Website Updates for 2022-09-06
Greetings, Earthlings:
Since the big upgrade, I've been working on tweaking some things and improving the overall layout of the website. 🙂
- We've fixed a few bugs in the backend, so if you've experienced some oddities, hopefully they are gone now.
- For desktop users (or those with large enough screens), you'll see a new left sidebar. I've moved the date info out of the top bar and placed it here (see next bullet item), followed by a full index of forums and topic prefixes. Note that you'll only see the forums for which you have access. For example, if you aren't logged in, you won't see the non-surveying forums. Note that the left sidebar is not visible for mobile users.
- The top bar (where the date used to be) is now gone.
- New fields were added to the For Sale and Jobs forums. For example, when you place a new item in the For Sale forum, there are special fields for price, shipping, condition, etc. Some are required, some are not. This feature was soft-launched a couple weeks ago.
- The padding around the content in the Members Directory and Profile areas has been fixed. Now the content doesn't spill off the sides of the screen.
- I've enabled custom titles for Member Profiles. This means that the automated titles are now gone (although I may bring them back with the number of posts shown like before) and you can set your own title (in your profile settings). Note that the Community Rules still apply to your Member Title (nice try, lol).
- Removed breadcrumbs.
- Removed social sharing of pages (which were just below the navigation bar under the leaderboard ad). I think you guys shared the page maybe 4 times since the switch to this new forum format several years ago. So I found it pointless. As a bonus, the load times are now a bit quicker because it's not loading Facebook and Twitter crap.
As usual, I'm open for suggestions and feedback! 🙂
More improvements on the way in the coming days.
One little annoyance that I have noted involves replies to posts. It gets to be terribly confusing when someone makes a reply to a post but their are numerous posts in between the post and the reply. A prime example occurred this morning in the Odds and Ends thread. A reply to a post by Lurker is two pages away from Lurker's post. Thus, the comment appears to make no sense. The reader can work backward to find the post by Lurker, but the first one found is not the one being responded to.
Dave Lindell's reply: Thanks. I didn't have a Kleenex. That is a response to my post 14 posts away from his reply. As I have several posts in that gap of 14 posts, it is even more challenging. My post was the picture of the toddler being licked on the face by a cow.
Sorry to complicate your life. We have a tremendous resource here that you provide. But, as surveyors, we are always seeking solutions to problems, whether they exist or not.
One little annoyance that I have noted involves replies to posts. It gets to be terribly confusing when someone makes a reply to a post but their are numerous posts in between the post and the reply. A prime example occurred this morning in the Odds and Ends thread. A reply to a post by Lurker is two pages away from Lurker's post. Thus, the comment appears to make no sense. The reader can work backward to find the post by Lurker, but the first one found is not the one being responded to.
Dave Lindell's reply: Thanks. I didn't have a Kleenex. That is a response to my post 14 posts away from his reply. As I have several posts in that gap of 14 posts, it is even more challenging. My post was the picture of the toddler being licked on the face by a cow.
Sorry to complicate your life. We have a tremendous resource here that you provide. But, as surveyors, we are always seeking solutions to problems, whether they exist or not.
When I quote you, I'm including the reference for which I'm replying.
But when I reply to you:
@holy-cow I'm only replying without the quoted reference.
This was one of the downsides I mentioned when we moved to the simpler forum format, which disabled the hierarchal tree of replies. This simpler format allows for the quick jump to the latest unread post from the Recent Posts list, but you lose that hierarchal format -- the hierarchal format allowed replies directly under the posts to which you are replying, but doesn't allow for the quick jump from the Recent Posts list.
There's really no way to have both, from a coding perspective. Sad but true. ???ú ????
Also, don't forget about the nifty new Topic Overview area at the top of all threads. Click the dropdown button to see the hierarchy of the thread. This may help. 🙂
Well, what do you know? You had already solved the problem but I didn't know it. You are so danged intelligent!
You are so danged intelligent!
I have you fooled! ???
nifty new Topic Overview area at the top of all threads
Wow! I hadn't noticed that. Great.
It will help when people don't quote the relevant part of what they are replying to. I try to do that, and edit out stuff that isn't relevant to the reply.
