Thank you Lee!
Nice list of upcoming features.
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I don't currently have an ETA of deploying these new forum enhanced features, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up of what we are currently working. I will post an annoucement as soon as I know a solid release date. So please do NOT ask when these will be deployed, I will let you know.
These are the enhancements and fixes as follows:
1. Member profile pages (Get to know you fellow community members)
2. Contact other members via emails (kinda sorta, but not like private messaging, but you will be able to email other members directly from the forums without sacraficing your privacy.)
3. Cookie based Read and Unread message indicators (different colored arrows to indicate Read and Unread discussions and messages.)
4. 7 layer deep limitation will be revamped to 12 layers. 12 layers should be enough to complete a short debate or how-to, anything longer than 12 layers is a waste of bandwidth
)
5. Cobrand mixing of help.com forums and reviews forums fixed (no more confusions, "there's no place like home")
6. Finally some advertisement banners in the forums to support them (I know it was great not to have any, but the forums have been starving ya know
)
Discussion is locked
Sounds good, Lee! However, I have one good natured quibble:
>4. 7 layer deep limitation will be revamped to 12 layers. 12 layers should be enough to complete a short debate or how-to, anything longer than 12 layers is a waste of bandwidth
)>
We at Speakeasy will do our best to use every layer you give us....![]()
Sounds great, but PLEASE, wring it out before you implement it so the forums don't inadvertantly 'go in the tank' as has happened on previous occasions.
Thanks Lee.
These features sound Great. I have two suggestions that you may consider sometime in the near future if possible.
1 Can you add a section to the profile, that when a person completes the registration form they must include a brief discription of their OS and make it manditory, a lot of people ask for help but give no info. as to what they are useing and the Moderators have to be mind readers to give an answer.
2 Would it be possible to have a seperate Mozilla Forum for Mozilla and Firefox Questions as they become more popular. I do use MozillaZine as I have Firefox, but they get a little over my head.
Thanks to you and all the Moderators for the good work and great answers.
Larry
It would be nice to have the ability to put an image into a post, eg:
and also text formatting 'enhancements' like:
quote
code
strikethrough
Many forums have relatively standard codes for these.
resources for the forums are very scarce, I was just lucky this time to get approved for few enhancement and bug fixes.
Ask the others who have been around... for 8 months we had no resources to implement any changes or fixes. So please do not take my added enhancement release that resources are going to be around/plentiful, because the reality is it is not.
Sorry Bill et all, all I can do is note these additional wish items and prioritize them to see what is most important and beneficial to the forums.
thanks,
-Lee
Well Lee, based on your shown Features List and correlated with Microsoft to put online store on Start menu, my perception says that those are more related with the new service. So, it should be pumped some resources for the Forum's wrapper, don't you think ? ![]()
Cetin
Trying to unweave, unwind, unravel
And piece together the past and the future,
T. S. Eliot
I have posted several times since Oct 2003, that since 'resources' '$' is the problem, then to help in that regards the forums should have 'ads' like the old forums did. You now finally mention that ads will be on the schedule for implementation. IMO that should have been the first priority (way back then even tho possibly a low income) if money is needed to help pay for a programmer (engineer) to work these forums.
In order to get ads in the forums, we first need the traffic in the forums to justify ads, without any traffic we can't sell any ads to advertisers.
Can you imagine trying to pitch an advertising company to run ads on a site that does minimal traffic? It would be like running a billboard in the Mojave dessert where no one will ever see it.
Now that I have gained more traction in the forums and gained a bit more recognition and exposure to the community forums, I was able to get some ads placed into the forums. It isn't much, but it is something that is better than nothing. And it is a start.
Even though the old forums had ads, you have to remember that those ads came from a time when the ZDNet forums were in its prime, generating page views up the wazoo! And resources where thrown around like waste. After the dot com bust, the resources were gone and the ads where just there as remnants of the good times.
Today its a whole different playing field, resources are limited and budget are incredibly tight. Even if we are generating ads in the forums, it never will or does guarantee resources will be there.
So I hope this clarify things a bit for you and others who may think that my priorities are backwards, but they aren?t. Adding ads to a forum page is a simple thing, getting ads is whole different game...
-Lee
Maybe it is time the forums went on a subscription basis! I would be willing to pay a fee, as this is the best site to get help and info when needed.
Glenda
This was brought up a long time ago and shot down.
You really want to do away with the forums, then charge a fee to enter. Google it!
says, it basically going to kill the forums rather than help it.
Thanks for the thought though Glenda.
-Lee
...external ads can be secured to produce revenue? Adverts to CNET money producing products and services would at least be making SOME use of the forums, and might generate SOME extra revenue.
By the way, CNET stock has held up OK in the latest tech market meltdown today. See, there's some good news. ![]()
Is there any reason for the "Popups" which eat our system resources and an irritation to no end. Those techs eating your resources adding such crap could put their minds to better use IMO:
Opinion Mart - Where your opinion counts.
In exchange for sharing your opinions, we are offering you the opportunity to win $1,000.
The survey will take about 5 minutes.
Thanks but no thanks.
Bill Gaston
I didn't see those. However, I immediately filled the info.
If I'll win, I'll donate to the Forums' development
One amendment though : first priority change should be this one ![]()
Cetin
Trying to unweave, unwind, unravel
And piece together the past and the future,
T. S. Eliot
not part of the help.com forums. The survey is throughout the Reviews site.
It is not part of help.com forums.
What are "Reviews branded forums" then if it tends to pop up once or more times a day when cruising the five forum I go to regularly? Does the &tag=cnr have anything to do with it?
and footer for Reviews.
Once it pulls it up, you will be in a Reviews branded session.
-Lee
So many times I wish I could go back and edit a Posting I have already made, something I didn't notice until it was too late. (drat!)
So, if the Author could go back and do an edit, or even the ability to delete one of his own postings, that would be nice.
Personally I think an "edit" wouldn't be so good because when somebody replies to a problem or question but then the person changes/edits their post... the reply might not make sense anymore. I think that the "preview message" is fine because it gives you a chance to read for mistakes... although I admit I don't always read what I wrote. It's just what I think... I've seen other forums where somebody who is new just comes in and since people edited their post so often it made no sense. This is just what I think.
tomorrow around 12PM PSDT.
So please check them out and if you find any bugs I would appreciate it if you could let me know about them.
Thanks!
-Lee
It looks like that 'mailto' thing must have a bug. I can see that everyone's name is a hotlink now but it takes you to a CNet 404...
link...
we are looking into it now.
Thanks!
-Lee
I added my fave site and homepage but
www.dozleng.com became http://reviews.cnet.com/www.dozleng.com
www.microsoft.com/technet/security became http://reviews.cnet.com/www.microsoft.com/technet/security