Shetlink ideas

[shetland123]

Does anyone think that when you look at the classifieds section the ads that you have not viewed should be highlighted like when you go into the forum unviewed sections?

 

Just a thought...might just me being sillly?

[Fjool]

Good topic. Always worth putting your suggestions forward. No guarantee that everything can be done, of course

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

[shetland123]

Good topic. Always worth putting your suggestions forward. No guarantee that everything can be done, of course

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Cheers,

 

I thought it might be an idea as most items that have not been sold or as new items are added get pushed on and no one really looks beyond page one or two.

[Pooks]

I believe that this feature is currently filed in the 'to-do' section (if it is possible).

 

Oh and I moved this thread to the 'Welcome to Shetlink' section to keep it with the rest of the complaints/praises/suggestions/whatnots.

 

Cheers.

[Ghostrider]

Would it be possible to include a message at the top of the preview page, preferably in bold and red, saying something along the lines of:

 

"Your message has not been posted, this is just a preview. Click "Submit" to post".

 

Yes, yes....I know, it sounds like something you'd find in the idiot's guide, but there's a little method to the madness (of course there's always the alternative that I am an idiot that needs an idiot's guide ..... No comments, please. )

 

When previewing a post of any length, which can easily happen if a few quotes are included, the typing box and preview/post buttons soon drop off the screen. If you spend a bit of time proofing a post in preview when the typing box etc is off below screen level, it becomes very easy to forget you're only reading the preview version and not the final posted version and move away without actually posting.

 

Okay, most of the time, if you realise what you did immediately, you can back up and salvage it, but not always, and you don't always realise immediately either. A big red in your face message that whats on the screen is only a preview would help those of us who get caught out with such thing not to have to swear quite so much quite so often. TY.

[KOYAANISQATSI]

How about a General enquiry section for placing specific questions that are mostly resolved pretty soon after but then just go on to fill up space on the boards.

For instance; on page 1 of the Anything and Everything section we have the likes of ...

Missing stools

buses

Explanation please

Radio controlled Gliders

Finding out who landowners are?

missing dog

Why can't the Kids in the Sandpit Behave?

Shetland's Epicentre

Mouse in the house

Jumping Beans

Parking Warden

Cure for a sore throat?

Sea Cadets

Does anyone know of large sheds?

Juggling

 

And so on and so on.

 

Placing these mostly short term queries would make navigating through this place a whole lot easier, draw attention to specific enquiries and give a bit of breathing space for topics of the more general discussion type.

[Longdog]

^^^^ erm.... isn't that what an 'anything and everything section' is for

 

How many sections, sub-sections does one forum need. There is a search facility after all (I'm guilty of not always using it first )

 

If something isn't interesting people then it'll just naturally fall down the list and if some one picks it up again it'll go to the top. And if people don't like or have an interest in a topic they don't need to read it.

 

I've got to say there seems like a lot of suggestions for suggestions sake and moderation of moderators on here.

 

Next we'll have a dewey decimal system equivalent for forums

[Fjool]

^ Dewey decimal system...

 

In all seriousness though, there might be merit to being able to tag posts and subject but, as with all these techniques, it requires users to put the effort in to make them work. If people don't use the tags, or post in the incorrect section, etc, there's not much that can be done apart from tidy up afterwards.

 

Most things end up in the right place eventually. Just need to remember that already there aren't enough hours in the day* for everything that needs doing, and priorities might not be immediately or widely visible.

 

(*he says, posting a waffly thingumy (was originally 'diatribe', whilst waiting for dinner to cook....is that burning I smell? )

 

edit: out 'diatribe' which doesn't mean what I thought it did...

[trout]

I don't know. Its quite an interesting concept actually.

 

See the Anything & Everything else area does get clogged up with lots of little specific posts as has been pointed out with only like 5 or less posts and then that's it - the initial question just requiring an immediate answer. The search function isn't always utilised and numerous posts asking the same thing can and do pop up all the time.

 

Shetlink is very much an organic medium that has melded and grown with the requirements of it's community userbase since its inception four years ago. The most prominent two last additions being the "Classifieds" moving into it's very own sub-site section providing easier access and usability to users + the "Consumer Advice" section cleansing up a swaith of posts throughout all the other forums and ring-fencing them in an area for ease of access ... sorta like whats being pondered on right now.

 

Another area such as a "General Quick Question" or other could then have answers exported into a guide type format or easier to search area giving quite a useful resource, no? However, hmm ... is there enough hours in the day!?

 

Someone else had enquired why the sticky posts weren't used more often in another thread. To answer this, they were, and are used - but now only sparingly. The culture of Shetlink appears/ed to mean sticky posts are almost almost the death of a thread. If it's at the top it's bypassed even if there's a new post indicator on it and folk go directly for the moving feast of threads below and additional posts tail off to nothing at all almost immediately?!?

[Medziotojas]

Subtle nuances may also be filed here

[beachcaster]

Would it be possible for a feature like subsections to be incorporated in to busy Classifieds sections, like the Motoring/Vehicle section, which could sort out the results into different categories to make it easier to find what people are looking for?

 

I think it would be helpful if the results could be split into a few different categories like Cars for sale, Motorcycles for sale, Car Parts/Accessories for sale, etc.

 

Due to my complete lack of knowledge in website construction, i don't know if it's even possible to add subsections or if it would end up in 3 or 4 completely new sections in the main categories.

 

As there are now 580ish posts it can be a bit of a trawling exercise to find something which you have seen advertised previously and you want to see if it is still available.

 

Didn't want to post this in the "Buy and sell rant" thread as it is more of a question than a criticism.

[trout]

There are 'things' afoot

[khitajrah]

What about a book swap? I'm sure it wouldn't cost much to pop a paperback in to the post for a fellow Shetlinker, and there are other ways of delivering/collecting books.

[Ghostrider]

Don't know if this has been mentioned before, but....

 

When typing up posts or PMs, if you want to add a smiley the board will only add it at the very end of all the text in the typing window, also in the process of adding it it scrolls the text in the typing window back to the top (assuming the post is long enough for the scroll bar to have appeared.

 

Any chance of making it so that a smiley will go in to the middle of the text wherever you last used your cursor, and stopping the text in the box from scrolling when it is added.

 

Maybe I'm the only one with that habit, but I tend to type up a post or PM, then decide where I want to put any smileys when I proof it. End result when posts are bigger than the typing window is, that you click on the smiley you want and it lands at the end of the text, which then scrolls to below the window. You have to scroll down to it, CTRL X it, then find again where you want it, put your cursor back there where you'd left it in the first place anyway, and Ctrl V it in.

 

Definitely a no rush job, but after doing it for around 4 years its becoming a tad irksome. It certainly minimises the number of smileys I bother with in any one post or PM, but I can't see there being any other practical advanatage of the status quo.

 

Oh, and....Yes there's more. Any possibility of making it so that when replying to a PM the message you're replying to is also shown. On Forum threads you can scroll up through all the posts on the last page of a thread while typing a reply, but with PMs there's nothing. Ends up if you get sent a PM thats lengthy of contains information its necessary to reference during typing up a reply, the only way to do it is either to open two windows, one to read the PM and the other to type up the reply, or Ctrl C the entire message before hitting reply, then Ctrl V it in to the reply window. Which just adds to the irksomeness of having to retrieve smileys from below it, and sooner or later you end up sending someone a PM with their own message as part of its body, as you'd forgotten to Ctrl X that part out before sending. A copy of the incoming PM you're replying to underneath the typing windown in the same style as previous posts of a thread appear, would be a gret acht ta wis auld beggars wi beggar all short term memory left.

[sandyloo]

just to say my only complaint with Shetlink is that it makes me homesick - so any good YouTube links of Shetland, boats, birds, fire-festivals, da street, da Knab, sheep, ponies.... you get the idea,,, just to keep me greetin a bit langer