Making new messages more obvious (SMF patch)

[LoyceV]

what do you guys think about one-time popup?

I hate popups!

No one can miss a popup.

That's what makes it so annoying. And that's what makes everyone click them away without reading.

Or, another great solution may be to receive text notification above the address bar, like, when you receive text notification in place of New Tab (Chrome) text when you receive a message on Facebook.

I haven't seen this. Can you show an example?

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[Synchronice]

what do you guys think about one-time popup?

I hate popups!

No one can miss a popup.

That's what makes it so annoying. And that's what makes everyone click them away without reading.

Or, another great solution may be to receive text notification above the address bar, like, when you receive text notification in place of New Tab (Chrome) text when you receive a message on Facebook.

I haven't seen this. Can you show an example?

Popups annoy me too but we can make it comfortable, like a small popup that doesn't cover the whole page in shadows, just a small popup text that says that you received a message that disappears in 5-10 seconds on its own or you'll be able to click on X icon to close it too.

Maybe I didn't explain that well but it's what I mean:

2 is the number of messages, sometimes that (2) gets changed with text: New notification, then comes (2) again. My eyes always catch them.

[LoyceV]

Maybe I didn't explain that well but it's what I mean:

2 is the number of messages, sometimes that (2) gets changed with text: New notification, then comes (2) again.

Isn't that just the title of the page? So in this case it would be "[1] Making new messages more obvious (SMF patch)"?

My eyes always catch them.

That's actually one of the reasons I got rid of Facebook. It's never an important message, but always something designed to keep you longer on their website.

[ImThour]

Seems more like a personal problem rather than a UI issue. It has been like that for years and literally no one ever felt the same way as you.
To be really honest, the [1] on the message tab is much more visible as compared to the little dot on the left.

There is also a setting in the SMF Forums that provides an alert box in the popup dialog box when you receive a personal message. Just go and use that if you really want an alert whenever you receive a message.


We don't need any implications added to the UI when there are features already available that you failed to find.

In conclusion, just use the features provided by the SMF forum already which I mentioned above rather than making any change that is as silly as an avocado.
But I appreciate your efforts to go through the HTML with the inspect element and doing a bit of creativity instead of asking what could be a better option.

[Lucius]

I also check if I have a new personal message when I log in, and after that I rely on the option "Show a popup when you receive new messages?" which, when turned on, notifies you every time you receive a new personal message in a way that is difficult (or impossible) to ignore.

It's not that your option wouldn't be an additional improvement, but it's not a problem for me personally as it is now.

By the way, what do you guys think about one-time popup? No one can miss a popup.

There is also a setting in the SMF Forums that provides an alert box in the popup dialog box when you receive a personal message. Just go and use that if you really want an alert whenever you receive a message.

Unbelievable that I mentioned this option in the second post of this topic, and then someone wonders if this option exists at all or discovers it again after 20+ posts

Do you all have me on ignore or does nobody read anything except the OP and the title anymore?

[ImThour]

Unbelievable that I mentioned this option in the second post of this topic, and then someone wonders if this option exists at all or discovers it again after 20+ posts

I am already aware of this setting, didn't look at your post at all. Maybe you didn't took efforts to post a screenshot as people are lazy these days and have hard time to find the settings?

[Synchronice]

Maybe I didn't explain that well but it's what I mean:

2 is the number of messages, sometimes that (2) gets changed with text: New notification, then comes (2) again.

Isn't that just the title of the page? So in this case it would be "[1] Making new messages more obvious (SMF patch)"?

My eyes always catch them.

That's actually one of the reasons I got rid of Facebook. It's never an important message, but always something designed to keep you longer on their website.

Yes, that's the title but I thought it would be confusing. So, when you receive a PM, the title on New Tab or on Speed Dial should change with scrolling text: (1) New Notification - Bitcoin Forum - Index
Tbh Facebook and almost every popular social media platforms are a waste of time, that's why I rarely use them.

Unbelievable that I mentioned this option in the second post of this topic, and then someone wonders if this option exists at all or discovers it again after 20+ posts

Do you all have me on ignore or does nobody read anything except the OP and the title anymore?

My bad, I really missed your post, I just randomly ignored Sorry mate, I was mostly recognizing you via chipmixer campaign and was reading your posts, you are a good member
Btw can you show us an image of how does PM popup look like? May you turn on an option and I'll send you a PM or may I turn on that option and you send me a pm? I have already marked that option.

[Lucius]

My bad, I really missed your post, I just randomly ignored Sorry mate, I was mostly recognizing you via chipmixer campaign and was reading your posts, you are a good member

And then they say that such things have nothing to do with how people experience you on the forum - obviously each member is worth as much as he earns per week in the sig campaign

Btw can you show us an image of how does PM popup look like? May you turn on an option and I'll send you a PM or may I turn on that option and you send me a pm? I have already marked that option.

No problem, I'll send you a PM so you can see for yourself how it looks.

[UserU]

Unbelievable that I mentioned this option in the second post of this topic, and then someone wonders if this option exists at all or discovers it again after 20+ posts

Do you all have me on ignore or does nobody read anything except the OP and the title anymore?

You're not alone. Even I myself has experienced it numerous times when the OP skimmed over my post for the more recent one. Both were of the same content :p

[ibminer]

I am already aware of this setting, didn't look at your post at all. Maybe you didn't took efforts to post a screenshot as people are lazy these days and have hard time to find the settings?

You didn't even read the 2nd post? SMH

I didn't mention it because it was already mentioned, and I assumed he didn't want to use a popup. I've used the popup myself, so I'm obviously aware of it, but even so you seem upset about someone not knowing a basic setting of the forum. He's contributed several patches and a fun April's fool game and obviously spent considerable time doing these things and you feel the need to call someone lazy for (potentially) not seeing a setting?

It has been like that for years and literally no one ever felt the same way as you.

I literally said in my prior post that I was trying to adjust it myself to make it more visible.  

To be really honest, the [1] on the message tab is much more visible as compared to the little dot on the left.

His example includes both the [1] and a dot, so I don't understand how the addition of a dot makes it less visible.
The dot actually takes up a bit too much space for me, which is why I mentioned just adding a class and letting users style it themselves.

~
But I appreciate your efforts to go through the HTML with the inspect element and doing a bit of creativity instead of asking what could be a better option.

The code in the OP is PHP.

[hugeblack]

I don't know, but recently I've been receiving a few messages, so it's easy to notice a new message.
This patch is useful for those who ignore messages (they do not open them,) and therefore the white point appears to them that there is a new message, and it disappears as soon as the page is refreshed.

I also check if I have a new personal message when I log in, and after that I rely on the option "Show a popup when you receive new messages?" which, when turned on, notifies you every time you receive a new personal message in a way that is difficult (or impossible) to ignore.

It's not that your option wouldn't be an additional improvement, but it's not a problem for me personally as it is now.

It is said (a picture is worth a thousand words), so the picture he displayed was closer to attracting people's attention than your writing, especially since everyone expects that the responses are thanks to @PowerGlove or adding a new suggestion to him and not confirming an existing feature.

I also think that some accounts modify the way the responses appear so that the last responses appear first.

[PowerGlove]

Thanks everyone for sharing their thoughts! I should have mentioned in the OP that I'd appreciate feedback, but that omission doesn't seem to have made much of an impression.

I'm aware of (but have both never used, and completely forgot about until Lucius' reminder) the option for getting a popup when you receive a new message. Like Loyce, I seriously dislike popups, so I can't imagine turning that on myself. If most people have that on (I don't think they do, but who knows) then this patch is more than a little redundant, I agree.

I like ibminer's thinking about giving this area of the HTML a CSS hook, but as I alluded to in the OP, this area of the HTML is pretty easy to mess up and there's not a whole lot you can do (except make the text bold, or italic, etc.) that won't shift things vertically and end up looking messy. @ibminer: Would adding a class="new_message" to the <a> element be enough for you? Should I also add an id="new_message_dot" to the image so that you can turn it off when styling that area yourself?

I don't know about some of the suggestions to make the dot more visible. I'll work up some examples with different colors and maybe experiment with making the dot blink, but my (unsubstantiated) guess is that theymos won't like anything that stands out too much. Maybe making the dot slightly yellow/orange (strong contrast with the blue behind it) could work?

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts. When evaluating this patch, please try to think of it in terms of whether this will make things better (even by a little), worse, or have precisely no impact. I think patches where the community is mostly split between "no impact" and "tiny improvement" (like this one) still have value, but that's just me. If every patch is disregarded because it doesn't (on its own) seem like a worthwhile enough improvement, then there's no way to get to that place where lots of little seemingly inconsequential things have added up to a more pleasant whole.

[AbuBhakar]

I also check if I have a new personal message when I log in, and after that I rely on the option "Show a popup when you receive new messages?" which, when turned on, notifies you every time you receive a new personal message in a way that is difficult (or impossible) to ignore.

It's not that your option wouldn't be an additional improvement, but it's not a problem for me personally as it is now.

I’m using this feature and it’s indeed very hard to missed a new message because a popup message notification will appear on the center of the screen. It will continue to display like that whenever I login or refresh the homepage after login until I finally open the pending message.


A colored red dot for example is more noticeable than the dot that has same color pallet. Actually making the number counter on the message colored is already enough to make it noticeable because the default forum theme is more on white theme palette.

[dkbit98]

I hate popups!

Most websites have popups nowadays, only way to stop them is with some adblocker like uBlockOrigin, and even that is not 100% effective unless you add some custom settings.
And let's not go into things faceb00k and instagram are doing that forces you to register and login just to see what someone posted 

[ibminer]

I like ibminer's thinking about giving this area of the HTML a CSS hook, but as I alluded to in the OP, this area of the HTML is pretty easy to mess up and there's not a whole lot you can do (except make the text bold, or italic, etc.) that won't shift things vertically and end up looking messy. @ibminer: Would adding a class="new_message" to the <a> element be enough for you? Should I also add an id="new_message_dot" to the image so that you can turn it off when styling that area yourself?

I'd prefer it on the <td>, can always select the <a> under if needed.

As a basic example.. I didn't play with the colors or gradients that could be done here and there would be ways to work around the use of 'filter' (or not use it at all and keep an underline look), but this was quicker for this example:

Code:

<td class="maintab_back new_message" valign="top">
	<a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=pm">My Messages [1]</a>
</td>

Code:

table tr td.new_message {
   filter: hue-rotate(294deg);
   background-color: #f00;
}

edit: corrected typo on the CSS (I used a - instead of _).. doh!

[Faisal2202]

I think of two better colors: Red and Orange.

Actually, the color scheme depends on the theme colors. Like the background is blue and red and orange no doubt are vivid colors but are less noticeable than white color. So I think it's ok to have at least a color notification on the messages.

And for the op, I really like the idea and I hope this will be implemented. Why? I know it's not that good but things will only be upgraded once they are implemented first. So implementation is necessary to get better things. Overall, an updation of everything is necessary to keep pace in the market.

Because i also do not notice the messages bar and failed to check the received messages which I receive Occasionally (hehe) but still that's a good step.

[Aikidoka]

I think of two better colors: Red and Orange.

Actually, the color scheme depends on the theme colors. Like the background is blue and red and orange no doubt are vivid colors but are less noticeable than white color. So I think it's ok to have at least a color notification on the messages.

To be honest, I would prefer it to remain blue and white. It's easy to notice the [1] next to the message when it pops up, but if they increase the font size slightly, it would be better because the current size is quite small. I'm referring to the entire bar that includes "home," "help," "search," etc. I know we can zoom in for people who prefer a larger font size, but in my opinion, increasing the default size would be better

This patch is useful for those who ignore messages (they do not open them,) and therefore the white point appears to them that there is a new message, and it disappears as soon as the page is refreshed.

Doesn't the [1] only disappear once you open the message? I don't think there's a need for the white dot to be present since it doesn't provide any additional information, especially since the small [1] above the message already serves the same purpose.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Gloves, how's it goin? Been awhile I walked into you...
listen, however you wanna go about your SMF patch, just make sure it's not looking too clumsy then becomes a bug at the end of the day...no one wants to get bothered unnecessarily.
I've not Really had a glimpse as to what the white dot would look like but I think I'm okay with the green-colored massage popup. It's cool to catch anyone's attention quickly, but not also too shouty. These whole idea ofcourse would change the basic color concepts - adding in something that looks like a solo-used color - ofcourse it's not gonna be used anywhere else, atleast for now...so if there are no proper modifications as to the colored patch, then I'll prefer having it unchanged.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

[Woodie]

If you are using a handheld device such as a smartphone or accessing the forum from a PC with less than a 14.1" screen things do get cluttered and its easy to miss such a  notification and next best thing we have is using the pop up feature for new messages as @Lucius pointed out, but i think the pop up message allows you to attend to these messages with some agency but if you ignore your mail box  thats were I feel PowerGloves suggestion comes in handy to act as a reminder, if it was an animated dot or something like @Husires suggested that would catch an eye for sure.

[PowerGlove]

Gloves, how's it goin? Been awhile I walked into you...

Hehe, hey there Sandra. Always makes me chuckle when you call me that. If I ever get a cat, I think I'll name her/him "Gloves". (Have to make sure to get one with dark fur and white paws, though.)

It's cool to catch anyone's attention quickly, but not also too shouty.

Yep, that's why I prefer something on the passive side of things, like a simple white dot. Something too loud, like a blinking red dot, is kind of unnecessary, I think; if you really don't want to miss new messages then you can always turn on popups, like Lucius suggested, but if you're like me and just want something a little more noticeable, then this is a nice tweak, IMHO. Also, it's a good opportunity to bundle in the CSS hook that ibminer suggested.