'Rich' Editor feedback.

Okell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81856832#Comment_81856832

I think everybody is aware that this isn't the only forum that your platform provider hosts and that by necessity the platform can't be customised to the needs of this forum alone, but has to provide a range of functions for all the forums the provider hosts.

This will of course mean that compromises will have to be made. There will be some functions all the forums need, but there will be others that only a few forums need and which other forums might not want at all!

Seems to me the real question is whether your current provider's platform is offering the most optional optimal range of functionality for this forum.

Are you confident that of all the providers out there, the current host's platform is offering the best choice of functionality for MSE?

[Edit: Correction of optional to optimal]

Okell

To be scrupulously fair I'll admit that when drafting a lengthy post it now seems to be much easier to put selected text into bold, italic etc.

You don't now have to highlight the text and then scroll all the way up to the top and risk losing the highlighting.

That is an improvement to be fair

Grumpy_chap

"

I think everybody is aware that this isn't the only forum that your platform provider hosts and that by necessity the platform can't be customised to the needs of this forum alone, but has to provide a range of functions for all the forums the provider hosts.

"

Which makes the deficiencies of this text editor all the more of a mystery. I have used many other forums and never encountered such a counter-intuitive text editor and quoting function. So, where are all the other forums hosted by the same platform provider?

MollyR

Other forums which I have used always had the name of the platform provider at the foot of each page. I find it strange that this one does not - what if a user thought "Hey, this is a great forum platform, I'd like to use it for creating my own forum"? When we had the Last Big Change in 2022 (where the mess it made of Notifications was a huge trial to everyone for ages, until it was finally* sorted) I don't remember being told which provider we were moving to. There is no reason why it should not be public knowledge, and I cannot imagine that MSE have signed an NDA about it; I wonder whether any of the Mods can tell us which platform this is, so that we can look at other forums to see how they solved the problems we are facing?

*Mostly. The number of unread posts shown via the top-right bell still never matches the actual number of unread posts.

MSE_Stephen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859259#Comment_81859259

I believe that's intentional. Since on mobile you'll have the native emoji option sitting in your keyboard.

MSE_Stephen

Hi everyone

We're reading all the comments in this thread.
We're checking what items are working as intended and which could be bugs.

Quote boxes rendering without an expand-arrow so you can see the whole quote is a bug our provider is looking in to.

We're also looking into options to improve how text pasted from old WYSIWYG posts - there's a configuration we can change that might help, but we want to be 100% sure it doesn't cause issues.

MollyR

@MSE_Stephen - Can you tell us who the provider is, please?

Grumpy_chap

MSE Towers might want to look at my post in this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6652704/abta-complaint-against-cruise-operator-prize-cruise-any-success-stories-or-tips#latest

It gives a clear example of how very difficult the system makes it to add partial quotes from different posts / threads. I really don't know that the quotes are even clear that they are quotes. Most certainly, there is no attribution on the quotes. Even the links are not easy to add.

MSE_Stephen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859575#Comment_81859575

Hi @MollyR

It isn't a secret that our forum is hosted on the Vanilla Platform.

The logo was at the bottom of every page until very recently. It came as default.
When we updated the footer to match our main site, we decided not to put it back in purely from the standpoint that we're ad-free!

Personally, I always try to use the phrase 'our forum provider', rather than mentioning Vanilla, simply because your relationship is with us, MSE and the Forum Team, and we’re accountable for how the forum works day to day. If you’ve got feedback on something or you’re unhappy, it's our responsibility to convey that to Vanilla on your behalf to get bugs fixed and advocate for the features you want.

Grumpy_chap

@MSE_Stephen

I thought the host was Vanilla, mostly because we get their error page when there is a system fault.

Which makes this whole issue around the text editor even more perplexing as I also use a number of other forums that use Vanilla as a host and none of them have such a dysfunctional solution.