Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

The JoeUser Suggestion Thread

Have some change you would like to see made to JoeUser? Make it here.

I'll get the ball rolling:

Make the editor clearly show the "more" tag (type more with brackets around it to control which part is the summary).
Get rid of the little arrow image that appears next to links. It's distracting.
Have the most recent article comments find the blog article first and only use the forums if there is no blog connected to it. I don't like being switched to the forums.
If I do go to the forums, don't make me logon.
Don't have my logon expire on forums or on JU ever. I don't want to have to relogon.
Get the "more" (full listing) of popular articles and recent article comments implemented so that I can see them.
Fix bug where some Stardock support forums show up in the recent article comments.
Implement full leading blogs and leading users lists so that I can click on them and see a full listing on each.
Users with access level > citizen should not see any ads.
Make a user's blog roll show up on every sidebar that's related to their blog (i.e. if I click on one of my articles, I want my blog roll to show up).
The new rich text editor is really slow to work with (I normally use live writer but when I do use the new editor it's painful).
When I am reading an article and it says "by user in blogging" and I click on blogging, I expect ot be taken to the main blogging category index not just the ones from that personal site.
It is difficult for users to go to the specific blog-specific channels from a user's home page. That is, if users wanted to read just my artcles on PC gaming, they'd have a rough time doing it.
The tags on blogs are always the global tags. There should be per-site tags generated.
Need an easy way to tell if a category link is referencing just the articles in the user's personal category or the entire site. I.e. Just my articles on Politics or all of teh articles on politics. Users should be able to easily tell which is which and there are times when users are going to want to quickly jump to a full list of articles on politics versus just the articles written by that blogger.

That's my start.

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1. I've tried posting with Live Writer for a week and a half, and it always says there's an error. I've set up the blog once again, using Zoomba's tutorial, three times and still no dice. I know it's worked before for me. Let me try again, copy/paste the error message here, and see if i can figure it out.

2. OTHER COLORS please. I know it's probably down the list, but the poo-brown is way uglier than the green of the first few screenshots.

3. Lose the "avatars" on the front page. Makes it look way too much like the front page of Live Journal. If I wanted to use Live Journal, I would. I want to use JU with all of it's social features - and the avatars look silly.

4. On the avatars front - when they're blown up (i.e. main blog page, front page) they look like shit because they're 50x50 and the blow-up box is more like 100x100. All pixelated and nasty. I'd love to either a)shrink those back down so they're not all nasty or b)make the default avatar a larger size, which can get sized down. Sizing down usually doesn't look as ugly.

Those are off the top of my head, more as I think of them.

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Oh, another. If access above Citizen gets you no ads, I was a promotion. Hells, I'm even a customer.

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I would like to be able to decide where columns should appear on my blog. If you want two on the left or two on the right or one on each side.

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Alternate Setting

Join Date 03/2004

+24

The upload draft option in Live Writer doesn't work for me in Joe User.

What it highlighted was a couple of settings options I would have liked to use.

I would like to be able to set 'Make Private' as a default setting. That way, regardless of the program I use, I know that I have the space to pop to JU in my own time and make it public when I know for sure what it looks like on the page.

I would like to be able to default set whether or not my posts appear on forums.wincustomize or forums.joeuser - or both.

Tks.

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Compatibility with the Opera web browser (I am using v9.21). Two issues I have noticed:

- The "Back" button doesn't do anything from the article page
- Typing in the quick comment box at the bottom of a thread makes page scrolling tweak out.

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

I'd quite like to be able to post articles. The new rich text editor/story loader hangs and then crashes Firefox for Mac 2.0.0.12 every time I try to use it. I haven't the faintest clue why, either.

Any suggested fixes or is this something on your end? I've tried purging cookies and saved logons and redoing everything and that didn't fix it.

I would use Windows LiveWriter, which seems to be the recommended standard here now, but there isn't one for macs.

Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the site - all the features I use regularly seem to be working fine now. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the layout of the frontpage, but considering I never look at it that's not a big deal.

My suggested improvement though would be to get rid of the active tags. They only seem to be used to describe the category a post is made in - so the biggie is blogging, then misc, then welcome, humour and so on. When they start being meaningful and different to categories bring them back for sure, but what purpose do they serve now?

I quite like your high-level user = no ads idea. The ads are an annoyance more than anything. I hope you're making plenty of dosh from them considering how integrated they now seem to be. Ads on the sides, top and bottom - fine. They're easy to ignore. Ads between article and comment? I'm not such a big fan, but we all have to pay the bills somehow I guess, and capitalising on the mistaken clicks of visitors must be a good money-spinner if you're using it.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1845

Having the forums sentient....so they say to the poster...."are you sure you want 'McCain is a commie bastard' in the "Stardock/Support/Object Dock" Forum?...

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I would use Windows LiveWriter, which seems to be the recommended standard here now, but there isn't one for macs.

Ah, the life of Mac users.

I have posted one article with live writer and then had it bomb on my second. However, a cut and paste maintained all formatting and links, so even if we cant "submit" it is still a pretty good tool.

But Like Cacto, some bugs to work out, but over all a great version 2!

I would like to see the email notification brought back. But I figure that is just "down the road" on the radar. But just in case it is not, I list it here.

2 thumbs up to Zoomba and the Stardock crew!

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Island Dog

Join Date 06/2003

+1048

I would like

I would use Windows LiveWriter, which seems to be the recommended standard here now, but there isn't one for macs.

One of the best apps for blogging on the Mac is MacJournal. Not sure if it will work here, but I will give it a shot in a bit.

Otherwise....

I would like to see Live Writer support tags with JoeUser. After I publish a post with LW I have to come back and manually set the tags.
I would also like to see a section in my blog where I can list my social networks, such as Twitter. Like the Blogroll section, just have to where I can set my own networks.
Speaking of Twitter, maybe a way to integrate the Twitter API so that blog posts can be tweeted.
Fix for the avatars resolution. I also want to say I like to see the avatars on the front page.
I like how the posts just show a summary on the page, but maybe the possibility to show a small thumbnail of an image in the post.

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KarmaGirl

Join Date 03/2001

+118

1) Ignore feature. This would allow you to never see articles by people that you don't like.

2) spll chek....uh, Spel cheque..... yeah, SPELL CHECK! on the forums. (Why is the blog editor different than the forum editor, anyway? You can use ieSpell on a blog, but not in the forums)

3) I agree with the avatars being upsized looking like poo

4) I think that people shouldn't be shown in "leading users" if they are no longer active. As an example, Gideon hasn't been even on the site in over a month. It seems like our math might be flawed if you can be off the site for over a month and still be a current top user.

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This appears to be more of a bug with the text editor. I’m running Opera on Linux and when I type, the page keeps scrolling up and down. Or is that a feature?

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spll chek....uh, Spel cheque

making fun of poor Zubaz........

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

spll chek....uh, Spel cheque

making fun of poor Zubaz....

I thouhgt the same thing.. (

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#8 is what I like that way I can find people easier, even if they haven't posted in awhile. Thanks

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1. More options to customize our blogs. I know this is a significant undertaking, but it seems odd that a blog site run by the specialist in customization has the least customizable (and subjectively least attractive) blog site on the net (at least that I am aware of). I don't even think we need to be able to edit our own HTML or CSS, but at least some different templates and the ability to add/remove sidebar items at our discretion. I understand some of this may be coming.

2. My biggest complaint would be the fact that my blog just doesn't feel like my blog. Every individual blog is just so homgenous that it feels like I am contributing to some meta-site, not like I am writing on my own blog (with enhanced social interaction). This, obviously, correlates to #1, but at this time is the biggest obstacle, to me, of encouraging participation.

3. A rich text editer is really useless if it doesn't at least work in the two most popular browsers. The fact that it is broken in Firefox is actually pretty embarassing.

4. Stop encouraging people to use programs such as Windows Live Writer. Telling people that the program works better than the rich text editer, and is the preferred method of posting, is weak. It is great it is an option, but users shouldn't have to resort to that. We should be able to adequately use the built in editer, so that the site is fully functional cross platform and for those who may not always be using their home PC to post.

5. I understand the need for ads. I really do. And most of them don't offend too much. However, the ad stuck in between the end of the blog post and the beginning of the comments is usightly, obtrusive, and just plain cumbersome. Above, below, to the side, fine. But please, please get rid of that one ad spot. Oh, and the little cluster of "Popular Articles" junk between a post and the comments is annoying as well. If I want to see popular articles by said blogger, I can look elsewhere. Chances are good the reason I am on that page is to read the article and associated comments, not look for other crap.

6. Agreed with the need to either A) increase the resolution of avatars, or

decrease the size of the avatar displayed at the top of the user's blog.

7. Agree with San Chonino about the avatar cluster**** at the top of the home page. It is just garrish and not helpful at all.

There are a few thoughts for now.

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KarmaGirl

Join Date 03/2001

+118

I thouhgt the same thing..

No, actually, I was poking fun at myself. I need my spell check! Otherwise, you just never know what hell Jafo will have to clean up. lol

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KarmaGirl

Join Date 03/2001

+118

2) spll chek....uh, Spel cheque..... yeah, SPELL CHECK! on the forums. (Why is the blog editor different than the forum editor, anyway? You can use ieSpell on a blog, but not in the forums)

I was on the forums today and noticed that I have the less fancy, but works with ieSpell text editor on there, too. Yay! KarmaGirl is just hoping that it's not a "bug" that it's there.....

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

I just had another go at posting an article, and one thing stood out at me - it would take a half a second or so for each letter I typed to appear on the screen, with considerable lag if I typed a whole sentence.

Could the issue be that an iBook with a 1.2ghz pre-core2duo processor just can't handle the load of the new JU? It doesn't seem to struggle with any other website, but is there some uber-complex script at work that would be making it chug and time-out?

On the spell check front, I've noticed that the native mac spellchecker still works on reply boxes and the article entry box.

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1) Ignore feature. This would allow you to never see articles by people that you don't like.

Ditto this KarmaGirl. This would be awesome! I'm so sick of seeing kickinforpoo's right-wing evangelical, Christian, bullshit posts every time I go to the site.

Ditto everything BlueDev said too. BTW, thanks for posting this Frogboy, and thanks for working on JU.

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Thanks for the free ice cream....

and on that note. I miss the (longer) recent article list from JU1 that was always on the sidebar. It was nice to immediately be able to jump to the next one I wanted to check out without having to search through the forums or click back and forth...

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It would be nice to have the WC and JU forums separate. Now when I login to WC forums I need to set ZA Security to accept third party cookies from forums.joeuser.com or the login fails. I'm not on JU, I'm here at WC

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Some testing with non-standard Web browser would be nice.

I don't understand why JoeUser.com keeps asking for a user name in OmniWeb AND simply doesn't accept a login attempt done the usual way.

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Zoomba

Join Date 11/2002

+114

We do not support Apple browsers on any of our sites yet. This is not likely to change in the near future. We're trying to spend our time and resources hitting the 90%+ portion of the market that uses IE/Firefox. Once we have those nailed, then we'll move on to the more popular alternative browsers such as Safari and Opera.

Why? Because every single browser renders pages differently. CSS, Javascript, often basic HTML are all done just a bit differently so we have to write custom cases for each browser. Once we get it nailed down for the big guys, then we'll consider spending time on the edge browsers.

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I am slowly figuring out how the new set up works, but right now my two requests would be:

1. Delete comment feature back.

2. The forums remembering which comment you read last on a given post so that you don't have to scroll or click on the appropriate page number and then scroll.

Thanks.

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One feature I'd like to see as a reader, is the ability to read an entire article from the front page of a particular blog. I understand the loss of statistical data doing so, but I don't believe it is fair to force the end-user to have to click on every article to read it. Maybe make it a profile setting for a logged in user?

Also, if you could get the ads put into the feeds, why post the entire article through RSS too? I use an aggregator to read a ton of feed include a few here, and hate to have to open a new browser window to read an article I might be interested in. I may be inclined to be more picky about what I read.

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