I'm wondering if it would be possible to include a "preview" option on both the site comments and on the forums. Errors are sometimes not so disastrous on the forums because of the edit function, but it'd still be a nice little option all-around :)
thank you for reading~
headman
Member
I hear you loud and clear, Jucati. And posting again to explain the mistake makes a person look even sadder. And you can't take back the second post, either. By the time you're finished, you can't leave the house without feeling that everyone you see is whispering about the chump that doesn't know how to post a simple comment.
You may (or may not) have noticed - last time someone humiliated themselves by incorrectly terminating their html (oh the shame!) Not only did I quietly repair the damage, but also removed the subsequent discussion on the gaff, thus preserving the dignity of the poster.
I'm glad to see Jucati is trying harder now. ;)
Archangel
Member
Good idea FABScott but vbulletin and the cost isn't much either. They even have there own forum to help webmasters.
Here's the link if anyone is interested. http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/portal.php
Why would they?
I mean, these forums work just fine already, and are already integrated with the site (as they use the same back-end). The only "missing" feature is the preview. If they were to migrate to another forum software (more likely to be PunBB), they'd have to import, re-integrate, re-mod, re-theme, etc.... There's just not much point to it.
BigThunder1
Member
I'm on the same page with Jucati.
A simple preview feature for posts would solve edits / corrections prior to them being written-in-stone so-to-speak and likely save the moderators a little time fixing things on occasion. It might also cause some to rethink what they are posting/saying when they see and read their initial comments/thoughts and in the process may help to keep things a bit more in order here comment wise. This is a unique forum system that works fairly well once one gets the hang of it. Changing the format may be a thought, but as Keilaron said " they'd have to import, re-integrate, re-mod, re-theme, etc.... There's just not much point to it. " The system works; just needs a couple adjustments / refinements along the way.
headman
Member
A preview option is great for proofreading your post because as anyone who has tried to re-read something they just typed in these reply boxes knows, your brain knows what you intended to say and will fool your eyes into missing a lot of errors that are very noticeable once you've hit the button of no return.
An edit feature in the main comments section would be the bee's meow not only for sparing oneself from embarrassment, but it would cut down on posts from people who come back to correct trivial mistakes from their previous posts. ("In my last post I didn't mean to say DoubleGames SOCKS...")
And maybe, just maybe, when certain folks saw how childishly they were behaving (or had it pointed out to them) they just might moderate themselves.
In the event of abuse, a limit on length could be considered. I think Jucati has come up with an interesting suggestion.
Incidentally, I propose that overly verbose, tedious wind-bags who drone on and on and on like, oh, say me, for instance, but are otherwise harmless, should be exempt from the length limit.
Maybe if someone did a HTML version of this BBCode Editor
http://forums.thepawgroup.com/viewtopic.php?pid=59020
This is a free tool for editing and formatting forum posts that use BBCode. Then you could preview and edit to your hearts content - then copy paste into the web form to post once you are happy with it. (I haven't got the time - but surely someone has done something similar for HTML based editing.
Go... get to it.... go fetch me this program. :)
Mike
Member
"Of course. Without logging in (with username and password) how do you prove that it is your post to edit?"
It can be done by using cookies. The site already uses them to keep you logged in the forums or to remember your name and email address on the main site, so just as well it could remember what posts belong to you.
Of course once you delete your cookies that info will be gone, but you only need it for a short amount of time.
You must log in to post.
