Panasonic Youth rob sanheim writes about software, business, ruby, music, stuff and things

When will JavaLobby get a working message board?

You know, I’d like to read discussions like this one, but its pretty much pointless if you have to click on each and every of the 80-some messages to try and follow the conversation. There are a ton of free open source message board systems out there, and I know I’ve read other people complain about this. C’mon guys, is it that hard to match The Server Side’s sterling example of usability?

Get an account and log in, you’ll see the messages in a thread.

Gah…I’ve had an account forever but never cookie it. Why not just enable threaded view by default?

If you create a profile, you can set up views of discussions as Flat (like TSS), Threaded (like you see it) and Tree (like TSS but indented). What I dislike is that the default is threaded, and the cookies are never good enough to automatically log me in. Several other design quirks on JavaLobby irk me. Like, “Sign In” is a link and not a button. So even if teh login/pwd are autofilled, you have to move your mouse and can’t do a simple (tab/)enter. Then, in sheer violation of de facto web standards, clicking on the top banner does NOT take you to the home page. The only way to get back to the home page is teh tiny “home” link up top left. And I’ve never worked out the meaning of that baby bottle nipple icon.