change of opinion). Its just handy to see that the post had in fact been edited from its original content and to take that into consideration. In addition, i would like to add one thing. While i really do enjoy the look of the new forums, it seems you guys are going for more of a 'Blog' & 'Comment' feel as opposed to a typical forum atmosphere (especially considering your comments about features in your post above). Personally, i think this is the wrong approach for a forum such as this. While making something look fancy is one thing (which I am all for), i wouldn't try to reinvent the wheel here. The object of this place should be to encourage and spur discussion. Just my thoughts...

1. First, I was mostly asking questions about the use of such a feature as quoting the original post. I have to question everything. :-) I agree there are cases when it would be useful, and you've hit on them all. I also think a good number of people won't get it, and it would clutter things up. Considering we repeat the original post at the top of every page in multi-page threads, it's a harder sell to convince the dev staff, but those useful cases you've pointed out are good ammunition to present to the team.
   
2. I think we're all talking about different sides of the same coin. I was under the impression we were talking about sending an e-mail notification informing you a post has been updated.  If all we're talking about is displaying something that says a post was changed from the original, we already do that.
   
   Just like before, you can see if a comment was edited from it's original form. Directly above the text of the post it will give you the original post date and time. If it was ever edited it will say "updated: XXXXXXXX". You post above aphex was posted "Today at 1:16 AM updated: Today at 1:21 AM". Also, the date and time of the post is a permalink to that comment that you can post anywhere. So if you want to point to a specific comment, all you need to do is grab that URL. Keep in mind, that there is a small window where a post can be edited without showing that it was updated (if it's during the same server time minute as the original post). If you post at 1:58 and 48 seconds it's unlikely you'd be able to change anything by 1:59. If you post at 1:58 and 2 seconds, you might be able to fix a spelling error or two before 1:59.

Your comments on the site look and feel are appreciated. Not sure I'm ready to comment on them quite yet, or if I'm even the right person to do so.

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.