Happy New Year - Looking for ways to improve LQ.

mudangel · 01-04-2011, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by salasi

If you are using this to have a look at the posting history of a new or new-ish user (usually to see if they have a history of repeating some particular transgression of the accepted norms, or not), it would be very helpful to see immediately in which threads they are the original poster and in which threads they have just added a comment.

Agreed, that would be quite handy.

portamenteff · 01-04-2011, 09:11 AM

Hello Jeremy. I've been helped by this forum for five years now. One thing that could modernise it is to put an AJaX script in the search box that searches for you while you type. Sometimes I don't know the exact name of a search term I'm looking for but have a close estimate.

GrapefruiTgirl · 01-04-2011, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS3FGX

...I have also wondered for quite some time why LQ Wiki accounts are not linked to the regular LQ user accounts. I know a few times in the past I wanted to edit or create a page on the Wiki, only to be asked to create yet another account, which put me off of the whole thing. It seems like unifying the login would increase use of the Wiki by making it easier for existing LQ members to edit.

+1 from me on this too; not that I'll necessarily start editing Wikis tomorrow, but I have gone and considered doing something on the LQ Wiki in the past (possible I even made a username, I can't remember), but I recall I too was a little miffed about having to have a new account of some sort. It would seem logical that our LQ account would suffice for that too, if possible.

Cheers!

EricTRA · 01-04-2011, 09:48 AM

Hi,

And +1 from my part. Quite some time ago I confronted the same issue as MS3FGX. It would be a great advantage to have access to the Wiki with the LQ account.

Kind regards,

Eric

jeremy · 01-04-2011, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmartin

Jeremy, how about a way to change our display name? I've adopted an alias since joining in 2003 that I'd like to use here. The Display name could always link back to the original name if that'd make sense.

If you'd like a username change, feel free to email me and I'll take care of it.

--jeremy

jeremy · 01-04-2011, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frieza

i think a simple one would be moving the 'log out' link farther from the 'new posts' link on the front page, i've lost count of how many times i've mis-clicked logout when trying to view new posts, thank god for the confirmation dialog

Removed; it was a bit out of place anyway. Thanks for the feedback.

--jeremy

jeremy · 01-04-2011, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrapefruiTgirl

Jeremy,

you mention above, an "entirely new editor" is in the works in the near future. If I'm guessing correctly, this applies to the "quick reply" and "advanced editor"s, etc., for composing posts, right? Well what about the editor where one composes PM's to other members? Is that the same editor, and/or will that editor also be 'fixed' - it has some very strange line-wrap behavior (or lack of), else the resulting edits & message can end up a mile long off the side of the screen, requiring scrolling left/right to read it.

The new editor is based on CKEditor and will be used more consistently across the entire site.

--jeremy

jeremy · 01-04-2011, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by salasi

As well as wanting to give a +1 to MS3FGX's suggestion of more of a focus on mobile devices, I wanted to make a suggestion about the '...find other posts by this user...' feature.

If you are using this to have a look at the posting history of a new or new-ish user (usually to see if they have a history of repeating some particular transgression of the accepted norms, or not), it would be very helpful to see immediately in which threads they are the original poster and in which threads they have just added a comment.

You can accomplish this using the "Advanced Search" functionality.

--jeremy

jeremy · 01-04-2011, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS3FGX

I am very glad to see LQ focusing on mobile devices, and can't wait to see what an LQ Android application will look like, but I would still suggest looking into making the site more mobile-friendly in general. There are many small-screen devices out there with HTML browsers, not just Android and iOS devices. We should also take into account that a lot of LQ's traffic is from organic search results, so mobile users who simply came across LQ via a Google search shouldn't have to install a native application to get the most of the site.

Some kind of lite skin for mobile and small-screen devices is certainly possible after we move to the new codebase.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS3FGX

I have also wondered for quite some time why LQ Wiki accounts are not linked to the regular LQ user accounts. I know a few times in the past I wanted to edit or create a page on the Wiki, only to be asked to create yet another account, which put me off of the whole thing. It seems like unifying the login would increase use of the Wiki by making it easier for existing LQ members to edit.

We wanted the barrier to entry for editing the Wiki to be as low as possible, even if you weren't an LQ member. Registering for the Wiki requires nearly no information (not even an email address). In retrospect it may have been better to allow LQ accounts, but at the time it really wasn't feasible. We have no definitive plans to add this functionality, but if the demand is sufficient we'll certainly consider it as a mid-priority project.

--jeremy

MrCode · 01-04-2011, 03:25 PM

Dunno if this'll even really be considered an "improvement", but I was thinking that maybe an FAQ entry could be created that addresses the issue of site color themes (as in this thread), possibly linking to Stylish for Firefox users as an option to theme the site client-side.

Just my

.

Snark1994 · 01-04-2011, 03:53 PM

A 'weighted average posts per day'? I like to keep an eye on my average posts per day on my profile page, but I would find it interesting to compare my all time average with one more representative of recent days (admittedly, the difference between 'recent days' and 'all time' may not be jaw-droppingly significant for me... but still...) An alternative would be perhaps a pretty graph of how many posts I've made over X days, but I feel the 'weighted average' might be simpler to implement

zer010 · 01-04-2011, 03:56 PM

Perhaps you could add some "Quick Links" to "My Threads" and "My Posts" so it would be easier to get back to threads that I've created or participated in without having to subscribe to them.

loftus49 · 01-04-2011, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlangdn

This isn't an original idea, but the Linux Distributions area needs a bit of housekeeping. Some of these haven't had posts in a long while. I also think that the links should fall down the page and not across. I realize this would make the page longer, but it would sure be easier on new members to find their way around.

This is a good point. It also applies to other forum topics. Can "solved" items be moved out into a searchable section to reduce clutter and provide quicker solutions to those researching particular issue?

tranic4 · 01-04-2011, 04:33 PM

Just an observation but, This site is always looking to get people involved in Linux distributions right? I just did a search to find something to get started with you know like a tutorial or Newbies start here or something to show the average person how to get started. Like a download link to the Linux of your choice and then instructions to installing, complete instructions and how to download and install apps. But I can not find anything like that. It might be here but if someone can't find it in say 1 to 2 minutes their gone, it should be very easy to find. Just a thought.
Keep up the good work.

jmlm_1970 · 01-04-2011, 04:41 PM

Lisbon, 4 of January of 2011.

LQ team,

All, forums, and faqs, and other pages related to support, fail in many ways to be helpfull to the final user... Many times the searches return not what one lookds for, and in my experience going to google (or other search engine), and searching for terms inside one domain, returns usually more that searching within the domain search pages, in question...

The big improvement would be a system that would make very easy for anyone, from expert to newbie, to find what one looks for...

The best way would be to narrow by: subject, application, OS, etc.; also a pro way of looking is totally different from a newbie, and these level should also differ in the way the site works for that user... Many other could be used to make search more easy, but I will not extend my post more. I know that LQ team faces the same problem that others like LQ face, the server capacity to respond to all requests, and so on... That is why it is such a challenge!

Thanks for LQ and a bright 2011 year to you all.
JMLM_1970.