Odd forum software?

Bod

Nothing really bothers me much about the forum software, though it does seem to hang on my Pixel 7 Pro in Chrome causing the phone to crash - no idea why and I suspect it's a me problem.  I don't get it on any other sites though. 

topdog91

TTony said:

Hey @topdog91 - I think we probably all have our favourite moans about the forum, although we've mostly learned to live with them over the years (particularly given the constraints within which it works).

But it'd be interesting to have a tech-aware new-pair-of-eyes perspective on it.
As Nick noted above, the Vanilla platform *is* flaky, but it was the best option at the time and we're effectively stuck as long as the forum remains free to use.
Photo uploading can be done - although it's easier from some hosts and via different devices/OSes than others - but the subscription option is by far the easiest.   There's a "how to" link in my sig, although the hosts (OSes and browsers) do frequently change the way that they work, and I don't re-test the guidelines every month (ie some may not work - shout if you find any that don't).
Emails do work (as long as not blocked by your mailserver?) although you have to work through the config options to trigger the emails that you want.
On laptop/desktop devices you can see who as fretted you, just hover your mouse over the number at the bottom of your post.


I think that covers your previous specifics, but I'd be interested in other observations (that said, it's not *my* dev priorities list!), and we're certainly all open to a discussion around how to make the UI/UX better.

Since my OP, I've found many other bugs and UX quirks / idiosyncrasies which I haven't bothered to write down. Just now I wanted to split a quote and reply inline and I had to edit HTML. Another one that comes to mind is that even though I've worked out how to jump through hoops to post images with Imgur, pasting the link on mobile doesn't work properly, blah blah blah...

My view is that there are many small issues, none of which in and of itself is a terrible show stopper, but all of which add up to a bizarre to poor experience. This is what technical debt does, builds up slowly and if not paid back at some point things grind to a halt.

digitalscream

topdog91 said:

Since my OP, I've found many other bugs and UX quirks / idiosyncrasies which I haven't bothered to write down. Just now I wanted to split a quote and reply inline and I had to edit HTML.

Honestly, that's just doing things the hard way. Doing it the same way as on most other forums is both the most obvious and easiest way - hit the "Quote" button, delete the bits you don't want, type your response to what's left, then hit "Quote" again where you want to insert the next one, delete the irrelevant bits, type again etc.

Changing that behaviour would involve making significant changes to the editor which would break other desired behaviour and use cases. And, since it works in the same way as the vast majority of non-Markdown editors used by forums, there's no valid justification for changing it.

topdog91 said:

My view is that there are many small issues, none of which in and of itself is a terrible show stopper, but all of which add up to a bizarre to poor experience. This is what technical debt does, builds up slowly and if not paid back at some point things grind to a halt.

You're literally the only person who's ever complained so vocally about it, out of over 41k members. If this were a business, it might be a different proposition; as it is, it's a free forum which barely pays for its own hosting and maintenance.

drofluf

digitalscream said:

topdog91 said:

My view is that there are many small issues, none of which in and of itself is a terrible show stopper, but all of which add up to a bizarre to poor experience. This is what technical debt does, builds up slowly and if not paid back at some point things grind to a halt.

You're literally the only person who's ever complained so vocally about it, out of over 41k members. If this were a business, it might be a different proposition; as it is, it's a free forum which barely pays for its own hosting and maintenance.

This x41,000

BillDL

I was at the food bank today, and all they had was Asda's own brand baked beans, spaghetti and corn flakes.  What's up that they can't give out Heinz, Rustichella D'Abruzzo and Kelloggs?

TTony

You get Corn Flakes too at yours??

BillDL

Yeah, but they're crappy, tasteless, cardboard "own brand" flakes and the milk is semi-skimmed UHT.  I demand something a whole lot better for free.