Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums?

Merged:

Funding of PF.

I think this is a bold move by the founders of PF,so far Bobko,BB,Joker and I have donated.
All good guys...... I think some more of you owe this forum with the time you have spent on it, even if it is a small amount, every little helps.
I expect a huge donation from that millionaire in Michigan.........

@Bratwurst Boy

Your suggestion sounds sensible to me and I suspect the owner of PF has already thought of this.

Torqi donated too....others too "anonymous"....

Great stuff!

We seem to have stuck at $570.

New updates to the forum, from the admin:

"We've just added a new usability feature: the Center/Uncenter Layout checkbox.

On the discussion pages, you may click on the checkbox to center the layout for easy reading.

Enjoy!

PolishForums

(you may want to hit the CTRL-F5 buttons at the same time to refresh your web browser's cache)"

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I only discover these updates when I visit the funding page to check how we're doing... I suspect I'm not the only one who was oblivious to these changes.

Perhaps the Admin can make some kind of a sticky thread where the updates are posted, but discussion is locked? Actually... would be nice to be able to make suggestions too.

I have some off the top of my head:

1) In the search function, it could be nice to add the ability to search by username and also by date, in addition to title and message.

2) When editing text on a mobile phone, it's pretty difficult to Bold or Italicize selected text. The reason is that, at least on iOS, the "Select, Copy, Paste, etc" pop-up covers the "Bold" button, so you have to zoom in and out until you're able to click the damn thing. I think this can be fixed by slightly adjusting the size of the box, or moving it slightly downwards from the formatting tab.

3) Allow users to bookmark their favorite threads, so they don't have to scroll back several pages in time to find them.

4) Add some kind of "old school" ranking for users. Like "newbie", "rookie", "webmaster" etc. The forum will still have its nostalgic look, but maybe this will add a little flavor.

5) Create the ability for users to post simple polls. This could be very fun.

4 and 5 sound cool.... :)

Thanks!

I know you would be very happy for emojis to be added, but I don't necessarily agree. Because on many forums people just respond to each other with emojis, and then the threads look pretty retarded. That is, I know you would use them judiciously, but I don't trust other people not to abuse it :)

Also, I think Paulina would be happy if there was an easier way to embed gifs - but I have the same problem with that. Pages take longer to load, and threads turn into people talking with each other through memes instead of intelligent text.

One thing that I think could attract a lot more users into the forum, is if the "Forum Categories" tab at the bottom of the home page was done better. I'll try to explain what I mean:

1) I only discovered that it exists very recently. I use PF primarily on mobile, and there it is practically invisible (Photo 1 below). Otherwise, the home page always appears to me as a mix of "News", "Random", "History", etc... as if there really are no categories.

2) After I click on some category on the front page, the tab disappears (Photo 2 below). That is, if I go to "News" - for example - then I have to go back to the main page, and click on "Forum Categories" again, to see something else. It should always be visible, to prevent these multiple steps. I don't know how to do it elegantly, in such a way that it doesn't get in the way of the posts, but there must be a way. Maybe at the top of the page, or in a side tab that can be expanded. I don't know. The fact is, I'm sure many people miss it like I did, and that's one of the most important functions.

3) Maybe geographic categories like "UK/Ireland", "USA/Canada", "Australia" etc should have their own "work" and "classified" tabs. I think this might bring more people to the forum, because right now it may seem that those things only apply to Poland itself. This way, Poles in Ireland can discuss their own work needs there amongst each other, without it immediately getting lost on the front page. Same for Australia or whatever else. People could check in on those pages every now and then to see if there are new jobs available, etc.

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Erm!

:)

*runs*

PS: So many good ideas......

@Bratwurst Boy

Ok, I just discovered that you can actually search by username, and even by country, but that's in a completely different place than the general search function. Instead it is in "Members".

I have used this forum for probably 7 years or more, and I just found this out. Again, I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Maybe I am just very stupid and incurious.... Anyway, scratch that suggestion.

What may seem super obvious to the Admin is definitely not always obvious to us peasants.

....I remember darkly (and weakly) we could once use emojis....far far back in time.....and you were right, it did look retarded! :)

Anyhow, have to leave now, till tomorrow! *waves*

It's still possible.

😎

Oh my God... thank you Admin! Now I see the categories always!

So much better!

That was lightning speed improvement!

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Man I can't tell you how happy I am with this change....

I'm clicking on all the categories just for fun, like a little child now

@Bobko, yeah, that was a good suggestion.
I've been for so long on this forum that I sometimes forget how normal forums operate and I get used to such stuff.


Yup, I had no idea...


Nah, that would be too logical and user-friendly... That's not Admin's style of operating on this forum... lol




A sponsor finally said it! Yay! lol

I'm realizing that most of my suggestions were useless, after I spent a few more hours yesterday poking around on the website. They're just much more easy to miss on mobile. On a desktop, it's much more intuitive.

I don't know how many people use mobile, but I would hazard a guess that it may be the majority.

This brings me to a new suggestion - could we get analytics?

Many forums have a little space dedicated to showing the number of daily visits, or even tracking the number of impressions per page or post. I don't think it's necessary to track impressions, and think this may be difficult to implement - but I would still be happy to get more general statistics.

For example, yesterday I pressed "Members" for the first time, and was surprised to learn how many new users have been joining, and how many were bots that got quickly deleted.

If we could see these things below, it could be nice:

1) Number of visitors
2) Where they come from
3) How many are recurring, and how many are sort of fly by birds
4) What devices they use

I think people interested in posting classifieds, or any kind of thing of a working post - would feel more comfortable posting if they knew what sort of traffic the site has.

I've always found it to be a right pain to use a mobile so mostly I'm on a laptop. Guess it's just what I'm used to.

Having said that I'm liking the forum categories in plain view now on mobile. That was also a particular bugbear of mine that the tab was at the bottom and it was back and forth between pages.

I meant that in a more general way ;)


99% of the time I'm using my phone to read and write on PF. I'm guessing that's how it's also with young people... Yesterday I read a Polish article that blew my mind - apparently because Gen Z grew up using smartphones some of them don't even know how to turn on a computer o_O


They seem to be a plague on the internet these days.

Look, I'm gonna show you how difficult it is for me to "Bold" or "Italicize" things on my phone. Sometimes it takes me up to a minute of playing a zoom in and zoom out game, before I can accomplish this simple task.

Not sure if the problem is unique to iOS or also exists on Android.

Please see photo below:

1) Photo 1 shows my problem
2) Photo 2 - I highlighted in red where I think a little space should be added between the format bar and the text box.

On the screenshot, you have the Sticky/Unsticky post form checkbox selected (the one near the Preview button). Maybe unchecking it would help.

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Turns out I made another useless suggestion.

You can fix the problem I described above by sliding the width selection left and right.

However, by default this problem is always there.

Yet another function that I have been super late to discover.

The Admin should make the UI idiot proof for blind millennials like me.

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I know Bobko. I've had the same problem. Along with a couple of other reasons it's why I rarely use a mobile. For me, it requires too much effort. Usually, I wait until I'm back from work to post something on my laptop.

Keep up with the suggestions though! Always good to see improvements :)

Among regular posters (most of whom are far from Generation Z or even Milennials) I'd guess no.

Some posters tend to make short posts (Lenka, Amiga500, etc) which suggests a phone however most probably don't.

I don't seem to have such a problem on my Android phone... Besides, I don't use this function - I just type "[b][ /b]" and "[i][ /i]" by hand - it's faster for me personally (must be a force of habit from my second job though).

But what I've noticed recently - I sometimes have a problem with moving around the text window (with sliding through the text) when I'm writing my post - like it gets stuck/freezes. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the forum or with my phone or what... 🤔 Has anyone else experienced it?

Yes, though only recently and not only here.

I use an apple phone and it's the same. I suspect it's to do with mobile phone software not really having much to do nowadays with the type of software forums use.

Same for me. Selecting a piece of text is often tricky, and then scrolling through that selection even more so.

I want to reiterate that I think polls would be a nice addition to the forum.

Of course, many of the polls would be created by Novichok, with titles like: "Should a woman have a penis?"...

But we could also vote on updates, measure sentiments on current events, etc.

Not sure what's going on but on mobile there are now no forum categories in sight. Anyone else have this problem?

I would also like to know what's going on with the post box/text window? It used to expand with writing a post but now I have a couple centimetres to write in and my replies disappear from view the more I write.

There are scrolling arrows on the right hand side of the box to go back and forth but the whole thing is not user friendly. Can it go back to normal please. What arrows, screenshot possible?

I've tried checking/unchecking the box next to preview but it doesn't appear to change anything. I remember years ago this 'feature' was introduced and no-one liked it then. I would just like to see my whole post without it being hidden from view. Is there a way to get rid of the arrows? Yes, Firefox/Safari don't support the auto-grow textarea feature yet, but they will soon.

Nope, they're still visible on my phone...

I feel old....am I the only one with a PC???? 😕

*hugs compi...I will never swap you for a tiny mobile...promise*

They're gone for me too :(

It was so nice while they were there. They should be there. Refresh browser?

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