What Do You Guy`s Think?

Unknown

This has been a good "learning experience" for me,,, but I gotta admit, this "signing-in" for every post takes some getting used to. Dan is a "great guy", and Heating Help has been a great forum for all of us but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

CMadatMe

I feel the site

has lost the personal touch we had prior. I don't like the RSS feed because it doesn't give me the subject of the topic the poster is writing from. I don't like the fact that I have to click on every thread to see where it came from. It would be fine if I only subscribed to one Forum but I subscribe to multiple forums and it's a pain. It was also nice to get the reply to your e-mail. I find that was much better. It was much easier to reply. I haven't even touched the PDF file issue which I have read that Dan is working on. Site seems to have lost the personal touch all us regulars had speaking with each other.

Unknown

I agree,,,,

thats how I feel too! BTW What is an "RSS" feed?

DanHolohan

Sign in

gets rid of the spam bots and the trolls. The majority asked for that with the last site, and that's why we now do it this way.



Change is uncomfortable until you get used to it.

DanHolohan

RSS

works across the entire Wall. It's not divided by rooms. When you click on it, you see all the new posts since your last visit. 

DanHolohan

Real Simple Syndication

Google it. You'll be able do get a free reader from one of many sources. I use the Firefox Bookmarks reader, which makes it even more simple. When I come on the Wall, I go to the top of any of the rooms, click on Subscriber to RSS feed and I instantly get every new post. It also works on my iPhone, which is nice.



Change is uncomfortable until you get used to it.



I'm smiling because I vividly recall the yelling that I listened to when we launched the old site. So many clamored for the site before that one. Human nature, and it always makes me smile.

Jamie Hall

Delighted

I have no problems with the signing in bit -- the other professional forums I visit all do it, and it really does help to reduce the noise level.  Which, unfortunately, seems to be necessary these days...

I'm still not quite sure about dividing the Wall into sections -- but I think it's more because I'm just not used to it than anything else.  Again, most of the other professional forums I visit do do that, so I imagine I will get used to it!

DanHolohan

Thanks

The sections are by popular demand. So many people asked me to do that over the years. "Why should I have to slog through all these posts when I'm only interested in (fill in the blank). RSS picks up all the new stuff from all the sections and it really is simple.



It's just new.

NRT_Rob

RSS

RSS for the whole forum is just a deluge of spam, basically.



I love, love, love RSS. but I do not want the RSS for every post.. maybe just new TOPICS, but not every post. Certainly not for every forum here, several of which I'm not interested in at all.



the beauty of email notification, is that you can unsubcribe from a post you don't want to follow anymore, and only get notifications on topics you are interested in.



also, I hate only being able to see ten posts per page. I don't see any options to customize either?



I like progress as much as the next guy, and I didn't really like the old forums, but this threw some baby out with some bathwater I think.

DanHolohan

One of the nice things about being as old as I am

is that I realize it's impossible to please everyone, and foolish to try.



We got rid of the e-mail notifications because I got daily e-mail from people who didn't want them (they called it spam), and couldn't figure out how to shut it off. I saw those e-mails every day and realized that they caused more problems than they were worth so we left them behind.



Please some; disappoint others. It's the nature of owning and operating a Web site, Rob.

Paul Fredricks_3

Me

I think the sections are fine. They will definitely help home owners who are trying to find answers.



The RSS works fine. The only thing I don't like is that I can't tell what topic each reply is from. Instead of the individual post title being listed, I'd like it better if it were the original post title were listed. That way you can tell what thread it would belong to. Kind of like the old site was. You could ignore what you wanted.



As it is now I have no idea what each listing pertains to until I click on it.

DanHolohan

Got it,

but what's wrong with clicking on it? That's what I'm doing. I click and scroll. It's new but I'm not finding that it takes any more time.



I'm using Firefox's reader and loving it. The Mac reader on my iPhone also works really well with the site.

TonyS

I like it

Thanks Dan, BUT 1 THING, it would be nice if we could see the question as we type our answer. As I get older my memory gets shorter and more selective.

Paul Fredricks_3

yeah

When I looked at RSS just now, the heading said Got It. That was your post title. But I have no idea that "Got It" refers to the post I was looking at. For all I know it could have been referring to a mod con that someone had picked up, or the location of a steam vent.



Unless I'm doing something wrong with RSS, which is entirely possible. I don't have a problem clicking on anything in RSS, but to have to click on each post listed to see what topic it belongs too seems like a lot of trouble.

Jean-David Beyer

What I think.

I like the new site. I liked the old site as well.



I visit other sites also, and each is different. As is the Usenet. I adapt.



What I most dislike about this site is that each character I type seems to be sent back to the web site and echoed back. These delays allow me to make lots of errors. What other sites do is allow me to type all I want, and only send the stuff back to the web site once I press the Send, Submit, Post, Enter button. That way, I get much more rapid feedback on my typing errors, and do not get screwy mistakes like I get here. Also, with the other sites, if I make a spelling error, it underlines it in red. Here, too. But on the other sites, if I fix the error, the red underline disappears, where here it remains, or some of it remains.

DanHolohan

That's on the list.

Thanks for your patience. 

DanHolohan

The Firefox reader shows me the first few lines of the post.

Don't you get that with yours? 

Paul Fredricks_3

yeah

I see that. It still doesn't necessarily tell me what thread it is. What I have to do is analyze the sentence and determine if it's from a thread I'm watching. Kind of a pain.



The other thing is the new message icon with each section. As soon as I click on one of the threads all of the new message notes go away. What I do now is go to the bottom new message and start there, and work my way up. It would be nice if the "new" note would stay till I read that particular note.



Another helping item. When I finish typing a reply I enter the security code. The next thing to do is click the "submit post" button. On most of the web you can just hit enter, using the mouse for less used items. I keep hitting enter which brings me to right back and I have to enter a new code. Can "enter" activate submit?

DanHolohan

I shared all of this with the techies, Paul.

Thanks. I'm passing lots of comments on to the folks who built and are tweaking the site, and I appreciate everyone's patience as we make changes and adjustments. 

Paul Fredricks_3

No problem

I can just imagine the tug of war you feel on your end. I'm sure you know I'll give you my 2 cents and I know you'll make the decisions you need to run your site as best you can. Thanks.

DanHolohan

Thanks for that.

I am listening to everybody. 

NRT_Rob

sure thing Dan.

all I can do is voice my opinion.



These are my own takes, admittedly somewhat subjective:



-The current RSS feature is totally unusable, because it's a massive amount of info. Unless it were per forum only, and even better new topics only, I won't use it. Anyone who is busy is unlikely to want to wade through every single post on the site to dig out what they are interested in, in my opinion.



-ten posts a page is just... difficult. that's just personal preference I guess, but it sure seems easier to scan a longer list of posts than having to cycle through pages.



These I think I'm not much more solid ground on, from a usability perspective:



-I want opt-in subscription on posts, so I can follow the discussions I care about. Otherwise, it's impossible to track the conversations I'm actually trying to participate in. Especially with the large amount of "noise" in the RSS feed.



-I do not want to log into my account every time I show up. That's just a PITA and it should not be necessary to fight spam. the internet is full of forums that do not have robot or spam problems and that allow users to use cookies to stay logged in.



It's not a "fear of change" or things just being different. I use all kinds of forum software, have several myself and I'm very comfortable with all of them. This just, in my not unexperienced opinion, has some major problems with usability. It's not easy to track conversations, and it's not easy to post. both are big problems for a forum system. Together, I would call it a killing blow.



two cents for what it's worth. I'll still poke around from time to time I'm sure, but I'm not sure how you'll broadcast changes to the forum since with a ten post view limit it'll get pushed off the front page pretty fast... maybe you have sticky posts? or updates in your newsletter, perhaps, would be good.



I am just trying to help. this has been a great place and I want nothing but increased success for it. Best of luck and I hope whatever balance you end up with works out for you.