Changes to comments; input on new profile navigation links?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

As you probably know, we recently made significant changes to our system for commenting on profiles. See the original announcement and discussion here.

Today we released a round of small fixes and improvements, including:

• Enabled archiving of photo comments.
• Added a minimum length for photo source comments.
• Fixed a problem with some photo comment thank-you links.
• Added the number of thank-yous received for a comment.
• Fixed a bug with international characters and emojis.
• Put a grey box around the comments section.
• Indented comments and replies a little bit more.
• Added a "[top]" link by the comments section to bring you to the top of the profile.

With the comments section below the main body of the profile, many members had asked for that last item, i.e. a link in the comments section to bring you back to the top of the profile page. Even more members asked for the inverse: a link at the top of the page to bring you down to the comments section. When a new comment is posted we do have a "new comment" alert at the top of the right column, but that isn't always there.

What do you think of the following? There could be a new set of navigation links or buttons on all person and free-space profiles directly below the tabs. Something like this:

Some notes on how we would probably implement this:

1. The new buttons would only appear for members, not anonymous visitors.
2. The buttons would not appear on Unlisted profiles unless you are on the Trusted List. The Memories and Matches buttons would not appear if the profile is private and you're not on the Trusted List. The Sources button would not appear if the bio is private.
3. The Categories and Memories buttons would not appear if there are no categories or memories. The Comments and Matches buttons would always appear, even if there are no comments or matches.
4. Because of the above, sometimes there would just be one or two buttons. On some private profiles members outside the Trusted List would just see a centered Comments button.
5. The Categories button would replace the [categories] link that currently appears above the bio.
6. Members on mobile devices would also see a DNA button, if there is DNA information. For them, the DNA section does not appear at the top of the page because everything is in a single column.

Instead of adding these new navigation buttons, and perhaps to replace our current tabs as well, we could consider a floating menu or a fixed set of links that always appears in the same position on your screen no matter where you are on the page. This might be especially appealing to members on mobile devices. This would be a major change so I don't see us doing it right now, but if it's something you'd like to see implemented later take a look at this page of alternatives that Ales found. If you'd like to see us do something like this, either for all members or just mobile users, you could post a new G2G thread about it and see how much interest in attracts.

Thoughts? Do you think we should add the navigation buttons described above? I am posting yes and no answers here. Please vote up your preference and add comments or questions if you have them. Thanks!

Onward and upward,

Chris

P.S. Today we also released some improvements related to change explanations.

Comments

It may be a good thing to add [top] to the comments section once you are there — but if you don't have any recent comments, how do you find them (unless you are a member and know where they are)?

(I had such a link until my "most recent" comment aged beyond a month.  Now there is no link to find the comments — not on private view, or public view.)

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Buttons look great!!

Where is the Sources tab going to go to since those are normally part of the Biography?  Are they scrolling down to the Sources section of the Biography? If the profile has no Sources section, what would happen?

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Hi Linda,

The Sources button would go to the Sources sub-header, like this: Carruth-363#Sources

You are correct that it would be a problem if a profile has no Sources sub-header. The link would be broken until that was corrected.

Chris

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Definitely yes for my vote (not that it counts more, but I think this is a very good idea).

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Chris, I assumed that, but just wanted to make sure.  I already upvoted my approval.  I think buttons would really help to find things at the bottom because it is harder to see comments and categories now. Keep up the good ideas.

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Chris, I've sent an email to Jamie with examples of something that looks a little odd. We found multiple examples of messages left by Greeters which are showing up as totally blank.

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The new nav buttons on profiles are now live:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/977239/did-you-see-the-new-navigation-buttons-on-profiles

Answer 1

Yes, I think we should implement the navigation buttons described above.

If you would like to see these nav buttons implemented right now, but also want us to consider other related changes, comment here.

Comments

I like the navigation buttons and the top and bottom links on the profile.  They would be very helpful.

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Yes, I think those buttons should be implemented. That would allow more options for easily going to the section of the profile that you need to. This would free up time for more research and profile improvement.

I know for the Greeter Group (and several other projects) that "Comments" button alone would be worth it!

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I think the navigation buttons are a good idea. I see that at the moment they are in alphabetical order, but it strikes me as unfortunate that the Sources button is right at the end. At best this suggests that Sources are just of equal importance with the other sections, at worst it could be interpreted as saying they are the least important part. Obviously there will be differing views about the precise order of importance of the different sections, but given WikiTree's emphasis on sources I think it would be nice if that button was the first in the list rather than the last.

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I agree we should add them, but possibly in conjunction with a sticky navigation. See here for an example.

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I love that feature on spreadsheets and can see how it would be handy Steve. 

Do you think it could be done in a way that doesn’t take up too much screen space for mobile users? I don’t work from my phone or tablet, but I know some do.

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Those would definitely streamline my work, it would be great

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WikiTree has never really been mobile friendly, since some of the items will not scale to smaller screens. For instance, the current profile tabs take up 3 rows on a mobile device:

But the easy way would be to just implement the Sticky Nav for larger screens only (disable it on screens smaller than 480px).

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Yes,  I think the navigation buttons would be a great addition

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I like the navigation buttons.

In the interest of a consistent user interface have a fixed set of buttons and instead of certain cases where buttons do not appear have cases where certain buttons are "grey" or otherwise are not selectable.

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I think it is a great idea, as long as guests are clear about how to add memories, or comments, if no button currently exists because there are no memories, or comments.

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yes, definitely those buttons would be useful, my fingers ache from scrolling up and down otherwise.

One question I do have:  why do we have a ''memories'' section at all?  Some of the things I have seen in these were simply impossible as personal memories, like for profiles that are centuries old.

Also, one thing I have observed was that comments made on a profile prior to my correcting LNAB for it (baptism found), were still showing as being present, but when I looked for them, there was a tiny (merged) notice, the comments themselves were not visible at all.  Couldn't figure out how to access them, they were not old.

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I could see how that would be very helpful to navigate when on mobile devices, Steve.

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Yes, yes yes... I've had the pleasure of working with a computer on my profiles, easy peasy... But for a few months now, I've been having to work on mobile because my computer died, and I don't see the day when I'll have the funds to replace it.. anyway, I'm off a tangent, back on track... being stuck on a mobile, knowing that a floating menu could be a possibility is very exciting to me. It would just improve my quality of life.

Answer 2

No, I do not think these navigation buttons should be added.

If you have alternative suggestions, comment here, or create a new proposal and post a link to it.

Comments

I personally don’t see a need for these added buttons when you can just scroll down to these sections, but would not be opposed if it were seen as an advantage by others.

However I am definitely opposed to a floating menu on mobile devices. Screen space is at a premium on them and it can be quite frustrating when floating menus cannot be closed to get them out of the way.

Answer 3

Thanks for all of the updates, Chris! The buttons you mentioned sound like a good idea too.

Answer 4

Hi Chris,

Not sure if it has anything to do with recent updates, but quite a few of the comments on my profile are not showing any text at all, the text was there last time I looked. I only noticed today as I had a new comment posted to my profile and now several of the previous comments but not all have no text at all.

Comments

Hmm. Do you remember if the comments had any special characters or emoji in them?

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This is also true of at least one comment on my profile, from Pip Sheppard.  Prior to the change, there was content.  Now there is only:  

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Just an update for those seeing this: This is a known bug and is currently being worked on and should be corrected soon.

Answer 5

Chris I think you've made great changes all around technologically speaking and user friendly too. The navigation buttons are pretty much mandatory at this point. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm a little tired of all the scrolling. I particularly like the idea of a floating menu. All six of the suggestions get a big thumbs up for me! 

Just a thought, but with these changes, would it be possible to pin the Sources and <references/> together on the page? I run into many profiles where one or both have been removed. If they could be pinned with the ability to move them up and down the page, we'll have a lot fewer formatting mistakes.

Comments

I like that idea Lisa !  I run into that also when doing data doctor work, and if I go to reformat to inline sources just have to put it back in, so had wondered that myself ... why it was not just protected on the profiles under the Source heading?