Thanks for taking the time to post a new comment or a reply to one! First scan these quick notes, if you please:
General
* Currently, previewing a post is optional; you're welcome to preview or post immediately.
* You should see plain text input by default; click "enable rich text" for fancy formatting tools. (Some people love that and some don't. Be aware that formatting tool performance may vary by browser.)
* With apologies to all, I have to use a simple "captcha" question for unregistered posters. Otherwise, the spam flow will dwarf the Nile.
Registration and login
* Registration is available! Sign up here. Chief benefits at present include the ability to edit your own comments and manage subscriptions (newsletter, threads, etc.).
* If you'd prefer to post as an unregistered visitor, that's welcome too. Just leave "Your name" as the default "Esteemed Visitor", or type in some other name. (But if you happen to type in a name used by a registered user – say, "tbone" – you'll get an error telling you so when you hit "post comment". And while your post text should still be there, waiting for a revised user name, there's a chance it could disappear.)
* If you're a registered user but haven't logged in and want to post a quick comment as Esteemed Visitor, that's fine; see above.
* If you're a registered user but haven't logged in, and enter your user name under "Your name" when posting, you'll get an error saying that's the name of a registered user. That's a good thing; it means strangers can't make posts under your user name! But as above, there's a chance of losing your post text. It's best to log in first here, and then start your posting.
Final
All the above is standard stuff for community web sites, but reminders are good; I hate post-related glitches, and hate to see people run into them on this site. On this or any site, it's a good practice to do a quick "Select All" and "Copy" on your post text before hitting "Preview comment" or "Post comment" – just in case.
For more on the whole topic of interaction with the site, please see User Interaction (opens in new window).
Re: Clunky Javascript editor
Mon, 2007-02-05 08:06 — tboneThanks for the comments – that's very helpful. I mentioned the inevitable "steps backward" with a software upgrade. With the latest Drupal CMS version, here are the two steps backward I've hit (in case any fellow webmasters are interested in the details):
1) Module for creating custom excerpts (i.e., short article "teasers" listed on main page) was not updated at same time. I know good people are working on this, and it will be solved soon.
2) The Javascript text editor I use, TinyMCE, was also not updated, and doesn't look to be under active development. Its functionality under the new Drupal is much more limited.
Re the latter: The site layout does have a fluid middle column, but it looks as if the TinyMCE window itself isn't fluid (at least not any more). It all fits if you widen the browser window enough, but that may not be possible on small-screen setups. And while there used to be a switch to turn off the Javascript editor, I see that, as you point out, the switch is now gone from TinyMCE.
So for now, I've switched from TinyMCE to a much simpler editor called widgEditor. You should see blank input boxes (which many people will understandably appreciate), with an "enable WYSIWYG" control to turn on the editing controls. (Though once they're on, I don't see a control for turning them off again... Grr...)
The controls are nicely simple, and in my testing, the widgEditor input box is fluid, adjusting its size with browser size. So this solution should work well... until your or someone's browser setup proves that wrong.
Thanks for the usability testing, and please let me know if problems continue!