I noticed it earlier but the first time I saw it I don’t think I saw the formatting options. Right now they don’t seem to be working for me. When I try to invoke them it does seem to take me to the top of the page, but does not provide any formatting options. I’ll try to play with it a little.

End of original message

Well I tried formatting options again all all it did was bring me back to the top of the page without saving the edits or providing any formatting options.

I'll try back again later and see.  

BTW was it just me or was I not getting that "Show Formatting Options" function before? 

[i] End of first update [/i]

OK “Show Formatting Options” is not showing up and they appear to be functioning as advertised. All seems right with the word. Now all I need do is to get one of the Accessory programs I have been using fully functional on Vista Windows so I can do easier formatting.

Testing subthread pointer again.

Interesting. The subthread pointer doesn’t always work. On newer threads where I’ve replied to a reply I get no pointer, but here I still do.

cool… (2 mins later) sweet!, sweet! (2 days later) awesome (?)

Keith:
How do I locate a recent post in a long thread of replies?

For example, suppose there is a thread with 50 replies. If I see from the ‘Car Questions’ page that it was just updated and the update was a reply somewhere in the middle of those 50 replies, how do I find it? Currently I need to scroll through the whole thread scanning the dates to see if I can find it.

Unless I’m missing an existing solution, resolving this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Seconded. The new reply box has enhanced useability about 500%. Very nice.

Here’s an update on various bugs/items surrounding the enhancements:
[list]Problems with the support form, SSL, flagging, and registration were short-lived and related to moving our servers to new load-balancers. These were all fixed last week[/list]
[list]The occasional failure of replies to indent appropriately when they were inside the discussion should now be fixed[/list]
[list]The timestamp issue with preview in edit mode has been replicated and awaits a fix (nice catch, americar!)[/list]
[list]The show/hide formatting sometimes not working and instead sending you to the top of the page is something that we can’t replicate. If anyone can replicate this or can at least isolate it to a specific browser or set of conditions, please let me know.[/list]

Hi Joe,
I find this annoying too, but we found the edit and lightbox issues more annoying, so those got addressed first. We’ve got a few other big items we’re juggling on the back end, but your point is near the top of intended user-interface improvements.

My initial thought (20 seconds worth of limited brainpower) was to change the post header color for the most recent comments. Comment-based permalinks and permalink search result targeting (with time-bound search) have also been on my wishlist since day 1. I can think of a few other approaches, but curious what others think. I want it to be simple and subtle (or at least part of an advanced off-screen capability), since we’ve had success limiting the feature candy that can confuse new users.

Before you say “just make it work like other free discussion forums” (with probably some adjectives strategically inserted), please read this post: http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/41/23610.page#139011

Some minor suggestions I’d toss in:

*Display the date of the original post when viewing the post AND allow for custom sorting of messages rather than the horrrrribly awkward “recent activity” sort.

*Display to whom you are replying in a thread. This is really, really annoying, especially since replies only seem to cascade about 2-deep. It’s very clumsy to try and sort out who is replying to who. Again, I would suggest copying some mainstream forum software.

*Mouse-over previews of topics without actually clicking the topic.

*Allow a longer display for links in post, because as it stands, I don’t think even www.cartalk.com can be displayed without truncating.

*Allow the ability to post links with text rather than just the link itself (though this may just be something I don’t know how to use.)

*Display more recent posts in profile, because it sure would be nice to be able to quickly find more than the last 3 posts I’ve made.

*Allow personal messages.

*Actually lock / remove threads rather than brushing them away. I’m just speculating, but the “oxycotton” thread seems to be still quite alive, just not in the main index (which is to say, search for the title and you’re there.) I like how it now says “Car Talk asks” at the top, too. Also, is Car Talk two words, or “cartalk”? Because it’s different in a lot of places.

I guess, basically, you guys need to set up a copy of vBulletin on another machine, and just start rippin’ stuff off. Start with the basics and work your way up. I understand why you want control of your own code, I really, really do. And maybe you’re building a really powerful engine here that’s just waiting to bust out in to the world. But if you put a Ferrari motor in an Escort chassis, it’s miserable. But again, I’ll say, the fact that you replaced that terrible reply system with this one… that’s light years closer to usability right there. Keep plugging away at it, I guess.

The show/hide formatting sometimes not working and instead sending you to the top of the page is something that we can’t replicate. If anyone can replicate this or can at least isolate it to a specific browser or set of conditions, please let me know."

Well that is one I’ve seen. I’m using firefox, but of course now that I’m responding to your request it seems to be working for me. Maybe it got fixed somewhere along the line. If it happens again I’ll try to note where and how.

Oh, and while I’m here. It would be nice to have an auto-quote of the note I am replying to. This would be best if a selectable option, i.e. “Reply w/quote” and “Reply w/o quote”. Yes, I can copy and paste, but that’s a nuisance.

OH, and thanks for fixing the indent thing. I’m not a big fan of the indent/subthreading, but if you are going to do it at least now it’s consistent.