Invision's biggest MISTAKE up to date?

[bfarber]

If the biggest mistake we've made was neglecting the post icons, I think we're doing pretty good myself. :)

[rct2·com]

bfarber grammar police alert: That's "well" not "good". ;)

@Telemacus2: While I have some your sympathy with your love of post icons, I doubt you're going to attract many people to your cause by claiming that it's Invision's biggest MISTAKE (your emphasis). :)

[Telemacus2]

Bfbarber is absolutely right, if this is ipb's biggest mistake, invision isn't doing so bad. I never said it was. I love invision and I've been a faithful customer since Matt coded Ikonboard, which I used also. :)

Just because I'm critical of one aspect of ipb doesn't mean I hate the product! :)

I agree with you in part, t.o.b.r: at least some people now know that post icons EXIST and that you can do some pretty awesome stuff with them, and they don't have to be mood icons! ;)

[bfarber]

[quote name='tired of being rct2dotcom' date='01 October 2009 - 04:54 PM' timestamp='1254430493' post='1862735']
bfarber grammar police alert: That's "well" not "good". ;)

@Telemacus2: While I have some your sympathy with your love of post icons, I doubt you're going to attract many people to your cause by claiming that it's Invision's biggest MISTAKE (your emphasis). :)


I'm a yankee. "pretty good" is a relatively common expression here. "pretty well" is less common, even if it is proper.

[Rikki]

It was largely my decision to remove them from topic view, so let me explain my thinking. I don't believe they serve much useful purpose to most topics on most forums. I looked extensively at a number of IPB's while developing IPB3, and very few people used them. It was an additional wasted column on forum view. It is easy to replace the default icons, yet I don't think I've ever seen a board that did it, other than yours.

Now, some boards will have a use for specific icons, like in Garrets screenshot, but I doubt it's many personally. Post icons are very rarely brought up. The other problem is what do we include? We can't include any images that contain language, so dumping 150 images marked 'wrong', 'upset', 'culture' etc. is out of the question. So that leaves us with the 'mood' emoticons, which I agree aren't very useful.

The combination of the fact that very few people use the feature as it was in 2.3, and the fact it's difficult to include anything useful by default, and the fact there's little demand, means it's not really high on our list of things to include. Perhaps the biggest issue though is this would be superseded by tagging, which we've said will appear in a later 3.x release. That'll give everyone a more flexible system of marking topics and any other content, without us investing time in a narrow feature like post icons.

Hope that explains it :)

[Telemacus2]

I agree that few people use them, there's no question about it.
But one has to think why that is so. Whilst it is true that many forum admins will not find them useful, it is also true that admins have never really thought about the possibilities that post icons do offer. There isn't a culture because both invision and Vbulletin never really took the matter seriously, only some coders did.
In fact, the (wrongly called) "post icons" which invision includes by default are just about the same many other forum software provide, some smileys and the question mark and little more. That shows that not much thought has ever gone into it...
I mean, can you call a happy smiley a topic icon?
Can you call a sad smiley a topic icon? absolutely not! they have never been post icons!! basic mood icons. Nobody has ever wanted to use them. I never used them either!!

Although tags can improve that, they cannot possibly replace a quick identification of a topic with an image. In a few years, many people are going to be using touch screens at home also, and dragging post icons might gain their momentum for the first time...

We can't rely on text all the time. There's too much text around!

[Jυra]

I think post icons should be a modification or community project. You always have the ability to change the icons. Either way, they take up way too much space when they're viewable.

My view/input.

[Rikki]

[quote name='Telemacus2' date='01 October 2009 - 05:46 PM' timestamp='1254433565' post='1862747']
In fact, the (wrongly called) "post icons" which invision includes by default are just about the same many other forum software provide, some smileys and the question mark and little more. That shows that not much thought has ever gone into it...
I mean, can you call a happy smiley a topic icon?


But that's the point, what can you include by default that is suitable for any board, in any language? Other than some faces and basic ?, ! type icons, I can't think of much else that can be included by default. We have to appeal to a very wide range of boards out of the box.

[rct2·com]

[quote name='Matt' date='29 September 2009 - 12:10 PM' timestamp='1254222640' post='1862011']
Just added that back in for 3.0.4 (locally). You're welcome.


I notice there are now here. Thank you. :)

[superstrikertwo]

Only useful way I can see in using them (for the IPB's I visit) is for news areas where you can put the company logo next to the topic name. I wouldn't make it larger than a normal emote though otherwise it's way too distracting.

[Matt]

Very few boards concentrate solely on tech. Having a bunch of Apple, MS, Facebook, etc logos on a board about a musician, or product serves little purpose which is the thrust of Rikki's reasoning for giving them less attention.

In any case, post icons are still there, you can still change them and it only takes a small edit to put them back into the forum view.

[ShadowFire]

[quote name='Matt' date='02 October 2009 - 06:41 PM' timestamp='1254472911' post='1862855']it only takes a small edit to put them back into the forum view.

Oh? How would this be done? I would find that really useful, as I use 6 post icons as the Australian OFLC ratings classification icons, to allow people to understand the content of the topic.

[IPS_Fan]

[quote name='3DKiwi' date='29 September 2009 - 04:18 PM' timestamp='1254212313' post='1861979']Each to their own I guess. I wouldn't want them like you have them. Too much visual pollution.

Agreed. After reading this thread, and then wasting three and one-half minutes of my life watching that video, I am thinking about removing them from my forum - completely.

[quote name='bfarber' date='02 October 2009 - 03:49 AM' timestamp='1254426570' post='1862721']If the biggest mistake we've made was neglecting the post icons, I think we're doing pretty good myself. :)

No doubt. We should focus on other, more important things... like watching the paint dry on the wall. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: You guys do a great job! I love the software and the mods many of you come up with.