Tom M wrote about not liking the reply feature. I have to agree. Seems to me it acts more like a bug, repeating previous words when they're not necessary. I do see the value in being able to include words, but by making it a default, lots of stuff gets included unintentionally. Of course I could edit that out for my own posts, but if it was out by default, I'd be more likely to choose only the quoting that's really necessary.

I'm intrigued by both of your (yours and Tom's) reactions to the reply feature, Ted. Do you no longer use the "Add a comment" box at the bottom of the thread anymore?

It's a habit/usability thing, I guess. I usually reach first for the "Add a comment" box and only when I want to quote someone do I hit the reply button on their post.

Am I in the minority on this approach? Thanks for cluing me in!

Those of us that have been around here for a week or two (or a month), are used to using the Add a commment box, but we're also the people that would trim unnessesary text if we used the reply feature as well. New people, however, seem to use the reply feature a lot, and don't tend to trim. That's what I've seen anyway.

Thomas,

I'm wondering if an ever growing topic is the most effective way to track bugs and/or suggestions. I imagine that you get a lot if duplicates and may even lose some in the shuffle. Have you considered something more structured to at least record known bugs and suggestions?

Weighing in on the "Reply" and "Add a Comment" features:

I like them as they are. They're set up to work in the same fashion that I'm accustomed to them functioning on other sites. I think it's a pretty standard set of functions for a user interface, and intuitive.

Don't know if my own reaction is just because I'm a gearhead? ;^) ... but I'd like to see them remain intact.

when you hold your mouse over a topic in a display, a pop up box currently shows the original discussion topic and first sentence.

it would be neat if this box held the end of the thread, with the poster's name and first few words of the comment. This could be extended to show a tree of the unread comments, their author, and a line or two of the post.

Tom, that's a great suggestion. I've always wanted that box to have more current information (though I suspect getting the "tree" may be challenging).

well, nothing is too difficult for programmers who can leap tall buildings with single command lines...

actually, i was thinking of even more stuff in the mouse "hover" position...full access to the Action Pallet-answering the question of what are the things that folks can do about this object? This would include reputation points, Do Something ideas/feedback, Donation Jar access, Better World Locator services, discussion threads, or whatever else folks come up with over time. The general metaphor is that there is a an "action" layer superimposed over the "information" layer. This is more than a simple bug fix idea, but perhaps it would be an interesting architectural discussion.

Good suggestions for the hover text, Tom.

Could you please paste them into the Suggestions for omidyar.net thread?

I'm trying to keep this thread cleared to track bugs.

Thanks!

TEXT SIZE STUCK ON SMALL

I seem to be experiencing a bug with setting the text size by clicking on the different sized A's in the upper right corner of each page.

A couple days ago I clicked on the largest "A" and read a couple pages, by following a couple links. Then I clicked on the smallest "A" and followed a couple links. Then I wanted to restore things to normal and I clicked on the middle-sized "A" ("This one is just right", said Goldilocks").

However, every page I've gone to since is in SMALL TEXT mode. I've tried clicking on the other A's since but it seems to be stuck in SMALL mode.

Any suggestions?

Hi Arthur... not sure why this is happening to you, but I'll offer a couple troubleshooting techniques for you to attempt while we look into it on this end (by the way, what browser are you using?)

First, try logging out of omidyar.net and then back in again (not just closing the browser, but logging out so you have to sign back in with your e-mail address and password).

If that doesn't work, try deleting both of the cookies from omidyar.net.

I'll ask the tech team to look into why this might be happening. thanks.

Thanks.

Logging out didn't do it, but deleting the cookies worked.

The omidyar[2] cookie had a "Small%20Text" marker in it before I deleted it. And that seemed to solve the problem.

[Browser: IE on WinXP]

But while I'm on this thread, I just remembered another bug.

When I posted my first images into workspaces about 4 or 5 weeks ago, I looked at some of the advanced image placement tags and I used the " :align: right" tag to make my images move to the right and have the text wrap around the image (on the left) instead of just skipping a huge gap of whitespace.

Most of the images I've placed (in my bio or workspaces) were using that tag successfully. Then it suddenly stopped working everywhere.

Did you guys make a change to your code that broke the extended image placement tags?

A further note about image placement: It still works fine in my Firefox browser. It's just in IE that it's not working. When I view the HTML source the only thing I see is that the "<img..." tag ends with ".../>"

Maybe IE still isn't compliant with XML style tag syntax.

So nevermind, this probably isn't a problem with O.Net.

When I view my user information, it claims I own the "Resturants and Cooking" group. I don't. I joined it, but I certainly don't own it.

Hi Michael, while you didn't self-select as an owner of the Restaurants group, someone else gave you ownership rights after you joined the group. If you want to relinquish your ownership status, send a message to one of the other owners asking them to remove you as an owner (but remain a member).

(you cannot remove yourself as an owner)

My goodness, is this like the dog that follows you home after you pet it? :-).

Ok, I'll find another owner.

Shouldn't you have a command from your own space to select

OWN ALL

and/or

DISOWN ALL

?

http://www.omidyar.net/user/u408626338/

I'm using IE and cannot see the picture on this page. What's the scoop?

very curious question, Ted... I can see Bruce's picture on both Firefox (on the Mac) and on IE6 (on PC). I see that Bruce is referring to a picture hosted on another site, not omidyar.net, so if you've disabled your browser from displaying outside links (like an ad blocker), you won't see Bruce's pic.

Not a bug, but a suggestion (there's probably a page for those, but this site is very hard to find your way around in): how about letting people upload a little pic as part of their profile. It's popular in Orkut and IM, and it's nice to see who you're having these exchanges with.

You can upload a picture !

http://www.omidyar.net/group/help/ws/picture_display_how_to/

well, maybe not upload but you can post one.

Removed.

Thomas Kriese said:

if you've disabled your browser from displaying outside links (like an ad blocker), you won't see Bruce's pic.

I'm at work so can't customize my browser. I'm not aware of us having any ad blocking software, but they do block certain sites so if Bruce's pic is on one of those sites, I suppose that would be the answer.

Removed.