Kagamin wrote:
On Friday, 23 February 2018 at 13:47:16 UTC, biocyberman wrote:
From my experience with forum platforms like vBulletin, phpBB,
Invision Power, and even interfaces of Google group, and Github
Issues, I still find it very difficult to understand the logics of
using dlang's forum.
You make it sound like "I even learned clay tablets" :)
Sorry that it kicked in that way. I didn't mean I know all from modern
to ancient if that is what you mean with 'learning clay tablets'. But I
did mean that even with quite some experience, I still find it
challenging to use the forum. I gave example of an typical forum
interface to a less typical one. dlang's forum is not anywhere on this
scale, in my opinion.
1. No post editting. After clicking send, and found out that you made
mistakes in the post, but you can't edit the post anymore.
Stackoverflow has this feature, and it's pretty popular on forums too,
because when someone abuses editing, people complain that discussions
make no sense anymore.
I mean to edit a post right after posting. stackoverflow and many other
forums have 5 minutes or more before they lock editing. Only comments on
stackoverflow are locked by the way.
2. Old-day quoting presentation. I always feel reluctant to read texts
that stays after two levels of quotes, like this:
>First post quoted
>>Second post quoted
>>>Third post quoted
>>Second post quoted
Stackoverflow and github have this feature. Though normally web
interface hides the angle quotes, so they shouldn't interfere with reading.
I mean, the angle quotes are the problem.
3. No Rich-text format support. No minimal bold/italic support.
Some tools to emphasize important points will make it easier to let
the readers know what the posters want to say.
Bold and italic is a wrong way to format text because it's visual
formatting that lacks semantic. You can use markdown to add *emphasis*,
it's pretty intuitive, stackoverflow and github have it too. Emphasis
only expresses emotions, which can actually distract from content, you
better spend time expressing ideas.
I appreciate your preference on this. And I agree with out if it is some
sort of formal writing. In short and informal one, it is a way to give
visual cues.
4. No code formatting. Same feeling here. I am reluctant to post more
than 5 lines of code.
run.dlang.org
I will use this from now on.
5. No image support. In many cases a screenshots will be helpful to
communicate problems.
abload.de
I am aware of third party sites to upload image, but I meant a built-in
and in-place image display.
6. Last but not least, a trendy feature: tags, keywords for threads so
we can locate related threads easily.
Usually nobody bothers to fill them, so they won't give you any result.
I do fill them for every question post on stackoverflow. And I find them
very helpful.
If I may say it honestly, and despite the useful 'save unsent draft'
feature, the forum is by far the most user-unfriendly forum platform
ever (by appearance).
If I were to order them by user-friendliness (in descending order):
dfeed > forums >>> github > stackoverflow > skype
I think it has much to do with setting expectation right. Haven't used
dfeed, I had trouble understanding dlang's forum but much less trouble
with others.
