CyberArmy

Feedback Digest - Aug/Sept 2005

• CyberArmy Forums Administration: We received a request for an option to view a forum from the forum administration page. This option already exists. If you look at a forum admin page, under the heading there is a selection menu for forums you are admin of; the selected one will be the one you are currently viewing. Next to this menu there are a few buttons, one of which is 'view'. Clicking this will take you to the forum.
• CyberArmy Manual: One member of CyberArmy proposed creating a PDF version of /about. There was some discussion over this and it will probably be done. Details on exactly how it will be done are not yet finalised.
• ToDo: It was suggested that being able to prioritise your ToDo List would be beneficial. We should see this implemented shortly.
• cMS Function Request: In addition to the new sticky cMS feature outlined in the 'Follow Ups' section, an 'unread' filter was requested. This has now been implemented.
• Moderator Edit Function: A user suggested allowing moderators to edit members' posts to allow them to be altered rather than deleted where possible. This will not be implemented, for various reasons:Firstly, if a post is moderated, the context/tone of responses to it may be confusing. Second, users may object to their posts being altered - this is very different from removing a post fully; you are editing what people will perceive that person to have said. Members need to be accountable for what they post. If it is unsuitable for our forums, it will be removed and they are free to repost in a more suitable manner.
• Personal Forum Stickies: You will no doubt have noticed 'sticky' threads on forums, but what if you could sticky whatever threads you want to help find those you want to keep an eye on? This could be a useful feature, as many members have access to a lot of forums. The exact implementation may not end up being the same as 'stickies', but rather more a post watchlist. You'd be able to add/remove a post to your watchlist, and your watchlist would be viewed via the user box in MyCA (and probably the mini menu at the top of /forums). This feature will hopefully be implemented shortly.
• Forum Ignoring: One CA member requested the ability to put another user on 'ignore' on the forums. This is felt to be unnecessary and would require a large amount of coding. We advise members to exercise their own judgment to avoid reading posts by members they choose not to hear from, and mentally ignore subject lines from such a user.

• How To Learn What To Do: A new member of CyberArmy submitted a feedback request for information on what to do and where to start. We suggest new members look through /about (Note: You can always visit that section of the site by clicking the CyberArmy logo in the top left hand corner of every CyberArmy page). That area contains information about the community and its history, the ranking system, staff members, brigades, community rules/guidelines and chat (IRC) network. You can also find out more about the main brigades by browsing to them via the top icon link labelled 'Brigades' and clicking on their 'Homepage' link. If new members do have any questions, feel free to use the Feedback system or the Help and Support Forum.
• Publishing zZine: The idea of publishing and delivering printed copies of zZine has come up before on Feedback, and it recently came up again. This has been researched and the production costs were found to be too high, and it is felt that zZine would not acquire enough subscribers to cover these costs and allow for a reasonable subscription price.
• Weird layout on headlines: The headlines (e.g. /my/?headline=5) were being shrunk to an incorrect size and displaying improperly. This has now been fixed.
• Feedback: The feedback channel on CAIRC now redirects users to help channel. The channel was closed due to lack of use, and we would prefer all feedback to come through the feedback script on the CyberArmy.net site instead.
• BBCode Colour Tags: A user requested the ability to make the font color continue into URLs. Colour does not continue into a url because this is how HTML usually works. However, just as in HTML, you can make the url have a colour by including the colour code within the url tag.

• Privacy Watch Banner: The banner was pointing to an old link and has now been updated.
• CA Ad Server: Earlier this month the CA banner images were not loading. This has now been fixed.

• Sticky cMSes: This feature was mentioned in the July Feedback Digest and has now been implemented.
• 'Reason' field when moderating: This feature was mentioned in the July Feedback Digest and has now been implemented.