Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Minor improvements to the forum, which I'm willing to write in PHP myself!

Melgar - 8-6-2017 at 03:41

What if, if someone creates an account and makes one single new thread, all replies are sent to their email whether they want it or not until they make a second post in that thread, at which point they can turn it off? In order to turn off the auto-responses, they'd have to respond in their thread a second time, ideally to indicate how they've solved their problem. It might mean more people coming back too.

I used to run a PHP bulletin board, and one of the admins made a bunch of smiley faces that looked a lot like the ones here, but there were quite a few more, too. They're the same style, but he actually did a good job at making them expressive and not distracting or obnoxious. If I could find them, they could be added to the small selection at the right.

There's also my previous idea to add a question to trip up the bots, but that any human could easily answer. The way it is now is okay, but it constantly shows forums as having new posts in them when they don't, which can get pretty annoying.

DrP - 8-6-2017 at 07:10

It is kind of annoying when you invest some interest in a thread that an OP has asked a question in and you want to know what happened but they never return. I get that more on other forums as I am not very active here. On 2 other forums though this happens a lot and I wonder if it is worth posting there at all sometimes.

j_sum1 - 8-6-2017 at 17:12

Quote: Originally posted by DrP  
It is kind of annoying when you invest some interest in a thread that an OP has asked a question in and you want to know what happened but they never return. I get that more on other forums as I am not very active here. On 2 other forums though this happens a lot and I wonder if it is worth posting there at all sometimes.

If the OP does not return or comment, I don't let that bother me in the slightest. The OP is, after all, in most cases a complete stranger to me. And I am also answering the questions of the many people who are also reading the site or researching to find specific information. The amount of knowledge published on this board is amazing and it is by no means limited to the threads where the OP remained actively involved.

In regards to Melgar's proposed modifications -- it is an interesting idea. But I don't know that it would make a lot of practical difference. I'd run it by Polverone and see what he thinks.

As for the smilies, I have never been enamoured by the ones available here. But I don't think there is that much need for them either. And I like a good smilie. :Þ