| abstract | - __NOWYSIWYG__ Now, having planned this for a few months, it's now time to bring the community up to speed on a brand new UI project for community discussion pages. The scope of the project encompasses changing the user interface for VfD, PQC, and PIC to a more manageable and accessible system to facilitate discussion and moderation. To this end, I would like to trial a more or less completed version of the new UI for the VfD page - currently, the sandbox of the tentative result is found here. Javascript is required to access most of the new automated features, though the base page will still work without it - this will be become doubly important for moderators however, as they will receive features to automatically close discussions by the click of a button, and similarly, automatic archiving of said closed discussions. New discussions will have their format preset, so that there won't be anymore hassle ensuring the formatting and templates are correct from the start. The show/hide features are aimed at controlling longer pages for user convenience, and the move to this new system will finally allow some key templates (mostly talking about the footer template here) to work as intended. On the sandbox page, I have made the example with forum pages, which is not ideal - you can see that there are many red links, since this particular version is geared towards the VfD page, so please disregard that. Other than that, I would like to hear your opinions to whether this, in its current state, should be trialed on the VfD page! Also, this would be prime-time to give any suggestions for improvement. KettleMeetPot • wall 08:20, January 28, 2013 (UTC) Trialling it on the VfD page would certainly be a good idea. Best way to judge if it is worth changing is to try it out for real. That said, I have a few questions about the system: 1.
* Will it be possible to leave comments on multiple discussion at once, or would I have to go through them one by one? I recall a situation before when lots of pages were put up for deletion at once, and it was easier then to be able to comment in one go then leaving basically the same comment multiple times. 2.
* What exactly is the All - Open - Closed link for next to the Show/Hide link. I went through each one, and I saw no difference between what happened. 3.
* When I click the edit button, I get a blank page. Is that supposed to happen? 19:07, January 28, 2013 (UTC) Hmm... For leaving multiple comments, that unfortunately won't be possible atm, though there may be something that can be done about that. The 'open-all-closed' link should work in conjunction with the show-all feature when it is on the VfD page proper; basically, it allows you to pick and choose which discussions you want to show or hide. Same reason why when you click 'edit' you get a blank page, since the page was designed for VfD pages in mind from the very start - the reason why the pages are blank is because the edit link goes to the appropriate VfD page for the included discussion, which do not exist because I was using forum pages in the example, and thus would show an empty page. So, everything, except the 1st point would mitigated in the trial, though I'll see what I can do about the first. EDIT: I have enabled the show/hide all/open/closed feature for the moment, so feel free to try it out. KettleMeetPot • wall 01:52, January 29, 2013 (UTC) I'm having some issues on my Mac, I'll post a screencap soon. Till then I oppose. I'm very confused about how your last response fits into the forum, so why don't you clarify a few things for me? Firstly, why would you just not post a screencap with your response when it was ready? And secondly, before you even know whether the problem can be fixed yet or not, you have, to put it bluntly, insta-opposed a request to trial the new format for VfD, which is logic that I do not follow. Furthermore, you have not attempted to give me any, not even a cursory, description of the problem you may be facing off-the-bat - a screencap is not a very helpful indicator by itself, and I would like some actual information to fix any serious errors as soon as possible. And thirdly... I actually have a second-generation fully-updated Macbook Pro, and the page works and renders perfectly fine on the latest versions of Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Camino, to be fully thorough - so I am at a distinct loss at how there could be any problems with another comparable Mac device. KettleMeetPot • wall 14:57, January 29, 2013 (UTC) I'm facing some bugs as well. My problem is that whenever I click on the "show" button, it says failed to open page, and the url becomes "cursor:pointer", not sure what that means. However, when I click back the issue is fixed, and the forum is shown. However, the same problem occurs when I click hide again, and the url is the same, and when back is clicked again the section is hidden. Here's what the bug screen looks like (I'm using Safari as a browser). If the bugs can be fixed– I'll support as it's neater and more organized. 23:26, January 29, 2013 (UTC) Yes, that's my problem. I'm not signed in right now and as I use wikia to upload photos I couldn't send you a screencap. Sorry if I sounded harsh, I was in a rush but wanted to include my comment. But to clarify, I will support it one the bugs are fixed. I'm seeing the same problem as well, though it appears the bugs are limited to Safari. There doesn't seem to be any issues with Firefox or Chrome. 23:48, January 29, 2013 (UTC) Ok, to all of you getting the show/hide quirk, disable and then re-enable your Javascript, and then see if the show/hide features work. Or alternatively, quit your web-browser and see if it works or not after you go to the page. KettleMeetPot • wall 01:36, January 30, 2013 (UTC) It's working now! I support! 01:43, January 30, 2013 (UTC) Hmm, for some reason it works now. Guess I can support now! I have checked everything out, most all of it seems to work, though I do have one question - I tested the "close discussion" and wound up being directed to a deletion form - is this something else that will also be in regular order when it comes to the VFD? 03:51, January 30, 2013 (UTC) Yes. I'll be informing the moderators of how to use the close discussion function in the near future - but really, most of the editing is automated. All you really have to do is hit publish on the edit form, before hitting delete on the delete form - all the necessary editing changes are scripted out by the program on your behalf to ensure that all tedium is cut down. KettleMeetPot • wall 04:01, January 30, 2013 (UTC) For now, I fully support giving this new format/system a trial run. I think we should test it for a while and then come back and discuss again once we're all familiar with it long-term. -- 03:16, January 31, 2013 (UTC) I have some reservations, most importantly about the close discussion function. I don't see how it's intuitive to have it show to everyone when I think its stated purpose is for some people to be using it. I also don't think that a system that has to be taught to be used properly is necessarily the best idea. I always go by "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and I'm not sure that this is worth the trouble. I also have a few visual design issues, but I guess we can talk about that after we decide whether this functionality is all that necessary. The 888th Avatar (talk) 04:04, January 31, 2013 (UTC) About your first point; log out and view the page. About your second point; it does not have to be taught - the editing for the closed discussion function is all automated i.e it changes the editform to make the necessary additions, and all one has to do is to click publish. And sure, the page itself isn't broken, but at the same time, we can endeavor to improve certain elements. I mean, the page has hardly been radically changed - it works exactly like the previous page for the majority of users. Indeed, one of my aims in this project was to ensure that there would be no radical change in how things are done, and to remove the tedium of maintenance tasks. As for visual design, that may have to be changed yes, since it is not the strongest pro for the page. KettleMeetPot • wall 06:34, January 31, 2013 (UTC)
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