Suggestions generator

[denise]

Got a suggestion to make Dreamwidth a better place? We've finally got a better thing to do with it than just leaving it as a comment to a dw_suggestions post.

You can now Make a Suggestion. When you fill out that form, it will post an entry into this community's moderation queue. When it's posted, it'll include a simple poll so you can register your opinion quickly, and you'll be able to talk it over in the comments to the post.

Having a suggestion get positive responses doesn't guarantee that it'll be implemented, but we've made it easy to migrate your suggestions into our bugtracking database, and if your suggestion gets chosen for migration, it will eventually get added. I'll be putting through a test suggestion in a few minutes so you can all see what suggestions will look like!

Demonstrate the Suggestions Generator

[denise]

Title:
Demonstrate the Suggestions Generator

Area:
demonstrations

Summary:
We should demonstrate the suggestions generator, so people can see what its output looks like.

Description:
We now have a suggestions generator, as described in http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/791.html . The problem is, it isn't linked anywhere on the site map, because we want to run it through its paces a bit before making it *too* widely known, to make sure that people figure out the best practices for its use (little details like the fact that HTML is stripped/escaped, meaning that <em> and <user name=denise> don't display).

So, we should post a test suggestion, showing people what the output will look like, and inviting the people who are following this community to poke at it a bit. Then, once we're confident that it works the way we want it to, we can add it to various sitemaps here and there.

(I now predict, of course, that everyone will immediately vote that they hate this suggestion in the poll that will accompany this suggestion. Because you're all a bunch of smartasses like that. I say this with the utmost love, you understand.)

Poll #707

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 33

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
11 (33.3%)

Should be implemented with changes.
12 (36.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
5 (15.2%)

(Other: please comment)
5 (15.2%)

Allow a comment to an entry to be sent as a PM

[ivorygates]

Title:
Allow a comment to an entry to be sent as a PM

Area:
entries

Summary:
If we had the option to reply to comments in our own journals in the form of a PM to the person who commented as well as in the form of a comment, it would be cool.

Description:
This is not a problem-solving suggestion. But there are times that you want to respond to a comment privately, either to provide sensitive information or just to tell the person to STFU without embarassing them. Or even to provide sekrit information that the other people reading your journal can't see. And it's a PITA to have to hunt your way over to their journal and construct a PM when you could just have one-touch shopping.

And if doing that didn't unscreen their comment -- if you happen to have all comments screened -- that would be even more awesome! It would be a way to reply to unscreened comments without opening the thread of discourse for general view.

Poll #709

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
15 (38.5%)

Should be implemented with changes.
3 (7.7%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
17 (43.6%)

(Other: please comment)
4 (10.3%)

Split 'give a gift' page into personal accounts and communities

[yvi]

Title:
Split 'give a gift' page into personal accounts and communities

Area:
Shop

Summary:
The 'shop/gifts.bml' page should have two separate lists of free accounts, one for personal accounts and one for community accounts.

Description:
Since most people (I guess), when they visit the Gift page will look for personal accounts to give paid time to, it would be nice if the list could be split so that the alphabetically-sorted free personal accounts come first and then the alphabetically-sorted free community accounts.

This will make the page more ordered, as many people have quite a lot of communities in their circle and right now need to 'sort it in their heads'.

The 'Expiring Soon' section can be left untouched or can be split as well. I assume that there's way less communities showing up there for most users, since having a paid account for communities isn't that much of an advantage yet.

I honestly can't think of drawbacks/problems right now, as three sections won't make the page less clear than two sections, in my opinion.

Implementation shouldn't be too much of a problem and I even volunteer to do it should the suggestion be chosen for implementation ;)

And now I am just hoping this is clear and I didn't forget anything.

Poll #708

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
34 (97.1%)

Should be implemented with changes.
1 (2.9%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

stop turning "lj user=" into a link to a DW account

[kate_nepveu]

Title:
stop turning "lj user=" into a link to a DW account

Area:
markup

Summary:
I have seen at least two people think, quite reasonably, that "lj user" ought to create a link to a livejournal account and been confused and frustrated when it does not.

Remove this source of confusion and frustration by no longer permitting use of "lj user=".

Description:
The syntax "lj user=" is ambiguous. On LJ, it creates a link to (1) an account on that site which (2) happens to be LiveJournal.

Allowing its use on DW permits confusion as to whether it will link to (1) an account on this site (DW) or (2) LiveJournal. Especially since posters can see other people successfully creating LJ account links.

Stop allowing this confusion by removing use of "lj user=".

To help people make the transition to proper syntax, check posts and comments for it as they are submitted. If it appears, return an error message that it is not permitted and provide the correct syntax options.

Poll #725

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 66

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
16 (24.2%)

Should be implemented with changes.
8 (12.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
39 (59.1%)

(Other: please comment)
3 (4.5%)

Number of invite codes on "invite someone" page

[melannen]

Title:
Number of invite codes on "invite someone" page

Area:
invite codes

Summary:
The "invite someone" page only shows up to five invite codes. The page should somehow indicate that you might have more codes than are shown, to prevent confusion.

Description:
The "invite someone" page (linked on standard site scheme pages, so the easiest way to access your invites) only lists up to five invite codes. Nowhere on that page does it mention that you might have more than five unused codes, so I've been convinced for awhile that I only have five (despite the recent distributions.) There is a link to your complete list of invite codes, but it's not clear that it might show more unused codes.

There needs to be (at least) a change to site copy stating that the page only shows the first five. Ideal would be for the "invite someone" page to say "you have * unused codes, go to complete list to see them all," or something like that.

Really amazingly awesome would be for the "invite someone" link on site pages to have the number of unused codes, like the inbox link lists unread messages. That would certainly help inspire me to get moving on handing them out!

Poll #724

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
34 (85.0%)

Should be implemented with changes.
6 (15.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Ancestor links on comment pages

[denise]

Title:
Ancestor links on comment pages

Area:
Comments

Summary:
To have a link that says Ancestor next to the Parent link, which goes to the top of the thread this comment is in.

Description:
When I follow a link to a specific comment (it could be on a post I'm tracking, or a reply to my comment, or a link in a post), I get the thread below that comment, but not the thread above, which is often more relevant. If I click "View comments", there might be dozens or hundreds; if I click Parent, I don't know how many levels I'll need to go up to get the context.

I think it would save bandwidth and possibly database load if there was a link that took you to the top of the current thread, or perhaps (in a long thread) to the point where the original comment collapses.

If it can only be done by looping round the Parent code, it could be database-heavy, but I guess most people who would use it, keep clicking Parent instead so you have the same load spread out over more time and you're drawing the intermediate pages which they don't want.


(Suggested by <user name=susanreads>, who was bitten by the free-user poll bug.)

Poll #726

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
32 (55.2%)

Should be implemented with changes.
25 (43.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.7%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

bug in suggestions generator

[denise]

So, this is why I didn't link it anywhere on the site yet -- of course there's a bug. (That makes my third major bug in this week's code push, sigh.) Free users will currently not be able to post suggestions, because I was wrong about some logic (I thought that all free users could post polls in paid communities; turns out it's only free users that are the maintainers of the paid community.)

The good news is, we decided that instead of taking the poll out, faffing around to make the suggestions generator bypass the security check for who can use polls where, or making a special 'system' poll type that free users could post, we'd just say screw it and give free users the ability to post polls in paid comms. My laziness gets you stuff!

(I'll post again once it's working.)

Notifications and posting via jabber bot

[animone]

Title:
Notifications and posting via jabber bot

Area:
Notifications / Posting

Summary:
A Dreamwidth jabber bot would allow notifications and posting via instant message.

Description:
Currently the only ways to receive notifications are via the DW inbox, or through email. Posting is done through webform, email, or standalone client. I propose creating a Dreamwidth jabber bot that would interface with the notification and posting system to allow both via instant message. Yes, LJ had a jabber bot, but its implementation and features were lacking.

Additionally, a complete XMPP API for common functions (posting, reading, notifications, etc) could allow easy integration with client programs and other very cool features.

Poll #745

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
12 (52.2%)

Should be implemented with changes.
4 (17.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
6 (26.1%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (4.3%)

view=flat

[hahnsrockstar]

Title:
view=flat

Area:
comment pages

Summary:
Can we get a link to open the comment page into flat view so all the comments are opened? Very useful on the comment heavy posts.

Description:
Right now, we can open comment pages in my style or light style. If we could add flat view, it would make it easier to keep up with epic long comment pages. Right now to do this, we have to open in light style then put the ?view=flat in the address and refresh. A link might save some time. It would be up to the reader to follow where the new comments fit in the overall page but for those who are willing to go there, it would be an easy step.

Regardless if you implement this request, you guys rock. Thanks!

Poll #744

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
14 (36.8%)

Should be implemented with changes.
21 (55.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (5.3%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (2.6%)

Show HTML and example text for default crossposting footer on setting page

[yvi]

Title:
Show HTML and example text for default crossposting footer on setting page

Area:
Crossposting

Summary:
It would make it much easier to set up a custom crossposting footer if there were an example to work from, and what better example than the default behavior.

Description:
There should be a box with the full code which would be used for a custom footer to create the default footer, clearly marked as such. I believe the code to be:

This entry was originally posted at %%url%%. Please comment there using OpenID.



Ideally, if there's room, it would be nice to also show the footer this creates with an example URL.

Extra points for a "Preview" button which shows your own custom footer rendered with an example URL substituted appropriately, so a user can quickly confirm that they've done it right without creating a post to test it.

If space is an issue, the expository information could be moved to a help page. If doing so, there should be a direct link to that help page provided in the configuration area.

[Suggestion by marcmagus - posted because Free Users currently can't post here]

Poll #723

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
31 (91.2%)

Should be implemented with changes.
3 (8.8%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

contrast in styles

[hendrikboom]

Title:
contrast in styles

Area:
styles

Summary:
Styles that specify a foreground or background colour should be required to specify *both* a foreground *and* a background colour.

Description:
People sometimes specify, say, that the foreground colour for text should be black. Put that on a browser configured with default inverse video (white foreground on black background), abd you end up with black text on a black page -- completely unreadable.

That said, a single style could even provide two versions of itself, for readers that prefer bright text on dark background and dark text on a bright background. Bright screens are hard on migraine sufferers.

Poll #743

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
9 (64.3%)

Should be implemented with changes.
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (7.1%)

(Other: please comment)
4 (28.6%)