DonationCoder.com Software > Find And Run Robot

Update Notifications?

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moerl:
I'd like to stay up to date with the software provided here on DonationCoder.com. How about a locked sticky thread for each program here that is editable by admins and the software author that will only get updated when a new release or beta release is out? When subscribed to that thread, a user will always know when there are updates through email notifications. This is a great way to implement "update" notifications as it requires very little effort.

Also.. how can I easily access the beta releases for DC.com software? I can't find the beta of F&RR anywhere :/.

mouser:
very good point, and we need to standardize how we do all this.  let's quickly comes to a consnesus on how to handle it and stick with it.

here's the situation so far:

The "DOWNLOADS" button in the forum brings you to our "Latest Releases" page which has all of the programs on the site, versioned and dated, and sorted by last public release date within each category, which should make it easy to identify what's new.

But this page does not always list the latest cutting edge beta version.  we could change this by adding a column showing the latest beta version that people could download.  the only problem we might have with that is that some sites like BetaNews automatically pick up on beta releases and announce them, which is great except when you are releasing a new beta every night as we sometimes do when we get in a coding frenzy, and then you start to annoy people..

Regardless of whether the latest betas are shown on that page, there is value to having them announced on the forum in an official way.
Probably the cleanest solution was suggested earlier, and again by you, which is that each program, in its own forum section, have a thread dedicated to the latest release, kind of like a "version history" thread.  subscribing to that thread would get you the notifications about updated that you want.  This makes sense to me and i suggest we adopt it officially starting to day.

moerl:
Awesome! I'm glad you agree with me. I thought of it because I've seen it implemented in other places around the web and it works beautifully. Opera Software has been doing it for a while now and it worked out really well.

I understand that you can hit the Downloads button on the page, but obviously that's no good in terms of notification... I mean, that requires users to click there every once in a while, unless they use a web watcher app like Website Watcher. I've started using it recently and while I like it I think the author could seriously make MAJOR, MAJOR improvements in the interface and the preferences.. all that stuff is so incredibly much and complicated, and this is a rather experienced software saying that... I mean, I get a headache trying to figure out what all those settings mean in Website Watcher! And I'm the type of person who likes to know what a program I'm using can do, what it's capable of. Therefore, the first thing I always do when installing a new piece of software is to go through its preferences. You can imagine what surprise I ran into when doing that with WW...

Sorry for getting OT here. Anyway, I think it's the best way to do it, and requires so little effort! I mean, someone could be asking for a an update newsletter service from the site or something.. what for? It would require some effort because it would have to be integrated into the site. This, on the other hand, couldn't be any simpler. I also see other benefits.. like, as you mentioned, these dedicated threads could also serve as changelogs as its usually done with that type of thread. You can announce both final and beta version in there, using modifiers like * = bug fixed, + = new feature, - = feature removed and whatever you think is necessary. It would be a very clean way of keeping the entire changelog of a particular program in one way and publicly, universally accessible at the same time.

I say, let's do it!

moerl:
Awesome, thank you mouser! I see you already made the appropriate thread for F&RR. I'm sure you've made the corresponding threads for all the other programs as well. I won't be checking that now :). I subscribed to that thread now. Thanks!

See.. for example, I'm running 1.07.18 beta of F&RR.. I never knew, until now, that 1.07.20 has already been released :(. I had no idea! Question.. can I install the latest final release over the build I'm currently running?

mouser:
yep - every single one of our programs is designed so that you can just install latest version on top of previous.  :up:
if the program is currently running in the tray, exit it first (it will complain and remind you to do so if you forget).

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