Several updates ago I started compiling a list of minor suggestions that hopefully don't require extensive work; would've posted it earlier but I didn't want to pile onto the 5.24 cycle, then waited for the Part 2 with Tutorials. I figure I should finally get this out before more user chats fall through the cracks, because I'm sure I've forgotten some of my conversations. :x
Group activity notifications
Currently, Group staff (at least the owner; not sure about mods) is notified about gallery submissions, but general members are not, and have to manually check for updates—@fragmented_imagination has been advising published ALCA journals via journals on his main account. Additionally, I'm not sure that even group staff is pinged on all activity, specifically home page comments.
Notifications for submission updates
Typically if I'm updating a submission and/or its description, it's a minor tweak or fixing depreciated syntax. Sometimes, though, the change is significant enough that you want to draw attention to it. DeviantArt has a check-box whether to notify followers when a change is made; I've seen one user here post a journal about a reworked piece, so there's demonstrable use for a similar function here. (dA may have allowed pushing journal updates, but if so it was discontinued prior to Eclipse.)
Double-posting journals fix
For most first-time submissions, after clicking 'submit' the page navigates away to the management screen. For Journals, it doesn't, and while there's an advisory popup that it's been posted, there's no throttle to prevent additional clicks that result in duplicated entries. (I've seen as many as five reposts.)
Further nixing redundant pings
The site has separate protocols for comments/replies and user handle mentions. Self-pinging creates a notification, which presumably you'll already know. :p
Similarly, replies to leading (non-nested) comments will ping the original author, regardless of whether they're specifically @ mentioned. A more precise means of reply notification is likely its own project (handle mentions are what keep second and third parties in the loop), but it should be possible to filtre the obvious redundancies.
Outline of current logic, partially tested but incomplete:
[Submission] by Author
Comments:
User A
Top-level comment
Pings Author unless self
User B
"@ User A: ..."
Pings User A (replying to comment)
Pings User A (invoking handle)
User A
"@ User B: ..."
Pings User B (invoking handle)
User C
"Lorem ipsum ..."
Pings User A (replying to comment)
Author
"@ Author @ User C: ..."
Top-level comment
Pings Author (invoking handle)
Pings User C (invoking handle)
Character Pages
Name bounding
Name display in the character page index can be improved: long names bleed over the right edge, and the left margin can be shrunk for a tidier fit. At current dimensions it can fit a second- and possibly third-line split:
Additionally, if no image is available to generate a thumbnail, the name aligns at the top of the box, which can mess with muscle reflex when next to pictured entries. Since the thumb is also a clickable link, a generic placeholder may be useful.
Webpage titles
Currently, character pages do not have discrete webpage titles (A.K.A. tab names), and simply appear as "Side 7".
Edit links
While submissions and journals have direct links for editing on their page, characters don't, and the user has to manually navigate to the management screen to make adjustments.
In-window zoom
Visual submissions are stored at full resolution, but autoscaled to the browser window; to view at full size, the image must be opened in a separate tab. The portrait gallery for Characters shows proof-of-concept for popup display that could be expanded to blow up the image to full res. This would also solve for .WebP idiosyncrasy where (on Firefox at least) trying to view the image standalone downloads it to the computer.
Submission metadata
Line break for tags
Similar to the issue with character names, long tags wander off the edge of the window. Extremely long strings probably can't be helped, but multi-word tags would benefit from line-breaking to fit the display box.
Click-and-drag tag ordering
I'd suggested this before but figured it's worth rehashing. Tags are listed in the order they're written on the Submit/Edit page, so if you're like me and use a specific ordering scheme, you may have to redo the whole list to add/edit a single tag. Since 'completed' tags appear in a little bubble, it would be really handy if they can be reorganized through click-and-drag.
Serial listing
Originally, submissions featured in a serial folder had a crosslink to switch to serial view heading the description; this disappeared several updates ago. The old system was a bit buggy, as while a submission could be featured in multiple serials, only the most recent add was linked. As a replacement, Serials could be listed like Portfolios in a box at the side.
Character listing
As an alternative to using general tags, a similar section could link to character pages. Since not all characters may have a % shorthand, it might be useful to parse the character page number directly.
Further down the line, we could have a searchable character index similar to Tags.
Hyperlink colours
The current highlight hue when mousing over hyperlinks (hex #4f3092) is so faint that I didn't know there was one until I was playing around with jumbo fonts:
Side 7
If you're like me and pepper discrete links into a single line, this might cause people to miss out references. For your consideration, a colour tweak:
Off → On
(hex #d464fb)
Private Comment rework
First, a couple of bug fixes: The toggle can randomly seize up when commenting on own works. Also, if toggled on in one widget (e.g. 'Leave a Comment"), the selection inverts when activating another widget ('Leave a Reply'), but will still appear "Off" unless clicked, where it flicks from 'on' to 'off'.
Currently, private comments will only show for the submission owner, and not even the original commenter. However, they will ping as replies. This means that sustained correspondence would need to take place via private messages, rather than on the piece itself. I'm wondering if visibility protocol can be tweaked so that the user can always see own comments and any nested replies, thereby allowing local dialogue with the submission author.
I would've tested on the Dev Server but there's a bunch of back-end stuff I haven't had time to run by BK.