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User Requests Quest

by vroom (His Eminence)
on May 01, 2000 at 06:19 UTC ( [id://9775]=quest: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??
Quest starts at:May 01, 2000 at 04:00 UTC
Quest ends at:May 07, 2000 at 04:00 UTC

This quest has ended

This is your chance to yell and holler about all of those things that you'd like to see on this site.
    Some Ideas:
  • How do I do X?
  • New Features
  • Added documentation on X
  • New Voting/Experience Ideas
  • And anything else you think would be helpful, clear up confusion, or add value to this site.
Just add notes below this node with all of your wonderful ideas.
After this week I'll be done with exams and hopefully have a chance to add all kinds of enhancements you might suggest. (Not that I don't already have my long to-do list)
I'll even give you XP bonuses based on the quality of your ideas. (only if you're the first to list it though)

Winners:
1st Place: turnstep 21 XP points + 30 Award Points
2nd Place: Zzamboni 12 XP points + 20 Award Points
3rd Place: chromatic 11 XP points + 10 Award Points
vroom

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: User Requests Quest
by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 01, 2000 at 06:45 UTC
    Hmm, isn't the Everything Engine written in Perl? Aren't we Perl Monks? Seems like some of us could add features on our own.

    Why don't you list some of the things you want to have done and let a couple of monks take on each one.

    (For those of you who have used the Password Mailer, vroom and I each wrote part of that, way back when.)

User Requests Quest - CSS "themes"
by BBQ (Curate) on May 02, 2000 at 10:38 UTC
    I have only one design idea... Let each user build his/her own CSS style. I even have the idea on how to implement this with minor growing pains, although it would require that all of the bgcolor, color, etc tags be replaced with class="whatever" tags. On the HTML side, we could do a
    <head> <title>$current_node</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/style.pl?style=$user_pk" + title="Default Styles" media="screen"> </head> <body class="myBody"> <!-- ... and so forth... -->
    and on the database side, a table like
    create table user_styles ( user_pk varchar2(x) primary key references whatever.user_pk, mybody varchar2(32), mytable varchar2(32), mytr varchar2(32), mytd varchar2(32), myth varchar2(32), mylink etc, etc, etc, );
    I'm not sure I'm making myself clear, but if you need a sample with source I can soupe something up... (and if you need a reference on my so called design skillz, please check out my website.

    #!/home/bbq/bin/perl
    # Trust no1!


    updated idea:
    ...and if you don't feel like creating your own style, you could always select from a library of presets and/or have a "dropdown" or something for other monks themes.

    Maybe even a "most popular themes" thingy...
      Good idea.

      And I don't think it woud be so much changes to the HTML code; you just have to link the CSS file and the browser does the rest..

      nice website btw.

      /wonko

RE: User Requests Quest (kudra: comments linked to votes)
by kudra (Vicar) on May 02, 2000 at 17:14 UTC
    As I am quite sure I haven't explored the entire site yet, my comments may already be implemented. If so, advance apologies for needless blathering.

    A recent discussion mentioned people giving out minus votes without saying why they were doing so. If there is a simple way to make a comment related to your plus or minus vote I haven't noticed it. I don't mean replying to the posting, as what you say might be off-topic.

    For example, if person A asks about interfacing with a relational database, and person B responds with detailed descriptions of how to do it in MySQL, I might want to at least mention to person B, even if I don't vote about it, that in the spirit of multiple ways of doing things, it would be nice to at least make passing mention of other databases.

    A comment like this probably doesn't help person A. I'm not sure if it helps person B, either. But I'd rather make my comment and no vote than give person B a silent minus. My reason for considering the information inaccurate is in this case fairly personal.

    And if someone thinks that this post sucks and I should lose exp for ever saying anything against MySQL, I'd kind of like to see what's being thought about my post. Is there some way to see how your experience has been acquired (or lost), such as number of points from votes compared to quests compared to logging in?

    I would like some way to agree with something that has been stated without making an annoying 'me too' post. Sometimes someone posts something that completely states my opinion (such as with the current guru-exp issue) that I want to express agreement with it. Yes, I can give it a plus vote, but that might also mean that I consider the post well-written, even if I don't agree with it. This might make things too complicated, since it's probably what the voting system was designed to cover, in part. The comments thing would probably take care of this well enough.

      I know this is probably my fourth or fifth "I concur" writeup, but... I concur.

      This goes along with what I think makes a good site: Not only a vote++, but a "value-added" vote.

      Anyway, upon retrospect, I should have named the node something other than "Voting." Maybe we should be allowed to rename the initial writeup?

User Requests Quest - Posting Ideas
by turnstep (Parson) on May 01, 2000 at 18:50 UTC

    Some ideas and thought about posting:

    • Standardize! Sometimes experience shows before hitting "Submit", sometimes after. Some places show you your post, as it appears on the page, after you post, some only show the TEXTAREA box.
    • Have a link to instructions (or put them below the TEXTAREA box, with a note to look below) These should explain everything about posting, especially how to do CODE, < vs. &lt;, linking and how to create actual [non-linking brackets], etc.
    • Have some error checking to eliminate empty posts, even something as simple as just checking for a 0 length post
    • Allow posting as "Anonymous Monk" when you are logged in, if so desired.
    • Make the TEXTAREA box bigger! Perhaps have it go full-screen, then start the table with the boxes on the right.
    • Have intelligent parsing of brackets - perhaps a common escape code like an asterick as the first thing after an open bracket indicates that it is NOT a link.
    • Allow a way to link to specific nodes by number!
    • Explain what that "position" field is that sometimes appears below the "title"
    • Allows other places to do the automatic line numbering, like Craft does.
    • Detect people who did not use the CODE tags automatically, perhaps by flagging lines...well, ok this would be very complicated. But still possible.
    • Warn users who have very long lines that cause my browser to create a very large and annoying window. :)
    • Make the TITLE box larger (hrmm..looks like it does not even have a size now. Sizing it larger (like perhaps 40) should be safe, as the TEXTAREA below it is set to 60 (which should be larger too - see above)
    • Allow a standard "sig" to appear in the TEXTAREA box for those that use them in every post
RE: User Requests Quest
by zaphod.nu (Scribe) on May 02, 2000 at 00:40 UTC
    A tutorial wishlist!

    Colors that you can acctually read!

    Again, colors that you can read

    Coding challenges, like "A script that does foo and is under bar bytes"

    A scoring system for the writeups, that makes everyone able to see the actual score and sort the writeups after it (a la slashdot)

    Free beer
      I second the idea of Free Beer!
        Ok, WHO voted in the negative for FREE BEER?!
RE: User Requests Quest
by perlmonkey (Hermit) on May 01, 2000 at 08:09 UTC
    I like chromatic's idea. Maybe if we compile a wish list we then anyone with an idea can contribute. Maybe put the source on an open server and run a dev webserver on perlmonks.com:88 using the dev tree? Of course have the code for public checkout, but really restrictive checkin. I assume you have thought about open sourcing it if it is not already?

    Maybe we could merge some of the features of /. into this code since the slashcode has been released?

    One of the /. features I like is the up/down arrows on the nodelet type boxes so you can reposition the boxes into the order you want. Also having the extra boxes (like to userfriendly) is a nice feature.

    A different issue would be maybe adding a wishlist for the tutorials so we can write to what users actually want.

    Maybe a more extensive chat type thing would be interesting. Chatterbox is cool, but pretty limiting. I think this idea has been mentioned before though.

    Well, that is my 1/4 cent (after taxes).
      I think all of these ideas are outstanding, especially the putting the development of the site into the monks hands.

      Ordering the sections would be a good idea as well. (Ordering of the Sections)

RE: User Requests Quest
by infoninja (Friar) on May 01, 2000 at 17:25 UTC
    I'd like there to be a way for a user to delete one of their writeups.
RE: User Requests Quest
by Adam (Vicar) on May 06, 2000 at 02:41 UTC
    How about some kind of mechanism to alert you when some one has replied to a post you maintain? That way you know if a question has been answered or a response commented on without having to check each post.
RE: User Requests Quest
by Adam (Vicar) on May 01, 2000 at 20:49 UTC
    Perl Monks is a great web site, there is a huge wealth of information and a fun/friendly environment. As for suggestions: I have several things, many of which have already been mentioned, but I'll repeat for emphises. Some I think are new though:
    1. The chatterbox ideas previously mentioned are great.
      • Being able to view older messages would be good. Sometimes I get distracted and miss a huge part of a conversation. Maybe a scroll bar would be appropriate.
      • Being able to put the chatterbox in a separate window with a meta refresh is a great idea. But don't make it the only choice. Remember TIMTOWTDI!
    2. Some one suggested cleaning up the dark color scheme. I think it would be cool to customize our own color schemes. But I suspect that it would not be easy to implement.
    3. Add a place for users to post links to other good perl resources.
    4. I like the 'Stumbit' buttons. Don't change that.

RE: User Requests Quest
by perlcgi (Hermit) on May 05, 2000 at 21:55 UTC
    This suggestion might have been made already, but I don't think so. It would be great to see the original message when one offers a reply. Its a pain to fire up another window to view the original. Using the browser forward and back buttons is a also a pain and recipie for blank posts.
      I've just gotten into the habit of opening all links as "Open in New Window" but this would be a very nice feature. Also, sometimes after you submit you get to see your own formatted post and the textarea edit box for changes, but sometimes you only get the textarea box.
User Requests Quest - Chatterbox Ideas
by turnstep (Parson) on May 01, 2000 at 17:59 UTC

    (Mmmm..user interfaces are a particular love of mine, so be warned, I will probably post a lot.)

    Thoughts and ideas about the chatterbox:

    • Have it float to the top when you have a personal message.
    • Have it float to the top when "active."
    • Have a different font color for personal messages.
    • Put a "how to" link next to the "Chatterbox" title that goes to a well written intro on how to use the chatterbox, especially on how to msg people.
    • Is there a way to check off your personal messages without clicking "talk?" Should there be? Perhaps rename "talk?"
    • Allow the chatterbox to open as a separate full screen node, showing a larger history of recent talks, and allowing more control
    • The ability to block certain users from talking to you (hopefully, never be needed, but history says otherwise)
    • In the full screen mode mentioned above, allow an optional META REFRESH
    • Keep the most recent talking longer. I have many windows open and often miss some of the dialogs.
    • Have a red line appear (or some other marker) that appears right below the latest "post" you've read, when it gets busy.
    • Allow a way to see recent messages that have disappeared - perhaps by invoking the full-screen mode. However, I would not advocate having an "archive", i.e. don't allow seeing conversations that occured when you were not logged in, as they tend to be very topical and transient.
    • Perhaps maintain a log of your private messages.
User Requests Quest - Appearance Ideas
by turnstep (Parson) on May 01, 2000 at 19:10 UTC
    Some notes and ideas about the layout/appearance:
    • I like the customized themes. Just please clean up the "Dark" theme as parts of it are still light and very hard to read
    • Allow easy rearrange of link boxes (sections, information, etc...)
    • Don't make the code a -1 font by default
    • Allow more customization in general. More is better!
    • Automatically wrap posts that are too large for their own good
    • Allow a "no link boxes" version for those who would rather just view content and have navigation aids appear vertically adjacent, not horizontal
    • Make the main table width greater than 95% - I have significant "wasted space" on the right hand side.
    • Allow the poll box to disappear if you have already voted once. Perhaps just a simple text link to the results.
    • (quick plug) I really, really like the dark theme - if you haven't tried it, do so.
    • Make all the images PNGs
    • Have a section to suggest changes and bugs, separate from Perl Monks Discussion
    • Revamp the whole "Report a Bug" sectoin. I could write a whole new node on it, but basically, it has no directions, takes too many clicks, and does not default to a "new" "perlmonks".
    • As mentioned above, many links are doubled, especially those in the "sections" box.
    • Don't allow blank titled nodes - you can't click on them!
    • Have the "requests for the editor" posts be optionally private, so you can leave a private message to an editor.
    • Have a better, consolidated "Welcome" page, with a single, clearly-written FAQ answering all questions about posting, voting, linking, purpose, experience, etc.
    • Allow more than one personal nodelet, and allow them to be named. Alternatively, allow control of the standard nodelets (link boxes) - name change, add and delete links, etc.
RE: User Requests Quest
by cciulla (Friar) on May 02, 2000 at 13:59 UTC
    On the home node, Writeups Section, it would be nice to see a column containing how many replies one has received.
RE: User Requests Quest
by httptech (Chaplain) on May 01, 2000 at 16:39 UTC
    I'd like to have an indexed page of all the newest nodes, ordered by newest first, to make it easier to find quality stuff to vote for. So much stuff seems to be hidden a few levels deep that I'm more likely just to read the first few questions on the first page and vote for mediocre responses than to seek out better answers to other nodes.

    Yes, I'm lazy, but that's a good thing, right?

    Also I'd like to be able to customize the display of the site to my preference. At least give me a couple of style sheets to choose from. Or let me create my own.

RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 01, 2000 at 18:19 UTC
    I first want to say that PerlMonks has become an addiction to me. I spend my day checking for new stuff and seeing where I could contribute something. This is very cool. Keep up the good work, everyone!

    That said, here's my list (I know, some of these have already been mentioned, but then vroom can see we really want those things :-)

    • Ability to rearrange the nodelets (up/down buttons, or something similar)
    • Ability to put the nodelets on the left ( to be able to get easily at them when the page is too wide because of code in it)
    • A separate page for the chatterbox. Maybe you could make it have an auto-reload thing so that it gets continuously updated. I wouldn't vote for a Java-based thing, though. Simple HTML is probably enough.
    • A page where you can see a configurable number of writeups (from all users) sorted by reputation.
    • Wider and taller boxes for typing! I think taller is more important than wider.
    • Ability to submit entire files to the code catacombs instead of having to cut-and-paste everything.
    • A link in the code catacombs for downloading the file. Similar to the previous point.
    • After editing a snippet, there is no way to see it in its new state. You have to go through "snippets" and reselect it, or go back using the browser's history and reload. It would be nice to have a link to your snippet's page in the screen that appears after you edit it.
    • A "null vote" button next to the "+" and "-". Sometimes I click on one of them and then change my mind about voting for that piece. Currently, once you click on a voting check box, the only way to avoid voting is to reload the page.
    • After you comment on a writeup, it gives you a link to the writeup you replied to, even if that was a reply. I think the link should be to the "top level" writeup on whose thread you commented.
    • If a search term looks like a module name (:: in its name) and nothing is found locally, redirect the search to CPAN.
    • If a search term starts with "cpan:", redirect the rest of the term to CPAN.
    • If a search term starts with "perldoc:", produce the result of running "perldoc" on the rest of the term, on a well-loaded Perl installation. I'm sure you have one of those :-)
    • Better "getting started" documentation. Guide to the Monastery and Perl Monk Procedures are good, but you still have to figure out many things on your own, like:
      • The special features of the search box ("perlman:blah", for example).
      • The concept that nodes can be found by their name alone. Not all of us are familiar with The Everything Engine when we first come here.
      • That things on the front page are not necessarily the newest nodes. You have to go look in each section (or check the Newest nodes page) to actually see the latest things people have entered.
    This is it for now. As I think of more things, I'll post them here.
User Request Quest - Navigation Ideas
by turnstep (Parson) on May 01, 2000 at 18:31 UTC
    Random notes and ideas regarding navigation:
    • Have the "Newest Nodes" link at the top of the leftovers box, and even better, at the upper right menu - I know that this is one of the links I use the most anyway.
    • Nest everything on newest nodes so that it is easier to see what the nodes are replying to. It is especially difficult when people do not use standard titles (this node itself is guilty of that, but at least it is not one of the "Re: " (and nothing else) nodes.
    • Remove the "Sections" box as it is almost an exact duplicate of the upper right hand menu. Same thing for "log xxx out" in the leftovers box. Or add the "username" link to the leftovers box for consistency.
    • Viewing the nodes that a person owns (the writeups) is a bit confusing as far as "last 50" and "first 50" - it is not intuitive, and nothing tells you which block of 50 you are viewing at the time.
    • Find a way to resolve the "multiple nodes drunk" problem, especially when there are a lot of replies to a single question that all have the same name.
    • Allow an easier way to link to nodes, i.e. by nodenumber, or by abbreviation (e.g. SOPW instead of Seekers of Perl Wisdom)
    • I really like the personal nodelet. Just thought I'd mention that. :)
    • From the newest node page, as well as other places, put a link that allows the whole "thread" (mother node plus replies) to be opened instead of just that particular node - in other words, allow the monks to see the reply in context, if they are unfamilar with (or forget) the original and previous nodes.
RE: User Requests Quest
by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 02, 2000 at 06:08 UTC
    I'd like to see an Export Node to E-mail feature. (Shouldn't be too hard to write -- there's an Export Node to XML feature that works pretty handily).

    It would also be interesting to see a writeup/experience ratio. Everything 2 requires that certain experience levels have an appropriate number of writeups. There goes vroom's apotheosis, though.

    Maybe honorary titles?

      This would be very nice. I asked precisely this some time ago, but it didn't get a very enthusiastic response. My justification for this feature is that some times I find things here that I would like to store locally. Right now, I have to cut and paste. It would be great if I could email myself the whole node (which could include a whole thread, a single response, a tutorial, or whatever), which would hopefully format it nicely.
RE: User Requests Quest
by cciulla (Friar) on May 01, 2000 at 16:35 UTC
'Finish the Code' contest
by burnboy (Beadle) on May 03, 2000 at 06:46 UTC
    An Idea that just popped into my head that would get people thinking Perl could be a 'Finish the Code' contest. Someone could enter code that is incomplete and everyone would try and finish the code, making it run the most effeciently. Whoever turns in the best code would get a certain amount of XP, but I think each entry should get at least 1 XP point.
    Maybe it could be 1 XP for turning in incomplete code and/or making an entry, 5 XP for it being chosen, and 10 XP for having the best completed code.

    This sounded good in my head, someone tell me if this is a good/bad idea to get the voices to shut up, please.

      Thats not a bad idea. I think it would be cool if we had some sort of code contest. Either a 'complete the half baked' contest or a more defined obfuscated contest: Something where contestants submit a code restricted by number of characters and lines which does something specific (other then print JAPH).
RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 03, 2000 at 09:02 UTC
    One small thing I just thought of: have a way of embedding code without it starting a new line. Sort of an <icode> tag (for "inline code") that does what <code> does but putting things inside <tt> instead of <pre>.
Request for Tutorials
by cei (Monk) on May 03, 2000 at 11:11 UTC
    I for one would like brief tutorials on how the "Other Users" and "Chatterbox" are coded -- what determines the persistance of users in the Other Users box or how long a message stays in Chatterbox; how they are stored; how they are expired; etc.
RE: User Requests Quest
by buzzcutbuddha (Chaplain) on May 01, 2000 at 21:11 UTC
    Vroom, didn't you just say in a Node about a week ago that you have exams
    coming up soon? Well at least you will be busy for the summer.
    I would be open
    to working on a node, if you are open to extending this work to newbies.
    I think it would be a great learning tool. Sort of a mentoring thing where I code
    what I think is a good solution and then monks of higher stature look over it and correct
    glaring errors and help me and others learn more. :)
      Hi,
      Letting a newbie maintain a website like this.
      That would be a joke. Coding and trying should be done on things
      where there's no prob when something gets wrong...

      No offence intended...

        I agree that letting newbies actually put their code into a 'prodution' environment would be disastrous.

        But I think it would be great for newbies to be able to view the source and make changes on their own systems. If they think they are on to something then they can submit a patch for a more advanced monk to approve and checkin to a source tree.

        I helped teach intro programming courses and I found that a newbie often had excellent ideas because his/her mental slate was clean. I think most of us get stuck in little programming paradigms that are hard to see out of. Sometimes a fresh look at problems (no matter what the skill level) can be extremely advantageous.
        The basic code is available from Everything Development Company. vroom's made a few customizations here and there (special nodetypes, mostly), but just about anyone with a Un*x box and MySQL can get a test site going.
        I've been thinking maybe it would be alright to have an area on the website (not front and center), where newbies could practice development, and show off their newly aquired skills.
RE: User Requests Quest
by turnstep (Parson) on May 01, 2000 at 23:53 UTC
    A quick thought: I hope that nobody is allowed to create usernames like "you" (i.e. "Maintained by you!"), "Meditations", "Craft", etc. Otherwise the standard links could fail!
RE: User Requests Quest
by Simplicus (Monk) on May 03, 2000 at 17:15 UTC
    I would like to see a "weekly assignment" node, where a programming excercise would be posed and we could post our code in answer to it. I guess it's the academic in me...
    Simplicus
      The idea of weekly or monthly assignments/code contests/whatever seems like a great idea. Right now I do a lot of perl coding, but the company I work for is switching to another language (I won't tell you what it is in order to protect the innocent ;->), so having something to code would be nice. I want to keep my perl skills in order, and a lot of people who try to learn programming need this kind of thing, as well.
      I'm a total, *very very* perl newbie, eager to learn, but often not finding the adequate problem/exercise to work on. Idea of weekly contest/assignment/etc is great, and in my opinion it'd be even better if such exercises could be given according to perl programming experience. Give us, newbies, something to work on, something even monks with the least knowledge can do.
RE: User Requests Quest
by mojotoad (Monsignor) on May 02, 2000 at 23:22 UTC
    Just a couple of niggles: When I "Stumbit" or Submit, I generally land back in the editor page rather than back where I initially invoked the reply. Also, it would be nice to see what the defaults for the settings are -- when I go to change them, the defaults aren't visible.
RE: User Requests Quest
by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 05, 2000 at 23:17 UTC
    One last-minute idea that just came to me. We have the Categorized Q&A section for Perl questions, why not something similar for Perl Monks / Everything Engine / Best Practices questions? E2 has Everything University for that purpose.

    There are enough of us who've been using this site regularly that we could come up with user-oriented documentation fairly quickly. Just make sure that it's available by default where anonymous and new monks will see it (add a link to a couple of superdocs, maybe a nodelet), set it up so that higher level monks can each adopt a particular question and concatenate the best responses, and have a go at it.

RE: User Requests Quest
by Adam (Vicar) on May 03, 2000 at 04:41 UTC
    I had another idea today. I originally posted it here, but then I realized it qualified for this quest. It has to do with the whole saint hood debate. Maybe we need a better formula for determining saint hood. Alas, it would involve differentiating posts into three (or four) categories:
    1. Question.
    2. Answer.
    3. Comment
    4. (null)
    Then each post type could be treated differently. We could adjust the XP (and the Saintlist) to encourage posting Questions and Good Answers, and avoid overlly rewarding the Comment's, like "This was cool!" (In other words, its ok to post that kind of thing, but it shouldn't increase your XP or anything.)
RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 11, 2000 at 21:32 UTC
    Another one: it has been mentioned before that it would be nice to be able to download code from Snippets and Code Catacombs directly, without having to copy-and-paste everything. So how about this general mechanism:

    Make the <code> tag automatically add a link right before the code that says "(download this code)" or something like that, where you can click to get that piece of code directly. Using this you could download snippets, obfuscated code, or whatever. It could be made to add the link only to things longer than one line to reduce clutter (one-liners are easy to cut and paste anyway).

    --ZZamboni

RE: User Requests Quest
by Anonymous Monk on May 01, 2000 at 16:06 UTC
    1. I'd like to be able to change my username

    2. I love to see a _cool_ frontend to the CPAN. Sometimes I ask myself: don't they use perl at the CPAN? It's so uncomfortable

    3. Looking back, it took me a while to find out how to write comments (using HTML...). I finally read the Guide *g*. There are two ways to get out of this, I think:
    a.) Have a little description on how to format text under the textfield (maybe switchable in the user-settings by the "experienced-user" option or after gaining some XP).
    b.) Change the formatting to something more usual (of course I prefer method a)

    4. Talking about the textfield: it should definetly auto-fill (breaking lines when I reache the right end)

    5. I'd like to stop the monks-pics switching (ok, this is not _that_ important ;-) If there is already a switch in the user-settings that I haven't discovered yet, consider this never written..

    I guess that's for now...
    regards
    StefKa
RE: User Requests Quest
by lhoward (Vicar) on May 05, 2000 at 20:07 UTC
    How about a duplicate/empty response detector.

    Before accepting a response it would verity that it was non-empty !~/^\s*$/s and that a post with the same contents wasn't already posted about the same subject by the same user.

      One problem is that the 'comment on' link (below the original post) has a displaytype of display, while the 'reply' link (off to the side) has a displaytype of edit. Using the second appears to create a new, blank writeup and then allow you to edit it. The expected behavior is to display the edit box and then create the note.

      At least, that's how I guess vroom has it set up.

RE: User Requests Quest
by lhoward (Vicar) on May 07, 2000 at 18:05 UTC
    How about expanding the "perlman:lib:index" page (or adding another page in the Library) to include the POD2HTML docs for every module on CPAN. What is there now is good, but it would be fantastic if all modules were listed. It would let me easily put links to module documentation in whenever I reference a module in a post.
RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 03, 2000 at 10:31 UTC
    Another thing: if it becomes possible to search for nodes by reputation (say, be able to list the 10 top nodes, independent of who posted them) then it becomes necessary to allow voting for Anonymous Monk postings. Although no one would get XP from those votes, good nodes would get reputation anyway, which would allow them to be found when searching by reputation.
RE: User Requests Quest
by nuance (Hermit) on May 08, 2000 at 02:32 UTC
    Yes, yes I know the quest is closed, but I just discoved something really annoying and I thought this was the best place to put it since you're going to be reading these :-)

    It would be areally good idea if when the node opens for a reply, there way some way to see the text of what you are replying to. This would make pasting in bits of other's comment much easier.

    Also when you are at the end of your comment, the cursor takes you right off the end of the node into the scroll bar or the submt button :-( that really sucks! it would be better if the cursor was bound in the node.

    And actually it appears to be bound in this node while I'm editing it, I don't know why that's not consistant, maybe it's my browser that's broken. If it's not can you fix the site please.

    Thanks

    Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord, singing "Subtle plans are here again!"

RE: User Requests Quest
by reptile (Monk) on May 03, 2000 at 22:26 UTC
    I think that on the Newest Nodes page it should give the creator of the nodes. I don't know, I just like seeing something credited without having to go out of my way.
    To err is human, to moo bovine.
    
      Maybe a combination of the two? Both the author and the title of the writeup?
        errrr yeah. That's what I meant. Was I confusing?
RE: User Requests Quest
by gregorovius (Friar) on May 04, 2000 at 04:26 UTC
    I'd like to be able to post voting booth questions, and have a section where all these live. The most recent one could appear in the front page voting booth. If the poster makes a technical (versus cultural) question then he/she could have the option of requiring a justification with every vote (to keep people from voting when they're only acquainted with one of the options).

    Example:
    Should I use HTML::Embperl or HTML::Mason? a) HTML::Embperl b) HTML::Mason c) none of them Why? __________________ SUBMIT
    The section could be called something like "user polls" and would allow you to vote on all the most recent polls, and would show you the results of them after you vote or when expanding each individual node.
RE: User Requests Quest
by toadi (Chaplain) on May 02, 2000 at 11:11 UTC
    Have been thinking about some other things.They're mostley style.

    The navigation should be put on the left side. This is the westernt world where people start reading form the left.
    So put the most important thing on the left !

    Strip the navigation, to many things on them(sometimes double).

    You're alignment of the tables from the header with the body and the navigation is sometimes wrong.

    The darktheme is nice, but the sloppy thing is that the pictures are made transparent to white!!

    Maybe I will see something later<BR<
    --
    My opinions may have changed,
    but not the fact that I am right

      There is one very good reason to keep the navigation to the right; the scrollbar is on the right side, and i am too lazy to move the mouse that much ;o)

      /wonko

      I think the most important part of perlmonks is the write-upd, not the navbar. Having the navbar on the right allows me to more easily ignore it if need be....perhaps allow for users to set (for themselves) which side they want the navbar to appear on ?
        I would also like to see all pages organised so that they actually fit on the page without requiring sidways scrolling of the browser window. (I usualy use Netscape and am not running a stupidly thin window In fact it is usally quite wide.. ) Ideally this could be an option too.

        Do you want:

        • Nodlets on Left
        • Nodelets on Right
        • Nodelets off edge of screen.
        • No Nodelets at all, they bug me.
RE: User Requests Quest
by turnstep (Parson) on May 05, 2000 at 17:06 UTC

    Some random thoughts, based on the last couple days:

    • In "Craft", the preview button does not auto-format and number the code the way that "New" does
    • Things submitted in Craft (and perhaps other places) is still sent as GET, not POST, leading to a really, really long URL being created
    • Sometimes I show up on the list of "Other lurking" and sometimes I do not (yes, while logged in)
    • Better filtering of tags within posts, especially closing table tags, which can really mess up a page.
    • Clarification of the difference between Craft and Code Catacombs. Perhaps consolidating them?
    • Thanks to vroom for already making some of the changes already suggested on this quest!
RE: User Requests Quest
by perlcgi (Hermit) on May 06, 2000 at 12:39 UTC
    It's been done elsewhere, but what about the definitive Perl one-liners database of the useful/cool/bizarre?
RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 08, 2000 at 18:58 UTC
    Although the quest has ended, here it goes: how about having several different headlines.rdf files. For example, have the standard one with the last X (10, 12, whatever) newest nodes. Also have one with the new nodes for the last day, the last 2 days, last week, etc. If the names are nicely standardized, it would make it easy to write automatic headline grabbing tools for different periods of time (or number of nodes).
RE: User Requests Quest
by Maqs (Deacon) on May 03, 2000 at 16:22 UTC
    The idea of that site is very valuable. I was really amused by experience/level and other MUD-things
    (you know Multi User Dimensions :). In my humble oppinion, the site administration must be consentrated
    in the hands of its admin- so called democracy would bring harm. But.. the wish-list would be hardly
    desired. Better exp/voting system could theoretically resul in gaining a certificate morriring the
    knowledge of Perl of most advanced monks here :)
RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 11, 2000 at 09:48 UTC
    Ok, here's another one. I noticed that each reply to a reply gets a new "RE:" at the front, so that deep nodes are named "RE: RE: RE: Re: something". I think it would be better if, in the tradition of email, a new Re: was not added if one is already there. Just to make things more readable.

    Although it does serve a purpose: when you see nodes in Newest nodes, for example, you can get an idea of how deep in the discussion each node is from the number of Re's it has. This could be done with having a single Re: followed by a number in parenthesis indicating its depth. So the first reply gets "Re: something", a reply to that gets "Re(1): something", etc. Just a thought.

    --ZZamboni

RE: User Requests Quest
by chowda (Initiate) on May 02, 2000 at 02:23 UTC
    Just for fun could Anonymous Monk gain XP?
      Nope.

      Addendum

      Now that this writeup has a Rep of -2, I figured that it was time to go find a non-flippant answer to this question, lest more "We are not amused" monks find the need to vote--.

      I've spent about 15 minutes looking for where it actually spells out that Anonymous Monks do not gain experience, and I've come up with nada.

      However, if one looks at Anonymous Monk, one will note that this user has not received any experience despite the fact that he/she/it has, at the time of this writing, 981 writeups.

      Therefore, one can reasonably ass-u-me that an Anonymous Monk cannot receive experience within the current configuration of perlmonks.

      Conversely, it is within the realm of the possible (but improbable) that this may change in the future.

      In conclusion, I refer any future voters to the top of this writeup for the answer to Just for fun could Anonymous Monk gain XP?

RE: User Requests Quest
by infoninja (Friar) on May 05, 2000 at 00:57 UTC
    I think that the current XP system is weighted a bit too heavily towards giving XPs for voting -- if I understand the XP system as it currently stands, once someone reaches level 2, they can reach level 3 12 days later (max), solely by virtue of using all of their votes every day. I'm all for rewarding users for voting, but I think it would make more sense to reward users for good writeups than for voting...
RE: User Requests Quest
by toadi (Chaplain) on May 01, 2000 at 14:00 UTC
    Hi,

    The voting/XP is just right I think. The chatterbox is nice, but it deserver a own page I think.
    Sometimes it's hard to find the different subjects and maybe some other lay-outing could be used...
    What I mean is I like to see everything at 1 glance. Sometimes I got the feeling not everything looks and feels in place.
    It's better to visualize things: like the replies on the replies this could be more visual so you could see right away it's comment on a reply.

    If you want some more pointers ask me, I'm a webmaster of proffesion.
    --
    My opinions may have changed,
    but not the fact that I am right

RE: User Requests Quest
by perlcgi (Hermit) on May 03, 2000 at 15:26 UTC
    Amazon lists 106 different Perl books. Many, of course, are practically worthless and some are out of print. However I suspect that there are some real nuggets out there beyond the obvious O'Reilly's Llama, Camel, Twin Owls and Manning's/Conways OO book. So, how about a Bibliophile's section, to elicit reviews of the hidden treasure out there. Sure, some reviews are available on Amazon, but most are too brief to be really useful. Motivation for superior reviews could come from bonus XP for detailed and knowledgeable reviews. A link to Amazon to the item in question, might over time, generate some revenue to provide those Perlmonks T-Shirts and Coffee mugs we all crave :-)
      Please do not use Amazon, but one of the better alternatives. I like fatbrain, but a bigger list can be found at:
      www.noamazon.com
      (as well as an explanation of why many people are boycotting Amazon)
        Thanks for the noamazon info turnstep. I note fatbrain has a similiar afiliate program.
RE: User Requests Quest
by ZZamboni (Curate) on May 08, 2000 at 19:02 UTC
    Another one: how about displaying each user's local time (using his/her local timezone preference) in the "Other users" nodelet. No useful purpose, just for fun.
      Well, it might be useful to see who else is awake at an insane hour ;^)
RE: User Requests Quest
by t0mas (Priest) on May 05, 2000 at 11:01 UTC
    Maybe Perl Monks web-hosting. With telnet and ftp connections to the "Cells" and URLs like http://www.perlmonks.org/~<monk name>. /t0mas

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