Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

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Expand view Topic review: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by nnnik » 02 Oct 2013, 02:24

We could "pin" std libs like the GDI+ lib.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by joedf » 01 Oct 2013, 22:31

possibly... i would think so..

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by JnLlnd » 01 Oct 2013, 21:56

+1 for some sort of tagging of posts in Script / Lib section.

Maybe something like this (don't know if it runs on the version of phpbb we have here)?
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=1356165

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by joedf » 01 Oct 2013, 20:33

+1 good idea, btw thanks for the Reddit Explanation video. :)
-----
joedf wrote:Viva La Revolution
Yes. yes. excellent... ;)

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by PointCloud » 01 Oct 2013, 20:28

FanaticGuru wrote: Another approach some forums use is to rate a thread, give a thread a thumbs up, or mark it as useful. Then giving the ability to sort by or include rating in searches. This might help with some of the things a Hall of Fame is trying to achieve in a self-regulating kind of way. Once useful threads that become outdated information might get rated down. I don't know how well it would work but it is an idea if a feature along those lines is even possible.
FG

I like that idea of voting up and down. It reminds me of how Reddit works. The only thing is would add tons of work and would not be visable during the transition or ever even.

Super awesome video explaining Reddit system

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlI022aUWQQ

The whole reason I even posted this thread was out of frustrations with unbelievable amounts of time wasted trying to learn. I feel embarrassed as a noob asking for time from strangers to walk me through a broken script or a topic that was covered in a previous thread numerous times. Either cause I could not find the thread or the script I was using was out of date or required a lib that no longer exist or buried in the forum.

As I said before I am noob and I don't know what is best for a forum like this.
AHK is the first language that showed me the power of creative freedom in this manner.
I am actually wrapping my head around it.(still noobie thoe) Due to all the snippets I found scanning the threads and looking at there structure.

Viva La Revolution

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by joedf » 01 Oct 2013, 20:22

Right... but we could make a similar page to that. All we really need right now for this.. would be a "full" list of scripts with links... :P

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by FanaticGuru » 01 Oct 2013, 19:59

joedf wrote:I think, just a seperate Html page would do just fine. :)
sorta like Faqbot's page : http://www.autohotkey.net/~faqbot/scripts.html

that would be great.
Well that is basically the old wiki. It just could no longer be edited and became static once the old site no longer supported the wiki functionality of users modifying and adding to it.

FG

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by joedf » 01 Oct 2013, 18:54

I think, just a seperate Html page would do just fine. :)
sorta like Faqbot's page : http://www.autohotkey.net/~faqbot/scripts.html

that would be great.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by FanaticGuru » 01 Oct 2013, 18:49

A Hall of Fame is about getting useful scripts noticed and not buried down in the forums because they are not being actively discussed.

It is hard to decide what should be in the Hall of Fame.

Another approach some forums use is to rate a thread, give a thread a thumbs up, or mark it as useful. Then giving the ability to sort by or include rating in searches. This might help with some of the things a Hall of Fame is trying to achieve in a self-regulating kind of way. Once useful threads that become outdated information might get rated down. I don't know how well it would work but it is an idea if a feature along those lines is even possible.

I also agree that ftp/uploading/downloading features is important with the ability to link/insert in post.

Robust and effective search features are also very important.

I am unsure about a wiki. A wiki can be great if it is well maintained and developed but a forum with good searching could probably provide the same information. I would probably hold off on the wiki and develop the forums well and then look at a wiki down the road. The idea of a wiki with lots of people contributing is alluring though.

FG

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by Elgin » 01 Oct 2013, 15:37

As this turned out rather lengthy...
----tl/dr----
My wishes:
- make every topic starter give a keyword/category to the topic to find it back more easily
- make a categorized structure (maybe wiki) for scripts and examples instead of one, two flat forum sections

- make it possible to make a backup of the site


____________________________________________

Firstly thanks for putting this new forum together! I hope it's going to be taken up by the community.

This discussion touches some points that always ticked me off on the old forum and many other code discussion forums, so I'm going to add my thoughts here.

The main point I was missing: Good, exhaustive search possibilities!

Some stuff on the old forum would be found by Google, some by the internal search function, some by both (and possibly some by neither?). Also for a lot of things there are many ways of putting a certain concept into words which makes finding stuff back with the word based search engines a lottery.
Given the size of the community and the number of posts, a brute force way of searching was mostly not an option either.

As a whole, finding the right stuff with the old forum format could be incredibly time consuming or even impossible.

To get around this it would be great to have two things imho:
- the requirement (let's face it, otherwise noone's gonna do it ;-) to give every topic, optionally every post, one or more keywords that really characterize what it's about (e.g. Monitor, Mouse, Gui, Com, RegEx etc.), the finer the splitting, the better.

The list of keywords would have to be viewable as a whole and should be editable by mods to consolidate for synonyms, split categories etc. if needed. That way we could limit searches to posts having a number of relevant keywords, seriously cutting the time needed for searching and avoiding to miss stuff that is using a different word for something.

- touching on the above, a wiki or similar structure where examples, snippets and scripts and can be stored or at least linked back to the forum in a categorized manner in a complete form with all the libraries they may need.

I'm not talking about a hall of fame but something much broader. While I do see the benefit of a HoF, I'm looking at it more from a conservation of knowledge angle which would also allow people looking for fairly rare stuff to find things they're looking for.

Alibaba pointed out that we do have the "Scripts and Functions" section. But as the one on the old forum has 6000+ topics, I'd say a lot more categories are needed to find stuff in there that isn't there several times in different flavors already.

While it is certainly a bit quicker to post into a forum than to make a wiki page, I clearly do favor the wiki structure for a script library from a user point of view. But on the other hand, as sumon points out, integration into the forum and its search function would be very important.



A second point I am concerned about (especially in view of the current forum issues) is secure archiving and backup. As we have seen before when the issue with the tons of broken ahk.net links happened, the knowledge stored in these forums is incredibly fragile. So it would be great if there were a way for anyone to download regular snapshots of everything (as far as possible) so that in the event that the main driving people behind this forum loose interest or the time to deal with things or the hoster goes bankrupt, there would be a good chance, that the forum could be remade quickly by others without loosing anything.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by sumon » 01 Oct 2013, 14:43

I actually believe a Wiki is not the optimal forum for listing scripts, especially if it's "separate" from the forum in regards to permissions and style. If there would be a way to integrate it into the forum, however, I would be totally for. The second-best option is to have a forum-based list.

Another thing I believe to be of high priority is to integrate downloads/uploads into the forum in a good way. What's the plan for FTP? I'll reupload stuff when we start getting settled.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by VxE » 30 Sep 2013, 15:19

If a number of people are dedicated to being 'curators' of a wiki, I think it would flourish. A curator would actively solicit contributions and participate in reviewing topics.

While the previous wiki was operational, I wasn't really aware of it. Publicizing it would have made a big difference.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by PointCloud » 30 Sep 2013, 09:59

Alibaba wrote:well i would also support a "hall of fame" for most useful scripts, but we already have a "Scripts and Functions" section.
IMHO an additional library section would split that too much. And the difference between a lib and a script is not clear enough sometimes...
At the end, this could confuse new users more than less.

I see your point. It was really only a suggestion. I have no idea what would be best for the forum. Just giving a newbie observations I had made.
Speaking from my personal experiences over the last month or so. Trying to navigate the sea of information was like pulling teeth and hours of wasted time.

At the same time that forum was broken all to hell so that may have been a bigger part of my issues.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by PointCloud » 30 Sep 2013, 09:51

I wasn't meaning so much as a wiki page. Just a section in the forum that says hall of fame snippets since the forum post would be easier to update for the snippets that are exceptional examples. I personally learn best in a reverse engineering type way. I don't know how we could determine what is a exceptional snippet or software. I could imagine if I posted a snippet that was voted or whatever into the hall of fame section would feel like a pat on the back. Could be good for moral and good motivator for those who decide to post their code here to be recognize as clever or extremely useful.

As far as the lib files Gdip is a good example. It sits in a sea of post. I personally think things as libs that should have a section.
I was not suggesting anything outside the forum itself. I feel it would be better in forum format as tech and code changes all the time.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by Alibaba » 30 Sep 2013, 09:31

well i would also support a "hall of fame" for most useful scripts, but we already have a "Scripts and Functions" section.
IMHO an additional library section would split that too much. And the difference between a lib and a script is not clear enough sometimes...
At the end, this could confuse new users more than less.

Re: Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by tank » 30 Sep 2013, 09:27

wait are you suggesting a Wiki like page?
One of Poly's first acts was to trash the wiki and make things like that static content.
What say you old AHKers shall I reinstate the Wiki?

Maybe a hall of fame and Libaries section

Post by PointCloud » 30 Sep 2013, 09:21

The AHK website has a hall of fame section. A good amount of those scripts are perhaps outdated. I believe it would be a good addition here as well. I think as the community grows here it will be a good teaching/example asset. Also in forum format the ability to update by the author/admin depending on if said author is still around.

I found a ton of snippets with broken links to a lib files. If the links are not broken they are spewed all over the place. It was like crossing your fingers to use it's search engine that was broken.....
Wait.. that is the truth. lmao
So a section for libs would be very useful IMHO.

Anyways just a suggestion to lower confusion for newbies and provide a better platform/structure as a whole from user created content.

Cheers

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