I was just about to post this when I saw the changes of version 3 and I said to myself: “myself, it’s not the better time to do it”, but what the hell? I’m just asking, not demanding.
I wonder if it will be too difficult to put some icons just right to the user name in the posts (as option, this feature would be in any place where username displays), to show main characteristics of the user. Main characteristics are: sex, age, ethnic group and nationality (only if user allows to show them, of course). For me, the main was the sex, because sometimes will be very useful (in some kind of threads) to know who are we talking with. It would save the classic phrases as “excuse me, I am a she”. This would allow to save some embarrasing or potentially -non intentional- agressions.
I’m not demanding this feature. As I said before, just asking…
Hrm. I agree with the gender thing, but I don’t thing the other details would fly with the membership as a whole.
One thing I think would be nice would be to replace the link in the top right of each posts (this one will probably say “#2”, assuming this post is right after the OP). Now, when you click on it, you get the individual post, alone, in a new window. If that could be modified to be a link to the post within the context of the thread.
Example: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=468380#post468380
…will bring you to the “Is that a leg?” post of “Funny things said during lovemaking”, but it also loads the rest of the page, so you can see the previous posts and the responses. Getting the URL right has always been a bit of a chore, and the transition may be a good time to toss this in, assuming it’s not too big a tweak.
I also see that the format of the URL function I’m looking for has changed- it now ends in
showthread.php?p=4464255#post4464255
instead of
showthread.php?s=&postid=468380#post468380
What I’m seeing now is that any thread about a specific request turns into a “new version features” depot…