Software News Forum

[renegadechic]

Yeah, i expect this to be removed by whichever mod notices but the Software News forum isnt sorted by recent post which is kinda frustrating when it comes to finding updates!

 

[EvilDragon]

Yeah, i expect this to be removed by whichever mod notices but the Software News forum isnt sorted by recent post which is kinda frustrating when it comes to finding updates!

Well, it's been setup to be sorted by recent thread, as I thought new versions should also get new threads.


It's a Software NEWS forum, not a Software DISCUSSION forum... but I can change that, if you guys want.

 

[CFWhitman]

That's an interesting question. I can see why you'd set it up the way that it is, so that each new entry of news goes to the beginning and any comments that follow don't change the order. On the other hand, with each news item, a discussion follows about issues and bugs experienced, as well as, with emulators anyway, what games work or don't work.


So I guess the questions are, Should it just take the form of the other threads? Should we have a separate place specifically for the ensuing discussions of new software releases? If so, what's the best way to go about linking a news release about a new software item or update to the related discussion thread?


It's probably worth discussing a bit to see what seems to be the best course of action, if any, to take.

 

[Mr_Loon]

The most sensible way to sort it is by the date / time of the last post. Not in order of thread creation.


Picture this :


One of the Devs realises there is a problem with one of their apps currently on page 2 of the software news section, they kindly provide a solution to this problem by posting on the thread.


2 minutes later someone releases a new bit of software and creates a thread on the software news section.


90% of users will never see the solution.


Now, just imagine what will happen when we have 10 pages of software news.


If someone wants to see the order that software is released they can look in several other places.

 

[renegadechic]

Yeah, i expect this to be removed by whichever mod notices but the Software News forum isnt sorted by recent post which is kinda frustrating when it comes to finding updates!

Well, it's been setup to be sorted by recent thread, as I thought new versions should also get new threads.


It's a Software NEWS forum, not a Software DISCUSSION forum... but I can change that, if you guys want.

hmm, i do understand this. looking at it now though, i wonder if there should be regular maintenance of the forum as there is a lot of locked or redundant old posts in there (looking at old hotfix rc beta testing and firefox versions) that could or should be moved elsewhere? alternatively is it possible to have the forum user sortable so they can view it either way when they load it?

 

[CFWhitman]

The most sensible way to sort it is by the date / time of the last post. Not in order of thread creation.


Picture this :


One of the Devs realises there is a problem with one of their apps currently on page 2 of the software news section, they kindly provide a solution to this problem by posting on the thread.


2 minutes later someone releases a new bit of software and creates a thread on the software news section.


90% of users will never see the solution.


Now, just imagine what will happen when we have 10 pages of software news.


If someone wants to see the order that software is released they can look in several other places.

That's all true from that point of view. Ed's way of looking at it, though, is that if a developer actually updates the software to provide a solution, then he should post a new thread about the update. On the other hand, if the developer is just providing more information or a workaround about the current release that solves the problem, then it doesn't really belong in the software news section, but somewhere else (the support forum? a yet to be created subforum?).


I'm not saying that Ed's point of view is more valid than yours. I think that the current situation leads to exactly the type of problem that you are posting about. The question is whether the solution is to change how the threads are sorted (this has the advantage of being simple) or to separate the discussion of new releases from their news postings somehow (this has the advantage of keeping new release news at the top of the thread). If separating discussion from news is the preferred solution, then how should we go about this?


(On a side note, I see that the forum spellchecker does not properly recognize (perhaps I should type 'recognise') the Queen's English, as it tags realise as a misspelling. This seems odd since a lot of the posters and forum maintainers are more likely to be using the Queen's English spelling variations than they are to be using the American English spelling variations. I wonder if there is an easy way to update the word list to recognize both, as it ought to.)