Hey everyone!

I've collected a list of priorities to follow up on here. In the interests of transparency, I'm sharing the list and will keep it updated.

Feel free to let me know your feedback on anything, it definitely helps!

Note that some items lower in the list might be easy and quick fixes, so I could get to them earlier.

  • ✅ Hosting. FreeFlarum is amazing and the operator is very kind and supportive. Sooner or later, we will need to migrate to a new host. I already have many ideas and I'll start planning this on the weekend.
  • Terms of Use / Moderation policies. I tend to take my time when writing, but this is important.
  • ✅ Recitals. @Sam has reached out and shared some fantastic ideas here. There is clearly a huge community benefit for this.
  • Piano World Tribute project. I want to collect favorite threads from PT members and prioritize those. This used to be at the top of my list and I still feel a strong sense of urgency, but the situation has changed and this has to be deprioritized.
  • Feature requests or bugs to investigate (no particular order, no commitment):
    • ❌Google SEO is proving a little tricky at the moment, but will stay on it.
      • 2024-05-29: Done! --> BIG FAIL. Google clearly doesn't like PianoTell.
      • If you're curious, I first got stuck on registering the TXT entry for forum.pianotell.com because it's configured as a CNAME. TXT is not compatible with CNAME. Good number of hours/days wasted supposedly waiting for DNS propagation.
      • Fortunately, Google provides an alternative where you can register a CNAME for a random domain. So I registered a new CNAME for <randomstring>.pianotell.com. Google was not picking up the update and all the docs say DNS takes 72 hours to propagate, etc. Turns out that was not the problem. I needed to register a CNAME for <randomstring>.forum.pianotell.com and not <randomstring>.pianotell.com. Grrr. Obvious once you know it, I guess?
    • ❌Enable uploads. For full transparency, the reason I haven't enabled general uploads is because our storage is currently limited to 500 MB. That's not a whole lot, but I'll tackle this when I work on the hosting. I enabled profile cover uploads but currently not planning to enable big media uploads directly to PT.
    • Enable Search Within Discussions.
    • Change the date format so that it always shows the absolute date rather than relative time?
    • Change the user defaults to e.g. save drafts by default or default visibility.
    • Follow up on weird issue when creating username with spaces.
    • Allow users to automatically follow discussions created by them.
    • Reduce the spacing between posts?
    • Consider allowing nickname updates so that you can have spaces or characters like * in your name. Ref: 1631-request-slight-change-of-username
    • Enable dark theme functionality. (doesn't work well with the current colors) also
    • Rebrand? @AWilley has kindly offered a new domain.
    • More reaction options like emoticons instead of just Likes. I looked into this very early on as I would very much like this. It's possible, but I wasn't satisfied with the current extension available.
    • Investigate enabling more dynamic functionality on Flarum e.g. by using async instead of sync Queue driver.
    • Investigate per-user ability to mute subforums in the "all discussions" view to the list.
    • ✅Consider adding a members-only tag or forum e.g. for Gold Members.
      • 20240530: Done!
      • See if Categories extension can suppress hidden discussions when not signed in.
      • Bug: Why can't Internal discussions be renamed by the author?
    • Add Poll function.
    • See the original poster associated with the thread title, not just the last person to respond?
    • ✅ Adult Beginners -> Learners Lounge?
    • Flarum Bug?
    • Elaborate blocking/ignore functionality. Suppress notifications from blocked users. I'd like an option to hide threads created by a user I have ignored. Allow ignoring a tag (FoF Follow Tags).
    • Edit history.
    • ... Order should be Edit, Delete, Flag?
    • Bug related to expired session state?
    • Refresh/Back issue? May be duplicate with another bug reported.
    • ✅ Allow bookmarking posts. Done
    • Active Threads view.
    • Figure out Log Rotation story.
    • PMs shouldn't show up on a user's own profile under Discussions.
    • Mark awesome posts with a tag so that they can show up in a "Legends Of" type compilation or forum. See PM from Gombessa for details.
    • Fix problem with link formatting.

Cheers!

--
Beach L168, Wish, baCh, WOW Petrof, Fake Steinway, VS
TIME

For reducing the spacing between posts, I suggest removing the "replied" field at the bottom and moving likes there instead. That would save a line. In addition, tightening up the vertical space between lines would make everything more compact as well, and I think it would still be very readable.

Thank you for everything you're doing! I don't suppose you ever thought this would end up being a part-time job...

    Great ideas! Personally I think the spacing is ideal.

    Just wondering, would there be any way to allow switching between a chronological (linear) view of a thread and a nested one? Though forums with nested views seem to have gone a bit out of fashion for some reason, they do make it easier to choose whether to bypass or follow tangent discussions. People will have different views on what is considered off-topic. Some want all subsequent posts to be direct answers to the original post and maybe even that the original poster to in some sense "owns" the thread while others want threads to evolve totally organically as casual conversations between friends with whatever associations pop up. (Most are likely somewhere in between these views.) So while I think it would be impossible to make a policy that everybody thought was totally perfect, I was wondering if allowing replies to mid-thread posts but making it easy to hide branches of no personal interest might accommodate for a wider spectrum of tangent discussions tolerance / desire? Nested views also make it easier to navigate long threads and follow the specific tangents one do find interesting.

    I can’t find the private messages (and I can’t even remember what it’s called, but it’s not that) when I’m viewing PT in browser (Safari) on my cellphone. I bc a see it from my laptop when using Firefox.

    Any suggestions?

    Pallas I'll add an entry in the tips & tricks thread for finding Private Messages.

      Maybe this is just me, but I like seeing the original poster associated with the thread title, not just the last person to respond. Not a high priority, but it would be nice!

        Ok, this may be a controversial one, but I do believe the forum would greatly benefit from a two-way ignore feature. I remember the multiple wars of words I had with a certain unpopular member in PW, which always unleashed the worst in me and resulted in near bans because I would hurl obscenities at that member. Fortunately it all stopped lately when I came up with a signature that said

        "I kindly ask [name of that member] to refrain from replying to and commenting on my posts and threads. Of course if you find my writing so interesting that you cannot resist then I cannot stop you, but please try your best, thank you."

        Shortly afterwards that user reported my signature to the mods 🤣 because he felt publicly insulted by it and I got a message from none other than our @Gombessa urging me to remove the signature and encouraging me to reach an agreement with that other user to basically ignore each other for good, and it worked! (Thank you @Gombessa ! You deserve a better forum than that cesspool!)
        After that I was able to post whatever I wanted without the apprehension that that member would come in and ruin the discussions. I guess it's a controversial proposition because it could be seen as a figurative restraining order of sorts, but it is evidently effective. So an easy way would be to have the option to request a mod to establish a two-way ignore with an other member, and the mods decide whether to do it or not. I think it's just logical that when we want to ignore somebody we also wish that they ignore us as well. So please consider this, thanks!

          Rubens wondering if the mods even have the ability to set ignore on behalf of a user account? I'd be surprised if they did.

              twocats I know. If they can't do it directly they can reach out to both parties and ask for a mutual ignore. After all that's what actually happened in my case and I think it worked out beautifully. They could even prepare a template that they would just copy and paste whenever a request is placed.

                Pallas I flat out requested the ability to block a user, as is possible on other platforms. You don't see anything they do. They don't see anything you do. I don''t see this as at all controversial or requiring permission from anyone else.

                There are unfortunately bad actors out there who might seek to abuse such a system. Consider:

                I hate user Bob. I unilaterally set a 2-way ignore so I don't see what he says, and Bob cannot see what I say. Then I go off starting threads about how much of a jerk he is, or lying about things he has said, or just throw passive-aggressive snipes at him.

                Bob may not see any of it, or he may see partial responses from people manually quoting me, and be utterly confused and caught on the back foot about what is going on. But in any case, he is harmed because he doesn't have the opportunity to see what is being said about him in "hidden" posts he cannot control, and has no opportunity to defend himself. He also cannot control the fact that I have selectively hidden my public content, about him, from him. Months later, he later views the forum from a logged-out state, or does a Google search and sees threads where I am constantly spewing falsehoods about him. How would he feel?

                I selectively take off the 2-way ignore and see he's now aware of my games. So I decide to make his life even more miserable. I take off the 2-way ignore, and shoot off to him the most foul PM putting him on blast. Then I immediately re-instate the 2-way ignore, so that he is unable to respond to me (I won't see it).

                The mutual agreement method @Rubens mentions worked because he and the other member treated the situation like reasonable human beings, and mutually agreed to give each other space. Admittedly, that is the best case scenario 🙂

                    Then maybe we could do it that way. Once a mod has reached out to two members for such an agreement, any breach of it would be grounds for a warning.

                    It's also important to define what would constitute a breach of the mutual ignore agreement. From the top if my head I'm thinking:

                    1. Any direct reply, of course
                    2. Any mention of the other user
                      And here come the more controversial ones because I'm in controversy mode today:
                    3. Any participation in a thread started by the other user
                    4. Any rebuttal of an idea/opinion expressed by the other user! Yes that's a big one! But think about it. You write a post stating something. The other user comes in a says that that statement is wrong or is a misconception, but without directly replying to you or mentioning you. Still counts, sorry. And yes, I understand that it could be frustrating, but it's a small sacrifice IMO.

                    Pallas if each person is still closely watching the other

                    I don't think you would need to closely watch each other. If that person attacks what you wrote you will immediately see it, even if you were not watching out for it beforehand. What do you think?

                      @navindra is there any plug-in or option to make a post's edit history publicly visible? Because I can easily see someone abusing the current system by saying something worthy of moderation and then going back and editing it and being like "why are you upset?" (knew a guy who would do that).

                      I'd say it's worth trying a new system. And if it's really so unmanageable then we revert to the old system. The bar isn't very high to begin with.

                      Pallas My request for a block button is because it's the best way for me to reclaim my time.

                      Is the Ignore feature that Navindra already added sufficient? On mobile if I go to a user's profile and click on the top right, the Ignore option shows up.

                      Regarding all the stuff you said about yourself, I think it's admirable that you realize this and have strategies to avoid bringing out that side of you.

                      Pallas I would feel embarrassed for everyone to see my edit history

                      I'm also on another modern forum and there you get free edits for 5 minutes, and then after that the timestamp shows an orange "edited" that you can click on and then after a day or two it turns grey. And honestly people hardly notice it unless they're actively looking for something.

                          Pallas I'm completely willing to go without a block button and just - I don't know - ask people for help or whatever "together" people do

                          Oh, that's a shame about the Ignore not working like a Block! But I have a feeling that people will look out for you here and try to protect this space from that kind of negative behavior 🙂