Mahz's Dev Journal

[BBeast]

@Ellri I am of the opinion that it should stay as "Like". It may be slightly ambiguous, but that allows it to fulfil a broad spectrum of related definitions. To further discretise the ratings system would introduce unnecessary clutter, and relabelling "Like" as "Approve" would remove a lot of the uses for that rating.

Besides, "Like" is familiar to people, from its use in other websites.

P.S. Ninja'd by Mahz.

[JBRam2002]

@Mahz Although I like the idea of the ghost mode changes, there are a couple things that feel broken with it.

Image

Here is my friend activity list (/me/friendships). As you can see, it's pretty obvious nearly precisely when certain people were online. I propose that all 0-12 hr people have a referenced time stamp of 12 hrs ago on the friends' list.

Update: a couple of friends came online and that top Ghost mode still shows up at the top, indicating they are currently online, which defeats the purpose.

Not screencapped since privacy wouldn't let me show it easily without edits, and because it's tough to edit on phone: the main page friends list on mobile now looks extremely crowded. The 0-12 hrs ago and icon take up a lot of space. I propose changing the text to "Recent" with the ghost icon, maybe with an alt text saying something along the lines of "This user has been online sometime within the past 12 hrs."

[Ellri]

@Mahz@BBeast
Fair enough. Its not a major thing in any case. To us it simply feels imprecise and unclear what people mean by it. but it wouldn't be right to have 20+ different reaction forms listed. At least not without a reworking of how you pick reactions, which again is a thing that should not be prioritized.

---

Maybe grouping all ghosted people together would solve the obviousness? or changing it from a 12 to a 24 hour window?

[JBRam2002]

@Ellri
I feel like a grouping of the timestamp on Ghost mode people is almost mandatory in order to keep the intent of ghost mode. You could change it to within the last year, but if it still shows at the top of my list when they're online, it breaks the point.

Also, if someone is obsessive and constantly refreshes that page, they could see when an offline person moved to Ghost Mode if they had been offline more than 12 hrs. This would indicate they came online. I'm just trying to help stop harassment before it begins.

[Ellri]

we know. we didn't disagree with ya, @JBRam2002.

Personally we see little benefit to using ghost mode most days. It can be useful if you for some reason wish to hide occasionally... but on 24/7? why?

[JBRam2002]

@Ellri The main reason I can think of is if someone is extremely privacy-conscious, or is attempting to avoid an uncomfortable situation. It's not a feature I feel the need to use, but for some people, it can be a major security blanket for them.

[Mahz]

@JBRam2002 My attempt at fixing the issue was to group ghosts together if they were online within 12 hours (within "ghost range"):



Once 13+ hours have elapsed since their last-online timestamp, they aren't shown as ghosts anymore.

[NuttsnBolts]

@Ellri I think it just simply comes down to the user's personal experience. Some people want to enjoy browsing through the site without being noted for where they visit. I do get some friends that jokingly say "I see you lurking" when I'm looking at their stuff, but others may be turned off by this. There is also the extreme with avoiding harassment.

I'd be inclined to put the ghost at the top of the offline list but below the active list, and then simply sort alphabetically or something. At least that way you can tell their activity but don't know when they are exactly online.

Or just what Mahz did. Lol

[JBRam2002]

@Mahz That certainly helps. I would propose moving ghosts to the end of the list, if that's simple. Having them at the top is counter to the ghosted person's intentions (draws attention a bit), and it doesn't help the user see who is online easily.

On mobile, the friends list is still really cluttered from the text. 0-12 hrs ago is forced onto 4 lines for me, as opposed to the normal 1-2 lines.

[Ellri]

we know, @NuttsnBolts. De gustibus non disputandum est.

[Mahz]

I'll try to fix the clutter issue right now so that the timestamp collapses onto its own line.

[JBRam2002]

@Mahz
For reference and because mustaches, this is what mine looks like

Image

[Mahz]

The unames and timestamps should now stagger on smaller widths:

[Host]

@NuttsnBolts mentioned bringing one of my suggestions from another topic over to this one.

To quote:
<Snipped quote by 0Z>
This could also be accomplished by offering a simplified view of a topic, where all the posts of a single section are laid out in their entirely, although I think some sort of a compressed download would be far more efficient and less load-intensive (I could be wrong in this, however).

@0Z

There's a tool for this in the meantime. I can send you a link if you'd like (and if I can find it).

[Mao Mao]

Are you planning to add in BBCodes and updating update the cheatsheet with those new codes soon or later on?

Also, how about polls? I am sure that users have mentioned this feature, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on them being added to the guild?

[Mahz]

@The Spectre Yeah, I'd like to add more BBCode like fonts which people frequently ask about.

I'd also like to find a better BBCode editor.

My editor really sucks, I had to code it myself in my free time. It's surprisingly hard to find a good off-the-shelf BBCode editor. It seems like all the commercial forums like Xenforo put hundreds of salaried man-hours into their own editor and then never share their work.

I'm never sure if it's smarter to dump another 20 hours into the Guild's current editor or invest it in a new editor. It's a weak part of the Guild for anyone that likes to format their posts and I wish it was better. -_-

[JBRam2002]

@Mahz I really hate to keep complaining >.< Loving the updates.

Anyways, on Desktop (Google Chrome), if I have a friend whose name is long enough to take up two lines, it messes up the list on the main page like so:

Image

Even the second friend whose name takes up two lines doesn't fix this issue. I'm not sure what causes it, but it only happens if a name is wrapped to the second line.

[Mahz]

@JBRam2002 k, lemme see what I can do.

Edit: Think I fixed it.

[Etcetera]

@JBRam2002 k, lemme see what I can do.

Edit: Think I fixed it.

@Mahz

Post deletion is allowing me to hide posts even after ten minutes have passed.

[Mahz]

@Etcetera I increased it to 1 hour since I announced the feature.