Forum Member Equipment Reviews - random thoughts on submitting.

[cksurfdude]

Admins, all -

 

So I was pretty excited to be selected for a member review, and am trying to create what I hope will be a meaningful write-up (or, trio of write-ups) that includes some pics inserted into different sections.

 

First time I tried to post it all I got back a strange, techie sounding error message that I finally deduced meant you could not link to externally-hosted pictures in a post, eg. to a shared folder on Google Photos (or similar photo-sharing site).

 

Would be nice to be able to simply Copy & Paste your Google Docs or MS Word (etc.) doc directly in, all in one shot, but I guess with the images it's a forum security thing?

 

Then I saw the "Attach" button and found the Help post about uploading pics.

 

But bombed out again. All my pics were at the end of the post, and not inserted into different sections even after carefully following the "click on the spot and then click Add To Post" step....

 

And I'm usually good at figuring out how to use software.

 

For these reviews, that are more like a (let's say) feature article than like a standard forum post (like "love my driver" or "played well today") - ie. reviews are longer, will have several pics and possibly some other embedded content and maybe some formatting.

 

The forum editor is just not suited to submitting a full-length "article".

 

So what I'm thinking....

 

Maybe the equipment reviews would be better suited in a blog format?

(eg. more flexible, full editor software)

 

Could work similar to forums now, ie. anyone can read but only forum members can comment / reply.

[StrokerAce]

I just posted a stage 2 review and it has a lot of embedded photos which are in sequential order and have comments about each of them.  That being said it is important that they be in the correct place on the page.

 

I didn't necessarily trust that the page would stay active while I was composing my review so I downloaded an html editor and created the doc there.

 

After I was done, I changed the page on MGS to allow HTML, cut-and-paste the html from my PC in,  turn off HTML, add my photos in the proper location.

 

Everything looked good on the website (using a pc) so I posted.

 

I then went to the app on my phone and noticed that some of the formatting was messy and ALL of the photos were at the end.

 

A few things I noticed:

 

1. there is nothing (that I found) you can do to get the images in-line on the app.  They seem to always be at the end of the post

 

2. any html specific formatting (numbering, bullets, etc.) do not render very well (if at all) in the app

 

3. looking at the website version from my browser on my phone and everything looked fine

 

Not sure it helps much, but that's what I noticed.

 

This is the link to my review... 

You'll notice I used ">" instead of tabs, or any HTML special functionality; Looked better on the app.

 

http://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/16385-official-forum-member-review-tom-tom-golfer-2-gps-watch-review/?p=216628

 

 

BTW - On my Android app there are 3 dots in the right corner that I see when looking at a blog post; if I touch that and then select "Web View" the page seems to render correctly...

[cksurfdude]

Yeah, thanks for that - I had the same results after trying the same sorts of things.

 

Also noticed that in the app (also have an Android phone) but would prefer to have it displayed as intended (for all users) without forcing the user / reader to (know about, and..) do extra steps...

[StrokerAce]

Yeah, thanks for that - I had the same results after trying the same sorts of things.

 

Also noticed that in the app (also have an Android phone) but would prefer to have it displayed as intended (for all users) without forcing the user / reader to (know about, and..) do extra steps...

 

 

I agree... It would be nice if the presentation was identical no matter what device/method you're using.