Welcome MerNetwork Testers! (PLEASE READ)

[malinghi]

First off, welcome, and thank you for joining MerNetwork. Please be aware that the site is not officially open yet, as we'd like to have a test period where we can get feedback from people such as yourselves. All we ask is that you be patient and understanding of any bugs or errors, and that you give feedback on your experience on the site.

Again, welcome to MerNetwork!

[AniaR]

I sent you this feedback on DA but perhaps here is the best spot? I've got lots and I've been editing my post to add more as I experience things on the site.
"Okay, Im not sure what features are live yet but I wanted to give you a few things I noticed after registering.

It's not easy to find the edit profile bit - You have to go to settings first when going to my profile- customize seems like it would be the more obvious place to edit the profile. You may want to change the wording because they both look like they do the same thing but obviously dont as customize changes colours and CSS etc while edit allowed you to change information etc.

You have avatar and profile pic - avatar doesn't seem to let me do anything yet but your dimensions for profile pic seem to be pretty small. I tried a couple of times to upload something with the demensions and link to one too but it didn't work for me. Which will show up when you post? The Avatar or your profile pic? If profile pic is just for when people visit your page perhaps it can automatically down-size an image once uploaded? Just a thought.
edit:

I tried to upload photos into the album section and even though my photos are super small screen resolution for facebook it still says they're too big. I can't make them any smaller without it being impossible to see. The same thing happens when I try to link to photos off site. Also you can only upload 1 photo at a time. I think people would have an easier time without the size restrictions however Im sure that part has to do with how much space you have for the site?

Im also still not 100% how to browse the forums/find threads and post. For instance when I go to a section, not sure how to start a new thread- nothing I can see. Perhaps a series of screenshots in the FAQ would help. But of course I'm not sure what things are live yet and what's not. I only found the actual 'forum" when I looked at your link about tailmakers and saw the hot link in adam martyrns section! Im still not sure how to actually get to it from the main menu. Hunting around will discourage new users so for now I've got the forum page itself bookmarked!

Also, could we get a specific description of what areas each pod includes? For instance, in the east coast of Canada I have no idea which pod I belong to I actually dont think there is one there that applies! (I think I'd be North Atlantic? Im at the Atlantic ocean, and North, and not near the great lakes, lol) I do love the idea of pods though, it'll help us keep local things going, events, swims, meet ups etc. Great idea!

I love the TOS at the beginning, great job, I hope people read it!

So far that's all I've noticed that I've found a bit confusing and tricky to figure out. Everything else seems awesome I'm so excited for it to go live!"

p.s LOVE that we can subscribe to threads, that really helps stay on top of what threads we've started that we want to see if people have commented in. Thanks

[Neria]

Well, so far I love the new site! I'm still getting used to the way it works, but so far it seems great.

[malinghi]

Well, so far I love the new site! I'm still getting used to the way it works, but so far it seems great.

Hey, you wanna see something cool? If you want this site to look like the old forum, just scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on the dropdown menu that says "Default Style". Then click on "Old School".

[Neria]

ooohhh! wow thats cool!

[AniaR]

K, after making my very first official review post I wanted to add there's a limit of only being able to link 10 photos (I tried to link 17 for the purpose of my review) and there is a character limit for how long you can post. I had to post my review in several parts and while I dont think average posts will go over that I think informative posts and reviews will. It would be nice if we could adjust those numbers!

[Spindrift]

Hmm most of the things I've noticed so far have already been commented on.

Three main things after initial look-through:

"Introduce Yoursellf" <- typo on sub-forum section
limited number of words/photos ability to post
avatars are not enabled for junior members

[Spindrift]

... I may or may not have posted my pool thread in the wrong section. Not sure if it's fine or if I should ask to get it moved.
Also you can't post photos directly from your computer into a thread, it only accepts URLs of already hosted images. Which is the same way Yuku handled it, so I guess that's not a big deal.

[AniaR]

I have subscribed to several threads but I dont know where to check my subscriptions! Anyone know?

[Spindrift]

@Raina: Yep. Go to "Quick Links" -> "Subscribed Threads"
The "Quick Links" tool bar is located in the secondary menu bar under "Home | Forum | What's New".

[LindseyLu]

Hey, you wanna see something cool? If you want this site to look like the old forum, just scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on the dropdown menu that says "Default Style". Then click on "Old School".

Hey Malinghi I LOVE this feature!!!! :) What a great idea! And to be able to change the language too!?!?!? Merveilleuse!!!!!!!!!

[malinghi]

To address some of the great feedback I've been getting, I made the following changes:

Fixed the Typo in "Introduce Yourself"
Changedsettings so there's no limit on post length or number of images allowed
Added two new Pods to the forum for Eastern Canada and Oceana, called Pod of St. Lawrence and Pod of Oceana, respectively
Avatars should now be enabled
Images with larger dimensions can now be uploaded
As to your inability to upload images from your computer, what browser do you use? I've found that the popup to add an image gives the option of uploading from your computer if you are using firefox or internet explorer, but not chrome. Also there is an additional error that for firefox and internet explorer if you want to give it the URL of the image you need to unclick a check box that says "Retrieve remote file and reference locally".

I'm going to keep looking into this bug. Please let me know if you have same experiences with different browsers.

[AniaR]

thank you for all your hard work Malinghi it's appreciated! :o

[malinghi]

AniaR, what browser are you using?

[Spindrift]

Chrome represent! :D

[Spindrift]

... Well. I have no idea if I just made the forums more confusing or if I've helped. If someone could let me know after assessing the "progress/damage" if I should continue, that'd be cool.
[I'm referring to the copy/pasting posts over from mer.yuku, specifically in the "Tops" section].

Also you can't delete [your own] posts.

... I'm going for a swim. :|

[malinghi]

Spindrift, I don't know what other people think, but I like the archived threads. I think its good that you put "ARCHIVE" in the thread title, but just to be safe you might want to have some kind of message in the post that says something like, "This is an archived thread that was originally posted on mer.yuku.com, the predecessor to MerNetwork. For more information about mer.yuku.com, <a href="http://mernetwork.com/index/content.php?136-About-MerNetwork-article">click here</a>."

Or something similar It can be shorter, or you don't need to include it at all. I just think it might be useful since eventually a lot of our members won't know that we once moved the forum, so they'll be really confused by the archived threads.

About deleting posts, do you guys want that ability? They can still be edited, just not removed.

[Spindrift]

@malinghi:
Yep, added. Should I try to archive every thread? I could do that, it just might take a while, especially for the ones that are still running/being added to. Or I can just do it for a select few. There might also be an option to lock the threads later so that they can remain as archives.

I suppose instead of absolute deletion there might be an option to say "message deleted" or something. I don't know. I definitely want a delete post option on mer.yuku, since I think I have pictures of me there that I'd like to remove. I could see it being handy for some posts, but I guess we could just message one of the moderators (you) if we wanted to remove something.

[AniaR]

I just found out too when you try and post a photo using a link in a thread it has this box automatically checked: " Retrieve remote file and reference locally" and I couldnt submit the photo, but when I unchecked the box, I could.

[Spindrift]

Hmm... does this happen to anyone else? When I click on a thread it brings me to the beginning, instead of the end. Does anyone want that fixed? Or is that a personal preference thing that I should set myself?

[OrcaMatt]

No, that's what I usually expect when I click on the thread title. There's a button next to it to go to the first unread post.

[AniaR]

I am using firefox, sorry I forgot to reply to that one. Are we talking about the ability to delete posts here or on yuku? I'd like to delete some of my stuff on mer yuku Im all ready copying over everything I feel is important and informative. I dont think everything should be archived but some things like tail making etc is good. Maybe the alex thread too?

[LindseyLu]

Hmm...I'm still not able to upload any pics to my album...it keeps telling me they are too big, but they are already pretty small. What should I do? I want to get my profile all set up! :)

[LindseyLu]

And my profile pic is still not showing...I think I'm missing something somewhere...??? Help please! :)

[Winged Mermaid]

I made it so the avatars can now be 100x100 (so a bit larger), and profile pics can now be 300x300. Both will be automatically resized when uploaded.

Album settings have been changed. Current allowed dimensions are 600x600. I think the issue was the bytes allowed per album. I changed it so max number of pics is 100, and max space total per album is 5 megabytes. That is PLENTY of space, so if anyone has more issues let me know.

LidseyLu, the problem is that you uploaded a profile pic but not an avatar! Profile pics are what you see on your profile page, avatars are what you see under your username when you post around the board. Let me know if you need any more help!

[LindseyLu]

Ah! LOL ;) I figured it was user error! Thanks Winged Mermaid, your the best! I'll try again tonight :D

[Spindrift]

Can someone change the thread I titled "Busty Mers" to "Help for Busty Mers"?
Also, the bbcode won't let me resize images inside posts. I've tried resizing it via dragging it in the WYSWYG editor, coding it long hand, short hand, css, and plain html.

[AniaR]

hmm I have no problem resizing images by just dragging the corners?

[Spindrift]

Odd. Could you do me a favor and try re-sizing inside a table and letting me know if that works for you? Maybe that's where my problem is.

[jukumerboii]

SO far im enjoying the new site alot,,i changed the style on mines to tropical waters, it feels "homey!"..Malinghi and who ever else helped put the new board 2gether has done a really great job!!!:D

[Mermaid Sirena]

Chat... Chat.... Chat...? I think I'm being stupid but have you added a chat feature yet for live testing like on the yuku forums? I want to chit chat with everyone but I spend all my time at work and school and the internet there blocks yuku chatrooms (sad day).

[malinghi]

Mermaid Sirena, there's a chat box at the top of the forum page, and if you go to Chatbox Full there's a page with the same chatbox but in a larger window. Has anyone else tried out the chatbox?

[Mermaid Sirena]

I found it! This is very exciting :D Ok one more stupid question, while I'm typing all the time I see it saying auto-saved which is great but where do I go to find these lovely autosaved drafts if say my computer shut down and I wasn't done typing a big long message?

[malinghi]

Serena, if something is autosaved then there is a button in the lower right corner of the posting box that says "Restore Saved Content".

321

[OrcaMatt]

Would it be possible to have it so that if there's text in a post highlighted and you hit 'reply with quote' it quotes only the highlighted text?

[Mermaid Sirena]

Oh hey! That's pretty spiffy! One more though, I like Facebooks idea of putting @ in front of a user name and having it link to that person and tell them they were mentioned. Would that be possible for here?

[Winged Mermaid]

Well mostly on forums the quote tool, or just mentioning or linking to another member, is used rather than "mentions". It would have to be a software mod to do something like that, and there doesn't seem to be one out there for it currently. Sorry :(

OrcaMatt- you can delete parts of quoted material to only have the text you want, but I understand that would be easier. It looks like there's a mod out there for that, I'll see if it'll work for us :)

[Spindrift]

Is there an option to "opt-out" of having album pictures being randomly featured on the forum page?

[malinghi]

When you create an album you can choose for it to be public or private. Private albums are only viewable to your friends, and won't appear on the front page.

[AniaR]

I really wish if people are gonna dump a bunch of photos on that they didnt take they link the original artist especially on DA in the description or soemthing, DA has their own forum thread for sites that "rip" art and post without consent or credit and they encourage members to report websites to their service/hosting provider... it's easy enough to embed a DA photo using the official embed code they provide and then link back to the artist as I did in the thread "deviantART mermaids". Anyway it doesn't just apply to DA it would be nice if people got in the habit of crediting anything that doesnt belong to them, not only for the artist who took part in the work but to keep less headache for the forum down the road.

I decided to make an informational post about it since I had done it on mer yuku too. http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?263-Posting-photos-you-didn-t-take...&p=1392#post1392

[OrcaMatt]

This is something we should regulate sooner rather than later. If we let people upload whatever they want, before we know it we'll be out of disk quota and have to upgrade (Of course, I don't know what our hosting is, but forums always seem to outgrow their hosting), by which time it'll be more of a hassle for people to bring their albums in line. Plus yes, the potential legal issues.

[Spindrift]

@malinghi: yeah, that option is nice but I don't plan on friending everyone in the community since it would defeat the purpose of having friends within the forum. I think. I'd like the option for people to see it if they want to, just for it to not be openly advertised. If I'm alone in this matter though, I'll just shut up and suck it up as it is not that big of a deal.

[AniaR]

well I think UPLOADING should only be for your own photos. You can easily embed other photos (with a credit plz) in a post without taking up space if you wanna share stuff

[OrcaMatt]

Yeah, mostly concerned with the uploaded albums we store. Image ownership and accreditation are kind of a factor in both, of course.

[Winged Mermaid]

The rules state that credit must be given for images that are not you own. If there are uploaded or posted pictures that are not credited the image/post will be edited to do so or it will be removed.

There may be more rules regarding what you can an can't upload in the future, right now we're still trying to feel around on server space. Hosting says unlimited, but when is unlimited really ever unlimited anymore?

Also the size of uploads and attachments were specified to a large number on settings, but it is ignoring those settings. Apparently this is more complicated that a mere setting, so we hope to get that worked out here soon!

[OrcaMatt]

There may be more rules regarding what you can an can't upload in the future, right now we're still trying to feel around on server space. Hosting says unlimited, but when is unlimited really ever unlimited anymore? Exactly. I'm pretty sure the hosting for a large-ish regional food forum I was on was 'unlimited', but we still got a "Your board is starting to outgrow your hosting, would you mind giving us more money, or maybe leaving?" message from the site. It didn't even take that long.

[Ashe]

hey admins, i didnt know where to post this, but i decided here. I recently started a new thread about instagram. Can i have it deleted?

[AniaR]

works best to PM a mod or flag your own thread using the little triangle icon that comes up under your icon and explain in the comments you'd like your thread deleted.

[Ashe]

I did PM, but ill try that report button now. Thanks Raina!