I need your feedback... What do you think of the new RSS feed?

[Dien Rice]

Hi Sowpubbers!

I need your feedback... In an earlier post, I wrote how I'm currently trialing a new RSS feed... You can read more details about it here...

However, I need to know what you think! (I can easily remove the RSS feed if people here don't like it...)

I would really appreciate it if you could help me by answering the poll above - so I can take into account your views!

Thanks

Dien

I already use sowpub as my default home page so don't need the rest of it.

The one thing I don't like, however, is the orange box right next to the URL drop down box. I keep hitting it instead of the menu I want. The menu drop down arrow is actually a bit narrow to be crowded between two larger icons, IMHO...but that's not your fault.

I think it's nice you're trying various things to make this fabulous forum even more useful.

Sandi Bowman

[Ankesh]

I like the RSS feed. It makes things a little convenient.

One thing I would suggest to make things a bit better is: condense the header a bit. Place the logo and the rules text in two columns or something so that the height it takes is shorter.

Right now, you have to scroll down - just to begin reading the post. It would be good if you could read atleast the subject and maybe 1-2 lines of the thread before scrolling.

Dien,

Thanks for asking.

I really can't be bothered voting on this. I don't see a point to vote.

What's not to like? A couple of graphics sitting unobtrusively at the top of the forum. Some will use it, some won't. Unless it's costing you time and money to have it, it doesn't matter if it's there or not, right? Those who use such things will, those who don't, won't. Simple.

Now if only we could get the Govt to Consult The People...

Hands up those Against red light cameras, speed cameras, hidden radar traps at 2am on deserted multi-lane roads, parking cops for booking people for 30 seconds over time even when the person arrives to put more money in the meter, politicians giving themselves 15% pay rises, free money and housing (taken from the productive) for single moms to live on for 15 years, subsidies grants and additional privileges for people Claiming to be Indiginous, mass medication through the water supply, forcing people to pay fees with power disconnection if fees not paid, and so on and so forth.

If the govt was treated like companies are, they'd be shut down for ineptitude and coercion.

Anyway.

Any chance we can get HTML in posts turned On?

Michael Ross

[Dien Rice]

Hi Sandi,

Originally Posted by Sandi Bowman

I already use sowpub as my default home page so don't need the rest of it.

The one thing I don't like, however, is the orange box right next to the URL drop down box. I keep hitting it instead of the menu I want. The menu drop down arrow is actually a bit narrow to be crowded between two larger icons, IMHO...but that's not your fault.

Do you mean in your browser? (I've only tried it with Firefox, since I haven't installed Internet Explorer version 7 yet... I'm still on version 6.)

In Firefox, I did put the RSS feed in my "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" (that is, the Favorites/Bookmarks that you can make sit at the top of your browser). Although the little arrow is on the orange icon, you don't have to actually click on the orange icon to get the drop down box... You can click anywhere on the name you've given to it. (Mine says "SOWPub Feed" next to the orange icon.) I'm not sure if this is what you mean though...

I think it's nice you're trying various things to make this fabulous forum even more useful.

Thanks Sandi! It's always good to try new stuff!

However, I wanted to make sure I got some feedback... Just in case a lot of people hate it, then I can "reverse it" and it'd be back to the way it was. But so far (on the little bit of feedback!) it looks like most SOWPubbers probably either like it, or they're indifferent to it - in which case, I guess the net effect is positive.

I'm actually planning to incorporate more "surveying" into my future "things I do"...

I've also started to do a lot more split-testing... I think it's important to get feedback from people - and surveys and split-testing are two ways to do it! (I'm not doing any split-testing here on the forum, but more in sales letters and other advertising...)

Cheers,

Dien

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Ankesh

I like the RSS feed. It makes things a little convenient.

One thing I would suggest to make things a bit better is: condense the header a bit. Place the logo and the rules text in two columns or something so that the height it takes is shorter.

Right now, you have to scroll down - just to begin reading the post. It would be good if you could read atleast the subject and maybe 1-2 lines of the thread before scrolling.

Hi Ankesh,

May I ask what you're using to read the RSS feed? I've tested it with Bloglines www.bloglines.com and it doesn't show the header at all...

I'm a bit of an RSS "newbie", so I still have a lot to find out about...

Thanks!

- Dien

[Dien Rice]

Hi Michael,

Originally Posted by MichaelRoss

Thanks for asking.

I really can't be bothered voting on this. I don't see a point to vote.

What's not to like? A couple of graphics sitting unobtrusively at the top of the forum. Some will use it, some won't. Unless it's costing you time and money to have it, it doesn't matter if it's there or not, right? Those who use such things will, those who don't, won't. Simple.

Yeah, I figure the same thing. But I just thought I'd ask, in case there's anyone who really doesn't like it...

The poll is anonymous too - so if anyone really doesn't like it, no-one will know who they are. I figure that way you can get more "honest" feedback... (Actually, I read that in something Dan Kennedy wrote - that you get more honest answers with anonymous polls. I think it was in a recent email of his about surveys [I'm on his email list]... Because I've been thinking about surveys, I "notice" now when something survey-related pops up!)

Any chance we can get HTML in posts turned On?

I did a quick check about this... I don't think a "turn on HTML" option is standard with this forum software (vBulletin). However, there may be a "modification" which can do it... I'll see if I can find if one exists somewhere...!

Thanks for your feedback, Michael!

Cheers,

Dien

[Dien Rice]

I just realized that I had it set so only people who were logged in could vote...

Anyhow, that's been opened up so anyone can vote...

Thanks!

Dien

Dien,

At the bottom of the messages, in the box on the left is says...

Posting Rules
You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may post attachments
You may edit your posts
vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

So I figured there was an Easy way to just trun HTML code On.

Michael Ross

[Dien Rice]

Hi Michael,

Originally Posted by MichaelRoss

At the bottom of the messages, in the box on the left is says...

Posting Rules
You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may post attachments
You may edit your posts
vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

So I figured there was an Easy way to just trun HTML code On.

Yeah, their terminology is confusing... In looking into this (after your earlier post), I found some discussions about this and others thought it could be about "turning on" HTML too...

What it's "actually" for is more for forums for webmasters, where they may discuss creating HTML code. When it is turned on, you can put anything in there and it will print it as is - it won't try to "interpret" it. Also, it will "highlight" it so it stands out. (It's probably not that useful here, since we don't discuss technical HTML stuff that often, but on forums about creating websites and web pages it would be a nice feature!)

You can see what I mean at the following link... There's an example of it near the end of the page (or just do a search for "HTML Code" on the page the next link goes to, and go to the 2nd occurrence of the term)...

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode#html

Apparently what you asked about (turning HTML on, so you could use HTML in posts) is a feature a number of people would like - according to some of the vBulletin forum posts I read. However, the vBulletin folks haven't implemented it so far, to my knowledge...

Cheers,

Dien