Suggestions for the forum
Hey,
I've spent quite some time on the forum during the last months, mostly answering people, and I would like to share a few thoughts that, from my perspective, would help newcomers as well as contributers.
From the most to least important:
a pinned topic (or an addition to the existing not-visible-enough Forum guidelines page) with a summary of good practices with general purpose programming tips (give some context to your problem, try to divide it in smaller steps, explain what you tried already, share an example, show that you did researches prior posting about that issue) and more Max-specific ones (copy compressed, reminder to check object's help file, reference, inspector...). That could even be reminded on the topic creation page.
Even if people don't read it before posting, we could refer to that page rather than writting the same things over and over again.
when a file is uploaded and that file is a .maxpat, advise to use "copy compressed" instead. .maxpat files should still be allowed, given that it is still more practical in some cases (for example when dealing with bpatchers, poly~...)
a "bug" in the new search feature: when clicking the magnifying glass at the top right, typing a search prompt and hitting enter, sometimes the last letters or even words are just ignored, which is very annoying because I like to have my search result in a static page and not just the volatile popup overlay (so I can come back and forth to it, open multipe results in new tabs, share the link...), and I don't want to wait for the realtime search to do its job.
I believe prior to the new forum update, we were able to format inline code, which isn't the case anymore (code has to be a whole paragraph). Maybe we need a way (not necessarily code formating, but something) to emphasis Max objects/attributes/messages? Just to clearly show what should be typed in an object box, or what word to look for in the reference... Currently some of us write objects [like @this] and (messages box like that) as a way around, or use bold or italic, but I would love some more streamlined way to do that. A dream would be the ability to get the text displayed like max objects just like in the Cycling74 Max page (when clicking "View the Patcher"), but still inline.
maybe an alert when closing a page in which a post is being written/modified but not saved (using the js beforeunload event for example)
What do you think of all this?
great ideas, … this certainly would help newcomers like me.
Thanks. We'll happily take it into consideration and see what we can do to address some of the needs expressed here.
As a quick aside - the revived editor does support using markdown syntax while you type. Using that you can still create inline code by using `<type_the_object_>`<now_hit_space>, from your suggestion I assume you'd additionally like to see a menu button and potential shortcut?
Thanks Florian to come up here!
I didn't know markdown was supported! I think I tried once `that syntax` but it didn't work so I just though there was no markdown. Oh ok got it! I don't know if it's specific to french keyboards or just my own, or just me not correctly typing accents since 25 years, but I generally need to type ` twice before the character actually appears (in double), then I would just hit the left arrow to place the cursor in between and type, but the lack of space hitting after the last one just prevents the inline tag from being recognized. Also, it won't work if the first or last letter of the inline code can be accentuated.
For example, I can't inline an ìtable`. Or maybe I need to put an extra space before the first letter? Yes it works!
Just to be absolutely sure [I can whatever I want](https://cycling74.com). No link but I guess it's ok with the menu button.
Are titles working?
Yes, awesome
That's great
Fun.
Even level 5 titles.
Lines too. And exponents^2^ ? Or subscripts ~like that~? Apparently not, but that's fine I guess.
Can we use strikethrough ? Nice. And ==emphasis== ? Nope, but that's fine, too.
Sorry for the noise, I feel like I just rediscovered how to use markdown here.
Personnaly I'm fine with markdown and don't need extra toolbar buttons or shortcuts, but a small reminder that markdown can be used could be nice!
Hahaha thanks for sharing your discovery tour :)
I think for bold / italic one would use __ or ** as the marker, assuming you really prefer that over a simple key command.
You're correct that not all MD features are currently fully implemented but as part of tweaking some of the things you've mentioned originally we'll be looking at it and potentially enable some more.
It seems that in addition to using ` you can also toggle the inline code using CMD+E on macOS and Control+E on Windows. But yeah, that's not really obvious and we'll probably end up making some UI tweaks to point that out as well.
To be transparent here - the good news is that since moving to a new editor and search (which hopefully not only for us feels like an improvement) we are far more able to tweak and tackle these things and appreciate the feedback as the heavy weight of dealing with a problematic 3rd party framework and its sheer amount of technical debt isn't in the way anymore.
Nice, good to know about that ctrl/cmd+E shortcut!
To be fair, I was quite pleased by the few visible changes on the forum, but quickly got disapointed when I discovered basically what we are discussing right now. It felt like it was it was an ongoing update with more changes to come but nothing seem to have changed in the last few weeks so... that's why I posted here.
Another issue to mention:
When inserting a code or quote block at the very end of a message, it's not possible to then put the cursor bellow it, which makes impossible to write text after that block (unless cutting the block, adding a few new lines, and pasting it in between). It would be convenient to just get an extra new line added after a block when adding one.
there was a sticky about "copy compressed" for years, but it did not change much.
Yes, usually people don't read those, but it's nice to have it in a place easy to find so we can quickly redirect to it when needed.
Maybe a small unobstrusive warning message with short how-to instruction (or a link to that 12 years old video) when a .maxpat is being uploaded is the way to go
"hey, you idiot, did you just try to upload a .maxpat?"
WRT code and quote blocks at the end of the content - that was an issue with the old editor but AFAIK (and just tested) one can navigate out of the block with either the arrow keys or by repeatedly hitting Return as the block will be automatically exited to a new paragraph after a certain number of empty lines (~2).
Oooh, my bad again, I tried to insert empty lines but I guess only one, or maybe I experienced an edge case I can't reproduce. Seems like I struggle to change my habits!
Hey, something else that boggles me about the new search feature.
When clicking the magnifying glass, then pasting a text, I cannot hit Enter to get the search results as a page. I need to delete a character and re-add it so then we can hit enter.
It happens at least both in Safari and Firefox.
It adds up to my previous point: the fact that you cannot type a text and hit enter too fast, otherwise it opens the search page with some missing characters at the end.
I might be poking the bear and asking for trouble here, but we have rolled out a few improvements to the editor as well as the search UI.
I'm assuming that most of it is pretty self-explanatory (editor menu etc.). Additionally replies and forum post content should now be preserved in case you navigate away without submitting.
Thanks also for reenabling deletion of posts
Thanks also for reenabling deletion of posts
wat? hasn't this been around for years now? or did they only allow me to have it this whole time because they thought i'd deserve it most?? 🤣
on that note: @Cycling74, if you'd ever like to bring back DMs, i promise not to send anyone death threats 😇 [disclaimer: i am a liar] ...but you could also bring back DMs, but just restrict the feature from my account only 😜
might be poking the bear and asking for trouble here
muahahahahaha!
...no but seriously, it is running much more smoothly overall(everything loads so much faster now), nice work! thank you!
Thanks Florian, that's much better indeed!
no difference in load time, which was okay for the last 10 years here.
but the bookmark button icons makes much more sense to the eyes now and the "link to post" function is very useful for how we often use the forums.
and i also appreciate the 23 stuff, which interestingly also works for text. :)
p.s.: it even works for aliens: 👽👽