My Posts Link - Forums Drop Down Menu

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stephen Tashi
  • Start date Start date
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
Sign up Log in
22 replies · 3K views
Stephen Tashi
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
Education Advisor
Messages
7,864
Reaction score
1,605
A useful link for the "Forums" drop down menu would be one for "my posts" - meaning the results of a search for the current user's own posts..
 

Discussion

Physics news on Phys.org
Why not duplicate it? Redundancy of important things is useful.

And I don't find "Your content" to be a self-explanatory title or one that "jumps out at me", especially in a two column menu.
 
Stephen Tashi said:
Why not duplicate it?
It adds an additional element to the interface, but no additional functionality.

I think the watched threads feature is much more useful anyway.
 
mfb said:
It adds an additional element to the interface, but no additional functionality.

Agreed, but that's an argument based on economy of interfaces and perhaps economy of maintaining interfaces. My argument concerns convenience of the interface to the user.
 
if you click on your avatar, it takes you to "your profile" go to "postings", all of your posts are listed there.
 
Evo said:
if you click on your avatar, it takes you to "your profile" go to "postings", all of your posts are listed there.

If we're concerned with redundancy, we should get rid of that feature immediately! :rolleyes:
 
Evo said:
if you click on your avatar, it takes you to "your profile" go to "postings", all of your posts are listed there.

Or even quicker, click on the number of posts in the lower left corner of the avatar on any post, and it takes you directly to a list of that person's posts.
 
Stephen Tashi said:
Agreed, but that's an argument based on economy of interfaces and perhaps economy of maintaining interfaces. My argument concerns convenience of the interface to the user.
I don't see any convenience in having the same link multiple times at nearly the same place. It is completely redundant, against the usual way how menus work ("sort x links into y groups") and just fills up the menu with useless elements because you don't need both links. Imagine everyone would like to have his or her favorite link in two menus. They would get twice their current size.

Having the link in posts is different - most posts are from different posters where the top menu does not give a direct link to the list of posts. The link in your own posts is there for consistency.
 
mfb said:
I don't see any convenience in having the same link multiple times at nearly the same place.
.

My postion is that I see convenience in having a link of "My posts" that is an obvious and, if possible, a "one click" way to view one's own posts. It seems to me the "logical" place for it is with the other links to groups of threads in the "Forums" menu. I'm not advocating redundancy for the sake of redundancy. I just don't consider redundancy to be an argument against convenience.

From the standpoint of convenience, I don't like the drop-down menus. (They drop down at inconvenient times and cover up things I'm trying to see.) I'd rather see some direct functionality across the top of a page. I suppose this type of forum software is built for the drop-downs. so the "one click" wish can't be fulfilled.
 
Stephen Tashi said:
My postion is that I see convenience in having a link of "My posts" that is an obvious and, if possible, a "one click" way to view one's own posts.
As stated before we have "your content". However that shows conversations and more, not just posts.

Stephen Tashi said:
From the standpoint of convenience, I don't like the drop-down menus. (They drop down at inconvenient times and cover up things I'm trying to see.) I'd rather see some direct functionality across the top of a page.
Drop downs are a way to organize and optimize screen space. There isn't enough room in the header to put all the links and even if there was it would be a total mess. Also think about the fact that a quarter of our members visit PF on a mobile device.
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
Also think about the fact that a quarter of our members visit PF on a mobile device.

I do tend to ignore that fact. I don't browse the web with anything that has a tiny screen, so it isn't clear to me how the format of the forum get translated to show up on such a screen.

Each person has an individual idea about what organization is. I prefer that things be organized so the one's I do most often are the quickest and most obvious. Someone with a different point of view might think, for example, that a link to "Personal details" should have an equal standing with "My Content" or even precede it in the interface because "Personal Details" and "My Content" both pertain to the person using the forum. Since I'm going want to see "My Content" several thousand times more often than "Personal Details", I don't consider those links to be in the same league.

I'll emphasize this contrast further. I tend to read items on web page from left to right. So the order of the drop down menus in my idea of organization would put the most frequently used items on the left. For me, those menus would be "Alerts" and "Forums". I can see that someone whose idea of organization gives priority to the "importance" of the content of the links rather than their frequency of use probably likes having "My PF" in the leftmost position becauseit has links to sensitive things like "Personal Details".
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Greg Bernhardt
Evo said:
if you click on your avatar, it takes you to "your profile"...
Not directly it doesn't. I'm not a big fan of the pop-up mini-profile that you have to click through to get to the real profile.
jtbell said:
Or even quicker, click on the number of posts in the lower left corner of the avatar on any post, and it takes you directly to a list of that person's posts.
Ahh, now that's a good one. Thanks! That'll make crackpot tracking faster for me!
 
russ_watters said:
I'm not a big fan of the pop-up mini-profile that you have to click through to get to the real profile.
What information are you trying to find that is not in the mini popup?
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
What information are you trying to find that is not in the mini popup?

Other posts.
 
russ_watters said:
Not directly it doesn't. I'm not a big fan of the pop-up mini-profile that you have to click through to get to the real profile.

Ahh, now that's a good one. Thanks! That'll make crackpot tracking faster for me!
Yikes!:nb):eek::D
 
Yes, that's what I meant.
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
What information are you trying to find that is not in the mini popup?
Well, other posts until I just learned you could get it from the posts count. But also infraction history.
 
The link from *post count* under the avatar is just a lists of posts, infraction history is on the profile.
 
Evo said:
The link from *post count* under the avatar is just a lists of posts, infraction history is on the profile.
There is a link to it. This is a staff matter anyway.
 

Similar threads

Annoying Share drop down menu

  • LCKurtz
  • · Replies 1 ·
  • Feedback and Announcements
Replies
1

Annoyed by Sticky Drop Down Menus? Find Out Why They're Not Going Away!

  • Stephen Tashi
  • · Replies 71 ·
  • Feedback and Announcements
3
Replies
71

New share drop-down menu for submitting threads

  • Greg Bernhardt
  • · Replies 12 ·
  • Feedback and Announcements
Replies
12

Dropdown menus appearing while scrolling

  • cepheid
  • · Replies 6 ·
  • Feedback and Announcements
Replies
6