Need a new postings display, coupled with "Mark all read" function

[IRstuff]

This is currently my biggest gripe. The Mathcad Overview page: http://communities.ptc.com/community/mathcad has no way to "Mark" as read, and an absurdly linear status display, and I have to pay attention to the time stamps to determine if there's a new posting or not.

The old collab's approach was a billion times, if not infinitely, better. You got the mark previous threads as "read" and the overview would tell you how many new postings were in each major category, and you could select to display only the new threads.

TTFN

[RichardJ]

Eden Mei wrote:

This is currently my biggest gripe.

And mine. And I think most other peoples too.

It's hard to keep track of what's new even if I check twice a day. If I am out of touch for a few days, forget it!

[MikeArmstrong]

Eden Mei wrote:

This is currently my biggest gripe. The Mathcad Overview page: http://communities.ptc.com/community/mathcad has no way to "Mark" as read, and an absurdly linear status display, and I have to pay attention to the time stamps to determine if there's a new posting or not.

The old collab's approach was a billion times, if not infinitely, better. You got the mark previous threads as "read" and the overview would tell you how many new postings were in each major category, and you could select to display only the new threads.

TTFN

Eden,

This problem is becoming increasingly frustrating and has been highlighted by your post in the 'Function to determine quadrant' thread. As Richard states it is near impossible to track the progress of each thread. The only logical way is to respond to the e-mail notifications in-turn and they are received.

Mike

[RichardJ]

MIke Armstrong wrote:

The only logical way is to respond to the e-mail notifications in-turn and they are received.

IMHO, that is a non-solution. You can only get notifications about threads you have posted in, so you will not get to see everything that is new. And if you were allowed to get notifications about every new post can you imagine what your inbox would look like if you went on vacation for a week!

[MikeArmstrong]

Richard Jackson wrote:

IMHO, that is a non-solution. You can only get notifications about threads you have posted in, so you will not get to see everything that is new. And if you were allowed to get notifications about every new post can you imagine what your inbox would look like if you went on vacation for a week!

It is a non-solution, but it seems the best way to keep track of the threads that I have in. It's becoming very tedious and time consuming. Surly this can't be the hardest thing for PTC to implement.

PTC can send you a notification for every post via e-mail, so why can't they show it on the site for every thread????

Is PTC even listening to all these gripes, or are we moaning to each?

Mike

[jeanGiraud]

Just use the same structure as Akiva, i;e: no limit in the work sheets attached, no zip, "Today message", highlight read messages, cumulative in sequence, search by date range, a professional spell check , no indenting... Nice to see all Planet PTC on the first visit, then what is the problem to get a sub Planet uniquely Mathcad as fast as Akiva was. The actual formatting of the text is lovely, more file types and bigger size is fine . We expected these two features. Richard has well exposed the difficulty to keep track of the chat in one week only, even in a single day, here is an example: I have just removed the work sheet "fft bug" and retitled "Fourier interpolation" [to come], I didn't see it before reading you and typing this message. So, if that "to come worksheet" does not show today or on the day it will appear, then it will not be available. No one can read in the past if the past is not made present at the moment the past is present ... you see my point. Actually, few collabs are alternating the role on the stage show. At least we have 3 hrs relax every day between 21:00 ... 24:00. Mike, keep bending against "le mur des lamentations". You moan, I pest ... for PTC we are just nagging.

Jean

[DanMarotta]

Hi Eden,

Look at the Discussion tab, from there you can view what's new (or updated) versus what you've already ready.Use the same technique for each sub-community.

[RichardJ]

BostonDan wrote:

Look at the Discussion tab, from there you can view what's new (or updated) versus what you've already ready.Use the same technique for each sub-community.

As already stated though, several times, nobody has the time or the inclination to go through every sub-forum one at a time to see what is new.

[jeanGiraud]

Richard Jackson wrote:

BostonDan wrote:

Look at the Discussion tab, from there you can view what's new (or updated) versus what you've already ready.Use the same technique for each sub-community.

As already stated though, several times, nobody has the time or the inclination to go through every sub-forum one at a time to see what is new.

Yes, that's what I called weeks ago "Lost threads". Under "Mathcad", pile them all and one click for all.

[IRstuff]

BostonDan wrote:

Hi Eden,

Look at the Discussion tab, from there you can view what's new (or updated) versus what you've already ready.Use the same technique for each sub-community.

You're kidding, right? Do you have any idea how long that would take? Might that have something to do with the fact that despite the decrepitude of the Akiva software that the old Collab probably had close to 5 times the traffic that this site has? The current bottom line is that the worst performance day on the Akiva software is perhaps comparable to the best performance day on this site.

And, you're asking to click how many forums that DON'T have new postings to find out that they DON'T have new postings? IS that PTC's vision of "product development excellence" that's at the top of each page?

[DanMarotta]

I came up with a couple different ways to stay connected to new postings. I bookmarked the discussion tabs of each of the Mathcad sub-communities. Now I can pick from my browser bookmarks drop-down to view which community I'm interested in today to view all new or updated posts.

I also subscribed to the RSS feeds for each community. New content comes to me when its posted. I use Google Reader

I'm not asking anyone to click into each forum. If anything, there's less you have to do.

Has anyone tried either of those approaches? We are looking at additional filters so you can siphon through Mathcad-only content (new vs old)

[RichardJ]

Has anyone tried either of those approaches? We are looking at additional filters so you can siphon through Mathcad-only content (new vs old)

They both seem to me to be the use of external software to fix a deficiency in the forums. A better solution is to fix the deficiency.

I have no interest at all in cluttering up my bookmarks with 17 more entries. The only way that would conceivably be acceptable would be if I put them all on a sub-menu. And I would still need to click on every one of them just to find out if that sub-forum even had any new entries. No chance.

I also don't see an RSS feed as much of a solution. The feed shows only the new posts, so it has no context, and I can't use it to reply. So then I have to got to go to the forums anyway. All we want is something like this:

Then when you are in a sub-forum, the same thing but showing the "New" markers for threads with new posts. Then when you are in a thread each new post is marked as such. Then give us a setting so that the "New" tags will not be removed until we do it manually. That still wouldn't be as good as the old Collaboratory (because we still wouldn't have the left hand browser pane), but it would be vastly better than what we have now.

[GuyB]

Richard Jackson wrote:

All we want is something like this:

[pic]

Then when you are in a sub-forum, the same thing but showing the "New" markers for threads with new posts. Then when you are in a thread each new post is marked as such. Then give us a setting so that the "New" tags will not be removed until we do it manually. That still wouldn't be as good as the old Collaboratory (because we still wouldn't have the left hand browser pane), but it would be vastly better than what we have now.

Bingo.

- Guy

[IRstuff]

Myabe I'm dense, but clicking a bookmark and clicking a link are the same to me. The overhead required because this site is slower than the old site, coupled with the fact that most of the subcommunities are not active at any given time. So, how is this an "excellent" solution?

Like Richard, I've already got too many bookmarks and don't want to have to add more just because the website doesn't have a clean interface. From what I can tell, what Richard describes is almost all there already. In fact, if PTC would just keep the community "folder" listing on the left side ALL THE TIME, instead of flipping positions will-nilly, we'd have the folder pane that used to be in the Collab. Then, it's just adding the information about the new postings as Richard describes and the site would be substantially better. Frankly, do I really care what tags are applied to the pages? I'm already on the page, what do I care about the search tags?

And moving all the junk on the right hand side to the top would allow nearly 50% wider displays of the threads, but I would give that up to get the "folder" view.

[RichardJ]

Eden Mei wrote:

In fact, if PTC would just keep the community "folder" listing on the left side ALL THE TIME, instead of flipping positions will-nilly, we'd have the folder pane that used to be in the Collab.

Not quite, but I'm with you. That's a great suggestion.

[jeanGiraud]

BTW Dan,

I don't see my silver star anymore. I would say for last two days. Does no star mean "renegade" or are you looking for a "Maple Leaf star" ?

[MikeArmstrong]

jean Giraud wrote:

BTW Dan,

I don't see my silver star anymore. I would say for last two days. Does no star mean "renegade" or are you looking for a "Maple Leaf star" ?

Jean,

You don't see silver star because it's GONE GOLD........

Mike

[DanMarotta]

Yup, looks like you've gone Gold! Maybe you were racking up points so quickly, it just couldn't keep up with you

[MikeArmstrong]

BostonDan wrote:

Yup, looks like you've gone Gold! Maybe you were racking up points so quickly, it just couldn't keep up with you

Dan,

Yep Jean has gone gold. It seems the star point ratings as follows.

< 500 Bronze

> 500 < 1500 Silver

> 1500 GOLD

Long way to go!!!!!

Mike