(This is not strictly speaking a software question so I started a new thread. If you wish to close it and refer to the snag thread, I would not be hurt.)
Where's the directory gone? I need to PM a shipmate to give them the link to Waving but I don't know where to find them.
As BroJames said, you can enter the name in the recipients box and if you know how it starts you'll get a list of Shipmates that start with that letter/combination of letters. You can PM multiple people.
As for the directory, we're still looking at how we can implement that.
OK, I know this is a strange concept, but how do I log out? It's not a problem at home where I'm the only user, but I do access & post from work which isn't a private computer....
OK, back to your scheduled service - I've found it
Near the top of the page on the right - a filing tray icon near your username. Click it and it can either take you to messages, or start a new message. This link may get you there.
Near the top of the page on the right - a filing tray icon near your username. Click it and it can either take you to messages, or start a new message. This link may get you there.
That's also your inbox, where you'll access PMs sent to you. If there's a number on it someone has sent a PM that is unread.
Where's the directory gone? I need to PM a shipmate to give them the link to Waving but I don't know where to find them.
Others have answered the main question, but also note that Private board members no longer need a separate bookmark for their board. Once they’ve been made a member they will see it on the main boards list automatically.
Barnabas62Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host, Epiphanies Host
Many of us would like a Directory, and request are in, but it might not be that easy to achieve. Meanwhile, the drop down menu for New Message isn't a bad half way house.
I take it the page(s) of most recent posts is no longer a thing?
At the top of the page there are links to "Categories" and "Discussions". This switches between a list of boards, or a list of posts by most recent. "Categories" and "Recent Discussions" to the top right of the page do the same thing (the right hand menu will also provide quick links to any threads you start and any that you mark as favourites)
Do boards no longer have a list of their hosts at the top? Also, in my profile under 'Roles' it says 'Shipmate' - should it not say 'Host' or 'Private Board Host'? Not trying to pull rank or anything, I just think it's useful for people to know.
Also, in my profile under 'Roles' it says 'Shipmate' - should it not say 'Host' or 'Private Board Host'?
Hmmm, when I look I also see "Waving not Drowning Host". So I can confirm you are a Private Board host. That should be visible to all (also next to your name on posts), I'll add it to our snagging list
We tried them, but they were visually intrusive. Especially on mobile devices, they occupied a lot of vertical space. The effect was to interrupt the flow of threads, and we want to prioritise discussion so we disabled them again.
Also, in my profile under 'Roles' it says 'Shipmate' - should it not say 'Host' or 'Private Board Host'?
Hmmm, when I look I also see "Waving not Drowning Host". So I can confirm you are a Private Board host. That should be visible to all (also next to your name on posts), I'll add it to our snagging list
Correction, Alan - private board roles are only visible to members of that board (and admins)
Also, in my profile under 'Roles' it says 'Shipmate' - should it not say 'Host' or 'Private Board Host'?
Hmmm, when I look I also see "Waving not Drowning Host". So I can confirm you are a Private Board host. That should be visible to all (also next to your name on posts), I'll add it to our snagging list
Er, well, I seem to recall making it a role that only visible to Crew and WnD members. I suppose a peek behind the curtain is in order.
We tried them, but they were visually intrusive. Especially on mobile devices, they occupied a lot of vertical space. The effect was to interrupt the flow of threads, and we want to prioritise discussion so we disabled them again.
For the brief seconds they were on, I disagree. At least in the desktop. I thought them a better implementation than the old Ship as they were more distinct from the posts, but not obtrusive.
Didn’t get a chance to see them on mobile, but it isn’t like the sigs on the old ship were exactly space saving.
I'm surprised that, given this is brand new software, we don't have a WYSIWYG editor. I thought most places these days were abandoning BBCode-like solutions…
The Vanilla posting guide shows the option of adding a category to a post. Is/will it be implemented here? So far, I don't see the option.
* A cyclist on the information bikepath
* AKA Fafnir the Thurifer
Another vote for sigs. And does anyone know if is it possible to condense the way the page looks on the screen? For me it comes out in about 14pt text, and a lot of the page is white - if I could make it much higher density (more scanning by eye, less scrolling) it would be nice.
Edit (6 minutes!!) - OK - I just want it to look more like the old ship, on my screen at least
OK - I just want it to look more like the old ship, on my screen at least
One of the great things about the old ship was its minimal wasted space. Not a lot of white that could be filled with something else. One thing you can see on the new ship is the QUOTE button at the bottom of each post. To its right is a huge waste of screen space. In the old ship the quote button was on top in the area by the poster's name and avatar, space which currently is going unused. This is probably just a quibble with the Vanilla designers.
Thanks again for all the feedback. I'm not the designer, as such, but I was responsible for translating the new Ship's website (coming soon!) design into something that fitted in with Vanilla.
I was limited, somewhat, by what Vanilla (the new forum software) provides. You can tweak it to some extent, but in other ways it's restrictive.
There is also a certain amount of opinion involved in design. Some folk love lots of white space, and clean, airy, flat, modern design. Others want something more functional. It will be hard to please everyone. And, I should add, I've been happily surprised by how much people like the new system. Gripes have been relatively minimal.
I will review feedback with the captain at some point (I have a day off today, so this may not be until early next week when things have settled). It's vaguely possible that we could some kind of option for a condensed view that saves in a cookie in your browser. I'm not sure what he'd think of this.
One short-term option on desktop/laptop browsers would be to zoom out your browser window (this is usually Ctrl-minus or Cmd-minus and you can use Ctrl/Cmd-0 to reset the zoom). Also if you're on a desktop, there's the option to use an extension like Stylish to apply your own styles to the page. This is another way to fix things in the short term. Let me know if you want more info on that I can maybe throw together a set of styles for you.
Great! Several ctrl-minus later, that's a lot better - but it seems like text is grey, not black. So is there anything similar to do to achieve high contrast?
Great! Several ctrl-minus later, that's a lot better - but it seems like text is grey, not black. So is there anything similar to do to achieve high contrast?
Hah. This is my life as a web developer. You can't please everyone. Super-high contrast full-black-on-full-white text is actually supposed to be bad for accessibility and readability because it's too strong. So yes, the body-text is off-black (#404040 if you must know).
This effect is probably amplified when you zoom out and have smaller text.
There is also a certain amount of opinion involved in design. Some folk love lots of white space, and clean, airy, flat, modern design. Others want something more functional. It will be hard to please everyone.
To give a brief peek behind the curtain, this was an issue on which the Editor/Admins/Techies had some disagreement. I was in the "too much white space" camp myself, if that makes you feel any better @mousethief . But the majority decision carried the day, as it generally must when designing something like this that's going to be used by a myriad of people from all over the world with different expectations and preferences.
I've got used to it. I'm sure the rest of you will as well. And just think - your minor aesthetic sacrifice means others will be happier with the boards than they would otherwise be
Am I imagining things or are the magic faeries (or more likely software) actually taking me to the last post I read when I click on a thread? If so I'm very impressed.
The "cog" icon provides access to a set of options (edit, delete etc). The icon for the thread itself (either at the top of the thread, or next to the thread on Category view) includes an "announce" option which pins the thread to the top of the board (only announce to your own board, otherwise it appears on the top of recent posts as well).
Comments
I think links to the equivalent boards on the old Ship would be a good idea.
As BroJames said, you can enter the name in the recipients box and if you know how it starts you'll get a list of Shipmates that start with that letter/combination of letters. You can PM multiple people.
As for the directory, we're still looking at how we can implement that.
OK, back to your scheduled service - I've found it
That's also your inbox, where you'll access PMs sent to you. If there's a number on it someone has sent a PM that is unread.
Others have answered the main question, but also note that Private board members no longer need a separate bookmark for their board. Once they’ve been made a member they will see it on the main boards list automatically.
At the top of the page there are links to "Categories" and "Discussions". This switches between a list of boards, or a list of posts by most recent. "Categories" and "Recent Discussions" to the top right of the page do the same thing (the right hand menu will also provide quick links to any threads you start and any that you mark as favourites)
All the boards do. We're working on a more elegant solution
Correction, Alan - private board roles are only visible to members of that board (and admins)
Er, well, I seem to recall making it a role that only visible to Crew and WnD members. I suppose a peek behind the curtain is in order.
I can see it, and I’m just a pleb.
For the brief seconds they were on, I disagree. At least in the desktop. I thought them a better implementation than the old Ship as they were more distinct from the posts, but not obtrusive.
Didn’t get a chance to see them on mobile, but it isn’t like the sigs on the old ship were exactly space saving.
All we are saaaaaayiiiiiiing.....
* A cyclist on the information bikepath
* AKA Fafnir the Thurifer
(Used to be Oscar the Grouch)
(Signature used to be "Faradiu, dundeibáwa weyu lárigi weyu" and I'm still waiting for someone (anyone!) to ask me why...)
I'll do it! Why, Rufus T Firefly (formerly O the G)?
Rossweisse // I'm not dead yet
Ok, why the sig? Is it in an African language?
The categories are the board names. So this one is in The Styx category.
Edit (6 minutes!!) - OK - I just want it to look more like the old ship, on my screen at least
One of the great things about the old ship was its minimal wasted space. Not a lot of white that could be filled with something else. One thing you can see on the new ship is the QUOTE button at the bottom of each post. To its right is a huge waste of screen space. In the old ship the quote button was on top in the area by the poster's name and avatar, space which currently is going unused. This is probably just a quibble with the Vanilla designers.
Thanks again for all the feedback. I'm not the designer, as such, but I was responsible for translating the new Ship's website (coming soon!) design into something that fitted in with Vanilla.
I was limited, somewhat, by what Vanilla (the new forum software) provides. You can tweak it to some extent, but in other ways it's restrictive.
There is also a certain amount of opinion involved in design. Some folk love lots of white space, and clean, airy, flat, modern design. Others want something more functional. It will be hard to please everyone. And, I should add, I've been happily surprised by how much people like the new system. Gripes have been relatively minimal.
I will review feedback with the captain at some point (I have a day off today, so this may not be until early next week when things have settled). It's vaguely possible that we could some kind of option for a condensed view that saves in a cookie in your browser. I'm not sure what he'd think of this.
One short-term option on desktop/laptop browsers would be to zoom out your browser window (this is usually Ctrl-minus or Cmd-minus and you can use Ctrl/Cmd-0 to reset the zoom). Also if you're on a desktop, there's the option to use an extension like Stylish to apply your own styles to the page. This is another way to fix things in the short term. Let me know if you want more info on that I can maybe throw together a set of styles for you.
I've just noticed that "reader view", which comes as standard on Firefox, puts the page in sans-serif format automatically.
Hah. This is my life as a web developer. You can't please everyone. Super-high contrast full-black-on-full-white text is actually supposed to be bad for accessibility and readability because it's too strong. So yes, the body-text is off-black (#404040 if you must know).
This effect is probably amplified when you zoom out and have smaller text.
To give a brief peek behind the curtain, this was an issue on which the Editor/Admins/Techies had some disagreement. I was in the "too much white space" camp myself, if that makes you feel any better @mousethief . But the majority decision carried the day, as it generally must when designing something like this that's going to be used by a myriad of people from all over the world with different expectations and preferences.
I've got used to it. I'm sure the rest of you will as well. And just think - your minor aesthetic sacrifice means others will be happier with the boards than they would otherwise be
Yes I can - thanks. Another question: how do I pin or highlight a thread?