It has come to my attention that a great many posts in the PortableApps forums have gone without attention while some have dozens and dozens of comments. I don't know why this is happening, but it is. I know that you guys are trying your best to make sure everyone has a great experience using PortableApps, but this still happens. I have seen forum posts months old that have no comments. Personally, I don't think that the people are to blame, but the forum structure. I am not saying that the current structure is bad or anything, nor am I trying to insult anyone, but I have a few ideas that I think will at least partially fix this problem.
First of all, I think that there should be an "Unanswered Posts" section, just like there is a "Recent Posts" section. This section would have a list of posts with little to no comments in it, ordered from the oldest posts at the top and the most recent posts at the bottom. This will ensure that the people who have been waiting the longest will get answers first. Once a post has a certain amount of comments, it will be moved toward the bottom of the list.
Secondly, a views counter would be greatly appreciated. Every time a user clicks on a post and/or views the post for a certain period of time, one more view would be counted. This "view counter" would be visible on the forum topic list and/or the forum post itself.
This last suggestion is for the users. Even if you don't have a solution for a person's problem, please give them a comment on their post so that they know that they are not being ignored.
Once again, I mean no ill-will towards any of the users, administrators, moderators, programmers or to anyone. If you are insulted or offended by this, I am very sorry. Any feedback is greatly appreciated and I thank you for reading this essay of a post.
Regards, Zack
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An unanswered posts queue is not really worth it in my opinion. If a post drops off the first couple of pages of the recent posts queue without comment there is more than likely a good reason for it, such as being in the wrong place or otherwise something not worth answering.
I also don't think a views counter would provide a real benefit. With the expansive user-base we have a poster is more likely to become frustrated in knowing their post has had 1000+ views without receiving a comment.
I admit that sometimes posts that should get attention don't, but unfortunately these things happen in ANY system no matter how it is built, unless you pay people to handle these things. I have a few questions around here that are years old that went unanswered (that I thought were important), but hey, nobody could answer or the questions were missed by those who could answer. It happens, and I didn't sweat it because I know people have more important things to deal with sometimes.
You have to remember that most of us are volunteers who are here on our own time - we don't get anything from helping out here. John himself needs to keep PortableApps afloat monetarily, develop the Platform and the related components, AND keep on top of app updates, so he really doesn't have the time to answer every single post either.
Personally I won't comment on a post where I don't think my input is warranted, because it wastes both my time and that of the poster, plus what are you supposed to say anyway? Leaving a "Hey I read your post but can't do anything about it" is not productive for anyone.
The best you, and I, and the rest of the PortableApps regulars, can do is to keep an eye on the forums and where a constructive answer can be provided, you do so.
Thank you for your input, it is much appreciated.
The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
I wanted to add a couple notes. First, not every post needs a response. Lots of the 0 reply entries you'll see in the first several pages of Recents Posts are news stories (which need no comments) and app requests (which only need a response when someone is interested). For things like requested apps, a response for the sake of a response... like a canned "hopefully a developer will take interest"... would be more noise than signal.
Second, from a technical point of view, we don't track views as it would require additional server muscle to do so (which requires additional $). That's why the view counts for not logged in users are off on the main forum page which lists stats at the bottom. This is a Drupal site, so the whole site is the site. It's not a separate site vs a forum (vBulletin, phpBB, etc). So anyone hitting the site logged in is logged in for every page, which means they don't get the lightweight cached pages.
An unanswered posts bit might be helpful as long as we let people know not to respond for the sake of responding. It's not a built-in feature on Drupal, but I think I could create a custom view if people like the idea. I'd like to wait until after the Drupal 7 upgrade which I'm taking another stab at shortly, though, as we'll likely have to recreate all the Views (new apps, news stories, recent posts, etc).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Would it be possible to sort such a page using an algorithm that tries to guess at a post's importance?
Also
This is why I often don't log in unless I'm posting something.
~3D1T0R
I realize that some posts don't necessarily need answers, but specifically I was talking about the posts that do need answers but somehow slip through the cracks, like support. For example, I posted a problem I had about AssaultCubePortable and Gord Caswell was helping me, but it's a week later and it's still not resolved. I also had an idea about the PortableApps Platform that no one has commented on.
If a small feature like counting views would cost you more money then I am with you about not doing it. I have no knowledge about how a server works so I don't know about cached pages, but I bet they're significant :).
I hope people like the idea of a new custom view because I definitely do! You could make a poll or something.
Once again thank you for responding to my post and I wish you luck in your endeavors! ~Zack
The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
You're asking for application-level help for AssaultCube in that topic. In other words, nothing related to its portability or the stuff we work on and support. You should be directed to the publisher site for that, realistically. No one here likely even knows the app well enough to provide a proper response.
The other topic, it doesn't make much sense. It makes sense for Rainmeter since it's always visible, so it saves you one click. But the platform isn't. So, it takes just as much time to restore the platform window and click as it would to restore your music player window and click. It's a solution in search of a problem.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Why a music player, and not an email notification.
Why not instead an RSS notification or a weather report.
I think the platform should be left to do what it does, and does well.
Sure it could work potentially as a modular system, where it perhaps was docked onto the launcher but I do not believe the demand would be high enough.
Some players may support a minimal skin which can be always visible, such as docked to the top sitting above all open windows, etc.
If at first you do not succeed, use more sticky tape.