Question About This Website [UNSOLVABLE]

[MtnDewManiac]

With every other web forum that I visit, all I have to do is to hover my mouse cursor over a thread title in the menu and it displays the first part of the first post's text. I don't get that behavior here by default and I don't know where the option is to turn it on. Can someone tell me where the option is located?

With thread titles sometimes (often?) not really being a correct descriptor of the actual thread subject, this is a very handy and useful thing and I'm surprised that it's not enabled by default. Admittedly, I am a bit of a klutz - and this translates into the virtual world as well, strangely enough - and, therefore, it may have been enabled by default and I managed to screw it up, somehow?

Thanks,
MDM

[viking777]

There is no such option I am pleased to say.

The only forum I have used that had that feature was Fedora's and I have to say I found it intensely irritating.

Still each to his own

[catweazel]

There is no such option I am pleased to say.

So the solution to install Fedora?

[karlchen]

Hi, guys.

The Ubuntu forums have got this feature as well.
From my point of view it is not irritating at all, because you have to give the mouse a second of rest on the thread title before the beginning of the initial thread post will be displayed. I often use this feature in order to find out what a thread may really be about without having to open it. - The thread titles are not always too self-explaining, you know.
Yet, I assume this hover feature comes at a price in terms of additional load on the web server. It is also imaginable that not every forum software offers this feature.
It would be nice to have it. Yet, it is not an absolute must.

Cheers,
Karl

[cecar]

I agree with Viking on this. I hate that "feature" and i have not found a way to turn it off on those forums that have it.

[Orbmiser]

Yep another that I'm annoyed with popup feature. Glad it doesn't exist here.
One of the features here I find annoying is allowing "Animated gif's in signatures & avatar's. Such a Eye Sore!
.

[MtnDewManiac]

Not sure why anyone would hate a feature that they have to actually do something (place mouse cursor on a thread and wait) in order to use in the first place. Unless one is of the "hate everything that one does not personally use" mindset or has some physical disability which causes one to drop the mouse at times combined with a further condition which causes one to experience unreasonable fear when confronted by pop-up text boxes , but that is neither here nor there, I suppose.

Basically, I was looking for a way to turn this valuable feature on because I was assuming that it was a thing that the individual user could set. Unfortunately, from what you folks are stating, I was incorrect and it is either a global setting or some kind of plug-in that would need to be added for functionality. So thank you all for explaining that.

I'll not mark the thread SOLVED because my issue isn't - but at least now I know that it cannot be.

Best regards,
MDM

[MtnDewManiac]

There is no such option I am pleased to say.

So the solution to install Fedora?

Install vBulletin?

[viking777]

One of the features here I find annoying is allowing "Animated gif's in signatures & avatar's. Such a Eye Sore!
.

A lot of people agree with that sentiment, in fact there was a discussion about it recently in the mod/admin part of the forum and I did ask if it were possible to block gifs in signatures from the admin control panel, but apparently it isn't. They were able to alter the size constraints though, which might help a bit. Unfortunately the new size limits only apply to new signatures not existing ones.

[Orbmiser]

"Not sure why anyone would hate a feature that they have to actually do something (place mouse cursor on a thread and wait) in order to use in the first place."

Simple as I use mouse wheel to scroll thru list reading subject lines. Mouse can stop on a line I'm not even reading but trying to read the one above or below it. The pausing to read other subjects then the zany popup that blocks what I was reading which wasn't the popup one.

One persons feature is another's annoyance. Can't please everyone. And need to accept your idea of useful may differ from others.

Thanks for answering Viking about the animated gifs and was afraid of that. Will just have to accept it then.
.

[palo]

Of course the best solution would be for posters to put some thought into making a descriptive heading . There seems to be a Firefox add-on for everything you can imagine (and some you can't). Maybe something like coolpreviews can be tailored to your needs if it can be configured. Tried it years ago but it may have changed or there may be similar.

Pat

[MtnDewManiac]

"Not sure why anyone would hate a feature that they have to actually do something (place mouse cursor on a thread and wait) in order to use in the first place."

Simple as I use mouse wheel to scroll thru list reading subject lines. Mouse can stop on a line I'm not even reading but trying to read the one above or below it. The pausing to read other subjects then the zany popup that blocks what I was reading which wasn't the popup one.

Turns out you can scroll the list by that method without placing your cursor directly onto the thread title list, lol. I thought so, because I've never been arsed by such popups when I didn't wish to be and so figured that I was subconsciously NOT placing mine on them... But I just checked this at a few websites and, yep, you can still scroll with your mouse's wheel without having to place the cursor on top of the thread title area. Hope this helps.

One persons feature is another's annoyance. Can't please everyone. And need to accept your idea of useful may differ from others.

True, that. Which would mean - I'd think - that having the feature enabled but as a user-settable option would be the best way, followed by having it enabled for everyone 100% of the time (since as I explained above, it only works if you place the cursor on the subject title and wait, and explained in this message how to get around that if you are in danger of not paying attention to where your mouse cursor are), followed by not having the option at all (because, unlike the previous two possibilities, this one has no choice about it, you don't get the feature - or annoyance, however you see it - I don't get it, nobody gets it, nobody gets a choice in the matter, one size and we don't care if it fits all, some, or none, lol, that's what you're getting.

Thanks for answering Viking about the animated gifs and was afraid of that. Will just have to accept it then.
.[/quote]

I was going to suggest that you disable images, but that's not a great idea because you might miss images within the body of a message that would be important to you (been there). But I think you can turn off avatars for sure. And I think you might be able to turn off signatures, too, but am not positive. Been thinking about checking that one, myself, because the things are just another way of encouraging people to be lazy - both the poster and the reader. Or vain in some geeky way. I often "sign" my posts, but not always. I'm pretty sure there's a line near the beginning of each and every one that states who wrote them.

Of course the best solution would be for posters to put some thought into making a descriptive heading

It would certainly help. But it isn't perfect; just a little while ago, I ended up having to place the last part of my thread's subject in the first part of the message body due to the size limitations. Seems like everyone/everything has jumped on the "if it's not SHORT, I CBA to read it" bandwagon and the software authors have written their apps accordingly. I blame those text messages that cell phones get. And possibly that Twitter thing, not really sure what it is but I heard the other day it's limited to 140 characters and from the rest of the description it sounded like a method for turning people into zombies.