Split: Suggestions to Improve the New YWN Coffee Room

To reply to comment from 6 months ago, does etc. include spam?

How about doing a little proofreading? And making sure videos correspond to articles? Toning down the flashing ads before they cause seizures? Showing less political bias?

Joseph – I think it always shows all the posts that have been posted even if they weren’t moderated yet. So if you post on a thread, even if it wasn’t moderated yet, it will show up in the post thread.

Is that what you are referring to?

I think that I thought you meant that it didn’t used to do that and now it does.

But in any case, I never thought of it as an error. I thought it’s just including all the posts, moderated or not.

I realize now what you meant. I always assumed that it was counting the Thread Title. Which actually makes no sense, but since I just assumed that’s what it was counting, I didn’t think of it as “one extra” and I just assumed it was meant to be that way.

Checking back to the OP’s question. I sincerely think YWN needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and decide if this website is a chareidi yeshiva website or is it going to be a mouthpiece for other brands of Orthodox. I realize that there might be financial considerations regarding sponsors, advertisers, etc. And perhaps even particular ideological inclinations of the site owners. One thing is certain: MO/Dati Leumi folks are likely not too interested in the latest Satmar wedding, Melave Malka by the Rachmastrivska Rebbe, or hespedim that were delivered in Ponevitz Yeshiva a few days ago. On the other hand, chareidi yeshiva types are not eagerly in need of information on the latest group of American kids volunteering for the IDF, or the most recent group of fighter pilots who just graduated their training course in the Israeli Air Force, or the latest marathon conducted in Tel Aviv or even in Jerusalem. The founders of Chareidi media a century ago or so understood that the ultimate purpose of said media (back then it was just newspapers; today of course, there are also websites, video clips, etc.) was to propagate the Chareidi hashkafa as a counterweight to all the other “hashkafos” that were (are!) inundating the Jewish world. It’s really not possible to satisfy everyone and every hashkafa. So, YWN has to decide what it’s identity should be. A Chareidi website that, forgive me but, nearly constantly and consistently criticizes the Chareid tzibur as a tzibur is placing itself in the realm of other English “Orthodox/frum” sites who will remain unnamed (but everyone knows who they are) who feel that pathological Chareidi-bashing is practically a mitzva. I’m not saying that we are above criticism. On the contrary, but a public website is not the place for it. We are a heavily maligned (some say threatened) minority in the Jewish world. At least we should stick up for ourselves. When so much of the “Jewish” world is searching with magnifying glasses to uncover and (very often) exaggerate any and every flaw of ours — real or made-up — the proper response of this website would be to counter their claims by aggrandizing the commitment, sincerity, dedication of the Chareidi world to Torah and mitzvos, to chessed, to kiruv, etc. No one reads YWN to obtain general news, including Zionist news. All that is readily available elsewhere. What is not so common is Torah-true hashkafa that reflects the general Chareidi outlook as espoused by the Gedolei Torah. So many of my acquaintances snicker in derision when I mention the YWN website. I’ll spare you the comments most of them make about “(you’re kidding!) THAT website??!? It’s not even a Chareidi site!” I know from reading so many other comments posted by others that I’m not alone in this sentiment. A minor overhaul of YWN’s editorial positions will go a very long way toward a serious upgrade of the site. And, le’ma’an Hashem, please stop imitating those other “religious” websites with their pathological Chareidi-bashing. As Shlomo HaMelech stated, ??? ??? ????? — a person is what he praises; and reveals his true nature by what he praises.

Hatzlacha rabba!!

P.S. — although it wasn’t planned, I guess a gantze megilla is in the spirit of Purim!

And if this suggestion does not sound worth the time, resources, or expenses to you, then please reevaluate your Moderation team and how much power they have to post without prior YWN company approval.

Are Moderators any less human when given free reign to insert their place and judgements over Posters?

Thank you for your time.

What edit button? It seems to have disappeared althogether!

How long does the edit window stay on for? I haven’t seen it all!

And how do you know when your post goes through so you can edit it?

Now that there are no pages a back to top button at the bottom would be helpful.

Fix the typo in the New Topic page name (Home › Coffeeroom › New Cofeeroom Topic).

I would like to suggest we all get our hard earned (in some cases) subtitles back.

Does “Split” in the thread title mean there has to be a disagreement?

(Awaiting moderation)

People in charge: I really like the fact that it is much easier now to go back to previous threads that aren’t on the first page. Thank you so much for changing that!!

I think I also like the general setup much better as well. I think it’s easier to read the posts now.

Love this new layout!!!!! Thanx so much to all those involved in making this new setup!

I think the various colors of gray are very. The light is too light and almost not visible. What’s the point. Office 2013 “upgraded” so that it removed all background colors and went to three options of gray for background colors, and received numerous complaints. I do not think having “participant” and “reply” in such a light gray is helpful at all.

Also, what is the point of having different topics headers where you could put your thread if there is no way to access those topics apart from the main list of topics. The only way I found to get into questions on shidduchim, for example, was to go into a thread on that topic and then once the topic was on the screen somewhere, to click on that link. Too round about. If there is no direct access, who needs them?

Just to let everyone know (in case you didn’t see my post on another thread):

You can now hit “reply” on the person’s post whom you are commenting on.

I think that this is an important feature for posters to utilize. It should make the conversations much more comprehensible and leave less room for misunderstandings.

I agree that this is a WIP, but if we do not give feedback on what we see, how can anybody know what people like and what not? Since I am not aware of a place to go post my ideas or thoughts on the matter, I thought this thread would get the attention of the mods, who will hopefully forward it onto the web designer who is in charge of all of these changes.

nechomah – no offense taken. I actually have done nothing at all. Well, short of asking for our subtitles back.

Yes, you can put information on your profile page. This last upgrade (or maybe the previous one – I was unable to access profiles in that version) changed the profile pages somewhat. The “Contact Information” fields are probably not publicly visible, while the “About Yourself” section is.

easier than white?

This isn’t a suggestion, but I notice that some unapproved posts are visible (as “awaiting moderation”)
to anyone, but others can only be seen (as “awaiting moderation”) while logged in as that poster.
Why might this be?