one suggestion to make this forum better

[nehalita]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

You always see "search before you post!"

What if a new member has no idea what to search for?

I think the forum police need to step down from their pedestals, and try to teach the new members how to use the forum, not just bash them for not searching before they post.

totally agree. i just joined today and it took me atleast 2 hrs to just get acquainted with it. 1/2 the time all i saw was "SEARCH BEFORE YOU ASK" but it took me a while to find the different categories, etc. and what a bunch of the buttons meant. i'm sure tehre are a bunch of options on here that even the pros aren't aware of. it'd be nice to have a tutorial or just a quick ppt briefly explaining each feature.

[Joe Matt]

Put a reminder on the top of every new thread page to make sure they search and include a link.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Matt Leese

Subscribing to the various subforums and a new posts from subscribed forums button? Pretty please Brandon.

Matt

You know, Matt. Your (and may others') wish may come true.

I've been wanting a quick way to get the 'Forum / Help / Comments' and other areas that I pay attention to, to show up on a 'new posts' search results.

I may just tackle those 2000 lines of code, now that I have some free time.

[nehalita]

question/suggestion (depends)

OK, I'm not sure if this is here already: is there a customized page when we sign in that tells us the pages we have recently posted in and a link to the thread? I've seen this feature in CC (college confidential - a forum like this about HS/college) and it's very convenient because sometimes it's hard to find the places we have posted in (or maybe it's just me because i am quite forgetful...).

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by nehalita

question/suggestion (depends)

OK, I'm not sure if this is here already: is there a customized page when we sign in that tells us the pages we have recently posted in and a link to the thread? I've seen this feature in CC (college confidential - a forum like this about HS/college) and it's very convenient because sometimes it's hard to find the places we have posted in (or maybe it's just me because i am quite forgetful...).

There is a way to do that.

Click your name.

Click "Find all posts by nehalita" (second from the bottom).

Enjoy.

[KimT]

A tutorial would be very nice. It definitely took me five days to figure out how to get to different forums without going through a message in the portal.

My searches, often as not, return nothing.

I spent about an hour trying to understand the whole reputation thing after I saw a post or two discussing it and got curious.

It's dumb things, but I've never encountered a forum laid out quite like this one, and though I don't mind trying to find out more, it's often not worth my time, especially during the build season.

btw - is there a way to mark threads you've posted in so you can see if people have responded, or do you just have to remember the name and hope that it will show up in the portal and/or a search when you come back to check? (ie now would be a helpful time for this feature) And please don't tell me to search. I wouldn't know what to use as keywords that are likely to show up, so that would be another useful tutorial to have. Thanks all!

Oooh! *Grins* I bet it's this subscribe button here. So I know now, but I'm leaving the question in here as an example of the processes not mentioned in the "read these first" threads, so far as I could tell.

-Kim

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by KimT

btw - is there a way to mark threads you've posted in so you can see if people have responded, or do you just have to remember the name and hope that it will show up in the portal and/or a search when you come back to check?

On the new posts page (see the orange bar at the top), any topics you've replied to will have an arrow over the envelope. And it'll show all the posts that are new since you last came to the site.

It's almost backwards from the way you described it, but it should do what you want it to do.

[KimT]

Originally Posted by Billfred

On the new posts page (see the orange bar at the top), any topics you've replied to will have an arrow over the envelope. And it'll show all the posts that are new since you last came to the site.

It's almost backwards from the way you described it, but it should do what you want it to do.

Wow! I've never tried that button before. SWEET!! Thanks much.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Brandon Martus

You know, Matt. Your (and may others') wish may come true.

I've been wanting a quick way to get the 'Forum / Help / Comments' and other areas that I pay attention to, to show up on a 'new posts' search results.

I may just tackle those 2000 lines of code, now that I have some free time.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33051

[Pat Fairbank]

I just had an idea for a feature that might help cut out on the posting of already-asked questions...

What if, whenever a user clicks the button to post a new thread after having created it, a screen were to pop up containing a list of recent similar threads, based on the content of what was about to be posted? Then, if none of the listed threads contained the desired information, the poster would click another button to post for real. This could probably be implemented really easily by borrowing the code that displays "Similar Threads" at the bottom of every page of a thread.

[Greg Perkins]

heres what i woulld like to see...

when a new member joins... instead of bringing them right into the forums, have them go to another page with a link, that link would then show a brief video/flash/ppt about the rules and procedures. then they would have to submit a specialized subscription code that they would recieve in their email.


that way everyone would have to know the rules


just my $.02

[Goobergunch]

Not all users will have Flash or (especially) Powerpoint. We don't want to keep legitimate users from registering just because they don't have the right plugins.

It's not a bad idea though, in principle. Maybe some kind of large HTML rules page that they would then be quizzed upon?

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Greg Perkins

heres what i woulld like to see...

when a new member joins... instead of bringing them right into the forums, have them go to another page with a link, that link would then show a brief video/flash/ppt about the rules and procedures. then they would have to submit a specialized subscription code that they would recieve in their email.


that way everyone would have to know the rules


just my $.02

New users get a welcome e-mail of sorts right after registration, I believe. I am trying to figure out the best way to get this information across. Either in this e-mail, or on some 'one-time-click-through' screen.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

I just had an idea for a feature that might help cut out on the posting of already-asked questions...

What if, whenever a user clicks the button to post a new thread after having created it, a screen were to pop up containing a list of recent similar threads, based on the content of what was about to be posted? Then, if none of the listed threads contained the desired information, the poster would click another button to post for real. This could probably be implemented really easily by borrowing the code that displays "Similar Threads" at the bottom of every page of a thread.

I thought if you previewed your new thread, it would show the similar threads at the bottom. I was wrong. I know finding the similar threads is quite a database hit, but I'll have to see how hard it really works the db. This may be something that we could require for users with less than X posts.

[activemx]

25 second search rule, perhaps