Topic by Ian Reed 2013-09-09 10:44:56

  • Registered: 2012-01-29
  • Posts: 636
  • User Karma: 170

Hi,

I really enjoy the audiogames.net forum and try to keep pretty up to date on new posts.
This can make for a lot of reading and I wanted to request a feature that would make the interface a little more friendly for use with a screen reader.
In my settings I can turn of signatures which is wonderful.

I'd love the ability to turn off unimportant user information that comes at the beginning of each post such as user ranking, online or offline, location, register date, number of posts, and user karma.
For example here is Darks user info:
Chief defenestrator
Offline
From: The Ivory Tower
Registered: Dec 16 2005
Posts: 11,002
User Karma: 211

I use the H key in NVDA to jump from one post to the next.  Then I have to press the down arrow about 7 times before I get to the actual content of the post.
While this information can be interesting on occasion, most of the time it is just clutter and so an option in settings to have it not display would be wonderful.
And of course it can always be seen by looking at the profile for that user.

I realize one of the programmers would have to add this feature, but I would sure appreciate it.

Thanks,
Ian Reed

~ Ian Reed
Visit BlindGamers.com to rate blind accessible games and see how others have rated them.
Try my free JGT addon, the easy way to play Japanese games in English.
Or try the free games I've created.

Ian Reed's Website

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Reply by aaron 2013-09-09 12:43:41

  • aaron
  • Administrator
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  • Registered: 2005-03-07
  • Posts: 9,200
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Hi,
I don't really see a problem as I can press the down arrow rather fast just to skip past it. Maybe if there was a mobile version I could see something like this happening, but I dunno.

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Reply by Ian Reed 2013-09-09 12:52:05

  • Registered: 2012-01-29
  • Posts: 636
  • User Karma: 170

Since you bring it up I do also access it in Safari on my iphone and have a similar problem there.
I understand that it is possible to press the down arrow several times fast.
It just seems tedious to do every time.
When was the last time you read through 50 or 100 posts in a sitting?
Do you really enjoy hitting H and then the down arrow 7 times for every post?
And of course the extra information at the beginning of the post can range from 4 to 6 lines based on whether the poster has set their location and wehther or not they have received karma yet.
So you can't even get used to hitting it the same number of times for each post.

Well, I still hope the feature will be considered.  And as I am requesting it as an optional setting you would never need to turn it on if you prefer the extra information.

~ Ian Reed
Visit BlindGamers.com to rate blind accessible games and see how others have rated them.
Try my free JGT addon, the easy way to play Japanese games in English.
Or try the free games I've created.

Ian Reed's Website

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Reply by Sebby 2013-09-09 13:35:35

  • Sebby
  • Audio Quaker
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  • From: London, UK
  • Registered: 2013-04-20
  • Posts: 2,500
  • User Karma: 149

I do think this forum is very reasonably minimal for what it is, however you can also get through posts fast using RSS and email. See recent threads on this forum for my approach.

Just myself, as usual.

Sebby's Website

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Reply by Dark 2013-09-11 11:23:19

  • Dark
  • He who writes
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  • From: The Ivory Tower
  • Registered: 2005-12-16
  • Posts: 29,041
  • User Karma: 3,466

well as much as possible has been removed, there isn't for instance all the avatar or avatar text stuff or other information you get on some forums, (there are some forum systems I've seen that literally cover! the place with information).

I'll have a look at the admin settings to see if there is a way to let people toggle showing of location and rank, but really I don't see the issue myself, it's not as if it's more than two lines anyway, really I'd see this more as a matter of just learning efficient page navigation skills with your screen reader than an any incorrect layouts on the forum.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

Dark's Website

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Reply by Ian Reed 2013-09-11 11:38:07

  • Registered: 2012-01-29
  • Posts: 636
  • User Karma: 170

Well, it's more like 7 lines, not 2.
Does it show up as 2 in your screen reader?
I actually hit down arrow 8 times after reaching your post specifically.  The first time takes me to your alias and post date which are obviously important to have.
The next 7 are to get passed the following 6 lines I outlined in post 1 and take me to the actual content of the post.

I do appreciate that the forum is already quite clutter free as compared with many other sites.
I only wanted to see if it could be made better with fairly little effort.

I appreciate your response and willingness to look into it.

I'm happy to code the changes if someone would send me the PunBB code base the site uses.  I'm assuming it already has some custom changes in it.
And roughly this change should require these 2 code additions:
1 A new check box on the settings page with appropriate code to populate the checkbox and save the value in the DB.
2 An if statement in the post rendering logic that simply skips rendering the unwanted information if the new setting is enabled.

With how small the change is the programmers may find it easier to just implement it themselves than to bother with sending the code to me and then merging the changes I send back.
But I would be happy to do it if that's easier.

Thanks again for looking into it.
Ian Reed

~ Ian Reed
Visit BlindGamers.com to rate blind accessible games and see how others have rated them.
Try my free JGT addon, the easy way to play Japanese games in English.
Or try the free games I've created.

Ian Reed's Website

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Reply by Dark 2013-09-13 01:16:43

  • Dark
  • He who writes
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  • From: The Ivory Tower
  • Registered: 2005-12-16
  • Posts: 29,041
  • User Karma: 3,466

Well it's not two lines, it is several more, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

there doesn't unfortunately seem to be anything in the settings thus far, but I'd rather not  monkey with the code myself, I suggest you contact richard and sander about this since they're the ones who have access to the forum code and would likely be able to affect this change.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

Dark's Website

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Reply by Ian Reed 2013-09-13 03:10:43

  • Registered: 2012-01-29
  • Posts: 636
  • User Karma: 170

Thanks for checking on it.
What is the best way to contact them?
I found a contact form for the web master, but it said to only use it for emergencies.
I suppose I'll go ahead and use it at this point, but I wanted to try and go through the correct process first.

~ Ian Reed
Visit BlindGamers.com to rate blind accessible games and see how others have rated them.
Try my free JGT addon, the easy way to play Japanese games in English.
Or try the free games I've created.

Ian Reed's Website

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Reply by SLJ 2013-09-18 09:08:44 (edited by SLJ 2013-09-18 09:10:19)

  • SLJ
  • You have defeated this forum and won a custom rank
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  • From: Denmark
  • Registered: 2007-05-25
  • Posts: 14,456
  • User Karma: 1,014

Hi.
Well I see the problem, but don't really think about it because I have got used to it when using the forum every day, and sometimes, too much! smile Well, the issue for me is when checking the forum on my iPhone. On a computer, pressing the down arrow 7 or 8 times can be done very quickly, but it just feels clumsy on IOS when you have to swipe that much. smile
I totally agree that this forums layout is awesome compared to other forums I've seen.
Edit: Wow! I just checked my own post after having wrote this. I have to press the down arrow 14 times from the heading to read the first line. 14, times! smile I should look into my profile to see if I could do something about it.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

SLJ's Website

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Reply by AlexN94 2013-10-02 09:58:58

  • AlexN94
  • Pragmatic party professional
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  • From: Denmark
  • Registered: 2009-10-01
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I'm just holding down the down arrow key for half a second or something... That should get me past most of the user info in the beginning of this post.
Personally I don't have a problem with this forum, I've seen much much worse! This is probably the most accessible forum I've seen so far.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.
William Blake - Auguries of Innocence, line 1 to 4

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Reply by jjgeek 2013-11-08 21:05:20 (edited by jjgeek 2013-11-08 21:32:51)

  • jjgeek
  • Kitchin Golfer
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  • From: Ill-Annoy, a.k.a. Sionilli
  • Registered: 2013-08-01
  • Posts: 161
  • User Karma: 3

Not a problem for me either. I use both NVDA and System Access to Go with or without SAMNet to navigate this site, and both do a great job. As a matter of fact I think this is perhaps one of the easiest forum layouts I've seen. This one and www.accessifyforum.com , which is a site about web accessibility. They use another platform, php BB 2. But if you guys are able to implement another setting, I'd welcome it. I guess what I'm saying is that I'll take it either way.

jjgeek's Website

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