I don’t think it could be any worse. From what I’ve found and others have pointed out replying on apple sucks that it brings up the keyboard and then you can’t browse the post while composing. You can save to draft and return to it but it would be nice if the mobile behaved more like the desktop version. Due to the limitations on mobile it might just be the way it is with Discourse.
ive done a bit of research on Discourse and it is impressively over engineered. It has every feature a 2 million member forum could ever want but erm…
there are many interesting but unnecessary things like … on the fly preview instead of click to preview lolz the preview doesn’t even stay sync’d with the input when typing or scrolling… also has powerful config tools for creating in-groups/cliques… and an overly informative poorly laid out topic listing that clutters the screen…
EDIT: And I also find the default sidebar on the left annoying. why does it display by default instead of being collapsed by default and only opened when a user clicks on it. Its like the software is screaming look how many features I have woo hoo…
The one thing that does not seem easy to get is a preview of the OP content or followup posts where a couple lines are shown or pop out on a tethered dialog box so u r not just going in based on a click bait topic… like … Ohmygoooosh u gotta seee thiiis… and no idea what the content of the thread is.
If this were a massive multi-interest forum i’d say the features would be very useful and worth dealing with the clutter or time spent for members to config all the features and controls… There has to be a cookie cutter config with a better layout similar to invision or fora. Just a natter of finding it.
Its important to get stuff like this done at the earliest convenience as once people get used to the way something looks or works they get used to it even if they don’t like it much.
Starting up something new and unfamiliar is a process that takes a lot of work cooperation and patience. The admins work hard putting together the best possible user experience they can so we need to be supportive and give feedback and also thanks for their efforts.
While on iPad, I did find the small mobile and desktop icons, far bottom left corner. It doesn’t help a whole lot, but it does get rid of the bar on the left. I also discovered that I can swipe the reply box down to see the thread and bring it back up.
I somehow managed to get rid of the preview window also.
Anything that can make the UI more like other forums would be great. I do understand the cost being a major factor.
I’m doing what I can. It’s a huge learning curve as I have all of 2 weeks working with this platform. There is a ton of support and I think this platform can serve our community just fine if we can get around the quirks.
No offense taken. I am poking fun at myself here. I am an old fart and I liked the old layout too. I’m listing to the feedback and immediately looking for solutions.
there are usually two modes for quoting… 1) The highlight method as discussed and 2) Hit the reply arrow at the bottom right of a post…
the diff being… reply will quote the entire referenced post and highlight only copies the highlighted text.
Personally I prefer the highlight option as it does not build a nested quote that references every quote. sub quote. sub sub quote etc.
When using the Reply arrow you will see the arrow and the quoted member appear at the upper right of the reply but it does not quote the text in the reply. You can click the upper right and it will redirect to the quoted post. Its more of a notification than anything.
Unfortunately there is no plugin for that. There is you could reply with or you could flag the post and it’ll get reviewed. We’ll keep a collection of those and at some point we can release a book on how not to cook