ES v2.4 feature list / planning

[neptronix]

Overall idea:
ES 2.0 was mostly about getting the new forum software right and making it a genuine improvement over what we had before. The styling was intended to be a middle ground between 2000's era PHPbb and now, to reduce the shock from the site looking dramatically different
ES 2.4 will be focused on refining that experience and bending it ~25% towards a modern flat/minimalist look and adding some character back at the same time.
After this point, we consider the job of upgrading the forum done for a number of years.

Purple = Neptronix' job
Black = everyone else's

Appearance changes - can do before XF 2.4 upgrade:

1. Overall Become ebikes.com <-- not happening actually
2. For Sale Warning about users with low reputation in PMs, sales threads
3. Category View Add capability for Icons to display for forum categories
4. Category View Make those icons
5. Security Invalidate passwords and require a reset for accounts that haven't been used for 3 years ( to further reduce a problem every website has with credential stuffing - we have other countermeasures that work but want this extra layer ). Create recurring process or script to run it regularly.

Appearance changes - must do after XF 2.4 upgrade to avoid double work

1. Overall Dark mode/light mode equality in functionality
2. Overall More of a minimalistic look; move design 10 years into the future while retaining character
3. For Sale Show new classifieds items on front page / other places where 'ads' would normally be on a forum ( more visibility for sellers )
4. Title Bar Find place to show topic to encourage on-topic posting ( current design does the opposite )
5. Title Bar Design should make the DIY focus on the website more apparent to casual visitors, make site outwardly nerdy
6. Title Bar Put Endless Sphere in tiny text next to logo and shift menu elements rightward
7. Posts View New extra wide mode for >= 1440p which makes user profiles into horizontal rectangles and adds +~250px
8. Posts View Increase vertical post text to other stuff ratio. Make signatures fold to 2 line by default ( expandable ), On mobile make that 1 line with expand button, and minimize profile picture.

Functionality changes:

1. Implement enhanced moderator new user view ( see spammers thread in moderator forum, Neptronix has a design )
2. X Improve in-thread search/sort to actually phpBB level instead of halfway there
3. Look into slapping HEIC upload support for apple users; see: HEIC Format Support
4. [ review history of Justin requests, see which still apply, and fill in here ]
5. Image processing: See if possible to do this without a ton of effort
6. Install this plugin to help prevent scams from fly by night new members

Functionality improvement project

Note: Xenforo plugins are preferred over custom coding for all possible cases

1. Overall Forum recategorization project to emphasize modern needs and topics
2. X Search Google search becomes the default search because Xenforo's sucks
3. Signup Allow easier signup with Google Neptronix needs to provide google API first
4. Signup Force user to scroll and read rules, and select country with default prefilled via automatic detection.
5. Signup Interface to change country after the fact somewhere, also force existing user to select it ( auto-assume based on IP )
6. Post view Show country flag for user in user profile
7. Post view Show original poster ( we had a plugin but it broke statistics collection )
8. Posting create a menu bar below the posting area to supply a precanned response out of a
9. For Sale Add required fields to forum post ( location|price|itemType ), sold button, automatic archiving ( mark unsold, lock, and then leave note in thread ) of for sale threads that sat for too long w/o activity ( 1 year ). - see test forum
10. System Xenforo 2.4 upgrade
11. System Test + Deploy image processor ( huge PITA to deploy - good job for winter )
12. System Test + deploy content fixes from phpbb era
13. System Revise forum categorization from moderator / volunteer feedback

( conditional ) Only do this if users start contributing to the KB, otherwise it is a waste of resources

1. KB/Forum Quick link in posting area that produces a link to the most common knowledgebase articles; for quickly answering newbie questions on forum, plus method to mark a knowledgebase article as one of those canned link responses. This system should insert the link into the post box.
2. KB In-app notifications for article comments
3. KB AI generated summaries ( provide user a button next to the summary editing to generate a random one from the article - probably need to output the article as text to feed into the LLM. Remove the old technique of cutting the article apart to generate the summary and require a summary being entered before saving )
4. KB Implement TipTap from Courtesy configuration and make sure image uploads, copy/paste, drag and drop, and article draft saving works too

 

[neptronix]

This plan is complete and open for comments or suggestions on what is missing

 

[99t4]

A current annoyance is multiple spammers sneaking in and littering the place with spam threads. Any tools to prevent this?

 

[neptronix]

A current annoyance is multiple spammers sneaking in and littering the place with spam threads. Any tools to prevent this?

Yes, this has happened to me many times.

Possible answers:
- AI powered spam detection ( human makes the final call ), if plugin exists or is easy to write. Due to mid accuracy, human makes final call
- x number of first posts must be moderated
- All users must post in kiddie pool area for X posts ( but spammers may just use AI garbage to pass that )

All these require someone to come in every day and weed the intake. It's a bit more work. But it does mitigate the morning spam bombs.