Feature Idea Feature requests and suggestions

[Mathew Anderson]

Community! Thanks so much for checking out the new forum system and providing invaluable feedback over just these last 24 hours.

Here is a quick list of some of the ideas and suggestions you've mentioned so far (these mostly do not include issue resolution or bugs to resolve as noted in this thread):

Interface

• "Mark All Read" for direct messages
• When going to a user's profile, have the default tab be “Latest Activity”
• Allow users to adjust the timezone format to either 12-hour or 24-hour
• Sort unread direct messages to the top of the list (a separate section like pinned posts have, for example)
• Enable a flag for OP (Original Poster) on each of their replies in a thread to easily know who was the OP
• Enable the +Quote button to allow quoting posts from multiple threads to create a new thread with them easily
• Show 'Likes' counter next to the post total
• Button on the bottom of the page to go back to the very top (pagination support included)
• More emoji options for the post Like button, such as a "meh" emoji
• Add to the limit of how many threads per page can be displayed (increase pagination limits)

Photos, Albums, and Gear

• Add a piece of Gear to your profile requires the exact title of the gear, which can be difficult to know. A more flexible search suggested.
• Allow ordering of gear lists
• Find a better way to run weekly photo threads (one possibility is to create a photo album and allow users to submit photos, where each photo can then be commented on)
• Show more rows in album view

Style Improvements

• General improvements needed to the color and size schema of the forums light and dark modes
• Increase the brightness of the read-thread/post/etc. indication so it's easier to know which are already read
• Indicator next to each forum thread if that thread has an OP photo associated or not (previous DPR forum feature)
• A 'Compact View' that presents the forums in a tighter way (less white space, maybe smaller font sizes, etc.)

Utility

• Improve RSS feeds and include per-forum section feeds
• Enable the 'Trophies' system (a default XenForo forum feature)

Please know that this is simply a list of your suggestions at this time. Whether we are able to implement these is something our team needs to discuss. Some of these we will be able to and will let you know when those are approved.

 

[Alan Sh]

Can we have:

An editable title on the posts in a thread. Default is the title in the original post.

 

[Mathew Anderson]

Can we have:

An editable title on the posts in a thread. Default is the title in the original post.

It may be possible, but technically this isn't needed as the thread is of a single topic anyway. I suppose it could still be created for a general emphasis of what you are typing. I would just put what you need in the post itself for now until we can consider this.

 

[Meeces]

It would be nice to have more space when uploading images by default. Maybe at least one line automatically between them? They seem to post really close to each other.

Would also be nice to move this- to an easier to reach (and see) spot in the forums. Move it closer to the end of a thread- before the similar threads section? Might be part of the overall suggestion for better color/size.

Small things for sure, but would make for easier use and navigation.

 

[martinhb]

There is a "Click to Expand" feature, see image.

Will there be a "Click to Collapse" feature too? If it aleady exists, I am, for some reason, unable to find it.

A thread becomes expanded with many un-collapsible images making scrolling awkward with many ups & downs which is clumsy, inefficient & inelegant.

Also, would it also be possible to include a "Spell Checker" for threads etc?

 

[robert1955]

In the Alerts it's not always clear why you get an Alert. You get one when you get a reply to a post and that is mentioned and linked in the Alert [big improvement].
But you also get an Alert if there is a new Thread in a Forum you are Watching. It's however not mentioned which Forum causes this Alert.

I can live with Alerts for each new Thread in a Forum, though mostly I'll go that Forum anyway if there is a single one

 

[robert1955]

...Would also be nice to move this- to an easier to reach (and see) spot in the forums. Move it closer to the end of a thread- before the similar threads section? Might be part of the overall suggestion for better color/size.

or repeat it there?

 

[Kropotkin Overdrive]

Has the character limit on posts been raised?

Anyone who's tried to write a longish post on the previous forums will know that there was an arbitrary limit which was pretty miserly. Youd often ran into it, after a few paragraphs and had to split your writing over a couple of posts.

Enable the +Quote button to allow quoting posts from multiple threads to create a new thread with them easily

Oh dear. As a counter to what I said above, I fear this will just increase the infuriating number of posts where someone quotes 57 previous posts just to write two a two word reply at the end. All the more annoying when, as I said, you used to be strictly character limited when composing an original post/reply. But weren't character liited in any way from quoting eleventy-billion characters' worth of the previous posts in the thread.

 

[Kropotkin Overdrive]

While I think on...

Will the nanny-ish swear filter be removed, or at least loosened a bit? It was ridiculously strict before. I remember describing some piece of equipment as "piss-poor" once and having to change it to "urine-poor" because the swear filter wouldn't accept it. I think I also had the word "crap" refused, for a similar reason. C'mon. We're all adults here, I don't think anyone is going to pass out if they read a slightly naughty word.

Ability to adjust the timezone to either 12-hour or 24-hour (currently it has to be set by us)

While you're at it. Allow us to set the date format too. Those back-to-front American ones hurt the part of my brain where logic lives.

 

[adew1]

Please consider the breadcrumb issue in mobile view mentioned in point #2 in this post: Announcement - Forum system known issues

Thanks

 

[Picsal]

In the dark theme, I can't tell the difference between the highlight of the posts with unread/new messages versus old posts with no new unread/new messages.

Also, the New tag on the forums seems unneeded. What is its scope?

 

[s-trap]

In the past, there were many extended discussions in these forums, with many sub-threads forming when discussions turned into various directions.

Thanks to the tree view, and it showing posts already viewed in different colour, it was possible to follow interesting sub-thread and skip the noise.

Ability to change the topic of every single post also helped.

It was unique to DPR forums, and it is missing now.

This is huge UX downgrade. What we have now is another Fred Miranda or Canon Rumors. I never had patience for these.

I'm afraid you might just have killed DPR forums as we knew it.

 

[Sagittarius]

Button on the bottom of the page to go back to the top.

 

[Hike Pics]

Just as a gentle reminder....for in the near future (hopefully) : to place the Kodak Talk forum on the main list of forums, just as Konica Minolta is now. Both have new (yes, licensed) models currently being released. Or, in all fairness, bring Konica Minolta down into the Other Companies.

 

[GodSpeaks]

The new forum no longer works with my #1 browser. Firefox 56. Yes, I STILL use 56 because it works the way I WANT it to work.

 

[nightowlnz]

Yes, I STILL use 56 because it works the way I WANT it to work

Evidently not, if the forum doesn't work in your web browser from... 2017.

 

[motiwala]

some nice changes, though I find the thread listing fonts too bold (and loud)

 

[GeoffRG]

24 hour clock option please

 

[Riley M]

Great job, DPReview team! I'm really happy with the more modern forum software. One complaint though is that the exif info really gets in the way on mobile. It's great that it's easily visible but on my phone it obscures maybe a third of the image. Maybe a button to show/hide the info would be helpful.

 

[John Sheehy]

What is the function of "Save Draft"? it doesn't save multiples of anything that can be retrieved later, AFAICT, as the floppy disk icon would suggest. All it seems to do is protect the current edit from a crash, reset, or accidentally-closed tab. The forum pages in the new system use 3x as much memory as the old system did, so if a separate tab is needed for each working edit, the system will grind to a halt from a lack of memory.

Why can't we have PERMANENT saved drafts, so only one forum tab needs to be open? Even if just 10 were allowed, that could be so useful. That would be acceptable to a person who works slowly and thoughtfully on their replies, and may have several active edits going on at a time. All that the "Save Draft" option seems to do is make the current editor window retain its contents if the page is lost or reset.