[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by BhaskarG

It is technically possible, just need a specialised database query.

Technically possible? In the world of computer science, yes indeed. In the world of vB? I don't know. I do know, from previous discussions on various features that the team like to keep the code as plain standard as possible.

Dusting off my systems hat (old and out of date), I'd say: Yes, it sounds like a lovely feature, but it would be "expensive" to compute it for every post on every page loaded.

Anyway... I doubt that there is any point in conjecturing the technicalities right now. So I'd better stop!

[Stardust]

As someone who like things to be symmetric, can we have an option to 'Justify' our text so that all lines have equal width.

Would look more pleasing to the eyes.

[PetrolheadRup]

Originally Posted by BhaskarG

In the example above, if there was a button available in bhpian A's post to search for wherever the post is quoted, we could have located bhpian B's post easily. The button (or icon) could be called "see where this post is quoted".

I believe this will improve navigation. I can help out the team regarding the technical aspects on how to implement this, if required.

Add me to the list of people who want this feature, but sadly it hasn't been added although this has been requested earlier as well. I figured out a way to search which serves the purpose, quoting one of my posts on this thread:

Originally Posted by PetrolheadRup

However, one thing which can be done is that, for whichever post you require replies to, quote that post and in the text editor, select the text at the beginning which is something like "QUOTE=anandhsub;5066965" and search for this using the forum's search feature.

I understand the above is not the most convenient method, especially for a smartphone user. Maybe a small icon can be added for this which directly searches using the above method, should not be very difficult to implement I believe.

This will only fetch posts quoting the particular post, but an implementation which can do a cascading search, i.e. outputs secondary and tertiary replies, would be even more useful.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by Stardust

As someone who like things to be symmetric, can we have an option to 'Justify' our text so that all lines have equal width.

Would look more pleasing to the eyes.

I beg to differ. From a readability standpoint, Left-justified text is easier on the eyes than fully-justified. This is in fact why even word-processors moved from a default fully-justified to default Left-justified and just give you the option of fully-justified (which almost nobody uses).

Cheers

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Stardust

As someone who like things to be symmetric, can we have an option to 'Justify' our text so that all lines have equal width.

Originally Posted by tilt

I beg to differ. From a readability standpoint, Left-justified text is easier on the eyes than fully-justified.

I beg to differ too. Justified text requires some skill and knowledge, for instance, of correct hyphenation. Badly justified text is awful! Yes, I speak as someone who, in a previous lifetime, did this work --- and took a lot of pride in it!

I'd also say that forums are meant to be informal. Conversational in style. Justification would not suit. It would also require programming just achieve basic automatic justification/hyphenation. I doubt that this will ever be an option.

[BhaskarG]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Yes, it sounds like a lovely feature, but it would be "expensive" to compute it for every post on every page loaded.

Thank you so much for your inputs. I do understand that technicalities are best understood by the team working on the system. However, I beg to differ on the computation cost part. Because we can generate a plain clickable interface on each post, and we can trigger the query only on need basis, that is, when someone clicks on it. Somewhat in the lines of "Find all posts by user" that we already have now. Not much computation cost that way.

Originally Posted by PetrolheadRup

Maybe a small icon can be added for this which directly searches using the above method, should not be very difficult to implement I believe.

Agreed. However, I understand that any feature request in a stable live forum needs proper thinking on part of the team whether to honour the request or not. Then it will require a thorough testing too. Also, not many have felt the need of this feature till now, as it seems. So let us wait till some more people ask for it.

[binand]

Originally Posted by BhaskarG

if there was a button available in bhpian A's post to search for wherever the post is quoted, we could have located bhpian B's post easily.

I doubt if this can be easily achieved. My guess is that quoted post information is not stored in the database; instead it is included inline in the post content itself (with special markup which is parsed in code).

Even if such a feature is possible I foresee complications in UX that need to be resolved.

A feature request of my own: In the control panel, under Date & Time Options I can set a timezone - but can that dropdown also include an option "use the local computer/mobile's timezone" in addition to the existing list? It helps when one travels to a different timezone and one's PC/mobile is set to update timezone / adjust clock automatically.

[BhaskarG]

Originally Posted by binand

I doubt if this can be easily achieved. My guess is that quoted post information is not stored in the database; instead it is included inline in the post content itself (with special markup which is parsed in code).

Yes, it will not be optimal, for sure. Perhaps, we are looking at an inline query using 'like' or something similar. Also most likely, post contents are stored as BLOB in the database.

By the way, these are my wild guesses. People working in the system will know better.

[Lalvaz]

Has the font been changed recently? I prefer the old font. Any way I can change the font to the old one? Kindly advise.

[Dry Ice]

How about only including a specific amount of chars from a quoted post?

It will reduce the need for Mods to trim the quoted posts and remind members to not quote an entire lengthy post.

If anybody wishes to go through the initial quoted post in full, the link in the quote can be used.

[condor]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

How about only including a specific amount of chars from a quoted post?.

Some folks like to, sometimes, do an in-line reply. In such cases, the quoted post (as seen in the response) can be longer than the original post.

How does one get around this ?

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

How about only including a specific amount of chars from a quoted post?

Originally Posted by condor

Some folks like to, sometimes, do an in-line reply.

This could work ... include only a small part be default, but have an option to include full post. E.g.: If someone wants to quote a specific part.

[Poitive]

Regarding Quoted Posts:

1. One often needs to know the quoted post well enough to understand what is being replied to. Many times, the trimmed quoted post makes it more difficult to get the context; especially on a mobile.

One needs to click the quoted post, which may often open another page, and then to read it an get back to the reply. Feels tedious; more so on a mobile; even more when not on Wi-Fi.

I am personally for allowing longer quoted posts so that one doesn't have to go to and fro. (Longer within reason, of course.)

However:
2. Often whole and long posts are needlessly quoted, as the post is only 1-2 posts away on the same page. That is probably a result of :

• Not knowing how to trim posts; not everyone is familiar with how the system works.
• Laziness of the poster

Suggestion:

3. If possible, to have a another button for quotes. A button which will automatically take the first line or two (certain number of characters) and reply. That is what many posts really need - to identify what post is being answered to, and to notify the person of that their post has been quoted/replied to.

• It might take some time to get used to the new button, but would likely take away much of the issue and simply things.
  .
• The default quote button could have the above described behaviour, with a long quote button which functions like the present quote button. Since people tend to go for what they are familiar with, the adaptation to the new button would also be faster.

4. To allow for a longer quoted post to make it simpler to understand than going through extra steps. Swiping up to scroll past a somewhat long post is hardly a big deal in today's swipe-friendly world of Twitter, Facebook and the likes - it is something which is not intuitive.

If point 3 is implemented, the number of large quoted posts would anyway diminish significantly.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I spend most of my online time with PC, monitor, mouse and keyboard, and my usual thought is what's the problem? Editing quotes, or cutting them into segments is quick and easy! But, on a phone, it is not.

Maybe those who spend equivalent time doing mobile access have acquired knacks and familiarity that I lack. When I have to edit text on a phone, in whatever app, I find it a total pain in the neck! Even moving the cursor accurately is hard. I'm guessing that the proportion of phone to PC access shifts daily in favour of phone. Us keyboarders have it easy: the mobile users have to be facilitated in these things. I'm sure the team is fully aware of this.

[Coyote]

When I'm browsing the forum on my mobile, I tend to see important updates and posts shared by members through the News section. For instance, I was thrilled to read PrasannaDhanna's 20k update on his Altroz this morning through the News section.

However, I wanted to read the post as well as the replies in the forum itself, and to do so, I had to scroll through the entire news item including select portions of the post as well as a few responses to get to the 'View Forum Discussion' button. The button is placed all the way at the bottom for the mobile site whereas it is right on top on the desktop(?) version.

I understand the intent is to let the user read select items and then have the option of reading the full post so the bottom placement does make sense. However, sometimes I simply want to read the post and enjoy it one go, so could we have a second Forum discussion button on top?