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General discussion

FORUM Annoucement: Forum bug fixes and added features- to deploy 6/08

Jun 7, 2004 7:26AM PDT

Hi folks,

Sometime tomorrow morning 6/08, we will be deploying some changes to the CNET community forums--some will be enhancements and some will be bug fixes. So please be aware of these changes and please report any bugs or weirdness to THIS thread. thank you! -Lee

Here is the list of things that are going to be deployed in the forums:

Forum Bug fixes

1. Duplicate posts have been resolved by adding a confirmation page after submitting a post. It is one extra step for users, but this will ensure that duplicate posts will not occur.

2. Text limitation in replies: Limitations have been removed in replies, no more "Part 1, part2..." for posting large amount of text

3. Active X script running in forum templates has been removed

4. Forum Discussion list will now include additional columns of info:

Title/Author, Thread creation date, Last Post to thread date and time, and number of posts in the thread

5. Alt tags have been added to buttons -- We might have missed a few alt tags here and there, but the important ones are covered.

6. Reply to post page, will show entire content of post that you are replying to, rather than it being cut off.

7. HTML template has been cleaned up in hopes to improve forum speeds.


User functionality enhancements:

1. Increased tree thread views to show 250 rather than 50 messages So rather than having user page through the tree of messages, 250 messages will appear on the tree for ease of following long discussions. Anything after 250 posts will initiate the paging of the tree.

2. The red "NEW" indicator for new message to disappear after 12 hrs rather than a lengthy 24hrs

3. User thread subscriptions: User will now be able to subscribe to threads and get notification on activities in those particular threads. Please check out the revised Forum FAQ page to reflect thread subscriptions: http://reviews.cnet.com/4002-7600_7-5083783.html Once you have subscribed to a thread, if there is any activity in the thread(s) that you subscribed to, a summarized email of your subscriptions will be sent to you. Emails will be sent every 4 hours. If there are no activities in your subscriptions, you will not be notified.

4. Forum Search added to all forum pages

5. Next and previous message button has been moved to a more prominent and fixed location rather than bouncing around depending on the length of the message.

6. Added a "Back to main Forums page" link and "Jump page" at the bottom of collapsed forum pages

Other Stuff:

1. CNET Editors/Employees will receive a red ball "C" icon.

2. Co-Branding of the CNET help.com with CNET Reviews
Going forward --to invite more members and participation in our forums, we have co-branded our forums to have the look and feel of CNET Reviews. Once these forum changes have been deployed you will now be able to view the forums with the CNET Help.com look or the CNET Reviews look. All content is shared, but just the header and footer template will be different.

Here is an example, but it will only work after the forum changes have been deployed to live:

CNET Help.com Windows XP forum:
http://reviews.cnet.com/5204-6142-0.html?forumID=5

CNET Reviews Windows XP forum:
http://reviews.cnet.com/5204-6142-0.html?forumID=5&tag=cnr

3. Subject line display will be limited to 50 characters.

4. Register user can now only send Offensive message alerts now. Only registered/logged in users will have the ability to notify us of offensive messages.

5. Discussion threads can be locked by our moderators. If we see that a discussion is going no where, but south, moderators will be able to lock them down. Locked down thread will be indicated with a pad lock icon.

Things that will unfortunately remain the same:

1. 7 layer deep thread...we tried but the wrapping of subject lines made the thread almost impossible to follow, so it was ultimately decided not to increase it

2. No thread jumping links...we implemented it at first, but because the forum pages are dynamic and any new posted message to any discussion will bump the thread to the top of the forums--it made the previous and next thread button appear then disappear which made it a pretty confusing experience. So we had decided for the sake of not confusing users, this piece was pulled at the last minute.

3. Remaining logged in. This is actually a larger issue and will require additional resources to look into to fix, so given the resources I received this time, I was unable to get this resolved.

Discussion is locked

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Re: changes- You're really burning midnight oil...
Jun 10, 2004 11:56PM PDT

... for our benefit, Lee. Kudos to the engineer, and to you!
-- Dave K.

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(NT) (NT) LEE RULES! ! ! !
Jun 11, 2004 12:06AM PDT
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''Why'' the change to text editor
Jun 11, 2004 12:24AM PDT

You cannot put an extra blank line after your text in order to keep the Posted by from being on the very next line after the input. I for one think this makes the input harder to read.

Bill Gaston

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Re: ''Why'' the change to text editor -- Huh?
Jun 11, 2004 9:49AM PDT

That still works for me, Bill.
-- Dave K.

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NT - Working now but didn't for a while.
Jun 11, 2004 9:24PM PDT

.

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An ''anomaly''
Jun 11, 2004 11:49PM PDT

I was noting this when viewing my input. No blank line(s) is/are allowed on screen below the text entered. After input is posted however, you may note there is always a blank line preceeding the Posted . . .

Thanks.

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The changes you've implemented
Jun 11, 2004 1:24AM PDT

Have made the forums an enjoyable place to be again, Lee.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, and thanks to your crew for making it much better.

--Cindi
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email the mods

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(NT) (NT) These changes are fantastic!! Thanks to everyone. :)
Jun 11, 2004 2:06AM PDT
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''Read'' v/s ''Unread''
Jun 11, 2004 2:55AM PDT
'owdy,


Are they ever going to work?

Bill Gaston

Pardon ma ACKsent, ah'm frum Austin, Tex_As, USA

....its been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.
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''Search'' not doing it's thing.
Jun 11, 2004 3:24AM PDT
'owdy,


Advanced Search and I'm doing this at my time here in Texas at 12:22p.m.

Subject/Message Board

? Re: Systray (not Respondong)
posted in Windows 95/98: Cursorcowboy 2004-06-11 08:46:52

? Re: Disable Windows Report Tool
posted in Windows 95/98: Cursorcowboy 2004-06-11 08:43:32

? Not flaw, but an enhancement.
posted in Computer Newbies: Cursorcowboy 2004-06-11 08:31:20

* *

However, look at this "posting" which was made subsequent to any listed above.

Bill Gaston

Pardon ma ACKsent, ah'm frum Austin, Tex_As, USA

....its been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.
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(NT) (NT) Thank you so much Lee!
Jun 11, 2004 3:35AM PDT
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(NT) (NT) 2nd that. Thank you so much Lee! (eom)
Jun 11, 2004 3:44AM PDT
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Re: Forum bug fixes and added features - Newly noted UBB bug
Jun 11, 2004 12:40AM PDT

Hi, Lee.

Not sure when this crept in -- just noticed it today, and it's definitely new this week. The space after an italicized word is now being swallowed up, so the italicized word runs right into the following regular word. I've checked, and it only happens with italicized words, not bolded ones. GREAT work in general, though! (There was a space after "italicized" there, honest! And look what it's doing to the quotes around "italicized," which are just as you'd expect them to be. Something genuinely word about the italics parsing, now!) -- Dave K.

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Re: Forum bug fixes and added features - Newly noted UBB bug
Jun 11, 2004 3:43AM PDT

Hey Dave, there is a space after your example.
Try this:
In your example, select the words
"and it only happens with italicized words"
and paste it into a notepad (which will strip out the italics).
You will see the "space" is there after all.

It is just the kerning of the font that is covering over the space that you desire to see.
Sure, you wish the kerning (the alloted width of individual characters) would provide for a little more observable white space, but I don't think there is much that the Forum can do about that.

Try the same test in your second example, where you have the word "italicized" surrounded by quotes.
Copy the words:
"Look what happens with "italicized" quotes here"

Again, it is the kerning of the character combination of the lead quote and the i that causes an un-appealing gap. But the real spaces are there correctly. It is an appearance problem.

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Re: Forum bug fixes and added features - Newly noted UBB bug
Jun 11, 2004 9:47AM PDT

Hi, Chuck.

Well, maybe they used to add a new space after italics then, but there's a definite change.
-- Dave K.

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Actually Dave, I had the engineer look into this and
Jun 11, 2004 5:12PM PDT

he told me it is the italic text that is visually taking up the space--the space as ChuckT explained is actually there. There is really nothing our engineer can do about it because it is a filter that is built into Jive and there is no code he can tweak for this. I would recommend adding an additional space after the italic text.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

-Lee

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Re: Adding extra space...
Jun 12, 2004 3:57AM PDT

Hi, Lee.

>> I would recommend adding an additional space after the italic text.<<
Already tried that -- it doesn't work Sad While we're at it, any chance of allowing leading spaces to be used, instead of filtered out? No indentation doesn't look as elegant. And have a great weekend!
-- Dave K.

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Simply does not work.
Jun 19, 2004 10:37PM PDT
There is really nothing our engineer can do about it because it is a filter that is built into Jive

a. Sounds like a crock. If they suggest adding an additional space and know what their filters do . . .

b. I still stand by my statement that our having to use BBS code which is then converted to HTML for display in the actual source page slows things down when used. I'll never believe this is a necessary. . ..
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Lee, what I miss the most is.......
Jun 11, 2004 4:28AM PDT

the link to send a post by emailSad I used it a lot in the old forumsSad Any chance of getting it back?
Glenda

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Re: e-mail
Jun 11, 2004 9:51AM PDT

Hi, Glenda.

For privacy reasons, the only person with access to e-mail information is now Lee.
-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator

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Re: e-mail/ Dave you misunderstood me........
Jun 11, 2004 11:42AM PDT

in the old SE there was a button that said email this message! and you could send it to people on your email list! Sometimes I like to send my kids posts that I have enjoyed, and it was so easy with the email message button.
Glenda

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Re: e-mail/ Dave you misunderstood me...-- I did; sorry!
Jun 11, 2004 2:11PM PDT

Hi, Glenda.

The couple times I tried to use it, I got e-mails from the folks saying they couldn't use the link w/o registering, which they didn't want to do, so I considered it useless!

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Dave, that actually won't happen with these forums
Jun 11, 2004 5:20PM PDT

When we had the Twister software back in the ZDNet days, if you copied the URL while you where logged in and sent it to someone, they would have to log in order to view it. With Jive the URL does not change regardless if you are logged in or not, so anyone who opens your link to the forums will be able to read it.

Remember at the end of each URL during the Twister days-- ROS=1 for logged in and ROS=0 for not logged in. Ahhh... the ZDNet days, seems so long ago, but still fresh in my memory. Happy

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I had planned on adding that feature, but somehow it was
Jun 11, 2004 5:15PM PDT

overlooked. If it is easy enough, I'll see what we can do to bring that back. It was a useful feature.

Thanks,
-Lee

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Thank you, Lee :)
Jun 11, 2004 11:43PM PDT

Hopefully all of the features everyone wants can be implemented, If not then we will just have to deal with itHappy
Glenda

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A suggestion for the future
Jun 14, 2004 12:24PM PDT

Hi Lee,

Maybe the next time you get some resources, a "back to top" link could be placed at the bottom of the pages? When a thread has a lot of replies, that aids a lot in navigation.

Thanks!
--Cindi
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email the mods

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(NT) (NT) Finding post 06/16/2004 @ 6:42 am is needle in haystack
Jun 16, 2004 1:58AM PDT
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(NT) (NT) Glenn can you clarify this please. Thanks
Jun 16, 2004 3:00AM PDT
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Lee... glad to clarify...
Jun 16, 2004 10:10AM PDT

Sorry for the brevity. My reference was to the last post date of 06/16/2004 posted at 6:42 AM that was showing this morning. The problem is the 'read' threads do not retain their light blue color thus making it difficult to find new replies in a group of threads this large. I never did find it. Am sure it was there but not apparent to me.

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Re: Lee... glad to clarify...
Jun 16, 2004 11:37PM PDT

I have the same problem with marking read. Everything that was marked is now in Bold againHappy And sometimes the post doesn't change from bold at all!
Glenda