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Comments on Are we there yet?

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Are we there yet?

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Are we ready to let the world know about this site yet? What, if anything, do we still need to do or set up first?

I have created a bunch of help pages that are intended to give newcomers a good idea how to use the site, and what is expected of them. There is an infinite amount of information that could be provided. Do we have enough to go live?

Of course this site isn't a secret, and anyone can come here as it is, and we can't control who tells whom about it. I'm going to hold off my own efforts to make the site known out there until there is a consensus here that we're ready.

2020/6/12

It's now over 24 hours since this was asked, and there have been no answers. There has been one comment from a bystander suggesting that there should be something here when people first visit. That makes sense. I've already written one canonical question and answer, with more planned. Hopefully others will add some of their own.

At this point I'm going to start letting people know about this site. It will take a while for people to poke their heads in, and more canonical questions will be added in the mean time. I'll also make it clear that this site is new, and therefore doesn't have an existing volume of questions. That's a feature! Your question won't get drowned under a flood of others.

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General comments (3 comments)
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+1
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$\color{purple}{\text{Are we there yet?}}$

No, it's not ready: -

  • The embed image doesn't seem to work anymore on the EE part of the site and neither does it work here. It did yesterday because I added an image to an answer I posted; but not today - I just get a message saying: -

javascript:void()

I have javascript enabled for this site and I have no sites listed as blocks for javascript in Google Chrome

  • I get no preview pane while editing or writing an answer or question on the EE site - it works here on meta because I can see it below. Here's what I see on the EE site: -

Image alt text

  • I get two underscores but that doesn't italicize the text. Deleted due to user incompetence.

  • Regards posting images (when it works for me), "the other place" allows you to use CTRL-V to place an image you have previously copied. Going through the rigmarole of saving to local drive as an image and then trying to find that image via the current embed_image button is tiresome and not as sleek and quick as "the other place".

$\color{red}{\text{hello everyone}}$

  • I'm glad to see that mathjax or latex (or whatever it's called) works but it's a bit flaky in that as I add to this sentence it temporarily results in it going back to: -

\$\color{red}{\text{hello everyone}}\$

  • Also, when I use blockquote on the above latex phrase I get this: -

$\color{red}{\text{hello everyone}}$

  • And not this: -

\$\color{red}{\text{hello everyone}}\$

I guess it might be monospace font: -

\$\color{red}{\text{hello everyone}}\$

  • Yes it is! Hurrah. Previously I used the "`" character to make it work. OK, so blockquote and monospace quotes work - I just got them the wrong way round because they are in different places on "the other site". $\color{magenta}{\text{Another case of user (me) incompetence.}}$

  • I started editing something and I ended up making a mistake that I wanted to rectify with an undo button - I can't find it. So, I tried cancelling the edit but couldn't find that either so it ended up a bit of a head-scratch and I bodged my way through laboriously and with pain.

  • Another annoyance (and it is an annoyance) is that when you drag your mouse (left key pressed) over text already written so that you can block-quote it, after pressing the block-quote button, the edit pane drops right to the bottom and you easily forget where you are and have to search for the bit you were trying to modify. Yes, that is very annoying.

$\color{blue}{\text{Recent "observations": -}}$

  • when getting a notification of a comment added, it takes you to the page where the comment is added but doesn't help you find that new comment - in other words you have to wade through all the other comments on the original posting and answers to see if that might "be the one". Not a show-stopper but a right royal pain.

  • The "EE" top banner should remain fixed in place as you scroll down unless there's an overriding reason (based on user experience) that takes precedence over my desires.

$\color{red}{\text{Newer "observations": -}}$

I really, really don't like the ability to change comments beyond the 5 minute limit. I don't like it at all, not one bit, ever. It leads to confusion and time wasting trying to figure out what someone originally said when you are trying to explain to them where their original comment was incorrect and, suddenly (and out of the blue) you "see" that what you thought they originally said has possibly changed and then, you doubt that what you thought you originally read was a mistake on your own part. Not a good idea.


Of course I'm used to how "the other place" does things but the fewer the differences the better for me. Did I mention I was selfish and want everything done my way no later than this Thursday?


For my sins I have previously taken part in beta testing of new websites.


Anything I list as user incompetence means yes, I was incompetent but, if enough folk also demonstrate the same incompetence then it potentially becomes something that is worth fixing.

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General comments (18 comments)
General comments
Olin Lathrop‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Most of these are system-wide issues, not specific to this EE site. There is a system-wide meta for that, but the people that would see that might also notice it here. The software is very much still in development, but far enough along to have at least basically working Q&A sites. I was really asking what we can do here on the EE site before letting the masses know about it. So far we created a bunch of help pages and some canonical questions to get things started.

ArtOfCode‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Most of what you've mentioned here is either not a bug, a misunderstanding, or the same as how it works on SE. If you want to post this as a question on Meta, I'll explain each point individually - hard to do that in comments!

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

@ArtOfCode No, I don't want to post it as a question on meta. Olin says these are system-wide issues and YOU say it is not a bug, a misunderstanding or same as SE. There is a huge difference between what you say and what Olin says so you guys need to get your cylindrical brown lumps together because you are cancelling out each other and confusing me......

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago

.... Olin asked me along here to throw in my little bit and that's what I'm doing. Of course I may be wrong about this or that and need a slight poke in the eye as a reminder to work at things a bit more but, there are things I say that still look like bugs.

ArtOfCode‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@Andyaka With all due respect to Olin, he's not the developer. I am, which means I'm in a better place to recognise what's a bug, not, or otherwise - and causes, and workarounds, etc etc. I'm also in a position to help you get things that don't work for you fixed, but it can't be one-sided - we need to be able to figure out an agreeable solution, rather than either of us insisting that "it's a bug" or "it's not a bug".

Olin Lathrop‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@Andy: I was only saying that the issues you bring up are not unique to this EE site. They apply to the Codidact software in general. I didn't pass any judgement about what is a bug, what's not, and what is a feature. I was also trying to make it clear that this software is work in progress. Work with the developers (like Art) to get us all to a better state. I can say that I do see a preview window when writing answers, so this may be browser dependent.

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

I'm a guy that comes along (as a brand new user) and I find things that seem odd. It needn't be me; it can be anyone. So, even the most basic thing like me incompetently pressing the wrong button and saying it's a bug has validity because, I am in that unique position of being a brand new user. To me (and today) it's a bug; tomorrow it's a simple case of pressing the right button but, tomorrow when someone else comes along it's a bug. Ditto the day after.

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

What I'm saying is that nobody has a right of entitlement to saying what a bug is. My opinion (any new user) on this site and how it seems to me SHOULD BE OF INTEREST and if it doesn't appear to be that, then that needs to be re-thought.

manassehkatz‭ wrote over 4 years ago

"The "EE" top banner should remain fixed in place as you scroll down unless there's an overriding reason (based on user experience) that takes precedence over my desires." Actually, I consider that not a bug but a feature. Far too many web sites (including some I've written myself, because that's what the customer wants) waste space by having a large header stick around. So I vote (not that it matters) for keeping that particular feature intact.

luap42‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@Andyaka re "SHOULD BE OF INTEREST". We welcome all constructive criticism and proposals, but we only have a few people doing this here as volunteers in their free time. Things are bound to move slow and to be less perfect than a commercial project. OTOH everyone can help us implement changes to our source code.

ArtOfCode‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Thing is - there's a tradeoff to be had here. New user experience needs to be important, I agree - but we also have to consider developer time, global user experience, accessibility, screen sizes, feature availability, preconditions and requirements, impact, among a host of other things. Sometimes that means accepting a compromise between all of these things and sometimes that means our users need to get used to a different system - that's okay.

ArtOfCode‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Codidact isn't a project that intends to be "exactly like SE but free"; we're here to be better than SE in a bunch of ways that we've laid out in our vision for the software. Fundamentally, although this system will feel familiar, it's not intended to feel identical. Now -- there's a few things in this post that I can do something about, so I will - but there's also a few that are intentionally different, and those will stay as they were designed.

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

Aha a downvote for pointing stuff out. Sounds very similar to stack exchange in this respect. Guys, I'm trying to help. Any news on when I will be able to post pictures @ArtOfCode?

ArtOfCode‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Try images again now, I've just deployed a few fixes.

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@ArtOfCode - no nothing happening when I hit the image button. No different to earlier. Strange that it worked once on my EE Q and A but not again.

ArtOfCode‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Think I've found it. Give the images another go now.

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@ArtOfCode - yes (cool) I can embed an image now. I have done so in the above answer - that image shows that I don't see the preview pane on the EE site (just taken new screenshot to check).

Andy aka‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

@ArtOfCode - I think I can give more details on the preview pane not working because I've just done something that temporarily fixes it AND it does appear that I have the same issue on meta and Q n A. If I select "edit" then I get the screenshot as I've shown above. If then I use CTRL-mousewheel to zoom out, the preview pane magically appears after a short time delay. Maybe this is a clue?