Please Don't Get Carried Away

Ryan

Well-known member
It's been about 2 weeks now. Things are moving rapidly and shaping up very nicely here. I had a concern early on and that concern still lingers. There have been many cases where I've seen a new feature implemented that looks cool and is flashy, but it interferes with my use of the forums.

Examples

- Multi-Quote
That feature, to me, is for single-quoting, and nothing more. It's fine when quoting one person, but it is not realistic as a multi-quote feature. It's annoying to have to scroll up and down and up and down and up and down to quote multiple people.

- The confirmation dialog on "Mark all forums read"
It's just unnecessary. I know why it was put there - and that's because people were accidentally clicking on the link (myself included) when it was first in the sub-navigation. Problem is, you fixed this accidental clicking by moving the link - you don't need to add a confirmation on top of that.

- The "mini me" avater to indicate you've posted in a thread
When you shrink an avatar down that small and then put it on top of another avatar, it looks like a mess. It's hard to pick out when scanning an entire page, defeating the purpose of the indicator. Also, when you shrink an avatar down that small, it's hard to even tell what it is a picture of. The fact that it's your avatar is a moot point by the time you lean in close to the screen to squint at it. A simple icon is all that is needed there.

- The "bouncy" effect used when zooming to quotes or resizing images
When you click the up arrow in a quote, you're shot up to the original post. When you get to the top, the screen bounces back and forth real quick. It looks cool the first few times, but it gets annoying fast. The same is true for the animation effect when you click on an image that's been resized. Unnecessary animations make me cringe.

- The floating description when you hover over a subforum
The description should just be fixed underneath the title


Now, before you start throwing stones at me...Kier and Mike are doing a lot of things correctly here. There are a lot of flashy features here that I love (member card popups, thrread page number scrolling effect, quick nav in the footer, alerts...). They're being very innovative and cutting-edge. Most times, they're hitting the target, but a lot of times they are not. I understand that in order to be innovative, you've got to be radical. When you are radical, you're going to try stuff that doesn't work, and maybe that's what they're doing.

Not here to argue individual features (there is a separate thread for every one of these). I'm more here to point out this basic trend that I've noticed that features are being add that look cool and hip but aren't very practical. I don't want XF to get bloated with animations, popups, etc. Part of what is so appealing to me about XF is how sleak everything is.

Am I alone? :oops:
 
- Multi-Quote
That feature, to me, is for single-quoting, and nothing more.
It's not supposed to be a multi-quote implementation. It's for quoting single posts, but it just happens to allow you to quote multiple posts. It's not trying to be anything it's not.

- The confirmation dialog on "Mark all forums read"
It's just unnecessary. I know why it was put there - and that's because people were accidentally clicking on the link (myself included) when it was first in the sub-navigation. Problem is, you fixed this accidental clicking by moving the link - you don't need to add a confirmation on top of that.
Putting that confirmation link is a compromise to its position. I think the new position is fundamentally wrong, but others like it there. Given the potential irreversible damage that can occur with an accidental click of this button, a confirmation dialog is not only justified, but in my opinion, absolutely necessary.

- The "mini me" avater to indicate you've posted in a thread
When you shrink an avatar down that small and then put it on top of another avatar, it looks like a mess.
Your opinion is noted. I also see a lot of people who like it.

- The "bouncy" effect used when zooming to quotes or resizing images
When you click the up arrow in a quote, you're shot up to the original post.
This is intended to give you context of how far above the quoting post the original was - something that doesn't happen with a straight # link.
 
But it don't work if you try to quote postings from different pages ...

Well Kier just clarified that the current feature isn't intended to be a multi-quote. Therefore, we should be requesting multi-quote functionality (I guess what would be considered a separate feature) and not complaining about the current feature's lack of functionality.
 
No, you aren't. However, with what I'm seeing crop up in the suggestion forums, my enthusiasm for the software is quickly waning.

Why is that Biker? What are you seeing crop up in suggestions that is causing your enthusiasm for xF to wane?
This isn't a criticism, but an honest question.
 
Multiquote is a nice feature, although indeed it's still missing quoting over pages. The mini avatar is interesting, perhaps not what I would have chosen but unique and nice nevertheless. About the confirmation, just how often do you click mark all read anyway? :/ I seriously dislike it if I click on it by accident, and I hate it way less to press something one more time.
 
Why is that Biker? What are you seeing crop up in suggestions that is causing your enthusiasm for xF to wane?
This isn't a criticism, but an honest question.

There are a few things. First, if the request for the ability to spam your address book with forum invites is implemented, that would be an immediate deal breaker. No wiggle room on that. I'm that firmly against the idea.

The confirmation popup for marking the forum as read is beyond annoying at this point.

I'm seeing a tendency to request more and more "fluff", rather than functional options that would put the software at the top of the list. I suspect this is being done because many want to see the forum software more as a social networking deal like Facebook. As I'm one of those rare individuals who despise Facebook, requesting features of that type is an immediate turn off for me.
 
There are a few things. First, if the request for the ability to spam your address book with forum invites is implemented, that would be an immediate deal breaker. No wiggle room on that. I'm that firmly against the idea.

The confirmation popup for marking the forum as read is beyond annoying at this point.

I'm seeing a tendency to request more and more "fluff", rather than functional options that would put the software at the top of the list. I suspect this is being done because many want to see the forum software more as a social networking deal like Facebook. As I'm one of those rare individuals who despise Facebook, requesting features of that type is an immediate turn off for me.
I can understand that. But please don't let all of that douse your enthusiasm for this software. These are people's requests and opinions, which we can all agree that we are entitled to. However, don't assume that xF is going to get "stuffed with fluff". Mike and Kier are smart and innovative. They have a vision, and I don't see that changing, even tho they are listening to the members and implementing things that will work with what they had in mind from the beginning.
 
There are a few things. First, if the request for the ability to spam your address book with forum invites is implemented, that would be an immediate deal breaker. No wiggle room on that. I'm that firmly against the idea.

The confirmation popup for marking the forum as read is beyond annoying at this point.

I'm seeing a tendency to request more and more "fluff", rather than functional options that would put the software at the top of the list. I suspect this is being done because many want to see the forum software more as a social networking deal like Facebook. As I'm one of those rare individuals who despise Facebook, requesting features of that type is an immediate turn off for me.
I don't understand your logic of holding what users suggest against XF as a whole. You should be judging the product by what suggestions are implemented... not by whatever is merely suggested.

As ridiculous as many of the suggestions have been, you shouldn't be worrying or discounting XenForo's greatness until the ridiculous features actually start appearing in the product.
 
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