EHM The Blue Line

Taking inspiration from the Ubuntu PaperCuts campaign, I'd like to start a similar campaign for TBL. It might first make sense if I explain what a PaperCut is (again, taking inspiration from Ubuntu's definition):

A PaperCut is a trivially fixable usability bug that the average user would encounter in using our site.

In other words, if you find some sort of annoyance/glitch/etc on our site then please report it here! These are typically minor things but they can be more serious too. As with development for Ubuntu, I can get so wrapped up working on new features (e.g. the Challenge Upload Tool) that I can miss the smaller bits. Alternatively, I may see things and think "I'll fix that later" but never get round to actually doing it!

So what I'd like is for you all to report and minor glitches and annoyances you may find on TBL and I will then do my best to fix them. If you do find something, it'd be helpful if you also post the browser and operating system in which you're encountering the glitch. This will help me test that the fixes work as they should.

I'll also accept any suggestions on any minor improvements (e.g. one suggestion would be for the Challenge Forum to show tables for more than just the previous two seasons as some users (ahem, Beukeboom ) speed ahead, meaning that you can't see older seasons). However suggestions for new features aren't what would be classed as PaperCuts and instead should be posted in the Feedback and Suggestions Thread.

Visit this page to find out more about Ubuntu.

Here are some PaperCuts to get us started:

1) The left and right sides of the nav bar are offset vertically by 1px when viewing the site with Firefox in Ubuntu.

2) The "sides" of the poll results graph are missing.

3) The poll questions and results boxes could look a little tidier.

4) In the Challenge Forum/Centre, the leader tables for every single season should be visible.

5) The header images can load a bit slowly sometimes. Change them from PNG to JPG to make the files smaller and speed things up.

6) The search button isn't clickable; you have to press Enter instead.

7) When sharing an article on Facebook, the URL tags aren't converted to html. This relates to the parsing of meta data.

8) The numbers in the site stats (e.g. total posts, visits, etc) and also users' posts totals should have commas to separate the thousands to make it easier to read. E.g. 8,618 rather than 8618.

9. TBL favicon outdated.
10. Multiple TBL logos. New one in the works?
11. Hovering over a user's trophies under their avatar, the tooltip shows what place and how many they won. Both are a bit redundant with the trophy color and number won already shown. I suggest having the tooltip show a very brief listing of what each was for.

Tooltips for the profile-, messaging-, blog- logos under the avatar would be cool.

archibalduk wrote:1) The left and right sides of the nav bar are offset vertically by 1px when viewing the site with Firefox in Ubuntu.

In addition to Ubuntu Firefox 3.6.10, I can also confirm it happens in Windows XP Firefox 3.6.10, and Windows XP Internet Explorer 8.

Midori 0.2.7 on Ubuntu is Ok.

12) Can "Maxium number of topics in the RSS" be grater than nowadays? It should be under General Admin -> RSS Configuration in forum Administration Panel. I'm not sure if it's PaperCut, though.

13) The pagination (i.e. links to the different page numbers) should be visible at the bottom of the PM inbox as well as the top.

14) Update the About Us page
15) Page titles and meta data for the download pages (at the very least when viewing a file entry).

16) The horizontal bar called "Information" (?) has vertical lines in dark blue on its left and right sides. It's on this page, at least when there are no new posts. Not sure how it looks when there are some posts.
Edit: now I see that it occures only when there are no new posts and the list is empty.

17) The "View unanswered posts" link on top of Forum index page lists locked topics with 0 replies. Locked topics should be filtered out since they cannot be answered. (Or maybe remove this link at all. I don't think it's usefull.)

McQwak wrote:16) The horizontal bar called "Information" (?) has vertical lines in dark blue on its left and right sides. It's on this page, at least when there are no new posts. Not sure how it looks when there are some posts.
Edit: now I see that it occures only when there are no new posts and the list is empty.

I can see how that would happen. I think also there needs to be more padding (spacing) between each row of text so that it's easier to read.

18) Add DMHNL:B to the Hall of Fame system.

19) Add ability for different player stats to be selected for Challenges; e.g. so something like sv% could be used rather than PIM.


I'll be working on grouping and prioritising the papercuts in the near future. My plan is to work on my attributes project and then I'll start working on fixing the papercuts.

Just to let you know that I haven't forgotten about the papercuts. My original plan was to start working on these this month but, in light of increased bandwidth usage, I'm first looking into upgrading the forum software to the latest version (we currently use an old version that's now five years old). I expect upgrading the forum software would improve the speed and bandwidth of the site. I plan to incorporate fixing the papercuts into forum upgrade (should the upgrade turn out to be a feasible prospect).

Just so users don't think I've forgotten about this in light of the forum upgrade, here is an update on the paper cuts. I've marked 'N/A' those that aren't issues/paper cuts on the new forum:

1) The left and right sides of the nav bar are offset vertically by 1px when viewing the site with Firefox in Ubuntu. [N/A]

2) The "sides" of the poll results graph are missing. [N/A]

3) The poll questions and results boxes could look a little tidier. [N/A]

4) In the Challenge Forum/Centre, the leader tables for every single season should be visible. [DONE - initially we will go with just showing the first season leader table constantly]

5) The header images can load a bit slowly sometimes. Change them from PNG to JPG to make the files smaller and speed things up. [DONE]

6) The search button isn't clickable; you have to press Enter instead. [DONE]

7) When sharing an article on Facebook, the URL tags aren't converted to html. This relates to the parsing of meta data. [DONE]

8) The numbers in the site stats (e.g. total posts, visits, etc) and also users' posts totals should have commas to separate the thousands to make it easier to read. E.g. 8,618 rather than 8618. [DONE]

9. TBL favicon outdated. [DONE]

10. Multiple TBL logos. New one in the works? [DONE - We'll stick with the current square logo as everybody is used to it]

11. Hovering over a user's trophies under their avatar, the tooltip shows what place and how many they won. Both are a bit redundant with the trophy color and number won already shown. I suggest having the tooltip show a very brief listing of what each was for. [DONE - There is no longer a tooltip. In order to not slow down the site, we won't be adding a brief listing of what each was for]

12) Can "Maxium number of topics in the RSS" be grater than nowadays? It should be under General Admin -> RSS Configuration in forum Administration Panel. I'm not sure if it's PaperCut, though.[The new forum uses a different method for RSS/ATOM. Lets see how this one works first]

13) The pagination (i.e. links to the different page numbers) should be visible at the bottom of the PM inbox as well as the top.[N/A]

14) Update the About Us page

15) Page titles and meta data for the download pages (at the very least when viewing a file entry). [DONE]

16) The horizontal bar called "Information" (?) has vertical lines in dark blue on its left and right sides. It's on this page, at least when there are no new posts. Not sure how it looks when there are some posts. Edit: now I see that it occures only when there are no new posts and the list is empty. [N/A]

17) The "View unanswered posts" link on top of Forum index page lists locked topics with 0 replies. Locked topics should be filtered out since they cannot be answered. (Or maybe remove this link at all. I don't think it's usefull.) [We'll test this out with the new forum - I expect it'll be resolved.]

18) Add DMHNL:B to the Hall of Fame system. [DONE]

19) Add ability for different player stats to be selected for Challenges; e.g. so something like sv% could be used rather than PIM. [Haven't done this yet]

archibalduk wrote:12) Can "Maxium number of topics in the RSS" be grater than nowadays? It should be under General Admin -> RSS Configuration in forum Administration Panel. I'm not sure if it's PaperCut, though.[The new forum uses a different method for RSS/ATOM. Lets see how this one works first]

The new ATOM feed seems not working http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/feed/

Oops it seems the URL is wrong. Here are the correct ones:

Latest posts - http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/feed.php
Latest topics - http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/fe ... ode=topics

These work, thanks.

It looks like our header goes haywire when you use Aero Snap in Windows 7.

The links get pushed to multiple lines, and "The Blue Line" gets pushed down quite a bit.

B. Stinson wrote:It looks like our header goes haywire when you use Aero Snap in Windows 7.

The links get pushed to multiple lines, and "The Blue Line" gets pushed down quite a bit.

Is that because you're shrinking the width of the window to less that 1024px? The site is designed to viewed at that width as a minimum. Any smaller and you'll get the problem you describe. I'd like to force it to not break like it does, but haven't been successful thus far.

Why is there a go-button next to the 'jump to-forum' when it jumps automatically?

I expect it's to ensure compatibility with older browsers. I believe that not all browsers are able to automatically load the new page after you've selected it from the menu.

The links in the challenge Stats recording & scoring is broken.
Also, Rule 12.3 still refers to the reputation of the Free agents. We don't use that anymore

The links in the Recording & Scoring Thread work now (I assume you're referring to the image links).

I'll bring up Rule 12.3 with Bruins72.

I suppose 12.3 could be removed since we don't base the UFA signings on reputation anymore. Now we base UFA signing on the dollar amount of the contract.