Expanded Voice Post Usefulness
Title
Expanded Voice Post Usefulness
Short, concise description of the idea
Voice Posts are fun, but their implementation is a little wobbly on the Web site end of the transaction. A few small changes could work wonders.
Full description of the idea
The "non-duplicate" suggestions:
Voice posters should be allowed more than 4,096 characters for their transcriptions (see FAQ #183). It's entirely possible to fit more than 4,096 charactes worth of talking into five minutes of recording time. If this suggestion is rejected, then at least provide the actual number of characters on the error page, along with the difference, so a transcriptionist knows how many he should be looking to cut. It wouldn't be a bad idea to remind people, on the transcription page itself, that they are limited. Better just to increase the allowed length of transcriptions.
(Aside: Speaking of recording time, the FAQ referenced above should be updated, because the system doesn't cut you off after five minutes (like the FAQ implies). I don't know when (or if) it cuts you off, but my last post was almost six minutes and I posted it with no trouble.)
The presentation of voice posts in a journal should be more flexible. Right now, it makes a semi-ugly that can't be edited or reworked. It would be nice to have some control over this.
When playing back a voice post with the in-line Flash player, clicking the button should put the post on pause, rather than stopping it altogether. If you must, have two controls, but it's inconvenient to switch windows when transcribing a post just because I need to put it on hold while I catch up.
An ordered list of benefits
- More flexibility and usefulness in posting by voice.
- More control over presentation of voice posts.
- Happier customers!
An ordered list of problems/issues involved
- Maybe the voice posting isn't popular, so the developers won't think this is an important enough suggestion to implement.
An organized list, or a few short paragraphs detailing suggestions for implementation
- Making the transcriptions editable, longer, and more presentable seems like a no-brainer to me, especially since editing and parsing of comments and posts is already handled. Maybe code re-usage is the way to go.