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Author Topic: About forum suggestions  (Read 46121 times)

Martin_fr

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #30 on: October 27, 2015, 11:15:54 pm »
You should set padding-left: 3em on the ol, or so. At least for Firefox

edit: or use a table instead li. Then there probably won't be empty lines on copying
There is an option for using a table (global setting, not per user. I tried it. I dont remember what went wrong. But results were worse.
Left padding with 3 em, will waste a lot of space to fix a broken browser.

Out of all the settings, the current were the best compromise for firefox, chrome, and IE.
Actually I found a small tweak.
* IE messes up either way, no line breaks in copy, but line numbers included.
* Opera puts extra empty lines into copied source
* firefox, chrome, Safari all worked fine for me.


shobits1

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #31 on: October 27, 2015, 11:56:32 pm »
Did you test it with the "zoom text only" option enabled?

nope the `zoom text only` was unchecked.

BeniBela

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #32 on: October 28, 2015, 01:06:45 am »

Left padding with 3 em, will waste a lot of space to fix a broken browser.


It should not change anything, if the line number are already visibile

Martin_fr

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #33 on: October 28, 2015, 01:33:43 am »
Left padding with 3 em, will waste a lot of space to fix a broken browser.
It should not change anything, if the line number are already visibile

Edit the page in your browsers "inspect" mode. I tested in firefox and it added a huge white margin, reducing the space available for the code.

I zoomed in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and IE and all of them kept the full number visible.

hrayon

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #34 on: November 13, 2018, 12:12:38 pm »
Hello,
I suggest that there be a closed topic (or restricted to only some more experienced forum users - hero members) in the header of each main topic, with links like this:

http://nickhodges.com/MultiThreadingInDelphi/ToC.html

which Taddy kindly passed in this post:

http://forum.lazarus-ide.org/index.php/topic,43193.msg301908/topicseen.html#new

More experienced users could post valuable links like the ones he indicated.
The interesting thing about this is that, with just the editing of more experienced users the content would be of more value and less polluted. And if a regular user asks in the other parts about something that is in the header, just reply "rtfh". I'm kidding about "rtfh", but it's an idea.

(Translated by Google)

JanRoza

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #35 on: November 13, 2018, 12:29:53 pm »
I totally disagree with that.
By sharing advanced topics with everyone even a beginner can learn from it and might - in the end - even become a more experienced user by digesting these kind of topics.
An experienced user is experienced enough to skip the "polution" in a topic and read only that which is interesting for him.
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lucamar

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #36 on: November 13, 2018, 12:38:15 pm »
My personal opinion--and it's just that--is that it's better to add this kind of links to the related wiki page, rather than in the forum. It seems to me that the forum is more appropiate for dynamic exchanges of knowedledge/opinions than for more, let us say, "static" content like that.

Which doesn't mean one shouldn't refer to external entities in the forum, of course; just that if they are interesting (as in this case) they may as well be added to the wiki.
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hrayon

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #37 on: November 13, 2018, 01:17:00 pm »
JanRoza,
You're right. I just suggested a way not to lose important information when it appears on the forum. And it seemed to be practical and fast for the most experienced users.

lucamar
When you say "the related wiki page", I say: related where? I know there are wiki pages (http://wiki.freepascal.org/), but it is not explicit about the relationship of the subject matter and the page.

So, how about having an equivalence between main forum topics and wiki pages somewhere?

For example, a fixed topic in the header of each main topic with the pages related to that subject in the wiki.

I do not know if it would be practical, these are just suggestions.

lucamar

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #38 on: November 13, 2018, 01:44:49 pm »
So, how about having an equivalence between main forum topics and wiki pages somewhere?
For example, a fixed topic in the header of each main topic with the pages related to that subject in the wiki.
I do not know if it would be practical, these are just suggestions.

That's what categories are for, although I agree it would be nice to have ... let's call them "Topic" pages with an intro on the topic and links to more detailed pages--something akin to the diverse "Portals" there are, now I think about it. But that's a lot of work, which nobody likes :D
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hrayon

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #39 on: November 13, 2018, 02:15:45 pm »
Just by supporting the idea, it's just a suggestion. If the forum maintainer reads this and does not accept, I just thank him anyway, as he already works maintaining the forum!

Researching

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #40 on: November 13, 2018, 02:30:13 pm »
Honestly - did not read the whole thread, but...
Discussion goes around improving the forum engine functionality, while the key- question would be to change the mеthоdоlоgу!
Not sure about the value of keeping the whole history of question, but if there is a solution / valuable info inside the thread, seems sensible to move it to the head of topic.
So easy!! but will save millions of hours, concidering the amount of people visiting the forum.
Imagine:
1. goto SEARCH -> find 10 threads, reading each through to find the key answer
2. goto SEARCH -> find 10 threads, reading only the heading of thread,

if the solution stands at the end of heading of topic - it is much-much easier to get the information needed.

Then imagine:
1. The forum is being improved in style: get in touch with SMF, set scope, make coding, make improvements. - result: #Better looking forum.
2. The forum rules are being updated by forum leaders and users -> forum becomes restructured based on the effort of community, -> result: #easy readable forum ( becomes more readable and a clear source for help and building the wiki).

Which option do you value more?

## From other post:
People! aren't you disappointed with the whole situation? Hundreds of community members, About 100-300 Professionals, but still many easy questions are not easily solvable neither by wiki neither by forum !!
(see my topics)

Really - seems sensible to invest a little effort in improving the general approach to building th forum... OK.. maybe - am wrong about possibility, but seems needed.
Let's say - some kind of extra point system that will lead to more organized forum.
Remember baskets in the shop? Since people have to insert a coin - they put baskets in place THEMSELVES!!

Moderators and Administrators are welcome to ask me questions and discuss solutions. Some thoughts are present.

Sorry if broke someone's mood!
Have a good day!

Thaddy

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #41 on: November 13, 2018, 02:32:14 pm »
I have nothing against a forum topic "documentation library" that is read-only and where entries are governed by strict moderation by a team of moderators.
E.g. the wiki is rather polluted and can not be relied upon as the only source to get good advice.
A library with links to good books and articles can be managed and much easier quality protected than the wiki.
I would volunteer to moderate such a library topic but only together with at least 4  - hopefully - other walking Object Pascal encyclopedists.
Every book or article would need internal review before inclusion, so it becomes a real library.
Specialize a type, not a var.

Researching

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #42 on: November 13, 2018, 02:47:40 pm »
I prefer to do first - what can be done by organization. It is cheap:
1. Think - 2. consider - 3. Communicate - 4. promote mostly adequate people for they're activity.
And get the main work DONE!! Then later - just keep things on order.

1% of users / moderators -
NOT ABLE  to support the rest 99% on the hand-work level.
But IS ABLE to create solutions and lead the mainstream.

Right Organization - is cheaper in effort and more valuable than a tonn of supports.

For example: When need a solution: what is more valuable?
* idented topic ?
* solution of topic collected to the head?

How difficult is it for the person who started the topic to collect the solution he got from community, after he just have tested it?
How difficult would it be for him to attach a code snippet?
What can forum leaders do, to encourage people to do this?

Martin_fr

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #43 on: November 13, 2018, 03:15:56 pm »
For example: When need a solution: what is more valuable?
* idented topic ?
* solution of topic collected to the head?

How difficult is it for the person who started the topic to collect the solution he got from community, after he just have tested it?
How difficult would it be for him to attach a code snippet?
What can forum leaders do, to encourage people to do this?
The person who started a topic, can edit the header of it already (some people add "Solved" to it), and the initial message too. So the technology exists.

Now assuming:
- the answer fits into the topic header.
- and there is only one answer. Often there are many, out of witch one may be good for the original enquirer, but for each later person searching the same question, another answer may be good. In this case adding the (one) answer, will make it worse by hiding many answers.
See stack-overflow: "good answers" are voted to the top, yet often the answer I need, is several down.

Question is, how to I get the person to add the "answer" into the header (or into the initial post)?
What do I do, if they don't do that?

And if it could be done, it still depends on finding volunteers in the moderator team.

While (some) moderators can/could edit posts of other users, I am strictly against doing that on a general base (other than fixing missing code tags, or the like). There may be extreme cases, where it may be needed for a moderator to use that power. But that must be kept the exception (and always made clear, if it happened)
Then moderators can, like anyone, only add posts to the end of the thread.

----

I do not know how well the boards/sub-boards in the forum are used (and how much is in "general" section). I only use the "recent" view, where this does not matter. So I do not know if a stricter "sorting by moderators" would help. But that also would mean the need for more manpower.

At least it would not require editing existing posts.

About adding new sub-boards. That is done occasionally, but usually it requires the pre-existence of sufficient topics that will fit the new board (and will be moved) showing that there indeed is a need for such a board.

---
Above is my opinion. I may have to confer with other mods, before enacting anything.

----------
This thread is a good example of one of the issues.
It started about one issue, that had a to generic header, and now is a mix of various issues...
« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 03:20:05 pm by Martin_fr »

hrayon

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Re: About forum suggestions
« Reply #44 on: November 13, 2018, 04:17:50 pm »
When I suggested, I was thinking of something simpler, closer than Thaddy said.
I think it will be difficult to maintain a bibliographic topic for each topic created.
I was thinking something like this (not all the main topics need it):

Lazarus »Programming» LCL
Here, wiki links about LCL.
Also important these external links X, Y, etc.
There are these books too ...

Lazarus »Programming» Databases
Here, wiki links to Databases.
Also important these external links M, N, etc.
There are these books too ...

....

Lazarus »Programming» Graphics and Multimedia »TAChart
Here, wiki links about TAChart.
Also important are these external links A, B, etc.
There are these books too ...

....

And so it goes...

(translated by Google)

 

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