Praise for Discourse
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Continuing the discussion from Since this is a beta (I guess?), let's do some Genuinely Useful Bug Reports:
PRAISE: I love how I can filter a thread to just my own posts.
dhromed may have been being sarcastic (though probably not; as we all know, that never happens on these forums), but I thought it might be worth creating a topic for the "little things" here and there that we do actually like about Discourse. There are some, at least.
EXAMPLE: I don't know why, but I actually really like being able to "like" posts. I don't know why; I don't think I'm a part of the "Facebook generation", but I like being able to give a virtual "" to posts that genuinely made me laugh out loud without having to reply with something banal like "LOL". Or "QFT" (ducks).
I do also like how clicking a topic will take me right to the newest post I haven't read. It's some good to take with the bad of infinite scrolling; under CS, I'd usually have to open the last two pages of any active thread because I couldn't remember where exactly I'd left off a few hours ago.
Can anyone else tell I'm procrastinating hard on everything I have to do at work today?
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Can anyone else tell I'm procrastinating hard on everything I have to do at work today?
You ain't the only one.
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I actually really like being able to "like" posts.
I do also like how clicking a topic will take me right to the newest post I haven't read.
I like both of those, too. I also like getting to the "Suggested Topics" at the bottom. It's an easy way to see stuff I haven't read yet.
Hint: the key was to put my settings like so;
Automatically track topics you enter
alwaysConsider topics new when
you haven't viewed them yet
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Can anyone else tell I'm procrastinating hard on everything I have to do at work today?
I am also in same boAt that you are.
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Hint: the key was to put my settings like so;
Automatically track topics you enteralways
Consider topics new whenyou haven't viewed them yet
Yes, I find that to be a big improvement, too.
Filed under: Fuck quoting
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Hint: the key was to put my settings like so;
Automatically track topics you enteralways
Consider topics new whenyou haven't viewed them yet
Yeah, setting those two preferences was the first thing I did on the new platform. Not sure why they aren't the default. (Oh damn, I'm already doing my own thread wrong.)
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Not sure why they aren't the default.
I'm not sure either, but I think it probably has to do with the way users on other fora read, or are assumed to read. The devs can probably show us some numbers that show the typical reader only wants to see topics they have somehow displayed an interest in. Maybe they're even right, but they're not necessarily applicable to this forum. Anyway, the option is there, and the default is probably configurable, if we ask the mods nicely.
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I like how Discourse didn't rape me or burn my house down.
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I don't know why, but I actually really like being able to "like" posts. I don't know why;
I've liked more posts in Discourse these few days than I have ever favourited posts in Community Server.
I can't explain why.
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I've liked more posts in Discourse these few days than I have ever favourited posts in Community Server.
You could favorite posts in CS?
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I've liked more posts in Discourse these few days than I have ever favourited posts in Community Server.
I didn't know CS could do that, it's a big fucking obvious button, but somehow I missed it
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didn't know CS could do that, it's a big fucking obvious button, but somehow I missed it
If only it had been something obvious, like an undocumented hotkey.
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I like how Discourse didn't rape me or burn my house down.
Much sarcasm I am sensing in this one.
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I like how Discourse didn't rape me or burn my house down.
I like how Discourse didn't make Pesto a moderator.
It takes some of the sting out of Morbs not being a moderator.
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I like how Discourse didn't make Pesto a moderator.
Same here. Pesto is not deserving of mod powers.
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I do also like how clicking a topic will take me right to the newest post I haven't read. It's some good to take with the bad of infinite scrolling; under CS, I'd usually have to open the last two pages of any active thread because I couldn't remember where exactly I'd left off a few hours ago.
True. PhpBB has that too. Just wanted to point it out.
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Much sarcasm I am sensing in this one.
Surprised I am. Is not completely broken sarcasm detector. Still repair is being needed. Detection fails often.
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Surprised I am. Is not completely broken sarcasm detector. Still repair is being needed. Detection fails often.
Surprised I am. Not completely broken, sarcasm detector is. Still needed, repair is. Fails often, detection does.
YTFY
Filed under: Yoda'd That For You
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I do also like how clicking a topic will take me right to the newest post I haven't read
This, definitely.
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and the default is probably configurable, if we ask the mods nicely.
I don't think it is, sadly.
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I don't think it is, sadly.
I sad.But perhaps making it configurable is within the realm of things @codinghorror and friends would consider allowing. They seem awfully committed to the One True Way⢠of reading topics, but just maybe...
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One thing we need, and I was mentioning to @sam, is a generic way to make any available /admin configuration options overridden globally for all users as site-wide defaults.
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Working spellchecker, yay!
I also like having the (not perfect but good enough) preview right there.
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Trying to submit an empty post shows you a shaking error message. Cute, I like it.
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When I post something and hit Back, I'm back at the overview, instead of the post form.
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Er.. what? I can't understand what you mean by that sentence.
Just guessing here, but the reply panel at the bottom is not a navigation, nor is posting a new reply. So if I post this reply (like I did now) and click the back button, I go where I was before I entered the topic.
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Yes, but in CS, you'd need to triple back to do the same.
A single back would just take you to "post reply" page, a double back would take you to a probably cached version of the current page you're on, and the triple back would actually take you back where you wanted to go.
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I go where I was before I entered the topic.
Yes.
Which is the overview.
Which is good.
Though I'm shifting to using the suggestions at the bottom.
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I'm shifting to using the suggestions at the bottom.
I use them almost as my primary way of navigating, cause I tend to catch up in bursts. Got to get j/k keys to move down there. (maybe tomorrow)
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just keyding!
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That's one way to remember the vi-like navigation keys:
hah just kidding lol
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another way is to look at your keyboard.
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You assume my keyboard has those letters positioned like in QWERTY.
You assume correctly.
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Working spellchecker, [...]
0 likes.
preview right there.shaking error message.
2 likes.(Full disclosure: one of the likes is from Jeff)
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(Full disclosure: one of the likes is from Jeff)
He's liked basically every post I've written chastising him. I'm not sure if that makes him a gentleman or a masochist.
Filed under: Or both.
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He's liked basically every post I've written chastising him. I'm not sure if that makes him a gentleman or a masochist.
A gentle masochist?
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I actually like the infinite scrolling.
*ducks*
Seriously though, if I'm scrolling through and reading posts, I can get all the way to the end without having to wait on another page. Want to stop where I am? Go back or close the page, and next visit to the topic, I'm right where I left off. If I'm slowly reading through a whole topic, I don't see the loading spinner - the only time I see the loading spinner is if I flick the mouse wheel vehemently like I'm flogging the little pink man in the canoe to get to the end.
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I actually like the infinite scrolling.
Get him!!!
ducks
Huh? Where'd he go?
*bewildered, wanders off*
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I actually like the infinite scrolling.
I'm okish with infinite scrolling, assuming the performance jitters are addressed and (show-stopper alert) they implement in-line replies (where the replies stay in line, as 99% of civilised users would expect them to).
[edit: Oh, and the devs stop telling us we're reading / using it wrong ]
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Yes. Infinite scrolling is the future. Facebook know that and tweeter knows that. Now you also know it. Thank the discourse mega-over-lords for introduction to this future.
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Yes. Infinite scrolling is the future. Facebook know that and tweeter knows that. Now you also know it. Thank the discourse mega-over-lords for introduction to this future.
Now, one cotton-picking minute, there, hoss. I said I was "okish" with it - I certainly don't believe it's the future, nor that it's a good idea. So don't be so quick to plonk me in your list of discourse-lovers.
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in-line replies
No, thank you. I tried that with Google Wave and that was a product I was very happy to see die. It wasn't the infini-scrolling that it did, but rather the fact that it was both hard to read and hard to interact with (we tried really hard to use it for productive work in a project, and 95% of us were elated to see the back of that pile of shit).
If you want true threading, you need to use a completely different approach, and very few pieces of software get it right. I think that nothing in the past decade has come close to being as good as the old
trn
USENET news-reader in this department. Everyone seems to think that you have to see who posted what in the tree and what the subject was and ⌠well, that just spreads everything out vertically and makes navigating the tree a bitch. Good threading is possible, but you need a true tree-structured approach to presenting the information.
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I flick the mouse wheel vehemently like I'm flogging the little pink man in the canoe to get to the end.
Thanks... I think.. for putting that image in my head.
Also have you seen the infinite scroll implementation here? It even goes to the next article at the end..
don't be so quick to plonk me in your list of discourse-lovers.
People who Love Discourse
Me
Jesus
SkotlGood threading is possible, but you need a true tree-structured approach to presenting the information.
Can you point to your ideal example? I have yet to find one example of threading that wasn't a disaster. So many problems, but the biggest one is that replies can come at any time at any place in the hundred-headed hydra of threading. So many consequences from that, and 90% of them are bad for conversation with human beings.
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So, suggest an alternative.
A user is viewing post #100 of 300. He hits reply; what happens?
1, He ends up stranded at the bottom of the 300 posts, and loses his place (current behaviour)
2. He stays where he is, up at #100, but wonders where the hell his response went (proposed behaviour, if you tick a to-be-introduced option)
3. ...what...?I don't give a shit about "true threading".I have to admit that I don't even know what that means.
In the context of the 300 posts on a single infinipage, if I reply to a post on that infinipage then I expect to see it there and not to lose my place.
Here's a concession; I don't care what happens if I leave this page and return later - my reply can appear down the bottom / in chronological order; that's fine. But while I'm reading the page, that's where I expect to stay.
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threading
See my most recent response. I think we may get a win/win here, if we treat the "I am reading a long thread and responding while I go" use-case as separate to the "I am opening a fucking huge thread" use-case.
I'm ok with the current display for the latter - my only sticking point (well, my only major sticking point) is the former.
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Can you point to your ideal example?
Not easily. Not even close. I used to use
trn
for reading huge threads (flamewars oncomp.os.linux.advocacy
back in the day ) but a bunch of years ago I was moved onto a platform that didn't have a convenient build of it for a while and got out of the habit of reading that way.I vaguely remember that it worked a bit like this in the threading part of the view:
[1]--[1]--[1]--[2]--[2]--[2] +--[1]--[1]--[1] | +--[1] +--[3]--[4]--[5] | +--[3]--[6] +--[1]--[1]--[1] [1]--[1] [1]--[1]
The different numbers indicated different subjects within the thread. (The orphaned bits were how it coped with the mess that Outlook and Lotus Notes would crap out into USENET at that time, with critical metadata missing. âGee, thanks!â) There was also a part that showed selected parts of the NNTP headers (title, author, date), and the main message content area.
The navigation was Space to scroll down within a message or âgo to nextâ (in a depth-first manner), Right to go to the first child, Left to go to the parent, Down to go to the next sibling, and Up to go to the next sibling. I think. It was a long long time ago.
It was also an entirely text mode application (the power of curses!) and was never (in the time I used it) updated to be MIME-aware; at the point I stopped using it, that was becoming a major usability issue.
All the above may well be somewhat garbled. It was long ago.