What is Donation Coder?

[Paul Weinstock]

Hi, is DonationCoder a Software or a scripts maker?..
Paul Weinstock

[jgpaiva]

DonationCoder is really a community.
The founder of DonationCoder essentially makes software, but there are quite a few members of the community that do scripts.

For more information, you can read the About Us section of the site

[scancode]

We also cook!

* scancode grabs his trusty salt'n'pepper shakers and chases jgpaiva.

[mouser]

DonationCoder is a community of people who have a passion for Computer Software.  Some of us are professional programmers, some of us are new programmers or just dabblers, and many of us don't program but enjoy participating in the software development process by testing, suggesting features, etc.

[CleverCat]

As  non-programmer/scripter, it's a site where you learn a lot (if you are willing) and the best place I know to find good free software that makes using your PC a lot easier! 

Mum is always saying "Where did you get that programme?" and my answer 90% of time is..

"Donation Coder, of course!" 

[dantheman]

People here are most cordial, patient with newbies and full of humour. 

BTW, welcome to the forum Paul! 

[momonan]

I believe this post is spam of some sort.  The same person has posted only one question on many forums in the last several weeks.  Sites representing everything from astronomy to light boxes to computers to aikido to david allen.  They all say something inane like "What's GDT?"  Gets people worked up answering him, but never posts again.  Probably racking up google hits for some reason.  For example, donationcoder pops up first when you search for the poster (whose name shall not be used by me), then a long, long string of other links.

[f0dder]

momonan: I suspected the same - it's probably the same old tactic of coming back some weeks later to edit the post and make it point to the product they want to spam.

That doesn't mean we can't have a meaningful thread about the topic, though, and spambam the user if it turns out our suspicions are true

[app103]

As  non-programmer/scripter, it's a site where you learn a lot (if you are willing) and the best place I know to find good free software that makes using your PC a lot easier! 

Mum is always saying "Where did you get that programme?" and my answer 90% of time is..

"Donation Coder, of course!" 

I have become very aware recently (and have become a bit self conscious about it) of how much I give out links to this site. It seems nearly every issue someone has that could be solved with either a useful tool or some info, either the tool is already made (usually by skrommel) or there is a post with the info here.

I just hope people elsewhere do not perceive me as a broken record or think I am attempting to actively promote the site just to drive traffic to it. The truth is, we just seem to have everything they need.

[CleverCat]

I just hope people elsewhere do not perceive me as a broken record or think I am attempting to actively promote the site just to drive traffic to it. The truth is, we just seem to have everything they need.

I'll second that app! I was saying the other day that FARR does everything but make tea! 

[cranioscopical]

I was saying the other day that FARR does everything but make tea!

It probably could, but you'd have to wait toolong.

[J-Mac]

I was saying the other day that FARR does everything but make tea!

It probably could, but you'd have to wait toolong.

Ouch!

BTW, I agree that this poster is a fraud; check Google here.

[PPLandry]

it's probably the same old tactic of coming back some weeks later to edit the post and make it point to the product they want to spam.

@Mouser: Could the post editing be time limited? I makes sense to allow editing for 1-2 hours after posting, but why should we be allowed to edit posts that are 1 week old, or more? Some sites don't allow editing, you post it, it is there...

I appreciate the possibility to edit posts, but it could be limited in time.. after all subsequent posts are responses to that post, not an edited (possibly totally different) one.

Just my 2 cents

[f0dder]

@Mouser: Could the post editing be time limited? I makes sense to allow editing for 1-2 hours after posting, but why should we be allowed to edit posts that are 1 week old, or more? Some sites don't allow editing, you post it, it is there...

I appreciate the possibility to edit posts, but it could be limited in time.. after all subsequent posts are responses to that post, not an edited (possibly totally different) one.

Just my 2 cents

Might actually be a good idea - it would thwart the spam-edits, as well as prevent people from going rampant and removing their old posts in pissed-off-fury

[mouser]

it's a pretty good idea i agree..
the only trouble would be those occasional posts where an update is useful, like changing a download link, or a first post of a thread which summarizes info, etc.

not sure how to strike a balance between the two.. maybe if by default editing was blocked after 24hrs, but a mod could reset it for a post on request?

[cranioscopical]

not sure how to strike a balance between the two.. maybe if by default editing was blocked after 24hrs, but a mod could reset it for a post on request?

Sounds to be a good compromise. One can always make a new post to refresh the information in a topic.
When everything else cascades from an early post, however, I can imagine situations in which an edit to that
early post would be useful to those coming to the topic for the first time.

[J-Mac]

it's a pretty good idea i agree..
the only trouble would be those occasional posts where an update is useful, like changing a download link, or a first post of a thread which summarizes info, etc.

not sure how to strike a balance between the two.. maybe if by default editing was blocked after 24hrs, but a mod could reset it for a post on request?

Set a filter limiting all new members to posts without URLs in them. I know that this is possible with Invision PowerBoard. Don’t know much about SMF's forum software; never had the opportunity to setup a forum using SMF. Worth a look. 

Jim

[alivingspirit]

I don't like this.
Changing your post is a feature I really like about the forums.
A better idea would be to be able to see any changes made to a post. Kind of like a wiki.
As a rule. Things are usually better when you add features not when you take them away or limit them. So if the problem can be solved by adding a feature rather than taking one away, I'd go the adding way.
As far as spam goes. An edit is like a new post and should be treated as such. Nothing should be posted on a forum without a moderator seeing it.

[mouser]

A better idea would be to be able to see any changes made to a post. Kind of like a wiki.

i think this should be done.. i've posted about this idea in the past and i think it's a great solution.

[J-Mac]

I don't like this.
Changing your post is a feature I really like about the forums.
A better idea would be to be able to see any changes made to a post. Kind of like a wiki.
As a rule. Things are usually better when you add features not when you take them away or limit them. So if the problem can be solved by adding a feature rather than taking one away, I'd go the adding way.
As far as spam goes. An edit is like a new post and should be treated as such. Nothing should be posted on a forum without a moderator seeing it.

Problem with that is that I don’t believe there are any moderators with such permissions here - except mouser! Of course, if he has the time to moderate ALL posts here......  

Jim

[Dormouse]

Surely it all depends on the scale of the problem.

The community here has a lot of active protective members who would report spam etc when they saw it, so no need for moderators to be scouring posts themselves. Having moderators update useful links would be extra work too.

If you are going down the route of limiting how long posts are open for edit for, one option is for supporting members etc to have a longer period to edit than participants. I assume that this might be possible, though again no recent experience running a SMF forum.

Having all edits appear to moderators (if they automatically see all new posts already) makes sense. Lots of extra work if they don't already read all new posts.

[CleverCat]

I was saying the other day that FARR does everything but make tea!

It probably could, but you'd have to wait toolong.

Go on - have a go then!

[f0dder]

Having all new posts having to go through moderator = bad idea. Lots of work for the moderators, and would "slow down" the forum. The spam problem is not bad enough that this is necessary at any rate.

"Wikifying", as in having revision control, is an interesting idea - but how difficult would it be to implement?

Disabling post-edit after <some timespan> seems like a reasonable compromise. And it could perhaps be re-enabled for people with more than X posts...

[mouser]

Having all new posts having to go through moderator = bad idea.

did anyone suggest that?

the various ideas as i saw them were:

• wikify post changes -- my favorite
• disable editing a post after 24 hours -- with mods being able to reset the time limit on request
• leave everything as is

[f0dder]

mouser: that's how I intepreted the last part of alivingspirit's post: "An edit is like a new post and should be treated as such. Nothing should be posted on a forum without a moderator seeing it." - emphasis is mine