Forum Update

[Molly K]

I wanted to thank all of you for helping to make the NI Community so successful! Your feedback and involvement has really helped everyone!

We have had a lot of suggestions and have a lot of issues reported over the past 6 months. I wanted to try to consolidate the list of the more common issues and suggestions we have had so far. (These are in no particular order.)

Known Issues:

1 - Posting Code is Difficult
The post window treats what you enter as HTML, so if you try to post snippets of C code pieces of it are not always displayed. This is considered high priority and we have been working diligently to find the best resolution.

2 - Attachments Lost on Preview
When you attach a file, preview your message, and post it, the attachment is lost. The workaround is to attach the file again or quickly Edit the Message and attach the file.

3 - Spell Checker in FireFox
Only works up to the first word, then it says it's done.

4 - Duplicate Users Online
The Users Online list shows how many active sessions are open for each user instead of just showing one entry per active user.

5 - Jump to Message in long threads in Threaded View
Trying to address a particular message in a long thread doesn't work when you view the threads in Threaded View.

6 - Large Attachments
Posting attachments larger than 5MB simply reloads the empty post page instead of posting the message.

7 - Negative Minutes Online
In the Users Online view, the minutes roll over to negative when the number gets too high.

8 - Posting in FireFox
Jean-Pierre Drolet has had problems on 5 computers getting posting working from FireFox.

9 - Timeout While Posting
If it takes longer than 3 hours to submit a post, your message is lost because your session has expired.

Feature Requests:

1 - Leader Board
We need to relieve CC of his duties of generating "The List." This is a high priority feature request.

2 - Keyword Subscriptions
Users should be able to subscribe to particular keywords so they receive notifications when those words are included in posts. This is a high priority feature request.

3 - Average Thread Ratings
On the Board Page, the ratings average shown there is just the average of the question. We would rather have it average all ratings cast to that thread.

4 - HTML in NNTP
The line breaks in the discussion forums are displayed as <br> tags in NNTP.

5 - Hyperlinks
Make it easier for users to post hyperlinks in messages.

6 - Fixed Author Column Width
When users have long aliases, it changes the layout of the page. We have resolved this on the thread page, but not the board page yet.

7 - Check Spelling on Submit
Allow users to configure in their profile to automatically run spell check before submitting any post.

8 - Edit Message Comment
Allow users to enter a comment describing their changes if/when they edit their post.

9 - Jump to New Messages in Threaded View
Allow users to quickly find NEW messages in threaded view.

10 - Move Search Box Up on Board and Thread Pages
Move the search to the top of the Board and Thread pages so you don't have to scroll down to find it.

11 - Private Message Feature
We have discussed whether allowing Private Messages in our community would be beneficial.

12 - RSS Feed
Allow users to get an RSS feed of recent messages posted to the community.

13 - Search Results
Allow users to choose whether their search results are returned as individual messages or threads.

14 - User Subscriptions
Subscribe to receive emails when a particular user posts new messages.

15 - Custom Icons
Have NI store icons for users to reference from their profiles. We currently have a workaround on the system for this right now, but we hope to more formally support this in the future.

16 - Sort Dashboard, Bookmark, and Subscriptions Pages
Sort these lists to show the threads with most recent activity first.

17 - Empty Messages
Do not allow users to (accidentally) post messages with no text.

18 - NI Terms in Dictionary
Add NI common terms to the dictionary so we don't have to "skip" words like LabVIEW, NI, and DAQ every time we post.

Although this list is plenty long, what am I missing?

Thanks!

[altenbach]

A few more things tha come to mind:

allow multiple attachments at once.

possibility to easily inline attached images.

If the messages in a thread are sorted by time instead of threading, each post should have a link pointing to the previous post in it's subthread.

[JeanPierre]

Issue #8 is solved. See my related thread.
Sorry, it was my mistake.

[chilly_charly]

One more suggestion (already proposed) :
Put the "Submit Post" and the "Attachment (Browse)" buttons on the same row.

CC

[altenbach]

I would also prefer if the attachment box could be improved.

Problem: Sometimes I slip with the mouse in the file browser and might get the file above or below the intended file in the list by accident. Unfortunately, the attachment box always looks the same, no matter what I attach 😉 It is always a click and drag job to show the attached filename.



A possible Solution: The text in the attachment box should be right-aligned so we always see the "tail" of the content which includes the file name. The box could also be made significantly wider or sized to fit the browser window (same as the message composition window).

Message Edited by altenbach on 05-28-2005 10:43 AM

[tst]

Some of the requests here (at least mine):

"
2. The ability to disable HTML tags for specific threads.

3. Radio buttons to force users to disclose their version.

4. BMP blocking.

5. "Please post an example" button, saving the need to reply.
"

And the obvious addition to Molly's No. 1 - Image posting.

[RayFarmer]

Hi,

With regards to the dashboard.

Make it size correctly. If you have more than 6 bookmarks / subscription, the Quick links disappear of the screen.

When you manually resize the dashboard, it always reverts back to the original size when it is refreshed.

Regards
Ray Farmer

[EdDickens]

1. Macros are insterted at the end of the message instead of where the cursor is positioned.


2. There is sometimes a text wrapping problem with FireFox.



I've had this happen in FireFox 1.0.2, 1.0.3 and 1.0.4. It doesn't seem to be thread specific because it usually fixes itself if I force a reload (shift+F5) or close the browser and reopen the page.

Message Edited by Ed Dickens on 05-31-2005 07:43 AM

[shoneill]

I've also observed this Firefox wrapping problem, but on a lot of other forums also. I think it might be a firefox bug. Now If I could only be bothered to fix it myself.....

Shane.

[waldemar.hersacher]

I have this problem too and mentioned this here already.