Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Admin on November 04, 2008, 10:03:56 AM

Title: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 04, 2008, 10:03:56 AM
I'm in the mood to add new features to the forum and member tutorial pages. If anyone likes one of the mods on the below links, convince me its useful and it wouldn't be too hard for me to add it.

A few of you have been suggesting chat, you should find a few in the chat mods (http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=chat). Try out the chat mods and let me know what you think.

other forum mods:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/

member tutorial mods:
http://drupal.org/project/Modules
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: airman00 on November 04, 2008, 10:08:21 AM
hey Admin

we have an IRC chatroom and HalfShell says we can use a Java IRC chat client on SoR
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 04, 2008, 10:50:35 AM
Remember that 'security issue' about people using the username 'admin' for chat? If a forum mod is used, that issue no longer is a ummmm . . . issue :P

But I support what you guys decide!
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: airman00 on November 04, 2008, 11:44:50 AM
IRC allows you to set passwords for your username , so other people can't take it
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: izua on November 04, 2008, 03:43:20 PM
and usually admin is reserved by ircops.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: pomprocker on November 04, 2008, 04:20:08 PM
I'd really like to see a wiki !!


collaboration tools....
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: paulstreats on November 04, 2008, 06:26:25 PM

[DREAM]
Its a shame there cant be a shop type system set up. Possibly similar to ebay buy it now. Where you can add your axon, airman00 could add his products, I could add some of mine. And other people who have created robot products could also sell them through an open shop on the forum using google checkout, paypal, worldpay or some other system. I'll bet before long there would be people offering basic components like resistors or header pins for sale. It could turn into like a big robotics market coupled with a support forum, and a general robotics forum.

If there was such a thing, the sellers would have to be forum members and log in a minimum number of times a week(except for preset holidays) or their products in the shop would be discontinued, since they obviously arent willing to provide support......

[/DREAM]
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on November 04, 2008, 07:39:10 PM
Way to go Paul! I want that too! I hope that soon I will be amongst those vendors...
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: izaktj on November 05, 2008, 11:49:55 PM
Dang that would be cool  :D
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 06, 2008, 12:41:55 AM
Hey Paul I like your idea, and it was similar to another less feasible idea I had already.

If I charged a $10/month fee (to cover my time, maintenance, and server costs), would that seem reasonable? In the member tutorials section I could create a products tutorial section so no one would have to run their own website, too.

And heck, if you can't make $10/month from your product, you shouldn't have ever made a product :P

Perhaps I could charge a little more and pool the money for group advertising of your products. I could also write up a tutorial on the best/cheapest way to ship robot parts.


Also, let me know when you guys have the chat decided and a test run for me to try out. I'll link it over when you think its ready.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: paulstreats on November 06, 2008, 06:04:17 PM
Personally, I like the idea of comission payments like ebay. So you would take between 5 - 10 % of the value of goods sold. The only thing i dont like about ebay is having to pay a listing fee and pay shop fees.

I tried trading a few years ago with ebay, it was about $20 per month for the shop, then you paid a fee to list a product about 50c then a final value fee of about 8% if I remember right. Then there was the paypal commision fee of 3%. Everbody wants a piece of the pie (in fact ebay wants 3 pieces. Thats just greedy ;D).

It would just be good to see a fair market place dedicated to robotics style things. The reason why the commision system would work is that people could put things up to sell and know that they are only charged when something sells. Remember a robot market place would end up having people selling things like cheap header pins and stuff that they havent made themselves but managed to get on the cheap and pass them on. They wouldnt want to pay $10 a month, but they would be happy paying a commision when they sell....

also using a commision system can make SOR more money than just a fixed rate too!

I would like to see an active support forum with products removed if sellers dont provide support though.

If this is a serious idea, it might be a worthwhile poll topic, or get lots of opinions before implementing it.

Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 07, 2008, 12:39:24 AM
Quote
ebay, it was about $20 per month for the shop, then you paid a fee to list a product about 50c then a final value fee of about 8% if I remember right. Then there was the paypal commision fee of 3%.
Thats just too complicated for a comparatively small website like SoR. And I don't like complex hidden fees anyway.

Whether the item you are selling is 10 cents, or $100, it takes the same amount of my time and server resources to manage the item. Since my costs are fixed, so would be the charge amount. I think anyone who is selling would like one simple flat fee more anyway.

Quote
I would like to see an active support forum with products removed if sellers dont provide support though.
Agreed. Only well documented/supported high quality products allowed. ;D

Anyway, if anyone develops a product they want to sell here, just contact me when you are ready and we can work together to set up a beta.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Asellith on November 07, 2008, 10:06:27 AM
I'm stealing this idea and I hope the guys don't hate me for it but. I have been trying to beta test a site call www.solderbynumbers.com (http://www.solderbynumbers.com). Well the idea is a social network setup around people like us. Well they want people like me to be designers who design a circuit and sell it to the other users and then we can all come together and enjoy conversations and all those social networky things. For every design I sell I get the list price of it ($5) and SchmartBoard sells you their boards. the design software on the site is really annoying and only supports their boards. I have been trying to make a $50 robot schematic that uses SMD parts for like 2 months and by the time I get 5 pins placed I've spent 25 minutes and am frustrated at the software. It is really slow and java based. They had a cool idea but bad implementation. It is a work in progress and might get better someday.

Ok now to my idea. Why not have a section on SOR that is more like a social network. Not sure what the server needs for this will be but... We could have areas to upload eagle parts files and pcbs that could be downloaded by all. A large catalog with individual parts and once a month or so they are all compiled into one unit and uploaded as a library. Same with google sketchup files. We would have different classifications that had different privileges to post things. Such as those that have written a tutorial are the only ones allowed to post files.

I have recently started my own website and know how much of a pain development can be. I think if we do this right with friend lists and personal home pages but all oriented towards robotics we can attract even more people and make the site more useful to those of us who are attached to the point where our lives are empty if we don't check it every couple of days.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: sdavis6736 on November 08, 2008, 06:34:57 PM
How about having a page or a link to upcoming robot conventions and events.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: airman00 on November 08, 2008, 06:36:02 PM
How about having a page or a link to upcoming robot conventions and events.
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_conference.shtml
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: sdavis6736 on November 09, 2008, 04:57:45 PM
Duh!  I've been to this sight many times.  Don't know what i was thinking.  Thanks for the link and the memory, airman00.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: paulstreats on November 09, 2008, 06:11:09 PM
I was on a forum not long ago where if somebody posted a reply to a topic, other members could rate them on wether their answers were helpful or unhelpful. This allows for another ratings sytem, the current one goes on posting level but the one i saw operating also gave a true to life level about people's skills or general helpfulness.

It could be  a good feature, but it is open to abuse such as people posting bad ratings against somebody for no reason and take a lot of extra moderating.

edit---------------

Also, this is not a forum/tutorial mod but more of a way of intorducing different types of competitions:

 A competition for new concepts.

 Okay, so we know general concepts, wheels, tracks, hexapods etc... as well as sensors like sharp i/r and mounting the rangefinder on a servo to provide a scanner (the mounting of the senseor on a servo being a concept alone).

 Maybe we could have a competition for best new concept, so maybe a different mode of locomotion could be entered aswell as somebody entering using PIR sensors (often talked about but never really implemented), somebody else could enter software for creating sound understanding, Somebody else could use QTC sensors etc....

 So a conceptual idea backed up by a proof of concept design as well as a statutory tutorial. The best or most innovotive wins. (the concept design also need not be just a fully functioning robot, it could be just say a pir sensor connected correctly to an mcu and some basic software showing how the sensor is read. and documenting constraints such as reading aquisition time etc...).

(Competitions like these would help create a foundation of tutorials for individual components, robot bases, actuators etc...)

just brainstorming......... ???
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 24, 2008, 01:17:28 PM
I added a bunch of new features recently. Yay!!!

First, there are like 100 more Avatars you can choose from if you're too lazy to make your own.

Next, I added Skype to the forum for those who want to chat vocally. Just go to your profile and add your Skype account if you're interested.

Next, I added bookmarks (originally Webbots suggestion). This way you can save any threads you feel useful without having to search for it. At the top of any page you will see this icon:
(http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/Themes/modified/images/english/bookmarks.gif)
click on it to view your saved bookmarks.

To save a bookmark, open up the thread you want to save, then click on this icon:
(http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/Themes/modified/images/english/bookmark.gif)

Lastly, I tweaked the forum registration and added a reCaptcha system to hopefully stop all that spam we recently had. I found like 250 spam accounts, and the forum constantly has bots hitting SoR. IP bans got rid of most of them (russian and ukrainian servers mostly).

I also *finally* figured out some bugs I was having with the forum since January. Took me days to add/fix all this stuff, so you guys owe me home baked cookies or somethin :P
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: kirit on November 24, 2008, 01:25:23 PM
Hello Admin,
If i click on the bookmarks icon, i get "Sorry, you don't have permission to make bookmarks. " error. Is there a level I need to achieve to do it?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 24, 2008, 01:32:03 PM
Quote
If i click on the bookmarks icon, i get "Sorry, you don't have permission to make bookmarks. " error. Is there a level I need to achieve to do it?
ok try again, I think I fixed it
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: kirit on November 24, 2008, 01:33:37 PM
Working! Thanks for the quick fix. :)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on November 28, 2008, 04:16:42 AM
Two new features have been added.

The first is a feature that shows you who is viewing the same topic you are. Someone had requested this feature a long time ago as a means to know who is reading your questions/topics, and to help coordinate replying to posts simultaneously. At the top right of any topic you will see a list of users, for example:

Admin, dunk and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.


The second feature is called Related Topics. It picks out and suggests other similar topics to the one you are viewing, and it seems to be doing a decent job at it too. Just scroll down to the bottom of this thread (or any other thread) for an example. An extra benefit is that it forces a 'search' for an answer to your question after you ask it - very useful since ~30% of all questions asked have already been answered before on SoR :P
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on November 28, 2008, 09:38:02 PM

The first is a feature that shows you who is viewing the same topic you are. Someone had requested this feature a long time ago as a means to know who is reading your questions/topics, and to help coordinate replying to posts simultaneously. At the top right of any topic you will see a list of users, for example:

Admin, dunk and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

It might be usefull to move this feature down to the bottom, above the Related topics, since we are mostly reading the last post and sometimes we need to scroll up alot just to see this feature.

I enjoy both features! Thanks!
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: mihies on December 01, 2008, 07:51:59 AM
Somehow I am missing the "Mark All As Read" button - I can only mark a single topic as read but not entire category.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on December 01, 2008, 04:43:05 PM
Quote
It might be usefull to move this feature down to the bottom, above the Related topics, since we are mostly reading the last post
I find it best to change your preferences to list the posts in reverse order - so the new posts are always at the top. Saves all that scrolling
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on December 02, 2008, 12:51:58 AM
Quote
Somehow I am missing the "Mark All As Read" button - I can only mark a single topic as read but not entire category.
I recently removed several buttons that almost no one used as a method to improve forum loading performance. I am actually surprised anyone at all used the mark all as read button!
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on December 02, 2008, 03:58:51 AM
I just allowed .hex and .xls file types for the forum and member tutorials. It shocks me that I haven't allowed them since day one!

And not to long ago I also added Eagle CAD files as allowed.
BUT if you want someone to check your schematic, upload a JPG!
Most people aren't willing to spend the time required to open up Eagle (including me).

pdf is also allowed, but I HIGHLY recommend scanning any pdf files you download with a virus checker before opening them. Hackers love that file type . . .
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on December 02, 2008, 05:21:15 AM
If you're worried about PDF files being hacked then XLS files are even more of a worry - so need even more virus checking. Its very easy to write a macro in Excel that is run on opening that sends an email to everyone in your address book.

Having said that then JPG files can also carry viruses by exploiting buffer overrun.

So viruses are just a fact of life unfortunately.

So always check anything you download !!
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: airman00 on December 02, 2008, 07:30:16 AM
Add buttons in members tutorial for quotes and for code.

So far whenever I wanted to put my code in a grey box , I edited the HTML and added in
 before the source code and a 
after the source code
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: mihies on December 02, 2008, 09:12:17 AM
Quote
Somehow I am missing the "Mark All As Read" button - I can only mark a single topic as read but not entire category.
I recently removed several buttons that almost no one used as a method to improve forum loading performance. I am actually surprised anyone at all used the mark all as read button!

I am certainly using it.  :)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on December 05, 2008, 11:57:58 PM
Quote
Somehow I am missing the "Mark All As Read" button - I can only mark a single topic as read but not entire category.
I recently removed several buttons that almost no one used as a method to improve forum loading performance. I am actually surprised anyone at all used the mark all as read button!

I am certainly using it.  :)

Ok, I re-added it just for you :P
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: frodo on December 06, 2008, 12:33:14 PM
hi, i can bookmark forum pages but not tutorial pages because there doesn't seem to be a button. could you put bookmarking buttons on the tutorial pages as well please?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: want2learn on December 11, 2008, 01:29:35 PM
I know this threads getting old but:
1. Thanks for the mods so far.
2. would it be possible to create a section solely for beginners and the $50 tutorial ?
just a thought.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: pomprocker on December 11, 2008, 06:53:31 PM
I know this threads getting old but:
1. Thanks for the mods so far.
2. would it be possible to create a section solely for beginners and the $50 tutorial ?
just a thought.

I second that motion
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: want2learn on December 11, 2008, 11:40:56 PM
You could also move the beginner stickies there as most beginners wont look in the misc. section straight away.
Thanks
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: mihies on December 12, 2008, 01:43:56 AM
Ok, I re-added it just for you :P

 ;D
I am happily clicking "mark all as read" many times each day  ;D

Thanks
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on January 30, 2009, 11:16:11 AM
I just installed this mod:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1535

It basically just plays a 'You got mail' sound file whenever you get a new PM. It will only play once per session.

Any objections? Anyone like it?

You can turn of the audible sound in your profile, if you don't wish to use it. Or if you absolutely hate it let me know and I'll remove it.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Canabots on January 30, 2009, 12:37:35 PM
I enjoy it.

Pretty decent voice too, not robotic or anything (it lightens my day  :D)


Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on February 06, 2009, 01:01:36 PM
I tend to use 'Bookmarks' to remind me about the posts that I want to reply to. So thats great for monitoring stuff that I want to send out.

But it would be good to have a similar thing for topics I am interested in seeing new replies to. Once I make a posting then I get emailed if there is a reply to the topic and I can find it using 'New replies to your posts'. But sometimes I don't have anything to say - for now - but its a topic that interests me. eg the SoR Scope thread.

So it would be useful to able to place a 'Watch' status on a topic so that I get notifications, or can easily find, new posts to a watched thread - even if I've never replied to it.

Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on February 06, 2009, 08:17:47 PM
Webbot, have you tried the 'Notify' button? (the one with the satellite dish)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on February 06, 2009, 08:33:17 PM
Webbot, have you tried the 'Notify' button? (the one with the satellite dish)

You're several steps ahead of me - as always! Doh !
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: izaktj on February 06, 2009, 08:55:13 PM
A rep system  :)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on February 06, 2009, 09:36:15 PM
Hey - we now all have a 'Helpfulness' figure. Cool.

Edit - They seem to be called Karma points. Admin has spent too long in the East !!!

Please dont list our 'Waistline measurements'  ::) ;D
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on February 06, 2009, 09:46:27 PM
A rep system  :)


http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=6862.0
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on February 06, 2009, 09:51:24 PM
Hey - we now all have a 'Helpfulness' figure. Cool.

Edit - They seem to be called Karma points. Admin has spent too long in the East !!!

I think out of anyone here, you'd be the biggest proponent of this new system. :P You complained a lot about the 'post count' system, and I agree that its a poor way to determine someones 'helpfullness.'

izaktj ended up triggering a thought in my head that reminded that the forum had a 'karma' system (yeap, they call it 'karma'). I checked into it and turns out it was a simple add on.

As long as no one abuses it I'll probably keep it here.

The most amusing part of the system is that it's technically meaningless, but it makes your ego work hard to keep it up :P
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: cooldog on February 07, 2009, 08:06:22 PM
i noticed that www.instructables.com has all there instructables in PDF format to download...  maybe a useful idea for the member tuts
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on February 07, 2009, 09:30:02 PM
i noticed that www.instructables.com has all there instructables in PDF format to download...  maybe a useful idea for the member tuts
But you can simply download PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com/), a program I use all the time to print to pdf.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Joesavage1 on February 08, 2009, 02:03:15 AM
Quote
Somehow I am missing the "Mark All As Read" button - I can only mark a single topic as read but not entire category.
I recently removed several buttons that almost no one used as a method to improve forum loading performance. I am actually surprised anyone at all used the mark all as read button!

I am certainly using it.  :)

I havnt been here that long, lol
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: madchimp on February 21, 2009, 06:55:13 PM
Perhaps a little more oversight on the tutorials section? I went through and was checking them out and some of them are really nice and you can tell a lot of work went into them. Others are more of a incomplete blog that are in no way shape or form a tutorial. A tutorial would lead to a finished project that can do something no matter how basic. Some may think I'm being harsh and I understand it takes time to complete a project but you usually can't create a useful  tutorial of something you have yet to do. I also think it detracts from the hard work that went into the complete tutorials.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on February 21, 2009, 10:14:16 PM
i noticed that www.instructables.com has all there instructables in PDF format to download...  maybe a useful idea for the member tuts
But you can simply download PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com/), a program I use all the time to print to pdf.

The other way, on Windows, is to create a dummy postscript printer ie install the driver for a postscript printer, in your app choose this printer and select 'Print to file' (if there aint the option then it does work), print the file, you now have a postscript file. Use a freebie like Ghostscript to convert the postscript into PDF. I'm sure PrimoPDF is more slick.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on February 25, 2009, 10:44:21 AM
Perhaps a little more oversight on the tutorials section? I went through and was checking them out and some of them are really nice and you can tell a lot of work went into them. Others are more of a incomplete blog that are in no way shape or form a tutorial. A tutorial would lead to a finished project that can do something no matter how basic. Some may think I'm being harsh and I understand it takes time to complete a project but you usually can't create a useful  tutorial of something you have yet to do. I also think it detracts from the hard work that went into the complete tutorials.
Webbot was the first to bring this issue up, and I completely agree.

However oversight is a problem. I can prevent a tutorial from being paid public before I review it and quality check it, however:
1) a lot of work on my part
2) prevents the community from helping out during rough drafts
3) will discourage people who are slow writers
4) the rules I set are good, but its up to authors to follow them

A potential option is that I can unpublish the incomplete tutorials (not delete). But I might come off as a bully admin, so I'd still set up permissions so that the author and republish without a re-review from me. (more work on my part, but a good compromise perhaps?)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on February 25, 2009, 12:12:33 PM
Sounds like a good solution to me
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: dunk on February 25, 2009, 08:45:09 PM
why not just make a menu that only links to the tutorials people think are any good.
you can still include the full list somewhere but have the title page only link to the complete ones.

dunk.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: madchimp on February 25, 2009, 08:50:42 PM
I understand not wanting seem like a bully, I wouldn't want the job of overseeing the tutorials either. Maybe even something as simple as a way to distinguish the finished from the incomplete tutorials. That way people can tell without actually having to sort through all of them. Maybe even some how make it where if the incomplete ones aren't updated within a certain generous time frame they get unpublished. That way we don't end up with a bunch of derelict tutorials and once implemented it could be an automated form of oversight without the need of constant input on your part.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: airman00 on February 25, 2009, 08:59:31 PM
Maybe even something as simple as a way to distinguish the finished from the incomplete tutorials.
Authors could click a button to "publish" or leave it unpublished
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on February 25, 2009, 09:45:34 PM
Trying to make 'sense out of chaos' is always hard.

If you make the 'helpful tutorials' more accessible, then they will be accessed more, and will be more highly ranked as being more helpful. Self fulfilling prophecy. And 'helpful' over what time frame? Are new tutorials, only recently accessed, more/less helpful that another that has been live for years but seldom accessed.

I think that the choice of 'publishing' by the author is good. When I do my tutorials I'm always conscious that I'm editing 'live' content that people may be reading/downloading. So a 'publish it now that Im happy' button would be good. But thats just to do with short-term content editing.

That way you could remove tuts that have not been edited for 90 days and are not published.

But its a double edged sword in other ways. People give their own time to contribute and may not have the time to finish the tutorial. BUT there may be some little gems of info in there. In which case there is no way but for Admin to decide whats good/bad even if unfinished.

There is certainly some rubbish out there which hasn't been updated for ages. But often with large hits as 'the subject' is of interest but having viewed the tutorial you soon realize that its incomplete.

So you cant use hits (as people may be hooked by the subject but not the content), you can't use the last modified date (it may be old but may be perfect), you cant use votes (if i can spend time voting my tuts to the top of the list).

Needs addressing - but needs a bit of thought.

No answers - just widening the problem  ;)

Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on February 28, 2009, 11:11:47 PM
Perhaps a little more oversight on the tutorials section? I went through and was checking them out and some of them are really nice and you can tell a lot of work went into them. Others are more of a incomplete blog that are in no way shape or form a tutorial. A tutorial would lead to a finished project that can do something no matter how basic. Some may think I'm being harsh and I understand it takes time to complete a project but you usually can't create a useful  tutorial of something you have yet to do. I also think it detracts from the hard work that went into the complete tutorials.
i second this, maybe put the most completed tutorials at the top?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on March 01, 2009, 12:10:13 AM
Alright I did it, I unpublished the incompletes and sent an email out. There were like 15 of them.

I even found spam! :o
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on March 01, 2009, 12:23:24 AM
wow, thanks that looks way better :) and admin, i just felt like asking but i keep getting this message with the tutorial pages: You are not authorized to access this page. why is this?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on March 01, 2009, 09:09:48 PM
Quote
and admin, i just felt like asking but i keep getting this message with the tutorial pages: You are not authorized to access this page. why is this?
Good question. Mostly because I don't see what you're talking about :P
What link gives you that message?


Also, new features have been added - yyyaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!

First, SoR now supports not just YouTube videos, but also videos from:
Google Video
Flickr
YouTube (playlists)
MetaCafe
ImageShack
PhotoBucket
Yahoo Video
Facebook
BBC News

I can get it to support videos from other sites too if demand is high enough.

Second, a new way to add video (the old way still works) . . . just post the link to the video in a thread, and the forum will auto-detect it for embedding. For example:

Quote
I like girls who dress like robots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKJeGC2BgI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKJeGC2BgI)
Will give you this:

Gundam Robot Expo Thailand (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKJeGC2BgI#lq-lq2-hq)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on March 01, 2009, 11:25:28 PM
http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/187 (http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/187) ba bum, anyone else get this?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on March 01, 2009, 11:56:30 PM
http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/187 (http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/187) ba bum, anyone else get this?

I looked into it . . . apparently unpublishing stuff was a bad idea . . . users don't have the option to publish/unpublish like I thought you guys had . . . me and Dunk are currently trying to fix it, give us a few days!
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on March 02, 2009, 01:17:46 AM
ok thanks 8)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: dellagd on March 04, 2009, 03:14:58 PM
How do I do a poll?
Am I allowed to?
And am I gonna have to pay to use this forum soon!
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on March 04, 2009, 11:27:04 PM
How do I do a poll?
Am I allowed to?
And am I gonna have to pay to use this forum soon!
you should be allowed to make a poll. and what do you mean 'pay to use this forum'?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: cooldog on March 05, 2009, 06:07:41 AM
How do I do a poll?
Am I allowed to?
And am I gonna have to pay to use this forum soon!

regular users arn't allowed to make polls only admin can
what gave u the impression you will have to pay?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: dellagd on March 05, 2009, 07:09:55 AM
I thought I heard something earlier in this forum about adding a ebay kindof thing to SoR and Admin said that they would charge $10/month to use it?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: paulstreats on March 05, 2009, 07:21:31 AM
No the suggestion was an ebay type thing but without hidden fees. only like a final value percentage on what you sell. If you have an ebay store it now costs GBP£16 ($28)per month just for the shop, then when you list something you have to pay (e.g. 0.50p / $0.75 depending on what the item is worth) for each item then when the item sells you also pay about 8% of the final value. Then paypal also takes about 3%.

 I listed something in my ebay shop for £8. I had to pay 45p listing then 64p when the item sold then 24p to paypal totalling £1.33. meaning that I really only get £6.67 for it AND ive got to keep some of it back to contribute towards the £16 per month fee.

Just charging 5% final value fee would be sufficient. If there was $5000 worth of goods traded per month this would earn $250 for the maintenance of the website.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: dellagd on March 05, 2009, 07:32:10 AM
k good!
I was confused
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on March 26, 2009, 04:48:19 AM
I thought I heard something earlier in this forum about adding a ebay kindof thing to SoR and Admin said that they would charge $10/month to use it?
I noticed you have been reading and replying to a lot of old posts . . . the post you refer to was an idea I was playing with . . . users create robot products and use SoR to sell them. SoR would take some cut of that for the effort to get it all working and maintained. But it never came to fruition due to lack of interest. ;D
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: cooldog on March 26, 2009, 02:00:58 PM
I noticed you have been reading and replying to a lot of old posts . . .

but sometimes it brings back old interest,   i replyed to a post one time about robot t-shirts  and now we sell them on the web site

you never know
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on March 30, 2009, 02:20:04 AM
I just added a small new feature that shows this icon next to the person who started the topic:

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/Themes/modified/images/topic_starter.gif (http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/Themes/modified/images/topic_starter.gif)

Not that big of a deal, but it makes checking to see who started a topic a bit faster . . . and maybe perhaps will help people focus more on the starting topic and not drift into irrelevant conversation :P

In the future I might change that icon to something more obvious than a pencil, but it'll still stay in the same location.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on March 30, 2009, 02:24:11 AM
so does that pencil come up next to every post in the topic by the starter?
eg. if i started the topic would i have one next to every one of my posts in that topic?
EDIT: yep sure is. thanks admin, this will help tonnes when reading a 3 page or longer thread ;D
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: TrickyNekro on March 30, 2009, 05:17:33 AM
I generally don't have a problem with the forum I got used to it...
But in the tutorial page, I want to be given the freedom of having more
build options, like scrolling text and so on...
With proper html code I think you can make it, but not many of us know html (at least me :p)
So, either make it more easy to have the same freedom as we have in the forum (by just clicking a button )
or give us a good link or tutorial on how to write the html needed...
I don't know if I can link to java programs back to the members page... although
we better off it for security reasons... (Or it would be a good thing if we just uploaded the
java programs to SoR and then use then on the tutorial to avoid the external links)
Java programs can be helpful in tutorials, cause they are interactive and anyone knowing how to
write one, would be finding it a great help to teach others, cause tutorial after all, aren't demonstrations,
there are either white papers or teaching tools...

That's from me,


Regards,
Lefteris, Greece
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: paulstreats on April 02, 2009, 05:33:20 PM
@tricky

Are you talking about a tutorial on how to create applets for tutorials?

@admin

does the members tutorial area support embedding applets? and where could the class files reside?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Webbot on April 02, 2009, 06:15:24 PM
@paulstreats
I think Tricky is refering to the fact that text editing in the forum is different to text editing in the member tutorials - basically because they are different apps that have been merged to create SoR.
So when writing a member tutorial there is no way to flag stuff as code - like there is here. If you know HTML you can insert some tags yourself - but its a bit of a hack.

As for Applets - IMHO they should not be hosted via SoR as this gets complex with trying to manage different releases of the applet code.

As a quick test I'm going to try and embed an applet of my own (hosted elsewhere) just to see what happens....

Blast cant do it in a forum post - so will create a dummy member tutorial and get back

EDIT:- ok here is a member tutorial that includes an applet http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/322 (http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/322)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: offy on April 05, 2009, 05:33:10 PM
I think the videos should start off in LQ so than people will never see the "This video is not longer available"
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on April 06, 2009, 12:19:59 AM
I think the videos should start off in LQ so than people will never see the "This video is not longer available"
is there even a way to do that?
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: offy on April 06, 2009, 07:33:52 PM
Its all in the code, so he will have to modify the mod =] just like 3-4 lines though.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: offy on April 07, 2009, 11:14:35 PM
Live website chat. So when one of your buddies are online, you can talk to them on the forum, like how facebook has the chat on the bottom right.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: cooldog on April 08, 2009, 04:53:11 AM
http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/175 (http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/175)
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: SmAsH on April 08, 2009, 04:55:31 AM
yea, but rarely are any members ever on there when i am :(
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: offy on April 08, 2009, 07:24:01 AM
Move to a different time zone and it will be all good.
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: superchiku on April 08, 2009, 07:42:53 AM
rofl rofl well we live in the eastern zome smash ...most members of sor are from the west .. ..so nobody is onli9 when we are onli9
Title: Re: suggest forum mods and member tutorial mods
Post by: Admin on May 08, 2009, 02:25:51 PM
Quote
Live website chat. So when one of your buddies are online, you can talk to them on the forum, like how facebook has the chat on the bottom right.
I think a small chat box on the forum would be nice. But there is no module to do that, and I don't want to write chat software myself . . .

Quote
I think the videos should start off in LQ so than people will never see the "This video is not longer available"
I upgraded the video software a few days ago, perhaps the bug was eliminated. Let us know if you still have that problem.