Private Messages Contacts Popup is way too invisible
 

Taken from this thread:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...hanced-greatly

Quote:
Contacts Popup
This popup is hidden inside the Quick Links menu. And that is indeed one if the problems. ;) : It's too hidden. I can tell you that most of my members are NOT aware of this Contacts Popup. When they compose a PM* most will not realize they can actually go to Quick Links and open this Contacts Popup and PM their Contacts this way. I didn't realize for years myself. Why? Because like more USER-oriented stuff in vBulletin it is simply not intuïtive enough. Intuïtive is NOT putting such a Contact List inside a Quick Links menu* outside of the PM system. Obviously* I would say. When you need a Contact List when composing a PM* the software should provide a button (for opening this List) exactly there were it is needed. Context-sensitivity is something that I miss in vBulletin.

Okay* so vB does provide a list where you can track the online status of only your Contacts. Problem 1 is described above : it's too hidden. vBulletin has become a Social Networking platform with the release of vB 3.7. Obviously the online pressence of your Friends is KEY information on a SN-platform. Essential things like this should not be hidden inside some kind of menu...

Problem 2 is that the list contains all of your Contacts. vBulletin provided the (again: often confusing) concept of Friends and Contacts. So why is this combined concept not visible inside the Contacts Popup? Most people will be interested in the online pressence of their Friends as opposed to their Contacts.

Problem 3 is that the list opens up inside a separate popup-window. If you have more browserwindows open* it can dissapear behind those. It also refreshes automatically after some timewith a soundclick (!) on my Windows IE 7. The soundclick is irritating and the fact that the window complete dissapears behind all the other stuff you are working on makes it not that usefull for me and my members. For example : you don't know if a Contact of yours logs in* because the Popup window is somewhere on your desktop* hidden...


Bottom line: When you need a Contact List when composing a PM* the software should provide a button (for opening this List) exactly there were it is needed. Context-sensitivity is something that I miss in vBulletin.

Bug reported in the hope that this will be solved once and for all: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/proje...?issueid=34240