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Topic: New Forum Format (Read 12657 times) previous topic - next topic

New Forum Format

Just a comment.
I will find the new format much easier to use.
I would prefer the list to be sorted on response rather than initial posting.
At least that way the recent cream rises to the top!

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #1 –
Very easy to read and I really like the layout! Two thumbs up Eric and Beth.

However, while I like the proposed new format for the forum, I have a suggestion. It would be nice if we could sort the "Response" and "When" columns from most recent to oldest. This would allow us the ability to pick out threads and, more importantly, responses that we might not have seen without having to scroll all the way down the list of subjects. Just a thought.

Also, curious about the message text edit feature. What its function is and if there are any protocols that only allow the sender of the message to edit or that would prevent someone else from going in and changing messages that other users send.

As always a great product and support that just keeps improving. Keep up the good work!

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #2 –
The most-useful view of the current forum is 'Recent Activity'. By going there first I can see at a glance all the posts since I last visited.
Please retain this functionality in the new forum.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #3 –
Actually, I like the current forum better. With the new forum, you are hit with a pile of information for each thread. In the current forum, since only the replies are listed after the thread it is much less "dense". The Recent Activity page takes care of all the other needed information. I do like the edit feature of the proposed forum, but where's the OK button?

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #4 –
I take back what I said, I like the revised proposed new forum.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #5 –
I didn't even know there was a "New Forum Format." How can I give it a test-drive?

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #6 –
I found it in another thread. Seems like it might be cool...

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #7 –
We have now gone live with the new forum technology. Here are some quick answers to the most abrupt changes:

Why can't I add my e-mail address anymore?

We have removed the e-mail facility as it existed in the past forum technology. At the moment, the forum does not ask for or use e-mails in any way.

How do I know when someone answers my question?

You can use the search facility to find your messages. If your name is currently passed to our web site in a cookie (set from the old version of the forum), you can do this quickly by selecting the My Messages link in the top navigation bar.

Future plans for the forum?

We will be making further changes to the forum, including better and more accurate help text, and additional tools for posting and tracking content. Please stay tuned.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #8 –
I don't see the "My Messages" link in the top navigation bar.  Is this a feature to come and will it pick up just the threads that are started or all responses?

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #9 –
This feature is enabled when you have established your identity. Click the help link for more details, specifically the section labelled as Your Identity.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #10 –
Thanks for the usual, very quick response to a user's questions and suggestions.  You continue to amaze me with your helpfulness and responsiveness.  Definitely not like other product support or forums that I frequent.  Again, job well done!

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #11 –
The previous format was better in one aspect.  When clicking Add New Reply, a new window would open.  I could then refer to the original question/reply while writing my own reply simply by alternating (or even tiling) the windows.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #12 –
Hm.. you're right. And you can't right-click on the button to spawn a new window for the editor, as would be possible if the button were an ordinary link.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #13 –
On the other hand, you can use the browser's Back and Forward buttons to go back and forth between the listing and the editor... which is nice for reference purposes but can be a mixed blessing if you want to go back the the main "Recent..." page, as you then have to click through your edit page(s).

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #14 –
I agree. On my very first reply in this new scheme, I started missing the ability to Alt-Tab back to the message while working on the reply. We will do something about it.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #15 –
OK. The reply form now opens in a new browser window. The only down side to this change is that now your last visited links will not automatically recognize your new reply in a message (since the successfull reply no longer results in a redirect to the updated message).

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #16 –
Encouraged by https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=1908.msg10435#msg10435:
"We will be making further changes to the forum, including better and more accurate help text, and additional tools for posting and tracking content. "

There are a few good forum softwares such as UBB out there. They are both very functional and fully customizable for the host and the users. Wouldn't you mind giving a think?

Best,
Ertugrul
<ertugrulinanc-at-ixir-dot-com>
(for instance, they enable you adding message signatures automatically...)

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #17 –
We don't have any plans to switch to an off-the-shelf forum solution.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #18 –
I'm sure you can make a better one (than them)...

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #19 –
I like the new window for the reply, but when I click the "close window" button (in Netscape 4.79) I get a dialog box asking "Close window _blank?"

Cyril

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #20 –
Yes, that dialog box in 4.79 is a nuisance. Thankfully they've gotten rid of that in 6.2.

Fred

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #21 –
PS - you don't /have/ to use the javascript button to close the newly spawned window. You can simply close it the usual way, by clicking on the "close" icon (the X in the upper right corner of the window).

Fred

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #22 –
Well, I only went far from computers for 10 days, and so many changes occur!
I love the new formats available, the sortings, the new search available in the forum threads, the listing vs. excerpts formats.
Simply great. I'm impressed. And more is yet to come?
Wow :)

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #23 –
Oh, and a hint for replies 19 and 21: Ctrl+W is really efficient too. (BTW, it's the best solution against popups creating popups when closed, since you can close them before the javascript script is loaded)
or Apple(command?)+W on a Mac :)
Available for any Netscape version, and IE3 and later I think.
Ctrl+F4 (NOT ALT+F4 on NS) should do it too. But it's harder to do than Ctrl+W...

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #24 –
One thing I've noted is that people are (at times) using the "Name" slot in this (the addreply form) as if it were a subject slot.  This isn't a BAD thing, but perhaps there should be some way of identifing the person posting.  Perhaps there could be a subject slot (as I believe there is in the "new subject" window -- I haven't used it so I'm not sure) that would be primed with "Re: original subject", the way reply posts are on newsgroups (at least in Netscape).

This was brought to mind in the discussion which turned into a poll of 3.1(1) users, where at least one post was from "oops".  (Yes, I know from the context that it was from "marsu", but I'm not altogether sure of the next post, from "bug".)

Cyril

Oh, yes, is there any easy way to spell-checks on posts?  I KNOW that I'm sending at least some mangled words.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #25 –
We have no plans to provide any more than the one subject line for a topic/thread.

As for spell checking, probably your best option is to write your message elsewhere, spell check, then paste into the form.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #26 –
re Reply 24 (Cyril)
The cases you quoted where the 'Name' contained things such as 'oops' and 'bug' cannot be attributed to the new forum format as these particular posts were from 2000! I noticed this, because the following post was from myself, and I didn't remember it, so I checked the date.
Your comment is still valid, but it is not a feature introduced by the new format. Just thought I'd make that clear, in case you or other had not noticed.
Joy

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #27 –
No, I fear that I hadn't noticed it.  Thank you for pointing it out, and I apologies for faulting the NoteWorthy crew.

Cyril

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #28 –
Reply 25 by NoteWorthy Online:
>
> As for spell checking, probably your best option is
> to write your message elsewhere, spell check, then
> paste into the forum.

Please care, however, that your spell checker doesn't introduce many microsoft-only characters, such as proprietary single or double quotes, en dash, em dash, and so on. They are often obtained by a transformation that microsoft calls "smart feature"...

Because these characters are specific to microsoft, they are not appropriate for an HTML page on the web. Personnally I see all of them as such: ? but other bahaviours are possible for other browsers.

More info in On the use of some MS Windows characters in HTML.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #29 –
If you're using Netscape, you could compose your text in the mail editor, spell-check, select and copy it when satisfied, and cancel the mail; paste back into the browser window.

Fred

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #30 –
Just because I've been using Windows since a long time:
select and copy it when satisfied, and cancel the mail; paste back into the browser window should be read as select and copy it when satisfied, paste back into the browser window, send it, then cancel the mail

Am I gettin' paranoid?

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #31 –
This is true for other systems also. Anything may happen after you canceled the mail, e.g. that you strike Ctrl-Insert again instead of Shift-Insert.

Also, after Fred's reply, I would like to complete my own:
I suppose that Netscape doesn't pervert the standard ISO-Latin-1 characters. On the other hand, if the spell-checker is a microsoft product, please take care that there is no "smart" option active!

Probably I am getting paranoid.

Re: New Forum Format

Reply #32 –
Olivier's advice (just above) is also appropriate when using some symbolic fonts, espeically if the encoding does not distinguish itself from text fonts. If the font designer happens to place some of the characters in the "smart" code locations, then Windows word processing applications may make a surprising substitute. This won't happen in a dumb text editor (such as Notepad).