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There are times that it's really nice to know that the specs of the PC for a question. However many times these specs come in looking like this:

My specs: OS: Windows 8 RAM: 8 GB Processor: i5-750

As I come across these, I try to clean them up into a more readable format:

PC Specs:

OS:        Windows 8
RAM:       8 GB
Processor: i5-750

What I would like to see is an option in the editor to add pc specs (similar to the button to add a photo). This would then pop up with a dialog to add different spcecs to the bottom of the post and have them formatted in a readable way.

Note: I'm not very good with css or website UI design so I couldn't really create a good mockup. Sorry.

2 Answers 2

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My two cents:

  • There really isn't a good list of specs that would be useful across most questions.

    • This might end up creating some additional clutter for little gain. For example, details like amount of RAM, and what CPU and GPU you have, seem like basic specs, but they're actually irrelevant for many (most?) questions.

    • How much will it actually be used?

  • If it's an editor button then it won't be very discoverable for new users, who are more likely to need this.

  • End of the day, it's only really going to be useful for people who already know what they want to enter. To that end, a more generic formatting option (tables?) will likely be far more useful than any kind of prefill/suggested specs.

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  • It doesn't need to place All info into the question. Only the information that gets filled out and is assumed to be pertinent by the user.
    – James Mertz
    Aug 8, 2014 at 16:40
  • I do see your point however in the fact that there are a lot of specs out there, and probably only a select few that may apply to most question. However, the OS, CPU, and a few others I think would be very useful as I see them a lot in the questions that I edit.
    – James Mertz
    Aug 8, 2014 at 16:41
  • @KronoS How many people will see a long form asking for specs and actually bother filling it out? People who go to that extent will probably try to format their text better with existing options anyway (I've seen some decent uses of bold and linebreaks). The bigger issue might be single line breaks being swallowed up by Markdown - the two-line-breaks or two-spaces thing is really unintuitive.
    – Bob
    Aug 8, 2014 at 16:44
  • I would limit the list to no more than 6-10 entries that can be filled out.
    – James Mertz
    Aug 8, 2014 at 16:48
  • @KronoS That brings it back to the question of "how often will it be useful?". Also, the OS should not be part of some special spec table. The OS should be a tag, or part of the question title/body itself, if it is relevant. That really only leaves hardware specs, which are rarely if ever useful for software questions - in fact, most people I see who list specs tend to list utterly irrelevant ones.
    – Bob
    Aug 8, 2014 at 16:49
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I agree wholeheartedly! Let's expand it a bit more, and also show how large the HDD is, and whether it's a desktop, laptop or server.

My one concern: When people don't understand how to post it, or when to. How would we solve the problem of them knowing about this feature when they post their specs as just that one line (likely with just a single carriage return)? If we could get them to use the tools available in our editor, then we might not even have this one problem in the first place.

However, I still agree, and think the devs should at least consider it, if there's a way of making tables or a button macro for pre-filled text.

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  • perhaps adding it to the tour section? Other than that, it's going to be a hit and miss thing. But I've seen repeat offenders and veterans who seem too lazy to do it as well.
    – James Mertz
    Aug 8, 2014 at 16:38

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