To Admin, a few things we might tune up on forums

James Maeding
edited May 2020 in Other

Hello Acting Admin,
Someday I will get a T-shirt that says "Luke, I am your ADMIN", as we never know who they are.
Anyway, so I subscribed to all discussions as I am from the adesk world and want to help the bcad world.
Not that it matters, but I'm just saying these issue happen for all flavors of posts.
1) On new discussions, I get a double email every time, with the link in first email being bad.
This may be from people double posting, but I don't think so. Its too consistent, and many have learned not to double post by now.

2) The front page with various categories is so spaced out, that I think people are not using them like they maybe should.
I just noticed the Lisp Code one today when looking for a "contact admin" link. Could not find that so writing this post.

3) the formatting options for the actual post bodies are a little rough. I posted some c# code the other day with the statement #if, and it bolded it.
Stuff within a code bracket, which is single quotes as I recall, should be literal, not formatted.

4) and of course, the speed of posting is really awkward. I am finding myself scrambling to copy what I typed, right after hitting post, so I don't have to re-write my novels.

The current format has many good things too, such as the Discussions link that shows most current threads. I commonly use that when the email links do not work, or just to check in case I did not read some emails.

There are other things too, but I won't go on unless bricsys is interested in improving the forums.
They may have other fish to fry, but hopefully they realize they represent what is the main communication their competition uses.
The number one thing bacd is fighting against is people scared to transition from acad because they don't know acad itself.
If they see an easy to browse forum that is healthy and active, it speaks volumes over any feature you could add.
thx

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Comments

  • I am working with Bricsys and have also subscribed to everything as part om my learning process and to see what people in the forum are discussing. I know there is work going on in Bricsys to improve on the the forum get it more integrated in the the rest of the support information available for BricsCAD. File support request with your views on the forum. Guess it should go under Website and Marketing Material....

  • @Per Gogstad
    Cool. Are you getting the double emails on new posts also? thx

  • Michael Mayer
    edited May 2020

    I think it would be a great help too,
    if I would get only a new email notification for the first new
    post of a Thread I subscribed - until I visit the Forum again.
    Not a new notification for every next answer.
    (I think that is pretty standard for most forum software)

    As it is, I may find 20 answer notifications of the same Thread
    next morning. Mixed up with other Thread's notifications in between.
    And worse, as email's Subjects are generated in a :
    "XXX has commented on ....." formatting,
    it makes auto grouping of mails in mail browser impossible.
    That way you can't even sort by Subject manually, as it will sort
    by Authors instead of by Subjects.

  • @Michael Mayer
    I think you can select "for new" and "for every reply" in settings.
    I forgot though - yes, the fact that the email does not have the reply stated is very unfunctional.
    If I could see the reply text in email, I could decide if worth replying to and not visit the web page if not.
    I hate popping into the forum just to see a "thanks" reply on some thread, very time wasting.

  • I think you can select "for new" and "for every reply" in settings.

    I did not find anything in my notification preferences,
    nor when I subscribe to a sigle thread manually.

    If I could see the reply text in email,

    Also a good idea.

  • hmm, these are the options

    I think its the "when others comment on my bookmarked..." item.

    1.png 20.4K
  • I have the same settings.
    I looked at them and hoped they would have been updated and I hadn't noticed.

    Not sure which I should deactivate, without losing all notifications.
    I have subscribed to whole Sub Forums only.

  • You are right that the choices are "all new" and "all replies".
    There is no summary option, or "only first 10 replies"...
    You can always unsubscribe per post, so that is how I throttle things.

  • This board feels like a time machine to the mid 1990's

  • Hi guys!

    Thanks for all your comments, we are working on improving things. If you have an y more ideas do keep them coming, we are listening!

  • Michael Mayer
    edited May 2020

    I wish for a dark mode ;)

    I can't see the Smiley Previews in Drop Down on Mac.

    EDIT :
    May be an Add Blocker ...
    Not sure why, but after playing with Firefox's UBlock Origin,
    I can see Smiley Icons again on Firefox and Safari as well.
    Sometimes they are there, sometimes not.

  • Michael Mayer
    edited May 2020

    An auto-underlining,
    with Rollover Tips when hovering your cursor,
    (Like in Wikipedia)
    for all Bricscad related Terms, Tools, Commands, ...

    Like
    DYNDIM, BIMDRAG, Spatial Location, .....

  • I just got an email on a new post, only one email! Either someone fixed something, or people were double posting, then the admin removing the first.
    If that was the case, it was happening 90% of the time, so working on the posting speed issue will save the admin a lot of "whack-a-post".

  • As per the post from Rose, you will have something new and improved coming in the future. All your suggestions are taken into consideration.

  • @James Maeding said:
    2) The front page with various categories is so spaced out, that I think people are not using them like they maybe should.

    Looks like the list of categories has changed since I last checked, although still excessively spaced out.

    Also, hyperlinks are not appearing highlighted in this forum for me, in Firefox or Chrome, at least.

  • Looks like the list of categories has changed since I last checked,

    noticed that too.
    For me it is much better now !

    Although it still looks funny in a narrow browser window.

  • @Michael Mayer said:
    An auto-underlining,
    with Rollover Tips when hovering your cursor,
    (Like in Wikipedia)
    for all Bricscad related Terms, Tools, Commands, ...

    Like
    DYNDIM, BIMDRAG, Spatial Location, .....

    Agree. If you have autohotkey, then you can use this utility that I posted here
    https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/35095/forum-tools-quickly-add-links-to-help-signature-tool

    DYNDIM, DRAG, Spatial Location

    Better compliance with markdown syntax would be useful too.

    Focus on Function over Form. A technical forum should allow users to discuss queries easily, not how pretty the post looks.

    Regards,
    Jason Bourhill
    BricsCAD V20 Ultimate
    CAD Concepts

  • ^ That is great.

    Another wish : A Like/Agree/Thank You Button.
    To show that you agree - without a need for a "I second that" post.

  • These are all great suggestions guys. Keep them coming!

    At the moment there is nothing I can do about the layout, it is restricted by our current platform. We are looking into a new one at the moment.

  • A bit more control about eMail notifications is my main wish.

    Most of my other ideas are not must haves but just extra goodies.
    In general I am not unhappy with the Bricscad Forum.

    Maybe "Ask a new question" could be default over "New discussion"
    as many like to give the "Answered" mark.

    Selecting parts of a Text with an option to "quote" would be nice.

    Attaching Images/Files and their insertion in Posts could be a bit
    easier, simpler or self understandable.

    Unlimited"Edit"ing is great.

    Link SPAM defense works great now.

    I like the current Layout and Interface. It is clear and Post Content
    super readable.
    Side width dependent Layout works well for me.

  • Tom Foster
    edited May 2020

    I'll vote for

    @Michael Mayer said:
    Selecting parts of a Text with an option to "quote" would be nice.

    See? that was quite clunky, to delete most of what was imported!

    I'd like multiple attachments per post.

  • I'd just like to be able to delete a post, or a thread I started.

  • @rose_barfield
    Thanks for your replies, communication is so helpful.
    If shopping for formats, my vote would be for what thesawamp.org uses, I think SMF based on text at bottom, but maybe that is a consultant.

  • I'd like multiple attachments per post.

    Exactly.
    Somewhere else I can start writing a post,
    scroll up to a previous post and select parts of text,
    get a "Quote" button rollover,
    which will insert in my WIP post at cursor position
    (As a quote with original author)
    Can do that as often as I want.
    Pretty fast.

  • I have given up on trying to post code using the code formatting for VBA code. It doesn't work with things like ' for comments. They trigger some formatting. A code box should just permit all text to be present without trying to change it.

    Another problem that I see regularly, is that when typing a new message, that is longer than the yellow box provided, you do not get any way to scroll the message. The text box does not get longer, like when I type a reply to a message.

    When I am replying to a message, the yellow text box automatically gets longer. Though, the buttons to post or save the draft are pushed down off of the screen. You have to use the browser's scroll to get them visible again, when you are ready to post. Note that I use Firefox if that matters.

  • @Tom Foster said:
    I'd like multiple attachments per post.

    Wot you said, but also what I mean is attachments as in Attaching a dwg or jpg, or several all within one post, instead of one at a time per post so sometimes have to make multiple posts.

  • @Joe Dunfee said:
    I have given up on trying to post code using the code formatting for VBA code. It doesn't work with things like ' for comments. They trigger some formatting. A code box should just permit all text to be present without trying to change it.

    Even when not creating a code box this can bite you. I posted a cap from the command line a few days ago, and it included a single quote, and it caused indenting, bolding, all sorts of stuff.

  • Roy Klein Gebbinck
    edited May 2020

    Test:

    'Single quote in code box.
    "Double quote in code box.
    

    Seems to work fine, apart from the (often wrong) attempt at syntax highlighting. Certainly Lisp code is not highlighted properly.

  • At a minimum the spell checker should not consider Bricscad and Bricsys to be improperly spelled.

  • @H Martin Shoemaker said:
    At a minimum the spell checker should not consider Bricscad and Bricsys to be improperly spelled.

    The spell checker is not on the forum, rather it is in your computer. You need to right-click on the red underlined word, and select "add to dictionary". Also, note that BricsCAD [Last 3 letters capitalized] is the correct spelling, though I have never seen anyone complain about Bricscad.

    -joe

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