Media Comment Windows Steals Focus

[RonaldHarvey]

I hate hate hate when you open "Record/upload media comment" it steals the browser focus so you can no longer scroll through the document you are leaving a media comment, which makes it totally useless. I always end up opening the doc I'm commenting on in a separate window/tab so I can scroll though it.  It works, but it is a pain.

Come on, Canvas - does anyone who actually teaches and grades actually use or test the software?

[greydon · Accepted solution]

Hello @RonaldHarvey 

It's a specific thing that record/upload media does unfortunately. The pop up essentially blocks you from viewing and scrolling the window behind as you are aware. It doesn't look like there's anything on the Canvas Roadmap for changing that as of now.

I highly suggest checking out the ideas and themes page as it has been reformatted to get real improvements from users and suggestions like this. Engineers are already implementing ideas that have been suggested:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas-and-Themes/ct-p/canvas-ideas-themes?tab=identified

[RonaldHarvey]

I just tried to request this and got down to the bottom of the page but this IDIOTIC website won't allow me to submit even after the "I'm not a robot" and I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. 

Truly, we are living in the Dark Ages of Computing.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @RonaldHarvey ...

This is just a guess, but I wonder if your inability to submit your idea had to do with how new of a Community member you are?  I noticed that you joined the Community on April 8, 2024.  Everyone starts out as a "Novice", but you can do some pretty easy things here to "rank up" (similar to leveling up in video games) so that you can do more things such as" submitting new ideas.  You are now a Community Member, so that should allow you to submit a new idea.

How do I rank up in the Instructure Community? - Instructure Community - 522020 (canvaslms.com)

You may be wondering why people can't submit new ideas right away when they first join.  Using this "Ranking Up" system, "This helps keep the community free from spam content and ensures a safe and productive environment for all members.

I'd encourage you to try submitting your idea again.  And, if you continue to experience difficulties, let us know in this thread, and we can reach out to the Community team at Instructure to try and get this resolved for you.

[RonaldHarvey]

Thank you for this "possible" explanation of why I can't suggest a feature (we actually do not know what is gong on).

Unfortunately, I just tried again to suggest this feature, and the website exhibited the same behavior and will not let me submit. So I will give up.

What is most annoying that, while I hate the behavior of Canvas I am trying to suggest to improve, I hate even more being stuck like this. I hate that we don't actually know what the real reason is I can't suggest a feature, I hate that I do not get a warning beforehand that I can't suggest a feature (for whatever reason), and now, I hate that the best (least annoying) solution is to just give up because who knows when I will EVER be able to suggest this feature because the website obscures this.

For a product that depends so heavily on user interactions and feedback for debugging its own products that we pay for, this is Very Bad.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @RonaldHarvey ...

Please don't give up.  What I will do is pass along your messages here to Community Managers who can look deeper into your account to see what might be going on.  I am hoping that they will be able to respond or help get this fixed for you very soon.  Keep watch!

[nathanatkinson]

Hi @RonaldHarvey, first I'd like to sincerely apologize for the issue you had when trying to submit a feature idea through our submission process. We all use and rely on a lot of technology every day and it can be rage-inducing when it doesn't work. I'm the Community administrator and take pride in having a Community that runs smoothly that supports millions of users, including the idea submission process, which users rely on as one method to provide feedback to our product teams.

The issue you encountered was an unfortunate bug introduced with an update late last week from to the platform behind this Community site (we use a 3rd party Community platform to host this site). The bug was blocking some scripts from loading in a few places in the Community, and the idea submission form was one of those areas impacted. We weren't aware of this issue until you brought it to our attention today (the update was released before our long holiday weekend).

I've identified the issue and fixed the impacted areas and we have plans in place to make sure something like this hopefully won't happen again (but hey, we're human and make mistakes and can't catch every possible issue that may arise). 

Please don't give up. Your ideas and feedback are important to Instructure. If you'd like to submit again, I can guarantee the form will work this time for you and you can successfully submit your idea.