This was brought up in a different thread, but it would be super useful to have more customization for certain text.

ie

Being able to customize font type or colour for threads which are notices. Being able to change the background colour for notices.

Thread details - being able to change the colour for certain elements (last posted by character name, date)

An ease of use feature request - Currently there are buttons for quick formatting options for bold, italic, underline etc. However, one of the more challenging formatting problems is using colour. Can we implement a game preference option where you can define colours for: Speech, OOC, Thought. That way, we could have a quick formatting button which applies the format to the currently selected text. (if it was possible, I would love a method of typing s"Insert speech here"s and it auto colours my speech, but thats a pipe dream no doubt!)

So...it was mentioned before, changing colors for something like Notice, and that was suggested as being the straw that broke the camel's back with regards to having /too many/ customizations. But, if for some reason it became NOT too many, I would add a +1 to being able to customize the color of the 'Notice:' text. =)


This I feel like might be too much, because there's a LOT of specific details that are covered in that small text, and currently they're all one color setting block. Being able to change the colors for them would require them all being different blocks. That's a lot.

As a compromise, perhaps:
Currently, when you post in a thread, your name is highlighted (for me it's red, not sure if it's ALWAYS red) whereas everyone else's name is whatever color you have your text set to. It would be nice if /any/ instance of YOUR character(s) posting could be highlighted the same way. That way, you would know from a glance at the dashboard if you had the last reply in a thread. (That seems to be the most useful application of being able to color Last Reply by names, knowing if you potentially have a post to make or not.)


While this would be great, if you happen to be in a game where you're playing just one character and have defined font and/or color options for those things, not every game utilizes that same method and not every player controls just one character/needs just one set of colors. I'm not against it, per se, but I'm not sure there'd be much bang for jase's buck in putting in quick-reference settings for formatting options that wouldn't be useful/potentially useful in every game.

If you have more than one character, or god forbid are a GM that writes for a dozen or more NPCs, that could either get really messy really quickly (if you had multiple formatting options to save) or be completely useless (if you could do only one), so it's really probably best to Keep It Simple Stupid with regards to colors and formatting. It ain't broke, so it doesn't really need fixing.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:32, Fri 12 Jan.

Thanks for shooting all my suggestions down :D

Hey, hey! I'm a +1 for the first one, and a +1 for the second too - just not the third!

(Edit: I'm actually the person who asked for being able to color the 'Notice' the first time around, and was told that was too much customization, even.)
This message was last edited by the user at 00:41, Fri 12 Jan.

All good. Say it with a smile is my motto!

Compromise on the third suggestion would to be if it were possible to add a formatting option that was set to the last style applied - I'm envisaging that would consist of the keyword style formatted as the last selection - eg if you'd last formatted something as red coloured text then it would show as "| style |".

First time you want to apply it you highlight text and select from the style list as normal, which formats the text and updates the | style | option.  Next time you just click on the | style | option to apply it ... OR select something else from the list which would apply that to the text AND to reset the | style | option.

From a usability perspective, that's a terrible option.  I can see what you're going for, but a button that is inconsistent with its behaviour is generally a bad idea.

I think the easiest option might be this:  In the Game Preferences menu, there's currently only one option

• By default, post as your primary character (ON/OFF)

This seems like the ideal place to put in a setting the user can configure for Speech -- allow the same rpol tags which are currently allowed in a post, and give a set of opening and closing tag boxes.  This way the users can define their own speech styles, which then get wrapped up as <Speech></Speech>.  Got multiple characters assigned?  Define your multiple speech styles here -- one line per character.  You can even use buttons and menus to autofill the tag boxes, ensuring that the inside-outside order is preserved and no closing tags have been forgotten (we've all seen that before).

I don't have any idea what impact that could have on the rpol database or its performance -- which is definitely a consideration.  But that's one way I could see that being done.

I see what you're getting at, but I disagree - the proposed | style | button is consistent in its behaviour in that it's repeating the last style choice, whatever that was (and I suggested that style be applied to the button itself so the user knows what they're getting without having to guess).   Microsoft have had CTRL+Y to repeat last action for a goodly while now (which can repeat font, para, style formatting and much more) and I've always found that very handy.  :>

Adding a speech option to each character so it's set and forget is a great idea, but a) sounds like a lot more programming work (as you rightly point out, that's a consideration, albeit one for jase to decide not me) and b) doesn't help the GM who wants to use different colours for spontaneously created NPCs (via the -One off identity- field) unless they go to the trouble of adding each and every one of them in as a character in the game, which might be more effort than simply applying the style manually if the NPC isn't going to feature much.

As I said, looking for a compromise based on Sunruaner's objections raised.  :>

Adding a button to "repeat last applied style" would be very problematic -- across multiple browsers, multiple operating systems, etc..  To make it stick, you'd probably need some client-side scripting (since it would have to remember what the user applied most recently -- which means it would only be consistent on this computer, and not that device.  That increases the maintenance and upkeep since you have to protect the script from attacks, and the script can interoperate with different O/S's and browsers differently.

I'd imagined that if the style was applied to the option itself, it could be read back from that - eg if the option has | style | then apply red OR if it's easier, just remap the option to | red | etc.  :>

But I'm not a web programmer ... though the nice thing about RPoL Development is that none of us has to be - we just make the suggestions and jase determines if it's desirable (based on our votes and his own veto) as well as whether it can be done/how to do it.

Edit - added OR and following above.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:07, Fri 12 Jan.

I think there's a few interested parties already so fingers crossed :)

Speaking as someone who usually manually types in the color tags (mostly because I write outside of the RPoL window and then copy-paste in, so it's easier than having to go back and catch things), is typing that in (or highlighting and clicking 'Speech') really any simpler than <Color></Color>? Doesn't seem like it.

Having a clickable button that remembers the last-used formatting /would/ be easier if you're trying to apply the same formatting to lots of things within the same post (because then you've reduced multiple words/clicks to just one)... BUT...to play Devil's Advocate here, then you open a whole other can of worms with accidentally applying the WRONG formatting to something if it's not easy to clear the 'last-used' setting (and potentially not realizing you've done so, if you don't preview). More importantly, if there's a "Clear" button (which there would really NEED to be), and you're writing a post that requires multiple speech formatting settings within each post (pretty common, if you're a GM writing a scene with multiple NPCs), then you're ADDING work for the GM who has to clear settings between sections of their post, if they're using the last-used option.

I'm rambling pre-coffee, so...tl;dr:

If the speech formatting is assigned per character, but you have to type in <Speech> (or highlight and select 'Speech'), is that really any different than what we have now?

If speech formatting is assigned per character, but you post for more than one character IN THE SAME POST, how do you clear settings to use this option for each?

What is the purpose of this additional feature - Ease of use, or eliminating the need to remember what your speech settings are across games? If it's the former, then it actually needs to be easier and simpler to use than the current system. If it's the latter, use your Scratch Pad =)

I find mobile keyboards a pain in the arse. Simply typing <colour> means having to go through 2 or 3 steps just to find the brackets. And you do that multiple times. God forbid you have several paragraphs of speech in different places. Takes forever to format.

A select and click quick format button would be a godsend for typing on mobile platforms. On a regular PC and keyboard it is super simple to use the drop downs.

Depends on what your speech style looks like.  If it's a simple colour only, no.  But if you are one of those people who uses colours and bolding?  Or a colour and a styling, like Serif or Mono?  And for those poeple who don't type it out, but who takes their hands off the keyboard to use the mouse to click open the style text box, then drop down to the colour they want -- they save whole seconds!  :)

Oh no, I totally agree on that front Patchwolf - if you happen to be writing a character that speaks in blue monotype that's also italicized, then sure - it would save a lot of time and effort. IF you happen to be creating formatting above and beyond just color.

But my thought process still goes back to: How many people actually DO that? Is it enough people that creating the functionality is worth the time it would take jase to do? Because it feels like a really niche application.

I'm by no means a valid sample size of the RPoL user base, but I can count the number of non-NPC characters that I've seen using formatting above and beyond just color for their speech over the years on one hand and have fingers left over - and with regards to NPC characters (of which I have seen MANY that use additional formatting), I still question how easily you could clear it and reset it for a GM to use.

...and if there's not an easy way to clear it and reset it for a GM to use for NPCs (which could be multiple NPCs within the same post, or one-off written-in NPCs), then they wouldn't be able to utilize the feature very much (or at all), which lessens the applicability of it even less.

I'm not -against- the feature. I just don't think it's got a lot of bang-for-its-buck value.
This message was last edited by the user at 13:44, Fri 12 Jan.

I was the one who posted the original request regarding the first two features but the discussion seems to have wandered off on the third feature.

I want to make clear that the being able to quickly see the last person to post in the right column is a SERIOUS issue for me as a GM.  I really feel lost as to what is going on in my game.  I can easily have dozens of posts in a day and using multiple devices I can miss posting in one or more threads or miss that a new post has come in.  The left column is essentially 14pt Bold Calibri and the right column is 10pt Normal Calibri.  The right column is at a glance unreadable.  In addition, for my purposes when GMing, it is mostly useless information.  95% of what I want there is the last person to post, preferably in a different color if it was me who posted it.  The time date of the last post is about 4-5% of what I am interested in.  I NEVER care who posted a thread in any game I GM or play in to me it is only of interest in Player Wanted or GM Wanted forums).  I only care about post count if it is getting close to 1K.  I rarely care about the group, certainly not enough that I would not be just as happy to mouse over to find out that information.

If there is an issue with too many elements or too many color choices in Settings, then remove everything but who posted last and when, or make 'last posted by' separate instead of 'Group.'  Or consolidate the four different side menu options into one in settings, because honestly, who needs those to be different?  Again, to me personally, this is a serious playability issue with the new site design.

Tis the way of things - personally I'm not interested myself in setting text colours for the thread details, but not against it either, so I didn't comment on those two parts of the request, but did stick my oar in on the third one cos that's the one I liked and wanted to vote for.  :>

I support the request to have the Thread Details more legible.

My preference would be to have the information in separate columns, similar to the old site, since this is tabular data it should be in a table! :-)

Otherwise being able to change the font size and colour would also be helpful.

The large font for the thread name and the much smaller font for the thread details data is very difficult for me to read.

I'll put in an active vote /against/ changing the layout of the menu pages. I know that it's different, and I know that it's smaller and you have to deliberately look and pay attention, but I also know that you'll get used to it being the way it is if you give it time. Adding any additional columns is going to make it more cluttered on mobile, and the main purpose of the responsive layout is being mobile friendly without being desktop UNfriendly.

I'll also come in and put in an active vote /against/ highlighting any of the Thread Details in any color that isn't customizable, just because it's impossible for jase to come up with a color that doesn't potentially clash horribly with someone's color scheme. I know that finding the names requires some focus, but for me having my eye always be drawn to a glaringly-obvious color would be more distracting and disruptive than having to spend two seconds making sure I'm reading the right line of text.

Realistically, though, is there a NEED to highlight WHO the last poster was? (Thread author is basically already highlighted by the nature of being both at the very top and next to the green group listing.)

The game already tells you if there are posts in the thread that you haven't read, which means you should be reading the thread. Even if you're waiting for a specific response from Billy, and you see that Betty has the last post, that doesn't mean there isn't a post from Billy ahead of that post from Betty - so you should still be looking at the thread itself or you run the risk of missing something.

This is simply untrue. My 58-year-old eyes are not going to improve over time. The issue is not looking in a new place. The issue is that three different pieces of data are jammed into a row with a very small font-size.

Modern, responsive HTML/CSS allows for tables to 'degrade' to display on smaller mobile screens although I don't know if there are limitations to what can be used on RPOL because it uses RuBB. (I am not a coder.)

An alternative that popped into my head is to use a single row for each thread with the thread creator with number of replies and last poster with time stamp appearing as bullets under the thread title:

My thread about stuff
 - by Greymist with 2 replies
 - Last post by Fred today at 14:35.

If the font size and/or colour could be set for each line separately, I would be happy.

Greymist - if you're on a Desktop, then try zooming the browser to 110% for RPoL ... might not solve the problem for you, but will bump the font size up which should make it a bit easier to read.  At least that's what I'm doing and it works for me.  :>

In reply to Skald (msg # 21):

Even at 120%, the text on the right of the row is better but not great! I think, part of the problem is that Thread Title is so large and bright versus the small dark text...old eyes are slow eyes!

If we only requested what was needed from the world, we wouldnt see progress. Though these requests may not be desired, some people want them and it's up to Jase to decide what is worthy of his time.

For any given suggestion, some people may want it because it'll make things easier for them, others may not want it because it'll make things harder for them and some people may not care either way.  And jase still has power of veto.  ;>

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 19):

As Greymist says, I have been using the new version for a couple of months and it isn't getting better and it isn't going to magically get better.  As noted, this isn't just looking somewhere else, it is trying to decipher a block of small, white, variable-width lines of text.  On the original site on PC or mobile the 'last posted by' was in the same size as the rest of the text and always at the end of the line.  Each thread was only one line and it was simple to scan.  Now each line is two lines and sometime the top line is longer and sometimes the bottom line is longer.

Group is already in an uncustomizable color, and while I agree that the color should be customizable, swapping colors for 'group' and 'last posted by' would at least make the situation better from my perspective.

YES.  There is a SERIOUS NEED to know who the last poster is.  It is the most important thing on the page once the game gets going.  Are there new posts I need to look at or reply to?  'But isn't there a flag for that?' you ask.  No, not when you use multiple devices.  For instance, at the same time/date one of my games looked like (https://i.imgur.com/mJTnOhx.png) on PC and (https://i.imgur.com/cMH0sHq.png) on mobile.  The best part?  Two of the posts on mobile that show unread are posts I made almost 2 hours earlier but they still show as unread.

No, it does not.  As noted above, the flags do not always indicate new posts when using multiple devices.  In my last game there was an average of about 35 posts a day for two years, meaning there were 50-60-70 posts on some days, at least half of which were mine.  If I posted at the same time in one thread that someone else posted in another, I wouldn't always get any notification or flag.  Sometimes I would read all new posts but only reply to some because I needed to wait on additional information, look at other posts, I ran out of time, I was on mobile and couldn't post a long reply, etc.  Sometimes I would just check new posts on mobile and wait to reply when I was on my PC.  The upshot is that if 'last posted by' was in a unique color for my characters, I could check very quickly to see what I had not responded to.  As it is now, I need to look at each individual thread (of which 15-20 can easily be active at once) and find who posted last and then check the next thread.  Nevermind that now only 40% of the posts are on the front page on PC and 16% on mobile.  After looking at a few threads, my eyes/mind tend to grow bored with this exercise and I can easily miss things.  Plus, this is an exercise I probably do several dozen times a day.  The upshot is that I miss a lot more posts and struggle to feel like I am in control of my own game.

-

I have tried to explain my issue and propose solutions but I have never used the languages used on this site so I have no idea how difficult any of this is, all I know is that it is a serious issue from my perspective, even though it may not be for everybody.