Feature suggestions

[Apollonaris Zeus]

So if the 2003 threads can be restored or even found then can you eliminate links posted in the archived forums. its kind of confusing.

I think that its just too bad that we don't have those files.

I believe it was the height of eplaya

AIIZ

[**burn**]

Some of the threads are tens of pages long.
I would love the option of jumping a head to whichever page I like, instead of one page at a time. Extremely slow process when researching.

[ygmir]

Some of the threads are tens of pages long.
I would love the option of jumping a head to whichever page I like, instead of one page at a time. Extremely slow process when researching.

I agree with this, and, feel it's still a valid request.

[gyre]

An index can be built of links to a page, every so many pages or every page.

[ygmir]

you mean I can, or, the mods/tech people can?

[gyre]

I mean you or we can.
Or maybe persuade the mods?

Not the same as a real index, but will work.
On the member index, things shift some but it still works.

[ygmir]

I'd not know how.

[gyre]

For memberlist, we'd all have to use the same format.
It needs it more than most things because you have to go all the way to the bottom of the page, to go to the next page.

At whatever interval, copy the url and paste it somewhere to save it.
memberlist.php?mode=joined&order=ASC&start=200
Then next page.
Next page.
Find url.
Save.
Repeat.

I email to myself to save some things.

We would have to start an index thread or threads to store the info.
Didn't someone do this once for the Bar?

And we really need the ability to edit.
This is a major problem for technical things on this board.
I don't understand this at all.
I can edit on all other boards I'm on.

There was one that added a lock, but lost most members over it.

[gyre]

Feature Suggestions
Page 1
viewtopic.php?t=4927&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Page 2
viewtopic.php?t=4927&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

Page 3
viewtopic.php?t=4927&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60

Looks like this thread can be hacked by changing only the numbers at the end.
It can be deceptive some times though.
It must be checked.

[kman]

Many other boards have a lot more features built in. Most are vBulletin based (which has a lot more features built in) rather than phpBB, but I know at least some phpBB boards have more features as well.

I would love to see (in order of priority):

1) URL tags that work a little more normally... most boards you can highlight text, click the URL button, paste the URL, and it's all nice and formatted for you.

2) Option for daily new watched post digests, rather than immediate notification or nothing?

3) Full text of PMs in email notifications? (It's not like you're trying to bring in traffic to generate ad sales, after all)

4) Summaries of new posts in email post notifications?

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

All that said, overall, things work quite well enough and I am pleased to be a part of the ePlaya.

[kman]

Oh, a big one:

When reading the board straight, i.e., threads from the index page, you get a little link to the left of the thread title that lets you jump to the first unread post.

You also get the option in the "View posts since last visit" listing.

Oddly, though, you do NOT get the option to jump to the first unread post in the listing of Watched Topics. Why not there?

[Roundtuit]

Add a regional break down to the Regional and Events section to make it easier to track down where people are posting and locations of events.

An example is seen here at the VWVortex Regional Section
http://tinyurl.com/2bvf5xu

[junglesmacks]

**A live chat section**

[Sail Man]

Some of the threads are tens of pages long.
I would love the option of jumping a head to whichever page I like, instead of one page at a time. Extremely slow process when researching.

I agree with this, and, feel it's still a valid request.

Oh yes, for the love of God, Please!

[Martiansky]

Isotopia touched briefly on the subject of subcatagories in each area and just to add to that.....How about...
Adding said sub-catagories to say the Q&A section? It may help having the same questions from being repeated.....I repeat MAY HELP

Looking through 100 pages of Q&A when youre only looking for info on say,
shelter or food or even health care (feet, hair, etc)
can become quite a lengthy venture to say the least!

This is what I suggest...(or something to the effect of)

Preparation
Q&A(with sub-catagories such as)
Shelter, How to build,
Showers
Gray water
Food
Cooking
Water
Coolers
Ice/Dry Ice
Alcohol
Health issues(feet, hair, dust)
Bikes
RVs & Campers/Trailers
Lighting
Power(ie generators/solar/batteries)
Music/Radio
Costumes
Crafts
Gifting
How to get there from...?

Of course theres bound to be questions that dont fit into a specific catagory. those may fit into a Miscellaneous header.
Maybe changing the Search function to add searching just the name of the thread would be a quicked solution because trying the search brings up MANY pages and not necessarily the topic you are looking for or you have to search somewhere IN that thread of 100's of pages to find the post or topic you are seeking.

I just noticed that the lost and found topics are sub catagorized similarily to what I suggest.
Thanks for listening Admin.

(or should I just shut up?:))

[theCryptofishist]

I suggest just having a few catagories. Having too many is just like having too few.

[Martiansky]

I suggest just having a few catagories. Having too many is just like having too few.

Very true Fishy, very true.

[spectabillis]

might best to be done after the upgrade, if and when it happens


trying to remember right so i might be off, but if you look at the current topic structure it includes " ePlaya :: Burning Man for the other 51 weeks" that had to be created as an upper layer to the main one. in other words, its not needed for any kind of user thing.

done because when actiongrl and spanky re-worked the topic structure, spanky couldnt get it to take. mysql wouldnt load ANYTHING from phpbb, he couldnt even debug it well despite following all the proper steps. i know that topics are referenced differently in the db, but if they are used as primary keys directly referencing posts, that means a screwup of huge magnitude in not loading the db schema.

that was the only way he could get it to work, creating that new layer. so its a touchy thing, because mods have to change where topics are under it, and i would cringe everytime i did it thinking how easy it was to crash everything.


edit for one additional thing i remembered that shows the vulnerability. when the spambot attacks happened, one of the lethal things they did was trace the last numbers of posts linked to topics. the speed of their queries and inserts by spam posters go across the major topic areas quick, and used to crash a lot of phpbb sites.

started getting used as an attack exploit by a couple of opensource hack tools, before spambot module fixes were released that stopped it. dork installing those modules really saved this place.

[DVD Burner]

**A live chat section**

Unfortunately, this has been done before several times on eplaya.

Just wanted to let you, and thought you should know!

It's been asked for and produced several times.

It take awhile for the majority to catch on sometimes.

[marienbad]

I just searched for "postmodern" and got some threads that (after painstakingly slogging through piles of pages) found don't actually contain the word "postmodern".

Most phpBB boards these days have a feature to search within a thread, rather than just returning a list of threads that supposedly (but don't necessarily) contain your search term.

[jkisha]

I just searched for "postmodern" and got some threads that (after painstakingly slogging through piles of pages) found don't actually contain the word "postmodern".

Most phpBB boards these days have a feature to search within a thread, rather than just returning a list of threads that supposedly (but don't necessarily) contain your search term.

LOL Well, you'll soon find out that this isn't like most boards. The admin are still living in the [s]20th[/s] 19th century.

[gyre]

Search is seriously flawed.
I just searched for a thread that I had found by accident and couldn't find it using the title and posters.
I had to search very generally using someone that posted on it and it finally came up.
So weird.

[BBadger]

Yeah, the search is pretty worthless, and should probably be disabled altogether to not toll on the database as much. Some third-party search like Google's would be better, but given the ads, it would probably fall under commerce.

So it's probably best to just use google's "site:" specifier, for example:

site:eplaya.burningman.com eplaya panhandlers

[C.f.M.]

That's funny, I was just popping in here to say, "Make the search work!"

I usually only use it to post in "stupid questions you could have easily found out yourself" threads, but it still takes some looking through pages to find stuff. Even with specific searches like "contact lens," when I KNOW there is a thread called "contact lens," it just seems to pull up recent threads in no particular order.

But yeah. I have not one single dislike about this board or wish anything was different except for a search function that worked.

[Bay Bridge Sue]

Sorry... it's this coal we use... contaminated with Playa Dust... seems to not burn as well... makes less steam to run the search-o-matic. That and the playa frog skin belts running the various mechanisms are stretching more than expected...

Seriously, tho... I'm also trying to figure out the secret to making the search function (or dysfunction??) work... I caught it picking up similar fractions of words to fractions of the search variable for one I did and came up with a boatload of unrelated stuff...

Hey, in the 19th century, things worked better than this.

[illy dilly]

This is an idea to possibly help deal with all the spammers and maybe take a bit of load off the Mod's shoulders.
Currently there is the "!" report button, this is useful because us user's can hit it, and it will flag it so the Admin can see it to be removed.
My idea is for a button that would alleviate some of the work of the Mods. A button with a "$" sign used to click when a message is only being flagged for spam. The $ sign because typically spam is somehow commercial related, which is not allowed on eplaya. This would keep Spam only flags and other violation flags separate.

Also, maybe if the $ were clicked by a set number of different users in a given amount of time, it would automatically be deleted. It could then be sent to a quarantine to be reviewed by a Mod, when it is convenient for them. The Mod could decide if the post were deleted out of "Flaming" or "hate" or if it is valid Spam.

Of course this tool could be easily abused. So instead of a right, it would be a privilege. If a single user were abusing the privilege for posts that are not spam, they would loose the functionality of the $ button.
Just a thought.

[gyre]

I got search to work well and was going to say so, but my next search was a dead lock and no results.

As usual, found the post anyway, so it hadn't been 'disappeared'.

Works sometimes.

[Bob]

How about a "2012 Aftermath" forum for all the 2012-specific aftermath threads people keep starting in the Experiences, Open Discussion, etc. forums? Good idea or not?

[trilobyte]

I was always told that stuff should go into the Experiences at Burning Man board, but making that year-specific is something to consider.

[BBadger]

I was just about to ask for Ctrl-I/B/U etc. shortcut keys for italic/bold/underline, but I just discovered that I can use Alt-Shift-<key> to do that. For example, Alt-Shift-B for bold.