1 Finish Profile

Community redesign coming…

Locked

OK, I figure now is a great time to post some of the comps from our upcoming community revamp/redesign.

Not going to go into a ton of explanation about these comps. I want to get everyone’s reaction without any prompting about how things might work.

So here goes:
Start a thread / Ask a question
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/ask_start.gif

View a discussion post
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/view_post.gif

Unified Discussions/Tech Q&A door
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/community_door.gif

View a TQ&A question
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/view_question.gif

Please let us know your thoughts. BTW, I didn’t make these comps, so you can’t hurt my feelings (don’t you love a challenge?).

sm

Topic

looks good, but . . .

In reply to Community redesign coming…

There’s always a caveat.

I especially like the arrangement of options for the page for creating new discussion threads: it helps to kinda throw the options in the face of the person getting ready to post so that he or she will perhaps pause long enough to make something approaching intelligent decisions.

The overall appearance is pretty good, too, though I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the color orange for a website — maybe that could be altered. Just to satisfy the Great Apotheon, of course.

One thing that occurs to me as a potential issue: it looks a bit image-heavy, particularly in basic site functionality (menus, et cetera). Not only do images slow down page loading — they also make it difficult for people with “special needs” (read: nonstandard browser setups) to make use of the site. I’d like the chance to look at the page designs both in a text-only browser and in Firefox with styles turned off, but that’s not going to happen when your mock-ups are available only as GIFs, of course.

Oh, yeah, and GIFs suck for a number of reasons, both technical and “philosophical”. Have you tried PNGs?

. . . and why aren’t you guys making the content area scale to window size so that the site looks better and makes better use of space at higher resolutions?

[b]edit: First post! Woohoo![/b]

I just KNEW it

In reply to looks good, but . . .

that I should have just put in a one liner, and then gone in and edited it to get in first! DRAT! 😀

I concur.

In reply to looks good, but . . .

Visually way too busy. (Although, it pales in that regard to [i]Wired[/i] magazine.)

Blue & Orange, or Blue & Red are [b]not[/b] good combos. for easy reading; they result in eye strain.

Also, the vertical delimiters need to be more saturated. The eye uses these as “stops” when scanning a line; they are what tells the brain to have the eye do a “line-feed w/ carriage return.”

And, for the same reason, the “white space” bordering said delimiters needs to be increased in width.

If you want to know what makes for easy reading, i.e. copy that comports well with the eye-brain physiology involved, take a look at newpapers that were set by the oldtimers.

At a glance

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I like it.

One thing that “erks” me is the spacing used on the screen. I don’t mind that the ad section with all the other links is bigger, but the far right pannel should be merged into that instead of taking up half the screen with ads and links.

[b]Discussions.[/b] I like the way it highlights the current post. Or at least I THINK that is what is intended? It shows your reading 2 of 135, but the highlight points at the fourth post. I ASSUME this is just because of screen shots getting put together from different times?

[b]TQ&A / Discussion[/b] Bravo! This will make it much easier for people to direct the post to the right section by choosing if it is a discussion or a technical question.

Multiple catagories. Again, I like it. For the people that category lurk, it will make more discussions/questions easier to find as they come along.

TAGS, consider a dialog where you could maybe choose from the top 20 tags? If they are not typed in everytime, that would help standardize tags. How much distortion is there from one person typing windows and the next person typing win9X or windows98 or windows 98 or some other variation? The idea of actually being able to look up discussions by tags could become more useful, and to be honest I have NEVER even tried to do anything with following tags. I would not make them optional though if you want this feature to grow.

[b]Community door[/b]. please tell me you didn’t forget the “posts by my contacts” AGAIN! X-(

Also, please explain the “save” button?

[b]View Questions[/b]. This looks pretty, but looks like it lacks the FUNCTION that a Q&A should have. The asker should be able to reply directly to proposed answers without having to rate them, to allow for followup questions and answers. This has been something that has bothered me for a while that if someone is almost correct with their answer, you still have to slam them with a harsh “REJECTED” to reply to them. This lowers their percent accepted rating because they sometimes would put in two or three posts if the question asker replies to them directly instead of putting their reply in the origial question.

Over all, I think it is pretty, but am not thrilled that only half of the screen is dedicated to the questions and discussions that bring us to the pages in the first place.

Good catch

In reply to At a glance

That is the current post highlight. Mock-ups are just a little off.

There will be a Posts from my Contacts view. Right new to the Suggestions tag (next to Hot and New tabs in the left column).

The save button is to save things to your Links and/or Workspace.

We are changing how you rate TQ&A. More on that functionality soon.

okay, I have to say it…

In reply to Community redesign coming…

if you haven’t fixed the non closing of questions issue having the unified doorway will be a complaint. why answer questions when they never tell you if they solved the problem and how?

The bright white backgroud, with the luminosity of a monitor is a good source of light to read a book by.
mybe switch it to 10% black, so it is not as luminous. the brightness is actually hard on the eyes.

Can’t design manners

In reply to okay, I have to say it…

We’ve struggled with the issue of people asking questions without providing feedback. We are planning on limiting the number of open questions that are allowed (i.e. if you want to ask another, you need to give feedback on your open one(s).

Ultimately, it comes down to manners. Unfortunately, we’ll never be able to solve that problem with software.

true…

In reply to Can’t design manners

but that promotes them closing the questions when they are solved, so it does serve the purpose.

and for the colour idea, I copied the veiw post and made the white a bit darker of a grey, to show the difference.

here:

http://jaqui-greenlees.net/images/view_post.png

gets rejected

In reply to true…

can’t get to the pic.

then

In reply to gets rejected

we;ll have to go this route:

http://jaqui-greenlees.net/veiw_post.html

it’s odd, my av is in that folder as well and it’s displaying so there shouldn’t be an issue with the png.

the html is just the images. 🙂
I put the original under the new for easy comparison.

Actually, both are missing

In reply to then

I get a “This page is accessible only to the Dev Team” error for the link. Also, your avatar image isn’t visible to me or anyone else in my building when we view your posts/profile. It may be that only you can see it.

that is odd…

In reply to Actually, both are missing

I have gotten to the dev server from someone else’s system so it is wierd that you guys can’t.
that should fix the problem.

http://www.jaqui-greenlees.net/veiw_post.html

I can see it.

In reply to Actually, both are missing

Then again, I’m probably “dev team”.

oddly enough

In reply to Actually, both are missing

I haven’t created any access restrictions to the dev server.

I moved it to the main domain server and changed the links in the posts. 🙂

so it should work for all now.

didn’t know I was on that team

In reply to Actually, both are missing

They’re no prob. to me.

Rob

Rob: He has fixed it now

In reply to Actually, both are missing

so everyone can see it. BTW, welcome to TRI

]:)

Tnx Star

In reply to Actually, both are missing

okay that does explain a lott.

And thanks for your welcome. 🙂

Rob

While the white is blinding

In reply to then

that grey is just a little too “blah”. (kind of like it is NOW)

powder blue. just enough to take away the blind.

okay

In reply to While the white is blinding

so you don’t like the suggested colour, I was using the grey as an example of how to tone down the glare. :p

re-scheme colours

In reply to true…

As I can see you have to totaly re-scheme the colours. Some of the converted white -> grey parts conflict on the original grey ones and so on.

But re-colouring the bright white isn’t a bad idea.

Rob

that was just

In reply to re-scheme colours

a quick colour replacement in the gimp.
to show the difference in luminosity and the way it makes it easier to look at the page longer.

TR doesn’t use images as the pages you know. :p

y’re kidding me

In reply to that was just

they don’t ?:| , so that’s why (some of) the links actually work. 😀

And … to my luck … this link (TRI) too. 😀

Rob

edited for emoticon ?:|

Display open questions

In reply to Can’t design manners

Maybe you could put a list of the poster’s open questions at the top of the “Start a thread / Ask a question” page. The list would serve as a reminder to close questions, and the more the poster has open, the further down he’ll have to scroll before asking a new one.

Some people

In reply to Display open questions

dont have a guilty conscience. They will just scroll down or press page down and keep going.

]:)

Automatic closure of tech questions

In reply to Can’t design manners

after 30 days.

I have found that if I don’t get a satisfactory answer within three days, then I am not going to get one by leaving the question open.

The original poster could perhaps be sent an email warning that the question will be closed within, say, three days if they don’t close it themself.

As various people have posted here and elsewhere, the percentage of questions left open indefinitely amounts to more than 60 per cent of questions answered.

With the 1 question limit, there is no need to close

In reply to Automatic closure of tech questions

We are going to be limiting the number of questions that members can have open. Our current thinking is 1; however, that may need to be adjusted.

Because of this limit, we have decided to not auto-close anything. We will have reminder e-mails, but will not autoclose.

Autoclosing would just let the chronic non-closers off the hook and allow them to ask more questions (that they presumably won’t close).

Of course, once the new system is in the wild, this plan may need to be adjusted.

Smorty I would tend to think that you’ll

In reply to With the 1 question limit, there is no need to close

Need a limit of greater than just 1 question perhaps an upper limit of 5 but no more.

1 open question at a time is just too limiting and may drive more people away that what it attracts.

Maybe you could limit it to 1 open question per subject or something along those lines but if lets say you where facing a new environment with a heap of mixed hardware some old and some new it may be that you would need to ask more than 1 question about different parts of the system rather than effectively asking several questions under the one heading that may not be applicable to that subject.

By the way while I’ve been away the last couple of days which one of you hacked my TR Account and upset Beth? [b]Was it Jay or Smorty71?[/b]

If you 2 don’t pull your socks up I’ll tell Beth on you. :^0

Col

Reminder emails are a good idea

In reply to With the 1 question limit, there is no need to close

But you might want to set the number of open questions to at least 2 … Otherwise people who really need to ask another might start asking another question somewhere down an open question … Maybe put it in as a comment …

Just a thought

]:)

Because there are so many possible variations

In reply to With the 1 question limit, there is no need to close

on how to “police” offenders, I would recommend a separate discussion on this topic.

If enough opinions are presented, perhaps a predominant viewpoint would emerge.

I have belonged to this website for more than three years, and there have always been grumblings about various aspects of the Tech Q & A section.

There needs to be a consensus — a majority vote if you like.

Never mind “try this,” “try that” — how about thrashing it out until the BEST arrangment is agreed upon by a majority of TRI peers.

During the term of my membership of TR there have continually been band-aid adjustments — usually improving one feature while introducing a bug in another section.

I think most if not all of the members who contribute most to answering tech questions are present in this discussion. Surely they are the people who understand best what works and what doesn’t work.

hmmmmm

In reply to With the 1 question limit, there is no need to close

A campaign to close off answered questions…
Reasoning: new scripts.

step one) email everyone that has an open question reminding them

one a) bounced emails means close all those qwuestions and disable member account. >:)

step 2) shut down the TQ&A, then close any question open for longer than a month or two.

step 3) restart TQ&A but make sure all questions are closed off after the time limit.

Closing member accounts

In reply to hmmmmm

Due to bounced emails …. thats a bit Harsh .. 😀

]:)

not really

In reply to Closing member accounts

If they use a fake email address, screw ’em.

Depending on the reason for the bounce, …

In reply to Closing member accounts

one could condition the response accordingly.

If the bounce was owing to a bad recipient address, then a viable option would be to restrict account access to that required for the purpose of providing a good address only, pending verification of the new address.

For other reasons, such as storage quota (s)exceeded, any one of many possible communications errors, etc., one might bar access to the specific function(s) to which the bounced e-mail pertained.

Is’nt that a bit draconian?

In reply to With the 1 question limit, there is no need to close

While I do fully understand the problems and frustration caused by those who abuse the Q&A forum, there needs to be a balance that both curbs such abuse while accomodating the needs of those who play by the rules.

Perhaps you might consider a system whereby the number of questions that one may have open at any point in time is dependent on a measure of their compliance with the desired behavior.

For example, the sooner one rates responses, the more questions allowed. The longer that questions remains open after the most recent response(s), the fewer allowed.

a modification..

In reply to Is’nt that a bit draconian?

make it 5 questions, closed automatically after 30 days. most questions will be answered, correctly, within 3 days, at 30 days they have been forgotten.

Getting close

In reply to a modification..

To have five open questions, you would have to be having a run of bad luck.

However I note that you concur with my observation that a question not satisfactorily answered within 3 days, will be forgotten, and that questions should be auto-closed after 30 days.

As I suggested earlier, I think a person should be sent a warning email, say three days (or a week) before auto-closure.

Keep this going everyone. We are moving towards a consensus. If Smorty cannot agree with a majority opinion of TR insiders, then why are our views being sought?

creating work

In reply to Is’nt that a bit draconian?

This looks like getting the TR-staff being busy :)with laziness of the TR-members :(.

Alltho automated, it still has to be programmed and watched for correctness. But on it self I like the idea. 🙂

Rob

It’s their job.

In reply to creating work

Yes, it means a bit more work up front, but then so do most things if they’re being done right.

The most simple solution is not necessarily the best.

Question Types & Discussion Background

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I would just make two recommendations, one for the ask_start page and one for the view_post page.

I find it a little redundant to have three button selects (question, discussion, blog) immediately followed by two radio buttons (question, discussion). You could probably drop one or the other. One thing to ponder is, are the differences in the three types really worth the effort for maintaining all three? Could questions, discussions, and blogs be merged into a single type? I will also concur on a previous poster’s recommendation to have a select list of tags. Restricting the range of possible tags would increase the hope of actually finding something.

On the view_post, I find the bars behind the responses to be distracting. Visually, the pattern seems to hide the different groupings and indentation levels. I would recommend losing the bars.

Good luck tomorrow!

A vote for the bars

In reply to Question Types & Discussion Background

Please keep the bars. Compared to the current use of “gray vs. blue” lettering, they make it much easier to tell which post you are reading.

Smorty,

In reply to Community redesign coming…

you saw my post in site ideas / feedback earlier? ]:)

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=96&threadID=192681&start=0

since you are planning a change on layout, why not fix the navigation complaint also. :p

It was too small I couldn’t read it

In reply to Smorty,

Only joking.

Way too much space for ads versus content. I knows you boys got’s to earn your money, but in terms of usable area of the screen looked about fifty/fifty at a glance. I spent all this money on a 19 inch monitor and I could saw it in half and have a dual display system.
Other than that, looks like progress to me on some issues.

hey,

In reply to It was too small I couldn’t read it

I don’t have no stinking ads on my site. :p

Unstinking ones?

In reply to hey,

ROTFLMAO

🙂

nope…

In reply to Unstinking ones?

no ads on my site.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to put ads on or not yet.
[ probably not, since I prefer a site that isn’t cluttered with extra cruft. ]

Sure you do. Not only that it’s off colour. ;)

In reply to hey,

The size, type face, colour choice on the banner.
I’d suggest another colour combo and somthing other than a script styl of type face. Actually leave the six alone but the script look contrived, the colours are a matter of personal taste I suppose.

[i]edited in after reading your response re ads:[/i] Go ahead put in ads if it can make you some bucks. They might help pay for the up keep. As long as they’re not too distracting or over powering, why not???

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

awwww

In reply to Sure you do. Not only that it’s off colour. ;)

I changed the font face in the banner.
since it was something I was going to do anyway. 😀

the only way I would put ads in would be the google ads, text only. if an ad company wouldn’t offer that then they won’t get the space.

at $191.40 a year for the hosting plan, it’s not a huge expense where the bucks are required to cover it. 🙂

Yeah! That’s way better.

In reply to awwww

The new font is much cleaner and clearer. The red drop outline punches it up and adds to the clarity but I’m still not 100% sure of the background colour. Don’t get me wrong; I like the colour, i’m just questioning its use here. Iguess this is a matter of personal taste; it’s your web site and if that’s what you like, go with it. Also why is it in a block and not FSW banner style. I would say extend it FSW and maybe narrow it slightly but maintain the font and point size. I liked everything else; good layout, clean, simple and clear.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

~lol~

In reply to Yeah! That’s way better.

sure, I’ll make the image 1280 for full screen width.
just remember though, you get to deal with the screeching from people like apotheon who use 800 by 600, only 100 px wider than the image.

that darker header area really makes the content jump out doesn’t it 😀

New Layout

In reply to Community redesign coming…

Not bad, I will adjust to it.

I do agree with J-mon that white color is really hard on the eyes and his lighter grey suggestion is better for those of us sensitive to monitor colors.

Reply To: Community redesign coming…

In reply to Community redesign coming…

Not bad, really, but the new site looks unattractive compared to the old site.

On another related thing. Don’t forget to spell check, since it is MyWorkspace, not the other.

Comments

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I generally agree with the other comments that have been posted regarding the image content and the chosen colors.

I prefer plain over gaudy.

You do need to have someone do a good spell check though.

On the 4th link, view TQ&A Question, it boldly states that “This question INS solved”.

I had to follow the bizarre work-around to get here.

Buy the way, how do I change my TR Insiders email address?
I updated my profile a few weeks back for a new address. But this invite came to my old email address.

As to the recurring theme of closing questions, I don’t think it is manners as much as it is the difference between how TR handles the Q&A section versus how most other sites handle threads.

The best suggestion I have for the open question issue is to limit the number of open questions that any peer can have at one time.

It won’t take care of all the situations, but will handle the repetitive abusers.

Chas

One question at a time

In reply to Comments

The current thinking is that each user gets one question open at a time. To open a second you must close the first. Leave a question open indefinitely, and you’ve locked yourself out of the system. (If you have several open questions when we make the switch, you’d have to close ALL of them before you can ask another. Take THAT serial question-danglers!)

Also, to close a question, you MUST rate all the answers provided. We’re toying with adding a third rating state to helpful/unhelpful–solved. That way you get the gradient of assistance; you’re able to say “this helped” even if it didn’t precisely solve the problem.

In all honesty, the success of the new version of Q&A will hinge on you all, the hardcore answer crew. If posting to Q&A doesn’t provide some serious advantage over discussions, the casual user will keep posting technical questions to discussions. I suspect that advantage will be speed–Q&A provides answers faster. We’ll do what we can to blast out recently asked questions everywhere possible, but the onus will be on the community to make Q&A work. You provide the value, not us.

To that end, I’ll admit that we’ve toyed with chucking Q&A altogether and conceding that most people will use discussions to ask for help no matter what we do. I know some of you make it a point to police this behavior, and we appreciate that fact, but Q&A has to really sing if we’re going to continue to support the feature. It has a LOT of application administration overhead, and that’s before we even talk about the recognition features it requires. Sooner or later, somebody higher up is going to decide its not worth the effort–unless we can demonstrate why and how Q&A kicks ass.

You love Q&A, we love Q&A, but its going to take ALL of us to make it work.

—

As to the e-mail address, Chas, I’m working off an old Excel file I keep myself, separate from our systems. I’ll update my records later today, so the future alerts go to the right place.

Great

In reply to One question at a time

That should help matters. As for Q&A success, we just need to keep nagging the people who post questions in discussions (I too have done that on occassion :p ).

]:)

Works for me

In reply to One question at a time

The changes to Q&A sound good.

While a 1 question limit will seem restrictive to some, it should keep the forum moving.

As long as I continue to see questions that I believe my input will be of value, I will continue to contribute.

I just don’t have time these days to look at every question, or drill down through the discussions looking for people who are seeking help.

If you do ever remove the Q&A section, PLEASE split up the discussions into distinct technical and water cooler sections.

Speaking of discussions, has the site bug been fixed so that all article discussions show up in new discussions?

For that matter, how about a sort for a list of discussion threads on this weeks new articles?

I’m WAY behind in reading my Tech-Mails, but might enjoy looking over threads while the articles are fresh.

Chas

Attitude can be enforced

In reply to One question at a time

just to a certain degree. This will help for sure.

Rob

Three rating levels …. YES !!!

In reply to One question at a time

I don’t like rating an answer as “didn’t help me” when the poster has obviously made a suggestion that he/she thinks addresses my question helpfully.

What I have been finding recently (well a few months ago) is that persons have been offering a solution which shows that they haven’t a clue what the correct answer is.

Sure I can rate their post as “didn’t help me,” but I will probably also insert some stern words about wasting my time.

While we are on the subject of Tech Points, when is my little yellow box going to display “20 K” as I have passed this level some time ago.

It is not an ego thing but I feel that it would indicate that I have made a measurable contribution in that area — be it by asking questions or answering questions.

Okay sMoRTy you asked for it.

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I assume the basic idea is to streamline and add speed and I have a feeling this will achieve neither.

Try to retain as much of the old as possible; people are more comfortable with what is familiar. There will always be an element of resistance to change; any change.

There is a certain element of, “Wow”; “Gee Whiz” or “Will you look at that now” to the changes but they’re purely cosmetic and give no indication of increased speed and functionality and in fact I somehow suspect some of them might slow some things down.

Threads such as the EL one should be compressed after sometime, how much time would be for you to determine.

They look overly bright and are hard on the eyes and I like Jaqui’s suggestion for toning them down.

I’m still calling for a spell check feature that would improve the levels of comprehensability for posters who are not exactly great on a keyboard, such as myself and several other’s I could name. A grammar checker might not be bad either. Access to alternate characters would be nice too as well as more emoticons, the raised middle finger immediately coming to mind. :^0

Try increasing the size of the window we type in, if not in width, then length. It would cut down on the amount of scrolling required for proof reading.

I’m not sure about your selection of colours; they don’t exactly offend me but do kind of make me wish you had chosen others. The brightness bit might have something to do with that. I’m no web designer but I am a graphics guy. I guess you have to allow for some peoples hardware limitations but can’t you raise the resolution enough to fill at least a 17″ monitor. I think most people have at least that by now, at a minimum, except those running on laptops.

I’m saying nothing about the ads as I realize you guys have to turn a buck and the fact that TR is a freebie is and should be appreciated. The only thing that puts me off are the roll overs that insist upon sounding off with a lot of inane chatter.

Well that’s it for me; hope I wasnt too rough.
If I think of anything else I’ll let you know.

[b]Dawg[/b]

I knew it; I did think of something else.

In reply to Okay sMoRTy you asked for it.

Give Tech Republic Peer Product Review its own forum. The way it is now, it’s overly annoying and probably garners more gripes about its presence than getting any useful information. Who is it floods us with those things anyway. He needs to be way less anal retentive.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

OK I think that everyone else has said it all

In reply to Community redesign coming…

But as I do agree with several people here the colours are a bit hard on the eye.

My only real concern is that limiting the number of open questions might drive some away as a lot don’t seen to think that they need to close off a question when they post a solution.

I’ve just had a quick look at my TQ&A activity and I see that I’ve answered 1430 questions had 18% accepted 15% rejected and a whooping 66% unrated. I’m sure that others who participate in the Q&A section will have similar stats, and while I would like to see the answers rated with the current number of other technical forums where you ask a question as a general discussion sort of topic there might be some resistance to forcing people to close off questions before they can ask another one. But I like the idea although there may be some problems involved for TR.

Col

similar

In reply to OK I think that everyone else has said it all

percentages on my TQ&A activity.

only around 1/3 the questions answered as you but the ratios of accepted, rejected and unrated is about the same.
Number of answers given: 553
Number of answers accepted: 113 (20%)
Number of answers rejected: 99 (17%)
Number of answers not rated: 341 (61%)

Well Jacqui I only answer so many because

In reply to similar

That Mongeral [b]CHAS[/b] got me back into the Q&A section somehow. I’m still trying to work out how he did it but for better or worse I seem to spend a lot of time there now. 🙁

Col ]:)

re: I seem to spend a lot of time there now.

In reply to Well Jacqui I only answer so many because

I’ve noticed..
posts from my contacts, view all, and 75% of the posts are you answering questions in the TQ&A 😀
[ it’s my one complaint about the posts from my contacts, the mixing of TQ&A and Discussions. ]

Hey, don’t knock that.

In reply to re: I seem to spend a lot of time there now.

I started ducking Q&A a long time ago because I quickly lost interest after having so many of my answers not responded to. I didn’t really have any interest in the points business but would have liked to have seen how my advice was being taken.

If I don’t see answers in posts from my contacts, I might never go back there and worse never repond to any questions but several of you guys usually beat me to the punch anyway, so I’m no big loss.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

Yea Dawg

In reply to Hey, don’t knock that.

I know that feeling, being the wrong side of the IDL I’m one of the last to see questions posted while I’ve been asleep so I just settle for mopping up and adding a bit more info to some that has been glossed over by most of the people who get in first. 🙂

Col ]:)

A Mongrel?

In reply to Well Jacqui I only answer so many because

I assume a Mongeral is similar to a Mongrel, a creature of unknown mixed heritage.

3/4 of my heritage is known and defined. The remaining 25% (my Mothers Father) is a mixture of various nationalities native to the British Isles.

Anyhow, looking at my stats, of 8518 answers given, 45% have been accepted, 25% rejected, (Same as my BI heritage.) and 29% unrated.

As I recall, you challenged me for posting answers to too many questions and not leaving any for you.

Since your answers are solid and almost always spot on, I have no problem when I see your answers posted to questions before I get there.

I do think that the Technical Q&A section on TR has a visibility and identity issue when compared to many other sites.

Notice the number of questions about site features and those that should be directed to TR staff.

I propose a new TR contest.
Rename the Technical Question and Answer section so that it is no longer confused with an FAQ or site help section!

Some ideas:

Repair Republic

Solutions Republic

Personal Tech Support

Peer to Peer Tech Support

Peer Support

Community Fix-It

Member Fix-It

TechRepublic Fix-It

What do you think?

Chas

You’ve got it Chas

In reply to A Mongrel?

But if I remember correctly and I certainly do I left the TQ&A section for quite a while and for some reason you had some humorous words with me that dragged me kicking and screaming back in. I’m still trying to work out how it happened but it’s [b]Your Fault![/b]

[b]Thats my story and I’m sticking to it no matter what.[/b] :p

Currently I’m in the process of undergoing Therapy to help me stop answering questions but as I’ve only just started there have been no massive improvement yet but I’m hoping. There is of course a major down side after Electric Shock Therapy I destroy any computer that I have to dig into and work on. 🙁

There is also the fact that I have a much higher Electrical Potential than the machine used so the operator gets the shock as well. :p

But I’ve only started the Therapy since I did a Surgeons work computer and I wasted 25 hours trying to get the billing side of the medical program to work. There where 2 pieces of software involved and both where blaming the other side. What made it worse was the patients sitting under 4 feet away so I couldn’t crawl down the phone and tear peoples arms off, but what killed me where they where both different divisions of the same company and they couldn’t get their act together. 🙁

As for the list it sounds about right to me I like you have seen far too many questions that should be addressed to the TR Team posted as General Questions with the expiation that we can cure their problems with TR which of course we can’t.

Col

I like it

In reply to Community redesign coming…

Overall, I think it looks very good. The foreground colours are easy on the eyes – though I do think the imagery is a little heavy, and the background should be turned down a little.

The posts for a thread

In reply to Community redesign coming…

On TR as it is right now the post title is bold … but on the new TR snapshots the title becomes bold only if it is the current selected post.

In the snapshot, the post title and the members userid dont look very easy to read at first glance.

]:)

Well I’d love to contribute, but

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I am not an ant nor do I possess microscopic vision.

At full-screen display on Firefox 1.5 on a sharp 17 in CRT monitor, all I can see is different coloured dots (more or less).

Can anyone suggest a way by which I could actually see the samples clearly?

Wierd

In reply to Well I’d love to contribute, but

I am on Firefox 1.5 too and I can see it. Clicking on the image should magnify it. Does your mouse pointer not turn into a magniying glass when you hover over the image ??

]:)

Ask a “dumb” question

In reply to Wierd

and you’re likely to get a sensible answer.

Yes, it works just fine. Thanks for the tip.

Now I will study the layouts in detail and see if I have anything to add to the comments.

Julian

Oh my God !!!!!

In reply to Wierd

It looks like a professionally designed website !!!

That will take some getting used to. :0

Detailed comments to follow ….. B-)

:^0

In reply to Oh my God !!!!!

I think that they have too many colors in there.

]:)

Points??? EDITED: Default Avatars

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I notice the redesigned Q&A pages don’t make any reference to points. Is the concept being discarded? If they’re going away, I want to trade mine in for that TR Secret Decoder Ring.

EDITED: How about changing the default avatar? Instead of that black-on-grey silhouette, use the black and blue TR flag logo.

Points are being “transitioned”

In reply to Points??? EDITED: Default Avatars

Points, as they are used now, are going to be transitioned into a new recognition system. We’re still working on the details, but we WILL make sure that all of your past activity is factored into the new system from the start (no resets).

The biggest change to most users is that there are no points required to ask a Tech Q&A question. There are also no variable points given for answering them. We will, though, give recognition to answering.

But but but . . .

In reply to Points??? EDITED: Default Avatars

If you get rid of the silhouette avatar, the joke of my avatar’s design won’t be relevant any longer! I’ll have to come up with a new one, darnit.

Are you just trying to make my life difficult?

Not this time,

In reply to But but but . . .

it’s just an added benefit.

So take the TR flag and reverse the colors and background; different joke, same punch line.

But but but!

In reply to Not this time,

That completely ignores the “click here” aspect to the joke, catching the unwary off-guard!

my 2p worth…..

In reply to Community redesign coming…

Smorty, you asked, you’re getting it!!

What are the stars for? What do they denote?

Are you keeping the “new” allocation for new posts? If not, or even if anyway, how about putting the dates of the post in bold for easier catch ups?

“Updates via email” on the Start Thread link – does this replace the discussion notifications?

What is the B D Q section on the Community Door? D – discussion, Q – questions, B – ??? (or am I being a dippy tart again?)[don’t answer that one if you like living!!]

Final 2

1. Is the photo of “Marc” used an early version of Smorty???
2. Top RHS of all the shots – myWorspace? You trying to turn into a Geordie now???

😀

GG

The “B”, my little tart

In reply to my 2p worth…..

MUST be for [b]Bondage[/b]?

We are starting to rate our own section! ]:)

[i]Jaqui has been a good influence! ;\

The B

In reply to The “B”, my little tart

Was in there as B D Q – so,

Busted Down Quickly
Bondage Domination Quota
Boobs DoubleD Quotient
Bad “Dawg” Query
Breast Development Query
Buggered Dick Quality

*I sometimes worry myself as to how fast I can come up with stupid things like this!!*

]:)

GG

What worries ME

In reply to The B

is that you would think a great list like that is “STUPID”! :0

No “squirty cream” for YOU! X-(

That wasn’t bad

In reply to my 2p worth…..

The stars are placeholder images for part of the upcoming recognition system (which will launch after this redesign). The new system will use badges to indicate your achievements within certain categories of activity. Still working on the details, but that is what those will be.

“New” will be there. One of many things that are missing from the comps that will be in the final product.

“Updates via email” is the same as the current notifications.

BDQ are not going to be there. It will be 1,2,3,4. That unit at the top will rotate between 4 panels. Each panel will have a different promo on it (maybe a hot discussion, maybe a new TQ&A, maybe a blog post). You will be able to cycle through them with the numbers or let it play through on its own.

No, that photo is of our new art director. My current photo is bad enough. No need to dig ones up from the past 🙂

I’m not sure what your last question means?

Missing the K

In reply to That wasn’t bad

on My Wor”K”space, mmm or has it some other meaning and isn’t the K missing.

Even Jaqui, on his re-colouring has it. 😀 :0 😉

Rob

The education of Smorty…..

In reply to That wasn’t bad

Had you drunk long and cool from the water of the cooler, you would have known from the repartis that I’m a Geordie.

The easiest way to explain this is to say – you know Cockneys are from London? Well, Geordies are from Newcastle. We have our own dialect of English and are a fiercely proud people. (Google “Toon Army” and you’ll see what I mean!)

The reference I made was to a “Geordie-ism” – by leaving out the “K” in workspace, you made it into “Wor Space”, which, in Geordie, translates to “My Space”…..having to explain this is really kicking the hell out of the funny, which was you had inadvertently, to me as a Geordie, labelled the section MyMySpace….see? No?

Oh, ok, have a Geordie dictionary from me then:

http://tinyurl.com/hkhe8

It should all now become as clear as mud.

Right. Why, precisely, do you want to have badges to indicate achievements in certain categories of activity? Are you trying to pick on us non-techies and show us up?

(Where’s OG when I need him……?)

Despite having broken my golden rule of not answering tech q & a’s, I did just that, but have only ever answered (I think, without checking) three. Does this mean my badge won’t shine as brightly as other peoples’?

And, conversely, if I sneak in the odd non-thread related post, will my badge be tarnished?

And considering the “type” of posts I seem to put on here, is my badge being specially tarnished to start off with?

😀

GG

By the way

In reply to Community redesign coming…

In the browse by tag … whats the [b]number[/b]??

And I am sure someone has mentioned this already but the actual space to read the posts and browse a discussion thread is less than what it is now. Can the width be increased please? Maybe make the RHS column less wider.

]:)

Number of threads with that tag

In reply to By the way

The number represents the number of threads that have that tag associated with them.

As for the right column, we are really at the mercy of the ad unit. It is 300px wide, so that column can’t get any narrower unfortunately.

Yeah but you could try filling a 17″ monitor at 1280.

In reply to Number of threads with that tag

At least TR would look quite so lonely sitting in the middle of a 20″ monitor. If there are people still using 15″ monitors its about time they upgraded to 17″ and at the very least 1024 but 1280 would be better.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

The post that you are reading is highlighted. Yay!!!

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I couldn’t be happier with the new discussion format. I noticed that you can now easily find the post that you are reading in the list of all of the posts. Thanks guys and gals.

A quibble about TR as we know it

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I have tried subscribing to this discussion 2 or 3 times now without success. Is this part of the mysterious bug that has engulfed TRI??

]:)

Can you be more specific?

In reply to A quibble about TR as we know it

What exactly is happening? Does it look as though you’re subscribed, but you’re not receiving updates? Or are you getting a PNF?

erm ….. PNF??

In reply to Can you be more specific?

Wat happens is … I click on the subscribe link in the thread but the discussion doesnt show up as one of my [b]Discussions Subscribed To:[/b] in My discussions.

I might be completely off my rocker here, since I have never tried to subscribe to a TRI discussion before.

Edited to add: The subscribe link is grayed out, which means the script responsible acknowledges that I have subscribed to this thread. Only it doesnt show in the Discussions subscribed to section.

]:)

You are subscribed, but…

In reply to erm ….. PNF??

You are subscribed to the thread and will receive email and workspace updates to the discussion.

However, because it is in the Insiders forum it has been supressed so it will not appear in various other places and tease non-insiders. (You know they’re jealous!) Unfortunately, that means it can’t show up in your My Discussions area. Sorry about that.

you know

In reply to You are subscribed, but…

a simple way of having the different access levels that are used, and not get the showing / not showing bugs..

base the visiblility on a user level field in the db…

1) regular free member
2) regular free member with TRI access
3) regular TPG member
4) regular TPG member with TRI access

when user logs in thier level is used to set if TRI displays or not, those without don’t see TRI stuff at all, those with accesshave it show mixed in with every feature.

very similar idea to the Moderator access of php-nuke et-al

Hmmmm

In reply to You are subscribed, but…

The reason I subscribe to a thread is because I want it to show in a different area. That way, I can be sure it wont slip off the My discussions page.

But thanks a lot for the help. 🙂

]:)

Stargazerr

In reply to erm ….. PNF??

If you look in the Discussions Participated in you’ll find an entry there for any TRI discussions that you are subscribed to so provided you keep adding comments to this discussion you’ll see it to wards the top of that part of the page.

Incidentally as a warning [b]Don’t upset Beth[/b] she is really nasty and makes the original Dominatrix look like a [b]Pussy Cat.[/b]

She insists that hew whip is endless and can reach anywhere in the world to wreak revenge on anyone who has upset her. Think of an [b]Evil GG[/b] but to a factor of 1,000,000 and you’ll be getting close. :^0

Col ]:)

Thanks for the tip

In reply to Stargazerr

and the warning … 😀

]:)

Col :D

In reply to Stargazerr

Hey, I [i] think [/i] that was a backhanded compliment……

I think…….

Well at least [b] you [/b] don’t think I’m evil…

:p

GG

at least

In reply to Col :D

not in comparison to Beth, but …

To all others … :0

y’re a nice kitten 🙂

Rob
[i]Kittens can withdraw their claws, can’t they?[/i] 😀

Nope

In reply to at least

…….kittens don’t have [i] [b] control [/i] [/b] of their claws till they’re older….

Smorty, I want a puss-cat emoticon as well now please, cos Rob says I’m a kitten….

oh, alright then.

~PPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR~

😀

GG

HONEST Your Majesty

In reply to Col :D

I was away no where near a phone socket so I didn’t post the above. :^0

[b]That’s my story and I’m sticking to it![/b] :p

But I really think either Jay or Smorty is having a go at you because of your exalted position at TR being the Queen. 😉

I’ve set Beth onto them to find out which one was responsible I’m betting that after a few strokes of Beth’s [b]CAT of 9 Tails[/b] both will own up to the post. 😀

Col ]:)

Oh HAL…

In reply to Stargazerr

Don’t scare them! You know I’m very, very nice. Aren’t I? Tell them. Tell them I’m nice. Right now! Right NOW! TELL THEM I’M NICE RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!
LOL

Frankly m’dear, you scare the hell out of me.

In reply to Oh HAL…

I read your stuff and have no wish to tangle with you. I like having no peck marks on my back and shoulders; now old Col, on the otherhand, seems to thrive on them. She who must be obeyed has made him so submissive, especially lately. 😉 ROTFLMAO :^0

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

Dawg It’s all an act

In reply to Frankly m’dear, you scare the hell out of me.

When I get [b]She Who Must Be Obeyed[/b] favourite car back she’ll be sweet and I’ll be off the hook till then I’m just keeping my head down and hoping for the best. 🙁

Currently SHMBO is refusing to drive any of the other cars here and is sulking for her Coupe which I bent just to get on her nerves with as she insists. God you should have been here when I bent it it wasn’t quite so bad until the next day when a Quad Processor Xeon M’Board arrived along with the 4 CPU’s and 12 GIG of RAM. Things got really nasty after than particularly when she found out that it wasn’t going to be a new computer for me to use but nothing more than a Test Rig for different OS and the like.

Thankfully she has no idea of just how much it cost but I’m keeping my head down none the less and spending money on her [b]Current[/b] [i]Favourite[/i] Car so she SHUTS UP! 😀

Col ]:)

OK Beth

In reply to Oh HAL…

Beth is one of the nicest people I’ve never run into [i]& I hope it stays that way.[/i] She’s way to scary for my liking. :p

And Beth I’m currently safe from your endless whip as I’m in a Faraday Cadge enclosed in 4 foot thick Concrete so you’ll need a Fission weapon to get me. :^0

[b]Bad Idea saying that 🙁 [/b] now I’m going to have to start working on an underground place to play and remain safe from you aren’t I? :p

When did you change your Avatar to the new one from the all leather outfit? B-)

Col ]:)

Now HAL,

In reply to OK Beth

You know I’d never use an avatar like that…
on TR! What are you thinking?

As for the safe place you think you’ve created? Just keep dreamin. I’m in your head. And I’m in cahoots with SHMBO. Think on that for a while.

And you where doing so well there Beth

In reply to OK Beth

And then you went and blew it all out the window SWMBO doesn’t even come near a computer at all. The closest that she’s willing to come is to hand me my NB as I’m going out on a job and I have to pack it up. 🙁

Once when there was a thunderstorm here she shut down every computer by pulling the power cords but I honestly think that’s been the only time that shes ever done anything to a computer since the DOS days where she used to play Solitaire on a 286 with 4 MEG of RAM and a 256 K Video Card. She blamed me when the Electrolytic Capacitor leaked and killed the M’Board and she hasn’t been near a computer since. :p

Although tonight when the Screen Saver came on, on my Ubuntu Box she did express an interest in the screen saver it was the Matrix one but that’s as far as it goes and she couldn’t see the [b]Woman in the Red Dress[/b] so she just gave up. ;\

So unless TR stretches to International phone calls that go on for hours I know that you haven’t been in contact with her as I know that there have been no phone calls like that from this end well at least till the end of last month anyway. B-)

Now I did a Screen Capture of your original Avatar do you want me to post it on an open forum? 😐

Of course I’ll suitable enlarge it so that’s clearly visible and post it to a blank Web Page if you like so everyone has the opportunity to see it. 😡

Anyway have you got to the bottom of who hacked my TR Account and made the original post as I’ve been away for a couple of days without a single phone socket in sight and that was the closest that I ever came to a Internet connection so I’ve been unable to access TR since Saturday Night my time until late Wednesday Night, although it feels like it’s been 10 years but it’s only been a few days. I know that it didn’t come from this end because everything was turned off and there are only 2 computers that can access TR this workstation and my NB [i]which I had with me,[/i] and even then this workstation has to have the gateway turned on as well as the switch which is fairly well hidden under all the junk in this room. :^0

I’d be putting my money on either Jay or Smorty as the culprit both seem to want to cause trouble so you’re welcome to take your whip to each one of them and I’ll guarantee that within 25 strokes both will admit to doing it. 😀

Col ]:)

[i] Edited because the Shocked Emoticon isn’t working.[/i]

they look great

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I guess(and hope), as these are just images, the features we have now, at TR, will be in the new one as well.

As others did comment maybe some slight less bright white.
And …
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=96&threadID=192673&start=0

Rob

by the way . . .

In reply to Community redesign coming…

This whole thing where I have to go post in another thread to get in here if I haven’t posted in a few hours is getting kind of old. When do you think that’ll get cleared up?

Not prioritised

In reply to by the way . . .

Jay says 🙁 …. It is getting to be a pain in the wrong place, now that we try to read this thread so often.

]:)

We wish…

In reply to by the way . . .

Inside baseball here for a second. The problem is that the entire CNET network uses a unified user authentication system. That system was just fundamentally changed, breaking stuff on our site (remember the disappearing Edit Post button). Just one of the perks of a multi-tiered corporate engineering environment serving the needs of dozens of Web sites, most of which are far larger and more “important” than TR.

Our local dev team scrambled to fix the major stuff, but redesigning our private forum functionality is pretty far down on the list, considering only about 70 people use it and we’ve got our entire TR engineering staff tied up in the site redesign.

Also–and don’t take this the wrong way–we may not transition the TRIs into the new site. If we get the beta environment we’re hoping for, we just might get a full-blown test version of the site that our Insiders can bang around on, and we won’t need a secret forum to discuss semi-accurate mockups within. As such, we’re not rushing to fix a feature that might be deprecated soon. We’d rather concentrate on the very-much-better replacement.

gotcha

In reply to We wish…

I can certainly understand that. Thanks for the explanation.

Best o’ luck with all that.

WELL? How did the meeting go?

In reply to Community redesign coming…

First let me say, I had to use that “work around” everytime I came in here today to look at what others are saying……

Well, what did the bigs have to say?

Spread the love!

Shorter route

In reply to WELL? How did the meeting go?

When you receive an email notifying you of new posts, copy-and-paste the URL from any posting into your address bar and — Hey Presto — you are in the discussion.

Or just save the URL of ANY post and use it to access the discussion as often as you like. 🙂

Well I’ll be danged

In reply to Shorter route

I slipped out for a while to get some food and found on return that I had been cut offline for being idle.

So I tried to get back into the discussion and noways could I get in — either by the workaround or a post URL.

HOWEVER I accessed the discussion readily by clicking on a “post from my contacts”

So that’s where you

In reply to Well I’ll be danged

use your “contacts” for, slippin back in

Wonder what the lady peers will think about that :0 ;0

Rob

As the lady peers live on different continents to myself

In reply to So that’s where you

I have not managed an initial entry, let alone slippin back in. 🙁

I have introduced two Australian women to TR, but both have dropped out after an initial period of great enthusiasm. [Entry would definitely have been on the agenda if they had not been GI (geographically impossible)]

Others have followed some of the discussions without contributing.

I have never actually met a female IT person in Sydney, although I know that such persons exist.

Oh my

In reply to As the lady peers live on different continents to myself

I’m sorry for you having such bad luck at the initial entries. :0

Didn’t know that Australia had so few females contributing to the IT-field. Don’t you have any emancipating- or other positive discriminating program?

I guess there is a lot of catching up to do Down Under :0 😉 😀 :^0 🙂

Rob

I didn’t say we don’t have them

In reply to Oh my

only that I personally have not met any.

I did actually make contact with one through a matchmaking website, and she sounded quite keen to meet me. But she was so involved in some major IT project that I guess she never got around to phoning me.

Bloody friggin IT-project

In reply to Oh my

they do mess-up a lot of good stuff.

Didn’t she contact you after the project?
Or is it a never ending project to avoid you. :0

Do read:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=8&threadID=192906&messageID=1990841

I hope it helps out in de-ciphering the t_i_t tat she told you. 😀 😉

Rob

Actually Rob

In reply to Oh my

Speaking as someone who used to run and IT division I had very few females who where prepared to work the long hours with little recondition most wanted a 9-5 job where they knew that they would be leaving home at a certain time and arriving home at a certain time in other words they [b]Wanted a Life Outside of Work.[/b] 🙂

Granted I did have a few females working for me but honestly I think that they where the exception rather than the rule and even then I personally believe that their [b]Sisters[/b] placed them in that position to see what the work was like and if any of them suffered any form of abuse. Well every one of them did suffer abuse from me as I expected them to do their jobs and they where all [i]over worked and under paid[/i] just like all the rest of us. 😀

Col ]:)

hit and miss

In reply to Well I’ll be danged

I have tried these ways and it is a hit and miss, (mostly miss) for me to get in.

oh well.

the start thread

In reply to hit and miss

and hit back, re-load does the trick for me. but has to be done every time I hit back to TRI after inactivity of 1 hour (not sure as I don’t measure time that way), as I just found out.

Rob

I just keep

In reply to the start thread

the TRI page n another window and refresh every half hour or so to see if any new comments have been added. That way, I dont have to do the “Click on start Thread”, hit back and refresh thingy ….

]:)

SG

In reply to I just keep

That just makes you a [b] Plain Lazy Wench[/b] by constantly refreshing the Page. Why can’t you be like the rest of us and have to fight our way in? 😡

Many years ago before my father died he used to insist that there was no such thing as [b]A GOOD GIRL there where only BAD GIRLS and BETTER GIRLS and that was better at being BAD![/b] ;\

Would you like to enlighten us all which one you are? :^0

Col ]:)

Enlightenment

In reply to I just keep

Lazy Wench — Oh [b]Yes[/b]

Better at being bad — Honestly Col, Do you doubt me?? ;\

]:)

unfortunate for me

In reply to I just keep

I do attend to meetings elsewhere in the building. And funny as it may seem, but neither my secretary nor my co-workers feel obligated to push the reload button for me 🙁 . Let alone that our security-manager would allow others to “work” under my account, nor anyone else?s but their own, on the network/”my” pc, no such luck. 🙂

Rob

Hope you don’t mind, Rob

In reply to the start thread

but I am still re-entering the discussion on your “posts by my contacts.”

Jolly decent and sporting of you old chap to allow me such easy access. 🙂

Glad to be

In reply to Hope you don’t mind, Rob

of assistance. 🙂

Rob

OK guys

In reply to Community redesign coming…

As I haven’t asked a question recently and the site has changed a lot since the last time that I did can one of you lovely people help this person out?

http://tinyurl.com/h8m4p

OH and Beth [b]If you answer [i]Please be NICE![/i][/b] this person is a newcomer so we don’t need to scare him away [b]yet![/b] 😀

Col ]:)

Nice clean look, but…

In reply to Community redesign coming…

I do like the overall clean look. It’s not too agressive a change (so that we all won’t feel completely lost once it’s launched). However, I notice that the My Blog, My Tech Q&A, tabs are missing. It’s also a bit too busy. If you’re going for the “Web 2.0” (whatever-that-means) look, you’ll need to strip away some of the content–however, this goes against my initial comment about not changing it so much that we get lost.

I don’t envy the design staff, and while I like things simplified and prettified, I’m also a fan of the pragmatic.

– Hutch

Smorty here’s a question for you

In reply to Community redesign coming…

With the redesign that is coming will there be a [b]Search[/b] function available in the TQ&A Section?

I’ve just had a Peer Mail asking for a link to a question that I answered some time ago and I really have no idea of how to find it quickly.

Of course if I had something more to go on other than I gave some great info about W 2003 and Exchange 2003 it might make things a bit easier but I found it very hard to look through things quickly.

Col

[Author]

Replies