Forum Wish List

[leslienord]

We can officially cross off receiving individual emails when subscribing to a forum.

I've tested it out and it appears to be working. You can now subscribe to both Forums and Threads and receive an "Instant Email Notification".

Is it possible to receive more than just the topic in those emails? I get the message only if it's a thread I posted to. But the new stuff leaves me clueless as to what the poster might actually need or want. It's just too tedious to stop what I'm doing and weed through the posts. Maybe RSS will solve this.


sigh...

[Dave Slifka]

You may be having issues with your browser then. For me, the forum scales for me in Firefox and most fonts are set to ems already.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

yes, i know about that view, but it doesn't let you post. That would be a good start though for what I was looking for...just make sure the fonts use em sizing or percentages that can scale<G>.

[Dave Slifka]

Bruce - To get a text only version, go to the top of the thread and click on Thread tools. From that dropdown, there will be a Printable view option. That will give you text only.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Still waiting for a style sheet that uses scalable sizing...and hopefully one that has an overall denser appearance...(text only too?)

But, my real reason for this post is to ask others if the forum is causing problems with Firefox. Using 1.0.7, ever since enabling enhanced message formating, I can view about two pages before everything locks up...doesn't even have to be a page where the html formatting application is in use.

[truXoft]

I'd suggest using the code quoting box - it not only avoids smilies, but also preserves all formatting and makes the code better readable (especially if you use the HTML code box - it the uses color syntax). You do not need to switch to the Advanced mode for quoting, although the buttons are not available in the quick editor - simple enclose your code into {HTML}{/HTML} or {CODE}{/CODE} (use square brackets instead though)

Example (it works for templates code, of course too):

<MvIF EXPR="{NOT l.admin}">
   <MvASSIGN NAME="g.pageID" VALUE="REG">
</MvIF>
<input type="hidden" NAME="edit" VALUE="0">

[wcw]

Can we make the "smiles" off by default? I could not find that option in my profiiles. Instead you have to reply by "Go Advanced" and turn it off. As you know the template code is full of strings which make the smiles &mvta:parent:code; put a ton of smiles in the example code.

[DunkirkSystems]

Search box and browsing new posts

Many of the suggestions I have made, including these, come from my favorite forum, SitePoint. It is also a vBulletin site.

So here goes:

* Have the search box be visible - there is the space in the header, and having it upfront will hopefully encourage folks to search for something before they post.

* For the Quick Links, have the ability to view updated, new or unanswered topics. The latter is a way for people to help when they can, and see what has not been responded to.

I have found all of these helpful in my work and building community.

mp/m

[Julie Wilber]

We can officially cross off receiving individual emails when subscribing to a forum.

I've tested it out and it appears to be working. You can now subscribe to both Forums and Threads and receive an "Instant Email Notification".

[truXoft]

I'm still working on a couple small things, but the text size in most areas is now adjustable.

Yes, I noticed. Thanks! Works fine.

[Dave Slifka]

I'm still working on a couple small things, but the text size in most areas is now adjustable.

[truXoft]

This is determined by the vBulletin engine, not by me. I edit or create the styles completely independent of the templates for each section. Maybe there is an option in vBulletin for the styles to be linked through and external style sheet instead.

I do not know how the vBulletin admin interface looks like, but isn't it possible to simply delete all the CSS definitions there, and replacing them with <link href="yourstyle.css">?

[Dave Slifka]

I still would like to have the possibility to control the font size on my end. Using CSS relative sizes (i.e. x-small) instead of fixed sizes (i.e. 10pt) at least for the message body text would be very appreciated. You can keep it fixed for the headers and menus, though, not to mess up the page layout when the user changes the font size. Also unifying font sizes for all message elements would be nice. For exaple as you see from this post, the font of the List elemnts (LI) is slightly bigger than the first sentence (possibly a TD definition).

I will work on this shortly.

The Quote and Code boxes do not look well with the fading background color - the gray text in it is not well readable. I'd suggest using more contrast and non-fading background here.

I will consider some other options here, especially if I get some corroborating feedback from others.

I'd still prefer the design slightly denser - on many places the table cell padding or icons are unnecessarily big (for example the message footers).

You and I are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Your version, to me, ends up looking very cluttered and is harder on MY eyes. I have reduced some of the padding on the cells to accomodate those who prefer a more compact presentation. I will continue to look for areas that can be tightened up.

You should really consider moving the CSS definition out of the document body and putting it into an external file!

This is determined by the vBulletin engine, not by me. I edit or create the styles completely independent of the templates for each section. Maybe there is an option in vBulletin for the styles to be linked through and external style sheet instead. Anyone know?

[truXoft]

Yet another wish: replacing the PHP code box button in the message editor with a Miva Script code box button, that would also properly parse Miva Script. I admit that it is already slightly more challenging wish, but it would be a shame if Miva was not capable of doing so. If interested, you can get some inspiration from the Miva Script color parser on my website - I've written it some 6 years ago. And of course it is written in Miva Script (real Miva coders use no stinking PHP) :)

[truXoft]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the feedback regarding the look and feel of the forum as well as the offers for assistance in some cases. Obviously, the point of this is to be as user friendly as possible for you, our users, so I will continue endeavoring to make it so.

Dave, many thanks for listening to our wishes! The layout "Miva 2" begins to look pretty well! I have just some minor comments:

1. I still would like to have the possibility to control the font size on my end. Using CSS relative sizes (i.e. x-small) instead of fixed sizes (i.e. 10pt) at least for the message body text would be very appreciated. You can keep it fixed for the headers and menus, though, not to mess up the page layout when the user changes the font size. Also unifying font sizes for all message elements would be nice. For exaple as you see from this post, the font of the List elemnts (LI) is slightly bigger than the first sentence (possibly a TD definition)
   .
2. The Quote and Code boxes do not look well with the fading background color - the gray text in it is not well readable. I'd suggest using more contrast and non-fading background here.
   .
3. I'd still prefer the design slightly denser - on many places the table cell padding or icons are unnecessarily big (for example the message footers). See the attached images - they contain the same info, but the layout with the reduced padding (miva2b.gif) is (on my mind) better readable yet much shorter than the original (miva2.gif).
   .
4. You should really consider moving the CSS definition out of the document body and putting it into an external file! Using big Style Sheets and Javascript definitions in dynamic pages is huge no-no. Unfortunately Miva always did it in Merchant too. Imagine what bandwidth you are wasting with putting the CSS into the document - the CSS definition in this forum HTML page is 12kB long (yes, I measured it). I do not know what is currently the daily page hit volume, but I guess it will grow permanently and would not surprise me if once there were ten or hundreds thousands of page hits daily. That represents already around 1 Gigabyte of wasted bandwidth daily - the CSS included in a dynamically generated page (unlike an external style sheet) does not get cached and hence it is loaded over and over, slowing so not only visitors' viewing, but also your corporate server.