Updated forum software in beta

[webwit]

EDIT: Sunday 1 June 2014: The main forum will be unavailable for a little while, during which the forum software will be updated. See you on the other side of the event horizon!

EDIT 2: Update completed.

There's an update of our forum software available for review here:

http://staging.deskthority.org/

Username: duck
Password: quack

(These credentials are not a secret but to prevent bot-indexing and avoid confusing with deskthority.net)

This update includes an upgrade to the latest version of phpBB (3.0.10 to 3.0.12).

Most importantly, this update includes my "forum tab" mod, which uses a tabbed structure to browse through categories and to provide topic prefixes.

I prepared two demos for this, News & reviews shows a one-level tab structure:
http://staging.deskthority.org/news-reviews-f4/

The marketplace shows a two-level tab structure:
http://staging.deskthority.org/marketplace-f11/

Notes:
- The "All" tab is like the old view.
- Colored text in a tab/subtab means "has unread topics".
- This staging area uses a copy of the database, feel free to post new topics or mess around, you can do no damage. By posting a new topic you can test the new category/subcategory selection. This is also how posts can later be moved (by editting the OP) to another (sub)category, like from "Sale" to "Sold".
- The old "prefix" mod is still operational in other subforums and on tabs called "Unsorted". However, it will be retired some time after introduction of this mod. On the Unsorted tab you now see both systems and prefixes.
- I moved some posts into (sub)categories just for demo. The category might be incorrect in some cases. The rest is in Unsorted.
- The particular (sub)categories are also just for demo, the definite structure hasn't been defined yet.

I tested a lot of browsers/platforms, but not all of them. Please let me know of any bugs, usability problems, suggestions, improvements you find or can think of.

[7bit]

Those sub-categories (at least I think that's what they are) are too bulky.

What about [IC] instead of [Interest Check], or at least have them in a different color (blue in the marketplace)?

[webwit]

IC is fine with me, I have that on develop. But then we need consistency and use FS and such elsewhere.

[ne0phyte]

That tabbed view is great, nice work!
I agree that the prefix should be shorter.

How about those prefixes?
WTS: Want to sell
WTB: Want to buy
WTT: Want to trade
IC: Interest check
SO: Sellout (?)

Alternative for the first three:
FS: For sale
FT: For trade
LF: Looking for

[Muirium]

How about:

Selling
Buying
Trade
Interest

I don't like a sea of abbreviations everywhere. But I could well be in the minority…

[webwit]

It's probably best if 002 or 7bit (the forum team) start a new topic for that, I only do the software. In general we need to think about how to put this in use throughout the forum, and reorganise stuff. For example, keyboards could have keyboards/keycaps/switches etc. tabs and subtabs like (for switches) Cherry, Alps, etc.
There have also been requests for changes in Workshop, I can imagine stuff like keyboard builds, controllers, etc.
PS: I didn't use abbreviations in order to increase accessibility and readability, but the short forms have their merit too.

[7bit]

That tabbed view is great, nice work!
I agree that the prefix should be shorter.

How about those prefixes?
WTS: Want to sell
WTB: Want to buy
WTT: Want to trade
IC: Interest check
SO: Sellout (?)

Alternative for the first three:
FS: For sale
FT: For trade
LF: Looking for

This with balloon text.

[webwit]

I just found a possible limitation of this mod. If I move a topic from For sale to Sold, phpBB doesn't seem to have a mechanism or design to properly adjust read topics tracking. For example, if a user has one unread topic in a category, and the topic is moved, the category might still be market as unread, while all topics are now read. I don't know yet how often this bug/feature will manifest itself or how irritating it is. If it's serious, we shouldn't use a forum organisation where topics are frequently moved from one place to another (which is how it is now so no one notices as not a lot of topics get moved).

[webwit]

Warning: the forum software will be updated in a few moments.

[webwit]

Update completed. Let me know if you find any bugs. You won't see the tab system yet, I'll convert one or two subforums so it uses the tab system in a little while.

[RaleghDirat]

The category can be seen inside the marketplace but not in forum spy. Is this expected behavior?
Looking good AFAICT

[Muirium]

According to Webwit's post immediately above you: yes!

[RaleghDirat]

I see, category=tab
Sorry...

[rindorbrot]

Yay, the "First unread post" button works now for me, even when there is only one page in the thread!

[webwit]

I converted News & reviews to the tab system.

The category can be seen inside the marketplace but not in forum spy. Is this expected behavior?
Looking good AFAICT

Yes, there will be a transition period between the old prefix system and the new. Prefixes will reappear when the marketplace gets "tabbed".

[Muirium]

The tab system looks good. However, seeing it active in the news section does remind me how everything is dominated by the timestamp of the most recent post. Any way we could have an elegant choice between that and sorting by the time of the original post instead? Without having to resort to a manual forum search, I mean…

[webwit]

That should be doable with a mod. "ORDER BY topic_time" instead of "ORDER BY topic_last_post_time"

[Muirium]

An option not available in the current drop down menu, which allows sorting by username but not topic time.

[7bit]

Currently, [Group Buy] etc. are in blue, but in the test version they are black. It would be better for readability to have them in blue.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Is it just me, or does it seem redundant to put "[subcategory]" in front of every topic title when that's your current selection?

The only purpose it seems to serve is that it's a bigger cue than the two very subtly different shades of grey for active and inactive tabs (clearly Cherry had some influence in choices of grey here).

[webwit]

Did the marketplace. Note that this structure is only a test so we can get a feel of what works and what doesn't, and I've only made one deeper tab structure (member to member, so group buys is flat yet). I've moved some topics from Unsorted to their categories, will move some more. You can also move your own posts by editing the OP.

[webwit]

The only purpose it seems to serve is that it's a bigger cue than the two very subtly different shades of grey for active and inactive tabs (clearly Cherry had some influence in choices of grey here).

Does it look like this? Active tab Member to member, active subtab Wanted. Maybe hard reload to refresh CSS. Otherwise please post your browser and screenshot.

Spoiler:

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yes it looks correct, but the difference in grey shade is lip service only. For Marketplace, you've got the line under the active view (Wanted, in the screenshot above), but News & Reviews has nothing more than the shade of grey to suggest what view you're looking at, requiring otherwise redundant topic name prefixes to help you figure out where you are.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The AJAX (?) "Mark topics read" button is nice though — it's a lot easier than the previous link.

[webwit]

You must recalibrate your monitor! But I'll consider a solution (like darker gray).

PS: Ajax ftw!

[webwit]

I just found a possible limitation of this mod. If I move a topic from For sale to Sold, phpBB doesn't seem to have a mechanism or design to properly adjust read topics tracking. For example, if a user has one unread topic in a category, and the topic is moved, the category might still be market as unread, while all topics are now read. I don't know yet how often this bug/feature will manifest itself or how irritating it is. If it's serious, we shouldn't use a forum organisation where topics are frequently moved from one place to another (which is how it is now so no one notices as not a lot of topics get moved).

There's another problem with subcategories like "For sale" vs "F̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶a̶l̶e̶". Which is that people will abandon topics and not move the topic from one place to another, in this case when the item is sold. So we'd end up with items that have been sold in both subcategories. This would suggest to keep it simple and just have a For sale category. Although it would be nice to find some way for it to work. Like auto-expire after a certain time.

[Compgeke]

Possibly recruit someone to go through threads and manually move them would work. That way we can prevent any errors of long-running groupbuys and whatnots from being moved to the wrong area if the thread was posted n time ago or hasn't had a reply in n amount of time.

[7bit]

Currently, [Group Buy] etc. are in blue, but in the test version they are black. It would be better for readability to have them in blue.

--------> [Group Buy] <-------


Also: When I select [Group Buy] it is not necessary to prefix the entries anymore with [Group Buy] (better written as [Group Buy])

[webwit]

Maybe next version. (Which will also feature singular/plural/abbreviation forms). I might keep the prefix when you are in the category, I found it confusing if topics have a prefix at some places and not in others. It needs consistency.

[7bit]

Yes, but they where in blue and now they are black!