NEW FORUM FEATURES 8-8-17

[tjadmin]

I added a few new forum features.

You can go to your profile and edit it and add a mood. This mood appears when you post, under your name right below your location information.

I also added a feature that tells you the word count of your posts. It will display at the bottom of each post, and you can also see it to the right of a post when using the preview option when composing posts. I do want to say that word count does not matter in the least and there is no contest or prize for the longest posts. It is intended only as a fun thing. I would like to hear how people feel about the word count feature though. I don't want anyone to think it pressures you to write longer posts and if that is how it feels, I can remove it. So please comment and let me know how you feel about it, and we'll decide from there whether to keep it or not.

As a trial I have also added an upload photo feature, to see if it causes any issues by allowing you to upload images. When you compose a message you will see a small P underneath the text box, and text that says Add Image to post. This feature connects to a third party website and allows you to add photos directly from your computer. There is an 800 px x 800 px photo size limit within the posts but I'm not sure how that restriction works with this feature. So please do not load photos larger than 800 px x 800 px. Because it uses a third party site to store the images, it is possible the site is not always going to be available, and that is beyond my control. Also there are terms of use, and you should read them before uploading photos and using that feature. Below is a photo I uploaded using this feature.

That is it for now. Please let me know what you think about the features, or any problems with them.

Sharon

[Daniela]

Hey Sharon,

thanks for your effort. I´m fine with the word cound an don´t think that it puts on any pressure. At least I don´t see it that way. I like the photo feature, it sounds really nice.

[Sinkwriter72]

Thanks, Sharon! It all sounds great.

[tjadmin]

Thank you Daniela. My worry was about non-native English speakers thinking short posts are not welcome. I know that often, if it someone is not comfortable posting in English their messages tend to be shorter, and I wouldn't want anyone to think we don't welcome ANYTHING people want to post (well other than spam ) no matter how long or short. In fact, we don't even care if people post in another language. We'd figure out what it says.

Thanks Sherry!

[Sinkwriter72]

[Daniela]

It´s all good, Sharon. i did not think so. If we have to translate, we probably have some fun sponsored by google translater.

[Lonia]

Hi Sharon,
thanks for the new features. They sound good. I don't mind the "word-counting" feature. Of course I only can talk for myself - but I don't feel like it pressures me to write longer posts.

[ThyneAlone]

Always aiming to improve things, Sharon, I wish I had your energy!
Word count: I think Sherry and I could maybe have a post length competition??

[Sinkwriter72]

Bring it, Steph!

Seriously though, Sharon and I were looking at some of our old posts to see how long or short they were, out of curiosity. And we also found that if you don't post any text, and instead just post a smiley, it counts as zero. So I have actually had a zero word count post! (Most of us probably have, LOL). Heeeee.

The longest I've found of mine so far is a commentary for the Bones episode "Salt in the Wounds" - that was 7222. Though I did write a commentary for "Proof in the Pudding" that was 9889 (but I didn't post it here because back then I didn't want to clog the forum thread so I just linked to it where I posted it on my LiveJournal). Sharon says I should go ahead and post it here. I don't think I've gone longer than 9889, to my knowledge. But I haven't gone through every thread I've ever posted in.

[TJ4ever]

The word count is fun I think! OK - Steph, Sherry, bring it! I'm out of competition!

[Sinkwriter72]

[tjadmin]

So since the mChat has been discovered I will explain a bit about it. I was trying to decide if we needed it since we have the cbox. However there are things the mChat can do that you cannot with cbox.

mChat is available by clicking the link on the top left, it might be in the hamburger menu for regular users, I'm not sure about that.

First off there are some things you can control as a user, which you can see by clicking your user name on the top right and going to your USER CONTROL PANEL and then clicking the mChat tab. You have control over sound, seeing avatars, and a few other things. Because the mChat uses your user information you cannot use mChat without being logged in. You can also edit your messages, and I currently have a 24 hour time limit to edit. There is an option to allow deleting messages but I'm on the fence about allowing that. I think that is something Steph and I need to talk about.

When you use the mChat you can click the BBCodes button and it gives you access to the same things you see when you post a message. The color option, bold, italics, etc, as well as all the smilies that are available when you post, so a lot more than are seen in the cbox. You do have to choose the color for every message because it works just like the post text box where you have to choose a color every time you post.

There is also a button that says Archive which allows you to see older messages, and it will show you pages of older messages, depending on the way I set it.

There is also an option to have it appear embedded within the forum where you can see it, sort of like the way the cbox was before, when it was hanging off the side of the forum, but this is within the forum. Right now that option is turned off but we can review it and decide if you like that better.

[Consuelo]

Thank you Sharon

Consuelo xxx