Suggestions for a better Free Republic

Vanity | October 10, 2003 | RightFighter

[RightFighter]

I was just wondering if any of you have any suggestions for how to make Free Republic easier to use and a better place in general. This is NOT a criticism of Jim Robinson and I am most appreciative of all his hard work. This site is great and I enjoy coming here to learn about and discuss the conservative issues of the day. This is just my desire to see this site become more "viewer-friendly" than it is in its present iteration. I've had thoughts over the years about this and these are the ones that I keep coming back to:

1. Different background colors for alternating posts within a thread, for readability

2. Ability to set up chat rooms for certain events, rather than using the "Live Thread" concept. The entire idea of a "Live Thread" is somewhat of an oxymoron and EXTREMELY difficult to follow.

3. Smilies and other icons available when posting messages

4. Keeping track of numbers of posts by each user. Many forum sites do this, and some even give titles to users who reach certain posting milestones.

5. The ability to mark a thread for later reading, rather than having to "bump" the thread

[max_rpf]

how about a java applet that runs constantly, like a scoreboard, showing people in near real time when new posts come into threads, so you don't have to keep hitting reload, you only hit it when you see a thread you are interested in be updated on the scoreboard.

Something like this would make sense as it would save Jim tones of bandwidth. I think that this combined with a 'subscribe' function for threads would be awesome.

[snarkpup]

1. By default, order searches by "post time" instead of "relevance".

2. Search content as well as title.

3. Some way to prevent and/or easily get out of "ping-spam". (Sometimes my "posts to you" fills up with irrelevant junk from people who put me on ping lists without my permission.)

[Prince Charles]

I was just wondering if any of you have any suggestions for how to make Free Republic easier to use and a better place in general.

Keywords! Freepers should always include them when they post an article!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My mum was an English teacher. Where did I go wrong ?

[The Westerner]

"It's always bother me that you get 'New Posts to You' after you posted something.

Agreed. Don't highlight New Posts to You after one's own posts.

[StriperSniper]

Also the search feature needs to have an option to search the body of articles and responses...not just the title.

That is the one best improvement that could be made.

[StriperSniper]

Yes, an edit history would be important to avoid 'rewritting history', I have seen that rewritting done elsewhere, and it causes lots of problems. I thing JohnRob would hate the thought of the extra programing, but if a post is edited, a pop-up history mini-thread would be great to avoid those conflicts that would arise.

[msgt]

I use Firebird and I have it setup to open threads in a new tab.

Where is the setting, and is it global to the browser or configurable by site?

[OESY]

Excellent idea to start this thread. As a newbie -- for what it's worth -- I think this forum/site is one of the best designed that I have seen -- and far better than in earlier years, a credit to those who have made thoughtful suggestions and the website developers.

That said, let me try to recap suggestions, add a couple of my own, and prioritize -- roughly according to my personal preferences:

1. Search default "order by post time"
2. Search by author
3. Search warning upon posting if same title-author combo previously posted
4. Spell checker
5. Macro function to insert paragraph tags, image source set-ups, URL set-ups, etc.
6. Edit and Cancel options after posting, without time limits
7. Reply function with highlighted words italicized
8. Reply function, with automatic addressing by name upon inserting (multiple) comment numbers
9. Cancel memo item: "Comment #__ Removed by Poster"
10. Bookmark function, or alternatively a log of threads personally visited
11. Chat rooms
12. Symbols, for smiles, troll/barf alerts, etc.
13. Ignore toggle to personally screen out/in specified posters
14. Direct return to My Mail list after sending mail, skipping Okay screen

[LakerCJL]

either hold the ctrl key down when you click or right click the link and click "open link in new tab".

I use Mozilla too and I have the latest threads in my first tab and all the threads I'm following in others (I usually have a bunch of tabs open at the same time)

[Sabertooth]

[ Browse | Search | Topics | Post Article | My Comments | My Bookmarks ]

If it hasn't been mentioned yet, I'd lke the top of every page to have a direct link to my bookmarks.

Thanks

[Flyer]

search the body of articles and responses

I'm thinking that the size of the entire FR database might make this impractical.

[StriperSniper]

I hear you on that, but not being a computer pro, I don't know how relevant that is. As a test I just tried a search over at another forum where they have that function, and it was considerably longer than it was months ago when I last was active there. But my question to those in the know would be how does a Google handle that kind of problem? They obviously have a huge amount to sift through.

[4CJ]

We need an "Ignore this Poster" button!

[new cruelty]

As it stands, I just post a new comment siting my original post and strike-out the offending item.

Like so:

EDIT Post number 00: As it stands, I simply post a new comment siting citing my original post and strike-out the offending item.

Then I kick myself in the teeth for being stupid and having committed such a grave offense. : )

[FourPeas]

Hmmmm, I'm not sure I agree at all with the things you'd like changed, but one thing I would like is fewer people suggesting something be changed because THEY don't like it -- especially when it means someone else will have to do the work. To me, there's just something completely impertinent about someone suggesting that someone else change their website to please someone else. Just rubs me the wrong way, KWIM?

[Flyer]

how does a Google handle that

That amazes me, too. But I guess if it was easy everyone would do it.