Shoutbox

[Reinardina]

Sorry to have started all this.

It's just me, who has problems with any text that has a slider you have to move to right and left to read it.

I am partially sighted and have problems reading anything. I do not see whole words, just some of the letters, and my brain combines them into a word. Most of the times the guesswork is correct, but not always.

I have to read very carefully, and often return to the word to check it makes sense in combination with the rest of the text.

It is difficult to find the right place immediately. When a sentence is not visible at once,  the moving about to keep track, is even more difficult.

Large chunks of texts are easier to cope with if they are on one line.

That's all there is to it.

A personal request.

Sorry for the bullying.

[Mick]

Moving to site feedback.

OK, this bloomin shoutbox has caused quite a few problems of late, and I for one haven't a clue what to do about it.   As it stands atm, the shoutbox is just that, a place for small shouts.  Links are fine, but tbh it would be an idea to learn how to use text links.  This will keep them short and prevent the horizontal scroll bar in the shoutbox. 

Here's a couple of examples.

Imagine posting this link in the shoutbox, R would be having kittens. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=memory%20cards%20for%20digital%20cameras&sprefix=memory+cards%2Caps%2C193

So you could turn it into a text link like this,

[url=you link address goes here]Your text goes here[/url]

Like,

[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=memory%20cards%20for%20digital%20cameras&sprefix=memory+cards%2Caps%2C193]Memory Cards[/url]

So the end result is a link like this, Memory Cards


In the admin boards we have discussed turning the shoutbox into a place to chat, but I tried this and it just doesn't work, not without recoding the whole thing.   

I would prefer if any full length discussions took place in the forums.  Like we are doing right now.   

[Alfonso_Frisk]

I think some people need to wind their necks in a bit and calm down. I could not give a monkeys chuff how a link looks in the "chat box".
There is an option to turn it off if a user does not like it or how its set up.

[jinky]

Same here. I rarely use shout myself and what is in it doesn`t bother me as I`ll just ignore if not relevant. It never goes wider for me  - just longer if it`s got a link added.

[Oldboy]

Shout box should be used like twitter - short messages only. Anything longer should be in the forums. 

[donoreo]

Shout box should be used like twitter - short messages only. Anything longer should be in the forums. 

I agree and this is a good point.  Can there be a limit put on shouts? 

[Mick]

Shout box should be used like twitter - short messages only. Anything longer should be in the forums. 

I agree and this is a good point.  Can there be a limit put on shouts?

Not without a bit of file editing, there's no actual admin setting for that. I'll add a feature request for this though, as it's a good idea. 

The default character limit is 300, I just tested it.   Twitter is 120 I believe, so what would you recommend?

[Beaux Reflets]

Shout box should be used like twitter - short messages only. Anything longer should be in the forums. 

I agree and this is a good point.  Can there be a limit put on shouts?

Not without a bit of file editing, there's no actual admin setting for that. I'll add a feature request for this though, as it's a good idea. 

The default character limit is 300, I just tested it.   Twitter is 120 I believe, so what would you recommend?

140 would be fine 150 max in my opinion   

[Hinfrance]

Good idea. Twitter is 140 characters, so that or anything less would be ideal.

[Mick]

Twitter is 140 characters

Yeah, I knew that, but was just testing to see if you noticed. 

EDIT: oh, forgot to say, I'll check out the code and see if I can change it.  Thanks guys. 

[Mick]

A limit of 140 characters has been added to the shoutbox, trouble is you can type more than 140 in the text box, but it'll get cut off when you shout.  Not ideal, but haven't found a workaround for this yet. 

[Alfonso_Frisk]

I thought we had renamed it to  "chat box" ?

[2Beers]

Most forums I have been on with shout boxes  have the across the top full width and the actual forum starts below the shout box

[Mick]

Most forums I have been on with shout boxes  have the across the top full width and the actual forum starts below the shout box

You mean like this on my test site. http://cctestsite.info/forums/index.php?action=forum

Personally I hate shoutboxes, and would much rather see people chat in the forums.  This is even more important when people ask techy questions, perhaps when their browser, or computer is playing up, then the discussion gets lost instead of building up a forum full of info.

Amazingly, I put this place together in October 2007, and it's only just recently the shoutbox has started causing so much fuss.  Daft aint it. 

[Oldboy]

Amazingly, I put this place together in October 2007, and it's only just recently the shoutbox has started causing so much fuss.  Daft aint it. 

It must be the seven year itch syndrome.