(Reasonable) Features you'd like to see implemented on RailUK Forums

[Doctor Fegg]

I'd like the ability to be able to ignore whole forums and threads, so they don't show up in "New posts". I believe Xenforo can do this - cyclechat.net runs on Xenforo and offers the facility. They appear as separate tabs under "Settings -> Ignoring".

 

[Mojo]

I'd like the ability to be able to ignore whole forums and threads, so they don't show up in "New posts". I believe Xenforo can do this - cyclechat.net runs on Xenforo and offers the facility. They appear as separate tabs under "Settings -> Ignoring".

This is a paid for add on which we simply don’t have the funds to provide at the moment.

 

[bspahh]

I'd like to be able to select messages to read, and block ones I don't want to read with keyword searches.

For example, I would like to automatically watch threads that mention one or more keywords and ignore posts or threads that mention one or more keywords. I can already ignore users I don't like. I'd like to be able to follow a user that I do like, and a thread that they post in would be in a list of "threads with interesting stuff for me to read". However, it would not make the thread a watched thread.

As well as keywords, searches could include meta data, such as whether the post has an embedded image, a URL, and a score for the prose style and grammar

On Usenet, with trn I had a KILLFILE which was a thing of beauty. https://microformats.org/wiki/block-list-formats describes some similar file formats.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

This is a paid for add on which we simply don’t have the funds to provide at the moment.

Fully understood.

I've found a workaround for the "End of the station's word" thread, but as yet not one for the entire "General Discussion" board.

 

[Trackman]

I'd like the ability to be able to ignore whole forums and threads, so they don't show up in "New posts". I believe Xenforo can do this - cyclechat.net runs on Xenforo and offers the facility. They appear as separate tabs under "Settings -> Ignoring".

I'd like this too and I've seen it requested before, but has Mojo stated....

This is a paid for add on which we simply don’t have the funds to provide at the moment.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I've found a workaround for the "End of the station's word" thread, but as yet not one for the entire "General Discussion" board.

Found one

If you install an extension like Cascadea or Stylus, which allows you to write custom CSS rules for sites you visit, you can use rules like this to remove forums from "View new posts":

div.structItem--thread:has(a[href="/forums/general-discussion.13/"]) { display: none !important; }
div.structItem--thread:has(a[href="/forums/quizzes-games.25/"]) { display: none !important; }
div.structItem--thread:has(a[href="/forums/aviation-discussion.176/"]) { display: none !important; }

(It needs a fairly modern browser to work.)

 

[Fragezeichnen]

I would like to see a limit on the number of quote blocks per post and/or the ratio of quote to original content, which can then be set to a suitable value selected by the adminstrators.

Posts like this consisting of nothing more than an endless procession of quotes followed by one sentence replies saying little more than "Your're wrong" or "I don't agree" contribute nothing except filling up screen space.

 

[Haywain]

I would like to see a limit on the number of quote blocks per post and/or the ratio of quote to original content, which can then be set to a suitable value selected by the adminstrators.

Posts like this consisting of nothing more than an endless procession of quotes followed by one sentence replies saying little more than "Your're wrong" or "I don't agree" contribute nothing except filling up screen space.

There's a real irony between the end of your first paragraph and the thread you refer to in the second.

 

[Strat-tastic]

Move the " button away from the smiley button as I keep tapping it by accident and it's quite a faff to put right

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

There's a real irony between the end of your first paragraph and the thread you refer to in the second.

Yet in many ways that chopping of quotes does allow for a better set of specific replies to be made. Which is why I suggested that any FAQ section should include working examples of how to make full use of the editing facilities available. The alternative would be to restrict the size of each and every post. If that's your preference I believe a globally popular site works in that way!

 

[35B]

Yet in many ways that chopping of quotes does allow for a better set of specific replies to be made. Which is why I suggested that any FAQ section should include working examples of how to make full use of the editing facilities available. The alternative would be to restrict the size of each and every post. If that's your preference I believe a globally popular site works in that way!

And the brevity imposed is widely associated with some of it's downsides.

 

[Techniquest]

We used to be a character limit on posts here. It impacted heavily on the trip reports section though, which was not welcome and thankfully it was altered.

 

[AndrewE]

I would like to see the "next choice" options (New posts/Find threads/Watched etc) repeated at the bottom of the screen - as you get to the end of a thread - rather than only being at the top. A bit like RTT has "+1 hour" at the bottom of the page now.

 

[Dent]

This is a paid for add on which we simply don’t have the funds to provide at the moment.

That raises the question, if this forum is based on a bought-in hosting package then what changes can actually be made? This whole thread is rather moot if nothing can be changed anyway.

 

[ainsworth74]

That raises the question, if this forum is based on a bought-in hosting package then what changes can actually be made? This whole thread is rather moot if nothing can be changed anyway.

The software the Forum runs on is XenForo which is indeed a paid of piece of software but I am led to believe is pretty customisable it's just that sometime features require the purchase of a paid for add-ons (or the commissioning of an add-on) rather than just being a setting that can be changed. The hosting of the website is separate to the forum software itself.

 

[AY1975]

A dedicated section for rail freight flows. There is already a dedicated thread on this at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/rail-freight-flows-and-news-uk.195217/ but it has been running since November 2019 and is 38 pages long. An actual rail freight section would make it easier to find stuff about a particular freight operator or service or freight flows covering a particular route or area.

It would also be useful if, when no-one has posted anything in a particular thread for a certain number of months, the moderators could post a message either within the thread or at the top of the page saying this thread will be locked in a certain number of weeks or days if no-one posts anything more in there. AIUI threads normally get locked if no-one has posted anything in them for a certain number of months. Sometimes you might come across an old or long-running thread that's still open and you mean to post something in there but don't have time to do so on that occasion, and next time you look you find that thread has been locked.

 

[bspahh]

A dedicated section for rail freight flows. There is already a dedicated thread on this at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/rail-freight-flows-and-news-uk.195217/ but it has been running since November 2019 and is 38 pages long. An actual rail freight section would make it easier to find stuff about a particular freight operator or service or freight flows covering a particular route or area.

It would also be useful if, when no-one has posted anything in a particular thread for a certain number of months, the moderators could post a message either within the thread or at the top of the page saying this thread will be locked in a certain number of weeks or days if no-one posts anything more in there. AIUI threads normally get locked if no-one has posted anything in them for a certain number of months. Sometimes you might come across an old or long-running thread that's still open and you mean to post something in there but don't have time to do so on that occasion, and next time you look you find that thread has been locked.

If you find a thread where it would be a good place for a discussion of new information, click the Report button and ask for it to be reopened.

This might not work if the thread was locked because it had turned into a shouting match, and you want to join in

 

[gg1]

Can the search function default to displaying results in date order rather than relevance?

This is one of my pet peeves about a lot of forums and websites, the relevance/best match search options are generally useless.

 

[Mojo]

Can the search function default to displaying results in date order rather than relevance?

This is one of my pet peeves about a lot of forums and websites, the relevance/best match search options are generally useless.

As an interim; if you go into the Advanced menu you can change to sort by date.

 

[gg1]

As an interim; if you go into the Advanced menu you can change to sort by date.

I do

Would be handy if it defaulted to that though.

 

[py_megapixel]

I do

Would be handy if it defaulted to that though.

Some sites have options for "date (newest first)" and "date (oldest first)"

I think it would be quite amusing if there was an option to sort by "relevance (lowest first)"

 

[AndrewE]

I would like to see the "next choice" options (New posts/Find threads/Watched etc) repeated at the bottom of the screen - as you get to the end of a thread - rather than only being at the top. A bit like RTT has "+1 hour" at the bottom of the page now.

I have just found (or noticed) an "up" button which appears at the bottom RHS of my screen when I start to move up a thread... Has this always been here? It's very useful, and if it is an innovation, thank you!

 

[bspahh]

I have just found (or noticed) an "up" button which appears at the bottom RHS of my screen when I start to move up a thread... Has this always been here? It's very useful, and if it is an innovation, thank you!

It seems to be the only thing shown in the 1cm block to the right of the window.

Personally, I would rather have more text, so I can reduce the size of the window. If I need to get to the top of the page, I can press the Home button on the keyboard.

 

[Haywain]

Personally, I would rather have more text, so I can reduce the size of the window.

On a modern monitor there is far more screen than is needed for reading the forum. If I use the full width of the screen the lines a far too long to read comfortably.

 

[jon81uk]

That raises the question, if this forum is based on a bought-in hosting package then what changes can actually be made? This whole thread is rather moot if nothing can be changed anyway.

There are things, such as the automated double post merge that rail forums does and many other forums using XenFora don't.

Similarly likes and reactions are standard on many others and Rail Forums has chosen not to adopt them.

 

[gg1]

On a modern monitor there is far more screen than is needed for reading the forum. If I use the full width of the screen the lines a far too long to read comfortably.

One of the things I really like about this forum is it DOES fill up the full width of the browser window. Quite a few forums now don't and instead have wide borders of empty space either side of the page. Two examples are the hotUKdeals and MSE forums, both of which introduced this godawful feature a few years ago as part of a forum revamp.

 

[bspahh]

On a modern monitor there is far more screen than is needed for reading the forum. If I use the full width of the screen the lines a far too long to read comfortably.

I use my laptop to do other stuff than reading these forums. I sometimes need to have other applications or WWW sites open at the same time.

 

[Haywain]

One of the things I really like about this forum is it DOES fill up the full width of the browser window.

Yes, and the browser window can be adjusted to suit one's preferences. A small empty space at each side is a very minor 'problem'.

 

[gg1]

Yes, and the browser window can be adjusted to suit one's preferences. A small empty space at each side is a very minor 'problem'.

The problem is it's often not a small empty space. Taking the example of the MSE forum I mentioned earlier, on my monitor (with a screen width of 1920 so not an unusually high resolution by modern standards) only the centre 60% of the screen is used for content, the remaining 40% is empty. Annoying and utterly unnecessary.

Heading off topic I know as this really falls under the category of "Unreasonable features you'd not like to see implemented on RailUK Forums"

​

 

[Haywain]

The problem is it's often not a small empty space.

It is on the RailUK forums, which is what we're discussing.