Why the NodeBB composer holds users back
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Hi all,
from discussions in another, competing forum running a different software it has become clear that the composer editor is a real barrier: users there explicitly say they will not switch to our NodeBB forum because even simple actions like inserting a link feel too complicated in the current composer, especially on mobile devices.
There is also a steep learning curve for new users, as many people (especially older users) are not familiar with Markdown and struggle with basic tasks such as formatting text. Even simple actions can be frustrating. For example, having to scroll horizontally to find certain buttons or functions that are hidden for the time being. Any evaluation of the composer should include its accessibility challenges.
I genuinely hope this will be addressed in the future, as improving the composer would remove one of the biggest obstacles preventing more users from adopting NodeBB.
Thank you and best regards
David -
Hi all,
from discussions in another, competing forum running a different software it has become clear that the composer editor is a real barrier: users there explicitly say they will not switch to our NodeBB forum because even simple actions like inserting a link feel too complicated in the current composer, especially on mobile devices.
There is also a steep learning curve for new users, as many people (especially older users) are not familiar with Markdown and struggle with basic tasks such as formatting text. Even simple actions can be frustrating. For example, having to scroll horizontally to find certain buttons or functions that are hidden for the time being. Any evaluation of the composer should include its accessibility challenges.
I genuinely hope this will be addressed in the future, as improving the composer would remove one of the biggest obstacles preventing more users from adopting NodeBB.
Thank you and best regards
Daviddave1904 There is a WYSIWYG composer. You just need to install/enable it as a plugin. It doesn't play nicely with Lemmy, though (nor Mastodon, IIRC), so it's not a great option if you're interested in federation.
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dave1904 There is a WYSIWYG composer. You just need to install/enable it as a plugin. It doesn't play nicely with Lemmy, though (nor Mastodon, IIRC), so it's not a great option if you're interested in federation.
Kichae Changing to the WYSIWYG composer breaks all the posts created with the original composer afaik, which are ~50k in my forum.
That aside, I think the editor out of the box shouldn’t only be usable for technically experienced people, but should be immediately understandable for everyone. One small example: when clicking link, the composer currently produces
[link text](https://community.nodebb.org/link%20url)On mobile devices in particular, this is so cumbersome that some users find it nearly unusable. An alternative could be a simple dialog with separate fields for link text and URL. This is just one illustration. There are certainly other small changes of this kind that could make the composer significantly more approachable for casual users.
The fewer barriers there are, the more people will actually use it and the editor is a key element of any forum software.
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Kichae Changing to the WYSIWYG composer breaks all the posts created with the original composer afaik, which are ~50k in my forum.
That aside, I think the editor out of the box shouldn’t only be usable for technically experienced people, but should be immediately understandable for everyone. One small example: when clicking link, the composer currently produces
[link text](https://community.nodebb.org/link%20url)On mobile devices in particular, this is so cumbersome that some users find it nearly unusable. An alternative could be a simple dialog with separate fields for link text and URL. This is just one illustration. There are certainly other small changes of this kind that could make the composer significantly more approachable for casual users.
The fewer barriers there are, the more people will actually use it and the editor is a key element of any forum software.
dave1904 said in Why the NodeBB composer holds users back:
> On mobile devices in particular, this is so cumbersome that some users find it nearly unusable. An alternative could be a simple dialog with separate fields for link text and URL.That's actually quite a good workaround. It would probably be a good idea for us to implement this in the default composer.
