I am having a week of idiocy, it seems.

T-Board technical updates, 2022 (and questions) by Tomash on 2022-01-12 02:10:38 UTC Reply

There's nothing important here, just a note a few changes the T-Board team's made lately

There's now a "Games" tag. Thanks to Neshomeh for the suggestion!
The Latest Posts page now shows the contents of the posts, hopefully making it more useful for anyone who wants to catch up on the Board without scrolling all the way down
Some of the HTML has been reorganized to make moving around with a screen reader, especially moving by landmark, easier
- There are still more changes planned for Eventually

Now, questions for y'all:

Are there any complaints about the Board or it's interface you'd like to make? Is there anything particularly confusing?
Would people want the ability to collapse/expand threads? That is, would having the ability to click something near a post (maybe a little plus or minus icon) and have it hide the posts below tit until you click to expand it again or refresh the page make it easier for you to work with the Board?

Tomash

General reply by Tomash on 2022-01-15 03:24:32 UTC Reply
First of all, thank you everyone for taking the time to have opinions!

Now, as to specific points:
1. On the "Return to Messages" button: Having double checked what it does ("yeet you back onto the front page") ... would it make sense to scrap the thing entirely? Browsers have a back button, after all.
2. On collapsing/expanding ... probably not worth the bother and explosion of front-end code, now that the idea's had a moment to settle down
3. On search: Yep, I don't like the fact that the search routines give the impression that they've been infected by scrapcode or that Harry Dresden's standing around while they run either. This was a consequence of the fact that the RP Board's hosting would've wanted an arm and a leg to run anything nicer. Fortunately, newer versions of the database we're using (and newer libraries that let us hook up to them) appear to allow for a better search setup, but that'd require some planning, testing, and a maintenance window. So, in other words, I've got some thoughts, but it might be a bit before they go anywhere.
Thanks again for all the opinions and for sticking around!

- Tomash, who almost stuck his wallet name here because this message has just enough work vibes to make the muscle memory kick in

I am having a week of idiocy, it seems. by doctorlit on 2022-01-15 12:26:16 UTC Reply

It never occurred to me to just use the back button instead . . .

—doctorlit, idiot

Except you're not, because that doesn't always work. {= ) by Neshomeh on 2022-01-15 15:23:09 UTC Edited Reply

Not if you've been jumping around a thread to read all the posts in it. In that case, using the Back button could potentially be rather tedious. Plus, it won't give you the newest version of the page. Granted, Back+Refresh is just one extra click, but why force an extra click if we don't have to?

ETA: Oh, and the Back button also doesn't work well if you've just posted a message and want to return from there. As I just did. >.>

~Neshomeh

Good points, and more updates by Tomash on 2022-01-15 23:27:10 UTC Reply
So, I got rather bored and made a bunch of the changes folks were talking about, as can be seen by the pull requests page, which shows code someone needs to look over before it goes into production . We will have, Real Soon Now,
1. A "return to messages" button that goes back to the thread in question ... so long as that thread's on the front page. Making it work properly with threads back in the archives felt like it'd be an pain, so I haven't bothered.
2. Improvements to the Board HTML to make it announce stuff like the fact that the "Welcome, X" thing is a menu you can click when using a screen reader
3. A new search scheme, that'll both sort stuff in chronological order and lead to being able to do stuff like "search for an exact phrase" and thing OR other thing. This'll require some downtime to apply properly, but it should clear up the problems.
If we'll be going down, I'll be sure to post an announcement at least a day before.

Thirding chronological order. by Lily Winterwood on 2022-01-14 06:32:56 UTC Reply

Ideally I'd like more filtered searches but I don't know how feasible that is :P

No horse in the "collapse thread" race, though. Maybe the option to hide what has been read, but again, not sure how feasible that is?
Seconding Zingenmir re. the Search function. by Neshomeh on 2022-01-13 19:28:50 UTC Reply

Chronological order would be so nice.

Also seconding doc that having "Return to Messages" place you at the thread's location on the page would be nice.

I'm ambivalent about an option for collapsing/expanding threads in the default view, leaning toward "no thanks." But, it might be good to have the option to totally collapse posts in a thread while viewing that thread, so there's zero text visible from posts besides the one you're currently viewing. Might help people avoid spoilers/triggers when they're warned for in the post title but not otherwise hidden.

I also like the thought of being able to view the entire thread while composing a reply but am usually fine doing that in a separate tab.

Thanks for the update!

~Neshomeh
Responses! by Zingenmir on 2022-01-13 19:00:21 UTC Edited Reply
There's a latest posts page! I somehow had no idea. That's neat.
1. The search function doesn't give results in...well, in any discernable order, really. Relevance, chronology - if there's an order, I have yet to figure it out. It would be very nice to be able to get search results in chronological order.
2. Ooh. Sure, that sounds nice! It's not so bad clicking into a thread and then being able to expand from there, but this would be pleasant to have as well.
Thanks for your (collective) efforts!

~Z, so much still in work mode that she nearly signed off with "Best," before her signature.

Edit: thirding being able to see the thread when writing a post! That's always been something I wished for while accepting that I had to just go back and open it in a different tab...far too often one wants to reference several posts at once, but can only see one. That would be a pretty cool addition, if it's possible!
The one thing I miss from the Former Board: by doctorlit on 2022-01-13 12:48:19 UTC Reply

when I had a post open to read, and I hit the "Return to Messages" button, the main page would load with the thread I was just looking at set at the top of the page. But the Current Board always goes back to the top of the page. It made it easier to navigate a thread without scrolling around much.

—doctorlit, qqing over qol
I'd be quite happy with the collapse/expand feature. by Cicada on 2022-01-12 21:06:23 UTC Reply

Otherwise, one thing I might consider changing about the Board, and this is a minor point, is that sometimes I wish I could view posts in a thread when I'm typing out a reply? I usually just open another tab, but when I'm addressing specific points and have to open a couple of tabs to make sure I'm not missing anything it can be a bit awkward.