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Today's upgrade to the calendar
Topic Started: Nov 4 2013, 11:10 AM (1,587 Views)
silvershoes
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Upgrades are always nice, but this particular one presents a problem. When you enter a new event (or edit an existing one) clicking enter or edit now takes you to the event screen, and not to the calendar itself.

We use the calendar extensively. We have game dates for various leagues, and we update them with scores. This means literally hundreds of entries - a slow process at best. Now each one of those entries is going to require an additional keystroke. To say nothing of eating up extra ad credits, because yes, we purchase ad removal.

Is there any way to return this to the old behavior? Or at the very least give us an add new event button inside the event, so we can do a series of entries at a time? My fingers would thank you for that. ;)

ETA: Here's our November calendar. Every line is an entry, and November's not our heaviest month.

Posted Image
Edited by silvershoes, Nov 4 2013, 11:53 AM.
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Jason
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Bit of a shame that the directory is still not updating as well.

Upgrades are good, but please fix the broken things too.
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Nemomon
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My dad's a soldier blue I'll be a soldier too
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Having that RSVP to topics sould be fun too ;)
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Jason
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Nemomon
Nov 4 2013, 07:35 PM
Having that RSVP to topics sould be fun too ;)
Would help if I knew what it actually did...
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Moonface
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Lout
Nov 4 2013, 07:43 PM
Nemomon
Nov 4 2013, 07:35 PM
Having that RSVP to topics sould be fun too ;)
Would help if I knew what it actually did...
Helena
 
It means you can collect responses to your event. (repondez s'il vous plait -- respond, please)

When you set up the event, you can make it an RSVP event. And then check who responded by clicking the RSVP link.
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Nicolas
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"PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD."

Lout
Nov 4 2013, 06:21 PM
Bit of a shame that the directory is still not updating as well.

Upgrades are good, but please fix the broken things too.
Seriously?
You're complaining when this is the first update in some time, when we've seen years of fixing things as they come - finally new features and you're going to complain that more things should just be patched up?
Yes, fixing things is a priority - and it continues to be - but certain things are way higher up on the priority list than others. The board directory, as much as board owners seem to love it, is not that useful or important. It draws in very few users, and when it does only for the most popular forums. Popular forums don't get popular by relying on the ZetaBoards directory - I would personally rather see the directory removed and more of a focus be put on fixing things that are high priority fixes (ZB Search) and developing new features that will help board owners run their board than on the directory which serves very little purpose.
Is it still on the list of things to be fixed? Sure. Is it top of the list? Not by any means.

silvershoes: A bit of javascript can add the new event buttons to the event page for you. However, I believe Brandon will look in to the problem for you as well. :)
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Helena
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M is for Mod

The calendar RSVP is going to be fun to figure out ways to use. Its like a shiny new toy. :) However, one of the things that I really appreciate about this update is the ability to access the forums from the active topics page. That's because it makes navigating and moderating a huge board much easier. Not everyone will get as jazzed about that as I did, in fact, I'm sure some people never even use the active topic list. But I'm doing a celebration dance over it.

I do understand that everyone will have different priorites for features and fixes according to their own patterns of administration and needs, and will have various levels of excitement about any new features. But hey, we have some! :up:
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Nemomon
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Helena
Nov 4 2013, 08:19 PM
However, one of the things that I really appreciate about this update is the ability to access the forums from the active topics page. That's because it makes navigating and moderating a huge board much easier. Not everyone will get as jazzed about that as I did, in fact, I'm sure some people never even use the active topic list. But I'm doing a celebration dance over it.
Ditto. Finally I can remove the custom code for it. If I still can find it...

As for the RSVP - the page with the results seems can be seen even by those who normally cannot click the link for it, but they know it (for example through altering the URL link).

Though it would have more sense for topics and possibly posts, rather than events.

And I find it funny that the path for "maybe" is "meh".
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silvershoes
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Nicolas
Nov 4 2013, 07:58 PM
silvershoes: A bit of javascript can add the new event buttons to the event page for you. However, I believe Brandon will look in to the problem for you as well. :)


Our events aren't the sort of things one would RSVP, but the calendar pretty much drives what we do. I'd prefer it work the old way, but either would be an improvement over the improvement. ;)
Edited by silvershoes, Nov 5 2013, 01:56 PM.
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RedBldSandman
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Asante sana Squash banana
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Nicolas
Nov 4 2013, 07:58 PM
The board directory, as much as board owners seem to love it, is not that useful or important. It draws in very few users, and when it does only for the most popular forums. Popular forums don't get popular by relying on the ZetaBoards directory - I would personally rather see the directory removed and more of a focus be put on fixing things that are high priority fixes (ZB Search) and developing new features that will help board owners run their board than on the directory which serves very little purpose.
You can't judge how useful a broken tool is. Until it's fixed we'll never know how people will use it and how useful it will be for them.

What can be done is to have the aims of the directory identified so that when it is fixed it can actually have a purpose - is it a directory to allow users to just find popular forums in a certain category? Or a directory which allows users to find forums according to certain criteria with a search function e.g. category, activity in past month, number of posts/members? Or a directory which board owners can use as an advertisement tool with more information allowed to be given for each board? Or all of these?

The directory could be useful if it's fixed and redone with a clear aim in my opinion.
Just a note about the update in general from my perspective - literally nothing new for coders (unless there's a good way of using the new rsvp system which I haven't looked at yet).

For the profile fields, the ideas of very old modifications (been in use for years and years) have just been added to the actual software. It's a good thing to reduce the need for javascript but doesn't really count as especially new in my book.

For the PM System, useful but still an old idea. Modifications could already do this in the past but were server-intensive so were restricted (via the prevention of jQuery ajax requests to the member page). It's again an idea from an old modification which has been added into the software but with fewer options (e.g. not available to members). It's got the special feature of replies being in a single message for the admin (which would have been trickier in a solely JS version) which is nice but you'd expect a better implementation when it's actually integrated so that's nothing too exciting.

For the rsvp system, I haven't really looked at it but then again I've never been on a ZB forum which has used the calendar much at all. It could be useful for quite a few different types of forum (e.g. gaming clans) so it's quite a nice addition.

I think most coders have been looking for news about the ZB API, is this even still being worked on? At all?

(Sorry that I've gone off topic, feel free to split this away if you don't want to clog up this topic).
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Nicolas
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"PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD."

silvershoes
Nov 5 2013, 01:56 PM
Nicolas
Nov 4 2013, 07:58 PM
silvershoes: A bit of javascript can add the new event buttons to the event page for you. However, I believe Brandon will look in to the problem for you as well. :)


Our events aren't the sort of things one would RSVP, but the calendar pretty much drives what we do. I'd prefer it work the old way, but either would be an improvement over the improvement. ;)


I'm afraid I might not be understanding the problem, then.
The problem, as I thought it was, was that when you create a new event it now brings you to that event's page (where there are no new event buttons) instead of back to the calendar (where the buttons exist).
If that understanding is correct: this is not the fault of the RSVP option existing, just a change in how the form worked (that can easily be changed back and keep the new RSVP function). Similarly, adding buttons to the event's page is a very simple task for JavaScript to do for you and sounds like it would resolve your problem, by letting you quickly continue to add new events to your calendar one after another.
If I've misunderstood, please let me know so we can make sure you get a solution that actually fixes the problem.

Redbld: the directory has not always been broken, though. I based my evaluation of its priority on when it did work... obviously. (Otherwise, I would also think fixing search is a waste of time because it's also currently broken, but I don't because I base my evaluation of its value on its operational state, just like I do for the directory. ;) )
Certainly, the directory could be an interesting and powerful tool if totally reimagined. But that takes time and developer hours, which you yourself would obviously feel is better spent working on something like the API, which all of the staff also want to see happen and, indeed, would prefer happened sooner than fixing a directory that's not very useful or taking even more time to overhaul a directory so that it becomes useful.
As far as I am aware, the API remains on the development map for ZetaBoards, but there's definitely not an estimated time for when we can expect to see it.
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silvershoes
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Nicolas
Nov 7 2013, 07:00 PM
I'm afraid I might not be understanding the problem, then.
The problem, as I thought it was, was that when you create a new event it now brings you to that event's page (where there are no new event buttons) instead of back to the calendar (where the buttons exist).
If that understanding is correct: this is not the fault of the RSVP option existing, just a change in how the form worked (that can easily be changed back and keep the new RSVP function). Similarly, adding buttons to the event's page is a very simple task for JavaScript to do for you and sounds like it would resolve your problem, by letting you quickly continue to add new events to your calendar one after another.
If I've misunderstood, please let me know so we can make sure you get a solution that actually fixes the problem.
No, you understand perfectly. I realize this isn't the fault of the RSVP system, it's just a side effect. I only brought RSVP up because while it's a really nifty feature, it's not helpful to the way we use the calendar and I was trying to clarify how we work.

I'd prefer to wind back up on the calendar page itself like we used to, because I update the calendar entries with scores on a daily basis, so a button won't help me there. But I'll feel the most pain during entry, when I'm keying in hundreds as opposed to 5 or 10. So a button would be a big help.

Thanks for anything you can do.
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Brandon
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I have just added event creation buttons to the end of the event page.
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Path Light
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Bit of shame that the text is too tiny.
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Moonface
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Path Light
Nov 8 2013, 01:00 AM
Bit of shame that the text is too tiny.
Too tiny for what exactly?
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