Minor things that bother you

[Roadgeekteen]

That this thread will probably always have more posts than the Things You Enjoy thread.

This thread is almost 2 years old, that one is very recent.

[JoePCool14]

That the Off Topic board is turning into a Music board.

[Scott5114]

That the Off Topic board is turning into a Music board.

I'm usually loath to propose new boards or sub-boards, because the more of them you have the more sprawling the forum feels and the more overwhelming it is to navigate, but music seems like it is a perennial enough topic it might be justified.

[Roadgeekteen]

That the Off Topic board is turning into a Music board.

I'm usually loath to propose new boards or sub-boards, because the more of them you have the more sprawling the forum feels and the more overwhelming it is to navigate, but music seems like it is a perennial enough topic it might be justified.

I would also support that.

[formulanone]

That this thread will probably always have more posts than the Things You Enjoy thread.

This thread is almost 2 years old, that one is very recent.

...it's because people like to complain before giving praise.

[Scott5114]

That this thread will probably always have more posts than the Things You Enjoy thread.

This thread is almost 2 years old, that one is very recent.

...it's because people like to complain before giving praise.

Well, also because this is a discussion forum and "minor things that bother you" is a more discussable topic than "things you enjoy".

If you post that you enjoy something, the only polite response is "I like it too", or silence. You could post "I don't like that thing that you like" but that comes off as rude, like the person is wrong to enjoy it and you're out to ruin their fun.

If you post a minor thing that bothers you, "that bothers me too" is a valid (and cathartic) response, but "that doesn't bother me" isn't an inherently rude statement, and "that bothers me too but here's how I avoid it" is a possibility that can be downright helpful. Sometimes you can post an explanation for why the minor thing that bothers someone is the way it is so that the person might potentially be less bothered by it (like I'm doing now).

So "minor things that bother you" will always have more posts just because there's more ways to engage with it than "things you enjoy".

[jeffandnicole]

That this thread will probably always have more posts than the Things You Enjoy thread.

This thread is almost 2 years old, that one is very recent.

...it's because people like to complain before giving praise.

Some of my most hated reviews people give are along the lines of:  "I've gone to (such-and-such place) many times and it's always been great.  But this time, it sucked.  I'm never going back again."  The person never once gave a review after all the enjoyable experiences they had.  But they have one bad incident, and need to tell the world.

Also..."I would give 0 starts if I could".  The fact the person lived to tell about the experience is worthy of 1 star.

[JoePCool14]

That the Off Topic board is turning into a Music board.

I'm usually loath to propose new boards or sub-boards, because the more of them you have the more sprawling the forum feels and the more overwhelming it is to navigate, but music seems like it is a perennial enough topic it might be justified.

I would also support that.

If Sports can have its own board, I feel Music could also suffice. Just seems like there's so many music threads all of a sudden. When was the last time a new board was added anyway? Seems like it may be time for a new one.

[Roadgeekteen]

That the Off Topic board is turning into a Music board.

I'm usually loath to propose new boards or sub-boards, because the more of them you have the more sprawling the forum feels and the more overwhelming it is to navigate, but music seems like it is a perennial enough topic it might be justified.

I would also support that.

If Sports can have its own board, I feel Music could also suffice. Just seems like there's so many music threads all of a sudden. When was the last time a new board was added anyway? Seems like it may be time for a new one.

Urban Planning is the most recent one.

[kkt]

Dangling propositions

Is that when you ask a girl to marry you, and she doesn't answer you right away?

It seems like the dangling thing is why someone would be propositioning–well, never mind.

LOL

[Scott5114]

When a gas pump has a nozzle that only dispenses one grade, yet the pump will still refuse to engage unless you lift that nozzle (which it acknowledges you doing) and press the button for that grade. If I pick up the nozzle that only dispenses regular with ethanol, why do I have to hit the regular with ethanol button too?!

[US 89]

When people don't proofread their quote strings when they post in forums.

[tolbs17]

When people don't proofread their quote strings when they post in forums.

People are either busy or walk away and they don't quote properly...

[tolbs17]

That the Off Topic board is turning into a Music board.

I'm usually loath to propose new boards or sub-boards, because the more of them you have the more sprawling the forum feels and the more overwhelming it is to navigate, but music seems like it is a perennial enough topic it might be justified.

I would also support that.

Like this!
If Sports can have its own board, I feel Music could also suffice. Just seems like there's so many music threads all of a sudden. When was the last time a new board was added anyway? Seems like it may be time for a new one.

Urban Planning is the most recent one.

[Big John]

When people don't proofread their quote strings when they post in forums.

A glitch that doesn't always bring you to the bottom when quoting someone.

[Scott5114]

When people don't proofread their quote strings when they post in forums.

A glitch that doesn't always bring you to the bottom when quoting someone.

It's not a glitch, it's carelessness. The quote function always inserts the quote exactly where your cursor is. People can't be bothered to hit Ctrl+End to ensure their cursor is at the end of the message before they insert the quote or start typing their reply.

[SSOWorld]

Maybe their keyboards lack CTRL+END.

[hotdogPi]

Maybe their keyboards lack CTRL+END.

Clicking at the end of the post works, too.

[jeffandnicole]

When people don't proofread their quote strings when they post in forums.

A glitch that doesn't always bring you to the bottom when quoting someone.

It's not a glitch, it's carelessness. The quote function always inserts the quote exactly where your cursor is. People can't be bothered to hit Ctrl+End to ensure their cursor is at the end of the message before they insert the quote or start typing their reply.

Never make the assumption everyone uses a keyboard like you do.

Ot, for that matter, uses a keyboard. Many use their phone, or speak to text.

[Roadgeekteen]

When you are typing on a keyboard and after 1 second of your hand on the key, it starts repeating it. There is no scenario where you would be writing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, so what's the point?

[1995hoo]

When you are typing on a keyboard and after 1 second of your hand on the key, it starts repeating it. There is no scenario where you would be writing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, so what's the point?

I see a paradox.

[Scott5114]

When people don't proofread their quote strings when they post in forums.

A glitch that doesn't always bring you to the bottom when quoting someone.

It's not a glitch, it's carelessness. The quote function always inserts the quote exactly where your cursor is. People can't be bothered to hit Ctrl+End to ensure their cursor is at the end of the message before they insert the quote or start typing their reply.

Never make the assumption everyone uses a keyboard like you do.

Ot, for that matter, uses a keyboard. Many use their phone, or speak to text.

Trying to use a phone to write out a coherent forum post is like using a hammer to install a screw. It works eventually, but it's not the right tool for the job and it's way more frustrating than it has to be.

If your phone makes you mangle quotes every time you post, maybe stop using your phone to post?

When you are typing on a keyboard and after 1 second of your hand on the key, it starts repeating it. There is no scenario where you would be writing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, so what's the point?

This is configurable on every OS I've used, including Windows (look in the Control Panel for it). On Linux you can turn it off entirely, or adjust the delay until it starts repeating and how fast it repeats.

[J N Winkler]

When you are typing on a keyboard and after 1 second of your hand on the key, it starts repeating it. There is no scenario where you would be writing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, so what's the point?

Besides the one 1995hoo mentioned, there is another:  you want to write the number 768,614,336,404,564,650 in hexadecimal.

On a more serious note, when less competent input devices are being used--such as a Bluetooth keyboard that lacks Home, End, PgDn, and PgUp keys--holding down arrow keys is often the substitute for Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End that come readily to hand.

Trying to use a phone to write out a coherent forum post is like using a hammer to install a screw. It works eventually, but it's not the right tool for the job and it's way more frustrating than it has to be.

If your phone makes you mangle quotes every time you post, maybe stop using your phone to post?

With mobile devices having displaced PCs for a large share of everyday computing since 2010, this is a counsel of perfection.  The deeper problem, as I see it, is that none of the purveyors of SQL-based Web forums have yet devised true mobile-responsive interfaces.  This problem is far from unique to AARoads--I see it all the time on Web forums in general, including another I participate in (not related to roads) where quotes-inside-quotes are automatically removed and members are constantly sniping at each other for failure to prune quotebacks to the few sentences or phrases of utmost relevance.

I compose probably 99% of my posts here on a PC, but this is in order to archive the source code before committing each post, in adherence to the principle of keeping a copy of my own work product to avoid ever being in the position of a counterparty having the only copy of something I allegedly wrote.  To automate the process on my Windows 10 machine, I hit Ctrl+A (select all) with focus on the post compose box, Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+Alt+P ("print" being the mnemonic) to launch a batch file that generates a timestamp (YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS) and uses a command-line utility to dump the clipboard to a file containing that timestamp in its name.  On a mobile device, it's a more cumbersome process of manually generating the timestamp and Alt-Tabbing to paste copied text to an Android text editor for future (manual) repatriation to the posts folder.  (I presume there is a way to implement this functionality using shell scripts in Android, but have yet to investigate how, and am slightly afraid of embarking on a coding project only to discover root access is necessary to grant the resulting script the permissions it requires to function.)



Another entry in the minor-annoyances file:  "dollars" and the dollar sign used in the same phrase.  "$30 million" is fine, as is "30 million dollars," but "$30 million dollars" . . .

[Scott5114]

Trying to use a phone to write out a coherent forum post is like using a hammer to install a screw. It works eventually, but it's not the right tool for the job and it's way more frustrating than it has to be.

If your phone makes you mangle quotes every time you post, maybe stop using your phone to post?

With mobile devices having displaced PCs for a large share of everyday computing since 2010, this is a counsel of perfection.  The deeper problem, as I see it, is that none of the purveyors of SQL-based Web forums have yet devised true mobile-responsive interfaces.  This problem is far from unique to AARoads--I see it all the time on Web forums in general, including another I participate in (not related to roads) where quotes-inside-quotes are automatically removed and members are constantly sniping at each other for failure to prune quotebacks to the few sentences or phrases of utmost relevance.

I compose probably 99% of my posts here on a PC, but this is in order to archive the source code before committing each post, in adherence to the principle of keeping a copy of my own work product to avoid ever being in the position of a counterparty having the only copy of something I allegedly wrote.  To automate the process on my Windows 10 machine, I hit Ctrl+A (select all) with focus on the post compose box, Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+Alt+P ("print" being the mnemonic) to launch a batch file that generates a timestamp (YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS) and uses a command-line utility to dump the clipboard to a file containing that timestamp in its name.  On a mobile device, it's a more cumbersome process of manually generating the timestamp and Alt-Tabbing to paste copied text to an Android text editor for future (manual) repatriation to the posts folder.  (I presume there is a way to implement this functionality using shell scripts in Android, but have yet to investigate how, and am slightly afraid of embarking on a coding project only to discover root access is necessary to grant the resulting script the permissions it requires to function.)

While a responsive theme definitely helps take some of the rough edges off of the mobile experience, it does nothing to solve what I feel is the biggest problem, which is that text-input on a mobile device is so cumbersome that it is next to impossible to get a result with an acceptable level of quality, when the same is simple to achieve with an actual keyboard.

Among other things, I find myself spending more time babysitting autocorrect than I do actually inputting text (no, I did mean to type "its", you don't need to correct it to "it's"), but I cannot turn autocorrect off entirely because the keys are small enough that I end up spending even more time fixing typos. I have configured my mobile keyboard to provide arrow keys, so I don't have to deal with the pain of moving the cursor around by dragging my finger slowly across the text (good luck placing the cursor on the correct side of an "i" or "l"), but there is nothing like Ctrl+arrow keys to jump over entire words at a time, no Ctrl+Backspace, and no Home/End functionality either. And the small screen size makes doing things like scanning over the text to check for errors (like malformed quote tags) much more difficult than it needs to be.

I am no Luddite; I do not object to the existence of mobile devices. I have a smartphone. But while smartphones are great at a number of things (it's great having a calculator, a camera, a flashlight, and a map whenever I want), there are some things they are abysmal at. Users of those devices either have to spend the time clean up after the mess those devices create, or learn when there are times that they should use a tool more suited to the purpose.

[Roadgeekteen]

When you are typing on a keyboard and after 1 second of your hand on the key, it starts repeating it. There is no scenario where you would be writing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, so what's the point?

I see a paradox.

I only typed it out to make an example.