Pony: Bigger text-entry boxes? February 9, 2009 8:48 PM Subscribe
Pony: Can we please get bigger text-entry boxes?
Well, the fires seem to be put out and even the twitter boxes on our profiles are updating again, so why not trot out a pony? It seemed like something that must have come up earlier, but either it's never been addressed in its own post, or I'm full of google-fail today.
Every time I write a comment or post, and it gets lengthy, I start wishing I had a bigger More Inside box to work with; as it is, I frequently compose posts in another app, just so I don't have to scroll so much to see what I've written. Can we please make the More Inside boxes bigger? Longer? Wider? Other properties that make me think of incredibly juvenile penis jokes?
Well, the fires seem to be put out and even the twitter boxes on our profiles are updating again, so why not trot out a pony? It seemed like something that must have come up earlier, but either it's never been addressed in its own post, or I'm full of google-fail today.
Every time I write a comment or post, and it gets lengthy, I start wishing I had a bigger More Inside box to work with; as it is, I frequently compose posts in another app, just so I don't have to scroll so much to see what I've written. Can we please make the More Inside boxes bigger? Longer? Wider? Other properties that make me think of incredibly juvenile penis jokes?
I BEG YOUR PARDON?
Oh I see what you mean.
This wouldn't be a bad pony at all, actually.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:03 PM on February 9, 2009
Oh I see what you mean.
This wouldn't be a bad pony at all, actually.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:03 PM on February 9, 2009
Tomorrowful: Other properties that make me think of incredibly juvenile penis jokes?
We don't need bigger textboxes, that would only facilitate big, rambling comments. What we really need are circumscribed declawrations.
posted by Kattullus at 9:08 PM on February 9, 2009 [1 favorite]
We don't need bigger textboxes, that would only facilitate big, rambling comments. What we really need are circumscribed declawrations.
posted by Kattullus at 9:08 PM on February 9, 2009 [1 favorite]
This has come up many times. Or, at least once. All I can do is reiterate my assertion that the entry field should be 60-80% of window width.
For me, this is right up there with the image tag :)
posted by Chuckles at 9:28 PM on February 9, 2009
For me, this is right up there with the image tag :)
posted by Chuckles at 9:28 PM on February 9, 2009
haven't the comment boxes already been resizeable for a long time? i'm typing this comment in a box that i've embiggened with the little draggable tab in the corner down there. no fancy extensions, just regular ol' safari. am i missing something here?
posted by sergeant sandwich at 9:35 PM on February 9, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by sergeant sandwich at 9:35 PM on February 9, 2009 [2 favorites]
incredibly juvenile penis jokes
It's something that's come up before; indeed comes up often. Many have felt this pressing need and longed fervently for enhanced ease of entry. At MetaFilter we're making a big tent and what you're pitching might well be something that could be pulled off but the outcome may be messy or worse, absent sensible precautions, engender a whole new bundle of problems a few months down the line.
posted by Abiezer at 9:38 PM on February 9, 2009 [4 favorites]
It's something that's come up before; indeed comes up often. Many have felt this pressing need and longed fervently for enhanced ease of entry. At MetaFilter we're making a big tent and what you're pitching might well be something that could be pulled off but the outcome may be messy or worse, absent sensible precautions, engender a whole new bundle of problems a few months down the line.
posted by Abiezer at 9:38 PM on February 9, 2009 [4 favorites]
I think that's a safari function. No such tab appears in IE or Firefox.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:39 PM on February 9, 2009
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:39 PM on February 9, 2009
oh, my bad. i was thinking it got rolled out here, but i must've missed the part where matt backed out. been using it since then without realizing it was a safari-only thing.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 9:42 PM on February 9, 2009
posted by sergeant sandwich at 9:42 PM on February 9, 2009
Other properties that make me think of incredibly juvenile penis jokes?
from what i hear interest rates are really stiff and the resale values of homes has become flaccid
posted by pyramid termite at 9:58 PM on February 9, 2009
from what i hear interest rates are really stiff and the resale values of homes has become flaccid
posted by pyramid termite at 9:58 PM on February 9, 2009
oh, no, i put it in the wrong place
posted by pyramid termite at 9:58 PM on February 9, 2009
posted by pyramid termite at 9:58 PM on February 9, 2009
In Chrome all text areas are re-sizable, and it is good.
posted by dirtdirt at 10:12 PM on February 9, 2009
posted by dirtdirt at 10:12 PM on February 9, 2009
In Chrome all text areas are re-sizable, and it is good.
Oh that's bad-ass right there and here I've been using Chrome for months and didn't know...
posted by dawson at 10:22 PM on February 9, 2009
Oh that's bad-ass right there and here I've been using Chrome for months and didn't know...
posted by dawson at 10:22 PM on February 9, 2009
We actually tried rolling out a javascript-driven resizable comment box a while back but it was causing bad problems of some sort and so got turned off. If we can find a way to make it happen, I think it'd be neat, but I don't think it's exactly a high priority at the moment.
Also, I believe the default box is now significantly larger than it was for much of mefi's history.
Safari/Chrome aside, I feel like someone had shopped around a client-side Greasemonkey script that made this doable in Firefox (and Opera?) for any website you like; that might be worth hunting down if anybody remembers such a thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:23 PM on February 9, 2009
Also, I believe the default box is now significantly larger than it was for much of mefi's history.
Safari/Chrome aside, I feel like someone had shopped around a client-side Greasemonkey script that made this doable in Firefox (and Opera?) for any website you like; that might be worth hunting down if anybody remembers such a thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:23 PM on February 9, 2009
from what i hear interest rates are really stiff and the resale values of homes has become flaccid
Most analysts agree rising inflation may cause our economy to come into to a deep depression.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:43 PM on February 9, 2009
Most analysts agree rising inflation may cause our economy to come into to a deep depression.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:43 PM on February 9, 2009
We actually tried rolling out a javascript-driven resizable comment box a while back but it was causing bad problems of some sort and so got turned off. If we can find a way to make it happen, I think it'd be neat, but I don't think it's exactly a high priority at the moment.
But it doesn't have to be resizable.. Just make it proportional.
posted by Chuckles at 10:47 PM on February 9, 2009 [1 favorite]
But it doesn't have to be resizable.. Just make it proportional.
posted by Chuckles at 10:47 PM on February 9, 2009 [1 favorite]
as it is, I frequently compose posts in another app
ur doin it rite.
posted by fleacircus at 10:53 PM on February 9, 2009
ur doin it rite.
posted by fleacircus at 10:53 PM on February 9, 2009
Safari/Chrome aside, I feel like someone had shopped around a client-side Greasemonkey script that made this doable in Firefox (and Opera?) for any website you like; that might be worth hunting down if anybody remembers such a thing.
I mentioned it in the very first comment in this thread. OH NOES CORTEX IS KILLFILING ME! Here's a link to the extension for Firefox.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:59 PM on February 9, 2009 [3 favorites]
I mentioned it in the very first comment in this thread. OH NOES CORTEX IS KILLFILING ME! Here's a link to the extension for Firefox.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:59 PM on February 9, 2009 [3 favorites]
Couldn't you just write less?
posted by dg at 1:04 AM on February 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by dg at 1:04 AM on February 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
It's not the size of your box, it's what you do with it. I keep telling myself that.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:13 AM on February 10, 2009
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:13 AM on February 10, 2009
I use the Firefox extension to which stavros links and it's awesome. Thank you, metafilter, for leading me thither thence.
Also, I have a second plugin that makes a little "edit" button in the lower-right of every text box; when I click it, a text editor (of my choice: I use VIM; you can set it up to use whatever you want) opens up with the contents of the box in it. When I save the contents of the editor, the text box in the browser is updated. Very handy; I should use it more...
Here you go.
posted by amtho at 2:09 AM on February 10, 2009 [3 favorites]
Also, I have a second plugin that makes a little "edit" button in the lower-right of every text box; when I click it, a text editor (of my choice: I use VIM; you can set it up to use whatever you want) opens up with the contents of the box in it. When I save the contents of the editor, the text box in the browser is updated. Very handy; I should use it more...
Here you go.
posted by amtho at 2:09 AM on February 10, 2009 [3 favorites]
also, we need our own individual colors. I deserve pink. focus groups have shown it tests well with my key target demographic.
posted by krautland at 5:26 AM on February 10, 2009
posted by krautland at 5:26 AM on February 10, 2009
Dude, I never knew about that It's All Text extension, which is all kinds of pure awesomeness. Thanks for that, amtho!
posted by delfuego at 6:02 AM on February 10, 2009
posted by delfuego at 6:02 AM on February 10, 2009
OH NOES CORTEX IS KILLFILING ME!
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL STAVROS THAT I AM NOT TALKING TO HIM
My bad. It was late. There were kittens. Etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:39 AM on February 10, 2009
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL STAVROS THAT I AM NOT TALKING TO HIM
My bad. It was late. There were kittens. Etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:39 AM on February 10, 2009
I think the key word is "expandable" and not "bigger." Make it much bigger than it already is and you'll get people MeTa-ing about why the text entry box is so damned big. I'm comfortable with the size of the text box as it is right now, but I don't usually make terribly long posts. YMMV.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 9:36 AM on February 10, 2009
posted by sjuhawk31 at 9:36 AM on February 10, 2009
haven't the comment boxes already been resizeable for a long time? i'm typing this comment in a box that i've embiggened with the little draggable tab in the corner down there. no fancy extensions, just regular ol' safari. am i missing something here?
Stupid MACS get a real computr lol, amirite?
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:42 AM on February 10, 2009
Stupid MACS get a real computr lol, amirite?
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:42 AM on February 10, 2009
The dimensions of the text in a literal cartesian space should not be conflated with the image cast on the text as a surface crossing narrative and polemic spaces. That is: it is possible as a thought experiment to imagine an infinite sized "field" for "editing" - accessed and navigated with teh scrollbars and mousewheels of our subjective notions of discourse, sliced vertically along "history" and horizontally along "topic"; yet such an incalculably large text field would still not lift its edges from where they remain glued to the narrative they embed within - nor to achieve an intersection with polemic space forming a manifold of dimension greater than one: that is, a curved line at best. So if we agree, as I think we must, that the best can hope for with a larger "field" is to cram more into the same (locally) linear space, we see the futility of trying to "expand" along existing axes, and that in fact we need to fly free of the bonds imposed by the strictures of existing design:
We need three dimensional text fields. Anything less is rhetorical appeasement.
posted by freebird at 10:50 AM on February 10, 2009 [3 favorites]
We need three dimensional text fields. Anything less is rhetorical appeasement.
posted by freebird at 10:50 AM on February 10, 2009 [3 favorites]
Damned thing should be made 25% smaller: this place is verbose enough as it is...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:50 PM on February 10, 2009
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:50 PM on February 10, 2009
tl;dr
dear wonder chicken, thanks for the extension thingy, it's fantastic!
posted by filthy light thief at 2:27 PM on February 10, 2009
dear wonder chicken, thanks for the extension thingy, it's fantastic!
posted by filthy light thief at 2:27 PM on February 10, 2009
when I click it, a text editor (of my choice: I use VIM; you can set it up to use whatever you want) opens up with the contents of the box in it.
Yikes.
posted by smackfu at 5:26 PM on February 10, 2009
Yikes.
posted by smackfu at 5:26 PM on February 10, 2009
Write less. Most of us don't have time to read long posts.
posted by Zambrano at 10:04 AM on February 11, 2009
posted by Zambrano at 10:04 AM on February 11, 2009
That is demonstrably false.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:21 PM on February 11, 2009
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:21 PM on February 11, 2009
Speak for yourself. I propose a twitter-style limit on comment length so I can read everything.
posted by dg at 1:49 AM on February 14, 2009
posted by dg at 1:49 AM on February 14, 2009
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Me, I don't mind too much either way.
Also, Tomorrowful, if you're using Firefox, there are extensions that make all textboxes size-adjustable, so if you don't get your pony, you could try that.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:02 PM on February 9, 2009