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Reply to Thread red button problems

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Hi,

There is a problem. To replicate it click on the red button that says "Reply To Thread" at the bottom left of this topic. Type anything you want and then press the button again to post it. The message vanishes. Obviously you are not supposed to click on the same button again but because the label says "reply" and because it is red and big, you click on it.

To correct this problem I recommend the button label to be changed to something else like "show message editor".
 
Hi,

There is a problem. To replicate it click on the red button that says "Reply To Thread" at the bottom left of this topic. Type anything you want and then press the button again to post it. The message vanishes. Obviously you are not supposed to click on the same button again but because the label says "reply" and because it is red and big, you click on it.

To correct this problem I recommend the button label to be changed to something else like "show message editor".
WOW!! I must be totally goofy. It is a BIG button. And it is very RED​. But I have never even noticed it!!! I just always use the Reply or Reply with Quote buttons in the lower right corner.
 
Hi,

There is a problem. To replicate it click on the red button that says "Reply To Thread" at the bottom left of this topic. Type anything you want and then press the button again to post it. The message vanishes. Obviously you are not supposed to click on the same button again but because the label says "reply" and because it is red and big, you click on it.

To correct this problem I recommend the button label to be changed to something else like "show message editor".

The red button turns black when you write your message and normal behavior is to go down and hit the "Post..." button in the message window.

Dude, really. The software is standard forum stuff and not perfect but it is what it is; TMC is a free-to-use forum run by volunteers so maybe relax and just participate instead of nit-picking on layout?
 
It doesn't turn black. At least in Firefox it remains the same.

Nigel,
It is unclear what you wanted to say. Are you suggesting that if I stop mentioning it the problem will go away for all other users who might have experienced it? Are you suggesting that because this is a free forum we should stop trying to improve it? What exactly do you mean?

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a0axj6.jpg
 
People have different habits. I see usability issues because I care about small details on websites. This is a problem I just noticed today while I was writing in some other topic.

As for 50% of my messages being about site problems, this is normal because you notice problems early on when you start using anything. For example if you move to a new house or buy a new car you would notice the problems in the first few days. Would you expect people to delay reporting problems in those situations too? It is only natural that a new member would notice problems in the early days. Over time I expect the percentage to drop from 50% to 5%. It is not like over time I'm going to start a new topic in this forum section for every topic I start in all other forum sections.
 
People have different habits. I see usability issues because I care about small details on websites. This is a problem I just noticed today while I was writing in some other topic.

As for 50% of my messages being about site problems, this is normal because you notice problems early on when you start using anything. For example if you move to a new house or buy a new car you would notice the problems in the first few days. Would you expect people to delay reporting problems in those situations too? It is only natural that a new member would notice problems in the early days. Over time I expect the percentage to drop from 50% to 5%. It is not like over time I'm going to start a new topic in this forum section for every topic I start in all other forum sections.

Try posting here
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum

with issues about the forum software overall. There is only so much that can be done with the forum software and resources for an all volunteer team. As NigelM said, the software isn't perfect but compare it to others and it's pretty good. Try to edit a message on the official Tesla forum for example.
 
The red button turns black when you write your message
It doesn't turn black. At least in Firefox it remains the same.
From quick inspection in IE, it appears that the black rendering of the button is due to hovering over it rather than from clicking it and starting the Quick Reply.

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To correct this problem I recommend the button label to be changed to something else like "show message editor".
Not a bad idea. I think maybe "Start Quick Reply" is a little better. Another option is to find a way to hide or disable the button entirely when "Quick Reply" is active. Note that this would remove functionality (that I've used very rarely and probably wouldn't miss).

- - - Updated - - -

Try posting here
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum
with issues about the forum software overall.
Based on the styling (mostly the coloring), I strongly suspect the "+ Reply to Thread" button is TMC styled rather than a general forum template.


@Teo - In case it helps:

The "Reply to Thread" button styling:

css.php L3203 - /* NEW CONTENT LINK */
css.php L3204 - TMC red default state
css.php L3229 - black on hover

Code:
<a class="newcontent_textcontrol" id="newreplylink_bottom" href="newreply.php?
p=687962?noquote=1 " sl-processed="1">
  <span>+</span>
  Reply to Thread
</a>


The "Post Quick Reply" button (clustered with "Go Advanced" and "Cancel") doesn't appear to have custom styling.

Code:
<input name="sbutton" tabindex="1" title="(Alt + S)" class="button" id="qr_submit"
accessKey="s" onclick"clickedelem = this.value" type="submit" value="Post Quick 
Reply"</input>
 
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I wasn't suggesting that moderators should fix the problem. It is a technical problem with the software. But fixing it is easy and doesn't require waiting around for vbulletin to address the issue.

Just change the button label from 'Reply to Thread' to one of these:
  • Show Message Editor
  • Start Quick Reply

It is easy to do because all these buttons are CSS based. Older versions of vbulletin had image buttons. This forum uses a newer version of vbulletin and the buttons are not image. They have editable text and have CSS styling. To see this, try selecting part of the text on the red ''Reply to Thread' button (click outside the button first, then drag mouse over the button). You can see that it is simple text.

@Teo - In case it helps:
Unfortunately it doesn't help because I'm not an administrator of this website. If I was, I would find which template to edit and just change it. But I appreciate your helpful approach.

If the person who has access to vbulletin templates agrees that it would be a good idea to change the text but can't figure out how to do it, just say it and we will figure it out.
 
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Unfortunately it doesn't help because I'm not an administrator of this website. If I was, I would find which template to edit and just change it. But I appreciate your helpful approach.

If the person who has access to vbulletin templates agrees that it would be a good idea to change the text but can't figure out how to do it, just say it and we will figure it out.
Depends on your browser. With IE, I sometimes use a "user stylesheet". For a while I was using it to highlight the targeted post when jumping to "new post in thread". You could do similarly for this with Firefox, probably.

Also, often once you know *where* the CSS is that gets you closer to proposing a specific change. With that in hand, sometimes the moderators of TMC can take the final step of updating the site if the recommendation doesn't run into additional issues.
 
brianman,
Depends on your browser.
The reason I started the topic is not because I want the problem to be fixed for me. That's not the problem. I'm not that self centered. Now that I know the issue I can avoid it. I recommended it to be fixed to improve the user experience for other users.

Also, often once you know *where* the CSS is ...
I didn't say your message wouldn't help locating the template that needs editing. I said sending the information to me doesn't help the situation because I'm not the person in charge of this site. The site admins are. I don't have access to this website's backend. I have no way of checking it. So if you have suggestions about how to locate the file that needs editing you can redirect them to site admins if you think they are listening or they are willing to improve the user experience for the users.
 
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I said sending the information to me doesn't help the situation because I'm not the person in charge of this site. The site admins are. I don't have access to this website's backend. I have no way of checking it. So if you have suggestions about how to locate the file that needs editing you can redirect them to site admins if you think they are listening or they are willing to improve the user experience for the users.
You don't need to locate the file. I already did. Hm, maybe I'm overestimating Firefox's dev tools. If I had an issue like yours and someone pointed me to the CSS file of concern (like I did) and I was motivated, I'd have a recommendation for doug within an hour.

Something like...

My specific request is to change/add/remove lines __, __, and __ in css.php as follows: ...
 
A few years ago I helped a friend with translations on a vbulletin CMS (which is what they use here, the CMS version has user blogs). If I remember correctly, in the backend there is a control panel that shows all the button labels. It is located in language packs I think. I think editing a template or CSS isn't needed. There should be a page with lots of small input boxes where you can edit the name of page elements.

I checked that friends website and he has vbulletin 4.2.2 which I think is a similar version to this forum. I could ask him specifically how to edit the button label if somebody from TMC says they want to change it.

Nigel,
The issue is not the black or red colour of the button. The issue is the button label.

brianman,
I don't think the button label is in the CSS file. CSS files have only styling.
 
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I used to use a mouse a few years back. There's no hovering on iPad or iPhone.
So... then your statement here (V) was an incorrect conclusion ...
From quick inspection in IE, it appears that the black rendering of the button is due to hovering over it rather than from clicking it and starting the Quick Reply.
Looks more like a browser thing to me. Turns black on Safari and Chrome (which is what I use)
... as it was a misunderstanding of the repro case.

That said, you can probably find a similar repro by tapping in the edit area after tapping the red button. (Thus changing the state such that the hover selector no longer engages.)
 
The red button turns black when you write your message and normal behavior is to go down and hit the "Post..." button in the message window.

I guess ignorance is bliss. I guess "problem" is a relative thing when you don't have the ability to over think. :smile: I have over 1,000 posts and have never even considered hitting the reply to thread button a second time instead of the post button AFTER writing your reply. Go figure.