Updating the graphical style of mod notes

cortex — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 12:05:31 -0800

We're introducing a new visual styling for moderator comments today! Instead of the older [small text and brackets style], mod comments will now feature a contrasting border, full-sized text, and for text browsers and screenreaders an explicit "Mod note:" text prefix to compensate for the lack of graphical cues. This is active as of this morning, and should affect mod comments retroactively, so you'll see this same styling in older threads as well. This style will only affect comments where mods intentionally use mod formatting; commenting-as-a-user comments from mods will continue to look like standard comments as they have previously. Ours goals for this change: - reducing our dependency on smaller text for the body of comments, to aid with readability - making moderator comments easier to scan for in threads, so that a mod note or reminder or request is less likely to be missed - improving mod notes from an accessibility standpoint for text browsers and screen readers by supplementing them with text markers Note that it is not live everywhere on the site yet. You should see the new formatting on MetaFilter, Ask and Fanfare, but we'll roll it out on MetaTalk, Music, Projects, and IRL after we kick the tires. It is also not yet live on Recent Activity, which is somewhat more complicated to update. The primary goal is providing context for folks significantly catching up on a thread or reading through the first time, so this feels like an okay secondary step, but we'll get it added on RA when we're able. We've tested this on all themes (Modern, dark and light; Classic and Plain; mobile views) and it's looking good enough to make live, but please let us know in here or via the contact form if you run into any bugs and issues.

Staff tags expanded to the Blue and the Green

frimble — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 12:23:00 -0800

To make mod notes a tiny bit easier to see and find, we've added Staff badges, like the ones currently used in MetaTalk, to MetaFilter and Ask MetaFilter. These badges will only appear on those two subsites if a mod is posting using [mod voice], meaning that someone's ramblings about Menger sponges and how they relate to Lemarchand's box will not be marked as a staff note, as that's a personal thing and not a site/policy/moderation thing. They are also retroactive: older posts with mod comments gain the staff badges on those comments as well. If you want to find mod notes in a thread, you can. Just search for (staff) … false positives aren't impossible, but the staff badge is that text and searchable. This was already true for MetaTalk, and worth not losing. The badges in MetaTalk are completely unchanged in behaviour and implementation.

MetaTalk posts tagged with modnotes

Updating the graphical style of mod notes

Staff tags expanded to the Blue and the Green