Adding identifing ledgends to the Report Post and Multi-Quote icons.

MarkieSparkie · Sep 23, 2012

Is it possible to have identifying legends added to the 'Report Post' and 'Multi-Quote' icons as they are probably under used as currently displayed.
Identifying the 'Report Post' icon in particular will hopefully have the beneficial effect of reducing the abuse posted by a minority of users, who currently believe they will get away with it due to under reporting by new and casual users who are not aware of its existence.

Dan · Oct 1, 2012

If you hover the mouse over any of the icons it will show up with what they're for.

However, I'll see if I can make it more clear.

The problem is, if we used a legend of some form it's likely to be missed when a user actually needs to use it as it wouldn't be added to very post in every thread where it would need to be. We'd need a "report this post" in bold text or something in each post for it to work as well as we'd like it to.

So I tend to find regular educating by way of a notice every now and again and whatnot works best usually.

Perhaps a link in the main menu to a page with a few useful bit of information on would work best for all.

HandySparks · Oct 1, 2012

Oh yes, never even noticed the multi-quote icon until you mentioned it Markie.

Dan, surely adding text to the "Report Post" and "Multi-Quote" icons would be just the same as what's already been done with "Thanks", "Blog this post", etc, or is it more complicated than that?

Dan · Oct 1, 2012

It woudn't fit in the orange bar that's dedicated for those buttons.

While I use a huge screen size, it's apparent when checking stats that most still don't. And you've probably yourself seen threads about the sidebar being too wide and getting in the way of images or whatever before now.

I'm trying to think of a way to inform people they're there but can't seem to come up with an easy fix that isn't just going to confuse people.

People who are used to forums will always know they're there no matter what version of forum software is used for a forum. It's pretty standard practice. But what I find is most of our members on our construction forums haven't even used a forum before so I can see where you're coming from.

I get 30 emails a day, easy, asking how to post a thread. If we plaster the place with too many instructions and words, it becomes a pain to see through them all to actually do something. The main things are "post a thread" "reply to thread" I think and those are as clear as I can get them.

Leave this one with me. But if you have any suggestions I'll certainly see if it's possible at least.

We could perhaps do with a thread explaining all these things which we then direct people to when they're struggling. But clearly only when people notice they need to report something would a chance come about to tell them. So it's a bit of a catch-22.

HandySparks · Oct 1, 2012

Maybe because I always read the forum using a 24" wide screen I'm not seeing the problems for other users with different hardware. I can understand this one as I run a few websites myself.