Two Hotline suggestions...

I don't think this has been brought up yet (?) but a useful feature on some sites: if someone replies while you're in the process of typing your own response to the same question, a notice pops up when you hit 'add', so you can see it. It then allows you to alter your answer if it's now become redundant, or there's something you want to add/revise in view of what the other person said. Less frustrating, more concise and cuts down on multiple posts from one person in a short period. One final wish, as this reply illustrates: it would be great to be able to break a comment into paragraphs, so different points weren't all jammed together in one big, hard-to-read block of text. Pretty please?

amysarah
  • Posted by: amysarah
  • November 13, 2011
  • 2529 views
  • 7 Comments

7 Comments

amysarah
amysarah November 13, 2011
Thanks kfir52! That's been a pet peeve for a while - it's hard to pull off those big blocks of text gracefully (unless maybe you're Henry James. Even then sometimes :-) Big fan of paragraphs!

 
alexlutz
alexlutz November 13, 2011
Nutcakes, As of later this week we are going to have a new place for site-related questions so that we can focus the Hotline on food and cooking queries. Stay tuned for the specifics.
 
nutcakes
nutcakes November 13, 2011
It would be great to be able to filter site talk out of food related questions. Is this possible and I just don't know how to do it?
 
alexlutz
alexlutz November 13, 2011
Nutcakes, As of later this week we are going to have a new place for site-related questions so that we can focus the Hotline on food and cooking queries. Stay tuned for the specifics.
 
amysarah
amysarah November 13, 2011
Not to belabor the point, but a simple edit button would be a decent fix for the crossing in cyberspace dilemma - as well as ending the torment of unfixable typo and grammatical glitches. (I think that's already in the works, no?) It would be an extra step, but at least you could go back and alter your reply without serial posts...as this one illustrates!
 
amysarah
amysarah November 13, 2011
Thanks, Alex. I see what you mean about not wanting to hamper the conversational flow...but on the flip side, being able to see what transpired while you were typing can actually have the opposite effect. I know there have been times when immediately upon replying, I've seen something relevant in a concurrent post that would have inflected my answer, or I'd have liked to address...but then (since there's not currently even an edit feature,) it means doing a whole new post. Sometimes I do...but frankly, sometimes I let it pass, not wanting to 'hog' a thread. In other words, it can also create a situation that inhibits engaging in conversation. Maybe that's just me....and as you say, it's a more complicated mechanism. Appreciate that you guys are all considering this stuff thoughtfully.
 
alexlutz
alexlutz November 13, 2011
amysarah, thanks for your suggestions. The paragraph formatting is easier and is on our list. The other suggestion is also good but much more complex. We agree that having a mechanism to help 'de-dupe' or avoid duplicative answers would be helpful but it comes as a cost in that it undermines the conversational nature of the hotline. Once the site is fully stable and super speedy, we'll be thinking about our next round of new product features and rest assured, we'll be thinking about this as well.
 
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