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Official Suggestions Thread

Rubik

King of Lorule Lounge
Joined
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Location
California
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Horsehead
I do think it's possible to make a thoughtful, yet funny post appropriate for mature discussion that someone might want to laugh react to. That said, I think a "like" react would be sufficient for expressing that you enjoyed such a post and that the vast majority of the time people use the laugh, ugh, angry, and shrug reacts in MD it's to show that you think the other person's view is ridiculous or infuriating.

I do my best to refrain from using reacts negatively in general, but I think it's especially mean spirited to do so when someone is trying to give their honest view about a serious issue.
 

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
ZD Champion
Administrator
I think this is a fair discussion to have regarding reactions in the MD. I certainly would agree that laugh reacting to someone's legitimately held beliefs is not in the spirit of constructive and good-faith discussion or in the spirit of the forum rules in terms of respecting other members.

At a glance it seems that there is no mechanism built in to disable reactions in certain forums. Off the top of my head I am thinking that I could (probably) fairly easily figure out how to get rid of the like button in specific forum nodes through editing a template but that would likely remove all reactions (including likes) rather than specific ones - which I honestly don't know I am convinced is worth doing if we are having to be removing likes too.

Perhaps some kind of better moderation of this would be appropriate as I know we have had issues stemming from reactions in the past. I'd like to think people posting in the MD should be able to shrug off a reaction or two but if it becomes a sustained thing it can get quite negative. I think we also need to be thinking not just about the rules as they are written but also what is the spirit of the rules - what is the spirit of constructive and good faith discussion. If people are going to be mocked for their opinion then I think that certainly goes against the spirit, which for me has been a shame to see on many occasions where I strongly agree from a personal position with points being raised but as a staff member I can't get behind or support the manner in which they are being put.

People here come from diverse backgrounds and life experiences and have quite varied ages so let's be mindful of that when we respond to others. Let's also be mindful that this is a forum themed around video games. While people here may legitimately wish to discuss these mature topics alongside others I think that if anyone is here only to or primarily to spend their time in the MD then the majority of their interactions with others here are likely going to be negative or confrontational. This is as they're not spending much/any time in other parts of the forum which are better centered around positive topics and getting to know each other. There are plenty of places where you can fight about politics on the internet with people you know nothing about but at least here I would hope people have some better ability to see each other as people with their own separate interests and qualities having had the chance to see them in discussions outside of the political/sensitive topic spheres.
 

AwdryFan1997

you are not immune to propaganda
Joined
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Can there be a dislike reaction I mean there's ugh but can't there be a just Simply don't like reaction ( Not related to that MD crude I don't care about in the slightest )
I agree, but I can see why there isn't one. Having specific emotions gives a reason as to why you dislike something. It's the exact opposite problem of the MD debate, where being ambiguous probably makes things better.
 

Ninja

Well well well
Joined
Jul 5, 2017
Can there be a dislike reaction I mean there's ugh but can't there be a just Simply don't like reaction ( Not related to that MD crude I don't care about in the slightest )

I think the best way to dislike something is to come up with a constructive post on why you disagree with it. I believe that dislike/downvote reactions can be abused and don’t offer anything constructive to a conversation.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
ZD Champion
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Location
American Wasteland
so I don't know how possible this is, but can we get rid of the "this word is too common" in the searches? it's annoying when I'm trying to look for a specific sentence or phrase for a thread, and the search results cuts some key words and then gives a bunch of irrelevant results when it could just simply look for the exact phrase that I typed
 

AwdryFan1997

you are not immune to propaganda
Joined
Nov 3, 2020
Location
IRAQ!?
so I don't know how possible this is, but can we get rid of the "this word is too common" in the searches? it's annoying when I'm trying to look for a specific sentence or phrase for a thread, and the search results cuts some key words and then gives a bunch of irrelevant results when it could just simply look for the exact phrase that I typed
Agreed.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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Bell tree forums has a feature that automatically edits double posts into a single quotable post and as I believe they also use xenforo it should be implement-able? Would be pretty helpful
 

Chevywolf30

The one and only.
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Manufacturer recommended settings
Could the username colors be shuffled around somehow so that ZD Champions are distinguishable from other users in Default Dark and shades of blue?

Edit: My main idea was to change the regular username color in said themes but whatever works.
 
Last edited:
Could the username colors be shuffled around somehow so that ZD Champions are distinguishable from other users in Default Dark and shades of blue?

Edit: My main idea was to change the regular username color in said themes but whatever works.
Made champions blue like the champions tunic on Default Dark and Shades of Blue. @Jimmu, if you disagree with my color decision, you can make your own tweaks with the overrides I placed in extra.less
 

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
ZD Champion
Administrator
Is there a way to make hyperlinks on mobile/different themes a different color than the default text? It's hard to tell if someone posts a link sometimes unless it's pointed out.

Are there specific themes you see this as an issue in? It might take me a bit of time to go through them all but if you have one that is really bothering you I can try and make it a priority. Selecting colours is really not my strong point though as I am colourblind so I may ask for some help from @Fraxinus if possible.

Can there be a dislike reaction I mean there's ugh but can't there be a just Simply don't like reaction ( Not related to that MD crude I don't care about in the slightest )

I agree, but I can see why there isn't one. Having specific emotions gives a reason as to why you dislike something. It's the exact opposite problem of the MD debate, where being ambiguous probably makes things better.
I think the best way to dislike something is to come up with a constructive post on why you disagree with it. I believe that dislike/downvote reactions can be abused and don’t offer anything constructive to a conversation.

In regards to the dislike reaction I think it will bring more trouble than benefit. As @Feliz Ninjadad said, giving constructive reasons for disagreement makes for better discussion anyway.

so I don't know how possible this is, but can we get rid of the "this word is too common" in the searches? it's annoying when I'm trying to look for a specific sentence or phrase for a thread, and the search results cuts some key words and then gives a bunch of irrelevant results when it could just simply look for the exact phrase that I typed

I'll have to do some research into this but I agree that it can be annoying so I'll look into what can be done.

Bell tree forums has a feature that automatically edits double posts into a single quotable post and as I believe they also use xenforo it should be implement-able? Would be pretty helpful

I can take a look into this. I remember we may have had something like this in the past but don't remember why it was removed? (Perhaps in the change to Xenforo from V:cool:. I also need to consider if double posting will be allowed under any such plugin under different circumstances that can be set by us as we do have some limited circumstances where double posts are used and should be kept separate.

Could the username colors be shuffled around somehow so that ZD Champions are distinguishable from other users in Default Dark and shades of blue?

Edit: My main idea was to change the regular username color in said themes but whatever works.
Made champions blue like the champions tunic on Default Dark and Shades of Blue. @Jimmu, if you disagree with my color decision, you can make your own tweaks with the overrides I placed in extra.less

Thanks for getting on this @Fraxinus, much appreciated!

Please, a way to enable anonymous posting on subforums like Life Advice.

I feel like some people would be more likely to share about themselves/ask for help/get stuff off their chest on certain sensitive topics if they had a way to do it without using their public accounts.

Looking into this one the only available addon I can see is here which is quite expensive for the limited functionality it provides. It also doesn't seen to allow anon posting only in certain forums or have a clear indication of just how anonymous posts actually are. From the discussion thread it seems that posts that were supposed to be anonymous didn't come out that way so I am hesitant for all those reasons to go with this option. While I think this could be a good idea it doesn't seem feasible right now with what is available out there unfortunately. While I know this isn't the same and isn't entirely anonymous I think that there shouldn't be a problem posting threads on behalf of another member if someone wants to have a trusted mod or friend post something on their behalf. Obviously this isn't ideal but for now it may be the best solution that can be provided.
 

Morbid Minish

Spooky Scary Skeleton.
Forum Volunteer
Are there specific themes you see this as an issue in? It might take me a bit of time to go through them all but if you have one that is really bothering you I can try and make it a priority. Selecting colours is really not my strong point though as I am colourblind so I may ask for some help from @Fraxinus if possible.

I use Default Dark, so definitely that one. But went through and checked all the other themes and it seems Shades of Blue is the only other one besides Default Dark that has this problem.
 

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