I imagine this one will eventually get long also. Maybe the bug list/wish list should be a wiki instead of a forum posting.
MATLAB Answers Wish-list #2 (and bug reports)
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This topic is for features you would like to see for the MATLAB Answers facility itself, and also for bug reports about the MATLAB Answers facility.
This topic is the follow on to the earlier Wish-list for MATLAB Answer sections. That topic grew large enough to become unwieldy; and Mathworks has made enough changes to make a number of the past points no longer of relevance. There was also a more limited purpose <http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/216662-new-design-of-the-forum-grey-on-white-wish-list-3-bug-reports
I suggest one wish (or bug report) per answer, so that people can vote their wishes.
14 Comments
Adam Danz
on 25 Feb 2020
For easy navigation and for the historians,
Anyone with edit privileges should feel free to update this whenever needed.
Answers (73)
Matt J
on 28 Apr 2013
Edited: Matt J
on 28 Apr 2013
Apologies if this has been suggested. The list has grown long and difficult to search....
I think there should be a privilege (earned at 1000 reputation points or so) that allows contributors to transform an Answer into a Comment (and vice versa?)
All too often, newcomers to the site don't understand how things work and instead of responding to Answers with Comments, they respond with Answers of their own. It would be good for trusted contributors to have the power to fix this.
6 Comments
Matt J
on 29 Apr 2013
On my display this is currently directly over my duplicate suggestion.
I knew I couldn't have been the first... Oh well, I +1'ed it. :-)
Daniel Shub
on 1 Jul 2012
The tag system needs an upgrade. Ideally, when you enter a tag it should provide a brief overview of what the tag means. Low rep users should only be able to apply existing tags. Moderate rep users should be able to create new tags (with a corresponding definition).
0 Comments
Daniel Shub
on 8 Aug 2012
A proper set of moderator tools that allows for merging duplicate questions and moving answers to comments when appropriate.
0 Comments
Image Analyst
on 26 Oct 2012
I would like it if a person ended up on your profile (by clicking the link that is your name) that, in addition to the profile privileges, questions, answers, comments, and email, it also had a link to my File Exchange. If I didn't have anything in the File Exchange then the link wouldn't be there but it would be there if I did have something in the File Exchange. It makes sense that if someone is interested enough to look up a person's profile and all their answers, etc. that they might also have an interest in visiting the person's File Exchange to see what useful programs the person has uploaded. I'd also like to see my own. It would be convenient for me, if I want to recommend one of my File Exchange submissions to someone, that a link to my File Exchange were right there on the left side below My Questions, My Answers, My Comments. It would save me from having to bring up my bookmark toolbar, locate the bookmark to my File Exchange and click on it.
0 Comments
Azzi Abdelmalek
on 14 Sep 2012
I want an Editor for Matlab Answers like the one on Facebook. On the top of your page you will have notifications related only to the questions you have answered
- number of news comments
- number of new answered questions
- number of new accepted aswers
and when you click on the notification you will be redirected to the question.
1 Comment
per isakson
on 15 Sep 2012
Why not to both
- your own Questions and
- Questions you have answered or have made comments on
A comment often is a kind of promise to return to the Question when OP has added more info
Daniel Shub
on 18 Jan 2013
I am trying to find unanswered questions with 0 votes, but I want them listed newest to oldest. If I search for unanswered and sort by votes, I get all the questions with 0 votes sorted by date, but oldest to newest, followed by all the questions wit 1 vote, again sorted oldest to newest.
I am trying to close unclear and inappropriate questions which are unanswered. Basically I am trying to work through the unanswered questions. If the question is reasonable, I vote for it. If the question is inappropriate or unclear I add a comment saying what is inappropriate or unclear and close it. This leads me to needing the odd sort order/search capability.
I guess the first question is, is this filtering useful?
4 Comments
Sean de Wolski
on 18 Jan 2013
@Daniel, thanks for doing this!
Let Randy know if you notice any trends or anything else noteworthy or that could be useful to you.
Cedric Wannaz
on 31 Jan 2013
Edited: Cedric Wannaz
on 31 Jan 2013
As mentioned here, I think that having the possibility for the OP and high rep. members to add a top entry in the thread (like an answer but with a different design, e.g. greenish background or some frame) called "Synthesis" or "Conclusion", that would contain a synthesis/conclusion of the thread, would be interesting. This should be optional and worth no reward, so we have only valuable information, but highly prioritized by the search engine. The name of contributors should also be recorded in the sense that, at least to me, they are often a search criterion as important as keywords.
You can find an example of what I have in mind here, where I edited the question with a top part that synthesizes the thread: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/59491-is-it-possible-to-set-watchdogs-memory-exec-time-in-matlab
The idea is really to allow people who care for that to bring added value to their threads. This could be especially useful for complicated threads, where finally a person is able to draw a conclusion out of dozens of answers/comments. The conclusion is really important information, yet it doesn't appear in the thread ultimately.
As a side note, I think that having the option not to prop. the thread at the top of the list when we edit the synthesis could be useful.. in my case, for example, I am pretty sure that people will start being tired about my "watchdog" thread if it comes back at the top of the list each time I add a coma to the text.. ;)
0 Comments
Jan
on 2 Jul 2012
As explained in the wish-list #1 already, the space on top of a section is larger than the one on the bottom:
This block belongs to the sentence on top. It could be code also.
Now a new section starts, but the indent block seem to belong to this new section, because it is nearer. Because larger horizontal skipping is possible with HTML tricks only, it is hard to structure the text optically.
Solution: While I assume, that the spacing should be smaller on the top than on the bottom in most cases, making them equal might be the best compromise.
Another example:
This is line 1:
a = rand(1, 1);
This is line 2:
b = rand(2, 2);
While this is the 3rd line:
c = rand(3, 3);
Daniel Shub
on 24 Aug 2012
That someone for TMW would chime in about the Wish list format (with or without the standard disclaimers about personal opinions ... ). Should we be sending bugs to files@mathworks.com, to TMW customer support, or posting them here. What about our suggestions for "product enhancements"? Is one long list better than multiple short lists? Is a list for bugs and a lists for wishes better? I think as a community we are pretty ambivalent about the format of our wish list, so if anyone at TMW who deals with this stuff has even a weak opinion it would be useful.
0 Comments
Amro
on 24 Aug 2012
Syntax Highlighting
In the meantime, I created a userscript that applies MATLAB syntax highlighting using google-code-prettify (it was originally intended for Stack Overflow). Project is hosted on GitHub.
0 Comments
Azzi Abdelmalek
on 20 Sep 2012
Edited: Azzi Abdelmalek
on 20 Sep 2012
The text editor can be improved. Beginners have some difficulties to deal with it. I don't like the preview in another window. It's more flexible if the window were we write the code is the same as the preview. I suggest when we click on the code button, a window or highlighted zone appears, then we are sur that our code is well formated
1 Comment
Kevin Claytor
on 24 Sep 2012
I would love code highlighting similar (okay, identical to) the MATLAB editor. I think it would encourage people to make use of the code tags more.
Also, if the code tags could be actual tags; [code][/code], I think it would be much more intuitive.
Daniel Shub
on 24 Sep 2012
Edited: Daniel Shub
on 24 Sep 2012
The close/reopen system needs a rework. I don't know how to see the reason that a question got closed. I also don't know if the OP can see the reason or if they get an alert. More importantly, if a question get closed simply editing the question should not be enough to reopen it. For example, in this question the edit was "P.S. Why is it (The thread) closed?". Edits to the question should raise a flag and confirmation from someone with enough rep to reopen the question.
The only way to deal with persistent reopening is to either give up or delete the question. Deleting a persistently reopened question will likely result in persistent reposting. While the ability to close a question is useful for cutting down spam, the current system is ineffectual.
Ryan
on 28 Sep 2012
Perhaps there is a method of which I am not aware, but I would like to be able to track questions that I commented on and not actually answered.
4 Comments
Image Analyst
on 3 Jan 2013
New issue, I just noticed today. If I use the Link button to copy a link of a comment that is not one of the last 3 posted, then have that link be a link in another comment (referring reader to the first comment), OR even just paste that link into the address field (of two different browsers, IE and Firefox), it goes to the top of the posting, it does not scroll directly to the comment. An example of this is the link which is http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/42413#comment_102678. Some investigation leads me to think that the problem occurs when the comment referred to is not one of the last 3 comments posted, in other words, it's one of those that are normally hidden and you have to reveal by clicking "Show n older comments." Can this be fixed? Otherwise we can't link to "hidden" comments.
Walter Roberson
on 29 Jun 2012
5 Comments
Randy Souza
on 16 Aug 2012
We deployed a fix this evening (Aug 15 2012) that should eliminate the JavaScript warnings. Please post here or email me directly (<firstname>.<lastname>@mathworks.com) if you still see them.
Dr. Seis
on 29 Jun 2012
Has someone already addressed the change from having our most recent answers listed first to (now) where our oldest answers are listed first when we click on our profile? I usually check this out to see if people had made comments to a question I answered, but (having answered ~180 questions, which is not a lot compared to the top contributors) I do not want to have to page through all my older answers to see if anything recent had updated.
I wish we had the ability to sort through my own old answers, too. Sometimes I want to view older answers before answering newer questions... so this could be helpful.
Ryan
on 9 Jul 2012
How about a link on the left hand navigation for FAQ and posts like Walter's on tags?
2 Comments
Jan
on 12 Jul 2012
Edited: Jan
on 19 Aug 2012
When I ask a question, I see a very funny red splosh before "Question" and "Body". Is this a skeletonized dot, a fractal or a red fountain? If there is only one of them, I'd had checked my monitor for pixel errors of flyspeck.
I'm not convinced that the title line should be called "question". In fact, "question" is misleading here. And while I do not understand the reason, why this title needs at least 4 words, titles with the allowed 250 characters are a secure indicator of a bad question.
Image Analyst
on 24 Aug 2012
Edited: Image Analyst
on 24 Aug 2012
Has anyone noticed that the counts for the "Contributors" have stalled? No numbers have been updated for several days now. I've been stuck at 607 accepted answers even though I see answers being accepted. Likewise, everyone else's numbers have not budged in several days.
And I say again that the bugs and the wishes should be in two separate lists instead of one long massive combined list.
3 Comments
Albert Yam
on 10 Sep 2012
[From Lucas' answer]
About accepting a 'comment' that is in an answer box. It has more to do with the interface, in my opinion. Anyone coming from any other place, (intuitively) you see a chat box, you write there (like most forums), but to actually comment, you have to hit "Comment on this Answer".
Possibly change the 'Answer' text box, to "Answer this question" button, then open the text box or something like that. Which might alleviate the answering a comment thing.
[Image Analyst's suggestion]
Maybe you'd want it to recognize that the person submitting an answer is actually the original questionner and to ask them if they really want to answer and accept their own question or comment on another person's answer? That might not be a bad idea.
0 Comments
Matt J
on 2 Oct 2012
Eliminate the "Answer Accepted" feature. Let reputation points be dictated entirely by votes.
The first problem with the "Answer Accepted" is that it puts the power to reward Answerers in the hands of the Questioners, where it doesn't belong. This incentivizes contributors to accomadate people looking for homework answers or to spoonfeed over-detailed solutions to people looking to do minimal work.
The second problem is, as others have mentioned, that a better Answer can always come along.
12 Comments
Jan
on 29 Apr 2013
@Matt J: I do not see the contradiction. Although I'd prefer no direct correlation between points and privileges, I participate on the current system TMW has decided for. Obviously it works sufficiently at the moment.
I do not vote to provide a further step to gain privileges, but to mark useful answers and questions. An active and useful voting system need not be directly related to the highest privilege levels. But for the low privilege levels, a manual decision would be too time-costly with a comparable arbitrariness.
Randy Souza
on 13 Dec 2012
It should be possible to change and save the default sort order.
0 Comments
Cedric Wannaz
on 31 Jan 2013
Edited: Cedric Wannaz
on 31 Jan 2013
I think that if people were reminded (e.g. weekly) on a verified email that they have to come back to "close" their threads (or to actively indicate that they could still use help), more people would at least come back and see what was answered/commented. I am saying that, because I really suspect that many people actually find some way to do what they want after posting the question, and never come back to check their threads. All of you folks who have been active here for a long time, have roughly a 1/3 ratio of accepted answers, but when I look at the threads it seems that a significant amount of the answers that were not accepted are just a consequence of people not coming back..
Associated with this mechanism, there could be a special type of threads for open questions, in some sense a "discussion thread", like this one or any of those that should not have a particular answer chosen to be The answer.
Cheers,
Cedric
0 Comments
Cedric Wannaz
on 2 Oct 2013
I think that it would be better to have the forum adding automatically a target attribute
target="_blank"
to links present in threads, because we often want to keep the question/comment under our eyes when we click on such links.
5 Comments
Chad Greene
on 6 Jul 2015
I sure wish Answers pages would load faster. Navigating the Answers section and sorting forum posts is remarkably slow, especially considering it's only text. And with the recent redesign of the site, there isn't even very much text at that.