I was going to post all of my observations in one post, but it seems better to target specific areas of this here comment section as and when new problems that others have spotted are brought to my attention.
Could the problem of the 'date out of order' or 'take out of normal date flow' checkbox be due to the order in which we are confronted with the publishing options?
Thinking about the variety of option combinations here really starts to blow ones mind. The first thing that jumps out at me is whether a post scheduled to be published in the future, but with a custom date set in the past, and set to recur every week from it's publishing date... will have it's custom past date also advance by a week consecutively every time it is published?
I think that's just a funny little thought experiment.
Basically, i think the Scheduled Publishing Time should be the first option you come across vertically. It's option 'When Posted' could be called 'Now'. This will remove the need for this 'update publishing time' option. Unless there's a specific call for posts to be timestamped when you begin writing them, rather than when you finish writing them? There could be three options here if this is the case.
Next you should see the Displayed Entry Time option. Now it's sub-option 'same as publishing time' makes more sense. If this is selected, you don't need the confusing 'date out of order' option to be displayed, as it is null invoid.
Selecting the sub-option 'custom' will then also display the 'date out of order' option. But i think something a little tricky programming wise, here, could go a long way.
- If i'm right in thinking that the default option is to have the entry become readable when it is published, then when the option appears it should be ticked and can say something like 'Broadcast when published'. Unchecking the box will opt-out of this, or, in other words, will file the entry in date order, and not when it is published.
- The 'complex' programming bit is basically the idea that choosing either 'Broadcast when published' or 'Archive in date order' (or what have you) will change the text of the option to reflect the option chosen. Obviously this can't be done with a straight check box, as the user will never know what option they are checking or unchecking. Unless there are of course two check boxes? LoL... sorry, i've spent about an hour reading up on javascript's capabilities and seeing if anyone had managed to do what can be done much more easily with two checkboxes. So it's not too complex at all.
I hope that was easy to follow. I can try to summarize if you'd like?
no subject
Could the problem of the 'date out of order' or 'take out of normal date flow' checkbox be due to the order in which we are confronted with the publishing options?
Thinking about the variety of option combinations here really starts to blow ones mind. The first thing that jumps out at me is whether a post scheduled to be published in the future, but with a custom date set in the past, and set to recur every week from it's publishing date... will have it's custom past date also advance by a week consecutively every time it is published?
I think that's just a funny little thought experiment.
Basically, i think the Scheduled Publishing Time should be the first option you come across vertically. It's option 'When Posted' could be called 'Now'. This will remove the need for this 'update publishing time' option. Unless there's a specific call for posts to be timestamped when you begin writing them, rather than when you finish writing them? There could be three options here if this is the case.
Next you should see the Displayed Entry Time option. Now it's sub-option 'same as publishing time' makes more sense. If this is selected, you don't need the confusing 'date out of order' option to be displayed, as it is null invoid.
Selecting the sub-option 'custom' will then also display the 'date out of order' option. But i think something a little tricky programming wise, here, could go a long way.
- If i'm right in thinking that the default option is to have the entry become readable when it is published, then when the option appears it should be ticked and can say something like 'Broadcast when published'. Unchecking the box will opt-out of this, or, in other words, will file the entry in date order, and not when it is published.
- The 'complex' programming bit is basically the idea that choosing either 'Broadcast when published' or 'Archive in date order' (or what have you) will change the text of the option to reflect the option chosen. Obviously this can't be done with a straight check box, as the user will never know what option they are checking or unchecking. Unless there are of course two check boxes? LoL... sorry, i've spent about an hour reading up on javascript's capabilities and seeing if anyone had managed to do what can be done much more easily with two checkboxes. So it's not too complex at all.
I hope that was easy to follow. I can try to summarize if you'd like?