Yikes, I’ve had a slew of issues w Discord.
(1) Uploads/attachments
This comes first because it affects the others. Unable to upload videos. That is huge. The easiest way to show bugs, and, crucially, the steps preceding the bug, is via a video. The inability to do so means either the dev doesn’t have enough info, or the reporter has the burden of having to type out the issue instead which, aside from being likely inaccurate, increases the ‘cost’ to the reporter and makes them less likely to report issues. That is a definite requirement for bug reporting.
Note: I realize that the platform is not intended to be solely about reporting issues, requesting features, etc, but, imo, discord feels a bit ill-suited given its chat focus. It’s early days, but we’ll see?
(2) Link-handling
So, I’d love to post a video here but I can’t conveniently do so. The issue is that, tapping on links and buttons in the mobile browser, attempt to open in the app making the site completely unusable except as read-only, and even then, the issue still sometimes comes up. It’s possible this issue is specific to me and that, at some point, I set the playerfm app to intercept all links w the “player.fm” domain. If that’s not the case, however, this is a very big issue and should be corrected to be more specific.
Note: If someone reading this has the same issue: Go to your phone settings > apps > playerfm > “open by default”. From there, ensure it’s set to “ask every time” and then clear the defaults.
(3) Account linked to playerfm account vs Standalone
Arguably there are benefits to the login being tied to your playerfm login (same username might help for debugging? Credentials are easier to remember for users). However, in practice, this was very clunky for me and I may actually have created a second playerfm account instead? Again, clunky.
Bonus: At one point, I was redirected, for a second time, to the playerfm user settings page to enter an email address, however, the page is the classic modern style where date entered is automatically applied once the input loses focus as opposed to using a ‘submit’ or ‘apply’ button. In some cases this is a good thing, but in many cases, including this one, it is poor UX as the user has no indication of what is happening. After entering the email address, there is no button to submit, and even scrolling up and down the page doesn’t help, the user needs to know to tap on the whitespace in the page so that the text is pushed to the server. That’s not good UX.
(4) Rich text
I know I can use asterisks and markup/down but it’s far more user friendly to be able to toggle a toolbar for some items. I’m 90% sure the other discord server I was a part of it had this so I’d like to see it here to allow for rambly posts like mine to have more semblance of structure. It’s also useful for posts such as the main pinned post and the pinned FAQ post that need emphasis to call attention to a link, headers, etc. The ‘welcome’ post also should be fleshed out a bit with some information that would be helpful to people, but have more to do with the forum than the app itself (ie not the same as the FAQ) eg:
- how to do basic things when posting
- how to send logs in playerfm
- how to add a link to the discord forum to your homescreen
Bonus: I don’t know how many others will care enough
to install the discord app but I thought I’d try it. However, I’m stuck because I’m unsure how to login / connect my playerfm-discord account… Is it because it’s self-hosted? Is it because it’s using my playerfm account (vs a discord account)? Am I missing something obvious?
(5) UI issues (Categories view)
Thankfully category view is not the default, but that view is no bueno. It’s worth noting that at some point in the sign up process the user was directed to it so it’s not like users never see it. Specific issues include the fact that the main ‘welcome’ pinned post is in a category at the bottom of the page (thereby defeating the point of having it pinned).
Bonus: Is there a reason ‘announcements’ is not it’s own section? Some people care about official announcements but don’t want to get bogged down by posts and comments such as this one.
(6) UI issues (Recent view)
The recent posts view is also problematic but to a much lesser extent, problematic. Right now, it’s a sea of bright 'C’s on mobile because of @Czar’s avatar. Avatars are great and all but I think the bright column of letters and distracts from what matters (the issue title) and takes away more than it adds. It would be one thing if, like in G+, it was smaller and reflected who wrote the post, but as it stands, it’s huge and reflects the last comment (inevitably one of a handful of people).
Bonus: If the view can be configured to show the first bit of the post that would help making the posts more useful as well. As well as having some way to call out admin posts in ‘recent’ view. If there’s no way (aside from pinning) then perhaps you could use something as simple as prefixing the title of official posts with a specific emoji (eg a star).