Inbox Issue with Voat? Some help please? ( conspiracy )

submitted by xanaxinator

Hey friends,

Fourteen of you PMed me last night. I was going through these PMs, replying to all, and after I replied to ONE my mailbox showed up as empty! All I did was hit "reply," replied to a comment in my Inbox, then went back to the Inbox and all was gone! This did NOT happen in Reddit!

Furthermore, it seems like once they're gone...they're gone. Anybody know what I did wrong or how to prevent this?

xanaxinator

For some reason this system will not let me PM /u/Akto ...so I'm just going to quote my message, leave it here, and hope that he sees it:

Hey there friend,

One other thing that you guys may want to consider doing...and it's easy.

When clicking on a link submission, it would be helpful if you guys could do a bit of Javascript magic and open the link in a new tab (NOT a new window--though some people like this it drives me insane). I had to do this once and, if I remember correctly, I had to slip in something like 

window.open(url,'_blank');
window.open(url);

...though I am nowhere NEAR a JS guru!!! This code should open a tab...but I remember that I did have issues with it opening windows instead.

Windows, tabs, anything would be OK. I simply like to have the Voat page open at all times and read my articles in another tab. This is VERY good for link posts, or doing a copy'n'paste from the doc you are reading and commenting on.

Thanks! Sorry to bother you...as I said this is a TINY thing that I'm only suggesting that you implement. I think that it would greatly improve the UX.

Have a great day friend and thanks SOOO much for all of your (and your team's) help! I am only making suggestions. If you get tired of me simply tell me so and I will stop bothering you--ABSOLUTELY no questions asked and absolutely no hard feelings.

/u/Akto : when I try to send to you I get an owl on the screen telling me that something went wrong. I can PM everyone else. Probably system maintenance?? Just wanted you to be aware friend.

xanaxinator

OK, I don't want to sound like an ungrateful piece of crap, but there is ONE MORE thing that can be done here...though I don't know if the code will allow it. /u/Akto was/is a BIG help here and he gets shit done! My man.

When you are answering comments, what would be really helpful would be either:

  • A checkmark next to every comment that you've replied to OR

  • The comment that YOU just made, in text, right under the comment that you commented on (whew!)--this would probably be quite hard to implement on-the-fly in the code as it exists. Dynamic previews are nice but hardly necessary...then you get into AJAX...a pain.

The issue here is keeping track of whom you answered already. Since comments cannot be deleted (yet) is there any way to delineate which were already addressed? Possibly by "greying out" the comment or making the username a different color?

This is a TINY thing but a big deal in the scope of things. Listen /u/Akto ...this does NOT have to be addressed TODAY you crazyman. This is simply a wish list.

Thanks for listening folks! And /u/Akto , thanks SOOOO much for addressing my comments...and fixing them within about 10 minutes!!! This was unexpected, incredible, and just plain cool. I love you guys.

Atko

Interesting. This is the first time someone mentioned this behavior. Nothing should disappear from inbox unless you delete things. Are you using an older browser or browser addons/plugins? Is your connection stable?

xanaxinator

OK, here's the latest: if I go down the list and simply hit "submit reply" the system lets me reply and does not remove anything. If I, say, hit the "context" button and go off of this page, and then come back via clicking on the now-not-red "envelope icon" I am shown an empty Inbox.

Hope that helps.

Atko

Oh I see. Inbox is divided into 3 different areas: private messages, post replies and comment replies&username mentions.

After visiting the inbox area which had unread messages, unread status is removed. The next time you visit inbox, you are taken to private messages (default) which you probably have 0. You can use the blue buttons above to visit comment and post replies again. I hope this helps.

xanaxinator

It DOES help...a lot! Thanks Atko! Are you the "go-to" guy for this type of thing? To be honest, I have found NO issues with Voat that I would like changed. I love it! You guys did a wonderful job.

Atko

I'm glad it worked out. I think I can answer almost all questions you may have about Voat. As for the inbox - I think there is nothing wrong with the way you used it, it is just not the way I imagined people would be using it when I developed it. I think you've shown that our design needs improvement because it is not crystal clear/logical on first use. /u/puttitout is working on rewriting the way inbox functions to allow for more different types of notifications. After this is completed, I think we'll also be able to lay it out in a better way.

xanaxinator

I just think that there should be a number that decrements under "Comment Replies" when you read messages, that's all.

It's a tiny change...but seeing that 0 over there makes people assume (and I'm a Linux guy) that there are, indeed, ZERO comments to look at. Clicking on the envelope confirms this.

It's a niggling concern that does NOT need to be changed, really. I work with UIs for a living, though, and like you I try to make them as coherent as possible for as many people as possible. This is just a tiny thing that can be changed in your next rev...if you feel as though that is necessary, of course.

Not like it's going to stop ME from using Voat!

Atko

I gave it a try. This should now be working but I did not get a chance to test it yet :)

xanaxinator

It works! It works!

Wow, great job. I once submitted something like this to Reddit over 10x and they didn't even read it. You guys rock.

Atko

Awesome, thanks for testing it :) The buttons themselves and entire inbox needs a bit of restructuring and redesigning to make things easier to follow and read but we'll get there :)

xanaxinator

All I would do is include a way to delete comments (yeah, I like the idea of archiving them also but I always delete the annoying ones that I have no intention of answering)...and I think that you guys have the UI damn near perfect. What version are you on anyhow? I'm curious to grok the sourcecode over at GitHub.

And...if you're looking for a Linux guru to answer anything...well, you know where I'm at! I'll do my best for you...free of charge and with absolutely no obligations. I'd love to be a part of the community that is responsible for making Voat better...though you guys have certainly covered your bases!

xanaxinator

I think that you guys are doing a great job! It's obvious that you care about your UX...and it really shows--both in your design and in your actions. THIS is what makes a site great...not just shoving a UI down someone's throat and saying, in essence, "take it or leave it motherfuckers!"

Keep it up! You have ONE convert here (me) and certainly a lot more. Thank you.

xanaxinator

Just confirmed.

I replied to you, then chose "context," then attempted to return to the Inbox via the envelope icon...all comments were gone. If somebody replies to a post or to a comment that I've made (thereby sending their comment into MY Inbox) they all come back. Is there another way for me to do this or is this a code issue? What's your opinion?

Seriously, I really must thank you for your expert-level help. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to help me.

xanaxinator

Hello there!

I have a stable, albeit slow, connection. When I pull up my messages by clicking on the red "envelope" icon ALL of the messages appear...at first. Then, after I reply, the Inbox refreshes, and there is nothing there with a "there doesn't seem to be anything here" (or something like that) message. When somebody ELSE sends me a message though, the other messages that disappeared are all back in my Inbox.

It's strange, but let me re-iterate that this probably is not Voat's "fault" per se. I'm used to Reddit, and checking/replying to messages is nearly automatic--so this behaviour could be very well caused by me. We will soon find out.

I'm going to start this machine recording and see if I cannot replicate the issue. If so, I will PM you and let you know the exact hows and whys. I am running Chrome 40.0.2214.94m with no extensions save ABP on a Win7 platform.

I really appreciate the help Atko--your quick attention is most assuredly appreciated. Thank you!

btcprox

Paging /u/Akto , this might be a bug that you could address...

Also, perhaps next time it might be more suitable to bring up similar future problems in /v/voatdev . Or maybe even open it up as an issue at the GitHub page?

xanaxinator

I really appreciate the help. Thanks!

I'm not sure that this is Voat...it could very well be me. All I do know is this: if you have an Inbox full of stuff and you reply to something, then use the back arrow to go back, all messages will disappear. This could simply be the way Voat works...if so, I'll have to modify my behaviour--or have the Chrome extension that I will be working on cache the messages.

Strangely enough--once you posted your reply all of the messages came back! I'll do what you said and take a peek at the source at GitHub. Thank you again /u/btcprox !

Edit: Aaaaand...now they're gone...again. Can you help me test this and simply reply to this message with "test?" Thanks!