Hi Brad,

'Wondering if you could provide links to one or more of the threaded message forum beta-tester's sites. Assuming they're not locked, of course. We'd love a "sneak peek."

No rush. Just wondering.

NJ

I'd rather not post those during the beta period, but if you'd like to be a beta tester too let me know.

I'd be happy to do it. Let me know what you need.

I'll have the programmer turn this on for you. Note, there likely be many changes to this while you're using it. And that's why they call it beta. Anything you'd like to see added or removed, etc. please let us know about it.

OK. We'll check it out and let you know.

If you need another "beta", I'm up for it. Mine is so new that everyone will just think I'm "tweaking it". And also mine is a multi year site for those beta features. By this weekend I will have listed over 3000 names on the site. I have never even put word out yet but some sign up everyday.
Thanks again

Will have programmer turn this on for you. All feedback appreciated. Anybody else? Just remember, anyone using this should expect issues and/or many changes during the beta period.

My classmates & I will volunteer as guinea pigs if you are still in need of more..

Lisa

Ok.

Um. Perhaps I shouldn't volunteer unless I know what in the blazes I'm doing. So what do I do next?! )

Wait for the progrmmer to turn it on, utilize it, and then tell us all the stuff that's broken.

Gotcha.

(I'll go get some sleep now & stop asking dumb-a%% questions)

)

I'd like to be a tester as well. Would like to see how I can tailor this for my multi-class site. Just added a third class this week.

Thanks!

I'd also like to be considered for the beta testing.

We closd down the beta test, but the good news is it won't be long before the threaded forums are available system wide. Just need to gather some feedback and back a few changes now.

Brad - sent you an email with a screenshot. Getting error messages trying to post on the Beta Forums. Fyi. Wanted to make sure you got my info. Thx.

I'm normally quite 'alpha', but I'd love to be a beta tester too!

brad
if this is open for more testers, i would love to get some conversations going on my site too!!!

thank you

For now this is closed. Hang tight, I'm going to work on this over the Xmas break and then get some more testers in there.

I cannot wait for this feature. Thanks again... You are doing a great job, and I'm getting the word out, so hopefully you've been seeing an increase in traffic and site creations (I present in front of large groups on Internet topics, someone had a question last week on this).

Yea? What topics do you present on?

I present for Microsoft on SharePoint and UC&C... we talked about other canned/packed web-based solutions, and of course classcreator was brought up, and shown. Simple, intuitive, effective, and low cost.

Brad,

Hope you had a good Holiday.

Don't mean to bug you, I just need a ballpark on the threaded forum feature. We are getting a little restless but I have no desire to set up a forum if you are nearly ready to launch.

Thanks for all your work.

Greg

Threaded forums need a little polishing up. Will be working on that shortly. Finishing up a few things in the Preferences area first. Then threaded forums, then community photo galleries.

Again, not looking to be a pain. So in ballpark terms are we talking 3 weeks, 3 months, or 3 years? Obviously, things can change and unexpected events take place but I am just trying to get a feel.

Thanks

It will most definitely be in the first quarter. We have several important things on the drawing board, and with the release of anything new there will be user comments and revisions, etc., and it's hard to say how long some of those things will take. Polishing up and launching the new threaded forums is right near the top of the list though. You can be a beta tester right now if you want to though.

Yes I would like to be a beta tester as long as I have some control over the setup of threads and usage.

Thanks,

Greg

Ok I'll have a programmer activate the beta forums on your site next week. All of the functionlity is already there. They just need a little polishing up for usability and appearance issues.

Are we able to move a response to a new forum topic. Someone tried to post a new forum. It put into the Politics Forum, but it should be in a Reunion Heading. How can I move her post?

You can't. At least not in beta you can't. This may be something we can add though.

Threaded forum is great.

FYI - have not been able to "approve topic". Keeps going to error screen.

Thanks,

Greg

I was trying to "Approve topic" at the bottom from the list of actions. When I tried it directly under the post it went through.

Greg

Thanks, Rick will take a look.

Greg Yova wrote:

Greg, did you turn of moderation?

It wouldn't work from the bottom list of actions but it DID work when I clicked "Approve topic" just below the person's post. I did NOT turn of Moderator.

So it seems on my site anyway, that it works but not from the option in the list at the bottom.

Thanks,

Greg

a couple of questions.

With privacy mode off, can anyone get into the forum?

with privacy mode on, a logged in user is forced to log in again, is that correct? With privacy mode on, one user went into a loop to get in, and could not.

How does the user delete a picture? She says she did and the picture is still there.

greg - I'll check into that.

Privacy Mode... here's the deal with that.

With privacy mode off, ANYONE can view the forums.

With privacy mode ON, all users must log in before viewing the forums.

Due to technology issues and browser security issues, it's a little more difficult to maintain your state of being logged in, so if you go directly to the forums, you do have to click "log in" but if you're already logged in on the main site, it'll just redirect you back and you don't ACTUALLY have to log in again.

I will spend some time trying to improve this so that it matches your "Remember Me" setting when you log in on the main site... but that could be tricky.

Rick

Joyce Deprest wrote:

What picture? A picture posted to the forums, or her "Master Photo" that is used as the avatar on the forums?

Greg, I think it should work now, approving topics from the message or below in the Topic Moderation section.

Rick Root wrote:

Her picture along side her name. Laura.

I also know part of my problem is that my link on the home brings you directly into the forum list, regardless of whether you are logged in. I did the link on the home page like this because the beta forum is not noticable within the message forum. Is there a way to make it stand out more? Then I will change my home page link to the message forum vs the beta forum list.

The way we link to the forums will probably change after we go live... the old "forums" may get renamed "Guestbook" or something like that...

So your classmate went into "Add/Edit Images" and deleted her "Master Photo"? And it's still appearing in the message forums?

Rick Root wrote:

Also, I redirected my homepage link to the message forum to avoid easy/obvious access in the future. I see if someone actually has the page url they will still be able to get, correct?

Can they get into the threads and/or post also?

Joyce Deprest wrote:

The only reason there's no link on your site as part of the main navigation is because of the template .. you can see what I mean if you go to my site and you'll see "Beta Forums" on the left size, right underneath "Message Forums"

Joyce Deprest wrote:

Yes, unless you go into the forum admin and turn on privacy mode. THen they won't even be able to see the forum list without logging in first.

How do I put a it on the left menu? I have a grapic and wording with a hyperlink to the message forum on my homepage. I had directed that link originally directly into the forum list. But, that allowed entry without login so I changed it. Someone would have to know the url to go in directly now. But I wouldn't mind having a direct link on the menu bar. Although I was able to go into the forum list just now on the link you provided... so I guess it doesn't help, if you cannot password protect that page.

Boy so much to think about!!!

It'll work like every other part of the system when it comes out of beta.

Rick Root wrote:

Oh jeez. I figured out what was going on.

At the bottom of the Edit Photos page for a user, there should be a box showing your selected master photo (if any), and a link that says "Don't Use A Master Photo".

This was NOT appearing any any web sites except mine until about 5 minutes ago when I discovered I'd never actually "gone live" with it.

I removed Laura's master photo and all is well now.

Thank You!!!!

I sent copy/pasted an error message I received when I tried to open a forum link. (forum list left column) I sent it to dave and brad at email addresses. (I did not have Rick's email)

I sent it to Rick, he'll check it out.

it's fixed too now.

I would like to also be considered for beta tester..Thanks,Bud

Ok.

Do you still have room for more beta testers? If so, I'd like to join this elite team!

Ok. We've put a few more people in to get some more feedback, so let's keep it at this # for now. There's several things I want to do in there still, just need to get to it.

I had put a person as a moderator. She is having problems, I think maybe the same gobbly goop I sent you; but what she is saying is that she cannot get in, and that she is having an error message.

I tried to delete her status as moderator, but it will not allow me. Everytime I save it, I go back in and everything is still checked.

she is the only moderator/and the only Laura in my forum.

thanks

Will ask Rick to take a look.

Joyce, I honestly forgot that I'd left that feature in there.. it was my intention to only allow admins to be moderators.

I think I fixed the issue but non-admin moderators may still find some bugs. I did test it on my own site, and I believe I've fixed BOTH problems you reported.

You can now remove moderator status from users
and users who are moderators should now be able to view the forums.

I will have her check; I will report back if there is still a problem.

thank you

LOVE the new BETA Forum! Thanks for turning it on for us. I put in a Welcome message and am about to announce it to our (class) world!

I've been playing with it a good portion of the day, trying to learn its ins and outs. A couple, well maybe more, of questions comments / suggestions:

1 - Is there a way to turn off "Sticky"? I didn't really know what it meant so I turned it on on my Welcome statement and cannot figure out how to turn it off. I'm guessing I could delete and re-enter the post.

2 - The first time I tried to post, the system ask me to update my Profile, set my screen name etc. If I blanked it out (deleted) the screen name, it gave me an error message. However, once I've saved it, I could delete the screen name. Is that the way it is supposed to work?

3 - When I update my Forum profile and "Save", the screen just sits there (yes it is saved). It sort of left me wondering what to do. I'd like to suggest the system put up a message "Saved" for 2-3 seconds and then go to the Forum List, or if possible, to where the user was when they "called" My Settings. Just a thought.

4 - On the Forum profile, the "BBML/BBCODE is enabled for signatures" is located below the Signature Field. Being one not read to the bottom of the page before I entered anything, I didn't see it. When I did see it, because of the location, I thought it was associated with the Location field! My bad for not reading more carefully! Nonetheless, does it make sense to have the "BBML/BBCODE is enabled for signatures" enclosed in parenthesis, not bold and in italics and located immediately below the Signature field name? Personally, I would have noticed that right off.

5 - Another on the Forum profile, I suspect that 95% of my class and perhaps many more classes, have now idea what
"BBML/BBCODE" is. And, being as there are no little emoticons, or formatting codes like on the "BETA forums post", I think folks may send questions. Are there any plans to add some "assistance" on what it means? I do read some of the "help forums" just for fun and to learn and often see some questions that indicate there are quite a few folks that might wonder.

6 - One more on the Forum profile: In the post itself, wehere BBCode is enables, I can use -b and or -i, but not in the "Forum profile"! Any plans to implement that?

Thanks for hearing me out! I'm TOTALLY loving "playing" with the new "BETA forums" and looking forward to classmate
response! You guys reallly outdid yourselves on this one. Thanks for letting me participate.

Heh heh heh. You sound just like me when I was cleaning up the very forums you're reading here. I had all of these same issues. I'm going to go through a rather extensive "nitpick" process on the class threaded forums, which will likely drive our programmer Rick Root crazy, but that's ok. He's survived me once before doing this on our own forums, and he'll survive me once again. Probably.

Having said that, let me get a bunch of stuff cleaned up and fine tuned in there, and then let's revisit stuff Ruth. Usability is key. I doubt you can "outnitpick" me, but you can certainly give it a whirl.

You are too funny! My challenge now is to out nitpick you! I'll give it the old college try! !

My perspective is probably different than many of you "young whippersnappers", I'm looking at it through the eyes of folks well past Social Security age, many of whom where scared stiff of anything related to computers until their late life kids and or grandkids came along! We have 101 classmates out of our 295 living who we know have e-addresses, and 100 have joined the website! And, thanks to our wonderful reunion committee, we only have 5 known missing! Let's hear it for the Old Fogey crowd!!!

1. sticky - keeps a posted item near the top. "Stuck" to the top. Suitable for posting welcome topics or rules and stuff. There's no point in turning it off because only admins can use it anyway. So if you don't want to use it, just don't use it. None of your users can use it, and now that you know what it is, you can choose to use it or not to use it.
2. When you save your profile, it says "Your Profile Has Been Updated" at the top of the page. Perhaps I could make it more noticeable, but it definately doesn't just sit there.
3. You are required to have a screen name of some kind, and so you can "wipe it out" but if you try to post again, the same thing will happen. I should probably not allow users to wipe out their screen name.
4. It's really more informational, since there's no option to turn off BBML for signatures.
5. You DO sound just like Brad! He's welcome to write some help text =)
6. The BBML editor is "heavy" and would take up a lot of space on the profile page, and MOST people don't usually put BBML in their signatures anyway. I've found that those who want to will do so without the use of the BBML Editor - especially if we add a little help link.

We'll probably hide screen name completely and just use people's names -- no different from how the current class forums work. I can tell you just by the calls we get here that people will do all kinds of "funny stuff" with that. People changing their name, pretending to be a Classmate they're not, so forth and so on. Everybody should just be their own name, no screen name required. That's how it works in the current class forums and we've had no complaints.

In any case, I'm going to make the same usability and instructional tweaks on the class threaded forums as you see on these threaded forums. We won't necessarily remove anything you see now, just rearrange it and/or get it out of the way a little bit. Like RSS feeds for example. Something that 1% or less of people use doesn't warrant prominent space on the interface. We'll keep it in there for whose who want it, but it can be reduced to a single link like the "RSS" link you see in these forums up in the right corner.

I'll drive Rick nuts with some of thus stuff shortly, then beg him to forgive me. I'll probably have to buy him a beer or two as well. And then the class forums will be "my little way," which I kinda gather will also meet the criteria of "your little way."

[quote="Brad Switzer"]We'll probably hide screen name completely and just use people's names -- no different from how the current class forums work. I can tell you just by the calls we get here that people will do all kinds of "funny stuff" with that. [quote]

I was going to ask if you can make it that they can only be the user/classmate name. I know on public forum we want to use a safe name, but I do not think it is necessary here... I actually think on the class forums it should be a must to use the real name... like you do on this forum... once they are in, they should be who they are, ONLY.

Rick Root wrote:

she confirmed it is fixed.

thank you,

1. Hmmm! Sticky does work like I thought it would. What I found in a subsequent look is that it was "locked" so no one could reply. Once I unlocked it, I was happy!
2. Didn't even see it!!! I think I'd still like to see a "page" that says "profile saved" have it stay a few seconds (long enough to read) and then go back to the forum list or whatever. I've gotten used to other sites that do that type of thing without having to click on something.
3. I like the idea of doing away with "screen name" all together, or perhaps "comment out" whatever code you have until you get a big demand (more than 50% ) for it!
4. I still like the idea, if it's not too much work, of having it look something like "(BBML/BBCODE is enabled for signatures)" underneath the name of the field, rather than in bold underneath the Field itself.
5. YEAH!!! I've arrived! I will send you lots more virtual brownies and a couple of Yuengling Beers. Yuk, what a combination!
6. Comprendo! No need to weight down the system. A little help link will do for those who care!

Thanks for all your great work!!!

[quote="Joyce Deprest"][quote="Brad Switzer"]We'll probably hide screen name completely and just use people's names -- no different from how the current class forums work. I can tell you just by the calls we get here that people will do all kinds of "funny stuff" with that.
Quote:

I completely agree. The current class forums require people to be their own name. We allowed changing it early on, leading to all kinds of silly games and things, which disturbed many an Administrator and ultimately lead to more support for us. Since requiring people be themselves we've had not 1 complaint -- thus on the new threaded forums I want people to be themselves just like they already are now. Somebody who can't participate under their own name should probably not participate. Admins of course can password protect forums to keep names out of search engines and out of public reach. Sometimes we just gotta make decisions on issues like this -- and I'm making it.

Just noticed that when I go in to edit a message, after I hit Save, it pauses a few seconds and then goes to "View Message". Is that new? I don't recall seeing it before and I reallly like it! No decisions!
Suggestion: What would it take to add little dots after the "Preview Message" for each second to indicate the system is "thinking"? I think that would let folks know something is happening.

Today, I was looking at the moderator options:

• Lock this topic
• Make this topic sticky
• Make this topic an announcement
• Make this topic normal (neither sticky nor announcement)
• Make this topic inactive
• Delete this topic

• Lock this topic (Replies not allowed)
• Make this topic sticky (Lock topic in place)
• Make this topic an announcement (Show at top above "sticky")
• Make this topic normal (neither sticky nor announcement)
• Make this topic inactive (???)
• Delete this topic (the topic & all messages will be lost)

Very good suggestions. One thing I've come to understand a long time ago is you cannot possibly make something too clear. So thanks for that -- will be helpful no doubt.

I'm tied up for the next couple weeks, then I'll be working on the threaded forums.

Thx. You are soooo right on clarifications. In my prior life, I had lots of experience teaching folks who'd never seen a keyboard first hand how to use a computer so I totally empathize with you!

Posted a new item this evening and noticed the "Posted..." includes the IP address:

The ClassCreator Forums don't show it. Personally, I'd rather not see it on the class websites.

Yep, I know you're off to other things for a couple of weeks but wanted to get this documented. If I come across other (related) items of interest, should I post them here or save them into a direct e-mail and send them later.

Hope what you are tied up with for the next couple of weeks has super positive results!

Only you, the Administrator, sees the IP. You see a few extra things that Classmates don't see. I see the same stuff when I moderate these forums. So no worries, an IP address that Classmates don't want or need won't be in your forums.

In answer to your question, keep a list there and let me do "my thang" on the forums. I have a feeling many changes I make will be in agreement with your items or any future items you may have. Once done, anything that doesn't mesh let me know. Usability and understandability are everything. I'm known to sometimes drive people crazy over this stuff -- but hey -- I also understand that if something isn't clear to everyone using it, a lot of them simply won't use it at all. And we can't have that now, can we...

Cool, thanks! And, most of my classmates wouldn't have any idea it is an IP address!

OK, I'll start a draft e-mail with any comments and we can compare note after you finish your "thang"! BTW, is that a new technical term synonymous with "stuff"???

You are so right on making sure it is clear! Most creative programmers want to do it and move on to some other challenge rather than getting the usability stuff finished, not understanding that without doing that, it will come back to haunt them in maintenance work, ARRRRGH!

Ruth Flinn wrote:

OK, I'll start a draft e-mail with any comments and we can compare note after you finish your "thang"! BTW, is that a new technical term synonymous with "stuff"???

Ummmmmmm.....I'm going to say...yes.

I would like to be beta tester.

This site is wonderful. I have had so many compliments. I just tell them how good you are.

Cheers.

Thanks Tom.

No need for beta testing, we're going to try to get the threaded forums launched in the next 3 weeks or so (assuming something doesn't sidetrack us).

Can you turn on the beta for our site?

Hillcrest69.com

No need to reply to my message just now. Some how I missed your previous reply to my previous question.

Thanks.

Beta is closed, but threaded forums are launching shortly after our upcoming system upgrade on March 1st. Should be live sometime in the first half of March.

Great. Our reunion is June 13th, and we are getting a lot of responses and enthusiasm. I want to build on that with the threads.

Thanks.

Brad - Will the threaded message forum allow an administrator to "moderate" the forum and delete or move inappropriate posts?

Hi Ben,

Yes that is built into the new threaded forums.