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If you don't like the Soapbox simply stay away from it. What's to be gained by the sort or draconian regulation you're suggesting? Fair enough, the CodeProject is primarily a programming site, but that doesn't mean that there's no place for the Soapbox. People know what to expect when they go to the Soapbox, and what’s more I suggest that it actually enhances the programming forums by drawing trouble makers away from them and allowing people to blow off some steam.
Steve
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Hi Steve,
I am not against the existence of L/SB, my suggestion[^] was just to limit the resources taken by L/SB
to a reasonable share. Right now they carry two thirds of the messages, which seems a bit much
for a programming site.
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Luc Pattyn wrote: Right now they carry two thirds of the messages, which seems a bit much
for a programming site.
Sure, from the perspective of over time. I put together an Excel spreadsheet watching the fill rates of the individual forums, and since 8:00AM my time ( now 9:10PM ), Lounge has 507 new messages, and Soapbox has 165 new messages since that time this morning. Doubt it is any real resource hog except for space.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Stephen Hewitt wrote: don't like the Soapbox simply stay away from it
Exactly. I go there just for entertainment purposes and playful jabs, not entirely serious there
Stephen Hewitt wrote: it actually enhances the programming forums by drawing trouble makers away from them and allowing people to blow off some steam.
Yes, remember when Kyle used to be in the programming forums and what kind of mess that was sometimes?
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Oakman wrote: "RGNT PLS HLP" folks would take considerably less time and effort
They end up getting moderated by the community, though.
Oakman wrote: repeated googles to insure a lack of plagiarism?
That's not too tough to do for the most part.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Also, limit the number of article downloads to the number of article uploads. [Yes, I'm joking.] The point is, this site is well-known for its openness. And yes, that sometimes causes concern about the quality of posts and even the quality of people that CP attracts.
But put it in perspective. How many mediocre posters would you be willing to put up with, if you knew that CP would also attract some world-class programmers? Personally, my threshold is not even close.
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Hi Hans,
my remark was not inspired by a concern for quality of contributions, but rather by the purpose
of this web site, and its performance. I fail to see how Lounge and Soapbox, carrying some two thirds
of the total number of messages, sufficiently contribute to the goal of this site.
See also above for my previous reply.
Regards,
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Luc Pattyn wrote: my remark was not inspired by a concern for quality of contributions
The thread above this one ("Spammer") refers to someone who has posted over 40 messages, recently, most of them in programming forums. Since he fits your guidelines to a "T", I would certainly have to agree with that part of your post, quoted above.
The problem of poor performance (one that I seldom experience, by the way, so perhaps we are dealing with your connection and not the server load at all) is solved not by eliminating a large number of users (i.e. ad revenue), but by upgrading the hardware. Something that Chris seems quite willing to do whenever circumstances warrant.
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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Luc Pattyn wrote: Should this site really spend a significant part of its facilities to people who don't contribute
to the programming forums and article sections?
The lounge and soapbox essentially come for free as part of the infrastructure built around the articles. The only thing they take up is hard drive space, and the space they take could be stored on a modern SD card. It's not really an issue.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Luc Pattyn wrote: why not limit the number of messages one can post in Lounge and Soapbox
We can bring something similar to Yahoo Answers Scoring System:
http://answers.yahoo.com/info/scoring_system[^]
Depending upon the levels, a person can post/query number of threads or vote or rate a particular thread.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts... --William Shakespeare
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Oakman wrote: keep the user from starting more than say a half-dozen threads in a single day
That would make CP a rather drab place, wouldn't it?
Oakman wrote: (or X threads in a Y length of time)
As long as Y is not a long time, it could work.
Oakman wrote: restoring civility in all the forums, including SB
Don't reply to trolls.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Seriously have you had a look at the soapbox recently (this should be the exception to the above rule) it looks like Illiots blog, Where can I find the script which eliminates that PITA.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Yep, that's it. A very nice script, I may add 
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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I use, like many CP members, to write an Article History at the end of it.
I think this can be automated with 1 extra field in the Submit Wizard. Every time an author updates an article, also can fill this field that automatically will generate a record with date and update explanation. Also, this update explanation can be published in the Weekly newsletter next to the article title.
Best regards,
Jaime.
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Of course, a new article should generate a "First version" entry in the History.
Best regards,
Jaime.
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I'm borderline on this one, since I do it anyway. My question is all the articles without a history, and also those that have history section - how would they be integrated?
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Well, there are migration costs, as usual, maybe a wizard to build the History for the first time will be the best choice, also, you can give the opportunity to the author to remove the "manual" history from the article html, without firing the article's update flag. Once entered for first time, the history shouldn't be directly editable.
If the author has not entered the history, you can advice him, similar like the article's Licence Type section
Best regards,
Jaime.
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The service could be only for future articles, and when an old one gets updated then the history can be altered for the new system.
Regards,
Thomas Stockwell
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
Visit my homepage Oracle Studios
Discounted or Free Software for Students:
DreamSpark - downloads.channel8.msdn.com
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I like the idea, subject to Hans concerns. It's been something I've toyed with for years.
I'll add it to the wishlist though.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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There are some extra comments in my last post
Best regards,
Jaime.
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As we keep running across the same questions all the time, some of them quite valid but repeated continuously as new people come on board I would like to see standard searches. This not a FAQ which I don't think will ever be used but a set of pre formatted article searches.
It could be DDL, live up near the existing search and would need to be filtered by the current forum.
Get the people who answer the question to devise the searches and have them submitted to the hamsters for inclusion in the DDL. Hopefully this would give you a limited number of good searches from a limited number of skilled answerers.
I would also like to be able to paste a standard search into a reply without having to go look for it (with a humorous/cutting remark directing the asker to the article search facility).
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Interesting idea. I've got something close (kinda) I'll be rolling out soon.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Hah - cool Please search this that and the other before posting, I like it, colour is a little subdued, flashing magenta MAY get their attention!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Pretty much in all the forums, the View unanswered questions in the ..... forum seems to pull up questions/posts that have a reply, is this something that is going to be looked into?
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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