Venia Silente
Inspectious. Good for napping.
- 1,301
- Posts
- 16
- Years
- on the second floor's nest
- Seen Apr 29, 2025
Background: I'm (when I can) a fanfiction writer, so my posts can get kinda long.
When I want to do a quick reply (that is, using the post box in the same thread view instead of switching to a different page that uses the full editor), the forum gives us two options regarding textbox (<textarea>) size:
* Automatically expand
* Not automatically expand → fixed size
(See: image)
![[PokeCommunity.com] [Accessibility] RFE on Quick Reply texbox usage](https://imgur.com/bgy0uO2l.png "[PokeCommunity.com] [Accessibility] RFE on Quick Reply texbox usage")
As a result of this, using the enabled option is inviable when posting anything long, as the textarea expands beyond the browser's viewport, requiring to navigate scroll the entire browser to work on the content one is posting. This is particularly flow-breaking when one is using the same reply textbox that is already in the view of the thread instead of using the separate reply page.
Similarly, disabling the option is inviable, as beyond a certain size (which seems to be very short by default, three lines or so) you are forced to scroll, and because the already small size of the box the scrollbar is not at all useful to actually navigate the textbox.
I can see two ways (not mutually exclusive) to enhance the experience:
a) I notice in the site CSS that the quick reply box has the following CSS when the autoresize option is disabled, that can be changed as follows:
The change allows the browser to resize the textarea and present a handle for the user to manage the resizing. Since all this is done browser-side, no extra coding of any kind is required.
1) The quick reply box also adds a "use full editor" button; however since this is a button its accessibility is limited, as it takes you out of the thread you are examining. Could the "use full editor" option also be offered as a link, so that users can eg.: middle-click to open the reply page in a new tab while preserving the tab view they have of the thread?
EDIT: May I also point out this severely affects the "edit post" functionality as well? I'm editing this post and I can only see like, two lines at a time despite the view area of the post itself being much larger (image)
When I want to do a quick reply (that is, using the post box in the same thread view instead of switching to a different page that uses the full editor), the forum gives us two options regarding textbox (<textarea>) size:
* Automatically expand
* Not automatically expand → fixed size
(See: image)
As a result of this, using the enabled option is inviable when posting anything long, as the textarea expands beyond the browser's viewport, requiring to navigate scroll the entire browser to work on the content one is posting. This is particularly flow-breaking when one is using the same reply textbox that is already in the view of the thread instead of using the separate reply page.
Similarly, disabling the option is inviable, as beyond a certain size (which seems to be very short by default, three lines or so) you are forced to scroll, and because the already small size of the box the scrollbar is not at all useful to actually navigate the textbox.
I can see two ways (not mutually exclusive) to enhance the experience:
a) I notice in the site CSS that the quick reply box has the following CSS when the autoresize option is disabled, that can be changed as follows:
Code:
resize: none; /* from */
resize: vertical; /* to */The change allows the browser to resize the textarea and present a handle for the user to manage the resizing. Since all this is done browser-side, no extra coding of any kind is required.
1) The quick reply box also adds a "use full editor" button; however since this is a button its accessibility is limited, as it takes you out of the thread you are examining. Could the "use full editor" option also be offered as a link, so that users can eg.: middle-click to open the reply page in a new tab while preserving the tab view they have of the thread?
EDIT: May I also point out this severely affects the "edit post" functionality as well? I'm editing this post and I can only see like, two lines at a time despite the view area of the post itself being much larger (image)
Last edited: