Creating 'Numeric list' is not quite clear

[a cooperator]

Hi,

I have noticed while selecting 'Numeric list', another popup window was listed to me asking me to enter 'starting number', then when typing in '1', this in screen shot below was typed to me

However, since I need to have numeric list from 1 to 5. So, I had to manully write five times of the three characters shown in the screen shot below after what is in this 'screen shot above' to get numeric list of 1, 2., 3, 4, 5 (as shown below).

So, how could a user know that he should type five times of the three characters of what is shown in the screen shot below after what is in screen shot above to get that numeric list?

■ Battery (Replace with HP Spare 593554-001, CT: 6BUDL07BBDD3E9)

■Cooling Fan/CPU fan/heatsink (For use only with computer models equipped with a graphics subsystem with 1024-MB discrete memory 641477-001)

■Samsung 850 Pro 256GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7KE256BW)

■HP-Compaq 665329-001 SATA Blu-ray BD-R/RE Drive

■DVD+RW Discs OR any DVD-RW if the DVD+RW was not available.

 

[Titillating]

I believe that format is pretty standard as far as BBcode goes, with some slight differences. I agree that it could be presented in a more user-friendly manner though. Will pass that along to the development team to see if they can make it happen

 

[a cooperator]

I believe that format is pretty standard as far as BBcode goes, with some slight differences. I agree that it could be presented in a more user-friendly manner though. Will pass that along to the development team to see if they can make it happen

Thanks a lot,
I completely disagree with that format is pretty standard. Or otherwise, to get a numeric list of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I had to not type five times of those three characters shown in my second screen shot in between the two characters inserted after selecting ' numeric list' option shown in the first screen shot posted before. How could a user know that he should type five times of the three characters of what is shown in the second screen shot posted before in between what is in first screen shot to get that numeric list?

Inserting numeric list is completely confused and needs to be cleared

Will pass that along to the development team to see if they can make it happen

You need me to pass this the development team.......?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Thanks a lot,
I completely disagree with that format is pretty standard. Or otherwise, to get a numeric list of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I had to not type five times of those three characters shown in my second screen shot in between the two characters inserted after selecting ' numeric list' option shown in the first screen shot posted before. How could a user know that he should type five times of the three characters of what is shown in the second screen shot posted before in between what is in first screen shot to get that numeric list?

He's saying that it's normal for BBCode. That doesn't mean that it's easy to use, but if the user is used to other BBCode sites, they can type it out from memory.

Will pass that along to the development team to see if they can make it happen

You need me to pass this the development team.......?

He's saying that he will ask the development team to investigate changing it. You don't need to do anything.

 

[randomizer]

We need markdown support

 

[ssddx]

this is standard for bbcode. how to create numbered lists should likely be placed in http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2083458/read-forum-rules-styling-posts.html however to avoid confusion.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I don't know; numbered lists aren't hugely common, plus it's pretty easy to make a fake list simply by typing out numbers. Not sure that I'd bother publicising it that much.

 

[a cooperator]

We need markdown support

Thanks a lot,
What markdown support would you need?

 

[randomizer]

I'm not sure what you mean. You either have it or you don't, and we don't (nor does any forum that I'm aware of).

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I'm pretty sure Markdown is the name of the Reddit equivalent of BBCode. For the most part, I prefer BBCode.

 

[a cooperator]

I'm not sure what you mean. You either have it or you don't, and we don't (nor does any forum that I'm aware of).

Thanks a lot,
I have meant nothing, however, I have been surprised at what you said 'We need markdown support"

 

[randomizer]

I'm pretty sure Markdown is the name of the Reddit equivalent of BBCode. For the most part, I prefer BBCode.

I don't consider Reddit a forum

BBCode is more consistent than Markdown in that all formatting is done by surrounding text in tags (with the exception of bullets where only an opening tag is used). Markdown is more terse and doesn't pollute your post with lots of syntax noise, but the lack of consistency means that in many cases it's less likely that you'll be able to guess the syntax if you don't already know it. Once you do know the syntax, the higher SNR will make it easier to read than the equivalent BBCode-filled content. In fact it's arguably easier to read even if you don't know the syntax for the simple reason that the content isn't as obscured.

Markdown is more widely supported outside of forums too, though that's only a secondary benefit.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I was saying that I thought Reddit was where Markdown came from - apparently not. Probably one of the bigger users, though.

Markdown requires you to escape stuff and watch formatting (asterisks, leave gaps between lines etc.), whereas with BBCode what you see is what you get if you don't add tags.

 

[randomizer]

In theory, yes, but in practice you rarely put asterisks adjacent to words anyway. A workaround would be to have Markdown optional and have a checkbox to toggle parsing, though I'd want a way to specify a default for my profile as well. BBCode is definitely more explicit so it avoids this problem for the most part, but it does come at a cost.

It's unlikely we'll ever get a Markdown parser anyway, so it doesn't really matter that much.

EDIT: Should have proof read after rearranging everything.

 

[a cooperator]

I am only just surprised ErVivek selected this answer as the solution December 3, 2015 12:36:13 AM . However, this thread of mine, I am expected that I am the only one who can select an answer as a solution?

 

[ssddx]

ervivek is one of the minions responsible for closing out old threads which is why you got a notice.

anyone with 5 ba's or more can change/set a best answer not just the thread creator, however we moderate it so that the thread creator has every opportunity to first select one of their own.

 

[a cooperator]

ervivek is one of the minions responsible for closing out old threads which is why you got a notice.

anyone with 5 ba's or more can change/set a best answer not just the thread creator, however we moderate it so that the thread creator has every opportunity to first select one of their own.

Thanks a lot for your clarification.
However, I cannot change a best answer I which I selected/ set as best answer, although I am the thread creator.

 

[ssddx]

that is a known bug that has been brought up before. we are aware of it.

currently the only people who can remove or change ba's are people with 5 ba's to their name (you have zero) or moderators.

for now your best option is to have someone remove the ba for you. there is a thread for that http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2058366/remove-solution.html#17046289 that people have been posting in or you can pm any mod as they can do it for you. ANY member with more than 5 ba's can do it for you although most people are more comfortable asking us or in a thread than asking random users.

 

[a cooperator]

that is a known bug that has been brought up before. we are aware of it.

currently the only people who can remove or change ba's are people with 5 ba's to their name (you have zero) or moderators.

for now your best option is to have someone remove the ba for you. there is a thread for that http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2058366/remove-solution.html#17046289 that people have been posting in or you can pm any mod as they can do it for you. ANY member with more than 5 ba's can do it for you although most people are more comfortable asking us or in a thread than asking random users.

Thanks a lot,
I have only a minor question here which is what is meant with 5 ba's'? I really didn't see any thing in front of your name. Do you mean with ('5 ba's) with Expertise badges?

 

[ssddx]

hover your mouse over a users profile picture, or click their name to go to their profile. best answers will show up as "best answers" or "solutions" depending on which page you're viewing it on.

as far as why 5 best answers was set as the requirement, i have no clue and can only guess it is to eliminate trolling. quite frankly giving users the ability ends up being more trouble than it is worth in some cases anyways.

expertise badges are what you get once you get X number of best answers awarded for a certain category (posts with matching tags).

 

[buddhaseeking]

I became a new member today. While posting my first message in the forum, i came across the difficulty of using a numbered lists. Upon search, i found this thread because there was no mention of this in F.A.Q or other sticky threads that discuss usage of forum. I have used numerous forums, and pretty much all have an easy to use way of typing in numbered lists. Here i could not figure out how to properly use the [/listNum] that come up, in order to get a numbering of my list. My first message had to be posted without list numbers, because of this. So, i have two suggestions, as a technical person : First is to update the help pages to reflect an article on how to use [/listNum]. The second is the suggestion to incorporate support for **markdown** usage, so that people who know HTML can use the MD system. Please pass on my suggestions to developers of this site.

 

[a cooperator]

I became a new member today. While posting my first message in the forum, i came across the difficulty of using a numbered lists. Upon search, i found this thread because there was no mention of this in F.A.Q or other sticky threads that discuss usage of forum. I have used numerous forums, and pretty much all have an easy to use way of typing in numbered lists. Here i could not figure out how to properly use the that come up, in order to get a numbering of my list. My first message had to be posted without list numbers, because of this. So, i have two suggestions, as a technical person : First is to update the help pages to reflect an article on how to use . The second is the suggestion to incorporate support for **markdown** usage, so that people who know HTML can use the MD system. Please pass on my suggestions to developers of this site.

Your're much welcome as a new member in this forum, buddhaseeking
Although I am NOT an advanced member here, but IMHO, you can use numeric list as follows:
After clicking on the numeric list, you would be asking to write the 'start number' of first numeric list, and you should write list items in between numerical codes the [/listNum] and the [/listNum]. But, bear in mind, there are no numbers shown in the numeric list, which may confuse some users.

A
B
C

If that numeric list might not confuse some users, the numeric list should be:
1. A
2. B
3. C

 

[buddhaseeking]

OK, i am testing your suggestion......
To see if i understand it.
No numbers are seen while typing, but i am inserting linebreak for 3 lines.
This 4th line is a long line being typed without any line breaks, but this is going to span atleast couple of lines in the window i get for typing in the message. So, i should see these two lines as one line item in the list now. This is odd, to see it while i type it, because there is no line numbers to distinguish one line item from another, as i am typing this.

 

[buddhaseeking]

Well, that did not work !!!! But, while typing up that previous message, i did click once on the numbered list icon, and got the [listnum] section to type in my list items. Let me try again, to see if this succeeds, now that i have a paragraph at top.

Line item one
second line
third line after two line breaks, nothing else done other than clicking once on the list icon.

 

[buddhaseeking]

Am i supposed to manually type in numbers inside the line item section ? This is totally confusing to a beginner, and they should write it up in a help section answer, because not everyone is well versed with HTML or markup language.