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Lack of formatting makes GetSatisfaction less satisfying
Hi everyone,
I've recently adopted GetSatisfaction as my company's informal forum system. We're just getting started, and so far, there are many here which I really like.
However, it is rapidly becoming clear that there are a couple of shortcomings which could really detract from the usefulness of the system for us (to the point of possibly
moving away from it in the future). Specifically:
1) How can I format source code which is a part of a post? PhpBB has [code] tags. Here, no tags are implemented... So, what do I do when I need to post a code snippet to help someone out?
2) How can I attach a small file to a post (one again, a small zip file containing code -- maybe up to 50Kb in size)?
Here you can see one of our users expressing the need for these features: http://getsatisfaction.com/tibbo/topi... (note point #5 in his post, where he says that this is the "most annoying thing"). And I have to agree.
So, what do you think? I think the main point is formatting... Is anything being done about this? And if so, do you have an ETA?
I've recently adopted GetSatisfaction as my company's informal forum system. We're just getting started, and so far, there are many here which I really like.
However, it is rapidly becoming clear that there are a couple of shortcomings which could really detract from the usefulness of the system for us (to the point of possibly
moving away from it in the future). Specifically:
1) How can I format source code which is a part of a post? PhpBB has [code] tags. Here, no tags are implemented... So, what do I do when I need to post a code snippet to help someone out?
2) How can I attach a small file to a post (one again, a small zip file containing code -- maybe up to 50Kb in size)?
Here you can see one of our users expressing the need for these features: http://getsatisfaction.com/tibbo/topi... (note point #5 in his post, where he says that this is the "most annoying thing"). And I have to agree.
So, what do you think? I think the main point is formatting... Is anything being done about this? And if so, do you have an ETA?
I’m a little disappointed
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The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
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Inappropriate?We do have formatting features in the works, you'll be happy to know. I personally have a need for the source code formatting option as I sometimes give tips for styling widgets in CSS and XHTML, so I'm right there with you. We're a few weeks out on this.
On uploads we have planned an upload images feature for posts and replies, since this is what people usually request, and it would make posted content that much richer. As far as I know yours is the first time someone has requested a general purpose file upload, though I can see how useful this could be. We'll discuss it internally.
As for your user's preference for the design of the Rabbit forum, we have purposefully moved away from the traditional forum design towards one that is friendlier and more inviting for a wider range of people. On the other hand, we recognize that companies may want to customize the look-and-feel as well as structure of their community space, so we're rolling out new tools for doing just this in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Thanks for the great feedback!
I’m confident
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Inappropriate?Hi Thor!
Re the formatting - I personally like it much, much better than the regular PhpBB style. But I guess that's a matter of personal taste.
Re source code formatting - wonderful. I'm eagerly waiting. :) I'll direct my client to this thread.
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?Also, if there are files you want to link to a post you can upload them to your own server or some file-hosting service and just link to it (with a standard 'a href' tag) for now. Not ideal, but it works :)
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Inappropriate?Any news on the formatting options?
It would be great to move our Knowledgebase-like articles to GS as well. Without formatting this is very hard to do.
I see you can use standard HTML, but textile would be better!
This means code could be included like this:
require 'ruby-god'
$filter = high
class NewAwesomeJob
def find_ruby_gods
reqs = {
:quality => :high,
:humor => 'DRY'
}
seekers = Developer.find_by_non_gimpness(reqs)
seekers.each |s| do
unexpectedGimp = true unless s[:curious] == true
unless unexpectedGimp
send_mail("jobs@soocial.com")
else
puts "/public/images/chunky_bacon.png"
end
end
end
end
However as you would agree it's not ideal!
I’m hopeful
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Inappropriate?I second Textile or Markdown. Seems to be very much in the spirit of GetSatisfaction. Simple and effective.
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Inappropriate?Textile is awful compared to Markdown, by the way. -
Inappropriate?Thomas, I would beg to differ - my preference is to the simpler Textile.
GS if you're listening, is it possible to support HTML, Textile and Markdown?3 Comments
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This solves the problem
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We *are* listening! We have a WYSIWYG editor (with image upload) close to ready, and we've discussed Textile/Markdown in the past, though I can't speak to likelihood on those. HTML is largely supported already. -
Oh no, a WYSIWYG editor? Hope you haven't spent too much time on those. They can be really shitty, even in the hands of the best UI and Frontend team it can still be very hard to do correctly. Curious to see if you pull it off!
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I'm of the same opinion Stefan... That's why I insisted on the ability to turn it off :)
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Inappropriate?I would definitely be down for implementing *both* markdown and textile as configurable input options. It wouldn't be to hard to do at all, we would simply need to add attributes to our user accounts to track a preference, and attach the content style to each topic/reply so that editing works correctly. After I get back from RailsConf I'll make sure to talk with the team and figure out where it fits into the schedule; I can't promise anything near term, I hope you understand.
I'm hesitant to make one our the other a default, since at one point we did use markdown and we decided to ditch it. Textile could be the same way. Let me explain.
Both markdown and textile have issues with whitespace. Markdown will convert a line that begins with 4 spaces to a pre block. 4 spaces, as in "I just started a paragraph and I'm indenting it like I'm writing a letter". We would see that quite a lot, as well as people mistakenly creating new h1 elements by starting a line with a #. Both of these issues cause readability problems, and the header issue has SEO implications (Google really like you to only have one definitive h1 on a page). Textile has the unfortunate behavior of not putting an indented line inside of a paragraph element. This, IIRC, was the cause of continual formatting issues when we used to use basecamp since the 37signals default style set paragraph text smaller than other text elements. This would cause indented lines to look like headers in your replies. That's an easy fix though; we make our text look good in our out of a p tag.
All of these issues are minor when it is an opt in situation, but they get more serious when the formatting mode is the default. These issues become even more minor when we have a passable posting preview (the PPP, as I like to call it) option.
P.S. Markdown FTW.
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This solves the problem
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Yeah, when you make it opt-in, you get all the pluses without any of the minuses. I vote for this.
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Inappropriate?So basically:
1. Use HTML for now.
2. Get Satisfcation might or might not add Textile/Markdown in the future.
3. Limited HTML allows bold, italic, not lists, a href and images.
I’m ok with HTML
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Inappropriate?pre, code, blockquote also work. ul, ol, and li don't get stripped out, they just don't have good default styles applied. I'll forward this topic to Ted to see if he can fix that.
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Inappropriate?Good discussion here. I agree that default formatting using either Markdown or Textile (or even bbcode?) is a slippery slope. The opt-in approach may be the way to go for those power users who tend to format every post and reply. That approach seems like a good way to balance the needs of "friendliness for everyone" with "I post code samples all the time." I look forward to our discussions in the office, post-RailsConf.
I’m grateful to our users
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Inappropriate?Yeah indeed, good discussion however please keep in mind that one of the reasons to support more formatting is to allow GS to be used as a Knowledge Base too.
We'd love to have a single place where our support is, including how to's and FAQ's. Sometimes this means we need good formatting -- for example a list of steps in to do's (using ol's or ul's).
I’m happy with your openness.
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Inappropriate?Well let's take a look at what we've got, and then decide what needs some lovin'
Bold (strong or b tag)
I am bold
Italics (em or i tag)
I am italicized
Underline
underlined text
Strike
Strike through
Paragraph
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi ligula magna, dignissim sit amet, posuere vitae, mattis venenatis, turpis. Suspendisse.
Link
Link to Cameron's reply
Img
Ordered List
- ordered list item
- ordered list item
- ordered list item
Unordered List
- unordered list item
- unordered list item
- unordered list item
Code
<% @events.each do |event| %>
<%= event.name %>
<%= event.date %>
<% end %>
Pre
Same as code
Blockquote
pre, code, blockquote also work. ul, ol, and li don't get stripped out, they just don't have good default styles applied. I'll forward this topic to Ted to see if he can fix that.
Embed, Object, Param
And the attributes we support
href src width height alt title name value type wmode target class flashvars rel
I’m happy
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This solves the problem
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So as you can see we're having some issues. We're adding double breaks on every new line whether or not you're inside a code block.
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Also HTML is not being escaped inside the code tag
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lists are not being styled properly
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Awesome thanks for that - something to add to your FAQ? (Or at least when the list styling is fixed?)
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Thanks Ted!
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Also, it looks like italics didn't work.
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And I agree -- Ted's reply above would be great in a help topic. I actually do have one already about allowed HTML [http://getsatisfaction.com/satisfacti...] so I'll enhance it with Ted's nifty examples once everything's working properly.
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1 Comment Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Hey, lists! Awesome.
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