deskthority - Suggestions and Changelog

[xbb]

click on the logo

[Konrad]

Haha, thanx - that's easy, and it works.

I was going to say "what logo, where?" because it's not displayed. http://deskthority.net/styles/deskthori ... t/logo.png is just an empty white box which perfectly matches the blank white background, no frame drawn around it, no unhappy little "failed to load image" placeholder icon, doesn't even appear when I cursor-select the entire page. Yet it's there (mousehover cursor changes) and it does work when clicked upon. Need to put something visible there, please.

[xbb]

there is no blank white background behind the logo, there are images.
They are not loading for you?

[Konrad]

Nope, the image is entirely invisible on this machine, I don't see it at all, haven't tested on any others yet. Win7-32Ult, FF6 and IE8, images and cookies from this site not being blocked out. I don't even know what the DT logo looks like.

[webwit]

Can you see this image?
http://deskthority.net/styles/deskthori ... board4.jpg

EDIT: I see the problem myself now with IE8.

EDIT 2: Should be fixed now.

[Konrad]

Amazing, fixed. Beautiful plastic keycaps in three delicious fruity colours.

I haven't got a clue why it didn't work in FF either, but whatev, it all works now.

Yes, I can see the image in your question, when I click on it. But it's not the same one that's in the banner.

[Edit: Now it is the same image in your link. Not the same image as it was initially.]

[webwit]

They rotate on the top of each hour.

[JBert]

I can't seem to be able to find the humble HOME button, forcing me to navigate to the forum root by actually retyping/truncating the url back to "http://deskthority.net/" ... yeah, as a noob here I actually like to see what the forum offers, surf through it and read things of interest, I always find it easier to start from the top and work my way through the hierarchy.

Is there a better way to go back to top, ie: a lazy way which lets me mindlessly stay on the mouse? Is this a deliberate feature designed to force people to use their keyboard when navigating this keyboard worshipping site?

Check the small text at the top and bottom of any thread you enter; it says "Jump to: " and has links to the parent sub-forum and forum root.

For this thread:

Jump to: Board index » Other » Deskthority related

Clicking on "Board index" returns you to the front page.

[ripster]

Jeez Konrad.

Making Americans look bad.

[Konrad]

The "Jump to:" options don't have a root/top, and as I said, I prefer to have a lofty superior view of the entire hierarchy rather than trudge my nose through it like an ant. It's what I had to do before webwit fixed the problem.

Now I know you're just being a trolling smartass, rip. Don't.

[JBert]

The "Jump to:" options don't have a root/top, and as I said, I prefer to have a lofty superior view of the entire hierarchy rather than trudge my nose through it like an ant. It's what I had to do before webwit fixed the problem.

???

If I click on "Board index", it takes me to http://deskthority.net, same as the logo link would have done. The advantage for me is that this link sits at both ends of a thread, meaning I don't have to scroll up just to click the logo.

[woody]

How hard is to add auto-focus on login fields at start page? Amuses me how some forums lack this.

[xbb]

How hard is to add auto-focus on login fields at start page? Amuses me how some forums lack this.

I'm not sure about that if you have a smaller screen focusing the field will scroll the page down.

[woody]

I just want to avoid chasing fields with the pointing device, then having to remove the cursor after moving the focus.

Don't really know what happens if it's beyond screen boundary.

[itlnstln]

Focusing, in my experience, will not scroll the page down; however, I typically only auto-focus if there is an error on a form. In which case, I make sure that the page maintains position on postback to help prevent unnecessary scrolling. That said, I'm just an ASP.NET hack. I'm sure that devs with more 1337 skillz than me have this figured out.

[xbb]

It will scroll down, tried already. I can avoid scrolling down with some code or scrolling back to initial position.
Yet, I'm not sure about focusing something that is out of bounds

[JBert]

Autofocussing is a solution looking for a problem. I mostly just check "Keep me logged in" (or whatever it is called here) and don't worry about it.

Personally, I mostly cuss at pages which grab the focus automatically because it stops me from pressing my Vimperator navigation keys (dedicated search pages like Google's spash page are the obvious exception).

[webwit]

What about an accesskey?

[woody]

Autofocussing is a solution looking for a problem.

Huh?

I mostly just check "Keep me logged in" (or whatever it is called here) and don't worry about it.

My privacy policy is different, so I log each time.

Personally, I mostly cuss at pages which grab the focus automatically because it stops me from pressing my Vimperator navigation keys (dedicated search pages like Google's spash page are the obvious exception).

What's wrong with mail.yahoo.com, for example (yeah, focus-related, not everything else)? You enter URL "mail.yahoo.com", you press Enter/Return, you start entering username/password. No moves/clickies.

I wouldn't call that even autofocus. It's just focus after page load.

[JBert]

That's comparing apples and oranges. You actually need to log into your own private mailbox to use it, so you land on the login page. Your web-mail's login page is obviously only used for logging in, thus it makes sense to auto-focus when the user will have to do so anyway.

This is different for a forum's start page. Focusing makes less sense there because the most common action on the start page is to browse the forum. So, with the login box grabbing focus is somewhat similar to placing a search box at the top of every forum page and then focusing it when the user will likely not even notice it. I tend to browse the forum anonymously and then only log in when I want to reply, or I stay logged in when using my own computer. I tend to browse the forum anonymously and then only log in when I want to reply, or I stay logged in when using my own computer and hence don't need really use the login there.

To get back on track: if there is a dedicated login page (the wiki has such a page), it should auto-focus the login fields - agreed. For the main page, it makes less sense. As a sidenote, how do you navigate the forums if not by mouse?

[xbb]

To get back on track: if there is a dedicated login page (the wiki has such a page), it should auto-focus the login fields - agreed. For the main page, it makes less sense.

There is and it does have autofocus.

[webwit]

As a sidenote, how do you navigate the forums if not by mouse?

Pentadactyl FTW!

[woody]

That's comparing apples and oranges. You actually need to log into your own private mailbox to use it, so you land on the login page. Your web-mail's login page is obviously only used for logging in, thus it makes sense to auto-focus when the user will have to do so anyway.

This is different for a forum's start page. Focusing makes less sense there because the most common action on the start page is to browse the forum.

The most common action is to browse once logged in, so you can see what's unread. Therefore for people like me who don't keep auto log-in, the first action is to log in.

So, with the login box grabbing focus is somewhat similar to placing a search box at the top of every forum page and then focusing it when the user will likely not even notice it.

To get back on track: if there is a dedicated login page (the wiki has such a page), it should auto-focus the login fields - agreed. For the main page, it makes less sense.

Tell me, really, what happens if you start typing at DT's start page? NOTHING. Then what harm is there if the focus was already on the username field, which is the only thing to type on anyway (before password, which you TAB to)??

As a sidenote, how do you navigate the forums if not by mouse?

By whatever pointing device, but that doesn't change the fact I have to make completely useless field chase/clicks (==additional hand movement, time, effort and so on).

JBert, I don't see your point at all.

[JBert]

JBert, I don't see your point at all.

Ok, let me rephrase my point: auto-focusing adds only a tiny bit of value while it might in turn inconvenience existing anonymous visitors. (see below)

Tell me, really, what happens if you start typing at DT's start page? NOTHING. Then what harm is there if the focus was already on the username field, which is the only thing to type on anyway (before password, which you TAB to)??

As a sidenote, how do you navigate the forums if not by mouse?

By whatever pointing device, but that doesn't change the fact I have to make completely useless field chase/clicks (==additional hand movement, time, effort and so on).

Actually, some keys do happen to have an effect: the cursor keys. Once a text box grabs the focus, those same cursor keys can no longer be used to scroll the page down. This is what I'd call a bit of inconvenience, as you can no longer use the keyboard to scroll. I believe I'm not the only one who likes to use his mouse as few as possible.

The most common action is to browse once logged in, so you can see what's unread. Therefore for people like me who don't keep auto log-in, the first action is to log in.

Well, there are "lurkers" who don't log in. Just now there are 18 members logged in and 11 guests (search engine bots counts as registered users).

In the end, you might want to take note of the "Login" button at the top right - it is always visible, once you know it's there, no need to tab or scrolling to see it. You could even bookmark http://deskthority.net/ucp.php?mode=login to always land on the login page, which does auto-focus its username field and would thus already do what you ask for.

[webwit]

I gave the login name input field a tabindex of 1, so pressing tab should put the focus in this field. Does this do it for you?

[woody]

I gave the login name input field a tabindex of 1, so pressing tab should put the focus in this field. Does this do it for you?

Ok, I had this in mind as a last resort request.
Better now, thanks.

[woody]

Actually, some keys do happen to have an effect: the cursor keys. Once a text box grabs the focus, those same cursor keys can no longer be used to scroll the page down. This is what I'd call a bit of inconvenience, as you can no longer use the keyboard to scroll. I believe I'm not the only one who likes to use his mouse as few as possible.

Scrolling with cursor keys while not logged sounds rather low probability.

Anyway, we have the politically correct solution now.

[TheSoulhunter]

Id really like to see...
"View unanswered posts • View unread posts • View new posts • View active topics"
always somewhere up in the menu like on GH, really hate it that I have to go to the main page each time!

[Gunny]

What about displaying the location of the user under the name ? We have people from a lot of places here, sometimes it's convenient to see where everybody is from without having to go to the profile page.

[sixty]

Remember that you can take a quick peek at the profile by pressing the arrow/glyph next to the username and don't need to visit the profile.