New Talk Pages #2

Continued from the 300+ post thread!

The Talk module on the home page has been fixed, removing the extra column and etc.

Edited: Ah, maybe not the bold. Fixing.

Just when I was becoming attached to it! :-)

Fixed!

>4 krazy4katz: :P :)

>3 timspalding: Thank you! It looks awesome now.

Blockquotes are fixed.

is anyone still having problems with the spoiler tag? It seems that conceptDawg fixed some issues with it, but it's unclear to me if problems remain. Here's one, by the way. The best halloween candy is: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups .

>8 timspalding: Only if I'm using my browser's night mode. Chrome Version 86.0.4240.77, using Night Shift Redux version 1.0.2 extension in Dark Mode.

>8 timspalding: No, it's Baby Ruth

>9 amanda4242:

Okay. I think I may have to leave this for ConceptDawg. The ins and outs of what browsers support for "night shift" is beyond me, and this is another wrinkle—a third-party add on. Speaking of which is that one even safe? See https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/ht804r/chrome_extension_malware/

Maybe just a case of being used to the old way, but I find the star button at the end of the thread counterintuitive.

Put it both at top and bottom and keep everyone (un)happy?

>12 AndreasJ:

Yeah, we need to fix this. What you're talking about isn't true generally—only on mobile. But it shouldn't work like that.

>13 timspalding:

Actually, I see it at the bottom on the laptop too. I use a fairly narrow browser window - it does jump to the top right if I make it wider.

(Since years, I routinely set my browser window to roughly half the width of the screen, to force webpages to use a sensible line length. Many, LT Talk included, get hard to read in a maximized browser window.)

>11 timspalding: Redux is a different extension than the one they're talking about, which isn't available anymore. The original Night Shift was infected with malware after the creator sold it; the creator made a new version, Night Shift Redux, which is clean.

Could we please get the "next/previous" buttons back at the top of the main talk page as well as at the bottom?

Thanks.

.

>16 lilithcat: What is the argument, though? How can you know you want to go back until you've seen the bottom of the page?

>18 timspalding: You're looking for a thread you know is on the next page? You accidentally clicked next and want to go back?

A reminder: the description at the top for "Groups and Posts" remains inconsistent with those for "Your Groups", "Your Posts", etc.

The "Groups and Posts" description/header uses title case, where the others use sentence case; and while the others generally start with the noun "Topics", the "Groups and Posts" starts with the preposition "From".

>18 timspalding:

I actually use it a fair bit when I'm looking for a specific thread.

I'll often use my browser's search function to look for a word or phrase that I know is in the subject line. If it doesn't appear on the first page, I'll use the "next" button to move on, and I am generally at the top of the page at that point.

Also what >19 amanda4242: said.

In Zeitgeist, largest libraries used to be numbered, so I could see my ranking easily. Now the numbers are gone. It would be great if all the Zeitgeist sections included the numbers (1, 2, 3...) as well as the userid and relevant statistic.

Hm. I don't know if this has been noted yet, but on the TALK page, although I can sort by topic, when I read a thread and come back to the TALK list, the order has not been preserved. I can sort again by topic, but that means that the software has to do the work again.

eta: sometimes it happens and then sometimes it doesn't. Oh dear. The nastiest of bugs.

Is there any option to change the color of the bars for unread messages when reading threads? I HATE the light blue. It clashes with the brown of the rest of the website (for example, the menu bar) and it makes me feel like I'm on facebook. I really, really don't want to feel like I'm on facebook.

I haven't checked out talk in a month or so and that blue color honestly makes me want to stay away even longer.

>23 ffortsa: From the Talk page, can you give me a sample thread that you're looking at/reading? And, how are you returning to "Talk": by using your browser's back button or by hitting the "Talk" link in the main menu? Something else? Also, what operating system and what browser are you using?

>24 Kanarthi: It's on our list, and we'll take your feedback into consideration! https://www.librarything.com/topic/324351#7295636

Why is there a little downward triangle next to "Last Message" on the main Talk page?

I keep thinking it should do something, but it doesn't. So what's the point?

>27 lilithcat: I think it's to indicate that it's sorted by that column.

>28 mart1n:

Duh! And of course it didn't do anything because it was already sorted that way.

Off to get another cup of caffeine.

I've noted a minor bug (or feature?). When I open a thread for the first time, the first post is already marked as read. Slightly confusing, IMHO. It might be a browser thing? So please speak up if you see it too.

>30 bnielsen: Yes, I've seen it and it's annoying. It's been reported on one of the threads, perhaps the bugs one.

The new designs are so nice!

>31 jjwilson61: Thanks. (I haven't read the two long LT 2.0 threads completely yet.)

>12 AndreasJ: yes pls!

esp for long threads, can you put 'back to top' link at the bottom?

>32 CKHarwood:

I'm largely in agreement, although these threads definitely seem to be dominated by the dissenters.

Well, I am using this site on my iPhone for the first time and it seems very nice. I can’t imagine how the home page will look because there is so much information there but I suppose Tom and coworkers have a plan.

I'd appreciate some feedback on fonts here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/325717

I generally like the new look and functionality of new talk, the only exception being the main talk page, which still shows too few threads without scrolling. I see only six when unread (and thus bolded) and eight otherwise. It looks best for me at 75-80 percent zoom, so I went searching for some add-ons that would allow me to define that as default zoom for that page alone.

Opened thread pages look great, very clean, smooth and modern look. I was wondering for a while about all the font complaints, until I remembered I always set my own defaults in browser settings. So for those who find the font difficult to read, you might want to change the defaults for serif and sans serif fonts in your browser settings.

Not a fan of the red star. I don't think the wine red color is screaming 'urgent' or 'alarming', but it's less noticeable than the yellow one and the star symbol itself seems to call for something in the yellow-orange range. But I'm getting used to the red one and notice them easier by now.

It predates the new talk, but thank you for the reply actually adding the > and number. I always had to copy/paste it since the netbook keyboard stubbornly refuses to type it when pressing alt/Y.

I would like the "star this topic" at the top of the page. I often start reading a topic and decide to star it right away.

>39 fuzzi: The star/ignore options are up at the top right on desktop, or at the bottom on mobile.

>34 cindydavid4: There's a back to the top link in the header of each post in the thread.

The text box for adding a new post is too tall on my phone. When the keyboard loads it pushes the top of the box beyond the top of the screen so that I can't see what I'm typing until I drag it down again.

>40 mart1n: I saw, but at the top would be nice.

>40 mart1n: Right. conceptDawg is working on getting them to "linearize" differently on mobile. It's above my pay grade.

One of the things I am noticing with the new page layout (desktop with a wide monitor) is that the unread numbers ( eg 6/78) are way over on the right and out of my immediate focus, and hence I'm less likely to read a thread, compared to the older layout - when it was instantly apparent that there were only a couple of posts I would dip in, but now I'm reading only the titles and only if they pique my interest am I checking to see how much there is to read.

>38 SandraArdnas: Oh yes, I love this feature!!!!

>40 mart1n: they are on the bottom of my laptop

>42 jjwilson61: what good is it there, when I am at the bottom and want to get back up to the top of a 500 post thread without scrolling up? I see the one on top that says jump to the bottom. There is not one at the bottom that says jump to the top. Is that possible? also really want the star/ignore buttons back up top of thread . Please

And btw despite all, I have to say how pleased I am with the site and thank you for all you guys have done to make life easier for us !

>49 cindydavid4: the up-facing arrow beside the timestanp on each message is a link to the top.

I learned that only this month. The icon is easy to miss.

>50 aspirit: Wha????? Ok, glad to know this. Yep easy to miss, cause who woulda thought? Ok, my scrolling finger thanks you very much!

>49 cindydavid4: I also vote for the "Star this topic" button on top.

>49 cindydavid4: & >52 fuzzi: it is at the top -- top right. Even better it stays in the upper right corner. You don't have to use the "return to top" arrow to get to it.

>41 ffortsa:

I would suggest that, if the Strand Books situation is mentioned, then any and all independent bookstores similarly situated should be mentioned. Strand isn't the only one having financial issues.

Example: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-seminary-coop-covid19-relief

https://www.greenapplebooks.com/support-green-apple-donate

lilithcat (#55):

Yeah. I'm supporting my local independents, so that I can hopefully go back to in person one day, not one that I'm unlikely to ever see in any case.

Maybe it's been mentioned before, but CTRL+clicking titles of threads in the new Talk doesn't open them in a new tab in the way I would expect. Yes, they open in a new tab, but the focus of my browser goes into the new tab. (So I can't quickly open all the threads I'd interested in in new tabs, my preferred way of reading fora.)

I use Firefox, fwiw.

>41 ffortsa: Spam about books is still spam.

Shop Early and Shop Local!

Most of us don't live anywhere near your bookstore. I'll shop at my local bookstore. Yours isn't local to me.

>53 lesmel: It's at the bottom if you're using a mobile device.

>57 Stevil2001: What operating system are you using? I'm unable to reproduce this on my Mac in Firefox.

>53 lesmel: on desktop, yes, but not on my Android phone.

I accessed "Talk" from my iPhone for the first time today, and noticed that it is not possible to ignore a Topic from the main Talk page, unlike on my desktop or iPad. The little "x" isn't there.

>61 Collectorator: same news from a better source (as in, known for accurate reporting and closer to the subjects):

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/10/new-york-bookstore-owned-by-wife-of-oreg...

>41 ffortsa: I do believe the impact of independent bookstores is an important topic of interest to many members of this site, but I'm with others here in wanting to focus on supporting my local sellers. The Strand doesn't mean anything to me in comparison.

>60 kristilabrie: Windows 10.

>63 lilithcat: Same here. (Chrome, android tablet.)

Whoa! Am on my tablet. Didnt like the new talk via portrait so switched to landscape. Better but prefer using portrait so switched to desktop view. Talk pages are teeny tiny. Am i the only one seeing this?

ETA: Technically, I posted this question on one of the other threads from my tablet, then decided to move it here. Am now back on my PC (where I usually access LT from), and have copy/pasted it here. I do occasionally look at it on my tablet, but not often. Still wondering why so tiny? Wish I could take a screenshot to show just how tiny it looked (the entire page before I zoomed in).

Is an entire page of BOLDED text the intended design for the new TALK home page?

>68 casaloma: If but only if all topics on your TALK page have unread posts, yes.

>69 anglemark: Thanks! I see that now.
The one or two topics I've read have reverted to regular text, but are lost in the sea of BOLD unread topics.

>65 Stevil2001: Okay, thanks! And this morning I'm able to reproduce your issue on my Mac and using Windows. Thanks.

>67 LibraryCin: did you see whether you had the mobile view or desktop view selected? If I remember correctly, tablet users can switch between the two views using the link in the site's bottom menu. Text in the desktop view looks smaller than in the mobile view.

>72 aspirit: It must have been the mobile view to start with, because I looked for and purposely chose the desktop view.

It was after I chose the desktop view that it went to super-small print. Like - super-small. No possible way to read it without zooming in A LOT! I can't even stress how much I mean by A LOT! LOL! (That's why I wish I could show a screenshot of what it looked like!)

>73 LibraryCin:

Right. The desktop view is optimized for the desktop. If you use the desktop view on a mobile phone, it will look bad.

I usually prefer the desktop version of websites, even on my tablet, but I've never seen one where it turned out so tiny... Guess if I'm looking at LT on my tablet, I'll simply turn my tablet to landscape.

Hope this is the right place for this:

In the talk pages of the 75 Books group, previously those books in my self-created collection 'ebooks or PDFs' received a grey check mark. This has been lost since the update. It now looks as though those books are not in my library.

Was this intentional or is it a glitch, and if the former could we have that changed back?

Here is a screenshot from my thread; the change affects those books to the right of the screen, listed in response to touchstones in the talk posts: The Saint-Fiacre Affair is 'read but unowned' and In The Night Room is in 'my library'; both Vanishing Point and The Crimson Alibi were read as ebooks:

I can confirm what lyzard sees in #76. Books that are only in Collections I created and none of the "default" ones do not have checkmarks in Talk for me. It took a bit to notice this, since the "blue" color is grey now. Grey checks *do* still appear on author pages, so it's definitely a New Talk issue.

>76 lyzard: and >77 lorax: thanks for the report, adding to the list.

I have a question about starred threads. It seems like stars are no longer carrying through to a continued thread. They used to - is this an intentional change? Or am I doing something incorrectly?

There are several people I follow individually who post in groups that I'm not a part of. The stars carrying through to a continued thread is a valuable feature to me.

japaul (#79):

I have a question about starred threads. It seems like stars are no longer carrying through to a continued thread.

This has been noted multiple times. It is a bug.

>77 lorax:, >78 kristilabrie:

Was there any thought of extending the checkmarks for created categories, or will they remain just for the default collections?

>81 lyzard: No thoughts given to it so far, so they will likely stay the way they are at least until we get more of LT2 rolled out.

>82 conceptDawg:

Okay, thanks.

My apologies for mentioning the Strand on this thread. Of course all local bookstores should be supported.

Back to bugs. I'm having trouble again on the TALK page with sequence. I can sort by topic and then go to a thread, but when I return from the thread, I have to sort again. For a while this seemed to be corrected so that the selected sort sequence was retained, but not anymore. Certainly a minor inconvenience, but still annoying.

>84 ffortsa: What operating system and web browser are you using? I'm unable to reproduce this on my Mac with Chrome, thanks!

Did the font change or something? Talk looks a bit off to me now, but I'm not quite sure why.

Eeeeek everything is huge and bold!!!!
Now I have to put Talk at 80% to have it like before, and then reset it when going to the other book pages :(

Yes. We have reverted back to the original LT1 font due to feedback in Talk.

BUT, you now have choices! In the footer you can now find a style chooser that will let you choose between a few different styles/sizes of fonts. At this point there aren't any radical choices but they should alleviate any font size/style differences that people have.

This selection is saved and should persist across pages while viewing LT.

>88 conceptDawg: Localization bug! https://www.librarything.com/pic/7900106

>88 conceptDawg: Thanks, I like this change a lot! I imagine I will mostly use display option B on desktop--haven't tried mobile yet.

>88 conceptDawg:

you can now find a style chooser that will let you choose between a few different styles/sizes of fonts.

Very cool!

>89 anglemark: thanks.

>88 conceptDawg:

Cool. Presumably it'll stick for one device only?

>89 anglemark: I had the same, but it looks like it is taken care of. There is a "x" to close now.

love it!

>93 AndreasJ: Correct. And it's actually browser-based. So you can have different settings for different browsers on a single device.

>94 FAMeulstee: Yes. Should be fixed.

>88 conceptDawg: My first reaction was "wow what happened to the font?!" and I loved the idea of having style choices. But I see it's actually the font I preferred when you were seeking feedback, and the other style choices didn't do much for me so I guess I still prefer it. Whaddaya know.

>88 conceptDawg: Thanks, I found it! Style B it is, then :)
(although I prefer B for size and C for the actual font hehe)

I LOVE it!!!

I love having choices!

Which styles are each of the letters? I'm curious how they match up to what I said I liked and didn't like. For instance, I'm using A on my iPad/Safari - is it a font I said I liked, disliked, or was indifferent to?

The blockquote font has become huge again. I've tried changing styles but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

See this thread for example: http://www.librarything.com/topic/321978#7306752

Using Chrome on Ubuntu.

>100 John5918:

Yes, blockquotes are monstrous huge.

See also: http://www.librarything.com/topic/326064#7307550

This is true in Safari 12.1.2 and Firefox 82.0.2 with MacOS Sierra 10.12.6

>101 lilithcat:

I fixed it, again.

>102 timspalding:

Thanks, let's hope this time is the charm, and it stays fixed!

>102 timspalding: While you’re looking at font sizes, content within <pre> tags seems excessively small to me on setting B. It looks fine on A, C, and D.

Example here, 2nd post.

>88 conceptDawg: Ooooh, I love the choices! And if A is the original, that's the one I like best now having tested each one right after the other.

>88 conceptDawg: Thank you so much for giving us these choices! Rock on!

Did something happen to the Talk feeds? Those look worse this evening. Each topic is taking up at least five lines.

(I have already checked my Style setting. That's not what's different.)

What is going on with the touchstones???

>108 ffortsa: Good question. We're waiting to find out.

Bug Collectors:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/327209
https://www.librarything.com/topic/325538

Responses across the site to missing and disappearing touchstones include...

https://www.librarything.com/topic/317445#7356391

https://www.librarything.com/topic/326986#7354089

https://www.librarything.com/topic/327397#7348390

https://www.librarything.com/topic/327305#7346140 (with The Broken Earth Trilogy and The Breakbeat Poets, Volume 4: LatiNext, which appeared on the 3rd try but disappeared as I typed in the message; https://www.librarything.com/work/24516616)

https://www.librarything.com/topic/327662#7356901 (for The History of Death, which appeared on my 3rd try -- https://www.librarything.com/work/4191365 in case it disappears)

>108 ffortsa: Could you be a little more specific? There are multiple things going on with touchstones, but just asking "What's Wrong?" doesn't really narrow down what you refer to.

>112 gilroy: Touchstones in the list I keep at the top of my thread only seem to register the first word of a title (for instance, 'The'), although much of the time in the body of a later post the entire title is recognized. So it's not that they are pointed at the wrong book, per se, but that the entire title is not recognized. Why that happens at the top of the thread and not in the body of the posts (at least sometimes) may help a programmer find the error. I tried putting the title in quotes - didn't help. And I must add that many of these touchstones were recognized correctly when first entered into the list.

Does this help?

You can look at the last 'ffortsa' thread for 75 books in 2020.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/325873#n7363135

Note that all the touchstones still look like they are recognized on the thread this was continued from.

Yesterday I created a list of authors and titles in the following thread (post #2), but none of the touchstones have appeared.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/327964

Has the link to create a continuation of the topic which used to appear at the bottom of long threads disappeared? I can't see it, eg at http://www.librarything.com/topic/314976. Or does it only appear after a certain number of posts? If so, what is that threshold?

>116 John5918:

It is there - but I think it shows up only after you reach 150 posts.

>117 AnnieMod:

Ah, thanks. That particular thread hasn't quite reached 150 yet.

>115 John5918: An additional clue? Touchstones that were working when I first posted stopped working, or being detected by edit, I guess, when I updated and saved the same entry.

>119 ffortsa:

Thanks. Same for me.