Feature wish list (if we change forum platform)

[deletedT]

Well, there are 4 or so improvements that you would get that you wanted if we switched. Did you vote in the poll yet?

I was the forth one to vote and I voted No.
Mostly because of you and Minty were talking about Mr.Excel forum. I really don't like Mr.Excel mostly because of the floating ADs, and how they change their position in a page.
For me AWF's ADs placement is better and that was why I voted NO.

Now that almost all of my wishes come true, I'd like to change it to yes. But only admins are capable of it.

Can you do me a favor and change my vote?

Million thanks.

 

[isladogs]

Jon
For info, I've been getting an error today whenever I open my browser (Edge) to this forum. The screen shows a Site is not available message for 1-2 seconds before the site loads and then runs perfectly.
If I close and reopen the browser it happens again.

 

[Deleted member 147267]

Some great suggestions; will make mine seem trivial I think. One thing I've noted elsewhere is the ease at which you can dump in Excel data, which automatically builds an html table, and that table is easily modified. The behaviour is good for
a) posting sample data because Excel is great for generating test data, and
b) it makes it very easy to copy and make a table out of if you're trying to help someone. In that case, you don't have to populate a table manually.

 

[isladogs]

Micron
Not trivial at all. A great suggestion

 

[Minty]

+ 1 vote for the html / BB excel table generation / copy paste. Really helpful.

 

[Jon]

@Tera, I have updated as requested.

@isladogs, noticed. It could be something to do with modsecurity which was installed to deal with the sql injection attacks. I wonder if we switched platform, whether or not those would reduce as there are less software vulnerabilities. That could let me turn off modsecurity.

@Micron, interesting points. I see there are various add-ons that can deal with that. Not sure if there are any vulnerabilities or not but can add to the list of possible changes, especially since 3 of you like the idea.

 

[Deleted member 147267]

Thanks. Interesting comments too.
To clarify, at AF.net I can just ctrl+V a range that I've copied from Excel. Maybe I'll have to adjust the table size to prevent line wrapping in cells, but that's easily done there. The result seems to know which row is the header and magically shades it. I find it works best if I center all the Excel text before copying.

 

[Jon]

To address the moderation improvements in the backend, I believe they are much better. With this board, can a mod tell me if you can delete a spam user and all their messages in one go?

 

[isladogs]

There is more than one method of removing a spam user. The way I normally use allows me to delete all posts in one go, permanently ban the user and report them to the anti-spam service. When I forget, its a lot more hassle to delete one message at a time.

It isn't necessary to open the moderators control panel to do any of the above though it can also be done from there.
However the mods CP is clunky in other ways.

 

[Jon]

If you are on a thread, can you estimate the number of clicks required to nuke that user and all their messages?

 

[isladogs]

From memory, I think its 4 clicks. Will check when I next do it which is typically about every 2-3 days

 

[Jon]

Ok, just curious if Xenforo is a bit more efficient. We will see.

 

[Jon]

There is an add-on that sends a Weekly digest to members. It will give a list of the most popular topics on the forum. Does that get a thumbs up? Thumbs down? You can unsubscribe at any time.

 

[isladogs]

Thumbs up. I may not use it but I'm sure others would.

 

[deletedT]

There is an add-on that sends a Weekly digest to members. It will give a list of the most popular topics on the forum. Does that get a thumbs up? Thumbs down? You can unsubscribe at any time.

Sure thumbs up

 

[isladogs]

If you are on a thread, can you estimate the number of clicks required to nuke that user and all their messages?

Jon
I just deleted posts by two spammers. In fact it took 6 clicks to permanently delete one of them.
The other I just deleted the post as it was more 'nuanced'.

 

[Jon]

Thanks for that. Maybe it is a similar number of clicks in Xenforo, not 100% sure. I do like that banning a member as Spam ends up banning the IP, deleting all their posts, profiles etc. Probably the same here.

 

[Jon]

I'm curious, how would you use the bookmarks feature linked to earlier in this thread?

 

[Lightwave]

I think Xenforo does appear to be an improvement. Would like to see the stats more easily of posters but once you know where to look its probably ok...

I've come across width concerns with responsive designs as well. Sometimes its easily configurable and sometimes its not. Width however is very much a personal preference thing... I ended up going with standard widths on my blog just because was easier than trying to bespoke edit it... At some point in the future I am hoping I will have the option to shift to a theme where it is at least partially configurable.

I would say once you are in a XENforo thread and reading the comments I consider the width to be perfect (on that Xenforo thread linked to maybe its different in others?)

 

[Jon]

To get an idea of some of the stats features, check out this link: https://themindtavern.com/community/members/

Also, note that under each tab at the top, there are sublinks. And under the "What's new" tab, you can see latest forum activity. If you "follow" any members you can also see all their posts under "your news feed".