Shoutbox

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Originally posted by WDZ
Even if the first post is kept updated, the posts right below it could be a year old and reporting problems that no longer exist, etc. :\

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happens sooo much in other forums, it's really off-putting and confusing with custom app threads on neowin or msdn for example.

Lock/delete on old big threads, when updated versions come would solve that issue though

Let's get the script requests subforum a go-go!

And what is considered "big"?

If the topposter replies to an issue with "fixed" or "can't do" or whatever, I don't see what confusing it might be. Of course, if there is no reply and just an update in the first post, then it might.... But then again, even in the first post you could keep a history, a faq or whatever (examples exist here).

Bottom line: if the script creator handles it correctly, there shouldn't be any confusion. If the script creator doesn't handle it properly, then a subforum or even seperate threads aren't going to help fixing that either....

Anyways, Neowin is a massive forum where threads get big in no-time. Here the script threads are relative small/short. And it's only a very small handlfull of scripts that get very big threads. And most of that is due to people not reading.

And the not-reading can't be helped by subforums or multiple threads either I think. So you will still have the same amount of posts in the end, but scattered over several threads. Which on its turn leads to (more) crossposting, missing information, etc....

How many times does it occur that you need to refer people to an existing thread, or that you link to an already existing thread/post about the very same subject or that you repeat something which has been said in a very same thread? I know I encounter it a lot...

When you're going to explicitly allow and encourage different threads I think the information-scattering (and thus needed repeating of information) is only going to get worse.



As for the comparisson with skin forums. That's not very accurate I think. Because of the nature of skins, there isn't much of a discussion when someone requests something or when someone makes a release thread. I mean, with a script, everybody can and will comment on a piece of code. For skins, this is very unlikely. And for scripts you can discuss a lot of stuff about features, report bugs, request additions, etc. For skins this is again not so much.


PS: I'm not against a "requests" subforum for scripts. But only if it is used to only request a certain script and when that script is released keep the additional feature requests and everything else in that release thread. I'm a bit against having multiple (release/bug report/whatever) threads about the same script.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
And what is considered "big"?

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10 pages on default view I would say, too much for a newcomer to check every page for fixes and comments on legacy versions.

But I do agree the first post should always be kept up to date with known issues and changelog of at least the last version

You know what would be uber-cool... A method to collapse posts, so that the answered posts, or old not-relevant-anymore posts can be hidden (by default). Those who wish can read everything, and the newcomer will only see the important posts.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
A method to collapse posts, so that the answered posts, or old not-relevant-anymore posts can be hidden (by default).

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And who's gonna moderate that? I feel sorry for that person already .

Or maybe sticky all the [Release] threads?

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Originally posted by riahc4
Or maybe sticky all the [Release] threads?

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Which means that the stickies themselves take up more room than the threads shown per page...

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Originally posted by riahc4
Or maybe sticky all the [Release] threads?

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Stickies are for important threads ...Stickying all the releases would just make the rest of the threads much harder to find as you'd have to scroll through another few pages just to get to them.

What I would like to see is a scripting resources board, where tutorials / useful information / help with code snippets can go, and have a second board primarily for scripts themselves

My 2 cents

Oh, while I'm at it, how about a completely separate category on the forum index, for extensions for Plus where the script and skin boards can be placed

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Originally posted by MeEtc
What I would like to see is a scripting resources board, where tutorials / useful information / help with code snippets can go, and have a second board primarily for scripts themselves

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Yeh, that may be useful, because at the moment we only have the Tips thread stickied, while there are other interesting threads for scripters who aren't stickied. I agree that a sub-forum would make it easier to find and post information.