HAIF Notes August 2019

[editor]

Hi everyone.  Sorry I didn't post about the updates I've been doing lately, but it's been mostly behind-the-scenes things.  Lots of security things, and some anti-spam measures.  You may have noticed the forum was unavailable for about 10 minutes today.  That was part of this.  Here's the highlights:

 

• Added support for [Emoji 11](https://emojipedia.org/emoji-11.0/) emojis
• Fixed an issue where the inbox list may be stuck showing a spinner when canceling a search in the personal messenger.
• Fixed an issue where cover photos might disappear shortly after displaying
• Fixed a layout issue with the mobile pagination buttons
• Fixed broken login form
• Fixed an issue with Flickr video embeds showing as photos
• Fixed an issue with notifications not showing as unread
• Disabled Grammarly from checking editor fields to prevent Grammarly from breaking HTML and causing broken posts
• Disabled preloading of notification sound to speed up initial page load
• Fixed an issue where recurring events may show on the wrong day in Calendar
• Added back the ability to search personal messages by recipient and sender name, and removed the 365 day limit on results
• Fixed an issue where the mobile keyboard would not be hidden after submitting the search form

 

As always, I'm tinkering with this and that in the background, so weirdness happens.  I usually work on HAIF around 4pm, so if something looks screwy about that time of the day, it's probably me pushing buttons.

[dbigtex56]

In "Points Southeast" please correct spelling of Friendswood (not "Freindswood).

 

[Ross]

3 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

I don't mean to nit-pick. I really don't.  But this will turn into another Other Neighborhood free for all with everything thrown in one forum with little organization to find infill projects, development, and more for specific areas of towns and the suburbs. 
 

 

I don't see anything wrong with fewer, larger forums. Some of us don't use the forums much to search, and it's actually harder to find things when they are split into 300 different sections, and there's the search feature when you need to find something. Since this is a free site, and the ads aren't annoying, maybe we can just live with it as is, and be thankful we have it at all.

 

[Urbannizer]

On 10/5/2019 at 7:52 AM, Ross said:

 

I don't see anything wrong with fewer, larger forums. Some of us don't use the forums much to search, and it's actually harder to find things when they are split into 300 different sections, and there's the search feature when you need to find something. Since this is a free site, and the ads aren't annoying, maybe we can just live with it as is, and be thankful we have it at all.

 

 

I agree with this, no need new sections for every single neighborhood.

[Luminare]

14 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

 

I agree with this, no need new sections for every single neighborhood.

 

In general, yes. However, there should be split offs for areas that we know where there are a lot of developments going on like in Points North should have a section specifically for The Woodlands. Points West should definitely have ones for Katy, Energy Corridor, and Memorial. Other than that grouping smaller neighborhoods or even bigger hoods that haven't taken off yet with a lot of development should be grouped into a larger subforum

 

EDIT: And Uptown. The fact we don't have a dedicated Uptown Subforum by itself is really weird considering all that is happening and how important an area it is.

[mollusk]

45 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

In general, yes. However, there should be split offs for areas that we know where there are a lot of developments going on like in Points North should have a section specifically for The Woodlands. Points West should definitely have ones for Katy, Energy Corridor, and Memorial. Other than that grouping smaller neighborhoods or even bigger hoods that haven't taken off yet with a lot of development should be grouped into a larger subforum

 

EDIT: And Uptown. The fact we don't have a dedicated Uptown Subforum by itself is really weird considering all that is happening and how important an area it is.

 

Piffle.  All those areas are outside the Loop and therefore insignificant. 🙊

[MidCenturyMoldy]

20 hours ago, mollusk said:

 

Piffle.  All those areas are outside the Loop and therefore insignificant. 🙊

 

Doesn't Post Oak Blvd have honorary Inner Loop status?  (not a serious question)

[mollusk]

2 hours ago, MidCenturyMoldy said:

 

Doesn't Post Oak Blvd have honorary Inner Loop status?  (not a serious question)

 

As hard as it can be to walk from one building to another nearby building and as shiny as everything is, nope... it's definitely suburban.  (not a serious answer )

[MidCenturyMoldy]

Shoot! If you're going to use the urban/suburban criteria there won't be anything left but about 5 disparate blocks in Midtown! 😄

[CrockpotandGravel]

On 10/8/2019 at 1:42 AM, Urbannizer said:

 

... no need new sections for every single neighborhood.

To clarify, once more, I never requested or suggested a section or a forum for every neighborhood in Houston and every suburb outside of Houston. That's ridiculous. 

What I suggested were forums for areas of Houston that are  part of the city of Houston. Those forums would include one for southwest Houston, southeast Houston, east Houston, northeast Houston, northwest Houston, etc. All of those areas are (or were not) represented on the forum. Yes, within those areas are numerous neighborhoods,  but the goal is to have a  place to post about developments in those neighborhoods by having a dedicated forum for the side of towns those neighborhoods are located  (i.e. southwest Houston, southeast Houston, northwest Houston and so-on).

The return of the dedicated suburb forums (Pearland area, Sugar Land area, Bay Area, Baytown area, Galveston area, The Woodlands area) would be welcomed and much needed as they were before. With the current change, those suburbs that are not part of Houston include wide swatches of Houston neighborhoods that are not suburbs but are part of the city of Houston in them now. That will cause more disorganization similar to the the forum for "Other Neighborhoods". The goal should be a streamline forum that's organized and easy to locate (or post) content related to specific area of Houston and suburbs

It shouldn't take guesswork to figure out where something should be posted. It should also be easy to look in a forum for a specific suburb area and view posts (or share posts that relate to those areas. Right now, the suburb forums have been dismantled and grouped with neighborhoods in the city of Houston.

These changes would make for a better user experience overall. Among some complaints I come across online and in discussions among friends is the forum is disorganized and it's hard to find projects. Part of this is because there aren't forums for areas of town, dedicated forums for neighborhoods with lots of development, completed or scrapped projects in Going Up that should be moved, and titles don't include names of buildings, projects or the address with the neighborhood included.



 

 

On 10/8/2019 at 4:11 PM, Luminare said:

 

In general, yes. However, there should be split offs for areas that we know where there are a lot of developments going on like in Points North should have a section specifically for The Woodlands. Points West should definitely have ones for Katy, Energy Corridor, and Memorial. Other than that grouping smaller neighborhoods or even bigger hoods that haven't taken off yet with a lot of development should be grouped into a larger subforum

 

EDIT: And Uptown. The fact we don't have a dedicated Uptown Subforum by itself is really weird considering all that is happening and how important an area it is.

This is the exact point I have been making over and over again. In addition to a dedicated forum for southwest Houston, southeast Houston, northeast Houston, and so on, the suburb forums should be reinstated as it was up until the removal several weeks ago.

There should be separate forums for the Pearland area (which do NOT include neighborhoods in southeast Houston), The Woodlands area (which does not include every neighborhood in north Houston), and all the other suburbs listed in my comment above.


Additionally to the city of Houston neighborhood forums (for southwest Houston, southeast Houston, northwest Houston, etc), there should be a forum for area of towns that have lots of infill projects and redevelopments, as Luminare posted and others, including myself have posted.

Those areas would be:
 

• Washington Corridor (would include First Ward, Old Sixth Ward, Rice Military, Washington Ave and all the little neighborhoods in between where much development is happening)
   
• Garden Oaks / Oak Forest (would include Independence Heights, Shepherd Forest, and everything in between)
   
• Memorial (it's currently lumped into the Galleria and Uptown forum, but should be its own forum that would also include Spring Branch and Bunker Hill)
   
• Energy Corridor
   
• Rice Village and West U (would include South Hampton, Boulevard Oaks and all the other nearby neighborhoods)
   
• River Oaks should have its own forum
   
•  Near Northside (would include Lindale Park, Hardy Yards)
   
• Fifth Ward (with East River under development, more development is coming)
   
• Astrodome Area (this isn't part of Texas Medical Center, it's its own area and lots of development is about to take place here)
   

 

All have as many developments and redevelopments as the other dedicated forums. Most of those projects are posted in various forums, but there is no dedicated forum for these active areas.

.