Messenger and Plus! Versions - Printable Version

Messenger and Plus! Versions - Printable Version

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+----- Thread: Messenger and Plus! Versions (/showthread.php?tid=67348)

Messenger and Plus! Versions by Chris4 on 10-15-2006 at 04:07 PM

I think it would be a great help to everyone if in the MsgPlus! Help & Support forum and the MSN/Windows Messenger forum, when you create a new thread, displayed warning message saying:

"Please state what Messenger you are using and what version (Help > About Messenger). Also, please state if you have Messenger Plus! or Messenger Plus! Live, and what version (Plus! > About Messenger Plus!)."

Or something along them lines?

Or even better, drop down menus where you have to select what you have and what version and also a N/A option.

Anyone else agree? It does get annoying because in nearly every thread people never say what version they have and we have to ask every time.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Zahid™ on 10-15-2006 at 04:10 PM

That would be a good idea (y) .

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by vaccination on 10-15-2006 at 04:13 PM

That would be a good idea, but if there is a N/A option, people tend to be lazy and just choose that. But i think on the whole it would work well.

The version numbers would have to be shown somewhere(at the bottom?) of the post. Or something

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Nagamasa on 10-15-2006 at 04:21 PM

Good idea! Almost every single time, I ask them, what version MP! and Messenger are you using? It get really annoying too.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Val on 10-15-2006 at 04:29 PM

Hmm this seems like a great idea but I am sure many people still won't use this since they don't like to read things (just like when people post in the wrong forums)

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Chris4 on 10-15-2006 at 04:33 PM

quote:
Originally posted by ValSpy
Hmm this seems like a great idea but I am sure many people still won't use this since they don't like to read things (just like when people post in the wrong forums)

Make it so you have to choose an option. Makes sense.

Edit: The N/A option would only be for if your not asking for help, just general discussion about Messenger in MSN/Windows Messenger forum and the drop-down menu would default to blank, so they would have to choose an option (either a version or N/A ...)

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by vaccination on 10-15-2006 at 04:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Chris4

quote:
Originally posted by ValSpy
Hmm this seems like a great idea but I am sure many people still won't use this since they don't like to read things (just like when people post in the wrong forums)
Make it so you have to choose an option. Makes sense.

Yeah like with a pop-up that informs the person that they have not filled in 'so and so' bit and need to go back and correct it.

RE: RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Chris4 on 10-15-2006 at 04:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by vaccination

quote:
Originally posted by Chris4

quote:
Originally posted by ValSpy
Hmm this seems like a great idea but I am sure many people still won't use this since they don't like to read things (just like when people post in the wrong forums)
Make it so you have to choose an option. Makes sense.

Yeah like with a pop-up that informs the person that they have not filled in 'so and so' bit and need to go back and correct it.

Yeah, that would be a good idea.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Lourix on 10-15-2006 at 04:39 PM

I like that idea go for it people

RE: RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Val on 10-15-2006 at 04:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Chris4

quote:
Originally posted by ValSpy
Hmm this seems like a great idea but I am sure many people still won't use this since they don't like to read things (just like when people post in the wrong forums)
Make it so you have to choose an option. Makes sense.

Yeah that would work

Now I just hope the admins are up for it

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Mike on 10-15-2006 at 05:14 PM

That's already available when you create a thread in Help & Support:

quote:
Originally posted by http://shoutbox.menthix.net/newthread.php?fid=12
Provide as much information about your problem as you can. For example, tell us everything you have already tried and what versions of Windows, MSN Messenger and Messenger Plus! you are using (type (!VER) in a conversation window to find this info).

RE: RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Chris4 on 10-15-2006 at 05:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mike
That's already available when you create a thread in Help & Support:

quote:
Originally posted by http://shoutbox.menthix.net/newthread.php?fid=12
Provide as much information about your problem as you can. For example, tell us everything you have already tried and what versions of Windows, MSN Messenger and Messenger Plus! you are using (type (!VER) in a conversation window to find this info).

Hmm, never noticed that before. Probely havn't made a thread in that forum before :tongue:

But still, no one follows it. ¬_¬

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Menthix on 10-15-2006 at 05:25 PM

I think it's good as it is now. Forcing people to choose it from a dropdown or similar generally doesn't work well. People tend to be to lazy to actually check it and will just blindly say they use the latest version. However, when a human being asks them they will get the feeling that replying with the proper versionnumbers will actually help them solve the problem.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by linx05 on 10-16-2006 at 06:30 AM

We had the problem with the StuffPlug forums. So in the bug tracker, when asked for the version number, only numbers were allowed. It stopped people writing "latest version" etc.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by user27089 on 10-16-2006 at 07:11 AM

I don't think using a pop-up to choose the option would be very effective, most people have pop-up blockers installed on their computers, or with Mozilla Firefox they're already installed.

It's a good idea, but like any other idea it probably wouldn't be effective, as ValSpy said, the users simply won't read anything that's written there for their benefit, the only way to do it would be to force them to put in their version number etc. but then they probably wouldn't bother and just go on to post in another forum.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by andrewdodd13 on 10-16-2006 at 09:10 AM

It'd be better to have something like a drop down menu...

Like:
Menu 1:
MSNM < 6
MSNM 6
MSNM 7
MSNM 7.5
WLM 8

Menu 2:
MP! < 3.63
MP! 3.63
MP!L < 4.01
MP!L 4.01

Also,
Menu 3:
Windows 9x/ME
Windows NT/2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista

might be useful...

Although it'd need updated every time there was a new release of MP!L or WLM.

/effort

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Lou on 10-16-2006 at 10:53 AM

quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
Also,
Menu 3:
Windows 9x/ME
Windows NT/2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista

But then you've got service packs and all that which are also important. To be quite honest, this would mean a lot of coding and it probably wouldn't even be effective.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by vaccination on 10-16-2006 at 03:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by traxor
I don't think using a pop-up to choose the option would be very effective,

The pop-up, i thought, would be to tell people they had not 'filled in' the drop down menu. And then tell them to go back and check it.

I realised thought that in certain forums it wouldn't apply or you might need slightly different information. It would be a lot of work to get it right. and it might end up not very effective.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Thor on 10-16-2006 at 03:13 PM

That would really improve the quality of the help here, and make is easier to help the ones that need help. (Y)

Great idea!

RE: RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by CookieRevised on 10-16-2006 at 08:33 PM

idea is very nice, but...

quote:
Originally posted by ValSpy
Hmm this seems like a great idea but I am sure many people still won't use this since they don't like to read things (just like when people post in the wrong forums)

just as most helpers don't actually even ask what version is being used (see all threads where people simply assume the posters are using the latest (Live) version)... That's the biggest problem to begin with IMHO.

quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
Make it so you have to choose an option. Makes sense.

Actually it doesn't. In some cases the version does matter and the questions are general.

Also, and this is my personal opinion, you can often give better and detailed support if you provide an answer where all the versions are described/handled.

In that way, people seeking help don't need to seek for version specific threads. It also will minimize the duplication of threads (threads about the exact same stuff, but with different Messenger versions) or minimize the extra posts to ask "will this work in version x too".

IMHO, it comes down to how support is given or what is being asked before giving support.

quote:
Originally posted by MenthiX
I think it's good as it is now. Forcing people to choose it from a dropdown or similar generally doesn't work well. People tend to be to lazy to actually check it and will just blindly say they use the latest version. However, when a human being asks them they will get the feeling that replying with the proper versionnumbers will actually help them solve the problem.

absolutely

quote:
Originally posted by Nitro
That would really improve the quality of the help here, and make is easier to help the ones that need help.

Tbh, that wouldn't improve the quality of support. If anything, it would fractionize support posts even more (refering to duplicated and repetative threads and posts).

The quality of support does not depend on a mandatory form to be filled in, it _could_ make it easier (on the other hand, it could just as well make it harder, as people tend to not check stuff as Menthix said), but the quality of support mostly depends on those who give it and their lazyness -or not- in asking questions before giving detailed support, instead of assuming things and giving vague one-liners...

-------

Anyways, the thing why I am against it is mostly because such info is sometimes needed, sometimes not, sometimes it can even give wrong info or the wrong idea, sometimes even more info is needed, and sometimes such info can only be more confusing to the requester and thus they may even answer the wrong stuff leading to incorrect support...

... it is highly dependant from situation to situation.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by rob_botch on 10-21-2006 at 05:03 PM

I think this is a great idea. Not only does it help those who are helping, but could speed up the process for those asking for help. It would be quicker to select a nmber than type it all out. But I do agree it would become annoying. So, how about having the values stored in your profile? Then you wouldn't need to select them each time, and everyone could see what versions you have.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Chris4 on 10-21-2006 at 05:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rob_botch
So, how about having the values stored in your profile? Then you wouldn't need to select them each time, and everyone could see what versions you have.

Then you would need to update it every time and no one is going to do that.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Salem on 10-24-2006 at 08:36 AM

Agreed. Would really help with giving support to problems

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by MC Inferno on 10-24-2006 at 08:19 PM

Godd idea kidder

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by brian on 10-27-2006 at 11:49 AM

Honestly, I think this forum runs fast enough, but then if we add 3 new colums in the MySQL database so let's say we have around ~30 threads per day. The WLM/MSN version is usually 11 characters, MP! has 10 characters and the Windows one can go from 11 to 13.

Let's use the "Windows 2000" choice for 13 characters, 11 characters & another 10. That's an extra 34 bytes per thread. If we have around 30 threads per day, that's around 1 MB per day. Multiply that by a month and we have around 30 MB of something we could simply ask for.

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by WDZ on 10-27-2006 at 03:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by brian
That's an extra 34 bytes per thread. If we have around 30 threads per day, that's around 1 MB per day.

WTF?

34 bytes * 30 threads = 1020 bytes, or 0.996 kilobytes, or 0.00097 megabytes.

RE: RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Chris4 on 10-28-2006 at 04:27 AM

quote:
Originally posted by WDZ

quote:
Originally posted by brian
That's an extra 34 bytes per thread. If we have around 30 threads per day, that's around 1 MB per day.
WTF?

34 bytes * 30 threads = 1020 bytes, or 0.996 kilobytes, or 0.00097 megabytes.

Rofl!

Staying on topic.. I think something needs to be done about it, whether it's my idea or not :-\

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by Spunky on 10-28-2006 at 10:32 PM

An activeX control that can read the version from files on your PC?

RE: Messenger and Plus! Versions by fluffy_lobster on 10-29-2006 at 07:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by SpunkyLoveMuff
An activeX control that can read the version from files on your PC?

I think an acceptable solution would be to customise newthread.php?fid=12. Most support requests are new threads in that forum; most new threads in that forum are support requests. You could save any db structure palava by just hard-writing the versions into the top/bottom of the post. Both unintrusive and useful to the support process.