Forum Enhancement: Post a image

[H. S. Teoh]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 12:42:01AM +0000, Hipreme via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> I believe that, specially in 2022, it is astonishing to think that
> this forum still does not support images.

I use a text-only mail reader.  If there are images, I won't see them.
(I *could* if I wanted to, but it's extra effort, and generally I'm not
interested in images unless the post concerns something graphical. If
we're talking about code, I'd just ignore any images.)


[...]
> 2: There's a lot of graphics related project and no one really cares
> about them if there's not to see

This is a valid point, but why images in *forum* posts? Images IMO
belong on the project website, and the forum post could just link to
that.


> 3: People usually don't like clicking on suspicious links for checking
> images

I use the mailing list interface to the forum, and generally I'd ignore
image files attached to posts. I'd find them annoying, in fact, if the
post doesn't actually concern something graphical. Excessive image
attachments (icons, signature images, etc.) that don't add any useful
information, I find really annoying.


> 4: Having an option for people to show their project could actually
> help in D relevance: for example, one would actually need to link
> their github repo for having the images, which would involve the
> process of someone clicking and then scrolling it down. This is too
> many tasks. Having the images could help people being interests.

Or it could turn away stubborn people like me. ;-)  I much rather have a
forum post link to some project website that hosts images, than to have
to manually open individual image attachments.


> Some considerations should be made though:
> - Images showing code should be banned. It does not help anyone, it
>   consumes resourceful value such as disk space and it actually makes
>   it harder to test.
> - Size limiting could be a great addition

Size limiting does not prevent people from attaching useless images like
signature icons that add no information to a post.


> - Reformat images to JPEG for smaller sizes

Please no, at the very least use a lossless compressed format like PNG.
If the post concerns, say, graphical code, the worst thing is to end up
with a noisy image caused by compression artifacts that fails to show
what the actual output is. (And if image quality doesn't matter, then
chances are it's not really relevant anyway, just put it on the project
website and drop a link to it.)


> - Maybe we could have a "Projects" section where people could posts
>   their image and close the other sections for text only. This reduces
>   the probability of wrong images usage for saving resources

That could be more acceptable.  I'll be sure not to subscribe to that.
;-)


> Even better: the forums could even create some carousel showing
> "Featured Projects" and even "New Projects" which in my opinion would
> be a big plus, which can bring a more modern feeling to the forums, it
> will bring D's ecosystem awareness, it will even motivate people to
> get their projects there!

I would see nothing of that, because I read forum posts via the mailing
list interface. (Plus I wouldn't be interested to get such information
on the forums in the first place; if anything, posts where images are
important probably should be posted in the D blog or on the project's
own website. I don't want to be receiving images I didn't ask for.)


> There's other things that I would like to see in the future: Like
> buttons.  There is a lot of people that are not willing to express
> their interest in the project such as clicking on the reply button.
> Even better, it would not bloat the thread with "+1 approves this". It
> is not really people fault, problem is that there is no another way to
> show their interest in the project right now.

Buttons wouldn't show up in the mailing list interface. (But then, I
wouldn't really care anyway, so it doesn't matter.)


> Again, that feature is a lot useful when bringing new ideas or even
> doing some kind of polls which is missing too, as I said before, many
> people dislike posting but would love to have their voice heard.

Making decisions based on internet polls is highly unreliable, and once
things like "like" buttons are instituted, they are highly prone to
abuse by unscrupulous parties.

Disclaimer: these opinions are just my own.  Most of my views are not
majority anyway, and I don't pretend to represent anyone or anything
except myself. So take this with a suitable-sized grain of salt.


T

-- 
Without outlines, life would be pointless.