The "Forum ideas / Bugs / Request" thread

As some of you already know, we chose to get the forums up and work on them incrementally.

So this is a good time for forum users to suggest enhancements, feaures, changes. Report bugs and issue and generally moan at us when you randomly see error messages as we work on it.

In the unlikley event that you do see such an error message or the forum reports that it's not working. Please just give it a few moments and refresh. Chances are it's because we're making some nice changes for you all

So on that note. What would you like to see on the forum? What problems are you finding with it?

For any HPC Pro or lower users, we are aware that the board doesn't work on your devices. We are investigating to see if we can create a work-around. The problem is very technical and involves the way the HTTP protocol works. Unfortunetly there is no easy fix.

What weird icons we now have

You know my thoughts on a developer forum...

Are you sure it's a problem with HTTP: I thought everything since the last ice age supported 1.1! Are you thinking of HTML rather than HTTP?

Keep up the good work. It really is appreciated

tehe, I thought the icons were a little different, from the norm anyway. I've a few more I can add.

Alas no. If it were as simple as HTML I would have sorted it. The issue is with the HTTP 1.1 protocol. Pro and lower are 1.0 only. Which leads to problems as the entire forum is bolted together using an astonishing array of functions, includes and the like.

It's the reason why when you come on it using Pro, even the headder graphics for the factor site navigation don't load.

Insurgent and I will no doubt be investigating it and if we can come up with a work-around. You'll all be the first to know.

Hey I like those icons
but for some reason I cannot tap on it when replying with my 728.
And it would be even better if the icons look like H/PCs

Oh, and what about the width of the pages? The main logo header thing is too wide, so is the reply page.

The HPC:Factor navigation bar wasn't designed to display on H/PC's. The decision was made for the first version of the site to be host designed.
There will be a lower resolution version of the site at some point which is specifically formatted for the HVGA display, along with that of the forums.
/¬

Here is the current Emoticon list for the forum. I've added some new ones tonight, some I had to draw myself. Enjoy.

- : )
- : (
- ; )
- : o
- : crazy:
- : laugh:
- : hmmm:
- : p
- : huh:
- ; )
- : cool:
- : D
- : cower:
- : rofl:
- : x
- : rip:
- : blink:
- : blush:
- : cry:
- : angry:
- : unsure:
- : wacko:
- : yawn:
- : rolleyes:

Just another thought:
Can you create a user information field for their HPC system (device, add-ons, and software)? And perhaps display under the avatar, like the location field.

I think this would be the quick way to figure out who's using what, especially their processor type. It just seems more civilized than sticking it in a signature

Very good idea, that one! You don't want to encourage people to list equipment in signatures, as that would mean that people searching for "jornada 720" or whatever will get a hit on every thread that had that in a signature - which is not what people want!

takwu, ever heard the expression "Great minds think alike"?

I would only look at putting the devices beneath the Avatar. Anything else could either be placed dynamically in the signature (so not to get in the way of the searches) or remain on the profile page.

What you mentioned was on my to-do list from before HPC:Factor was founded. Right now it would require some huge database and code changes.

I wont look at implementing it until a) MBBS 2.2 source code is released & installed properly here (which will take me a while as the code here is already heavily modified) and b) the forum is running on MSSQL server.

Right now if I need to make database changes I have to disable the forum, download the entire database (which is getting increasingly large), make the changes, test it, send it back to the server. The forum cannot be back up again until it's fully tested.

I also want to make some changes to the registration, as not enough people are filling in their Profiles.
Profiles are important everyone!

That sounds very complicated...
So my workaround for now is to utilize my Avatar for it, as you can see
Hopefully you can recognize the Jornada 728, thanks to its unique exterior color (I wish I could find a picture of it closed tho). Unfortunately the Linksys WCF12 card looks too generic at that size. And I threw in the J logo just because it looks cool

I think I'll need a fairly large avatar...

HP 360lx, HP Jornada 680, HP Jornada 720 (did have a 620lx, which I sold to fund the 680)
Psion Organiser II LZ64, and an XP
Psion Series 3a 1mb, 3a 2mb
Psion Series 3c 2mb, 3c 2mb with backlight
Psion Series 3mx 2mb backlight
Psion Siena 1mb
Psion 5mx 16mb (plus backup machine with damaged screen)

I still am looking for a 728 for a reasonable price. I suspect that it will be futile. I'd also like a Nexio of some sort or other.

It's safe to say I like PDAs with keyboards.

Chris, if you need a hand with the ASP or db structure, give me a shout. I'm slightly stunned that this is running so well on an MDB, but that's more a testament to how well access can work... We're still running a mission critical system on Access 2.0 here

Cheers,
Nick.

Access 2.0

Nick, thanks for the offer. I no longer class myself as a complete ASP newbie. Having hand written the HCL engine as well as several other things dotted about the site... modifications to the forum, the portal script and so on.

I now deem myself "newbie + 1"

I have the forum from a couple of weeks back, in MSDE, running perfectly on this very computer. I took the "new SQL server script" from PD9 - which I then ripped apart and converted into a structure only script which allows me to dump the MDB database very smoothly into MSDE / SQL.

The next task is to convince Insurgent to install SQL server (PM: Insurgent if you'd like to drop a little hint people )

I have been surprised at how well it runs. This server (Artemis) is heavily under spec and over loaded. The long page transitions are because of that.
If I put the forum onto my PII 350 with 400MB RAM server, there are no page lags at all.

The only thing that is of some concern to us is the Query execution. Just watch the debug data in the bottom left of the page. Most forum root queries are in the 70's and user listings in the 150's !!

Compare that to PHP based Invision, and you never see anything over 30. (It could be counting different things in the debug mode of course, I've not eliminated that possibility)

Let me see now:
hp 320LX
hp 320LX (CE2)
hp Jornada 720 (Pinkie)
hp Jornada 720 (Chloe)
IBM Workpad z50 (Thanks David F)

Edit: 3 pink stars

Yeah, why does it say Forum Coming Soon if I put my mouse above the forum link on the top of the page? (Never could notice this on my 720...)

I would like to see more ranks.

What would you suggest?

the current scope is a little limited when it comes to the actual user postition, I'm hopeful that it will be remedied in the next core release. I don't want to have to hand code that sort of feature into it - although technically I could.
For Example, It doesn't say I'm an Administrator in the user info.

If it's just the member, regular, veteran etc you're referring to. I'm all ears.

I was thinking in terms of doing something CE releated, but would new users "get" it...