http://www.idkfa.com/v3 idkfa: syndicated http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1859 Forgive me for trying to bust your chops. For what it's worth, I login when I have something to post. Otherwise, if I can distill the information (recent posting) I came to get without going through that one checkpoint, I lazy it up and don't login. Perhaps you need more disincentive for that behavior... but that might also discourage other users who share my train of thought. /Shrug. The lollerdome requires a login to see any content. I'm fine with that because I've been a regular since 2006, but I can see how that might discourage new people from trying it out. They can't take it for a spin, or lurk anonymously until they're comfortable enough to post. So perhaps you're honing in on something important - not shielding content from lurkers, but giving them a tangible reason to login. Perhaps more of the fun nuggets such as Stats, hotkeys, etc, could be limited to logged in accounts. Hrm... Green Man@idkfa.com (Green Man) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:16:24 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1859 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1858 Hmm, before groaning about technicality and abuse of the HTML 4.0 specifications, I should probably consider usage statistics for idkfa. One in particular: that 65% of visitors spend less than 30 seconds on idkfa. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:13:05 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1858 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1856 Mostly I want to distinguish the user experience before logging in from after logging in, in hopes that people will want to log in because it's a better system, or at the very least, better than idkfa v2. Mostly. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:27:44 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1856 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1855 Zuckerberg said the same thing. YOU JUST WANT MY DATA Green Man@idkfa.com (Green Man) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:17:41 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1855 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1852 Also only works when logged in. Lurkers don't get the nice things. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:34:25 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1852 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1851 Well. It's again probably not what you wanted, but something like it. The "Load more" button loads the last 10 posts using the same method I do for the updaters. Auto-update will still use your user settings and replace the Latest Posts box with whatever it comes up with for that, regardless of whether you hit "Load more". kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:33:28 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1851 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1850 Awesome. In all seriousness, I have no clue how difficult or easy any kind of coding and web-building is. All I can offer is graphic design and a snide, bitchy user's perspective. Dance! DANCE FOR ME! Green Man@idkfa.com (Green Man) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:14:46 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1850 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1849 I added a Settings field that lets you hard-set the length for whenever you log in. I've still got one more idea I want to look into. This is really cutting into the time I'm supposed to be spending writing a treatise on how much I disliked Twilight. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:05:59 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1849 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1848 No, no. You don't get to drop design advice and then feign technical incompetence. That's "just saying" in another form. When you say technical hurdles, I liken the process of getting this to work to be much like this (Not Safe For Work. At all.). Actually, that's what I think of just about all Web 2.0. Maintaining the state of numerous widgets on the page gets very complicated. It may save time for users, but also makes things brittle, and hard to troubleshoot if things go wrong. I've had to build entire applications where each little piece on the screen had the potential to dial back to the server to request information, update contents, page through data, whatever... It was an absolute nightmare, and that was even using a fancy Javascript library that was supposed to take care of everything for me. That this is becoming the norm is somewhat irritating. Even for those that have solved the technical stuff (Facebook, Twitter), I still don't feel the potential for scrolling infinitely, even if you don't choose to, is good... Hmm. I just had an idea. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:04:15 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1848 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1847 Since you popped together all the code for the shiny box that GreenMan quickly dismissed, would you be so kind as to offer that as an option users can toggle in the settings page? cause I dig the "last unread" post box. I thought that was cool. GEEZ GREENMAN RUIN THE PARTY FOR THE REST OF US. (i jokes!) kitacek@idkfa.com (kitacek) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:57:40 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1847 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1846 Also, keep in mind that it's just a stupid suggestion from someone who doesn't know how to initiate the /run command in Windows. Oh hay, can we also have custom image backgrounds? Turn the resolution way down, though, so it stretches and tiles into an epileptic wonderland. Green Man@idkfa.com (Green Man) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:16:26 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1846 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1845 :/ I'll try something else then. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:15:47 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1845 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1844 I guess I don't like seeing an empty box, either. I appreciate the 'shoutbox' style display of the latest posts right in your face on the home page. It's a preview of what's to come in the conversation at hand, and streams the latest information. Even if I've already read it. From what I gather you're saying there are some technological hurdles when it comes to stretching that box and adding more than five comments on demand. I dig that. But to dismiss a design choice because "if you want more than 5, you're going to want as much as possible" is kind of flawed. I'm not suggesting i'm a lazy fuck that doesn't want to scroll through a bunch of information, but rather have it spoon fed to me. I'm suggesting that it's a slicker design model, and works better for the average human when you're not inundating them with information. That is to say, the snippets and hints at current conversation right now (or rather, as they were) is awesome. I thought that was something very different from traditional forums - something you argued for. The "what is happening right now," kind of thing. What I was suggesting is that maybe five is too few. But five also looks good, so rather than just asking to bump up the limit, I was curious if a user could just tack on a few more lines. It's kind of a coin flip. Yes, I can click on the link directing me to a new list of every latest post from the past X days (or however many it ends up displaying). That makes sense. Or, I can watch web 2.0 magically extend that already convenient feature a little more, and ensure that yes, I did already see that latest post about the cats. I don't think the idea of rendering more information is a poor design choice. When it comes to communicating information (graphically, anyway), you don't want to overwhelm your audience. I feel overwhelmed with the giant list. Green Man@idkfa.com (Green Man) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:56:12 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1844 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1841 Well. I don't think this was what you wanted. The code that generates the "Latest Post" is already pretty complicated, what with the auto-update mode, the collapsing stuff on the mobile page, etc. I found myself trying to resolve what would happen if you hit "+5" while you were in auto-update mode, and I decided that was more than I wanted to deal with. In addition, I feel like the "arbitrarily add more length to page elements" design that Facebook/Twitter have (even more annoying when it automatically does so when you scroll past a certain point) is a poor one at best. Yes, it saves re-rendering the entire page, but if somebody's really curious about that 6th post, and they're going to click once anyways, why not give them more if not all of the information they might be interested in. There's also my design philosophy so far that dictates: "If you don't bother to log in, you don't get to have nice things." Guests don't get any dynamic Javascript things, nor do they have the convenience of idkfa keeping track of things they've already read. Anyhow. So that led me to two things: Now, when you're logged in, the latest post box will show you only unread posts. It will be empty once you've read everything. As a more "advanced" latest-posts-type-thing, I've included "The Stream." It's effectively like browsing the discussion items, but it isn't limited to one item. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:28:05 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1841 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1839 You have phrased your requests in the form of accolades. I shall entertain them. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) idkfa Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:46:07 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1839 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1838 One thing I wouldn't mind is having the "view more of the latest posts" button simply expand that bubble. As if it just loads 5 more posts/comments, rather that redirects you to another page. It could be sequential up until a point (20?). This is mainly because all I want to see is if the 6th+ latest comment is something I haven't read, rather than the entire list. The nomenclature could also probably be simplified; "+5 Comments" or some such. That being said, I do like the option of redirecting to the entire list of latest comments. /Requisite praise and accolades for making a sweet forum and accepting critique and suggestions from the asinine user base bent on destroying your baby. Green Man@idkfa.com (Green Man) idkfa Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:40:13 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=1838&msg_id=1838