Building SQL Server Central
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Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/buildingsqlservercentral.asp
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Finally a series of articles how it all began
Jonathan once pointed out that I'm a 'history freak'. And he is right!!!
Of those things I'm interested in I'd like to know all that there is. This site is one of those things.
I like it, though it is not perfect. But what is perfect anyway?
And sometimes I think, that exactly this has a charme of its own. It makes everything here less clinical sterile ?!?.
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
I like knowing how you guys started out. I have enjoyed and learned a lot in my time here at sqlservercentral. It was great to see you at PASS and put faces with names.
I like getting notified when someone replies to my post. I still click the link and come back to the site to reread the conversation, so having their response in my email box doesn't help me.
Keep up the great work!
Michelle
Michelle -
Thanks for the history. Also, I too like the email notifications.
If I had to ask for one thing, it would be for the reply form to work with Mozilla. I've become addicted to using the Middle-click feature with all bulletin boards and news sites that I visit. The only place this proves to be a problem is here, since replying to a post requires me to open the page in IE before responding.
In the end, though, I happily live with this inconvenience as I find this site to be very valuable.
Everett
Everett Wilson
ewilson10@yahoo.com -
I enjoyed the background and can empathize with many of the issues.
As for your question on notifications -
Just sending the url is fine with me. I always click on that anyway just in case I may have missed something or more likely because at a minimum I want to thank the person who posted a reply to my question. I appreciate the advertising / hit count issue and utilizing only a url in the notifications is not an issue for me.
On the suggestion side - have you considered an RSS feed?
Thanks for the excellent resource. I have sung your praises to everyone I know that uses MSSQL (and poked some vendors to send advertising your way).
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Good stuff, Steve; always like to hear about the "early" days. 🙂 Keep it up...
PS: I like the email notification (link only is fine, as I always click on it anyway)
cl
Signature is NULL
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Excellent article and I look forward to the rest on this topic.
About email notification: I am a member on another site and if you select email notification all you get is an email stating that:
Frank Kalis has responded to your post about What's new in SQL.
And the topic is a link to the forum, which requires you to log in. That way the poster has to go back to the site and see the response.
I personnally NEVER use the email notification. I just check back throughout the day. But I can see the need for it when someone has a very urgent/critical need for information.
Bottom line: keep the email notification, but let it be optional not mandatory.
-SQLBill
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Behold SQLBill, not true
If the category is DTS, Analysis services, Clustering.... you can be pretty sure I'm not the poster as I don't know these things.
And I stay away from tek-tips.com
As for Tim:
Some time ago before this site got started to get redesigned there was a link in the menu to RSS feed. So the SiteOwners experiemented with it. This link seems to have vanished.
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
I don't understand your point about email notification. All I get is "such and such has replied to a topic on SQLServerCentral.com that you requested notification to. Regarding the subject - BLAH." And a link to see the reply. I think this is just fine and I always click the link.
I've been visiting this site almost everyday for close on 2.5 years and have seen a lot of changes. I don't think you need a flashy website to improve SQLServerCentral. The content and members add value to the site all on their own. I would have to say this is my fav SQL site, I've learnt a lot, and keep up the good work guys!
Cheers,
Angela
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Sorry Bill, it's me again
Actually I think the modified notification mails from this site are outstanding. You won't see such things on other SQL Server sites. It's like a mixture between mailing list and forum. You can see at once the topic, the content and you are given a link you can use to go online and reply.
I promise to go to bed and read some pages of Harry Potter V
Good night!
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
I think we'll probably keep the notification as a link that brings you back to the site - it is a good compromise and definitely there are times when you just can't keep checking back.
Our RSS feed is still live, if hard to find:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/sscrss.xml
As far as flashy, that's not really us, both because of who we are and our combined lack of artistic ability! We just want solid, stable features that are easy to use.
The forum upgrade is well under way, hopefully completed in the next few weeks. I'll let Steve tell "the rest of the story"!
Andy
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Thanks for taking the time to write the article Steve! As for the email notification I personally ALWAYS ask to be notified. I do this as if I don't get notified I may get too busy and not log in for a few days/weeks. One of the things I really got to like about the old version was the "Recent Posts" page. I would check that before going to the Active Threads page just to make sure I hadn't missed replying to a post that someone had made on one of my posts.
Gary Johnson
Microsoft Natural Language Group
DBA, Sr. DB EngineerThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and may not reflect that of my employer.
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I know people are busy, and I'm not against notifications, I just wish that the notification was just that, a notification and didn't contain the text of the post. Curious to see what people think of this.
From time to time, I have difficulty in re-locating things that interest me on the site. The e-mails that quickly point me back to the correct web page have been a huge benefit to me. As I recall, the notification checkbox is turned off by default. I would like the site to save the preference so that I don't have to remember to check it. If I don't get a notification, I rarely follow up on a post that I have made.
Jon
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The big thing with notification from a business point of view is that we want you to come back, so not having the text (Which is the new design) works well.
Personally, I hate tons of email and as a heavy user of the site myself, lots of posts, I get tons. What I'd rather do is batch up the replies to your topics once an hour/couple hours, something and get one email with lots of info. However due to the time sensitive nature of some posts, not sure this is a better way for us.
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Personally, I hate tons of email and as a heavy user of the site myself, lots of posts, I get tons. What I'd rather do is batch up the replies to your topics once an hour/couple hours, something and get one email with lots of info. However due to the time sensitive nature of some posts, not sure this is a better way for us.
Steve,
I can see where receiving tons of e-mail would be a problem for you, but I'm on the side of preferring a rapid response. What about making notification style (for lack of a better term) a saved configuration parameter for the users of the web site? That sounds like a gentle compromise that would keep both types of users happy.
Jon
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