February 28, 2007 at 7:04 am
I would second (third... fourth...) all those comments so far about keeping it clean and simple, avoiding irritating animations and pointless fancy flashes. And those that praise the current simplicity and emphasise that we want information and professional exchange, not entertainment or visual clutter.
I would like to put in a word for the pet concern I always raise with our intranet folks at work - cater for Accessibility with a capital A. I would like to be interacting with computers as a developer and DBA until I retire. If I simply imagine what it would be like eg to lose all or part of my eyesight, or to lose the use of one hand, I hope that I would not have to give up applying my skills, knowledge and logical brainpower just because the computer assumes I have full mobility and sight and doesn't provide alternative ways to provide input, to navigate or to read data. You cannot write every app to cater for everyone and everything, and some support would have to come from the client end (readers, touch interfaces, all that specialist stuff for specific disabilities). But please bear in mind people who need different fonts sizes, have partial colour-blindness, who maybe cannot handle a mouse precisely, and don't produce anything that will work only eg using colour contrast or at high resolution.
There are sites and bodies trying to encourage the right ideas, such as
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_checkpoints.hcsp
I make no claims for my own apps here, I'm no expert at making things accessible and adaptable; I just try to do better each time.
February 28, 2007 at 7:55 am
I'm late to the party, but here is a quick comment.
I don't visit slashdot often, but when I do, there are usually some really interesting user comments posted. But I dislike the layout for threads of responses. It is very easy for comments to be invisible or buried several levels down. I think that layout may be related to the rating system for the comments themselves, but more often than not it is merely annoying to me.
I much prefer the forum style here at SQL Server Central, where posts are fully visible and the thread is broken into pages. The only things I would change with the forum layout here are:
1. Perhaps to find a way to give a little more info about which specific message a person is replying to (it's not always the message just above). I don't know whether some system of indentation would work or whether some color-coded or other reference in the heading of each post would work better.
2. When I post a forum reply, I am taken back to the first page of the replies. Could you add a user account preference that lets me choose whether to go back to the first page of results or stay on the page where I am replying? (Or does this option exist already?)
3. It looks like preview and some HTML options work in IE but not Firefox. I'm not sure how much you can do about this, though.
Thanks for listening to your user community!
webrunner
-------------------
A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html
March 12, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Well, as a long-time reader/lurker, I like the "second look" idea. That's been missing for a while. Perhaps even break this down into "most read" vs. "most commented". Otherwise, the simplicity of the site has been a big plus for me. The search feature for the forums works pretty well, as does subscribing to topics. The only downer for me right now is that my daily e-mails don't seem to be making it my way with any regularity. That was a pretty big draw to the site for me as it contained a little bit of everything and I'd often jump in on a topic I could assist with or look at some articles that sounded interesting because I read the snippet in the e-mail.
-Pete
March 12, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Page navigation at the top of the screen would also be a welcome feature. If I'm either returning to a topic or want to jump to the last page of an existing one, I have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to the page links. I think that the spbclub forums work pretty well as far as navigation goes - page links at the main subject line and in the posts themselves. Xda-Developers forums also work pretty well. I especially like their button on the posts to "go to first unread" for the topics. That's great for the really active discussions where you want to pick up where you left off.
-Pete
March 12, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Add my vote to this idea.
My favorite forum software that incorporates this functionality is SimpleMachines which is the best free forum software I have found.
February 26, 2008 at 9:12 am
I echo other posters in stressing simple and easy to use features over focusing on "look and feel".
The feature I wish for most is a way to "subscribe"? to articles without having to post a reply myself. When I post a reply, I start to get e-mails sent saying that other people have posted comments on the same article. This is a great feature! I don't want to waste my time checking the site all day long or over several days. I just want to know when something new has happened. What I would like added is the ability to get those e-mails even when I haven't posted a reply.
I don't always have something to say and don't want to waste anyone else's time with a filler comment. Instead, I want a nice big button that says something like "subscribe to comments" or whatever text is clear. That way I can get the e-mails about new comments, and follow the discussion in a manner efficient for everyone.
February 26, 2008 at 9:32 am
I know I'm a tad bit late to the party as well - but is there any chance to think toward improving "accessibility" As in -
http://www.section508.gov/[/url]
As in - put some thought into say - a "lightweight" version, or something that might work on a smaller screen. The query/nav buttons (like "recent posts") fall down on my Treo due to something custom in the Javascript. I spend a fair share of time sitting in airports, and this is one site I essentially can't use while there.
Assuming you're using master pages and those kinds of concepts the right way - it shouldn't be all that ludicrously complicated. You can get pretty far with some fairly minor additions/changes to the code.
Edit: I see Ewan already beat me to it:).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
February 26, 2008 at 10:19 am
What I DON'T like.
Let me preface my comment by mentioning that I live out in the boonies, and expect that DSL is a distant future for me here. Never the less, with careful planning, I still do more than 90% of my job from home. Therefore my remarks come from a 56k modem user's standpoint.
I don't like any page that refuses to stop loading when you tell it to.
Ads are okay and necessary. Flash content and the like is not welcome, but mainly because so many sites don't allow the main content of a page to load until the Ad content is downloaded. The same sentiment is felt for pages with large flashy image files.
A couple of examples of this are:
A friendlier experience is found at http://news.yahoo.com/ where the page content appears to be one of the first things to appear.
SQL Server Central is one of my favorite sites, because of the content, and the knowledge of it's contributing members, but I wouldn't visit it daily if it didn't present itself in a "56k Modem Friendly" manner.
Keep up the good work Steve!
February 26, 2008 at 10:38 am
I love SSC, and wander through it nearly every day .
things i'd like to see:
Something we had at one time, that was snipped out in the new design:
under "Recent Posts" link, I'd like the dropdown to add "View UnAnswered Posts", that would list all the posts that have not been replied to yet...I'm not in a race with of the higher output posters, but it's worthy sometimes to see what might have been skimmed over.
Something new:
The "My Posts" link is great, but it would be awesome to be able to filter it/search against it based on a string. Alot of times, a new question has been already answered in detail in a previous post I might have made, and it's hard to search through my own posts to find the answer I could point them to or re-paste.
This functionality could be replaced by google, if we had the ability to also search/filter by author, as well as text. That way, If I knew Jeff Moden's "Tally" table was relevant, I could filter on that...searching witht eh current google for "Jeff Moden Tally" isn't as specific As I'd hope for.
Lowell
February 26, 2008 at 1:02 pm
James A. Lawrence (2/26/2007)
Here's an example, visit
This (somewhat new) SQL site is pretty cool from the aspect of design... and the articles and 'How To' items are very well written. Read one of Robyn Page's articles for example. I believethis site isbased out of the UK.
On the volume of info a site provides, I think this it easy to overdo. That is, some include so much info that you're simply overwhelmed. I really like the 'need help' questions on your site - I have gleaned a lot of useful info from those.
James, Simple-Talk is another Red Gate site. I'm sure they are aware of it. 🙂
Gotta second the motion on this one. The Simple-Talk site is very, very nice. Phil mentioned at one point that the SQL Server focused material was going to be more emphasized on SQL Server Central, and that Simple-Talk would focus more on .NET. Links back and forth between the two, and a shared style, would be nice.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 26, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I like the ideas in the article at the end, about adding the editorial to the front page, and so on.
I don't think a lot needs to change in the appearance of the page. It works, and it's "branded" for me. Has positioning and and the right emotional impact (looks like something from an engineer, rather than something from a marketing group, which carries the right implications and emotional tone). (Yes, I've spent too much time in marketing and sales.)
There are a couple of functionality changes that I would like, if they're popular enough.
First, I'd like a simple link to my subscribed topics on the front page. I don't like the e-mail notifications, but I do like to follow up on threads I've been involved in. I manage the list daily, looking for further details, removing dead threads, etc. It's just not as easy to get to as I would like.
Also, on the list of subscribed threads, I'd like an indicator that says, "there have been 2 posts since you last viewed this thread", or something of that sort to indicate new content, and possibly the last date viewed of the thread.
Second, I'd like a filter on the forums that would allow me to look for unanswered questions and posts. Quite often, when I sign in, I actively look for posts that don't have an answer yet, so I can answer them.
When I look at a thread, and see that the most recent answer was by GilaMonster, Matt Miller, Jeff Moden, etc., I can pretty safely assume that whatever problem the thread was started with has been solved. When I read their posts, I'm more looking for solutions I wouldn't have thought of myself.
It would be nice to be able to quickly filter the forums for questions that haven't been answered yet, so I can help on those.
Right now, I can scan through, looking for posts with 0 replies, and that gets me part of what I'm looking for, but not necessarily the whole thing. I'm not sure how I'd build it to work that way, but it would be nice if there were a way to mark a thread as "solved" or "answered", and then to filter against that.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
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