Posted by jane d on February 4, 2002, at 15:01:25
In reply to Re: Redirect Icon, posted by Dr. Bob on February 2, 2002, at 13:38:11
> Ah, you're thinking I would designate a post as a redirect post when I submitted it, so it would get an icon? Right now, you know, I just put "redirect" in the subject line, otherwise it's like any other post.
I don't really think a separate redirect icon is necessary. On the new page it shows up as a new post anyway. Anyone following the thread on the old page probably knew it would get redirected as soon as you saw it anyway. It's usually pretty predictable. As soon as I see your name on a post at the bottome of the thread I know it has been redirected without reading the message.
> BTW, I've seen other boards where there are lots of different categories of posts, each with its own icon. Questions get a question mark icon, suggestions get a light bulb icon, etc. Any thoughts?
I'd like to get one vote against icons down on the record right away. I've always found pages like that visually annoying. I end up having to put mental effort into blocking out the icons. Furthermore, it makes me feel as though I as back in kindergarten with little pictures taped to all the shelves to show you what goes where. What about continuing to indicate questions with a (non graphical, typed) question mark and the words 'What' or 'Why'? The word 'Suggestion' in a title is quite clear. Apart from asthetics, I have old hardware and an old fashioned dial up modem and therefore I'm against anything that slows down the pages loading. This is a problem for me with most of the other boards I've seen.
For quoting previous posts you could, of course, go with the low tech approach. Instead of putting in menu options for quoting or not you just add a pointer to your FAQ with some basic cut and paste instructions. No programming for you to do, no distracting colors for readers, no endless follow up's on admin about the colors. Of course people would need to add their own quotation marks. That suggestion could be in the FAQ too if need be. This would cut the confusion of who said what in the quotes by the simple method of discouraging the quotes in the first place.
The single biggest obstacle to effectively editing posts for me is the small size of the posting window. For long posts I usually move the contents to a notepad file and move it back when I'm done. Perhaps a how to on this as well? There must be a Mac equivalent since we all know Macs and Mac users are superior :-)
Jane
poster:jane d
thread:2740
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20011216/msgs/2842.html