Reporting tech issues to rabble - PLEASE READ

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Tue, 2008-11-11 14:22

Michelle

Reporting tech issues to rabble - PLEASE READ

If you are having problems with the new babble software, here is how you can report it:

FEEDBACK FORM

On the bottom right-hand corner of each page you'll see: [ + ] Feedback

Click this and a form will pop up. Write your feedback about the problem you're having in this form and it will be sent to one of our tech people with a link to the very page you're on.

You should use this if you have a problem with the functionality of the site, or you want to report tech glitches.

EMAIL A MODERATOR

You can e-mail oldgoat or Michelle at michelle(at)rabble(dot)ca or oldgoat(at)rabble(dot)ca if you need any of the following:

- Help using babble software

- Questions about content or conflict with other users (moderation issues)

- Any other concerns or feedback about babble specifically

We're doing our best to sort out the tech issues that are popping up, and your feedback is more than welcome. You can also discuss the tech issues in threads in rabble reactions, but if you have a specific problem and you want to make sure it gets to the right ears, you will need to send your feedback to our tech staff or the moderators directly.

As you can imagine, the tech people are very busy with the entire web site, and they cannot keep on top of babble threads where problems are brought up. And oldgoat and I are also unable, time-wise, to relay every suggestion made in babble threads to the tech people.

oldgoat and I will, however, be reading all of these threads regularly and we'll try to respond to concerns raised in them. And we want you to feel welcome to post your feedback publicly in those threads and talk to each other and us about improvements you'd like to see on babble.

Tue, 2008-11-11 15:48

pogge

Michelle wrote:
FEEDBACK FORM

On the bottom right-hand corner of each page you'll see: [ + ] Feedback

Click this and a form will pop up. Write your feedback about the problem you're having in this form and it will be sent to one of our tech people with a link to the very page you're on.

This does appear to be working now where it seemed to freeze before.

Tue, 2008-11-11 16:15

Michelle

Okay, one more comment for this thread - if you have questions of a very general nature that others might be interested in the answer to - in other words, not specific ones about your account only - you could ask in these threads so that I don't get 20 e-mails asking me the same question. :) If it turns out that you've asked something I can't answer or suggested something that I can't implement myself, I'll direct you to the feedback form.

I'm just trying to think of the questions asked in the other threads...feel free to ask here again if I miss them or haven't answered them yet.

One answer: Old babble threads will be here in a few days, apparently.

Tue, 2008-11-11 16:17

Michelle

Is anyone else noticing a huge improvement on the loading speed? I know one of our tech guys is apparently making loading speed his whole life today, and for me, at least, it seems to be paying off.

Tue, 2008-11-11 16:24

Fidel

Michelle wrote:
Is anyone else noticing a huge improvement on the loading speed? I know one of our tech guys is apparently making loading speed his whole life today, and for me, at least, it seems to be paying off.

I think I got whiplash from that one. Someone call the cops!

Tue, 2008-11-11 16:35

Tommy_Paine

Re- loading times.

Seems better, but it's far from smooth.

He said in his tiny font voice.

Tue, 2008-11-11 16:44

remind

Feedback form works for me, I think, as I just used it, though it is a very clear window and hard to see.

It is faster today though and now that I can see the fonts, I am happier.

Any news on the alternating grey white response boxes?

Tue, 2008-11-11 17:00

Michelle

Ah yes, the grey and white. I agree with you that it's much more readable that way.

Apparently we're going to get the alternating grey and white boxes soon, but the tech guys are doing triage at the moment, so that'll likely get done sometime in the next couple of weeks.

As for font size, it was my understanding during the redesign process that we'd have the option of toggling the font size ourselves for the site. remind and Tommy, that's something to tell the tech folks in the feedback form.

Tue, 2008-11-11 17:03

Fidel

Is it possible to delete an accidental double post?

Tue, 2008-11-11 17:56

#10

remind

It is zoomable with firefox, IE cannot change it. Less cranky today after I spent an hour downloading firefox again yesterday, and can see font now.

actually it is becoming, albeit slowly, more comfortable to use. Other than the crash a few minutes ago....

Tue, 2008-11-11 18:20

#11

Cueball

Feedback system has endless sidscroll which means you lose the send button at the left side of the message. This is confusing.

Also copying an pasting is hard to do? Why dat?

Tue, 2008-11-11 19:04

#12

Fidel

Ya I've got a 21.6" screen, and feedback window is still cutoff on the extreme right. I can see the smiley guy but nothing to the right of it. Do I need to go out and buy an IMax setup or what? Sent feedback to feedup receivers

Tue, 2008-11-11 19:15

#13

jrootham

One thing I would like to see addressed after the more basic functionality problems of readability and performance are addressed is a link to where I have read to in a thread.

I would prefer this to be a link into the existing page structure rather than starting the display with that post. It might also be preferable to link to the last article read rather than the first unread. It's easier to make sense of a response if you can see what is being responded to.

What do other people think about this?

Tue, 2008-11-11 22:24

#14

Slumberjack

Not to quibble, but in reviewing my account page, in the pictures area, I tried without success, to remove the default picture, which appears to be some sort of toy monkey, and replace it with one of my own.

________________________________________________________

Pride in Poverty. Such an unusual motto I thought, as it adorned the entrance alongside an emblem with the acronym NSA.

Tue, 2008-11-11 22:36

#15

Left Turn

Michelle, are you going to respond to my PM that I sent yesterday?

Wed, 2008-11-12 09:43

#16

lagatta

I don't know if I'm the only person but a) I can't see the emoticoms and b) can't start a new topic (it says I lack the script). I use Safari.

I don't see any pic on an account page - if there is that damned stuffed monkey on it, then I definitely want it deleted or changed - I hate that thing!

Wed, 2008-11-12 10:06

#17

Michelle

Sorry, Tim, I answered in yesterday's thread so everyone can see it. You can change your own name by clicking on the "My Account" button up in the very top right, then clicking on the "edit" tab, and then you can change your username.

Wed, 2008-11-12 11:56

#18

Lard Tunderin Jeezus Lard Tunderin Jeezus's picture

Michelle wrote:
FEEDBACK FORM
On the bottom right-hand corner of each page you'll see: [ + ] Feedback

Click this and a form will pop up. Write your feedback about the problem you're having in this form and it will be sent to one of our tech people with a link to the very page you're on.

This link is fixed in position on the page, regardless of scrolling - and therefore often invisible, as it is lying on top of various menus and side advertisements half the time.

Wed, 2008-11-12 15:27

#19

Left Turn

Michelle wrote:
Sorry, Tim, I answered in yesterday's thread so everyone can see it. You can change your own name by clicking on the "My Account" button up in the very top right, then clicking on the "edit" tab, and then you can change your username.

Michelle, I went to the Edit tab in the My Account setting, but I did not see any field for the username. Are you sure it's there? As in, have you seen firsthand that the username can be changed, or are you going off secondhand information?

Wed, 2008-11-12 15:29

#20

Noise

Did all the rabble member numbers get increased by 1000? Heh, on that note... Some pretty old rabblers are showin as recent-rabble-rousers

Given the volume of traffic, the implmentation has been relatively smooth... Heh, I've seen ones go much worse... So nice work Babble techies. Good job on the speed improvements, perhaps more load testing before next time though?

Wed, 2008-11-12 15:55

#21

Left Turn

Posted by Michelle in the previous thread:

Quote:
The reason I don't like pages is because there's no way for people to
navigate to the most recent page. This is a pain considering that each
page seems to take something like 10 seconds to load on high speed
internet, and the "next page" link is at the bottom of the page (which
means you do have to wait for it to completely load before being able
to go to the next page).

Michelle, I've been to lots of forums where you can go directly to the last page, or even the last post, in a thread. The thread pages show up as breadcrumbs at the bottom of the thread page, or as a dropdown menu in the same location. Even when there's more pages then can fit in the space allotted for the breadcrumbs, the "last" page is always an option. Is it not possible to configure this software in that manner? Are you even sure this is not how the pages were configured on this software, before you removed them?

Wed, 2008-11-12 17:03

#22

Michelle

Yay, I did it! Left Turn, I guess it must be just me who has that edit capability for names. And because of your previous Left Turn account, it was tricky switching you around. But I did it!

If anyone else needs a name change due to the system remembering your login instead of your screen name from the old babble, let me know!

Wed, 2008-11-12 17:15

#23

wage zombie

On the pages for specific forums, that list all the topics in the forum, there is a "new" link that goes to the first unread post. This is great, and it should be replicated to the Active Topics page. This would also fix pagination issues.

However i don't know if it could be done or not because it might make the active topics page to slow because the "new" link would have to be calculated for each user

Wed, 2008-11-12 17:16

#24

Left Turn

Michelle, Thanks a million. :hugs:

Thu, 2008-11-13 03:04

#25

Left Turn

I generally like the overall look of the new babble, the exceptions being that I don't like the font being smaller than before, and I don't like having the right hand advertising on all the babble pages.

However, I'm finding that a lot of the functionality has not been improved to what is gnerally the norm on newer forum software. I think this is really unfortunate. While I agree with keeping profile pictures off of babble, I don't see the need to deny us a lot of the other functionality that is available on other current forum software. Functionality such as:

- The ability to view the full titles of threads that have links on the main page, by moving the cursor over them.

- A list of all forum users, arrangable either alphabetically, by date joined, by number of posts (indeed, there are no post totals for any babblers, anywhere), ect.

- The auto insertion of html code for babblers who, unlike myself, do not have said code memorized.

- The ability to go directly to the first uread post in a thread.

One particular aspect of the new babble that I'm not liking, is our personal recent posts pages. At the moment, our personal recent posts pages show the threads we've posted in, in the order in which they were last updated by anyone. I would prefer these pages to show our posts, in the reverse order in whcich we make them (most recent posts first), and display the first 2 or 3 lines of each post. This is what other current forum software does. Also, I would like mention of our current post count, both in our profile info beside our posts, and on our recents posts pages. As I mentioned up post, there is currently no mention of any babbler post totals, anywhere.

Thu, 2008-11-13 03:32

#26

Cueball

Things are speeding up. Good.

Need a function for creating quote markers. Some editing tasks are difficult and some reply functions are difficult to edit, especially when using quotes, within quotes, within quotes.

Are quotes, within quotes, within quotes really necessary? People can easily trace the thread back to find the related material.

Will save load times, and bandwidth too... now there is a thought.

Thu, 2008-11-13 04:14

#27

Fidel

Cueball wrote:
Are quotes, within quotes, within quotes really necessary? People can easily trace the thread back to find the related material.

Will save load times, and bandwidth too... now there is a thought.

Perhaps a new thread entitled, "Quoting is Wrong!!"

Quote function in the old forum didn't work worth a darn. This one captures everything so you don't have to sometimes cut and paste manually. And bandwidth? A few xtra bytes?

Thu, 2008-11-13 10:01

#28

Michelle

Left Turn, those are really good suggestions. I hope you'll forward them to the Feedback page so they'll go straight to our tech people.

One thing I don't like? When you try to backspace when you're typing in the comment window, the backspacing goes SO SLOWLY.

Thu, 2008-11-13 10:03

#29

Michelle

Cueball, I agree with you about quotes within quotes. I actually like being able to quote within quotes, but only if people are pruning the quotes appropriately. There's nothing I hate more than seeing a page-long scrolling post full of quotes inside quotes inside quotes inside quotes et-deadening-cetera, and then a one-line response at the bottom.

I haven't noticed that happening here yet, but I'm going to be ALL OVER IT when and if it does! ;)

Thu, 2008-11-13 11:00

#30

Catchfire

Re: quote within quotes.

Excessive quoting happened at the old babble too, y'know, back in tha day. It was irritiating then too. Only the quote was usually bolded, big and ugly, with some pitiable one-line response at the end. I suppose that could be curtailed by vigilant moderation, but that's not really realistic, is it?

Of course, now that the quoting function is more "complciated" we'll have more creative citing methods than we did at old babble. In fact, they've already begun...

Thu, 2008-11-13 12:33

#31

Catchfire

Also, why aren't hyperlinks red? Currently they are black, which doesn't contrast much from the dark-grey text.

Thu, 2008-11-13 12:45

#32

Wilf Day

I have sent this Feedback: why does the Active Topics page no longer show the first three lines or so of the most recent post, as it used to? Please re-instate this. It makes the Active Topics page much more useful.

Anyone disagree?

I had the idea I've seen someone discuss this -- but it wasn't in this thread.

Thu, 2008-11-13 12:49

#33

Michelle

Hi Wilf, thanks for the reminder. They're going to do that, but it's going to take some time for them to get it done. Apparently they have to work out a glitch with that, the glitch being that it keeps wanting to only post the first couple of lines of the OPENING post, not the most recent one.

So it's on the agenda, but again, it's tech triage. :) Don't worry, I'll keep bringing it up, because it's actually more difficult to moderate when I don't have those preview lines, because those help me to tell at a glance whether there's a moderating issue that needs to be addressed.

Thu, 2008-11-13 12:50

#34

Michelle

I also prefer red hyperlinks, Catchfire. I'll ask them whether this can be done - it depends on what they want on the rest of the site, because the design has to be consistent throughout. But I think red hyperlinks look better throughout the whole site anyhow, personally. :)

Thu, 2008-11-13 13:06

#35

TVParkdale

"CTRL + "

Increases the size so you can read. Works on FF anyway

Oh yeah, and I was responding to a homeless thread and it *poofed* like, completely gone, *poof* into cyberspace while it said "you cannot access that thread" a whole thread

Thu, 2008-11-13 13:08

#36

TVParkdale

Michelle wrote:

Cueball, I agree with you about quotes within quotes. I actually like being able to quote within quotes, but only if people are pruning the quotes appropriately. There's nothing I hate more than seeing a page-long scrolling post full of quotes inside quotes inside quotes inside quotes et-deadening-cetera, and then a one-line response at the bottom.

I haven't noticed that happening here yet, but I'm going to be ALL OVER IT when and if it does! ;)

So we can now quote/respond/quote/respond instead of having to post code from page to page?

That would be tres coolers

Thu, 2008-11-13 13:17

#37

pogge

Michelle wrote:
...the glitch being that it keeps wanting to only post the first couple of lines of the OPENING post, not the most recent one.

In this case I suspect glitch is the wrong term. In Drupal, the opening post is a diary* and the subsequent posts are comments. Two different things. They have to approach this differently and possibly write some code from scratch.

*ETA:

Actually my terminology may be wrong here. I've gotten used to Soapblox which in turn takes after scoop. The point being that the software probably defines the opening post as a different kind of object than the subsequent comments. Notice how the threads that were imported from old babble leave the opening post empty.

Thu, 2008-11-13 13:43

#38

Boom Boom

I've been away for a few days, just popped in to have a look before going out again for the afternoon. I'm still getting sidescroll on this page, and am even getting sidescroll on the "feedback" page which I used to send my comments in. I think the problem is related to much space wasted on the right side - just white, empty space that could be junked in favour of eliminating sidescroll (ie: the page is too wide, and unnecessarily so).

It's loading faster than before, so someone's been busy, apparently. I think the new emotions aren't as cute as the old ones.

Thu, 2008-11-13 14:48

#39

Oldgoat McSockpuppet

Test Test Test SUPERTEST testicle (tee hee)

Boom boom, all that blank space is for the gazillion $'s of advertising that will becoming our way when word of this spreads far and wide.

Hey, NDP colours!

Now let's see if I can ban myself again.

Thu, 2008-11-13 14:52

#40

oldgoat

Ok, I've banned that troublemaker again. Hey, the colours didn't come through. Quelle domage.

Hey, anyone seen a thread on housing? I can't find it anywhere.

Thu, 2008-11-13 14:53

#41

Michelle

I'm getting sidescroll on the feedback form whenever I do it on babble as well, although strangely enough for the other areas of the site I don't get the sidescroll on the feedback form because the form is plain text, whereas the babble feedback form has formatting options.

I've let them know about the sidescroll - a number of people have told me that they get sidescroll from reading these pages.

oldgoat, did you figure out your account yet?

Thu, 2008-11-13 14:54

#42

Michelle

Oh, I see you did manage it. :)

Thu, 2008-11-13 15:00

#43

Spectrum

Michelle wrote:

Yay, I did it! Left Turn, I guess it must be just me who has that edit capability for names. And because of your previous Left Turn account, it was tricky switching you around. But I did it!

If anyone else needs a name change due to the system remembering your login instead of your screen name from the old babble, let me know!

Michelle,

Could you change my name back to admin as well please.

Thanks

Thu, 2008-11-13 15:13

#44

Boom Boom

Weird - I'm not getting sidescroll on my laptop - only my desktop.

Thu, 2008-11-13 15:13

#45

Michelle

Nope, sorry. "Admin" on this site means you are the site administrator, so that won't be possible. If you'd like to choose another name, I'll be happy to change it to that.

Thu, 2008-11-13 19:51

#46

Catchfire

Is there any way to get the Firefox spell checker to work in the 'post comment' box?

Thu, 2008-11-13 19:58

#47

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

There are many things I dislike about the site, but the one that currently bugs me the most is the Orwellian Happy Face lurking on the left side of each post, keeping track of everyone's comings and goings.

When you mouse over it, it announces when a member is "online" (whatever that means - it continues to show me "online" even if I log out) and if the member is offline, it purports to tell you exactly when he or she was "last seen".

For example, it tells me Michelle was "last seen 1 hour 9 minutes ago". If the poster has been "gone" for less than an hour, it tells you how many minutes and seconds since he or she was "last seen".

And if the poster has not made a post since before November 9, it tells you the poster was "last seen 38 years 46 weeks ago"!

Why oh why do we have to have Big Brother keeping track of our movements?

Will we see babblers subpoenaing babble records to establish alibis?

How is this a "feature" rather than an unnecessary intrusion into privacy?

Thu, 2008-11-13 20:04

#48

Boom Boom

Right on! Just say 'no' to Orwellian Happy Faces. And bring back the Mr. Green emoticon!

Thu, 2008-11-13 20:58

#49

jfb

I really miss being able to click on a person's profile, and get some sense of the poster. Also, in that new window one could email that babbler either directly or through rabble, now one clicks on a person's profile and it just gives their posts.

How do I get to contact someone privately by email? Is this a functionality issue?

kids live and play together, let's let them learn together too!

Thu, 2008-11-13 20:59

#50

jfb

Finally, I noted that pogge has a email link on her info and I want to know she created it. So I could do the same thing on my handle info.

kids live and play together, let's let them learn together too!

Thu, 2008-11-13 21:07

#51

jfb

Ok, I went into my account settings and hopefully clicked in the right area, and if so, folks should be able to email me as an icon should show up with a little envelope showing you can email me. Let's see if it happens.

Well it didn't. So ask pogge how she got te email econ beside her handle.

kids live and play together, let's let them learn together too!

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