How Could We Improve Scioly.org?

[TheChiScientist]

Is it just me or do other people get the ERROR screen at times?

Are you talking about roughly an hour ago or at other times? The one an hour ago was due to an issue against which I already took action.

That would be during the past 24 hours. It was at its worst from 8am CT to 6pm CT. Most likely due to servers being jampacked. Although I did receive this message twice yesterday...

[Schrodingerscat]

Is it just me or do other people get the ERROR screen at times?

Are you talking about roughly an hour ago or at other times? The one an hour ago was due to an issue against which I already took action.

That would be during the past 24 hours. It was at its worst from 8am CT to 6pm CT. Most likely due to servers being jampacked. Although I did receive this message twice yesterday...

Turns out the issue I fixed started yesterday evening according to the logs.

[TheChiScientist]

Are you talking about roughly an hour ago or at other times? The one an hour ago was due to an issue against which I already took action.

That would be during the past 24 hours. It was at its worst from 8am CT to 6pm CT. Most likely due to servers being jampacked. Although I did receive this message twice yesterday...

Turns out the issue I fixed started yesterday evening according to the logs.

Ok. Then, in that case, I think we are good. I haven't had any more problems and the site is running smoothly.

[dxu46]

You should make it so that every time you want to notify someone in a post, instead of quoting them you can just @ them (e.g. @bernard) to send them a notification just like quoting.

[MadCow2357]

My suggestions:
1. Make posting easier, more like typing in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Sometimes I wanna bold something, or italicize, and I'll hit control b/i. Then, later on, I'll realize the stuff wasn't bolded. The bar thingy which allows you to bold and stuff, the one that's given at the top when posting, is somewhat inconvenient, unaesthetic, and rather complicated. It's hard to make tables and insert images. I understand that this would be a big project, but I feel like making everything simpler (less knowledge of BB Code needed) and more aesthetic would definitely be an improvement. I have friends who don't bother posting on scioly.org because they think it is complicated.
2. Improve the user control panel and tool bar. It would be great to have an aesthetically improved userpage and tool bar. Something more like what you would see on twitter. Like, a decent search, a larger icon, larger notifications section, larger PM section.
3. Improve private messaging. It's kinda weird, I would much prefer something to look like sending an email using gmail or outlook.
4. When posting, don't show the bb code. This is definitely me being OCD, but I hate how bolding something looks like [/b]blah blah blah (code error is on purpose). Hiding the code would be a definite aesthetic improvement.
5. Font. I think most font here is either in Times New Roman, Sabs Serif, Roboto, or Arial, and some fonts just make this site look old. A more modern font like Calibri would be cool (just my opinion)

Stuff I agree with:
1. An app would be a good idea, as people are more likely to use an app than click on a website frequently. That's just my psychological guess based on my experiences and observations.
2. Organization of threads is super important. Perhaps you could make it so only admins, moderators, exalted members, and members with 100+ posts can make new topics/threads. Because many "noobs" come on here, don't bother reading past posts, and ask questions that have been answered 10+ times (I know because I was like this last year).

[EastStroudsburg13]

bernard definitely handles a lot more of the aesthetic stuff around here than I do, but a lot of your ideas would require shifting the site to a different forum software other than phpBB. Which still is a valid suggestion, but a lot of things such as posting mechanics, the UCP, private messaging, and BBCode are things that we cannot get rid of or make significant changes to without changing the entire site and archiving this one (a la past generations that can be viewed, though not accessed, here).

[Paypog]

I have one problem with this website. The mods (AHEM EAST) are able to edit posts, which means even if I'm saying something completely harmless, they can (and have) changed the post to mess with me. It's very unsettling and really causes some internal scarring every time it occurs. Therefore, I believe that mods should be able to delete posts, but not directly change them. Thank you for your valuable time.

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

I have one problem with this website. The mods (AHEM EAST) are able to edit posts, which means even if I'm saying something completely harmless, they can (and have) changed the post to mess with me. It's very unsettling and really causes some internal scarring every time it occurs. Therefore, I believe that mods should be able to delete posts, but not directly change them. Thank you for your valuable time.

This makes total sense to me.

[EastStroudsburg13]

In the event that this is a serious suggestion; no, editing privileges will not be revoked from moderators. In the event that a post contains something actually problematic, but has already been quoted by other posts, being able to edit is important to maintain the flow of a thread.

Now, mods will sometimes apply this to posts that don't break any rules, but rather speak ill of the mods, in a tongue-in-cheek manner. If someone gets their post edited in this situation and has a legitimate problem with it, they can send a private message to the mod to work it out.

[Paypog]

In the event that this is a serious suggestion; no, editing privileges will not be revoked from moderators. In the event that a post contains something actually problematic, but has already been quoted by other posts, being able to edit is important to maintain the flow of a thread.

Now, mods will sometimes apply this to posts that don't break any rules, but rather speak ill of the mods, in a tongue-in-cheek manner. If someone gets their post edited in this situation and has a legitimate problem with it, they can send a private message to the mod to work it out.

Alright thank you. Time to send you a private message