(Reasonable) Features you'd like to see implemented on RailUK Forums

[Islineclear3_1]

If I have posts deleted/warnings/notes given by moderators etc... I would like the moderator to sign their username so I know who has issued the warning/note. Personally, I think it's bad manners to just sign off as "The Moderating Team"

 

[stadler]

Could i suggest that the automated announcements section ought to be made an ordinary public part of the forum that anyone can view without having to be added or log in. At the moment it seems that you can only view it once you are given access to it and only when you are logged in. There is clearly a huge interest in automated announcements out there if you look at all of the discussions on this forum and various discussions online on Discord and Facebook and various websites etc. I think so many people (both forum members and non forum members) are unaware of this section and would find it very interesting. Every week on the forum there seems to be some new thread in the main sections about automated announcements so if more people were aware of this then these posts could go here. So i just suggest maybe it could be made a public section that you can view without being added and without logging in. Maybe it could just be put under the "other rail and transport section" perhaps.

Can i also suggest ithink there should be a separate section for Ireland and Northern Ireland on this forum. Maybe it could be called "Republic Of Ireland and Northern Ireland Railways Discussion" or something like that. At the moment Northern Ireland discussions seem to go in the main UK sections and Ireland discussions seem to go in the International section. So when you look at such threads all of the Irish and Northern Irish discussions are jumbled up in various sections. Northern Ireland railways are quite different to our mainland railways but are quite similar to the Republic Of Ireland railways. Republic Of Ireland railways are very different to Mainland European railways but share a lot of similarities with Northern Ireland railways. And both Northern Ireland and Republic Of Ireland share a lot of similarities to each other and are very much linked and are both much more similar to the mainland UK than other international countries. So one section on the forum for both countries would work quite well i think. Maybe it could also be put in the "other rail and transport" section.

As others have said the auto merge feature can be quite annoying. Currently the forum seems to automatically merge posts if they are made within seven days of your previous post and nobody has made another new post since. A few times i have made a post and then made another post a few days later and it has merged in to the same post. This is despite the fact that my newer post is about something different but still on the same topic. So it gets confusing when posts are merged because it looks like one post about the same exact thing and you do not realise the newer post is slightly different or is a new update. Maybe if the forum wants to keep this feature than the timeframe could be reduced to 24 hours. So it would only auto merge within 24 hours of your original post. I can understand what others have said about double posting so doing auto merge after a short period makes sense as lots of posts in row very quickly would be annoying. So i think that a 24 hour timeframe rather than a seven day timeframe would probably make more sense as after that timeframe a post is likely to be significantly different to warrant a new post.

One final one. In the last couple months often when i am browsing the forum late at night there are often huge amounts of spam posts written in an oriental language. They are all in some oriental language except for the name of a university which is in English but that it is. The names of the universities are just random universities in the, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mainland Europe, etc. I am guessing they are promoting fake university degrees or something like that. It is probably just bots. But i thought i would suggest maybe the forum could add a feature to block any posts containing oriental characters until they get approved by a moderator. It seems to be an issue on a lot of forums as i noticed this on three other forums in the past month as well. So maybe adding such a feature would fix this problem.

 

[Crossover]

If it helps, I think that's how the old version of the double-post-prevention-system used to work. My understanding is that since then, the forum has migrated to new software, though the styling has stayed mostly the same.

Correct, the post by Ivo which was quoted was on the old software. The new software works differently and is what we see now (which doesn't demarcate the merged posts)

 

[Farigiraf]

The final one. In the last couple months often when i am browsing the forum late at night there are often huge amounts of spam posts written in an oriental language. They are all in some oriental language except for the name of a university which is in English but that it is. The names of the universities are just random universities in the, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mainland Europe, etc. I am guessing they are promoting fake university degrees or something like that. It is probably just bots. But i thought i would suggest maybe the forum could add a feature to block any posts containing oriental characters until they get approved by a moderator. It seems to be an issue on a lot of forums as i noticed this on three other forums in the past month as well. So maybe adding such a feature would fix this problem.

I have also been getting a lot of vague different language adverts for tech stuff (and Temu ) but I don't think Rail forums can change it without talking to the advert provider

 

[greatkingrat]

Maybe just turn off thread merging for a trial period and see what happens? If we are suddenly deluged by people posting dozens of times in a row it can always be turned back on again.

I don't know any other forum that has this "feature" and they don't seem to have the dire problems that the mods seem to think will happen.

 

[Gaelan]

I’m struggling to think of an example where someone would need to make two different posts in the same thread, unless they are quoting someone else; in which case the quote box acts as a natural break. This post is a perfect example of that.

A good example is the routeing guide updates thread:

National Routeing Guide update

I love the idea that people make these changes, wait for you to post your update, read their errors, then fix them. Not necessarily errors either, but workarounds for journey planners exhibiting unexpected behaviour, such as the addition of Milton Keynes Central as an excluded location for...

www.railforums.co.uk

Where two updates occur within the span of a few days, @kieron has to insert dividers to counteract the automerger; this thread would be much more readable if each entry appeared as a distinct post.

I don't actually mind the automerger in general, though - maybe a lower threshold (say, 24 hours) is in order?

 

[nlogax]

Maybe just turn off thread merging for a trial period and see what happens? If we are suddenly deluged by people posting dozens of times in a row it can always be turned back on again.

Or maybe just give members (from whatever post threshold or age of membership is considered appropriate) the option to disable automerge for their profile. Would still be good to have it enabled by default. Personally I'd have killed for an automerge function in a previous life and can fully understand how useful the mods find it.

 

[Trackman]

If I have posts deleted/warnings/notes given by moderators etc... I would like the moderator to sign their username so I know who has issued the warning/note. Personally, I think it's bad manners to just sign off as "The Moderating Team"

Must have changed- I had a guidance DM a while back, but it showed the mods username.
Do you mean a notification or conversation (DM)? I think the notification ones are semi-automated.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Can I also suggest I think there should be a separate section for Ireland and Northern Ireland on this forum. Maybe it could be called "Republic Of Ireland and Northern Ireland Railways Discussion" or something like that. At the moment Northern Ireland discussions seem to go in the main UK sections and Ireland discussions seem to go in the International section. So when you look at such threads all of the Irish and Northern Irish discussions are jumbled up in various sections. Northern Ireland railways are quite different to our mainland railways but are quite similar to the Republic Of Ireland railways. Republic Of Ireland railways are very different to Mainland European railways but share a lot of similarities with Northern Ireland railways. And both Northern Ireland and Republic Of Ireland share a lot of similarities to each other and are very much linked and are both much more similar to the mainland UK than other international countries. So one section on the forum for both countries would work quite well i think. Maybe it could also be put in the "other rail and transport" section.

I'd agree with this - but I'd simply call the section "All Ireland"...?

 

[Haywain]

Maybe just turn off thread merging for a trial period and see what happens? If we are suddenly deluged by people posting dozens of times in a row it can always be turned back on again.

I don't know any other forum that has this "feature" and they don't seem to have the dire problems that the mods seem to think will happen.

Ironically, I've just looked at a thread where a poster has two separate posts timed just two minutes apart, with no other posts in between!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Ironically, I've just looked at a thread where a poster has two separate posts timed just two minutes apart, with no other posts in between!

Is taht in the games section?

I think the feature is disabled for that one...

 

[Purple Train]

Must have changed- I had a guidance DM a while back, but it showed the mods username.
Do you mean a notification or conversation (DM)? I think the notification ones are semi-automated.

Personally, I'd like there to be a bit more explanation about the guidance/notification/warning system readily available. The only things I know about the way it works are the things I've learnt from my own disciplinary record (I don't even have any way of knowing whether it's good or dreadful). There isn't, for instance, any information as to what constitutes a slap on the wrist, what is more serious, how many notifications equals the next grade of action (or, to use a sporting analogy, how many yellow cards make a red card), what happens when a warning "expires", all that kind of thing. Maybe almost certainly I'm just thick but I haven't found any information on the various grades of warning ("points" etc.) on RailUK except for the consequences of ending up On Moderation.

That being said, the vast majority of interactions I've had with Forum Staff on this topic have been helpful and informative.

 

[Haywain]

Is taht in the games section?

I think the feature is disabled for that one...

No, not there.

 

[Crossover]

Maybe just turn off thread merging for a trial period and see what happens? If we are suddenly deluged by people posting dozens of times in a row it can always be turned back on again.

I don't know any other forum that has this "feature" and they don't seem to have the dire problems that the mods seem to think will happen.

After the forum moved to the new software, the merging function went completely and there were quite a few additional posts

Is taht in the games section?

I think the feature is disabled for that one...

No, not there.

There is another where it is disabled I think and I am sure there was a thread at the time. Not that I recall which, or where the thread is!

 

[ainsworth74]

Personally, I'd like there to be a bit more explanation about the guidance/notification/warning system readily available. The only things I know about the way it works are the things I've learnt from my own disciplinary record (I don't even have any way of knowing whether it's good or dreadful). There isn't, for instance, any information as to what constitutes a slap on the wrist, what is more serious, how many notifications equals the next grade of action (or, to use a sporting analogy, how many yellow cards make a red card), what happens when a warning "expires", all that kind of thing. Maybe almost certainly I'm just thick but I haven't found any information on the various grades of warning ("points" etc.) on RailUK except for the consequences of ending up On Moderation.

That's actually something we're working on. As mentioned at the end of the Rules Survey we're working on an FAQ and this is one of the areas we hope to address. But, as I said back then, no promises as to when it will be done! But it is something we're aware of that might benefit from a bit more information

 

[Haywain]

There is another where it is disabled I think and I am sure there was a thread at the time. Not that I recall which, or where the thread is!

It's is in this thread, posts #5 (quoted here) and #6:

Thank you for your response.

I believe I was interviewed under caution, so I had to give my occupation when providing my details. Which is why I thought I should mention it.

I mean I had paid for my travel for the entire day before the incident and then continued to pay for my travel after the incident.

My travel card is a monthly travel card and unfortunately not valid in the area I was caught in.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Must have changed- I had a guidance DM a while back, but it showed the mods username.
Do you mean a notification or conversation (DM)? I think the notification ones are semi-automated.

Can't remember off the top of my head but may well have been a notification. But as ainsworth74 mentions above, this is being worked on.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Double posting is bad practice for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it clogs up the thread; only 30 posts are presented per page, and as a thread gets longer, the number of people reading subsequent pages and posts gets fewer. So for instance if I reply immediately after, multiple times, then that will take up excess page space, meaning the viewpoints made by later posters become less visible.

Secondly, double posting can disrupt the flow of a discussion, making it difficult for others to follow. Editing your original post keeps the conversation coherent and reduces clutter.

Thanks for the explanation. I can see that logic - particularly when a person posts successive comments that do arguably belong together, but I still feel that there are occasions when someone is posting in reply to completely separate sub-discussions within a thread, or is making a significant update, so that what they have posted really should is spiritually a new post where it just happens that they are also the person who posted the previous post, and on those occasions auto-merging is not appropriate - but there's no way to prevent it, and of course that's a human judgement that can't be detected by software.

Thirdly, there are some people out there who get satisfaction from having a high post count, and indeed some people, particularly those who are new members, may consider someone with a high post count to be more reputable or trustworthy in their advice. Allowing people to make double posts artificially inflates their post counts.

That makes sense. Out of interest, would it be possible to change the definition of post count so that where a person has multiple posts without anything separating them, those only count as one post when displaying someone's post count (or assessing a person's privilege level)?

 

[Dr Day]

The ability to select to watch a thread from the bottom of the page. I generally read through a few posts before deciding whether to watch or not and it is a minor inconvenience to have to go back to the top to do so.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

So many ideas, there's no way I'm multi-quoting to respond to them!

The all-Ireland idea is very good: perhaps the most appropriate name would be The Railways of the Island of Ireland.

I'm surprised at how much disquiet there is about the auto-merge feature. It seems many would prefer the workload of identifying where it isn't actually necessary should fall on the mods rather than being automated. But this place is far too busy for that to be practical. The only change I would make is to restore having an indication within the post to identify where the merge of posts lies.

Many members seem to be oblivious to the existence of the report button and how useful it can sometimes be even to the extent of reporting your own post in certain situations! Equally I suspect some members are not comfortable or fully conversant with using the multi-quote feature. If an expanded FAQ section is going to appear perhaps it could include more detail about these including a working example or two.

The discussion of likes led me to think it might be a good idea but only if each member was limited to say just 3 or 5 a day, or some other combination of units over time. I also wonder whether in some situations it would be useful to restrict the number of posts allowed eg during the height of DOO discussions things came close to flame wars requiring regular mod intervention. Perhaps the affected threads could have been limited, if only temporarily, to the number of posts allowed per member per day. This might sometimes be better than having to lock a thread completely. Every now and then I come across a thread I have been following getting locked due to essentially just two members getting "over excited" meaning I no longer get the chance to add to the wider discussion. Selective restrictions, even if perceived as amounting to censorship, are surely better than simply shutting down the discussion completely.

As to concerns about off-topic posts being moved to a new thread the real answer is to think before you post. The forum rules are quite clear about the need to stay on topic. Now I'm not perfect and occasionally get pulled up by a mod about this but each and every time it's happened they were right to do so. One "trick" I use for longer or more complex/controversial posts is to effectively create a draft in a basic text editor and only copy that text into the forum when I have re-read it and confirmed in my own mind that it says what I really want while also being within the forum rules. Which I have done for this post.

Dark colour scheme: yes please! I have the option in my browser to emulate such a thing but it makes the forum less user-friendly.

 

[ainsworth74]

Equally I suspect some members are not comfortable or fully conversant with using the multi-quote feature. If an expanded FAQ section is going to appear perhaps it could include more detail about these including a working example or two.

Already on the list

 

[philthetube]

When someone hasn't visited a thread for a certain period, about a month I think, then the forum "forgets" which post they last read. So when I see an interesting dormant thread has revived, I get dumped back to the very start and have to work through to find the new post (which has usually become several new posts by then). When the form doesn't have a record of the last post read, could it go instead to the first post that's younger than the expiration period, which in this situation will normally be the first new post?

If you look at the top right corner, above the first thread they is a jump to new button, click it to see the first thread you have not read.

 

[edwin_m]

If you look at the top right corner, above the first thread they is a jump to new button, click it to see the first thread you have not read.

Thanks for that. I had assumed it just did the same as clicking on the thread from the list, but having found a suitable thread to check it on, I see it actually goes to a recent post I haven't looked at. So my question is why it doesn't do that by default? Or at least put this button on the non-scrolling part of the window so it's accessible without scrolling to the top of the page.

 

[Trainguy34]

One of my thoughts: Reactions to messages - maybe you agree with what someone said, or found it amusing, but it doesn't warrant a new post? Add a reaction!
This would be like Likes/Hearts on any social media

Examples:

View attachment 144218HappyPacer


View attachment 144220 SadSprinter ( @Sad Sprinter !!!)


View attachment 144221 LiveHSTReaction

Any other ideas?

This sounds amazing.

Something that annoys me is when (on phone) the ads are under the alerts button so it redirects me to the website.

 

[simonw]

Double posting is bad practice for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it clogs up the thread; only 30 posts are presented per page, and as a thread gets longer, the number of people reading subsequent pages and posts gets fewer. So for instance if I reply immediately after, multiple times, then that will take up excess page space, meaning the viewpoints made by later posters become less visible.

Secondly, double posting can disrupt the flow of a discussion, making it difficult for others to follow. Editing your original post keeps the conversation coherent and reduces clutter.

Thirdly, there are some people out there who get satisfaction from having a high post count, and indeed some people, particularly those who are new members, may consider someone with a high post count to be more reputable or trustworthy in their advice. Allowing people to make double posts artificially inflates their post counts.

Editing is an efficient way to update your contributions to a discussion, as it keeps all your comments in one place rather than scattering them across multiple posts.

The forum allows you to access the screen to type a reply with a single click on the “reply” button. Many people, particularly those on mobile phones or tablets, find this easier than using the multi quote tool. If people want to reply to multiple posts, they would have to edit the post, which would then involve copying and pasting the quote BBCode which can be a bit tricky.


I’m struggling to think of an example where someone would need to make two different posts in the same thread, unless they are quoting someone else; in which case the quote box acts as a natural break. This post is a perfect example of that.

Personally, I tend to find that a high percentage of people with high post counts are 'fond of their own voice'. I therefore see a high post counts as a potential warning sign.

 

[Techniquest]

Personally, I tend to find that a high percentage of people with high post counts are 'fond of their own voice'. I therefore see a high post counts as a potential warning sign.

Fortunately we're not all quite that bad, some of us have been around for several years so there will naturally be a high post-count! Especially so if we're rather actively posting, I'm most likely to be found posting in the trip reports section quite a lot for example. Equally, you won't find me posting in many of the other sections these days!

Fond of my own voice? No, just very chatty! Not as passionate as I used to be, so a lot of the time I'm just reading threads.

 

[simonw]

Fortunately we're not all quite that bad, some of us have been around for several years so there will naturally be a high post-count! Especially so if we're rather actively posting, I'm most likely to be found posting in the trip reports section quite a lot for example. Equally, you won't find me posting in many of the other sections these days!

Fond of my own voice? No, just very chatty! Not as passionate as I used to be, so a lot of the time I'm just reading threads.

I did say high percentage, not all

 

[Hadders]

The old version of the forum software had 'next thread' and 'previous thread' buttons at the bottom of each thread, meaning you could easily click through to the next thread.

The current version doesn't have this facility but I wish it could be reinstated.

 

[Siemens Staines]

For me, the biggest problem with automerge is that the timestamp does not got updated so that when I click on Watched to see which of my Watched threads have been updated, an updated thread via automerge will not appear and so I end up missing the new "edit". Perhaps this is because I do not use alerts for anything in my life because I want to check for updates at a time of my choosing, and not have alerts continuously popping up on the screen.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

For me, the biggest problem with automerge is that the timestamp does not got updated so that when I click on Watched to see which of my Watched threads have been updated, an updated thread via automerge will not appear and so I end up missing the new "edit". Perhaps this is because I do not use alerts for anything in my life because I want to check for updates at a time of my choosing, and not have alerts continuously popping up on the screen.

Alerts on the forums only show up when you refresh the page (unless you select for emails).
It very much is a check at the time of your choosing thing.