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Why not require people to go through the PREVIEW MESSAGE step as a matter of course? Many other websites do this. It lets people catch errors in spelling and grammar, plus it would slightly reduce the "flame" level, as it will give people a chance to reconsider any derogatory comments before they actually post them. Just don't show the POST MESSAGE button until a message has been previewed!
"Music is the medicine of a troubled mind." -- Walter Haddon, 1567
Follow Ups:
I'd also like to see an interface where you can view the message to which you're responding once you get to the Preview. Right now, I end up constantly going back to read exactly what was said, or to snip pieces for quoting.The "In Reply to:" link is _still_ broken and can't even be used to view the previous message. You have to open another browser window and go back to the forum and find the bloody message.
I'd suggest displaying the other message in a textarea above the Preview, as I've seen on many other forums. This way it doesn't take up too much screen realestate, but can still be read.
Now that I look at the Preview screen, what is the reason that the "Follow Ups:" section is displayed while composing a message? There shouldn't be any follow ups unless you're editing an existing message.
While I frequently use the Preview option, I usually don't, as I can check what I've written easily enough before posting. Why introduce another hoop to have to jump through?The only times I use Preview are to confirm HTML modifications that don't show in the original composition, or when something is accompanied by an image, and I want to confirms its placement.
Just as Dave said... it would likely lead to more coherent, better spelled posts, and it would likely cut down on the number of derogatory, heat-of-the-moment posts. I think we can all agree that would be a good thing.Things often look a lot different in the Preview. I know I can compose a message and stare at it for quite a while in the textbox and when it's put in the context of a web page it looks much different. As many years as I've been using web-based forums, it still amazes me.
The only real inconvenience that I can see might be when the Asylum is running slowly. It adds one extra page load to the process, so it takes a couple seconds longer for those who'd rather not do a preview. I believe the speed problems will soon be corrected and then the difference will be negligible.
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