Author Topic: General Poll: What should there be more of on DonationCoder? (Read 25253 times)

IainB · « **Reply #25 on:** June 02, 2011, 10:49 AM »

If we are thinking about a "CMS", then how do we define that? Might we mean something like Microsoft’s open-source CMS platform, "Orchard"?

That CMS platform has the goal of:

“delivering a .NET-based CMS application that will allow users to rapidly create content-driven Websites, and an extensibility framework that will allow developers and customizers to provide additional functionality through module extensions and themes.”

Renegade · « **Reply #26 on:** June 02, 2011, 12:27 PM »

If we are thinking about a "CMS", then how do we define that? Might we mean something like Microsoft’s open-source CMS platform, "Orchard"?

That CMS platform has the goal of:
“delivering a .NET-based CMS application that will allow users to rapidly create content-driven Websites, and an extensibility framework that will allow developers and customizers to provide additional functionality through module extensions and themes.”

-IainB (June 02, 2011, 10:49 AM)

Orchard looks like it's an independent CMS.

In the ASP.NET direction, I'd say Umbraco and DNN are the ones to look at most seriously.

However, DNN is so mature and so productive, and MVC be damned... Who cares? Unless you have a budget in the 10's or 100's of millions of dollars, or are planning for that kind of deployment or larger, I can't see Umbraco and MVC being much of a benefit.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #27 on:** June 02, 2011, 08:42 PM »

With the rest of the site set up as a CMS, we could easily have a proper download area where authors could update their own entries, providing a logical software organization area, and just in general make it much easier for different people to maintain and update.

I think in terms of moving forward and letting more people participate in creating content -- it's the natural first step since our current handcoded html page setup makes it particularly hard for others to manage the site content.

+1

wraith808 · « **Reply #28 on:** June 02, 2011, 09:00 PM »

Maybe someone should start a thread, since Mouser had indicated that he'd like the discussion on a different thread so as not to hijack this one?

mahesh2k · « **Reply #29 on:** June 03, 2011, 03:01 AM »

Oh my apologies i didn't thought of donation credit system which was on forum right now. In that case it's better to stick with what is already in the system. But i think if there needs some improvements in current section then i guess opening threads either in private or iirc is useful so that those pages or sections get updated text/respective content.

phitsc · « **Reply #30 on:** June 10, 2011, 04:54 PM »

I really think we should look into making the site more mobile friendly. I'm afraid I mean the forums in particular. I see myself use my mobile phone more and more at home instead of the PC. I guess a tablet will replace that once I get one.

IainB · « **Reply #31 on:** June 10, 2011, 08:01 PM »

@phitsc:

"I really think we should look into making the site more mobile friendly. I'm afraid I mean the forums in particular. I see myself use my mobile phone more and more at home instead of the PC. I guess a tablet will replace that once I get one."

You might think that, but is it a valid and general requirement for DC Forum users?

For example, some people might ask the Q "How many DC Forum users:

prefer to and do use the DC Forum as it is, on a PC screen, to read or post to the discussions that interest them?
prefer to and do use only mobiles to read and post to the discussions that interest them?
prefer to and do use a feed aggregator (e.g., Google Reader) to read all DC Forum posts, and only go into the DC Forum via PC to explore interesting threads or to post comments?"

There could be other, similar questions.
If we had some statistical data in answer to those questions, then we would have a clearer view of user requirements in this regard, and we could be in a position to establish with some degree of certainty whether changing things to be "more mobile friendly" would be a productive exercise and an effective use of scarce resources, for the short term and/or the longer term.

JavaJones · « **Reply #32 on:** June 10, 2011, 09:37 PM »

I believe there are forum apps that support SMF for various platforms out there. Some require a plugin on the forum's side, some don't. If there's some interest in installing such a plugin I'm sure it could be discussed. I don't know if there would be any negatives from installing it though. It's worth investigating what SMF supporting forum apps are available for your mobile platform though at least.

- Oshyan

phitsc · « **Reply #33 on:** June 11, 2011, 03:31 AM »

@phitsc:
"I really think we should look into making the site more mobile friendly. I'm afraid I mean the forums in particular. I see myself use my mobile phone more and more at home instead of the PC. I guess a tablet will replace that once I get one."

You might think that, but is it a valid and general requirement for DC Forum users?

For example, some people might ask the Q "How many DC Forum users:
prefer to and do use the DC Forum as it is, on a PC screen, to read or post to the discussions that interest them?
prefer to and do use only mobiles to read and post to the discussions that interest them?
prefer to and do use a feed aggregator (e.g., Google Reader) to read all DC Forum posts, and only go into the DC Forum via PC to explore interesting threads or to post comments?"

There could be other, similar questions.
If we had some statistical data in answer to those questions, then we would have a clearer view of user requirements in this regard, and we could be in a position to establish with some degree of certainty whether changing things to be "more mobile friendly" would be a productive exercise and an effective use of scarce resources, for the short term and/or the longer term.
-IainB (June 10, 2011, 08:01 PM)

Yeah, I agree. I'm no trend setter though. If I'm doing it, chances are high a lot of people have already been doing it for months

mahesh2k · « **Reply #34 on:** June 11, 2011, 03:47 AM »

Mobile interface is not hard if there is mod available for SMF that redirects opera mini or mobile browser users to that interface. Such mod doesn't affect PC experience.

techidave · « **Reply #35 on:** June 11, 2011, 06:08 AM »

I really think we should look into making the site more mobile friendly. I'm afraid I mean the forums in particular. I see myself use my mobile phone more and more at home instead of the PC. I guess a tablet will replace that once I get one.
-phitsc (June 10, 2011, 04:54 PM)

+1

daddydave · « **Reply #36 on:** June 11, 2011, 06:27 AM »

Mobile interface is not hard if there is mod available for SMF that redirects opera mini or mobile browser users to that interface. Such mod doesn't affect PC experience.
-mahesh2k (June 11, 2011, 03:47 AM)

I kind of thought that too, I am wondering if there is something like TouchBB except the problem with that product is that is is tied to phpBB2, phpBB3 or vBulletin, and deal killer, it currently only works on iPhone/iPod Touch (it does require its own app on the device). So it will be interesting to see if it evolves further to work on more devices and forum platforms, to be more generally useful . But the point is, it is apparently pretty easy to install on the server, maybe there is other stuff out there like that. Or instead go with a style sheet that targets mobile devices, although maybe that's harder than it looks.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #37 on:** June 11, 2011, 06:52 AM »

I found one SMF theme for mobile users but not sure if it enabled based on browser detection. I think they may update SMF 2 in fuure (hoping) but mouser needs to update payment processing on that new version and have to change mods as well. So may result in downtime or frequent tests. I'll ask around forums if there is an easy solution.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #38 on:** June 11, 2011, 07:11 AM »

Not sure if this serves what you're looking for, but adding ";wap2" to the URLs at the forum will send you to "mobile mode". Here's this thread in mobile mode.

daddydave · « **Reply #39 on:** June 11, 2011, 04:52 PM »

Not sure if this serves what you're looking for, but adding ";wap2" to the URLs at the forum will send you to "mobile mode". Here's this thread in mobile mode.
-jgpaiva (June 11, 2011, 07:11 AM)

Amazing! I didn't know that (the "amazing" link uses the tip to bring up the main forums page, I'll make a shortcut to that on my iPod Touch right now!)

ewemoa · « **Reply #40 on:** June 11, 2011, 10:07 PM »

Nice!

Now if it would work with the following too:

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=recentdense;wap2

phitsc · « **Reply #41 on:** June 12, 2011, 03:32 PM »

Reading is actually quite ok with current mobile browsers. The problem is writing / replying. While it's kind of better with the wap trick (thanks), you lose the formatting help and smilies as it seems. There's also no preview, just post.

Curt · « **Reply #42 on:** June 13, 2011, 07:14 AM »

At first I also marked "Software Reviews", but then I removed the marking, before voting. Software reviews are a wonderful thing, I love them - but only when they are actual / not obsolete! Much too often we see that the software was updated, but the review wasn't. Of course most reviews say "this is for version 1.23" or so, but inside the readers head this program is doomed for ever (if 1.23 had a bad review), never minding that the author most likely would try to improve on his program after reading the review...

I voted for better organisation. Several coders have some brilliant apps hidden deep down in "General Software Discussion".

mahesh2k · « **Reply #43 on:** June 21, 2011, 02:28 AM »

I agree. There should be alphabetical index for the coding snacks appsortable as per feature/category/name. I'm sure that way it'll be possible to keep track of softwares.