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I'm sure that it has been asked before but why don't we have a 'preview post' facility like phpBB and other forums? I find it quite useful.
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It's a simple matter of mathematics.
We have two people on the team who write code.
Steve has a full time job (currently requiring a lot of extra time be spent on it), a wife, 2 young kids and a dog. He probably has to sometimes spend time mending a fence or mowing the grass or taking the car in for a service. Sometimes he needs to eat and sleep. His dog needs walking...
I am more fortunate in that I am retired and the kids have left home now. But I also have a wife and, in my case, 2 dogs and sometimes we need to go grocery shopping. We may like to visit friends of have them to stay and sometimes the kids and partners descend on us for an evening meal. I like to unwind with the odd movie or, more likely, a good book.
And we both like to take a vacation every now and then.
So all of these little irritations of life keep getting in the way of working on SP.
Then I guess, on an average day I probably spend a good 50%+ of my time working the support forum - as indeed I am doing now. Often answering the same questions over and over! Sometimes it's more (like today) - sometimes less. Fridays and Saturdays are usually quieter.
In the remaining time left over I try and get some coding done if I can. There is always a little site maintenance to do. We have to look after the translation sites and generate all the files for that. Then there are updates and releases to build and put up for download.
Then we have a whole codex to write to document all of the V5 stuff - every function in the api. All the tags. All the options. I reckon there is 3-4 weeks just for that depending on interruptions.
We started planning V5 in the summer of 2010 and started coding that November. So it took a year to get to an alpha we could release. But there is so much more want to do.
And my wife just out her head around the door and said we need to take the dogs out for their morning consitutional.
And that's why there is no preview.
Don't take this wrong - I am not getting at you at all here. Much of what we have been working through with you has been invaluable - testing the code and the approach to the themes and templates is what this is all about.
But that is why there is no preview.
And this is why we keep appealing for help - especially in the code and/or documentation departments. Or just to help with the forums.
it is still fun and challenging and i still enjoy it. Just now and then something happens and I wonder why I bother.
I got an email late last night entitled 'WTF DID YOU DO TO MY FORUM' and the text - and I quote verbatim - was 'I upgraded and it looks like this! why did you change it? it messed up all my posts! There was nothing wrong with it. then you make me update and it totally fucked up my site. help me!'
So sometime you wonder if it is all worth it!
One day, maybe between repairing the faulty light switch in my garage and a dentist appointment I will try and write the preview feature.
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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First of all, I know all about that sort of thing. Your comments have been digested and I will have more to say on this, just not now. I don't have time but I really do have lots to say and hopefully some of it will make you feel better.
I also now have a(nother) pet project.
Conrad
PS And Brandon's gonna help me with it 
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Cool reply Yellow Swordfish! Way to let us all have it 
Almost every time I come to the forum I try to skim through the questions and see if there are any I can answer from my own experience, but I never can 
Thanks for all you guys do! But we need a forum preview more than you need a working light in your garage or clean teeth! We can't see you teeth over the forum anyway so those are mostly unimportant 
Please don't give up.
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Just to make matters worse I learned this morning that I need open surgery on my right hand within the next month. That is going to seriously cramp my style and productivity!
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SWORDFISH
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Oh dear sorry to hear that Andy, not good at all.
Firstly can I just say that your post was indeed a good one and from time to time we all need reminding of the realities of what you guys do. Even I feel maligned from time to time by the users of my 2 forums and their lack of willingness to do what appears to be the simplest of tasks. People who don't have good manners are disgrace and should take a good look in the mirror. Of course there are some of my users who show their appreciation of the time and effort that I put in and it's those people who make it all worthwhile. This pales into insignificance when compared to the sheer scale of what you and Steve do on a daily basis. The support on this site is without doubt the best that I have ever come across, including some $100K products that I use on a daily basis at work.
I hope therefore that you will take some pleasure from the fact that many of us are really appreciative of what you do. SP5 is excellent and you have achieved your aims and then some. I think that the plugin development will gain momentum over time and as I learn I will try to get involved. I am absolutely delighted with what I have managed to achieve with the help of the people on this forum, my forum looks and feels really good and is pretty much ready to be unleashed on my users.
We should all take stock of what is being achieved by so few and if we can help these guys out we should.
So who wants to help me start a preview post plugin? I'm nothing more than an enthusiastic amateur but that is often enough with persistence.
As for the documentation Andy give me some simple tasks and I'll do them. Lots of small pieces of documentation when collated make a complex problem a lot smaller. I can write clear English with the correct spelling of the word colour!
Finally to the guy who wrote that email to Andy, you need to learn some manners, what kind of response do you expect when you disrespect someone in such a way. My response to you had you sent it to me would be to hit the delete button and put you on a blacklist but not before I had hurled at least 50 expletives your way. Oh actually 'you ain't worth shit!'
Conrad
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I just noticed that there is a preview feature as part of the full fat bells and whistles version of the tinymce editor. Would I be wrong to presume that most are using this editor for SP? In which case could that be adapted?
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probably not easily... would have to write a plugin or edit that one in tinymce... its pretty bare bones...
Visit Cruise Talk Central and Mr Papa's World
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The plan would be to remove that from the toolbar. It is pretty useless and to get it to a state where it would truly reflect a preview requires some major code juggling and headaches. There are easier - although still complex - ways of doing it.
Help with documentation on our new Codex would be most appreciated. This is something that worries me about getting done simply because there is just so much to document and, as always, so little time.
If you are serious about helping out could you send both myself and Mr Papa a PM and we can then all discuss the options off-forum...?
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SWORDFISH
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