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Last post Author Topic: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement  (Read 45055 times)

mouser

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I thought in the interest of fair play we should start a thread where people can point out things they don't like about this site, and areas they would like to see improvement.

so have at it! and let's definitely keep this thread compliment-free -- it's meant for (hopefully constructive) criticism.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 06:24 AM by mouser »

fenixproductions

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2009, 06:19 AM »
Everything on my mind... go! ;)

1. In-line images

The most annoying things are in-line images.

Clicking on thumbnail makes picture bigger but this almost destroys whole layout of the webpage or gives unpleasant need for horizontal scrolling.

Good solution for that would be to give additional tag for popping out images in new browsers window or some overlay.

Other way is to give overlay control box similar to Internet Explorer's one with few options like:
- full screen (overlay),
- save to disc,
- fit width.

Another thing: it is hard for me to save enlarged images to my HDD. Sometimes it appears that Opera saved thumbnail only. Nice idea would be to have additional link below for download attached image (or inside mentioned box).

2. Advertisement

I've mentioned this once and will do that again: web buttons for DonationCoder.com might be excellent idea.

Many websites offer additional images to be placed in users' signatures, so DC should create the set of these for various parts or events.

3. FARR screenshots page

Navigation through all images is a pain for me now. Please consider better gallery mode (JS lytebox or something similar) which will not reload whole page.

housetier

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2009, 07:00 AM »
Excellent! I finally can get this off my chest:

We should find a better forum software than SMF. Their code is apparently very very solid, but I do not like their license model.

rjbull

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2009, 07:36 AM »
Ability to permanently delete entries from the "Show new replies to your posts" list, for threads one is no longer interested in.




f0dder

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2009, 07:44 AM »
Excellent! I finally can get this off my chest:

We should find a better forum software than SMF. Their code is apparently very very solid, but I do not like their license model.
Who gives a fsck about license model? It's a solid forum with good features, and it's had a very low amount of exploits compared to some of the other junk on the market - that is important.
- carpe noctem

housetier

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2009, 08:42 AM »
yeah whatever f0dder  (obviously I do not give a filesystem check)

nudone

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2009, 08:56 AM »
on the 'unread posts' page, how about moving the select boxes so it's easier to scan through the list and quickly pick them off. if it's possible to move them.

(i remember mouser agreeing with this one back in 2005).

unread-topics.png

edit:

after 4 years of looking at this page i guess i'm used to it now anyway. so ignore me.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 08:58 AM by nudone »

Josh

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2009, 08:57 AM »
May I ask what exactly is wrong with the license model for SmF? I have seen several sites running this without issues and no one has complained about the license model. This is the first I've heard about negativities towards the SmF model. What forum software do you suggest?

Other than that, the only thing I can think of for DC is a better review system in which we can break down the review into various collapsable sections of the main page. This way, we can view certain parts of the review without having to continuously scroll.

That, and perhaps a software rating system of our own. That way we can post programs and rate it based on our thoughts.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 08:59 AM by Josh »

Carol Haynes

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2009, 08:58 AM »
The thought of porting a forum that has been active for a few years with many thousands of post to a new system is a little daunting.

If you don't like the licensing system can you explain why and also if you would like a move suggest an alternative forum with a license you do like.

Veign

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2009, 09:12 AM »
Feeds:
One thing I find annoying is the RSS Feed from SMF and how active threads totally consume the feed.  What would be nice is a topic only appears once in the feed list, positioning itself based on the last response timestamp.  This would you to see the last 10 active threads instead of the last 10 posts.

Darwin

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2009, 09:13 AM »
Ability to permanently delete entries from the "Show new replies to your posts" list, for threads one is no longer interested in.

+1 to this idea - it's been plaguing me of late.

TheQwerty

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2009, 10:56 AM »
On the "Show Unread Posts" page I'd like to see either a select all checkbox at the bottom of the page, or just a "Mark Page Read" link.

Anytime I have to go through more than 1 page, I always forget to select all before scrolling down.

mahesh2k

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2009, 11:33 AM »
@Karol:
1. In-line images>> You mean Lightboxes for forums?

Back to Topic:

1) Other than paypal, please mention if Alertpay, Western Union Payment methods are available or not.
2) New Emoticons (these looks too fat)  :P :down:
3) Maybe a place(extension within this site) where we can collaborate for open source/in-house DC Software


Deozaan

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2009, 01:41 PM »
I'd like the option to ignore a thread so that it doesn't show up in my Unread Posts list. Ignoring entire boards is useful sometimes (although it can be hard to find) but if there's a single thread in the Living Room that I don't care to follow anymore, I'd really like the option to ignore it.

The thing is, if I ever changed my mind, I'd need to be able to find it manually. What I think the main point is that it should still be listed if I manually browse the forum tree, but should not show up on unread posts or latest posts, etc.

fenixproductions

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2009, 01:44 PM »
@Karol:
1. In-line images>> You mean Lightboxes for forums?
Not really. I am thinking about possibility to avoid using horizontal scrollbar when it's not needed. Opening a picture in new window could be OK.

TucknDar

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #15 on: January 16, 2009, 02:29 PM »
I'd like the option to ignore a thread so that it doesn't show up in my Unread Posts list. Ignoring entire boards is useful sometimes (although it can be hard to find) but if there's a single thread in the Living Room that I don't care to follow anymore, I'd really like the option to ignore it.
+1

raybeere

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2009, 04:50 PM »
Okay, I'm going to mention a few thoughts I've had, about DC and about forums in general, but I do want to first say that these are more ideas for improvement, rather than real complaints.

First, the whole forum format is great for discussions - but it isn't the ideal way to present the type of information you want to be able to reference. I'm more inclined to use search, and to poke through a whole thread to pick out info, than most people I know (I've scrolled through rolls of microfilm just to find the one entry I needed, after all), but I still find it a time-consuming way to access information. This isn't just the case with DC: any forum I'm on which includes informative posts tends to bury a lot of great information. If you don't search on just the right term, you miss it. When you do find it, if you do, you have to scroll through a lot of comments in the thread that don't add much to the discussion just to see the relevant bits. What am I getting at? Something like a Wiki (not necessarily editable by anyone, btw, I'm speaking of format here) is much easier to navigate and extract information from. The TOS could be revised to allow reposting selected material there so copyright need not be an issue.

Yes, I do know it is a lot of work. :( No, I'm not sure it would be worth the effort. It is just an idea that's been on my mind for a long time, and I think it is at least worth discussion. For what it's worth, the more accessible a reference that was available, the more visitors would be pulled in and exposed to the DC model of software, which I personally think is a great idea. Would it increase traffic enough to justify the effort? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just tossing ideas out for discussion, as I gather that is Mouser's idea.

My other point is this: I think the more that can be done to draw visitors, to express the ideas behind DC, and to explain them in ways anyone can grasp, the better. Yes, only efforts that yield enough result are worth it, but the goal is important, so I think a discussion specifically of how to win over more visitors is a good one. The basic model is sound; I'm not questioning that. What I'm wondering is, could more be done to spread awareness of, and appreciation for, that model? Whatever your opinion of them, there are a lot of people who won't donate until they figure out what's in it for them (and, yes, there are real benefits) and need to have that spelled out for them.

Carol Haynes

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2009, 05:15 PM »
Actually making more/better use of the blog feature (which I consistently forget about) mights address some of those issues.

f0dder

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2009, 06:50 PM »
2) New Emoticons (these looks too fat)  :P :down:
Got a link to an emoticon set you like better? I personally like the set used at DC a lot, they're simple and clean and small.
- carpe noctem

mahesh2k

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #19 on: January 16, 2009, 07:52 PM »
Got a link to an emoticon set you like better? I personally like the set used at DC a lot, they're simple and clean and small.
Yeah, i have specific Set in my mind. It is from Kirupa froums. But recently they switched to smaller smilies  :o but still those are interesting as well. So i'll try to find Medium sized Smilies just like we see on Wordpress Commnets/posts.

techidave

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #20 on: January 17, 2009, 07:02 AM »
I don't know how many programs Skrommel has on his page but I find it very slow to find what I want and it takes a while to fully load.  If it has a way to alphabetize it or to group them to find them easier?  :-\

His little apps are great but I don't know an easier way to post them either.

cranioscopical

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #21 on: January 17, 2009, 10:16 AM »
Well, since you ask about rooms for improvement...

                                                                    ...have you dusted that desk yet?

mouser command post
dust.jpg



Darwin

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #22 on: January 17, 2009, 03:10 PM »
Well, since you ask about rooms for improvement...

                                                                    ...have you dusted that desk yet?


-cranioscopical (January 17, 2009, 10:16 AM)


Lashiec

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2009, 10:46 AM »
In addition to support most of the ideas expressed by my fellow DCers, I would like to add a couple of suggestions: One, the possibility to do range selection of posts in "Unread posts", and second, tooltips for the awards listed above each member avatar (that is, add alternative text to the pictures).

Darwin

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Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement
« Reply #24 on: January 18, 2009, 11:04 AM »
Here's (a minor) one: I'd like to be able to click on a link on my "Unread posts" page and have the link opened in a new tab. Ditto for the main "Forum" page, actually... it would be nice to be able to keep the Forum page open and have any boards or messages that I click on open in new tabs.