The odds are, this is completely undoable. I need to ask, though.

Skritter is growing ever more complex. This isn't the same software I started with. That is cool. The Skritter gods keep adding new features. However, as I stated in a different thread, the needs of a beginner and an advanced student are drastically different. The needs of a person cramming for a test and the person who is slowly learning some Chinese for fun are also very different. As you all keep adding features, the software is able to provide the vast majority of what we need. The problem is we all only want some parts. It seems like every 5th thread now a Skritter God is saying, "Yah that is a good idea, but we are trying to keep the interface less cluttered." My question, can you just make it so we can customize our own interface?

Right now, every feature we turn on has a specific slot. If we turn it off, the slot is blank. Is there some way that we could make the slots just generic slots? For example, go to a customization screen, DEFINITELY only for advanced users, and say, where custom sentences are now, I want to put sample words instead. I don't use mnemonics so get rid of that and put "blank" in its place.

The reason why I ask is that I recently posted my ideal Skritter. This is something that isn't suitable to a beginner. However, every feature it requires is already present, save one, in Skritter. We have example words. I can manually turn off the writing prompts on my words. (That wouldn't be that time consuming even.) I could then add a 4000 most common character list. I would just manually turn off all of the prompts except writing on each new character. Skritter can do everything I need to make my ideal Skritter right now.

Everything except for one thing. I can't put sample words on my practice page. They are hidden away in an annoying sub-menu. What I propose, if it can even be coded, is a "classic Skritter" as your default practice page. In essence, this is what we all see now. However, as you become more and more familiar with the website, you could go and manually customize the interface. Whether we like it or not, this website is going to continue to become more and more complicated. Unless, of course, the Skritter gods simply say, "Enough is enough. No more new features."

What I am proposing, if it is even possible, is a sort of pressure release valve. The complicated undercurrent would be there, but it would be hidden away from the casual user. After using the system for several months, the user could gradually customize it to be their "ideal Skritter." Users are used to the idea of customizing their task bars and other features. I don't think this would be an overwhelming step. If anything, I think it could stop a lot of fights and free up Skritter to be both as simple and as complex as we want.

(I still long for an edit post button.)

If I wasn't clear in my first post, my questions are:

1)Is it doable?

2)What do others think?

Sounds good to me.

Would be great to have different views storable. I often use my netbook in an internet café. At home I have a big 24" screen with plenty screen real estate.
On the netbook the pop-up might be great, on the netbook the reduced classic view is perfect.

What speaks against it is the careful design of all elements that make Skritter so great and "mostly" smooth to use. If you add the degree of customizability it might be harder to assure this.

On the netbook the pop-up might be great as well as the reduced classic view. Rearranging everything on the big screen might be advantageous.

I second the edit feature for posts :-)

I frequently have this thought as well. Then it's beaten into submission by the following leather-jacketed gang of thoughts:
- The code for that would be tough to get right
- Instead of just twenty configurations to debug and support, there'd be thousands
- It's hard enough to understand what all our current options do, even for power users
- It takes away our great excuses for pulling little-used features, which are necessary for keeping the code flexible (but users do not see this)
- Apart from the options we already have, most of the defaults are what most users want, without having to think about them
- We spend a long, long time fitting everything together nicely in the prompt on the practice page, but to do that we must rely on assumptions on what is and isn't there, without which we couldn't do anything nearly so nice
- Users almost always ask for stuff that isn't even that important to them, and it's hard to tell

Users who can write code can sometimes prove me wrong on this last point in this case by hooking up a quick Chrome extension or some custom CSS to implement the feature that they are looking for. When PlutonB did that with his Heisig Helper plugin, and a bunch of other users wanted to use it, it convinced us to do a lot of work and get Heisig keywords in there deeply.

If a customization is really useful, most users will want it. If it's not, then it's not worth it for us to make it. Adding up a bunch of customizations that aren't worth it doesn't save this brave idea from the gang.

Nick - Well, reasons 1,2, and 4 are very good reasons not to do it. Number 7 is kind of an odd one that I don't quite know what to make of. The rest of the reasons don't sit as well with me, but that doesn't matter. You more than made your case with 1,2, and 4.

I knew it was a long shot. Thanks for the reply.

Also, I just now bothered to read the Dec. 1 blog. I own nothing made by Apple, so I didn't even bother to read it until now. That is a much more important coding project than this. I wish you luck.

@ west316, you said you can almost make your ideal Skritter now, did you manage to turn writing off for words, and keep it on for characters? If so, I want to know how!

Not every member of a gang is tough; that's why they have to be in gangs, to avoid having to stand on their own merits.

@Nick - haha. Well put. Can I put in a small separate request, then? Any chance we can sneak the example words up onto the main practice area with an underscore place holder for the character to be written? I get the impression a lot of other people like that feature and it is languishing away hidden in a sub menu where it is not convenient. I REALLY want to use that as my writing prompt for character only studies.... 求求您！

@YouJing - It takes a little time, but seeing as my previous job was data entry, I don't mind that. First, pull up your practice page, the screen you write the characters at. You can do this for or at any type of prompt. You click the magnifying glass icon. There you will see what you have turned on and off. So, for example, I have writing, tones, and definitions all set to where I see a read minus icon. That means they are turned on. If I hit that red minus icon, it turns them off. I just click the icon for writing and it turns off writing FOR THAT WORD. Every time a word comes up, I would just click that. That would slowly but surely get rid of my writing prompts for the words. Since some of my words have writing prompts that are years out, it be a while before I get them all turned off, but I suspect the conversion would go rather quickly.

From there, you would simply turn on add characters when studying words, in your preferences section, and then stop adding new words for a bit while you work through a list like:
http://www.skritter.com/vocab/list?list=agVza3JpdHIWCxINVm9jYWJMaXN0SW5mbxiChJgGDA
If you check the custom lists, there is a tag for character lists. They have character lists for the most common characters from 500-4500. Oddly enough, they have no 1-500. IF the Skritter gods grant my wish for the two modifications to sample words I just asked for, That would defacto create my ideal Skritter.

Oh, sample words is an alpha feature I believe. If they move sample words, you would need to turn on Alpha Features to see it. That is also in your preferences section.

（Really long for an edit post feature)

I just found a list that contains the 1-500 most common characters. I was incorrect earlier.

@west316 there are quite a few "most common" lists:
http://www.skritter.com/vocab/tags?tag=most%20common

@ west316, You did it manually, that's crazy.

@ nick, How hard would it be to make a distinction for separate characters and words when you select what you want to study? That way you could choose to not study writing for words but keep writing characters.

I don't know what I want. I do know, however, what I don't want. I'm a fickle user. It's hard to foretell the future when it comes to features.