Little things that bug you/me about the forum

[osasshem]

I'm basically always on the lookout for little things to work on...

So, if you can think of something fairly specific that you'd like to see fixed/improved and you estimate it to be a small(ish) task (so, not something vague and big like: "Can you fix the forum's search?", or "Can you improve the forum's mobile-friendliness?", etc.), then please post it in this thread.

Hello, I have a little issue with my profile, I don't know if this is the right place or thread to make out the right findings for it. When I click to view my Post Stats it shows An Error Has Occured User stats are disabled. I don't know if you can fix this or if it is out of smallish task. In anticipation to your aid on this. Thanks.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Hello, I have a little issue with my profile, I don't know if this is the right place or thread to make out the right findings for it. When I click to view my Post Stats it shows An Error Has Occured User stats are disabled. I don't know if you can fix this or if it is out of smallish task. In anticipation to your aid on this. Thanks.

It's not just you, everyone will see the same message when they click see stats. And it has been like that since 2017

I might've figured it out. A bunch of things are currently disabled; I'll work on safely enabling them in the coming days.

Also a couple of years later he said any change is related to that is on the low priority now and here we are 5 years later.

[osasshem]

Hello, I have a little issue with my profile, I don't know if this is the right place or thread to make out the right findings for it. When I click to view my Post Stats it shows An Error Has Occured User stats are disabled. I don't know if you can fix this or if it is out of smallish task. In anticipation to your aid on this. Thanks.

It's not just you, everyone will see the same message when they click see stats. And it has been like that since 2017

I might've figured it out. A bunch of things are currently disabled; I'll work on safely enabling them in the coming days.

Also a couple of years later he said any change is related to that is on the low priority now and here we are 5 years later.

Really, that is a very long time. I thought maybe because of long term inactive use of my account led to that restriction or something. Thanks for the big tension release.

[joker_josue]

I don't understand why embedded pictures aren't shrunken (or otherwise resized) proportionally at all times if necessary by forum code. If you specify width and height of a pictures in such a way that it is distorted, that's intentional and might have it's own use cases. But if I don't want my picture to be distorted, it should never be rendered distorted in any situation!

I would want to provide either width=... or height=... whatever suits my needs better. Leaving those restricting parameters out isn't always a nice option and implies that I take my screenshot at the correct size which sometimes isn't easy to achieve.

Since the forum does not have a responsive design, it was never designed for images to undergo these adjustments to the screen size. So several lines of code had to be changed to make it even minimally viable, without damaging the images that are already on the forum, after all these years.

You can always set the elements to the height or width whenever you want. The only thing TalkImg can help with is whether to include these elements by default or not. However, this does not change the user's options in this regard.

[LoyceV]

When Meriting someone, I often get this:

Code:

You can only send 50 merit to a given user per 30 days. You have already sent 50 merit to that user.

It would be nice to show the maximum on the "Merit a post"-page. Or even better: strike-out the +Merit button for that user. If you're out of sMerit, that would also be a nice feature to avoid pointless clicking.

[fillippone]

A better draft management.
Maybe some "threading" of the same post/thread draft.
Or some "versioning" of the same post.

When you usually edit a long post, drafts are a very important part of the workflow, and having a clear overview of the incremental changes might help a lot.
Also, to avoid disasters.

[philipma1957]

A better draft management.
Maybe some "threading" of the same post/thread draft.
Or some "versioning" of the same post.

When you usually edit a long post, drafts are a very important part of the workflow, and having a clear overview of the incremental changes might help a lot.
Also, to avoid disasters.

Some type of auto draft if you spend more than 2 minutes on a post.

I likely have had a few hundred long posts lost to me over the years.

[LoyceV]

I likely have had a few hundred long posts lost to me over the years.

After the first long post I lost, I started copying long posts into an editor so I can save them locally.

How can you lose that many posts? Even if I accidentally leave the page or close my browser, it's usually still there when I come back. And if not, I use Preview often enough to find it back in my draft history.

[fillippone]

I likely have had a few hundred long posts lost to me over the years.

After the first long post I lost, I started copying long posts into an editor so I can save them locally.

How can you lose that many posts? Even if I accidentally leave the page or close my browser, it's usually still there when I come back. And if not, I use Preview often enough to find it back in my draft history.

One thing the continuous usage of various iterations of information programs taught me: SAVE, SAVE OFTEN.
I click preview quite often while editing a long post.
For this reason, I am also looking for a version of the drafts' organisation or, even better, a raise in the level of this raise.

[joker_josue]

A better draft management.
Maybe some "threading" of the same post/thread draft.
Or some "versioning" of the same post.

In fact, one page that could be improved was the drafts page.
Maybe I can be complicated to add many new features. But a better way to organize drafts, even visually, would be a good addition.

[Cyrus]

I often copy and paste Bitcointalk threads in my posts and I'm sure many of you do as well.
Sometimes I post a link like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5536913.msg65230289#msg65230289
When most of the times I'd like to post it like this: [April Fools] Replacing the merit system

Maybe it's a small thing to consider, but in the grand scheme of things I feel it could be a small evolution in the way we interact on the forum.

Here's my thinking on the matter:

Say I'd like to share this post in another post, I would press the currently imaginary share / 🔗 button located somewhere in the header of the post (in the thread title, or next to the quote and edit buttons). Clicking it would then maybe present a small dialog allowing me to copy it in this format:

Code:

[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5503118.msg65275936#msg65275936]Little things that bug you/me about the forum[/url]

Nothing too fancy, just a box with the selected text above for me to copy (ie without using Clipboard API).

Better yet, the box presented when clicking the share / 🔗 button would have two text fields, one with the BBCode like above and underneath a shortened link that would be very handy for sharing Bitcointalk posts anywhere.
We all know Bitcointalk links can get very long so having a short URL service for the forum would help people spread the word. The Internet would benefit from more Bitcointalk links in the wild!
It could even shave quite a few characters out of long threads filled with forum links ^{there's at least one example: Pumpkin Carving Contest #2 -Poll- Vote Now 🎃}

Where do we get a Bitcointalk short URL service?
Glad you asked and pardon the shameless plug, from here: BTA.lk - Official unofficial Bitcointalk short links ^{even worked a bit to format the link}  

[LoyceV]

I would press the currently imaginary share / 🔗 button

Wouldn't it be better if the forum expands any link to a topic/post to a link with title automatically? I'm not sure how desirable that's going to be on old posts.

[dkbit98]

I often copy and paste Bitcointalk threads in my posts and I'm sure many of you do as well.
Sometimes I post a link like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5536913.msg65230289#msg65230289
When most of the times I'd like to post it like this: [April Fools] Replacing the merit system

I am supporting this suggestions.
This would save time and make forum look a bit cleaner, especially for people who are more lazy to do this manually.
If it is to complicated to change and implement this new code directly in forum, maybe some developer could create a script for this purpose.

[Cyrus]

I would press the currently imaginary share / 🔗 button

Wouldn't it be better if the forum expands any link to a topic/post to a link with title automatically? I'm not sure how desirable that's going to be on old posts.

I've considered this but pretty sure there are edge cases where it might break old posts and their formatting.

If it is to complicated to change and implement this new code directly in forum, maybe some developer could create a script for this purpose.

That was my initial approach in the beginning, creating a user script. Since I didn't got around to doing that I figured at least to post it in this very nice thread and see if it the idea picks any traction at all.

[cygan]

i have scrolled through the whole thread now, but couldn't find anything comparable
when you go to the user profile, you can see the following information or you have the option of filling it out in your own profile:



but i haven't seen these fields filled in for any user - this is probably because only some of us still know icq, msn, ...

how about replacing these old chat apps with the new social media apps?
i would definitely suggest: twitter/x, instagram, telegram and simplex

[LoyceV]

ICQ, AIM and MSN no longer exist. I can't even find back what YIM is supposed to be.

how about replacing these old chat apps with the new social media apps?

How about custom fields, so you can choose the description and content of the field.

[cygan]

✂
How about custom fields, so you can choose the description and content of the field.

would of course also be a possibility if, for example, you could select the apps i mentioned and of course others as well
the main thing is that the old ones disappear into the archive

[Porfirii]

-snip-

how about replacing these old chat apps with the new social media apps?
i would definitely suggest: twitter/x, instagram, telegram and simplex

Sorry for being contrary, but I don't personally like the idea (despite agreeing with you 99.9% of the time ).

First, because I'm not a big fan of any social media platform: this forum is like an oasis in the dessert of the disinformation for me, and I don't think it's right to link it with these platforms. But that's subjective and not a great argument per se.

Second, because I consider it to be an unnecessary attack vector: I receive several scam attempts in Telegram and I have only shared my tag before a few times in bounty spreadsheets in this forum, so apart fro the few groups I take part in, I'm sure that many attempts come from people crawling data from here. If users, specially newbies, shared their twitter/x, instagram, telegram... info in their profiles just because they were given that option by default, they could be very easily targeted.

On the other hand, I definitely agree with you that the ICQ, MSN, ... options add little value and take up space in our summaries. Custom fields would be a good alternative.

[cygan]

✂

you are absolutely right that this also offers scammers a new target... i hadn't thought of that directly
that's why i think it's important that the fields can be filled in optionally

[Cyrus]

i have scrolled through the whole thread now, but couldn't find anything comparable
when you go to the user profile, you can see the following information or you have the option of filling it out in your own profile:



but i haven't seen these fields filled in for any user - this is probably because only some of us still know icq, msn, ...

how about replacing these old chat apps with the new social media apps?
i would definitely suggest: twitter/x, instagram, telegram and simplex

It has been discussed before, here's a more recent discussion: [proposal] Update Profile > Social Networks ICQ/AIM/MSN/YIM

And here's PowerGlove and me discussing on what is probably the best way to manage preserving old data/fields and adding new fields without cluttering the Profile page:

What about something like this:
- The number of fields, platform names and user input remains the same. This is how existing information is preserved.
- In the Forum Profile Information page a dropdown menu is added next to the defaults to switch with some new ones (Discord, Telegram, etc). This also keeps the same number of contact fields.
- Updating the contact fields should also update the small logo under the user's avatar, displayed in posts.

Yep. That's just about the best way to approach it, IMO.

I think the "Skype" field should probably be moved upwards to sit with the other fields, like this:



Then, I think those 5 field labels could be converted into dropdowns, like this:



That way, everyone's existing field values would remain intact, but people would be free to switch them out for more modern alternatives (and whenever those get out-of-date, adding new choices would be really simple).