Here's a list of changes you guys requested. I may have cut out one or two things I couldn't comprehend. I've tried to include them all, whether or not I think they're feasible or desirable. Bug reports involving cross-browser compatibility will be dealt with separately.
1) Transparent Rankings - this is a contentious issue. But the overall weight of opinion seems to be in favor of transparent against anonymous. Am I mistaken?
2) Reply Tracker - Most everyone who responded wants something like the old MBTU. Various technical obstacles to that wish have been explained to me. We'll be sitting down for a good think on this one - expect something, but more consistent with the site's current architecture than its former.
3) Threaded View Too Small - Many complaints that the post box is too short in threaded view. We're locked into a fixed height - however, we can probably make it larger. Tentative proposal - we quadruple its current size. Many also complain it's too narrow. I'm afraid we're locked into the current width.
4) Thread Box Below Post Box - A reasonable request - not sure if it's feasible, but let me know if you like the current layout (Thread Box on top in threaded view). Otherwise, we may request that it be relocated.
5) Thread Box Default Changed - Many requests that "Expand All Replies" be set to the default for Threaded View. For those looking for a fast way to "Expand All" - right click on the Thread Box - a menu should pop up letting you do so.
6) Color of Visited Hyperlinks - Complaints that hyperlinks don't change color when you visit them. This should be easy to fix, and I'll be looking into it.
7) Block User - This is a source of some conflict behind the scenes. A lot of requests we bring it back. It's a complicated feature. But we'll sit down and give it a think-through.
8) EOM Function - Several complaints about this. In the redesign, we turned it off. It can't be done anymore. Some of you want it back, other complaints seemed to suggest it's still possible. We'll give this some further thought. Don't get your hopes up.
9) Next Post Function - Several users wanted the return of the old "Next Post" function. It was hard to tell whether complaints referred to individual posts within "Threaded View" or to movement from top-post to top-post within a forum. Given that the former can be solved by switching to "Flat View" and the latter can be solved in as many clicks as before (click back to the forum, then click the next post) we probably won't request it.
10) Exclude Author Field From Search Results - one user complained that searching for her own name returns posts submitted by her. Not a pressing concern, but it would be nice to add a "NOT" feature to the search engine (i.e., all posts containing "Geoff" but NOT written by Geoff). This will require some back-side discussion and thinking before deciding what to ask for.
11) Users Attach Own Article Tags - Right now, the editors can add tags to associate a post with a Slate article - we've just been a little too busy to do much of that kind of work. We might experiment with giving you that ability, if it's feasible.
12) Users Modify Own User Names - None of you asked for this, but my inbox has been going crazy with people requesting fixes to improperly registered User Names (accidentally using real names, typos). This will be on the list of things to fix.
13) Stair-Step or Outline Number Flat View - Some of you asked for a visual expression of the conversation's structure in the Flat View. Given the horizontal dimensions we have to work with, stair-stepping is out of the question. Outline tagging is probably also not feasible (given how many levels deep it can go). Since Threaded View provides that information, we might not do anything about this. But we'll give it some further thought.
14) Edit Your Own Posts - Sheesh. There's no saving people from their own typos. Still, a reasonable request was ability to edit posts for the same duration as one could retract them. That's a strong maybe - if it's easy, OK. If not - c&p your post when you delete it, then make the edits from there.
15) Preview Pane Shows Two Posts - Right now, the Preview Tab shows the post you're responding to. That does seem unnecessary, and we'll see if we can remove that.
16) Absolute Time Stamp - Recent posts are indicated with time stamps like "20 minutes ago", "Yesterday", and "Today." I agree that these are less helpful than absolute time stamps ("06-17-07 at 10:30am"). We'll look into changing that.
17) Space Below in Composition Box - The default "Space Below" for paragraphs in the Rich Text Editor is set to 12 pt. I've probably been in the publishing industry too long - 0 pt below creates a million hassles... in our case, when we're using your material for Fraywatch and appends. In your case if you're composing in a sensibly configured version of MS Word. Shouldn't be hard to change, but using entire line breaks to space paragraphs is a very twentieth century no-no. We'll see... in the meantime "Shift+Enter" for all you angry poets.
18) Permalinks for Sub-Posts - One of you asked for this, though in very different words. Something you could click on to link you directly to the sub-post within Flat View. That'd be pretty helpful for us editors too. We'll work on that.
19) Intermediate Page - When you select a result from your list of recent posts, your favorites page, or a search result, it takes you an intermediate page. You can only see the sub-post with a link to "View Complete Thread." We'll see if we can cut out that middle page. Barring that, we'll try and add some useful information to it.
20) Presidential Caucus Icons - Ugh. OK, we'll think about it. It shouldn't be too hard. We'll probably consider it again in the post-development phase, since that's a time-sensitive frill more than a core feature.
21) Shaded Subject Box - There was a complaint that the subject box isn't shaded, and so there's no visual contrast between a post's title and it's body. Agreed. We'll see what we can do.
22) Jump to Post from Thread to Flat - You try distilling this complaint into three words... when you're reading a sub-post in threaded view, and you switch to flat, why can't you find yourself at the sub-post's permalink? I think this is determined by the way the new Fray is set up, and we couldn't fix it without sacrificing the "one-page-load-per-conversation" feature. Though it's an aggravation, I don't think it's worth losing so much speed over.
23) Heighten Contrast in Quote Box - The "black on dark grey" of the quote box is apparently hard on some eyes. We'll try and bleach out the background a little more.
24) Polling Function and Private Messages - No.
Did I miss something (bear in mind, your complaint may have been merged with similar ones)? Did you?
