New Festool Group Not User Friendly

[Jeff Wright]

I already miss the old discussion group.

It was real simple to have the new messages sent automatically to my email one-by-one. Now I must proactively go to the new forum website. This slight change runs the risk of reducing participation. Also, I would love to have a button such as found at SawMill Creek called NEW POSTS (or some such thing) where I can simply hit it and it brings up all the most recent posts from the different subject groups. New system has screens that are too cluttered. Old system allowed posting files (such as .PDF files that can be a great way to share information and photos).

I suppose in time I will adjust, but prefer the previous platform.

 

[Dan Lyke]

See http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=31.0 (I also wish I could figure out how to make linking work right) for one start at a work-around...

And I've got a "Show unread posts since last visit" link up there below my name on the top left.

 

[Dan Clark]

I already miss the old discussion group.

It was real simple to have the new messages sent automatically to my email one-by-one. Now I must proactively go to the new forum website. This slight change runs the risk of reducing participation. Also, I would love to have a button such as found at SawMill Creek called NEW POSTS (or some such thing) where I can simply hit it and it brings up all the most recent posts from the different subject groups. New system has screens that are too cluttered. Old system allowed posting files (such as .PDF files that can be a great way to share information and photos).

I suppose in time I will adjust, but prefer the previous platform.

Jeff,

I think the format is far superior to the old format.  For example, I add a GIF image or my C12 and a PDF file that I had on my drive (Simpson Strongtie).  Forever more, these will be attached to this post.

Dan.

 

[Dan Clark]

Here are some additional attachements...

 

[Dan Clark]

One more...

 

[Dan Clark]

At the top, just below "Hello ", you should see:
  Show unread posts since last visit.
  Show new replies to your posts.

Try clicking them and see what happens.   

Also, at the home page look to the left of the folder discussions.  The Icon is light when there are no new posts in that folder and dark when there are new posts. If you click that Icon, it will jump inside the folder and show ONLY threads with new posts.

When you go inside a folder, you will see "New" next to the thread title indicating that there are new posts there.   When you click "New" it jumps immediately to your first new, unread post.   

Quite frankly one of the things I hated about the Yahoo board is that there was no categorization and I got bombarded with topics of which I had little interest.   Now I can scan quickly past the stuff I don't care about and my mail inbox is much smaller.

Take a little time to understand the options.  It will probably grow on you.

Dan.

p.s. the SKP file shows that you can even share Sketchup models.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Thanks Dan. I will spend more time playing with the options.

 

[Dan Clark]

Jeff,

It was good that you posted.  It motivated me to check out the options.

Dan.

 

[Allen Akin]

The new approach is great for occasional casual use, but for regular reading it's much less efficient than an email reader that organizes mailing-list messages by topic.  I'm waiting to see how the RSS feed works out, but an email gateway is likely the best-of-both-worlds option (if we can find one that works with SMF).

BTW, attaching photos worked for me on the old group.  I gather there was an incompatibility between some email readers and the way Yahoo handled attachments, so it worked for some people but not others.

This is not to say that the Yahoo group was great; I completely agree that it was frustrating in lots of ways.

In the meantime, I'm just reading fewer messages, because it takes longer to get through them.

Allen

 

[Dan Clark]

Allen,

I could attach photos in the Yahoo group and people who got the e-mail directly could see the photos (for the most part).  But that isn't the point.  While many of the e-mails were idle chit-chat or sharing of opinions, many of the posts had valuable reference information.  Some had pics. 

So what happens when you delete the posts off of your local computer?  Look at Yahoo archives?  NOT!  Pics are gone.  So you've just lost valuable information.    And there's no way to retrieve them other than asking other users to repost and hope that someone saved it. 

Further, the posts came in as a stream of conciousness.  No organization.  Yes, you could organize them yourself, but that's a hassle.

And, every post was created on the user's computer.  Some people used formats that were VERY difficult to read.  Some use plain text that offered almost no way of structuring information and adding emphasis.  For example, you couldn't do this:

Old Forum	New Forum
Bad	Good

With the current forum setup, the information is more categorized and better formatted.  Pics are added and saved with the posts.  Always available from any computer.    Each to his/her own opinion, but I think the current format is MUCH friendlier.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

BTW, attaching photos worked for me on the old group.  I gather there was an incompatibility between some email readers and the way Yahoo handled attachments, so it worked for some people but not others.

This was one of the most maddening aspects of the Yahoo group for me.  It seemed like half the members could see the photos and half could not see them.  I, for one, could not see them!  Even when it was my own message, I could not see the photo, but other people could.  Drove me bananas.

I'm waiting to see how the RSS feed works out, but an email gateway is likely the best-of-both-worlds option (if we can find one that works with SMF).

Stay tuned!  I'm checking on expansion packages for SMF that allows RSS news feeds.  There are a number of different utilities that can be installed here, and I am just trying to figure out which one works best for us.  I'm getting there!

In the meantime, I'm just reading fewer messages, because it takes longer to get through them.

I really hope that this is a function of the software being new to you!  But feel free to let me know what else you might want to see to make things work better.  The great thing about SMF is that is is ver flexible, and very customizable.

I appreciate your feedback.

Stay in touch,
Matthew Schenker

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Each to his/her own opinion, but I think the current format is MUCH friendlier.

Obviously, I agree!

But let me emphasize again that SMF is very flexible and customizable.  What we need, especially in the early days of the new forum, is to hear from members about what they would like to see.

Thanks,
Matthew Schenker

 

[T. Michael]

Matthew,  is it my imagination, or are there a LOT more messages per day than on the Yahoo site? 
I do like the new format, (and have suddenly become a frequent commenter; because it is easy).
So, question; do you have data on the average daily message rate on Yahoo vs the new SMF?

Mike
Portola Valley, Ca

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Mike,
The old Yahoo group averaged about 125 messages per week.
This new group has had over 500 new messages in the past five days.

The activity so far has of course been skewed by the fact that this is a new forum.  We might need a little while to get reliable stats, but my guess is this will be much more active than the previous forum.

If you want to have some fun with statistics:
1.  Go to the "Festool Owners Group - Info Center" area, which is located near the bottom of the Home page.
2.  Look in the "Forum Stats" section.
3.  Click the "[More Stats]" link, or click on the little pie chart icon...

You'll get all the stats you need about postings, people, and more.

Have fun!

Matthew

 

[Jim Becker]

"New Posts" can be done with the Simple Machines Forum using a "portal page"...another forum I visit (non-woodworking) uses this software and that's how they accomplished the task.

 

[Allen Akin]

Dan (Clark) asked:  "So what happens when you delete the posts off of your local computer?"  The short answer is, I don't; disk storage for something as small as this group is cheap.  This is connected to your later question:  "Further, the posts came in as a stream of conciousness.  No organization."  That depends on the email reading and search software you use.  My email reader, like many, organizes replies (identified by Subject and In-Reply-To headers in the mail) into topics automatically.  So discussions arrive neatly organized, and I simply read the ones I want to read at the moment and skip the rest.  Search software takes over for the cases where the topic organization isn't adequate, exactly as it does for the web forum (though on my local machine, I have a lot more options for fast search than any web forum provides; you probably do, too).  "Some use plain text that offered almost no way of structuring information and adding emphasis."  This, too, is a function of the email software you use, not necessarily the forum itself (Yahoo's shortcomings notwithstanding).

"I think the current format is MUCH friendlier."  I think it is, too, for people who are strictly casual users.  I've been using bulletin board and newsgroup software since 1977, and even written some back in the old days.  I've been using web forums since the primitive ones available in1996.  For me, and I think for most people who have experience with the alternatives, the web forum concept is definitely a mixed bag.  If you haven't tried a recent newsreader with automatic topic threading, scoring, and filtering, you don't know what you're missing!

Matthew said:  "Stay tuned!  I'm checking on expansion packages for SMF that allows RSS news feeds."  Looking forward to it; that should help with receiving posts (though not necessarily with making them -- for that you need a gateway).  I mentioned "In the meantime, I'm just reading fewer messages, because it takes longer to get through them"; Matthew replied "I really hope that this is a function of the software being new to you!"  Well, no, it's just slower to use.  Not worse in all respects, especially for casual users, just clunky if you're used to faster methods.  Mailing lists have been around a long time in computer years; there are very well-optimized techniques for handling them.

Allen

 

[Dan Clark]

Allen,

Interesting points...  I'm a computer jock by profession (database developer), so I'm always interested in better ways of doing things.  When the new software is available for the forum, please post a "How To".  I'll give it a try.

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

I'm a computer "zero" by comparison to most.  I can lock up nearly any PC in a few minutes, just working with MS Word and Outlook and not trying to do anything fancy.  When forced to switch to this new forum, I had many reservations, which have proven to be unfounded.  To me, the new site is much better in many ways, particularly its organization, and ease of posting new, updated and reply messages.  I most of the time the photos attached by others work, too.  I came upon one posting today that my PC would not display.  Much better than at the Yahoo site.  I haven't tried posting a photo because I don't have a digital camera or a scanner, so the "how to use this site" and "how to post photos" instructions that others have provide are very welcome by me.  The only "downside" for me is the fact that I like to read all of the posts, no matter what the subject/category, and that takes more time than did the old format.  That time penalty is a small price to pay compared to all of the advantage of this new site.  Thanks, Matthew!!

 

[Daviddubya]

I have found the Show unread... and Show new... links do not work reliably.  I have started using the Mark Read button on each message group I read.  Each time I return, only the threads that have new activity since my last visit are marked New.  Works well, and takes just a second or two to execute.

 

[Jerry Work]

Ok, here goes.  I am sitting here just out of my hot tub trying to figue out how to make sense out of this web site.  I am not making much progress.  I can read the various posts. but cannot reliably figure out how to respond to them.  I have made a number of responese posts the last couple of days, but have not seen any of them actually show up.  The "spell check" does not seem to work on my machine so I guesss I will become a lurker until I can figure this thing out.  I will respond when and if I can.  See ya all.

Jerry