REQUESTS TO ADMIN FOR CHANGES/OPTIONS
Submitted by jen on September 8, 2005 - 3:19pm.
Please add comments for options and/or changes you'd like to see here. Please don't use this for discussions - it's easier for Aaron to go through and see what we're asking for if it's just requests. Also, if no one replys to anyone else, (instead post as a new comment) everyone can always go back and edit their post.
Aaron, thank you for the changes you'd made already. Step by step it's going to be as good as it can with all of us working together.
_________________________
* Formatting tools for bold, italics, underlines and hyperlinks.
* Forum module so we can have a General Discussion thread with a link on the front page.
* Ability to be cloaked.
* "new" icon moved to left
* longer Best of Blog list. Perhaps shorter time out on BoB threads that no longer attracting new posts. We've reduced the time out for BOB to 72 hours. We continue to adjust shorter as it makes sense to do so. -- Larry
_______________________
REQUEST 1: "Best of Blogs Homepage(?)"
Can "Best of Blogs" be featured both as a box window on the left of screen, and as a seperate page as in "Community Blogs"?
REQUEST 2: "Alphabetical Username Index list"
Although the username links are very helpful to reach "favorite" blogs (which I can only "catch/save" as they post), is there any way to feature the entire list of bloggers from an alphabetical index of usernames on a seperate page? This, imo, would be even more helpful, and should be available only to those are registered and logged in.
REQUEST 3: "SPACING"
I noticed that the "spacing" between the lines in the General Discussion, appear "tight" or "compressed", which gives a sense of "pressure" and overall clutter. For example, ...
"At the old site, the spacing between
the written lines were easier on the eyes, imo.
Thank you for taking this time to communicate with us."
REQUEST 4: MsWord Formating Features (like TPM)
__________________________
* I like to read "flat expanded" which is absolutely impossible without being able to click back to the "parent" post. I know the guys were working on this. -- Larry
That and having a GD on the front page are my two biggest gripes. Oh, and making the blog easier to read
___________________________
* It's even difficult to search for blogs, once it rolls over the front page. Identifying blogger usernames is especially difficult.
For example, "mad4clark's" blog doesn't even acknowledge her username; instead she's a blog/#number,..
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/blog/41,
whereas, I'm
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/blog/35,
So, what do I do,.. "hey babe, can I have your #?" That's ridiculous. I can't recall user ID numbers, let alone all the new usernames. Previously, it was easy to locate, "mad4clark.forclark.com."
______________________
Spell check option
__________________
Any way to get the rating system to work? It's a good way to give a "thumbs up" to a post instead of wasting precious General Discussion space to say "right on!" or "I agree!" or "WooHoo!"
Right now you can go through and click the # to rate, go to the bottom of the thread, click Rate comments and the only thing that happens is the rating box disappears.
________________
Link to comment box at top of page as an option to scrolling all the way down to the bottom? Same with the "rate comments" box, (if the rate comment function were to work)
_____________________
Maybe there could even be a permanent and prominent link on the home page to General Clark's recent messages?
Making Best of Blogs a slightly longer list, and/or with a "more" option.
Also, on the old blog (betcha sick of hearing what we could do on the old blog) you could go back and change the rating you'd given something. For instance, if I could go back and re-rate the Old General Discussion thread from a 10 down to a 7 or 8 it'd probably be enough to knock it out of the BoB. That would allow us to manually demote BoBs when they're a bit stale.
__________________________
Best of Blogs should not revert to read only for a minimum of 2 weeks, preferably longer.
_________________________
Anyway to make a General Discussion thread that can go beyond 150 posts on ONE PAGE? Once a thread goes to the 2nd page it doesn't work right anymore.
You post a comment and get thrown back to the beginning of the thread.
You have to scroll down to the bottom of page one to access the options to get to page 2.
When you get to page 2, the "new" icons are gone.
This is why we start a new GD thread at 150 posts - to avoid the glitch. As a result we're burning through too many threads and that makes individual blog posts disappear off the "recent blog post" list.
I'd like to be able to have articles written by CCN members, (as opposed to copy and pastes from elsewhere) have an extra notice-ability. Maybe they could have their own section "CCN Exclusive" under Best of the Blogs or something. Their authors would just check a little "This is an origional article" box.
Also, what happened to the ability to organize articles and blogs by State? This might be especially important with the 2006 races, people will want to be able to see all articles relating to their local Senate and Congressional campaigns.
At first I thought it was just annoying to have my name chopped off, but then I realized "patriotism_over..." looks like my patriotism is over....Just as it's really getting started. Why not increase the length names can go without being cut off, there seems to be plenty of room. Look at the gray box above this post, it's a third empty.
On the list of blogs both recent and BoB.......we need to show how many new comments. You've got that feature on the front page.....now we need it on the left.
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
You are only showing 10 at a time. They roll over so fast, they disappear withing hours.
Please show at least 20 with an option to show 40 if possible. Maybe you can make the page longer? I am comparing this with kos which seems to be what you have based this blog on....though I know he uses scoop so might have more options.
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
.....from disappearing. And who the heck voted it down? Guess you aren't interested in an improved CCN??
Sheesh!
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
I agree with BlueMoon, A button for GD's along the top menu bar, an separate "menu bar" or "icon button", is needed and would be very effective. This feature is user friendly for bloggers, and especially lurkers, who may be interested in joining WesPAC.
For example, a button for GD's that is linked at the top of the menu bar could read, like this;
________________________________________
[CCN Just Talk'in] ... connotes a more casual, social, even "peppy" forum to discuss issues.
[General Discussion] ... connotes typical or "matter of factly" link to rant more "generally", ...boRiNg, imo. ;)
[Join CCN BlogBuzz] ... connotes more trendy and lively forum to discuss latest issues.
________________________________________
But my point is that our site must carefully choose how they use these elements in web design, which attract new bloggers to WesPAC and hopefully sustain their suppport for Clark.
This can be done by feeding their "natural curiousity" for information (ie web human design concepts), so that it is readily available to everyone who immediately visit the site. In the end, I believe that this should entice them to click onto the next level in the blog, so to speak; and eventually, to encourage their participation by blogging.
________________________________
"Debate, Dialogue, Discussion, Disagreement - that's not wrong -that's not unpatriotic, that's one of the highest forms of patriotism and love of country, and we need to say it!" -Gen. Wesley Clark(Ret.)
Someone rated down this thread. Why? So now we can't even request changes or options that would make using the blog easier? Swell.
It's a small thing, but I used Arky Sue's headline to demonstrate having the post number before the headline. It looks better and it isn't as distracting as having it after the headline
n/t
I don't approve of political jokes.....I've seen too many of them get elected.
speaks volumes about the direction that individual would like to see this community go imo.
But it's sorta like this:
Wes quote, thanks to Crunchy Frog:
"Somebody once told me in business that when you're going to negotiate a business deal, you stake out [Clark slams the table] your position and stand on it! Don't go in there and ask what they want. Say, `Here's what I want!' [slams table again]. "You've got a Republican Party under Gingrich and Tom DeLay that says, `Here's what I want' [slams table again]. "Then you've got the Democrats over here saying, `Yeah, ah, yeah, we could, some of what you say makes pretty good sense.
"The result is the American people don't see the full spectrum. Before the 2002 election there were a lot of Democratic politicians apparently who said, `I don't have the information. I can't battle with the president on the information. He's got the intelligence. What if there is a smoking gun in there? I can't fight the president in my congressional district.'
"What we've got to do is stake [slams table again] out our position. For instance on tax reform, stop [slam] saying [slam] you agree with simplification of the tax code. . . . We stand [slam] for progressive taxation. We're proud of it. If you make more, you should pay more, period!"
In other words, "Get some starch!"
n/t
I would rather spend my life searching for the truth than live a single day within the comfort of a lie. -- John Victor Ramses
Get rid of the grey box at the bottom. It makes it hard to read. Most sites just have RATE 1 2 3 4 5.
Where is the general discussion link?
Posted by clairtx on September 9, 2005 - 12:20pm.
Where is the general discussion link now? This new format is very difficult for those of us who do not post here every day.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/560
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
the html code to create hyperlinks to be in the 'Formatting guidelines'
to be able to change your rating on a blog entry
to have more 'best of blogs' listed
to have 'best of blogs' refresh more frequently
It should be pretty easy to create a link that automatically goes to JustTalking's Newest blog enty using PHP code. Can you do something like that and display a GD thread link at the top of the community page?
Can new be text like it used to be with [] around it? I always used to search for [new to find the new posts. TPMCafe, myDD, and Daily Kos all do it this way, so I think it's what most people are used to.
Why not put JustTalking at the top of the CCN page in the red band with the other links? It would open to the blog with all the threads listed and people can then go to the current thread. It would be nice if it rolled over at 150 automatically, but at the moment, having an easy button for access for those who aren't as willing to hunt for it as we are, would be a good idea.
can no longer be commented on or replied to on Sept 12.
Blogs should remain active longer than a week!
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest places if you look at it right.
--Hunter/Garcia
General Discussions_____________________________________________________________
Previous GDMAIN GD
Home Page
Current GD
______________________________________________________________
Script at http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/633
______________________________________________________________
Now, I'm not saying ya'all should do anything,..it just a test and saying something like this would be "user friendly" en'all. :I
General Discussions
HOME PAGEIt looks sort of grade school-y in the bigger version and is teeny in the small version. In fact, the more I look at it, the less professional it seems to be. Of course, that's just me and I'm sure the font wasn't chosen at random.
Speaking of "is it just me," are the ratings gone? (Not the ability to rate but the ability to see other people's opinions.) I understand the reason for that, if it's so, but sometimes it's useful to know that a post is worth paying extra attention to, if we're scrolling through quickly to try to catch up. I also liked being able to give someone a pat on the back without taking up blog space by writing a post saying merely "Yeah baby" or whatever.
Having complained, I would like to finish with a big THANK YOU for anticipating the future and working on the blog now--and with an even bigger THANK YOU for the blog itself.
if my dear friend Jen hadn't given me a link that will take me to the NEW General Discussion every time, I wouldn't have a frickin' clue about where to look for it. If I were a newbie I wouldn't even realize a general discussion thread existed. To me, fixing this and making the community easier to find, especially once a person clicks on "community," is PRIORITY #1.
Again, sorry to whine and sound ungrateful 'cause I'm very very grateful indeed for this blog and the people on it and the people maintaining it.
If you come in through SecuringAmerica.com, it takes six clicks to find the General Discussion. How many clicks will it take new users? Good navigation is fundamental.
Nine times out of ten it isn't even visible on the front page of the blog. Only those of us who have been around a while know where to find it. So, newbies will just throw up their hands in disgust and walk away.
This has to hurt the General, no matter what the 'powers that be' say
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
Hey Mad...
You can put it in your favorites, but this doesn't help new users & it bypasses the rest of the site. It's just clunky. :)
The search feature doesn't work all that well. Are there changes you can make? It only seems to do searches on individual words. There doesn't seem to be a way to make it search on a phrase.
When I was trying to retrieve a memorable comment in the old CCN, I would search for a distinctive word and the comments containing that word or phrase would be listed.
Now only the blogs in which the word occurs are displayed, so each must blog must be "opened" to search for a particular comment.
It would be terrific to have the search return specific comments instead of whole blogs.
Thanks!
When I click on a recent comment in the list to the left, I'm taken to the beginning of the thread and I'm left to wander through the thread to find where the comment of interest is. Seems if a recent comments feature is going to be included on the site, I should be taken directly to the comment I clicked on.
Also, is there a way for me to search my comments, so I can monitor responses to comments I've posted in various threads?
usually takes you to the comment you clicked. Must be a glitch...
To have a list of your comments shown on the left:
Go to: My account; edit; check the boxes under "Blog Configuration"
Buddy list
Buddies' recent posts
My Comments
Who's online
Click "submit" at the bottom.
The list of "your comments" has a "more" link at the bottom so you can check back as far as you want.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest places if you look at it right.
--Hunter/Garcia
Then, if you click on a comment on the left, it takes you to the blog post. You have to scroll down and click next page.
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
The "Comment Viewing Options" info and drop down boxes... they clutter the page especially when there are little or no comments yet. Could we do away with one of the sets (they are at the top and bottom) or could we put it to the side?
--
Kevin
..................................................
Washington Woman
http://washingtonwoman.blogspot.com
Writing about, thinking about and being active on issues that affect women, children, society, the enviroment and a little
Could we get a "Comments" link near the top.. just under the original blog post? Seems a pain to have to scroll to the bottom to post a comment.
--
Kevin
..................................................
Washington Woman
http://washingtonwoman.blogspot.com
Writing about, thinking about and being active on issues that affect women, children, society, the enviroment and a little
Why do our comment numbers just grow blog wide? Why are they not done on an individual blog basis? Much like the old blog?
--
Kevin
..................................................
Washington Woman
http://washingtonwoman.blogspot.com
Writing about, thinking about and being active on issues that affect women, children, society, the enviroment and a little
The tracking feature (aside from the search feature) is also inpractical. It lists only the "title" of the posters blog that I made a comment or reply. For example, a specific subject title that I posted on the blog "JustTalking" shows "OLD General Discussion" only, and its 160 comments, not my post. Instead, I still need to scroll through the entire thread just to find it,.. and many times, it's not the right post anyway. This becomes virtually pointless to track what I or anyone else had written.
Imo, we should be able to track our own comments, which lists the "subject titles" that was chosen by the user, ...not the user who original posted the blog.
Solution"(?) Actually, Can/could the "tracking tab" feature mimic the "comments" feature, like this below?
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/comment/user
______________________________________________________________________
"Debate, Dialogue, Discussion, Disagreement - that's not wrong -that's not unpatriotic, that's one of the highest forms of patriotism and love of country, and we need to say it!" - Gen. Wesley Clark (US Ret.)
Clicking on bloggers name should take us to thier "blog" NOT their user account info, imo (It's really not important to know who their blog buddies are, anyway).
For example, currently, hitting my username, I get this link:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/user/35 or
_____________________________________________________________
Instead, I think that it should link to my blog;
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/blog/35 or
______________________________________________________________
"Debate, Dialogue, Discussion, Disagreement - that's not wrong -that's not unpatriotic, that's one of the highest forms of patriotism and love of country, and we need to say it!" - Gen. Wesley Clark (US Ret.)
I was going to suggest a way to find somebody's blog even if they weren't on the "best of the blogs" or "recent blog posts," but your comment is even better. Having those buddy lists out there for all to see would be like reliving high school... ack.
Still, while I'm here, here's my suggestion:
Could there be a way to find somebody's blog even if they aren't online or currently in "best of the blogs"? For example, this afternoon I wanted to see whether there were any new comments on one of Noel's blog posts from last night, but I couldn't get to it because his name wasn't anywhere on the left side of the page for me to click on. Same problem if I remembered that someone had written something really fabulous on her or his blog four days ago--it would be a heck of a job to find it unless the person's name were right there on the left side to be clicked on.
If CCN is going to be based more strongly on personal blogs now, it'd be a good thing if the blogs, and the information in them, were easier to get to even when their authors themselves weren't online. Just an index of CCN registrants would do the trick.
Deleted-duplicat
The time on posts has reverted to Central and I need Eastern, but the option has disappeared from "My Account."
is a bit confused at the moment. Hopefully this too shall pass.
Have you had any luck with the house yet?
I know you're anxious to get this over with so you can make your move.
Though I admit, we in Ohio are going to be sad to see you go.
.....300 would be good.
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
....on the blogs on the left. Just the number of comments doesn't do the trick because you have to open up the blog to see if there are any new ones
"George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up."
or even make sense to color code or label the threads so we know where we are when switching back and forth? I'm talking about the little gray banner at the top of each post. (No pink) When I click on recent comments, I have no idea where I'll end up. The recent comments block then should have a matching color. (Maybe we could get Tom Ridge to help with this.)
Reposted from GD where it was ignored.
Why not?
The layout needs to be modified so that the left column is wider that way the best of blogs and my comments texts don't wrap so much.
Also it would be nice if the bar at the top did not wrap unless the browser width is not large enough...i have huge white borders all the way down the left and right sides of the page that could be used.
When one is coming on the blog and needs orienting, it is nice to see who has posted recently. Now there is just a mish-mash of topic title. Could a time-date stamp be added to the titles of blog posts? I like to be uptodate and then work back to older posts.
Noel
We always called our threads after 9 or 10pm CLARK AFTER DARK for many years. I often posted a WAKE UP AMERICA in the morning. Have no suggestion for afternoon, but how about TAKE A BREAT or TEA TIME
GOOD MORNING AMERICA! - OPEN THREAD 9/16/05 - 9am ET
TAKE A BREAK! - OPEN THREAD 9/16/05 - 2pm ET
CLARK AFTER DARK - OPEN THREAD 9/16/05 - 9pm ET
It would be informative of chronological time and where we stand.
Since it would be posted manually, if it is a slow day the afternoon thread could be skipped but used if the posts are fast and heavy.
IF THERE ARE MORE THAN ONE PAGE CAN IT BE FIXED SO THAT AFTER POSTING A COMMENT OR REPLY YOU RETURN TO THE PLACE YOU LEFT!
Noel
Can a link to whatever the general discussion node is just be embedded in that top corner box?