Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

Locked

I spent 25,000 points in an attempt to get back the “view all open questions” link.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6239-0.html?forumID=48&threadID=91843&start0

Is the missing link a glitch, or is it by design?

If it’s by design, I think you’ll see (by reviewing that old question) that it’s a most unpopular move.

(Wow, that was 2-1/2 years ago! Time flys when you’re ……….. doing whatever it is we do here.)

Thanks guys.

Just kidding about the refund.

Topic

Ask For Help

In reply to Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

.
Just noticed the change in your tabs. Hey, I think this might be a good way to keep technical questions out of the technical discussions. We’ll cross our fingers.

You stumbled on our Thursday reveal

In reply to Ask For Help

We’re trying to solve that problem based on the TR Insiders’ feedback. I’ll post details in a clean thread later today.

–Jay

Stumbling Around

In reply to You stumbled on our Thursday reveal

Well ya know some of us just live to see what question is going to be asked next in the technical forums.

I’ve got an idea for a Geek Trivia question. What was the name of the first Thanksgiving turkey spared by a US President?

The name of the first Thanksgiving turkey

In reply to Stumbling Around

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The first National Thanksgiving Day turkey was presented to President Harry Truman in 1947.

President Truman, as we all know, was from Missouri, the show me state. And as he sat down at the dinner table on that cold November evening, he said, “Show me the bird”.

There they were, the first-family, sitting at the first-dinner table, just salivating over the thoughts of feasting on a golden, juicy Thanksgiving Day first-turkey. But the turkey was nowhere to be seen. “Show me the bird”, again exclaimed President Truman. But still no turkey. “Bess, where’s the bird”, asked the president? “Well Harry, said Bess Truman, the president’s wife, “I’ll go see what the problem is”.

A few minutes later Bess returned from the first-kitchen, but she informed the president that she couldn’t stay because it was so hot in there, and as a result she didn’t find out the status of the bird. “Well”, said the president, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. I’ll go find out myself”. “Okay, Harry”, said Bess Truman, “give em’ hell.” “I never give them hell”, said the president, “I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell. And the truth is, I want my g***d**** bird!”

Well, the White House chef, hearing what was going on in the first-dining room, was literally in a panic because “the bird” was not quite cooked, and if he couldn’t come up with something very quickly, then he’d be cooked. But Margaret Truman, the president’s twenty-four year old daughter, noticing the panicked look on the chef’s face, quickly attempted to do divert the president’s attention from the uncooked bird by saying, “But father, let me first show you my new piano composition”. Well, being the doting father that he was, not to mention the only one in Washington that believed his daughter’s piano playing ability was anything but awful, quickly agreed to listen.

So as Bess played her very own rendition of the president’s favorite song, the Missouri Waltz, the kitchen staff scrambled to hurry-up the process of cooking the first-turkey. The chef cranked up the oven’s heat to well over 500 degrees hoping to quickly get it done before Bess finished her song. But luck was running out on the kitchen staff, just as it had on the others present who has to suffer through the agonizing spectacle that only a loving father could call piano playing. “Play it again, Bess”, said President Truman, so on and on she played, well into the evening.

“OH NO”, came a scream from the kitchen, which was, at this point, about as hot as Hades. “We can’t stand it in here”, cried the kitchen staff. “It’s too hot”, they all cried. “Well, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”, said the president. “But Mr. President”, said the first-chef, “the turkey. It’s burnt. It can’t be eaten”.

“Well, g***d**** it”, said the president. “All I wanted was a cooked bird, but I got defeated. I got defeated by a g***d**** bird. Well, No Thanksgiving Day turkey for me.”

And as always, the press had to report on the story the next day, as newspapers all over the country splashed a headline about how the president failed to get his turkey dinner.

Dewey Defeats Truman, was the headline.

———-

So to answer your question, the name of the first Thanksgiving Day turkey was, of course, Dewey.

ROTFL

In reply to The name of the first Thanksgiving turkey

Thanks. After a long day here at the office cranking out Visio documents that is exactly the story I needed to be told!

HEY! Tech Q&A is gone!!

In reply to Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

Vanished, disappeared, vamoosed, scrammed, buggered awf!! 🙂

What are you guys up to now?

Jesus Pleasus am I ever an idiot!

In reply to HEY! Tech Q&A is gone!!

Well here I am complaining for two years about the title of Tech Q&A and how much easier navigation would be if it was renamed “Get Help” or something similar. (Still feeling like quite a dolt now) :p

So I take a QUICK glance beside Discussions, NO Tech Q&A (wanted to see what Max was referring to because the “View all open questions” link has ALWAYS been there for me on te Tech Q&A page.

In my haste I quickly post about it being removed, a few minutes later (ding-dong) “Ask for Help” is in the toolbar, what a fool! 😀

In MY defense though, I have been here a while and hardly read the links now,I know where they are and it wasn’t where it USED to be.

A new user would definitely notice it.

IMHO, MAYBE move it left of Discussions on the nav bar and highlight it (almost like a ‘super feature’). Or create a NEW FEATURE notice to point it out or describe it. I think the best idea is to make it the FIRST place people see and think of going for help, It could be a separate button all together or even a highlighted DIV somewhere that is like a SOLVE IT button or something,but other than that I like the changes,it’s very nice to see such proactive and positive changes occuring. 🙂

Strange Behavior

In reply to Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

Max,

My link to all questions is still working.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5204-6239-0.html?forumID=34&all=1&start=0

Interestingly, I cannot easily switch over to the Discussion Center from the TQ&A page with just a single click like I could just yesterday.

The Discussion Center link on both the All Questions and the TQ&A main page is blanked out.

I must click on “Home” and I can then go to the Discussion Center.

Looks like more site update fun.

Chas

The Ask For Help/Discussions toggle is fixed

In reply to Strange Behavior

We rolled out the bug fix about two minutes ago. You can now jump between the sections using the top nav. Let me know if the problem recurs. I’m working on resurfacing the All Open Questions link.

–Jay

He’s right Chas

In reply to Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

Sorry Max, I didn’t see the new pages.

I see what he is talking about too Chas,
http://techrepublic.com.com/5221-6239-0.html

Your link is what I want to see but how did you get there from the link I posted?

Now I suppose this page is in it’s infancy now so maybe a good time to mention, use a find and replace tool to swap all the ‘Tech Q&A’ references to ‘Ask For Help’ (such as in the Guidelines and FAQ pages).

Stored link

In reply to He’s right Chas

I have a link to All Questions stored in my bookmarks, and on my Firefox bookmarks bar.

I seldom go to the main TQ&A page.

It is interesting that my link still works even though it is not on the page anymore.

I definitely do not like how much more effort is required to move between TQ&A and the Discussion Center.

Chas

My guess, Chas

In reply to Stored link

Here’s my guess;
They are in such an infant stage with all of this right now that they are just testing pages. The css hasn’t been changed sitewide, yet, but will in future after debugging and user feedback.

I guess tomorrow’s official ‘reveal’ day for the insider forum so we’ll get the scoop then.

While we are at it

In reply to Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

As of Thursday 11/25/2004, my stored link no longer works either.

Also, I see that all of my subscribed discussions along with the listing of new and hot discussions has disappeared.

I was actually surprised that my link to the TR Insiders page was still intact.

So, what’s going on?

And, how do we get our subscribed discussions back?

For that matter, I see that there is not a link to Misc. on the Discussion Center page.

What’s up with that?

Chas

Chas your lucky

In reply to While we are at it

I have a similar experience but with no possibility of getting any New or Hot discussions and I presume it is something to do with the Thursday release as ever since then I’ve had troubles even getting on at all. About the only thing that appears to be working is the Start a New Thread heading as every other header comes up as page unfound or something like that.

Col

I think some “growing pains”

In reply to While we are at it

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I think we are seeing some “growing pains”, at least I hope so.

When following the discussions link, all I can go to are the various categories. The New and Hot links don’t work, nor do I see a TR Insider category. (I found it by changing the number in the URL, and I eventually found this one. Kind of a back-door way in, I suppose.)

There are a lot of things still missing – including the “View All Open Questions” link.

Yep, I want my 25,000 points back.

What a mess

In reply to While we are at it

Yes it seems there are some definite growing pains going on.

I find it funy that some pages are working and others aren’t though seeing as they are all CSS based pages, one would think site wide changes would be straight forward even though served through a database.

I figured I’d just shut up and wait but seeing as you guys piped up, who am I to keep my mouth shut? 😀

Hope you (US peers) had a good holiday ! 🙂

OZ the truth is that

In reply to What a mess

This is a blatant attempt to put the Kibosh on your Friday Yuk this week.

You can post one but no one can see it so it can not be contributed to.

Col

I noticed

In reply to OZ the truth is that

Wierd thing is that it happened on another site I frequent too, I have since found out that they were doing some server upgrading, THEN two band’s start having connection issues on thier sites (same host), turns out THEY were doing some server upgrading too.

I guess people plan to do this over a holiday weekend which is completely understandable but it sucks for the staff working the overtime.

First of all I thought I was having connection issues since removing some lines, then after doing MANY line tests I realized it wasn’t on my end.

Oh well, like Max said, it’s probably just growing pains, updating etc. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

System bug–now resolved!

In reply to While we are at it

As of 9:25 am EST on 11/29, this little bug should be resolved. Sorry if this kiboshed your holiday posting plans.

–Jay

We’re tough

In reply to System bug–now resolved!

I think we all survived.

It was a LOT more work to keep track of what was going on with new questions.

Still, we are a tough lot used to responding to new challenges.

Chas

Speak for yourself Chas

In reply to We’re tough

I have been huddled up in the corner, crying in the fetal position all weekend. 😀

Thanks TR, looking good!

We all know the truth OZ

In reply to Speak for yourself Chas

You spent all your time watching the horses racing and totally forgot about TR for the weekend!

Col 😀

Shhhhh!

In reply to We all know the truth OZ

Damn Colin, I was just ……..sorry ,3 minutes to post, gotta run. 🙂

Re: view open questions link

In reply to Can I get a 25,000 point refund – OR – View All Open Questions Link?

I think that it would be more appropriate to have a “closed” questions link, with the open questions set up as they are now in the Q&A.

Leave the closed questions as a sort of knowledge base with the appropriate link within the individual categories.

Do both

In reply to Re: view open questions link

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Those of us who make a sport, so to speak, out of answering questions don’t want to go through all the categories, one at a time, looking at the open questions. We want to glance down the list of all of them, perhaps trying to answer all (or many) of them, or maybe just the ones that might tweak our interest at the time.

If the View All Open Questions link is permanently removed, there will be fewer answers posted. I would be willing to wager that since the link has been removed, fewer answers, overall, have been posted.

Agreed

In reply to Do both

I know I sure as heck haven’t bothered sifting through all the various areas for questions.

I agree wholly, the “VIEW ALL OPEN QUESTIONS” link is NEEDED.

I think perhaps ‘house’ wasn’t around then or maybe wasn’t sure what you are referring to.

I will start helping in ‘Ask for Help/Technical Q&A’ (or whatever it is each day)once the view all open questions link is restored.

OM

yeah – “house” wasn’t here

In reply to Agreed

True, I was not around here when the “view all open questions” link was on the Q&A.

No matter what happens, there has to be a way to filter out the closed archives from the open.

I won’t even scroll down past ten to twenty questions in any given category for fear of wasting my time.

Don’t get me wrong though, the answered and closed questions do interest me, but I only search for keywords.

Welcome

In reply to yeah – “house” wasn’t here

Well, first of all I see you have been invited into the little group here (even if much to your surprise), welcome.

I see your point and I think perhaps you don’t know how it used to work but it was actually really cool!

There was a link to view all open questions and it would list them in chronological order just like the New Discussions link does.

You didn’t need to wade through individual topics as the newest open questions were all in one place. It was great for helping out people because if a topic is three weeks old and has a couple of replies, chances are it won’t ever be closed, plus you didn’t have to scroll pages.

It was as handy as the radio buttons on the Tech Q&A footer that allows you to select only unanswered questions etc.

I am sure they will fix it/replace it again due to popular opinion, I think you will find it exactly what you need.

Again, welcome aboard! There’s a pretty helpful and knowledgeable bunch of folks here. We like to bicker and argue like a bunch of little old ladies over a dodgy game of bingo but that’s half the fun. 😀

Working All Open Questions Link

In reply to Re: view open questions link

My thanks to Chas for pointing out that the old URL for All Open Questions still works. Here’s the link for your viewing and answering pleasure.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5204-6239-0.html?forumID=34&all=1&start=0

Dalton

[Author]

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