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.
This does appear to be working now where it seemed to freeze before.
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.
I think I got whiplash from that one. Someone call the cops!
Re- loading times.
Seems better, but it's far from smooth.
He said in his tiny font voice.
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?
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.
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....
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?
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
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?
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.
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.
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?
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?
Posted by Michelle in the previous thread:
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?
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!
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
Michelle, Thanks a million. :hugs:
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.
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.
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?
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.
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! ;)
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...