Excess white space in posts

[AllenAnalog]

I'm puzzled at the the inclusion of many lines of white space at the bottom of short posts. There seems to be a default number of lines for a post, no matter how many are used for the entered text. And yet if I hit EDIT and re-save the exact same text, the excess white space goes away. Is this fixable? I mention this because when you have many short replies to a post it really stretches out the page a lot and is distracting.

[Admin]

I'm assuming that you're not talking about the whitespace added to a post to pad out its height to match the user information display on its left.

I'm unable to reproduce the issue based on the information provided. Here are some questions:

• What theme are you using?
• What browser?
• Desktop, tablet, or phone?
• Is your Sig being immediately displayed after posting when this occurs?
• Does refreshing the page without editing remove the excess whitespace?
• Can you provide a step-by-step reproducible example?

Thanks.

P.S. As as side note, short responses are better entered as a comments rather the full replies.

[Admin]

There is a long-standing "feature" that causes the Sig not to be displayed on the initial posting of a reply. I suspect that is what you're seeing.


Initial reply



Same reply after page refresh or edit with no changes

Is this what you're referring to? Editing the post has the same result as a page refresh of replacing the whitespace with the Sig.

The developer claims that this behavior is to enhance posting performance as it doesn't require an additional trip to the server and database query at post time.

[AllenAnalog]

Yes that is what I was referring to. I've started to move away from comments for certain responses because they don't show up in the Today's Posts list. When someone adds useful information to an older thread via a comment, only those who posted on that thread get notification of the addition. By using a standard reply, it refreshes the topic for all to see. Maybe it's vanity on my part but I personally find that more useful, especially if I missed the topic the first time around.

[Admin]

So, as I thought, the extra whitespace you're referring to is transient and self-correcting. There's nothing to be done about it or the whitespace that's created in order accommodate other visual elements of the post. Whether you choose to comment or reply to a post is entirely up to you, but those who share your dislike of whitespace, especially those on mobile devices with limited screen real estate, won't be thrilled with one sentence replies.

Of the various ways of monitoring Forum activity, I find Today's Posts to be the least convenient method for Forum Members. In fact, in the out-of-the-box default setup of the Forum, this menu option does not appear for signed-in users with the expectation that they would prefer to use something more convenient. I added the Today's Posts option back in for members.

If Subscriptions are not your jam, then the misnamed "New Topics" view is the next most convenient option in my opinion. I say "misnamed" because it's actually a list of unread posts and comments. Its contents are not dependent upon an arbitrary time period so you won't miss anything if you go on vacation for a month. When you're done with your session, you can clear the list with Mark This/All Channel Read button(s).

There are other means, such as the Latest Activity views and RSS feeds, to aid in keeping abreast of Forum activities. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but you have the flexibility to choose the one best suited for the task at hand.

[myorgan]

In some members' posts, I have had to remove return characters at the end of each line, while in others I've had to remove multiple returns at the end of the post to get rid of white space. Some members just don't know how to use a computer, I guess.

However, I don't think this is related to what you're talking about. Just thought I'd add it in case it matters.

Michael

[Admin]

Yes, inadvertent whitespace inclusion is also a factor, but that falls under user responsibility and control.

[andijah]

I'm using my smartphone regularly to read (and sometimes write) here on the forum and can't remember having experienced any of those issues, but will take a closer look from now on.
I find the now not so new version of the forum a lot more mobile-friendly than the previous one.