New Forum Wishlist - but read roadmap first

I have closed the original New forum Wishlist - and boiled it down (and added some stuff) to the things we will do, the things we might do, the things we are unlikely to do and the things we won't do. Here is our roadmap. There are no timescales as we have a lot of other stuff on our plate. El Reg forums roadmap - no time …

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  1. Vimes

    In the desktop version of the site the link in a post that shows the time has passed since the post, and also leads to that post by clicking on it is right aligned over the 'withdraw' link. In the mobile site it's left aligned above the user name. Why the difference?

    There's also no way that I can see to go directly back to the topic containing the selected thread without going back to the main forum list first. It would be nice to be able to go directly from one to the other.

  2. Vimes

    If you continue to keep the 10 minute editing window, would it be possible to add a spell checker? I just noticed a typo in one of my posts (and there are probably others too elsewhere that I have simply missed), but because the 10 minute period had already expired I'd lost the chance to correct it.

    1. Dan Paul

      Good Lord man!

      Next thing you'll be wanting is a drop down menu for fonts and text formatting.

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  4. Daggerchild Silver badge

    Feature request: Mod rejection reason

    Cuz I'm grasping at straws here after those last three. If I've run over someone's cat, it was using some pretty advanced cloaking technology.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

        "What on earth are you guys posting that gets you moderated?"

        Actually, probably 20% of my posts that have been rejected in the last couple months were in response to yourself. Most in answer to direct questions from yourself. Are you related to someone with moderation capability at ElReg?

        Immoderate moderation is an ugly thing.

      2. Daggerchild Silver badge

        Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

        "What on earth are you guys posting that gets you moderated?"
        The first rule of premoderation club is that you won't be able to talk about premoderation club... ;-)

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

          If ElReg is actually reading & paying attention, my reply to this post:

          http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2555194

          was nixed. Why? What, exactly, was off topic and/or against the forum rules in that post?

          1. gazthejourno (Written by Reg staff)

            Re: Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

            Try not to imply other forum users are stupid. That's exactly the sort of thing which gets comments rejected.

            1. jake Silver badge

              @ gazthejourno (was: Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason)

              No implication of stupidity implied or intended. Rather, ignorance.

              Ignorance can be rectified through education.

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    2. jake Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

      "If I've run over someone's cat, it was using some pretty advanced cloaking technology."

      Gawd/ess only knows. The only thing that I can figure out about my posts that have been nuked is that they have ALL been nuked when Australia was in 9-5 mode. None of them were off-topic, nor were they against forum rules.

      ::shrugs:: ElReg's forum, ElReg's rules. Beer, just because.

    3. Daggerchild Silver badge

      Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

      Random electric shock time again. Okay, I give up, what was that one for?

      I joked last time, but I just lost a straightforward genuine question I even titled 'Genuine question' just in case. Yeah, that *might* have been part of a subtle multipart passive aggressive plot to start a religious flamewar or something..

      But it actually wasn't. Nor was the last. Or the one before that. Is everything.. okay?

      1. Daggerchild Silver badge

        Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

        Well.. here we are again. Methinks mods can't see what post you've replied to, and need to guess what you're talking about.

        Happy to discuss the practical realities of Cloud dependence with the mod if they disagree with me.

        1. Daggerchild Silver badge

          Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

          Oookay.. so, I can't talk about Cloud security weak points, in the context of Cloud security (while working with Cloud security), and now I can't talk about the canonical Exchange mailing list explosion, in the context of Exchange mailing list explosions (they even made T-shirts for it).

          Dudes. What is going on?

          1. jake Silver badge

            Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

            "Dudes. What is going on?"

            My gut feeling is that CommentardsWithAClue[tm] are stepping on the toes of a "senior" editor who is under a quarter century old.

            Hint to "senior editor": Some of us were doing this before you were born.

          2. Daggerchild Silver badge

            Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

            Last couple of rejections are a conundrum. Forbidden from highlighting a source negatively, yet to all available data, the source genuinely *is* negative (to put it very mildly). I thought I could call the spade a spade.

            I again don't know what aspect caused the rejections. Is there any way to phrase a 'be aware - manipulative source' (not journo, not article) to get it past moderation?

            (Not comfortable with Reg glossing over their long reputation, then muffling comments highlighting it. That piper isn't playing that tune for our benefit, and you really shouldn't pull us into their dance without warning us.)

            1. Daggerchild Silver badge
              Happy

              Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

              Arf! Feature request stands. Moderators can't tell I'm not laughing at Reg Moderation when joking about potential future moderation in an article about moderation. Yes, lawyers would take a long time to moderate posts! That was the joke!!

              Moderators need at least an idea about what the conversation context is. This isn't the first time context-loss has gotten me binned.

              And what's with the spooky Moderated-but-not-released-or-rejected limbo mode? You took *ages* to finally reject that obviously dangerously insidious joke :)

              I declare thee silly sausages!

              1. Daggerchild Silver badge
                Terminator

                Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

                Woah. Okay now *what* was that last rejection for? It was a perfectly cromulent insinuation that Google are developing the technology to wipe out mankind. You like that kind of thing round here!

                Were you actually worried about me saying Leia's Deathstar plans were in fact stolen? We aren't allowed to say what we all believe, in another country, in a joke?

                1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

                  Re: Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

                  Generally not a great idea to state without caveats that a company has stolen IP from another company when they settled out of court.

                  99.99% they are not going to sue over an article comment, but it's always the ones you least suspect that end up triggering a legal headache.

                  C.

                  1. Daggerchild Silver badge

                    Re: Feature request: Mod rejection reason

                    Ah, and since you were forced to judge it, you lost the reactive-moderation safe harbour defence thingy?

                    Does that mean posting at different times gets me judged under different laws? :)

                    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

                      "Does that mean posting at different times gets me judged under different laws?"

                      No. We're judged by the jurisdiction where any action is brought against us.

                      C.

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  6. Kiwi

    A voting indicator and change vote...

    For an odd change I am reading a topic as the comments are fresh, and that means a fair bit of going back through the thread.

    Lots of posts to vote on for me tonight..

    I'd love to have a marker on the posts I have voted on so I don't try to tick them again. This could eg green text for up and red for down.. I realise there could be some interesting backend work to achieve this of course :)

    Also, I accidentally ticked the opposite of what I wanted on a vote. Can we get an option to change a vote? Perhaps like the post edit - only if within X minutes

    Thanks El Reg

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A voting indicator and change vote...

      Upvoted for the indicatormejig but no idea how it could be done without adding reams of crap to the pages.

      As for changing your vote: just click on the other one.

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  7. Vimes

    Is there any chance of extending the editing window for those of us that are regular posters and have had the chance to prove ourselves to be responsible individuals?

    Personally I've never really understood this 10 minute rule, since deceiving changes can be made just as easily after five minutes as fifty.

  8. Robert Helpmann??
    Childcatcher

    Keeping Score

    It would be interesting to have an annual update of site participation. I propose calling it the Badges & Ban Hammer Report. When the badge system originally came out, we were given cold, hard numbers (e.g. "about 650 commentards qualify"). It would be interesting to have occasional updates on that. It would also be nice to have a list of which HTML tags are available without having to fiddle around with a post to find out, so include that too. As far as the ban hammer portion of the report... there have been one or two people who have been non-voluntarily retired from El Reg participation. It is a good and common practice to remember those no longer with us at year's end.

    1. Marco Fontani

      Re: Keeping Score

      The story you point to explains the additional HTML tags that are allowed, but doesn't mention all of them. Ah well.

      Basic allowed HTML tags are: b strong i em s strike

      Additional ones (as per the article, and our code) are: sub sup ul li code pre q blockquote

      People who can submit "links" have also the "a" tag available, with the only customisable attribute of it being, "href".

  9. Runilwzlb

    New member - Unable to create new "topic"

    Hi, I'm a new signup. Wanted to start a topic, but The only place I can create new content is in response to someone else's post. No tools at the topic level. [Firefox on Ubuntu, all scripts permitted, current on all updates.]

    JIC - I wish to post on a problem with Windows 10 and the system restore tool. Attempted to perform a restore on a Windows tablet. After 'special startup' the restore proceeds to require user input using a physical keyboard and mouse. Which, of course does not exist on a tablet. No BT kbd or touchscreen input was recognized.

    My tablet only has one micro-usb port on it - which I used for the specially-purchased micro-usb thumbdrive containing the previously created restore image.

    How can Windows 10 succeed as a tablet OS if the restore tool cannot accommodate a tablet environment? Either I need to get a usb hub and micro-usb adapter so I can attach a kbd/mouse/storage simultaneously, or MS needs a new restore procedure: Perhaps by asking all configuration questions b4 the reboot and creating a batch file that is used to direct the restore process.

  10. Vimes

    When replying to a post, would there be any chance of the reply displaying a hyperlink back to the post that has been replied to, with the text reading something like 'In reply to [USER]' (and possibly add the subject in brackets if the original post had one). It would add a little more structure to the conversation IMO. Also reverting back to timestamps and including them in the link would also help.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      There already is. Admittedly it's not the most user-friendly,and it's a shame that they took timestamps away.

      At the top left of this post, replying to you, will be a little grey curly arrow. hover over that and a tooltip says "in reply to". Click on it, and it takes you to the actual post this is a reply to. Puts it at the very top of the page.

      Not the most elegant solution. I'd like them to introduce proper threading, or find some way to improve the comment-usability-jungle. But there is something.

      1. Vimes

        It's what one of my former colleagues would probably refer to as 'mystery meat navigation', only in this case it's even worse. There is no indication there is a hyperlink there, much less where it leads to (do the staff here really expect people to randomly hover over elements in the hope of finding what they're looking for?).

        Personally I wouldn't mind seeing the forums occupying it's own site so it can have a completely different layout. It's as if they're trying to shoe horn in elements of design from the main site here and it just doesn't work particularly well with regards to the forums. A site for a forum that been designed to be just a forum though would probably work much better - and might end up being more frequently used too.

  11. Vimes

    I can appreciate that in some cases moderation is necessary or simply wanted for whatever reason (any article by Andrew Orlowski comes to mind, where moderation always seems to be switched on) but some people, myself included, have been around for some time now and it would be nice to think that we have in most cases proven ourselves to be reasonably responsible individuals.

    Is it really necessary to moderate everybody proactively? Can't you allow some of us to be moderated on a reactive rather than proactive basis even when moderation is switched on for everybody?

    This might minimise the moderation queue and give you less work to do too, so there would be a benefit for you as well (not to mention everybody else whose posts get approved more quickly because they're seen more rapidly).

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. JudeKay

      Re: Will "delete account" delete all my posts?

      Hi Larry. Jude here from The Register. The usual procedure is that your public posts will appear under the anonymous icon and username after you leave us. If you're sure you wish to delete your posts, you can delete them yourself, but you'll have to do this prior to deleting your account. There is nowhere like Reg forums though, Larry. Think about that.

  13. Kiwi

    Invalid HTML warning

    I sometimes screw up the spelling of a [blockquote] (using [ instead of < for the example only) or forget a "/" when I want to close a set of italics or bold etc etc. This causes El Reg to flag the post as containing invalid HTML, which is good.

    However, some of my posts are long, and/or sometimes quite late at night/early in the morning for me, and in my bleary-eyedness I find it hard to spot the actual error.

    Could we have something where the offending code is flagged up in red? Even an approximation of the area if the system is unsure?

    Or, if that takes more work to code than I think , how about flagging our html tags in red/underlined/blink/whatever? Being able to spot the valid HTML tags would often make it quick and easy to spot where something was missed. Even better, flag them in different colours - eg [blockquote][/blockquote] in blue, [i][/i] in red and [b][/b] in pink with purple polka dots. Perhaps flagging the respective block, so [i]this is in italics[/i] would also be in red.

    Thanks.

  14. Kiwi

    Idea for hiding/changing the look of certain commentards posts

    First, some thanks. A while back I asked for a couple of things - stopping the reloading for up/down votes and highlighting the arrow if you have voted a post up or down. Both of these have been implemented and make my time on el Reg a bit more enjoyable and easier to use - if I go from reading a long thread in thread mode to "newest" mode, I can see which posts I've read a bit more quickly (since I vote most posts I read). I'd still love to be able to "remove" a vote, eg I read a post I don't want to vote on but accidentally click the arrow, or I vote in haste and change my mind - would be nice to be able to click on the opposite arrow ONCE to remove the vote and twice to change the vote. But thanks for the changes, they really are very much appreciated.

    Now, over at https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/3347222 I was talking Ublock and a tool it has that lets you easily select various page elements to hide. I understand there's also style manipulating addons for some browsers that would let you set a specific style for certain pages and the elements within (eg (speculating) you could change the red of El Reg's banner to cowshit green or babyspew yellow).

    The idea I came up with would be for El Reg to set a div class around each user's posts, based on their names, eg for me you could have :

    [div class="post first reply edited kiwi>

    [div class="dateline"> [a class="permalink" [.......stuff snipped.......]

    [input class="reg_btn" value="Reply" type="submit">

    [/form> [/div> [/div>

    Or maybe a separate [div class="kiwi"> if could help, even if a wrapper a little deeper in, eg before the "dateline".

    By giving a [div>[/div> wrapper around a user's posts, it would then be possible for us to come up with our own way to hide or highlight certain users posts (we're mostly supposed to be techie types after all), through the use of plugins and the like. With Ublock someone could select that "div..kiwi" block and make Ublock forevermore hide my posts, and with some of the style editing plugins they could make my posts stand out in shocking pink, or fade the text a bit so they're less visible.

    Enjoy.. I mean, you site coders weren't going to do anything else this weekend but bow to our whims, right? :) (while you're fixing the code - that captcha thing - KILL IT please, I shouldn't be having to go through it every edit, often with it losing the text of the post!)

    (an icon that consists of a lightlbulb floating over a steaming pile of bullcrap could be appropriate for this post...)

    1. Marco Fontani

      Re: Idea for hiding/changing the look of certain commentards posts

      You can easily do that today using JS – instead of CSS, as CSS doesn't support styling of a parent div based on properties of a child element.

      $('.post .author a[href*="/53495/"]').parent().parent().css('background-color', 'pink')

      That's all your posts on any forum page (but not on your own user's page) styled with a pink background.

      Any "user scripts" addon should allow you to add the above and have it work.

      If you don't like using jQuery (although we load it on all forums pages, so it will currently always be available) you can always Just Use Plain JS, provided your browser supports querySelectorAll:

      (function(){ var posts = document.querySelectorAll('.post .author a[href*="/53495/"]');for(var i=0;i<posts.length;i++){posts[i].parentNode.parentNode.style.backgroundColor = 'pink'} })()

      ... or whatever floats your boat.

  15. Jamie Jones Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Automatically linkifying UR's

    Automatically linkifying URLs

    I remember this was requested years ago, but the official reply back then was "you're techies. You can work out how to enter an HTML link"

    Sure, and many of us do, but as has been seen, many don't, and it's a right royal pain in the arse to copy/new tab/paste etc. - especially on mobile.

    So please can this be added?

    Thanks muchly

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Automatically linkifying UR's

      "it's a right royal pain in the arse to copy/new tab/paste etc. - especially on mobile."

      Sounds more like a problem with the mobile interface than an ElReg problem. Perhaps complain to the millennials who "knew better" (being marketers, who clearly know everything) and re-designed the human-facing interface without bothering to understand how computer users actually use computers?

      I mean, I don't know about you, but for most people I know computers are primarily about moving chunks of text[0] about between and within files. Copy and paste is a huge part of that. To get it so completely wrong with mobile devices is a sign of cluelessness of the first order.

      [0] Pr0n, cute cat pictures and pirated music & video being the exceptions to the rule, of course.

  16. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Something's changed again, hasn't it?

    If I hit the forum link at the top, it goes to article topic sections, not the forum as we know it. I have to click User Topics on the right to get to TFAWKI.

    You don't really need another path to find article topics at the end of forum topics, they're linked to at the end of every article, so after having read too many IBM/HP stories I can only assume this is to to deter the casual forum viewer before the inevitable chop due to lack of readership, because it's certainly not very discoverable.

    Wouldn't it be better to have both types of topic sections listed on one page for max discoverability? Why can't we all just get along in this world?

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Something's changed again, hasn't it?

      You want to go to a specific page on ElReg on a regular basis, and yet you don't have it bookmarked?

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Something's changed again, hasn't it?

        Only work stuff gets bookmarked at work.

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: Something's changed again, hasn't it?

          Skiving off reading ElReg at work? You're fired.

          1. Dan 55 Silver badge

            Re: Something's changed again, hasn't it?

            I am rather hoping they take the hint, but it hasn't worked so far.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Something's changed again, hasn't it?

      So, we are trying the new view because although lots of people click link on forums home page, hardly anyone read the user posts and even fewer were posting.

      1. Someone Else Silver badge

        Re: Something's changed again, hasn't it?

        Hey there, Drew...since we're discussing what changed...what happened to the icons that once could choose to present alongside a post? Without them, it's really hard to raise a pint to a poster, or indicate that one blew one's caffeinated cola-flavored soft drink all over one's keyboard, or imply that something is hidden in my coat's pocket, or graphically indicate an epic fail, or...well, you get the idea.

        What happened? Are they coming back?

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